3 A Sudden investigation

Ichiro woke to his alarm beeping in his ear. His clock told him that it must have been the third time it went off and that he snoozed it, and he now had 5 minutes before they had to leave.

“Yo, big brother, you gotta get going!” Sakura told him after he spent those minutes getting dressed, running out of the room.

He nodded and looked around. His mother had left out a stack of toast and some strawberries for breakfast beside their lunches before closing herself into her office, and his father was expectantly gone, presumably for the office. “Hikari, we’re going to be late!” he yelled, banging on his sister’s closed door.

“What are you doing, Ichi?” his sister questioned. “She already went downstairs to her apartment to get changed into her uniform.”

“…Oh.” He couldn’t tell if he was glad she wasn’t making them later than he was or embarrassed that she was more on top of it than him. But a handful of sweet sliced strawberries and a piece of toast buried the latter thought as he grabbed his lunch, quickly opened the door, and almost knocked Hikari right over.

“Ichiro.” Her voice shook, clearly upset. “Shizu is gone. And Liam. They aren’t in the apartment.”

Ichiro was about to urge her to hurry up so they could leave but the unexpected information stopped him. “Hold on… she’s just not home? I’m sure she’s fine; they both are.” He put his hands on her shoulders and she leaned into it slightly. “Did you call her phone? Get an answer?”

Hikari shook her head. “It was on the counter where she usually leaves it before going out.”

“Ok,” Ichiro said with a nod. “Maybe she just went shopping? I mean, you don’t exactly tend to keep the most standard of groceries at your place,” he teased in an attempt to distract her.

She looked up at him, narrowing her eyes, but then let out a subdued chuckle. “I… I suppose that’s a possibility,” she conceded.

“Exactly!” Ichiro ran with it. “And whatever she’s doing, she’s an adult. She’ll be fine,” he reassured her.

She kept nodding. “Alright… Sorry, just after last night, and all that—”

“Don’t worry about it,” he told her. “But what we do need to worry about is leaving. We’re late!”

Hikari looked over at the clock, eyes widening. Her hand took his as he barely managed to put his shoes on before running out of the apartment. They both raced down the steps as they got going to school, only for Ichiro to glance back and realize Hikari had got to her apartment rather than stuck behind him.

“Hikari, hurry up,” Ichiro called as she ran inside.

She came out a second later. “Yeah yeah, I just had to try and get some power in my phone,” she said as she pocketed it. “I forgot to plug it in last night.” She speedwalked up to him as he set the steady pace to hopefully get to class on time. Within a minute, Hikari was humming idly as they walked to school, the same as often. It was a common tune that Ichiro knew well by now, even if she could never tell him what it was from. Ever since they had met in elementary school, he had asked a few times, but the response was always a shrug and “Not sure, I just know it.” But there was a knowing smile to her answer before she would fill the air with its gentle melody. He was just glad that this particular morning it seemed to distract her from the distress of her sister’s absence.

“Morning,” Kobayashi greeted them as he rode up beside them. He tilted his front wheel back and forth, trying not to tip the bike as he slowed to keep pace with them, only to hop off a second later. “So Hikari,” he said, drawing her distracted attention as she stopped humming. “How did it go with your sis… ter…?” He trailed off in confusion as Ichiro waved wildly at him from the other side of their more emotionally vulnerable friend.

Hikari whirled, having seen Kobayashi staring over her head, and just barely caught Ichiro lowering his hands. “It… was fine,” she said, looking ahead, avoiding eye contact with either of them. Her voice was laboured with a mix of stress and annoyance, a tug and pull of the morning and the night.

Kobayashi just glanced back over to Ichiro, who grimaced with a small shake of his head. “Ah, well, glad to hear,” he tried to recover, pretending her lie wasn’t plain as day. She just nodded, quietly but aggressively humming under her breath. “So, did you hear about what happened yesterday afternoon, while we were doing our test?” he asked. Hikari quieted down and both she and Ichiro took a second before shaking their heads. “Someone sang the song of silence.”

Hikari coughed. Ichiro stared. “I’m pretty sure that’s just an urban legend,” he said skeptically.

“No no, it’s real,” Kobayashi insisted, adamant. “Word got to the hospital staff and my mother heard about it from the other ladies.”

“I’m sure that was just some bad information,” Ichiro argued. “Where did you even hear about that song? They don’t teach it in school.”

“Well, I read about it on the internet,” Kobayashi confessed. “I don’t know why it’s only in a couple places, but it’s real.”

“You know, for one of the smartest guys in our grade, you are really gullible,” Ichiro chuckled. “If there was a song that just negated every single other song around, don’t you think everyone would know about it?”

Kobayashi just glowered at him. “If it was real, then it would be kept a secret.”

“Can’t keep something that big a secret,” Ichiro said with a shrug. “If anyone in the world could sing it, it wouldn’t be a local legend in Japan.”

“It also showed up in America!” he quickly replied.

“Then if it could spread, it would have spread a lot further.”

“Hey, hey,” Hikari chimed in, looking back and forth between them. “It’s ok, Kobayasu. Maybe it’s real…” she trailed off, looking uncertain. “It’s a cool idea at least; a song to end all songs and all that, just special in Japan. And America, apparently,” she tacked on. She reached out a hand to pat him on the back but he quickly stepped out of her reach.

“Whatever,” he grumbled as he pulled out his phone. “You guys are going to be late.” He hopped on his bike and started to pedal. “I won’t.”

The other two watched as Kobayashi picked up speed, accelerating away. “...What’s his problem? Ow?!” Ichiro asked, only to be punched in the arm by Hikari.

“You don’t have to be such a jerk, you know that?” Hikari retorted, glaring at him.

“What? I wasn’t being a jerk. It’s a dumb urban legend. Not even old enough to be an old wives’ tale. I think it started when we were in grade school.”

Hikari just sighed. “There may be songs that aren’t well known, and just aren’t spread; we can’t know for sure,” she insisted.

Ichiro grimaced but nodded, not really sure how to counter the neutral point.

— — —

“Yamada-kun, Sato-san, late,” Ichiro and Hikari were greeted by their teacher as they quickly walked into class.

“Sorry,” each of them mumbled as they made their way to their seats.

Only half an hour passed before a message came through the intercom. “Yamada Ichiro, please come to the principal’s office.”

Ichiro stiffened. What could this possibly be about? he wondered, afraid that the obvious answer was the correct answer. But it was only him, not Hikari. He looked over to the teacher, who nodded his head to the door, permitting him to leave. He didn’t dare look at Hikari as he made his way out.

“You wanted to see me, principal?” Ichiro asked as he entered the office.

“Ah, Yamada-kun. Please, sit,” he principal welcomed him, gesturing to the cushioned chairs. He dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief, the light over his desk reflecting bright off of the top of his head. “I just wanted to follow up on something. Now, there’s been an anonymous report that you were singing in the washroom during class yesterday afternoon. Is this true?”

He knows! Ichiro paled. Anonymous? The bit of red in his face at the thought of the class rep reporting him helped balance his complexion. He could deny it, but that could only make the situation messier. At least, messier than a smooth lie. “Uh, yes, sir. It was just a little, after the test, you see. I was just annoyed at how I did and was trying to nail it while, uh, taking care of business.”

“Hmm, I see.” The principal appeared to mull it over for a second. Ichiro squirmed, not sure where exactly this was going. “Well, be that as it may, I will let you off with a warning, but you know the rules, do you not? There is to be no singing at school outside of authorized in-class times.”

Ichiro sighed with relief. “No singing at all? What about karaoke?” he quickly chimed, trying to lighten the mood.

“You know I’m referring to godsongs” the principal cut in, not wasting any further time on the pointless question. “Now that that’s understood…” he let the statement hang just in case Ichiro had anything further to say, which he did not, “you may head back to class.”