Remembrance of the Past

Viewing the scene ahead of her, Toshi's breath caught. Her heart hammering against her ribs. She tried to let out a sound, a scream, anything, but her voice was trapped in her throat. But as somewhat of a defense mechanism..., she screamed. Loud.

The scream echoed throughout the school hallways. Loud enough for everyone present to catch on.

Renpo Investigating Department:

"Sir!" Motoyasu - the new rookie in charge of taking the calls, shouts across his desk to the direction of Federal Investigating Officer, Ryuki Tanaka. "We have received an emergency call from Seishun high school, stating that the missing student; Junko Hayata, has appeared in the school's grounds." 

After a bit of cluttering around, Tanaka rises up from the file cabinets in the evidence storage room. Having done a proper search in all the documents regarding the mysterious student - Seichi.

"So, nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary." He lets out a cold breath of air. He lowers his head a bit, both hands scratching through his head. His blonde hair a mess as always. He once again refuses the thought of Seichi simply being the only one who can speak about the case. A new month was dawning already, they couldn't keep pushing a single case forever. They had no time to simply leisure in the thought of miraculously finding out a clue. They had to do all the work, as they've always done. It just felt a bit off this time.

The partner of Ryuki Tanaka, Michio Kaku, makes an entrance through the door leading to the evidence room. Putting aside his more noticeable voice, his movement alone causes Tanaka to flinch a bit. He wasn't expecting him to show up instantly. He thought he had come to yell at him for stealing the keys to this room from him. They had a rather wild colleagues' drink out last night, together with a lot of others in the criminal control work.

He just couldn't handle the curiosity that was eating away at him from such a case. The whole party was supposed to be a farewell for this time-consuming case. But what could a man do, when his curiosity gets the better of him?

"Whaaa..! I wonder what might bring you here?" Tanaka asks in a rather rushed tone. Failing to notice that he stammered for a moment there. At this moment his face had contorted to a strained smile.

Kaku stared at Tanaka for a moment, his face filled with disgust. "You little snake..." He was about to call him out for exploiting his weakness the night before, but he felt he had more pressing issues to worry about. "The missing girl, from the Seishun class 3-b's incident, has emerged."

Before even getting a reaction from Tanaka, Kaku turned and left. Passing through the doorway, his hand stretched to the side, moving past the knob and reaching for the keys. He pulls back removing them from the keyhole and into his pocket, waving a goodbye to Tanaka as he walks past the door and out of the claustral room.

Tanaka watched him leave, his face now held in thought. The tiny bits of sweat droplets he had all over his face from all the searching, was now barely visible. He slowly turns and stares at the ceiling. His eyes fixed on the brightly glowing light bulb, that seemed to shine ever so brightly in such a small room.

***

At the entrance of class 3-b's classroom door, a large crowd of students had formed around, all trying to get a better view of what was going on.

"Have you heard the rumors?" One girl, her floral auburn hair completely messed up from squeezing through the crowd asks in a low tone. Addressing it to the girl behind her.

"The missing girl's reappearance?" The girl questions back.

"Not only that, but also the rumors going around about the extra head on her shadow."

"That has to be false. Is that even humanely possible? I doubt it." The girl adds.

Squeezing her way fully out of the crowd, the auburn-haired girl reaches forward and gets a hold of the doubting girl. She pulls her close to herself, then whispers to her right ear:

"I saw it myself. There truly is another head growing from her shadow." Then she pulls herself back. Reaches down to her hand, grabs it and then adds, "Come, I'll show you." Before they jump back into the already expanding crowd. With more and more people continuing to appear and joining them in the miraculous spectacle.

Inside the classroom, every other student locker except for Junko's were pushed to the side. In the middle of the classroom; just like before, she was still seated. Not even her posture changed. Only now that Toshi had covered her bare body with a large towel, and was holding onto her back for the time being.

Toshi had known Junko for as little as three years. Much of that time spent at this same high school. But they were still fairly close. Junko was a top ranking student in their class, and was fairly known by many to have being kind to her peers before. Toshi was never in talking terms with her until the time they both competed for the same seat. And Toshi barely won to the transfer student. After which Junko was nominated as the class's vice prefect, and that was the beginning to their friendship.

A voice called out from the doorway. Pushing through the large crowd, Yuzuha's face could be seen. Then as in a last minute push, her entire body came falling to the classroom's floor.

Staring ahead of her, she sees Junko. she doesn't know how to react. Not knowing if it's real or a dream, she moves to check on her childhood friend; who has being missing for a whole month.

Yuzuha's hands graze the skin on Junko's head, and her left hand slides down her hair; feeling through the texture. Her eyes blinking nonstop as tears fall from them and cover her cheeks. Her breath catches as a muffled stammer of Junko's name flows from her lips, and is followed by a soft cry.

She falls forward, both of her arms folding softly into a close hug. Toshi slightly moves her hand from Junko's back, to now comfort the crying Yuzuha. While patting her back, she notices that Yuzuha's hands are shaking. She moves her hands again to hold onto tightly Yuzuha's hands, trying to calm her down more.

As more continued to gather around, Ryuunosuke makes his way through the crowd and lands in front of the three. His face twitches a bit as he moves his hand to pull back Junko's long hair. As he fully sees the glamour of Junko's face, his calm composure crumbles apart, and a sad face contorts itself from it. He falls to the ground, and everyone could see his reaction as a sign of relief.

As the crowd continues to grow and grow, more students pushing each other for a view of the missing student's reappearance, Miss Shinomiya strands across the hallways. Her movement precise and studied, trying to not cause any more panic to the students. As she reaches the classroom, she excuses everyone away from the spectacle and to their respective classes.

The students turn to her voice. All of them grumbling about to themselves as they leave the crowded hallway. Until every one of them has left.

After clearing the distraction, Miss Shinomiya directs her attention to Junko herself. She takes a deep breath, her tied back hair slowly rising from the wind, as she moves to confront her former student.

There is silence in her steps, each lower than the muffled noises coming from the students around Hayata. The classroom feels even larger, the walls seem to expand with each step she takes. With much effort, she reaches Junko's seating area. Her right hand falls on Yuzuha's back. With a nod, she signals Toshi to take away Yuzuha for a moment. Toshi's hands fall to Yuzuha's waist, as she pulls her back while comforting her.

Miss Shinomiya moves to face Junko's face as well. While she stares at Junko for a bit, trying to think of how to talk to her, or where to even start, a screeching sound pulls her attention away from Junko. As she shifts her focus towards the classroom windows, she is met with a horrific sight.

On the windows, from the outside, a crow scratches on it. As it does this, Miss Shinomiya stares at the crows eyes. They seem the same as a nimbus cloud. In a short moment, more Crows appear. Each with the same pair of eyes. The Crows dive into the windows. In unison, they all start scratching the glass with their beaks and talons, then slightly shift, hitting the windows repeatedly. Miss Shinomiya's eyes were wide open. She has never seen anything like this before. 

Through the confusion she managed to pull the three students to Junko's seat and holds everyone there. Ryuunosuke's face is contorted in a way that shows his fear. He was already snorting as a scared little pig. His eyes were mostly closed, and while lying down on the floor both his arms where over his head. Covering himself from hearing or seeing anything.

The other two were petrified by the sight. As the glass of the large windows started shattering and the pieces flying everywhere, the two of them held firmly together in each other's tight grips. Toshi's shoulders were a bright red, from the tight gripping of Yuzuha's fingers. They had dug into her skin, not letting go at all.

After some time, the Crows stopped, and in that silence, they were now staring through the windows without making a sound. Staring at all those inside. The group looked up watching the Crows start to fly away. Miss Shinomiya slowly rises from her safe spot and moves to observe the windows. Or what's left of it.

On the edge of the broken large windows, scratch marks were left from the Crows' scratchings. Only in moving closer were they very much visible. Astonished by the flow of the scratches, they were as well readable. The many scratches repeatedly formed the words:

"As Above so Below."