Look For The Truth

49 Hours Left…

Barely a few minutes after that conversation, Hotaru, Noriko, Ayase-san and I are standing in between a set of tall bookshelves, lined with various books centered around the town’s history. And before you ask, yes, there's actually a whole section of it just for this purpose alone…

"So… any ideas?" I ask, hands on hips, as I stare up the mountain of knowledge.

"I thought YOU might have some actually." Ayase-san quips back, brows raised.

"Huh? You’re the one who suggested it…"

I honestly can’t help but sigh. We’re going in with no plan yet again. Why didn’t I expect this in the first place?

"I figured they'd have it split into a section for town history and a section for school history... Instead, it's all jumbled up…" She sighs exaggeratedly, letting her true colors show for just a moment.

"It's ranked by author name though, so it's not jumbled."

"It's jumbled."

She throws back, with zero ms delay whatsoever.

"No, it is NOT."

"YES. IT IS."

“Heh…”

As we’re glaring down each other, Hotaru chuckles to herself, watching our silly fight unfold. Right as we both turn to face her, eyes ablaze, she quickly throws her hands up in mock surrender.

“I-I’m sorry… you two just seem to get along is all…” She timidly apologizes, while we both arch an eyebrow simultaneously.

“I agree. I’ve never seen Ayase-senpai talk with someone like that.” Noriko adds fuel to the fire while Ayase herself, looks between the two of them in confusion.

“Really?” I can’t help but ask. I mean it’s true, that I’m the only who know what Mochizuki Ayase is really like, but has her act always been this see-through?

“Are you… dating, by any chance?”

“HUUUH?!” “EEHHH?!”

We both exclaim loudly in response to the bombshell Hotaru just dropped on us.

"W-Wha-What? No way! Pfft!" Ayase-san clearly stutters, as she tries to brush it off, her face practically set ablaze.

"Yeah! Us? No way!" I back her up, but to my dismay, my upperclassman is quick to return her glare on me.

“What do you mean “Us? No way?” huh?!” She hisses in a low tone, like she’s about to bite my ear off or something.

Why is SHE mad NOW?!

“Come on, guys, chop-chop. You said you would search so get on with it!” Mayu’s voice echoes from the other sound, and honest to God, I couldn’t be more grateful.

“She’s right! Chop-chop!”

I somehow manage to avoid the fangs of the fearsome witch, that goes by the name Mochizuki Ayase, and thus, we all begin searching silently.

…

And in between glares…

Despite that, soon enough, everybody’s preoccupied with a book in hand. Personally, I picked a book about the founder of the school.

This school is barely 30 years old, huh?

I notice as I skim through it quickly. "Nothing worth nothing..." I mutter as I put it back and take a look around to the others.

Everybody’s hard at work…

Noriko is sitting on a table, a number of books laying around her, while Ayase-san skims through the pages of another book, her back resting lightly on the shelf. Hotaru seems to have finished reading something, as she places a black, leather book back on the shelf. For some odd reason, something about it catches my eye.

“Hotaru… san? Did you check that already?”

“Oh, uhm… yes. And you don’t have to use the honorific. Just plain Hotaru is fine, Hideki-kun.” The short girl smiles slightly at me, leaning away from the bookshelf, that seems even taller than it is, compared to her petite frame.

“Okay, Hotaru then. Do you mind if I…?” I reach out for the book, dead set on satisfying my curiosity.

“Sure…” She shrugs, her expression unreadable.

Once I have collected the book, I lean back on the table a bit. The cover is black, and the material feels slick to the touch. On the side, there’s number of golden shapes, lining the surface. Without further delay I start to skim through it…

Wow…

It’s completely… empty. As I’m flipping through the pages, I can clearly make out that the pages are completely blank. What’s the point of this book anyway? No wonder Hotaru gave me such a confused look.

After a long sigh, I move back to the bookshelf. As I stretch my arm out to place the book back in its rightful place, a neatly folded piece of paper slips through the pages, and lands softly on my feet.

Curious, I bend over to pick it up. As I unfold it, I realize it's a page from a yellowed, and weathered newspaper. I scan the page and my eyes fall on the big body of text in the center. The big bold letters on the headlines above the article read:

"HIGH SCHOOL GIRL’S BODY FOUND ON CAMPUS! DOUBLE HOMICIDE IN KIRIHAMA!”

I'm instantly hooked, as I recognize the school gate from the photograph below. That's definitely in Kirihama... My eyes travel through the page, lighting fast:

"15-year-old orphaned high school student, named Hiramatsu Misaki, was found dead inside Kirihama Private High School. Her body was initially found by member of the school staff and was later on confirmed by local authorities. Coroners claim the cause of death to be starvation over the course of 66 whole days (From the 2nd of June to the 6th of August). Criminologists conclude that the victim was one of school bullying gone to extreme as she was locked inside school grounds by a group of her peers, the day summer vacation started. School staff were not on campus during the incident and are being questioned for further information. The victim, was residing on an orphanage, that issued a report for the missing child two weeks after her disappearance. The school principal was questioned on her whereabouts but vehemently denied any affiliation of her disappearance to the school. Along with the student's body a second body was found outside the school building, as it appeared to have been tossed in the school garden. The body, is presumed to belong to the school janitor, Ishida Yuuto, aged 57. Coroners concluded the cause of death to be heart failure, despite the excessive amount of bruises found on his body. Criminologists claim that the group of students were in fact responsible, for the excessive beating of the school janitor, who had tried to stop them from locking the female student inside the school. It is worth noting that, the last of the school personnel responsible, for locking up the buildings before summer vacation was the janitor himself. The culprits are presumably still on the loose, and have not been caught as of yet.

7th of August, 1989"

I’m suddenly overwhelmed by the sudden flood of information, as I momentarily stop to catch my breath.

Could all this be related to…

My train of thoughts doesn’t allow my mind to rest at all, as I instinctively turn to the back page. There, two photos of the victims don the center of the page.

"I… It's him!" I reflexively shout, as I recognize the person in the photograph. As I exclaim, Hotaru, Noriko and Ayase immediately circle around me.

“Did you find something Hideki-kun?” Hotaru enquires, tip-toeing timidly over my shoulder. Soon the other two reach us as well, and I place the paper on the table in front of us.

"That's definitely him! Look!" I point with my index finger and turn the page towards Ayase-senpai.

"That face... It kinda looks like the monster from yesterday!" She connects the dot, just as I had expected. Despite the monster having a significantly more deformed face, the similarities between the two are enough to draw a line like that.

"The… monster?" Hotaru inquires, as I hand the article to the three of them.

When everybody’s done reading the article, they all turn to me in utter bewilderment.

"That's from 1989… That means it's over 30 years old." Noriko points out, as I restlessly start pacing back and forth.

"How did you find that article Hideki?" Ayase-senpai suddenly asks me. "It was stuck between the pages of that book over there.”

"Which book?" She asks once again, as I take the book back in hand. We all nod to one another, and we quickly start skimming through in anticipation. Then, right after the middle part, we come across a couple more newspaper articles. I sure wasn’t paying attention before…

"Okay now THAT is creeping me out..." I mutter to myself, but lay the book down on the table nonetheless, and pick up one of the articles, while the girls go through the other.

"MISSING STUDENTS" The headline reads. I gulp reflexively, and continue reading on.

"As of the morning of the 20th of January, Saturday, 7 students have been reportedly missing. Their guardians' issued a report to the local authorities, following the fact that none of the students returned home after school in the 17th of January, Wednesday, meaning 3 days prior to their official "missing" status. Their vanishing still remains a complete mystery due to the fact that all the witnesses claim they never saw none of the 7 students leave the campus. Amongst the list of the missing, is also one of the school’s renowned teachers, XXXX XXXXXX. Yet, as of today, the 20th of January, the whereabouts of the group of students is still unknown.

After being granted their guardians' approval, the lists of students is as follows:

XXXX, XXXXX

XXXX, XXXXX

XXXX, XXXX

XXXXX, XXX

XXXXX, XXXXX

XXX, XXX

XXXXXX, XXXXXX

If you happen to find anything related to the people mentioned above, please contact the local Kirihama Police Station.

20th of January, 2000"

Unable to digest what I just read I scan the document once again. After ensuring its validity I lay it down and think for a moment, my head resting on my hands.

20th of January. That's going to be exactly 20 years ago in 2 days from now…

Wait…

I go back to the article once again, only now noticing something off.

Why is that name crossed off?

It’s like someone deliberately crossed it off… No, more like made a mess out of it, so it can’t be read.

And there’s also a teacher missing too. Is that related to the incident as well?

My thoughts are quickly interrupted as Ayase-senpai taps my shoulder.

"Hideki-kun, what was that article about?"

Suddenly, something inside my brain clicks. "Was that article about a bunch of missing students too?" I come out and ask, gently taking the article from her hands and scanning it for the information I need.

Hmm….

As I read, something becomes apparent.

"2010! There!" I shout out as I point at the year the article was written.

"How did you know?" She asks, a puzzled expression on her face. "Because I read about that too. It will be exactly 20 years from now, in 2 days!" I energetically reply.

"Why are you- No wait... you're on to something aren't you?" Ayase-senpai raises her brow, having seen this side of mine before.

"I think I got it!" I say scanning through the paper that Ayase-senpai and Akiyama-san were reading. I quickly scan the body of text as I notice the stark similarity of the two articles I just read. Soon, I realize that I'm reading about the disappearance of another group of students of Kirihama Private High School. This incident has taken place at the 17th of January 2010 and the article has been written at the 20th.

Meaning the two articles are exactly 10 years apart.

As I skim through the article my eyes quickly fall on the name I've been searching for amongst the missing students. "Kumagai Mei!!" I exclaim, every little dot slowly starting to connect.

"That's what I wanted to tell you but it seems you've already figured it out." Ayase-senpai states, arms crossed.

And not only that, but there’s an adult missing here too… Just like the teacher in the last article. And just like Tanaka-san…

There always appears to be a group of students, missing, along with an adult. There’s a very clear pattern here.

"Guys… Hear me out on this one." I announce as I grab a chair and sit down in front of the big round table. With one swoop of my hand, I gather all the newspaper articles, and neatly place them next to me, as everyone starts gathering round.

"We may have… a curse, in our hands."