“Wh-what is this supposed to be?”
It felt creepy.
“What’s wrong?” Yamashita asked her.
“L-look at this.” Misato tried to show him the message, even though she was frightened.
Right then, she got a new message. This time it was a drawing of a bloody skull.
Then she received several more in a row.
“Aaaah!” She was so scared, she unconsciously let out a scream.
“Taniguchi!”
When Yamashita realized Misato was terrified by whatever she’d seen on her phone, he quickly looked at the screen himself, but then he tilted his head dubiously.
“Taniguchi, what are you so scared of?”
“Huh?” Misato took another look at her phone, only to find it was blank. “How could that be…?”
She tried searching through her phone, but she couldn’t find any sign of the message from earlier or the drawings.
“What happened…?”
She couldn’t understand any of it. All she could do was stand frozen to the spot, dumbfounded.
After school.
Misato skipped practice and immediately headed to Kayo’s house. She’d decided to consult Kayo about the message from that morning.
Something was off.
She doubted she could ask Yamashita or Nanami for help, since they didn’t know the whole story.
The only person I can count on is Kayo!
Once Misato was at Kayo’s house, she pressed the button on their security doorbell.
“Yes, who is it?” came Kayo’s mom’s voice from the interphone.
“Um, it’s Misato. Is Kayo in?”
Since Kayo wasn’t part of a club, she should have been home by then, but her mom said, “Sorry, Misato, she’s been feeling unwell since morning and hasn’t gotten out of bed.”
“What?”
“We had a doctor pay a home visit, but she couldn’t figure out what was wrong, either. She’s sleeping right now, so once she’s feeling better, I’ll have her get back to you,” Kayo’s mom said, then the line abruptly went dead.
She’s not feeling well? And they don’t know why…?
What had happened? Kayo had been just fine the day before.
Is it because I mixed the two love spells?!
Misato suddenly felt her stomach drop.
Buzz, buzz.
Then her phone started going off again. This time, the screen displayed the notification “Restricted Number.”
Someone was calling her.
“But who?”
Misato didn’t know anyone who would call her on a restricted number like this. She couldn’t not pick up, so she took the call to see who it was.
“Hello…?”
“Ah…aah…ah…ah…”
On the other side of the phone, she heard a creepy groan. It wasn’t Nanami or Kayo. It sounded like a girl’s voice, but she didn’t recognize it.
“H-hello?!”
Even though Misato was frightened, she tried to talk to the girl again.
“Ah…aaah…ah… Un…for…giv…able…”
“Huh?!”
Then the call ended.
“Wh-what was that?!”
She pulled her phone away from her ear immediately, not understanding what had just happened.
Then the phone started buzzing again. She’d gotten an e-mail this time.
On top of that, even though Misato hadn’t done anything at all, it opened all on its own and displayed on the screen.
“What’s going on?!”
Misato automatically looked at the screen.
The message had no subject or body and only contained an image. This time it was of a creepy girl with long hair. Her eyes looked like they were filled with hate as they stared straight into the camera—and she wasn’t the only one. Behind her, several other similar creepy girls were ruefully staring at her through the screen.
“Aaaah!”
Misato was so frightened, she couldn’t bear to look at the photo any longer.
But right at that moment, she saw something behind the girls—it was a sign with an illustration of a giant pair of glasses. The girls were standing in front of that sign.
“Wait, isn’t that—?”
All the blood felt as if it’d drained from her body.
The photo had been taken at the intersection she normally went to.
“No!”
Misato ran straight back home.
Kayo’s house was only two left turns away from Misato’s.
If she walked, she could get there in three minutes, or one if she ran.
And so Misato ran as fast as she could as she went around the first corner and headed straight for the next one.
But someone was already there.
“Oh!”
Misato’s eyes went wide as saucers when she saw the person.
It was the same creepy girl she’d seen in the picture.
As though the girl had been waiting for her, she turned to Misato and stared through the gaps of the long hair that hid her face.
“Aaaah!”
Misato knew she would be in trouble if the girl caught her.
As her instincts raised an alarm, she quickly tried to head back the way she’d come. But another creepy girl stood on the corner behind her, too. Just like the first girl, she glowered at Misato through the strands of her hair. The two girls’ eyes never left Misato as they steadily drew closer to her.
“No…no…,” Misato said.
In that moment, Misato felt her phone vibrate in her hand, and even though she hadn’t answered, her phone picked up the call, and a voice came through:
“Ah…aah…ah…ah…”
It was the same creepy girl’s voice.
“Wait, is this voice…?”
Misato looked ahead of her and realized the girl approaching her was mouthing something.
Her lips matched the voice on the phone exactly.
“Unforgivable…unforgivable…unforgivable…”
The girl right in front of her was speaking to her through the phone.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Misato threw her phone and dashed toward the main road, away from the girls.
It was now five o’clock in the evening.
Misato ran as she searched for help, but she could find no one on the road.
“What’s going on?!”
Normally, the street was filled with students and housewives on the way home from grocery shopping.
Right now, though, the streets were empty.
“Help! Help me!”
Misato kept running, desperate to find someone, anyone.
Then she saw a figure standing up ahead.
“I found someone!”
She sprinted at full speed toward them.
“Please help me!” Misato yelled.
But the next moment, Misato was in for another shock.
The person standing in front of her had been another creepy girl all along.
“Noooo!!!”
Misato scrambled away.
Just then, someone suddenly grabbed her arm from around a street corner.