He wasn’t the one being attacked, but Aoyama felt rather uncomfortable. These kids had probably ganged up on Miki for spreading those harmful stories. He could understand why they’d want to do that, but hounding the poor girl to the point of making her cry was going too far.
“Okay, everyone, let’s all just calm down.”
Aoyama stepped forward, causing the kids to swivel around to face him. Some, he’d spoken to earlier, while others were new faces.
“I just want to hear what she has to say, all right?”
The kids didn’t look too happy.
“But, mister, Miki is…”
“Even if she did something bad, doing this will make her sad and afraid. That will make it hard for her to apologize properly.”
“You’re too soft, mister,” Yuzuki said with an exasperated sigh. “C’mon, everyone, let’s go.”
At her prompting, the kids reluctantly began to leave. Aoyama thanked Yuzuki for the help, and she replied that she’d always be there to help out a handsome man. He smiled wryly. If there was a girl with such great leadership qualities keeping the kids in line, the teachers at this school probably had it easy. He turned around to face the jungle gym. He could still hear the light sobbing.
“They’re gone now.”
He called, but no one answered. He crouched down to look through one of the holes leading into the dome. The first thing he saw was a head of hair that was such a light shade of blond, it was almost pink. A T-shirt so colorful that it hurt his eyes and a pair of denim shorts soon came into focus, too. Quite the fashion statement. Had kids dressed that flashily when Aoyama was that age? He crawled in and crouched down next to the child.
“I’m not mad at you. I just want to talk.”
Still sobbing, Miki looked up at him. Aoyama stared for longer than he meant to. Thick eyebrows. Narrow eyes with heavy eyeliner. A solid-looking nose and pair of lips. Miki wasn’t a girl with boyish features. Rather…
“I bet you think it’s weird for a boy to dress like this, don’t you?”
“N-no, not at all…”
He responded a little too quickly. In all honesty, he was surprised. Not because this Miki boy was wearing feminine clothes. It was the fact that he was a boy that had thrown him. Now that he thought about it, Nanaka had never referred to Miki as “she.” He’d just assumed Nanaka would be friends with other girls. Ms. Akino hadn’t used any gendered pronouns when talking about him, either. Aoyama felt like he’d fallen for some kind of misdirection in a mystery novel.
“Are you, uh…agender? Nonbinary?”
“I don’t like labels,” Miki said dismissively. “I just wear the clothes I like, that’s all.”
“Right. Sorry.”
Now that Aoyama thought about it, it probably wasn’t very pleasant for someone who barely knew you to start making assumptions and try to categorize you. Aoyama’s apology only seemed to make Miki more uncomfortable, though.
“No, I’m sorry. I should be thanking you for getting those girls off my back.”
“That must have be tough for you. I used to get teased when I was your age, too. I know how it feels to have people ganging up on you.”
“That’s a lie. No way you got teased with a face like that.”
Miki wiped away his tears. It smudged his eyeliner, making it look like he had dark bags under his eyes.
“If I had a face like yours, I’d be able to get away with wearing more. You know, even skirts and stuff.”
People may have described Aoyama as cute, but he doubted he could “get away with” wearing a skirt. He was about to make an offhand comment about what people would think of him if he tried but stopped himself just in time. It wouldn’t have been very sensitive to treat gender nonconformity like a joke.
“Lots of people think this stuff doesn’t look good on me, but I’m not gonna stop wearing it.”
Seeing Miki speak so resolutely, despite the tears in his eyes, gave Aoyama a newfound respect for the boy. The world had become a more accepting place since his own childhood, but there were probably still people out there who would give kids like Miki a hard time. Even Aoyama found it hard not to view him as something special or unusual. That determination to stay true to himself would serve the boy well in the future.
“I’m…sorry for running away,” Miki muttered after a few more moments of silence.
For a moment, Aoyama wasn’t sure what he meant. Then he remembered their appointment to meet at the school.
“It’s all right. I’m the one who insisted everyone come talk to me.”
Miki’s expression finally softened a little. He had a cute, childlike smile. It made Aoyama want to smile, too. The boy took a deep breath, as if strengthening his resolve, and began to speak.
“So, uh, the reason I told everyone the rumors… The story about Haruko. It’s because I was afraid.”
“Afraid?”
Miki nodded.
“Afraid of Haruko.”
“So you met her before all this started?”
“Yeah.”
Miki stared off into the distance.
“The story about Haruko is almost completely fake. I made it up. I took most of the ideas from this manga called Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube, which I found in my sister’s room.”
“Why would you do something like that?”
“Because I was afraid of Haruko.”
They were going around in circles. Aoyama looked over at Miki—his mouth was now firmly closed.
“Well… If it’s made-up, can’t you just choose not to believe in it?”
“Of course I can’t. Not when she’s actually started showing up in everyone’s dreams now.”
Aoyama nodded. He couldn’t argue with that.
“The places she shows up and her leaving you alone if you tell someone else the story is all true. The part I made up was who Haruko is and where she came from. She’s not looking for her son or anything like that.”
Miki had started trembling. It was like he was struggling to get each word out.
“She told me that she’d take me to hell unless I told everyone about her.”
He pressed his hands together to try and keep himself still. It felt like the temperature inside the jungle gym had suddenly dropped. No, it wasn’t Aoyama’s imagination. It really had gotten colder. It had been so bright outside a moment ago, and now it was dark. But why? It was the middle of summer and nowhere near late enough for the sun to have set. Just then, he heard the grinding. The same unnerving noise he’d heard in the reception room.
“Sh-she’s here. It’s Haruko…!”
Miki sprang up and went to crawl out of the dome. Aoyama pulled him back and wrapped his arms around him.
“I-it’s okay.”
The grinding was louder now, closer, like it was right under their noses.
“Don’t go out there.”
Krsh, krsh, krsh… Krsh, krsh, krsh…
He couldn’t see what was going on outside. A thousand worst-case scenarios filled his head. Had Haruko’s influence fallen over the jungle gym like a cloak, letting her look in at them? Miki was too scared to speak now, clinging to Aoyama’s shirt so tightly, he could have torn it off.
“She can’t come in unless we let her.”
“Yes, I can.” A voice came from outside. “Oh, yes, I can…”
Despite there being no light, a shadow fell across the ground. The shape was clear and distinct—the inverted outline of a woman’s head.
“I can get in… I can get in… I can get in…”
Aoyama reached out and touched the ground. The dirt was loose beneath his fingers.
If she comes in anyway…
“I can get in.”
There were a total of six holes leading out of the dome. Aoyama started drawing an X in the dirt in front of each of them.
“I can get in I can get in I can get in…”
One, two, three, four, five…
The grinding noise didn’t stop. He felt like it was going to drive him crazy. He reached for the final hole. Miki’s weight felt heavy against him. How could someone be sweating so much and still feel so cold?
“I can get in.”
Before he could finish drawing the final X, Aoyama’s eyes met Haruko’s. She was a tall woman with long black hair. He thought at first that her jaw was dislocated. But that wasn’t the case. She actually didn’t have a jaw. Not a human one anyway. But she was somehow still making that noise that sounded like teeth grinding against each other. That krsh, krsh, krsh was coming from her mouth.
She was laughing. Aoyama didn’t know why he knew that, but he did. She had a broad grin on her face and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying every minute of this.
“I can get—”
The moment Aoyama finished the final X, Haruko disappeared. He could hear children laughing. Peeking his head outside the dome, he felt the sun on his face. Other children were playing in the park. Fatigue washed over him, and he collapsed to the ground. Getting his clothes dirty was the least of his worries at this point.
“Looks like we made it through that okay.”
Miki didn’t reply. Aoyama swiveled around, still on the ground, to look at the boy’s face.
“It’s not okay.”
Miki’s lips had turned blue. His eyes were wide-open, unblinking, and he was pointing at something behind Aoyama. Beneath a large clock outside, a woman was waving to them. A grin spread across her face, and then she was gone.