“All right, I’m startin’ homeroom now,” Coach Hara drawled before sharing some news. “So, there was a dead body found over by Kubitachi this mornin’. They’re sayin’ there was no foul play involved, but the whole thing’s causin’ a stir. And, well, don’t be too surprised if you see police cars around. All right, then.”
The school bell rang—and though they shouldn’t have sounded anything alike, the bell overlapped with the police sirens Yoshiki had heard earlier that morning.
The mountain path stretching out from the eastern gate was, as usual, filled with the incessant buzzing of cicadas. Since no one was saying anything, the noise seemed exceedingly loud.
“Ya scared, Yuu?”
The first person to break the silence was Asako.
“Huh? Not really. I ain’t scared…” Yuuki did seem a little tense. “Not ’bout this, at least. But that stuff Hara was talkin’ ’bout in homeroom before we left…”
She was about to say that was what was more concerning to her, but she cut herself off.
Maki, who was walking in front of everyone, turned back and said, “Pretty nasty way to go, right?” Then he quietly brought his hand to his mouth. “They say she stuffed her own hand down her throat, an’ that’s how she died.”
“We don’t know if that’s true or not, though…,” Yoshiki quickly added.
That morning, police cars had been out in front of a certain house in Kubitachi.
That house belonged to Old Lady Matsuura—the elderly woman who’d screamed “Nounuki” when she saw Hikaru the day before.
“That old lady’s been actin’ a little funny for a while now…,” said Yoshiki.
“Nothin’ we coulda done ’bout that,” Hikaru suddenly added. He didn’t even look at Yoshiki and said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Yoshiki stared blankly at Hikaru’s back while Yuuki, behind him, spoke in a serious tone.
“But there were police cars in Kibogayama earlier. And there was a woman… She might’ve been the daughter of the old woman who died. I saw her break down crying. I feel bad for her.”
“There’s been an awful lot of scary things happenin’ in this village these days,” Asako murmured faintly. “It’s gettin’ ta be too much.”
Everyone naturally fell silent.
It was true that they had been hearing more and more “scary things,” as Asako put it—like how a police officer stationed in Kubitachi was injured while on their daily patrol, and how there had been a rash of traffic accidents around Kibogayama.
Each incident on its own could be dismissed as just “a bad thing that happened by chance,” but when you lined them all up like this, it started to feel eerie.
One bad thing after another kept happening, and each incident seemed to be getting more serious. This time, someone had died. The next bad thing could end up even worse.
Then, as if to shatter the heavy silence, Asako suddenly exclaimed, “Oh!” in her usual lively voice and pointed ahead. “That the forest path over there?”
Partway down the forest path lay a narrow pathway, appearing as if a hole had been opened in the guardrails. The path was covered in a dense tangle of trees, casting dark shadows that seemed to huddle together into a solid mass. There were also ominous signs that read POOR ROAD CONDITIONS and BEWARE OF FALLING ROCKS AND UNEVEN FOOTING, all of which were covered with dark green moss.
The sight of the forest path caused Yoshiki to blurt out, “Yeah… Guess that is creepy.”
It seemed like the air inside would smell rancid.
“Nnnh, it’s scary! Oh maaan! Let’s just get in there already! Don’t leave me behind, okay?! I might die, y’all! I might die!” Maki repeated over and over as he led the way to the forest path.
After entering, no one said a word—possibly because they were all slightly holding their breath.
And then they easily passed through.
Maki was the first to speak. “What?” he said. “…I guess…that went totally normal…”
“Nothin’ happened.”
The area beyond the dark path was so bright that Yoshiki couldn’t help but squint.
Next to him, Asako and Yuuki both remarked that they could look into the forest without issue and that it wasn’t scary at all. Hikaru yawned loudly. Even though it was late in the day, the temperature hadn’t dropped much, but the breeze was refreshingly cool for the time of year.
Yoshiki looked back the way they’d just come. From where he was standing, he saw golden sunlight flickering through the trees. It didn’t seem all that creepy.
“Thanks, y’all!” said Maki. “It was all in my head. Be careful on yer way back!”
Maki bowed deeply, even pressing his hands together in gratitude as Yoshiki and the others prepared to leave him and turn around. In the end, all they did was escort Maki on his way home in one big group.
“It’s a pain havin’ to get back through this forest path,” Yuuki grumbled.
“A real hassle is what it is!” Asako agreed.
“Ah, a bug bit me!”
“Least it’s cool in here.”
Yuuki and Asako were engaged in conversation, and Yoshiki fell behind. He glanced into the woods. The soles of his shoes scraped against the dirt and fallen leaves, making a damp, gritty sound.
The cicadas buzzed, and although the wind should have been rustling the leaves and branches of the trees, their sound was strangely absent.
Then, mixed among the deep, deep shadows that were like mud at the bottom of a river, he saw a white less-than sign.
“…What’s that doing there?” he said.
Without a doubt, it was a less-than sign—the type that you would use in a math equation. The symbol floated amid the gaps between the trees.