I started running immediately, without a word of explanation to anyone.
The flames that continued to burn through the building serving as my light, I ran full-speed away from the gate, down the path that wound around to the east side of the backyard. Ash created by the fire was dropping on the ground, already damp from the rain, making it extremely difficult to find any purchase. But somehow I managed not to go sprawling even once, and, at last, the storage shed I sought came into view. I don’t think it had taken even five minutes.
The heaving of the wind paired with the roar of the mounting flames so nearby. Distinct from those sounds, I became aware of the distant, resonating sirens of fire trucks…
As I ran up to the storage shed, I searched for Mei.
A generous estimate would put the shed at a distance of less than ten meters from the main house, so depending on the direction of the wind, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it catch light at some point. But luckily, the building was still intact—it seemed.
“Misaki!” My voice was strangled. “Where are you? Misaki!”
There was no answer. But—
I had circled around to the north side of the shed, continuing to call her name, when finally I spotted her. She—Mei was standing by herself, her back against the wall of the shed.
“There you are…”
Her blouse and skirt, as well as her hair, face, arms, and legs…All were caked in ash. But just as she’d told me over the phone, she didn’t seem to have any major wounds…
“Misaki?”
When I called to her, she turned a fraction toward me. But her gaze returned immediately to its original object. And then…
She was looking at something at a distance of four or five meters…It was someone besides her—another person.
The person was lying facedown on the ground. Their entire body was covered in even more ash than Mei’s. Plus their lower body was buried under several large pieces of heavy lumber. Given that, naturally I couldn’t easily tell who it was, or even judge their height or gender from where I stood.
“The force of the explosion knocked over the lumber,” Mei said, her eyes locked on the person. She didn’t have her eye patch over her left eye. “So they can’t move anymore…”
“We have to help them.”
I said it without a second thought; then my breath caught with a gulp.
Mei was silently shaking her head from side to side.
That was when I noticed she was holding something in her hands. It was…a pickax? Her right hand gripped the haft and the red-painted “head” part was resting on the ground. It must have been lying around nearby. Or she’d gone and gotten it out of the shed.
“We can’t do that.” Without ever turning her eyes toward me, Mei went on to declare, “That’s the ‘extra person.’ So we…”
That idea had gelled while I was running over here—that she might have been with the “extra person” right at that moment. But even so, a strangled cry escaped me. “Wha—?…Really?”
“I can see it…They have ‘the color of death.’”
“Did you…just now see it?”
“…It was a while ago.”
Her voice sounded sad, somehow.
“I knew, but I couldn’t say anything.”
Very, very sad, somehow…
“But…Well, after I heard that tape for myself, I thought: I have to stop it. I never expected such terrible things to happen tonight. I have to put a stop to it. If I don’t stop it now, everyone will…”
Mei lifted her face sharply. She put both hands back on the haft of the pickax.
“Wait—” I jumped out in front of her. My body moved reflexively.
I proceeded then toward the person lying facedown on the ground, who Mei had proclaimed to be the “extra person.” I wanted to see who it was for myself.
I’d thought the person was unconscious, but just then they moved dramatically. With a pained moan, they planted both hands on the ground and lifted their upper body to try and slither out from under the lumber. But, utterly exhausted, the person fell back into the dirt.
I walked up to them. I went right up beside them and bent over, holding my breath as I looked into their face.
Their eyes, vacantly wide, met mine by chance.
“Uh…”
Her lips trembled.
“…Koichi.”
“N…” I barely avoided howling. “No…”
…It couldn’t be.
Was this some kind of joke?
I blinked repeatedly, and looked back at the person’s face. But it was still, without question, her.
“You mean this is the ‘extra person’?” I staggered back to an upright position and turned to look at Mei. “Her? Really?”
Mei nodded mutely, then lowered her eyes.
“No…Not her. How could that even…”
Vvvmmmmm…A familiar, low-pitched sound was coming from somewhere.
It started rumbling, as if trying to grind down my heart—my thoughts and my memories. The rumble that, once noticed, became unspeakably menacing and unnatural. During intervals in its hum…
How many times have I visited this town now?
This was my—Koichi Sakakibara’s—soliloquy, delivered at the start of it all, when I moved here in April from Tokyo.
Maybe three or four times in elementary school. Was this the first time since starting middle school?…Or maybe not.
Or maybe not…?
By the way, Koichi.
On some phone call or other with my father, currently in India.
How does Yomiyama seem, a year and a half later? Not much different?
Yomiyama, a year and a half later…?
Why? Why?
And that was the myna bird my grandparents kept as a pet.
Cheer…Cheer. Up.
The enthusiastic, shrill voice of that bird.
They named it “Ray.”
Ray? Yes, of course. The bird’s name is Ray.
It was—and this gets another “probably” attached—two years old. They’d bought it on an impulse at a pet shop two years ago, in the fall.
Two years ago, in the fall…In other words, a year and a half ago. When I was a first-year in middle school.
Was this the first time since starting middle school?…Or maybe not.
…Yomiyama, a year and a half later.
A year and a half ago, I’d…
When someone dies, there’s a funeral.
I don’t…I don’t want to go to any more funerals.
That had been my grandfather, who was turning senile.
Poor, poor Ritsuko. It’s so sad, Ritsuko and Reiko both…
Ritsuko and Reiko both…
“…Oh,” I muttered, almost entirely vapor-locked. “So that’s what it was.”
Vvvvmmmmm…The continuous rumbling of that creepy, low-pitched sound that threatened to deaden all thought was pressing down relentlessly on a corner of my brain.
Do teachers die, too?
I remembered a conversation with Mr. Chibiki, I don’t remember when it was.
If they’re the head teacher or the assistant teacher, yes. Because they’re members of third-year Class 3.
If someone is a member of the class—of third-year Class 3—they might die in the “disasters.” In which case—of course—they could also come back as the “extra person”…
But…
“Come on, really?”
Even so, I couldn’t stop myself from checking one more time with Mei. It was not, after all, something I could believe right away just because she told me to.
“Is she…Ms. Mikami—I mean, is Reiko really the ‘extra person’?”