Chapter 131

Tuning I The year was 1972. According to the Japanese calendar, it was Showa 47. In other words, the incident took place twenty-nine years ago. That spring, a certain student in Grade 3 Class 3 at Yomiyama North Middle School died. It happened after the start of the new semester, just as they were approaching their fifteenth birthday. There’s been a lot of speculation at school over what really happened—whether they died in an airplane crash or a train accident, but…the truth is, they lost their life in a home fire, right? Seems that way. The whole family went up in the blaze. The student’s parents, plus their brother, who was one year younger. That’s right. The student’s name was Misaki. That’s what they’re called in the rumors, but they don’t specify whether they were a boy or a girl. Misaki…is correct. All right. His full name was Misaki Yomiyama. And he was a boy. Misaki Yomiyama… ………… From the time he was in Class 1, he was an outstanding student, a strong athlete, and talented in art and music. To top it all off, he was handsome and easy to get along with. He was popular, beloved by students and teachers alike. Heh, when you sum it all up like that, it sounds kind of fake. But supposedly, it was the truth. Yeah. So…when they heard the news, everyone was awfully shocked, and there was a lot of grieving. People couldn’t accept that someone so popular had passed away just like that. Neither his classmates nor his homeroom teacher could face the facts. And so… Everyone meant well, but they coped with his death in the worst possible way. That is to say, they pretended that Misaki was alive. Right. It started with the idea that his passing was a lie. They couldn’t accept it. They didn’t want to. Before long, it escalated into the delusion that Misaki had never expired. That he was still alive—look, he’s right there… ………… Misaki’s right there, like he always has been. He’s still with us. He couldn’t have died… All the students of Class 3 insisted that he was “still alive.” And once they started, they kept up the charade. All the way to graduation day. ………… Even their homeroom teacher played along, you know. She pretended, just like everyone said, that nothing had happened to him. That, at least in her classroom, he continued living on as a member of the class. They left Misaki’s desk right where it was, spoke to him as if he were there, played with him, walked home with him…they all pretended. ………… But that was—that way of doing things was a mistake, you see. They should have come to grips with it and accepted that death is death. And yet… ………… There was this photograph, a commemorative picture taken in the classroom after the graduation ceremony. Everyone who looked at the image was shocked—in the corner of the class photograph was something that should not have been. There stood Misaki, face as pale as a corpse, smiling just like everyone else. That was when it all started, twenty-nine years ago… This was the incident that triggered the mysterious “phenomenon” that began to hound Grade 3 Class 3 the following year. Yes, the “phenomenon”…and the inexplicable “accidents” that accompanied it. I see… ………… ………… ………… ……So? So what? So the “phenomenon” probably hasn’t ended, not even after what happened three years ago. It’ll probably begin again. It could be that you’ll end up in Class 3 this year. And maybe… Ah…but even if you start worrying now, there’s nothing we can do. Nothing we can do? ………… …You should be careful. And if by some chance it happens again— Sure. But you know, if it does, I’ll be…