Chapter 11 July I 1 “All right, I’m taking it,” said Izumi, readying her camera. “Mm…Sou, don’t stand at attention—relax a little. Yeah, yeah, like that. Okay, say cheese!” Next to me, Yagisawa shouted back, “Cheese!” as soon as he heard the standard phrase. He also raised his right hand and gave a thumbs-up. My lips curled into a smile of their own accord. “Great. All right then, one more. Okay?” The camera shutter clicked a second time, and I breathed a little sigh of relief. I liked cameras, but frankly, I wasn’t a fan of being in pictures. We were in the courtyard between Buildings B and C at school, standing in front of the lotus pond (which was actually a water lily pond). The pond was rumored to be one of the school’s “Seven Mysteries.” Rumor had it that sometimes, when the water’s surface was disturbed by an overturned leaf, a bloody human hand would reach out. It was the fourth day since the start of July, on a Wednesday after school. The camera we were using was a compact model that Uncle Teruya had given me when I was in elementary school. Though small, it was an excellent machine, and it could take high-quality photos if you used it right. “Okay, Sou and Akazawa, stand together next. I’ll take the picture.” The camera passed from Izumi’s hands to Yagisawa’s as they took turns being the photographer. We had also planned to use the timer and take one with the three of us in it, but we couldn’t find an appropriate place to set it up. I should have gone to the trouble of bringing the tripod, I thought to myself. Yagisawa was the one who had suggested taking a “commemorative photo” a few days earlier. He’d called me the night before, requesting that I bring my camera, “because it looks like pretty good weather tomorrow…” The long-haired class representative with his round glasses had also decided on this lotus pond for the location. Now he joked, “Well, somehow it works. But as long as the ‘phenomenon’ is happening, we might capture a hand in the pond, too.” “Stop it—don’t joke about that.” I scowled at him. Then I gave a forced smile, but frankly speaking, I didn’t feel like it at all. The weather was fair. The blue sky and vibrant sunlight were classic summer. But the rainy season wasn’t quite over yet, and according to the forecast, another front was going to start moving in that evening. “Okay, I’m taking it!” Yagisawa readied the camera. “Get closer, you two. Sou, your expression is too stiff again. Akazawa, you look great… Yeah, okay, say cheese!” This time, as I was mouthing the word cheese— Several scenes from other times played out in my mind, as though flashing back to the events of the past few days… 2 …I had accepted an invitation to the penthouse of the Freuden Tobii. Auntie Mayuko had requested I join the Akazawas for tea. When I went, I returned one of the books I’d borrowed from Izumi’s older brother’s bookshelf. It was a book called The Notebook. I had started reading it to distract myself, but once I got started, I ended up devouring it in no time flat. It was far more gripping than I had expected. The second volume was sitting on the same bookshelf, so with Izumi’s permission, I borrowed that one to read next. After getting the book, I was served tea and cake in the living room. “Wasn’t Tsukiho supposed to come today?” Mayuko had asked me. Without any particular agitation, I’d answered, “Seems like something suddenly came up.” “Oh, really?” said Izumi, who knew nothing about the situation. She had peered over at my expression with a look of anxiety on her face but hadn’t made any further comments. “Tsukiho must be worried, I’m sure,” said Mayuko. “Why is that?” I’d asked. “Well, I mean, students from your class have been dying in accidents… There have been all sorts of unfortunate incidents since May. That’s why.” “I don’t think she knows about that.” “She doesn’t? You haven’t told her, Sou?” My silence must have tipped her off, because Mayuko had narrowed her eyes with a kind smile and nodded. “Be that as it may, I feel so bad for all the people who passed away. I mean, what awful luck they had. You were good friends with the boy from the biology club, right?” “Yeah, kind of.” Mayuko had never asked me anything before about the special circumstances of Grade 3 Class 3. And I hadn’t even said anything about it to Auntie Sayuri or anyone else. I’d faithfully upheld that “rule.” However— “I wonder if there will be a summer trip this year?” Mayuko had said suddenly. “Eh?” Izumi made a startled noise. “Mama, why would you say that?” In 1998 and 1983, the two years when the “calamity” stopped partway through the school year, there had been a special class trip over summer break in both cases, where something had apparently happened—I had reported as much to Izumi. But why would Mayuko say something about that now? “I mean.” Mayuko had a slightly bemused expression. “When it comes to the Grade 3 summer vacation, um, well—” She had gotten that far and then cut herself off, with a suspicious expression like even she didn’t fully understand why. For a moment, I had wondered what was going on. Thud, came a low reverberation from somewhere. For a split second, everything had gone dark. “…You know, your big brother never took a class trip when he was in middle school. I’m sorry. I must have gotten mixed up.” Smiling as if it was no big deal, Mayuko had asked, “Would anyone like more tea?” That was one scene from the night of Sunday, July 1—three days ago. 3 …The biology club had held a meeting in the science room of Building T. Since the incident the previous week, our clubroom in Building Zero had remained closed off. We had released many of the creatures we’d been raising, the ones that could go back into the wild. The rest we had divided among the club to be cared for at home. The adviser, Mr. Kuramochi, and most of the club members were at the meeting. Even fellow Class 3 member, Morishita, came. I was no longer a “non-exister,” so there had been no need for him to take that into consideration. Our three new members had been reduced to two. Jun Takanashi’s younger brother had submitted his intent to resign from the club after his mother had passed in May. I heard that one of the second-years had also been talking about quitting. I guess that’s no surprise, huh? “What happened to Kouda was a truly…truly unfortunate accident,” Mr. Kuramochi said, wearing a mournful expression. “As you all know, he was an irreplaceable part of the biology club. Now that he’s no longer with us, we must decide how the club will proceed from here. We’ve got to come up with a proper course of action…” Mr. Kuramochi continued, explaining that when it came to the question of how we should move forward, the first concrete step was to decide whether to continue the club at all or disband it then and there. The room in Building Zero wasn’t ready yet. There was also the question of how everyone felt about using it at all, knowing what had happened there. “What do you think?” Mr. Kuramochi had asked us. “What do you all want to do? I want to hear your genuine opinions here.” He waited a while for our responses, but no one answered him. Everyone was nervously looking around at one another’s expressions. “Hmm.” The teacher had crossed his arms, seeming as though he was about to say something else. “I vote we continue,” I’d declared boldly, unable to keep quiet any longer. “If we quit now, I think Shunsuke—I think Kouda would be sad. I’m sure we’ll have to do things differently, but I think we should keep going.” I don’t even mind becoming the leader, if no one else is willing to do it, I’d thought, riding the momentum of what I had said. “So that’s one vote for continuing.” Mr. Kuramochi wasn’t smiling, but there was a note of happiness in his voice. “Anyone else? What do you think?” I didn’t know how everyone there actually felt, but no one had raised any objections. “You’ve got your final exams coming up soon this month, so let’s talk again after those are over. Mm. If it seems like we have the required number of people who want to keep going, we can try to get things back up and running over the summer break.” No one had voiced any opposition to the teacher’s suggestion… Will this do, Shunsuke? I addressed my dead friend in my mind. It’s okay, isn’t it, Shunsuke? That was one scene from the afternoon of Monday, July 2—two days ago. 4 …Mayuko and Izumi had come knocking at the Akazawa main house just after dinner. The renovations that had started in April were finally nearing completion. They’d said they wanted to see how it looked. It had taken much longer than originally planned, but the old house had been boldly restructured and remodeled. Now it possessed a “newness” that made it scarcely recognizable. Overall, the interior was brighter than it had been before, and it had been made more functional in key places. Everything had been thoroughly redone to accommodate our grandfather’s needs. “What about your room, Sou?” Izumi asked, so I showed her. It had been used only as storage for a while, but now it was completely cleaned up, and even the wallpaper and flooring were shiny and new. “Once the house is finished, you’re coming back here, right? Soon after the start of summer vacation?” Izumi had asked as she looked around the empty room. “I guess that’s how it’ll work out,” I answered, letting out a small sigh. “After all, it’s not like I can continue to be a burden over there forever, is it?” “That’s not how it is. I don’t think so anyway.” Izumi laced the fingers of both hands together and stretched toward the ceiling with a big sigh. “But I guess it’s right next door. Come over and see me sometimes after you move back, okay?” After that, the two of us went into the sitting room in the back of the house, where our grandfather was. Our grandfather, Hiromune Akazawa, was as always sleeping away most of the day. When he realized that his grandchildren had come in, he looked at me first. “Oh, Sou?” He’d said my name the same way he always did, and a clumsy smile had appeared on his aged face. Then he’d shifted his gaze to Izumi, and when he did, that smile immediately disappeared. “Are you Izumi?” His voice creaked. He sounded suspicious or maybe confused. “But you’re…” He didn’t seem able to focus on his granddaughter… It might have been my imagination, but his eyes had looked cloudy somehow. “How are you still…?” Come to think of it, I recalled hearing from Izumi that he had said something like that to her before, too. It might have been a consequence of his poor health, and certainly, he had been growing more sullen and harder to please lately, but seeing him treat her like that in front of my own eyes, I realized why she’d complained about him before. It was a strange way to act when your granddaughter came to visit—that was certain… It had seemed like an awfully unnatural reaction to me. “Seems like the construction will be finished soon, huh?” Trying to dispel the awkward atmosphere, I cut in quickly. “Once that’s done, it’ll be easier for you to move around inside the house, won’t it, Grandpa?” “Well, I don’t know about that,” he answered glumly. “But, well, thank goodness the construction will be done. Even in this room, it’s so loud, I can’t stand it. Good grief…” Grandpa had spat out the words, then sluggishly shifted around on his futon and looked toward the window. Outside was a spacious rear garden lit by lamps. In the drizzling rain that continued to fall, the large hackberry tree that spread its limbs over the middle of the yard had looked like a dark shadow. “Kyah!” Izumi had suddenly let out a short shriek. When I turned around in surprise, I’d seen that Kurosuke the cat had come into the room at some point and jumped up onto her lap. Kurosuke had been startled by the shriek, too, and started trying to leap down off her knees. Izumi pressed on her right palm with her left hand and said, glaring at the cat, “Geez, what the…?” Apparently, Kurosuke had confused her for something else and scratched her on the hand. “What was that? Why?” Lacking the ability to answer Izumi’s questions, he simply meowed and padded out of the room. She sighed and looked down at her right hand where he had scratched her. Small, bright drops of red blood welled up in the exact center of her white palm. That was one scene from the evening of Tuesday, July 3—yesterday. 5 …Sayuri and Mayuko, the two aunts, had been deep in conversation in the living room, so Izumi and I left them there and went back to the Freuden Tobii ahead of them. The rain had stopped just as we were leaving, so we hadn’t needed to put up our umbrellas. “Is your hand okay?” I’d asked Izumi on the way. “Mm. It’s fine…but…” She raised her right hand, which was covered in medical tape. “But that was the first time Kurosuke’s ever scratched me so hard. It shocked me. I wasn’t even doing anything that would bother him.” “Hmm, well, cats are fickle creatures,” I’d answered casually and then glanced over at her right hand. “You’d better disinfect it properly after you get home, you know. I mean, apparently, there’s something called cat-scratch fever, so be careful.” “And if the scratch gives me a high fever and the symptoms get worse very quickly…if that happens, it’ll be the ‘calamity’ causing it?” “I’m worried it might be like that.” “I’m joking. I’ll be fine. I’ll disinfect it again once I’m home, and if I do start feeling bad, I’ll go see a doctor right away.” “Mm.” “Did you hear anything from Misaki after the last time you talked?” “Nothing yet.” She was referring to my meeting with Mei on the roof of the hospital last Saturday. I had relayed the basic summary of our conversation to Izumi that very same day… “So she still hasn’t gotten a hold of this Sakakibara guy, huh? Even if she does reach him, there’s the question of whether he’ll even remember anything that happened three years ago.” “That’s right.” “If you learn anything, be sure and tell me.” “Ah, sure. Of course that’s my intention, so…” That was another scene from Tuesday evening—yesterday. 6 Yagisawa and me. Izumi and me. And while we were at it, we got solo shots of each of us, too. We were snapping pictures for some time, and our homeroom teacher, Ms. Kanbayashi, happened to pass by unexpectedly. “Oh! Some kind of photo shoot?” she called out to us. Yagisawa jokingly shouted back, “We’re taking three-person commemorative photos!” Ms. Kanbayashi nodded with a serious look on her face. “I see. Is that because Mr. Hiratsuka was a ‘non-exister’ when we took the group photo at the beginning of April?” “That’s our teacher, quick on the uptake,” Yagisawa quipped again. “Because of that, we started talking about how we should take a commemorative photo with Sou in it before the end of first semester. Speaking of which, Ms. Kanbayashi, would you help us out and get one with all three of us in it?” Cunningly pressing the camera into her hands, Yagisawa insisted, “Come on now, Sou, Akazawa, you get back where you were just standing. Akazawa can be in the middle, and Sou and I will be on each side… That should be good. Ms. Kanbayashi, if you please!” “Okay, here we go.” Accepting the role of photographer with surprising willingness, she readied the camera. “Please go ahead and use up the rest of the film,” I said. “Got it. Okay…you’re standing in a good place. Hiratsuka, get a little closer to Akazawa. Yagisawa, you’re too close. Okay, I’m taking it.” Ms. Kanbayashi seemed used to handling a camera. I heard the sound of the shutter several times in succession. The film ran out and started rewinding itself automatically. “One of these days, let’s take another one with everyone in the class, shall we?” Ms. Kanbayashi said in a deliberately cheerful voice. “There’s the graduation album to think about, after all… When we put that together, we should take a picture with Hazumi and Makise in it, too.” The graduation album…graduation, huh? That word had a hollow ring to it somehow, and I let out a quiet sigh. There are still nine months to go before then. If the monthly “accidents” continue, just how many students are going to be left by the time graduation rolls around? I was sure I wasn’t the only one thinking it, but no one said anything out loud. “Next week is already the end-of-term exams, huh?” Ms. Kanbayashi said as she was leaving. “I know that focusing on your studies must be quite difficult, but there’s no way Class 3 could skip out on testing. With that understanding, I hope you will do your best. If you have any trouble, please come and talk to me anytime…” Having finished our “commemorative photo shoot,” we briefly returned to our classroom on the third floor of Building C. “Oh man, the clouds spread out really quickly!” Yagisawa noticed, staring out the window. “If we’re going by the forecast, it’s supposed to start raining again tonight. It’ll be one of those flash floods that comes at the end of the rainy season.” “I hope the rainy season clears up soon,” said Izumi. Knitting her eyebrows despondently, she continued. “It’s always been my least favorite part of the year. Doesn’t it seem like it’s dragged on particularly long this time, too?” “No. I think the average year is about like this,” Yagisawa answered, running his hand through his long hair, which was crunchy with mousse. Just then, I noticed that my cell phone was getting a call. 7 For a second, I thought it might be a call from Mei. Glancing at the display, however, I knew immediately that wasn’t the case. It was showing an unregistered number that I had never seen before. “Hello?” I answered. “This is Sou Hiratsuka’s cell phone, right?” came the voice on the other end. There was a lot of static or something, and it was hard to hear, but it was male. And then I realized it did belong to someone I knew… “…Sakakibara?” “Sou, right? It’s been a while.” This sudden call from Koichi Sakakibara, it took me off guard. How on earth did this happen? He must have already talked to Mei. Or else… I tightened the squeeze on my phone. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the shisa charm on my Okinawa souvenir sway. “Um…are you calling from overseas?” “From Mexico. So I can’t talk for that long.” Mexico, huh? There’s probably about a half a day’s time difference between there and Japan, isn’t there? Which means it’s the middle of the night for him now. “I just got in touch with Misaki. She told me about your situation. I was hoping it wouldn’t happen, but of all the classes, you ended up in Class 3, and it’s an ‘on year,’ too. What luck.” “The ‘countermeasures’ didn’t go well, so the ‘calamity’ started up.” I gripped my phone even harder. I didn’t notice, but my voice got louder, too. Yagisawa and Izumi, naturally, must have been wondering what was going on. “I heard that earlier from Misaki,” said Koichi. Ksh-ksh-ksh… The rasp of static on the line made it hard to hear his voice. “So…memories of three years ago have already gotten fuzzy for her, huh? The question is what did we do, in order to stop the ‘calamity’ that year? She told me that she has no confidence at all in her own memories on that matter.” “And you, Sakakibara?” I asked almost prayerfully. “I wonder? I wonder if I remember?” There was a long silence, and then an answer came. “Ah! I do remember. I haven’t forgotten yet. I remember our class trip during that summer break to the lodge. I remember what I did there.” “So…?” “I talked to Misaki about this earlier, too. About what you need to do in order to stop the ‘calamity’ at this point and how to do it. When she heard what I had to say, I think it helped her dredge up some of her memories of that time. But…” “But?” “She was one of the people involved with the ‘phenomenon’ that year, and after it was over, she stayed in Yomiyama… So you see, I wonder whether she’s going to be able to hold on to the information she heard from me earlier. Maybe the influence of Yomiyama as the ‘site’ of it all will make her memory go fuzzy again right away or alter it entirely.” “Can that happen?” “…I don’t know.” He sighed. “I don’t know, but she seems to be worried about it. That’s why I figured I had better talk to you directly about this as well, Sou. She asked me to. She said she wanted me to call you and tell you this as well, just in case.” “Ah…” “Ksh-ksh-ksh…ear me? Can you hear me? Sou?” Another round of thick static accompanied his voice. “Ah, yes,” I answered him, but the noise continued to cut in. Koichi’s words became garbled and unintelligible in places. Almost like something was blocking the signal. “…Well…anyway, the main point…you ready?” “Yes.” I adjusted my grip on my cell phone and pressed it firmly against my ear. “Return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death,’” Koichi told me. “Huh?” Without meaning to, I repeated after him, “The ‘casualty’ to ‘death’…?” “Matsunaga, the guy who left us that tape, that’s what he did. And three years ago, I did it, too.” “Um, so then…what does that…?” Ssh-ssh-ksh-ksh-ksh… Again, the static interference cut in. I wonder if it’s this bad on his end? I wonder if everything I’ve said has made it through to him? Before I could confirm, I heard Koichi again. “…Misaki’s the only one…are you listening? If I can give you any advice…” Ssh-ssh-ssh-ksh-ksh-ksh-ksh-ksh… “—lieve it. Believe her…that ‘eye’ of hers…no matter what truths it might reveal, even if you can’t accept them or don’t want to—” …That “eye” of hers? Ah, could that mean…? Ssh-ssh-ssh-ssh-ksh-ksh-ksh-ksh-ksh-ksh… I managed to catch a few more words from him over the growing static. “Got it, Sou? Return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death’… Don’t hesitate, just act. Believe her, and…” I didn’t have time to ask what I was supposed to do. The static, which seemed like a manifestation of some malicious will, grew louder and louder, until I had to pull the phone away from my ear… And then the connection finally severed. Somehow, I knew in my gut that trying to call Koichi again was pointless, that the connection would never go through. 8 That evening, I spoke to Mei Misaki on the phone. If I hadn’t been with Izumi and Yagisawa, I probably would have left school and headed straight for the gallery in Misaki. But it seemed like Izumi and Yagisawa might have tried to follow me, after hearing my exchange with Koichi. I had no doubt that Izumi in particular had guessed the content of our conversation. But I wanted to talk one-on-one with Mei first. “That phone call was from the famous Mr. Sakakibara, right?” Izumi asked me on the way home. Yagisawa was walking with us, too. “Yeah. He said he had something to tell me directly.” “And?” I wasn’t sure how to answer. Before I tell Izumi, I have to get in touch with Mei. My first priority is to speak with her and compare the information we got from Koichi. In addition… “What does return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death’ mean?” Of course, if they had been listening to my side of the phone call, that phrase would have left an impression. “Is that, by any chance—?” “I don’t know,” I said, cutting Izumi off. “The static was awful, so I couldn’t hear him very well.” “So…” “Sakakibara said that he called Misaki and talked to her as well. The thing to do now is to go check with her.” I was able to get a hold of her that evening, a little past eight. I tried calling many times before then, but they didn’t go through, so she called me back later on. I informed her that I had received a direct call from Koichi, who was in Mexico. Then I revealed what he had told me—in minute detail. She kept silent and listened, then, after I was done talking, stayed quiet for a little while… Finally, Mei spoke. “Return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death.’ That’s what he said, right? Sakakibara.” “Yes.” “He told me the same thing. When I heard those words, it was like some sort of ‘figure’ took shape in my vague memories.” “Oh, really?” Without meaning to, I raised my voice. “So then, Mei, what should we do? Return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death’… So in other words…” “Calm down, Sou,” she urged. In contrast to me in my haste, she spoke in a quiet voice, as if she was carefully checking her footing as she proceeded. “Return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death.’ You can guess what that means, right?” she asked in the same quiet voice. “Yes,” I answered with uncontrollable uneasiness. “In other words, kill the ‘casualty,’ right?” “Well, they’re already dead, so it’s probably not right to use the word kill, but…in any case, you have to somehow return them to the grave. That is the only way to stop the ‘calamity’ once it’s started.” “But wait, Misaki—” I’d wanted to ask her this since the phone call the night before. “Someone in the class is the ‘extra person,’ the ‘casualty,’ right? And we have no way of knowing who that is until after graduation for that school year… But then…” But how, then? When the question made it that far out of my mouth, I finally had a realization. The instant it struck me, I gasped. Why didn’t I realize this earlier? Why couldn’t I see it? I cursed myself for my own stupidity. “I see. So that’s why Sakakibara said to trust you?” “…………” “He told me to trust your ‘eye.’ Is it possible that your ‘doll’s eye’ can…?” Mei’s “doll’s eye” could see things that “shouldn’t be seen.” According to Mei, it was like the “color of death.” And that “power” could be effective at distinguishing the “casualty” who’d slipped into the world of the living due to the “phenomenon”—that was my guess. “Wait.” Mei took over before I could say more. “What Sakakibara said was right. Three years ago during summer vacation, at that lodge…I did in fact identify the ‘casualty,’ and Sakakibara returned that ‘casualty’ to ‘death.’ And when that happened, I was there at the scene, too…” Mei spoke matter-of-factly, but the look on her face was awfully troubled. “But you know, even though I heard him tell me about it, and even though the ‘figures’ are coming back to me in fragments, I still barely feel like it was real… It’s hard to be sure.” “…………” “I wonder what we’ll do if we’re wrong. And if that ‘doll’s eye’ still has that ‘power’ in the first place.” “He told me to trust you.” I raised my voice again. “He said…‘believe Misaki and don’t hesitate.’” “Mm…he did. He said something similar to me, but…” She let out another distressed sigh and, after a short pause, said, “Let me think a little—about whether this is really a good idea. And if it is, then how do we go about it?” 9 Just as Yagisawa’s forecast predicted, it started raining around sunset. However, for some reason, it was a much more violent rain than expected. Along with the rain, the wind also began blowing very fiercely. I could occasionally hear claps of thunder in the distance. It looked like a storm was rolling in. I spent the night tossing and turning. Even after I took some of the medicine that I got from the “clinic,” my sleep was shallow and unrestful. I woke up many times, and each time I did, I had to fight to repress the disturbing images that spread through my mind. Koichi Sakakibara’s directive to return the “casualty” to “death” was probably what all the scenes had in common… …Uncle Teruya. For some reason, in my half-waking state, it felt like my heart was murmuring the name of the man who had passed away three years ago. …Uncle Teruya. I repeated his name, as if I wanted to ask him something. When I was a child, I had asked him all sorts of questions whenever I went to play at his home, Lakeshore Manor. “What happens to people when they die?” “What does it mean to grow up” “What is falling in love?” ………… ………… …If I had the chance, what would I have asked Teruya now? And what kind of answer would I have hoped to get from him? 10 The following day—the morning of Thursday, July 5. When I stopped by the Akazawa house for breakfast, there was a message from the school. It said that since a heavy rain and flood warning had been issued for the whole Yomiyama area early that morning, classes would not be held that day. Of course, I’d barely been able to sleep the night before; honestly, I still wasn’t fully awake. So when I heard this, I felt inwardly relieved. Now that the “calamity” was here, it was probably dangerous to go to and from class in stormy weather. I couldn’t help but worry about things like that. And it seemed to me that most of my classmates were feeling the same way. If this mentality escalated, and I started worrying about anything that could pose a risk, it would only be a matter of time before I stopped going to school at all. And after that, maybe I would become an agoraphobe. And if that happened, and my fear grew ever larger, then… Quitting school, skipping town entirely—I wouldn’t be surprised if other people are already considering the same thing, like they have to get out somehow. But no one had taken such drastic measures yet. I figured it was probably due to our immaturity and lack of freedom as middle school students. The taboo against freely discussing the special circumstances of Grade 3 Class 3 with family probably also had something to do with it… In any case, after I returned to the Freuden Tobii, I spent my day without taking a single step outside of my apartment. At least as long as I’m sitting shut up in here, I can get through it without being exposed to unnecessary risks. It’s safe. I have peace of mind. I felt a surge of strong fear like I never had before, and it stirred up many feelings and thoughts. It was as if my feelings were being stirred up by the intensity of the continuing rainstorm outside. We had end-of-term exams the next week, but there was no way I was going to be able to bring myself to study. I tried to read the new book I had borrowed from Izumi’s older brother’s bookshelf, but even though I was turning the pages, none of the story was making it through to me. As I was trying to read, a question came to me. As I recognized it, it coiled itself around my mind and wouldn’t loosen its grasp on me no matter how I tried to squirm free… …Who is it? Who on earth is the “casualty” who slipped into our class? I thought about the students of Grade 3 Class 3, with the exception of Tomoko Tsugunaga and Keisuke Kouda, who’d already passed. One of the remaining students was the “extra person,” a “casualty” who shouldn’t have existed in the first place. But who the hell is it? It was a question that I couldn’t hope to answer, no matter how much I thought about it. But even knowing that, I couldn’t help but wonder. And once I started ruminating on the problem, my mind turned to the names and faces of the students I had met only in third year (who I hadn’t given much thought to before). For example, Shimamura and Kusakabe, who had been close with Yuika Hazumi. And the countermeasures officers, Etou and Tajimi. Jun Takanashi was also new. As well as several others. If that was the case, if the “extra person” turned out to be somebody I’d never known before this year, it probably would have been easier for me to accept. I could have just waved it off and been done with it… But in reality, there was no reason it had to be one of those people. They weren’t the only candidates. The people who I had known for a long time, whose names and faces I recognized—including Yagisawa and Izumi, as well as Hazumi and Morishita… Since all memories and records related to the “extra person” had been altered or falsified, they could be anyone. Nobody could be counted out for certain. Not a single person… That’s right, even as I sit here carefully thinking it out like this, I myself could be… ………… …I could be. I could? Could I actually be nothing more than the “extra person”? The “casualty”? I suppose it’s possible. The more seriously I considered it, the less I was able to deny it with absolute certainty. In any case, if my memories had been “altered,” nothing was off the table. Everything that I thought I remembered was suspect; that’s what it came down to. There was nothing I could believe in… No, wait. Koichi Sakakibara had said something to me the other day. He’d told me to “believe her.” “Believe that ‘eye’ of hers”… ………… …By “her,” he meant Mei Misaki, and her eye—the blue “doll’s eye” that Kirika had made for her. It had been a long time since I’d seen that false eye, which fit into Mei’s left eye socket. Last month, Mei had confided in me the reason for that. But…ah, that’s right. I had seen her just once, earlier in the spring, wearing her eye patch like she used to… When was that? That was— That’s right—that was back in mid-April. It was the first time I saw Mei after we found out that it was going to be an “on year.” I visited the “Blue Eyes…” gallery, and we talked in the basement, and she was wearing her eye patch on her left eye… At the time, I remembered thinking it had been a long time since I had seen Mei with the eye patch on. The left eye patch…which probably meant that the “doll’s eye” was concealed beneath it… If that was the case… What would it mean? Why would Mei have had in her “doll’s eye” on that occasion? Only one answer sprang to mind. 11 The rain kept pouring down furiously all day. Finally, a little past six in the evening, around the time the sun was setting, the intensity of the storm started to weaken somewhat. The flood warning was also lifted around that time. Before long, I would probably get notice from Auntie Sayuri that dinner was ready. That’s when Mei called me. I looked at her name on the display of my phone and reflexively stood up from the chair I was sitting in. Last night and now today. I had gotten phone calls from her two days in a row, which was a rarity in my experience. “Hello? Mei?” “Sou.” The moment I heard her voice, I knew that something was off. How could I explain it? That instant, the first thing I felt was a deep sense of unease. Mei definitely seemed off somehow. She had always been aloof, never one to let her feelings show. But as soon as I heard her voice, I could tell that her composure had been broken. What’s going on? Could she be dealing with some sort of crisis? “Um…what’s up?” I asked timidly. After a very long pause, Mei answered, “It’s about the ‘casualty.’” “Uh, okay?” “I gave it some thought,” she said before taking another very long, unnatural pause. At that point, I felt certain that I had been seized by some sort of premonition. I couldn’t tell just then what “shape” it would take, but it was obviously something dark and gloomy… “What’s going on?” I asked again. It had been only a few seconds, but I was already very nervous. My hand sweat as it gripped the phone. “Sou.” Mei said my name again, let out a sigh, then told me in a tormented voice, “We have to hurry. That’s what I was thinking, and I—” 12 BLUE EYES EMPTY TO ALL, IN THE TWILIGHT OF YOMI The signboard for the gallery was a black board with cream-colored lettering. Looking up at the dripping wet sign, I tried to calm my labored breathing. I had ridden my bike all the way from my apartment in Tobii to Misaki, in the ceaseless rain. I was bitter over the fact that I had fallen once along the way, when a strong gust of wind blew against me from the side, causing my tires to slip and throwing off my balance. At that exact moment, I’d heard an ambulance siren like something shrieking in the night, which only startled me further. Luckily, I wasn’t really injured in the accident, but the chain of my bike did come off, and the handlebars were badly bent… I’d had to push my bike the rest of the way to the gallery. I had hit my left knee on the ground when I fell, and it was still throbbing with pain. If I’d known that would happen, I would have given up on the idea of going out on my bike altogether. I checked the time on my watch. A little after seven. Not even an hour had passed since Mei’s phone call earlier. I parked my bike and headed toward the gallery entrance, struggling to remove my dripping wet poncho. There was a sheet of paper posted on the door that read, CLOSED UNTIL JULY 8. I hadn’t heard anything about the gallery taking off, so I was suspicious as I stretched my hand out toward the door— I tried to push it open as usual, but it didn’t budge. It was locked. “All right, I’ll be waiting on the first floor of the gallery, so come see me,” Mei had told me on our earlier phone call. I had answered that I was heading over right away. So even if the gallery was closed, I had expected her to leave the door open for me. And yet… I tried applying force to the door again. But as I expected, it didn’t budge. Maybe she went back upstairs because I took a while to get here? No, I don’t think she would… As I was deliberating, I dug through my pants pocket under my poncho. I was hesitant to dial the interphone that connected directly to upstairs, so I thought I would try Mei’s cell phone first. However— “Hmm?” I made a noise. “What?” My cell phone wasn’t there. In a panic, I searched all my pockets, as well as the inside of my backpack. But it was nowhere to be found. Did I leave it somewhere or drop it? Maybe I lost it when I fell on the way over? “Crap,” I grumbled as I continued to rummage around in my bag for the missing phone. Suddenly, the door before me opened, accompanied by the tinkling of the doorbell. “Ah!” I let out another cry. On the other side of the door was Mei. Since she had her back to the lights in the gallery, her whole body was indistinguishable from a black shadow. “Sou,” she said. “Thank you for coming.” “Ah, sure.” “Come in.” As she bade me in, I saw that her left eye was covered with a white eye patch. 13 Once I got inside, I understood the meaning of the sign that read CLOSED UNTIL JULY 8. The familiar first floor, which I had visited many times before, was practically unrecognizable. Calling it a mess would be underselling it. The display cases had been moved from where they used to stand, and none of the dolls that had previously decorated them was present. Looking around, I could see a bulging pile in one of the corners of the gallery floor that was covered with white fabric. They must have been piled up together underneath that. A tall stepladder sat in a different corner, and above it were several wires coming down from the ceiling. Is that…for hanging something over there? I wondered. “Kirika suggested altering the layout of the first floor a little,” Mei explained. “A contractor she knows started coming in yesterday, but he’s kind of unreliable. Kirika seems anxious.” I see. The long, narrow table where Grandma Amane always sat beside the door was also pushed up against the wall. On top of the table and in front of it on the floor were scattered tools that a contractor would use and bundles of wire… There are only three days left until the 8th. I wonder if he’ll be able to finish the remodeling properly by then? I was needlessly worried. “Sorry about the entrance being locked,” Mei said. “I left it open, but the wind was too strong, and the door seemed insecure.” “Ah, it’s fine.” I shook my head forcefully. “It took me a lot longer to get here than I expected.” “Are you hurt?” she asked. She must have seen me favoring my left knee. And noticed that my pants were very dirty. “I fell off my bike and kind of… Ah, but I’m fine.” I forced myself to gently pat my smarting knee and then folded up my poncho and set it at my feet. “Are you really okay?” “Totally fine.” “I was thinking maybe tomorrow would be okay, but…but—” “You said we have to hurry?” Instead of answering, she led me to the sofa in the back of the room. Mei was dressed in an indigo-blue shirt and a short, pleated skirt. The piece of black clothing seemed to melt into the gloom of the twilight interior of the gallery. By contrast, the eye patch over her left eye was pure white, without the slightest hint of dirt— “So why are you in such a hurry tonight?” I asked boldly, once we were seated on the sofa, facing each other at an angle. Mei swiftly shrank from my gaze. “…I don’t know why.” After a brief silence, that was her answer. “You don’t know why…you’re in such a rush?” I asked. There was another brief silence. Then— “I have a bad feeling…” ………… …Is she hiding something? I felt like she might be. Is she hiding something from me? Something seemed off about the way Mei was speaking. But I didn’t press her any further. I didn’t want to force her to tell me something she didn’t want to. I looked at the patch that covered her left eye. Beneath it, she was probably wearing that “doll’s eye.” Her empty socket was filled with a “blue eye, empty to all.” Three summers ago, she’d told me that her prosthetic held a mysterious “power.” That it could see things that shouldn’t be seen—that it could glimpse the “color of death.” But— In what situations and in what way? Mei had never offered a more concrete description of the eye’s abilities, so I had no idea what exactly it could do. It was clear that it could see some kind of special color surrounding people close to death—but that was as far as my understanding went. That’s why… That’s why, even when I heard those things from Koichi yesterday, I hadn’t immediately made the connection between Mei’s “power” and the fact that she could use it to recognize the “casualty” among my classmates. It took some time for me to connect the dots. The first time I had visited the gallery, back in April, Mei had been wearing the eye patch over her left eye. Now, finally, I understood why. I was certain that back then, once we had established that this school year was an “on year,” she must have been using her “doll’s eye” on me. To ensure that I, Sou Hiratsuka from Grade 3 Class 3, who’d come to deliver that information, was not the “extra person,” the “casualty.” I told her my theory. And then I asked, “Doesn’t that mean that back in April, you believed in the ‘power’ of your ‘doll’s eye’?” Mei tilted her head uneasily and answered, “I wonder? That was probably it. Maybe I could still remember something about returning the ‘casualty’ to ‘death’ three years ago. Perhaps my memories hadn’t been erased yet. After I spoke on the phone with Sakakibara, I felt more and more as if that was the case.” “And now? How do you feel?” “…………” Mei silently tilted her head again, then took one deep breath and straightened her shoulders. And then she slowly removed the eye patch. “Last night, I put this ‘doll’s eye’ in for the first time in a while…then I tried it out.” “Tried it out?” “I tested to see whether I could see the ‘color of death’ like I could before.” “How?” “On the Internet,” she answered, knitting her eyebrows wearily. “There are sites where they compile images of real dead bodies, right? I searched for some of those.” “And?” I urged her on. “I saw it.” Mei sighed. “Just like before. That color, that seems like it would be impossible to make no matter what paints you mixed, which doesn’t seem to exist in this world. The ‘color of death.’” “Ah…” “Right now, when I look at you like this with my ‘eye,’ I don’t see the ‘color of death’ around you, Sou. I know that you’re alive. Just like you were when I witnessed you three years ago.” “Sure.” I am alive. I am not the “casualty.” The suspicion and self-doubt that had coiled around my heart and refused to budge finally vanished, like a parting mist. As far as I was concerned, Mei’s words were still worth trusting above everything else, after all. Feeling a modest sense of relief, I looked again at her—at her left eye, from which she had removed the eye patch. She blinked slowly, then stared straight back at me. “Yesterday, after I talked to you on the phone…” Mei took another deep breath. “I thought. I thought about what I should do, what I needed to do. Whether I should put in this ‘doll’s eye’ and, for instance, go to North Yomi, into your classroom, and look directly at everyone in your class…or something. I felt like that might be the most definite way to do it. But…” “You said we have to hurry?” “Right.” Mei nodded enthusiastically. “That’s why…” 14 “…Hey, Sou?” I thought back to my exchange with Mei on the phone an hour earlier. “Do you have any kind of photograph?” “A photo?” “Like one that shows as many members of your class as possible. Something like a group picture would be best.” “The ‘color of death’ also shows up in photos?” I asked. “I should be able to see it, but…” Mei had answered almost as if she was giving herself instructions. “If the picture is too small, it might not be as clear. But still, it will probably work—” Suddenly, I recalled the class photo I had seen once in Izumi’s room. The shot photo that Ms. Kanbayashi had taken on the day of the entrance ceremony. “—to a certain extent.” Mei had sounded like she was completely lost in thought. I started to get worked up, too, and had found myself unconsciously raising my voice. “A class photo… Except for two or three people, I’ve got one that shows everyone.” “And I don’t suppose you could come show it to me now?” “Right now?” “If you can…anyway, as soon as possible.” “Got it.” That’s as much as she had told me. It wasn’t a situation for wavering or hesitating. I’d made up my mind immediately. As soon as I hung up the phone, I immediately dashed over to Izumi’s apartment. I’d briefly explained the circumstances to her. She had been surprised by the sudden request, and I borrowed the aforementioned group photograph. “You’re going now?” Izumi had asked me. “Immediately,” I’d answered. “I’ll go with you, too,” she offered. “You can’t,” I’d insisted. Then I had hurried off into the rain. 15 As Mei had said earlier, from time to time, the wind beat at the front door and set it rattling on its hinges. That was because we hadn’t locked it after I came in. If this is the noise it’s making now that the wind has died down quite a bit, it must have been way louder before. “Um…here you go.” Opening my backpack, I pulled out a light-green plastic folder. The group photo in question was about five by seven inches. I had stuck it in this folder before bringing it over to avoid bending it. Mei nodded meekly and drew her lips together tightly. I also nodded, then handed her the photograph, folder and all. In the semidarkness of the gallery, I was bursting with tension that set my skin tingling. “Okay…” Mei took the folder. She gently pulled the picture out and set it on top of the table. Then she bent over it a little and peered down at it. Then there was a brief period of silence. Two seconds, three seconds… Mei silently examined the photo. I held my breath as I watched her. The front door kept rattling loudly, and in the intervals between rattling, I felt as if I could faintly hear the secret whispers exchanged by the dolls in the corner of the gallery floor. At last, Mei lifted her eyes from the photograph. She let out a short sigh. “Can you see it?” I asked timidly. “Are they there, in that photograph?” She glanced briefly at me, but then without answering, she returned her gaze to the picture. After scrutinizing it, she put her right palm against her right eye to cover it, then stared again using only her left “doll’s eye.” “Are they there?” I repeated my question. A moment later, she nodded slowly. “Yes… I can see the ‘color of death,’” she answered, her gaze still fixed in place. I leaned forward off the sofa. Mei glanced my way again and gave another short sigh, shaking her head slightly. “This is them.” She took her right hand off her right eye and extended her pointer finger, then brought it closer to the photo. As I leaned even farther forward in order to ascertain who she meant— The clanging of the doorbell filled the gallery. When I turned, I saw that the front door had just been opened, and a person had come flying in from outside. “Sou!” She called my name in a loud voice. “Sou…ah, here you are! Thank goodness!” Without even folding her wet umbrella, she threw it down and rushed over to me. I stood up from the sofa. I had no idea what was going on. She was gasping and panting for breath. It seemed like she had run here with all her might through the rain. “Wh—?” Why? I was about to ask, but I was cut off. She said, “You dropped your cell phone in my apartment.” She pulled my phone, with its shisa lion strap, out of the pocket of her white raincoat and showed it to me. “Ah…” “We got a call after you ran off. It went to yours first, then mine.” “Huh?” “…I knew that you were headed here, and I didn’t know what else to do, so I followed you. Listen, Sou, something awful happened.” “Something awful?” “The call was to let us know!” Her face was extremely stiff, and her lips were strained and trembling, and she looked like she might burst into tears at any second. “It’s really awful! The hackberry tree in the garden fell down and crashed into Grandpa’s room!” “What?!” That huge hackberry tree in the back garden of the Akazawa house. The one that’s visible from the window of the sitting room where Grandpa Hiromune lies. That tree fell…? “Grandpa is badly injured; his life is in danger. That’s what Auntie Sayuri called to tell us.” Perhaps… Those sirens I heard when I fell off my bike on the way here…maybe they were from an ambulance that was dispatched when the hospital got word of the accident at the Akazawa house? “Sou.” This time Mei was speaking. I turned around, flustered. Her face was pale and just as stiff as the face of the girl who had burst in. “Sou, listen. Are you ready?” “Ah…y-yes.” Mei had been pointing at the photograph on the table. As I watched, she raised her arm, keeping her finger extended, swinging her hand up to indicate the girl standing there… “Are you ready, Sou?” Mei announced quietly. “The ‘casualty’ is standing right there.” I couldn’t respond. It was suddenly very hard to breathe, like all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. “I can see the ‘color of death’ on her.” Still pointing to her—to Izumi Akazawa—Mei continued in the same tone of voice. “I can see it on her in this photograph. And I can see it on her standing there.” 16 Izumi? She’s this year’s “extra person”? She’s the “casualty”…? I was utterly shocked, totally bewildered. The first thought that came to my mind was that no matter how confidently Mei identified her, I couldn’t believe that right now; I didn’t want to believe her. But there was no hesitation on Mei’s face as she looked at Izumi, and when she pointed, her finger didn’t so much as quiver. Izumi noticed Mei’s finger pointed in her way and let out a small, “Eh?” She sounded like she had no idea what was going on. “What…what’s this about?” Her face stiffened even more. Her lips tightened into a grimace. As if she understood what Mei was saying but couldn’t possibly accept it. “What do you…? N-no, it can’t be…” Her wide, almond-shaped eyes wavered. They darted back and forth unsteadily. As if it was all she could do to stand there perplexed, struggling to respond. Izumi knew about the mysterious “power” that Mei’s “doll’s eye” possessed. I had told her about it when I’d borrowed the photograph in order to explain why I needed it. So she… No, but she couldn’t have expected this when she decided to follow me, even in her wildest dreams. That we would identify her as the “casualty.” Of course, the surprise and confusion that I was reeling from must have been nothing compared to what Izumi was going through. “Miss Akazawa?” Mei opened her mouth. “I know that you don’t actually feel this way at all, but listen—you are this year’s ‘extra person,’” she asserted, finally lowering her right hand. “I don’t know when it happened, but at some point in the past, you were one of the ‘related individuals’ who died because of the ‘calamity.’ The ‘phenomenon’ resurrected you, and you joined the class this past April…and you’re here now. As the ‘casualty,’ appearing no different than when you were alive,” Mei informed her, stiff voice free of emotion. “You’re kidding, right?” cried Izumi, almost laughing. But her expression didn’t soften at all. “No way. I’m not the ‘casualty.’ Look here, I’m perfectly alive. I’m breathing. My heart is beating…” “‘Casualties’ resurrected by the ‘phenomenon’ are indistinguishable from the ‘living.’ They breathe just like everyone else, and their bodies are warm. If you cut them, they bleed. But you’ve heard all that already, right?” “I’ve got perfectly clear memories,” Izumi insisted, “that extend well beyond March of this year.” “They were altered to make things consistent,” Mei replied dispassionately. Her face, like her voice, was dispassionate. She looked cold. Izumi held her tongue, then turned her bewildered eyes on me. “Hey, Sou. Say something…” Just at that moment, the phone in my hand, which Izumi had handed to me earlier, began to vibrate. Flustered, I looked at the display and saw it showing the name “Sayuri.” “Ah, Sou!” The moment I picked up, Auntie Sayuri’s voice came bursting into my ear. “Izumi must have found you.” “Yes.” “Something awful’s happened!” she cried without pausing. “Grandpa has…Sou, your grandfather has…” “I heard,” I answered while trying to keep my emotions in check as best I could. “I heard there was an accident and that he’s badly injured.” “Actually…just now, he…” “Did he die?” “By the time they got him to the hospital, he was already beyond help.” I grasped my cell phone tightly, overcome by surprise and horror, and whispered, “It can’t be…” Sayuri broke down. “Why did that tree suddenly fall over…? And why did it have to fall on his room of all places? It broke through the window and struck him on the head while he was sleeping…” Ksh-ksh. Static crackled on the line. As if something was jeering at us. Ssh-ssh-ssh, ksh-ksh-ksh-ksh… The noise drowned out Sayuri’s voice, and then the signal cut out. “That was from Auntie Sayuri,” I told Izumi, still gripping my phone. “Grandpa’s dead.” “…………” “This must be the ‘calamity,’ too, right?” My grandfather, Hiromune Akazawa, and I were related within two degrees. Hiromune and Izumi were the same, two degrees. As a “related individual” to Grade 3 Class 3, he was of course within reach of the “calamity.” And so… But at that moment, another revelation passed through my mind of its own accord. Now that our grandfather had passed away, a great number of relatives were likely to gather for his wake and funeral. More than a few people who lived outside of Yomiyama would attend. Should circumstances permit, Izumi’s older brother, Souta, might even return home from Germany. Maybe even…that’s right, the former wife of Hiromune’s third son, Fuyuhiko, might even show up—Tsukiho. If we didn’t do something, all those people would come to Yomiyama in the near future and risk falling victim to the “calamity”… …I can’t let that happen! My voice echoed through my head. No more, this can’t go on… Shoving my cell phone into my pants pocket, I looked back and forth between Izumi and Mei. Surprise, bewilderment, and extreme confusion—Izumi was surely feeling more than I could imagine. Panic flashed in her wide-open eyes. She pursed her lips and shook her head. Slightly but strongly. Opposite to her, Mei’s blank expression remained unbroken. Silently, coldly, she scrutinized Izumi with both eyes, her own and the “doll’s eye.” She took one, two steps forward until she was standing beside me. “I can see the ‘color of death,’ so…” She threw out the same statement as before, this time in Izumi’s direction. “Akazawa, you ‘belong on the other side.’” “Stop it!” Izumi shouted. “Am I supposed to believe that’s true all of a sudden, just because you say so? Telling me that out of nowhere…get real, Misaki.” She turned to look at me. “Come on…Sou?” I was still entirely lost. “I…can’t believe it…,” I mumbled. Mei’s answer was different. “The question isn’t whether you believe it or not,” she said, her voice still calm and detached from any emotion. “You’re the ‘casualty.’ That’s the truth. Whether you believe it or not, the facts don’t change. And so…” …And so? I examined Mei’s face. And so, in order to stop any further “accidents” from happening, we need to return the “casualty,” return Izumi to… “Sou!” Izumi shouted again. “Say something! I’m your cousin; we’ve been close since way back, right? Since before you moved into the apartment building in April…” “…Aah…” I certainly had those memories. But there was the undeniable possibility that they were false memories, planted by the “phenomenon.” That was the “world” we were in now. …Thud. I examined Izumi’s face again. On top of her increasing panic, there was now a shade of anger permeating her expression as well. But that must have gone hand in hand with “fear”… As I considered that, suddenly— “Are you Izumi?” I recalled a voice that was quietly suspicious or perhaps confused. The voice of my grandfather, Hiromune. “But you’re…” Indeed, this was a memory from the night before last. When Izumi had come to visit the Akazawa house and the two of us had gone into our grandfather’s room. It was almost like he hadn’t been able to focus on his granddaughter. I’d chalked that up to my imagination then, but his eyes had definitely looked cloudy. “How are you still…?” What an unusual way to react to a visit from a granddaughter. Strange and unnatural. That’s what I had thought at the time—and now, even more so. The man hadn’t seen his granddaughter in a while, and the first thing he asked was, “Why are you here?” It had struck me as awfully cold. I remembered something similar had happened in late April, when Izumi was at the Akazawa house and went in to visit Grandpa. “Why are you here?” Our grandfather had asked her that. As for what he meant by it… He’d been bedridden for some time and had started showing signs of cognitive degeneration. Because of that, perhaps the alteration of memory caused by the “phenomenon” hadn’t taken sufficient hold of his mind. It was certainly possible. “Why are you here?” If those words had been a simple expression of disbelief at the fact that Izumi, the granddaughter who he was sure had already died, was standing there before his eyes, then…no… But that alone didn’t amount to proof that she was the “casualty.” As long as we were in a world where we knew memories and records were being altered, then wasn’t it actually impossible to find any kind of proof that would let us determine whether or not it was “true”…? …Thud. …Huh? What? What was that? Just now, suddenly… …Thud. “Hey! Sou!” Izumi’s voice. She sounded confused, angry, and scared. Like someone who was being ignored, treated as if she didn’t exist. “Sou.” Mei called my name quietly. “You remember, right? You remember what you heard from Sakakibara on the phone. About what we have to do in order to stop the ‘calamity’?” Ah…of course. I remember. I do. But… But nevertheless, I couldn’t bring myself to answer right away. I could feel the whole dusky, gloomy atmosphere icing over. My mind and body were frozen, too; I couldn’t get a single word out, much less move… For some reason, the shrieking of unknown creatures sounded in my ears. Countless shrill screams. I knew I couldn’t actually hear them—that would be impossible. And yet, they seemed to me like the voices of the dolls that inhabited this gallery… Mei glanced at me sadly and took a faint breath… The next moment, she made a move of her own. 17 She moved swiftly. Without a word, Mei headed for the table that was pushed up alongside the wall beside the door. Once there, she picked up one of the tools that had been dumped there. It looks like a hammer—no, a nail puller. Don’t tell me… She’s going to use that? Right here, right now? “Mei…” By the time I had wrung my voice out of my parched, raspy throat, she had already raised the nail puller overhead and leaped at Izumi. My cousin’s scream echoed through the gallery, overlapping with the shrieks of the dolls. “Wh-what are you doing?! You can’t!” Mei swung her right hand downward. Izumi dodged, but not completely, and the pointed tip of the nail puller grazed her shoulder… The impact pushed her off balance, and she went down to the floor on a knee. “Stop it…Mei!” “Return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death,’” Mei answered coolly. “There is no other way to stop the ‘calamity.’” “Stop!” Izumi pleaded fervently. “I haven’t…I haven’t done anything!” “You’re right. You haven’t done anything. You are simply the ‘casualty.’ But many people have already died from this iteration of the ‘calamity.’ And if we don’t do something, countless more will…” “That’s not my fault!” “It’s not your fault.” Mei re-gripped the nail puller. “It’s no one’s fault. The ‘phenomenon’ has simply taken this form, that’s all. And that’s why…you see, Miss Akazawa?” Mei swung her right hand down again. Still on one knee, Izumi crossed both arms above her head to block the blow. “Stop!” This time, I was the one who shouted. “Believe Mei’s ‘eye’”—that’s what Koichi Sakakibara had told me—“no matter what truths it might reveal, even if you can’t accept them or don’t want to…” That’s what he’d said. But— “Please stop. This is…” In the end, I couldn’t sit back and watch. I didn’t know what I believed, or what I should believe, in this situation. I didn’t know what to do. It was clear in my head, but in my heart… Mei stopped moving and looked back at me. Her eye was full of sadness, just like earlier. Seizing the opportunity, Izumi leaped to her feet. By the time Mei turned back around, she had taken off in a mad dash, aiming for the front entrance. The door opened, and Izumi darted out. Mei gave chase. I ran outside, following Mei. 18 The rain had slowed to a drizzle. The strong wind from earlier had also mostly settled down. Still, there wasn’t a single person to be seen on the road. Although it wasn’t that late in the evening yet, the town was weirdly quiet… Izumi was sprinting, and Mei was pursuing her. And I was chasing after them both. Fighting through the pain in my left knee, I ran with all my effort. From time to time, a big raindrop would form suddenly and hit me in the face. Occasionally, the wind kicked up, bringing with it the low rumble of distant thunder. The mayhem inside my mind continued. Mei had moved on her own to solve the problem. And I had prevented her from doing so. What do I believe? What should I believe? What should I do? There’s no way to know the right answer… “Got it, Sou?” Koichi’s words from our phone call repeatedly rang in my ears. “Return the ‘casualty’ to ‘death’… Don’t hesitate, just act. “Believe her and…” Does this mean I don’t fully believe her? I don’t trust Mei—or the “power” of her “doll’s eye”? Or maybe I… …Thud. Meanwhile, I felt a strange sensation, one that I had felt somewhere before. …Thud. What could that be? It was a low, faint reverberation, outside the range of my hearing. I think I’ve experienced this sensation before. But when did I? And where? I mulled it over, but my efforts were fruitless… …As we emerged onto the path running along the bank of the Yomiyama River, I closed the distance between myself and Mei considerably. The path was dark, lined with sparse streetlamps. The back of her indigo-blue shirt was just two or three meters ahead of me. A little farther ahead, I could make out the back of Izumi’s white raincoat… I was keeping a steady eye on her when— Something happened to Izumi. She let out a short shriek. Maybe she’d slipped or lost her footing. Either way, she fell. Mei slowed to a walk. The nail puller from earlier was still in her right hand. There was no change in her determination. She was going to use the tool right here; she was going to… “Mei!” I shouted. “Stop!” But without so much as looking back, she raised her implement high above her head, then swung it back down. I heard a hard crunch. Izumi must have scrambled to her feet and dodged the attack, leaving the nail puller to hit the surface of the road where it had whiffed its target. At that point, I finally caught up with the two of them. The nail puller fell from Mei’s hand as her attack hit the pavement. In a split-second decision, I sent it flying with a kick so that Mei couldn’t pick it up again. “Sou?” She looked me in the face. As expected, there was a terrible sadness in her eyes. “It’s not my fault,” Izumi reasoned in a trembling voice once she stood back up. “It’s not my…” At that moment, a gust of wind blew against us from the riverside, and at almost the same time, a bolt of lightning streaked across the night sky. When it did, as if in sync with the sudden flash of light— …Thud. —the strange sensation came over me again. …Thud. Along with the low, faint reverberation, a certain scene suddenly surfaced in my mind. It had absolutely no logical connection to the situation I was faced with now… …A door. I see a lone door. It was the entrance to an apartment in the Freuden Tobii. The unit number on the plate beside the door was <E-1>. Like mine, this room was also on the fifth floor, on the opposite side of the elevator lobby. Is this it? Is this the apartment? Hadn’t that question flashed through my mind back then? This is… Yes, I’m sure this is a fragment of my memory. Back then means at the beginning of April, early morning on the day of the opening ceremony. …Thud. …Desks and chairs. I can see neat rows of desks and chairs. A blackboard with nothing written on it. One fluorescent light, flickering unstably. This is— The Grade 3 Class 3 classroom on the third floor of Building C. This is… Yes, this is also from that day at the beginning of April, after the opening ceremony was over. The students were present, but no one had made a move to take their seats. Not even to place a bag down on their desks. “Let’s take our seats for now, everyone.” One of the girls spoke up. In a sharp, crisp voice that was well articulated…and when I heard it— Is that…? Who owns that voice? Hadn’t I felt a moment of doubt back then? That doubt disappeared from my mind a moment later. That uncomfortable feeling just… …Thud. Ah…why? Why is this scene coming up now? Why are these memories playing back……? Izumi was staring at me. Her hair had gotten completely soaked by the rain, and her raincoat was filthy with mud. “It’s not my fault.” Her pleading voice sounded weaker than before. When I stared at her face, I saw that some kind of change had come over her… Maybe… That’s when a thought struck me. It was a wild idea that bordered on delusion. But perhaps something had reached Izumi’s heart just now, something akin to the strange sensation that I’d experienced when the sudden flash of lightning had dazzled me… I took a step toward her. When I opened my mouth to speak, she slowly shook her head. “It’s not me,” she insisted meekly in an even weaker voice than before. With that, she promptly turned on her heel and took off down the riverside path. Mei was about to go chasing after Izumi again, but I steadied myself and addressed her. “I’m sorry that you weren’t able to do what needed to be done. But, Mei, your job here is over…” She tilted her head slightly, suspicious. “Sou?” “It’s confirmed. You can see the ‘color of death’ on her—on Izumi Akazawa. There’s no mistaking it, right? She is the ‘casualty,’ isn’t she?” “Yes. There’s no mistaking it.” “All right.” I nodded firmly. “I’ll do the rest. I’ll chase her down with everything I’ve got, and… I know what I have to do. You can go, Mei…” 19 Bolts of lightning crossed the sky several more times as I tore down the riverside path in pursuit of Izumi. With each flash, various scenes surfaced in my mind before they disappeared. They were all fragments of memories related to events I had experienced after April of this year. And the common thread among them was that they all had something to do with Izumi… …For example— That time, when I’d gone to the secondary library at the start of May to talk to Mr. Chibiki. While I was there, Yagisawa and Izumi appeared, and when the two of them greeted him, he’d reacted strangely to my cousin. I recalled my momentary discomfort that time. …For example— Another time, when I’d stopped by the “Blue Eyes…” gallery on my way home from the hospital at the beginning of May and talked to Mei in the basement. Izumi had happened to catch sight of me outside. After that, she’d followed me in and encountered Mei for the first time. I remembered Mei’s reaction that time, as well as my momentary discomfort again. I had no idea what it all meant, why it was coming back to me now. These moments seemed to have no obvious connection. But they filled my mind regardless. It was as though a strong and supple shell of “lies” was wrapped around this “world.” Here and there, microscopic holes were opening in the barrier, allowing the light of “truth” to shine in from outside. These beams were projecting scenes inside my brain. If I had to put it in a different way, it would be like this: I was living in a “world” that had been restructured by the alterations and falsifications that accompany the “phenomenon” to maintain internal consistency. The scenes I was seeing were like small tears that had opened up in the fabric of that false reality. The “casualty” for this school year was Izumi Akazawa—at this point, I was finally able to recognize that cruel reality. Eventually, I caught up to her. She was just about to cross the bridge that spanned the Yomiyama River. The one for pedestrians—the Izana Bridge. Izumi was standing in the middle of it with both hands on one of the handrails, bent over at the waist. Her shoulders and back were heaving violently up and down. She looked like she might collapse at any moment. She noticed me standing there and straightened up slowly. “Look over here,” I said. “Show me your face…” While we were running, the rain had started picking up. Atop the bridge, the wind was also blowing hard. And beneath it, the Yomiyama River was flowing fiercely, swollen with rainwater. I wasn’t sure that Izumi could hear me over the cacophony. Lightning streaked across the sky, follow by a quick flash of bright white light. …Thud. Another scene came to mind. …Thud. …Unit <E-1> in the Freuden Tobii. The grand piano set up in the soundproofed room. I could see Izumi’s figure, seated on the bench, her fingers splayed out across the keyboard. This was that time at the end of June. That evening when she had played Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” to mourn those who had died. As I was listening to her performance, I had backed into the window curtain and suddenly smelled something that was a little off…and for a moment, I had somehow gotten the feeling that I had stepped foot into a place that people had not inhabited for quite some time. I remembered my discomfort back then. “You didn’t notice? One of the keys wasn’t playing the right note.” I recalled Izumi’s words, after she’d stopped playing partway through the piece. “It’s way out of tune.” A key that wouldn’t play. A piano out of tune. Which means… Izumi lifted her face. I beheld the expression she had on now and thought that maybe, by some chance, she was seeing the same vision in her mind. Which might have been why she was… Rain and tears were streaking down Izumi’s face. Confusion and anger and fear played out over it. Ah, what is this…? “Sou.” Someone called my name from behind my back. It was Mei’s voice. Despite the fact that I had pleaded with her to leave the rest to me, in the end, she must have followed me. “Sou.” She called my name again. “Sou…don’t waver. Don’t doubt yourself. Believe me, cast aside any hesitation, and act…” Argh, I get it! I already know that perfectly well. I took a step toward Izumi. But even though she watched me do it, she didn’t move from that spot. She just shook her head weakly, still looking at me. I took another step. When I did— With one hand still on the handrail, Izumi turned so that her back was to the railing—facing upstream. Then she let go. As I got even closer to her, I raised my own hands up to about chest height. I think I had made up my mind about how I was going to move from there. If I get right up beside her and push her off the bridge… If I do that, no matter how strong a swimmer she is, there’s no way she could survive the river’s furious, muddy current. If she drops, her death is almost guaranteed…and so… It wasn’t clear whether Izumi could tell what I was planning. She stood in the same spot, not moving an inch, waiting for me to come to her. And then— I decided to act. Leaning against the handrail of the bridge, Izumi looked me in the face. There were tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. Her lips seemed to move as if to say something, but before I could make out the words— I charged at her with all my might, aiming both hands at her shoulders. However, just before I made contact, Izumi’s body flopped backward, pivoting over the handrail, turning again and again as she flew through the air. She fell right under the bridge. As shocked as I was, I rushed to the handrail and peered over into the river. Mei followed my lead. But by that time, Izumi’s body had already been swallowed up by the violent, muddy water… Thud. Outside this world, someone clicked a shutter. For a moment, it felt like we were enveloped in absolute darkness. The evening of Wednesday, July 5 was a turning point. After that date, “Izumi Akazawa,” who had existed as a “student in Grade 3 Class 3 at North Yomiyama Middle School” from April of that year, disappeared from the memories of everyone except for Mei Misaki and myself, the two people who’d participated in her “death.”
Chapter 146
67 min read