“The rain kept pounding the whole rest of that day, and we wound up staying there one more night. Although some people’s parents came and took them home. The police came, too, and asked us all sorts of questions…But even then, I didn’t say anything about what happened to ——. I couldn’t.
“I barely slept at all that night. I was so nervous that someone might find ——’s body, and any minute the whole place would blow up…
“And yet…
“When morning came, apparently no one had yet.
“Even though someone should have realized that there was one less student…that someone was missing. And yet the teacher was oblivious, and so were the students. It was like they hadn’t noticed…like they didn’t care…
“And so I fought back my horror and snuck out to check on him. Out to the woods where ——’s body should have been. And when I did…”
Here again, the voice on the tape paused for a long while. We could make out a low sigh mingling with the noise in the background.
“When I did…he wasn’t there. His body wasn’t there. He’d disappeared, and there wasn’t a trace of him left. There weren’t even any signs of blood. Maybe the rain had washed it away.
“I was so shocked, and totally confused. I couldn’t stop myself from going around asking people about him. I would say stuff like, I wonder what happened to ——; I wonder where he is; Do you think he went home already?
“When I said those things, every single person made a weird face at me. The teacher, the students—everybody. ‘——? Who’s that?’ they said. ‘I never heard of him.’
“It seemed impossible, so I checked, and they told me that there had only been nineteen students on the trip. Not twenty. So basically, they were saying that as far as they knew, no one named —— had ever existed in the first place.
“Seriously, I thought I was going to go crazy. But then finally I realized. What I mean is…
“The guy I killed…—— must have been the ‘extra person’ hiding in our class this year.”
The recording on the A side of the tape cut off abruptly.
All three of us gasped, unable to say a word. Mochizuki fast-forwarded through the rest of the tape, then started playing the B side.
“…This is the confession of my crime.”
From fifteen years ago, Katsumi Matsunaga delivered the same message over again.
“And also advice for you, my future underclassmen.”
The three of us kept our attention focused on the sound of the recording coming from the speaker, beset constantly by interference.
“I know I caused ——’s death that day…I killed him. That fact hasn’t changed. That’s why I decided to make this ‘confession.’ I thought it might soothe my conscience a little…
“But ironically, what I did was also ‘salvation’ in a way. Salvation…Do you understand what I mean by that? It was ‘salvation’ for everyone in our class.
“It happened purely by chance, but the fact that I killed ——…The result was that it saved everybody. When the ‘extra person’ in our class died, the ‘disasters’ for this year ended. It’s only been ten days since it happened, but I’m pretty sure it’s for real. The proof is…
“The fact that no one remembers who —— is anymore.
“It started the very next day after I killed him. Not the teachers, not the students, not his parents…None of the people connected to third-year Class 3 that I know, at least, remember the fact that there was a boy named —— who was part of our class since April of this year. They’ve forgotten him. Or I guess you could say their memories have been repaired.
“By returning ‘the casualty’ who should never have existed in the first place to Death, the numbers match up…And order is restored to the world. All kinds of modifications have been corrected, starting with the memories of the people involved. I guess that’s how I need to think about it.
“I was so profoundly involved in ——’s death, I’m the only one who still remembers him. But I think that’s just a matter of time.
“For the record, the guy named —— was actually the little brother of someone named ——, who was in third-year Class 3 two years ago—in 1981. And this guy’s little brother —— died as part of the ‘disasters’ for that year. And everyone except me has had their memories totally reconfigured to the truth of that already.
“I think I’m probably going to start forgetting about ——, too.
“Even if I keep my memories about the basic facts that some unidentified ‘extra person’ came into our class in April and every month someone related to the class died…I’m pretty sure that all the rest of it, like the fact that —— was the ‘extra person,’ or that I was the one who killed him, or that the ‘disasters’ for this year stopped because of what I did, will eventually vanish from my memory.
“…That’s why.
“That’s why I got the idea to leave behind this tape. I thought of hiding it somewhere in the classroom because sooner or later even I might forget what this tape means…
“…That’s why.
“I’m recording my experience while my memory is still clear…To try and pass on these facts to you future underclassmen, who might be suffering the same things we did. And the advice for how you can stop the ‘disasters’…
“Okay? You understand, right? You know why I did it, right?”
And then, at the very end, Matsunaga’s voice took on extra emphasis.
“Return ‘the casualty’ to Death. Then the order for the year will be restored.
“Got it?
“Return ‘the casualty’ to Death. You have to kill the ‘extra person,’ like I did. That’s the only way to stop the ‘disasters’ once they’ve begun.”