It was another quiet night in Heavenly Host Elementary School. There were no victims for the ghost children to kill, which meant they could do whatever they please without any disruptions.
This also meant that Sachiko Shinozaki takes one of her monthly naps in one of the classrooms.
Usually, she slept on one of the teacher's desks without any comforter but this time she found an interesting discovery in the bomb shelter. She found them while checking to see if they were any recent dead bodies in the shelter.
She found a tattered purple blanket and pillow that had some rips but was still soft as a feather.
"Ha ha I cannot believe I found this!" she shrieked, "it's as they were here just for me."
She sighed happily. "This'll be so much better than sleeping on a bare desk."
She began pushing the teacher's desk horizontally so that it faces the chalkboard. Then she placed the tattered blanket on top of the desk along with the pillow which leaned on the chalkboard as if it were a headboard.
Before she got under the covers, she thought of something that made her freeze.
"What if those other 3 find out about this?" she thought, "I can't have them stealing my find!"
She hovered near the entrance of the classroom and peeked out the door.
The hallway was empty, bare and silent as death…..which is the way Sachiko liked it.
"Hrm… I can't risk being found here…. I'm going to have to move."
So she picked up her treasures and quietly exited the classroom.
She glanced around the hallway to see if the other kids were around. They weren't.
So she quickly hovered to the upper floors and went inside a classroom. She didn't bother checking which one it was; she was getting tired from all this moving around.
She did the exact thing she did in the downstairs classroom, but this time, she got under the covers. She stared at the ceiling, which wasn't really a pleasant sight for people to see. The lights were broken and the ceiling was covered in dry blood and hair hanging from the cracks. But to Sachiko Shinozaki, it was like looking at flowers and butterflies.
The warmth of the cover and pillow started to make her eyes droop. In a few seconds, she was asleep.
Around that same part of the school, Ryou Yoshizawa, Yuki Kanno and Tokiko Tsuji were wandering aimlessly in the hallway.
"Ugh how come it's so boring here when there's no one to kill?" Yuki complained.
"It's not that bad," Ryou replied, "hey at least there's some nice bodies to look at."
Yuki rolled her eye.
Tokiko giggled.
Suddenly, Ryou stopped walking. "Hey, what gives Ryou?" Yuki asked.
"Do you hear that?" Ryou said. "Hear what?" Yuki said.
"Just listen and you'll hear it."
Yuki and Tokiko listened carefully. Then all of a sudden they heard it.
A sound, not human, but rather machine- like.
"Hey there's no furnace up here, is there?" Ryou wondered out loud.
"No… the furnace is broken," Yuki replied, "come on, let's see what it is."
The 3 ghost children followed the sound until they came across a classroom near the staircase.
The door was slightly open but the sound was much clearer now.
"I'll go in," Ryou said. "Be careful," Yuki warned him.
Ryou nodded, then went inside.
A second later, he came out with a grin on his face.
"So, what is it?" Yuki asked.
Ryou snickered. "You two are not gonna believe it, but the noise is coming from Sachiko."
Yuki stared at him, but all of a sudden, she got it.
"Oh yeah," she said a smile spreading on her face, "I knew it sounded familiar. She snores like a motor."
All of them burst out laughing. Suddenly, Yuki shushed Ryou and Tokiko.
"Guys, be quiet! Sachiko's sleeping in there! And…..you know what she's like when you wake her up when she's napping."
"I know," Ryou said. All of a sudden, an evil grin spread across his face.
"Oh no, don't tell me," Yuki said, "Ryou, you know what happened the last time."
The last time the 3 kids pulled a sleep prank on Sachiko, they had to run for their lives from her bodyguard, Yoshikazu for 2 hours.
"No, it's nothing like that," Ryou said, "When I went inside, I noticed something different."
(What, like the fact her snoring is much louder now?) Tokiko gurgled out. She laughed at her own joke.
"No silly! She was covered in a tattered blanket and resting her head on a pillow."
Yuki was about to tell Ryou what that meant, but she understood.
Whatever Sachiko finds, she never shares with Yuki and her 2 other friends. She only sees them as gears that hold the school together and tools that do the work for her when she's lazy to do them herself.
"I wonder how come we never find things like that….." Ryou said.
"We find some pretty good things," Yuki replied, "last time I found some pretty cool hair accessories inside one senior girl's purse. I used them on my hair but after a while, they got all dirty so I threw them out."
"Boring" Ryou said, "I'm talking about what she found."
(We don't usually go into the bomb shelter because…of what's there.) Tokiko said, (Only she goes there.)
"Yeah," Yuki said," and there's usually a lot of neat things down there, too."
"Okay enough with the chat," Ryou said, "you want to hear what I want to do?"
Both girls nodded.
"Okay, here's what we do."
Ryou told the girls the plan. When he was done, Yuki became unsure if it was a good idea.
"Come on, it's not like we're going to mess up her hair or something. We want to get the things that she has."
"I don't know….." Yuki said.
"Come on, Yuki," Ryou pleaded, "you know you want to do it."
Yuki sighed. Ryou said the exact same thing the last time they did a sleep prank on Sachiko.
"Okay," Yuki said, "I'll do it."
Ryou fist pumped the air.
"Okay! Let's do it!"
The 3 children quietly hovered inside the classroom. When they got to where the teacher's desk was, they stopped and stared at Sachiko.
She was sleeping on her back, the purple blanket covering her entire body.
Yuki slowly pulled off the blanket of Sachiko's body which caused her to shiver.
"Just put the blanket back on her," Ryou whispered.
Yuki did what she was told. Ryou hovered towards the end of the desk and gently pulled the pillow off Sachiko's head. She snorted but did not stir.
"All right. You guys know what to do?" Ryou asked the girls.
They nodded.
Yuki lifted Sachiko and put her on her back while Tokiko wrapped the blanket around Sachiko's body. Man, she's heavy, Yuki thought, thank God we're not going too far.
Sachiko made a noise. For a second, Yuki thought she was going to wake up. She was so frightened that she almost lost her balance, but Tokiko and Ryou helped her regain it.
Sachiko snuggled her head on Yuki's back. "Mmmmmmnn…" she said. Then she resumed snoring.
"Come on, Ryou, let's go before I break my back!" Yuki whispered loudly.
"Um you're already dead," Ryou pointed out.
"You know what I mean!"
"I know I know," Ryou couldn't help but smile.
The 3 children exited the classroom with a snoring Sachiko on Yuki's back.
The walked around the hallway until Ryou spotted a medium-size hole on the old wooden floor.
"Okay, let's put her down here," Ryou said.
With the help of Tokiko, Yuki gently put Sachiko inside the hole.
Then Tokiko stripped the blanket off Sachiko's body. This time, she did not shiver.
Ryou found a piece of wood the same size as the hole and covered the hole up.
Then the 3 children walked away with the blanket still in Tokiko's hand.
"Yes! Ha ha didn't I tell you guys that this was a great plan?" Ryou said.
"But I feel kind of bad that we put her in there….." Yuki said.
"So? Now we can go to the bomb shelter!"
"Ugh I'm tired… Sachiko really weighs a ton," Yuki said.
Ryou burst out laughing.
"Hey, how about next time, YOU carry her! You'll see what I mean."
"Relax, relax I was kidding."
"You better be."
"I'm kinda tired too," Ryou admitted, "Tokiko, are you tired?"
The headless child nodded.
"Well since the pillow's still in that classroom, we can nap there. It's been a while since we slept. We're not like Sachiko who sleeps every time no one's here."
Both girls nodded in agreement.
"But there's only one pillow…" Yuki was about to point out.
"Don't worry, we'll think of something," Ryou replied.
Sachiko coughed then opened her eyes. When she looked around, she noticed that it was really dark.
"Hey… where am I?" she wondered. When she stood up, she bumped her head on the ceiling.
"OW! What the hell?!"
It took her a minute to figure out where she was and who put her down there.
"Those 3…" she said angrily, "I'll show them what it's like to mess with me."
She managed to get out of the hole and stomped towards the classroom, muttering angry threats under her breath.
She slid open the door and couldn't believe what she saw. The 3 kids were sleeping with the blanket and pillow that she's found!
Sachiko stared at the scene with her jaw dropped. She chocked back a sob.
"H-how can they do this to me…? Why would they put me in a smelly hole then steal my things?!"
She couldn't hold it any longer. She ran out of the classroom, crying.
Yuki opened her eye.
She was under the covers with Ryou and Tokiko sleeping next to her. Since Tokiko didn't have a head, it was only her and Ryou who slept on the pillow.
"Was I hearing things?" she wondered.
She shrugged then lay back down on the pillow.
Whenever Sachiko had a problem, she usually went down to the infirmary where her mother usually is, and that's where she was heading.
But when she opened the door to the infirmary, it was empty.
"Mom? Mom, where are you?" Sachiko barely managed to choke out.
The infirmary stayed empty.
"Mom…?" Sachiko repeated once more.
All of a sudden, Yoshie appeared at her desk writing something in her diary. She turned to face her one and only daughter.
"Hello Sacchan," she said with a smile, "what brings you here?"
The smile went off her face when she saw that her daughter was crying.
"Oh honey, what's wrong?" she asked, embracing her arms for a hug.
Sachiko ran up to her mother.
She told her what happened.
Yoshie listen carefully then thought about the situation.
"She's always finding things and not sharing them with those 3…. It makes sense for them to do something like this…. But…"
She had trouble trying to come up with something that wouldn't anger or hurt her daughter.
Yoshie sighed.
"Sacchan… I hate to say this….but…. why don't you share one of the things you find with those 3?"
"Because. They're mine and they can't have it! They can just pick anything they want from the dead victims, they always bring things with them here."
"But this is the reason they did this to you. I think they're tired of you not sharing your things with them."
"They still have no right! I'm in charge here!"
Yoshie got startled by her daughter's yelling.
"You just don't understand," Sachiko said, getting out of her mother's arms and leaving the infirmary.
"Sacchan, wait!" Yoshie called out but it was too late. Sachiko already left.
Yoshie closed her eyes.
"The anger inside her is growing. If only there was some way to break this…. this has been going on for years. *sigh* Well, we can't always wish for everything then think we can get it."
She got up from her chair and started to search for her daughter.
Sachiko was sitting on a teacher's desk in another classroom, far away from the class that Ryou Tokiko and Yuki were sleeping in.
"But… what if Mom's right?" she wondered out loud, "what if they did put me in that hole because I don't share anything with them. They finally got their revenge on me. And….." Her mind drifted off to Ryou. She had a crush on him ever since he saved her from being bullied. They always hung out after school and she'd return home with a love-struck look on her face. But after she died, he forgot about her and started hanging out with Yuki and Tokiko. So when she became a stronger spirit, she used Yoshikazu to kidnap him and the girls. She was so happy when she murdered Ryou and the 2 girls. She thought that things between him and her would be back to normal…. The way it used to be…. But no. He completely forgot about her just like he did after she died.
Her thoughts were broken when someone entered the classroom. At first she thought it was her mom, but it turned out to be Yoshikazu.
"Oi what are you doing here, you big dumb head?" she said to him, in her usual ticked off voice.
The large man came up to her and stroked her hair.
"Hey, what are you doin-?"
She stopped and let him stroke her hair. It felt good.
It reminded her of what her mother did to her anytime she couldn't sleep or was having a tough time.
She started feeling drowsy.
Yoshikazu sensed that and picked her up in his arms.
He started rocking her like a baby.
"Stop doing that! I'm gonna fall asleep again, dummy!" Sachiko shouted at him.
Yoshikazu stopped rocking her.
"Now put me down," she ordered him.
He put her down and Sachiko turned her back towards him.
She closed her eyes, trying to go back into her thoughts.
She tried remembering good things, things that happened before her death.
But she couldn't go back to the sate she was before she got interrupted.
So she lay down on the desk and tried thinking of different ways to kill people when the school was filled with more victims.
Yoshie searched for her daughter everywhere but she couldn't find her. But she did locate the classroom the 3 ghost children were in.
They were not asleep anymore, they were busy fooling around.
Both Ryou and Tokiko were playing catch with a skull and Yuki was sitting down on the teacher's desk watching them.
"Um excuse me children," Yoshie said, trying to get their attention.
Yuki noticed her and hovered towards her.
"Sensei…." Yuki said, "Are we in trouble?"
"Oh, no you're not," Yoshie replied to the girl, smiling, and "I just wanted to know… why you did that to Sachiko."
Yuki was about to open her mouth but Ryou came in.
"We did it because…. well, we're tired of Sachiko getting all the good things. She never shares anything with us. We're just tools to her."
"I see," Yoshie said looking at the boy. She remembers how Sachiko used to hang around with him. She always seemed happy every time she was with him.
"It's too bad…both of them don't seem to remember the times they spent with each other…. But hopefully one day they will remember."
"Sensei, are you okay?" Ryou asked.
"Oh. Yes I'm alright," Yoshie replied. She was lost in thought that she forgot that the children were even there.
(So what now?) Tokiko asked.
"Hmm… I say we find Sachiko, and you 3 can apologize to her," Yoshie said.
Ryou was just about to yell "What?!" but Yuki stepped in and said, "That's a good idea. I have to admit I feel really bad to what I've done to her. Don't you 2 feel bad?" She turned to Ryou and Tokiko.
Ryou hesitated, but finally admitted that he felt bad too.
Tokiko did the same.
"All right. Let's find Sachiko," Yoshie said, and the 4 of them exited the classroom in search of the Girl in Red.
Sachiko was fast asleep on the teacher's desk with Yoshikazu standing guard.
When he heard footsteps down the hall, he quickly went to the entrance to see who was approaching. He clenched his hammer, ready to take down whoever was coming.
He lowered it when he saw Yoshie and the 3 kids.
Yuki held on to Yoshie's blouse and hid behind her.
Yoshie stared at the large man for a bit. Then she said, "Is Sachiko in there?"
Yoshikazu grunted in response and led them into the classroom.
Yoshie laughed lightly when she saw her daughter lying down on the desk, fast asleep.
She approached her quietly, and shook her gently.
"Sacchan, wake up," she said.
Sachiko moaned.
"Sacchan. It's Mummy."
Sachiko opened her eyes. Yoshie put her hand on her daughter's cheek.
"Are you feeling better now?" Yoshie asked her daughter.
"Yes, Mom," Sachiko replied, rubbing her eyes.
She gasped when she saw Ryou Yuki and Tokiko behind her.
"W-what are they doing here? Are they here to put me back in that hole?!"
"No they're not. They're here….to apologize you."
Sachiko's eyes widened.
"Huh?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, we're here to say sorry…" Yuki said looking down to the ground.
"Yeah. It was my fault to begin with," Ryou said.
"As usual," Sachiko mumbled.
"Huh?" Ryou asked her.
"Nothing!" Sachiko replied with a grin.
"Sachiko… I was thinking….is it okay… if maybe we can get things from the bomb shelter?" Yuki asked.
Sachiko was about to say no, but she remembered what her mom said.
"Hmph. Alright. But I'm going there and doing it."
"Thanks Sachiko," Yuki said, then hugged the little girl.
Sachiko was surprised at first but she managed to hug back.
All of a sudden Ryou and Tokiko joined in.
Sachiko started to laugh.
Yoshie smiled at her daughter.
"I'm happy… that she's finally learning to do the right thing," she thought.
"Hey, do you think there's any guns down there?" Ryou asked Sachiko.
"Don't be blockhead, there are no guns there," Sachiko replied.
"That'd be pretty neat," Yuki said.
"Well let's be lucky and wait until someone does the charm and happens to carry a gun in their backpack," Sachiko said.
The 4 children headed out the classroom talking about the next attack they should do when more victims entered the school.
Yoshie returned to the infirmary and wrote down the events that happened today in her diary.
She ended the entry with, "I hope one day my daughter will stay happy forever… and this curse will finally end so we can all be put to rest."