It was a typical school day.
By "typical": I mean no operations, no sudden twists or that odd sudden-conversation-out-of-the-blue.
"Hey Otonashi, have you ever heard of the legend of the girl in the sky?"
I guess I was hoping too much.
"Girl in the sky? Is that some sort of school legend?", I asked tentatively.
Yes, apparently here in the "Afterlife", where people apparently go to after they die, and where people apparently spend their "lives" waiting for redemption, etc. etc.; here, where a school was created probably just for this purpose.
I'd assume one "moved on" if one graduated, although judging by Iwasawa-san's case, that was not always true.
"Oi, Otonashi, are you listening to me?"
And apparently like all schools, they each had their quirks. As I discovered just now, it even has its own school legend.
Damn, how many "apparentlies" had that been?
"Why do you look so angry?", asked Hinata, a close companion of mine in the Afterlife War Front.
He was peering at me with concern. I waved it off and said, "So? Is that one of the school's 'seven legends'? Is there a bit about rooftop or bathroom spectres?"
"That's ultra-scary! No, this particular legend is about a man in the sky."
That's it. I really have my suspicions about this guy.
"You said before it was a girl in the sky. Are you-"
Flustered, Hinata replied violently in my face, "No way! That was just a Freudian slip just then!"
Do you even know what a Freudian slip is?
"What can you tell me about this legend?"
In this crazy world, things like bathroom ghosts and other strange phenomena would actually be possible, with us having the ability to make anything out of dirt and the existence of a certain "Angel" with unusual, superhuman powers - among other bizarre things.
On that note, I wonder where the latter is?
"Yeah, you might think it's weird, but this place does adhere to its own rules, and I think that one of those rules might the existence of school legends. I only heard this yesterday, from one of the NPCs.
"It kind of freaked me out a bit, knowing how this world works, and it got me thinking: if this kind of phenomenon is a rule, then there might be a real 'girl in the sky' to back the legend up, right here in this world."
"Again, what is this legend about?"
"Well," Hinata looked around furtively at the NPCs walking the corridor around us, "there are times when people, and I mean the NPCs, have taken to eating lunch on the rooftop of the school. In all the hubbub, it could be lost, but when one or two would only be there, sometimes a girl's voice could be heard, carried by the wind. It would be a sad, singing voice, and it would freeze those who heard it in place. And then, just when the song reaches its climax..."
Hinata fell silent as I hung on his every word. He made a grunt, and shrugged, prompting me to shoot him a questioning look.
"A flap of wings would be heard, and those people would not be heard from again."
There was silence, except for the ambient sounds of the NPCs around us.
"...So, if those NPCs wouldn't be heard from ever again, then - "
Suddenly, the guy burst out laughing, clapping me fiercely on the shoulder. I stood dumbfounded for just a moment before I understood it all.
So it was all a joke?
"You should have seen the look on your face! Hanging on every word!"
I gave him a tired look and asked, "So the legend wasn't real?"
The guy paused in his laughter enough to say, "No it was, but MAN! The way you were listening, I just..."
"Yeah yeah, very funny, I'm sure that the others would love to hear all about this."
I started to walk down the corridor, leaving the idiot to laugh his heart out in the middle of it. I so wanted to hit him, but I decided against it.
The NPCs wouldn't take notice of him, instead going about their normal school life, another trait of this world.
Figures, I should've known I'd be fooled so easily - I've even been a victim of my own imagination many times before! Damn that Hinata...
Of course, I didn't know that this event would "flag" me for some very much strange and bizarre events much, much later.
If I'd known I would be involved in such events, risking my "life" plenty of times and introducing me to even more bizarre characters in this bizarre world, I would have put my bizarre curiosity aside and stopped myself from bizarrely ever asking Hinata about the bizarre legend entirely.
...
Argh, again...