I'm yours, ad eternal
"It's a perfect morning!"
Shinji Kirito rounded the corner and entered the gate. The sakura blossoms drifted lightly down and pooled along the stone path, swirling eagerly around his feet as he walked. The breeze took the edge off the suns heat perfectly, and carried with it the pleasant aroma of blooming flowers, underscored by the ocean. The hint of summer barbeque reached his nose and he swallowed, hungrily. Cicadas and birdsong blended together as though some virtuoso conductor had harnessed nature to play a summer symphony. As he approached the main building, the trees lining the path opened and he felt the warm sun on his face. He entered the school, turning to bow, and lingering an extra second to appreciate the way the season caressed his senses.
It would take most of the concentration he could muster to keep his mind on class on a day like this. Already, cold florescent bulbs replaced the golden light of the sun, and the myriad scents of the outdoors were replaced by the clinical, sterile smell of a Japanese middle school first thing in the morning. Bleach and solvent, plastic and steel. His steps rang off the lockers, rendered bright and lifeless from the thin metal.
He worked his way to his own locker. As he opened the small door and pulled out his shoes, a small object followed them and fell to the floor.
"A letter?"
Shinji reached down and picked it up. On the front was his name, printed neatly and framed by a pink heart and smelling faintly like perfume. A confessional! He grinned like a fool for a moment and quickly stifled it; it wouldn't do to look too eager. Glancing around, he made sure nobody was nearby, and then opened the letter.
He pulled out the paper, unfolded it, and frowned. He'd received a few confessionals before, but this one was unusual. It was one line, and written, curiously enough, in English. Whoever had written it had probably known English was one of his best subjects, but still his brow furrowed as he sounded it out.
"'I'm yours, ad eternal...' ad eternal? Forever?"
Shinji turned it over, looking for a signature, or a meeting place, but nothing was written other than the one line. He wasn't sure what it meant, but it was time for class. He returned the letter to the envelope and placed it in his bag, then walked quickly into the school. The fact that it was unsigned was unusual, but it excited him... Who could it be? Mariko? Chiyaka? He was deep in thought and nearly knocked over a junior student at the base of the stairs. She smiled at him.
"Ah, excuse me!"
It was unusual for Shinji to space out like this, but he was happy. Something to keep his mind occupied during a dull schoolday.
"I wonder... Who..."
Homeroom was the second door on the left. Shinji took his spot in the corner and mumbled quietly to himself...
"'I'm yours... ad eternal...'"
Shinji stared at absently at the wall with his head in his hand. His mind was drawn out equally between forming patterns from the texture on the walls and taking stabs at who wrote the letter.
"Fuyaki? No, she's dating Aikawa. What about Ayakashi? She's got amazing boobs! No. She's fourth year; she can't have interest in me. Well..."
Shinji smiled. No point in selling himself short before they even got to the gate. His grades were good, and he was a solid performer in track and field and the baseball club. Not the star player, but certainly no slouch. It wasn't bad by any means, but was it good enough for "Oppaiakashi"?
Shinji snickered to himself. He'd gotten confessionals before, and was no stranger with girls, but he wasn't lucky, either. The last time he'd asked a girl on a date, she'd kinda sorta given him a nervous yes. The kind of agreement you give when you don't understand the question, but are too embarrassed to ask someone to repeat it. He figured her skittishness might have had something to do with her transferring out at the end of the week, leaving him stood up and embarassed at the Kitty Cafe.
"What is it with Japan and transfer students, anyway?"
The last confessional he got was just the kind of thing you'd expect from an unimaginative manga; he was to meet a certain someone behind the library after school. He was so excited, he'd forgotten he was on duty to clean up the equipment shed after Phys-Ed. The gym teacher gave him a not-too-quiet reminder and Shinji was in such a rush to get it done that he'd somehow managed to lock himself in the shed. A teacher, doing evening rounds, heard him and let him out, but it was too late. He never found out who the girl was.
"I guess you're cursed to be a virgin until you're 30" he thought to himself, chuckling.
But in the grand scheme of things, that wasn't the worst curse to have. The school, like so many seemed to, had its own "curse" about it. It didn't have a name like "The blood-eyed ghost", or a place, like an abandoned part of the campus thought to be haunted.
It was the kind of intangible thing that just hung over the school, like a cloud. It was the kind that the girls would talk about at recess when they ran out of gossip, and that the boys would talk about when they ran out of cute girls to discuss. It was a curse that got everyone in an excited buzz whenever something bad happened. When the school was closed due to a gas leak, the students all murmured about "the curse". When the field trip was cancelled due to bad weather, the students giggled about "the curse".
But nobody laughed when "the curse" killed Haruna Miyamoto last winter.
Miyamoto had been, by all accounts, a bright girl, excelled at literature, music, languages, and arts. She was, admittedly, average in a few subjects, but was in no way average in looks. She'd had jet black hair that went down in two braids and met at the small of her back. Perfectly featured even face, with almond eyes so perfectly black that students would joke could steal the light from your soul if you stared into them for too long. But even if you knew they would, you could hardly help yourself. The teachers adored her and it was said she was a shoo-in for nearly any major college in the country.
So everybody was shocked when they found her broken body on the ground beside the main building. Rumors flew like the snowflakes and, appropriately, no two were alike. That they found a note, that her mom left home, that her dad lost his job, that she'd been kicked out of home.
The only thing anyone could agree on was the curse.
"I even heard rumors she had a crush on me. Ah, maybe I AM cursed. I'll be forever alone... Ad eternal"
But before Shinji could laugh at his own little joke, the period bell rang. He sprang to his feet and, as the class representative, automatically barked the class to order.
"All rise!"
"Bow!"
Shinji froze as his order fled from his throat. Nobody had bowed, because nobody had risen. Nobody had risen, because nobody was there.
"What the...?! Where is everyone? Where's Hikashi-sensei?"
He immediately reached into his pocket in a panic and grabbed his phone. Tuesday. It was definitely Tuesday. 8:30AM. So why was the class empty?
Shinji's mind was racing. Was the school closed again? A gas leak? I NEED TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW! No, wait, calm down! The gates were open, the doors were open. A quick glance out the window confirmed there were no fire trucks, no police... No danger.
"Ah, baka-Shinji! You're in the wrong class!"
He grabbed his bag and rushed out into the hall. It was empty; he was, embarassingly, the only one out here. The only one not in class. He shook his head and glanced around to get his bearings.
2-B... His heart skipped a beat... 2-B, this is definitely my room... So... Is class cancelled? Shinji quietly made his way down the hall to 2-A and paused at the door. It was already silent. What was going on in there? Study? Pop quiz? An exam? Definitely not something a third-year middle-schooler wanted to barge in on.
He jogged down the hall and stopped in front of 2-C. Again, silence. Un-nerved, he put his hand on the door and, as quietly as he could, opened it.
Carefully.
Millimeters with every heartbeat. Every quickening heartbeat until the door parted from the jamb and revealed... An empty classroom?
He jogged further to 2-D and carefully peered through the door.
Nobody was there.
"What the hell is going on?"
Unconcerned with noise by now, Shinji bolted up the stairs to the next floor.
3-A. Nobody. 3-B. Nobody.
3-C.
3-D.
All deserted.
Stairs again. The first-years would be out on a field trip, but he checked anyway.
4-A was dark. Lights out, curtains drawn. Empty but for chairs, desks, and shadows. For a moment, in his panicked imagination, the darkness seemed to take form, lifeless arms reaching out to him. He could feel dead eyes staring back from the inky blackness.
Heart pounding in his throat, Shinji rushed towards 4-B by now in a dead sprint. He slipped and nearly careened backwards into the ground, barely holding himself up by the wall. He looked down to see what he'd stepped in. It was... water? A spill? No. There was no "wet floor" sign, but the smell of solvent pricked at his nose. So someone had been here, definitely today, but then why hadn't he seen anyone all day? It didn't make sense.
4-B. Empty. Black.
Fourth floor. Empty.
He reached the end of the hall. For a brief moment, he felt like a pair of eyes were on him. He whipped his head around, not knowing what to expect, but saw nothing.
"Calm down... Calm down, You're freaking out over nothing... need some air..."
The final flight of stairs led up to the roof. Shinji placed his hand on the cold rail, steadied himself with a few breaths, and marched upwards. The sounds of his steps echoed back through the empty halls, deafening against the silence.
"A dream! Am I dreaming?"
He rapped his knuckle against the rail. It stung. This was no dream, but he knew it already; the details were just too rich. The smell of sakura, ocean salt, summer barbeque. The sound of the cicadas, birds. The warmth of the sun and the fading pain in his hand. The sight of the falling cherry blossoms drifting on the wind, the intracacies of a nearby tapestry of smoke rising into the sky, the glint of sunlight off the mirror of a car parked in the lot nearby. He squinted against the glare, then suddenly felt queasy.
That was the teachers lot. Shinji knew about a dozen teachers drove to work, and he counted... 11 cars. Including Hikashi-Sensei's red Soarer.
This was no weekend. This was no closed day. People should be here. People should DEFINITELY be here!
Shinji's hands clung tightly to the railing as his legs shook beneath him.
"Is this... The curse?"
He thought momentarily about Haruna Miyamoto, the girl who'd taken her own life before, it was rumored, confessing to him. Looking down, he saw the patch of flowers that the students and faculty had planted as a memorial.
"This must the spot she jumped from..."
Suddenly, every hair on his arm stood at rapt attention. Shinji reached down into his bag and pulled out the envelope.
Even in the outside air, he could smell the perfume on the note. Lillies. It was familiar, as though he'd experienced it very recently, but he couldn't place it. He opened the paper and read the note aloud again.
"I'm yours, ad eternal"
The Latin suddenly carried with it a sense of agency and finality. Within the space of a few short minutes, the message had gone from a mysterious romantic color to tinctured with a dread pallor. The letter wasn't here yesterday, so someone placed it here... Today?
"SOMEONE should be here! The cars... The letter... The school is definitely open... But I haven't seen anyone all day! Wait..."
That wasn't true. This morning, he'd bumped into someone, right?
"There's a student here! I have to find her!" he exclaimed, then laughed "I'm talking to myself now. I just have to find her, I'll be ok!"
But where to start? All the main homerooms were empty.
Shinji thought back to the morning, where his foolish boy hormones had him so distracted over nothing, he'd nearly trampled the student from before. He shut his eyes. The memories were vague but, slowly, they started to take form in his mind.
Dark hair. Black. And she smelled like flowers... Why do I remember that? And... She looked up at me. And she smiled. She was carrying something... It was big... Dark... What was it? A suitcase? No. An instrument case! It was an instrument case!
"She's in music! I'll start in the band room!"
Shinji dropped his bag on the rooftop and ran towards the door, clutching the letter tightly as though letting it go would sever the last link he had from this world...
Shinji flew down the stairs like a hunted animal. The only thing on his mind was the girl from this morning. Somehow, he knew... He knew he had to find her. Everything would be alright when he found her! He sprinted out of the main building and toward the arts building like a guided missile. The building loomed ahead of him, filling his vision. His heart beat in his throat and colors flashed at the edges of his vision.
He remembered her clearly now, the way she looked up and him and smiled.
"Yes! Everything will be fine! I just have to find her!"
He ran at the door, barely opening it in front of him, and burst into the band room. It was empty. Shinji's heart fell as he looked around. He walked over to the large cabinet to open it, placed a hand on the handle but stopped himself.
"She's not going to be hiding. She's got to be around... Think... Think!"
Shinji pulled up the letter again... Has to be something else! He looked closely at the heart drawn on the envelope. He read the sentence again and again.
"I'm yours, ad eternal... I'm yours, ad eternal... I'm yours, ad eternal... I don't get it!"
Shinji sank down against a wall, tapping the letter dejectedly against his forehead. The band room smelled heavily metallic, the scent of brass like bloody copper... the whiff of a familiar scent. Lillies, again! That's it! The letter in his hand, that smell had to be the key! So tantalizing, the memory of a place danced elusively at the edge of his mind. It teased him, mocked him. If he could only remember where he had smelled it before.
And the girl. He knew her from somewhere, but where?!
Shinji got up and started walking back towards the main building. There was one place there he hadn't checked.
And the girl. Her black hair and her scent like flowers.
"Who was she? I know her. I'm sure I know her, but I can't remember her name."
He was completely fixated on two things. Lillies. And the girl.
Shinji walked back into the main building, past the lockers, past the nurses office, and turned the corner leading to the maintenance wing.
Black hair again. Only, this time it wasn't a memory. It wasn't a dream. It was right in front of him. Long, black hair, swaying side to side as she walked, still toting the wheeled case from the morning.
Shinji froze. He could smell her from down the hall.
"Lillies..." he croaked out
She stopped, and turned around.
"Shinji-dear!" she said, glancing down at his hand "You got my letter! That's wonderful!"
"Ha... Ha..." Shinji tried to speak, but the words would not take shape in his mouth... She looked up at him. Her dark black eyes locking on to his, and he couldn't look away. And she smiled.
Then she looked down and blushed. "Shinji... Senpai... Will you... S... Say my name again?"
"Haruna?"
"Silly Shinji-senpai!" her laugh was playful, like a burbling stream, "You're so funny! Haruna won't bother us ever again."
"I don't... Haruna?"
Her eyes snapped back up as she responded, her voice suddenly cold "I told you. She won't bother us ever again!"
For a moment, nobody spoke. The dull roar of nearby machinery reverberated through the hallway. Suddenly, Shinji remembered her name.
"Yuri... Yurima?"
Her smile returned in an instant, replacing the icy gaze as though it had never been. "Oh, silly Shinji! You can call me Noroi!"
Noroi. Yurima Noroi, third year. Same year as Shinji. No... Same class, even. She sat a few rows ahead of him. Good grades, quiet. Attractive, yet somehow unremarkable. The only thing Shinji noticed was that she seemed to have a completely different hairstyle every day. Other than that, he'd never paid much attention to her. Nobody did, really. She didn't have many friends. The story was that her family had moved overseas for work and left her alone in the house. That she had never had much in the way of family to begin with. An unwanted child. After all, it seemed a little cruel to name a child Noroi. And going to school wasn't a way out. Her classmates, cruel as students can be, made fun of her. They called her "the accident". He'd run into her once before, in first year, being harangued by a group of students. As the class rep, he had done his duty and gotten them to leave her alone.
Shinji was pretty sure that was the only time they'd talked until this point.
"Yurima... Have you seen anyone else?"
"It's ok, Shinji-senpai. Don't worry! I took care of everything!" her voice was like powdered sugar, and her warm smile reached her eyes, but something about her response set his teeth on edge.
"What did you take care of, Yurima?!" he asked, looking down at the instrument case. It certainly was large... A euphoium, perhaps?
"You call me Noroi, Shinji-dear!" She was like a puppy. "I made sure nobody would bother us anymore!"
"Wh- What do you mean? You took care of what?"
"Everybody who got in our way." A little shy, but eager...
"What are you talking about?"
Her dark eyes took him in, and she spoke through a bright smile "Shinji-dear, you're so adorable! But you get so confused sometimes!
Just like you did with Fukuyuma!"
Aoi Fukuyuma was another classmade, though Shinji had never talked to her.
"Fukuyama? What do you mean?"
Her cheeks tightened, like she just tasted something unpleasant. "She sent you a confessional! You were so excited... Maybe you thought it was from me. You seemed confused, so I locked you in the sports shed while I talked to her!" She smiled again, and stood the instrument case up. "She got the message!"
"Yurima..."
"And Ayakashi. You asked her for a date, but I knew you were just confused. So I dealt with her, too."
"Wh... how?"
"I took her home, Shinji-dear! I kept her there, and I convinced her. I made her understand, too. So she left."
"The curse... It was you... You're my..." Shinji muttered
Yurima smiled and nodded "Of course! I'm yours forever!"
He looked up with a start "What about... Haruna?!"
She looked at him evenly. "Shinji, I don't want you getting confused again. I've been cleaning all day, but I still have a lot of work to do. Why don't you go lie down in the nurses office! You look pale!" She tilted the case back on it's wheels, turned away, and continued walking down the hall.
"WHAT ABOUT HARUNA?" He started moving toward her, the sound of machinery growing louder around them.
Yurima stopped. She replied without turning around. "Everyone knew she liked you. I thought everyone would understand when I took care of her, Shinji-dear. But they didn't understand. They kept getting in the way. But then I realized it didn't matter! It didn't matter who got in the way, because today..." she half-turned toward him, one black eye gleaming out at him from behind her her long hair, freezing her terrified quarry in place. And her smile, her perfect white teeth glistening like a predatory cat. "Because today, I took care of ALL of them."
She turned back and kept walking, towards the door at the end of the wing. Shinji remained still.
"Yuri-... Noroi... What do you mean? Noroi! What's in the case?"
Yurima said nothing. She opened the door to the garbage room, the roar of the incinerator spilled out into the hall and the now-familiar smell of cooking hit Shinji yet again. And he remembered. Everything he had shut out all day. The things he'd seen but his young mind had denied... The strange shadows in the empty classrooms. The bright colors in the bushes as he ran. The smell of copper in the arts building. Shinji turned white, staggered against a while, and gasped for air. Every desperate breath was heavy with the scent from the incinerator, and he felt like passing out. A shadow loomed behind him and he felt a pinch at his neck. Then, soothing warmth that spread through his body. His labored breathing became easier and he relaxed as Yurima lowered him to the floor.
Her whispered words tickled against his ear as the hallway faded to black
"I'm yours, ad eternal..."
Light returned to Shinji's world. The birds chirping, joined in loose cadence with the cicadas in their regular ode to summer. The sun shone through a crack in the blinds, warming a spot on his arm. The breeze carried in the ocean scent, and he inhaled it deeply.
Lillies.
He sat up with a start, but the belt caught against his chest with a snap and brought him back down to the bed.
Something stirred beside him.
"Mmmm... Are you awake, Shinji-dear?"
His cries tried to force their way past the thing, whatever it was, in his mouth. Failed. His heart racing he stared up at her, eyes wide, as she propped herself up on her elbow, and leaned down to kiss him softly on the forehead. Her hair brushed lightly against his cheek, and the softness of her chest pressed into his shoulder.
"It's ok if you're confused, Shinji-dear! You'll understand soon, I know you will! And then, if you behave, I'll take you down to the basement! My parents will be so glad to meet you!"
Yurima closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the summer air.
"It's a perfect morning!"
And she looked down at him. And she smiled.
HAPPY END