To be honest, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I imagined how the calamity will end...
Ah, sorry, I'm probably getting ahead of myself, let me explain right at the beginning. Well, to start with, my name is Yumi Ogura. I'm just a normal middle schooler in this very normal school called Yomiyama North Middle School, in this definitely normal town of Yomiyama.
Heh, if only Life could really be like that...
So, the calamity, well, better get straight to the point, right? You all know what you came here for. Everyone who studies in Yomi North knows about it, especially students like us...those who were 'cursed' by the so-called 'calamity' that kills people randomly because some asshole won't return to death.
It should be so simple. Us, moving out of the town, that's it. Freed from all this madness, but no. Our seniors tried to do that, but they were all killed even before they got out of the town. I barely managed to convince my best friend Aya Ayano not to do the same.
So close the school! It's been who-knows-how-many-years since the calamity first began, and the school's still open! Hell, it should be obvious from all the deaths every year that anyone who's in this class is practically living on a death sentence, so why here? What the hell are the teachers thinking!?
I tried asking Izumi and Takako about that once, but well, it's not like we're gonna find any freakin' answers with everything that's happening, so we decided to turn to our old method...making someone else 'the Extra one' of the class...
And it was Mei Misaki...that girl with the white eyepatch...who was chosen...
I never hated her, not even once, though I won't deny that I feel uneasy around her, as pretty much everyone in the class did. Izumi in particular doesn't really like her, but not to the extent of Takako. In fact, it was her who recommended Mei to be chosen in the first place.
As time passed by, the feeling of uneasiness turned into suspiciousness. Why is she acting so strange around people? Why is she always so quiet? What's hiding behind her eyepatch? Is she hiding something? Something that could even related to the calamity? Damn it, is she even the 'dead person' all along?
All these questions popped into my head, and I can't stop thinking about them. I started to distance myself from her, but still, I found myself looking back to her from time to time when we're studying. Takako noticed this, and told me to stop doing that. Eventually, I grew angry, angry at myself for being like this, and angry at her for making me being like this...
Eventually, I grew to be angry at everything.
Though I hid it. I didn't want to stress the class anymore than it is right now. At least no one's dying yet. The school term's just started. It's gonna be a while before something bad happened to us. Maybe before then, we'll figure something out. Maybe before then, we'll stop all of this. We'll all survive this together.
And so I hid my feelings away, staying quiet, trying to calm myself down by occupying myself with Aya, Izumi and Takako, all of whom my best friends.
I'm just hoping that there won't be a moment when something happened to them, or to someone I loved, my family.
Heh, even the calamity itself's the least of anyone's worries if I finally loses it. You do not want to see me angry.
And so we continued our daily lives, trying to make the best out of every day, before it all ends. I'll admit, I do fear death. I feared that it'll be slow and painful...I don't want that...I don't want to die...but I have no choice but to accept that there's no way I can escape it. Nobody can escape death.
It's just that we're gonna bite the dust sooner than others.
I'm just hoping that when the time comes, I could be the first to go. I can't stand it if my friends are dead, and I'm still alive. It's unfair. It's cruel. Why am I still alive while my friends don't?
I'm sure that I'm not the only one who think like this. Many others in our class do.
Though even with all that, some of my friends in the class can actually remained optimistic and energenic...someone like Aya, my friend, or Naoya...that idiot boy who awlays managed to make us laugh every time he did something stupid, and one of the rare sources of happiness that could make me smile once in a while...
Even that guy...Yomiyama Misaki.
That guy is so weird...
He's the perfect student anyone could only dreamed to be. Aces every test, wins any sport, his quick thinking often solved difficult questions in the classes, even his humor can entertain us numerous times. Even teachers and students from the other classes adored him, Aya herself even told me that she wants to be his girlfriend so bad.
Too bad he already has a girlfriend...even worse is that his girlfriend is none other that Mei Misaki...
As much as he tried to hide it, everyone knows that he's been secretly hanging around with Mei behind our backs, even when we forbid him from doing so. Nothing stops him, however, and we gave up trying to.
We were about to declare him the other 'Extra one' when everything suddenly changed.
A miracle happened.
The miracle that we were all waiting for.
The miracle named Kouichi Sakakibara.
It was just a school day like any other day. We were studying in our classroom with our homeroom teacher, Ms. Mikami, all the while our minds not really thinking about the lessons, but rather concerning whether we will survive the day or not, when the front door suddenly opened and that guy rushed into the classroom.
I remembered Makoto yelled up in surprise when he saw him.
"Izumi, take these!" He shouted, before throwing some tape cassettes to Izumi's desk, who's still staring at him with a confused look.
"Just listen to them and do as they said! It'll help you stop the calamity!" He continued, and immediately ran out of the classroom.
Izumi, Mei, Yomiya, Ms. Mikami and a few students ran after him. Not long after, I heard a burst of gunshots from the upper floor.
Everything that happens after that went blurry. I can't really remember all of it. But from what I got from Izumi, it has something to do with our 'principal'. The mysterious principal of Yomi North who never shows up at our opening ceremony or anywhere else in the school. It's as if he never existed.
The next thing I know is that I saw Kouichi, unconscious and covered in blood, was being moved onto the ambulance. A sight that terrifies me up until this day, if I might add. Izumi then showed up with the tapes he gave to us, and we decided to listen to them together.
The tapes...revealed everything we need to know about the calamity...maybe even too much.
That guy...Kouichi...what he's been through...
And from what he described in the tapes, from where, no, from when he came from, it's...
Maybe I don't have enough courage to explain them to you right now...sorry about that.
Maybe one day, when I'm ready, I might...but...let's just say that a lot, and I do mean a lot, of bad things happened, and my life didn't end well at all...
But if there's one good thing I could say about it, is that the calamity's finally over.
After...after Ms. Mikami learned the truth from the tapes, after she realized what she really are, and what needs to be done to stop the calamity, she didn't hesitate at all to do the unthinkable, the act of ultimate sacrifice out of love and care for her students and closed ones. I know there's a reason she's my favorite teacher in this school. It's just...very tragic to think about what happened to her, and what she had become.
At least...everything's finally over. The nightmare's gone.
Kouichi saved me. He saved us. He saved us all, at the cost of his own life.
Granted, he wasn't really gone, but...can't really say he's alive, either.
Izumi seems really troubled when I asked her about him. I could tell that he meant something to her. Even though it was only a short moment together, Izumi can't help but feeling bad for Kouichi's current state. She took every advice in his tapes to heart, and finally admitted to Mei that what she did to her was wrong, that what the class did to her was wrong, and that she's sorry...
Well, it's been about three months since that day.
Everything in the class has returned to normal, as much as it can be. I found myself becoming one of Mei's new friends, courtesy of Naoya. It actually isn't that hard to become friends with her, after I understand what made her acted like that in the first place. In fact, I almost feel sorry for her, for everything she had to go through during the past few months.
Speaking of Naoya...well, he seems somewhat interested in me somehow.
That idiot's probably asking his best friend Yuuya for advices right now. Doesn't help that Yuuya's already dating Aya, who occasionally sticks around with me.
Everything's never been better.
I tried not to think too much about my past, about what I learned, about what I realized. I know I can never forget about them, but I must not let it change me.
After all, if what Kouichi said was true, the 'changed me' was not a pretty sight at all.
I just...I just hope that Kouichi's condition will get better soon. I can't imagine what will happen to me, to us, if he hadn't show up.
He's really our true friend, a friend in need, who never gives up on us.
We need more people like him in this world.
As dark and cruel as it is, it is people like Kouichi who remained hopeful, remained strong, who will not give up even during the darkest hour, who will fight on no matter how weak they are, just because they can.
And I'm sure as hell won't let his sacrifice gone to vain. We've done enough bad things, it's about time we must change ourselves.
For those who are willing change are those who will have their second chances. A chance to do good, to become good, to bring happiness to themselves and those around them.
The same cannot be said to those who do otherwise.
If we are to remained in our old selfish selves, fighting for no purpose other than our own goals, as Kouichi stated in his tapes, there won't be any happy ending for all of us.
And that's why I'm gonna do good, for my friends, for my loved ones, for everyone around me.
Because, well, like they say, you can only live once...
...but if you do it right, once is enough.
That's pretty much sums up everything that matters in my life.
Maybe tomorrow, I'll grant Naoya his wish after all...
Going out with him won't be that bad, right? As long as Aya and Yuuya come with us.
Heh...what's going on with me?
Editor's note: Whew! There goes another oneshot! A companion story to the finale of my other ANOTHER fic, Another Beginning.
Right, if I have to admit it, Yumi's actually one of my favorite characters in Another. If I can choose to save someone from his/her tragic fates in Another, other than Izumi and Yukari, I'd choose her. Really, she's not that evil at all...it's just that she lost both her brother AND her best friend in one day, who's to say that it didn't drive her mad? She went crazy because the world made her crazy, not because she choose to be...
At any rate, enjoy this ANOTHER oneshot and review! Thanks!