It's really weird that the principal called for an assembly all of a sudden, and right in the middle of the day. Did something happen? It can't be about what everyone's been whispering about earlier this morning, could it...?
"Hey... Did you see it yesterday?"
I heard Misaki in front of me, talking to a girl I recognised from the next class. Misaki was to my right so I couldn't see her face. I decided not to focus on it and took advantage of the other people still settling in, taking out my phone. I didn't see Yukiko at all today, so I gave her a quick text.
Hey Yukiko. U not comin today? Just asking
I still heard those two talking while I typed. "Of course not..." said the girl from the other class. "What, is that rumour for real?"
"I dunno," replied Misaki, a little too enthusiastic. "But it seems like a lot of people have seen it."
The principal had already stepped onto the stage, and still no reply from Yukiko. I gave up for now, voicing my displeasure to myself.
"Yukiko said she'd be here after lunch..." I snapped my phone shut and pocketed it away. "I wonder why they're holding a school assembly all of a sudden."
I took a peek behind me, and the assembly hall looks packed already. Then, I saw Yosuke, and he looked horrible. Looked really nervous and not at all there.
"...Hey, what's wrong, Yosuke?" I waved my hand in front of him to catch his attention.
He snapped out of it, but only briefly enough to acknowledge me. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing..."
Sofue-sensei finally spoke through the mic. "Everyone, please settle down. The school assembly is about to begin." She sounded really serious, completely different from how she was yesterday... She moved over for the school principal. "First, the Principal has something to say."
The Principal never really stood out compared to the other teachers, and the teachers do get pretty weird around here. His name was Koshibaki, but everyone loved to call him Merlin-sensei because of his long, scraggly beard. He didn't mind - he was always quiet and pleasant to us youngsters. Today though, like Sofue-sensei, he looked dead serious.
"I... regret to say that I have a terrible announcement for all of you." His voice, old and aged, echoed throughout the hall, which would be perfectly normal if it weren't for his dreary tone and his words. I could feel the whole hall and everyone inside hold their breath.
"One of our third-year students, Ms. Saki Konishi of Class 3...
"Has passed away."
"Passed away...?!" I immediately said out loud the same time it was drowned out by the noise of everyone in the hall bursting out in conversation with each other. I also immediately thought about Yosuke, but was way too scared to turn back and see what he'd look like. I felt a bad vibe coming from behind me already.
Koshibaki-sensei tried to calm things down by continuing, his voice a little frantic and worried at all the commotion. "Ms. Konishi was found deceased early this morning... The reasons behind her passing are currently under investigation by the police."
He raised his voice, the noise all throughout the hall only calming down by half. "If they ask you for your cooperation, I urge you as students of this school to provide only the facts." When it looked like his words weren't working, he became more direct. "Alright, please quiet down..."
He continued. "I have been assured by the faculty that there's been no evidence that bullying was involved in the incident. So mind what you say, not only to the police but to anyone who asks..."
"Found dead...?" I thought out loud. Is this really happening? That announcer lady's murder is one thing, but if another murder shows up... then this isn't a one-off freak event. This could turn up again, and now that it's involved someone right in our school, in the future it could be anyone. I couldn't believe it. "How could this happen...?" I voiced again, still trying to swallow this mess.
I decided to chance it and inch my head slowly to look behind me at Yosuke, who was behind Misaki as she continued chatting away. He looked... really serious. His stare was literally boring a hole into the ground.
Koshibaki-sensei continued his address, but I couldn't be bothered to hear the rest. I selfishly thought that my day has been officially ruined now, but to even think of what could be going through Yosuke's head right now, not even to mention Saki-senpai's family...
No one seemed to be able to concentrate on the lessons afterward, but judging by the low spirits Satonaka and particularly Hanamura were in, some were coping better than others... Most were just too busy gossiping to bother with the lesson.
Missing Hanamura right after classes ended, I met up with Satonaka, who was looking pretty down. This was a serious enough matter to lay my petty issues regarding my perception of her aside, so I agreed with her to walk home together, more for her sake than for mine; she looked pretty distraught.
By the time we reached the bottom floor, we overheard some girls - one of whom I recognised as one of our classmates - talking about the news earlier today. Though really, it's what everyone's been talking about, even this morning before the announcement, when I heard other girls talking about seeing police cars.
"She died the same way as that announcer, right? That's so creepy..."
"Well, last time, it was from an antenna, but this time she was hanging from a telephone pole. It's gotta be a serial murder case..." The other girl with her replied.
"Someone said the cause of death was some unknown poison."
How delightfully morbid.
"Unknown...? C'mon, this isn't some sci-fi drama." The other girl quickly took a somewhat playful tone to her loud voice.
We were just kind of standing there, and those two girls talking didn't notice us at all. I looked over to Satonaka, not wanting her to notice me doing so, and I could see she was visibly fuming. Or more like simmering in anger that might inevitably lead to a fuming.
"Oh, by the way, did you hear? Someone saw a girl that looked like Saki on that Midnight Channel thingie." The girl then kept her voice low. "They said she totally looked like she was in pain. Isn't that scary?"
I was taken away from their conversation by the sight of Satonaka crossing my vision. She took a step forward. A very heavy, imposing step. I caught a glimpse of her biting her lip. She was obviously going to say something at the very least, or punch their lights out at the worst. I was going to stop her, but she stopped at that first step, holding herself back.
The first girl giggled. "Sounds like someone had a nightmare." She waved her arm in dismissal as they both walked off - out of reach from Satonaka, thankfully for them. She still talked in the distance. "The media's been broadcasting their interviews with her nonstop, so maybe they just had Saki on the brain.
After they've disappeared from sight through one of the doorways leading outside, Satonaka didn't even bother to hide her anger and stamped the hardwood floor with her foot, her brow heavy upon her eyes. "Sheesh, it's easy to toss around theories if you're not personally involved..."
We heard some lone footsteps behind us, so we instinctively turned around and found Hanamura, having gone somewhere else alone since classes ended. I was expecting him to look more depressed after his condition during the announcement and in class afterward, and he did still look out of it, but there was a certain stiffness to his posture and the way he crossed his arms. No, stiff wasn't the right word... He was firm.
He looked at us both straight in the eyes. "Hey... Did you guys check out the TV last night?"
Satonaka immediately flared up, not having cooled down from just now. "Yosuke! Not you too!"
"Just listen for a sec!" Hanamura snapped back, louder. "Something kept bothering me, so... I watched it again, and..."
Hanamura gave out a long, hard breath before he continued. "I think the girl on the screen... was Saki-senpai."
Did he mean the same girl we all saw that night? I looked over to Satonaka, and the worry is apparent in her eyes. Now that he mentioned it, Konishi did resemble the girl on that Midnight Channel broadcast... but I didn't want to bank on it, assuming that I'm just being biased because of what I'm being presented now. I'm a bit worried that this might be the case for Hanamura too, who's obviously way more emotionally involved than I am in this...
"There's no mistaking it. Senpai looked like... she was writhing in pain... And then, she disappeared from the screen," he elaborated, his tone grim.
"What...?" Satonaka managed to just barely voice out. I don't want to think Hanamura is just seeing what he wants to see, but it's all too possible at his current state...
"You heard Senpai's body was found in a similar situation as that announcer's, right...?" he continued. "Well, remember that guy you told us about?" He held his focus onto Satonaka this time. "How he was all excited that his soulmate was the announcer?"
I wanted to find an opening to try and reason him out of it, but he really looked so determined and uneasy at the same time that I felt reluctant, though it was what he sorely needed.
But something else crept in, a realisation, and it began to overtake my reasoning. I still kept my face neutral though.
"Maybe... Just maybe, but..." He looked over to me, seeing that Satonaka didn't look like she was going to buy it. "Ms. Yamano might've been on that Midnight Channel before she died, too."
I knew it.
"What's that supposed to mean...?" Satonaka said shortly before realisation swept across her face, the idea taking root in her as well. "Hold on. Are you saying...? People who appear on that TV... die?"
A chill spiked right down my spine like lightning. I never gave much thought to it, mostly due to my own insistence on shutting them out in the first place, but the bear's words from when we were trapped in that TV world ring clearly in my head now. That one-off line about throwing people in... That must've been what Hanamura remembered and picked up on as well.
Hanamura shaked his head, his posture getting less tense now, but only by a little. "I can't say for sure. But something tells me... I just can't dismiss it as coincidence."
Satonaka clearly wants to add in something, but no words escape her mouth. I would've said something as well if it wasn't for that little trip to Wonderland that day throwing all reason out of the window for me...
"Plus, remember what that bear thing said?" Hanamura added, confirming my earlier suspicions. "How that place was dangerous, and we should leave before the fog clears?" He nodded his head, as if he's further affirming his own thoughts as he said them. "It also said that someone's been throwing people in there. And that room with the posters on the wall... It has to have something to do with the announcer's death."
He looked over to me, much more intently now. "I mean... don't you think there's some kind of connection there? Couldn't that world in the TV have something to do with Senpai and the announcer's death?!"
His last words ring throughout the long, empty corridor. Only three of us are left there, long after everyone had gone. Long after everyone had gone home and went on with their normal lives, closing their eyes and hoping this all would boil over and go away.
Seeing where this was going, I sorely wished to be in that situation as well.
"Well...?" He kept his lips tight, hopeful. "What do you think...?"
Satonaka was looking to me as well, waiting for my conclusion. This couldn't be happening.
I really wanted to just go home and sleep right now. Never had I wished for a more boring day to happen to me as I did in that moment. But I couldn't handle my stupid part of me telling me not to ignore it. Memories of that Igor's words and this "misfortune at your destination" and "a great mystery will be imposed upon you"... Those words echo in my head like thunder and feel like a tonne of bricks.
Yeah, no kidding on the "imposed on you" bit, you stupid long-nosed, dream-invading prick. I didn't need this. I didn't want this.
But for the life of me, I couldn't stand still and live it down if I said no. I used to be so good at it, too - at saying no. At playing the fool and avoiding tragedies.
What's happening to me...?
I kept my head down in defeat, and every word that comes out takes several metric tonnes of strength not to hold back.
"You might be right," I finally say, marking the start of my slow death here.
Hanamura's eyes light up almost instantly upon hearing my words. Good that someone's happy about it.
"...So it's not just me, huh?" he says. The relief in his voice is almost palpable. He continues, a newfound energy in his speech. "If there is a connection, then it's a good bet that the two of them went inside that world."
Crazy theories already. There's no way I can back out now. Doesn't help that Satonaka looks like I just simultaneously slapped her in the face and made the most foolish mistake of my life.
"That would explain the posters in the room," Hanamura goes on, head down in contemplation, caught up in his deductions now that he's been given free rein. "Which means..."
He looks up. "...If we look around, we might find a place that has something to do with Senpai, too."
Satonaka shook her head, almost unconsciously apparently. "Yosuke, don't tell me..."
Hanamura gives a single firm nod of his head in her direction, resolute. "Yeah..." He looks to me now.
"I'm thinking of going back in again. I want to find out for myself."
Satonaka takes a step towards him, her face painted with plainly apparent and genuine worry. "D-Don't do this... You should just let the police handle this and-"
Hanamura takes a step himself, darting forward and waving his arms in incredulity. "You think we can rely on the police?!" His view constantly switches between the both of us. "They haven't made any progress on the announcer's case. Besides, even if we told them about the world inside the TV, there's no way they're gonna believe us!"
His expression contorts, and the sight of it makes me reel. It's that of tearless anguish. Of helplessness. Of loss.
Damn it all.
"If I'm completely off-base with this, that's fine..." he mutters. "It's just... I need to know why Senpai had to die like this."
"Oh, Yosuke..." Satonaka frowns the saddest frown I've yet seen, her arms close to herself, and her voice overflows with unconcealed concern.
Hanamura breathes in deeply, then lets it out. "After what I've seen and what I've put together, there's no way I can ignore it now." He shuffled step by step towards me, and looked at me, the weakness showing in his firmly squared shoulders and a pleading look all too apparent in his eyes.
"Sorry... but you're the only person who can help me." He breaks eye contact and lowers his head. "Trust me, if I didn't have to involve you, I wouldn't, especially since you barely know us... but... you're my only chance..."
Hanamura looks up again, trying to contain whatever composure he can. "I'm gonna get ready. I'll be waiting at Junes."
And with that, Hanamura turned to leave straight out. Satonaka and I were alone in the corridor now.
"I can kinda understand how he feels..." Satonaka said, turning to me. A tiny hint of frustration shows through her voice. "But we can't be sure we'll be able to get out safely again. What should we do...?" She said that last bit looking right at me before trailing off and staring off to the doors through which Hanamura left.
I think it's fairly obvious what we should do. Talk him out of it when we meet him at Junes.
But I couldn't say that. I couldn't muscle my damn mouth into saying that. And now Satonaka turned her attention back to me, seemingly waiting for my answer.
"Seta-kun?" She says, probably thinking I didn't hear her. I looked at her, indicating that I was. She looks up to me, her mouth a thin line ending downwards in an uneasy frown. She closed her eyes and let out a defeated sigh, throwing her arms up.
"Look, I don't know why you agreed with Yosuke back there, but this is just crazy!" she said further, straightening her posture and taking a step closer to me. I took a step back. "This is just too much for us!"
"You're right," I immediately said, catching her a little off guard. The tenseness of her brow began to relax. "We're in over our heads," I said further.
"Yeah, exactly!" she said in resounding agreement. "That's why we gotta-"
"But I'm still going with him."
Satonaka froze. "Y-You serious...?" She then got angry after registering that in its full implication. "A-Are you stupid or something?! Not you too!"
"Look, Satonaka..." I looked away and shuffled towards the lockers, not wanting to face her. "I..." I fumbled, but still managed somehow. "I have to. I have to go with him. I just don't know why. If you don't want to come, then I'm obviously not going to stop yo-"
"No!" I glanced at her, and though she was seething, she definitely looked like she was holding back. "I thought you're smarter than this, Seta-kun!" She gestures towards the doorway where Yosuke left. "If Yosuke feels like he has a stake in this, that's one thing! What does this have to do with you?!"
I placed one hand on one of the lockers and leaned against it. "Satonaka, please... I just..."
"Is this some kinda game to you?!" She strides right up to me, her voice shaky. "To just throw your life away in some alien place you just moved into?"
"Then what?" I replied, keeping my voice deliberately low, but it was taking more and more effort not to just lash out at her. "We just leave Hanamura to die in there?"
"That's why we gotta talk him out of it!" she quickly snapped back, sending a pang of displeasure into me. "But nooo, you want to jump in with him into that sick place! Is there literally nothing in your life you value?"
...Yes.
"No." I said, firmly. "You don't even know me. I have my reasons..."
"Oh?" she said, in a tone so sarcastic it makes me want to slam a hole in the locker my hand was on, almost even in substitute of her. "Well let's hear it!"
"You won't believe me," I snapped back. "I barely do myself."
"I see then!" I caught a glance of her crossing her arms, like a disapproving parent. "That's a good enough reason to get killed then, right?"
"Get off my back, Satonaka," I hissed, biting the inside of my lip right afterwards. Weariness began to register much larger than my anger, though my anger was far from subsiding, instead eventually mixing together with the weariness as well, welling and festering into defeat and frustration. Over all this. This crap. This contract, this Igor, this obligation, this stupid life in this stupid town with its stupid murders and stupid school and stupid teachers and stupid laughter and stupid jokes and stupid chivalry for this stupid, stupid overbearing green-coat girl.
With her stupid smile and her stupid hair... her stupid eyes and stupid voice and laugh... and every time she talks to me, she keeps reminding me that I'm in the middle of all this stupidity. That I'm not dreaming, but awake and living in the gravity well of this stupid life. She reminds me that I exist, in the most frustrating ways possible, with...
With her stupid concern, and worry, and care... for this sorry excuse of a human being... here today and gone the next, never having to give an answer, and not able to give one now.
...
Seta didn't say anything for a while. I was about to tear him a new one again, but when I saw his face, I stopped myself. I could already tell he was simmering just now, and to be honest, I wanted him to boil over and shout at me. Maybe then I could get an honest answer out of him, instead of all of this "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you" bullcrap. We fell through a TV and talked to a balloon bear - does he think I'm a stupid idiot?!
But then, he began to calm down. His features started to soften, and before long, while just now he was hunched over at the lockers, he now stood straight up; and while he did so, he looked at me.
The look he gave me was so unexpected, it took any and all words I wanted to say out of my mouth. It couldn't have been even for two seconds, but that look... it's so hard to explain. But at that moment, whatever he was so cryptic and reluctant about sharing... I began to believe he was telling the truth.
It wasn't just sadness, but something much more subtle, much more complex. If that look was just sad, I wouldn't have felt so... different when he gave me that look. But- and I'm most likely crazy and reading too much into it...
It was a look that felt like it was completely concentrated onto me. Like I suddenly became a target, and every kind of thing and thought that was going through his head merged together into a single expression that he shot straight at me... straight into me.
And I was afraid to ask what it was. What it was that formed the embodiment of all those thoughts, and why I now stood in the center of it. I just gave a sigh, feeling pretty rotten now.
"Sorry," I said, meaning it. "I shouldn't have pretended I knew. Even though it doesn't make sense. But if you have a reason..."
I struggled with my words, but finally gave in. "...Then I want to give you... the benefit of the doubt."
What I wasn't expecting was Seta to suddenly let out a very audible breath. Like he was trying to contain his emotions, and what I said had just put the last bit of pressure on the bottle. Did I say something wrong...? I couldn't have. His head was turned away, and I couldn't read his face.
"What is it now?" I said, too curious to let it be. "You didn't want to hear that?"
I froze. I was not ready for it. He gave me that look again.
"I did," he said, parting his lips. "And at the same time... I don't."
I was taken aback. Just what was he getting at? "What do you mean?" I said, a little worried now.
"It's nothing," he said. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, till it was steady and unnoticeably normal. "Okay, no. More precisely, nothing yet." He looked back at me, and his facial expression was much more neutral now. "I know you won't leave me alone till I tell you. So I'm just asking you... to wait."
He started combing his hair with his hand absentmindedly, running his fingers through his silver head. "Can you do that?" He paused, and his tone became serious, and yet also oddly tender. "...Please."
I stayed silent... and pretty cautious. And more than a little confused. "...Fair enough."
Both of us stood looking at each other's general direction for a while, though Seta wasn't standing facing me, a little off-center because he was leaning on the shoe lockers. I wriggled my feet and toes in my loafers.
"Anyway, let's go to Junes," I finally said. "We can't leave Yosuke alone..."
Seta gave a silent nod of agreement, and we both left together.
I was right about what I said, but what I began to be afraid of - or actually, more like concerned - was that whatever Seta was going through is gonna be a lot deeper than maybe even Yosuke's. Yosuke's issue is serious, that's for sure, but we've known each other long enough that there's really not much surprises with him. With Seta, it's like everything's a surprise with him, and every new day is just revealing more and more about this mysterious transfer student that I've never expected anything much from when I first saw him, with his popped collar and silver hair...
It simultaneously made me really nervous, a little scared of the unknown, and... really drawn to him.
Am I being a stupid girl, getting caught up with some boy I didn't know anything about, and seems like bad news the moment he walked in?
...Yes. I am. And I could possibly- no, most likely get myself into trouble. I may crash and burn if I continued like this, and get my heart broken to a point that it'll be near-impossible to heal or repair, and for the first time, I seriously questioned my determination in finding out about this guy. My stubbornness and gung-ho normal self suddenly stopped at this line, and was seriously considering whether to take that important step over this line or not, from which I might not be able to turn back just from sheer momentum and settled decision.
Seta... you're dangerous. And unknown. I'm not sure if I want to make that jump until... until I know who you really are.
Until then, I'm relieved I'm not going into this completely blind. I'm still stupid enough to want to know you more. But I'm also hopefully smart enough now... to also tread lightly.
After all, you'd have to be a pretty messed up guy in the first place to be this nice to Chie Satonaka, right? Or at least that's the stupid little thing I tell myself.
Or will you... prove me wrong again? I admit, I was never that smart to begin with...
...Which is why I kinda hope you do.
