Chapter 10: The Tale of the Lovers:
Taruho's POV:
I woke up hearing a dripping sound. I then saw Takashi. "Takashi," I said, "did you went there again?" I then sat him down. "Your feet are completely cold. Let's go take a bath. I'll wash your feet." I then hugged him. "It's okay."
Michi's POV:
"If he had visited Japan, he would have drawn many pictures..."
"Michi."
"If I had to do it, I would have done it at that time." I saw her. "And her..."
"Michi."
"She is not happy. It is time he went to bed. He ought to go to bed."
I then snuck over to Prudence.
...
"I heard thee is someone who knows about this curse that only girls will be affected," says Prudence.
...
"That someone who knows the secrets of the curse is here," I asked.
"Yeah," says Prudence, "she heard about what's happening in our school." We then saw a woman smoking. "Are you Miss Mary?" She then looked at us.
...
"Come inside," says Miss Mary, "though it's messy."
We then entered with her.
...
"Wanna eat," asks Ms. Mary, "they're leftovers from my part-time job."
"Thank you," I said, "but we just ate."
"All right," says Miss Mary, "of course you won't eat these sandwiches that were left unsold in the local convenience stores. My kid also won't eat them. My name is Kazumi Kusanagi, but I know you girls call me 'Miss Mary'."
"Um... Miss Kazumi," says Prudence, "you ae a graduaTte of our school, right?"
"Oh," says Miss Kazumi, "so, what about it?"
"We want to know about the curse that only girls will be affected," I said.
"The girls who died in our school," says Prudence, "they all kissed this phoTtograph as if they wee quiTte possessed."
"How could this curse be stopped," I asked.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know," says Miss Kazumi, "but every way back, that love charm had been popular to girls in this place. Back in the day, love between two girls was not accepted. Adults unreasonably separated these girls. Though it's now filled up, there was once a lake in that piece of land. That was where the two girls committed a lover's suicide."
...
"Here," says Miss Kazumi, "this was our old shop. We had once a photo studio. And we took a photograph of their love charm. The girls at that time, found this studio a very sacred place. I grew up here. I was surrounded by these girls. If I do this, I can still hear the voices of the girls even now..." She then pointed to a picture. "It's her. She is the legend of your school. So that they can be together in the afterlife, she made a charm, and they committed lover's suicide. But she didn't die."
"What happened to them after," asks Prudence.
"The girl who died didn't go to afterlife and instead wandered this world as a spirit. The girl who lived was haunted by the spirit of the other girl and suffered the rest of her life."
"I'm back." We looked and saw a boy.
"He's my son," says Miss Kazumi.
"Hello," I said.
"He won't listen and keeps saying he wants to succeed our photo studio," says Miss Kazumi, "right?"
"Yup," says the boy. He then handed us a photo. "This is a photo of a ghost. I saw her at the end of the bridge. It's a ghost of a girl. It's my first photograph of a ghost."
To Be Continued
In the next chapter, Michi and Prudence find the bridge.