Editing Phenomeno:Case 06 (section)

==Epilogue==




“…………..Huh?”

I opened the door to the club room and saw—

Krishna-san and Sako were locked in an embrace. The two of them were huddled together in the middle of the club room, with the tall Sako completely wrapped around the smaller Krishna.

For a moment I was at a loss of words, moreover, I felt so agitated that I even lost myself.

“…S, s, sorry for intruding!”

Flustered, I closed the door and leaned against the concrete wall of the hallway, repeatedly pumping oxygen into my lungs. Shaking my burning head, I tried to shake off the sight I had just witnessed, but it wasn't going to happen.

--Why is Krishna-san and that guy…?

The reason I came here was to once again declare my intention to part ways with Yoishi to Krishna-san. I was there to say that I finally understood that it was like playing an impossibly hard video game for me to get involved with her. And I would also take the opportunity to report Sako’s actions: how that bastard tricked me into going to the library late at night, and at the end, how he tried to turn me into some kind of vessel for countless somethings. 

However, all such feelings ended up vanishing in an instant. 

That's how confused I was by what I just saw. Two people hugging in a club room in broad daylight…that means, it’s that sort of thing? Did they cross the line between teacher and student? Oh my god, I’m such an ignorant dullard. When I think about it, it's pretty remarkable that Krishna-san, who’s extremely weak at dirty talk, would go to Aomori for an overnight stay. She even told me that she had been peeked on in the bath, that means it was that sort of relationship all along. In fact, Krishna-san is an unmarried, fully-fledged woman who will turn twenty-one this year. It's not surprising that she might have a boyfriend or two. But – despite all that, be it the benefactor who saved her life -- of all people, it had to be that guy? 

I slumped down in the hallway, dumbfounded, unable to think of anything else.

What is this feeling of emptiness?

Where was the wind that blew through my chest coming from? And where was it headed? 

No, the problem was not the wind. It was the hole the wind was blowing through. What was it, I wondered, that had gouged out my chest? In my mind, Yoishi had gone over to the darkness. She had a certain cuteness about her despite that, but still, I couldn't follow her to the other side. I didn’t have that resolve. I managed to fill that void by thinking of Krishna-san's smile.

I could immediately imagine her as a child, with that immature, lovely and innocent face. Her big eyes and the sparkling light of innocence within. Whenever she got angry or upset, her smooth hair would bob up and down and a nice scent would always tickle my nose. Ah… she was always an angel. She was my guardian angel. That she should fall into the hands of that demonic, monstrous fox-like guy-- is this the bitterness of life? Is this what you would call absurdity? At that moment, I thought I heard a voice saying, ‘Hey, you there,’ but I must have been imagining it.

“…I guess I’ll quit.”

I mutter to myself, and finally make up my mind.

"That's right, I was only let into the Beatnik research society when I forcefully tried to get in, I wasn't admitted as a staff member of Ikaigabuchi. That was, after all, because Krishna-san didn't wholeheartedly agree with me joining. My fervent speech back then inadvertently influenced that kind person, and that's how things ended up this way. I'm a heavy burden to her, and hardly any help. Even though she told me to stay away from Yoishi, I totally ended up getting involved with her anyway, three incidents in a row, starting from the 'The Clock Tower', 'The Cat Monster', and 'Rororo'.  And on top of that, I've been targeted by some kind of troublesome ghost that I don't understand. I... really am an irredeemable..."

"Hey, you there."

I thought I heard that voice again, but I failed to recognize anything with my ears as well as my eyes. I was so devastated by the enormity of what I had lost, and furthermore, I even lost sight of the path that should have been right in front of me, but regardless, the voice continued.

"Hey, I'm speaking to you, the one wearing the misspelled English T-shirt slumped in the hallway. I don't know what happened, but please cheer up. I've been there, too. At your age, you've probably got more problems than you can handle, but they're usually not a big deal when you look at them with a calm head. Why don't you try and act a little more dignified?"

"............."

I vacantly raise my face to see that the door to the Beatnik research room was open, and there, holding a drooping Krishna-san in his left hand looking down on me with a grin was Sako Takita.

"Y-you..."

"Save the greetings for later, Yamada Nagito-kun. Say, could you rearrange those chairs over there for a minute? Kurimoto-kun needs to be laid down."

"L-laid down? What are you going to do after laying her down? What kind of nerve do you have to make me help you with something like that right now?"

Sako gave me a cold gaze, and then breathed a deep sigh.

"You really are a fool. Can't you tell just by looking? Or are you someone so heartless without even a shred of compassion to help out someone who's done so much for you? Kurimoto-kun is unconscious. Can't you see that I'm asking for your help?" 

At those words--

I stood up in a panic. And finally understood the situation.

"K-Kishna-san!? You lost consciousness? Wai--What happened? Please, stay with us!"

"Oh, she'll be fine. She just got a little shocked and will probably wake up soon. More importantly, you'd better set up some chairs over there, so she can have a place to lie down."

I did as I was told and ran into the club room, setting up a simple bed-like space by lining up a pipe chair and some other chairs. Sako easily carried Krishna-san in his arms and gently laid her down there.

"Sako, What the hell happened?"

"Well, it's a long story -- but I guess it's because she saw something unbelievable."

"Something...unbelievable?"

With those words--

In the humid club room where the cicadas were still chirping noisily, something chilly rose up.

"It's this."

In Sako's hands, there was an old, worn out photograph.

Was it possibly some kind of creepy ghost photograph? I braced myself -- but, what Sako was holding out was a perfectly normal photograph. A scene cut out from somewhere on campus. A picture of two high school girls huddled close together in front of a large tree. A petite girl and a long, slender girl are smiling as they stand shoulder to shoulder. I don't have to strain my eyes to see it. The petite girl was Krishna-san. A shy smile peeked out from behind her red glasses, dressed in the Koumei high school uniform, she was looking this way. 

But, the other girl.

The moment I saw her, my blood froze.

--It's her.

The girl I had seen in the coffee shop -- tall, intelligent, with the beautiful face. Her hair around shoulder-length, her eyes had a strong light in them, and her lips were shaped in a mature smile.

"Hey, hey, hey, Sako! It's her. She's the one I saw!"

I excitedly pointed at the picture.

"You and Yoishi both scared me into thinking that this girl was a ghost that only existed in my mind -- but look! She really does exist. Hahahaha. I knew it. The girl I met at the coffee shop didn't look like a ghost at all. She has legs, and a shadow....Just like in this picture, she was wearing the Koumei school uniform, and quietly reading a book in the coffee shop, and--"

"N-no way!"

At that moment, a nostalgic angry voice sounded directly below me.

“T…There’s no way you could have met her! There’s no way… you could have met that person—"

Startled, I looked down to see the petite occult website manager feebly glaring at me.

“Krishna-san! You regained consciousness?”

“---I’m fine. More importantly, did you really see that person?”

Looking pale as she dragged half of her body up to the chair, Krishna-san asked me as I reached out to her.

“….U..Uhhh. I’m sure of it.”

“--What about Yoishi? Was she nearby?”

“U…ummmm…”

Letting out a deep breath at the sight of me, Krishna-san laid back down again with a heave and folded her hands over her face.

“Even after I told you not to get involved with Yoishi Mitsurugi, yet you…”

“Actually, I came here today to tell you that. From now on, I’m never gonna meet Yoishi—"

“It's already too late.”

She spoke plainly and dismissively, then proceeded to ask Sako while peeking through her fingers.

“Takita-san, what should be done now?”

“Well then…”

Saying that, Sako turned to me with a faint smile on his face.

“First of all, Let's start with a very fundamental contradiction that it seems you haven't noticed. Listen here, Yamada Nagito-kun. Take a good look at this picture once again, and see if you notice anything.”

“…Huh?”

“In this photo, the two high school girls look to be on good terms. And as you can see, on the left is Kurimoto-kun. She is now a university student, and she is wearing a high school uniform in this photo. Unless your shrewd understanding leads you to believe that Kurimoto-kun has a hobby of cosplaying, you would know that this photo is from the past, right? Yes, to be precise, this photo was taken five years ago, right here within the Koumei educational institution.”

“…Five years ago?”

That number brought back an unpleasant memory.

As I recall, five years ago—

Didn't this bastard once say that Krishna almost broke down once?

“That’s right.”

Sako smiled, his long, slitted eyes narrowing like a thread.

“And this tall girl smiling next to Kurimoto-kun… immediately after this picture was taken, she ended up mysteriously disappearing from this school.”

“…Huh?”

“She disappeared without a trace. Without even leaving a body behind, her bag was left in the classroom, and she never even went home. School officials, friends, neighbors, police, and the mass media all tried desperately to find her at the time, but there was still no sign of whether she was alive or dead. That’s right, she literally vanished from the face of the earth, as if she had been spirited away by the gods<ref>Kamikakushi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_away </ref>. Even now, after five years, she still falls in the category of ‘being actively searched for’ -- but if we think about it realistically, it would be more natural to assume that she is already dead.”

Those words made me feel a nebulous chill, like something cold was creeping at my feet.

“But, I mean, uh, look – there’s all sorts of high school students, right?”

I spoke, trying to chase away the creeping feeling. 

“Maybe there was some guy she was going out with and she ran away with him or something, or maybe some bad guy tricked her or--”

“Of course, such a possibility was taken into account at the beginning of the search. But she didn't have any boyfriends at the time, and her purse, pencil case and other stationery were not missing. Even the shoes she used to go to school with still remained in the shoe rack at the entrance.”

“Then she must still be somewhere in this school, right? Maybe she's locked up somewhere that's hard to find, and is still waiting for hel—”

I was about to say that much, when I finally realized. Five years. Five years have already passed. If this girl was looking for help somewhere – then it was unlikely that she would be still be alive.

“It seems you finally understand. Every inch of this school has already been searched, and even the police dogs failed to find anything. To sum it all up, realistically and scientifically speaking, her physical body doesn’t exist here anymore.”

Sako’s words– 

And that seemingly happy, warped, white face of his - reminded me of something. Words that distort my stance, the darkness that spreads behind those eyes and shakes the foundations of what I believe.

Yes – it reminded me of Yoishi Mitsurugi.

It was the same feeling of something shaking and slipping away, just like when that black-haired girl talked about ghosts.

“A girl that shouldn’t be here anymore, and you…where did you meet, I wonder? Even If the girl who disappeared five years ago is still alive somewhere, what are the chances that she's still wearing the uniform she wore back then? How likely is it that a girl of this generation, growing mature every day, would still look exactly the same as she did back then?”

Aah, it’s getting darker.

The world, now, is becoming ever darker. Sako’s words, and his empty eyes, gripped my heart coldly, and his thin, smiling face appeared like a monster fox on a moonless night.

--Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Suddenly, the word comes up in my mind again.

I don’t know if that word is correct or not. But right now, the person called Sako Takita, was an inexplicable existence to me. He was well versed in all kinds of mantras, an advanced user of taboo words, a half-hearted guy, a liar, and yet, he was also a calculating man who worked everything to his advantage. And despite all of this, I never felt any sense of responsibility from the man himself. He was an incomprehensible monster that I sincerely hoped to never see again.

“I don't really want to push you too hard right now, but...”

[[Image:Phenomeno-vol2-case06.jpg|Height in pixel|thumb|]]

Sako waved the photo in his hand and spoke:

“For the record, this photo was supposed to have been burnt up five years ago.”


“……”


“I was sure Kurimoto-kun had properly extinguished it from the world. But for some reason, it was once again discovered in the club room. I believe that Kurimoto-kun's mind, which is stronger and more graceful than most people's, couldn't stand to do it, because this slender girl and Kurimoto-kun had a rather special relationship.”

He spoke happily, and then:

“Say, Yamada-kun… Yamada Nagito-kun.”

Sako handed me the photo.



“What happened to this girl five years ago -- and where is she right now?”




In a world where I slowly bleed away.

The mature girl in the photo smiles quietly.

In the clock tower. In the eyes of the cat. In the club room at dawn. And, in the coffee shop –

That hazy figure, standing lurched over, was right now… in front of me.

The girl sneers. She turns her deep hollow eyes towards me and moves her red mouth.

Enshrouded in the scent of the world beyond—

She declares:






--A t l a s t, w e m e e t…
 










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