Editing Phenomeno:Case 02 (section)

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...What should I do?

The sun was setting, and I'd been desperately clinging to sunlight, but I was about to run out of places to go.

Anyways, to where people are — to a crowded place with lots of people—

I wandered aimlessly, and before I knew it, I was heading towards the main auditorium facing the courtyard.

However—

My feet stopped in front of the glass door to the auditorium.

Inside the classroom, a hundred odd students were seated, and a professor was writing on the blackboard on the podium. I could hear the sounds of notes being taken. I could hear the sound of chalk being chiseled on the blackboard. The auditorium was filled with the silent fervor of people doing what they're supposed to be doing.

I couldn't go in.

I felt ashamed. I felt shame toward my parents, and clawed at my hair. I was in Tokyo against the will of my parents, and even borrowed money from my sister. It wasn't easy for my household to pay my tuition fees. And yet, what in the world was I doing? I'd been mesmerized by the occult, going to places I was told not to go to, throwing it all away halfway through, and became possessed by something. I was living my life like an idiot, doing nothing but idiotic things.

Could I still return?

Could I still return to the right place?

As Yoishi and Krishna-san had said, I should just throw away the notebook. But the stubborn kid inside me vehemently refused to throw away the notebook. It shouted that it still didn't feel like the right thing to do. Part of me wanted to throw it away, and another part wanted to hang on, and it was also me that stood dumbfounded here and now. It was me that was tormented by all these complex feelings, and I was the one who was causing trouble for all sorts of people and straying further and further away from the path I should be walking on. Several me's were killing each other in a fierce battle that unfolded in my head. I was punching myself, stabbing myself, tearing at myself, ripping myself apart. A vicious war continued, and eventually, all of me died. As a result, my feet stopped, my thoughts stopped, and the me that was no longer anyone stared dumbfounded at the classroom — and there, I found the me I didn't know.

The seat I was always sitting in — the far-right seat on the fifth row from the front.

I was sitting there.

I was bored and listening to a lecture with a blank expression on my face.

At that moment, something inside me collapsed with a sound.

—Was it the other way around?

—Was I the ghost, and was he the real thing?

Nothing reflected in my eyes felt real anymore. I felt like I was the only one who had been composited into the finished film after the fact. My common sense was just a thin thread that connected me to this world. It could be cut off by the slightest thing. Like Zippo-san's friend, the strand was suddenly cut one day, and he couldn’t go back.

I wobbled away from the lecture hall, and before I knew it, I was sitting on a bench nearby.

I clutched my hair with both hands. I could hear the sound of cars in the distance like some kind of noise, and the flowerbeds, noticeboard and dark trees in front of me looked like made-up props.

The normalcy of a place, common sense, all disappearing in one day.

I finally understood how terrifying that was. My sense of values was shaken. I lost sense of where I stood. I realized I was completely pointless. That moment, I didn't even cry. Because it was pointless. What was the point of a pointless person shedding pointless things? Emptiness produces nothing but emptiness.

—— How does it feel to be scared?

Yoishi had asked me before.

Yoishi, I get it.

This is what it means to be scared. To lose your place.

—This is it.

I raised my head, and in front of me was a white face.

Yoishi Mitsurugi's long, black hair was flowing in the wind, and her big eyes were looking at me.

"At this rate, you're going to die."

The high school girl in a uniform stood out on the university campus at dusk.

The university students walking by glanced in our direction as they went.

"Why do you wish to carry the darkness of others — to the point of suffering this much?"

Yoishi's glass bead-like eyes, however, lacked the usual hollowness.

Instead, there was light in them that wanted to know something other than "fear."

"Why...?"

Why was it? I didn't know. In fact, I was suffering because I didn’t know. I couldn't answer that question now. So I just talked, without knowing why.

"...Isn't that normal?"

"—What?"

"If someone's carrying something that heavy... don't you usually help them?"

"Even if it's a load you can’t handle?"

Her question left me stumped.

I didn't know. That's why I'd been sticking my hand in so many things and then leaving them half-assed. Then should I not have stuck my hand in them? Was that it?

"A load I can’t handle — eh? Shit."

I replied while clawed through my hair.

"It's not like I'm sticking my hand into everything I see. There's a basis—"

"Basis?"

"Because, if I were to do that naturally — it'd only be for friends."

I surprised myself when I said those words.

To be honest, the dead boy wasn't exactly a friend. Of course, I didn’t know his face and I'd never talked to him. But I certainly shared his pain. I was in the same state of suffering. As a child, I was always close to death, so the boy's wish was no stranger to me. Please fix my sickness. When I first saw those words, I muttered to myself:

—I can't do anything, but I can be with you.

That's why I took the notebook out of there with me. Just like how my mother, who couldn’t heal me directly, used to hold my hand for hours until the attacks ended. Like how that hand was my only harbor in the middle of a sea of fear. I wanted to teach him that just by having one person by your side, people can overcome things. 

"— I'm such an idiot."

Tears were spilling out of my eyes before I’d realized...

"I'm such an idiot," I kept repeating.

"Indeed, it's not logical."

Yoishi silently whispered, and then she suddenly pulled a cell phone from her pocket.

I thought she was going to call someone, but suddenly she began moving her fingers at a frenetic pace.

I thought she was sending someone a message, but her finger speed was unthinkable. Without blinking, Yoishi continued pounding away with her thumb, like a broken mechanical doll that was repeating the same motion over and over again. A drop of sweat appeared on her forehead, which then stuck to her hair, with her legs slightly apart, she stood there without moving, as if she was rooted to the ground. Only her thumbs wriggled at a high speed.

I stared, jaw agape—

And it continued for almost an hour.

Our surroundings had become covered entirely in darkness, and sometimes a patrolling security guard came by, I would bow my head, saying, "Wait a bit for her please." That's how much urgency her fingertips seemed to have.

The keystroke operation, which seemed to go on forever, ended abruptly.

At the same time, the unusual concentration and tension that had filled Yoishi’s limbs was cut off. Yoishi crumbled softly to the ground — and I quickly caught her. For the first time, I found out light her body was.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I asked, and she nodded slightly.

"...What the hell were you doing?"

But she didn't answer, instead saying an inexplicable, "How comfortable."

"But this should solve everything."

And with that last line—

Yoishi's eyes rolled up and she lost consciousness.




 ◯



"Are you alright?"

It was late at night on the same day.

Krishna-san shouted as she jumped into my room, and when she saw Yoishi lying in my futon, she began opening and closing her mouth.

"Ah... oh... you."

"... Yes?"

"You, a high school girl... are you serious! What're you doing bringing a high school girl into your room! And sh- sh- she's sleeping in your futon!"

For some reason, her face turned furiously red and she shouted at me like that.

Maybe this person was extremely weak to that type of topic?

"Well, well, Krishna-chan, calm down."

Karasu-san arrived then.

Changing the wet towel on Yoishi's forehead, she explained for me.

"When I'd come to pick up my belongings, I found Nagi-kun carrying this girl on his back and crying 'She collapsed, she collapsed!' And when I checked, she had quite a fever. My room's being used as a storehouse and has no futon, so we gave her medicine and laid her down here."

That's how it was, and still seated straight, I shot Krishna-san an insulted look.

"I- I see —— sorry. And, are you alright?"

She said, and Krishna-san placed a big travel bag at the edge of the room and looked at me. I noticed that there was a bit of displacement between her shoulder and her head.

"I don't know... but Yoishi said that everything should be solved."

"What?"

"I can never really tell what she's doing, and this time, I especially don’t get it."

Krishna-san sank weakly to the floor and sighed. She must have really rushed over from Aomori. I felt sorry for her exhausted she was.

"I'm sorry for everything. I’ve caused you trouble once again."

I bowed my head deeply, and she venomously replied, "Indeed."

"It was quite hectic since then. I couldn't connect to your cell phone anymore, and our cell phone got interference——Anyways, I'll tell you what teacher said. The results of the clairvoyance."

She pulled out a thick memo pad from her bag and began reading.

"First —— the result of the "Shisoushiki betsunodaiji," you said your middle finger trembled. The middle finger, as we mentioned over the phone, is either a high god or a demonic god, but afterwards you said your ring finger also moved, right? If you said that earlier we would have handled it differently."

"What do you mean?"

"The ring finger means a living ghost."

"... Huh?"

No, wait a minute.

Living ghost? Like, when jealousy or hatred take a spiritual form...

"Yes, that living ghost. The person who fired it doesn't realize it either, a rather bothersome spiritual obstruction."<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiry%C5%8D</ref>

Krishna-san explained it in a straightforward manner, but it didn't make sense to me.

"In other words, that’s it, isn’t it? I was going through all this, and the person who fired that off is just living happily every day, right?"

"Well, yes."

Instantly, the blood rushed to my head. I had been through the depths of fear and despair up to this point, and I was filled with an inexpressible rage.

"Who is it? I'm seriously going to beat the shit out of them."

I said with gusto, and Krishna-san shrugged her shoulders and said, "That's a tough one.”

"Feel like going around punching every occult-lover around the nation?"

"........ Around the nation?"

"Well, to be specific, most of them live around the Tokyo region. Because the rumors about the 'hospital that grants wishes' spread quite oddly around the Tokyo locale. In other words, those who believe the urban legend that wishes come true at that hospital based on false information, and feel hope - their wishes become living ghosts, which combine to form an incredibly large spirit that nestles in that hospital."

"Then, the man I saw wearing a kamishimo—"

"Probably a ghost floating about in the area. For a clump of spiritual forms, the ones that have the most memories are the ones that gain superiority. I said ghosts float about when they've lost sight of their purpose, but basically, that means the true suspect behind this incident is that huge living spirit. The large, floating ghost and the living ghosts then further combined, gathered around the urban legend that 'wishes come true,' and gained almost god-like spiritual bodies."

I was aghast, and Krishna-san turned the next page and read.

"And there is one more thing. There's a device that amplifies living ghosts."

"Device?"

"The internet."

Krishna-san pushed her red-framed glasses up with her middle finger, and stared at me.

"Ahh, it's pretty stupid — the fuss over that hospital on the internet. It's not like putting something randomly in the hospital in the proper position would be enough to grant a wish, and nobody's wish really came true. However, it is a place with that much focused emotion. I'm sure one or two ghosts existed. So they go there for a selfish wish, and then end up hurt. What do people do, then?"

"... Scum."

Everything was coming together.

Slowly, the feeling of hope would inflate. They would go there, braving fear. Yet, nothing happened. Wishes were never granted. I would feel ashamed for believing such a thing — but there are people who refuse to let themselves be the only ones fooled.

"Yes — such a pitiful, helpless gathering of malice in letter form. The twisted desires transform into malice, and those call for even more crueler thoughts. The urban legend of 'the hospital that grants wishes' was born this way."

Was that why Yoishi said it was pathetic?

Didn’t she say ghosts exist on the internet?

— I'd understood to that point, but I realized there was still a much more basic mystery standing in the way. Like the incident last year at that hospital. Where Yoishi alone had disappeared from the others, but there was a divergence in their memories. How could that be explained?

I asked, and Krishna-san shot me a somewhat reproachful look. She was probably worried about my exhausted spirit, but I begged her to tell me.

"Please tell me. I mean, if I don't solve that mystery, I'm going to die of shock from the delusion that's growing inside me!"

"Yes, well... maybe. You're quite delusional."

She insulted me, and then explained.

"It's simple. Because everyone Yoishi was with was a living ghost."

Those words gave me goosebumps.

Within that endless darkness—

I imagined Yoishi walking alongside living ghosts enjoying evil delusions.

"The members other than Yoishi had probably gone there to have a wish granted. In other words, when they saw the words on the wall, they wondered what was needed to grant their wish. They drew that wish strongly in their mind. I think that's what Yoishi saw."

And then, with a very envious look on her face, Krishna-san looked at the sleeping Yoishi.

"This girl can probably see ghosts."

"Then Zippo-san's friend, only mumbling Yoishi—"

"A living ghost is a clump of dirty ego that people don't want others to know about. Imagine having this girl whisper those things to you in that situation."

I remembered Krishna-san's words some time ago.

That Yoishi easily crosses the boundaries.

Yoishi's words and deeds are filled with things humans must not know.

That is why her words and deeds always sway us, who live on this side.

Luckily, I was still standing on this side, but—

There was always the possibility that I would not make it back from the very edge of the boundary of this world.

And Zippo-san's friend was not able to.

"Anyways—"

Krishna-san muttered, scratching her bobbed head.

"In this case, we have to admit fault, too. Compared to the horror stories of old, that took time to change and mature, today's urban legends spread rapidly via the internet and undergo a dramatic chemical change at a certain point in time. There's no root behind them. Someone's irresponsible posts creates a chain effect that creates a magnetic field. It ends up attracting the real thing. In a way it's inevitable, because the dark part, where there’s no source whatsoever is the real thrill of the occult — but it all started when a symbol appeared in a place where people were just gathering."

"That was, the words on the note?"

I asked, and Krishna-san sadly nodded.

"That's how desperate his feelings must have been."

— Please fix my sickness.

Those clumsy words reappeared in the back of my eyes.

Wanting to play outside, wanting to leave the hospital, wanting to go to school, wanting to eat a lot, wanting to play games.

At the very end, he returned all his desires to that place.

"Pure, yet powerful words — the Japanese people of old called them Kotodama."

Krishna-san concluded.

Silence filled my room, and we could only hear the low rumbling of my small refrigerator.

"But still."

Karasu-san who had been listening to us in silence up to that point, opened her mouth.

"Does that, really, solve everything?"

... That was it.

To be honest, I'd been wondering that myself. Was it possible to exorcise a god-class spiritual form? Just what did Yoishi do on her cell phone back then? Why did she look so satisfied before losing consciousness, saying that it was comfortable; that still bothered me.

Indeed, said Krishna-san, and she glanced at Yoishi's white face, as she slept like she was dead.

"She said she solved everything, right?"

"Yes."

"Hmph."

Pushing up her glasses, which had slid down a bit, she snorted.

"Well, we'll see. Truthfully, I don't sense much from you right now, and I'm personally very curious as to how Yoishi Mitsurugi exorcised all of that."

I, too, was too tired today to think about anything more complicated. My body still ached all over, it felt heavy, and my mind wasn't fully cleared yet. I could sleep like a log right away.

"Nagi-kun, if you want to sleep, you can use my room."

Karasu-san laughed, as I stifled a yawn that probably came about from relief.

"You'd be overwhelmed if you were to sleep in the same room as a high school girl, right? What youth."

W- w- what is she talking about?

I was about to say, but Krishna-san was the one who spoke.

"Y- you shouldn't, Nagi-kun! How... vulgar... you can't, you can't."

She was blushing bright red as she flailed about, and Karasu-san nimbly evaded her and sat down next to Yoishi. She then turned the towel on her forehead over and smiled.

"I see — this girl is Yoishi. Even though she looks so cute asleep."

Karasu-san muttered somewhat entranced, but—

Well, as long as she stops vomiting and takes a bath every day, I would agree.

“Well, I’ll accept your kind offer.”

When I said that and stood up.

"Nagi-kun."

Krishna-san called to me from behind.

"You've done enough for him."

"......."

"I will take responsibility for the notebook and give it to a proper farewell somewhere appropriate. I won't treat it with disrespect. Alright?"

I don't know why, but tears filled my eyes.

With my face turned away, I nodded repeatedly.



 ◯



After that, my body felt lighter day by day.

Strange things stopped happening after that. I didn't see the man in a kamishimo. I didn't hear the sound of flutes. I didn't sense any creepy people. And more than anything, the world was bright enough for me to want to skip around.

On such a day, when I had regained all my energy, I passed by the main gate of the affiliated school on my way to Krishna-san's room in the western club building. Seeing the high school students on their way home, I wondered about Yoishi.

She was already gone the next morning when I returned to my room from Karasu-san's luggage room. There was no letter or anything, but the futon was folded up again. I fearfully took a whiff, but only the scent of my shampoo remained. That was the last I saw of her.

— In any case, I should at least say a word of thanks.

Is what I thought, as I waited for Yoishi to come out, but she didn't. Eventually I grew impatient and asked a random student about Yoishi Mitsurugi.

"She's probably still in the library." They said.

She was apparently a problem child that rarely came to school. In addition, all the students had an aura of not wanting to get involved with her, which made me concerned about her daily life.

So, I hurried to the city library, which was under five minutes away, on my mama-cycle.

I passed by the receptionist, and glanced through the reading seats in order, and found Yoishi in her school uniform by the far window. She was mesmerized by a thick book.

"Yo, what're you reading?"

I called out, and she answered without lifting her head.

"Kürten's manuscript."

"Who's that? An author?"

I sat across from her and asked, and she shook her head.

"A famous German serial killer. His murders were so abnormal people couldn't arrest him until he turned himself in."

I was dumbfounded, but she continued with a somewhat ecstatic expression on her face.

"Kürten's orgasms, where he ejaculates while killing, are very interesting."

I took a peek, and it was a book with gross monochrome photographs that made me want to look away.

"Oh, well."

I cleared my throat and said what I came to say.

"I don't know what you did, but my body feels lighter and I stopped seeing weird people too. And Krishna-san took care of that notebook. In any case, you saved me quite a bit. Thanks."

I bowed my head.

"That's good."

She mumbled, and she grabbed the book and bag as she stood up.

She carefully returned the book to the shelf, and began walking to the entrance.

— So, what the hell did you do?

I was almost about to ask, but this time I restrained myself. Krishna-san said I had no capacity to learn, but that wasn't true. Even I had room to grow. There are areas in this world where it was impossible for me to go to. I learned that the hard way this time. So I restrained myself, and saw her off as she walked away.

However, a few meters ahead of me, she seemed to remember something, and turned around.

She came back next to me, put her face close to mine and whispered softly in my ear.

"You shouldn't look at websites related to that abandoned hospital for a while."

"... Huh?"

"Farewell."

And with that, she just walked away.

I stood there dumbfounded for a bit—

But something bubbled forth, an immense level of curiosity.

No, wait, stop it. I'm the type that goes when I'm told not to go. It's an uncontrollable habit I've had since childhood. And of course, I could already imagine I would end up crying and wishing I hadn't done it in the first place, but — before I’d realized, I'd already taken my cell phone from my pocket. Just a bit. Just let me take a quick peek, and if it’s dangerous, I can just close it. That’s what I told myself.

I immediately accessed the internet, and randomly did a search for "Hachiouji" "abandoned hospital" "wish." A bunch of pages I'd looked at before appeared, and for the time being, I opened the first one.

However—

"... What the hell is this."

I was surprised, and checked other sites.

"... It’s the same."

All the sites had stopped updating after a flurry of posts. The date of the posts was exactly one week ago. They matched the time and date that Yoishi had been typing on her phone.

"Did she post this?"

Fearfully, I read the post.

And at the top of the post, I immediately understood.

They all began with that famous line.

【Read this story at your own risk. Please accept that before proceeding】

The self-responsibility type horror story that was famous around the internet.

They say that just by reading the creepy tale, you begin experiencing spiritual disturbances, and they always have endings that lack closure. Some say that the character strings themselves hide words for summoning ghosts, and other rumors say that there are words within that are designed to make your guardian spirits disappear.

I read a bit more and immediately understood. It was about an 'abandoned hospital', no matter how one reads it.

"... I see, that's a nifty idea."

The only way to erase the desire for the 'abandoned hospital' was to make it a taboo subject.

It was a story of a girl attracted to the "abandoned hospital" that slowly stepped foot into a world of madness.

I was drawn in from the beginning. The writing was chilling and the description of the gradual disintegration of her personality was terrific. The somewhat twisted backdrop felt very real, and the horror stories she spoke of, the real ones that made you feel uncomfortable, every part of the writing was overflowing with that odd sense of discomfort. Yoishi was able to write like this? I was surprised, but at the same time, I was extremely curious about the ending.

In the library, as the sun set, I found myself clutching my cell phone close to me as I read, entranced by the story. The gradual usage of hiragana, as if to depict the crumbling mind, was terrifying. It was like Algernon. I held my breath and followed the letters with my eyes as I thought this. I read on, not caring for the chills I was getting. And finally, when the girl was led by fate down to the basement of the hospital once more —

Suddenly, the screen of my cell phone was covered.

When I looked up, I saw that Yoishi had returned and was reaching out with her hand.

And with her dark, deep eyes gazing upon me—

"You shouldn't read until the end."

And those were the most terrifying set of words I'd heard in the past few days.

























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