Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

=== 5 ===

The last to enter was the group who had suffered mass poisoning.

Student Council President Yasuhara showed in 6 students, and seated himself too.

"That is to say Yasuhara was also one of the victims?"

Yasuhara smiled at Naru's question.

"Yes. I am also one of the 'students with weak constitutions'. Whatever the question, fire away."

Oh yes, the newspaper report wrote "we believe that students with weak constitutions were brought down for some reason". The correspondent had tried his best to rationalize the incident. Whether we looked at Yasuhara or any of the others, none of them appeared frail. 

Naru's expression momentarily softened.

"In that case, let me ask your representative, Yasuhara. What are the details?"

"Perhaps you already know from reading the newspapers, the incident occurred on the 18th of December, Monday, at 2pm in the middle of class."

Straight to the point and easily understood. Yasuhara is really an intelligent person.

"Nearly half the class collapsed, to be precise there were 19 persons.

"At the beginning of class there was already a male student who felt nauseous. Just as he deliberated leaving the class, suddenly there appeared many others saying the same thing. I was wondering what was going on, when I too suddenly felt unwell. From the start of the class, I had thought that the air in the classroom was somehow bad. There was a strange stench; we opened the windows; but we continued to discuss what the source of the smell was so everyone was restless during break, that's why that made an impression."

"So it was like that. Do you know of the cause?"

"No. When the furnace burns wrong, one's mood is affected, although it isn't that big a deal; it a similar type of feeling. I have previously eaten raw food and experienced food poisoning, and it felt totally different from this incident. This incident had nothing to do with food poisoning. Furthermore, the school uses air conditioning, hence eliminating the possibility of a gas leak."

En en.

"Does this stench persist in the classroom?"

Yasuhara nodded.

"We are all numb to it so we are not sure if it is still there, but even now one can smell slight traces of that stench. When students from other classes visit our classroom, they would all ask, 'what's this odor?'

"And there are times when the smell would suddenly become overwhelming. After that incident, there were also instances when the teacher first felt unwell. At that time everyone evacuated the classroom with a sense of dread, although only the teacher went to the sickbay. And after that, I can recall there were also several occasions when the stench suddenly became much stronger. Yes, about 7 or 8 times since that incident."

"Were there any victims?"

Yasuhara shook his head.

"No. Or rather... Initially I did not believe this was a supernatural phenomenon. Our classroom is on the first floor; below... I mean what was further beneath, that is, in the stratum there is a pool of bad gas, was what I hypothesized to be the reason. However, Eda..."

Yasuhara turned back to look at the male next to him.

"This fellow would scatter salt whenever the stench grew strong. After doing so the foul smell would suddenly vanish. What the heck, if it was explained as a natural phenomenon, that would be really weird."

Naru looked at the male student called Eda.

"Why scatter salt?"

"That, because don't they say that salt is cleansing? We throw salt when we return from funerals and other stuff. So I felt that we could try it in school to see if it worked. After scattering the salt the stench disappeared instantly."

"Feeling...?"

He scratched his head.

"Anyway, at the end of the day, I thought, people often say that doing so (scattering salt) in school would force spirits to emerge, and the reason for the poisoning is unclear; I always felt there was a link to spirits and what not..."

Naru's pale fingers lightly rapped the table. 

"If spirits are involved in this incident, do you have any hypothesis about the cause?"

Yasuhara's group tilted their heads in thought.

"I don't know."

"Really? Sorry to trouble you then."

Naru nodded gently towards Yasuhara.

"On a separate note, I have a question for student council president Yasuhara."

"Yes."

"When did you first notice the strange things happening here?"

Yasuhara paused slightly to think.

"I started thinking 'there is definitely something wrong here' first with the mass absenteeism. Only... yes, I had started feeling something was amiss around the period of the cultural festival."

"The details are?"

"Because the number of weird rumors increased. Since autumn, the student grapevine has reported nothing but strange tales. Here and there someone saw a ghost or something; I heard these stories, and started feeling uneasy."

Yasuhara looked very serious.

"As there was preparation work to do for the cultural festival, everyone would remain in school until late. That is, everyone suddenly became very reluctant to stay back. The change in the girls' (behavioral) tendencies was especially acute. Normally they would loiter around even if they had nothing on. I felt that was a little strange."

Naru nodded.

"What about the series of fires that happened before the mass absenteeism. What do you feel about that?"

"I can't recall the exact date; the first fire was around the middle of October. At first I thought it was started by some mischievous fellow or other who used fire carelessly. Then 10 days later there was another fire. At that time the teachers were getting a little nervous, the perpetrator was still unknown. And then the next... "

"12 days later?"

"Yes. To call it an accident would be too strange, and there were those who said it was not arson. The teachers had apparently increased their guard, but 12 days later the fire still happened. Although the teachers had diligently patrolled (the school), they still could not identify the perpetrator."

"And there was yet another fire 12 days later?"

"Yes. Then they even used the special locks boys’ schools use, although now they no longer bother. But still there was a fire. At that time the mass absenteeism incident happened; deep down I felt that it would be very weird if it was actually arson."

"And from then on there was a 12 day cycle?"

"Yes. Always on the morning of the 12th day."

"Locks?"

"It is locked."

"When will the next fire be?"

"The last time was on the 11th, so this time it should be on the 23rd. That's 2 days from now."

Naru was deep in thought. He tapped his ball point pen on the table and quickly looked up.

"Lastly..." As he said that, he looked at the group, and asked them about the strange rumors. After listening to their last incredible story, Naru shut his notebook and rose.

"Can you let me see your classroom?"

"Yes, please."