Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

=== 4 ===

Following that was the group that planned the exorcism. There were 8 males and females in the group.

Naru asked them who their representative was. After squabbling amongst themselves for the position, they finally decided on a girl called Araki Kozue-san to speak for the group.

"Then, Araki-san, please tell us how the incident progressed."

"Oh, where should I begin... My classroom is located in the East Block. This supposed "East Block" is basically made up of special classrooms, like the chemistry lab etc. The room neighboring my classroom is the Music Preparation Room. It is used to store musical instruments. Strange sounds came from there."

"And these strange sounds are..."

"Sounds of things being dragged on the floor; and the noises were loud and clear. The teacher also appeared to hear it and went next door to check, but said there was no one there.

"There were also strange sounds being heard in the LL classroom. Although I have never heard it myself, many others have.

"Besides that, there was that day when my class was in charge of cleaning the geography classroom: when we were cleaning, the bulb of the fluorescent light dropped down. Or rather, the fluorescent tube. In any case just one tube fell out. The tube shattered and the shards of glass flew all over the place, so there were many people who were injured. Although we reported it to the teacher, he could only tell us to be careful; the problem was not solved at all."

She looked both angry and frightened.

"And besides that there were the fires; everyone says they started last autumn. More accurately, they started since that first year student committed suicide. I'm convinced all these are linked, but the school does not take any action."

"So you decided to take matters into your own hands?"

"Yes. Because if we leave things as they are, who knows how many people would be hurt the next time? The teachers are useless. If it were us, we might be able to do something. Unlike what the news and tv claims, we are not entirely certain that these incidents are the fault of Sakauchi-kun; but to take no action? With no action we would never know if it was good or bad, so..."

"So it was like that."

"Does Araki-san know Sakauchi-kun?"

"No. I only knew of his existence after the incident."

"It looked like he left a suicide note... do you know of the details?"

"Yes. It was famous instantly: 'I'm not a dog'."

Not a dog...

"Do you know what it means?"

"I feel I can understand what he meant. Because sometimes I feel like a dog or some cattle. I'm micromanaged from the color of my hair to the color of my personal belongings; I'd get lectured for things from my language use to my attitude: it's just like disciplining a dog. That suicide note probably referred to something like this."

Ah ah, I understand where she is coming from. My school's school rules are not strict, but it's not like I don't know how strict the rules are in other schools. Not long ago, when I heard there was a rule like this: "the maximum time for a toilet break is 3 minutes", I wondered: did the makers of the rule have people in mind when they made it? 

"And then I thought, Sakauchi-kun must have hated the school; there are some people who say they have seen the ghost of Sakauchi-kun. That's why I thought the students of the school could properly console the soul of Sakauchi-kun. However the teachers did not allow us to do so. Somehow teachers always think that a gathering of large group of students means we are up to no good."

Eh eh. If it was Matsuyama, I'd easily believe he could say such things. 

Naru gently nodded.

"And besides these, would you know about the strange incidents that happened in this school?"

They, too, related countless tales experienced by themselves or their close friends.

The monk, looking frustrated, had given up taking notes midway.

After Araki-san's group left, the next group was represented by Miyasaki Masayo-san. This group had claimed to have been bitten by the black dog.

Disregarding the already frustrated monk and myself, Naru continued his questioning patiently.

"Then, Miyasaki-san?"

Looking small surrounded by her friends, Miyasaki-san raised her head. Her foot was bound by a white bandage. 

"Please."

"Yes. That..."

She scanned the room, frightened, before slowly starting to speak.

"Starting this autumn, strange things have been happening in our class. That is... we heard strange sounds; like the whining of a dog, with "he... he..." like breathing sounds. It was very discomforting. Then... who knows when... people started getting leg wounds. That was about December. It was just like being bitten by a dog, there were even bite marks." 

"Is that victim currently here?"

Naru scanned the group. A frail looking male student had raised his hand.

"What was the situation?"

"That is, while many described hearing the dog's sounds, I have never heard it, and I thought they were only lies. Then one day during class I suddenly felt pain in my foot. It was a sudden spike of pain. I examined my foot after class and found a bite mark. As I was wearing long pants it wasn't a big deal, there was only a little blood; there were also puncture holes through the uniform."

Naru nodded, and turned once more to Miyasaki-san and had her continue.

"Yes... After that incident similar incidents would occasionally occur, but no one ever saw the dog... until recently..."

"On the day of that incident, who was the first to be bitten?"

Naru asked. One of the girls replied.

"It was I."

"And what happened?"

That girl shrugged.

"Nothing much, I was just suddenly bitten by something. There are around 5 others who were bitten after that. I realized what had happened and jumped up in shock. The teacher asked me what had happened; I said I had been bitten. And then the student beside me pointed to the side of my foot and said: 'there’s a dog.' When I looked down, I saw a black dog running past my foot."

"Nearly everyone in the class saw the dog?"

Miyasaki-san nodded. Then, in a whisper,

"It was actually a lie."

Eh?

"I mean, the teacher said he did not see the dog; that was a lie. Because, the teacher fled the classroom with us. But on the papers, the teacher nevertheless claimed not to have seen it. Then we asked that teacher, he denied seeing it."

All the students nodded in agreement to Miyasaki-san's words.

"Does anybody have any theories about the reason for the appearance of the dog?"

Naru asked. A different male student said,

"Initially it wasn't a dog but a fox."

"A fox?"

"Yes. For a period of time, our school... eh?"

He looked around him. The 2 female students sitting on either side of him continued urgently,

"Please, what was it?"

"Trying to hide it won't work; the briefest investigation would reveal all." 

She said this, looking straight at Nrau.

"For a period of time, it was very popular to play Kokkuri-san (summoning Fox Spirit) in our school. Because of that, we thought it was a fox doing the haunting. All this while, until we saw the dog, everyone believed it was just a fox."

Naru's expression turned solemn.

"Our school is managed very strictly; if we were caught the punishment would be severe. Everyone was playing in secret, it was really popular."

Miyasaki-san said, stuttering.

"Probably very few have not played."

"Is there anyone amongst you who have not played?"

Naru's question did not receive a single reply.

Naru nodded in understanding, and asked if they knew of the other strange incidents in the school. Like the last time, there were so many peculiar stories that I could faint.