ShinSekai Yori:Part 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 2

For a little longer, I shall continue talking of my childhood.

In Kamisu 66, children must begin attending elementary school at the age of 6. The one I went to was called Harmony Elementary 'Wakien'. There were two more identical schools in the town with the names Friendship Elementary 'Yuuaien' and Virtue Elementary 'Tokuikuen'.

At that time, the population of Kamisu 66 was a little over 3000 people. Later, after some investigation, I came to understand that under the education systems of ancient times, the presence of three such schools in a town of this size would have been very unusual. However, this itself, is an extremely eloquent indicative characteristic of the true nature of the society I was born and raised in. As another example, I understand that in the same time period, approximately half of the adults who comprised society, were for whatever reason, engaged in some form of education or training.

It seems hard to imagine how this could be practical for a society operating under a monetary economy. However, based on a foundation of cooperation and services rendered free of charge, our town never had any such thing as currency from the very beginning and, an arrangement was established in which, when a field is truly needed, capable people naturally turn to it.

Harmony Elementary was located about 20 minutes walk from my home. It could be reached much more quickly by use of the waterways but, for a child, the only way to propel the boat was to row with large heavy oars so, walking was always easier.

The Elementary Schools were built in quiet locations slightly removed from the city center. Harmony Elementary was located a short distance south of Chinowa village. The school building was an old one-story wooden building with a black luster to it, constructed in the shape of the letter 'A'. At the entryway, which was located at the horizontal bar of the A, the first thing that grabs the eye is a framed sign hanging on the front wall containing the Chinese Characters "以和為貴" The passage, which is the first line off a 17-part constitution written by an ancient prince named Shoutoku Taishi, is said to be properly read as "Harmony is to be valued above all." This seems to be the origin of the name Harmony Elementary , but where the characters for Friendship Elementary 'Yuuaien' and Virtue Elementary 'Tokuikuen' were taken from is unknown to me. *link to info on the characters used*

The rest of the horizontal bar consisted of staff rooms and class rooms and, advancing right along the corridor, one comes to the right vertical rod in which many classrooms were lined up. If all of the schools students were assembled there would probably have been just 500 or so but, I think there were more than 20 classrooms in all. The left side of the vertical bar was the management building, which students were forbidden to enter.

On the campus at the forward side of the A shaped school building was a sports field, which had horizontal bars and other playground equipment, as well as an enclosure where many different animals were raised. These included Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, and Hamsters. The looking after of the animals, was done by a duty system that the students had come to use. At the corner of the campus, a white painted wooden 'stevenson screen'[1] box stood alone. It's purpose remains unknown to me. In all of the six years in which I attended Harmony Elementary, not once did I ever see it used for anything.

The inner yard enclosed by the three school buildings was an extremely mysterious place. Students were strictly forbidden to enter and, there were no tasks that required one to go there.

Aside from in the Administration Building there were no windows facing the courtyard and, unless one happened to be present by chance at a time when the teaching staff opened the door leading to it, there was no way to catch a glimpse of it.

".....so, what do you think was in the inner courtyard?"
Satoru, a faintly ominous smile appearing on his face, looked around at everyone as we all held our breath.

"Wait a minute. There's no way Satoru would have seen it, right?"
I said, finally unable to bear the excessive tension Satoru was drawing out.

"Well, I didn't see it first hand. But, there is a witness who saw it perfectly."
Satoru interrupted, an offended look appearing on his face.

"Who?"

"No one you would know Saki"

"Is it not a student?"

"It's a student, but one that already graduated"

"What, really?"
I said, openly showing my distrust.

"Hey, that kind of thing doesn't matter, so hurry up and tell us what he saw."
Said Maria. From all around, noises of agreement were made.

"Yeah. well, people who don't want to believe me don't have to listen, but....."
Said Satoru, sarcastically glancing my way. I pretended not to notice. It would have been okay to walk away at this point but I still wanted to hear the rest.

"At times when students are present, the teachers absolutely never open the door leading to the courtyard right? That oak wood door in front of the administration building. But, this one time, it seems by chance they opened the door without making sure that no one was behind them."

"We already heard that part!"
Ken pointed out.

"And what was in there was..... unbelievably, a huge number of, gravestones!"
He was obviously just showing off but, everyone got caught up as though it were interesting.

"Woah....."

"No way."

"Creepy"

Maria covered her ears with both hands in an exaggerated fashion.

Thinking this was getting quite stupid I asked.
"But, whose graves are they?"

"Eh?"
The horror story being far more effective than expected, a complacent smile on his face, Satoru seemed as though worn hallow.

"I mean, that huge number of graves, who do they all belong to?"

"That kind of thing, I have no idea. At any rate, it was a staggering number of graves that were there."

"Why would anyone ever feel the need to place graves in a school's courtyard of all places?"

"Like I said, I don't know such details."
Satoru was being extremely unfair in that he seemed intent on persisting in passing off all of the things he could not explain with the reasoning that, it was just hearsay so, he could not be expected to know more.

".....By any chance, might they be the graves of students?"
At Ken's words , everyone fell silent.

"Students? From when? And how did that many of them die?"
Maria asked in a low voice.

"I don't know but, I've heard there are people who disappear along the way, never graduating from Harmony Elementary....."
In all three of our towns elementary schools, students were admitted together each year as a group but, for reasons that will be explained later, was done "early summer rain" style.??? However, feeling for some reason or another that Ken's words this time were touching on a deep taboo, everyone came to be at a loss for words.

At that time, Shun, who had been a few seats away reading a book, turned towards us. With the light from the window showing through them, one could tell that his eyelashes were very long.

"There was nothing like graves inside."
Everyone felt as though saved by Shun's words but, suddenly, serious doubts arose.

"What do you mean, they weren't there? How do you know that?"
I carelessly asked Shun, expressing what everyone was thinking.

"The time I saw it, there was nothing like that inside."

"Eh?"

"Shun saw it?"

"Really?"

"You're kidding?"
As though a dam had broken, everyone's questions poured out. His place in the spotlight having been stolen, Satoru alone seemed to become haggard.

"I didn't really want to talk about it. Last year, there was a time when hardly anyone had their homework ready on time. The science class free observation assignment. I was asked by the teacher to collect the assignments from everyone and bring them to the administration building."
Everyone forgot to breathe as they awaited Shun's next words, but Shun took his time placing a bookmark between the pages of the book he had been reading.

"It was a room with many books in it and from the windows one could see the courtyard, however, what I saw there, was a somewhat strange thing. In any case, it wasn't a bunch of graves."

It seemed as though he intended to end the story at that point. About 10 questions came to my mind, but I restrained myself, taking a long slow breath.

"Don't mess with us."
Satoru blurted out, in a voice more disturbing than I had ever heard from him before.

"What exactly do you mean by Strange? At least try to explain it properly!"
I thought this was arrogant for one who had himself given no explanation, but I wanted to hear Shun's answer too, so I didn't meddle.

"Hmm. How best to describe it. Within a spacious place, were these brick storage room like things with tiled rooves. About five of them were lined up in a row. Each one had a large wooden door attached to the front."
Shun's answer had not really explained anything, but it had a strange feeling of truth to it. Satoru clicked his tongue, obviously no longer wanting to go any more deeply into the matter.

"So, Satoru. What did that graduated student say he saw?"
As I continued to rub it in, Satoru seemed to realize his disadvantageous position, and was at a loss for words.

"Like I said, it was hearsay, so I don't know all the details. That person could have been mistaken or, it's also possible that, at that time, there might still have been graves there."

If that were the case, the graves would have to have been dug up.
"Then, why were the graves removed?"

"I don't understand that much..... but, you know? That frightening thing that person saw, wasn't just graves."
While being perused, Satoru smoothly and skillfully changed the subject.

"What did he see?"
As usual, Maria like a stupid fish clinging by the teeth goes.

"No way, I asked first. I'm not going to wait around to listen to some scary story Satoru makes up."
I was just teasing but, Satoru took it seriously.

"It isn't a lie. That person definitely saw it. Although it wasn't actually in the courtyard....."

"Yeah yeah."

"So, the dreadful thing, what did he see?"
Ken, as though at the limit of what he could stand said.

Although he must certainly have felt like smiling complacently inside, Satoru maintained an expressionless face as he declared.
"The shadow of an enormous cat."
I knew it was true.

In this kind of situation, I have to admire Satoru's cleverness at the art of conversation. If there were an occupation in which one created frightening stories, I have no doubt that Satoru would be able to become the best at it. Of course, whatever kind of society one goes to, I couldn't imagine such a stupid job being established.

"Was it, a Trickster Cat.....?"
Maria, though not normally wanting to hear of such things asked, and everyone began speaking simultaneously.

"It seems that TricksterCats, often appear near elementary schools."

"Why would that be?"

"Isn't that obvious? They're hunting children!"

"I've heard that they often come out on dark evenings in the Autumn."

"However, they may also come to homes, usually in the dead of night....."

We had always been both afraid of the darkness, yet also attracted to it at the same time. We were extremely fond of scary stories about evil creatures that come out of the mountains, and among them, TricksterCats were beings that brought a terrible shiver to think of. The stories circulated from child to child and, it was certain that various exaggerations had been included but. The basic form of the TricksterCat was that of a cat as large as an adult human. It's appearance was very much that of a cat, but with bizarrely long limbs. It was said to follow behind targeted children like a shadow. Attacking when no other humans are around, they stretch up on their hind legs, using their forefeet to push one down by the shoulders. As this happens, the child's entire body becomes numb as though hypnotized. The TricksterCat then crushes the child's throat with it's mouth that opens 180 degrees, before dragging them off somewhere. This would all be done without spilling one drop of blood, and even the bodies of those taken are never found.

"And then? That person, where did he see the TricksterCat?"

"He was never certain whether it was a TricksterCat. All he saw was it's shadow."

Satoru, the confusion and such from just before seeming to have been blown away on the wind, with great confidence said.
"But, the shadow that he saw, was at a spot very close to the courtyard."

"What do you mean by close? There aren't any other ways to get in and out of the courtyard from outside right?

"Not from the outside"

"Eh?"

I never really anything in Satoru's stories but, for some reason, this time, a chill went down my spine.

"The place where the shadow was seen, was the end of corridor leading to the administration building. And, right in front of the door leading to the courtyard, it disappeared....."
At this, no one could form a single word.

Vexing though it may be, I suppose it was just as well that the situation turned out just as Satoru wanted. In any case, it was no more than one of the foolish ghost stories that children liked to tell together. At that time, I still believed this to be true.

Looking back, I think that the time in which I attended Harmony Elementary was a happy one. Being able to meet my friends every day that I went to school alone, was enough for it to be impossible not to have fun.

From the morning, Arithmetic, Japanese, and Science, were a long stretch of boring class work but, thanks to the fact that there were academic advising teachers who, in addition to the teachers who taught normal lessons in the classroom, would individually see to each child’s level of understanding, kindly and thoroughly explaining any points they did not understand, the very idea of leaving anyone behind did not exist.

On the other hand, there were an excessive number of exams. We must have been made to take some kind of test at least once every 3 days. However, these were mostly things that had no connection to education, including short writing assignments such as completing the statement "I am sad, the reason is ....." and other such similar things that never became that much of a burden.

Rather, the thing that was difficult was Self Expression Presentations by far. Picture drawing, clay sculpture making and the like were fun but, the essays we were made to write almost every day were annoying. On the other hand, it may be thanks to the practice I piled up at that time that I am now able to compose this memorandum with a minimum of effort.

[More to come Soon. Literal translation is about done, but converting this chapter to sensical English while still maintaining accuracy is proving more work than anticipated. -Dusanh]

Translation Notes

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