Phenomeno:Case 04

Case 04: The hole in the clock tower

It’s dark. The air I breathe in stabs at my nostrils. I don’t know if my surroundings are narrow or spacious. In any case, I’m inside a room. It’s an ancient room that hasn’t been ventilated in years; stagnated air drifted all around me. And if you were to ask me where I was, all I could say was that I didn’t have a clue. At any rate, all of this is a blur, a vague impenetrable space where the inorganic and organic are directly connected; in other words, it's probably a dream I'm having.

That summer – even though I recall it like that, it’s barely been a month since then, we’re still in the middle of summer now, and my memories from childhood had been restored properly. You could say it was a curse, a distortion of memory that was hard to believe if you heard about it. I became aware of that thanks to the help and kindness of many people, and after straddling the line between this world and that world, I returned alive. I managed to retrieve my correct memories. Since then, I've been able to get a good night’s sleep, and I stopped dreaming - or so I thought.

“So, after a long time, it’s this kind of dream.”

I raised my voice in a whine inside the dream. I've heard that people usually dream, no matter how many times they say they don't dream. It’s just that they don’t remember, which could mean that I might have been dreaming as usual all this time. It had been a long time since I felt this feeling: the realization that I was inside a dream.

It was cold and pitch dark; I couldn’t see anything at all. I felt I was enclosed by ancient wood and a large amount of dust. I touched the floor with my hands and felt a rough and stone-built texture. And, this dream was filled to the brim with a nightmare characteristic --- There was no doubt about it. Something terrible is going to happen from now on.

“….Hey, give me a break.”

I couldn’t help but raise such a feeble point of view.

Dreams – they themselves have already become a trauma for me.

“When you dive into the world of the deep subconscious, it’s basically impossible to conclude if it’s a dream or not.”

I recalled the words of Krishna-san. But, the dream I’m having right now, was not a melding of reality and dream like the one before. My consciousness was much clearer than before. I obviously understood that this was a dream. However, even if this was just a one-off nightmare, I didn’t want to dream anymore if possible. Having to once again taste that feeling of not being able to return is so terrifying that I feel like my knees are going to collapse.

It was that moment.

From one part of the dark room, I heard a cracking sound. At the same time, I noticed it… the smell of mothballs, similar to the smell of mothballs when you open an old chest of drawers, wafting through the air. I slowly turned my head, and faced that direction. Two meters ahead of me to the right side. In that darkness, someone was there.

“W….Who is it?”

I strained my eyes but, it was too dark to make out anything. That slender figure was facing away from me. They were standing stock still with their face turned towards the wall. That person wouldn’t move at all. They didn’t reply. Was it a woman, or a man? Was it a young person, or an older person? I didn’t know. Something in the shape of a human being, which could not convey any emotion, stood still.

Once more, I heard a sound.

This time, it was a heavy clanking sound, as if two metals were bashing against each other.

That moment, a light shined in from somewhere. A few meters ahead of me, I saw a light similar to that of a full moon. I felt fresh air pumping in from there. I ran. For the time being, I’d had enough of this darkness. With those thoughts, I stumbled forward and desperately moved my legs.

---What is that person standing close to the wall?

---Why am I in this kind of dream?

Even though I knew it was a dream, but the events of the past amplified the fear in me. At any rate, my mind was blank -- without thinking anything, I ran towards that light. Beyond the hole, I saw a blue sky. The air was so clear and thick with oxygen that it was hard to believe how good it was, and as I drew closer, it was like I had just finished an underwater dive. In spite of all that, I took a glance behind me.

Before I knew it, the person close to the wall was looking my way.

That face was contorted with delight, and there was a pleasure in it, like things were going the way they planned. It was, maybe, a fraction of a second. The moment I perceived that distorted emotion, I was attacked with an incomprehensibly deep regret. But that didn't stop my body from moving, and I kept rushing ahead into that round hole that gave me a glimpse of fresh air and the outside world. If I shouted there, I could call someone, I thought to myself. I could call someone who could help me get out of here. I rushed ahead with that hope.

The moment I felt the hard, cold feel of the mud wall around my neck --- I knew what the true nature of that regret was.

I heard something sliding down with a vigorous crunching sound.

My head was chopped clean off, together with my consciousness.

“…Ughoooooh!!!!”

I woke up from my dream with a groan.

I took a deep, long breath, realizing my body was soaking wet. My heart was still beating so hard, I could hear it clearly. Repeating my deep breaths, I removed the vestiges of the dream still clinging to my consciousness. Then, the carefree announcement of the train conductor reached my ears. He repeated in a nasal voice, "Arriving at Odawara soon”.

In my ears, in my consciousness, the hustle and bustle returned. It was the middle of the summer, the merry voices of children, and a salary man-like voice brazenly using his cell-phone inside the train. I opened and closed my sweaty palms a few times, and looked around. I was in a bullet-train bound for Tokyo.

“Calm down, It was a dream…Just a nightmare. It was different from that dream.” Shaking my head, I muttered to myself.

The glistening sun poured into the landscape flowing outside the window. In the distant horizon, a giant column of clouds rose up. Even though the air conditioner was working inside the train, the unrelenting heat from outside the window kept pouring inside.

It was the last half of August.

I was in the bullet train headed back towards Tokyo.

“I guess I read a little too much of ‘Ikaigabuchi’ yesterday.”

I had decided to return to Tokyo yesterday morning.

It was in the morning after I had finished eating breakfast with my father and sister; I was drinking barley tea and watching TV. When the newscaster announced with a frown:

“In Musashino disctrict, Tokyo, the phenomenon of fish falling from the sky has once again occurred.”

---What? Surprised, I turned up the volume of the television; it seemed a large number of sardines had fallen down in Inokashira park this time. Last time it was Isaki fish in Musashisakai station if I recall correctly. I heard that was only juvenile fish. They didn't say if the sardines were juvenile fish or not, but the news was accompanied by an expert who said it may have been because of a local tornado caused by extreme weather. Well, that makes sense from a common sense point of view, but the occult fans around the nation have a different perspective.

Impossible things falling down from the sky --- That is, what has been observed since ancient times: the supernatural phenomenon known as『Strange Rain』. Known as an omen of a natural disaster, it was actually a famous supernatural phenomenon among us.

A few days ago, when I heard the news of the Isaki fish falling down, I thought:

---Isn’t something intriguing about to begin?

Since that incident, after my memories had been changed fully, I had been keeping my distance from occult topics, but then decided to access Ikaigabuchi after a long time. The forum thread on the board that was at the top had quickly reached over a hundred replies; there was a tumultuous uproar and a heated debate over the strange rain phenomenon that had occurred in Musashino.

Ah, isn’t this great? Joining an occult discussion after a long time, my heart was feeling excited. At first I thought it was dangerous and I should cut off my access to the site, but my mind had recovered more so than I thought. I wasn’t feeling that wobbly shaking in the place I stood. I didn’t feel that sense of hopelessness, as if the world I believed in was falling apart. It was just a doorway to an exciting adventure into unknown territory. Hadn’t I already gotten better? Didn’t the foundation of my soul harden well enough already? From that point on, I started reading articles on Ikaigabuchi everyday as usual. I burned every corner of the articles in my retinas to make up for time lost. Krishna-san had been diligently updating the site every day. When I was reminded of her petite body and lovely face, my love of the occult filled my heart even more.

When I was at my parent’s home, I was definitely at harmony. My old friends are kindred spirits, and even when I'm asleep, I’m served with food. But unfortunately, it's just not exciting enough. Time there just moves too slowly. Above all, I’m missing that dazzling ghost factor that I was basked in with my move to Tokyo. In the first place, it was problematic that I was taking time off my part-time job; even if I wasn’t living there my apartment still cost rent. And on top of that, I still owed my sister the rent money.

I should return to Tokyo soon.

I kept thinking that, but, it was still me after everything that had happened. I had been dithering about and not making a decision, and then this incident literally fell down again.

The Tokyo Musashino incident was a continuation of the strange rain phenomenon. I couldn’t stand still any longer. In the first place, summer is supposed to be all about ghost stories. In the time I’ve spent here in Fujieda, there were exciting ghost stories happening on Ikaigabuchi every day. This is painful. I want to be involved. Something exciting should happen to me!

….So, I packed my bags at a speed that would have stunned my family, and the next day I jumped on the bullet train.

I arrived at Tokyo station, going straight to Mitaka. I got off and, without even stopping by at my apartment, I headed straight towards Koumei university with a souvenir in my hand, and barged into the building on the western side.

“I’m back!” With a big smile on my face, I opened the iron door; at the same time I heard a cute scream from the inside, and saw Krishna-san fall off from her chair.

When I looked, next to the fallen Krishna-san, were two chairs; on one of them was a washtub, next to that was a side table with several empty ice cups. There were several drinks lying on the working table, besides that there were several handheld fans, and some water balloons lying on the floor.

“Huh? What were you doing, Krishna-san?”

“T-that’s what I should be asking you, what are you doing here?!” Krishna-san pushed up her trademark red glasses that were about to slip off, then hastily adjusted the bottom part of her exposed one piece dress. If I were to guess from that red face—Aha! Apparently, she was enjoying the summer in a very informal outfit.

“I see, you were lying back on the chair, with your legs on the back of the other chair, and your feet soaked in the washtub?"

“S-s-shut up! Why are you here? Did you already return from Fujieda?”

“I had too much free time.” I replied with a smile and dropped the large quantity of luggage on the floor.

“F-free time?”

“Ah, this is a souvenir for you, It’s from my sister and father.” I took out the packed souvenir, before Krishna-san quickly began to spit out a torrent of abuse.

“No, I don’t need something like a souvenir. Besides that, what do you mean you had free time? Didn’t I already tell you that the free time, was meant to be extremely important for you? Altering your out of sync childhood memories is a lot more serious than you think!”

“No, I’m fine now. I can properly open the fusuma, and I also went to visit her grave, all the distortions have been completely fixed in order and taken root in my heart.”

Saying that, I stood up straight, and once again bowed to Krishna-san.

“Everything is thanks to you and the others. You have my deepest thanks.”

I really, really thought that from the bottom of my heart. Now when I think on it, for a long, long time, I felt as if I'd been dreaming about it. And because of the discrepancies in my memory, I realized I had somehow raised a ghost inside me, and became drawn to the world of the occult.

“No-no, it’s not like I really did anything.” Krishna-san was caught off guard at my deepest thanks and stammered her words.

“I only ascertained the line; there is a line in this world that people mustn’t cross. I only warned you because were about to cross it.”

“That’s exactly it.”

“Eh?”

“About that, I decided to write this.” Saying that, I took a letter out of my bag. Written in a word processor, It was my application for joining the club.

“A-application?”

“Yes, it has my proper signature and has a seal attached. As of today, I’m joining the Bee research lab. No, rather than Beetnik research – I’m becoming a staff member of Ikaigabuchi!”

“N-no…. wait a minute.”

“No, I’ve already thought about it thoroughly. Even after all that, I'm still drawn to the occult. I'm fascinated by not only ghosts, but also UFOs, UMAs, perpetual motion machines, cursed artifacts sent through time travel, and all sorts of other wonders – Or should I say, I've come to realize that I love these mysterious phenomena.”

“Oi, Nagi-kun. You’re not liste--”

“No, please just listen to me. I don't want to be scared like that anymore either. I know what happened probably pushed my mind to its limit. No, I think it did go over the limit. I’m saying that because I understand that fear very well. But even after all that, after my mind has been properly arranged, I’m still drawn to the paranormal. I found myself trying to peer into the deep and unfathomable world. And that scares me. I know that there is a part of this world that I shouldn't be involved in, and yet the fool in me still tries to get involved. They say that you have to die to be cured of stupidity, but if that's really the case, then I'm going to have to die. But, my life is a precious thing given to me by my parents, so I can’t die that easily. Then, what should I do? I thought desperately and found this answer.”

Saying that, I handed Krishna-san the white piece of paper.

“In short, It would be best for me to be next to Krishna-san!”

“….”

“For example, you know that occult topic about the moon being artificially built, right? About the moon being in fact, built by aliens as a monitoring satellite for earth, its insides being hollow, the dark side of the moon hidden from earth’s view having a landing base for UFOs -- that kind of exciting rumor. Now, I know you're raising your eyebrows in disapproval at me, but just listen to me for a second. There's no way for us ordinary people to verify that no matter what we do, right? That’s right. We can’t verify it, and that’s why our imaginations are stimulated and we get excited. But say, I win some kind of fortune and gain some authority, and I charter a rocket to go to the moon. Then I’d look around every nook and cranny. As a result, What if it turns out that the moon was not actually created by aliens, but was a relic of a very advanced civilization of prehistoric humans? Yes, it’s 65.5 million years in the past. If I found out that the descendants of a small number of moon-dwelling, super-ancient humans who survived that "K-T boundary", where an asteroid struck the Yucatan peninsula in the Cretaceous period and wiped out nearly all life, the descendants of the super-ancient humans who live on the moon are the ones in the UFOs that are often spotted around the world. I’d probably shout in surprise, but at the same time, I’d certainly feel lonely. The hope that there may be intelligent life beyond this distant, vast universe, and the idea that they might have come all the way to earth, overcoming the dizzying infinity of space, would be shattered. I think I’d also feel disappointed, knowing that it’s impossible to go to the outer galaxy, after all. Ah, if that's all there was to it, it would have been okay. But say, you’re at your home, and before you knew it, there would be foreigners dressed in black wandering around your house, and the next thing you knew, you’d be kidnapped, and those people would be Americans or Russian agents in collusion with these super-ancient humans, and then they’d be like ‘hahaha, you’ve learned a bit too much’, and then you'd be brainwashed, or secretly buried somewhere deep in the ground, or electronically disassembled by some bizarre device, what would you do? I'm sure my final thoughts before death would be: Ah, how lucky I was to be able to fantasize about the mysteries of this world! Why didn’t I realize the greatness of having the courage to stop there? As the scenery would fade in front of my eyes, I’d surely lament that. And then surely….surely at the end I’d recall Krishna-san’s face. That person warned me of all sorts of things. If you peek from this side, you will be end up seen from the other side -- I was admonished over and over again. That was correct, I’d say with a single tear dropping down --- Ah, I’m sorry, I got a bit too empathetic with myself and shed a tear ---- uhhh, In short, that’s how it is. Krishna-san knows that the world of the dead is always around the corner. Even though you’re concerned about that, you’re still probing the boundary line as a living person while also maintaining control of yourself. You make sure not to step into a place that shouldn’t be stepped into. Didn't you once tell me that it couldn't be helped that I had an interest? That wanting to know is one of the best qualities of a person. But for me, that quality was dangerous, and yet I still wanted to know, and I don't know why anymore. That’s why… I thought I would try to be by your side. I will stay away from anything you deem as being dangerous. I won’t look at the things you say not to look at; I won’t read the things you tell me not to read. So, it’s fine if you just let me help you with whatever I can. If I leave your side, I’d end up messing with things I shouldn’t have messed with. In order to not do that --- this is the only thing I can do!”

The next thing I knew, the petite occult manager’s face lay near before my eyes. With our noses almost touching, Krishna was just staring at me with her cute, half-open mouth.

--Am I, an idiot?

I suppose so, but these thoughts were also words that I had already asked myself time and time again in my head. When I lived in Fujieda for a month, when I became determined to return to Tokyo and left my home, when I was headed to Shizouka station, when I was riding the bullet train, when I was headed to Mitaka from Tokyo station, and finally, the twenty minutes I spent walking from the station to this club room. So I thought, and thought, and thought, and finally spat out these words. Certainly, my fervent speech was hotter than the air coming in from the window, though, they might also have been fervent enough to melt iron.

After a while--

Krishna-san cleared her throat, and silently whispered:

“In the first place, do you have an interest in Beatnik literature?”

“What?”

“Ostensibly, this is a place to research Beatnik literature. After mastering that topic, I run Ikaigabuchi as a hobby. If you're going to join this club, you're still going to have to learn about beatnik.”

Krishna-san then started shoving old books in my hand from a cabinet.

“I'd tell you to read from Herbert Hankle first of all, but you should read these before next week.”

It was the collected works from authors who represented the Beatnik generation: Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac.

“I…I have to read all of these?”

“That’s obvious, there’s more material to read as well.”

I flipped through the flimsy, yellowed pages, and felt dejected. They were all really thick and the letters were small.

Damn --- I saw Krishna-san’s slender figure rummaging through the cabinets looking for more books to give me.

“W…Wait a minute? In other words, are you giving me permission to join?”

Krishna-san pushed up her glasses with her middle finger as she replied.

“It can’t be helped, right? The director doesn’t have the authority to turn down someone who wants to join the club, and I know well enough that the people who like this genre aren’t the type who would listen.”

She looks at me coldly and adds:

“That’s right, a fool like you who excels at delusions without knowing your place, it’s better for you to remain within my sight, or else I’d be troubled.”

“Then, then – does that mean I can help you with posting updates on Ikaigabuchi?”

I asked with my eyes glittering excitedly.

“No, there’s a condition for that.” Krishna-san abruptly raised one finger. “You must never look at anything unless I tell you it’s ok to look at.”

“Of course.”

“You must immediately inform me if you notice anything remotely strange.”

“That helps me too.”

“And – this one is the problem.”

Krishna-san looked at me after a pause. She glared at me with her big eyes, and opened her mouth as if she had decided.

“Don’t associate with Yoishi Mitsurugi anymore.”

“…With Yoishi?”

“That’s right; you’re not in contact with her, right?”

“No, no… not since then.”

It was that day, when I said farewell to her at Tokyo station. I didn’t know any way to contact her in the first place. I didn’t know her phone number, or her email, or her address. The only thing I remember is, her being a first-year in high school.

“Then it’s fine. Before, I irresponsibly told you that if you wanted to associate with her, you should put your whole life into it -- I take that back. When you officially become a member of the club, the safety of the club member will be the responsible of the club director.”

“Yes.”

“There’s no doubt about it, she sees ghosts. We stand in a different place than her. When you associate with her, you are inevitably involved with the affairs of the world beyond. And that is definitely---“

With her large eyes, Krishna-san looked at me and declared.

“---Not a world you or I can deal with.”

---

Yoishi Mitsurugi, the high school girl with long jet black hair, skin as white as pottery, possessing beauty akin to a western doll. A girl with the bizarre quality of responding to all kinds of monstrosities and amplifying their horror. What you would call a denpa in terms of internet slang. Suddenly spreading her crazy occult delusions into the world, causing problems for those around her -- she’s that kind of denpa.

I associated with her, I tasted bottomless fear, but as a result, I was able to confirm the correct place where I should stand. Her powers of concentration are not normal when it comes to the occult, to the point of being left speechless, however, if she hadn’t been close to me at that time, I would have stayed held down, swallowed by that deep darkness, unable to return back.

At the same time, I could understand Krishna-san’s concerns.

She is, in one way or the other, extraordinary in many terms. She doesn’t know how to adjust; neither can she read the situation like a normal person could. Generally speaking, her own curiosity is the foremost priority, and she holds no care nor concern for other people’s feelings. Things like taboos hold the same meaning as broken down doors in front of her.

However, it was a fact that Yoishi and I hadn’t contacted each other even once since then, Come to think of it, her writings had disappeared from the bulletin board of Ikaigabuchi, which I had started browsing again recently. I went back and read all the posts from quite a while ago, so I'm sure of it. It was as if she had sunk into the sea of the internet, and all traces of her had vanished.

“She might have stopped posting, but maybe she’s still looking at logs.” I muttered.

For the time being, I decided to return back to my apartment.

Speaking of Yoishi, I recalled her last words when I reached Tokyo station.

“Next time, if we meet again...”

She had said with a somewhat tense expression.

“I’ll become your friend.”

Those were the words spoken after the train door had closed, so I’m not sure if that’s what it was. But I really feel that those were the words she frantically uttered with her lip movements. I mean, what did she mean when she said we would become friends. You don’t become friends after declaring it out loud like that, right? Usually, you’d end up hanging out with someone after getting along with them, you go through various things with them, you feel a sense of respect for their values and spirituality, and before you know it, you’d become friends -- No, it's not even worth talking about such things so seriously. Put simply, just hanging out with someone is enough to be able to call them your friend.

Whatever it is, she’s eccentric in all sorts of ways, and she’s beyond compare in terms of her peculiarities.

After all I(without holding any grudges towards Yoishi), was fed up of the feeling of the world beyond she was dragging me into. After all, only gazing at the occult from a slight distance away was enough excitement for me.

I kept thinking thoughts like that alone as I walked, before long I was in front of my apartment building in Tokyo. The scorching sun had completely drenched my T-shirt in sweat. For the time being, I should put away my luggage, change my clothes and head over to my part-time work place for greetings – it was the moment I was at my front door.

“Hey- Nagi-kun”

I turned to face the seemingly happy face, in front of the corridor was a glamorous beauty dressed in a black camisole.

“Ah, Karasu-san. Long time no see.”

It was the self-proclaimed fortune teller, one of the seniors of Ikaigabuchi, Karasu was her handle name. Of course, I still didn’t know her real name.

“You’re back then? You seemed to have tanned pretty well.”

“Oh, the reason I’m tanned is because I’ve been helping with all sorts of things: like weeding, washing the car, wholesaling lumber. In other words, I was worked hard by my father and sister, and ended up running away.”

That's what I said, but Karasu-san wasn't even looking at me anymore. I found her crouched at my feet, she started tearing the wrapping off the paper bag containing the souvenir.

“Ah, that souvenir was for my boss….”

“Wow—this is a green tea rice dumpling with chocolate paste! Super, super, super delicious! So soft and moist! I'm so happy--! It's true what they say: the friend to have is a neighbor who has a warm countryside home.” Saying things like that, Karasu-san threw a bite in her mouth. That’s right -- this person was my neighbor, my benefactor who introduced this cheap apartment to me. With pretty black hair, age unknown, a nostalgic beauty but, she also had other peculiar idiosyncrasies; even Krishna-san couldn’t control her words or actions.

“It’s so delicious – I can’t stop – “

“Hey – Karasu-san! You’re probably way richer than me, so stop leeching off of poor students like me already.”

“So cruel! I’m not leeching! It’s so sad to see a guy eating alone, so I’m going through all the trouble of eating with you!”

“Then, at least prepare your own meals. Isn’t coming to a person’s house with just a bowl strange enough? In the first place, your house isn’t here, isn’t it located in the high-rise apartment complex with a huge terrace in front of the station? The apartment next door is nothing more than a meaningless storage space for you, so please don't come to my place this often. Besides that, it’s a nuisance for you to be wandering around this neighborhood in that getup of yours.”

I said, pointing to the camisole that was revealing part of her plump white breasts.

“Oh? So you’re embarrassed? There’s no need for that, don’t act no reserved. It’s not as if I want to fool around with a fresh bumpkin boy who ran away from the sticks.” Karasu-san laughed in a foolish way as she clapped me on the shoulders.

“But you know—“, the black haired fortune teller spoke, as soon as she had finished gobbling down three more dumplings. “Even though I said you ran away from there, the real reason is that, right? You got curious about the strange rain and rushed back here, right?”

“…….”

I became silent after being seen through so easily; Karasu-san smirked.

“We have similar interests, after all; you don't have to be a fortune teller to know that. Say—that is quite interesting, isn’t it? Right now Ikaigabuchi is in an uproar. Me too, If I knew the place where it’s going to happen next I’d rush over there.”

Come to think of it, I had been so occupied with getting Krishna-san’s permission for joining the club, I forgot to ask her about the important ‘Mushashino’s consecutive strange rain incident’. I asked unintentionally, “About that strange rain incident, is there anyone who saw it happen? The scene of the fish raining down?”

“No, there was someone who uploaded a picture taken in front of the station crammed with fish, but that was after everything was over. I want to see the moment everything was raining down.”

“Eh, so there isn’t any new information or anything?”

“Presently, we don’t know anything beyond what was reported in the news. There’s very little info on the net as well, Krishna-chan might have some ideas, but, that girl doesn’t speak out until everything is clear.”

“…That’s true.”

So I guess I'll have to wait until the manager of Ikaigabuchi makes an official comment about it. Well, as I’ve officially became a staff member of the Ikaigabuchi today, I’ll be able to get the information a little sooner. As I once again recall about that important position I gained today my expression loosened.

As I grinned, thinking of bragging about it to Karasu-san, she quickly gulped down her fourth dumpling and spoke:

“But, there’s a similar story at your school.”

“Huh?”

“You see, strange rain is famous for raining mummified fish and a large number of frogs, but it can also rain blood, right? So, a while ago on Ikaigabuchi, I read that that there’s a place like that in Koumei institute. Ehh... If I remember correctly… it was near the clock tower.”

--Clock tower?

--A rain of blood?

That sounds like an interesting story.

“W-where is that? That clock tower?”

“I don’t know, I’m not a student. Isn’t there one? A clock tower?”

“I’ve never seen it before. Or rather, this is my first time hearing about the existence of a clock tower.”

“Hmmm…? Well, I really did read about it.”

As I looked at Karasu-san, who was tilting her head in contemplation, I once again pictured the inside of the university.

The university I was attending: Koumei private university.

Established originally as a girl’s school, incorporated as a missionary school. It has a long history, dating back to the Meiji era. It’s famous for the beautiful zelkova trees that lead to the main gate, and I learned after I entered the university that it was known to the public as a university for the prestigious class. All the faculties are located side by side on the campus, and with the high school attached to it, it is quite a large institute. The buildings are arranged around the old main building, with the student’s hall on the east side. On the west side are the buildings of the arts and sciences faculty. Beyond that, sandwiched in between the zelkova trees, is the clubhouse building. To the north are the library, the science department building, and the multi-purpose hall. And on the far side of that is supposed to be the school sports grounds, But –

No, there’s no such thing as a clock tower anywhere.

“Hmm...... Was it the clock tower that you can't open? Or maybe it was a sealed clock tower? Anyway, there's a hidden room there, and there was a creepy incident there a long time ago, so there's blood raining around the clock tower.”

“Come on, try and remember it properly, Karasu-san.” I urged excitedly.

"Ah---perhaps," spoke Karasu-san while licking her Daifuku-dusted fingertips. “That place, has already been classified as an S rank.”

--

An S rank classified haunted place.

It's a haunted place that is said to be especially dangerous on the occult website Ikaigabuchi. On Ikaigabuchi, there are usually four ranks classified from rank A to D; In fact, the S ranking does not officially exist. The rankings themselves are investigated and determined by Krishna-san and the spiritually trained experts on a daily basis, with the main purpose of the site being to promote the separation of people and spirits, but if a place is currently dangerous, the article itself is deleted from the site as it’s a place that people shouldn’t know about.

--The rumored S-rank haunted place… in my university?

The information I gained from Karasu-san, greatly excited me. A huge event was occurring at the same time I returned to Tokyo. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to become a staff member in the first place, so I could encounter such spots that I would never have known about if I had only been a lurker on the website.

But-- when I went to the club room the next day and asked Krishna-san about it, she stared at me with the most horrible look in the world, “I don't know who told you that story, but…” she said, glaring at me with a terrifying look. “There's no such thing as a clock tower on the campus, and no such article about a rain of blood that was ever published in Ikaigabuchi.”

“…Ugh.”

“You may get all excited by yourself, but you should know better, Nagi-kun.”

Her words were cold enough to freeze a laughing baby’s face; I nodded in a panic.

“Generally speaking, the Fafrotskies phenomenon is not that rare and has sufficient scientific explanations to not be classified as an occult occurrence.”

“Faf…What is that?

“Fall from the skies, abbreviated as the Fafrotskies phenomenon. In short, it’s about the strange rain; the paranormal phenomenon in which fish, frogs, and other impossible things suddenly fall from the sky to a point on the earth's surface.

“Ah…the scientific explanation is like that, right? The tornado theory, or that one about abnormal increase in animal reproduction rates?

“You seem to know about it already. The Musashino incident is the same, if you roughly take a look at past cases worldwide; there are actually very few people who witnessed the rainfall directly. In short, it's mostly an accumulation of post-event phenomena, where there were supposedly a lot of impossible creatures in an impossible place. I said it before, didn’t I? Ninety-nine percent of ghost stories out there in the world are lies, delusions, or misunderstandings.”

“So, the cases of strange rain near Musashino are in that category?

”The temperature of the sea surface has been rising due to the abnormal weather in the past few years. The shift of the earth's axis caused by frequent earthquakes may be affecting the ecosystem. It wouldn't be surprising if there was an abnormal increase of a particular type of life in a particular place, or if it was simply a truckload of fish that collapsed.”

…Oof.

“But even so, the situation has caused such a big uproar that we can't rule out the possibility that some real ghosts might be involved – So we need to start gathering as much material as we can and investigate.”

With a thud, she handed me a large amount of A4 papers. It was so much that even as a man, I staggered when holding them - but when I looked up, there was more on the work table in the back.

“W-what is this?”

“It’s material from the middle ages about the Fafrotskies phenomenon that was in the British Library. I asked an acquaintance over there if he could send me some materials, and this arrived today. I thought it had been digitized, but here it is. We have to translate all of this as soon as possible.”

“Translate…all of it?”

“Of course, and we can’t just upload it to Ikaigabuchi like that, we also need to add the summary, analysis and give our own opinion on it.”

“T-thanks for the hard work.” I blurted out without thinking; Krishna-san raised her eyes in disgust.

“Why are you acting like it’s somebody else’s problem? You said you would become a member of Ikaigabuchi, right? From now on, you and I are going to do it together.”

“Ehhhh?”

“Go all out, Nagi-kun. Go at it like crazy.”

As expected, Krishna said this without much effort - but when I thought of the endless work involved, I practically fainted right there.

---

My life in Tokyo suddenly got a whole lot busier. Half of it was having all my free time consumed with doing translation work in my room, and the other half was my part time job. As soon as I gave my greetings at my work-place, I was told to go straight in and start my shift right away, as if I were making up for lost time. Basically, from the time I woke up in the morning until evening, I was face to face with Krishna-san, grappling with a mountain of research materials in the scorching hot club room without air conditioning, and from the time the sun went down until after midnight, I was at a stone-built Italian restaurant, smiling laboriously.

Day after day, I wiped the sweat from my face with the towel hanging around my neck, and with a thick dictionary in one hand, we both worked hard to translate the English documents. It was the first time since I studied for my entrance exams that I had to deal with such a huge number of English letters. Or rather, that time was still way easier compared to this. Roughly speaking, most of these documents were written in a literary style, occasionally the meaning of the English words used from the Middle Ages wasn’t even written in the dictionary. Some of the phrases are uniquely British, and every time I read them, my hand stopped. The bulky English-English dictionary was handier than the internet or the library. It was so difficult that even Krishna-san, a literature major, groaned, and my willpower, as an economics major, had already broken down a while ago.

--This is just impossible.

I don’t know how many times I uttered that line. It was still only around August; the summer vacation was still on. Outside the window, gigantic columns of clouds rose up in a nice pattern, and the sun shone in brightly. The city was full of girls in light dresses, and it was unbearable to spend time indoors, passing up the chance to experience all the youthful events like the beach, pools, and fireworks displays.

I thought that, but I naturally swallowed those words when I saw Krishna-san in front of me, her lovely eyebrows twisted into a frown as she scratched her head. If a girl was working this hard, a guy like me couldn’t give up so easily.

And, at the same time -- I finally realized something.

Up until now, this person has been doing all this work, all by herself. All of the extensive and in-depth articles in "Ikaigabuchi," which we, as occult fans all over the country, used to just read and enjoy, were surely the very fruit of this girl’s blood, sweat and tears.

Anyway, seeing Krishna-san raised my dipping morale, and I continued to frenetically go through the research materials. Waking up, I’d head to the club room straight away, translating diligently until evening. After that, I’d work at the Italian restaurant until late at night. I’d peel the garlic, wash the dishes and also serve as a waiter. I’d stagger home at closing time, sleep like a log, and go to the club room straight again the next day. The next day, and the day after that, repeating the same thing over and over again.

The only saving grace in all that was when I’d return back home to my apartment after work, plop down on my futon, and take a peek at Ikaigabuchi on my phone. As usual, everyone there was chatting cheerfully about ghosts.

--God damn it, it's so comfortable not knowing the hardships of others.

That's what I thought, but that reflected me until now. Just a few months ago, I was just a user of the site like the rest of them. Even though Krishna-san is busy doing translation work with me, but she still never misses posting daily updates on Ikaigabuchi. Knowing firsthand how hard it is to do, I can only groan.

As always, Yoishi’s whereabouts were unknown. I had a quick look around the busy forums, but I still couldn't find her posts anywhere.

“…I probably won’t meet her again, will I?”

I felt lonely as if a wind was blowing through my chest somewhere.

My summer vacation passed by in a flash.

---

It was quite dark in there.

Was it cramped or spacious around me? I couldn’t tell. However, my conscious was unusually clear, It’s a dream again, I thought. I could smell the dust and the staleness in the air. A closed space with no exit. This was the dream from the other day. I softly strained my eyes to my right side, and sensed someone standing over there facing the wall. I still had no idea who it was.

What was this dream anyway? Dreams are more or less a fragment of the scenery that you viewed sometime in reality. But I don’t remember ever visiting such a place in my reality.

The moment I thought that, I suddenly felt something foreign on my shoe. I jumped back as I stepped on something squishy on the sole of my foot. However, the place I moved to also had the same squishy stuff. It was everywhere I moved my foot to. What the hell is this?

Crouching in fear, I touched that strange material with my hand and shuddered, it was the carcass of a fish. The floor was covered with countless fish carcasses, and at the same time, the rotten smell of fish decay struck my nose, making me cough violently.

---W-Why fish?

Did they appear in my dream because I was researching Fafrotskies phenomenon?

While I was in a panic, I heard another clattering sound somewhere. A few meters ahead of me, Light like a full moon peeked out. Anyway, I don't care where, as long as I can get away from this rotten air. Anywhere is fine as long as I can get away from this creepy place. With that thought in mind, I stumbled through the fish carcasses, covering my mouth and nose, and I started running again. The moment I poked my face out of that round hole, I breathed fresh air into the bottom of my lungs as much as I could, and felt relieved – then I suddenly remembered.

Back then, there was someone alongside the wall, laughing.

Laughing, as if things happened were happening exactly how they expected, and that delight showed in that laughter, I heard a swishing sound.

--Ah, it’s happening again.

My head was chopped off at full force.

I'm told that a severed head remains conscious for only a few seconds before oxygen runs out from the brain.

Maybe that's why - I saw it. The vision from my falling head, I saw countless somethings, and heard countless somethings.

But-

The moment I woke from the dream, I forgot most of them.

The only thing that remained with me, along with the disgusting sweat that soaked my body, was –

Someone's shrill laughter. The voice was full of malice, hearing it felt as if something disgusting was crawling up from the bottom of my stomach.

---

With the advent of September, the number of students in the school increased by a lot. The university is on a long summer vacation until the end of this month, and whether they are bored or not, the campus is filled with happy students who are enjoying their summer vacation and are tanned quite well. In the lawn, in the courtyard, in the cafeteria, everyone was dressed fashionably and laughing like they were enjoying their youth.

On the other hand, my life didn’t really change. More than half the research materials still needed to be translated. I honestly don't care about Fafrotskies anymore when I see the crowd of healthy students laughing and acting boisterous. I felt miserable staying in the hot club room translating creepy events of past.

Looking up at the glittering sky, I thought to myself:

--Ah, I’m already eighteen.

When I was a kid, I thought being eighteen would be a lot different. I feel like I'm not quite the university student I imagined back then. I feel like I'm being crushed by a nagging conflict: the impatient feeling of not being sure if I should keep going the way I am now, and on the other hand, not knowing what else to do.

On one hand, I’m not sure if I want to become a fashionable student enjoying life. From the time I entered the school, I had the impression that everyone was indistinguishable from each other. It’s ridiculed as a "rich kid’s university" in the public, this may be because our university is a place where children from well-off families gather. And mixed within them was me, a bumpkin boy with a supposed inferiority complex. Anyway, I felt that something in this university felt strangely closed.

The students here try way too hard to be efficient. They don’t try to work too hard. Anyone who tries to stand out too much is avoided. They introduce good part-time jobs to each other, enjoy mixed parties in moderation, and teach each other how to take exams for each professor based off of information passed down from the seniors.

--Ugh, What is a university supposed to be, anyway?

A place you’re supposed to study, right? It's a place where you can envision what you want to be in the future and accumulate the knowledge and skills to achieve it. Just going with the flow will mean you end up becoming nothing, you guys.

I muttered those kinds of warped thoughts to myself, even though I’m not a particularly studious student myself. In actuality, if I keep going on like this, I'm the one who's going to end up just going with the flow. They’re not bad people or anything. They just generally don’t try hard. They know their place well. They’re enjoying their days while still being responsible in acceptable limits.

But – But, isn’t that just boring? is what I end up thinking. I still don't know what the kind of person I’ll be in the future. That’s why, I have to be reckless. And like that, I’ll go through bitter experiences, and find out what my limits are, and to sometimes go beyond those limits. I end up thinking: Is there any meaning to living a life without adventure?

--Everything ended before it even began.

Before I realized it, I had termed this university’s culture like that.

And as such, the thing that was now supporting me was ‘Ikaigabuchi’.

Countless fans of the occult gathered there, and countless paranormal events were recorded there. Sure, you didn’t really feel that you were a part of youthful events of any kind, but even as I continue my days of frantically translating English research materials with the respectably petite administrator, I feel like I’m moving forward. Like I’m part of something – like I have something to dedicate myself to, and I guess that was the peace of mind I could escape to now.

That’s why; I didn’t notice that the defensive instinct inside me had kicked in already. I had ignored the dangerous fact that I had been having a series of similar dreams in a short period of time – That night, that fact came home to roost.

---

It happened late at night, when I was on the way home back from my part-time job.

In the flow of the lukewarm wind, I was pedaling my granny bike silently past a store in front of a certain train station, leaving the residential area behind me. My apartment is located behind the university, further along the park, and that day I was going along the narrow path between the university and the auxiliary high school—

--When I suddenly felt something on my cheek.

--It’s raining, is it?

I stopped my bike, and looked up. There were no stars in the sky, but there were a few clouds and the sky was mostly clear.

It was a dark street sandwiched between two fences. Beyond the fence on the right-side wall was the sports ground of the university’s affiliated school. On the other side of the left side wall was building number seven of the university. Building number seven belonged to the department of science; they were different from us humanities majors, and had to stay late doing experiments almost every day. Even though it was so late, the school building was still lit in places.

That’s why; I thought it might have been water from the air conditioner.

A drop of water might have been carried over by the wind from an outdoor air conditioning unit from building seven somewhere.

But, I wiped my cheeks, and checked the palm of my head, and thought: ‘Huh?’ It was dark, so I couldn’t be certain but, I felt there was some color tinged to it. I took out my phone, pointed the light at it, and at that moment – I shook in fear.

It was blood; the scarlet liquid stuck to my palm, appearing slightly diluted as it mixed in with the sweat on my face.

--W--what the hell?

Flustered, I wiped my hand on the back of my jeans and checked my surroundings once more. I looked up in all directions.

--Why did something like blood rain down?

I rubbed my face once again. It really was blood on the palm of my hand. The blood feels light, even sticky, like it's pulling a string. It definitely wasn’t paint or something like that.

With bated breath, I looked up once again at the university building. There was no one in the brightly lit window of building number seven. There was no trace of anyone on the rooftop. Even if it was somebody’s prank, I couldn’t see any sign of the person who executed it.

On that hot, sultry summer night, something cold slipped under my feet.

It was then, that I remembered the story Karasu-san had mentioned, the story I had almost forgotten.

In Koumei institute, there’s a place where it rains blood.

There’s a clock tower there, and it is said to have been sealed up due to something creepy that happened in the past.

Where the hell is that?

Does it have anything to do with the ‘strange rain’ incident at Musashino?

But I never saw anything resembling a clock tower in this university anywhere, and Krishna-san had denied that rumor from the start. And right now, there was nothing resembling a clock tower anywhere around h—

It was at that moment.

I caught a glimpse of something behind the wall that blocked the space between the second sports ground and the road.

--What is that?

Was something like that at the sports ground before?

It was the top part of a long, narrow structure that resembled a tower.

The next thing I knew, I parked my bike there and unconsciously wandered near the fence, and outstretched my hands. I crawled up the wall and sat down, examining the structure.

“…Hah”

Feeling relieved, I let out a sigh of relief.

It was the reddish-brown roof of the gym storehouse. I'd been inside that thing before: during gym class. Inside, it's just a dusty place where soccer balls, mats, and gymnastic vaulting horses are crammed together. I was only surprised because I saw only the roof part, which I was not used to seeing.

“I guess things aren’t as scary as they seem.”

But when I took another look at the building from bottom to the top, I shuddered.

“…Eh?”

I hadn't noticed it up until now, but there was a withered old clock in the upper middle part of the building. A large sooty dial which was almost the same color as the wall, it had a minute hand and an hour hand. The second hand was missing, so I couldn’t immediately tell if it was working or not.

No way, it can’t be –

But, doesn't that look like a clock tower?

My blood froze in my veins, as I gazed at the long, narrow building standing deserted in semi darkness; this time another suspicion sprang to mind.

Come to think of it, didn’t Karasu-san mention something about a hidden room present in the clock tower…? Something about a creepy incident happening there in the past?

That gym storage room building was pretty long and narrow. It's as high as a two story – no, you could say, a three story building. But I already know as I’ve been in there. There is no second floor. The ceiling inside was definitely high – but still, the ceiling wasn’t as tall as the height of the building. In short, there could be an entrance to a second floor somewhere. As I started to think about things like that, I began to feel that the warehouse inside was smaller than the impression I got from the outside. You could just say the outer walls were thick but, I began to increasingly feel that the gym storehouse was a creepy place.

Suddenly…

Feeling a strange gaze on me, I looked up… and noticed it.

The dial of the clock tower.

Around the number four.

There was something dark and hollow there.

At first I thought there was something stuck to it, but it seemed to be a hole. Right between the middle of numbers three and four, there was a dark hole around the size of a human head. Seeing it sent a chill down my spine. Like I shouldn’t keep looking at it, as if something was peeking out from the other side.

Could that be the fabled clock tower in the rumors? And if so, Krishna-san saying ‘No such thing exists’, Could that have simply been because she didn’t want me to get involved?

--My mind was still in rehabilitation, I had ended up coming to an extremely dangerous place.

“…This is dangerous.”

The moment I had finished warning myself-

“Why is that clock always late?”

Unexpectedly hearing that voice again, I almost fell off the fence.

“In a closed space where students are supposed to be under control, there's not a single good thing about being late.”

The voice was coming from just below.

On the other side of the fence, from the darkness facing the sports ground.

When I looked -- someone was there, leaning against the wall.

Wearing a white blouse, black tie—the uniform belonging to the Koumei institute. And that long dark hair, she seemed to meld in perfectly with the darkness. Her pale face was illuminated by the moonlight.

“Y-you, Are you?”

I asked timidly from the top of the fence.

“--Yoishi?”

The girl turned her pale face towards me, with an artificially cheerful expression.

There’s no doubt about it. Emotionless, bisque doll-like beauty; Eyes like glass beads. Is it just my imagination? She seems like she’s lost some weight. Or should I say, that person who has refined her gloomy aura is without a doubt -- Yoishi Mitsurugi.

Yoishi stayed silent in the darkness as she gazed her eyes toward me, eventually letting out a grunt. “It’s been twenty days, seven hours and forty-two minutes.” She muttered.

---

“W…what are you doing in a place like this?”

This, is really Yoishi. Or should I say, is she alive? No, she just spouted something about it being twenty days and something in hours so she must be alive. But then, what’s up with this rotting look? Has she finally lost her mind completely? In the first place, with time and place being what they are. And on top of all that, I had just been showered in some creepy blood. Generally speaking, I was unsure if what I was seeing was of this world. That’s why, I asked her again.

“Hey, do you hear me? I asked you a question, what are you doing here at a time like this?”

Below me, Yoishi muttered a few words in response. “I’ve been thinking.”

“….Huh?”

“I knew I couldn’t find the answer no matter how much I thought about it. But even so, I had no other choice, so I kept thinking about it. But then, someone spoke to me…. I ignored them at first. But they were persistent. I replied to them. But they were still bothering me. So, I walked away to be alone--.”

Yoishi then looked up to me with intense curiosity.

“So, what exactly are you doing here?”

“I was the one asking you.”

Ah-Is that so, she nodded with a vacant look in her eyes as if she understood.

“The person I spoke to, was already dead.”

That low whisper instantly made me cower and sent goose bumps up my spine.

“Hey! What are you going on about?”

Still feeling shocked, I jumped down to the sports ground, and stood up again, staring once again at her pale, gloomy face.

It was without a doubt, Yoishi Mitsurugi.

Her pale white face with its too-perfect proportions was frightening in its sculpted beauty, all wasted on her, and her ever so slender frame had slender arms joined to it.

The warm summer night breeze blowing across the sports ground ruffled her black hair. Without even trying to hold it down as much, she intently stayed dark, gloomy and silent. It was as if, at this very moment, summer had ended, autumn had been skipped over and the ice age had arrived. Her frozen beauty was still the same, but her uniform was so wrinkled; I imagined she had slept with it on, and her long, supposedly beautiful black hair was so coarse that I wondered how many days she hadn't washed it. Riding on the wind, a slight acrid odor drifted my way.

In short,

Yoishi Mitsurugi hadn’t changed at all. She doesn’t take baths. She was still living with one foot planted firmly in the world beyond. Or should I say, she’s become even more ragged -- as pitiful as a stuffed doll abandoned at the wayside for many years.

“….Y-You, That’s enough already!”

Maybe it was a reaction to the fact that I was scared out of my mind, or maybe I was just angry that I'd been startled suddenly in an unusual way. Even though it’s our first meeting after so long, all I could feel was an irritating anger.

“Have you been eating properly at all? Did you take a bath? Have you just been wandering around creepy places since then? Around graveyards or haunted places?”

During my successive questioning, I realized something.

Come to think of it, this place itself fit the bill of a creepy place. There’s a clock attached to the gym storehouse – and didn’t she say something about a clock earlier?

“So, what were you going on about earlier? What were you saying about the clock being late?”

When I asked her that, she nodded in reply.

“Is that about the clock on the gym storehouse?”

“The gym storehouse?”

“That one over there.” I pointed to the old, long and narrow building I'd been staring at.

Yoishi nodded once and simply restated.

“You mean the clock tower.”

“….And?”

“That building is curious. The structure itself is strange but, the strangest thing of all is that the clock there is always late.”

“W-wait a second.”

I stopped Yoishi from rambling on endlessly and asked her.

“You -- just now, you called it a clock tower.”

“No matter how you look at it, it’s a clock tower.” Yoishi looked at me with curiosity and nodded.

Oh my God. She was dead on. The clock tower Karasu-san mentioned actually existed. And the phenomenon of blood raining down, as I just experienced earlier, was probably real too!

I spoke, “Yoishi, it’s over. Let’s just stop. Or rather, for one reason or another, it’s now forbidden for me to meet you. I can't just keep waltzing off to some creepy place with you anymore.”

“Well, it’s not as if we arranged this meeting beforehand.”

“Er, that might be true, but…”

“I was here first, and you arrived afterwards. I can't be blamed for that.”

--Ahhh! She has a comeback ready for anything I say.

“Anyway, I’m leaving. I don't know what's bothering you and I don't know how long you've been standing there, but I can give you some advice somewhere where there’s daylight. Now you go home, too.”

But it was as if Yoishi wasn’t listening to anything I was saying.

“Say, did you read the ghost story about the warp in space time?”

“…Huh?”

“It’s a story you hear often, people who go into a manhole, walk a while and exit from another place, only to find that the world slightly differs from the one they came from, or about elevators that stop by themselves on an unlit floor in the middle of the night and take you to a slightly different world when you get off. In that world, you might have a younger sister who is not supposed to exist, or a close friend who now acts like a complete stranger.”

Of course, I'm a bit of an occult enthusiast myself. I’ve read lots of stories of that kind. They’re very entertaining, I would even go far to say they’re my favorite kind. But, what does that have to do with the situation right now?

“Many of those space-time warp stories are often dismissed as discrepancies in memory ---but what if multiple worlds did in fact exist. And, if that doorway were to open somewhere in this world for some reason. It wouldn’t be strange to think that they could open in the sky.”

“C-could you be possibly talking about the strange rain phenomenon?”

Yoishi nodded in agreement.

“…No, be it multidimensions or whatever. Then, what about area around that gym storehouse…or should I say, the clock tower; what about blood raining there? Are you saying there’s a door to a multidimensional world there?”

Yoishi stared at me for a while before asking me:

“….Blood?”

“Oh, that’s right. It fell on my face a while ago. It already faded a bit, but here.”

I thrust out the palm of my hand before Yoishi. And then explained Karasu-san’s rumor to her about blood raining around a clock tower somewhere in Koumei institute, and I told her about this blood falling down on my cheeks a little while ago. There wasn’t really much trace of blood left on the palm of my hand, but a black stripe was still perceivable if you looked closely. Yoishi silently drew her face near my hand, and sniffed the scent. Is she a dog? I thought, as she finally nodded and spoke.

“I can certainly smell hemoglobins and sodium chloride.”

“R-right? Why did something like blood fall down? Where did it fall down from? And—”

I looked up and froze, just as I was about to ask about the hole in the clock face I had discovered.

The hole in the clock tower dial had disappeared. Only a white board remained between the numbers three and four.

“Huh…? There was definitely a hole there just now—”. The moment I said those words…

“Did you see that hole as well?”

Goosebumps crawled on my skin, at the sound of her somewhat happy voice.

When I saw, Yoishi Mitsurugi’s eyes had suddenly begun to shine.

“The Fafrotskies phenomenon, the blood rain around the clock tower, the clock being late – there’s an origin behind all these phenomena. But the primary factor may not be necessarily understood by humans.”

While being horrified by that dark shine which had already become nostalgic, at the same time it also brought back the days of cruising the depths of the underworld with her that had already faded into the deep recesses of my memory. For the first time in a while, my whole being was now enveloped in a sense that something was slipping away. This world and the world beyond are becoming connected, a feeling I could never cope with, a feeling of despair that death was creeping in–

This was bad.

Everything would simply slip away from this point on.

No—w-wait a minute, time out! Time out!!

But…Yoishi already had her face so close to mine that I could practically feel her breath on my face.

“Say…”

“…..”

“Wouldn’t you like to go there? To the clock tower?”　

---

--Damn it, why do things always end up like this?

Regardless of Krishna-san emphasizing the fact that I shouldn’t associate with Yoishi, yet here I am, at the dead of night, going out on another strange adventure with Yoishi.

The two of us headed towards the clock tower, the sports ground was as dark as the night sea. However, to be honest, I would strongly argue that this was out of my hands. Just like Yoishi said, we didn’t really plan to meet or anything. It was an accidental encounter, so to speak.

--I can still…turn back.

I should still be able to return to my usual peaceful world. All I have to do was immediately turn heel, tell Yoishi I’m really quitting, see you later, ciao, and then hop on my bike and race back to my cheap apartment. I’d forget Yoishi’s mutterings, crawl under my futon and forget everything. However, despite my internal conflict, my feet continued to simply follow in Yoishi's footsteps. At this very moment, there's some kind of creeping chill in my body that refused to disappear, but it still didn’t stop my feet.

“I've heard that building’s history dates back to before this school was founded.” Without turning back, Yoishi continued to narrate.

“Originally, this land seems to have been donated to the school by an influential local. And that building continued to be used by the school since then.”

“So, was it originally a clock tower?”

“The students in the affiliated school seemed to have called it as such.”

So that means – Krishna-san, who I’m sure graduated from the affiliated school, knew about it. Which means, that I was indirectly kept away from the paranormal. In short, that is an S-ranked haunted place that I shouldn’t be looking at.

As if to affirm that fact, Yoishi’s eyes were shining.

“That place is quite dangerous.”

…..I’m sorry, I’ll be leaving after all. By the time I had finally made up my mind to speak those words, we had already reached the clock tower.

On the front of the building was a sign that said ‘Koumei Institute Athletic Equipment Storage Area,’ and next to it, was a brightly colored cone. Dirty rugby shirts lay scattered about, there was also a cooler box forgotten by some club. However, the original foundation of the building was built from stone, on top of that was wooden construction. The wall coated with old plaster stretched out. It’s pretty worn out, yet when you look at it carefully, it’s a blending of Japanese and Western Styles, reminiscent of the early Meiji era buildings that you see in books- indeed, the outward appearance of the old clock attached to it makes it befitting enough to be called a clock tower.

While Yoishi was wandering about tampering with the edges of the foundation, I kept staring at the old worn-out clock. If you look at it from here, it’s actually attached quite high up. It was stained in white, and looked as if it had assimilated with the surrounding walls. You wouldn’t even notice the clock with just a quick glance.

Moreover, looking at it again from up close, there surely didn’t seem to be any hole in the clock face.

I could have misjudged it from back then, but Yoishi did ask, ‘Did you see that hole as well?’ That means, Yoishi must have seen it as well….In short, what does it all mean?

“Move.”

Being ordered so suddenly, I looked to my side and there was Yoishi Mitsurugi, brandishing an iron rake used for sports ground maintenance like a great sword from a fantasy world.

“…W-woahhh!!”

As soon as I jumped out of the way in a panic, Yoishi swung downward with great force.

A sharp sound rang across the silent sports ground, and the old door bolt was easily smashed into pieces. While I stood there dumbfounded, Yoishi opened the door, and boldly entered inside. A guard might have heard that noise, I wondered as I followed fearfully. It was dark inside. Without saying a word, Yoishi took out her phone and turned on the flashlight. The light from her phone dimly illuminated the surroundings and the familiar room came into view; it was a dusty place about 27 sqm in size. Covered with mud walls, rotten air clung to the place. I don't know if it's from used gym equipment or something specific to the building. Maybe it's both.

Yoishi randomly moved aside mats and portable basketball hoops out of the way so she could see the mud walls. She muttered ‘Hmm’ as she pointed the light towards them. I don't know what it was, but I was already scared out of my mind. It wasn't so much from this place, but rather my thoughts were dominated by that idea that I had just had a while ago. The ceiling of this room was way too low as compared to the height of the building.

Maybe it was because I had confirmed from close up, but that thought had begun to fill me with more and more anxiety.

“…Say, Yoishi.”

I made up my mind ask the question.

“Could this place have a second floor?”

“Of course, there is.”

“Eh?”

“Because it’s a clock tower, after all.”

Yoishi posited that because it’s a clock tower, there’s a clock, so there must be a room for its maintenance. But, the creepy feeling nesting inside me was about something else. There are no stairs leading up to that maintenance room or whatever in this building. Even if there was a second floor, the entrance itself being sealed was what scared me. But Yoishi spoke in an exasperated tone.

“That’s what we’re here to find, after all.”

After that, she stared at a thick beam about three meters above…

“There must be a way up somewhere.”

Saying those kinds of things, she began knocking here and there on the wall.

It couldn’t be helped, I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight, and started walking around, knocking on the walls nearby. When I looked at it again, the walls, the floor, just about everything was pretty antiquated. It wasn’t at the level of being completely worn-out and filthy. But still, It's such an old building that it makes me feel uneasy to be here, making me wonder if it’s used up all its years of durability. There were several layers of cobwebs in the corners, and the wooden frames of the pillars smelled as if they were rotting.

“Here.”

Eventually, I heard such a voice and turned my head to see Yoishi, without even trying to keep herself free from the dust, she moved a worn-out, crumbling vaulting box out of the way and was tapping on the back wall.

“It's blocked in here.”

Indeed, it was the only part of the old wall that was made of brand-new mud wall. Yoishi looked over her shoulder, without hesitation, she lifted the top of the vaulting box and threw it against the wall with all her strength.

“H-hey…”

Before I could even stop her, she slammed the vaulting box against the mud wall again and again, until a crevice appeared. Furthermore, she once again brandished the iron rake she had used to break down the door from earlier and drove it into the wall, using it to forcibly widen the crevice.

“That hurt.”

Saying that, Yoishi passed under the gaping wide hole to somewhere else.

Preparing myself for the worst, I followed her. I passed under the crumbling wooden frame, when I focused the light from my cellphone, I saw a staircase spiraling upwards along the outer wall.

“Say, why do you think the entrance was sealed?” Yoishi muttered as she steadily ascended up the stairs.

“To keep people like you out, obviously.” I retorted, ‘That’s not it’, replied Yoishi.

“There’s another purpose in keeping the entrance sealed. It’s to keep whatever is present inside from getting out.”

I shuddered at those words, and then I remembered.

When was it exactly? I fervently rummaged through the recesses of my memory – and I remembered.

That’s right, it was back when I was in elementary school.

One of my classmates lived in a temple, and we were all sneaking into his house at the time.

“Behind our main temple, there’s a storehouse that we’re not allowed to open. I’m sure it’s because a monster lives there.”

That kid used to brag about that in class at every opportunity, and there were no such elementary school kids who didn’t have an interest in that kind of thing. So, one day after school, we all decided to meet up around midnight and explore that storehouse. I brought my bat, that kid brought his air gun. Other guys with more extensive knowledge brought things like salt, and for some reason, one guy brought his deceased grandmother’s memorial tablet. Each of us carried our preferred protective equipment, and we snuck into the temple at night.

In the midst of the darkness, the dark storehouse stood eerily, I don’t know how many times I was about to suggest we return home. However, no one said anything, perhaps because of our pride as men. At last, the kid from the temple brought a crowbar from his house, and began to break down the sturdy padlock to the storehouse.

Eventually, the padlock fell down to the ground with a thud, and we timidly opened the door.

Taking a peep, it was pitch dark inside. Rotten air oozed out from inside. But I think all of us felt it. More so than the rotten air, there was something invisible, something evil -- it felt as if it was stroking our hands and necks. We got scared and decided to first send in a stray cat that stuck around the temple. Just bringing the cat close to that place caused it to let out a tremendous wailing sound. That sound made us lose our nerve, and eventually the kid’s father heard the commotion and came running.

It was the first time I was scolded by another person’s father.

“Things that are sealed, are sealed for a reason.”

We were scolded severely, and the kid’s father, who was the head priest of the temple, lectured us about it and chanted sutras at us in the main hall until morning. Now when I think about it, it’s a good thing we were stopped back then. The memory of that time, the feeling of something seeping out of the storehouse, was rapidly coming back to me here on the stairs of this clock tower.

Certainly, it’s just as Yoishi said, those wooden frames were just too thick to only be blocking the stairs. What would they do when they needed to repair the clock tower if it was sealed up so tightly? It was too exaggerated to just be protecting against intrusions from pranksters and the like. Every time the old wooden stairs would creak, my hunch of something bad happening worsened.

“It’s here.”

In the dim light up ahead, I heard Yoishi, in a somewhat lively tone of voice. Sure enough, as I reached the top of the stairs, she was waiting for me, in front of a wooden door.

“I’m going to open it, but is it alright?”

I looked at Yoishi, wondering why she would ask a question like that at this stage.

“Would you stop if I asked you to?” I retorted while forcing a smile.

“Why is the clock late? The answer to that question is probably not very pleasant.” Yoishi muttered.

“Huh?”

“It’s quite dangerous from this point on.”

Yoishi chewed on the nails of her left hand. That seemed to be a habit of hers whenever she got excited.

“What exactly is dangerous?”

“Malice itself lies within.”

Her eyes shone as she finished speaking those words.

Before I could even say, "Let's not do that then", Yoishi opened the door without hesitation, as expected.

The interior was even darker yet, filled with the pungent smell of dust.

I directed my flashlight inside: it was even smaller than the storage room below, a vacant space about 18 sqm in size. The ceiling is shaped in the same way as the conical roof, and there were old wooden chairs and an old blackboard on the wooden floor. However – there was something in that room that was creeping me out.

It was as if something was coiling around the back of my neck.

Like a creepy, slimy arm was grabbing my ankle.

This feeling, I felt like I'd experienced it somewhere very recently.

--And I suddenly remembered.

It’s that dream. I had been confined in a dark, narrow place somewhere, and when I tried to escape, my neck got chopped off. The moment I recalled that, I remembered the voice of the person laughing in the dream, which I had forgotten up until now. A voice filled with joy, uttered as if everything was going according to their expectations.

Yoishi had said that malice itself lies in here.

What exactly is malice?

Why is it necessary for something like malice to reside in the clock tower in the first place?

I noticed my knees had begun to tremble, I felt like I could sense the presence of that someone from my dream, standing still right next to the wall besides me. Was that dream a premonition of the future? Was that dream about right now? Here in this room? Something would call out to me, and then just like my dream, my neck would be chopped clean off?

--Y-you’ve gotta be kidding me.

The moment I got cold feet and reflexively moved to run –

It was slightly two meters right of me.

I felt someone’s presence, and was slowly turning my face in that direction—

“Don’t look.” Yoishi whispered in a silent, sharp tone. “Pretend not to notice.”

Thanks to that voice, I barely managed to stop the movement of my neck.

However, at the periphery of my vision, I ended up seeing it.

Japanese clothes, I thought. A glimpse of the arms – thin, as withered branches. I knew it was looking my way. I desperately turned my face away. Then I stopped my breathing, pacified my heartbeat which was racing like it was about to explode, and I tell myself, as hard as I can:

--There’s nothing there, it’s just my imagination. I didn’t see anything at all.

But my knees were trembling with fear. Sweat trickled down my back and under my arms.

Yoishi proceeded to the back of the room as if nothing had happened.

There, she pushed and banged on the wall.

“The clock is on the backside of this part.” She muttered.

“….I-is that right?”

I’ll join in the conversation. I squeezed out a shaky voice as if to show that we were the only ones present.

Soon, a metallic clanking noise echoed inside the room.

At the same time, I felt the air stream out of the room, and I saw something some kind of light above Yoishi’s knee. It was the light of a house far away in the distance. Right next to Yoishi, there was a hole cut out in a circle about the size of a person's face, just like the one I had just seen in that dream.

“This was the hole you saw earlier.”

Yoishi crouched down and put her hand on a rim, which was drawn back so close to the floor that I could barely see it.

“You can close it, and open it, with the lever here.”

“W-why is there such a thing there?”

Yoishi slightly tilted her neck quizzingly in response to the question.

“Maybe it’s used to adjust the hour or minute hands. Or perhaps there’s a different reason altogether. However—”

Yoishi questioned me as if she was peering into my eyes.

“Can you, look out from here?”

---Look out, from there?

No, that is…

“It’s strange, isn’t it? There’s no other place to check if the hands of the clock are moving. Having said that, it takes a lot of courage to check the minute hand from here. I mean, if you were to do it carelessly...”

Yoishi made a cutthroat gesture as she drew her fingers across her neck.

“The moment you look out, your neck might get chopped off by the clock outside.”

--Ah! Isn’t that…what happened in my dream? Didn’t my head already get chopped off twice in the dreams?

“That’s right.”

Rather than a reply to my thoughts, Yoishi said that as if she was announcing it to the entire room.

“If an ordinary person saw this hole open within this hermetically sealed, stifling room, they would generally end up looking outside. After all, the only other window in the room lies in the ceiling far above us: a skylight that can’t be opened. In short, the structure was made so that fresh air could only come through from here.”

It’s just as Yoishi said.

It was of a nature that I would like to call the architect’s malice.

“Anyone would stick their head out of this hole, and it would always get caught by the minute hand, slowing down the clock.”

Huh…?

“W…wait a minute. Whose neck got—”

“What time is it, according to your watch?”

I looked down to check my wristwatch on Yoishi’s query.

It was 12:51 am.

Yoishi checked her own watch in reply and nodded.

“Mine is the same. So, the clock outside is five minutes late, which means that the minute hand is at 45 minutes or so.”

I had no idea what she was going on about.

“The hole we saw outside was located between three and four. In short, if one were to look out from here right now, the minute hand wouldn’t be falling down on one’s neck.”

“…No.”

“Let’s take a look.”

Before I could even tell her to stop, Yoishi went down on all fours, with her back towards me, she pushed her face outside the hole towards the light.

That's when I definitely heard it.

A sound like "drrng!", seeming to ring out from the whole room, something neatly clicked in place. For a moment, the back of her body twitched, and then eventually, Yoishi stopped moving.

“Y—Yoishi?”

Even though Yoishi’s body was there, her presence had disappeared.

It can’t be.

If the minute hand, had fallen down just now…

Then that sound just now, was Yoishi’s head being chopped off by the minute hand outside.

I checked the time once more.

It was 12:52 am right now. That means there’s no way the minute hand would had fallen down on Yoishi’s neck.

Even though there was no way for that to happen—

I was too afraid to touch Yoishi’s body, which was right there in front of me.

What if I pull her out and she has no head?

What if her decapitated head fell down on the sports ground?

In the dimness, her pale arms and ankles were covered with dust, and stretched out on the floor, like a puppet with its strings cut off.

There I was, about to scream… Doing my best to catch my breath.

Because of Yoshi... Because she was here, I was able to endure the frustration of wanting to run away up until this point.

It was because of ‘Yoishi Mitsurugi’, the guide who formed an ambiguous connection between the spirit world and reality, that I was able to make it this far—

I felt as if I heard someone laughter, and just when my fragile, delicate, and meager spirit was finally stretched to its very limit.

“That felt good.”

I was trying my best to keep my mouth shut, and that voice reached me.

At the same time -- Yoishi Mitsurugi , who had been as motionless as a corpse, pulled her face out of the hole and stood up.

“…Y-you’re..”

I couldn’t speak straight away.

Yoishi slightly tidied herself up and spoke, “Let’s go.”

With the same calm gait she displayed when we arrived, she moved towards the stairs. I rushed behind her.

Closing the door, we descended the creaky steps.

Without looking back, I arrived at the bottom as if nothing had happened, just like Yoishi.

We slipped through the broken wooden frame back to the gym storehouse. And then, we arrived outside.

I was so used to the darkness that even the dim light of the sports ground seemed bright to my eyes.

The outside was like a different world. The sky, the clouds, the greenery around the sports ground; it was like it was overflowing with a surging life force. The air felt amazingly good. I inhaled it to my lung’s full capacity, and took several deep breaths. At some point, I wiped the sweat from my brows, put my hands on my knees, and exhaled deeply on the spot.

“—What…the hell was that all about?”

After getting far enough away from the clock tower, I was finally able to speak.

“What?”

Yoishi’s white blouse dazzled as she walked in front of me.

Was the second sports ground this big? I wondered as I was suddenly attacked by dizziness.

“That second floor…no, the thing you called malice, what the hell was it?”

“For more details, I guess you'll have to ask your teacher, but I’ll say this much: That building is neither a gym storehouse, nor a clock tower – originally, it was an earthen storehouse.”

“A-an earthen storehouse?”

“That’s right, the clock was installed later… it was unmistakably added after the school was built, I think.”

Yoishi stopped walking around the middle of the sports ground, and turned to look back. I stopped in my tracks, but didn’t dare to look back. I couldn’t bring myself to look at that building again right now.

“When I was young – it was around this time of year. I visited my grandmother in the countryside, and played with my elder sister until the evening.”

...What is she talking about?

Holding down her hair which fluttered in the wind, Yoishi spoke to no one in particular.

“It gets dark quickly in the countryside, and the people quickly disappear, so we took a shortcut to get back to my grandmother’s house. We weaved our way through the path between people’s houses.”

Rather than speaking with me, Yoishi continued to whisper as if she was gazing somewhere far away.

“It was as if we’d become lost in a world of cicadas, their cries filled the air everywhere. I remember it was so loud it was almost deafening. And when we passed by the back of one of the biggest houses in the area—I heard a voice, as if mixed in with the cries of the cicadas. It was from the storehouse of that large house. A terrible scream with words that didn't form any meaning – A string of miserable, resentful, aberrant words -- Immediately, I clung to my elder sister. It was an elderly voice, that of a woman. After that, a hand touched the skylight of that storehouse. A thin, pale arm. That arm suddenly grabbed the iron grill of the skylight. It was probably the hand of that old woman. After that, we heard a voice once again. Putting your mother in a place like this. I’ll curse you, I’ll curse you all. It was as if – that arm itself was speaking.”

A pale, thin arm. A trail along the countryside at sunset.

And horrible words from a curse.

If you experienced it when you were young, it would be intense.

“I can kind of understand now. An old woman with dementia must have lived there. The man from the house must have locked his mother up. That's the nature of an earthen storehouse. You could call it an Edo era prison cell. I've heard that noble families and wealthy merchants around the Meiji era had them. Whenever a delinquent or mentally ill member of the family appeared, they would be confined inside it. And --- that was…” Yoishi pointed towards the soaring building tower behind me. “That was originally an earthen storehouse with the characteristics of an Edo era prison cell.”

I finally understood it. The thing that was standing besides me back then. The glimpse I had caught at the edge of my periphery, someone who wore an old, weathered kimono. I wondered if it was an old woman.

“That hole was likely used to insert food through, and it might have also been used to retrieve excrement. However, when I peered out of that hole, I realized… A room you could never leave. You could never leave it, and yet, you could breathe in as much fresh air as you wanted. A hole you could use to experience the air of the outside world to the point where it would drive you insane.”

“So, that’s the malice…”

I barely managed to speak out in a hoarse voice, and Yoishi nodded.

“It might have been set up by a family member to deal with an older relative who had lost their mind. They didn’t want to take care of the old person, and they don’t want them to live however long they please. It would be better off if they had died sooner in an accident – the building was filled with such thoughts.”

My God. How sad would it be? What kind of curse is a life wishing for the death of one's parent as they break down?

There’s the legend of a mountain where old women are abandoned. As long as people are growing old -- be it the present or the past -- I'm sure there have always been problems relating to an aging society. My grandfather and grandmother both died one day suddenly; we were all shocked, and very saddened. But I suddenly thought: Wasn’t that actually a blessing-in-disguise? To be able to depart this life while still bearing the love of one’s family, isn’t that the greatest happiness? I reflected on such unbearable thoughts.

Presently used as a gym storehouse, referred to a clock tower, and used as an earthen storehouse in the past --- that long and narrow, dark shape. I found myself staring at it with complex feelings.

“…Huh?”

I felt a strange feeling of discomfort.

I was still overlooking something important.

“That’s right.” Yoishi whispered in response.

“That explanation is insufficient to explain everything about that building.”

When I looked, Yoishi’s eyes were wide open, and behind those glittering eyes, I thought I saw a glimpse of someone.

“The explanation for why the hole keeps opening up is insufficient. Even if you were to say it’s because someone is confided there, normally, it should stay open after being opened once, there’s no reason it should close again.”

“Oh….”

As sweat dripped down from my cheeks to the bottom of my chin, Yoishi continued to speak.

“Malice accumulates, and becomes a contagion. A place tied down by malice, becomes a habitat for those who hold malice.”

--That’s right.

The first time I noticed there was a hole in the clock face, it was in the place of the number 4. Now, there’s no hole there because Yoishi operated the lever when she stuck out her head. However, if that were the case – a contradiction arises.

“I wonder what you're expecting."

Leaving me with those words, Yoishi turned back, and began to walk away.

“W-wait a minute, Yoishi!”

Flustered, I chased after her, and in a trembling voice, asked her:

“A while ago, we entered the clock tower and for the first time, used the lever to open the hole, right?”

“Yes.”

“Which means, there was no hole before we entered.”

“True.”

“Then, in the beginning, the hole in the clock face we saw from the fence…. who--?”

“That’s why I told you, pretend not to notice.”

Yoishi simply shrugged her shoulders.

“After all, there were two people inside.”

With those words, a spectacle that I shouldn’t have seen unfolded in every corner in my head.

An old woman with disheveled hair. A cloudy, unfocused gaze and a seemingly sad expression.

And, someone clinging to those thin, wire-like legs of hers. It had hollow, empty eyes; its red mouth twisted into a broad sneer. It displayed an expression of pure delight on its face, as if everything was going well.

--Because it’s fun, after all.

I thought I heard someone’s voice speak that in the midst of the night wind.

As I stared at Yoishi’s form fading away in the distance, I became unable to move.

I forced down my saliva, deeply regretting that I didn’t stop when I should have. And then, I heard a voice — you better stop while you can.

The world beyond had manifested right beside me. The entrance to the afterlife had opened its mouth before me, not knowing the existence of which would have let me lead a much, much happier life. I was painfully aware of that. However, I ended up aware of the fact that the entrance was there, So what should I possibly do now? Once you end up becoming aware of it, you’ll become involved. From here on – and for the rest of my life. That’s what it means to associate with Yoishi. As long as she stands in the world beyond, associating with her means getting involved with the world beyond. You'll end up knowing things you don't need to know. I should have known all these things, and yet—

I’d been through hellfire and brimstone, and I was finally able to stand on my own two feet, and yet—

The magma that made me want to cry out broke through the bottom of my heart – but, I turned to look back.

It stood still as a long and narrow shape on the sports ground.

It existed as a gym storehouse for me, a clock tower for Yoishi, and was an earthen storehouse in the past.

And, situated at number 4 of the clock face.

A hole had appeared there before I had even noticed – and something… was peeking out.

---

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