Starting a Night Shift Part-time Job at a Convenience Store.

“Thank you very much for playing with me. I had a great time.”

Afterward, we went around the school and the school festival was over smoothly. With all the visitors sent off one after another, the school was in a hurry to get things cleaned up, and the objects and decorations were promptly removed.

“We should hurry back and clean up as well, otherwise we will be glared at by the executive committee members.”

With that in mind, I shifted away from the wall I was leaning against and started walking down the corridor of the underclassmen’s floor, when a piercing scream erupted from the adjacent classroom. Not only did we turn around startled, but the majority of the students who were there cleaning up looked in the direction of the classroom where the scream had been emitted.

Shortly after that―

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh―!”

Several female students burst out of the classroom as if they were tumbling. The girls threw themselves into the hallway and crouched down one after another on the spot, shrieking.

Some of them were breathing heavily like hyperventilating, others were bursting into tears. It was evident that their state was out of the ordinary and these girls came out of “1-2” classroom.

Judging by the spooky decorations on the walls and doors and the eerie mannequins propped up, it was immediately apparent that a haunted house had been chosen as the class event.

The classroom door and transom were covered by a blackout curtain that had not yet been taken down, so it was impractical for us to observe what was unfolding inside. The distraught look on the faces of several female students who emerged from the room revealed to everyone present that this was no ordinary matter.

Screams pervaded the corridor. Within a couple of minutes, a mass of people had congregated. The upperclassmen gathered around and tried to ascertain what was going on from the wailing girls, to which they responded with a shaking of the head in disarray and shrieks of disbelief.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Isn’t this bad…”

Nishimura and Tanaka exchanged glances.

“I’ll go get the teacher.”

Saying calmly, Kinoshita ran through the crowd to the teacher’s office. In the meantime, a few of the boys approached the classroom at hand and fearfully tried to get in with their hands on the door but…

“Hey… it won’t open.”

“What…?”

“No way, right? Is it locked from the inside?”

Behind and in front.

Even though he shook, kicked, and pulled the door violently, the door didn’t seem to be affected. 

When one of them hurled a call to the shivering girls in the corner of the hallway, an incredulous voice soared up from one of them, “I didn’t lock the door! I didn’t do anything…! The lock… nothing…!!”

That was right, the lock was made inaccessible from inside last year to prevent students from playing tricks on it. That was why unless they used the key in the staff room… I wondered how many of these students thought the situation was preposterous.

Even I thought so. I had no clue what was transpiring. However, something out of the ordinary was taking place right here, right now.

“Is someone blocking the door, hey! Enough! A hell of a racket is breaking loose outside! Stop fooling around and get out here!!”

The captain of the Judo club from my year banged on the door and shouted at the top of his lungs. Even so, no answer came from inside, nor did anyone come out. Nothing was heard.

“What’s this…”

“What’s all this about?”

The cleanup was being carried out in a relatively lively atmosphere, as if enjoying the aftermath of the school festival, yet the unexpected turn of events drastically shattered the atmosphere. Most students wore a stern expression on their faces.

“Suspicious person…?”

“No way?”

“Hey, this is bad, this is totally bad.”

“Could it be that… thing?”

“What?”Translator: MadHatter

“Did it just come out?”

“What you mean…”

“The real thing… You know, that famous story…”

“Doing this will attract them, that story?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“The specter…!?”

“Really!?”NotSharedOnAggregatorSite

With that single word that was uttered by someone, the place was awash in a stir, and the air was tinged with a strange atmosphere. Anxiety was replaced by fear of the unknown. And the speed with which it infected the whole place was phenomenal.

“There’s no way such things exist!”

“There might be! It’s out there! The real one!!”

“They must have called it in! They provoked their anger!!”

“Something like that is unbelievable.”

“I’ve heard that this kind of thing pisses off the specters.”

“Idiot! Anyway, call the teacher!!”

Inconsistent conversations were flying in and out.

Girls were terrified with their faces scrunched up in fear, boys raised their voices at the mention of it, students dismissed the topic as absurd and left the place, newly arrived students joined the crowd after hearing the commotion, others took videos with their cell phones, and some looked happy to witness the upset people for some unknown reason.

All kinds of people were present, and everybody was spewing whatever they wanted to say despite none of them even being aware of what was going on.

Words that weren’t certain were spouted, inciting one another. The atmosphere was not right. Clearly, this was heading in the direction of turmoil. I was observing the situation dispassionately.

What specter? Unbelievable.

In my mind, I was mocking those who lost their cool and made a fuss over the unforeseen situation.

Nonetheless―

That feeling was blown away when I noticed Hyuga, standing next to me with her mouth sealed, the only one who was quietly staring at the classroom, not letting out a scream or a cry of anxiety.

It was as though she was all alone in a separate place from here. She was even more composed than I was. Nobody was fooling around, nor did they seem to be amused or thrilled by the circumstance.

Out of all of them, only Hyuga saw things differently. Right as I felt that, she stepped forward. With a smooth, flowing hand, she removed her red glasses. Her lustrous black hair swayed, and Hyuga pressed the taken-off glasses against my hand.

“Senior, please hold this for me.”

You, what are you―Before I could say anything, Hyuga slipped into the crowd and advanced.

“Hyuga, hey, where are you going…”

Without saying a word, Hyuga continued on her way unhesitantly. At last, she reached directly in front of the classroom door. All eyes were on Hyuga as she walked up to the classroom door alone.

Like a performer in front of a conductor, the air that had been abuzz instantly fell into silence. When Hyuga placed her hand on the door, which had been reportedly locked up until then, it slid open with a light thud.

“I’m going to have a quick look inside, so please don’t have anyone come in for a while.”

Turning around, Hyuga told the assembled group and stepped into the classroom in question. No one objected to her words, nor did anyone else follow her lead, with her glasses off and a frighteningly nonchalant demeanor.

Except me.

“Oh, wait!”

At this stage, I was positive that most of us were slightly terrified, for it was eerily dark across the classroom, and we were oblivious to what was going on, and there were probably no boys who had as much guts as Hyuga.

Had there been, they would have immediately entered the open door, as if to say, “I’m brave.”

I should have been slightly perturbed, too, though I couldn’t simply let a junior student, who had entrusted me with her glasses, charge straight into a classroom where anything could have occurred.

Before the door was closed again, I followed Hyuga and slipped into the classroom. A pitch-dark classroom. I wondered if it was the air conditioning that was giving me the chilly feeling.

With that thought in mind, I groped for the light button near the door to turn on the lights, only to find that no matter how many times I pressed it, the lights would not turn on, keeping the classroom pitch-black.

Was it broken? Nothing could be seen without light. I tried to put my hand on the door.

“What…!”

It wouldn’t open. The door was locked.

The lock… was not supposed to be…

Moreover, I could hardly hear any sound from outside, perhaps it was my imagination…

Despite having already undergone a strange experience at this time, I couldn’t immediately link it to a bizarre phenomenon, which I found odd, but I decided to walk on while calling out to Hyuga, who had entered before me.

“Hyuga!”

In the maze-like classroom, which was covered with blackout curtains attached here and there, a radio-cassette player or some such device was playing a creepy background music.

It sounded like a woman moaning. It was indeed a nice staging…

As I was walking along, something bumped into my foot. I used my cell phone light to illuminate my foot and took a closer look.

“Eek―”

It was not a human head.

That was the head of a mannequin. That freaked me out…

“Give me a break…”

When I illuminated the end of the head with the light… oi, oi. I was so dumbstruck that my mouth unintentionally dropped open. 

A number of mannequin heads suspended by strings from the ceiling.

French dolls with their eyes peeled back, smeared with red paint, that I didn’t understand how they had been prepared.

On the wall, several straw dolls that gave a sense of realism. All of them had nails stuck into their chests or heads. And yet, despite the occult overload, the classroom did not seem to be riddled with anything dangerous.

It was a half-baked haunted house to clean up after.

I didn’t think it was possible… but those freshmen were so spooked by the traps they set themselves that they fled… 

…That was possible…

In any case, the mannequins and dolls that landed on the floor at some point probably triggered a freak-out and led to a panic.

The more I pondered it, the more I began to suspect that it might have been that. Even though the objects were merely falling, they may have been convinced that it was a poltergeist or a psychic phenomenon.

I thought that if I went outside and asked those first-year students again, everything would be solved. With that decision made, I was about to leave the classroom with Hyuga.

Then…

This time, instead of background music, a sobbing voice could be heard nearby.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

When I moved to the other side of the curtain, I found a female student trembling and repeating the same words over and over, right next to me.

Why was she so frightened, clattering her teeth and clutching her head?

Furthermore, another student was lying unconscious on the floor near the girl.

What… was this?

“Hey, what’s―”

I crouched down and tried to ask the girl what was going on, but she didn’t respond to my words at all.

Not good. Something else. Anything else that might shed some light on the situation?

“Save me…”

As I was shifting the light, a pure white face was reflected. I let out a brief yelp.

That was after all surprising. I mean, it happened out of nowhere…

My heart rate spiked and my face started to heat up.

“Save… me… can’t… move…”

If I looked closely, the white face illuminated by the light was that of a first-year student wearing our school uniform.

Her face was stiff, tears streaming from her wide-open eyes. She was seeking help from us.

For some reason, she was seated on an old folding chair with her arms hanging out.

Unmoving, she looked at me and squeezed out a few words like a rusty machine.

The creepiness of it all was like a real apparition. It was so overwhelming that goosebumps spread all over my body.

Despite not understanding what was going on, I tried to get closer to her, who was looking so horrified.

“Senior, you can’t.”

A strong force gripped my arm at once.

“Ugh!?”

I pointed my cell phone in that direction and saw that it was Hyuga.

“You, what are you doing in a place like this?”

Hyuga, who had unexpectedly shown up and seemed much steadier than I was, let go of my arm and walked forward.

Then, stiffening, she stepped toward the female student who was pleading for help, kneeled on the floor, and took the girl’s hand in hers.

“It’s okay… Just slow down, take your time, can you take a deep breath?”

Sniffling sounds. With tears spilling down her face, she nodded and frantically struggled to breathe as she was told to do.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s good.”

“Hyuh, hyuh… hyuh…”

Putting her other hand behind her back, Hyuga slowly patted her spoke to her in a consoling manner. Then her slack arms began to tremble slightly, and her open hands formed a fist and clenched tightly.

At that instant, the female student’s face was dyed with fear, and at the same time, the classroom window made an unnatural sound.

“Uh… sca… red… scared…!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it―Leave it to me.”

When the girl turned away with her eyes closed, Hyuga responded with a smile and drew her body closer.

“It’s about time for you to release her,” she muttered to herself.

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