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

“Don’t get mad anymore, let’s just forgive them, okay… Everyone wasn’t ridiculing you. Yeah… I know how you feel, but… the festival is over. You should return too. I will bring you back.”

No good? Can’t you? So what should be done? ….No, that’s not good.

Hyuga spoke to the female student next to her as if she were conversing with someone else, periodically cocking her head to indicate that something bothered her before growling.

“Yeah… I know, it’s unpleasant. But it’s enough… everyone is gathering outside, I swear. It will be difficult to leave at this rate.”

Hyuga continued rubbing her back. The fists that were being clenched by the female student gradually loosened.

“…Yeah, is that fine then? Okay, I’ll burn it all… I promise.”

While saying this, she turned her head diagonally above the female student and nodded repeatedly.

I could feel the temperature in the classroom shift―I could feel it on my skin.

Lights flashed all over the classroom in fleeting seconds as the female student’s loosened fists were fully released. The bizarre chilly feeling was no longer palpable. Even the window panes, which had been rattling furiously, ceased to make noises, followed by the door being violently thrown open.

”Are you okay―!?”

Several teachers came in and surrounded us.

What’s wrong? When asked over and over again, it was somewhat, no, considerably complicated to explain what had taken place, and words were trapped in the back of my throat. Because, in reality, even I didn’t understand what had transpired.

In the vicinity of the classroom, the whole area was flooded with onlookers who were leaning forward, all staring in our direction.

“It looks like she just felt a little sick.”

The teachers crowded me and, to my consternation, offered a helping hand to the one person who had single-handedly resolved a ludicrous situation that was beyond explanation.

While supporting a first-year student who had collapsed from her chair and gone limp, Hyuga began to persuade the teachers to help us. The acts Hyuga herself had taken and everything I had witnessed were concealed behind the veil and they were all done in a very convincing way.

She deceived them.

The teachers unquestioningly took the honor student Hyuga’s word for it, and finally the situation subsided after several of them were brought to the infirmary for health conditions caused by excessive use of air-conditioning. The majority of the pupils clearly did not share the teachers’ conviction, as they went to Hyuga to question her about what she had seen inside and what had been done to her. For a while, questions persistently bombarded her.

Hyuga, on the other hand, was not in the least bit interested in sharing anything and replied in the same manner as she did with the teachers.

By the time the cleanup was thoroughly finished, several first-year students in the classroom where the incident had arisen expressed their thanks to her countless times. With tears streaming down their faces, the freshmen apologized and thanked Hyuga, who told them not to worry and patted them on the head, all of whom had bright red eyes.

“Thank you, senior.”

“Um. What is going to happen to us… after this?”

“Don’t worry, it will be fine.”

“I am glad…”Translator: MadHatter

“Ugh… that was horrifying… I still can’t believe it.”

“I know you were shocked, but I don’t think anything will come of it, so you can relax and forget about it.”

“Ugh… yes.”

“Oh, that’s right, you should burn all the straw dolls you used. You can throw them in the school’s incinerator.”

With this final message, Hyuga left.

“Hey, what was that thing you just did?”

Decorations, sets and everything else had been cleared away, desks were arranged in the usual order, and the classrooms were vacant and deserted. The after-party festival had started, and from the gymnasium, strange noises, cheers, and ridiculously loud singing—which was not especially impressive—were echoing from the gymnasium. Whereas the other side of the building was bustling with activity, the main building was so silent that it seemed as though the place had been packed with people until a few hours ago was false.

Left alone in the dimly lit classroom of her own class, I found Hyuga seated by the window, gazing out. The whole thing was really bugging me so I went to ask her about it.

Hyuga answered, “I was trying to persuade a girl,” while holding her chin in her palm and gazing at the smoke rising from the incinerator at the back of the old school building.

Well, you certainly looked like you were trying to persuade her of something… But what you did and had shown in front of me was far more mysterious than that.

“Please explain it to me more plainly.”

Hyuga eventually turned to face me as I pleaded, tilted her head slightly, and remained silent for a brief period. What was with that subtle expression?

With her legs swinging around like a small child, I could tell she was at a loss for what to say.

“What?”NotSharedOnAggregatorSite

“If I told you, you would probably laugh at me.”

“You’re always laughing at me.”

“But…”

“I won’t laugh. My laugh tolerance isn’t as low as theirs.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to tell me, I won’t force you.”

“Then I’ll tell you.”

What…!!

“This school has always been inhabited by a girl who’s so tall she almost reaches the ceiling.”

Hey.

“Wait, wait, wait, ceiling!? She resides here!?”

I didn’t laugh, however, the subject suddenly veered off in an astonishing direction. Without responding to my words, Hyuga continued her story.

“Her hair goes down to her knees and her appearance is frightening, but if you talk to her, she’s normal… I’ve seen her frequently throughout the year.”

Such a guy would undoubtedly catch people’s attention, but unfortunately, I have never encountered such a telephone pole woman even once. My expression remained stiff as I regarded Hyuga, who was speaking nonchalantly about something so bizarre that I struggled to understand where this was coming from.

“It was a student from decades ago. But she said she was bullied by people around her for being creepy or that she might curse people… They always wrote nasty words on the blackboard, locked her in the toilet…”

They put white clothing, spikes, and straw dolls on her desk…

“She was driven into a corner by the bullies. Before entering the second year, she hanged herself in the classroom.”

That’s why her neck is crooked.

Hyuga’s eyes were so intent that they sent a jolt of fear down my spine. I wondered when the topic had shifted to a ghost story, but apparently it hadn’t.

“The first-year students of that classroom used straw dolls as ornaments for the haunted house without being aware of it. That made her furious because she assumed that she was being treated like a fool… All I did was inform her that it wasn’t true and persuaded her… that many people are oblivious to such spaces, but they gather together quite easily.”

“Um, that girl is…”

“She’s already dead.”

“What…”

“When I was in junior high school, I started to see those things normally… It’s a little harder to see them when I wear glasses, though.”

She momentarily removed her spectacles before putting them back on. Hyuga gave an awkward smile.

“Sorry for the crazy talk. I guess you’re a little put off, right?”

I can tell, she added. Hyuga rose from the chair.

“I know you hate this kind of talk. I hear rumors about that often.”

“I don’t deny it… but…”

“You can’t believe what you can’t see, isn’t that right? I’m sorry, I won’t bring this kind of thing up again in front of you.”

Admittedly, I was a little taken aback at being told something like this out of the blue. I was in no state of mind to say anything right away.

While it was true that something strange had unfolded at that time, the revelation that a specter was involved didn’t make sense to me. After all, I had always believed that specters were something in the imagination of people who were afraid of them…

Nevertheless, Hyuga didn’t have her usual silly laugh; instead, she had a serious expression on her face. It didn’t strike me that she was faking it. And yet, the stubborn conventional wisdom that I had clung to in the past hindered me from trying to believe Hyuga.

“My bad… I can’t believe it when you say it like that out of nowhere.”

“It’s okay, I didn’t say that because I wanted you to believe me. In fact, that kind of response is more reassuring and is more like you.”

“What’s with that?”

For once, if I had taken Hyuga’s words to heart and believed them…

“You are always straight and unwavering, and that’s good. I envy you, the way you are so straightforward with yourself…”

I bet I never saw her with a forlorn smile on her face like this.

“You’re the one who’s straightforward.”

“I am… looking at other people’s faces and worrying about all the things going on around me, and I can’t always be true to myself… when I look at you, sometimes I think I want to be you.”

I kept blinking as I felt like I had heard something extremely unexpected. After all, she was someone with a laid-back lifestyle. I mean… she wanted to be me…?

“Was that a lie? Is that true? Hey… from which part to which part?”

“Well, I wonder which part was true or false?”

With a light clink of her indoor shoes, she skipped and slipped next to me.

“Oh, the festival is over in the blink of an eye, isn’t it?”

“I feel refreshed.”

“That’s right, the next event is the long-awaited summer tournament, isn’t it?”

“Don’t make any funny gestures when I’m on the field, like waving at me. Oh, and don’t let your instrument shine in the audience like you did today!”

“Oh, that’s a nice idea.”

“Don’t do that. Absolutely not.”

Since the main building was mostly empty, we walked around the school proudly for the first time that day, side by side. Hyuga, as if having forgotten the look on her face earlier, walked unsteadily by my side in her usual fashion, while I occasionally poked her with my elbow as we moved along.

“I believe in you. I believe you can make it to the Koshien.”

“Even if you don’t tell me, I’m going to give it my all and win. You too, don’t remove your instrument just because it drowns in the other instruments.”

“Yes…!”

Our relationship was unstable, yet I didn’t dislike this indescribable relationship.

The not-too-long walk to the gymnasium, the darkened and quiet hallway, and the shadows that had stretched out.

The reason why I slowed down the speed at which Hyuga walked with me was that I wanted to be with her just a little bit longer. I had assumed that after the festival, after the summer tournament, and after I retired, our relationship would last for years to come.

I had no doubt that it would, and I was smiling next to Hyuga with a face that I never showed to Kinoshita and the others.