Case 08: Does the Place Underground Exist, or not? (6)

“All you kids, get out of here!”

The teachers were shouting angrily on the roof.

And from their voices, I could tell that all the adults were exceptionally perturbed.

We pushed aside the countless onlookers until we managed to make our way through to the front. Apparently, the pair of shoes were found on top of the water tower facility at the far end of the school building. They had been discovered lined up when the workers were about to carry out a routine inspection. There were already a few gym teachers who had climbed on top of the water tower and were starting at something. Beneath them were about ten or so teachers all lined up, talking amongst themselves and stopping any students who tried to approach.

“Hey! Whose shoes are those?!”

I shouted out loud, and the teacher standing in the front shouted back at me telling me to ‘shut up’. He told me to back off right away, and pushed me back. I managed to overhear the teachers talking amongst themselves, they were wondering why the police had arrived yet.

“Stop fucking kidding me, let me through.”

“I told you to back off!”

I was in the middle of arguing back and forth with the biggest, bamboo sword wielding, jersey-wearing gym teacher of the bunch, when Krishna-san slipped out from beside me and dashed past the teachers.

“H-hey you!”

While the gym teachers were all focused on Krishna-san, I also made a mad dash through.

I pushed past the teachers to reach Krishn-san's side, and together we peeked at the other side of the water tower -- which was, empty space, that is -- and looked down the school building from the railing there.

For a split second, I thought I saw Yoishi’s fallen body far down in the depths below.

In an instant, a strange nostalgia sweeps over my heart. A feeling that made me want to burst into tears, that made me nostalgic for the days when I went to creepy places with Yoishi, and got teary-eyed at her words.

--Don’t be there. Please don’t be there.

I prayed, as I peered downwards.

And in the next moment – I let out a deep breath.

Looking down at the hedges from the roof, there was no one to be seen. With the sun already begun to set, it was difficult to see in places, but there was still no sign of a corpse. Only the dreary expanse full of weeds lay spread out.

“Hey!”

“…Ouch.”

A thick arm extended towards me and pulled me back, pinioning my arms behind me.

Krishna-san was also grabbed by a different teacher and was pulled back.

“I told you not to come here you fools!”

I was instantly dragged back to the crowd of onlookers together with Krishna-san. We then exchanged glances and spoke at the same time: “Yoishi wasn’t there.”

“…I mean, it’s best that her body wasn’t there, but what does it mean?”

“Leaving aside the fact of whether or not the shoes belong to Yoishi – for now, it just means that the girl who jumped from the roof is nowhere to be found. It might just be a malicious prank set up by someone.”

The next moment, I caught a glimpse of a teacher in a shirt putting the shoes in a plastic bag and climbing down from the water tower.

I shouted out once more.

“Hey, just let me take a look at those shoes! They might belong to someone I know!”

The teacher sent an annoyed glance our way – when he noticed the ‘Newspaper club’ armbands we were wearing, and after that, he annoyedly held up the shoes up for us to see. From what I could see from here, there was neither a name or class written on them. You’re actually supposed to write that down on them, but there were probably very few high schoolers who bothered to do that anymore.

“How were they placed, exactly?”

The balding teacher replied to Krishna-san’s question:

“They were placed together. Judging from the size, I’m guessing they belong to a girl.”

Then muttered afterwards as if continuing.

“…But, it’s strange. They were placed facing inwards.”

---Inwards?

But the teacher who reacted to those words, was a tall, elderly one who stood in the center.

I would later learn from Yukihito-kun that he was the vice-principal of this high school.

I heard his voice unmistakably tremble as he spoke in a whisper:

“…Isn’t that…exactly the same as five years ago?”

--Five years ago.

In an instant, I looked towards Krishna-san.

The occult website manager, had her lips pursed tightly together.

Past six pm, around the time when students who had finished their club activities were heading home—

Me, Krishna-san and Yukihito-kun were standing in front of the main gate.

With its siren turned off, only the flashing lights atop the patrol car kept spinning round and round, bewitchingly illuminating the school building, which appeared black enshrouded in the darkness. At long last, it seemed the school had finally contacted the police. From here on, they would investigate whether the shoes belonged to Yoishi, and if that were proved, they would conclude that she had been involved in some kind of incident, and officially begin a manhunt.

“…Let’s come again tomorrow.”

Krishna-san sounded completely exhausted, to which neither I nor Yukihito-kun could reply.

The light from the staff room was still brightly visible. From here on, the teachers were probably going to be thoroughly interrogated by the police as to why they were so late in reporting a student’s disappearance. I didn’t feel any sympathy with them, but I also didn’t get the feeling that Yoishi’s disappearance would be solved now that the police were involved.

“Why did the vice-principal say it was the same as five years ago?”

Yukihito-kun muttered silently.

“Who knows?”

Krishna-san looked as if she had gulped down something bitter, and shook her head.

“But judging from what the vice principal said and the way he reacted on the roof, it seems that when Senpai disappeared, her shoes were also found at the same place. I didn’t know about it at the time, but that’s where the rumors of a suicide spread from, even though her body was never found.”

“…Do those shoes belong to Yoishi?”

I asked, but Krishna-san shook her head once more.

“Let’s leave that up to the police investigation. For now, let’s return to the university club room. There’s nothing we can do right now. Takita-san is also supposed to come here soon -- I’ll stay in the club room on standby, you guys return home for today.”

“….Eh?”

“No way sis, I’m staying, I can’t just leave like this...”

“Didn’t I say it already? There’s nothing we can do right now. Takita-san is looking into Senpai’s disappearance five years ago. Until we can hear his opinion on it, we probably won't find anything. We have even less information when it comes to Yoishi.”

Those words made me recall the voice mail I had received from Yoishi. I took out my phone once more, and tried to replay the message I had saved in the afternoon.

But--

《You have no messages.》…Was the message displayed on the screen.

“…Huh? What?”

Did I delete it? No, that can’t be. I was sure I had properly saved it. Seeing me fiddle with my phone, Yukihito-kun asked me.

“The message isn’t there?”

“What are you two talking about?”

In reply to Krishna-san’s query, I quickly explained to her that I had received a voice message from Yoishi.

“…A voice message? From Yoishi? Are you sure?”

“Yes, because of some interference, I couldn’t quite make out what she was saying – but the one thing I’m sure I heard her say was: ‘Don’t look for me.’”

Hearing that, Krishna-san placed a hand on her small chin and seemed to be lost in thought –

Finally, she placed her hand gently on my shoulders.

“For the time being, let’s return to the club room. We’ll think things over from there.”

We passed by the grounds as we made our way to the western club room building.

The two sports grounds lined together had their lights turned off, their vast space was akin to a bottomless sea of darkness. The only thing that proved it was there was the feeling of the hard ground beneath our feet, as we walked on the faintly visible surface. But right now, I couldn’t even trust that that feeling. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the hardness of this ground to collapse at any moment.

I recalled the past, a time I had spent with my father rowing out to the sea at night, fishing for cuttlefish. The sea at night scared me. No matter where you looked, darkness reigned; the boundary between the sky and the sea was indiscernible. Only the stars in the overhead sky remained, a world drenched in darkness lay underneath. And there, my father and I were swaying. We were swaying in a small boat used for fishing. it was scary to not talk, but my father didn’t talk at all when he was absorbed in fishing. Only the strong aroma of the sea and the rough sound from the waves remained. In that series of sounds, I felt like I could hear someone’s voice. A sad voice; A voice on the verge of insanity, desperately wishing for something that it knew it could never gain. As I listened to it, I wondered if I was going to melt away. Surrounded by a bottomless darkness from top to bottom, I was scared that I would melt away.

And now—

After a long time, I recalled the horror of that time, the fact that nature did not care the least about my existence. You can’t see the stars in the Tokyo sky, but I had the feeling that something vast was stretching out beneath the vast expanse of the ground.

『Does the underground place exist, or not?』

The girl I saw -- ‘Takamura’, had said that.

『If you think it's not there, it's not. If you think it is, then it is. 』

She also said that.

In short, which one was it? It was all too abstract, a dumb person like me couldn’t get it at all.

And it was just like – the existence of ghosts. If you think they’re there, they’re there, and yet, the countless ghost stories beloved by the world are completely laughable to those who don’t believe in them. But that ambiguity… is good. To get to the bottom of that ambiguity is no good, that would not be the kind of occult I’d like. It would be fine if I knew the truth after I died. As long as I was still alive, I didn’t want to know it. Yeah, those were my thoughts on it. For me, the occult was always a romance. If it stops being exciting, it’s no longer a romance, and I am not that broken. Or should I say, I should not have been broken. I should have been like Krishna-san, an existence that paid respect to the other side from afar, with my feet firmly planted in this world.

However—

I had only come to think this way because of Yoishi. If she hadn’t intervened in the depths of my dream back then, I would have been destroyed along with the collapse of that mansion. I’m only here alive and well because she was there for me back then.

Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks.

In a row of zelkova trees near the western club room building, I turned to look back.

In the darkness beyond, I could vaguely see the Koumei affiliated high school. Yukihito-kun had said it in the beginning, but now, I too felt that Yoishi was still somewhere inside that school. Somewhere out of everyone’s sight, she was caught up in an inescapable situation, yet still trying to endure everything with a pained expression on her face. Her power of endurance was completely abnormal. Without a doubt, she would continue to sit silently, without asking anyone for help, until her body rotted away. Just like she had done up until now, she would walk a painful path alone for over a thousand years, without anyone’s sympathy.

“Krishna-san.”

I spoke.

“…Hm?”

Walking ahead of me, The Kurimoto siblings turned to face me at the same time.

“I’m gonna try looking around a bit more.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know – but somewhere.”

“Just stop. If you insist, then I’ll come with you as well.”

“No, let me look for her by myself. It’s alright, don’t worry. If I just leave like this, I’ll regret it for the rest of—”

I shook my head, and rephrased myself.

“I’ll be filled with regret even after I die, to the point where I might end up as a ghost.” I declared, and ran back to the heart of darkness by myself.