Shōkan // Summon

That night around nine o'clock, Shinji appears once again in the dark woods. The buildings look as eerie as before, while Shinji has changed his perception, he had been here once, he saw the ghosts before, he knows their appearances and their story, he is not afraid anymore. However, before he enters the Forbidden Building, he leans his bicycle next to a big tree, he grabs his flashlight, the cookies, and the commemoration book, then he proceeds to the teacher's dormitory.

Arriving at Wataru's room, Shinji pushes the door open unreservedly, he holds the cookies up and asks, "Wataru, are you hungry? My mom baked some coo-" however, just by he gives a complete glance at the room, Shinji finds the room empty, "What? He's not here..."

Giving a deep sigh, Shinji enters the room and closes the door. He lies down on Wataru's bed and waits for his return. While before Shinji could fetch Wataru back in the room, Shinji gradually falls asleep. Soon, a soft voice appears in his dream.

"Shinji-kun..." it is a girl's voice, she calls gently, "Shinji-kun..."

"Who...?" faintly, Shinji mumbled in his lips.

"Shinji-kun..." as the voice called softly, a small hand suddenly holds Shinji's hand, "Shinji-kun, please follow me..." said her.

Sitting up from the bed, Shinji asked in a tired voice, "Where to...?" as he opens his eyes reluctantly, he sees a pale face of a female student appear in front of him.

"Follow me..." pulling Shinji up from the bed, the girl keeps calling, "Follow me, Shinji-kun..."

This girl in front of her, she seems so familiar, Shinji knows he has seen her before, but now his conscious is rather faint, he can't seem to recognize her for now. While even though he couldn't come up with a name for this face, he follows her. He follows her out of the room, and heads to somewhere she is bringing him to. Slowly, one step by another, they walk out of the building where the teacher's dormitory is located, and they proceed to the building at the right leaning on the mountain foot. Without hesitating, Shinji steps into the Forbidden Building and follows the girl to a classroom. However, this time, Shinji finds the scenery in the Forbidden Building totally different from what he saw before.

Students' laughter echoes across the Forbidden Building, the atmosphere makes Shinji feel so lively here. Even if none of the lights were switched on, yet he finds his surroundings, the building, the sky, all lightened up brightly, just like during the day time.

"It's morning...?"

Turning his head around, Shinji mumbled to himself, his conscious remains vague, yet he is still following the girl walking along the corridor. Soon, they reached the classroom. Just by standing outside the classroom, Shinji can hear the noises and laughter from the inside. He raises his head and takes a glance on the sign above the door, he sees four big words written on it. It says CLASS 1-1.

"Come, let's go in."

Just as the girl said, Shinji pushes open the classroom door without hesitating. He steps into the classroom at once. Everyone in the classroom smiles brightly at Shinji, they greet him and welcome him into the class, they look so lively, just like Shinji's actual classmates.

"Shinji-kun!" dashing in front of Shinji, a girl greeted him.

"Ohayo, Shinji-kun!" the other girl greeted him too, grabbing onto his arm and walks him to his desk.

"Yo Shinji!" a boy comes to his seat, he invites him, "Let's play basketball after class!"

"Go away!" while a girl edges in, she mentions, "Shinji-kun promised to go to the ice shop with us! Right? Shinji-kun?" sweetly, she smiles at Shinji.

The boy pouts his lips and grabs on Shinji's arm, "Shinji how could you abandon us for the girls?"

There, another boy points at the boy as he laughs brightly, "Shinji, look at this sissy, he's crying! Don't you feel heartbroken?"

Looking at everyone being so friendly, Shinji puts a warm smile on his face, he starts to feel fun to have these students to be his friends. There, in his heart, he almost can hear a voice telling something to him. It says, if you feel happy here, you can stay. Without intending to leave the place, Shinji smiles and nods at his classmates. Everyone in the class cheers in glee, they surround Shinji and have fun with him.

While just as Shinji and his friends are immersed in a joyful atmosphere, a strange man suddenly barges in the classroom and dashes to Shinji. He grabs Shinji's shoulders and shakes him vigorously. Everyone else in the classroom turns silent at once.

"Izaki Shinji-kun!" aggressively, the man yelled at Shinji's face.

Shinji feels unhappy about it, he clicks his tongue in anger and shirks the man's hands off of his shoulders. However, the man does not give up, once again, he grabs onto Shinji's shoulders and shakes him harder.

"Izaki Shinji-kun!" there, he yelled at him again, while this time, tears blurred his eyes, "Wake up! Izaki Shinji-kun! Come back!"

Suddenly, Shinji stops resisting. He looks closely at the face of the man who is shouting at him, he starts to feel familiar. His voice sounds familiar too.

"W-Wata..."

Before Shinji could call out to him, the man yelled at him with his tears rolling down his cheeks, "Breath! Izaki Shinji-kun! Breath!" in fear, he screamed.

Just by the moment Wataru's last scream elapsed his lips, a chill suddenly runs up Shinji's spine and sobers him up. There, with a few coughs, he is finally drawn out of his dream and wakes to the reality. As he wakes up, he turns his head and looks around his surroundings. He finds the bright classroom and his lively classmates all vanished, what is left around him is the old, dirty classroom in dark covered by viola strings with dry blood and rotten fleshes.

Shinji leans onto Wataru' chest weakly as he pants for air. After plenty of deep breaths, he is finally able to talk.

"Wataru...?" clenching onto Wataru's shirt, Shinji asks in a faint voice, "Where is this...?"

While Wataru slaps on his chest rapidly, "You scared me! You scared me!" he yelled, and he tries to stop his tears.

"What happened?" squeezing his cheeks, Shinji puts up a puzzled face, "I thought I was in your room..."

There, taking a few deep breath, Wataru wipes his tears off and tells, "I went to fetch a jug of water, when I'm back in my room, I saw you on my bed, I thought you needed some rest, so I didn't wake you up, but suddenly, you stood up and started walking! I can't stop you no matter how hard I pulled! You entered the Forbidden Building without even taking out your flashlight! I followed you into the building, until just now, you sat down and suddenly passed out, you lost your conscious, you were not breathing! I thought you're dead, Izaki Shinji-kun!"

As Wataru said, Shinji gradually recalls what happened in Wataru's room. He searches his mind, "I saw a girl in my dream, she looks like Tomori Kokoro." he reveals, "She brought me here."

"Tomori Kokoro?" with a frown, Wataru asked.

While Shinji shakes his head lightly, "No, it wasn't her..." he remembers the face he saw, she looks extremely alike with Kokoro, but she looks slightly different, especially her hair, she has a pair of short pigtails tied under her ears, "It was Tomori Ai."

"Tomori Ai?" recollecting what he saw in the commemoration book, Wataru asks, "Tomori Kokoro's twin sister? She brought you here?"

"Yes." with a firm nod, Shinji said. As he looks down at the table, he sees viola strings laying around. He picks them up and shows it to Wataru, "These." he mentions, "Except for Tomori Kokoro, everyone's mouth was sewed up by these viola strings."

Picking up the viola strings, Wataru stares closely at it, he ponders, "Why are they here? Aren't they supposed to remain on the corpses?" he asked, "Did the murderer tear it down from the corpses and threw them here?"

Shinji shakes his head, "It seems like it, but I'm not even sure if what we're seeing now is real or an illusion."

While just as Shinji said, Wataru's face abruptly turns ghastly. He raises his hand reluctantly and points at Shinji's back, "I-Izaki Shinji-kun...!" he called with his voice trembling, "There's... There's someone at your back...!"

As Wataru mentioned, Shinji immediately turns to his back, there, he sees someone he knew since the beginning he entered the Forbidden Building, "Ah, Kokoro-san." he greeted.

"Hi, Shinji-kun!" waving her hands, Kokoro comes to Shinji's side.

Whereas Wataru turns stammered as he Shinji called her name, "K-Kokoro? Tomori Kokoro? I-i-i-i-s she a y-y-y-yurei...!?"

"Wataru, can you see her now?" Shinji chuckles, "Yes, she's a yurei, I told you I met them. Are you afraid of yurei?"

Covering his mouth with his hands, Wataru takes a sharp gasp, "Oh no... Otosan, okasan, onesan, I'm seeing a yurei...!"

At the meantime, Kokoro grabs Shinji's arm, she stares at Wataru and whispers at Shinji in an uneasy tone, "Shinji-kun, this man, he hit you and took you yesterday." she recalled what she saw last night, "Didn't I tell you to beware of him?"

"It's alright." while Shinji tries to comfort Kokoro, "Although he doesn't look like one, but he's a good person." then, he turns to Wataru, he introduces, "Wataru, she's Tomori Kokoro, but she lost her memories, she doesn't remember her name, she asked me to help her find her teacher and classmates from Class 1-1."

"K-Kokoro..." shuddering lightly, Wataru looks at Kokoro and tries to talk to her, "Don't you remember anything...?" he asked.

Kokoro shakes her head, "Not quite accurate..." she explains, "I remember everyone from Class 1-1, I remember I'm a student of Eitsuma Middle School, and, I remember one day everyone in my class disappeared all in a sudden."

Again, Wataru asks, "A-are they killed?"

"No, they are not dead..." Kokoro answered, she mentions, "We heard the 240th time of 'The Bell Rings on The 14th' today, tomorrow will be the 15th of April."

Without getting an idea, Shinji asks curiously, "What happened on the 15th of April?"

Kokoro explains, "On the 15th of April, they will appear, and then they disappear again..." suddenly, her face turns bright, she says in an excited voice, "Tomorrow will be the 15th of April, they are finally coming back."

"240th..." grabbing out his phone, Wataru opens the calculator and calculates, "The ballad, 'The Bell Rings on The 14th' plays every month since twenty years ago, last night she heard the 240th time of the ballad, and she said they are coming back on every 15th of April, it's tomorrow, so that means they will return tomorrow for their 20th time..."

Suddenly, Shinji turns stammered, "K-Kokoro-san, you said they are coming back..." he asks, "Are they coming back to this classroom?"

"Of course!" while Kokoro jumps up and down in joy, "This is our classroom!"

As Kokoro mentioned in glee, Shinji and Wataru both turn to Wataru's phone and take a glance on the screen, that is when the time on the phone turns from 23:59 to 00:00. It has passed midnight, today, it's the 15th of April.

"W-W-W-W-Wataru..." clenching tight onto Wataru's wrist, Shinji whispers with his voice shivers, "Should we leave now...?"

"I-I-I-I-I don't know..." along a gulp, Wataru whispers back at Shinji, "B-b-but... I think it's a good chance to find out the truth..."

"A-a-are you sure...?"

"Listen to your Yokoyama-sensei, Izaiki Shinji-kun, because..." as Wataru said, he thought he sees the classroom door moving slowly, "I don't think we are able to escape now..."

There, just as Wataru mentioned, the classroom door suddenly shuts with a loud noise.

"O-okay, Yokoyama-sensei..." shutting his eyes in fear, Shinji holds tighter to Wataru.

While there, Kokoro is being really excited for their return, "They are back! They are back!"

Just as Kokoro said, the scenery from the classroom windows abruptly changes. Bright light seeps through the windows and showers on the clean classroom floor. The soft wind breezes, the green leaves sway and dance, birds chirp as they play around the bushes. On the corridor outside the classroom, students running, having fun in the campus, they make the school look lively again.