Interlude IV
Um, my name…My name is Katsumi Matsunaga.
I'm in the third-year Class 3 for 1983 at Yomiyama North Middle. And I plan to graduate next March.
I'm recording this tape on the night of August 20. It's after eleven o'clock. There's maybe ten days left until summer break is over. I'm alone in my room, talking to the tape recorder.
Once I finish recording, I'm planning to hide this tape somewhere in the classroom.
Someday…I don't know how long it'll take, but if someone finds this tape someday and listens to it, then…I wonder what the chances are that you, listening to this tape right now—maybe there's more than one of you—what are the chances that you're students of a future third-year Class 3, following in my footsteps? And what are the chances that the same things that I…that we've experienced this year are happening to you, and you're afraid of the senseless disasters befalling your class?
…It doesn't matter.
It doesn't do me any good to think about how likely that stuff is right now. It really doesn't.
Um…Right, broadly speaking, there are two explanations for why I decided to create this tape.
The first is to…"confess a crime" I've committed, I guess…That sounds right. That's what this is.
I want to tell someone about what I've done. I want someone to hear my story, and so I've…Yeah. That's what this is. No matter how much I talk to the people around me right now, they won't understand. They won't talk to me about it. Everybody's already completely forgotten about it. That's the situation I'm in now, so I…I have to at least…
The other reason is to warn you, my future underclassmen… or actually, to give you some advice. This…
…This is a major issue.
In the end, it's up to you whether or not you believe what I'm about to tell you…But I hope you'll believe me. Because I'm not going to lie about anything on this tape.
The "extra person" who infiltrates third-year Class 3 and the "disasters" that happen because of them…Some people call it a "curse" and some people say it's something different, but it doesn't matter who's right. The issue is, how do we put an end to the situation?
What I mean is…
It's…
No…Maybe I have to tell the story in order after all. Yeah. I'll do that.
…
…
…We went on a camping trip.
A class camping trip for third-year Class 3, for two nights and three days, starting on August 8. At a lodge called the "Sakitani Memorial Hall" that the school owns at the foot of the mountain Yomiyama.
Maybe you're wondering why we decided to do that. Our head teacher, Mr. Koga, suggested it. He said we should go on a camping trip and visit the shrine.
Yomiyama has been called "Mount Yomi" for ages, and there's that ancient shrine on the side of the mountain. He said that if everyone went to Yomiyama Shrine, it would break the "curse" for sure…Essentially, we were going to pray for the gods to save us.
From what I heard, Mr. Koga had thought long and hard about the problem and had consulted with a medium about it. And some people said this was the advice he got. But I don't know how it actually happened.
In any case, I went on the trip.
Twenty students participated, including me. None of us really completely believed it would do anything, but on the second day of the trip—August 9…That's the day when the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki so many years ago, huh? I guess that doesn't really have anything to do with my story, though…So on the second day of the trip, the teacher dragged us up the mountain to visit the shrine.
The shrine was unbelievably run-down.
Even though it's got the same name as this town, it looked like it wasn't really being maintained. Kind of like it had been forsaken by the rest of the world.
So while we were visiting the shrine, we all helped to clean the place up. Right then we were all, I dunno—we became convinced that doing that really might break the curse. Mr. Koga was so confident, he even told us, "Everything is going to be all right now." But then…
…It didn't work.
The curse wasn't so wimpy that a simple thing like that would break it.
We left the shrine and we were on our way back. It happened that fast. The weather had been clear all morning, but all of a sudden ominous clouds appeared and it started raining out of nowhere. It was a really bad thunderstorm. Mr. Koga and all the students were in this huge panic and hurried down the path, like they were trying to get away, but I guess that was a bad idea. No, at this point I can say it was obviously a pointless thing to do. Totally pointless.
A boy named Hamaguchi was the first to go down.
He got struck by lightning. He was an idiot. He was so overprepared, he'd brought an umbrella. And then he went and opened it up. Even though we were on a mountain path and thunder was rumbling all around us…
…It was a direct hit.
I was walking ahead of him, so I didn't see it, but the sound of it was monstrous. I'd never heard lightning strike so close before.
I think…Hamaguchi must have died instantly. He was burned to a crisp and tendrils of smoke were coming off of his body. At that point, it was full-on panic.
Mr. Koga tried to calm everyone down, but the situation was completely out of control. We ditched Hamaguchi, and most of the students started running, trying to save themselves…That kind of influenced me, too, and I just thought, I have to get off this mountain, so I started running blindly. And in the midst of it all…the second sacrifice was taken.
It was a girl named Hoshikawa.
She wasn't struck by lightning. She was running around in a panic and left the path and went flying over a cliff…
The ledge was sheer and high. A rescue attempt wouldn't have been beyond us, but we were in no condition to try, so in the end we left her behind…I guess the only thing we could do anymore was get down the mountain and call for help.
It turned out that Hamaguchi and Hoshikawa were never saved. The two of them became "deaths of August." And our visit to the shrine had no effect at all…
…
…
…
…And then.
The most important part happened after that.
Right after we all got down the mountain at last, it happened.
It being that…that I…