Another Novel

…Do you know who Misaki is? The one in third-year Class 3? Did you hear the story?

Misaki? Is that someones name?

Yeah. No one knows what characters its written with. It could be a last name, so its not even necessarily a girl. Either way, Misaki So-and-so or So-and-so Misaki, there was a student named Misaki twenty-six years ago.

Twenty-six years? Wow, thats a long time. Thats back with the last emperor.

1972. The forty-second year of Emperor Hirohitos reign. I think that was the year Okinawa was returned.

Okinawa came back? From where?

Are you stupid? America was occupying it up till then, ever since the war ended.

Oh, so thats why there
e still all those graves.

Now that I think about it, the Winter Games were in Sapporo that year, too. Pretty sure the Mount Asama Lodge incident was, too…

What lodge on Mount Asama?

Are you for real? Whatever, I guess. Anyway. What matters is, twenty-six years ago, there was a student named Misaki in Class 3 of the third-years. And then…are you sure you never heard this story before?

Hmm…hold on. You
e saying the kid was named Misaki? Not Masaki? If its Ma-saki, then yeah, I heard a little bit about it.

Masaki? Huh. Maybe its like that in some versions. Whod you hear it from?

An upperclassman in my club.

Whatd he say?

I dunno if it was twenty-six years ago, but there was a third-year student named Masaki a long, long time ago…and, um…the way I heard it, it was a boy. And something really weird happened in his class that year. But my upperclassman said its a secret, and you
e not supposed to go around talking about it. So he said he couldn tell me anything else.

Thats it?

Yeah. He said, ”If you joke around about it, bad things will happen to you. ” I bet you its one of those things. ”The Seven Mysteries. ”

You think so?

You know how piccolo music starts playing in the music room in the middle of the night when no ones around, or how sometimes a hand all covered in blood reaches out of the lotus pond in the schoolyard? So I figure, maybe this is the seventh one.

I heard that the mannequins in the home ec room have actual heartbeats.

They totally do!

Theres a ton besides that. I know like nine or ten of the ”Seven Mysteries ” at this middle school. But this story about Misaki or Masaki or whatever it was…I don think its one of those. Most of the stories feel pretty different from the rest of the ”Seven Mysteries. ”

Wow, really? So you know the details?

A little, I guess.

Tell me!

What, you don care if something bad happens to me?

Thats just a superstition, obviously.

Yeah, you
e probably right.

So tell me!

Actually, I don know if I should…

Come on! Ill never ask you for anything else!

And how many times now has it been the last thing youll ever ask me for?

Heh-heh.

Oh, for crying out loud. If I tell you, you can go blabbing to everyone you know.

I won tell anyone. I swear.

Hmmph. Okay…

Awesome.

So maybe its Misaki or maybe its Masaki…I guess for now, Ill say its Misaki. Ever since their first year, this kid was popular with everyone. Brilliant student, accomplished athlete, really good at drawing, and even a talented musician. On top of all t