читать дальшеGakuen K
Summer
Gakuen Kaidan (Academy’s Ghost Stories)
Totsuka: The after school hours. The students’ bustle dies down, and inside the academy, shrouded in twilight, doors leading to the other world open. The more people come here in daytime, the deeper and thicker the phantom darkness crawling from out of those doors becomes. And when night falls, sometimes, those phantoms even bear malicious will towards humans… Oh, look: today, too, one boy is about to…
Kamamoto: Academy at night is sort of scary… You get the impression that there are people standing in the darkness and you imagine seeing strange things on the glass panes of windows.
Yata: Mooron, what are you talking about? Are you an idiot? What an idiot, seriously, you’re an idiot among idiots, idiot!
Kamamoto: Yata-san, aren’t you scared?
Yata: As if! Like hell Yatagarasu of the Red Club would be scared of the night academy!
Kamamoto: Yata-san.
Yata: What is it, Kamamoto?
Kamamoto: We’re on our way to the music room to get the PDA you forgot there, right?
Yata: That’s right. I would go get it in the morning, but unfortunately, Totsuka might call me tonight, so I have to get it back now.
Kamamoto: Then why can’t you just go there alone?
Yata: Well, that’s because, uh… because, you know, of, of, of, well, that, you know! That! Come up with something yourself!
Kamamoto: Could it be it’s because you don’t know where in the music room you left your PDA, so it will be much easier to find if we call from my PDA to yours and go to where the ringing will be coming from?
Yata: That’s right, dude! You knew, didn’t ya!
Kamamoto: *siiigh*
Yata: Kamamoto, you bastard, if you have something to say, say it to my face!
Kamamoto: Eh, no, I don’t want to say anything. And I definitely didn’t just think, ‘Yata-san is such scaredy-cat’.
Yata: That’s precisely what you just thought, didn’t you, you jerk!
*ghostly sounds*
Yata: What’s that…?
Kamamoto: Sounds like a shakuhachi to me.
Yata: I-Idiot!!! That’s not what I mean! I’m asking why do we hear these sounds this late at night in the empty Academy!
Kamamoto: Yata-san.
Yata: What?!
Kamamoto: These sounds are coming from the music room we’re heading to.
Yata: Keh…?
Kamamoto: I’m sure of it. Hear? Wh-what should we do? Turn back?
Yata: Don’t be freaking out. We’re going there anyway. We the Red Club won’t lose to anything, be it shakuhachis or hammers!
Kamamoto: Then please stop using me as a shield while saying stuff like that!!!
Yata: Pipe down! Just face forward and walk already!
Munakata: *sigh* I have finally achieved harmony in my performance for most part. I must say shakuhachi is a difficult instrument to play.
Yata: Whadda…!
Kamamoto: What are you doing, president of the Blue club, Munakata Reishi-senpai?
Munakata: Oya? Who do we have here? Yata Misaki-kun and Kamamoto Rikio-kun, from the Red Club, huh? What a wonderful night, don’t you agree? Good evening.
Yata: “What a wonderful night, don’t you agree? Good evening”… don’t give me that crap! What the hell are you doing in a place like this?!
Munakata: Can you not tell from looking? I was playing the shakuhachi.
Yata: That’s not it! I can obviously see that! What I’m asking is why the hell are you playing the shakuhachi in a pitch dark place like this all alone?!
Munakata: “Pitch dark”? Being under Suoh Mikoto does not help nurture a taste for beauty and refinement, I suppose… Just take a look. The moon is so beautiful, don’t you find? And the gathering clouds every here and there. A perfect night to play the shakuhachi.
Yata: I give up. Taking to this guy is completely useless. Kamamoto, let’s just find my PDA and get out of here.
Kamamoto: Right.
Munakata: Ah, are you coming in?
Yata: Huh? What, are we bothering you? Well, you may be the president of the Blue club, but we’re not taking orders from you, cause we’re the Red Club!
Munakata: No, that is not why I asked. *the door shuts* But now it is too late.
Yata: What’re you mumbling about?
Kamamoto: Yata-san! This is your PDA, right, Yata-san? It was lying on the table.
Yata: Oh, Kamamoto, thank you! That’s mine alright! Sorry for intruding, Munakata-senpai. Let’s get going, Kamamoto.
Kamamoto: Ah, sure. Munakata-senpai, we’ll be going ahead then. *tries to open the door* Eh? H-Huh?
Yata: What’s wrong?
Kamamoto: W-Well, that’s, uh… the door closed on its own, and now… *grunts* This is strange. Heave-ho! It doesn’t open.
Yata: What the heck? Step back and let me try! It usually happens when the door stopped fitting properly into the door frame. And here! Here! Heeeerrrre! No dice. It didn’t even budge.
Munakata: Hmmm. As I thought.
Yata: What did you say? Do you know something?
Munakata: Should I provide a simple explanation for you or a detailed one? Which one do you prefer?
Yata: Huh?! The simple one, obviously!
Munakata: Very well then. I shall explain it in as simple words as I can find. The music teacher who is in charge of this music room has an obsessively watchful personality. This room gets locked with an electric lock once all the lessons are over, but the lock seems to be malfunctioning: you can open it from the outside but not from the inside. I have been locked in this room for quite a while, I might add.
Yata: Huh?
Munakata: Luckily, I had a shakuhachi at hand, so I did not have to deal with ennui - ah, simply put, ennui means boredom.
Yata: I didn’t ask about that! Actually, warn us BEFORE we get into the room!
Munakata: You had already stepped into the room before I had the chance to give you a warning. Did you forget?
Kamamoto: Yata-san! No need to worry! You have your PDA. Now you just need to call someone from the Red Club to come save us.
Munakata: I would not be so sure: radio waves are being jammed in this room. The teacher I mentioned earlier flew into a temper when he caught some students playing with their phones secretly during his classes.
Yata: The teachers at this Academy are just… argh… Can’t be helped then. This flimsy door won’t last long if I hit it with a chair or something heavy!
Munakata: Yata Misaki-kun! You must not do that!
Yata: Huh? What now? Do you have a problem or something?
Kamamoto: Yata-san, this person is the president of the Blue club, you remember? Damaging the school’s property right before his eyes can’t be good…
Munakata: No, that is not why I am against the idea. It appears that breaking this door by force will trigger a high voltage current. By my estimates, its voltage is 100,000 volts.
Yata: What is this room, a fortress?!
Munakata: As such, I recommend we simply wait for the rescue to come. Rest assured: at worst, in the morning it will work out somehow. Hahahaha.
Yata: Arg, dammit all!
*clock ticking*
Yata: Dammit… I never thought I’d end up in a situation like this.
Kamamoto: Yeah, I never thought that going to get back something we forgot would result in us getting locked up…
*sounds of the shakuhachi*
Yata: Look, Munakata-senpai, I’m sorry but could you stop that?
Munakata: Why is that? It may come off as a self-praise, but I highly doubt I am so unskilled as to produce a sound completely disagreeable to the ear.
Yata: No, it’s just, uh… how should I put it… it’s a bit… that, you know…
Kamamoto: Yata-san… Don’t tell me you’re scared of the shakuhachi’s sound?
Yata: I-Idiot! That’s not it! I’m not! I just don’t like it!
Munakata: Hmm. If that is the case, I do not mind to cease playing. I see now. The Red Club’s vanguard is no good at dealing with this kind of atmosphere, it seems.
Kamamoto: I apologize for him.
Yata: I’m not scared, I friggin told you!!!
Munakata: Still, this leaves me with regrettable lack of occupation. I investigated the electric system earlier and found that even turning on the lights is impossible.
Kamamoto: Uh, the light from the moon would be good, only the moon got overshadowed by clouds.
Munakata: Yes, we mostly cannot even see each other’s faces anymore. Things that we can do now are very limited.
Kamamoto: Yeah, hehe. Would you like to play shiritori?
Munakata: Yes, I would. “Gakkou” [school].
Kamamoto: Eh?! You’re seriously gonna play that?! What about you, Yata-san?
Yata: I’ll pass!!!
Munakata: Then it is going to be a one-on-one duel between I and Kamamoto-kun. Well then, to start anew. Let’s see… simply saying “school” is no fun at all, so how about “yoru no gakkou” [school at night].
Kamamoto: I see. “Yoru no gakkou”, huh? Then I’ll go with… “u”, “u”… “umekigoe” [groan].
Munakata: “E”… “Etai no shirenai nani ka” [something strange].
Kamamoto: “Ka”, “kaibutsu” [monster]!
Munakata: “Tsumetai onna no te” [woman’s cold hand].
Kamamoto: “Temaneki suru hito” [beckoning man].
Munakata: “Totsuzen mayonaka ni hibikiwataru keta-keta to iu waraigoe” [cackling laughter echoing in the night].
Yata: Enough already!!! What the heck’s up with that weird horror-themed shiritori?!
Munakata: Hahaha. Please forgive me. It looks like I got drawn into this atmosphere.
Kamamoto: I’m sorry, too, Yata-san. I got caught up in it as well. We really should probably stop with this kind of scary stuff though. This academy has this sort of countless rumors floating around, after all. If we’re not careful, we just might end up attracting something.
Munakata: Hoho! How very interesting. What kind of rumors, exactly?
Kamamoto: Let me think… This is something that I heard from a friend. A student came back to the academy to retrieve something he forgot. Warily, he was walking along a dark hall, thinking, ‘I don’t like this one bit… It’s so dark…’ all the while. At the end of the hall, a girl peeked at him, with only her head visible, from around the corner.
Munakata: I see.
Kamamoto: It was sticking out at an unbelievably low level - around that student’s knee height - that’s from where her head was peeking out. The student gathered up his courage and cried out, “Who are you?”
Yata: *eeek!*
Kamamoto: And when he did… the girl crawled out on all fours swiftly - crawl, crawl, crawl! - and said, “Let’s plaaaaay!”
Yata: AAAAAHHH!!! No blood! No bone! No ash! Ah! Stop it! Stop with “crawl, crawl, crawl”!!! Just stop!!!
Munakata: Hahahaha. If it is about that kind of stories, I, too, have heard one.
Yata: Wai- wai- Heyyy!!!
Munakata: It is about a certain school room. Strange phenomena kept happening in it, so the teacher in charge of it went a little mad and installed there a security system with an electric lock and high voltage current, so that nothing and no one could enter the room at night.
Yata: Eh?!
Munakata: But his efforts were futile, of course, since those entering the room were not human in the first place. Hahahahahaha.
Kamamoto: Hehehehehe!
Yata: Wait a sec. Wait a sec there! That story…
Munakata: Even now, every evening, monsters gather in that room, and if they happen to catch any stray students…
Yata: M-M-M-Munakata-senpai, why are you coming closer to me?
*PDA rings*
Yata: Ah! Oh, oh, oh, that scared the shit out of me. Ah, it’s from Totsuka-san. It does have signal here after all! Hello, it’s Yata!
Totsuka: Ah, Yata? Can you talk right now? I wanted to know your opinion about something concerning King’s birthday.
Yata: Yes, I can talk! You know, I feel really relieved to hear your voice, Totsuka-san.
Totsuka: Huh? Is something wrong?
Yata: Ah, well, it’s not a big deal, but I got locked up in a classroom at school. I’m sorry to ask you this, but it looks like the door only opens from the outside, so could you please come get me out?
Totsuka: You sound like you’re in a real predicament. Of course, I’m coming right away. Where exactly are you?
Yata: The music room.
Totsuka: Okay, got it. Kamamoto’s with me right now, so I’ll take him along and be on my way to get you out right away.
Yata: E-E-Eh, eh…? Totsuka-san, what did you say just now?
Totsuka: Eh? That I’ll be on my way right away?
Yata: N-No, before that. Did you say that Kamamoto is with you right now?
Totsuka: Yes, he’s here. Want me to put him on?
Kamamoto: Ah, Yata-san, g'evening.
Yata: Eh…?
Kamamoto: What happened?
Yata: Eh?! K-Kamamoto! Y-You’re the real Kamamoto?!
Kamamoto: Huuh? What are you talking about, Yata-san? I’ve been with Totsuka-san the whole evening.
Yata: Then… who was it that I’ve been with until now…? Kamamoto!!! Hey! Huh? This is strange. Kamamoto’s disappeared. A-And Munakata-senpai too! H-Hey! Where did you go, you two?! Hey, don’t mess with people!
*the shakuhachi resounds*
Yata: Ah! What the hell! Who’s touching my shoulder?! Stop it! Enough with this stupid joke! I’m gonna turn around. Listen, you. If you’re still messing with me when I turn around, I’m seriously gonna beat the shit out of you. If you wanna apologize, this is your last chance. Here I go. I’ll turn around on the count of three. 1… 2… 3!
Ghostly voice: Let’s plaaaay!
Yata: AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!
Totsuka: When we made it there, we found Yata fainted from fear. We only heard the details of what had happened after the morning came. Since then, Yata came to loathe the sound of shakuhachi. And also the president of Blue Club just a little. Heh. Be very careful when going to the school at night. Ghosts might be ready and waiting there, wanting to play with you.
*shakuhachi sounds*
T/N: shakuhachi is a type of flute.