"This is… a cassette?"
Tomohiko took the tape from Rinji's hand and examined it.
It was indeed something from another era.
By the time of Rinji's own era, cassette tapes were already rare. But in the 1980s, they were common.
That was the age when Sony Walkman ruled the world, making tapes extremely popular.
But now it was 1998.
This was the very year Samsung released the world's first MP3 player, signaling the cassette's decline.
"So now that we've found it… we need something to play it with?"
"A Walkman, or a tape recorder maybe…"
None of the students had brought anything that could play a tape.
"I remember classrooms should have recorders. We always used them in English lessons."
"Which means… we'll have to go back to our own classroom?"
With no choice, Tomohiko handed the cassette back to Rinji, and the group headed to their Class 3-3 classroom.
When they reached the locked door, it was once again Rinji who pried it open.
Inside, Naoya quickly found a recorder under the podium.
He plugged it in. Everyone took a deep breath as he opened the deck and put in the cassette.
"It's starting…"
"Yeah."
Naoya pressed play. The machine whirred, and strong static filled the air.
[I am… Katsumi Matsunaga, a student of Yomiyama North Middle School, Class 3-3, 1983…]
The moment the recording began, everyone fell silent, straining to hear every word.
In the quiet night, the only sound in the dim classroom was the recorder's voice.
[The recording time is the night of August 20th. I'm currently alone at home recording this. After I finish, I plan to hide this cassette somewhere in the classroom.]
[If you've found this tape, then it means you… or you all are listening to it now.]
[How likely is it that you're future Class 3-3 students? Maybe you're even going through the same ridiculous calamity right now.]
The sound suddenly grew clearer.
[This is my confession of a crime, and also advice for my kouhais. About ten days ago… we went to Yomiyama Mountain for training.]
[Halfway up the mountain, there's an old shrine called Yomiyama Shrine. Twenty students attended the training. Everyone believed that if we prayed together, we could break the curse. But on the way back to the lodge, a sudden storm hit. The first to suffer was a boy named Hamaguchi, who was struck by lightning.]
The voice of the former survivor played on, as if pulling the students into a story.
[The students panicked. Almost all of them ran desperately through the forest. In the downpour, the second victim appeared: a girl named Hoshikawa. She slipped and fell off a cliff. Neither Hamaguchi nor Hoshikawa survived. They were the August victims.]
[I had always known a curse couldn't be solved by praying at a shrine. I should've known. But when someone said to me, 'Everyone's going to die, maybe you're next,' I lost control. Overcome by fear and panic… I grabbed a rock and smashed it into his head.]
[He died.]
[I ran away, terrified, unable to close my eyes all night. Every time I did, I saw him staring at me with his bloodied face. I feared someone would find the body… but then something strange happened.]
[The next morning, there was nothing. No blood, no body, not even signs of a fight. Everything was gone.]
[I thought he had returned, so I asked around at the camp. But the answer I got was—'Matsunaga, you're weird. Who's this guy called ●● you're talking about?']
[I nearly lost my mind. How could that be? Just days ago we were talking and laughing. I went to confirm with the teacher, but the teacher said only nineteen students attended the camp. There was no such person as ●●.]
[It wasn't until a few days later that I understood. The person I killed was the "dead one" that appeared this year. Because I killed the "dead one," no more disasters occurred in the class afterward. There is evidence: the evidence is that in the end, nobody remembers ●●. Students, teachers, they all forgot that after April there had been such a student. Our memories were all readjusted… Only I, the one who personally killed ●●, can still remember him, but as time passes I'll probably forget too.]
[So while I still retain my memory, I recorded this message. If you want to stop the disaster, then let the "dead one" return to death.]
[You must let the "dead one" return to death!!!]
Beep—
The recording ended.
Rinji silently took the cassette out of the recorder. The remaining students seemed unable to recover from the shock.
"Hey, you guys okay?"
"Ah… yeah, just…"
"You can't process such an overwhelming amount of information all at once, can you," Koichi said with a bitter smile.
"But after knowing the truth we at least have a clear direction now, right?" Naoya said in a forcedly casual tone. "As long as we find the 'dead one' and return them to death, the disaster can be eliminated."
"As if it were that easy?"
Tomohiko pushed up his glasses and looked at the others coldly.
"How do you know who the dead one is? And even if you did… are you sure you can kill them?"
"That…"
Obviously not. Everyone present was just a middle school student. Killing someone was like a fantasy beyond reach.
"You don't have to do it yourselves."
"Eh?"
Hearing the voice, everyone looked toward Rinji.
Rinji met their gazes and said calmly, "You don't need to get your hands dirty. Staining your hands with blood isn't something you should do."
"But…"
"If the dead one must be returned to death, I will do it myself," Rinji said. "Never let your hands be stained with blood. That is my only request of you."