Accompanied by Miyu, I examined the outside of the booth. No matter how many angles I checked from, it was nothing more than an ordinary phone booth. I thought about going in, but Miyu wouldn't leave my side, and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable by forcing her to get closer. It was clear she was still terrified.
"Miyu, how about we step away from the booth a bit and wait for Haruka to come back with your friend?"
She nodded silently, so we moved a few meters away and sat together, near the tunnel. The silence grew heavy, almost oppressive. That's when we heard it:
Riiing... Riiing...
The sound of the phone.
My body tensed immediately. Miyu also slowly turned her head toward the booth, as if afraid to confirm what she already sensed.
"M-Mochi…" she murmured in a trembling voice while raising her arm and pointing. "It's there… the ghost… it's inside…"
I turned toward the booth. At first glance, I didn't see anything. It was still just as empty and clean as before. But Miyu wasn't lying. I knew it by the way her skin bristled, by her ragged breathing, and by the real terror shining in her eyes.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"Focus, Mochi… feel the ether."
Just like Haruka had taught me.
At first, I felt nothing… but then, like something invisible crawling across the ground, I sensed a presence. A heavy, dense pressure emanating from the booth. I couldn't see it, but it was there.
"You're right… there's something inside," I whispered.
"We shouldn't get close… Daichi died right after answering… if we pick it up, the same might happen to us…"
CLACK.
The booth door slammed open with a sharp, violent sound that made us jump.
"RUN TO THE TUNNEL!"
We both took a step back to flee, but we didn't make it to the second…
A sudden gust of wind —more than wind, it felt like an invisible force— hit us head-on. I staggered, but it was Miyu who was blown away.
"MIYU!!"
Her body was dragged as if it weighed nothing, like a rag doll, straight toward the booth. She slammed hard against the metal casing of the phone. The impact knocked the air out of her; she collapsed to the ground, sitting, eyes wide with pain. Then, the phone receiver dropped, hanging in front of her, swinging like a pendulum.
And in that instant, we heard it.
A laugh.
It wasn't human. It was macabre, distorted...
"Hehehehe… hehe… haaah…"
The phone booth door slammed shut, trapping Miyu inside.
And then, the receiver began to move on its own. It rose into the air like a snake preparing to strike… and launched itself straight at Miyu's neck.
"MIYU!!"
I ran toward the booth without thinking.
The receiver's cord wrapped around her throat like a noose and began to tighten. Miyu grabbed at her neck, struggling desperately to free herself, gasping for air that wouldn't come. Her eyes were bulging, her mouth open in a silent scream for breath. The sounds coming from her throat were wet, desperate.
I threw myself against the booth, screamed her name, pounded on the glass with my fists, kicked the door with all my strength.
"MIYU!! HANG ON!!"
But the glass wouldn't break. It was as if there were no way to reach her. I could only watch her in there… weakening… her gaze going out of focus… and even then, she reached a hand toward me. As if she believed I could save her.
My hands were trembling. My heart was pounding violently, on the verge of collapse. I felt panic take over me, paralyzing.
"Think, Mochi! Think! Calm down! Do something!"
And then I remembered.
The knuckles… my weapons.
I clumsily reached into my pockets, pulled out the brass knuckles, and felt the cold metal against my skin. Without thinking, I raised my right arm and struck the booth's glass door with a direct punch.
CRACK!
A fracture burst from the point of impact. I gasped in surprise, but I didn't stop. I threw another punch.
CRACK! CRACK!
More cracks spread like a spiderweb. A third punch, harder than the previous ones.
SHRAAAASH!!
The glass shattered into pieces.
But before I could enter, something came out of the booth.
A shadow.
A blurry, dense figure made of pure darkness. It screamed with a guttural, inhuman sound and lunged at me.
I didn't think. I just reacted.
I screamed and threw a punch with my left hand, straight at the center of that thing.
WHAM!
The punch landed cleanly. I felt minimal resistance, like hitting a dense cloud… and in that instant, the shadow disintegrated in front of me, vanishing into the air like smoke blown away by the wind.
Inside the booth, the receiver that was still wrapped around Miyu's neck dropped to the floor with a dull thud.
She collapsed forward, coughing violently, gasping for breath. She was alive.
I ran to her.
"Miyu! MIYU! I'm here!"
I knelt beside her, trembling. I held her face in my hands, feeling her warm skin against my fingers.
"It's over… you're safe now…"
Even though my heart was still pounding like a wild drum, seeing her breathe, feeling that she was alive… I knew I'd made it.
The light inside the booth flickered and went out. As I helped Miyu out, I glanced inside… and it was completely different.
The glass was shattered, splintered everywhere. The paint that once looked flawless had faded. The metal was rusted, old, and covered in dust. It didn't look like the same booth we had seen just minutes ago.
I focused, trying to feel the ether.
Nothing.
There was no trace of that anomaly. The shadow I punched… it must have been the anomaly that lived there.
I defeated it.
I smiled, still gasping for breath.
I can't wait for Haruka to come back… I'm going to brag about it! It's the first anomaly I've defeated!
At that moment, Haruka came out of the tunnel. She was alone. When she saw us, she hurried over.
"Mochi! What happened? Are you okay?"
She looked me over from head to toe, frowning with worry, searching for visible injuries.
"Relax, Haruka, we're fine," I replied with a weak smile.
I took a breath and took a moment to tell her everything that had happened. Her expression shifted between anger and relief. She scolded me for acting recklessly, but then praised me for saving Miyu… and for defeating the anomaly.
"Excuse me… what happened to Shunji? Why isn't he with you?" Miyu asked, her voice still faint.
"I couldn't find him. I went all the way to the other side, searched the whole tunnel, but there was no sign of him. There also didn't seem to be any signs that something bad had happened. It's likely he already went home on his own."
"I see…" Miyu whispered, lowering her head.
After that, the three of us walked together to the bus stop. There, we said our goodbyes. Haruka explained that Miyu had to go with her to OHRA headquarters to be evaluated. I, on the other hand, would head straight home. So we took different buses.
***
Moments earlier, while we were facing the anomaly, Haruka was making her way into the tunnel alone.
With every step she took, the air grew thicker, heavier… filled with dark, corrupted ether.
She could feel it clearly. There was a presence nearby. Very close.
But she couldn't pinpoint its exact location. It was as if it moved through the shadows, invisible… as if it surrounded her, lurking from all angles at once.
Then, she heard a voice.
—…Help… please… help me…
She recognized it instantly. It was the voice of the boy who had fled earlier. Shunji.
Haruka raised her flashlight and started moving faster, alert, never lowering her guard.
—"Follow my voice! I'm here!" — she shouted firmly — "I'll get you out of here!"
The response was barely a whisper. A weak sob.
And then she saw him.
The faint light from her flashlight revealed his figure, just a few meters ahead. The boy stood motionless in the middle of the tunnel… except for a slight unsettling sway. His head tilted, arms hanging at his sides like a rag doll. His face was shrouded in shadows, but his lips moved, murmuring over and over.
—"It hurts… so much…"
—"It hurts… so much…"
—"It hurts… so much…"
His voice was hollow. Mechanical. As if he repeated those words by reflex, not by will.
Haruka stopped abruptly.
And in that moment, she understood everything.
"I'm too late."
Even so, her voice didn't tremble.
—"Don't worry… I'll help you."
She advanced calmly, her eyes serene. As she walked, she slid her right hand inside the sleeve of her coat, searching for what she always carried with her.
The boy lifted his head.
His face was twisted in an unnatural grimace of suffering. His eyes… black as the void, shone with a malevolent light. They were empty.
And without warning, he lunged at her.
But Haruka didn't flinch.
In a single, fluid motion, she drew her crystal fan and unfolded it with an almost ritual elegance. Her voice, firm and serene, echoed through the tunnel:
—"Pierce."
The ground beneath the boy's feet exploded in a burst of frozen crystals. Long, sharp icicles like spears shot up from the depths, projecting upward with lethal precision.
SHUNK! SHUNK! SHUNK!
The crystals pierced him as if he were made of paper. One pierced his abdomen, another his chest, a third crossed his neck. Blood spurted violently, staining the ice red.
The boy's body convulsed with uncontrollable spasms, like a collapsing puppet. He let out one last muffled groan… and then, silence.
Blood slowly trickled down the icicles, sliding to the ground in dark threads.
Haruka stood still, watching, making sure not the slightest hint of life remained. Only when everything was calm did she exhale softly and close the fan, carefully returning it to her coat.
—"I'm sorry… I wish we had arrived sooner."
Without looking back, she spun on her heels and began running back. Mochi and the other girl were waiting for her.