Chapter 1 ~ Whispers
Reina’s eyes followed the trail of the drifting midday clouds from her desk next to the window. Her eyes flicked from the drifting clouds to the teacher, Ito Sensei, at the front of the classroom. He was writing something on the whiteboard preemptively before history class began. Reina recalled that they would be learning about the Meiji Era from what she remembered from the syllabus handed out at the start of the semester.
The ring of the school bell pulled her from her thoughts.
Reina turned herself away from the window to face the front of the class. She pulled out her notebook and pencil from inside her desk and turned to an empty page as the last few students slipped in before the teacher closed the door. The teacher loudly cleared his throat before knocking on the whiteboard to address the class.
“Students!” The teacher’s almost absurdly deep voice cut through the fading noise of chatting students, “Today, we will begin learning about one of the most defining parts of our nation’s history. The Meiji Era was one of the most rapid series of societal, economic, and cultural changes that Japan has ever gone through in such a rapid period.”
Reina’s pencil glided across the page, her kanji trailing off elegantly from years of her great-grandfather teaching her calligraphy. She smiled fondly, remembering her lessons from childhood; she recalled how Torako had called her writing ‘absurdly fancy’ when they had first met. Torako’s first text to her called her ‘Fancy Girl’; Reina remembered the almost uncontrollable giggling fit she found herself in when she first saw it. She wondered if Torako would have any free time after school was out today, they could hang out or make it a date. She would need to text her after class.
Or she could ask her in person; Reina could see Torako jumping over the school gate after all.
Reina’s head snapped over to look out the window.
Vrrrrr
She could see Torako’s blonde-dyed hair shining in the sunlight as she landed on the school side of the front gate.
Vrrrrr
‘What is she doing here?!’ Reina felt the pencil in her hand break, ’She should be at her school!’
Vrrrrr
Reina glanced down at her desk; her phone was vibrating. She carefully pulled it out so no one would notice.
There was a text message from Torako.
Need to talk. Can’t wait. “Work” stuff.
Reina looked back outside. Torako was jogging toward the school across the red tile pavement. Reina saw her head tilt up as she passed by the large central sakura tree in the middle of the courtyard and looked right at her. Torako started lightly jogging in place and waved up at her. Reina gave a weak wave back.
She pulled back and texted Torako, hoping no one saw her.
Meet me outside, east side of the building.
Vrrrrr
Which side is that?
Reina sighed.
Your right.
Torako gave a thumbs up from outside. Reina managed to hold back another sigh.
“Sorry, Sensei!” Reina quickly stood up, “I need to use the bathroom!”
Reina didn’t wait for a response; she was already out the door, power walking down the hallway. She was half tempted to jump down the stairs to get to the main floor faster but decided against it. She tried not to start running down the remaining hallway to the front doors. Then her foot hit the first bit of pavement outside the school building.
She bolted into a dead sprint to the east side of the school.
Reina rounded the corner spotting Torako’s blonde hair against her black jacket.
“There you--Whoa, hold on!” Reina already had the scarf of Torako’s school uniform in her grasp, pulling the taller girl down to her eye level.
“What are you doing here?!” Reina hissed, “You should be at school!”
“Oh, for the love of….” Torako sighed, pulling Reina off her, “That’s what you’re upset about?”
“And the fact that you jumped the gate!”
A grunt of annoyance came from Torako’s throat, “Can we please just talk about work?”
“If you promise you’ll go back to school when we’re done.” Reina put her hands on her hips.
“Not gonna happen.” Torako crossed her arms, “I need to show you what happened.”
Reina raised an eyebrow, “‘What happened?’”
“You know those bodies that’ve been showin’ up recently?”
“I heard from my father when he was reading the paper,” Reina pursed her lips, “What does that have to do with ‘work’?”
“The wounds are all the same, right?” Torako paused, “Well… I saw one of them happen.”
Reina stiffened, “You saw one of them happen?”
“The bodies, at least. On my way to school.” Torako’s jaw clenched, “Wounds looked like they matched from descriptions. And based on what I think did it, I need your witch stuff.”
Reina took a shaky breath. She looked up at Torako, a head and a half taller than her; her hazel eyes held that serious look that always made Reina worry.
“Okay.” Reina released a breath she didn’t know she was holding, “Do you want to tell me how this happened now or on the way.”
Reina saw a tiny smile crawl across Torako’s face, knowing she had won this minor stalemate, “On the way. Sooner we do this, the better.”
“Fine--Also, it’s not ‘witch-stuff’!” Reina gave Torako a light punch in the arm as she pulled out her phone and started dialing a number.
“What’s that for?” Torako asked.
“I’m calling the school to tell them I’m ‘sick.’” Reina responded as she held her phone next to her ear.
“Seriously?” Torako snorted, “Just ditch like a normal person.”
Reina glared at Torako as she held a finger to her lips to tell the taller girl to be quiet. Torako rolled her eyes at the gesture as she heard the faint sound of the dial tone on Reina’s phone.
Torako watched Reina as she started talking to one of her school’s faculty on the other end. The bangs of her long dark hair covered her blue eyes as she hung her head slightly. Torako pursed her lips. She could see Reina’s free hand balled into a fist. Her ordinarily fair skin had gone white around the knuckles.
“Alright… it’s done.” Reina’s voice pulled Torako’s attention back.
“Just let me get my shoes out of my locker,” Reina brushed a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes, “Then we can get going.”
Reina turned around, quickly returning to the front of the school. She stepped inside and moved to her locker, putting a hand on the combination lock.
“Reina-san!” Reina jumped, spinning around to find the source of the whisper.
Worried brown eyes and a round face framed by messy brown hair met Reina’s gaze.
“Yumi?” Rein did her best to bury her concern, “Um, what’s… What’s up?”
“Who was that?” Yumi hastily asked, leaning closer, her hands grasping each other in front of her chest.
“Who was who?” Reina felt her heartbeat thudding in her chest.
“I…” Yumi paused and swallowed, “I followed you. I-I thought it was weird that you needed to use the bathroom that suddenly, so I followed you to make sure you were okay.
“And then you rushed downstairs and went outside and…” Yumi trailed off; Reina could put together the rest.
“So--” Yumi stopped when Reina put a hand up.
“It’s fine,” Reina told her as she turned and started to input the combination to her lock, “Nothing’s wrong.”
“How is nothing wrong?!”
Reina sighed as she pulled out her regular shoes and put away her school shoes, “I’m glad you’re worried about me, but nothing’s wrong, I promise.”
“Can you at least tell me who that girl is?”
Reina looked at Yumi for a moment, then said, “She’s my girlfriend. She just goes to a different school; she’s also being a bit of pain right now.
“So nothing’s wrong.” Reina reiterated as she slipped on her regular shoes.
“You never mentioned you had a girlfriend….” Yumi awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other.
“Did I need to?”
“Well… no…” Yumi meekly said.
“Just head back to class, Yumi,” Reina started walking towards the door, “We’re going to have a test in a few days. Make sure to study.”
Reina had stepped outside before Yumi could respond. She reached a hand to Reina’s back as her form moved farther away. Yumi stopped as another figure moved next to Reina. Reina’s girlfriend.
She was taller, with blonde hair and tanned skin, a long black coat hanging across her shoulder, and a different school uniform underneath. The top was cropped to show her waist, and her skirt went down to her ankles. Yumi saw the taller girl’s blonde head turn to look at her.
Yumi ran out of sight back into the school. She swallowed, rubbing the sides of her arms as she tried to squash her nervous jitters. Her feet started to carry her back to the stairs and her classroom.
Yumi’s mind spun over her conversation with Reina and what she had overheard between the two earlier. She had heard them talking about the bodies showing up in the news. They shouldn’t be getting involved with things like that. Why were they getting involved with something like that?
A sinking feeling buried itself in her gut as she stepped back inside her classroom.
“Welcome back.”
Yumi looked up at the teacher when he addressed her.
“Where’s…?” Ito Sensei trailed off, glancing behind Yumi.
Yumi didn’t respond and took her seat at the back of the class. Ito Sensei didn’t press the matter and turned back to the whiteboard.
“Hey, you see that?” Yumi heard someone whisper. She turned to see where it had come from. Two students were looking out the window. Yumi followed their eyes and glanced outside.
She saw two figures by the school gate—one with long dark hair and another with short blonde hair.
Yumi watched the taller blonde girl bend down and help boost Reina over the closed gate before pulling herself up and over the gate next. She saw a bright red motorcycle go past the other side of the gate, the two girls riding on it.
“That was Reina-san, right?”
“I think it was!”
Yumi picked up the whispers from the two students.
“You see that other girl? Looked like one of those delinquents from the eighties!”
“What’s Reina-san got to do with someone weird like that?”
“Blackmail?”
“No way…”
Yumi’s stomach twisted and wrenched into knots. She knew the whole school would be talking by tomorrow. The conversation she overheard with Reina spun back through her mind.
Bodies…
Her hands gripped the edge of her skirt; she felt pain from her fingernails biting into her palms.
Bodies…
She swallowed the rising bile in her throat.
Bodies…
Yumi stood up, “Sorry, sensei. I’m not feeling well; I’m gonna go see the nurse.”
Yumi didn’t wait for a reply and rushed out of the classroom, her mind still spinning.
Bodies…
She whispered to herself that everything would be okay.
