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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Aug 20, 2023 11:08:32 GMT -8
Kumiko frowned at his response. Standing up, she grabbed her things. "I just thought I would be nice and provide you some company. But I guess I was right about you. You are cold. Not at all like your sister, Hana. Have a good day." With that, she headed back to the building. Once inside, Kumiko changed her shoes for her indoor slippers and headed up to the second floor. As she walked down the hall, there was something about the hall that made her feel like someone was watching her. Turning around, Kumiko noticed that there was no one behind her. "Hello? Is someone there?" No answer. Shrugging, Kumiko decided to continue down the hall. That is, until she heard the sound of someone in an empty classroom. Opening the door of class 2-B, she noticed that the lights were off and no one was in there. Again, she called out as she entered the room.
"Is someone in here?" She looked around the room and soon heard a sound come from a small supply closet. She reached for the door and slowly opened it. What met her caused her to scream so loud. Inside was a body hanging from a rope that hung from the ceiling. It was a girl who looked pale. Her long black hair covered her face as she hung there in the traditional girls summer uniform. Kumiko fell back in fear as she did not know what to do. Again, she screamed in fear and closed her eyes as she pulled herself behind the desk. A moment later, she opened her eyes and saw the girl looking at her. She had blue eyes that were almost pale. Her skin was white and gaunt.
"Beware...Those who attend Okazaki Academy shall be cursed..." then the girl wavered for a moment before disappearing. Kumiko was afraid to move as she shook behind the desk.
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Post by brooke0518 on Aug 20, 2023 11:48:22 GMT -8
Ryo blinks again, in confusion, watching as Takanawa seemed to walk away, upset. He was definitely confused by that entire encounter. What was wrong with her? Did she think, that just because she knew his sister, that they were close friends already? They had just met, and she was already trying to go to first name basis and hanging out just the two of them. What he had told her, was true, she was his junior, and he had figured that it would be best to start off slow, which was why he had extended to her, an open invitation to join him and his friends at the arcade. But it seemed.....that because he didn't give her the answer that she wanted to hear....she automatically assumed that he was a cold person. Sure he could be a bit arrogant at times, but he wasn't rude. She just assumed things about him......just like everyone else.
Standing up, he walks into the school, heading straight to his locker, so that he could put his empty lunch bag back into his locker, and exchange his books. After shutting his locker and zipping up his bag, he walks down the hallway, heading to his classroom, when he hears a high-pitched scream coming from one of the classrooms. Picking up the pace, he walks to the source of the noise, stopping in the doorway. It was...Takanawa, who was shaking behind a desk. Looking around, he scans the room, searching for the source that had scared her, before returning his gaze to her. "Is everything alright, Takanawa-san? I heard you scream." He says, wondering of she would even talk to him, after that emotional display.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Aug 20, 2023 14:42:49 GMT -8
Kumiko did not realize that a group of students had heard her scream and were now gathering outside the classroom to see what was going on. Kumiko looked up again at the storage closet in the classroom expecting to see the body of the hanging girl. But she was nowhere to be found. She did not even hear when Ryo can to see if everything was alright as she continued to stare at the closet. It was then that she looked to see Ryo standing in front of her. She was still shaking as Ayumi and Chiyo came running into the room.
"Kumiko! Are you alright?" Ayumi asked as she kneeled next to Ryo.
Kumiko did not answer for a moment as she looked at her friends and Ryo, shaking her head. She could not find her voice for a moment. When she did speak, the shaking could be heard in her voice. "T-there was a girl...hanging in there by...her neck. She was d-dead..." Kumiko pointed to the closet, still not taking her eyes off the small room.
"What? A dead girl...in the closet? But it's empty..." Chiyo answered as she looked at the closet that was only filled with a few boxes and a broom. "Are you sure you saw a girl in there?"
"I did! She was dead! Then she said something about our school being cursed!" Kumiko answered. She looked at the three of them. There was still a crowed of students outside the room as Kumiko heard the hushed whispers of people questioning what was going on. As she spoke, she wondered if she sounded crazy. Tears filled her eyes as she looked between Ryo, Ayumi, and Chiyo. "You have to believe me. I would not make this up."
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Post by brooke0518 on Aug 20, 2023 16:48:33 GMT -8
While it seemed, that Takanawa's friends were busy taking care of her, Ryo looks over at the closet...a bit confused as to what it was about the closet, that seemed to have her so spooked. Walking over to it, he grasps the handle, pulling it open to look inside. In the back of his mind, he was expecting to see.....whatever it was that had caused Takanawa to scream. Instead....all he saw were cleaning and school supplies. There was nothing abnormal in the closet, though it did seem that something had rummaged around through the closet, dislodging some of the objects. "I don't see anything in here. Are you sure that you saw a girl, Takanawa-san?" He asks. Shutting the door to the closet, he returns to where Takanawa was sitting, and she looked to be rather distressed. Looking at her friends, he gestures a bit with his eyes, for them to step back, before walking over to her, and helping her to her feet. "I'm going to go and take her to the nurse." He says, before escorting her out of the room. Once they were in the hallway, he stops and looks over at Takanawa. "What did she look like?" He asks.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Aug 20, 2023 18:04:42 GMT -8
"You better be nice to her, or else," Ayumi muttered under her breath as she looked at Ryo. She then turned on her heel and followed the other students out of the room.
Kumiko stood up from the floor but did not talk for a long few minutes after he asked her what the girl looked like. She was afraid to say anything because she thought that she was going to say something that she did not mean. She tried not to think about the girl who was in the closet, but it was hard trying to ignore the gaunt look to her. Finally she spoke. "Well...she had pale blue eyes...they did not have any life to them. Her skin was pale, almost translucent...and her hair was long and black. They covered her eyes at first as she hung from the closet." She shook her head as tears came to her eyes again. It was so scary to see this girl in the closet. Just remembering her was just as scary. She stopped in her tracks as she wrapped her arms around herself.
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Post by brooke0518 on Aug 20, 2023 19:10:47 GMT -8
Noticing that Takanawa had stopped, Ryo pauses in the middle of the hallway, turning to look at her. She looked very shaken by.....whatever it was that she saw. He wasn't really sure if this was something that he could verify, since he had never seen a spirit on the academy grounds before. Even when he arrived early, before most of the other students, the grounds had an eerie feeling to them, but he had never seen anything. Sometimes he would feel like he would hear voices....whispering...but he never saw anything. Walking over to Takanawa, he stops in front of her, and gently shakes her shoulder a bit. "Come on, Takanawa-san. Your friend will have my head, if I don't get you to the infirmary. You need some water and a moment to collect yourself." He says, pausing for a moment, before looking out the window. "I'm not scary, Takanawa-san. Sure I'm not as extroverted as my sister, or the most approachable, but I'm not scary, nor am I a jerk." He says.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Aug 20, 2023 19:21:51 GMT -8
"Stop calling me that! It's Kumiko! I don't care if you are superior to me because of your grade!" Kumiko yelled as she shook her head and stomped her foot. She then realized that she had spoken out of terms and then looked at the ground. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I am just tired of people calling me Takanawa-San. I know it's tradition here. But I just want to be called by my first name." She took a deep breath as she let herself relax. She had a feeling that people were not going to believe her when she said she saw the girl in the closet. She was afraid that everyone was going to call her crazy and think she needed to be locked away. Kumiko sighed when she looked up at Ryo. "Please, just call me Kumiko. It makes me feel more comfortable. I am used to being called by my first name because my cousin Jenny lives in America. I visit her every year during summer break. I guess I just got used to her calling me by my first name every time I saw her."
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Post by brooke0518 on Aug 20, 2023 19:41:42 GMT -8
Ryo raises both eyebrows, when he hears Takanawa scream at him. He waits for her to calm down, before raising up both of his hands. "Easy there. It's just how I was raised. To use the proper honorifics, especially if it's someone that I don't know all that well. I've never been to America, and I know that they do things differently, but that's not quite how I do things. How about this? Instead of me calling you Takanawa-san, I'll call you Kumiko-chan? I'm not sure that I can officially drop honorifics right now. I'm just not comfortable with that yet. But....unlike you, I'm not comfortable with someone using my first name, unless they're my friend. We're not quite close enough for that, so I would like to ask that you call me by my last name. That's a fair compromise, don't you think?" He asks. He wasn't entirely sure, why she felt compelled to use his first name this early, since they had just officially met today. "Let's get you to the infirmary now." He says, gesturing with his hand, so that she would follow him.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Aug 20, 2023 19:53:08 GMT -8
Instead of answering, Kumiko nodded as she continued to look at the floor. Arriving to the infirmary, Kumiko let the nurse look over her. She felt like she saw what she saw. But could it just be that she was tired from the night before and had studied too much for her math exam? She was beginning to doubt herself. She sighed not sure what to believe anymore. She had a feeling that the nurse was going to call her mother to come and pick her up from school, which she did not mind. She could just get away from the situation.
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Post by brooke0518 on Aug 20, 2023 19:57:54 GMT -8
Sliding open the door to the infirmary, Ryo bows a bit to the nurse, before looking over at Takanawa. "Go ahead, get some water, and rest. You'll likely spend the rest of your next class, here, then she'll probably send you to your next class. Get some rest, Kumiko-chan, don't think about that too much." Ryo says, raising up a hand, and turning to leave. He still had a few more minutes, until class was supposed to start, and given where he was, it wouldn't take him too long to get there. As he walks, he looks around, trying to see if....whatever it was that Takanawa saw, was around, but he could see nothing. There wasn't a sound or strange sight....the only things around, were students and hall monitors. Eventually, he stops in front of his homeroom, slides open the door, and heads inside, heading straight for his desk.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Aug 21, 2023 13:26:08 GMT -8
After getting some water, Kumiko decided to sit on one of the beds as she was afraid to even close her eyes as she was afraid that she was going to see that girl again. Sitting here meant that she was going to miss her math exam, and she would have to stay after school to take it. She was ready to go back to her class by the next period, which was her social studies class. Heading back to her homeroom, she was met by Ayumi and Chiyo.
"Kumiko! You're back! Are you okay?" Chiyo asked as she hugged her friend.
"I am fine. I just needed some water and some rest. But you don't need to worry about me," Kumiko said as she added a smile to show that she was okay.
"Good. We had to take that math test and it was really hard. You are so lucky that you missed it," Ayumi announced as she shook her head.
"It was not that bad. You just did not study very well for it. You were probably reading manga all night long again," Chiyo answered as she nudged Ayumi with her elbow.
"Hey, it was a really good manga. I could not put it down. But...I did fall asleep before I could finish it. I did get to finish it on the train this morning!" Ayumi answered as she smiled.
"Maybe I can sit down with you and help you study next time. I do it with Kumiko all the time. And she does amazing on tests," Chiyo answered.
"I do okay on them. Chiyo, you are the smartest on in the class. You probably ace every single one," Kumiko giggled as she walked over to her desk to sit down.
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Post by brooke0518 on Aug 21, 2023 23:08:56 GMT -8
Ryo goes through his second class with relatively little difficulty. He was still pondering about what Takanawa claimed to have seen in her classroom, but there had been nothing there. He had heard about the rumors of the academy, ever since he had arrived as a freshman. But this was starting to get weird, since no one in his prior years, had even mentioned hearing or seeing anything. He knew that he needed to stay back a bit late today, not just because he was on clean up duty, but he also had late afternoon soccer practice. At the latest, he would probably be finished by 5 pm, and then he would ride his bike back home. He didn't live so far that he needed to take the train, and he preferred to be active anyways. Maybe he would keep an eye or ear open for anything strange at the academy, but he doubted that he would see anything. He wasn't particularly superstitious or believed in the paranormal. That stuff was for horror movies and manga, but this....sort of ridiculous myth just never seemed to go away. Propping his arm up on his desk, resting his chin in the palm of his hand, he lets his gaze drift over to the window. His next class was Japanese history, so he might as well just stay.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Aug 22, 2023 10:25:16 GMT -8
Kumiko did her best to ignore what she had saw and just focus on school. It seemed to work as the rest of the day went by. Luckily, during her makeup exam that afternoon, she was able to take it with a teacher there. Once she was done, Kumiko stood from her desk to hand her teacher the paper and bowed before gathering her things.
Once outside, Kumiko felt like she could take a sigh of relief as she walked over to the soccer field. Her father was running late anyways as his surgery he was performing took a little longer than expected. She had explained to her father that she could take the train back, but he insisted as he was just about to get off. Kumiko finally agreed and told him to meet her over by the soccer fields. She had something she needed to take care of. Hopefully Ryo was still practicing. She made her way over to the bleachers as watched the team practice. Hopefully she had time to talk to Ryo about what happened earlier. She wanted to give him a proper apology.
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Post by brooke0518 on Aug 22, 2023 14:56:49 GMT -8
After all of his classes, Ryo had stayed back, intending to take care of his chore of helping clean up some of the classrooms, when his soccer coach arrived at his class, along with Hidaka, the captain. Almost immediately, he is told to grab his bag, and he is practically shoved out of the room. Apparently.......Hidaka forgot to inform him, that there was going to be an important game next week, so they wanted to get in as much practice as possible, so for the time being, he was excused from his after-school cleaning chore, and would instead be put on library duty, until the game was over. It was a preliminary match, to see who would be added to the team for the upcoming games, and who would be booted off. He knew that his position was clear, because he had been playing on the team for years, but he was the vice-captain, so he needed to be there.
It takes him very little time to change from his school uniform, and into his soccer uniform. Even though classes were easy, with just a touch of difficulty, soccer came very naturally to him. He was told by his parents, that he was the best soccer player that their family had, which was a huge compliment to him, though it did inflate his ego by a little bit. He was a bit more arrogant on the field, though he was very determined, and was a dependable player. He wasn't the keeper, nor was he the striker, but he still had an important role on the team. His cleats dig firmly into the turf, as he runs across the field, the ball just in front of him. He was primarily defense, but they did want to see where his offensive skills were. When he was on the field, nothing could take his attention away from the game, so he didn't notice Takanawa watching from the sidelines.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Sept 14, 2023 17:14:02 GMT -8
Kumiko found a seat at one of the bleachers as she watched the team practice. Setting her bag next to her, she pulled her phone out to check to see if her dad had messaged her. There was a text saying that he was on his way and that he would be at the school in a little bit. Kumiko texted back saying to meet her over by the soccer field as she could see the road nearby. There was a small parking lot nearby that her father could pull into. She placed her phone back into her bag and watched the team again. Her brother, Satoshi was into soccer and played for a small team that was offered through the community since he was still in elementary school. So, she sometimes had to go to her brothers games on the weekends to watch him play. So she was familiar with the rules and what to expect.
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