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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 8:25:41 GMT -8
His gaze following the girls, as they walk away, Ryo raises an eyebrow. Sometimes girls were just too much. He didn't care about their words, since he never let such things, bother him. If they thought that he was a jerk, whatever. It just meant less girls that were screeching in his ear. That wasn't as much of an insult to him, as those girls seemed to think. They thought that they were an important factor in the lives of those, in the various sports programs. Maybe they were to some of the guys, but to him, they weren't even a factor. He played and loved soccer, without those girls. Sure they cheered, but so many of them took it to the extreme. Gripping the crutches, he continues down the halls, to his next class. He would go through his day, as usual, then go outside, to meet Tanakawa.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Jul 31, 2024 8:41:41 GMT -8
After school was over, Kumiko was standing outside the gate as she was waiting for Ryo to come meet her at the gate. She felt she needed to meet him at his class, but she was not sure that was a good idea. So, she decided to meet him at their meeting point. She had gotten over those girls, but could still hear people talking about her as she looks down at the ground. She did not want to cry as it would make her seem like a crybaby. So, she just stared at the ground, hoping that Ryo would be coming out soon so that they could leave. Opening up the book that she was holding, Kumiko turned to the page with Mai's picture on it. She had not done anymore digging as she did not want to make Ryo think that she was doing this all on her own and just wasting his time. A few minutes pass as she looks up and notices Ryo coming from the building. Walking up to him, Kumiko felt herself soften at him. "Do you need any help with anything?" Kumiko asks as she looks at Ryo. Her eyes were a little red from crying earlier.
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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 8:47:05 GMT -8
Shrugging his bag over his shoulder, after closing the door to his locker, Ryo adjusts his position, so that he could comfortably hold onto his crutches. Walking out of the school, he could see that Tanakawa was by the gate, waiting for him. So she had finished before him, had she? That didn't matter that much to him. The library was about fifteen minutes away from the school, then he could hop on the train, to get home. Normally,, he took his skateboard, but that obviously wasn't an option, right now. He had let his parents know, that he had twisted his ankle, and while he had received an earful from his father, it was something that he would just have to deal with. He could hear whispers, both about him, and Tanakawa, and he would look at them, to get them to shut up. When he hears Tanakawa's voice, he shakes his head. "No, I'm fine. Let's go. That way, you can get your answers," He says.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Jul 31, 2024 8:59:26 GMT -8
Nodding, Kumiko holds the books closer to her as she walks next to him. She was quiet for a little bit of the walk. It was almost like the sound of ice breaking when she finally spoke. "I want to thank you for earlier. You did not have to do that. Those girls were being mean because I was able to come see you. I guess they were just jealous. I have never had anyone talk about me like that before. I heard them say that I was crazy for seeing that girl yesterday..." Kumiko said as she sighs. She could almost feel tears filling up her eyes as she looks down at the ground for a moment. "You don't think I am crazy, do you?" Kumiko finally asked after a few more minutes of silence went by. "I swear, I saw her as plain as day. She was hanging in the closet with a rope around her neck. Please...believe me, Ryo..." She was not sure whether she was going to be able to make him believe her. At times, she thought that Ryo never believed her. That he too, thought she was insane. She knew that probably did not believe in ghosts whatsoever. But she wanted at least one person to believe her. Even Chiyo and Ayumi started to question her since she had been tired the day before.
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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 10:44:46 GMT -8
Walking beside Tanakawa, Ryo gives himself some room, so that his crutches, wouldn't cause her to trip. So far, they were simply walking in silence, until he notices that she was starting to work up the courage, to speak. "It was no problem. I can't stand fangirls. They are possessive, for absolutely no reason. I don't belong to them, so there is no excuse for them to act like they own me," He says. He honestly was glad that those girls had a different opinion about him. It meant that he would have a bit more space now, compared to earlier. Glancing over at her, he could see that her eyes were already beginning to tear up. She wasn't going to cry, was she? He wasn't really good with crying girls. "Truthfully, Takanawa-chan.....I don't really know what I should be thinking about all of this. For most of the students, this sort of thing.....is nothing more than a myth. I don't think that you're crazy, since you seem to have very genuine concerns. I would be lying, if I said that I believed, but I'm not ignorant. If something does happen, then there is a very strong chance, that my belief system will change," He says, pausing for a moment. "If there are things happening and it is escalating, there is the chance that others will be seeing, what you've seen," He says.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Jul 31, 2024 10:55:32 GMT -8
Kumiko sniffs for a moment as she wipes her eyes dry. "I normally don't cry this much. But it just hurts when people seem to assume that you are crazy. I swore I saw her. Yes, I could have been exhausted from staying up so late. But...I wish that more people would believe me. My own friends are beginning to think I am crazy as well," Kumiko said as she holds to books closer to her chest. She stops at a crosswalk where some students from another school were looking at them. They had begun whispering as they stepped away from Kumiko. She looks away from the whispering girls as she sighs. "Okada-san....I am scared that something bad is about to happen. We have to stop it before someone else dies." She could not believe that already one person died during all this. How many more students were to die before it stopped? She sighs again as the crosswalk indicated that it was okay to start walking. She looks over at Ryo, making sure he was okay before she started walking next to him. She had not told him about the girl she saw in the yearbook yet, as she wanted to wait until they were safely in the confines of the library.
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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 11:05:10 GMT -8
"Friends who think that you're crazy, are not true friends at all. Regardless, they should be supportive. That's what it means to be a friend. My friends didn't chastise me, when they learned that I was injured. They know that it is a minor injury, that will heal in a week. We are supportive of each other, we help each other, and we always have each other's backs. That's what it means to be a good friend," Ryo says, as they stop at the crosswalk, before crossing, once it was safe. "I don't know what is going to happen, whether it will fade away, or escalate. As hard as it would be, I think that it is best, to wait and see, while doing research in the background. We can't assume anything, and right now, I haven't see anything so far. Paranormal things, whether they exist or not, often show themselves, on their own terms. We can look and look and look, and still not see anything," He says. There wasn't really much that they could do, without more evidence, that would confirm that there was actually something wrong.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Jul 31, 2024 11:21:05 GMT -8
Once they arrive at the library, Kumiko helps Ryo inside. They find a quiet spot in the back as Kumiko puts down the yearbook on the table as she starts going through the pages until she stops at the correct one. She then points to Mai. "This is who I saw. She was the one hanging in the closet yesterday. I will never forget her eyes. Here they are a really pretty blue. But...when I saw them yesterday, I noticed that they were almost grey. This just proves that I am not crazy. I have never seen these books before. I never knew the school had them made or put away in the library. Her name is Mai. I was looking through the book before you came out and noticed that she was the captain of the girls soccer team when the school opened. I have not looked through the other school yearbooks yet. I also want to see if this library has anything in the newspaper regarding just how she died," Kumiko announced as she let Ryo look at the book. She then flipped to the page with the soccer team on it and points to a girl with the letter C stitched to her uniform. "This is her. She was also in drama club."
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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 11:27:53 GMT -8
Taking a seat at the table, Ryo leans his crutches against the wall, letting his book bag hang over the back of the chair. He listens to everything that Tanakawa was saying, since she seemed to be very adamant about this. He didn't know, who this Mai, was. But if she had said that she had seen him, there was nothing that he could really do, to discourage her. When she slides the book over to him, he takes it, looking at the picture of the girl. "I see, well, I guess the only way to really verify this, is to reach out to people, who knew her. Of course, this was when the school first opened, so those chances are pretty small, if they are even existent at all," He says, as he looks at the pictures. He could tell by the quality, as well as the uniforms, that these were a lot older. He didn't exactly know the age of the school, since it had been modified, over time, so there was a chance, that this extended so far back, that finding anyone connected to this, was impossible. There was even the chance that she was the very first, since these grounds weren't haunted. It was the school that was haunted, theoretically.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Jul 31, 2024 11:42:14 GMT -8
Taking one of the other books, Kumiko starts going through each page until she finds Mai in her second year. She looks through more pictures and see's that she was still playing soccer and in the drama club as well. She then picks up another book. She then heads to the page she thought Mai would be in. Except she was not in the book at all. Except for the last page, where there was an in memoriam page for her. "Okada-san, look! She died her third year of school. It must have been before these pictures were taken. I looked where I thought she would be, and it says she was not present for pictures," Kumiko said as he laid the pictures down. "She is not even in the picture for the girls soccer team, or drama club. She must have died at the beginning of the year.." Kumiko announced as she looked at him. "Do you know if this library has any old news papers here? This book looks like it was printed in the 80's. So...if we can find news papers that were printed around this time, we should be able to find out how she died."
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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 12:14:08 GMT -8
As he watches Tanakawa flip through the yearbook, Ryo leans back a bit in the chair, scrolling through his phone. He was leaving the searching, to her. If she found something, that she wanted to share with him, then he would listen. He could tell that this was something, that she was really invested in, so he would leave this to her. She seemed to have a stronger drive and almost seemed to be the only one to see such activity. Hearing her voice cut through the silence, he sets his phone, screen side down, before looking, first at the yearbook, then up to her. "I don't know when she died. I guess we would need to find an obituary, or something. I don't think that the library at school, has one. I wouldn't know where we could find newspapers, that old, anywhere around here. You might have to see if the librarian here, would have some, or direct us, to where we can find some," He says. He wasn't sure how long ago, this had happened. But if too much time had passed, there was a chance that any newspapers that could've contained something, were long gone.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Jul 31, 2024 12:43:08 GMT -8
Looking at Ryo, she nearly glares at him. So, he was making her do this alone? She sighs as she shuts the books. "Fine. I'll go myself. Have fun on your phone," Kumiko huffs as she gets up. Walking over to the librarian, Kumiko asks the librarian where the old newspapers were. The librarian then shows Kumiko to the microfilm machine where old news papers were stored. She sits down in front of the old computer and starts going through papers. She was not sure how long she had been going through newspapers for, or if Ryo was even here still. That was until she found something. Looking at the screen, Kumiko began to read the article that was in front of her. It had said that Mai was murdered during her third year of junior high school by an unknown assailant, and that it had been made to look like a suicide attempt. The article said that she was found in the same closet that Kumiko had seen her in. There was a picture of Mai, who was in her school uniform as it was one of her school photos. She gets up to see if Ryo was still there at the library.
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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 13:06:37 GMT -8
When Tanakawa gets up, seemingly annoyed, Ryo raises an eyebrow, before he continues with what he was doing. Was she angry, simply because he wasn't showing the same drive or initiative, that she was, to solve this? He wasn't as driven by this, because he hadn't seen anything. She had, so it made sense, as to why she was so invested. He just didn't have that drive, outside of simply being there. To him, reading this stuff wouldn't really mean much, until they could find proof, from a person, who knew Mai. They could read as many books as they wanted, but he wasn't sure what else they could do. He hadn't seen anything, so he couldn't fix, what he couldn't see. He didn't even know what they could do, once, whatever this presence was, made itself more noticeable. He stays in his seat, figuring that if Tanakawa found something, she would bring it back, for them to talk about. That girl.....Mai, he wondered if there was someone, at all, who knew her. She had died years ago, long ago. Several generations of people had passed by, already. If her family had any descendants, then that was their best bet.
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Post by AlaskaAirGirl on Jul 31, 2024 13:23:27 GMT -8
Walking to where she had last seen Ryo, she noticed that he was still there. "I found something. It seems that when Mai died, it was a murder that was staged to look like a suicide. It was said that Mai had a good life and was not struggling with any form of mental illness. It did mention that she had a sister named Rin. She was a year older than her sister and was already in high school when the murder happened. But the police were never able to figure out who murdered Mai. I guess this is where it ends...I don't even know if Rin lives in Japan anymore....I mean...I guess I could look in the phone book to see if there is anyone named Rin Hayashi....but she could have been married by now...' Kumiko sighed as she was not sure what to do at this time. She sits down at the table as she looks down at the yearbooks, not sure what to do. "I probably should give this up. It makes me look even more insane in a way..." Kumiko sighed.
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Post by brooke0518 on Jul 31, 2024 14:03:10 GMT -8
Looking over at Tanakawa, Ryo thinks for a moment, setting his phone down. "Before you do that, you should ask yourself....why are you so invested in this? What's in it for you? I'm not telling you to stop, since you seem to want to do this. But why do you feel so compelled to do this? You have nothing to gain or lose. Answer those questions, then we can go from there. If this girl died 38 years ago, there is a chance that her sister is still alive, and we can explore our options. Just know that you aren't obligated to do this, if you feel that this is too big. This school has managed, somehow, for 38 years, since the incident, and I guess no one has felt anything this bad. If you are the first person to really experience something, then maybe that means that she wants to rest. Just keep an eye open, for anymore activity. I can always do the same," He says.
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