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“I think, as a teacher, I need to tell you guys, stay safe, don’t get into trouble, and other boring things. But by now you know my mantra has always been—” Gojo turns to the chalkboard and scribbles something hastily on it. “Work hard but play harder!” he declares with fanfare as he turns back to face the class, tapping against the word ‘play’ on the board with his knuckle to emphasize his point.
An awkward silence hangs in the air.
Gojo clears his throat. “What I’m getting at is, enjoy the downtime to the fullest before the upcoming flurry of missions in the summer, okay?”
“Salmon,” Toge responds in the affirmative.
“You can bet that I will!” Panda pipes up.
Satisfied with the response, Gojo turns to Yuuta. “You’re leaving for overseas in two weeks, so you better make the most out of the days you’re left with here. Got it?”
“Got it. Thank you, sensei!” Yuuta flashes his most genial smile.
“What was that even? A threat?” Maki scoffs in the background.
“And Maki,” Gojo adds in an I-know-what-you-have-been-up-to voice, “do take a break for once?”
The others turn to their classmate with a quizzical look.
“How did you—” Maki trails off, momentarily caught off guard by the realization that Gojo knew of her unauthorized use of Playful Cloud all along despite being away on business trips on nine out of ten days. Ijichi might have noticed at some point and snitched on her. “Tch. Don’t tell me how I ought to spend my free time,” she grumbles under her breath.
“Well, then, I’ll catch you all after I’m back from that snoozefest of a meeting with the old geezers at Kyoto,” Gojo says, already halfway out the door. He makes a ridiculously elaborate show of waving them bye, which no one brothers to reciprocate except Yuuta, before sliding the door shut behind him.
“So, listen.” Panda strides up to the front of the class, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “I’ve been thinking, since we’re done with our exams and Yuuta will be leaving soon, we should do something fun while we’re all together and have the time. Like, let’s have a movie night for starters? Preferably something scary!”
“Nah, I’ll pass,” Maki replies without a second thought. If she has to shove the shiny, metaphorical Grade 1 badge in those smug-ass Zenin faces, she needs to make the best out of every opportunity. “I can’t cut corners on my training regimen, so I’ll need to be up early in the morning.”
“But Gojo-sensei—” Yuuta begins, “he said we should take a break and—”
“Since when did we start listening to whatever that blindfolded idiot says?” Maki shoots back.
“But I think sensei means well!”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Maki,” Panda croons, a playful glint in his eyes as he draws what he knows to be the most potent card up his sleeve, “could it be that you’re actually scared?”
“Salmon,” Toge chimes in, almost as if reading Panda’s mind, and the two proceed to exchange a high-five.
“Huh?” Maki snaps. “Where’s that coming from?”
Yuuta senses the need to diffuse the situation and immediately jumps in. “It’s okay, Maki-san, we can pick something—something else. You don’t have to force yourself to watch a scary movie if you don’t—”
“Says who?” Maki turns to glare at him.
Yuuta gulps. “So you don’t mind if we—”
“Bring on the scariest movie you’ve got out there!” Maki bangs a fist on her desk, causing a loose bolt to come undone from somewhere under the structure that has seen better days. “Whoever flinches during the jump scares will owe the others a treat every time we hang out in the upcoming days. Deal?”
“And that’s the spirit!” Panda shoots a thumbs up. “Okay, so, let’s meet tonight in Toge’s room!”
“Spicy cod roe.” Toge shoots a thumbs-up in approval.
“I’ll get snacks then!” Yuuta beams, giddy at the thought of finally having a friend circle he can do fun things with, like he has always wanted to.
It is half past 12, which means it is just about the right time to dim the lights and get a scary movie rolling. Maki and Panda bicker for a good ten minutes over which movie to pick until Toge opts to settle the dispute with the age-old coin toss, only to be accused by Maki of rigging the toss in Panda’s favour.
Yuuta walks in last, all smiles, and armed with a bag full of snacks like he had promised. At the appearance of food, the great pacifier, the argument that was on the brink of turning into a physical altercation is promptly laid to rest, and the movie kicks off with a bang – literally, because the very opening scene is a series of gunshots tearing through the pitter-patter of a rainstorm while the camera lingers on a sinister-looking suburban house that screams ‘haunted’.
Suddenly, it dawns upon Yuuta that, through the loud dramatic music blaring from the laptop’s speakers, his ears vaguely registered something, or someone, outside the door. He looks around to study his friends’ faces, but they do not seem to be giving anything away.
“Did anyone hear that?” He asks after a moment’s hesitation.
“What?” Maki and Panda reply in unison without looking away from the screen.
Yuuta chews on his words, trying to come up with an apt description for what he thought he heard. “Sounded like footsteps. In the hallway.”
“Bonito flakes,” Toge declines.
“I didn't hear anything either.” Maki reaches out for a packet of pocky sticks.
“Neither did I,” Panda adds, shifting his weight on the floor to lie on his stomach and earning an admonishing look from Maki for trespassing into her territory.
“Ah. Never mind.” Yuuta chalks it up to his imagination or lack of sleep or both. On instinct he pulls his knees closer to his chest and steals a glance at the streak of light from the hallway filtering in through the gap under the door before trying to switch his focus back to the movie.
It had not even been a minute since Yuuta’s interruption when Panda’s ears perk up. “Was that—”
“—a knock on the window?” Yuuta cuts in. And they all instinctively turn their heads towards the lattice window on their left, with its wooden panels jammed shut and the curtains drawn.
“Not possible. That side of the building looks out over the mountains, and we’re on the topmost floor,” Maki says, cool as a cucumber. “Might have been the wind or something.”
As if on cue to play the devil’s advocate, two successive raps follow from the same direction – loud enough to be discernible even through the sounds of the movie and Toge munching on his wafers.
“Pickled mustard leaf.” Toge immediately stops munching midway through a bite.
“That doesn’t sound like the wind to me,” Panda says.
“You all are such crybabies, I swear,” Maki huffs. “Move. I’ll go and check.” She sidesteps Panda and makes a beeline for the window.
But just as she is about to pull the curtains back, the lights go out. They collectively let out a gasp, trying to adjust their eyes to the dark.
The atmosphere in the room takes on an eerie quality, with the glow of the laptop screen being the only source of light. The movie, long forgotten and only serving as white noise at this point, continues to play uninterrupted on battery.
“What’s going on? Is it a power outage?” Panda pulls himself off the floor and up on his feet, his form dimly illuminated by the screen behind him.
“I think so? There’s no light outside either.” Yuuta steals another glance at the gap under the door, pitch black this time, when a shiver runs down his spine.
“Before anyone asks, yes, I just heard that,” Maki says, an edge to her voice. She walks over to the laptop and puts a pause on the movie, the total quiet now adding to the growing uneasiness in the air.
“Sounded like—like footsteps, right?” Yuuta says. “That’s exactly what I heard a while back too!”
“I felt like I also heard a voice, but I’m not sure if I was imagining it,” Panda adds.
“Damn it,” Maki hisses, “can’t believe we’re stuck here in the dark like a bunch of scaredy cats because we left our phones in another room.”
“Which is on the other end of the hallway,” Yuuta reminds, with the tiniest hint of a shake to his voice.
He does not have to say anything further as everyone knows what is on everyone else’s mind: retrieving the phones would mean stepping out of the safety of this room and into the vast unknown out there. Earlier this night they had agreed to leave the devices in another room as a dare to test how long they could survive without feeling the need to check their phone and giving in. It suffices to say they are all losers in equal measure at the moment.
Something metallic drops with a clang on the floor just then, and everyone nearly jumps out of their skin.
Then follows a thud and a rustle in quick succession.
“Who’s that?!” Maki yells. “I swear, if any of you’re trying to play a prank—”
“Tuna tuna.” A bright light flashes seemingly out of thin air and fills the room.
Momentarily blinded by the sudden brilliance, everyone takes a beat to register what Toge is holding up in his hand: a phone with its flashlight on. They heave a sigh of relief as if they have stumbled upon an oasis in the middle of a desert.
“I want to grill you about why you have an extra phone hidden away in your room, but I think now isn’t the time for that,” Maki deadpans.
“Right. There’s bigger fish to fry.” Panda says.
They blink at each other.
“Yuuta, go and check,” Panda says, finally addressing the proverbial elephant in the room.
“Me?!” Yuuta exclaims.
“You used to have a vengeful spirit tailing you for crying out loud!” Maki shoots back.
“That’s just Maki’s way of encouraging you, you know.” Panda nudges Yuuta by the elbow.
“And you’re a panda,” Maki snipes, “so why would you be scared of human ghosts?”
“I’m not a panda!”
“Pickled mustard leaf,” Toge says, as eloquent as ever, tugging at the sleeve of Yuuta’s shirt and cupping his ear with a palm as a gesture to listen closely.
“The storeroom?” Yuuta mouths, and Toge nods in agreement.
Propelled by a sudden rush of adrenaline, they throw caution to the wind and burst out of the room, their feet moving before their minds can deliver the command.
“Hey, wait up—” Panda and Maki follow close at heels.
The floorboards creak under their weight as they tiptoe in the hallway. Shadows, taking on monstrous proportions, flicker across the walls and the ceiling. And what is normally a 10-second stride to the storeroom, now shrouded in pitch black on the other end of the hallway, suddenly feels like forever as the adrenaline wears off almost as quickly as it had hit them.
“Is anyone second-guessing this? Definitely not me for the record,” Panda says, his voice echoing in the quiet chill of the night.
“Shut it. We don’t want to tip off whoever—or whatever—it is,” Maki reprimands under her breath.
Yuuta stands facing the door to the storeroom, his hand on the knob. “Are you all sure ab—?”
Maki shoves past him and flings the door open. Toge shines his phone’s flashlight inside, running a quick scan of the room.
No one.
Panda makes an exaggerated sound of faux-clearing his throat. “Guys, I’m starting to think it was all in our heads—” he trails off as something catches his eye. “Wait, I take it back. Isn’t that usually locked shut?”
Everyone’s gaze follows Panda’s as Toge zeroes in the flashlight on a rickety fuse box with its door ominously ajar, revealing patches of rusty switches and a tangle of wires inside.
“Salmon.”
“So there was someone here?” Yuuta speaks the obvious.
“And they’re probably still around,” Maki says. “Seems less like a ghost and more like a burglar breaking in if they deliberately messed with this thing and caused a blackout.”
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Yuuta says, “or at least inform Ijichi-san or Gojo-sensei—”
“Oh, you guys are still up and about?” a voice calls from behind, sending everyone into a fight-or-flight mode.
They lower their defences when they realize the familiarity of the voice and the silhouette approaching them in the dark.
“Sensei!” Yuuta is the first to react, a hint of relief in his voice.
“Satoru, what the hell!” Maki snaps.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in Kyoto?” Panda asks.
“Well, yeah, but I came back as soon as the meeting was over.” Gojo walks over to his students. The flashlight on his phone illuminates his face, with the usual blindfold now replaced with a pair of darkened glasses. It still takes his students a bit of mental gymnastics to convince themselves that the blindfolded guy and this one are the one and the same person. “I mean, why would you want to be around that grandpa Gakuganji a second longer than necessary, right?”
“And you thought it’s a good idea to be prowling around in the middle of the night?” Maki retorts.
“Playing detectives, are we? So, I was looking for something in there, but the fuse blew out when I switched on one of the lights.” Gojo jerks a thumb towards the general direction of the fuse box in the storeroom. “I had gone downstairs to gather some tools to fix that thing and then found you all here when I came back.”
Without waiting for a response, he steps into the repairman’s shoes and gets down to business.
His students exchange a look among themselves.
Maki sighs. “I guess that explains it then.”
“Very anti-climactic. We should’ve just stuck with the movie. It’d have had a better climax, I’m sure,” Panda says.
“Did someone say a movie?” Gojo pipes up. “How about we go for one tomorrow since we’re all free? My treat of course!” He reaches out for the spanner he placed on a stack of dusty cartons. Yuuta strides up to his teacher and hands it over, being the good boy that he is, when his gaze snags on what seems to be an old, yellowing clipping from a newspaper with the headline ‘Building blows up into rubbles; no casualties reported’.
“This better not be a prank,” Maki says, to which Panda and Toge nod in agreement as if collectively recalling a shared experience. Yuuta, who is yet to be on the receiving end of his teacher’s infamous pranks, only responds with a confused smile.
Gojo clutches his chest in faux injury. “I can’t believe my students think so little of me!”
He wrenches a bolt in place here and tucks in a loose wire there, and flips the switches back on. The lights in the hallway flicker back to life in quick succession, dispelling the eerieness of the dark.
“All right, that’s a wrap.” Gojo jams in the door of the fuse box shut and puts on the lock. “I’ll leave you to it then. Night!”
He pockets the newspaper clipping before heading for the staircase, which Yuuta notices but stops short of prying into the whats and whys.
Maki yawns. “I guess we should call it a night too.”
“Are we just going to leave the snacks be? Not on my watch!” Panda heads for the stash of food, and Toge joins him.
“Wait a minute, guys,” Yuuta says, making everyone halt in their tracks. “If that was sensei rummaging through the storeroom—”
Maki turns around. “Yeah?”
“—then what were those knocks on the window?”
If this were a movie, a clap of thunder would resound in the background at this exact moment.
“Beats me,” Panda admits.
Maki shrugs.
“Bonito flakes,” Toge adds.