13th Mystery: Man-Eating Old School Building
Chapter 1: The Male Student in the Old School Building
“S, sorry for the intrusion……”
As dusk approached, a student opened the door to the old school building out of curiosity.
The door to the old school building was unlocked, so it was easy to open.
The hinges creaked open, and a dusty smell tickled his nostrils through the gap in the door. There was also a small amount of dust floating around. If someone with allergies entered the old school building, it would probably be fatal at that point.
Gyiii~.
An unpleasant sound could be heard from the door.
The student stuck his face through the gap in the door and looked around the inside of the old school building.
It seemed like time had stopped since the Showa era. There were holes here and there in the wooden corridor, and the slogans and posters encouraging cleaning that were pasted on the walls were yellowed and looked like they were about to fall off.
“Ugh…”
He doesn’t want to go in alone but there’s something he’s just too curious to let go.
“Will he really come out? Our ghost senior.”
Yes, the ghost of a senior from XX High School appears in this old school building.
A male student who stepped into the old school building alone several decades ago and never returned. He liked scary stories and ghosts, and it is said that he would often step into off-limit areas and get scolded by adults.
In fact, this male student is the founder of the “Ghost Club” to which the student who is about to step into the old school building belongs. He would really like to say hello to him.
“E, excuse meー……”
He tries calling inside the old school building.
“Uhmー…… Excuse me, Irune-senpai~……”
That seems to be what he’s called.
At first he thought it was a unique name.
No matter how hard he tried, it seemed like a phonetic spelling or taboo name, a name that an ordinary student would never have been given. He thought it was one of those old fancy names, but now he can read it properly.
Irune Yuen — that’s the senior’s name.
“Irune-senpai, are you here? Were you really eaten by the old school building.”
In the Ghost Club, it is rumored that “The founder, Irune Yuen-senpai, was eaten by the old school building and his whereabouts are unknown.”
If he was eaten, he may be living a ghostly life as just his soul. As a member of the Ghost Club, he would love to find out for himself how he feels.
After calling out “Irune-senpai” several times in the eerie corridor of the old school building that spreads out before him, the student swallowed his saliva.
“Oh, maybe I should go further in after all.”
No one tries to enter the old school building.
Even the bad students who run rampant at XX High School wouldn’t hide in the old school building to smoke a cigarette. That’s how famous the old school building is for all sorts of bad rumors.
About the deaths of several construction workers, about Irune-senpai, and so on. They say that only bad things happen when you get involved with the old school building.
“S, sorry for the intrusion……”
After making a formal apology, the student stepped into the old school building.
Gyi, gyii~.
The floor creaks underfoot.
No matter how old the school building is, it’s still a building, and the wind and rain will cause the flooring to rot. It’ll only be a matter of time before it falls out.
The student proceeds carefully, taking out his smartphone. He launches the light app and presses the switch, providing light for the dim hallway.
Beyond the rusted water pipes, peeling slogans and posters, and cloudy glass inlays, is a row of neatly organized desks.
This appears to be a classroom. It’s unclear what class used to use it, but the classroom is not in ruins, as if people had simply disappeared.
“So this is what that old school building looks like…”
What did Irune Yuen, who is rumored to have been eaten by this old school building, thought? He started a strange club called the Ghost Club, so he must have enjoyed walking down these hallways.
The sounds got louder.
“Huh?!”
The student turned around in a panic.
He shone his light on the hallway behind him, and there was nothing there. No one.
Maybe he’d heard it wrong, but he was sure he’d heard footsteps.
“Is anyone there?”
“Don’t ask who. There’s no one else but me.”
“Ahhh!!”
The student was so shocked by the event that he dropped his smartphone and sat down on his bottom.
Before he knew it, a stranger was standing in front of him.
Wearing an old-fashioned boys’ uniform from XX High School, he tilted his head, his shoulder-length black hair shaking. His obsidian eyes peeked out from between his long bangs, as he gazed on the student who had sat down in an unsightly manner.
“I came because I was called.”
The male student puffed out his chest in a very arrogant tone.
“Cou, could you be Irune-senpai……?”
“Indeed.”
The male student happily opened his mouth and said, “Uhm, I!!”
He finally gets to meet the longed Irune-senpai, he must ask him how he feels about wandering in the old school building.
He picked up the smartphone that had fallen on the floor and ran his fingertips across the screen to open a video app. And then,
“You can’t come in here alone.”
The smartphone was taken away.
He looked up to see Irune Yuen, who was laughing with genuine enjoyment.
The male student who was rumored to have been eaten by the old school building, gave a twisted smile and threw the smartphone away, approaching the student.
“You came here to be eaten by me, didn’t you? Perfect timing, I’m just getting hungry.”
“What?”
Gokin ~, guchagucha, guchya~.
