Chapter 2: Scheduled for Demolition
“It has been decided to demolish the old school building.”
That was the announcement made on the day of the closing ceremony.
Gathered in the gymnasium, where the summer atmosphere reigned, the vice principal, a teacher with a rather stern look on his face, announced this to all the students with a solemn expression.
The old school building in a corner of XX High School was going to be demolished.
“……”
The students didn’t react, and Houzuki didn’t say anything either.
But they all thought that it’s to be expected.
XX High School was about to enter summer vacation. They were probably planning to get rid of the cursed school building while the students were away.
And yet they had failed countless times before.
“I see.”
The silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy who had been listening to the announcement of the decision to demolish the old school building next to Houzuki said,
“Interesting.”
He laughed faintly.
☆
“The old school building is going to be demolished, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
The closing ceremony went off without a hitch, and after homeroom, Houzuki headed to the science preparation room.
There, waiting for her was Kuroomi Otoya, the biology teacher who had been released from the hospital and was feeling much better.
He also seemed to accept the decision to demolish the old school building, which had apparently been reported at the staff meeting. It seemed like everyone wanted that cursed school building to collapse.
“Well, I guess that’s probably impossible.”
“That’s right.”
Both Houzuki and Otoya knew it.
No one can demolish the old school building. When construction companies get involved, something almost always happens to the construction companies involved.
The construction companies this time were also quite reckless. There was a possibility that their employees would die gruesomely or that their company would go bankrupt, so why did they go to the trouble of taking on the demolition of the old school building?
“Rather than that, Kasugadani. What do plan to do with your life?”
“Who knows?”
“What do you mean “who knows”?”
Houzuki doesn’t know what path she wants to take either.
She’ll probably graduate from a university and get a job. That’s probably the most ordinary way to live. By then, she’ll probably have already parted ways with the silver-haired, red-eyed high school boy.
It would be best if she’d been cured of her unique condition that attracts ghosts by then, but what if she hadn’t?
“Houzuki, Houzuki.”
“What is it, Yuiru? If you’re talking about lunch, weren’t you just chasing after something that looks like a Teke Teke* earlier?
“I already ate her.”
“Fast eater, as always.”
A high school boy with silver hair and red eyes, Yuiru Enen, cuts in, interrupting their serious talk about their future.
His red eyes were filled with expectation and excitement.
Now that the old school building is being torn down, one wonders how he feels about being kicked out of his old home, but he looks like he’s having a great time. “I’ll eat the old school building one day,” he said, but is that in a literal sense?
Yuiru approaches her while calling her name, “Houzuki!!”
“Let’s go eat the old school building!!”
“Can you do it?”
“I’m saying that I will, I must eat the old school building before it’s torn down or I’ll only be able to sleep at night!!”
“You sure sleep well.”
Yuiru was a little excited,
“Besides, my body might be in there somewhere. I’ll get it back while I’m at it.”
“”While you’re at it”?”
“I don’t think that’s possible anymore. It was decades ago, so it’s probably rotten somewhere, and if it’s too thin and useless, I’ll just have to throw it away.”
Yuiru’s opinion was straightforward.
It seems he has no attachment to his own body. He’s probably gotten used to life as a ghost. If he wasn’t used to life as a ghost, would he have tried to get his body back?
Houzuki nodded, “I understand,”
“But it’s strange.”
“What’s wrong?”
“They’re suddenly going to demolish the old school building now. Did it harm another student?”
“Oh, Kasugadani. You haven’t heard anything?”
Apparently Otoya knows the situation. Since he’s a teacher, perhaps the reason was announced at a staff meeting.
“The body of a student who was brutally murdered was discovered near the old school building. The current principal decided to demolish it because leaving it standing any longer would cause harm to the students.”
“Did the principal find the construction workers?”
“I don’t know. Are there really construction workers, or maybe they will just ask for a construction worker to blow it up in an inopportune place?”
It seems that they couldn’t get ahold of a construction company after all.
That’s because many construction companies have already gone bankrupt while trying to demolish the old school building. Several people involved in the construction have died gruesomely, so no one wants to demolish the cursed old school building.
It’s a pity that the student’s body was found. It seems that things didn’t go as well as they did with Yuiru. Maybe Yuiru is a special case.
“Yuiru.”
“What is it, Houzuki?”
“Can you really eat it?”
Houzuki looks up at Yuiru swimming in the ceiling and asks.
The reason he eats ghosts is to gain strength and eat something that lives in the old school building.
He has eaten many different ghosts, including evil gods forgotten by others and the ghost of the Swamp House that has been passed down since ancient times. He should be strong enough now, so it’s about time he takes on the old school building.
The only thing she’s worried about is what will happen to Yuiru as a result.
“Rest assured, Houzuki.”
Yuiru smiled, lifting the corners of his mouth.
“I’m not going to die, I’m already dead.”
“You’ve already come to a conclusion. Your body might still exist.”
“My body wouldn’t have been safe. It’s better to just throw away my body and live as a ghost.”
While they were having this conversation, there was a gentle knock on the door to the science preparation room.
“Excuse me, I heard that a third year student named Kasugadani-senpai is here……”
The door to the science preparation room opened, and a quiet-looking female student peeked her head out from behind.
The girl, wearing the girls’ uniform designated by XX High School, turned her face towards Houzuki, wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses. Her dark eyes hidden behind the glasses revealed a glimpse of fear.
The female student, with a trembling voice,
“I-I’m Yomohira from the Ghost Club…”
She spoke the name of an activity and a name she hadn’t heard before.
TN: Teke Teke is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a schoolgirl, where her body was cut in half by a train after she had gotten stuck.
