The school’s large auditorium was filled with students attending Peterson High but was completely silent as the Headmaster read his eulogy about the loss of the recently deceased students, HirokoNakagawa, Mio Yamamoto, and Gina Katsuki. Their smiling pictures were framed and decorated with black ribbons and flowers. Standing out of the sea of students was Bae, who was dressed in a simple white tunic and a long white skirt. Many stared at her in confusion, but members of the student council standing on stage with the rest of the staff and the teachers stared at her with disapproval.
“I can’t believe she dares to wear white to a funeral,” Ayumi whispered to Katsumi with scorn. “How disrespectful.”
“Sh…” Itsumi whispered cautiously. “She is from China. That’s what they wear when they are mourning for a loved one.”
Ayumi continued to glare at Bae’s ‘tacky’ outfit as she silently climbed onto the stage and stood on the podium to give her eulogy for the deceased students. It was a long but tearful one that moved Ruri to tears.
Kiyoto, on the other hand, was looking around for someone. “Has any of you seen Emma?”
“You mean the ‘psychopath lover’?” Chiko replied, earning an eye roll from her.
“I heard she went to see her therapist,” Itsuki calmly replied.
“Great. Less problems to think about until we find her a permanent ‘babysitter’ for her.” Ayumi said.
“Let me guess, it's your turn to keep an eye on her, eh?” Kiyoto mocked, and Ayumi’s right eye twitched with annoyance. A few hours later, everyone but Bae left the auditorium. She lingered a bit in her own moment of silence, and then she knelt down, put her hands together, and said a quick prayer for the deceased before leaving the auditorium.
‘The Headmaster declared today a free day because of the ceremony,’ she thought as she walked back to the clubroom. ‘This can give me time to finish designing the fliers for the upcoming event.’
So she grabbed her calligraphy stationary and turned on the traditional music from her homeland from her phone to set the creative but still mood. As her brush glided on the calligraphy paper, she recalled her first attempt at calligraphy many years ago and chuckled at her awful brushwork. Still, the priest called it a ‘masterpiece’ she could learn from, and he was right. From that single ‘masterpiece, ’ she learned from her mistakes and joined her brothers in creating beautiful calligraphy masterpieces that sold well during festivals. She stopped to take a break and decided to take pictures around the school for inspiration, and what better camera to use but the old polaroid camera she found in the school.
Meanwhile, in the school’s courtyard, some of the students stood in groups, talking about the incident in hushed tones. Sitting on the bench underneath the cherry trees, a group of students were scrolling through their phones until one of them took a rose her phone in an angle and did a peace sign while pushing out her strawberry pink lips. Soon, the sound of a camera clicking was heard, followed by a notification on her phone.
“‘This atmosphere makes me look like one of the undead?’” a girl with black hair and blue eyes read out loud from her phone. She looked at the girl with blond hair and pink highlights and rolled her eyes. “You sound ridiculous.”
“Well, it's true, isn’t it?” the girl replied, trying to take another selfie. “This gloomy atmosphere is destroying my natural lightening. Now no one would see my highlights, and I just did my hair the day-before-yesterday.”
“You posted twenty pictures of your new highlights a day before yesterday already,” the curly brown-haired girl with pink eyes said, scrolling on her phone. “You really, need to slow down.”
The girl with the pink highlights gasps and pouts. “Then what will happen to my fans on my ‘Instant Page’?”
“They will live,” a male student with black curly hair wearing glasses stated. He looked up from his phone, stood up, and quickly left, startling the rest of the group.
“What’s up with him?” the girl with the pink highlights asks, only to be nudged to attention by the brown-haired girl who looks up and smiles. “Hi Mikan.”
Blowing a bubble from the gum in her mouth, the girl gestured for them to move, and when they did, she sat in between the girls while loudly chewing her bubble gum. “Did you see that awful outfit that Chinese girl wore today?”
The black-haired, blue-eyed girl laughed loudly and pushed her phone screen towards Mikan. “Yeah. She looks hideous.”
“I’ll say,” the brown-haired girl replied, giggling. “I wonder what was she wearing? Her grandmother’s bedsheets?”
“Yep.” The girl with the pink highlights replied, and the group laughed loudly at the picture of Bae lighting incense. “Kaedo, quickly send it to me. My fans are going to love it.”
“Okay. Just give me a second.” The black-haired girl replied and quickly sent it to her friend before asking Mikan about her summer party.
“Don’t worry, guys. The party is still holding.” Mikan proudly replied. “And don’t worry, you all are invited.”
The brown-haired girl clapped her hands excitedly. “Thanks, Mikan. Your parties are always the best in town.”
“Of course they are,” Mikan closed her eyes and smirked. “My father is one of the richest men in town. This time, I intend to ask the use the member of the music club to perform for us.”
Kaedo rolled her eyes. “You are using them again?”
“Yep. I told them to start rehearsing, but Haruka started babbling on about why they can’t start now and something about Gina’s death affecting their ‘concentration’.” Mikan opened her eyes and glanced at her. “Well, that’s not my problem, is it? Besides, they know the consequences of disobeying me.”
An uneasy tension filled the air when that was said until the girl with the pink highlights chuckled nervously. Mikan chuckled back and took out her phone.
“Do you want to help me pick out a dress for my birthday?” she asked cheerfully. “I took some good picks?”
That seemed to ease the tension in the air, and the girls started chatting excitedly amongst themselves. Inside the school building, Katsumi walked up the stairs until she got to the school’s second floor, where she spotted Bae looking at the picture in her hand while holding a Polaroid camera. From her furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips, she quickly guessed what was wrong and approached her.
“You are using a polaroid camera,” she began startling the girl. “Did I scare you?”
Bae put her hands on her chest and sighed deeply. “You scared me.”
“Funny that a girl who was trying to solve a murder could be scared by a simple statement.”
The hint of mockery in Katsumi’s voice was evident, but Bae decided not to engage with her. After all, none of the members of the student council except Itsuki and Ruri apologized to her for the harassment and false accusations. Ms. Mishema also apologized for letting them go too far with their actions. Ignoring her, she turned around and continued to take pictures of the scenery outside the window.
“A polaroid camera works when you press the shutter button exposing the light to the sensitive film in the camera.” Katsumi snatched the camera and took a quick picture with it. “The film contains multiple chemical layers, including light-sensitive grains, developer layers with dye couplers, timing and acid layers that aids in the development of the photo. As the photo is ejected from the camera, it passes through the rollers that spread the chemical evenly over the film, developing the image. The photo typically starts as a black image, but give it a few minutes, and it gradually develops into the final picture.”
The picture in Bae’s hand slowly developed, and she could finally see the image in the photo. Katsumi gave her back the equipment and stood still with her hands behind her back, waiting for Bae to thank her, but she got a nod of approval instead. Slightly annoyed, she turned around and continued her patrol of the school corridors.
Bae stared at the pictures she had taken earlier and decided to take another set of pictures to use as inspiration for the flier she was making and was pleased with what she saw.
‘This can be effective during investigations,’ she thought, taking another set of pictures and watching the image develop. ‘But it can be a little time-consuming.’
She kept looking through the set of pictures until something caught her eye in one of them; something was dangling from the window from above. The next picture showed the same thing, but it was longer and black with something frayed underneath.
‘Is that hair?’ Bae thought. She took two steps back and stared at the window, patiently waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, something flashed before her, followed by a huge thud, but when she looked out the window, she saw nothing out of the ordinary.
‘It must be my imagination,’ she took a deep breath and walked back to her empty clubroom where she started selecting the pictures. Then she saw it: a dark, blurry figure with its mouth hanging wide open and eyes wide with terror. Dropping the picture on the table, she looked at the rest and saw the same thing with the body being cut from the frame. Taking another deep breath, she gathered the pictures and put them in the vanilla file.
A few hours later, she was still thinking about the pictures as she took the bus home, and she sighed deeply. ‘It looks like I have another case to solve.’
However, when she got off the bus and walked home, the cold wind and empty street made the street ominous. The sound of her empty footsteps echoed through the empty street, she stopped abruptly and looked around her. Realizing that she was alone, she took a deep breath and continued walking until a dark mist slowly materialized in front her. From the midst, a pair of arms emerged, followed by a long, sickly-looking body. Then a huge mouth opened, showing teeth and a human-frog face inside it.
The monster roared and galloped to attack Bae, but she gracefully backed away, her feet barely touching the ground as she moved. “You are a the ‘…: The Soul Devourer.’”Then she put her hand behind her head and pulled out a long red staff. “You devour souls, preventing them from entering the afterlife. Whose soul are you after?”
The monster roared at her but using the staff, she did ‘a staff spin’ creating a blast of light, and attacked it with a ‘a staff dance’, hitting it repeatedly, then finished it with a massive 'downward strike’. The monster took a step back and stretched out its limb to grab her, but she dodged to the left and quickly‘staff dashed’ before finishing her attack with the downward strike. The monster slowly dissolved into purple sludge, but more dark mist appeared, and more monsters appeared. They pounced on her in a group, but she stayed calm, put her hands together, and was surrounded by a ball of light that grew bigger with every attack from the monsters until it exploded, sending them back. Bae opened her eyes and then quickly combined ‘the staff dance’ with her dodging technique called ‘lightening dash,’ moving quickly as her strikes quickly turned the monsters into purple sludge.
‘This sludge,’ she whispered as her surroundings slowly dissolved, bringing her back to the busy street surrounded by people. She quickly went home and tried to remember when she saw that sludge, but the memory was fuzzy. ‘But these creatures devour the souls of the dead. Why are they after me?’
The question still bothered her the next day as she sat in class, ignoring what the teacher was saying. Once class was over, she went back to the empty club room, flicked her wrists creating a sparkle of light, and an ancient red scroll appeared in the air. Swiping her finger down, the scroll opened, and the scary ink drawing of the creatures she fought yesterday appeared with all the information on it.
‘It says here that creatures like them only devour souls of the dead, but they attacked me.’ She squinted her eyes at the symbols and moved her finger up to close the scroll, which disintegrated into thin air. Then her eyes fell on the Polaroid camera sitting on the table. So she picked it up and inspected it. ‘They were sent by someone but who?’
A few minutes later, the bell rang for lunch break, but thanks to the school’s rules, students were only allowed to eat inside or around the building under the watchful eyes of the student council and teachers. It was a tiring task, especially for Ayumi, who was bored out of her wits, and to make matters more complicated, she was paired with Ruri.
“At least they allowed them to stick to their cliques,” Ayumi sighed in frustration. “This can make it easier for us to keep an eye on them. All we need to do is to look out for the introverts, right Ruri?”
“Hmm?” Ruri replied, staring at her.
Ayumi rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
The only person exempted from this rule was Emma, but she was eating in the student council room under Itsuki’s watchful eye. When she was done, he cleared the plates and escorted her out of the room.
“Are you feeling okay, Emma?” he asked as they walked down the corridor.
Emma didn’t reply.
“Silent treatment. I understand.” He replied, looking away for a while before turning to her with a smile. “You were really brave defending Bae back there. The tension in the room was so…so…terrifying.”
He gave a nervous chuckle with a thumbs-up gesture, causing Emma’s right eye to twitch with annoyance, so she tried to ignore him. Unfortunately for her, Itsuki continued to talk about the incident, Bae, and how everything affected the school, making her wish she could cover her ears.
Meanwhile, Bae was sneaking around the school, taking shots of different windows in the school hallway with the Polaroid camera and putting the pictures in different folders.
‘Shifu told us spirits don’t like to communicate directly with people but use symbols, images, and signs to send their message,’ she thought, putting the set of pictures into another vanilla file. ‘I hope my actions can help me know who she is.’
Then something caught her eye. Through the window she could see Ms. Mishema walking someone outside the school’s gate but she was holding something in her hand. Squinting her eyes, she saw that Ms. Mishema was holding a gun, and when they stopped, she pointed a gun at the female figure who raised her hands to her chest level and slowly backed away before sprinting through the gate. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Emma, who was focused on the window, before walking away.
‘What’s going on?’ she thought as Itsuki and Emma slowly came into view behind her.
“What are you doing?” Itsuki called out.
Hearing his voice, she quickly stuffed the rest of the pictures inside the file before turning to look at Itsuki and Emma with a nervous smile on her face. “Hi, Itsuki. Hello Emma. How are you?”
“I am fine, thank you,” Emma replied, staring at the file Bae clutched to her chest.
Unfortunately, Itsuki noticed it too, and he raised an eyebrow. “I hope you are not gathering information on students again. Remember, you nearly got yourself in trouble last time.”
“Oh,” Bae took a step backwards and giggled nervously. “I am not doing that.”
“Then what are you trying to do?” Itsuki took a step closer and stretched out his hand. “May I have it?”
“No!” Bae quickly clutched the file closer to her chest only to realize her actions may cost her the case she was working on. Balling her hands into fists, she coughed and tried to act professional. “I am sorry. What I am holding is confi…, confi…umm…what’s that word again?”
She gave an embarrassed chuckle, and Itsuki put his hands on his hips and shook his head in disappointment. However, before he could say anything, Emma spoke.
“Nǐ yào zhǎo de cí shì “jīmì” ma?” she asked. (Is the word you are looking for 'confidential'?).
Bae’s widen in shock. “Nǐ huì shuō zhōngwén?” (You speak Chinese?)
“Shì de, wǒ hěn liúlì?” (You speak Chinese?)
“Wǒ céng xiǎng chéngwéi yī míng kōngchéng rényuán, suǒyǐ wǒ xuéxíle bùtóng de yǔyán. Bùxìng de shì, yǒurén gàosù wǒ zhège mèngxiǎng hěn yúchǔn, suǒyǐ wǒ fàngqìle zhège zhuīqiú.” She replied. (I wanted to be a flight attendant, so I learnt how to speak different languages. Unfortunately, someone told me that dream was foolish, so I abandoned that pursuit.)
Bae continued to stare at her with wide eyes and looked at Itsuki, who looked lost until Emma grabbed him by his arm.
“Let's go, Itsuki.” She ordered.
Itsuki snapped out his shock and stared at her. “But…”
“Let's go!” she snapped, glaring at him. “You heard her. It's none of your business.”
Itsuki tried to protest again but folded under Emma’s fiery gaze. As they walked down the corridor, Emma looked back and locked eyes with Bae, who stared back before looking away. With a new burst of confidence, she quickly rushed back to the clubroom, closed the door, and put all the pictures on the table. Sure enough, the ghostly figure of the falling girl was seen in every frame but what confused her was the fact she appeared in four windows; the windows in ‘Science Lab’, ‘Class 3-2’, ‘Biology Lab’ and the ‘Computer lab’ on the third floor of the building.
‘Why are you appearing in these places?’ She put a hand on her chin, and her eyebrow furrowed as she stared at the photos. ‘What are you trying to tell me?’
She looked at the pictures of the falling girl again and realized that the girl’s mouth was opening and closing in each frame. Then, a thought occurred to her, and she picked up the pictures.
‘I have seen this on a video before,’ she thought, holding tightly on one end of the photos and pressing her thumb on the other end. ‘He said it was an animation or something.’
She ran her thumb through the pictures, and her face went blank with shock. She rearranged the pictures again and repeated the process until she finally got the falling girl behind the picture to mouth the flowing words: ‘Help me!’
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