Chapter 2 1. Classroom

July 20th. The sound of the wind was terrifying.Outside the glass window to my left, the horrible sound of the wind didn't stop for a moment. A sound never heard in my life.It seems to be mixed with the sounds of many monsters with strange shapes. "Okay, okay, stop talking! You're all fourth graders already. Tanabe! Don't look back! Okay, I'll say it again—" Mr. Iwamura, wearing a blue sweatshirt, stood on the podium, raised his two eyebrows that seemed to be drawn with oil-based pens, and kept talking about the precautions during the summer vacation.And I lowered my head vigorously and kept my mouth shut.It seems that if you don't pay attention, the scream that is suppressed in your throat will suddenly blurt out through your teeth...

Terrible…… Perhaps it was because my seat was next to the window that I heard the horrible sound.Thinking, I turned around and looked at Sumida who was sitting behind.But she seemed to have no interest in everything outside the window, just sitting there in a daze. "What are you doing?" Sumida said lazily. I got up embarrassed and turned back immediately. "This, you have to convey it to Mom and Dad. If you have anything to do during the summer vacation, you must contact the school—" (My phone is down!) (Ha ha ha ha ha!) (Really!) (Nonsense! Your house is not S’s house.) (There is really no one in S’s house!)

"Quiet quiet! It's not summer vacation yet!" outside the window.Although it was daytime, the sky was gloomy.Stretched into the distance like a stormy sea, the clouds moved swiftly from left to right between the windows. "The contact number is the number printed at the bottom of this material. Send it out now. It's the one with big characters—" (It is one two nine four.) (Ah? What?) (Answer.) (What answer?) (Ah, this is not subtraction?) "Okay, okay, here's the phone number. But it's kind of interesting, and you just happened to get it right!"

(Hee hee hee...) (Hehehe...) (You!) (Ah, it hurts so much!) Soon, the bell rang.As a result, I had to walk out of the classroom.And once I walked out of the classroom, I had to stand alone in the horrible wind. You should think of something else to calm yourself down.So, I took out my mechanical pencil and started drawing on the edge of the table, trying to concentrate.But my fingertips didn't listen, and the lines I drew were all crooked. "Hey, what are you doing? What are you drawing on the desk?" Yagang, who was sitting next to me, lowered his head and said, "What is this? A crocodile?"

"It's none of your business!" "Ah, I see, it's a lizard!" "Not a lizard!" I cried out subconsciously.In an instant, all eyes around me were focused on me. "Then what exactly are you drawing..." Yagang snorted boredly, and retracted his head. "Students who plan to go to the beach must be very careful. Every year, I read news that some children playing on the beach were swept away by the waves—" (It would be great if I could swim.) (But I can’t swim.) (Why?) (The waves are so big!) (Why?) Boom!The strong wind blew on the window, and the window pane visibly shook violently.Inadvertently, the mechanical pencil fell from my hand, and I couldn't help looking out the window.then--

I saw it. All in just a split second. Mr. S floats past the classroom window in the wind.from left to right.This is the second floor of the teaching building! Mr. S is wearing a gray T-shirt and dark brown shorts. His small body is like a piece of paper, flying quickly in the air by the wind.When passing by the classroom window, Mr. S stared at everything in the classroom with his eyes wide open, his face full of loneliness—— But in an instant, Mr. S flew away. I stood up, put my face against the window glass, and stared at the direction Mr. S was flying to.But there is no trace of Mr. S, only the dust and sand on the campus blown by the strong wind, flying lonely.

"Is anyone planning to catch up on homework before the end of summer?" (Yes!) (Yes! Yes!) (I have to write every day, I can’t do otherwise.) (You too!) I turned around and looked at Mr. S's seat, which is two rows behind my seat and the fourth one from the right.Only Mr. S's seat is vacant.The rest of the seats were full of my classmates.Only Mr. S's seat was so lonely and empty, as if he had been forgotten. "It's not okay to wait until the end to do homework. You don't have to do it every day, at least once every two days, and do it little by little—"

(Yes! Okay!) (No way!) (Why does it have to be like that?) (I still have to go to my mother-in-law’s house to play!) (Then you take homework with you.) "Also, Mr. S asked for leave today and didn't come, who can send these materials and homework to Mr. S's house?" That's right, Mr. S didn't come to school today. Mr. S was not in good health and often asked for leave.I didn't particularly notice this either. "Quiet! Okay, okay, does anyone know Mr. S's family?" (Teacher, Masukawa-kun knows!) (Ah? I don’t know!) (Isn’t it close to your house?) (Hate it!)

I pressed my cheek against the windowpane again. Where did Mr. S fly to? ... When I came back to my senses, the classroom was quiet again. Everyone is looking at me.Iwamura-sensei also raised those thick eyebrows, standing on the podium and staring straight at my face.Everyone put on a surprised expression. "Dofu, you, can you go?" Mr. Iwamura said to me. The classroom was originally noisy, but the moment Mr. Iwamura finished speaking, it fell silent instantly. Only then did I notice that I had raised my hand before I knew it.Speaking of which, at that moment just now, I once thought: If I don’t raise my hand...

"Do you know Mr. S's home?" I looked up at Iwamura-sensei's face and nodded.The two ends of Iwamura-sensei's raised eyebrows suddenly relaxed, revealing a smiley expression. "That's it, um, that's great. I'll give Mr. S's materials and homework to you later. Um, that's great." Mr. Iwamura nodded repeatedly, then turned to the whole class, and said loudly: "Okay, Doufu said that he will deliver materials and homework to Mr. S. You should all do what Doufu did when your good friend asks for leave. Or take the initiative to help when you are in trouble, right?"

(So ​​that guy has a good relationship with S?) (I don’t know wow.) (Is there no smell?) (Hey, he is looking at you.) As soon as they met my eyes, the two guys immediately looked away resentfully.One of them pretended to be watching Iwamura-sensei attentively, while the other looked interested, looking into his pencil case with raised eyebrows. "I said husband, don't get killed on the way to S's house!" Ibize, who was sitting in the front row, twisted his limp body and turned around.The eyes that were hanging upwards were so squeezed by the flesh of the cheeks that they basically became a slit. "If you're not careful, your legs will be broken and you'll be thrown into the grass!" I knew what Ibize was talking about.In the past year or so, strange-looking corpses of kittens and puppies have been found in N Town.As a "vicious prank", it was also published in newspapers.So it caused some commotion in this area.A total of eight corpses were found on the riverside by the town, in the gardens of the houses, in the ditches on both sides of the alleys, and in the gaps between the buildings.Four dogs, four cats, wild and domestic.The last one was discovered exactly five days ago, on July 15th.On the second day after the incident, the news was published in the newspaper, and there was a map of N town next to the news, and each place where the corpse was found was marked with a circle.Beside those marks, the time when the body was found was marked.Some of them were discovered immediately after death, and some were found with a handful of bones, so the time of discovery is meaningless.The marks on the map are scattered in every corner of the town, and no one knows where the next body will be found.Those of us who live here are so on edge all day.Since it is a perverted behavior, the school will naturally remind students to beware of suspicious people. "It's just dead, what kind of perverted behavior is it, in fact, maybe it's just a traffic accident, river pollution or something..." Teacher Iwamura once said this during an inter-class activity. "...However, I still feel... Maybe someone did it..." The reason for thinking this way is simple, because these corpses have two common characteristics.One is that all the hindfoot joints—knee joints in the case of humans—have all been twisted in the opposite direction from normal.The other is that these dead dogs and cats had a piece of white soap stuffed in their mouths. "Don't forget the drama party! The drama party will be a week after the end of the summer vacation. Practice as much as you can during the summer vacation..." At this moment, the bell rang.