Summer vacation. To most students in other parts of the world, it's a period of freedom from their studies. But not here in Japan. Here, we get piles and piles of homework shoved into our arms by demon overlords we call teachers. I, Hisao Oota, really envy high schoolers in America for not having any homework during this special time. And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't their summer vacations longer than ours? That's so not fair!
Anyway, our story begins on the first day of summer vacation, my first summer vacation as a high schooler. And Yuna’s too. And no sooner did our summer vacation start, our whole family, me, my mom, dad, and Yuna, got into Dad’s minivan and took a quick trip out of town.
Our destination: a graveyard. We were going to go visit the grave of Yuna’s parents. That's why I was wearing my winter school uniform, even though I didn't have school. It was the most formal wear I got.
Why are we visiting Yuna’s parents’ grave on the first day of summer vacation, you ask? Well, it’s because this day, which happened to be the first day of summer vacation marked the one year anniversary since Yuna’s mom died.
I didn’t know the details surrounding how Yuna’s mom died. My parents never told me the circumstances, and I thought it would be rude to ask about something like that. But from the snippets I’ve heard here and there by people who knew about it, it seemed like the cause was a tunnel that collapsed on them. Yuna was in the hospital before she came to live with me and my family, so she must have been caught up in the accident with her mom. That was the conclusion I came to, anyway.
The trip was a bit long, about an hour or so. There wasn’t much to say about it since it was mostly gray freeway, green trees, and blue sky. I spent most of it on my phone, making progress on a game like always. My parents talked about something, but I wasn’t listening, and their voices sounded muffled because my ears were popped.
Sometimes, I glance at Yuna, but she just sat quietly, looking out the window. I couldn’t see what face she was making, but I was sure it was even more distant and stony than her usual look. Considering how important a day this was to her, no one could blame her.
Getting a bit tired of grinding game items, I decided to take a little break and switched over to doing random searches on the internet. As I tried to decide what to search about, a certain person popped up in my head and I typed his name in before I could change my mind.
Although I said ‘name’, I really meant the nickname he got from the public. I’m sure it’s a name you’re familiar with.
That’s right. The person I looked up on the internet was the Piper, a notorious serial killer who, as the name suggested, attacked people with a pipe. He was a sick individual who hurt people purely for enjoyment. It was like he was addicted to killing.
Just a few months ago, the Piper had decided to use our hometown as his next hunting ground. Homura Omoyo, a member of my high school’s Community Service Club, which I and Yuna are also members of, was going to be one of his targets. But me and the rest of the club stopped him just in time and captured him, and his partner who was just as twisted and evil. Thus the Piper’s reign of terror was ended.
As soon as I hit the enter key on my smartphone, a whole list of web articles showed up. But the latest article about the Pipers was dated several weeks ago. It didn’t surprise me, however, that someone like the Piper faded from mostly everyone’s memories. I had heard from the club president, Toshiro Mirai, that the authorities were actively keeping the media away from the Pipers because of a certain secret that could not be made public.
You’re asking if I know what that secret is? Sure, I do! It’s the same secret that I, Yuna, and all the other members of the Community Service Club have: that we have psychic powers.
You see, our hometown’s full of psychics. In fact, it’s been called the capitol of Japan’s psychics because it’s where the biggest clans of psychics called home.
Suddenly, my dad announced, “We’re here!” and made a turn into a parking lot. As soon as he shut the engine, I unclipped my seatbelt, pocketed my phone and stepped outside.
When one thinks of graveyards, they think of a place that’s dark, dreary and either raining, close to raining, or wet from raining. But there was none of that in this graveyard. It was the middle of a bright, sunny day that we arrived, and definitely really dry. There were a few white clouds hanging over our heads. The air was a bit hot, but it wasn’t unbearable enough to make me take off my jacket.
Through the gateway, I could see rows of neat, stone blocks with family names etched across the front surface in big, bold lettering. There were quite a few people scattered around the expanse of graves who, like us, came to pay respects to the departed.
We strolled by numerous graves, first heading straight a couple of minutes before turning left and then right. The headstone we stopped at was incredibly small compared to most of the ones we passed. There was a single photo placed at the base of the grave that showed a family of three, a young man, his wife, and a little baby. Without a doubt, the baby was Yuna and the couple embracing her were her parents.
They looked so happy in the photo, I thought. Well, the couple looked happy. Baby Yuna had a blank look like she had no idea what was going on. (She was a baby, after all.)
Mom and Dad offered to burn the incense for Yuna, but she declined and said she wanted to do it herself. She did, however, borrow a lighter from Dad who brought it for the occasion. When the smell from the smoke hit my nostrils, I wrinkled my nose a little and took a step back.
Together, we all clapped our hands together and prayed. There wasn’t much I could pray to Yuna’s parents for, other than a hope that they rested in peace and to look after their daughter from Heaven. For that reason, when I opened my eyes, the others had theirs still closed.
I didn’t want to disturb them so I quietly stepped away a little and took a look around. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful here, except for birds singing to one another from faraway trees. The graveyard wasn’t all that chilling in appearance, but I nonetheless shivered, despite the warm air. I was always uncomfortable by the concept of death, and that discomfort only multiplied after finding a human corpse floating in the river a few months back. The corpse was a man who was a victim of the Piper.
That’s why, no offense intended, I couldn’t wait to get out of the graveyard. It actually took a lot of self-control not to take my phone out and fiddle with it, even knowing that it was both rude and something my mom would scold me vehemently over.
So, instead, I decided to just pass the time training my psychic power, which was called psychokinesis. With that power, I could create an armor of energy around me that could protect me from most things, like flying soccer balls to the face, baseballs to the head, and footballs to the eyes, among other things. And yes, those things actually happened.
Whenever I cloak myself in psychic energy, something Mirai named Psy-Armor, it creates a slight rippling effect all around me. Depending on how much power I put into the Psy-Armor, most people won’t notice, or think it has something to do with their eyesight. Putting my Psy-Armor on and keeping it on for as long as I can while walking around is how I trained to make my power grow stronger. Mirai said that psychic powers are like muscles. The more you use them, like in exercise, the stronger they get. It’s also thanks to my Psy-Armor that I escaped unscathed from random flying projectiles to my head.
It was after I put my Psy-Armor on that I noticed her.
Standing to the right of my family just two or three feet away was a girl around my age, just staring at us with a hauntingly seething look. I didn’t see her coming, so I was pretty surprised by her sudden appearance. Neither my parents, nor Yuna noticed the girl. They just kept praying to the grave.
At first, I thought that she might have seen my Psy-Armor. Even though most people wouldn’t notice it from afar, it was still visible. She might not have noticed, but I quickly turned it off just in case. I was going to politely ask her if she needed help with anything, prepared to pretend the Psy-Armor never happened if she brought it up, but she disappeared, gone from my sight in the blink of an eye.
“Wha-!?” I cried out. I looked around, but I couldn’t find the girl anywhere.
“Is something the matter, son?” my dad asked. He and the others must have heard my outburst because they were staring right at me now.
“Uh . . .” I went, my mind racing. “I-it’s nothing! Just a bug that flew in my face. That’s all, yeah.”
My parents stared at me doubtfully, but they didn’t speak further. Deciding that we’ve spent enough time in the graveyard, he ushered me and Yuna back out the graveyard and to the car. As we drove away, I craned my head to look back. The mysterious girl was fresh on my mind, and I had to wonder . . .
“Did I just see a ghost?”
