Behind Shiraishi, a girl spoke timidly:
"W-what do you want...?"
We are Fujino Terumi Fan Club members.
"Are you Shiraishi Futsuya?"
"Ah... ah... yes, I am."
Shiraishi answered hesitantly.
Anger showed in their eyes. Just as they seemed about to pounce, the man in the white shirt at their head held them back and asked:
"Is that so? There's something we want to ask you. We heard you were Terumi's boyfriend!"
Shiraishi lowered his eyes. "Boyfriend!"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Stop playing dumb!" the man in the white shirt snapped.
"We've already looked into it thoroughly!"
"You were Terumi's boyfriend. You were together before the incident!"
"And you were always against her going into show business. Even after her debut, you still disapproved of her work."
"So you were the one making her miserable, weren't you?"
The man in the white shirt and the others drew closer. His face was almost pressed against Shiraishi's.
Fear showed on Shiraishi's face. "What are you talking about? What do you want from me?"
The fans shoved Shiraishi around. The man in the white shirt and another tall man even grabbed him by the collar.
"Are you pretending to be stupid?!... I'll tell you what. You drove Terumi into a corner and made her kill herself!"
"Right! It was you!"
"L-let go of me!"
Shiraishi was surrounded by the boys like a helpless lamb.
A strong hand shoved Shiraishi from behind, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
In Shiraishi's eyes, the men's figures seemed to grow taller and more terrifying.
"Hey, you guys! Stop it!"
Hezi shouted angrily. "What kind of people gang up on one person?!"
"Shiraishi is our classmate! Let him go!"
The boys glared at the high school girls, with Hezi at their head.
The girls, all except Hezi, cowered behind her.
Hezi pointed toward the nearby Fujino Terumi family home.
"If you're going to fight, I'll call the police!"
"They're holding Terumi's funeral rites today. There are lots of police officers there keeping order."
The fans followed Hezi's finger and saw the police in the distance.
"Tch..."
The man in the white shirt and his companions left in a huff.
Before they went, they shot Shiraishi a venomous look.
"Damn it... You'll pay for this..."
Shiraishi breathed a sigh of relief.
Quite a few viewers were displeased with Shiraishi, the timid boy.
He'd needed a girl to rescue him. He really was spineless.
They couldn't understand what Terumi had seen in him.
Some also felt Shiraishi was highly suspicious.
Wasn't there a saying that the person who seemed least likely to be the culprit was the most likely one?
As Terumi's high school boyfriend, Shiraishi had always opposed her entering show business.
He certainly had a strong motive.
His timid exterior could just be his protective coloration.
"Shiraishi, are you okay?"
"...Yeah..."
The high school girls asked him with concern.
"Shiraishi, don't take what they said to heart."
"They were just looking for someone to take their anger out on."
With his back to the girls, Shiraishi stared at the ground and spoke in a low voice.
"No..."
"...Maybe they were right. Maybe I really did make Terumi suffer."
"That's not true! Terumi wouldn't kill herself over something like that!"
Hezi denied it loudly. She believed her close friend would never be so fragile. Furious, she raised her voice, trying to convince Shiraishi.
"You can't think that way!"
Shiraishi knelt on the ground, supporting himself with his hands as tears dripped onto the floor.
"Ugh... ugh... ugh..."
Hearing Shiraishi sob, Hezi's gaze softened with sympathy.
"...Shiraishi..."
On the way home, Hezi couldn't stop thinking about Shiraishi crying.
She was so distracted that she stumbled on a pebble and almost fell.
"I'm home!"
When she reached the house, her mother stood in the doorway to greet her, holding Yuzu Leaves.
"Hezi, did you read the obituary?"
"Mm... Mom."
Her mother patted Hezi's face and body with the Yuzu Leaves.
After Hezi stepped inside, her mother bent down and sprinkled a line of water outside the threshold.
"A little holy water to drive away evil!"
Hezi walked into the house, then anxiously glanced outside.
"Since Fujino Terumi's death, many young people have followed in her footsteps. They all hanged themselves."
On the television, the news showed numerous young bodies hanging from trees in a park.
"There have also been cases of fans disappearing en masse. They may have hanged themselves together somewhere!"
"And what's more..."
"Rumors say Terumi's ghost has appeared..."
At that moment, many viewers recalled Fujino Terumi's beautiful eyes.
Others continued wondering who the culprit was.
A case this big could very well have been a group crime!
Or perhaps her crazed fans couldn't bear being separated from their idol by life and death, and had made a mass suicide pact?
A male host reported the news on camera.
"I'm currently standing inside a certain park."
"As you can see, this is a very quiet park, with lush trees."
The host raised his microphone and interviewed two young men.
"Were you the witnesses?"
"Yes."
"When did this happen?"
"Um... About a week ago, I think!"
The young man looked at his companion.
His companion met his gaze and confirmed:
"Yeah... Around midnight."
The young man pointed to the top of a pine tree in the park.
"Right up there on that tree, a huge face was floating in the air..."
"A face?"
"Yes, just a head, and... it was huge, floating in the air."
The host continued the interview, holding the microphone closer.
"Um... And what happened next?"
The young man with glasses answered, "It stayed there for a while, then disappeared toward the north."
"Thank you very much."
The host wrapped up the interview, then turned to the camera and said:
"Um... We've just heard what these two young men had to say.
"Recently, people everywhere have claimed to see Miss Terumi's ghost. They all agree that at night, her huge head floats through the air."
"Most of the witnesses are her fanatical fans!"
"There was even a group of fans who, after seeing her ghost, fell into collective hysteria and then became dazed and unruly."
The footage showed the same people who had bullied Shiraishi earlier.
Some lay on the ground, while others knelt with their eyes vacant and their gazes dull.
The scene changed. A female reporter interviewed a renowned professor.
"Professor, what do you think about the ghost sightings that are causing such a stir?"
The professor was a chubby, middle-aged man wearing glasses. He looked every bit the learned scholar.
"Um... Setting aside the question of whether ghosts exist..."
"From a psychological standpoint, this can be explained."
The female reporter looked puzzled as she continued, "Could you explain what you mean in more detail?"
"The fans' grief at losing their idol transforms into an unstable mental state, leading them to hallucinate... And the ghost appearing as nothing but a head is also related to..."
"The way that girl died. It's a highly symbolic phenomenon."
Quite a few viewers were already cursing under their breath.
Just as they thought—all the experts in the world were cut from the same cloth!