"But not long after that, once the photos taken by a witness were shown on TV..."
"That eerie image sent chills down our spines."
On the screen was the enormous head of Fujino Terumi, floating in the night sky.
The distance was too great to tell whether Terumi's eyes were open or closed.
From afar, her skin looked fair and her black hair fell like a waterfall. You could just make out the beauty she had possessed in life.
In a self-media video, a man in a suit showed the girls around him the photo taken by the witness.
"This is the photo."
"Whoa, that's terrifying!"
"Is it real? Isn't it edited?"
"That head is enormous!"
One of the girls asked, "Her neck... it looks like it was torn off by a wire... So that headless ghost really is connected to this, isn't it?"
The man in the suit nodded. "Yeah, that explanation makes a lot of sense."
Hezi's narration continued.
"That face floating in the night sky really was Terumi's."
"But that expression was a feature only the dead had."
As the voice spoke, a close-up of the witness's photo appeared.
Up close, Terumi's eyes were rolled back like a corpse's. Her face wasn't fair, but deathly pale, and the stench of decay was enough to make you sick.
Quite a few viewers gasped the moment the image appeared, then covered their mouths.
Some wanted to get up and leave, willing to forfeit the cost of their tickets.
But they found their legs had gone weak. They couldn't move at all!
The image moved down to the place where the ghost's neck had been severed.
"And the marks on her neck...
left a deep impression on us. It looked as though she had been violently torn away from her body..."
"This incident became a topic of conversation at school, too."
The scene shifted to the school building. In a classroom, one boy sat on a desk by the window while another student leaned against the wall.
"That's gotta be fake!"
"Idiot, do you think they could make something like that?"
"I think it's real..."
"Wanna bet?"
"All I can say is, it's really creepy."
The familiar classroom made many viewers feel safe.
"I kinda want to see it, too."
"You don't have the guts."
The high school students' conversation carried far down the hall.
In the corridor, Hezi noticed Shiraishi standing against the wall, lost in thought, and called out to him.
"Shiraishi,
this whole thing is getting out of hand. Everyone's saying irresponsible things."
Hezi thought her classmates' theories were completely absurd.
"Shiraishi, you don't believe in it, do you? Ghosts..."
Shiraishi's expression was serious. "No... I don't disbelieve in them.
I've seen it with my own eyes."
"Huh?"
Hezi's smile faded, and confusion flickered in her eyes.
"She often floats into my yard."
"And she keeps looking up at me... with those vacant eyes..."
"It's probably the look she gives when she's calling out to me. I've nearly been drawn to her several times..."
"But I've held out so far."
Hezi made a strained attempt at a smile. "Shiraishi, you must be exhausted."
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"You must think I'm talking nonsense?"
"No! I'm not saying you're lying.
It's just that when you're mentally exhausted..."
Shiraishi ignored Hezi's explanation and stepped forward, passing her by.
"You don't have to say anything else. Come to my house next time and you'll understand!"
"Shiraishi..."
Watching Shiraishi walk away, Hezi's beautiful eyes, just like his, filled with doubt, curiosity, and sympathy.
That afternoon, as the sun sank in the west, Hezi walked home from school, still thinking about what Shiraishi had said in the corridor.
"Terumi's ghost..."
At Hezi's house.
Her home was a small, two-story loft, and her bedroom was upstairs.
Hezi was doing her homework when her younger brother opened her bedroom door.
"Hey, sis, you've got a call."
Hezi rubbed her head. "Who is it?"
Her little brother looked excited. "A guy."
"I won't tell Dad, don't worry."
Hezi pressed her lips together, annoyed at the caller's rudeness.
"...Yosuke?... Honestly!"
Hezi went downstairs to answer the phone. "Hello, this is Hezi."
"Ah... Shiraishi?"
"What... tonight...?"
"Huh?"
Shiraishi's voice came through the phone, lowered to a whisper.
"I'm calling from a phone booth in front of Eisho Temple... Could you come over right away?"
"Terumi... she's appeared again... She's slowly moving north. If you come now, you should still make it in time."
"...Really?..."
"Now?... But... Okay..."
"...I understand... At Eisho Temple?... I'll be right there."
Hezi walked barefoot across the floor, careful not to make a sound.
Carrying her shoes and the clothes she'd need to go out, she dodged her father, who was reading the newspaper, and slipped out of the house.
By the time Hezi left, it was already getting dark.
"...She really floated out here..."
"But are ghosts real?"
Before she knew it, Hezi had reached Eisho Temple, and she could see its roof.
"Shiraishi..."
Hezi searched around for him.
"He's not even here!"
"Could he be messing with me?"
!
Hezi's eyes suddenly widened.
She saw it—the enormous head of Fujino Terumi, suspended in the air.
Under the night sky, Terumi's face was a sickly pale, like a dead moon.
Hezi's skin tightened with fear.
"Terumi..."
Without thinking, Hezi called Fujino Terumi's name.
But the next second, she covered her mouth and hid behind a tree, watching Terumi's floating head.
Hezi's narration continued:
"Terumi looked a little different from how I'd imagined her..."
"If I reached out and touched her, it seemed like I might actually feel something..."
"Terumi! Terumi!"
"Terumi!"
Hezi heard someone calling Terumi.
Looking more closely, she saw it was Shiraishi.
He was standing on a high branch, trying to reach Fujino Terumi's enormous head.
"Terumi... Please forgive me."
"Don't look at me like that."
The head heard the voice and turned to look at Shiraishi.
Hidden behind the tree, Hezi listened to Shiraishi's apology. Anxiety flickered in her eyes.
Her pupils widened with terror.
"That's..."
"Shiraishi?!"
Hezi noticed a rope hanging in front of Shiraishi, too. It was tied into a loop, as if it were waiting for him to put his own neck into it.
Tears streaming down his face, Shiraishi stretched out his arms.
"Terumi!"
"Terumi!"
But he didn't notice the noose drawing closer and closer to his neck.
"Shiraishi, don't!"
Hezi cried out to stop him.
But by the time she spoke, the noose had already slipped around Shiraishi's neck.
The rope seemed to grow down from the sky. With the noose around his neck, Shiraishi was left hanging in midair.
And Fujino Terumi's enormous balloon-like head watched him in silence.
Hezi desperately searched for something she could use to help.
"If I don't hurry, he'll die."
Rustle!
Rustle!
Rustle!
Hezi heard leaves brushing together. A head almost as large as the ghostly head of Terumi emerged from the woods.
It was Shiraishi's head.
A rope grew from beneath the enormous head, and Shiraishi's corpse hung from it.
The two enormous heads stared at each other in the air.
Then they drew close and kissed.
Beneath the two faces locked in a passionate kiss, Shiraishi's body jerked like a puppet.