Another: The Class of 1999

Chapter 18 - 1998

Koichi Sakakibara and Misaki Mei are characters created by the original owner's of the Another anime and manga. All credit goes to them.

The bus ride home was horrible. We all sat in silence, even Yuki, who had been screaming and crying until her throat was sore and her tears were all gone just moments before.

There was a pain in my heart which wouldn't go away, my head weighed heavily on my shoulders. I could hardly believed that Ai was gone. I had never expected one of my closest friends to tall victim to the curse. Well, I knew it was likely to happen, I had been kidding myself and internally saying it would all be okay. 

But we were all thinking the same thing, even though none of us had to say it: Ai had died outside of Yomiyama... But if we were able to leave Yomiyama then the curse shouldn't have been able to hurt of affect us. But it did...

Which meant that wherever we went, we'd never be safe. The curse would come at us in all directions, no matter how far away from Yomiyama we went.

The curse would always come after us... We'd never be safe...

*****

The next day, Ai's desk had been filled with cards, drawings, flowers and anything else that we seemed fitting to remember her by. I cried several times and had smudged my art I had drawn her, knowing that Ai would never be able to achieve her dreams. There were so many things Ai would never be able to do or experience.

And to top it all off,  Clarissa also received some horrible news from Chibiki-Sensei...

"Ai's father is also dead," Clarissa explained to me.

My eyes widened. "No way?!"

Clarissa nodded. "He died at the exact same time that Ai did."

"...How is that even possible?" I asked. "What happened?"

Clarissa shuddered slightly. They looked hesitant. "He was mowing his lawn, the lawnmower suddenly jolted out of control, he flipped over the bar, landed in front... The lawnmover kept going—"

I could feel my stomach churning. I held up my hand. "I don't need to hear anymore."

Clarissa was absolutely crushed. They spent most of the day with Chibiki-Sensei in the second library. Since class 3-3 was given an all day study hall, Akira and the rest of the boys all went home. Riku was the only guy who stayed, but I barely saw him.

Yuki stayed in school, but she had wandered off somewhere. I had hoped to sit with her and console her in some way, but of course I couldn't do that. So I ended up sitting in the classroom with Ran and Cho for a short while. That was a big mistake.

"Horrible that Matsuda Ai-chan is dead," Ran said, not very nicely as she examined her nails. "Such a shame."

"Ai-chan was one of the nicest people in this class," I said.

"And since she died outside Yomiyama, that means none of us are safe," Cho sighed as if she was annoyed. "Honestly, Ai couldn't have stayed living for just a little bit longer?"

"The staircase collapsed," I told them both, trying to not shout. "It's not like she PLANNED to die. Nobody could have survived that."

"Yuki survived," Ran pointed out. "Honestly, Ai is so careless. If only she could have done the same—"

I stood up. I clenched my fists. "Excuse me."

I left the classroom before I did something that I regretted. But I was NOT happy with how Ran and Cho were talking about Ai. We were all grieving, and they were talking about the matter as if if was no big deal.