Bummer, it's no fun when that happens. I've had a few friends that have broken with me for various reasons over the course of my life, sometimes my fault, and no matter what, it took some time to get over. People often expound upon the pain of a romantic breakup, but you don't hear much about how shitty it is to have a friend who shuns or pushes you away. Odd, considering how much more of a common occurrence it must be, given how many more friends most of us have as compared to lovers, especially at a time. Either people don't think those relationships are nearly as painful to end, or they are strangely more careful not to overtly sever them.
Might be an interesting subject for sociological/anthropological study...
Yeah, man, it was YOUR suggestion that Sayaka stick with you!
Yusuke seems cowed, resolving to stop complaining (for now), while Sayaka leans over to one side on his shoulders to look down below. Suddenly serious, Sayaka offers the ominous prediction that someone she's seeing is going to be killed. Yusuke asks her who it is, and she bids him to look where she's pointing, at a girl with fair shoulder-length hair in a puffy coat, holding a bag as she stares at a small black book in her other hand. Sayaka says she senses that someone is going to murder her. With how absorbed she is in that book, I wouldn't be surprised if she pulls a little Masaru and walks in front of a truck.
The title page is a bit spooky, though, with the puffy-jacket girl looking distressed and defensive, one hand raised, Yusuke and Botan being swept back in what looks like a great wind, and a single large eye surveying the whole scene from the sky. It seems very concerning.
Puffy-Jacket walks to an intersection, still reading her book, and waits for a the traffic to pass and the crosswalk figure to turn green before starting to cross. Her attention is minimal, so it's a REALLY good thing when a voice from behind her calls her Eri (should I be stoked about the names anymore? I feel like I still am) and yells at her to look out.
Holy shit, guys, that thing about her getting hit by a truck was a JOKE.
Shrieking, Eri lurches back toward the sidewalk as the truck swerves to avoid her, a voice coming from it to tell her to watch it, calling her an idiot. She's on the pavement, a hand to her hammering chest, breathing hard, when another girl runs up to her and asks if she's alright. She also asks why Eri would try to cross the street when the light was still red. Eri looks up at the street pole on which the walk lights are mounted, and is alarmed to find that it is, indeed, still RED, and only now turns green. She is flabbergasted, willing to swear that she saw it turn green before. To her credit, we the readers also saw the change from shaded to light of the walk sign, so she wasn't completely distracted. Just mostly.
Her friend beckons her to come along, since the light is green now, suggesting that Eri is getting woozy from how hard she's studying. The friend tells her that she should ease up on it a bit, because there's no sense in making herself sick or getting herself run over. Besides, without Eri around, there's a contest that would be a whole lot less interesting. The friend marvels at the fact that she and Eri have known each other forever, but they've never competed for the same prize before. Eri agrees with all of this, the next couple of panels showing the two girls in pictures together since they were small children.
The friend, Katsumi, drew shy little Eri out of her shell since they were little, being the outgoing and fearless one. They were opposites in just about every way, but they got along well, never arguing or fighting. Until, that is, their final year of middle school, when both of them were approached to try for a scholarship to a prestigious high school. Only the first letter of the schools name is revealed, but Eri describes it as a really exclusive private prep school, that only this year started offering a scholarship to ONE student at her school. Katsumi and herself are the best candidates for the exclusive spot.
Eri is not comfortable with the idea of competing with Katsumi, and it really rather depresses her. To ADD to her stress, there have been a few weird things happening to her lately, noises that don't seem to come from anywhere, the feeling of being watched... While she's at home, studying yet again against Katsumi's advice, she especially gets that distinct feeling of being observed. She pauses now as she holds a book open in one hand and a pencil in the other, the sudden concerning vibe coming on her like a bolt of lightning. A dreadful feeling that she does not welcome in the midst of her attempts to concentrate.
Though Eri is very much scared by the prospect, she sets down her pencil to go check if she's actually alone, something she just HAS to do for her peace of mind. First she turns, sweating, to look over her shoulder at her door, heart pounding. From her pile of stuffed animals to the little nick knacks on the shelves, everything looks still and quiet, but she gulps. Cut to her stonginged foot on tip-toe under the creaking desk chair, as she thinks that there's no one here, and why would there be anyway?
Another creak from her chair, and she determines that her imagination is just on overdrive. Eri faces forward again, knocking on the side of her head with her fist and thinking that Katsumi is right - she's studying WAY too hard. She returns to the book lying open on the desk in front of her, and all the while, there is a small standing mirror on the desk too that manages to be in each of these shots. In the last panel, another creak appears to come from IT.
I would probably visit a doctor if I passed out after an incident like this, just to rule out a medical issue, but that doesn't appear to be Miss Eri's style. She's in the faculty offices instead, being asked what's wrong, because she hasn't been putting a lot of heart into her classes lately, apparently. A man with a sagging puffy face and a pendulous lip reminds her that the upcoming exams will be key to selecting the scholarship spot she's been pursuing, and she's slightly in the lead at the moment. The guy says that, in a manner of speaking, his money is on Eri, and she needs to give her ALL in these exams. I guess... for HIS benefit?
He doesn't even allow her to respond at all before he starts pointing and demanding she forget all her presumed discomfort for competing with her friend or reconsideration of her desire to go to this private school at all. Unless it's a recommendation for the private school, this teacher refuses to give her ANY recommendation whatsoever, so he says she had better beat Katsumi in Class B. His sole consideration in this instance that his reputation will be made if one of HIS pupils is accepted into the exclusive school, a gross laugh escaping him. Eri has said literally NOTHING in this interview.
Man, is there only ONE good teacher in this entire fucking story?
Later, as Eri is sitting in class, watching another teacher writing on the blackboard with his back turned to her, she is exhausted by how awful it's been, competing with Katsumi and all these weird incidents. She doesn't mention the pressure she's getting from what I assume is her guidance counselor? Anyway, as she sighs and leans her weary head on her fist, a strange shimmering cloud seems to collect next to her.
That guy in the other desk ALMOST looks like he can see this, lol.
As the spectral student stares down at Eri the way he stared at her in her mirror, Yusuke appears behind him. He perceives Yusuke's appearance, but can't do any more than make a confused noise before Yusuke lands a punch in the back of the other ghost's head. The other ghost yells out in pain, rubbing the back of his head, and demanding to know what THAT was for. It's what you get, when you're creeping around.
Yusuke rejects the innocent act, and asks in turn why this ghost is lurking around harassing this girl, pointing an accusing finger. The kid waves a hand and denies it's anything like how it looks, insisting he had no choice and that he was summoned. This rightly prompts a couple of questions about who it was that summoned him and how, and he answers that it was another girl possessing a piece of paper with a weird sigil spell drawn on it. He speculates that it's some sort of curse powered by the malice of Eri's rival.
Gee, I wonder who it could be... (/s)
The other ghost points at himself with his thumb, explaining that he was a student here about five years prior, but there was a lot of pressure, and he took his own life, which he regrets greatly now. Yusuke is still feeling accusatory, and so follows up this confession with a suggestion that this guy is still angry and wants to drag someone else down with him. The other ghost denies this vociferously, though he admits he was angry at FIRST, right after his death. He haunted some students, pulled some ghostly pranks, but he insists that those days are behind him BECAUSE of Eri.
He gushes about what a nice, gentle person she is, with such a warm smile that makes him forget a little more of his anger and heals his heart a little more every time he sees it. Yusuke's attitude switches tracks on a DIME, and is now sporting a teasing expression as he instead suggests a little cross-hedge romance. But the other ghost says it's not exactly like THAT either. He says her goodness made him ashamed of the anger he was harboring and redeemed his soul. OR, she inspired you to do that work yourself. Don't sell yourself short, guy.
Over an image of Eri with a shadow extending evil-looking tendrils over her shoulders, the other ghost says his only desire now is to warn her of the danger she's in. He reveals that the one who unleashed that danger is the very person Eri thinks is her best friend. This causes Yusuke to gape in astonishment, but readers can't be TOO surprised with all the info we've been getting.
Turns out, Katsumi isn't alone in the bathroom, go figure. She hears outside her stall someone expressing alarm that Eri saw a ghost, while Eri herself hisses that she should keep her voice down. Eri does confirm that she does indeed think she must have seen a ghost, and is now afraid to study by herself at night. After another panel of Eri walking along with her nose in a book again, another filler panel without the biographical info no doubt, the other girl asks why Eri doesn't tell Katsumi, since it seems that Katsumi could probably even put a GHOST in its place. Eri refuses, because while she acknowledges that Katsumi is tough, her friend takes charms and spirits and stuff like that VERY seriously, and it would probably get her real worked up, a distraction she doesn't need right now. The other girl points out that Eri doesn't need the distraction herself right now, but Eri wags a finger at her and asserts that whatever is going on at the moment is HER problem, not Katsumi's. In the end Eri wants Katsumi to be able to take her BEST shot at those exams, and Eri expresses her belief that Katsumi probably wants the same for her. How ELSE are friends supposed to compete, right?
In her stall, Katsumi's hand, clutching her sigil-curse, drops. Gee, kid, I bet you feel like a real asshole right now, huh?
Katsumi puts the blame more on Eri's slightly better grades putting enormous pressure on her, rather than the adult people who made her feel like she had to compete, but I guess it's not a sticking-point of a distinction. She recalls coming across an old book of charms in the library - is this the school library, or more a city/county affair? Because I don't remember my OWN school library carrying spell books. Granted, I wasn't looking for them, but still...
Anyhow, despite telling herself she wasn't going to use it, and that it wouldn't work anyway, Katsumi found herself looking for a curse to put on a rival in the book. Apparently, she couldn't resist somehow, and I'm not sure if I should interpret that as a weakness of character or a literal magical influence from touching the text. Either way, as Katsumi stands next to an open window, she rips up the paper with the sigil drawn on it, letting the pieces flutter out onto the wind, mentally projecting her apologies to Eri. I guess littering isn't quite as egregious a crime as cursing your classmate and friend.
But it's still a douche-move, Katsumi.
The other ghost kid and Yusuke watch this from a distance, the former expressing relief that Katsumi ripped up the curse. Botan looks on him approvingly as he acknowledges that she realized her mistake before it was too late, unlike him, and is sure that Eri will be safe now. Botan says that it's easy for ANYONE to lash out because of life's demands and temptations - Katsumi struck at Eri, and he struck at his own body - and she suggests that he apologize to his victim as well. While the boy fades in the bright sunlight of the day, he smiles silently for a moment, and then promises to do just that. He disappears in a flash, wishing Yusuke, Sayaka, and Botan goodbye.
Katsumi is walking away from the window, assuming Eri has probably headed home by now, and resolving to tell her all about this mess tomorrow and ask for forgiveness, when a voice implores her not to consider the matter closed so fast. The voice says Eri is already theirs, sinister giggling seeming to break out all around Katsumi. She looks up and around, asking who this voice belongs to, but the only answer she gets is a painful throb from her wrist. Wincing, she holds her arm up to look at it, wondering what the hell this is. She is horrified to find that, just below the cuff of her sleeve, the sigil she just ripped up is BURNED onto her wrist. Try ripping THAT up, girlie-pop!
Meanwhile, Eri is indeed on her way home, and I'm not sure if this is a different route or what, but she's at a train crossing instead of a road. No chance of the vehicle missing or veering out of the way THIS time. Suddenly, Eri's arm jerks up and out, like someone invisible is tugging her toward the train tracks beyond the bar blocking the crossing as the train comes. She resists, panicking as she wonders what's going on.
SOMEONE is determined to carry out this curse, it seems.
So, what did I think of this chapter overall? What a story to dig into during spooky season! I like Eri and Katsumi, whose struggles seem very believable in an intense environment of academic competition. Even in the United States, with its anti-intellectual culture, puts a lot of pressure on its students to do well in school to prop up the whole of their adult future. I can't even IMAGINE the level of stress produced by a culture that actually VALUES an education. From what I hear, students over there routinely go to cram schools and are pitted against each other in these types of scholarships, and it no doubt has/still does rip apart friendships. Even if the competition manages to stay friendly, one friend going to a different, more exclusive school is BOUND to put a strain on the relationship, because the distance in social class as well as physical space is going to test ANY kind of relationship.
It really does seem probable that if Katsumi was despairing of her chances, and thought that perhaps her friendship with Eri was already thrown into turmoil by the scholarship race anyway, it would occur to her to try and give herself an edge by any means possible. Giving her a predisposition to taking the supernatural seriously is a great way to make the move cut both ways, though - the trait allowed her to try out the curse in the first place, and then made her feel sufficiently shitty about how badly she must have freaked out Eri, despite hearing Eri brush it off in the bathroom. I'm impressed with the writing here, because Katsumi isn't just being malicious and cut-throat, but is acting on a host of conflicting emotional bases that are all vying for resolution.
Which makes it all the scarier, because even though she chooses her friend over the competition and resolves to break the curse and apologize for the harm she's done, she finds she CAN'T just stop what she's begun. The ghost/curse are just a device to deliver the TRUE terror here - that there are some wrongs you can't take back. Some harms you can't repair. It's the real, honest horror that is constantly waiting for adults around every corner, which is why the character of my nightmares has drastically changed over the years. What were ghosts and monsters and shadow people in my childhood are mostly me doing horrible shit that can't be undone now.
Oh, and losing my teeth. Seems to be a pretty common one now too.
Also, I think that the tragic story of the ghost student is very moving, but I don't know if I can trust it. There's something about his story that is a little hollow, with his very cavalier way of telling it, especially since nothing we saw him do speaks to him trying to warn her. And I'm suspicious that the incident of the curse burning onto Katsumi's wrist and Eri getting pulled toward the oncoming train happen almost immediately after he disappears. I could be off base here, but there's something a little fishy about it.
Maybe I've just seen too many horror films where there's a kind of double-twist in that vein, I don't know. We'll see.
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