Another: The Class of 1999

Chapter 16 - New Evidence

I felt a little embarrassed telling Yuki all this, but she clung onto every word, her eyes wide as she listened to me, nodding in all the right places.

I was enjoying my conversation with Yuki, but unfortunately our game got cut a little short, when Clarissa came up to us and said they needed my help. I nodded, and left Yuki to finish the game. I stood up, and followed Clarissa up the steps, noticing that Riku was stood waiting for us in his gym gear.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To the second library," Riku grinned.

Charisse nodded once, a serious expression on their face. "Chibiki-Sensei has agreed to tell us about the events of the year 1983."

*****

I promised myself that this time, the second time, I went to Chibiki-Sensei's library would be the last time I went there. It somehow seemed even LESS welcoming than before.

He placed a huge binder in front of us with a thud. The black cover was extremely dusty, and the edges of the pages were turning yellow. Chibiki-Sensei opened the binder to the page containing the title '1983' and we were introduced to a table full of the students names. Next to these names, outside of the box, were the other names of people not in the class itself, but those who had relation to the class and had died, Clarissa examined the book closely. Riku and I tried to get a look too, but Clarissa appeared to be deep in focus, so we sat back and let them finish analysing.

After what seemed like forever, Clarissa finally looked up at Chibiki-Sensei.

"Sensei... There were only seven deaths in the year 1983..."

"Only?!" I repeated. It seemed a bit high to me. But what do I know?

Chibiki-Sensei nodded. "The deaths mysteriously stooped in August of that year. It was the only year where something like this happened."

"Did they find a way to end the curse?"

"That is unknown to me," Chibiki-Sensei responded, tapping the page with one of his long, bony fingers. "There have been so many ideas in the past to try stop the curse, like changing the class name to 3-C, and even moving the homeroom to the new building. But none of those ideas worked. However, I believe something unusual happened when they went on their trip to the Yomiyama shrine. Every year, the class 3-3 goes on a trip to the shrine. It's been said that if the students go to the shrine and pray, then the curse will stop."

"I don't believe that," Clarissa shook their head. "If praying at the shrine was true, then the calamity could have stopped sooner for the other years too."

I cleared my throat. "Are there any other year groups who were able to pause the curse? Even if it was later on during the year?"

"Only the class of 1983 and 1998," Chibiki-Sensei said.

"1998?" Clarissa asked. "Last years class?!" They turned to the final page, where it said '1998' at the top and scanned their finger all over the list of names.

"Well, if the class of 1983 and the class of 1998 were able to end the calamity, did they leave anything behind?" I wondered. "Like, did they write anything down in a notebook or something?"

"If they did leave any information behind, it could be anywhere in school, providing the calamity doesn't wash it away." Riku sighed, adjusting his gloves. "It could take us weeks if there's just the three of us searching."

Clarissa stood up. "Thank you very much, Chibiki-Sensei."

Riku and I copied. "Thank you, Sensei."

We left the library, and Clarissa burst into action. "We start by searching our whole classroom, from top to bottom, leave no stone unturned. And then—"