The next morning, the air in the school seemed heavier. Kai noticed it the moment he stepped through the gates—an almost palpable tension that hung in the crowd of students. Whispers buzzed through the hallways, quiet but urgent, like the low hum of an electric current running through the school. It wasn't just the usual chatter. No, this felt different. Kai couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something was off.
He met Haruto at the entrance to homeroom, as usual, but today Haruto was unusually quiet. His usual, carefree demeanor was gone, replaced with a look of subtle unease.
"You okay?" Kai asked, noting his friend's stiff posture and the way his eyes flickered around the room.
"Yeah... yeah, just tired," Haruto replied quickly, but Kai could see the edge in his voice. Something was wrong.
As the bell rang, signaling the start of homeroom, Kai took his seat. His thoughts kept drifting back to the note—the cryptic warning from yesterday. It gnawed at him. His mind had been racing all night, turning over every possibility. Who could have left it? Why him? And what did it mean?
Before he could dwell too much on it, he overheard snippets of conversation from the students around him.
"...heard about the girl in 3A? Gone missing or something..."
"...is it true? They said she was... was she seen with Mr. Tetsuo?"
"...strange things happening in the library lately... noises, lights flickering..."
The whispers continued, fragmented and incoherent, but they were enough to pull Kai's focus away from his own thoughts. Missing girl? Library oddities? His curiosity spiked, but he didn't want to make a scene by asking questions. Still, he couldn't ignore the growing sense of foreboding.
The rumors surrounding the missing student, Mei Yamada, were hard to ignore. She'd been a quiet, unremarkable girl—one of those students who blended into the background, unnoticed by most. Kai had seen her around, but they'd never spoken. Still, the fact that she was now gone, vanished without a trace, stirred something inside him.
At lunch, he sat with Haruto and a few others, but his mind kept returning to the conversation from the morning.
"Have you heard anything about Mei Yamada?" Kai asked casually, trying to keep his voice neutral.
Haruto shrugged, not looking up from his lunch. "Yeah, I heard she disappeared. Maybe ran away? Who knows. Probably just drama or something."
But there was a strange edge to his words, a hesitation that Kai didn't miss. Something was bothering Haruto about it. Maybe it was just the way the rumors were spreading, but there was more to it than just a missing student.
"People are saying she was last seen near the old library," one of the other students piped up, overhearing their conversation. "I heard it was after hours, but no one's supposed to be there after school. Weird, right?"
The old library. Kai's heart skipped a beat. That was the part of the school everyone avoided. It was a relic from an older time, filled with dusty books, forgotten shelves, and broken windows. There were rumors about it—rumors that it was haunted, or that strange things had happened there in the past. No one dared to venture inside.
Kai couldn't help but feel drawn to the idea. The old library. Mei Yamada. The missing student. Could there be a connection?
Later that afternoon, Kai had history class again. Mr. Natsume, as usual, was droning on about dates and events, but Kai's attention wasn't on the lesson. His thoughts kept drifting back to the rumors he'd heard. The missing girl, the library... everything felt too connected.
Halfway through the class, something unusual happened. Mr. Natsume, who had been pacing in front of the chalkboard, suddenly stopped. His eyes scanned the room with an intensity that caught Kai off guard. He looked... different today. Not the same calm, composed teacher he usually was. There was something in his gaze—something unsettled.
"You all need to be careful," Mr. Natsume said suddenly, his voice sharp. It wasn't directed at anyone in particular, but it felt like a warning. The class fell silent, all eyes on him.
"Especially when it comes to rumors," he continued, his tone darkening. "Don't get caught up in them. Not everything you hear is true. And some things... some things are better left alone."
Kai's heart skipped a beat. The weight of his words hung in the air, heavy and uncomfortable. It felt like Mr. Natsume was speaking directly to him, though he hadn't mentioned anything about the rumors or the missing student.
The class murmured uncomfortably, and Mr. Natsume's gaze swept over them before he seemed to snap back into focus, returning to his lesson as if nothing had happened. But Kai couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong.
After class, Kai wandered the hallways, trying to make sense of everything. The whispers, the warnings, the rumors—everything seemed to be pointing toward something dark, something he couldn't fully grasp. The feeling of being watched, the strange notes, Mr. Natsume's cryptic warning—it was all beginning to feel too interconnected to ignore.
He stopped in front of the school bulletin board. Someone had posted a missing person's flyer for Mei Yamada, but the photo looked odd—fuzzy, almost distorted, as though someone had tried to erase her face. It unsettled him.
As he was about to walk away, he noticed something even stranger. Another flyer, tucked behind the missing person's notice. It was a small, faded paper with just a few words on it, written in the same neat handwriting as the note from yesterday:
"It's coming for you. Don't trust anyone."
Kai's heart raced. This couldn't be a coincidence. Someone was trying to send him a message, but why? And why was he the target?
Kai's steps felt heavier now as he made his way home. The world seemed to be closing in on him, and everything that had felt normal just days ago now seemed like a façade. The rumors, the strange messages, the missing girl—it was all connected in a way that made no sense, but also, in a way, made perfect sense.
The question gnawed at him: What was he supposed to do with all of this?
For now, the only thing he knew was that something was happening at the school. Something sinister, something no one was willing to talk about. And as much as he wanted to turn away from it, he couldn't. Not now. Not when everything was starting to unravel.
The storm was coming.