FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

When I got back to Tora's place, Tatsu-nii had already left and the tiger was lying on the floor, watching some comedy show on the TV while munching on a bowl of rice crackers. I had to hurry him up as we only had thirty minutes left to get to the school. Excusing ourselves from Tora's parents, we rushed to the streets. We arrived at the old school just as the sky was turning a deep blue and by the gate, we encountered Shun-kun. The little wolf was so immersed in the game he was playing on his Minrento TS that we had to tap him on the shoulder to notice us.

"Torahiko-san. Hiroyuki-san. Good evening!" Shun-kun said, closing the TS.

"And as usual, Kounosuke's not here yet." Torahiko squatted and rested his back on the brick wall. "Why did we bother hurrying?"

"Well, he did say that the meeting is around seven or eight," I said. "Let's give him the benefit of the doubt."

Shun took a deep breath. "My heart's pounding. Are we really gonna see a ghost?"

Torahiko harrumphed. "For all we know that tanuki's gonna be here by nine."

"And who's gonna be here by nine again?"

The three of us were stunned as we turned our heads upwards to the side. Kounosuke was sitting on top of the wall with a triumphant grin on his face. Never thought I would live to see the day that Kounosuke would be early for a meeting. Gotta give him credit though for making an effort.

"You guys kept me waiting for too long here!" Kounosuke got down from the wall. "Well, it's nice to see the look on Torahiko's face though."

Torahiko got up. "I'm going home."

"Torahiko, wait! I'm sorry! Come on, I'm just kidding around that's all," the tanuki said, grabbing Torahiko's arm.

"Fine, I'll stay. What's your plan?"

That was when Kounosuke, lighting his face up with a flashlight, explained his "Seven Wonders of Minasato School" challenge. We were gonna be split into two pairs and for every "wonder" found, the pair got three points. As proof of the discovery, we were supposed to take a picture of it. Guess it was a good thing I always brought my phone despite the village having no reception. Had I left it, only Kounosuke had the advantage in this competition. Sure my phone's camera didn't exactly take professional-looking pictures, but for everyday use it sufficed.

"Ha! Let's see if your phone can match my camera," Kounosuke said.

I raised my fist. "You're on!"

"But what if... err... something strange shows up on the pictures?" Tora said, his hands shivering.

"Even better!" The tanuki adjusted his glasses. "That means we have proof that the 'Seven Wonders' do exist."

Shun-kun was also shivering, uttering something that sounded like "funyuu".

Well I wasn't really sold on the idea of solving school mysteries, but I thought that the situation presented a good opportunity to get a look inside the school after so long. Since it was already agreed upon that I would pair up with Tora, Kounosuke had no choice but to go with Shun-kun. The assigned places for me and Tora were the gym, the stairway, and the music room. Before we could go in, Shun asked a question.

"What was the Seventh Wonder again? I only remembered the six others."

Come to think of it, I never knew what the seventh wonder was. I only knew there was a seventh, but the idea of what it was completely escaped me. It was said that the Seventh Wonder was "a secret that will be forgotten once known" or something like that. The rumor about the Seventh was sort of a ghost story in itself. Kounosuke protested that he got an idea about the Seventh back in elementary, after interviewing a student who knew a lot about it. Kounosuke turned the flashlight on again, and explained what he got from his old notebook.

Once, there was some group of kids who were investigating about it. During that, it seemed that their number of friends increased by one, even though they should know how many their friends are. Even stranger, the kids had no memory about that one person when they went home. Like a person that was there, but wasn't really there. And from there, Kounosuke concluded that the Seventh was a ghost that pretended to be someone people knew.

"So, the Seventh is kinda like a shapeshifter, huh? Won't that make him harder to find?"

Tora joined the conversation. "Yeah. I mean, what if he changed into, you know, one of us?"

Kounosuke shook his head. "If we know each other well enough, we'll just test the impostor with questions. Simple as that. Now, enough chatter! The night awaits!"

And so, we went to our assigned areas. The first destination for me and Tora was the gym, aiming to get a picture of the rumored "headless basketball player" that played here. One night, the teacher on night duty heard noises coming from the gym and, looking in, saw a student playing basketball. The teacher went in and, upon closer look, saw that the kid had a basketball for a head. When he turned around, he saw the kid's severed head floating and grinning at him, then disappearing along with the body.

"Th-There's nothing here," Tora said, grabbing my arm too tight.

"Tora, ease up on my arm please."

He did let go, only to cling back after a few steps. I didn't hate it, but he could loosen up his grip a bit. Tora wasn't exactly the type to handle spooky stuff well, no matter how much he denied it. Last time we had something like this was back in second grade, and I had to hold his hand during the whole thing. What seemed an innocent gesture back then now became an embarrassing thought looking back at it.

Finding nothing in the gym, we took the picture needed and went on to the stairs on the north side of the school building. The next wonder on our list was "The Spiral Staircase of Evil". The stairs were said to be connected to another space and, if one was walking absent-minded, one could end up going there. At the landing of the stairs in that space there was a mirror that lead to the underworld and if one leaps inside, one can go there. We took our first step and so far, nothing was happening aside from the cold air that passed by. Tora kept clinging on to my arm as we climbed, him shivering along the way.

"Tora, I won't stop you from holding my arm, but could you ease up a bit?" I said, taking a picture of the rumored mirror.

Tora loosened his grip. "Sorry..."

We were about to go to the next location when, in the mirror, we saw something hovering over Tora's shoulder. It looked like a hand reaching out and Tora, screaming in terror, ran up the stairs. I followed after him and when we made it to the next floor, tried to catch our breath.

"Th-That thing appeared!" Tora said. "I-It did, didn't it? You saw it, right?"

"Y-Yeah..." I began to feel chilly myself. "I think we did something we shouldn't have..."

Tora pulled on my hand. "We need to go back!"

"And face that thing again?! Forget it! We'll use the other stairway. The music room's just around that way so let's just get the last picture."

"You... You're still gonna take pictures?"

"We have to, Tora. We have to."

Despite being scared to near-death, the scene piqued a strange curiosity in me, it telling me to go further and explore. We only had one area left so it wouldn't be much of a harm to do so. So, we confirmed about the mirror being strange, but it leading to the underworld was something we would rather not risk proving. Tora protested against going to the music room, but I convinced him that we would only take one last picture and go as fast as we could. Normally I would tease Tora about being a scaredy-cat in this situation, but seeing as we both had the same experience I would rather keep my mouth shut.

But as we approached the music room, we heard the metronome inside ticking. Chills ran down to my spine once more and the two of us were frozen in place. The wonder we were to explore there is "The Shapeless Musician", who would play the piano as soon as the metronome started ticking. It was only someone playing the piano so no harm in going in, right? I tried to reach for the door, but Tora held me back.

"It's too dangerous!" Tora whispered. "Let's just go back! The stairs are near."

"B-But the pictures-"

"Screw the pictures! It's not worth it!"

I turned around and grabbed Tora by the cheeks, looking him in the eyes. "Tora, listen to me. I'll go first and you stay behind my back. I'll protect you and whatever happens to me, you grab my phone and run to the stairs, got it?"

"But-"

"No more. Come on."

And, with Tora hiding behind my back, I held my breath as I swiftly opened the door to the music room. Then, the two of us were surprised by a flash of light, me and Tora falling to the floor as our knees got weak. When we had calmed down, the sight before us was Kounosuke holding his camera with a huge grin.

"Great success!" Kounosuke said. "Got you good, didn't I? How about that hand trick with the mirror?"

Tora jumped up. "So that was you?!"

"Yep!" The tanuki gave a thumbs-up.

Knowing the source of our ghost-related trouble, me and Tora looked at each other and had the same idea in mind: retribution! Tora held the tanuki in a headlock and I gave him a two-handed noogie. He was begging for us to stop we chose to ignore it, for a short while at least. When we finally had our fill we let Kounosuke go, the tanuki holding his head and groaning. After he stopped the metronome, the school was once again silent.

"That was really underhanded, Kounosuke," I said as we went down.

Kounosuke chuckled. "You gotta admit though, the execution was brilliant."

Hate to say it, but I agreed.

He continued. "Besides, at least I got back at you two for making me wait."

"That doesn't make it any less annoying!" Tora said. "Where's Shun-kun anyway?"

Then behind us, Shun-kun appeared, draped in a black cloth and holding a toy hand on a stick along with a small camera.

"I got the picture, Kounosuke-san!" Shun-kun said.

Kounosuke went near the little wolf and gave a bag of sweets. "You did a good job, Shun-kun."

How cruel! The two of them teamed up against us the whole time?

Tora crossed his arms. "You really shouldn't drag Shun-kun into your shenanigans, Kounosuke."

Annoyance aside, the whole thing was quite nostalgic to me. While most of my childhood pranks were done without much thought, Kounosuke's pranks were quite well-planned, given he had enough time to think about it. That said, I wished that he could redirect that careful attention though to more useful things.

"It's alright to have a crazy night once in a while, right?" Kounosuke asked.

"But the school isn't a good place for that," Tora said. "Besides, we might get in trouble with Botan-sensei if we did this again."

"Hmm, then maybe next time we go to the shrine."

Tora sighed. "And this is why-"

I had to stop the two from getting into an argument. On our way out, Kounosuke handed over something to me: it was a crayon drawing I did back in fifth grade. It was Tora and Juuichi-san competing in a relay race. At the side of the track, there was me, Tatsu-nii, Shin-kun, Kouya, Kenji, Shun-kun, and Kyouji-san, all of us cheering for them. Looking at it, I couldn't help but smile.

"It's not much, but does it count as an apology?" Kounosuke asked. "It took me a long while to find it. Even asked for Botan-sensei's help."

I petted him on the head. "Apology accepted. Well then, see you all tomorrow!"

At the school gate, the three went their separate ways. I stayed behind, wanting to take a photo of the old school. After taking the photo, I remained standing to admire the view. Photos can record and immortalize many moments, but nothing could ever beat the feeling of being in those moments.

Just then, I saw a kid trying to sit on top of the wall after climbing up. It was eerie that he had a similar look to Shun-kun, from the hairstyle down to the attire, but somehow looked a bit older. What was more eerie was that he seemed familiar, but I couldn't remember ever seeing him since coming back here.

"It was fun to see you guys again," he said. "Sorry I couldn't join in. I was too busy enjoying your reactions."

"But, who are you again?" I asked.

He smiled. "An old friend. Or call me Nana if you wish."

"Nana? Wait-"

Before I could ask another question, he went down the other side of the wall. I peeked through the gate but saw no one there. I thought that I might've seen a ghost, but had no time to think about it as it was getting late.

When I got back home home, I ate the dinner Grandma left for me, took my bath, and headed straight to my room. Even though it was supposedly a vacation, this whole week has been a busy one for me. I enjoyed every moment though, since it was mostly hanging out with friends. Oh that's right! Next week, I should be starting work at the Midoriyas. Luckily, Tappei-san offered to give me a flexible schedule so that was less of a problem for any plan I had.

But as I was about to head off to sleep, the phone rang. Grandma was busy in the kitchen, and Grandpa was watching baseball, so I had to answer it. Back in the day, I also used to do this quite frequently.

"Hello," I said.

"Yo, Hiroyuki. It's Torahiko! Good evening!"

"Good evening. What's with the sudden call?"

"Remember when we talked about going to the beach back at your welcoming party?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well, we're going tomorrow. I already called everyone about it."

"Tomorrow? Why?"

"That's the only time everyone's free. The rest have their club training, and I have to train for my competition too, you know. If you can't go, I'll just tell-"

"No no no! I'll go. Like hell I'll miss going to the beach!"

"That's more like it! So, we meet at the bus stop at seven in the morning. Better remember or you'll never hear the end of it from me!"

"Heheh. I will, I will. Anything I need to bring?"

"Just bring whatever you feel like. I'm already in charge of food."

"Alright. See you there."

"Likewise. Hey, Hiroyuki..."

"Yes?"

"Thanks. It's been a great week. Really loved seeing you back here again."

Stunned, I couldn't come up with a reply.

"A-Anyway, we better sleep. It's another long day so we need all the rest. See you!"

He hung up.

With that sudden notice, I got an empty bag and started packing. Chances are high that I would be going in the water so I packed my swimming trunks and sandals. I didn't have any goggles, but the 100-yen shop here would likely have them on stock so I would just buy one on the way. Soap, shampoo, and towels are a must so that went in the bag too. Maybe I should bring something inflatable like a swim ring of a beach ball.

"Grandma, I'm going to the beach tomorrow," I hollered to the hall. "Do we have a beach ball or something like that?"

"Your dad had one, I think," she said. "It's probably in the shed."

If that was Dad's, then it was most likely unusable at this point. Everyone else would probably have one so that was off my list. And if not, I would just get one at the beach store there, if there would be one. And with my packing done, I headed off to sleep.