It is at midnight when the moonlight showers quietly on the corridors of Eitsuma Middle School, that is when Shinji suddenly feels a hand touches his shoulder from the back.
"Ah!"
With a sharp scream, Shinji jumps up from the floor and turns around immediately, he leans to the wall at his back and pants rapidly. As he is expecting a ghost with no mouth would show up in front of him, he thought it wrongly. There is no ghost with no mouth here, there is just a female student standing in front of him now.
Shinji has never seen this uniform around this area before. His school's girl uniform does not look like this. Eitsuma Middle School's girl spring sailor seifuku has a white shirt with burgundy red collar with two-bon white lines, a short burgundy red pleated skirt, and the same shades of burgundy red tie. While for the boys, they wear white shirts with long burgundy pants.
Whereas for this girl who is standing in front of Shinji, she wears a clean sailor seifuku, which the white shirt has a blue collar with two-bon white lines, a short blue pleated skirt, and a vivid red tie. Is she from somewhere else? Why is she here in this forbidden building of Eitsuma Middle School? Is she lost? Now suddenly as Shinji recalls, the female students in the classroom just now are wearing these seifuku too, while the male students wear white shirts and blue pants... Just as Shinji thought of it, he squints his eyes and looks closely at the school pin on her seifuku. He couldn't help but take a deep gasp.
Eitsuma Middle School, that's the pin of Shinji's school! But, how come? Why are they having the same school pin, but the seifuku looks different?
Recollecting his memories about what he read from the old commemoration book, suddenly, Shinji realizes. The seifuku in burgundy red is the current seifuku of Eitsuma Middle School. In the commemoration book of 1996, the color of the monochrome photos can't show the color of the seifuku properly. The one the girl wears, it is blue, it might be the school's old seifuku. This girl standing in front of her is from the past...
While just by the moment Shinji looks up at the girl's face, his face turns all ghastly at once.
The girl comes closer to him, "Daijoubu?" in a sweet voice, she asked, "Are you alright?"
Her hair is straight, long and black, her silky hair draped over her shoulder smoothly, while above her left ear, a pink hair clip is seen. Besides, she has fair skin, small face, big bright eyes, and a small cherry mouth. Shinji remembers her face, he saw it in the 1996's commemoration book. She is one of the twin sisters, Tomori Kokoro.
"You...!" with his hand trembling, Shinji points at the girl and confronts, "You are the student of Class 1-1...!"
"Yes, I am." tilting her head with an adorable smile, the girl waves at Shinji, "What about you?" she then asked.
Although it tangles Shinji's mind, he does not know why, but... She is different, she is totally different from the rest of her class, she has a mouth, she did not cut her face and peel her skin. She does not seem dangerous at all. This seems a little odd to Shinji.
Isn't her a yurei too like her classmates? How is this possible?
Trying to get through his mind, Shinji comes up with a way to probe the girl, hence, he asks, "W-what is... What is your name...?"
With a light smile, the girl shakes her head, "I don't remember." she said.
She remembers she is from Class 1-1, but she does not remember her own name...
"Then..." soon, Shinji comes up with another question, "Do you remember what happened to Class 1-1?" he needs to know how much she remembers.
Unexpectedly, the girl cries, "They disappeared all in a sudden!"
"Disappeared?" frowning deeply, Shinji looks at the girl demanding for an answer.
"Yes!" with a nod, the girl reveals, "There's only me here. I've been looking for everyone, but I can't find them..."
"Teacher..." again, trying to probe her, Shinji asks another question, "What about the teacher?" the teacher who was just about to eat Shinji up, did she disappear with the class too?
"The teacher vanished too..." in a sad face, the girl pouts her pink lips. While suddenly, as she looks at Shinji in the face, she puts up a sweet smile again, "What's your name?" in a curious tone she asked.
Guessing this girl is not so dangerous, Shinji feels alright to tell her his name. There, he slightly let off his guard and answers, "I-I'm Shinji..."
Waving her hand at Shinji again, the girl greets, "Nice to meet you, Shinji-kun!" while she then puts her finger under her chin, she tilts her head, "Shinji-kun, I don't remember my name, what will you have to call me...?"
Even if she herself does not remember, Shinji knows her name.
"Kokoro..." Tomori Kokoro, that's her real name, "May I call you Kokoro-san?" therefore Shinji proposed.
Jumping up and down like a kid, Kokoro applauds with a big bright smile, "Sure!" she said, and then she suggests, "Shinji-kun, can you help me find my disappearing classmates and teacher?"
Gulping in sweat, Shinji is not quite willing to, but he realizes he has not yet found out the truth of what happened to Class 1-1 twenty years ago, hence, after a minute considering, he nods and agrees to Kokoro, "S-sure..."