I didn't feel up to it during lunch break, so I ended up visiting the music room after school. By the time I finished classroom cleaning duties and stuff, it was already 4:00 PM. At this time in this season, the sun leans heavily to the west, and the eastern sky is already predominantly indigo. It was already nearly half-night.

Still, I told myself it was better than being pitch black like yesterday, and stepped into the music room.

Unlike this morning, the door was unlocked, but there were no other students or teachers inside.

I practically crawled on the floorboards to check under the desks, but my smartphone wasn't there.

I checked the desk I sat at yesterday, as well as the desks to its left, right, and behind it, but the result was the same. Just in case, I checked one more desk further back, but it was empty too.

If I couldn't find it after searching this much, someone must have picked it up.

I figured I'd check the lost and found one more time, and if it wasn't there, I'd just have to give up.

Aaah, why did things end up like this? Wondering how I was going to explain this to my parents, I depressingly raised my head from under the desk—

"KYAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Right in front of my eyes, it was there.

It was the same face of that woman from yesterday.

"Ah, aah..."

What was different from yesterday was that, thanks to the slanting light streaming in from the window, I could see her figure clearly. Also, her face wasn't hidden by her bangs, and her clothes were different from yesterday, but there was no mistaking that she was the woman from last night.

There was no way I could mistake this ominous aura.

Because her face appeared at a much closer range than yesterday, I couldn't even manage to run; I just slumped to the floor right there. I must have fallen hard on my rear, but right now, I didn't even have the luxury to feel the pain.

Even so, I struggled to kick against the floorboards with my trembling hands and feet, trying somehow to put distance between myself and the woman.

"A-A ghost!"

Even as I said it myself, I thought it sounded incredibly stupid.

But if I didn't call this woman right in front of me a ghost, then what on earth could you call a ghost? My heart was pounding so loudly I thought a dark red lump might leap out of my mouth along with my breath.

"A ghost."

The woman repeated my word, as if to confirm.

Her pronunciation was awfully clear for a ghost, but that conversely made it even more terrifying.

"I-I'll give you as many fingers as you want! S-So... please, just spare my life...!"

I tried to bow my head, but since I was sitting on my rear, all I could manage was a weird, deep nod, which made me panic even more. My body wasn't moving the way I wanted it to, to the point where I started thinking, Am I going to die now?

Looking at me like that, the ghost let out a wry smile that didn't suit her very existence.

"I'm a good-natured ghost, you see. I won't take your fingers or your life, and I'll even return your smartphone to you."

Huh? Smartphone? What's a smartphone again...? I never expected modern loanwords—let alone the word "smartphone"—to come out of a ghost's mouth, so my brain reached peak confusion.

Ignoring my confusion, the ghost said "Here," and tossed the smartphone over. I was in such a panic that I failed to catch it, and it fell onto the floorboards. Ah, ah... I muttered as I picked up the phone. Checking it, it really was my smartphone. It had my paperback-style cover on it, so there was no mistaking it.

"Eh, uh, wait, um... thank... you?"

Are modern ghosts this nice? I felt myself losing all the built-up tension.

—A weird ghost.

Well, I don't really know what a "normal ghost" is like, but this woman is probably a weird one. Until now, I hadn't had the luxury to observe her properly, but taking a fresh look at her like this, the ghost had an air of neatness about her. Even though she's a ghost. As expected of a former pianist's ghost, I suppose. She was wearing a white one-piece dress—basically the ghost starter kit—but it didn't look grubby at all; it just gave off an impression of pure tidiness. She wore a thin cardigan over it and had thick-soled mules on her feet. The wrists and ankles peeking out were incredibly slender, and she had a figure you could easily call girlish. For a high school student who committed suicide, her build felt awfully young, but well, I guess that falls within the realm of individuality.

Her long hair, extending down to her waist, swayed like flowing water with her slightest movements.

"Ah... uh..."

However, this appearance might also just be a trick to make me let my guard down.

Returning my smartphone could be for the same reason—maybe she's planning to swallow me whole, head-first, right this very second?

I thought about this with absolute seriousness.

Because there was no way I could make rational judgments with a ghost right in front of my eyes.

So, I whipped my trembling legs into action, forced myself to stand up, and bolted out of the music room.

Because I felt like staying here any longer would be bad news. I knew my instincts were rejecting her.

After all, my heart was still hammering away as if warning me of mortal danger.

My spine shivered, cold sweat ran down my back, and I just couldn't stay put. If I had stayed still right there, I surely would have been eaten by that woman. That conviction washed over me.

I dashed across the connecting corridor, making it all the way to my classroom in one go, where I rested my hands on my knees to catch my breath. The classmates still in the room looked at me with wide eyes, but I didn't have the luxury to care about their stares.

Because right now, I was putting everything I had just into confirming that I was still alive.

After taking about a five-minute break and regulating my breathing, my mind finally started to calm down.

I checked my smartphone again, but aside from the battery being down to 10%, there was nothing particularly abnormal. It felt irritating to just go home like this, so I sent a message to the LINE group with Madoka and Emiri.

"Are you guys still at school?"

"No way, we aren't free like you, Miyuki."

"Exams are next week, you know? A student should be studying instead of playing around, shouldn't they?"

I got some real BS replies.

Hard to believe those lines came from women who were playing Jenga until almost 7 PM yesterday. But well, it was true that they had a point, so I decided to quietly head home and study. More than anything, their reactions made me feel relieved, as if they were anchoring me, proving that this was reality.

Since it wasn't as late as yesterday, there were a fair number of students left at school, and I spotted a few getting ready to head home. Blending in with them, I boarded the bus.

And just like yesterday, I made it home without incident.

I took a short break, ate dinner, and finally sat at my desk to study. However, whether I read my textbook or looked back over my notes, the content just wouldn't enter my head. Not having a habit of studying at home was the root cause, but more than that, my head was completely full of things other than studying right now.

...Was it really okay that I ran away?

This, of course, was about the ghost in the music room. It wasn't that my fear had resurfaced. The terror had already melted into my daily life and faded significantly. What I was thinking about right now was actually quite the opposite.

Even though she went to the trouble of returning my smartphone, I just muttered a "thank you" and bolted.

Wasn't that genuinely rude of me? I belatedly started feeling anxious about it.

"She's not going to possess me or anything, right...?"

More than that, I was worried that I might have hurt that girl's feelings.

To her, wasn't my existence sort of like a guest appearing after a long time?

Perhaps that was exactly why she gave me such a cordial welcome and smoothly returned my smartphone. If that was the case, maybe I should have politely listened to what she had to say... I began to regret it.

—Maybe I should try going to the music room just one more time tomorrow.

Perhaps she was hurt, feeling sad or angry, and might not show herself to me again.

If that happens, I'll apologize properly. I felt like that was the bare minimum I should do.

She's a ghost, and might be an entity that will bring me harm.

But the fact remains that she returned my smartphone to me.

...I mean, the real question is how much weight I'm placing on a smartphone.

Even so, that fact held enough power to make me reconsider.

Above all—and this might be a bit mercenary of me—I might have actually harbored some interest in this so-called ghost who turned out to be less scary than I had imagined. After all, I had successfully run away from that ghost twice already. The reality that I could just run away if push came to shove lowered the hurdle of encountering her again.

Thinking about it that way, maybe ghosts aren't all that different from humans.

"Alright!" I resolved in my heart, wrapped up my studying, took a bath, and went to bed.

To begin with, I'm not the type to study steadily anyway; I'm the type who crams the night before.