When the cosplay YouTuber Mizuba Suzumi's channel vanishes overnight, high school teacher Aoyama Souya can't shake a terrible feeling of déjà vu. Years ago, as a rookie homeroom teacher, he saved her from jumping off the school rooftop—and swore he'd never let her fall again. Now, on the same day the news breaks, a student casually mentions an urban legend that makes Souya's blood run cold: Kisaragi Station, the phantom stop said to swallow travelers into another world.
Souya has built a new li
Urban Legend Truth Record - The Erased Streamer — A Call from Kisaragi Station
The Monday after the May holidays ended. The staff room of Akatsuki Private High School in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, was wrapped in a strange heat from the morning. No, rather than heat, it was more accurate to say it was filled with the weary sighs of teachers still dragging around their post-holiday lethargy.
Aoyama Souya gazed at the mountain of documents piled on his desk and quietly stifled a large yawn. His bluish-black short hair was slightly sticking up from bedhead. Because his bangs were long and hung over his right eye, the right side of his vision appeared blurrier than usual. His large, wide black eyes were half-closed from drowsiness.
He wore a casual outfit: a white hoodie with blue lines and black skinny pants. A gray necklace around his neck. At first glance, he looked like nothing more than a university student, but he was actually a fully grown twenty-six-year-old high school teacher. His lean but surprisingly muscular build was the result of his daily morning runs.
"Haah... Why is it that right after a holiday, there's always this much paperwork?"
Souya grumbled inwardly. It had been three months since he'd become a second-year homeroom teacher in February. He was finally getting used to his class, but paperwork was something he could never grow to like no matter how much time passed.
"Aoyama-sensei, good work."
A voice called out from the neighboring desk. When he turned around, his colleague Toudou Misaki was holding out a paper cup. She was a thirty-five-year-old veteran English teacher and one of Souya's few allies at work. Her black hair, which reached her shoulders, was tied up in a single bundle, and she wore thin-framed glasses. She was always brisk and efficient, and a popular teacher among the students as well.
"Here, coffee. You're not still in holiday mode, are you?"
"Ah, thank you. I'll take it."
Souya hurriedly accepted the paper cup. Steam was still rising from it, and it had a faintly sweet aroma. She seemed to have added a little extra sugar for him. He was honestly happy that she'd remembered his preference.
"Toudou-sensei, you too—good work. Were you able to relax over the holidays?"
"More or less. I went back to my parents' place and got roped into babysitting my niece. It was exhausting, but she's cute, so I'll forgive it."
Misaki said that and laughed. Seeing that smile, Souya felt his spirits lift just a little.
(Toudou-sensei really is thoughtful.)
Souya took a sip of coffee. The moderate sweetness seeped into his drowsy head. He was bad at relying on others. Even when he needed help, he'd end up shouldering everything alone. Misaki seemed to understand that side of him well.
"What did you do over the holidays, Aoyama-sensei?"
"Huh? Oh, I... I just read books at home the whole time."
"Books again? You're such an indoor person, as always. Go outside once in a while."
"No, outside is... there are too many people."
"When a handsome teacher says that, it sounds incredibly fake."
Misaki laughed mischievously. Souya could only return a wry smile.
To tell the truth, Souya had once been overweight with a gloomy personality. When he first became a teacher, he weighed twenty kilograms more than he did now and had no confidence in himself. He'd been carrying around the trauma of being bullied in middle school for years.
But in the first class he ever homeroomed, he met a certain student. He wanted to do something for that student. After that, he desperately trained his body, changed his appearance, and studied teaching methods. Now, the students called him "the most charismatic teacher in the school." It was a story that made even him laugh.
(Well, even if my appearance changed, the inside hasn't changed much.)
Souya muttered inwardly. Clumsy, bad at relying on people, and with a strong tendency toward delusions. Especially when it came to delusions about women—even he thought it was hopeless how they wouldn't stop. He understood that side of himself well.
"Oh, by the way, did you hear? That girl Mizuba Suzumi's channel apparently disappeared."
Such a voice came from another part of the staff room. The one talking was the PE teacher, Yamada Tsuyoshi. A forty-year-old muscular man with a loud voice. That voice echoed throughout the entire staff room.
"Mizuba Suzumi? Ah, that cosplay girl. She had like eight hundred thousand subscribers, right? What happened all of a sudden?"
"I don't know. Apparently it just suddenly vanished last night. The fans seem to be in an uproar."
Souya stopped his hand from flipping through documents. His heart gave a loud thump.
Mizuba Suzumi. The moment he heard that name, the depths of his mind grew hot.
Suzumi was the student Souya had homeroomed when he was in his first year as a teacher. She was twenty now. After graduating from high school, she was active as a cosplay YouTuber. Souya had been secretly checking Suzumi's channel. Because seeing a former student working hard honestly made him happy.
But that wasn't all. Suzumi had a past that Souya could never forget.
In her second year of high school, Suzumi had tried to jump from the school rooftop. Bullying was the cause. Souya had desperately stopped her. He'd gripped Suzumi's hands as she clung to the rooftop fence with all his strength. He still remembered Suzumi's tear-streaked face from that moment vividly.
(That girl... deleted her channel?)
He had a bad feeling. Suzumi treasured her channel more than anyone. For her to suddenly delete it—this was no ordinary matter.
Souya tried to act calm, but he felt his hands trembling slightly. The fingertips holding the coffee cup quivered faintly.
"Aoyama-sensei?"
Misaki noticed Souya's state. She was staring at him with worried eyes.
"...No, it's nothing."
"Is that Mizuba Suzumi girl an acquaintance of yours?"
At Misaki's question, Souya hesitated for a moment. How much should he tell her? No—there was nothing he could tell.
"She's a former student. From the first class I ever homeroomed."
"I see. ...Are you okay? You look pale."
"I'm fine. Just a little short on sleep."
Souya forced a smile. Misaki still looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't press further.
The atmosphere in the staff room suddenly felt heavier. Outside the window, the May wind was swaying the fresh green leaves. Normally this should have been a pleasant season, yet today, for some reason, that wind felt cold.
After school. Souya stayed in the classroom, checking the class journal. The setting sun streamed through the windows, dyeing the empty desks and chairs orange. Besides Souya, only one male student remained in the classroom.
"Sensei, do you have a moment?"
The one who spoke was a male student from his class. He was normally a quiet kid, but recently he seemed to have taken an interest in video streaming.
"Oh, what's up?"
"Sensei, do you know about Kisaragi Station?"
Souya closed the class journal. Kisaragi Station. The moment he heard that name, something stirred deep in his chest.
"Kisaragi Station? Ah, that urban legend. The one they say connects to another world, right?"
"That's right! I knew you'd know, sensei. It's actually becoming a topic again. There's a rumor that sightings have been increasing lately."
The student leaned forward with sparkling eyes. He tried to show Souya his smartphone screen.
"So, I'm thinking of streaming a video verifying it. Like, riding the train late at night and going all the way to the last stop."
Souya stared at the student's face. A innocent face full of curiosity. But that innocence felt precarious now.
"Don't do it. That kind of thing isn't something you approach with a casual attitude."
"Huh, why not? It's just an urban legend, right?"
"Precisely because it's just an urban legend. If something really did happen, you couldn't handle it alone. Besides, playing around with that kind of story never ends well."
Souya's voice had become so serious it surprised even himself. The student looked a little taken aback, then hung his head dejectedly.
"...I understand. I'll think about it."
"You do that. If you want to make videos, pick safer material."
The student gave a small nod and left the classroom. Watching his retreating figure, Souya let out a deep breath.
(Kisaragi Station, huh.)
Why had he been so desperate to stop him? Even he didn't really understand. But when he heard that name, his body reacted on its own.
Souya walked to the window and gazed outside at the school building as the sun set. In the schoolyard, the soccer club students were practicing. Cheerful voices drifted from far away. Those voices felt strangely distant.
(Mizuba Suzumi's channel disappeared. And Kisaragi Station.)
The two events spun around and around in his head. Was there a connection? No, there couldn't be. He told himself that, but the unease in his chest wouldn't settle.
Night. Souya returned to his apartment. A one-room apartment in Setagaya Ward, ten years old. Plenty of space for one person, but today the room felt strangely large.
He took a shower and grabbed a canned beer from the refrigerator. He pulled the tab and poured it down his throat in one go. The bitter liquid seeped into the depths of his stomach.
He sat on the sofa and picked up his smartphone. When he opened the social media app, trending words flew into his eyes.
#MizubaSuzumi
#KisaragiStation
Souya felt his fingertips grow cold. The two words were displayed side by side.
With trembling fingers, he tapped the trend. What appeared were countless images that had been spread. One of them caught Souya's gaze and held it.
A video thumbnail. The thumbnail of Suzumi's video, which should have been deleted, had been saved and spread by someone.
What was shown there was the scenery of an old, weathered station building. A rusted signboard. A desolate platform. The entrance of a dim tunnel.
In that instant, a violent flashback raced through Souya's mind.
Middle school days. A scene of himself standing in front of that same place. The rusted signboard. The ruined platform. The dim tunnel. Everything matched the image he was looking at now.
"Ugh... ah..."
Souya let out an involuntary groan. His head hurt as if it were splitting. Nausea rose up. His vision swayed unsteadily.
This wasn't mere déjà vu. He had actually been to that place.
But with whom? When? Why?
When he tried to remember, the headache grew even more intense. It was as if a pitch-black fog hung over the depths of his memory. Something was beyond the fog. But what it was, he couldn't see no matter what.
Breaking into a cold sweat, Souya collapsed from the sofa onto the floor. The smartphone slipped from his hand and fell to the floor with a dull sound.
"Haah... haah..."
His breathing grew ragged. His heart pounded so violently it felt like it would burst through his chest. He felt something cold crawling up from the nape of his neck to his lower back.
(I know that place.)
(But when did I go? With whom?)
(I can't remember anything.)
Souya sat on the floor, unable to move for a while. His hoodie stuck to his body with sweat. It felt disgusting.
It was about thirty minutes later that he finally calmed down. Souya picked up his smartphone with trembling hands and searched for an archive of Suzumi's YouTube channel.
However, the channel had been completely deleted. It wasn't even left in the cache. The search results only displayed the inorganic text: "This channel does not exist."
"Damn it..."
Souya muttered quietly.
Was there any clue? Thinking that, he looked at his bookshelf. He searched for his middle school graduation album. Maybe it held a clue about that place.
However, the album wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere on the bookshelf. Had he lost it during a move? Or had it never existed in the first place?
Souya stood frozen in front of the bookshelf.
(Is my memory being rewritten somewhere?)
Such an absurd thought crossed his mind. No, impossible. Memories being rewritten was the stuff of
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