High school teacher Soya Aoyama (26) receives a sudden message one night from his former student, Suzumi Mizubane (20). "Sensei, I'm chasing the 'Kuchisake-onna' urban legend—help me out?" Suzumi, a popular cosplay YouTuber, has started a project to verify "dark rumors" submitted by her viewers. Soya reluctantly agrees, but as they investigate, he realizes that what seemed like simple urban legends are connected to actual disappearances and conspiracies.
In the archives of Suzumi's streams, the
Urban Legend Truth Record - The Erased Symbols and the Classroom Where You're Not Alone — The Rooftop Promise Transcends Memory
The park bench had absorbed the cold of the night.
Souya sat hunched over, his back curved. He didn't even have the energy to look up at the sky. He stared at the ground. At his own feet. At his mud-caked sneakers. He hadn't slept properly in days, not since the suspension. His hair was a mess, his shirt wrinkled beyond saving.
(I'm completely isolated.)
The message from Kurogiri Renji still sat on his phone screen.
"There will be no next warning. Think carefully before you act."
Just one line. And with it, it felt like his entire life had ended. His student had transferred schools. Suzumi's room had been ransacked. Every document in his home had vanished. A summons from the board of education. A false accusation. A suspension. Everything had come crashing down, piece by piece.
(No one is on my side.)
A heat welled up in the back of his throat. Tears threatened to come. But he couldn't even cry. It was as if he'd forgotten how.
That was when it happened.
From somewhere in the distance, he heard the sound of a motorcycle engine.
At first, he thought he'd imagined it. There was no way anyone would ride a bike to this park at this hour. But the sound grew steadily closer. The steady rhythm of exhaust. The bite of tires on asphalt.
The sound stopped.
At the park entrance. Under the streetlight.
A woman removed her helmet.
Long black hair swayed gently in the night breeze. Pale skin. Large eyes. A black leather riding jacket wrapped her small frame. Dirt stained the knees of her jeans.
It was Mizuba Suzumi.
Souya couldn't believe his eyes.
(Why is Suzumi here...?)
Suzumi put down the bike's kickstand and walked straight toward him. Her stride was sure, unwavering. The sound of her sneakers—no heels—crunching on gravel seemed impossibly loud.
She stopped in front of him.
"Sensei."
Her voice was trembling. But her eyes looked straight at him. The shadow of who she'd been in high school lingered deep in those eyes. The same strong light as back then.
"Do you remember the rooftop?"
Souya couldn't say a word.
The rooftop. Where Suzumi had been bullied in high school. That day, he had saved her. Or rather—he'd just sat beside her and listened.
"That day, you told me, 'Don't carry it all alone.' Those words saved me more times than I can count. Even on days when going to school felt unbearable, I'd remember what you said and keep going."
Her voice grew stronger, little by little.
"Now it's my turn to say it. Sensei, please don't carry this all alone."
Something creaked deep in Souya's chest.
(I'm a teacher. Leaning on a former student—that's unforgivable.)
(But...)
"You saved me once, and that's why I'm standing here now. So this time, I'm going to save you. Whatever I can do, I'll do it. So—"
Suzumi paused.
"So please. Just say the word. Ask me for help."
The night wind passed between them.
Souya looked down. Tears blurred his vision.
(Help me.)
The words reached his throat but wouldn't come out. A teacher's pride. An adult's stubbornness. A man's vanity. All of it held the words back.
But still.
"...Help me."
His voice was hoarse.
"Help me, Suzumi. I... I don't know what to do anymore."
The tears spilled over. He couldn't stop them.
Souya buried his face in his knees. His shoulders shook. He stifled his sobs and cried.
Suzumi sat down quietly beside him.
"Yes. I'm right here."
Her hand touched his back. Small and warm.
"Let's find the truth together. Your past is the key. My backup data and your memories—if we combine them, something will come into view. I'm sure of it."
Souya lifted his head.
He looked into Suzumi's eyes. In them, he saw both the girl from high school and the fierce resolve of the woman she'd become—existing at the same time.
"...Yeah. I'm counting on you."
That was the moment his frozen heart began to thaw.
Leaning on a former student wasn't a sin.
It was a bond.
He could finally believe that.
---
Suzumi's family home stood in a quiet residential neighborhood in Setagaya.
A two-story house, thirty years old. Neatly trimmed trees lined the garden. The porch light stretched their shadows long across the ground.
"My mom's probably asleep already. Let's go in quietly."
Suzumi unlocked the front door with care.
The two of them headed upstairs to her room, careful not to make a sound.
Her room still held strong traces of her high school years. Reference books and notebooks on the desk. Idol posters on the wall from back then. And deep in the closet—
"Here it is."
What Suzumi pulled from the back of the closet was a cardboard box. Inside it, a single external hard drive. Its silver casing reflected the room's light.
"I backed everything up in a hurry before the equipment was seized and hid it here. I never thought the day would actually come when it would matter."
She smiled, looking a little embarrassed.
Souya felt a warmth spread through his chest at that smile.
(This girl is truly strong.)
"Sensei, look at this. The analysis data."
Suzumi booted up her laptop and connected the drive.
Countless numbers and symbols filled the screen. The analysis results of those bizarre symbols carved into the wall of the old Urayama Station.
"The symbols weren't a simple cipher. They've been processed through a unique substitution code. But as I analyzed the patterns—"
Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
The screen changed.
"This is..."
What appeared on the screen was a list of names.
Twenty-seven names. Full names. And beside each one, a date.
"These are the victims of an incident that occurred in 1987. Twenty-seven people. All their names and the dates they disappeared. The symbols were an encrypted version of this list."
Souya's breath caught.
Twenty-seven people. All of them vanished. 1987.
"The Kisaragi Station urban legend is a cover-up to hide the disappearance of these twenty-seven people. A false story spread by Nocturne. To redirect people's attention toward ghost stories instead."
Suzumi's voice was calm.
But her eyes burned with anger.
"Sensei. I can't forgive this. Twenty-seven people, gone without anyone noticing, and it gets written off as an 'urban legend'? That's just... wrong."
Souya stared at the screen.
A list of names. All unfamiliar. But each one must have had a life. A family. Friends. A future.
And then one day in 1987, it was all cut short.
(Nocturne...)
His fist trembled.
---
"Sensei? What's wrong?"
Suzumi's voice brought him back.
"...No. It's nothing. Keep going."
"Actually, there's one more thing. While analyzing the symbols, I found an odd pattern. Look at this name."
She zoomed in on a section of the screen.
A single name was displayed.
"Aoyama Takafumi."
Souya's heart jumped.
Aoyama.
The same surname as his own.
"Aoyama Takafumi. Disappeared May 12, 1987. Age thirty-eight at the time. Occupation: company employee. Family: wife and—"
Suzumi's voice sounded far away.
Something burst inside Souya's mind.
(Aoyama Takafumi...)
(Takafumi...)
(That's my grandfather's name.)
His grandfather. Aoyama Takafumi.
He'd been told his grandfather died in a traffic accident when he was in middle school.
But that was wrong.
His grandfather had disappeared in 1987.
Not a traffic accident.
"Sensei! Are you okay?!"
Suzumi grabbed his shoulder.
His breathing had turned ragged. His fingertips were cold. Sweat ran down his back.
"Sensei, you're pale as a ghost. Lie down, please."
"...I'm fine. Keep going. Please."
He spoke in a shaking voice.
Suzumi watched him with worried eyes but continued.
"Sensei, please listen calmly. This list has someone with the same surname as you. But that's not all. I did a little research on your middle school years. Your grandfather, Aoyama Takafumi, is listed in the family register as having died in 1987. Cause of death: traffic accident. But—"
She took a deep breath.
"But this list says 'disappeared.' Death and disappearance. The two records contradict each other."
Souya searched his own memories.
His grandfather. Takafumi.
He'd been a kind man. They used to play together in the garden. He'd taught him shogi. In summer, they'd set off fireworks together.
But his memories of when his grandfather died were unclear.
The funeral. Pressing his hands together before the Buddhist altar. His mother crying.
Memories that should exist were hazy, blurred.
(It's like they've been overwritten by something.)
"Sensei. I've always thought there might be gaps in your memories from middle school. When you tried to remember that time at the old Urayama Station, you grimaced. That's not because you can't remember. It's because you're afraid to—"
"That's not it. I just can't remember. My old memories have simply faded."
He said it as if convincing himself.
But deep down, he knew it wasn't true.
His memories weren't fading.
They were being erased.
By someone. Deliberately.
---
"Sensei, there's an old notebook at my family's house. A notebook your grandfather wrote while he was alive. Your mother kept it as a memento, and she gave it to me on graduation day."
Souya's eyes widened.
"Why would you...?"
"You don't remember? On graduation day, your mother came to school and said, 'Please give this to Suzumi-san.' She said it was a thank-you, because you were always looking out for me."
Souya shook his head.
"...I don't remember."
"I knew it. Your memories have been erased, Sensei. I remember graduation day clearly. Your mother had tears in her eyes when she handed me the notebook. She said, 'It's still too early for Souya.'"
Suzumi stood.
"I still have the notebook. It's in my room. Let me go get it."
She pulled an old notebook from the back of her bookshelf.
A brown cover. Yellowed pages.
"This is it. Aoyama Takafumi's notebook."
Souya took it with trembling hands.
He opened the cover.
Inside, in meticulous handwriting, diary-like entries filled the pages.
"May 12. Clear. I had that dream again today. The dream about the station. Someone is calling my name."
"May 13. Cloudy. I can't get those symbols out of my head. The strange symbols carved into the wall. Could they be some kind of code?"
Souya's fingers trembled.
The symbols.
His grandfather had seen them too.
The symbols carved into the wall of the old Urayama Station.
And as he turned the pages—
"May 15. Rain. I finally went to that place. The old Urayama Station. Those symbols were indeed twenty-seven names. I am among them. I will be erased. But I will leave the truth here."
Souya's breath stopped.
His grandfather had known.
That he would be erased.
And he had left the truth in this notebook.
"Sensei..."
Suzumi gripped his hand.
"You're not just a bystander to this case. You're family of a survivor. You're someone Nocturne robbed of their family."
Something began to turn slowly in Souya's mind.
His middle school memories. The gaps. His grandfather's death. The traffic accident.
All of it was a lie.
His grandfather hadn't died in a traffic accident.
He'd been erased by Nocturne.
And his own memories had been rewritten by Nocturne too.
"Memory alteration technology... A special technique Nocturne uses. Drugs and psychological therapy to rewrite a target's memories. The gaps in my middle school memories—that's why."
Souya looked at his own hands.
They were shaking.
But this was different from before.
This was anger.
"Nocturne... You took my family, and now my memories too?"
His voice dropped, filled with rage.
"Sensei. I'll fight alongside you. Your memories and my data—together, they'll become evidence to expose Nocturne's cover-up."
Suzumi's eyes were resolute.
"...Yeah. Let's do it. We'll expose the truth, no matter what."
Souya held the notebook to his chest.
The truth his grandfather had left behind.
He would not let it go to waste.
---
It was past two in the morning when they returned to Souya's apartment.
"Let's go in quietly. Don't wake the neighbors."
He unlocked the door a
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