Haguko’s Curse

 

Asa and Botan sat at the dining table, decimating a breakfast of cold tomato ramen as if they hadn’t eaten in months.

“Thank you for the meal, Nakamura-san!”, Botan exclaimed as he gobbled up a third bowl. 

Kaede giggled quietly, “Slow down, Botan-kun. Please don’t choke on your food”

“But it’s SO good!”

Asa watched as Kaede giggled again. Her eyes softened. She and Botan had been trying their best to cheer Kaede up and keep her from being alone with her thoughts for two days. Kaede rarely showed it but the pain of missing her son was so obviously written all over her eyes each time they looked at her. At times, Asa thought that their presence probably reminded her of him more and made her sadder. 

“Maybe we should stay out of her way”, she’d suggested to Botan once. 

“No”, he’d disagreed, “if we just disappeared it would make her feel like we’d given up on Daiki. Plus she’d be alone”.

Asa couldn’t help but see his point. Ever since Daiki went missing she’d noticed Kaede sulking alone all day. Junichiro and Kaito were away doing either of two things: trying to rally a search party or talking to the police in hopes of reopening the investigation. But neither seemed to end in success. Taking care of the twins while Kaede did house work, often fell on Asa and Botan. Once they also offered to fold everyone’s laundry.

“Ah yes this is how I imagined my summer vacation would go”, Botan complained as Hiroko put makeup on his face while Masako did his hair. 

Asa giggled quietly as she placed a folded t-shirt on top of a pile. 

“Whoa”, Botan exclaimed, his eyes wide, “Asa, you can laugh? Sincerely?”

Her smile quickly vanished, “I was laughing at you, moron”

“Sure sure..”, Botan sneered, immediately earning a T-shirt whipping from Asa. “Ouch!”, he cried out. 

The twins finished working on Botan and asked him to check it in the mirror. “Wow, you guys are pros at this already huh?”, Botan complimented them, turning his head to examine the makeover. They then begged Asa to let them do her next to which she responded with a warning glare. This made them back down timidly and run off calling for their mom. Once they’d left Asa turned to Botan.

“Dude”

“Mm”

“So what are we gonna do about it?”

“About what?”

“About Daiki”, Asa said, “about Ito-san and her..friends. They’re gonna look for the missing people. Aren’t we gonna help them?”

Botan removed a bit of compact powder from under his nose and turned to face his friend. “Asa”, he said hesitantly, “How do we even fight alongside them?? I mean, you saw them. They’re..not like us.. you know. They’re..powerful.”

“Yeah well…I’m not saying that I wasn’t totally caught off guard by them..”, Asa trailed off, pausing to think about how surprised and confused she was – and still is – when she saw Himari’s friends. For a moment, the memory flooded her head. 

“Riku, I’ve asked you not to do that!”, Himari had said sternly to the bald man who’d appeared out of thin air.

“Do what, Himari-san?”, he’d asked politely.

Himari had shook her head and said, “Use your powers for no reason”

The bald man, Riku, had looked around cluelessly and answered, “I-I thought we were practising.”, then he’d pointed vigorously at the bored-looking woman opposite him, who was manipulating a ball of fire, “Look! Kazuyuki-san is doing it too!”

The woman had then quickly put out the flame before Himari noticed and shrugged, “Here we go again, he’s hallucinating as usual”

“Kazuyuki-san, you..”, Riku had tried to suppress his frustration when another, much older man had phased in through a wall and gone, “Himari-san there are no snacks in the kitchen. I was getting hungry”. He’d smacked his belly to emphasise his hunger and laughed. 

Asa and Botan had watched with their mouths agape, unable to comprehend the events that were unfolding in front of them. ‘What are these people???’, they’ve thought over and over again because no other coherent thought would form in their utterly confused minds. No rational explanation. Sure, they’ve seen this stuff in movies and TV shows. But not in real life, right front of them. Asa remembered subconsciously waiting for background music to start playing like in the movies so they’d at least know how to feel about what they were seeing. 

Then they’ve gotten to talking about the rescue plan. Still no explanation was given as to who they were and why they had powers. Every chance she got Asa had tried to ask, but someone had interrupted her every time. 

“Kaede, we’re home!”, Junichiro walked in with Kaito, both men looking exhausted. They were back from a visit to the police station. The loudness of Junichiro’s voice jerked Asa back to reality. 

“Ahh I’m exhausted”, he sighed, sitting down and picking up an uchiwa fan to fan himself. 

“I’ll bring you a cold drink”, Kaito offered. 

“Kaito-san, can I have one too?”, Botan asked him, grinning silly with the makeup and the hairdo that the twins had given him. Kaito snickered at his look. “Sure”, he said and walked towards the kitchen. 

Asa nudged him in the ribs and gave a questioning look. “I’m thirsty?”, Botan whispered defensively. Kaito returned with the drinks. Kaede followed him, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. 

“So?”, she asked moodily, not looking up from the towel. 

Junichiro sighed, setting the fan and the drink down on the coffee table. He took out a handkerchief from his t-shirt pocket and wiped sweat off his face. Asa watched him. He looked haggard. 

“The police officer who was in charge of the case..uh”, Junichiro struggled. His face looked unsettled. “He’d gone missing.” 

“Gone missing?”, Kaede repeated, “in the mountains?”

Junichiro nodded. Everyone exchanged looks. Asa remembered hearing about two police officers that disappeared in the mountains while searching for the missing townspeople. 

“That’s strange”, she said, making everyone turn towards her, “Why haven’t the police bothered to look for their own missing officers?”

Junichiro looked away thoughtfully. “I don’t know”, he said.

“What did they say?”, Kaede asked, her face drowning in anguish, “the police, Junichiro, are they going to reopen the investigation? Are they..” her voice broke as she held back tears, “are they going to look for my boy?”

She broke down sobbing. Kaito held her as Junichiro looked sympathetically at his wife. Through their years together, it was her smile and cheerfulness that had managed to lighten up his world every time they had faced struggles. Now that was all gone and her usual cheer was replaced with worry and grief. 

“I got the same answer again”, he said tiredly, “That they're short on officers. That they will start looking into my missing person report when an officer is available."

“W-what about..the search party?”, Kaede hiccuped through tears, “I-if no one’s coming..I’ll go by myself”

Junichiro sighed. There was nothing he could say to his wife that would console her, or himself. 

An overwhelming feeling of bafflement came over Asa as she watched Daiki’s family in distress. For the past couple of days she and Botan had been constantly checking their phones, sending messages, trying to call, but there was no response. Then at some point, they noticed his phone stopped receiving messages and calls altogether. It’s as if Daiki had vanished off the face of the earth. 

Asa knew that Daiki was reckless. She knew that he constantly did daring things in his free time. There was a guy in their uni that went to all the lectures that Daiki went to. He constantly made fun of Daiki for his hair. Daiki loved his hair so he hated the guy. One day, Daiki caught him trying to harass a young woman, also from his classes. He beat Daiki up pretty bad, threatening to get rid of him should he talk about what he saw to anyone. Daiki was no good in a fight, but he was plenty good at payback.

She remembered trying to talk him out of stealing the guy's brand new car and driving around the city while crashing it into a few things. She'd refused to join Daiki and Botan and had had to bail them out of jail later. It'd felt good wrecking a perverted jerk's car but then they'd gotten into a lot of trouble because although Daiki was all kinds of fun to be around, he was no master of accounting for consequences. Asa and Botan should have made sure of it but they were being pretty naive too. 

The guilt in Asa’s heart grew stronger by the minute as morning slowly turned into afternoon. It’d been two days since she’d last talked to Daiki. And the fear that something terrible might have happened to him was rampant in her mind. She looked at Botan who was seated on the floor, behind the twins watching Doraemon. 

“Botan, we gotta go”, she said, determined.

“Go where?”

“We gotta meet up with Himari-san and her friends. We gotta find Daiki”

Botan’s eyes became focused. He turned to Asa and stood up, “Hm, and Takashi”

“Come on”, Asa turned and hurried up the stairs with Botan closely following.

“What are you gonna do?”

Asa hurried into Daiki’s room without answering and opened up Daiki’s laptop. She pulled out a cord from behind his printer and plugged it into the device. 

“Uhh what are you printing?”, Botan asked, confused.

Asa answered without taking her eyes off the screen, “You asked me how we’re gonna go up against a group of people with powers..”, an A4 sheet slid out of the printer which Asa snatched out and held up for Botan to see. His eyes grew wide and he smiled in realisation, “the map of the mountains”.

“Yup. Exactly”, Asa affirmed, walking over into their room and putting on an airy t-shirt over her tank top. 

“That’s brilliant!”, Botan exclaimed, dancing around while Asa put up her hair, “You know you do come up with good ideas sometimes. You’re not ALWAYS a wet cloth with a stick up her-”

“Come on, we gotta go”, Asa said briskly and smacked a t-shirt against Botan’s chest. He watched in confusion as she began descending down the stairs. “But I’m already wearing a tank top”, he called out. “You look extra hairy today, put it on”, she replied from the doorway, “Hurry upp!”

The two exited the house almost running and began walking towards Takashi’s place. Asa recalled how they’d walked down there the very first time when Daiki and Takshi were both still there with them, inside Haguko. Good times, she automatically thought. Asa had never had close friends, so the feeling of missing one or fearing for one’s safety was introduced to her from the day Daiki and Botan sat next to her in class. It was a pain in the ass, having to care. Having to constantly worry if they were feeling okay or if you were being a good friend. She wished she didn’t have to. She wished she could just sit alone, not talk, and hang out with herself like she used to. “Hey Asa good job on the presentation, man I’m glad you’re on my team”, “Wow Asa you got all A’s huh, mind if I copy from you the next time?”, “I brought you guys bento today. My mom makes the best bento. So I better hear only compliments haha”, Daiki’s words; after all, if she went back to how she used to be, that’s all she’d miss. Right? 

“Ah we’re almost here”, Botan’s voice snapped her back to reality. She looked ahead – two more blocks to the Ito house. Asa picked up her pace. Botan too. When they arrived, a man’s voice could be heard on the other side of the door. Are they already here? Asa wondered, thinking about Himari’s friends. Akiko-san, Riku-san, Murasaki-san, Kazuyuki-san, and Saburo-san, Asa tried to remember all their names so that she could properly address them. They are nice people, she thought with a faint smile on her lips. 

Botan walked up to the door and knocked. He then pressed his ear against it and turned back. “There’s someone inside”, he mouthed. Asa shrugged and mouthed back, “Yes, I know”. The voices inside slowed and faded with the knock and when they spoke again, the male voice said, “Okay Himari-san, Genji-san, I’ll keep you informed. My officers will be coming around tomorrow morning.”

Officers? What officers? And for what?? Asa and Botan exchanged frowned looks. The door opened and a man stepped out of the house; not just any man, a police officer. By the amount of badges in his uniform and the look of the insignia, he came off as a high-ranking one too. And he’d just mentioned that his officers will be coming around. Asa felt her heartbeat quicken. Are they reopening the investigation? 

The police officer went past them, slipping a faint nod and smile and began walking in the direction that they’d come from. 

“Kobayashi-san, Aoki-san”, Himari stepped onto the doorway and greeted Asa and Botan with their surnames. But Asa was distracted. In the few split seconds between the police officer walking away and Himari greeting them, she’d managed to notice something weird about the strange man in uniform. His smile was creepy and sly enough to begin with and his eyes were inhumanely large, but it was his hands that specifically caught her attention. The man quickly and furtively buried them in his trouser pockets but for a split second she noticed a dark shade of black rapidly speeding up from his fingers. It was as if his skin was somehow changing. 

“No..”, she whispered, craning her neck to catch a glimpse of him as he diverted his path to turn a corner. Chills began running up her body in waves and she felt an electrocuting sensation in her chest. Something is wrong, she thought, something is very wrong. Soon her mind was swimming in thoughts. Anxious thoughts about what she’d just seen and what it could mean. What’s gonna happen? Who was that?? What should I do??? 

She looked wide-eyed at Botan and Himari who glanced back at her with questioning looks. Inside the house, she could see a very tired-looking Mr and Mrs Ito in a conversation; probably about what the officer had just told them. Then she looked around. Evening was fast approaching and the sky was beginning to take on the faint red of sunset. There’s probably only a few minutes, she thought, only a few minutes until something bad happens. 

Asa had never seen monsters. Ghosts, demons, urban legends, they were really interesting stories to her but she’d never believed them to be real. So the past week or so that they’d spent in Haguko had been extremely confusing for her. Confusing, yes, until today that was. Now it was downright scary. 

Was Daiki and Takashi actually right all this time?? 

“B-Botan”, she managed to say.

“Yeah?”

“Botan, you take Himari-san inside and tell her our plan”, she smacked the rolled up map on her friend’s chest.

Botan raised an eyebrow, “Me? Why, what about you? Where are you going?”

Asa looked from him to Himari who still looked at her with complete confusion. Then she craned her neck to catch a glimpse of the man. But he’d already gone. Vanished. Probably turned the corner to hide. Probably changed into its true form. No matter what it is, I gotta go warn everyone at home. 

“Just go”, she told Botan, “I-I’ll join you guys in a minute”

“What??” “Kobayashi-san”, Botan and Himari said in unison.

“I’ll explain”, Asa answered, looking them in the eyes, “I promise. Just wait for me a minute.”

And with that she turned around and took off, hurrying down the road in the direction where the Nakamura house was. I’d wished for it, she thought on her way, her hands and legs beginning to tremble, I’d wished for it all to be real. Everything was so boring so I wanted to do something fun for once. Why did I wish that monsters and urban legends were real?? 

Botan and Himari watched as Asa sped down the road, darkness enclosing the street and swallowing all its details.