-{| I Remember in September |}-

Chapter 3
A confession of love?

Wherever my undergarments went – they were just the beginning of a series of odd coincidences. Trust me, I'm actually not that paranoid, but with every day that was passing by this unsettling feeling of … being watched … grew. This feeling – it was there. I couldn't explain why and how.

Two weeks passed by and within those two weeks many of my other belongings vanished into thin air. First a button of my school uniform disappeared after I had taken another shower – and this time I swear, I repeat, I swear! - that someone must have stolen it. The uppermost buttonhole of my uniform always had this one gray skein bending through its center, which always made it difficult to fasten up my jacket. Before undressing I fought with the button again, but it definitely remained on its spot. After my return it was gone. To proof my assumptions of theft: You could clearly see how fringed and cut the skein was. But this was just an itty bitty omen of theft …

A couple days later I overslept heavily. I couldn't fall asleep the night before (the last time I checked the watch it was already 3:00 AM), mostly because of the intense brightness the full moon had caused. My old room didn't have any blinds, so whenever a celestial body shined behind the firmament my room was as bright as a floodlit soccer stadium. You won't believe how long and intensively Osana was mad at me for oversleeping so long.
"You're a careless bonehead, who will never find a girlfriend", she called me.
"BAKA! Your future children will always have to wake you and your unreliable body up. You're such a moron to keep me waiting every – single – day!", she told to me.

I actually wouldn't have cared about this much, since Osana sometimes had her meltdowns, but slapping me twice on the way to school and even ranting loudly within the bus took it to a whole new level. Her slaps enraged me so much, I felt fully awaken and every bit of tiredness had vanished - but unlike her I only felt inner rage. Fortunately she calmed down after the first lesson, though she had never apologized for her actions. Anyways, as soon as all of my rage disappeared, my tiredness stroke back as powerful as a plank Budo would smack into my face with his full strength. The desires of my body were too strong, so I've set up an alarm, laid down on the rooftop and slept through the whole lunch-time. I didn't even take a single bite of my bento's food.

After I woke up my bento was missing. Again I swear that I've put it next to me! Nobody was on the rooftop except me and Midori. I even asked her if she saw someone taking my bento, but she wasn't sure since she only stared into her phone and wrote email after email. What took the weird situation to a whole new level was Midori's question after I had turned around.

"Uhm, Taro?"

"Yes Midori?"

"Why are you bald over here?", she asked while pointing at the back of her bright green hair.

I felt the wave of shock inside me rising from my toes up to my head after I had felt the small spot of blank skin at the back of my head. This felt so disturbing – did somebody really cut a lock of my hair!? Midori didn't see anyone on the rooftop except for me – she herself wouldn't have done something like that. She might be a bit, let's say, slow-witted, but was definitely not a bad person.

Since then none of my personal belongings disappeared anymore for the next few days. But what left a giant question mark above the whole school was the sudden disappearance of Saki Miyu. You know, this teal-haired girl with the long pigtails and Kokona Harukas best friend. From the first week's Wednesday on she was gone. She didn't react to phone calls, she didn't react to messages, nothing. On Friday her parents filed a missing person's report, with no results so far. Budo and I had the theory that she got kidnapped by someone – like Kokona was Saki a kind and life-affirming person, who would never want to get her friends and parents into troubles. Osana and I tried to comfort Kokona – she had not the slightest clue where Saki went.

Budo also asked his club members about Saki – even his newest member didn't know where she was! Oh, can you guess, who became Budo's newest recruit? Yes, right! It's the girl I've ran into before - and I finally have a name for her: She's named Ayano Aishi, or Yan-Chan like some of her classmates call her. I'll stay with Ayano because it feels more right than Yan-Chan. I like her name.
Like I had guessed was she quite shy and rarely spoke. Actually she mainly spoke when someone asked her something – her answers mostly consisted of two or three words. Budo compared her to the kind of girls you meet on Tinder and only reply with a maximum of five words to you.
But Budo warned me: Even though she was silent and looked kind of small framed, she learns extremely fast and defeated Juku Ren, Budo's youngest apprentice, within three days of training. Osana knew Ayano a bit and considered her as weird, even as weird as those "schmucks" from the occult club. Yes, Osana really said that …

Speaking of Osana: I'm not sure if she had her period this week, but her mood swings were way extremer than usual. She hit me more often whenever I said something she wouldn't like, mostly vigorous blows at my upper arm. But not only verbal and nonverbal violence – she also showed me the other extreme. She asked me almost every evening of the week if I wanted to do something with her. We went to the cinema and saw that new weird fantasy movie named "The Cosmic Gate" together, we've listened to unknown music together, we've even cooked exotic food together. Honestly it had been a long time since Osana and I had so much fun together. It even surprised me a bit that she didn't ask me out on Friday after we'd left the classroom. Instead she said: "Taro, I have so much pressure on the bladder. W-Would you mind going ahead and we'll meet up later?"

I wasn't really sure if she told me the truth. Osana was awful at hiding her emotions, though I was unsure why she acted … nervous. I knew she hid something from me, but I responded with "alright Osana, see you later" and went down the stairs.

To my full surprise awaited me a letter in my locker. I've almost put my shoes onto it, but its pink color was hard to overlook. I opened the letter.

"Dear Senpai,
I want to talk to you about my feelings. Please meet me at 06:00 PM at the cherry blossom tree at the back of the school yard. I hope you'll be there!"

A broad smile came into my face. When I smelled the letter I already knew who'll show up and what she'll most probably say to me. I've known the letter's smell, this strong mixture of junipers with its shot of grapefruits, for my entire life. I felt so excited, joyful and nervous at the same time.
This Friday – it changed my life and determined who'll become my wife.

I rushed to the tree and prepared myself for the upcoming impact. Nobody was there, just me, the tree and the falling blossoms. My phone clock told me it was already 06:03 PM. Okay, maybe she really had an almost exploding bladder, let's give her a few more minutes. But it weren't just a few minutes – I've waited for exactly 73 minutes.

"Strange…", I thought. "She always complained when I was late but now she was the late one."

"U-Um, h-hi…", suddenly spoke a voice behind me. I turned around – and the amount of surprise inside me had never been higher before. It wasn't my orange, my nectarine, my Osana. It was another girl from my class. It was Oka, Oka Ruto – the leader of the occult club. Did she have a crush on me?

"H-Hi", I replied. "Are you the one, who wrote me this letter?"

She shook her head and remained silent. Her cheeks and eyes were wet and her body trembled like leafs in the autumn wind.

"Are you … okay?", I asked Oka. She shook her head.

"C-Can y-you … follow m-me? I … I n-need to show you something."

Oka quickly ran away – and I followed her. Twice have I asked her twice what's wrong, but she didn't respond. I felt so confused – what in the world did she want me to see?
She led me all the way back inside the school and towards the girl bathroom on the second floor. Outside of the bathroom waited Supana Churu, a good friend of Oka, and Midori – both looked shocked.

"D-Don't go inside", Midori warned me, Supana nodded. "Please."

I felt so nervous and so confused. My head almost exploded with questions – please, please don't tell me … please don't tell me that something happened to my sour sunshine. Anything but her.

"I-Is Osana in there?", I carefully asked. Supana stared at the ground and nodded. Midori and Oka tried to stop me as I dashed forward. Both weren't strong enough to stop me. I ran inside – and almost vomited.

The mandarin of my childhood ... she lay inside one of the bathroom stalls, nor breath, nor motion, as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.
Her eyes stared in shock - the grand vacuum of the devil, sucked her soul through her eyeballs to fulfill his sparks of evil.
No white uniform, just blood.
No blue skirt, just blood.
No bathroom tiles, just this ocean of blood.
Stab after stab, stab after stab, no satisfaction for the murderer.
Hit after hit, hit after hit, no end for the slaughterer.
Tear after tear, tear after tear, my eyes rained as I kneed before my lover.

"O-Osana … I …"

I felt destroyed, left, depressed. Even with her immature actions, even if we had differences, even with everything from the past, I admitted …

"I-I … love … you …"

The world around me grayed. I vaguely felt four hands dragging me upwards. Midori and Oka spoke, but I couldn't hear them. My soul – it pulled me to Osana. I know all life has gone from her, but the desire didn't let me go. Osana, please let me speak to you one last time. Only one more time, before you raise in heaven, before we meet again, hear that I love you. That I always loved you. From the day on we met each other next to the cradle. And hear that …

"I will find him. I will find the one, who did this to you. He will receive what he deserves!"

Oka and Midori released me outside of the bathroom. Supana cried. Ahead in the corridor three police officers came. Along with them ran Kaho Kanon, my class teacher, as well as Kuroko Kamenaga and Aoi Ryogoku from the student council to us.

I sat down. My thoughts overtook me. Nothing mattered. Nothing helped. Nothing stopped my mind.