Chapter 74 Hyakumonogatari: The Fifth Person

Chapter 74: A Hundred Ghost Stories: The Fifth Person

The discovery of a corpse in the girls' dormitory caused quite a stir, and Jessica, who was located in the school library doing research, was asked to cooperate with the investigation.

Initially, many suspected that Jessica, overwhelmed by grief, had secretly exhumed Edward's body from the cemetery. They sympathized with the couple's plight, were touched by Jessica's devotion, and genuinely suggested the poor girl see a psychologist.

Edward's parents soon received the news, rushed to the school, hastily retrieved his body, and reburied him in his grave.

However, that very night, Edward's body, now more decomposed than ever, once again left the grave and appeared at the girls' dormitory, knocking on the door with his bare, bone-white forehead just like the day before.

The third and fourth nights followed the same pattern.

During this time, Jessica stayed huddled in her dorm, terrified, not going anywhere. People around campus kept reporting sightings of Edward's corpse walking alone at night.

Only then did people finally realize something was off. The incident was so strange it even drew the church's attention.

The church pastor personally recited prayers over Edward's body to guide his soul to heaven. After the ceremony, his family had Edward cremated at a funeral home and reburied his ashes in the now-empty coffin.

Since then, nothing strange ever happened at Edward's grave again, and everyone figured Edward, guided by the pastor, had finally let go of his obsession and gone to heaven.

Only Gina, who lived in the room next to Jessica's, didn't think so.

"I'm pretty sensitive to noise and often wake up at the tiniest sound. So, I'm the only one who knows that every night, Edward's ghost still overcomes every obstacle to come to Jessica's door. You've probably heard Jessica's into the occult and knows a few tricks. Whatever she did, Edward's ghost still can't get into her room, so he lingers outside her door night after night, knocking his forehead against it with a dull thump."

"Like this—thump... thump... thump..."

The girl stood up straight, her face blank, tilting her forehead forward bit by bit, mimicking the ghost's way of knocking on the door. In the candlelight, her deliberately hushed voice and slightly rolled-back eyes were utterly creepy, giving everyone chills.

"Edward and Jessica once made a promise to be together forever. So even though one of them is dead, he still drags his rotting body across countless obstacles, stubbornly returning to his lover's side to be with her again... And so, Edward keeps knocking on the door, nonstop. With each knock, his forehead pushes through the door a little more. I think sooner or later, he'll break through and finally meet Jessica. When that happens, I figure my insomnia will finally be cured for good."

With that, she took a deep breath and blew out her candle with a "puff."

The last candle went out, plunging the whole science lab into darkness.

In the pitch-black darkness, the four students gulped and started counting one by one.

"One," the first student said.

The second one followed: "Two."

Then the third: "Three."

After the three counted, it was finally Gina's turn—the one who'd just told the Edward story. Hearing the heavy breathing in the room, she tensed up and carefully counted out "Four."

As her voice faded, everyone held their breath and waited in silence. The dark classroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

One second, two seconds, three seconds... Just as everyone figured the legend was fake and no ghost was coming, a faint voice echoed from the dark corner.

"Five..."

"Aaaahhh!"

"It's real—ghosts actually exist!"

The students' panicked screams rang out one after another. One of them, closest to the window, fumbled through the dark and yanked open the heavy blackout curtains with a "swish." Sunlight flooded back into the science lab. In the bright light, the four saw a young woman standing in the corner, arms crossed, smiling.

She wore a retro-style blazer with a pencil skirt and a red plaid scarf around her neck, and looked about thirty, with long blonde hair down to her hips. She didn't look like a student—probably a teacher. As a private school, Katak Academy had a strong faculty and a large staff, so even students who graduated from there might not know every teacher.

"Sorry, sorry, did I scare you? I was just passing by, heard someone counting in here, and couldn't help joining in," the woman said, standing at the closed door, waving at the four with an apologetic smile.

"Oh, it's just a teacher—you scared the hell out of us."

"We thought the ghost-summoning legend was actually real."

The four students finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Legend? What legend?"

"We were playing a game that came from Japan. So, in a pitch-black room, four people each hold a candle and take turns telling ghost stories. After each person finishes, they blow out their own candle. Once all four candles are out, they count off, and they find there's a fifth person in the room who shouldn't be there—that fifth person is the ghost the stories summoned."

"Wow, that sounds fun," the blonde woman said with a smile.

One of the four, a boy named Brett, shrugged: "Not fun at all—you almost scared us to death just now." Then, remembering how the four of them had been screaming and crying, he couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm Brett, the president of the school's Paranormal Research Club. These three are our club members—Baron, Darcy, and Gina. We were just doing this week's club activity. What subject do you teach? We don't think we've seen you around before."

"Hi, I'm Belin, the visual arts teacher. If you're into sculpture, feel free to sign up for my class... So you're the Paranormal Research Club. I actually know a few little tricks for boosting luck. Since we've got time, want to hear me share them?"

"Really? Awesome—we're super interested!"

...

The chaos caused by the monkey's paw didn't fully end until Edward's body was cremated. Though rumors persisted that Jessica was still being haunted by Edward's ghost, Everly couldn't care less. Whatever happened, Jessica had brought it on herself.

What she cared about more was the upcoming SAT.

After the summer, she'd be a junior—the crucial year for college prep. Everly had done her research ahead of time: to stay competitive, she needed to keep up her GPA while prepping for the SAT. Her dream school, New Osebukh State University, required an SAT score of 1300+. That wasn't too hard, but she couldn't afford to slack off. She'd better take it in October, so if she didn't do well, she'd still have plenty of chances to retake it.

Outside of academics, Everly also needed to keep excelling on the tennis court. A strong athletic record could significantly boost her college application—a great plus.

Though juggling all this was tiring, since she already had a university in mind, she had to go all in.

So, during the summer after sophomore year, while everyone else was soaking up the sun and living their best life, Everly spent time every day doing practice problems and reviewing what she'd learned. Once junior year started, aside from extracurriculars, she devoted all her time to studying.

However, Mikanoh was, after all, a small, unknown city in a remote area. Even though Katak was the best private school in town, the academic vibe here still wasn't on par with the average high school from Everly's past life. In her class, students like Everly who'd set goals early and started prepping ahead of time were actually in the minority. Most students were still busy with romance, petty drama, or sweating it out on the field, showing off their youthful energy.

"Tuition here is 30,000 Mido a year—didn't they come to a private school to get into college? Why's nobody in a rush?" Shocked by her classmates' relaxed attitude, Everly asked Misha in private.

Misha shrugged helplessly: "Honestly, if you hadn't started prepping with me early, I wouldn't be studying this hard either. Because, you know, junior year just started—it always feels like there's still tons of time, so there's no rush."

"..."

Well, that attitude did fit Everly's stereotype of American high schoolers.

No matter what others did, Everly stuck to her own plan. She signed up for the October SAT right at the start of junior year and scored 1487.

Hmm, decent—still room to improve.

Like Everly, Misha also took the SAT in October. However, her math was weaker and dragged her score down, so she only got 1203—about 100 points short of what New Osebukh State required.

"I'm so jealous, Everly. If you pass on the first try, you only have to worry about school and tennis for the rest of the year. If only my math were as good as yours..." That evening, Misha sat at the computer in the study, chin in her hand, frowning at her score report, and couldn't help sighing.

"You can retake it in November or December—just bring your score up then. If you need help, I can tutor you."

"No need—you've got your own stuff to do. I'm planning to ask Gina from the other class for advice—did you know? She got a perfect math score this time! It's crazy, especially since she only got 350 on the August SAT. She must've found some trick to studying!"

"Gina?"

"The one who claims to have super sensitive nerves but joined the Paranormal Research Club."

"Oh, her... She actually got a perfect score in math this time?" Everly glanced at her own score report. With memories from her previous life and hard work in this one, her math scores were quite good, but even so, she only scored 775 out of 800, losing 25 points. Everly remembered there was a particularly tricky question this term that played some mind games. Under such circumstances, it was indeed remarkable that Gina managed a perfect score in math.

And in the world of thriller movies, there's an unshakable truth—if something's out of the ordinary, something's fishy.

First rule of thriller survival: Pay attention to the hints.

Gina's sudden perfect math score, combined with the high-risk identity of being in the "Paranormal Research Club," instantly put Everly on high alert.

Of course, one shouldn't be too absolute about things. What if Gina really just hit the books, had a breakthrough, and finally figured out how to study math, earning that score fair and square...

Therefore, after much deliberation, Everly decided to go with Misha tomorrow to pick Gina's brain and see what was really going on.