Another, Vol. 2 by Yukito Ayatsuji Read Free Book Online Page A

after dinner. Right then, I couldn’t worry about my grandparents’ eyes being on us.
    “Uh, I heard that…in your last year of middle school, when you were in third-year Class 3, that was actually an ‘on year.’”
    “…An ‘on year’?”
    Reiko’s face had until then worn a dreamy, zoned-out look, but now wariness flashed across it…Or so it seemed.
    “A year when an unidentified ‘extra person’ joins the class and ‘disasters’ befall people. Meaning that every month, people linked to the class lose their lives in one way or another. That’s what they call ‘the curse of Class 3.’ Of course you know that, right, Reiko?”
    “Oh…Yeah, you’re right,” Reiko replied, her voice husky. Then she curled her right hand into a fist and thumped herself on the head. “Right. That’s what that means.”
    It had been a long time since I’d talked to Reiko like this…Naturally, I was incredibly nervous, and she definitely felt the same.
    “I’m sorry, Koichi. Really sorry.” Reiko swung her head slowly back and forth. “I’m useless…”
    I couldn’t help seeing my mother’s face from the yearbook overlay itself on Reiko’s ashen features. Struggling to quiet the fevered ache in the sinews of my heart, I said, “I want to ask you something about fifteen years ago. When my mom had me and then died in this town…Was that one of the ‘disasters’ for that year?”
    Without confirming or denying it, Reiko only repeated herself: “I’m sorry, Koichi.”
    I’d tried to talk to Reiko about what happened fifteen years ago once before. That was when I’d learned that she, like my mother, had been in Class 3 her third year.
    Did they say “the curse of Class 3” about your class or anything like that back then?
    Reiko had shrugged off my question by saying, “That was fifteen years ago. I forget.”
    Had she been playing dumb? Or had her memories of something that happened fifteen years ago truly become hazy? Normally, I would say it was the former, but the latter was hardly impossible. As Mr. Chibiki had explained to us, people’s retention of memories concerning this “phenomenon” for the most part could definitely not be called good. Plus it seemed to vary between people.
    “Well, Reiko?”
    Still, I had to ask.
    “What do you think it was?”
    “…I don’t know.”
    “Now hold on, Koichi. Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?”
    My grandmother had been listening to our conversation as she cleared the table, but now she paused and her eyes widened.
    Grandma probably doesn’t know , I thought to myself then. Even on the outside chance that she had been told something of the situation in the past, her memories of it would certainly have gotten hazy by now…
    “It’s so sad…”
    Suddenly, my grandfather broke his long silence. His emaciated shoulders trembled and his voice caught in his throat, as if he were choking on tears.
    “Poor, poor Ritsuko. It’s so sad, Ritsuko and Reiko both…”
    “That’s enough, now, Grandpa.”
    My grandmother hurried to his side. She rubbed his back and placated him as if he were a child throwing a tantrum.
    “You mustn’t start thinking like that. There, there. Go over there and have a rest now, Grandpa.”
    I felt as though I could hear the shrill voice of the myna bird Ray overlapping with my grandmother’s voice. “Cheer…Cheer up!”
    My grandmother took my grandfather’s hand and helped him stand up. They eventually made their way out of the room, at which point—
    “…About that year,” Reiko said at last. “I honestly don’t know about what happened to Ritsuko. But…I dunno, I feel like it stopped partway through that year.”
    “It stopped?” Surprised, I repeated what she’d said. “You mean, the ‘disasters’ for that year?”
    “Yeah…”
    She nodded feebly and then thumped herself on the head again.
    There were almost no cases where the “disasters” had stopped once they had begun. This was the