The Unspoken Truth Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Some people say I don’t walk to school, they say I’m running. Actually, it’s just a fast walk, but most of my friends regard it as running anyway. And then I reached the gates of my school, the Tokugawa Academy. It’s been standing in its place for more than a decade now, and this is my 5th year in this school. The class of 9-E is quite an unusual class; it’s the class with the most foreigners compared to other classes, hence other students call this class the ‘gaijin no gumi’, the foreigner class. Yes, we’re basically a quite diverse class, from Russia to Yemen to Canada. Therefore, we get to learn more about other people across this globe. It doesn’t matter what they call, anyway, this is an international school, different than other schools across Tokyo. It’s not an elite school as one might think, but the school fees here sometimes make some people blow their eyes out. At a school that has partly foreign students, it has caused some prejudice at the local society and some people at the board of education, but the school has proved itself to offer one of the best education there ever was on Japan, putting most private schools in Tokyo alone out of competition, which made parents unhesitant to signup their children, abolishing the “no-foreigners” idealism which some Japanese still believe in. In the 9th grade hallway, I was among one of the first to arrive. There were several other 9th grade students changing their shoes in their lockers and entering their classes, waiting for their fellow classmates to arrive. My classroom is a bit further to the left from the stairs to our

grade hallway, and the class sign could be seen quite clear from this distance. That dream still lingers in my thoughts. It was like one of those reminiscent scenes of Fatal Frame, but this one’s even scarier to the fact that it seems very real. Adding that I don’t really like horror-related stuff, looks like I’ll have trouble sleeping for the next couple of days. “Yoshio!” Oh, isn’t that Tatsu? It’s not like him to arrive early in the morning. “Oh, hey Tatsu. What makes you so energetic today? You’re usually a walking zombie in mornings, you know.” “Is that so? Well, I know I slept early yesterday, so maybe that’s why I don’t get sleepy this morning… Anyways, I got a problem with my computer last night, would you mind coming to my house after school?” “Sure, why not? I got more time to kill thanks to Richard.” “Oh, thank goodness! I’ll meet you later in class, OK? I need to go to the toilet…,” he said, running to the toilet not far from where we talked. I sat on my table, sort of staring blankly into space. Although one might say it’s not good for you because you can get possessed by “evil spirits”, heck, that rumor was enough of an old belief. To me, it was just one way to get sucked into my own world. Yes, sometimes I want to escape reality and let the world revolve around me. I’m good enough to realize that, and I heard of people who once acted like I did, and changed because of many things, but I guess that time comes differently to other people. Despite that, I have the ability to observe things that other people

don’t notice, which is a good things to at least keep my grades where they should be. I like to observe my classmates. I memorized all their full names, because for me, that is the quickest way to know and identify them. After all, this is a unique class, with people from many different backgrounds with a rainbow of personalities and traits, which reminds me of the diversity of this world. For example, we have Michiyo, a half-Japanese, half-Indonesian transfer student, who lives really close to the Indonesian embassy not far from this school, so transportation is not a problem for her. She’s perky, swift, cheerful and has a beautiful voice. Usually in the mornings, she would shout over Darius’ mischievous acts, such as— “DARIUS! How dare you hide my books away!” She walked in the class cursing in Javanese, one of the many local languages that exist in her country. Anthony and Richard just giggled. “What’s so funny now, you two? And where in the world is that little jester gone off to?” she asked with a smirk. “Well, we don’t know, we just arrived,” said Richard. “Probably’ll come back here when you don’t realize it, that’s what he always does, I say,” Anthony suggested. “Aaagh, just wait and see what I’ll do to him when he comes back….” She drifted to her seat, still mumbling. Well, at least you get the picture, it’s a class quite normal like any other, but it’s the little things that keep it up and running. One by one, my fellow classmates started to enter the classes, building up the noise level little by little. Chats,

whispers and laughs are a common sight to see, like the discussion of BB guns by the Gun Trio Joseph, Asari and Ryouichi, and the talk of football from Yuliya and Nanaho. Nara has just arrived from the administrator’s office and was handing out monthly school news to everyone. Being the so-called ‘officer of administrative affairs’, she makes sure that her duties are not neglected, and she has much attention to detail on top of that. But it’s nice to know that she’s kind and friendly, so everybody likes having her around. Then there’s the soccer boys, Teppei and Nemura, two guys that are seemingly up to no good (mind you, their mischievous acts are different that of Darius’), and who always stick together most of the time wherever they go. From time to time, I guess they will never learn to— “STOP BRINGING THAT STUPID SOCCER BALL TO CLASS, IDIOTS!” Floramaria almost shrieked at them because the ball hit her in the head quite hard. The class quieted down, but then they know what’s going to happen. When Floramaria gets irritated most of the time by either of the guys, she’ll always slap Teppei and not Nemura, for some unknown reason. Rumors say that she’s actually in love with him, but this fact remains a controversial debate that can last for months. Nemura always gets pardoned, but somehow he feels bad about not getting some form of punishment. But we all know that every person needs their own quality time with themselves, so the class atmosphere is not always like this. For example, Yuliya, Kiyomi and Ara, are the people who are bound to be quiet in most times of the day. Doesn’t mean they aren’t a part of the class, but

they’re the more calm types who don’t really get active all the time, like Teppei does. Amidst all the noise, our class door slides. A middle-aged man with a light beard and some gray hair, wearing a light blue shirt, a comes quietly to the class, stopping in front of his desk which is in front of his class, gathered his teaching materials in his drawer and stacked them neatly in his desk. He looked up, and he saw everyone in their seats, attentive and eyes to the front. He smiled as he always does, and said, “Good morning, class.” “Good morning, Hosoya-sensei!” we greeted with perfect unison. “Well, let’s begin the day with the usual attendance, shall we?” He opened the attendance folder, and started calling out the names from the list. “First off, Amano!” He called the first person listed in the attendance folder, Reika. That was her family name, and usually he calls us alphabetically according to our family names. “Here!” She replied. Then he proceeded with the others, calling their names one by one. After he lastly calls out Michiro, whose family name was Yasaku, Sensei surveys the class for a while, looking into their attentive faces, and smiled. “Well then, it’s an unusually cheerful morning is it? Why don’t we open the windows and let the morning breeze enter our class?” Nara gladly opened some of the windows. You know what makes Sensei so loved and respected? He treats us like the way we treat him, so it’s a matter of exchanging each other’s respect. Of course at first, when the class, first started, it wasn’t quite the same as now. But then, with Sensei as our homeroom teacher, he

taught us something other teachers might not teach—the passion of learning. Being our English teacher too (he speaks it like a British would normally speak; very fluent for a teacher like him), he teaches it with much passion, getting us to know Shakespeare and his plays, making us really getting into poems, and so forth. As a result, we are accredited by the whole year level as the class with the most people able to speak English properly, ignoring the fact that it’s the gaijin no gumi, the foreigner class. Of course, there are also our weaknesses. For example, seventy percent of the class always barely passes physics, not because the teacher can’t explain properly, it’s just that our class is not talented at this subject, no matter how hard we try. Enough about our class for now, it’s time to study math. We’ll see Sensei after lunch, so he exits the class and in comes in Masaki-sensei, the math teacher. He loves what he’s teaching and he makes us love it too; and he is mysteriously successful. While he was teaching about logarithms, Tatsu turned to me. “Hey, Yoshio, we’ll be here in lunch time, OK? Don’t go anywhere!” He barely whispered. “Nah, I think I’ll pass that one, I want to be alone today,” I replied. “Oh come on, Yoshio, you already said that many times when I offered you to join me in lunch. I mean, get some improvement this year, be a bit more open to others rather than just alone, you know what I’m saying? Please, I know it might be hard for you, but being alone wouldn’t get you anywhere,” he tried to convince me. For one thing, he’s got a point there.

I have always been the unimportant person in the class in my previous years. Not that I’m being left out, it’s just that I haven’t had any real friends that I can actually talk to when there is a problem. Sometimes when problems come, I just kept it inside my heart, not sharing it with anybody, and I kept it quiet. There are times when I go a bit emotional, but I’m not one of those emo people who cut their own hands and other attempts of suicide. That mental anxiety has long been in my mind those days. Now, it’s a relief that I’ve been better this year; it wasn’t like other years before. “Tomorrow, OK? I promise. I have to go and get some books for the Humanities essay.” I replied. “What the? Isn’t that due one and a half weeks from now?” He asked with a surprised look in his face. “Well, better suffer now than later, right?” I replied, smiling. “Okay….whatever makes you happy…” He said, turning back to Mr Masaki and taking notes of a method he had just written on the board “After today, I’ll be free for the whole week,” I wet a bit closer and whispered. He just raised an “OK” sign without looking. It was obvious what he meant. A smile formed in the corner of my mouth. Well, that makes Tatsu his own self. As they sometimes say, less is more. ----------------------------------The school toilet really needs renovation. The smell of badly managed sewage is starting to make me faint before even I go in and do my business. It was 4 years ago since they made an all-out renovation on the school over

the holidays. Of course, the toilets were renovated, but I’m amazed by how it could turn smelly and unfriendly in quite a short time span. As I washed my hands in the sink after lunch, I advanced to the long twisting corridors of the Tokugawa Academy. It is said that the new students at this academy must need guidance from seniors just to get around, because this school is a pretty huge school, with corridors as one of the vital means of getting around. It is also said that if one has mastered the corridors, that person is capable of navigating almost the entire school. Of course, nobody has ever done that in my subject knowledge. Even I have to remember which corridors go where. “Left, left, middle fork, right…..ah yes, how could I have forgotten the sign?” I asked myself. And there it was, the embedded letters that spelt “To Library” in the wall and had an arrow pointing in that direction. I opened the doors. The air conditioning from the library was the first to greet my body as I enter. Then, the rest was books, books, books everywhere. Of course, you can’t find everything here, but it’s a sight to be awed by book lovers. The tall and long bookshelves are filled by books with a great diversity of subjects, which is a good thing for students who need their resources badly, including me. It’s not as complicated as the corridors, since it has only two floors. “Lets see…..Environmental issues, political issues, psychology, food technology…….ah, here it is!” I found myself in the Geography section. I searched the country I wanted to choose on those 2 bookshelves. “India, Bangladesh, China, Sudan, South Africa…”I mumbled as I was searching for Iceland. Along halfway, I stopped. Not because I found the book about my country

for research; I suddenly stopped. In front of me was a brown book that had red stripes on it. There were some decorative inscriptions on the strips, which seem like writing, but I’m not really sure. The inside of the book was brownish white, which indicated a pretty old book, and there was a red bookmark stuck between the pages. I couldn’t resist my curiosity, so I picked the book, and with it came some dust. “Phew! And I thought the library was always clean,” I grumbled. As I cleared the dust off the book, I saw the cover. “7 Sins of Humanity…..interesting, let’s see if those things they say about sin is true,” I said to myself. What I realized is that the biggest sin that I ever did was to open that very book I held in my palms. At first, I opened the pages and saw the Japanese characters that represented the seven deadly sins. Somehow, these sins seem awfully familiar. And so does the characters inscribed. Donyoku, shikijou, jiman, taishoku, gekido, urayami, taida. Greed, lust, pride, gluttony, wrath, envy, sloth. Their very meanings in the book created a sense of disgust, the wicked things that surround hearts of men, the wide open doors that leads to death, the sinful nature within us all. The despicable evil personalities that created chaos, tragedy, and death throughout history, invulnerable to extinction, an everlasting evil trait within all of us. For a moment, I wanted to close this book, because I do not want to be reminded of such horrible words, but it was too late. I had just realized I made the biggest and worst mistake of my entire life just by opening that book.

My eyes were suddenly sucked into the pages of the book, whirling and whizzing into an infinitely long crevice of blackness, and I remained motionless. When my eyes had control of itself again, I’m standing at a high circular platform the size of half a football field. A very large candelabrum with seven candles on it made a dim light over the dark space to the left me, somewhere around the corner. However, they’re not shining the usual light normal candles emit. The seven candles made the seven colors of the rainbow, beautifully arranged from red to violet. But the glamour lasted only a couple of seconds. I witnessed the lights turn into monochromic colors, such as pale white, pitch black, and tones of pale grey. I stood there watching like an idiot, dumbstruck, partly because I don’t know where in the name of guacamoles am I. “So, curiosity killed the cat, now?” That voice came from nowhere, yet it’s as if I have spoken those words. “Oooo, now you’re confused, eh? How about I come down so you don’t have to keep guessing?” the voice came again. This time I was really terrified. “Hey! Who are you? Why do you speak exactly like me? Come down here!” I taunted the voice. “Ok, fine…” the voice replied. Moments later, I could feel someone was behind my back. I turned around. It was me. “OH MY--”I screamed, literally slipped to the floor and losing balance. My eyes are playing tricks to me now. There on that spot, stood a person who is….me. The face, the body, and the voice, it was me. The only difference is he’s dressed in a tuxedo, with a watch attached to his chest

pocket, wearing a top hat and a cape with an extension that covers his neck, sort of like Dracula’s cape. He also carries a walking stick in one hand. It kind of looks good on him, and I know that I’m actually praising myself, but that’s not the problem now. The problem is, what has he got to do with this otherworldly place? As I hurriedly stood up, I confronted this, this… imposter, face to face. “I don’t know who you are, but you, sir, have failed to resemble me,” I said. “Well, duh, it’s obvious! I mean, I am you. I am no other but you,” he replied as if it was a matter of fact. “Yes, I know you resemble me, but what’s the reason sucking me up to this creepy place?” ”…You do ask a lot, do you?” He asked back. “So what if I’m asking? I just want to know what in the world is going on!” He paused for a while, his cold eyes making a deadlock to mine. Then he turned back and made a click with his finger. In front of him, 29 card-shaped holographic images appeared out of thin air. There was nothing on those cards, and they had a dim glow, but I had a hunch that the numbers point to something, but I’m not sure what is it, with me still panicking and all. “You, my friend, have just hit the biggest jackpot of your life. This is more than just winning a million marbles of pachinko. This is….everything that you have ever wanted, yet you kept it for so many years…Have a guess now, honey.” Honey?! Why in the world would he be calling me like that? He’d be better off working as a fashion designer then in a place like this!

“You know what, you are just making me sick,” I said, annoyed. “Call me what you want, but I’m not kidding here.” He held his palm facing the candelabrum, and then the lights began to shine the 7 colors of the rainbow again. “Pretty, isn’t it?” He said. “Too bad that it’s going to be a tragic horror for your friends…” “…huh? What do you mean?” I asked. He replied nothing. Instead, his hand motioned to the candles, and suddenly the lights on the candles turn into flame orbs, approaching and slowly circling his hand. The candelabrum had no more flames in it. Then, I am not sure what he was mumbling, but after that, the orbs stopped circling, and the red one transformed into a bright yellow ray and dissolved at one of the cards. Slowly, an image appeared. It looked like a person’s face. As the image got clearer and clearer, it revealed a person I know. It was an utter shock. I opened my mouth in disbelief. I stood there, speechless, the truth having hit me so hard that I don’t know what to do anymore. It was Kiyomi, my classmate. Damn this imposter. Now he’s involving my other classmates as well? Then the other orbs began to transform into yellow rays and dissolved, one by one, into other cards. After saving a bit of my conscious back, I looked at the cards that have been assimilated by the rays. Very blurry images of people were showing up too. But most of the cards had stayed vague, such that only their shadows can be seen. There is only one card whose image is clearer than the rest. I took a closer look, and, to my disbelief, it was Floramaria.

“Why on earth are you involving them as well?! Don’t they have nothing to do with me?” I was outraged on him. “….it’s part of the jackpot, that’s why, airhead,” he said, as he turned towards me. “You see, life is not as perfect as what you think. You spend your time dwelling in your own fantasies, ignoring people around you and making you naïve. Now I’ll say that’s not really good for you. Heck, you might even become a hikikomori if you keep your habits.” “…I still don’t get it,” I said, looking puzzled. “Well, fine then if you don’t, you don’t to know right now anyway,” He said, his eyes looking at mine. ”I guess this is the time I say my adieu. Until then,” and the very moment he ended his sentence, coins jingled out of his hand. And then I saw them being fired by him with deadly accuracy and blinding speed. I felt something hot in my neck and body. With each passing millisecond the warmth began to turn into pain. I felt like I was being shot by a shotgun, as blood drizzled out of my neck and stomach, flowing in an endless hemorrhage. The extremely unbearable pain quickly devoured me as I coughed blood and my vision blurred. The last thing I saw before I fell down from the platform into a never-ending darkness was the character 夢幻. Mugen, fantasy. I thought I was dead. But I was not. I blinked my eyes, and there I was, back in the library again. But I was not holding a book. I was holding a piece of paper. It read, “Your destiny has been sealed.” My hands shook and trembled greatly. Having that I can’t take it anymore, I threw the paper in utter disgust as far as I could and ran

back to class. I didn’t really mind about the book that I was searching for earlier; that can wait. “Tatsu! Tatsu! Wait up!” I shouted when I saw him walking to the outdoor field. He caught sight of me, so he waited for me to approach him. “Hey, Yoshio. What’s with all the shouting and running? She just confessed to you or something?” The ‘she’ he was talking about was my crush, but I don’t want to talk about that right now. “You won’t believe this, Tatsu. I was in the library, and then I found this book, ‘7 Sins of Humanity’ or something, and then when I opened it, I was in this place, dark and gloomy me, and then I met this imposter that looks exactly like me, and then—“ “Whoa, Yoshio, CHILL….okay? Chill out; take it easy, you don’t have to go blurting out like that, okay? Besides, you must be seeing things again. Come on, man, just stop it for a while, you know, it’s dangerous if you keep on going like this…” “No, this is serious, and I’m for real here. Go and eat the grass outside if you think I’m just playing around with you here, because I saw this with my very own eyes, and it was very real; heck, I was actually killed by that imposter there!” “Okay, okay, let’s get this straight. Why were you killed when you’re still talking to me right now!?” “That’s the problem; I don’t know! All I can remember is when he killed me, I saw the character mugen, and then I found myself back at the library again. Tatsu, this is definitely something out of the ordinary!” Somehow I found my voice to have a tone of excitement. It is true that one time, I thought that life is rather bland, with routines

that I do in a state of subtle boredom. That is why I had turned into that other world—games, movies, anime, and everything else that is not real. Now, it’s as if the pieces are starting to come together. It seems that my double is realizing my dreams—another world, different and more exciting than this world. However, I had way too much hopes. As I was about to find out what my double is offering to me, my mental roller-coaster had gone way up, waiting to plunge down with incredible speed. It started the next morning when Kiyomi’s eyes were bloodshot…..