Title: Mother's Day

Series: Jigoku Shoujo

Genre: Horror

Rating: PG-13

Type: Serialized Short Story

Status: Incomplete

Summary: When one seeks revenge they are required to pay compensation, sometimes one pays more then what they bargained for.

While this story is not about me, everyone else who was witness to the events has passed on or are missing without a trace, which as I see it means the same thing. I am the only one who can tell the story now. I recognize that my position in these events only gives a peripheral view of what happened but what I know must be said in order for those who seek to make the same mistake as Hisako, who is…was my best-friend.

The day when I found out about everything it was mid-summer with temperatures reaching the nineties. That day we had the misfortune of sitting in a classroom with no AC. This is not to say that the school didn’t have AC but that it was broken. You could hear everyone complaining, not only the student but teachers as well thought they tried to keep their descent as quiet as possible. I walked into room late and gave a swift apologetic bow as I hastily took my seat. The teacher, much like everyone else, seemed very lethargic as he moved slowly down the role call. As I put my bag into the attachment on the desk the teacher called my name, I replied, “Here”. The teacher looked to want to say something but instead of wasting his energy on that he continued with list. Eventually he got to Hisako’s name, but there was no reply when he called it out. I turned my head slightly to get a peripheral view of her desk, which was empty, and furrowed my brow.

“It looks like you are not the only one late today, Sugihara-san,” I turned to look at the teacher with my face flushed. He smiled and gave a small cough-like laugh as if he had said something funny but was try to keep his amusement low key. There were few snickers among the students though. Since the beginning of the school year, the first period math teacher had pinpointed me as the “late one”. Thought it was a rare occurrence when I am late, maybe once or twice in a school year, he would often in irregular intervals try and humiliate me by saying things like this. He would always say it with a smile and his little laugh which agitated me more then his comments. His face was hiding his true intentions, like poison being fed with sugar. My face must have been betraying my true feelings which must have been fueling him to keep going with the running joke even while no one else was amused anymore.

The teacher continued quickly not giving me a chance to respond, thought I had no intention to anyway. Role call was finally finished, ending on the class representative. What came next was what seemed like cruel and unusual punishment when placed together with the oppressive weather. Fifty minutes of Mathematics was painful enough for me but then there was the test today. I could hear others mumble their complaints, all of the agreeing that this was a sadistic teacher’s form of torture but none of them tried to do anything about it.

If I were to say that time moved slowly during this day it would be a gross understatement, when it felt quite literally like spending eternity in hell. 

*              *              *

“Sugihara-kun,” I looked up from my bag, which I was loading so I could head home, to see the class rep standing in front of me. From the crisp uncrumpled papers that he held in his hand I knew what he was going to ask but I politely let him speak. “Y-you live by Takemoto’s house, don’t you? T-takemoto told me once, not like I am pervert or…I was wonder if you could give these to her? Today’s work.”

From his formal, yet clumsy manner you would think that this school papers were a note tied to a rose. I smiled inwardly to myself thinking how adorable the class rep was. He seemed to be under the impression that he was being coy but almost everyone knew that he had a crush on Hisako. I accepted the papers from his shaking hands which was replied with a meek, “Thank you”. I bowed as he turned and walked to the door in a rigid manner that looked like he was trying to keep himself from running. When he was gone out of the room I placed the paper into my school bag, giving Hisako’s desk another sideways glace.

She hadn’t come at all today and I was somewhat worried though I figured that there was a good explanation since Hisako unlike me had never been late in her life for anything let alone absent, but I figure that is what really terrified me. Was she seriously sick? Injured? Close to death? That was the only thing that I thought could stop her from attending school. Thought I walked to her house at the normal rate it seemed with all of my concern that I had been moving at a snail's pace. When I got to her house thought I was relieve to see her, though equally troubled when I noticed her tear-stained eyes. Though she wasn’t crying anymore I could tell from her swollen red eyes that had been only minutes before.