Yasutaka Tsutsui - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

It had been hours since most of the students had left the school building. Its halls and classrooms were now cold, and everywhere was quiet, except for the distant sound of someone playing Chopin’s ‘Polonaise’ on the piano in the auditorium.

Kazuko Yoshiyama was in her last year of junior high school, and she’d just about finished cleaning up the science lab with her classmates, Kazuo Fukamachi and Goro Asakura.

“That’s good enough. I’ll take out the trash,” she said. “You boys can go wash your hands.”

As the tall and lanky Kazuo left the room with the short and stocky Goro, Kazuko had to stop herself from letting out a chuckle at the contrast between her two friends. They were very different in other ways too. Both of them were very clever, that was for sure. But while Goro worked hard and could be very impulsive, Kazuo was a bit of a dreamer. In fact, he often seemed to be in a world of his own, and Kazuko could never be sure of what he was thinking.

While washing their hands in the bathroom sink, Goro looked over at Kazuo.

“Kazuko’s cute, and she’s nice, too. But she can be a little overbearing at times, can’t she?”

Goro liked to pepper his sentences with big words from time to time.

“Oh yeah?” said Kazuo, who had been miles away again. “What makes you say that?”

“Don’t you think she can be overbearing?” said Goro, puffing up his chest to match his face, which was always rather red and puffy. “She treats us like we’re kids. Come on. You boys can go and wash your hands, she says.”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” replied Kazuo, who already appeared to be setting off on another excursion in his mind.

Kazuko took the trash out to the back of the building and came back to the small science lab to put away some brooms they’d been using. But as she placed her hand on the doorknob, she thought she heard a sound coming from inside.

“That’s odd,” thought Kazuko.

Although it was called the small science lab, the room was generally used as a storage space and was filled with lots of interesting things like jars of biological samples, skeletons, stuffed animals and all kinds of chemicals. For most of the girls in the school, the room was a creepy place best avoided. But Kazuko wasn’t the sort of person to mind.

“Nobody should be in here,” said Kazuko to herself.

“I wonder if it could be Mr Fukushima?”

But then, she’d seen her teacher leave earlier through another door, so it surely couldn’t be him making the noise. So who could it be? Kazuko started to feel a little scared. But nevertheless, she managed to summon up the courage to open the door. But as soon as she did, there was a great smash, and the sound of breaking glass echoed around the walls of the room.

“Who’s there?” said Kazuko, her voice wavering as she struggled to see in the dark.

She could just about see that there were some test tubes lined up along a desk in the middle of the room, and it seemed that one of those had simply rolled off onto the floor, leaving a pool of liquid to spread across the tiles. Someone must have been doing an experiment in here, she thought. But who? And where on earth did they go?

Kazuko walked over to the desk to read the labels on the bottles of chemicals lined up next to the test tubes. But before she could, a dark shadow jumped out from behind the chemicals cabinet and scuttled behind a partition next to the door. Kazuko froze. Could it be a burglar?

“Who’s there?” she called out. “Stop scaring me like that, and show yourself!”

The door leading to the hallway rattled.

“It’s no use trying to escape to the hall!” yelled Kazuko, trying hard to stop her fear from overwhelming her. “That door is locked!”

When Kazuko’s voice had echoed away, the room fell back into silence. With no more rattling of the door and not a sound from behind the partition.

“I know who you are!” said Kazuko, feeling a little more brave. “Come out Kazuo! Or Goro! I know it’s one of you two trying to scare me!”

Kazuko waited for a response, but none came. So instead, she gulped down her fear and tiptoed over to the partition. Then she stopped, took a quiet breath, and slowly peered around the edge. But incredibly, there was nobody there.

“What just happened?” gasped Kazuko, incredulously.

Was that someone’s shadow she’d seen? She was sure of it. There was no way it could have been an illusion. No, she was sure she’d seen somebody move behind the partition.

Kazuko reached for the door that led to the hallway and tried pulling it. But, just as she thought, it was locked. So whoever had been here clearly hadn’t left through there. So where had they gone? They couldn’t have just vanished. That would be ridiculous. But what other explanation was there?

Completely confused, Kazuko slowly returned to the desk where the test tubes were lined up. There was a slight hint of a sweet scent in the air, and Kazuko assumed it must be coming from the contents of the broken test tube. And though she wasn’t quite sure what the scent was, she did notice that it was quite pleasant. In fact she could remember smelling this before somewhere. It was something sweet and nostalgic. But what was it?

She reached for one of the bottles of chemicals on the desk and tried to read the label. But it was too dark for her to see properly. She tried squinting to see if that helped, but as she did, she started to feel light-headed. That sweet smell was growing stronger by the second until — all of a sudden — it overpowered her, sending her crumbling to the floor and into unconsciousness.

A few minutes later, Kazuo and Goro returned to the science lab.

“Come on, Kazuko. Let’s go!” called out Kazuo.

“We’ve got your bag here!” Goro added in a loud voice as he pushed open the door to the main lab. But the lab was empty.

“I guess she hasn’t got back from taking out the trash yet. Probably ran into someone and is still out there chatting away. Girls just love to talk!”

“I doubt it,” said Kazuo, in his usual relaxed way, as he pointed to the door of the smaller lab. “She’s probably in there putting away the brooms.”

Goro walked off towards the small science lab, swinging his bag and Kazuko’s as he went.

“Nope. She’s not here.” He called out, before suddenly letting out a high-pitched scream.

“What’s up?” called Kazuo, running in after to find Goro standing by the side of Kazuko, who was lying still on the floor.

“What’s happened?” asked Goro, trembling. “She’s not… dead… is she?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” said Kazuo, taking her wrist in his hand and checking her pulse. “She seems fine. Can you grab her legs?”

“What for?”

“So we can carry her to see the nurse, of course! I think she’s fainted.”

When the three of them reached the nurse’s room, there was no one there. So Kazuo and Goro lay Kazuko down on the bed.

“I’ll go look for a teacher,” said Kazuo. “You open that window and find a way to cool her forehead.”

Goro was clearly frightened, and he nodded without a word. Then, after Kazuo had left, he composed himself for a moment, opened the window and dabbed his handkerchief in water before placing it on Kazuko’s head.

“It’s probably exhaustion,” Goro mumbled to himself sheepishly. “It’s ridiculous for them to ask the three of us to clean a room that big!”

“Come on Kazuko! Wake up!” said Goro with tearful eyes as he dabbed the handkerchief in water again and placed it back on her forehead.