024 is here, oh~

Drip, drip.

Walking into the bathroom, the sound of water drops became much clearer.

The female bathroom's main entrance faced the sink, and both faucets were tightly shut. Above the sink was a large mirror.

Sayuri glanced at herself in the mirror.

Perhaps it was the nerves playing tricks on her, but she felt the reflection looking back at her seemed particularly unfamiliar.

"Ishino, take this."

Nagatomo Masao took out his cell phone with his free hand and switched it to camera mode.

Ishino took it with her free hand as well.

Teenagers sometimes harbor thoughts of taking death-defying risks, and they planned to record the process of testing their bravery in the bathroom.

As proof of evidence.

Then, the two of them walked up to the door of the first bathroom stall.

The members of the bravery test squad had already agreed in the classroom; to complete the dare, they needed to perform the rumored "ritual to summon Hanako," once inside the bathroom.

Drip, drip.

Holding their breath, the silence of the female bathroom was filled only with the sound of water drops, each one seeming to strike their hearts.

Nagatomo Masao, like a fearless and incredulous protagonist from a horror movie, stretched out his hand and lightly knocked on the toilet door three times.

And Ishino Sayuri was aiming her phone's camera at him.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Hanako, are you there?" Nagatomo spoke up, his voice sounding a bit distorted in the silence of the bathroom.

In the empty bathroom, naturally, there was no response.

Next stall.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Hanako, are you there?"

Still, no one answered.

But the dripping sounds became slightly clearer and more distinct.

Next, they approached the third stall—the one rumored to be where the ghostly child Hanako appears.

Ishino Sayuri's heartbeat quickened so much that her chest felt slightly tight from the nerves, and she unconsciously gripped Nagatomo Masao's hand a little tighter.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Hanako, are you there?"

Three knocks.

Whether it was because Nagatomo knocked too hard or some other reason, the door to the third stall, which was ajar, swung open abruptly.

Whoosh—whoosh—

In the supposedly unoccupied bathroom, the loud sound of a toilet flushing erupted.

At the same time, Ishino Sayuri's slightly faulty left hearing aid crackled with the sound of electricity.

It seemed as if a little girl's indistinct voice was mixed in, whispering in her ear: "I'm, here, oh~"

"Ah!" Sayuri let out a piercing scream.

The phone in her hand flew out of her grasp.

The boy with the buzz cut was also startled, but when he looked into the toilet stall, it was indeed completely empty.

The flushing toilet was forming a vortex as the water spun down.

"Don't be scared, it's just the toilet not flushing properly," Nagatomo said, though it was uncertain whether he was trying to reassure Sayuri or himself.

"Just now, did you hear it?" Ishino Sayuri asked, still shaken, completely stunned.

She could feel the cold sweat in both their palms.

Drip, drip.

After the flushing noise subsided, the bathroom was so quiet that only the sound of water droplets could be heard.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing, let's get out of here," said Sayuri, not certain if she had indeed heard Hanako's response just a moment ago. After all, the static noise in her hearing aid had been overwhelmingly loud at that instant.

"Alright."

The boy with the buzz cut did not insist on continuing the bravery test or ghost hunting. He picked up the phone from the ground and pulled Sayuri out of the female bathroom.

The moment they stepped out of the female bathroom, Ishino Sayuri stole a glance back with the corner of her eye. She looked toward the sink and the reflection in the mirror, which still appeared unfamiliar.

And both faucets were turned off tight, with no dripping water.

Sayuri suddenly realized something.

If the taps of the washbasin were all tightly closed, then where were the dripping sounds coming from that had persisted throughout their courage test and ghost hunting with Nagatomo?

Ishino Sayuri really didn't dare to dwell on this question that scared her, nor did she dare to bring it up to Nagatomo right then and there.

Perhaps it was just the toilet that was dripping water?

Or maybe one of the pipes had a leak?

In the pitch-dark corridor, the pace of the two high school students' footsteps got faster and faster until they ended up running back to classroom 3-C, practically holding hands.

"What happened, did you see Hanako? You two look terrified."

The tall and handsome captain of the baseball team, Nagasaki Yuma, who had been sitting at a desk by the classroom door, cuddling with his girlfriend, teased as he saw the disheveled pair return from the first courage test.

"I think we need to leave," Ishino Sayuri said breathlessly.

"Huh? You guys are such cowards," Nagasaki let go of his girlfriend.

"No, senior Nagasaki. There's something weird about that bathroom," Nagatomo Masao said, his expression still one of someone who had yet to recover from shock.

The few high schoolers in the classroom, seeing the serious faces of the two who had returned from their first attempt at the courage test, began to look a little uneasy.

"Let's go, let's go. It's not interesting anyway," Matsushima, who suddenly found herself alone without understanding why, was the first to speak up.

This beautiful high school girl had lost all interest in that night's courage test.

Since nearly half the group was already backing out, the others were beginning to waver.

"Then next week, let's just say we all made a round to that bathroom," Nagasaki Yuma, who had initially insisted on taking the courage test with his girlfriend, finally gave up, "By the way, Nagatomo. You guys got a video of it, right?"

"Yes, we do."

The young man with the buzz cut took out his phone only to discover that the ghost hunting video shot in the bathroom was inexplicably full of snow and dead pixels.

After playing it, one could only hear sounds:

His own voice with Ishino Sayuri, the sound of knocking on the bathroom door, the toilet flushing, and that intermittent dripping sound.

"It must have been damaged by accident just now," Nagatomo scratched the back of his head.

"So useless, you guys. How are we going to prove to those guys in the track team that we were here?" Nagasaki Yuma said, clearly annoyed.

"Sorry, senior."

"Never mind, never mind."

"Let's go, let's go, it's boring."

Eventually, the group decided to call an early end to the night's courage test and left classroom 3-C.

At the same time.

The bathroom at the end of the corridor.

The sound-activated incandescent light was still flickering on and off.

There was no dripping from the faucets on the washbasin, but the tapping sound of water drops mysteriously continued to echo.

The surface of the mirror sitting on the counter showcased everything with an eerie familiarity, as if the scene reflected was not a reality but a projection from another world.

The mirror faced the bathroom door, but if one stood at just the right angle to the far right, it was possible to see inside a few of the stalls.

There, quietly hanging over the partition of the third stall, was a shadowy figure.

It was a girl with a bob haircut, wearing a red sundress.

The girl's head was twisted at a right angle, looking over everything in the bathroom, and from her red dress dripped beads of fresh blood.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

The next second, the girl's figure vanished into thin air.

The sound of the water droplets in the bathroom abruptly stopped.

...

The group daring the courage test walked through the unlit stairwell of the school building.

Ishino Sayuri still held Nagatomo Masao's hand.

In the darkness, someone's footsteps in the group suddenly picked up speed, echoing with three distinct sounds against the stair treads.

Tap, tap, tap.

At the same time, Sayuri's somewhat malfunctioning hearing aid in her left ear buzzed with static noise again.

On instinct, she turned her head back, but all that lay behind her was pitch darkness.

It seemed like there was nothing there.

A bit scared, Sayuri turned back around, lowering her face and just focused on walking.

Tap, tap, tap.

Again, someone hastened their footsteps, tapping three times on the stair.

In the obscurity, the figure of a short-haired girl in a red dress flitted by, unnoticed.

Tap, tap, tap—

"I'm, here, you know~"