The scene shifts After Classes – School Tour
The school felt different after hours- quieter, more spacious, and free from the crowd. Ruri walked slightly ahead, pointing things out as they moved.
"That's the science wing. You'll probably have classes there on Wednesdays. And that building across the yard is the gym. You'll need indoor shoes if you have PE," she explained.
Ryo nodded along, occasionally asking brief questions. Ruri noticed he was observant, his gaze sharp as if he were memorizing every corridor. They passed a bulletin board where club announcements fluttered under pushpins.
"You thinking of joining a club?"Ruri asked, glancing back at him.
Ryo shrugged. "Maybe. It depends on the club."
"You should come see ours," she said, then realized how that might sound. "I mean, just to look. Koharu and I are in the same one."
"What kind of club is it?" he inquired.
"You'll see."
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The scene shifts to the Club Room
Inside, the room had a strange, lived-in feel, shelves stacked with old books and folders, walls lined with maps, pinned notes, and blurry photographs. The whiteboard near the window was filled with half-erased sketches of old rumors and case notes.
At the table sat Reina, the club president, focused on flipping through a thick binder. Beside her, Minato, wearing his usual easygoing smile, fiddled with a deck of playing cards, stacking them into a lazy tower.
Reina looked up first, her sharp amber eyes immediately locking onto them. She stood, pushing the chair back with a soft scrape.
"You're here," she said, offering a small smile. "And you brought the new guy."
Minato leaned back casually, giving Ryo a lazy two-finger salute. "Yo. Welcome."
"This is Ryo,"Ruri said, stepping a little aside. "He transferred today."
Reina approached, extending her hand with a confident ease that came from being used to leading. "Reina. President of this little chaos factory. Good to have you."
Ryo shook her hand briefly. "Nice to meet you."
Koharu entered right after, balancing canned drinks in her arms. "Hope you're ready for the most interesting club in school," she said, grinning.
Minato chuckled under his breath, his smile widening. "Depends on what you call interesting," he teased, glancing at Reina.
Reina rolled her eyes but smirked. "Ignore him. He's just trying to sound cool. We track down rumors, ghost stories, school legends, stuff no one else looks into."
Ryo's interest visibly piqued at that, his sharp gaze scanning the room more attentively now.
As Reina and Koharu got into a low, animated discussion about a new rumor, something about a piano in the old music room that played itself after dark, Ryo quietly wandered toward the crammed bookshelves at the back of the club room.
He ran his fingers along the rows of binders and worn-out books, most filled with old ghost stories, newspaper clippings, or student-written reports. For a moment, it looked like he was just browsing aimlessly, but his movements felt deliberate, as if he was searching for something specific.
Finally, his hand stopped at a heavy, dust-coated binder awkwardly wedged between two comic anthologies. The label on its cracked spine read in faded ink: "Street 07 Incident Records." He slid it out carefully, and his expression shifted, not surprised, but as if he had been expecting to find it.
The binder was heavier than it appeared. When Ryo opened it, the first page was yellowed, the ink slightly smudged but still readable:
"Seventeen years ago, near the border of town, multiple residents reported strange phenomena surrounding an abandoned road known as 'Street 07.' Witnesses described feeling an overwhelming sense of dread when passing by, followed by periods of unconsciousness. Victims fell into comas shortly after exposure, and none ever recovered."
Photos were clipped to the pages, blurred images of dense woods, narrow paths half-swallowed by undergrowth, and old police tape fluttering uselessly in the breeze.
Ruri, watching from her seat, finally stood up and walked over, stopping beside him to glance down at the binder in his hands.
"Are you interested in that one?" she asked, her voice low.
Ryo didn't look up right away. His eyes traced a photograph, a shot of the forest from seventeen years ago, its edges almost consumed by shadow. "...Just curious," he said after a pause, gently closing the binder. "But this kind of thing... It's different from ghost stories. It feels heavier."
His voice was calm, but there was a faint tightness at the edge of it, like he knew more than he was saying.
Ruri tilted her head slightly, studying him. The case had always unsettled her; even Reina, who loved chasing ghost rumors, rarely brought it up. It wasn't just an urban legend, it was a real mystery that had touched their town long before they were born.
"You've heard about Street 07 before?" she asked.
Ryo finally met her gaze, his expression unreadable. "A little," he said. "Stories have a way of sticking around…"
Before Ruri could press on with her thoughts, Reina clapped her hands again.
"Alright, team!" she called out. "Meeting adjourned. Let's start preparing for tonight."
Ryo closed the binder and slid it back onto the shelf, as if it weighed more than just paper.
Ruri hesitated for a moment longer, then turned away to join the others, but a small knot of unease settled in her chest.
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Reina is an 18-year-old senior high schooler in her last year in Reiyama High, and exudes a mature, dependable presence. She is more like an older sister, she is intelligent and likes mystery stories, that's why she opened the phenomena research club when she was still a 4rth year high school student in this school, and She likes mango.
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Minato is an 18-year-old senior high schooler like Reina, and he is her boyfriend. His personality is cheerful, not that intelligent, just average... He is more into sports, but he joins her in the club in his last year, and he likes mango (cause he is always forced to eat it).