The tower didn’t make a sound after the eighth toll.
That was how Kaze knew it was listening.
He stood on the roof with eight other people and felt the weight in his chest like a second heart.
It wasn’t beating.
It was waiting.
The sky above them was black.
No stars.
No moon.
Just the bell in the tower, cracked down the middle and humming so low no one else could hear it.
Kaze could.
He could hear everything now.
The way Mizuki’s breathing hitched every few seconds.
The way Ren’s knife tapped against his leg.
The way Yui’s fingers moved even when she wasn’t folding.
The way the school itself was holding its breath.
One toll left.
“We should go down,” Ren said finally.
“Down where?”
“Anywhere but here.”
Kaze shook his head.
“It will find us.”
“Then we make it find us on our terms,” Mizuki said.
No one argued.
They went down together.
The stairs were normal again.
No light in the walls.
No shadows.
Just stone and the sound of their feet.
Room 32 was exactly the way they left it.
Beds unmade.
Cranes hanging.
Lantern cold.
They sat on the floor.
In a circle.
Like they always did now.
Kaze was in the middle.
Because the weight was in him and everyone knew it.
“How long do we have?” Sora asked.
“Until it rings,” Kaze said.
“When is that?”
“When it decides.”
Silence.
Yui was folding.
Slow.
Each crease deliberate.
“Then we decide first,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“We choose what the last toll takes.”
“No,” Kaze said immediately.
“You said that before,” Ren said. “And you stepped up.
This time we choose together.”
Kaze looked at each of them.
Mizuki.
Ren.
Yui.
The twins.
Sora.
The glasses boy.
The boy who fainted.
Nine people.
One choice.
“I’m not letting any of you—”
“You don’t get to decide alone,” Mizuki cut in.
“That’s the whole point, Kaze.
You kept us alive by taking it.
Now let us help you carry it.”
The lantern flickered.
Not from wind.
From something else.
The bell hummed.
Louder.
Kaze closed his eyes.
He could feel it.
The thing inside the bell.
The thing that had been feeding for two hundred years.
It was awake now.
And it was hungry.
_Echo Sight_ flickered.
Not a vision.
Just a feeling.
Nine seconds.
No location.
No target.
Just the end.
He opened his eyes.
“I can feel it,” he said. “It’s not picking one person anymore.
It’s picking all of us.”
Ren swore.
“So the whole ‘one dies’ thing was a lie?”
“No,” Yui said. “It was a rule.
Rules can change when the bell breaks.”
“And the bell is breaking,” Mizuki finished.
The floor shook.
Just a little.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
From outside, a sound.
Not a bell.
A crack.
Like stone splitting.
They all stood.
The hallway was dark.
The lights were out.
But the walls were glowing.
Faint gold lines running through the stone.
Like veins.
The same gold as the segments on the floor of the bell room.
The same gold as the mark Kaze could feel in his chest.
“It’s spreading,” Mizuki whispered.
“What is?”
“The school.
It’s trying to keep itself alive.”
They walked.
Together.
Down the hall.
Past empty classrooms.
Past doors that were closed and then opened by themselves as they passed.
The courtyard was wrong.
The grass was gray.
The trees had no leaves.
The air smelled like rust and old paper.
And the tower.
The crack in the bell had spread.
Light was coming out of it.
Gold light.
And black smoke.
Hoshizaki was standing at the base of the tower.
Alone.
She didn’t look 30 anymore.
She looked old.
Tired.
Two hundred years tired.
“You came,” she said.
“We didn’t have a choice,” Kaze said.
“There’s always a choice.”
“Not this time.”
Hoshizaki looked at the bell.
Then at Kaze.
“You feel it, don’t you?
The weight.”
“Yes.”
“Good.
Then you understand.”
“Understand what?”
“What it costs to keep something alive.”
She walked to the tower and put her hand on the stone.
The gold lines in the wall pulsed.
“I rang the bell two hundred years ago,” she said.
“I thought I was saving everyone.
And I did.
For a while.
But it needs more.
It always needs more.”
“So stop feeding it,” Ren said.
“I tried,” Hoshizaki said. “The first time I didn’t ring it, the school started to die.
Students got sick.
The walls bled.
So I rang it again.
And again.
And again.”
She turned to them.
“I’m sorry.”
The bell rang.
Not _DONG_.
A crack.
A sound like the world splitting.
The ninth toll.
Kaze felt it hit him in the chest.
_Echo Sight._
Nine seconds.
Everywhere.
The school.
All of them.
The bell breaking open.
And the thing inside coming out.
He grabbed Mizuki’s hand.
And Ren’s.
“Stay together!”
The ground split.
Stone rose up.
The tower groaned.
The bell broke.
Light poured out.
Gold and black at the same time.
And from inside it, a shape.
Too big.
Too many parts.
Hands and mouths and eyes that weren’t eyes.
The Veil.
It didn’t have a face.
It had all of them.
It looked at Kaze.
And spoke in his head.
`NINE.`
`ONE.`
`PAY.`
The shadows came.
Not nine.
Hundreds.
From the ground.
From the walls.
From the air.
They moved for all of them.
Kaze stepped forward.
“I’m the Anchor,” he said.
“Take me.”
The shadows stopped.
For a second.
Then they moved faster.
Mizuki’s hands lit up.
Brighter than before.
She pushed and the light hit the shadows and burned them.
Ren threw everything he had.
The twins linked hands and the air between them warped.
Sora was fighting with her fists again.
The glasses boy was shouting something that sounded like math.
The boy who fainted was standing and not falling.
Yui was in the center, and the shadows weren’t touching her.
But there were too many.
One got through.
To the glasses boy.
Its hand went for his chest.
Kaze moved.
Nine seconds.
He had them.
He got there in four.
And put himself between the shadow and the boy.
It hit him.
Cold.
Weight.
The feeling of falling forever.
He went down.
The world went black.
Then hands.
Pulling him up.
Mizuki.
Crying.
“Don’t you dare.
Don’t you dare.”
Kaze coughed.
He was breathing.
His chest hurt like it was on fire.
The Veil was still there.
Bigger now.
The bell was gone.
Just pieces on the ground.
Hoshizaki was standing in front of it.
Her hands were glowing.
The same gold as the lines in the wall.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
And she stepped into the Veil.
The Veil screamed.
The sound was every bell in the world ringing at once.
Hoshizaki’s body lit up.
Gold light pouring out of her.
Into the Veil.
“I kept it alive too long,” she said.
“Let me end it.”
The Veil thrashed.
Shadows flew everywhere.
Kaze stood up.
He could barely stand.
But he did.
He walked to the Veil.
To Hoshizaki.
“Let me help,” he said.
Hoshizaki looked at him.
“You don’t have to.”
“I do,” Kaze said. “Because I’m the Anchor.
And anchors hold.”
He put his hand on her back.
And felt it.
The weight.
The two hundred years.
The lives.
The guilt.
He took it.
The gold light moved from Hoshizaki to him.
Hoshizaki collapsed.
Ren caught her.
Kaze was glowing now.
The same gold.
The mark on his chest was burning.
Four segments.
Then five.
Then all nine.
A full circle.
The Veil screamed again.
And lunged for him.
Kaze didn’t move.
He just stood there.
And thought of his sister.
Of being nine seconds too late.
He wasn’t late.
He rang the bell.
Not with sound.
With himself.
_DONG._
The ninth toll.
The Veil shattered.
Like glass.
Like smoke.
Like nothing.
The light went out.
Silence.
Kaze was on his knees.
The gold was gone from his chest.
The mark was gone.
Just skin.
Someone was holding him.
Mizuki.
She was crying.
“Are you— are you okay?”
“I think so,” Kaze said.
His voice was hoarse.
Ren was holding Hoshizaki.
She was breathing.
Barely.
But breathing.
The others were standing.
Shaking.
But standing.
The tower was still standing too.
But the bell was gone.
Just an empty frame at the top.
The gold lines in the walls were fading.
The grass in the courtyard was turning green again.
It was over.
No one said anything for a long time.
Then Yui spoke.
She was holding something.
A paper crane.
White.
“It didn’t whisper,” she said.
She held it out to Kaze.
He took it.
It was warm.
Footsteps.
Teachers.
Students.
They had heard the sound.
They were coming.
Hoshizaki opened her eyes.
She looked at Kaze.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
“You don’t have to be,” Kaze said.
“I do,” she said. “For all of it.”
She closed her eyes again.
The medics came.
They took Hoshizaki away.
They checked everyone else.
No one was hurt.
Not really.
Back in Room 32, they sat in a circle again.
No one talked about what happened.
Not yet.
Kaze was holding the crane.
It didn’t move.
It didn’t whisper.
It just sat there.
Mizuki leaned her head on his shoulder.
Ren was asleep on the floor.
The twins were sharing a blanket.
Sora was cleaning her knuckles.
The glasses boy was asleep with his glasses still on.
The boy who fainted was actually sleeping.
Yui was folding.
New paper.
Not cranes.
Stars.
Kaze looked at his chest.
No mark.
No cold.
Just skin.
He breathed in.
Breathed out.
He wasn’t waiting anymore.
The school was quiet.
Not the waiting kind of quiet.
The peaceful kind.
Morning came through the windows.
Real morning.
With light.
People started moving in the halls.
Laughing.
Talking.
Living.
No one mentioned the bell.
No one mentioned the tolls.
But they all knew.
Something had changed.
Kaze stood up.
He walked to the window.
The tower was still there.
But it was just a tower now.
No bell.
No curse.
Just stone.
He put the crane on the windowsill.
It stayed.
Behind him, Mizuki woke up.
“Morning,” she said.
“Morning,” Kaze said.
She came and stood next to him.
“Do you feel it?”
“What?”
“The quiet.
The real kind.”
Kaze nodded.
“I do.”
Ren groaned from the floor.
“Is it over?”
“I think so,” Kaze said.
Ren sat up.
“Good.
Because I’m starving.”
Everyone laughed.
It was the first time they had laughed like that.
Like they meant it.
Later, they went outside.
The garden was growing again.
Students were in it.
Not because they had to be.
Because they wanted to be.
Someone had put a bench in.
Carved into it were words.
`NO ONE DIES ALONE.`
Kaze sat on it.
Mizuki sat next to him.
Ren sat on the other side.
Then Yui.
Then the others.
No one talked.
They just sat.
The sky was blue.
The air was warm.
Kaze closed his eyes.
He could still feel it sometimes.
The weight.
But it was lighter now.
Because he wasn’t carrying it alone.
He opened his eyes.
Looked at the people around him.
Nine people.
Who chose to stay.
He smiled.
It felt strange.
But good.
The bell would never ring again.
And that was enough.
Later, Kaze went back to Room 32.
He took the crane from the windowsill.
And put it in a box with the others.
Yui had started a new book.
On the first page she had written:
`WE ARE HERE.`
Kaze added one line underneath:
`WE CHOSE.`
He closed the book.
Outside, the school was loud.
In a good way.
Talking.
Music.
Someone was singing off key.
Kaze liked it.
He lay down on his bed.
Closed his eyes.
And slept.
All the way through.
No dreams.
No bells.
No fire.
Just sleep.
When he woke up, the sun was on the floor.
And Room 32 was full.
Not from fear.
From choice.
Kaze smiled.
The story wasn’t over.
But this part was.
And the next part would be theirs.
To write.
Together.
*END CHAPTER 5*
***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***
Updated 43 Episodes
Download
Like this story? Download the app to keep your reading history.
Comments