Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [87]
“So, what is it?” Wataru asked flatly. No matter what Katchan could possibly have to say, it couldn’t begin to compare with what he had experienced last night. He could tell him the world was ending, and it would have all the excitement of going to a lizard exhibition after watching Jurassic Park.
“You don’t know. Wataru. You don’t know?!” Katchan looked astonished and overjoyed all at once. “Oh goody, I found someone who hasn’t heard yet! Now I get to be the one who tells him!” Classic Katchan.
“Kenji Ishioka’s gone missing!”
The two boys had just reached the landing of the staircase that went up to the second floor classrooms. Wataru stopped short, and a girl walking behind him smacked into him.
“Oh, sorry, Wataru,” she said, giving him a playful slap on the shoulder. “Don’t stop all of a sudden like that!”
Wataru rocked to the side. His eyes were fixed, staring at the space above Katchan’s face. He looked like he had completely lost his mind.
Katchan stepped back. “Whoa, Wataru, you okay? How hard did ya hit him, Sanae?”
Saying nothing, Wataru took a step closer to Katchan. His friend quickly took a step back. The girl Sanae walked over, a look of concern on her face.
“Kenji Ishioka? You mean that Kenji Ishioka?” Wataru asked, barely breathing.
“The very one,” Katchan said with authority. “Sixth grade. Mean. You know any other creeps with that name?”
“He’s missing?”
“Gone without a trace, since this morning,” Sanae joined in. “They called the cops, made a big deal about it. His mom called the school. That’s why the sixth-grade teachers are all upset this morning.”
“That’s right, you live near him, don’t you,” Katchan said to her. “My dad’s a volunteer at the fire department. He says they’re out looking for him now.”
“If you ask me, they’re making a big deal out of nothing,” Sanae said, brushing her hair off her shoulders. “Kenji goes out every night. You know Makiko? Her parents own this building by the station, they’ve got a video game parlor there. They say that Kenji and his gang are there until all hours of the night sometimes, and they won’t leave no matter how many times they get warned.”
“Sure, he may go out at night, but this is the first time he hasn’t come back,” Katchan explained. “And today was supposed to be this big day—something about him being in an audition for a television show.”
“So there’s no way he wouldn’t come home?”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Sanae said with a sickeningly cute smile. “Maybe he was afraid he’d go to the audition and get cut again, so he ran away from home? There’s no way they’d let someone like Kenji go on television, anyhow. He looks like a bulldog.”
Katchan was ecstatic. “Totally! He’s got the nose for it and everything.”
“Like an idiot gorilla.”
“You know it. I wonder why no one has ever told him to his face.”
“Be my guest!”
“Me? No way.”
“Chicken!”
Katchan did his best impersonation of a chicken clucking, and the two burst into laughter. A strange high-pitched voice interrupted the laughter. It took Wataru a split second to realize that it was his. “Is it only Kenji who’s missing?”
Katchan and Sanae turned back to him. “Huh?”
Wataru averted his eyes. Mechanically, he repeated his question. “Is only Kenji missing? Did any of his friends go missing too?”
Katchan and Sanae looked at each other. “I don’t know…”
“But maybe…” Katchan began, catching the scent of another potential rumor. “If three of them disappeared together, now that would be cause a-plenty for all this fuss.”
“Hey, Wataru, what’s wrong?” Sanae asked, grabbing Wataru by the elbow. “You look pale.”
The school bell was ringing. Students were shuffling into their classrooms.
Wataru opened his mouth, saying something.