February 12, 2026

There are two schoolgirls. One is an upperclassman, and one is a new student. The two have special powers, and the upperclassman is afraid of the other girl.

The upperclassman is hiding in the shadow of a large wooden worktable, the kind probably found in an art room or a shop room, crying with her arms around her knees. It was a place like the far end of a long corridor in a slightly old building, bright but a little lonely and dark, as if in shadow.

One day, that girl disappeared. And so, it was said that pH had something to do with the cause of the disappearance, and I was doing an experiment together with a teacher in a white coat, a chemistry teacher maybe, and several students.

In a room where little light reflected, the light from the fluorescent lamps felt solid and did not spread much.

On the matte black table, lab equipment was set out in a jumble, and around the middle of the table was a large brown bottle. When I turned the cap, something like dilute acetic acid sprayed out all around, like water from a faucet with a loose washer.

There were other test samples on the table too, and reacting with them, the top of the table looked as if a thin pink layer had been laid over it.

I kept doing that experiment until around 11 p.m., thought, ah, it's gotten late, and went home.

The next day, the new student was being questioned by a teacher about the girl who had disappeared. I was coming up the stairs, the two of them were at the far end of the corridor, and I watched that moment as if looking up at it.

The girl who disappeared seemed to have sent a fax to the new student before she disappeared, and she was being pressed about it. The new student seemed to have a reason, and kept it from the teacher.