School, Language Arts Classroom, Second Period, Present
During an exam, a faint whispering noise is heard. "What answer did u get for this one?"Mrs. Yamato, recognizing the voice, walks over to a student she believes it belongs to, sitting in the back of the class: Mika Sutori.
“I knew you were cheating,” Mrs. Yamato says, looking down menacingly at the student. “I saw through that whole spiel of yours from last week, saying you would get your grades up. I knew you resorted to this. Who were you talking to? I’ll invalidate their test also!”
“No, I promise that wasn’t me talking, Mrs. Yamato,” Mika says, panicking.“Really? Who else could’ve said that in your voice?”
“I…I don’t know. Maybe -”
"Yeah, question 15 is—" the voice whispers again, cutting her off.“See!” Mika says excitedly. “It cut me off, meaning it couldn’t have been me!”
“Yeah, you’re right. It came from…behind you,” the teacher says in a confused manner.
“Behind? But there’s no one- ”
“Mika. Open that closet behind you. It’s coming from there.”
Mika turns around to find the supply closet, standing up and reaching to open it with one hand. A voice whispers the answer to question 15 from last week’s test.
Mika freezes. Those voices are coming from inside the empty closet. That's her voice.
She slams the door shut, backing away.
"The... the closet is talking." Mika stutters.
Silence. Then, faintly: "—is C, not B. Trust me."
The whole class crowds around. Someone records on their phone.
Nothing plays back, but everyone hears it.
By lunch, the whole school knows. Students are testing every room.
Library, 11:47 PM, Present
"—won't believe what happened in PE—" A conversation from last week.
Music Room B, 12:15 PM, Present
"—breaking up with you—" Three days ago. Everyone remembers that drama.
Chemistry Classroom, 1:30 PM, Present
Maruka sits in chemistry on her phone, her lab partner talking to her while they do a combustion experiment.
"This is weird, right?" the girl says. "Like really weird?"
"Maybe it's a prank," Maruka offers, immediately looking back down at her phone, invested back into a text thread with Mika.
“how's ur cooking been? saw ur post about that class,” Maruka texts.
“oh that? in the past. got bored after I won that cooking comp”
“already??? that was like 2 weeks ago”
“yeah. mastered all the techniques.”
“normal people take years to master cooking lmao”
“i guess, but people don't optimize their learning. started languages now. japanese is pretty easy once you understand the pattern recognition”
“which language?”
“all of them. well, the major ones. arabic's interesting, completely different structure”
“lol what happens when u run out of things to master?”
“idk. haven't thought that far ahead”
Maruka sends a laughing emoji, then clicks out of the conversation and clicks on Niche.
"bro where are you?? rooms are literally talking"
No response.
Read receipts off.
Marine Biology Classroom, 1:35 PM, Present
Ryota gets a text notification on his phone, pulling it out during the teacher’s lecture.
What? Ryota thinks. It shows the project was graded, and Niche and I got full credit. But Niche isn’t at school today, so he must have finished the whole thing yesterday. How did he turn the project in? And it got graded that quickly? On top of that, he was responsible for gathering the information, not putting it together. That must mean be completed both parts of the entire multi-weeklong project yesterday after I talked to him. What the hell is Niche doing?
Biology Classroom, 1:40 PM, Present
Usui pulls out his notebook and takes notes:
- Language arts closet: 2nd period
- Library: 11:47
- Music B: 12:15
He's looking for patterns. Always patterns.
Someone screams in the hallway outside his room, audible enough for everyone to hear, and the class, along with other surrounding classes, rushes to the hallway. A girl from freshman class is pressed against the wall, pale.
"I heard... I heard myself. In there." She points at Room 141. "But I was saying... I was talking about tomorrow's quiz. The one we haven't taken yet."
The hallway goes silent.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"That's impossible," someone says.
Maruka, now in the same hallway as Usui and next to Ryota, is already checking her phone. 1:41 PM.
"Room 141. At 1:41," she mutters.
Ryota hears her. "You think the room number—"
"Matches the time." Usui appears beside them, notebook out. "Every echo happened when the room number matched the clock."
They look at each other. Three people who barely interact, suddenly having the same thought.
"We need to test this," Maruka says.
"Room 147," Ryota checks his phone. "In six minutes."
"Let's go."
They move together, an unlikely trio. Rounding a corner, they see Mika, who calls out:
"Maruka, where you going?"
"To figure this out," Maruka calls back. “You can come, but we gotta hurry. This campus is way bigger than it should be.”
School Exit, Present
Chigan exits the building to go to the vending machine. He puts in a couple quarters, but before clicking his desired snack, a familiar voice speaks to him from around the corner.
"I need your father's access codes,” Niche says.
Chigan's jaw tightens. "No. I already gave you—"
"You gave me nothing. Car keys. Some fear from classmates." Niche's voice stays level. "I need real access."
"I can't. Those are classified—"
"Remember what happened last time you said no to me?"
Chigan's face goes pale. He remembers his mother. The announcement. How Niche somehow knew it would happen. "You... you wouldn't."
"Wouldn't I?" Niche leans forward. "Your father came back from that work trip, right? He drives the same route every morning. 7:15 sharp. Right past that construction site on Fifth."
"Stop."
"Accidents happen, Chigan. Especially to people who don't cooperate."
Chigan's hands shake as he pulls out his phone. "I'll... I'll need to go home. Get into his office."
"Take as long as you need."
Room 147 is empty. They wait. 1:46... 1:47...
A voice, clear as day: "—can't keep doing this. The cycles are killing me—"
They don't recognize the speaker. But the words send chills.
"Past or future?" Ryota whispers.
"How do we tell?" Maruka's mind races.
Usui's writing frantically. "We need more data. Split up. Check rooms at their exact times. Meet back in half an hour."
They disperse. The hunt is on.
For the next hour, they work separately.
At the end, they meet at 2:20 in the library. Compare notes.
"It's real," Maruka says. "Past and future, both."
"But why?" Ryota's drumming his fingers. "And how do we know which is which?"
Usui spreads his notes out. "Look at the pattern. Emotional moments echo stronger. The breakup, the confession, the fear about grades..."
"So?"
"So the building is recording feelings, not just sound."
They sit with that.
School Exit, 2:25, Present
Niche is sitting next to the vending machine, eating from a bag of chips, when Chigan comes walking over. Chigan tries to appear to walk slowly, but the sweat on his forehead shows Niche that Chigan ran as fast as he could.
Coming to a stop while trying to cover himself panting, Chigan hands a document to Niche, who appears indifferent to Chigan’s physical state. Government access codes. Security schedules.
"If he finds out—" Chigan starts.
"He won't. You're smart enough to cover your tracks." Niche folds the paper, slipping it into his pocket. "See? That wasn't so hard."
Chigan looks sick. "What are you going to do with them?"
"Make some changes. Don't worry about it."
Niche stands to leave but then stops. Turns back.
"Chigan, know you will be rewarded for this. Justice will be served,” Niche says, reassuringly.
Something in his tone makes Chigan look up. For a moment, Niche almost sounds sincere.
The next second, Niche is gone, leaving Chigan alone with his chips and confusion.
Was that a threat? A promise? With Niche, it's impossible to tell, Chigan thinks, a small smirk appearing on his face before he realizes and clears his facial expression.
Library, 2:30 PM, Present
"We have to stop this," Maruka says.
"How?" Ryota asks. "We don't even know what's causing it."
Usui's staring at his notes. "The pattern..."
"What?"
"Room matches time. What if..." He looks up. "What if we break the pattern?"
"How?"
"Change the room numbers."
Maruka gets it immediately. "If Room 201 isn't Room 201..."
"It can't echo at 2:01," Ryota finishes. "Holy shit."
"But we'd need to change all of them," Maruka points out. "Every single room."
"Not change," Usui says. "Replace. With something that can't be a time."
They think. Then Ryota grins. "Letters,” he says smugly.
School Entrance, Sunset, 7:30 PM, Present
Usui waits at the entrance of the school.
Did those two stand me up? he thinks. I knew I couldn’t trust them.
Like clockwork, the pair appears, walking towards the entrance.
Once Maruka and Ryota meet Usui, the trio sneaks into the school.
“My cousin works security, and she owes me a favor. We have two hours,” Maruka says once they are in the school.I can’t believe we just broke into a school. This is the last place I’d ever break the law to get into, Ryota thinks.
Obtaining a label maker from the library and a box of pre-made letter stickers from the art room, they split up to work on their respective parts.
"Start with the worst ones," Maruka directs. "Room 444 first."
They peel off 444. Replace it with D44.
"Can't echo at D:44," Ryota says. "No such time."
They work systematically.
201 to B01, 315 to C15, 408 to D08, etc.; every number that could be a time gets a letter.
"What about Room 1259?" Ryota asks. "That's not a real time anyway."
"Leave it," Usui decides. "We're only changing the dangerous ones."
By 11 PM, they're exhausted but done. Every potentially problematic room has letters now.
"Think it'll work?" Maruka asks.
"One way to find out."
School, The Next Morning, Present
Chaos appears on the school grounds.
"Why does my classroom say 'B15'?" a teacher complains.
"District renovation codes," the principal says, fabricating any excuse to explain this bizarre occurrence. "Temporary classification system."
Students are confused but adapting. More importantly...
Maruka stands outside room B01 at 2:01.
Silence. No echo.
It worked, she thinks.
School, Cafeteria, Present
The group eats their food, trying to not to look too pleased with themselves.
Usui comes to an interesting realization. “Wait,” he says, interrupting the joyful aura. “Why did we even do all that? I mean, we had no reason to take that duty upon ourselves.”
“Well…” Maruka starts, hesitantly. “In one of my rooms, I heard myself cheat on a future test. I kind of did all that so I wouldn’t get caught,” she forces an awkward chuckle.
“In my case, my teacher got really triggered by the noises and offered $100 to any student who could fix it. I told her I could fix it that night, and she agreed to bet $100 on it,” Ryota says.
Usui’s monotonous face turned angry. “Wait, so you guys had a reason to do it? You benefitted from it? Here I was thinking we were doing charity, and you guys had actual reasons!”
Maruka and Ryota look at each other, starting to chuckle as Usui goes off on them. The ending lunch bell rings. The two each go to their next classes, leaving Usui’s flames to rage on himself.
Over the next two weeks, when the principal received complaints about the room numbers, he always came up with an excuse on the spot as to why it had changed. In truth, he also didn’t know who changed it, but his laziness hindering him from reverting the signs back to how they were, so the changes stayed.
This event was eventually forgotten by the group, like many others. The only memory of it presides in Usui's notebook, where he's written: "Some mysteries don't need explaining. They just need solving."