Chapter 53: The "Wrap-Up" Twist Is Way Too Good
Naoto Anna and Shizuna Ueda began putting every ounce of their effort into helping Ai locate her buried memories. They systematically guided her on a re-visit to the landmarks saturated with agonizing recollections–her former classroom, the dilapidated dormitory...
When they arrived at the female restroom inside the academic building, the space was pitched in absolute darkness, as though even light itself was entirely unwilling to cross the threshold. Midway through, Ai mysteriously vanished without a trace. Just as Naoto was scratching his head in confusion, liquid began to splatter onto his head from above.
Confounded, he wiped a hand across his crown. "Why is it so sticky?" he muttered reflexively.
*Wait a minute, this texture...* A jarring possibility struck Naoto, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.
"What's wrong?" Shizuna asked cautiously, folding her arms tight.
"Hey." Naoto's voice was violently trembling. "Do me a favor and look up. Is there... something on top of my head?"
"Don't you dare try to spook me," Shizuna said, her entire body locking up as well. "That is not funny in the slightest."
*Could it be Hanako-san?* Naoto froze dead on the spot, frantically whispering a plea for help. "Kitajima... Kitajima, are you still there?"
"Since you're a ghost too, could you maybe tell whatever malevolent spirit is haunting this place to give us a pass?" he said with extreme caution.
"What do you mean, 'malevolent spirit'?" Ai Kitajima's innocent, pure voice floated down from above.
Naoto stiffly craned his neck upward, only to discover Ai hovering right above his head, radiating her own personal glowing aura. She had sliced open her own finger, allowing a steady stream of dark red blood to drip down.
"Hey!" Naoto snapped, getting genuinely irritated. "That is not funny at all!"
"There's a limit to how far you can push a joke!"
"You're right," Ai said airily. "There really is a limit to how far a joke should be pushed." She nodded vigorously, signaling her absolute agreement.
Naoto went completely rigid, entirely speechless.
"Right, Ai, did you manage to recall anything else?" Shizuna quickly interjected, desperately trying to pivot the topic.
"I think a little bit," Ai nodded. "Was I a student here before? I want to experience going to school all over again!"
And so, the couple threw themselves into helping Ai fulfill her final wish. They guided her through every square inch of the campus, allowing her to attend lectures and take exams inside the abandoned, empty classrooms–reliving a school era entirely devoid of peers.
Ultimately, they made the executive decision to host a special graduation ceremony exclusively for her.
Inside the dilapidated, hollow auditorium, a heavy silence reigned. Naoto stood with an air of solemn gravity behind the podium. Taped to the wall behind his back was a crude, makeshift banner featuring the words "GRADUATION CEREMONY" scribbled in large letters with a black Sharpie. The handwriting was crooked and messy, looking exceptionally rudimentary.
"The graduation ceremony formally commences!" His voice carried an immense, weighted resonance inside the cavernous hall. "Now, will the graduate, Ai Kitajima, please step up to the stage to receive her official diploma."
Shizuna's hands shook violently as she raised a cheap party popper, setting it off with a sharp *Bang!* A cascade of colorful plastic confetti swirled and fluttered through the air like a localized snowstorm.
Ai slowly marched through the dancing confetti, yet not a single stray streamer managed to cling to her form–it was as though an invisible barrier completely insulated her from the physical world.
She accepted the crude diploma with profound solemnity, her face masks of pure happiness.
Naoto clapped his hands with brutal force, every muscle in his face contorting into an incredibly complex, indescribable expression. "Congratulations... on graduating."
Beside him, Shizuna was also clapping wildly through a fresh torrent of tears.
"But I'm already an adult," Ai noted softly.
"No, *we* are the ones who became adults." A monumental wave of crushing guilt broke through Shizuna's defenses, forcing her into an uncontrollable sob.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." Naoto choked out through thick tears. "You were supposed to have the chance to become an adult too."
Ai tilted her head, a look of profound confusion crossing her features, appearing as though she couldn't quite comprehend the subtext of their words. Yet right at that exact narrative beat, the diploma clutched in her hands suddenly burst into flames, dissolving into ash, while a split-second migraine threatened to rip her skull apart. She crouched on the floor in agony, desperately clawing at her head as if trying to piece together a crucial, long-lost memory.
Within Naoto and Shizuna's field of view, Aie's physical form began to shrink inch by inch, turning increasingly translucent–resembling a cluster of sea foam on the verge of vanishing entirely.
"Ah... so it turns out I never actually got to grow up," Ai said with a bright smile, her voice mimicking the crisp chime of a silver bell, yet laced with a bottomless sorrow.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." Naoto could do nothing but repeat the exact same phrase like a broken record.
Shizuna lunged forward, desperately trying to wrap Aie in a tight embrace, only for her arms to slice clean through the girl's silhouette, failing to grasp anything tangible.
"Can you find it in your heart to forgive us?!" Shizuna screamed at the top of her lungs.
To the tune of a serene, peaceful piece of background score, Ai's smiling form slowly pixelated into nothingness, leaving a final, lingering echo to drift through the empty air:
"Thank you for everything you've done for me. I've already forgiven you, okay?"
The curtain dropped into a pitch-black abyss, plunging the entire cinema auditorium into total, unfiltered darkness for a few silent beats.
---
A wave of restless murmuring immediately rippled through the spectator stands. *Is the movie seriously over? Is this really the new masterpiece Director Gotanda spent all that time filming?*
*While the execution was flawless, the ending feels incredibly underwhelming...*
A handful of prominent film critics went so far as to pull out their notebooks, flatly jotting down the words "Flop Ending" onto the pages.
But a mere few seconds later, vibrant colors abruptly bled back into the frame. A private medical facility materialized onto the silver screen, crowds of pedestrians shifting back and forth across the streets, a bustling layer of ambient city noise injecting a frantic sense of realism into the setting.
The camera elegantly pushed forward, tracking Naoto and Shizuna as they sneaked into the facility like common thieves. Pulling off their hoods, they stepped inside a practitioner's office.
Mounted on the door was a prominent sign that read: DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY.
An eyeglasses-wearing, middle-aged psychiatrist held a stack of diagnostic reports, his tone dropping into a weighted register. "The two of you... are suffering from shared delusional disorder."
"What?!" Naoto spat, his eyes widening in absolute disbelief. "But both of us saw Ai with our own eyes! We saw the exact same person!"
"Delusional disorder can trick a patient's brain into mapping out physical manifestations that have absolutely zero basis in reality. While the probability of two minds hallucinating the exact same thing is remarkably low, the phenomenon absolutely exists," the doctor explained patiently. "During your extended cohabitation, your brainwaves accidentally hit the exact same frequency, triggering a mirrored projection."
"That's impossible!" Shizuna roared, entirely losing her emotional composure. Suddenly, her eyes flashed as she caught a glaring loophole. "Ai literally ate a piece of our tonkatsu!"
"Regrettably," the doctor looked at the couple with immense pity, "that was merely an illusion manufactured by your minds. In reality, you were the ones who ate it."
Confronted with the brutal, unvarnished truth, the couple suffered a total psychological collapse, weeping hysterically on screen.
*If everything was nothing more than a lie... what was the point of Ai Kitajima's existence? Or rather, why did their minds construct her manifestation in the first place?*
Naoto dropped to his knees, hammering his fists violently into the linoleum floor until genuine blood began to seep from his knuckles.
"So it was all just a sick exercise in self-consolation?" he asked, his voice hollow with despair. "Ai never actually forgave us."
"We are disgusting," Shizuna muttered under her breath. "Fabricating a phantom version of our victim just to convince ourselves we're allowed to move on with our lives."
The real girl had died a decade ago. It was their own inability to escape the shadows of yesterday–their desperate scramble to absolve themselves of their crimes–that had collectively birthed this elaborate delusion.
Ultimately, the couple arrived at a grueling resolution: they would take the reality of what happened back then public, publishing a formal confession video across the internet.
The frame cut to the digital broadcast of their confession. The two adults stood before the lens, their faces heavy with remorse as they laid bare the dark secrets of the past.
The publication of the video ignited a massive, nationwide discourse, forcefully pulling the structural realities of school bullying back under the public microscope.
Government officials materialized on screen, delivering stern, rigid public addresses promising to eradicate the issue entirely. Yet with a swift cut of the lens, the film showcased video footage from a decade ago–where another politician was making the exact same empty promises.
The screen flashed, transitioning into a monochrome, text-based comment section that stretched across the silver screen. Thousands of anonymous users were pouring out their personal histories of being systematically bullied. Hidden behind the plain text were rows upon rows of agonizing, permanently scarred childhoods.
The comment thread slowly scrolled downward, when suddenly, a familiar profile picture popped into view–it was Ai Kitajima's personal selfie avatar.
She had left a silent comment.
*「I hope every child gets to grow up healthy and stays far away from agonizing things.」*
*「Don't end up like me.」*
The film officially concluded, the screen plunging right back into a sea of blackness. A few moments later, the rolling credits began to glide up the silver screen. Simultaneously, Hikaru's deep, melancholic vocals echoed from the theater speakers.
*「Sometimes, without even realizing it, we end up breaking someone down.」*
*「Only after that person is permanently lost do we finally comprehend the weight of our crimes.」*
*「O drifting snow, bury everything away...」*
The text systematically populated the screen:
Director: Taishi Gotanda
Main Cast:
Teppei Nishikawa as Naoto Anna (Adult)
Shiranui Frill as Shizuna Ueda (Adult)
Ai Hoshino as Ai Kitajima (Adult)
Aquamarine Hoshino as Naoto Anna (Child)
Kana Arima as Shizuna Ueda (Child)
Akane Kurokawa as Ai Kitajima (Child)
...
Music Director: Hikari
Theme Song: Hakujitsu – Vocal: Hikari / Composer: Hikari
Character Song: She Used to Be Alive – Vocal: Ai Hoshino / Composer: Hikari
Insert Track: aLIEz – Composer: Hikari
Insert Track: Hane (Wings) – Composer: Hikari
Insert Track: Kioku (Memory) – Composer: Hikari
Insert Track: The Name of Life – Composer: Hikari
Insert Track: Theme of SSS – Composer: Hikari
...
---
Once the movie had fully cleared the screen and the music faded into a quiet hush, the auditorium's house lights slowly brightened, prompting the audience to finally rise from their seats.
The atmosphere inside the premiere venue was exceptionally heavy; a large portion of the attendees remained thoroughly paralyzed by the psychological weight of the narrative. Seizing the brief window before they were officially summoned onto the stage, Hikaru and his group began chatting casually in their seats.
Hikaru let out a massive stretch. "To be completely honest, I've never been a massive fan of watching art house films."
Ai tilted her head out of curiosity. "Why's that?"
"Uh, bad phrasing," Hikaru scratched his head. "It's not that I dislike art house films per se, it's just that I absolutely despise sitting in a packed theater with a massive crowd to watch them. Analyzing a film like this is fine if I'm lounging at home by myself, but inside a commercial theater, it's way too exhausting to think. In a setting like this, you might as well completely turn off your brain and opt for a popcorn flick."
"Which is exactly why the box-office numbers for these types of movies are usually abysmal," Aqua noted, hopping down from his plush seat.
"Gotanda is completely fixated on securing awards, but that strictly depends on whether the committee feels like giving him the time of day." Hikaru stood up as well, stretching out his limbs. "Personally, I think the category this film is most guaranteed to sweep is..."
He deliberately dragged out his syllables, pulling everyone's focus onto him.
"...the Award for Best Musical Score."
"The sheer audacity on this guy," Aqua deadpanned.
Ai covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. "Hikaru certainly doesn't lack confidence."
The group systematically began poking fun at Hikaru, instantly dispelling the suffocating, heavy fog that the film had left behind, restoring a light, pleasant atmosphere to their circle.
Right at that moment, Director Gotanda stepped up to the front stage. Facing the sea of media cameras and attendees, a layer of profound exhaustion was written across his features. "Thank you all for coming out to watch Ghost Syndrome," Gotanda said, openly sparking a cigarette right there on the stage and taking a deep drag. "The ultimate core concept this film aims to dissect is the 'ghost' that exists inside every single one of our hearts–the individuals we have broken, and the histories we can never truly run away from."
He paused for a beat. "School bullying should never be swept under the rug, and the sheer agony of the victims should never be trivialized. My sincere hope is that this film can force more individuals to reflect on reality, ensuring that a tragedy like this never plays out again."
The venue erupted into a thundering round of applause, after which the main cast members took the stage one by one. Journalists frantically shot their hands into the air to field questions, camera flashes exploded in a rapid-fire rhythm, and the auditorium quickly warped into a bustling hive of media activity.
Following nearly an hour of grueling press interviews and fan meet-and-greets, the premiere event finally drew to a successful close.
Hikaru stood at the center of this group–bringing together the various eras of Naoto Anna, Shizuna Ueda, and Aie Kitajima–bidding a definitive farewell to the tragedy depicted on the silver screen...
As they all dashed forward toward their own respective, happy tomorrows.
---
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