The Thirteen Mysteries of Sakura High

The Thirteen Mysteries of Sakura High

When she suddenly turned the corner, she almost fell all over herself, but put on a confident smile nonetheless.
"Heh, no need to gawk. Yes, it is I, the one and only [unintelligible], president of Sakura High's Paranormal Investigation Club! Demons and angels? Fah, who believes such nonsense anymore? Our club only investigates the latest in supernatural and paranormal findings and the current happenings in the school are most peculiar. So listen here and listen carefully, your quiet school life could be on the line. Let me tell you about the Thirteen Mysteries of Sakura High, researched by yours truly! Let's start with..."

1. The Ghost of the Queen of England

It is said that the ghost of the Queen of England haunts the room of the modelers' club. It all started one late evening when some students on clean-up duty walked the hall in front of it, suddenly hearing a voice coming from inside, despite knowing that everyone else already went home. "How dare them mock me? Did they think I wouldn't hear? 'Model ships are outdated, it's all about gunpla nowadays'?!", they have apparently heard the voice speak. "Hahahah, but I will show them! Feast your eyes upon true refinement, on true elegance! Or be crushed by the might of the British Empire!"
Taking all of their courage the two students opened the door and saw what they could only describe us a blond lady in uniform madly laughing in front of huge ghost ship. Stricken by fear they ran before they could take a closer look.
The next day the members of the modelers' club entered that same room to find that the "huge ghost ship" the students had told them about was actually a scale model of the dreadnought battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth of impressive size and detail. So the students came to the conclusion that the uniformed, blond lady the others had seen must have been none other than Queen Elizabeth I. herself. Angered by the club turning their backs on traditional models she must have appeared to teach them a lesson, it all made sense.
And so to this day, before taking part in a modelers' competition, you can hear the members of the club chant "The might of the British Empire! The might of the British Empire!" in front of the battleship as a good luck charm.

2. The Vanishing Point

This one you should especially look out for. You see, there is a corner in the school hallway on the second floor that is said to make people disappear. A acquaintance told me the story that a student by the name of Kaori once got up after class to leave, but left a notebook behind. One student of her class went after her to give it to her, seeing her turning that corner. But when she did the same, she got only glimpse of Kaori's body seemingly dissolving into shadows.
She was lucky however. You see, that girl named Kaori showed up the next day as though nothing had happened. That's because the girl the student had followed was not actually Kaori but a lure and had the student interacted with it, she would've vanished along with that fake Kaori. So, if you ever see someone turning that corner never talk to them or touch them, don't even look at them, or the Vanishing Point will take you!

3. The Wandering Table

The tale of the wandering table is a lonely one. There was a table that somehow always ended up next to the window facing the setting sun. It took a while for anyone to notice, since everyone just assumed someone else moved the table during clean-up and forgot to move it back or that it was some kind of prank. But then the class moved into a newly renovated classroom, removing all the chairs and desks from the old one, leaving it empty. Yet it happened once again, the table disappeared from its new location and was later found in that same usual spot.
I asked one of the older teachers about there being anything special about the tables and learned something quite interesting. These old tables were made in pairs and this particular one had its partner removed some years ago after it got damaged and was deemed beyond repair. Maybe, after years of taking in the school life of all these students, their hopes and sorrows, the table took on a life of its own, moving to the window and gazing longingly upon the setting sun, mourning what it has lost.

Apparently some students of the track and field club claim they saw an angel in that window from the running track... but an angel? Really? Pff, who would believe that?

4. Dull Doppelgangers

This is the mystery I personally experienced. I swear I saw this one girl sitting in her classroom, but then I also saw her outside moments later. She never could've make it that fast from one place to another and when I went back to see if I was going crazy she was still sitting there in the classroom. I asked around a figured out her name is Lise Aragami, who transferred to Sakura High not long ago. Apparently she is a really quiet girl and not a lot is known about her, yet she is still well liked by others. The strangest thing is, that others had similar experiences to me, but they don't care at all... especially those in her class reacted like nothing was out of the ordinary. You wanna know my theory? Those Lises are probably aliens send to study us and they are using some sort of mind waves to make those around them think everything is normal!
And here is kicker, the other day I saw one of the Lises carry around a little tank model, holding it up to everyone like it was the holy grail. So I described it to the modelers' club and turns out it's none of theirs and in fact a British Crusader tank, can you believe it? The doppelganger Lises and the ghost of the Queen of England... Where is the connection? What does it mean?

5. Nightly March of the Maids

Anyhow, back to regulars. Everyone knows them, so I'll keep it short. Rumors have it that every week on the night of the same day a group of young maids appears on the school grounds. They walk the halls in unison without uttering a single word, before entering the basement not to be seen again. No one knows where they come from, no one knows what their purpose is. And no one dares to probe further, for there are familiar faces among those maids and you take heed to not follow them into the basement or yours too will be among them. It is as they say: "Curiosity killed the cat or in this case turned her into a nekomimi maid".

6. Rooms That Don't Exist

Another strange one. It is tradition that graduating students play some kind of elaborate prank on the school. The most recent ones were of course no different. In fact they wanted to pull the biggest one yet, painting huge banners with funny messages relating to their past school life and intending to hang them from every window on the front of the school building. And so they did just that one evening in secret, walking from one room to the next on each floor to hang up their banners.
Yet when they left the building to marvel at what they had done, they were met the unexpected feeling of wrongness instead. Since what stared back at them was not a façade covered in colourful banners, but one where quite a few windows were still left without one.


"And that's pretty much it for the Thirteen Mysteries of Sakura High.", she says, but can't help herself already pulling up the corners of her mouth as the inventible question surely follows - But those were only six? "Aha, I see you paid attention. Because that is 7th and so far greatest mystery. Despite them being called the Thirteen Mysteries of Sakura High, no one knows all of them, not even me."

"...Wait, that's not what you asked? You asked who I am? But I already told you, I'm [unintelligible].", she said again with her smug grin softly quivering as she leaned in closer. "Don't be like that, can you not see my face?" But there was none.
For a single moment she froze, then her head tilted ever so slightly. "Ah, I remember now. I turned that corner, didn't I?"