It was November 17th in Kyoto, Japan. The streets were almost empty, and a thick fog covered the narrow roads. At exactly 11:45 PM, the police received a phone call from an unknown number. A 17-year-old girl named Hina Moriyama had been found dead inside an abandoned house near the forest. She was a student at Kurotsuki High School, known for its excellent academic results and strict rules. Her phone was found beside her, displaying a missed call from a number that did not exist.
The next morning, the news spread throughout the town. Hina was a quiet girl who rarely spoke about her personal life. However, she had five close friends: Akari Fujimoto, Ren Takahashi, Mei Nakamura, Sora Hayashi and Daichi Kobayashi. They had been friends for almost three years. The police questioned all five of them, but their answers were almost identical. They claimed that they had last seen Hina on Friday evening, when she left school alone. None of them seemed to know where she had gone.
Four days after the murder, Akari received a message from an unknown number. It read, "She knew the truth. Now someone else knows it too." She immediately showed it to Ren. He stared at the screen for a few seconds before saying, "Delete it. Don't tell anyone about this." Akari found his reaction strange. Why was he so afraid of a simple message?
The following evening, the five friends met at their usual place, a small garden behind their school. They sat in a circle under an old cherry blossom tree. Nobody spoke until Mei finally broke the silence. She told them that Hina had been acting strangely during the last few weeks. She had once asked Mei whether she believed that a person could live two completely different lives. Sora then revealed that Hina had been receiving mysterious letters for almost a month. The letters always arrived without a sender's name.
Daichi decided to visit Hina's house. With permission from her older brother, he searched her room and found a photograph hidden inside an old book. It showed six students standing outside the abandoned house where Hina had been found. Five of them were familiar faces, but the sixth person's face had been scratched out. On the back, Hina had written something in red ink: "There were never supposed to be six of us."
That same night, another incident took place. Hina's neighbour, Mr. Watanabe, was found dead in his house. Before his death, he had contacted the police and claimed that he knew who had killed Hina. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to reveal the name. The police started investigating both cases together, but there was something strange about them. Both victims had received a phone call from the same unknown number shortly before their deaths.
Meanwhile, Akari found an old diary belonging to Hina. Most of the pages were empty, but the last few pages contained strange sentences. One of them read, "If anything happens to me, don't trust the person who always stays silent." Another page had the names of all five friends written on it. However, there was an unfamiliar name at the bottom.
Yuto Shimizu.
Nobody in their group knew anyone by that name.
Akari searched for him online, but there were no results. She even asked her classmates, but nobody recognized the name. When she finally showed the diary to Ren, he became unusually quiet. After a long pause, he said, "Akari, there is something about last November that you don't remember."
Before she could ask him what he meant, his phone rang. He looked at the screen, and all the colour seemed to disappear from his face. The caller's name was Hina Moriyama.
Akari thought it was a joke. Hina was dead. Ren slowly answered the call and put it on speaker. For a few seconds, there was only silence. Then a girl's voice whispered, "Ren... why did you leave me there?"
The call ended.
The next morning, Ren was missing. His house was empty, his phone was switched off, and nobody had seen him since the previous evening. The police searched the entire neighbourhood but found nothing. Akari, however, remembered something from Hina's diary. A small address was written beside Yuto's name. It belonged to an old building near the forest.
That evening, Akari, Mei, Sora and Daichi went there together. The building looked abandoned, but its front door was slightly open. Inside, they found several photographs of themselves. Some were taken at school, some in the garden, and some outside their homes. There was even a photograph of Akari sleeping in her bedroom.
Mei began crying and begged everyone to leave. But Akari noticed a small door behind a bookshelf. She opened it and found a narrow staircase leading underground. At the bottom was a room with six chairs arranged in a perfect circle. Five chairs had their names written on them.
The sixth chair had no name.
On a table in the middle, there was a small television. It suddenly turned on by itself. A recording of Hina appeared on the screen. She looked tired and frightened.
"If you're watching this, it means I couldn't escape. There is something you all need to know. Yuto was never a stranger. He was the sixth member of our group. But none of you remember him because..."
The recording suddenly stopped.
A loud sound came from behind them.
Someone had locked the door.
Daichi started hitting it while Sora searched for another exit. Akari stood frozen in front of the television. It turned on again, but this time there was no recording of Hina. Instead, a live camera showed the five of them standing inside the room.
Then a message appeared on the screen.
"FOUR OF YOU ARE HERE. WHERE IS THE FIFTH?"
Akari slowly turned around.
Mei was gone.
Before anyone could speak, the television showed another recording. It was dated November 17th, exactly one year earlier. The video showed all six friends sitting in the same circle, laughing and talking. Hina was there. Ren was there. And beside them was a boy with the name Yuto written on his school uniform.
Akari suddenly remembered something.
They had never been five friends.
They had always been six.
A phone began ringing inside the empty sixth chair. Akari picked it up with trembling hands. There was a new message.
It contained only one photograph.
The photograph showed the four friends standing in the underground room. Behind them stood Mei, staring directly into the camera.
But Mei was supposed to be missing.
Akari slowly looked towards the staircase.
Mei was standing at the top, perfectly still.
Then the lights went out.
In the darkness, someone whispered directly into Akari's ear.
"You're finally remembering me."
The next morning, the police found the building completely empty. There were no photographs, no television, no chairs and no signs that anyone had ever entered the place.
A week later, the school reopened. The students returned to their normal routines, and the police officially closed the investigation due to a lack of evidence.
But on November 17th, exactly one year after Hina's death, the school's security guard received a strange notification from an inactive classroom camera.
The footage showed six students sitting in a circle.
Five of them were facing each other.
The sixth was facing the camera.
It was Akari.
And beneath the video, someone had written a final message:
"THE FIRST MURDER WAS NEVER THE BEGINNING. IT WAS AN INVITATION."
