I was in class one day and spent most of the time staring at an empty desk. It used to belong to my friend Michi who died a few days ago. The last I heard from her was when she wanted to visit the school late at night to see this thing called The Haunted Head. An odd ghost story about a teacher who was decapitated long ago and cases of decapitations of students have occurred randomly since then.

My thoughts about Michi and her death were rampant as I kept looking at the desk. I showed no interest in math class since what can I use calculus for in real life. It felt like a good time for me to think about my regrets and the loss of my friend.

“Hirose-san!” my sensei said.

“Hai!” I said as I got up from my desk.

“Do you think you can answer the question on the board?” she asked.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Meet me after school,” the teacher said.

Sometimes I feel as though I was the only one who cared about Michi’s death. Everyone else thought of her as annoying with her snarky comments and teasing. Especially in class when she often dozed off like I am right now or did not care about what was being taught. At worse, make comments on the problems with the education system or insult the teachers. Maybe her death was turning me into her as I used to care about my education more than her. Then again, I was starting to understand how she felt about school life. Especially when she once told me.

“How can you use anything here for life? We just sit there and listen to some old lady talk while passing a test. I don’t feel like learning.”

Those words hit me hard I guess as I felt nothing in class mattered. Then again, Michi always had some crazy ideas that might be deep in the long run. My mind kept on drifting with thoughts on mortality and perhaps the meaning of life. Could this be what Michi has been thinking all this time?

“I wouldn’t know,” Michi said.

“Huh?” I asked as I thought I heard something. This had been going on in class ever since her death. Perhaps I am feeling off for the week.

The day ended as usual with the only difference was the sad feeling inside me. Nothing felt important to me anymore. Even when my teacher scolded me in her office for not paying attention. She did not care if I were mourning, she just cared if I listened to her in class. All while saying that Michi was a bad influence and was glad that she was gone.

I should be emotional but I kept my mouth shut. I doubt society cared how I felt about my old friend. I felt like crying but I needed to hold on until I left the office. All I had to do was tolerate the ramblings of some old hag.

When I left the office, I walked by my classroom as it was on the way. Though one odd thing I noticed was Michi’s deck. For some reason, I thought I spotted her face there but she disappeared when I blinked. Maybe I’m going crazy. I got to resolve this in some way as it’s taking hold of my life.

…

Some time at night, I decided to do something stupid. I’m going to look for the Haunted Head and resolve my feelings over Michi. All while using Michi’s notes when she texted me on what she had in mind. It used to be just a joke to me but now I desperately need it.

When I sneaked in, I observed the area and noticed how detailed Michi’s notes were on the guards and their shifts. Despite being an all girls school, there were male staff with the majority of them staying late at night. I read over the text messages and followed it to the tee. Somehow, no one noticed me but my heart was still pumping hard from the experience.

As I kept walking, I suddenly heard the bell ring. How can this be? It’s supposed to be night time, around midnight no less. The oddest thing was that there was noise in my classroom as well. I read Michi’s text and it mentioned how our classroom was where the Haunted Head resides.

“Here I go,” I said as I hesitated for a bit. I wanted to go in but suddenly I heard sounds of students talking and gossiping. Stuff was moving around and I saw a silhouette of the faces of girls through the door window.

“No way,” I said as I opened the door immediately to see what was going on. Turns out, there was no one there. “Must be my imagination.”

“Hey?!” a voice said. Sounded like one of the guards.

“Oh crap!” I said as I entered the room and closed it carefully. I kept my mouth shut as I heard guard’s footsteps.

I lowered myself while laying on the walls and covering my mouth. It was heart wrenching to wait until the close was clear. Even peeking outside could get me caught. All I could do was rely on my ears to hope that everything grew silent.

“Yo Chihiro! I’m surprised you’re late for class,” Michi said.

“Not a good time, Michi,” I whined before I shouted. “MICHI?”

“Oh right! I recently lost some weight,” Michi said.

“But but but...,” I said.

“Yeah yeah and so is everyone else here,” Michi said.

On top of her old desk, Michi rested there but she was only a head. Her shiny hair in a ponytail with her wide grin remained unchanged. It was both nice and terrifying to see her again. I looked at the rest of the classroom and I saw more heads of girls on top of their desks. Some clearly have hair styles from the early Heisei era to the Showa era!

On the teacher’s desk was the head of a beautiful woman with long black hair with a warm motherly smile. She appeared pretty young but had the face of a mature but playful adult. It’s the Haunted Head herself!

“Good evening class,” the ghost said.

All the heads nodded as if they were bowing. I simply bowed back as a habit. The teacher noticed me and looked more surprised than angry like most ghosts would in this situation.

“I see we have a new student here today. Please introduce yourselves to the class,” the head said. “Don’t be shy. We’re friendly ghosts.”

I walked up to the chalkboard and slowly wrote my name. All while I see the disembodied heads of girls staring at me like any classmate would. Some were gossiping how I’m just another girl taking a test of courage or something.

“I’m Hirose Chihiro. It is nice to meet you,” I said.

“Ah, Chihiro-chan. It’s great to meet you too. She might be living but be sure to treat her well,” the Haunted Head said.

“Hai!”

“Though we kind of know you and everyone on campus, a proper introduction is always necessary. Please just call me sensei, Haunted Head sensei, or Head sensei. I’m used to it,” the head said. “Now class, feel free to introduce yourselves.”

After all of that, I went to my old desk and sat next to Michi who seemed rather calm about all of this. I wonder how she was not upset despite how lacked a body and was declared dead. Then again, Michi was never one to be too upset about anything.

“Whatcha looking at?” Michi asked.

“Your head,” I said.

“Oh right. Think after class you can help find my body?” Michi asked. “And maybe the others too?”

“What?” I asked.

“You heard me, we kind of need help with that,” Michi said.

“Is there something wrong?” asked head sensei.

“Uh… not to be rude but what is exactly going on?” I asked.

“Oh. I guess we must come clean with the elephant in the room,” the ghost said. “This is a class of heads. Ever since I was decapitated, I still wanted to teach but never had the chance to. Then rumors spread about me decapitating others when I got no body to do that.”

“Then what was going on with the decapitations?” I asked.

“An excellent question. It’s all mere coincidence,” head sensei said. “The decapitations occurred even before I was decapitated by a teacher who did not like my teaching methods and had intimate feelings over me. Class, feel free to tell Chihiro how you all lost your bodies.”

“I lost mine after an attempt at hanging myself.”

“My head was offed by the window.”

“I fell off of the building and my body ended up in pieces.”

“One of the guards did this to me.”

“I tried not to get caught and had my head slice along the way,” Michi said.

All these explanations on how these girls lost their heads, it was surprising how they did so. I never thought the Haunted Head herself was that powerless as I always heard that her curse did all of that.

“Back then, anyone remember the curse before mine?” head sensei asked. “Michi-chan.”

“The mass execution of shogun with this spot being the site,” Michi said.

“That’s a great answer!” head sensei said. “While that curse is around, it’s not strong enough to go all out. While my curse is… Maya-chan?”

“To have heads like us be in class,” said a girl’s head with medium brown hair.

“You all don’t have to be here but it’s great to have eager ghosts who want to learn and for me to teach after death,” the head said.

I never seen Michi being that invested in class before. She seemed rather happy being here as her classmates also congratulated her and the other head. In fact, this class seemed very casual and happy despite their case.

“Tonight, I also want to congratulate Chihiro-chan for being the second living person to be in our class. Just after Michi-chan! Everyone else would run away or be back here after dying,” sensei said as the class cheered with some of the heads looking nervous about being called out.

“But, do you think she’ll live long enough to find our bodies?” the teacher continued.

“Uh… you see I,” I said.

“Oh sorry. Didn't mean to put a lot of pressure on you,” sensei said. “I love teaching but being stuck on the table can get boring. It’s been decades since we have a body.”

“I only lost mine for a few days,” Michi commented.

“I was the first student,” said a Showa era head.

“Not only that, people can’t really see us during the day so they place their stuff on us,” sensei said. “It does get annoying.”

I’m more horrified over the fact that they have been watching our class the entire time. And all of my hallucinations with Michi were real? That very thought seemed very haunting to me.

“Though we think you are special because Michi was able to reach out to you,” head sensei said.

“Tee hee,” Michi said.

“Um, thank you,” I said.

“Now then, let’s start off with today’s lesson on career paths,” head sensei said.

“Hai!”

“Wait what?” I asked.

“You all may be dead but you ought to decide whether you want to move on or stick around. Well, except for Chihiro for now,” sensei said. “But there is no rush. You have all eternity to decide. Heck, you are all free to change when you feel like it.”

For the rest of the lecture, head sensei went on about how, living or dead, we should do what we like in the long term. There was no point in working somewhere that we don’t like and there were opportunities for the dead too after “graduation”. It did not sound like a lecture but someone giving advice. I felt like listening to her more and more as what she had to say was interesting.

“How does one graduate here?” I asked before realizing that I forgot to raise my hand. Heck, I asked way too many questions and I feared that she would ask me to wait after class..

“Well. First they need a body and then finish school,” sensei said. “Any of you are free to attend here again.”

Wow, did not expect her to be so tolerant of me like that. She seemed rather happy to even answer me and all the other heads. She looked so passionate in teaching us as well. Also, attend again? Does this mean some of these girls had their bodies back but did not have their bodies be in class out of courtesy?

“Don’t worry,” a head with a small hair tail. “You won’t lose your body again when coming back.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring,” I said. “Wait, how did you read my mind?”

“Oh no, I didn’t. I just guessed. Tee hee.”

“I made a career in haunting the cafeteria and the staff made sure I got free food,” the head said. “That’s where the rumor of the cannibal meal came from.”

“Lucky,” Michi said. “It’s so cool that you were the one who started all of that!”

“Now then, feel free to share your career goals,” sensei said.

“I want to haunt my parents for decapitating me!”

“I wanna haunt my old boyfriend to see him again. Even if he’s really old now.”

“Haunting an amusement park would be nice.”

“I want to haunt you, Chihiro,” Michi said.

“Eh?” I asked.

“Either that or just anyone who messed with me. But you’re here now!” Michi said.

“I don’t know what I want in life,” I said.

“Don’t worry. You got time to think about it,” said a head.

These ghosts were lucky. I’ve been pressured to think of something now or pick a career worthy of me. Even though there were a bunch of things I was not interested in. It felt like a nice break to just not being stressed out over something like that.

After all of the interactions, I grew less afraid of these ghosts. All I saw were new friends that so happened to lack bodies. It was a nice change of pace to encourage us to express our opinions and work on something together while the lecture part was just to give us an idea. At some point, I got carried away until I looked at the time. I saw that it was around 4:30 in the morning and I lost track of time.

“Oh dear, I forgot that the living need sleep,” sensei said. “You are free to go but be careful on your way out.”

“Oh right, thank you,” I said as I suddenly yawned.

“Be sure to look out for our bodies. Who knows where they are,” Michi said.

“Of course,” I said.

…

I managed to sneak past the guards and try to head on home. I was getting dizzy from feeling sleepy as I walked into the streets in a daze. What I just saw was so surreal that you’d think I am hallucinating. I felt that I am hallucinating even more since my vision started to get fuzzy with random thoughts and images roaming around. In fact, I just saw what appeared to be a blood puddle on the ground. I wonder who it belonged to?

BOOM!

…