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Extra Class: The Visit of the Ox
Period Extra Class 17
Volume 12

The Visit of the Ox is an extra lesson featured in volume 12 of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu manga.

Premise[]

Yukako takes very good care of her friend Satomi and adores her. But when Satomi gets a boyfriend who takes this role from her, Yukako comes to an important realization...

Yomio's Opening[]

Yomio greets the Readers and brings up the hot summer weather. He remarks on how nights like this you can hear a sound after opening the window; showing someone hammering a nail into a straw doll.

Summary[]

Yukako happily congratulates a friend for confessing to her crush one day during school. The friend insists it was her efforts and encouragement but Yukako modestly denies having anything to do with it. Their other friend feels bad for Yukako though, saying that for all of the advice she gives to others, she never gets to use it for herself. Yukako insist she's alright and doesn't like anyone right now, but the girls bring her to the window to overlook some boys to see if anyone catches her eye. They recommend the attractive Sawamura, the president of the Soccer Club but Yukako points out that they never spoke before.

Realizing she's keeping Satomi waiting, she prepares to leave when the girls recognize her name. They remark that Satomi is very cute, and her frail image makes others want to protect her. She's very popular with boys. Yukako expresses that this is why she has to hurry along now. She can't worry about her love life right now when she has a good friend who needs her.

Yukako finds a distresses Satomi in the hallway, where she is shocked to discover that there has been cruel words written all over her shoes. One of her classmates cruelly badmouths her with mean-spirited names and accusations that she fakes her personality to be liked by adults. Yukako prepares to say something when Satomi pleadingly asks her not to bother and suggests they go home. As they leave, Makimura remarks that its disgusting to watch them interact so closely for friends.

The girls have left the school but Yukako is still riled up until noticing how upset it's made Satomi. She cries while telling Yukako that she's tired of hiding how hurt she feels. She doesn't want to go to school anymore. Yukako embraces her to try to help her calm down as she thinks about when this began. After becoming juniors their previous class became divided; the bullies got worse while everyone else ignores it. More than anything Yukako wants to protect Satomi from this pain, she didn't do anything to deserve it.

Once she calms down, Yukako takes Satomi to a nearby shrine to clean off her shoes. Yukako recalls how ever since they were little she had been coming to Satomi's defense, but this makes Satomi feel bad. She wants to stop having to rely on Yukako so much and become more independent, but Yukako doesn't see it that way. Instead of her taking on all of this pain by herself and keeping her feelings bottled up, she wants her to be more honest with her. It's okay to depend on her; they're gal pals after all.

Satomi feels relieved hearing this and she thanks Yukako, who makes a silent promise to keep protecting Satomi in the future. Suddenly, a nail drops seemingly from no where. Yukako picks it up out of concern a child could find it when Satomi recalls a story her Grandpa told her, known as "The Visit of the Ox". Yukako doesn't recognize this so she tells her the story, about a woman who was heartbroken over her love rival taking away her special person. She performed a ritual at this shrine, writing the name of her rival and slipping it into a handcrafted doll. Then, she pounded it in place with a nail and the rival felt horrible pain from the very spot she hit with the nail and she died a bloody death. it's said the woman's spirit visits the shrine now and then, and if she sees someone she will kill them by performing The Visit of the Ox.

While the girls are initially shaken when Satomi finishes her story, Yukako quickly becomes taken by the concept. She suggests they look for the doll out of curiosity, and they begin walking around the shrine grounds. Satomi tries to get her to reconsider out of concern they'll find it but Yukako assures her it'll be fine and teases her a little. But when they spot the doll covered in nails, Satomi becomes frightened and clings to Yukako, worried the spirit could be there. Yukako is quick to point out that it's probably just someone who knows the legend and was fooling around, and she shows Satomi that it's okay. She still seems a little anxious as Yukako mentally notes that this seems like a lot of nails, even if it is a joke. But as she thinks about Makimura from earlier, she begins to contemplate that they try it out. Satomi is very surprised but Yukako states that this would prove if the legend is true or not, and because she's a bully she can't be forgiven. While Satomi still seems to be uncertain, she hesitantly agrees as Yukako realizes that this is the only thing she can do to help ease her pains.

The following day at school, Yukako shows Satomi the doll she prepared while asking to learn more about the story to ensure it works. Satomi recalls that one needs deep hatred for the target, but as she remains quiet yukako becomes concerned. She assures her that everything will be fine, and in the end if it doesn't work out they can keep the charm that both of them contributed to.

As evening rolls along the girls return to the shrine and hold up the doll. Yukako suggesting they strike the nail through the dolls legs because Makimura seems so proud of them. Satomi remains hesitant but barely responds, only expressing relief as Yukako proceeds to nail the doll to the beam. She thanks Yukako for caring so much about her.

The next day, Yukako begins to anticipate Satomi will be in a better mood if the legend is true. She feels uneasy when she overhears some classmates discuss Makimura's sudden injury though; somehow her leg got messed up, so badly that she had to be carried into the ambulance and taken to the hospital. Yukako runs to Satomi's class to check on her and they realize the doll worked.

During break they return to the shrine to collect it, but they feel a little awkward knowing what happened. Yukako reasons its okay though, since she isn't dead or anything. This will put her out of commission for a while, so Satomi can rest easy for the time being.

Yukako feels very happy as they return to school, although she doesn't say anything openly. She has another resource to protect Satomi with now. Just then, Sawamura appears to speak to Satomi in private. Yukako attempts to spy on them as he asks Satomi to answer a question he asked of her earlier. He explains that he's aware of how Satomi is bullied, and he wants to be someone who can stand by her side and keep her safe. Yukako is horrified realizing this was a confession, and she can't recall Satomi ever mentioning it before and wonders why she would keep this a secret. Yukako hates the idea of her accepting his confession but she forces herself to be happy, reasoning that with as cute as Satomi is, even if she wasn't around someone else would want to protect her. But hearing Satomi actually accept causes Yukako great displeasure.

In the hallway, Satomi apologizes for not telling Yukako about what happened but she quickly tells her it's fine before heading off for her classroom. Her friends are very happy for Satomi and they ask Yukako to congratulate her on their behalf, and they offer to help Yukako find a boyfriend now. But all she can think about is how disappointed she is that Satomi didn't tell her about it. She can't understand why she would keep something like this from her. She isn't given long to linger on it though, when a girl rushes to class to reveal someone is bullying her again.

A group of girls shove Satomi back against the fence and warn her not to get cocky while yanking on her hair. Even if she has a boyfriend now it's not like he'll protect her or stop them, just because Makimura is gone now. They begin to hit and insult her as she cries and begs them to stop. Yukako arrives with the straw doll, angrily planning on using it to punish these girls, but to her and Satomi's shock, Sawamura shows up and grabs the girls hurting her. He tells the group off and shoves them away, and the girls angrily leave as Yukako attempts to comfort Satomi by assuring her it will be fine. But she becomes startled when Satomi completely ignores her and runs to Sawamura.

He tells Yukako that he'll take her to the infirmary so she will be okay, and because he's decided to be closest to her now, she doesn't need to keep coming to her side like this. He leads Satomi away while gently chastising her for getting into danger, then he asks that from now on she doesn't go off on her own. Yukako is devastated as Satomi agrees, and she begins to think about how much time she's spent protecting her dear friend. She sadly acknowledges that Satomi never realized how much she cared about her. But she won't hand her over to some guy just like that.

Satomi is hers.

The following day, Yukako joins Satomi at school and asks about Sawamura, as she assumed he would have been walking with her. Suddenly, a panicked girl runs into the hall to announce Sawamura was killed last night. The girls are stunned and the girl explains that she overheard the Teachers discussing it in the staff room. He was found dead this morning in bed, his chest was bloody. Satomi is comforted by Yukako, who brings up that she will ensure that she remains okay now that he's gone, which alerts Satomi that she may have had something to do with it.

That evening, Yukako returns to the shrine to stuff the doll with more names. She's decided to curse the bullies with every other obstacle out of the way, but she becomes confused as she notes the doll that's been hung up. It looks a little different from the other one. She pulls out the slip from it to find Sawamura Kaito written on it, which confuses her because she killed him with the doll she has in her hands, not that one. It's then she notices someone nearby, and she turns to see Satomi donning an outfit like the one from the story she told Yukako days prior.

Satomi smiles as she goes on to admit that she killed Sawamura, then she points out the both of them hurt Makimura. She begins to laugh over how easy Yukako thought this would be. The curse isn't straightforward, real, true hatred is what makes it work. After Yukako came by the other day and hung up the doll, she returned to fix it. Yukako insists she hates Makimura, then she asks Satomi why she didn't tell her this sooner. Satomi goes on to say that she acts helpless to let others feel superior; even as a child, she let Yukako handle everything after their first instance together. She began to see herself as a good-for-nothing, but little by little she began to gain confidence. Yukako is the cause of Makimura's bullying worsening; this part of her, she hates enough to want to kill it.

Satomi rips the doll off of the shrine and explained that she thought being with Sawamura would let her be free of Yukako. But he only wanted to protect her too, so nothing changed. She throws the doll to the ground and smashes it with her sandal, then she smiles and says that with this doll she no longer has to fear anything.

Yukako is no longer needed. If she tries to become close to her again, she won't hesitate to kill her.

Dismayed and heartbroken, Yukako begins to cry as she realizes the warmth Satomi gave to her all these years was nothing more than an act. She felt so much joy from Satomi's friendship. Seeing her standing near the ledge of the hill, Yukako angrily shoves her over the edge. Satomi tumbles down so far and desperately tries to stand, crying out as Yukako bites into her own finger to draw blood. She scrawls Satomi's name on a paper slip and shoves it into the doll, then she thrusts nails into it.

Satomi screams out as Yukako collapses with grief and continues to cry. This slowly transcends into laughter as she rises again to overlook the cliff. She hears nothing more and assumes the curse worked, causing her to resume weeping once more.

Suddenly, she hears footsteps in the distance and looks up in time to see a spirit of a woman hammering a doll into the shrine's beam and sees it has several nails. She recalls the story, in which she would kill someone if she saw them.

The spirit kills Yukako.

- - - - -

Time has passed, and some friends come to the shrine while discussing the Visit of the Ox. They don't believe it because curses are just superstition, but they see a straw doll with several nails sticking in it.

Yomio's Epilogue[]

Yomio brings up that Yukako and Satomi could have had a long, happy life together if their feelings hadn't got in the way. He tells the Readers not to perform a curse like this because hating other people isn't nice; as he holds a nail in his mouth and is preparing a straw doll. He wishes for everyone to have a nice summer.

Characters[]

  • Yukako
  • Satomi Kawamoto
  • Rio Makimura
  • Kaito Sawamura

Quotes[]


Trivia[]

Gallery[]

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