Summary
A girl runs for her life one late evening, through an abandoned school while wearing her pajamas. Cornered, she turns with a scream as a shadow looms over her...
Meanwhile, a group of friends are playing tag. Just as the It (Demon in Japan) wonders if she found everyone, Chika loudly claims victory from the safe zone- the jungle gym. She brags about never being caught as she rejoins her friends when a Teacher comes by to inform them that they need to get to class now that the bell has rung.
Noticing how concerned Shou -a classmate- looks, Chika offers a supportive shoulder when Shou brings up the scary dream she had. She appeared within the school was playing tag with someone; although she can't tell who or what it is. No matter how much she runs, she feels that sooner or later she will be unable to escape. However, there is one way of escape...
Remorsefully, Shou confesses that whoever hears the story is likely to experience the dream. Chika is shocked upon learning this as she profusely apologizes, then claims that someone like Chika would probably be okay due to how good she is at tag. This does nothing for her though, and she silently fumes over it in class until it comes to an end, when the concerned Teacher happens to notice how anxious she seems. Chika recalls Shou's reasoning from earlier and proceeds the repeat the story, curious to see if it will work.
The following day Chika awakens with relief when it dons on her that she didn't experience the nightmare. But after eating breakfast and heading to school she is momentarily stunned after realizing it did happen to their teacher though; who isn't coming to school in order to recover. The substitute Teacher explains that while he doesn't entirely know what happened, she mentioned something about "'being chased'''". Chika is quick to interrupt and asks to visit the infirmary due to a headache.
Within minutes, the nightmare began to spread to everyone around the school. She had been one of the only people not to experience it yet and carefully made sure to avoid it and those who spoke of it. She is startled after finding out her friends had also experienced it, and in this time they bring up how much the monster in the dream reminded them of Hiroko; a girl who transferred to the school in first grade. Chika clearly remembers this girl, due to how much she and her friends teased her for being such a slow runner. She once spent a whole lunch period chasing after the three of them, and Slowpoke became her new nickname. Despite the grief it caused her, they couldn't hold back in making fun of her.
As the substitute walks by to bring up classes resuming to the girls, Chika stops to ask him what happened to Hiroko; who had suddenly gone missing sometime back. After a moment of silence he reveals that because of being teased so often, she began to practice playing Tag by herself. She would often run to and from school in hopes of improving her speed- but one day she had been in an accident. He says no more, reminding the disturbed girls about class before heading into the room.
After school ends the horrified girls realize they need to do something to make sure this nightmare stops. In order to make amends, they decide to swing by her home to light incense and speak to her family. Initially unsure if anyone still lives there, they ring the intercom and explain who they are and their reason for showing up- only for the person on the other end to suddenly yell out that Hiroko isn't dead!
Once the shock wears off, the trio collapse with relief. Hiroko has been alive this entire time. She isn't responsible for this nightmare and they didn't cause her death. Following this, things began to return to normal after the story was said to have spread to a nearby middle school while at their school, it was hardly spoken of.
But then one day, Chika happily eats breakfast until overhearing her mother amusingly bring up a discussion she had with a friend of hers. She recently had a strange dream that she was being chased by a strange figure. Chika panics and quickly asks her mother if its possible she will get caught by this monster now that she heard this scary story, but when she shows confusion, she resumes laughing at it. Chika hurriedly runs into her room and desperately searches for someone else she can call and tell.
Unfortunately her search is met with ignorance or rejection, and she realizes that at this rate she is the only person left to have this nightmare...
But why should she worry anyway? She's the best Tag player there is, and nobody has ever caught her. Everyone else was so sure that someone like her wouldn't have a problem evading the monster, and she heard from them that it was easy to avoid it because it was a slow runner. By now, arrogance gets the best of her and Chika decides to put an end to these nightmares by letting it come to her.
When she awakens in the abandoned school, Chika quickly pieces together that this must be the nightmare. She easily avoids the looming shadow and is surprised to see that she's faster than normal in the dream; but as she teases Hiroko, she is horrified to see her begin speeding up. She cries for help and begs for someone to wake her up, running as fast as she can to try to avoid it. She can't understand why Hiroko is so fast- everyone else said she was a slow runner. But then it dons on her, with each dream Hiroko invaded, she became a lot faster. So now she's capable of keeping up with her!
She loses her balance and falls, and in the distance Chika hears someone calling for her. Recognizing the voice as her mothers, she tries calling for her, but in this instance, she is face-to-face with the monstrous Hiroko; who gently proclaims victory and touches her.
Years pass, and in this time a Hospital staff is shown standing outside of room 103. They bring up that Hiroko was hit by a vehicle back in 1st grade and has been in a coma since then. As the other women express pity, they are brought to room 102, where Chika is shown sharing the same fate back in sixth grade. As they wonder what happened before moving on, Chika can only mentally beg for someone to wake her up as she lays in the bed. In her dreams, she is chased relentlessly...
Tropes:
- And I Must Scream: Years pass since Chika was caught, and in the hospital it is revealed that both she and Hiroko are in a coma. All she can do is beg for someone to wake her up.
- Asshole Victim: Chika is a young Jerk Jock who made fun of Hiroko for running slowly. She also insults her numerous times during the story despite knowing she is supposedly dead, and she purposely sought other people to hear the story in order to spare herself from it.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin
- Hypocrite: Chika mentally told Shou off during class after being told the dream. But she had no problem spreading it to others.
- With Friends Like These...: Chika most certainly thinks so in regards to Shou.
