最優秀作品：To Know is To Die

特選：The Reason

特選：Greed

特選：My crime

To Know is To DieY.Rider
There was an ordinary junior high school student
whose name was Ken Hongo.

One day he was called on by his science teacher,
Mr. Analein, in class. Ken had been thinking thatMr. Analein was very kind to him and gentle.

When Mr. Analein walked up to him, he felt
something was wrong with his teacher. He couldn’t
hear Mr. Analein’s breathing. He also noticed Mr.
Analein’s hand was very cold. It was hard to believe,
but maybe he was not human. Maybe he was analien!!

That night, he called Mr. Analein and asked if he was analien. Ken expected that his teacher would laugh and say“Of course not.” But his teacher said, “Oh, you’ve
discovered my secret. Now, I have to kill you soon. Sorry,
but you have only a short time to live.” “But…” “No ifs,ands, or buts! I have to obey my planet’s law.”Since that day, his worry became bigger and bigger.
He was thinking about his teacher’s words day in andday out. He was so nervous that he couldn’t even talkto his friends.

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Now, his friends didn’t try to talk to him either,and he became lonelier and lonelier.

When he saw himself in the mirror a week after the day hecalled Mr. Analein, he noticed that his face had been
becoming uglier, more like an alien’s. He was in a daze for awhile.

He didn’t have enough courage to go to schoolwith an alien face. So he sat on the sofa in his
home alone all morning. At 1:11 p.m. he wastaken by aliens to their space ship.

When he regained conciousness, he was in acenter of a bright hall. Many aliens were staring athim. It was so quiet that he could hear his own
heartbeat. The next moment, he couldn’t hear or seeor feel anything. He had been killed.

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The Reason
President
My name is Jack. I used to be a famous writer
many years ago, but now I am a typical father.
Yesterday my son asked me, “Why did you stopwriting?” So I started to answer, “It is a strange
story, but it’s true….”
When I was young, I lived in the countryside. Iwrote many fantasy stories there.
I was very busy writingstories.

One day, I was writing a mystery story. In the story,
a woman named Mary was killed by someone. That
was the first time I wrote about murder. I felt a little
scared when I was writing the murder scene, but thestory was going well. That afternoon, a strange thing
happened.

While I was taking a break, the door to my room
opened by itself. I thought it was weird, but I didn’t
care since I was so tired.

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The next day I finished writing the mystery story. I thought
the story was nice. While I was reading the story to check for
mistakes, the door to my room opened by itself and a cold
wind blew into the room.

Suddenly, a tall woman appeared in front of me shouting
something. “Why? Why did you kill me in the story?” thewoman asked me. I was very surprised because the woman
was Mary, one of the characters in the mystery story.
“Mary, you can’t be here.
You aren’t a real person,” I
answered and closed myeyes in fear.

When I opened my eyes, Mary had alreadydisappeared. Then I threw the pieces of paper withthe mystery story away, because I was very scared ofthe story.

“That’s why I stopped writing,” I told my son. “I canstill remember Mary’s angry face,” I said.
But you know I used to be a famous fantasy writer.
And I think I’m still good at making up stories.
The story I told my son yesterday was nice one.

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GreedFAX TANIMOTO
There was a little girl whose name was Rin, andshe was a witch. She had tried to tell that to herfamily, but she couldn’t do it. One day she decided totell them.

“Hey everyone! Listen to me! I’m a witch!” she said. “Areyou a witch!? No way! Ha ha!” everyone said. “Now I willcause a power cut!” she said. Everyone said, “Shut u…Oh!?”

The lights turned off by themselves. “It really
happened! It’s scary! Aaaugh!”“Didn’t you understand? I’m a witch!”

Then her father lighted a candle. “I’m sorry forlaughing at you. By the way, will you grant ourwishes?” “Umm, OK. We aren’t very rich. So I
will make the room gorgeous!”

Suddenly lights turned on, and the room becamericher than before. “Wow! That’s wonderful!” Mothersaid.

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Then they said their wishes one after another.
“I want brand-name goods!” Sister said. “I want toeat expensive food!” Father said. “I want a new
fishing rod!” Brother said. “Now now, I will grant
your wishes, but please grant my wish,” Rin said.

“It’s playing with me at the beach…,” she said.
“Yes of course,” they replied. Then they went there.
But they only cared about their wishes, so they justwaited. Rin knew that. “After all, people just careabout what they want. I hate people!
Now I should go back to the magic world,” shethought.
She made a sand castle “Good bye, family. Thesand castle is like me. It will be swallowed by thewaves and forgotten. I will also be forgotten like it.”Rin went back to the magic world. Then the sand castle was swallowed by the waves.
About 30 minutes later, Rin’s family noticed Rin was not there. “Where is Rin!?” Theylooked for her again and again, but they couldn’t find her.
“Oh no! She isn’t here! Our dream can’t cometrue!” Father and sister and brother cried. “We justcared about what we wanted. Maybe Rin knew that,so she went back to her real home. We are fools.”“She taught us the law of life,” Mother said. They
just looked at the sand castle which was being
swallowed.

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My crime
Lycoris“… I won’t ever forgive you. I will kill you rightnow.” “Help!! Help!!” I woke up. It was two o’clock.
“Oh, I had a bad dream….” I said to myself. In mydream, a woman who had a bloody knife looked atme and said, “You killed me! I won’t ever forgive
you. I will kill you right now,” and she tried to killme. I had often had the dream recently. I wanted tothink that it was just a dream. But I couldn’t.
I was frightened that the dream would come true….
Five years ago, I lived in an old house with mywife and my little daughter. I worked for a bigcompany, but I was fired. I was very angry with thecompany and was going crazy. My wife was kind tome, but I thought, “She is laughing at me in herheart. She will leave me soon,” because I couldn’t
believe anyone then.
One day, she said to me, “Don’t you want to work again? You always stay in yourroom and watch TV.” Then I was very angry with her and said, “Oh, you look down on
me! You don’t love me anymore. You hate me!” I was crazy at that time, I think. I took aknife from the kitchen and I killed my wife. My daughter saw that, so she began to cry.
She said, “Mom! Mom!” again and again. I thought that she’d go to the police and tell
everything. I was afraid. So I killed my daughter too.
I committed a big crime. Luckily, my wife and herfamily hated each other and hadn’t been in contact fora long time, so no one was able to discover themurder. I didn’t want to go to prison, so I buried theirbodies under a tree in the yard. And I have lived in
the house alone until today.

8Until recently, I didn’t think about the murder. But now,
I was thinking of my crime because of the dream. I
remembered five years ago clearly. I thought and thought,
and then I decided to go to the yard, where my wife anddaughter were buried.
It was midnight, so the yard was dark. I had a light in myhand.

Suddenly, I heard a strange noise from the tree. I lookedat the tree and almost screamed! My wife and daughter
were there. But they didn’t have legs. They were ghosts. I
couldn’t believe it!! I wanted to think it was a dream, but
it wasn’t. I couldn’t say anything. I just stared at them.
Then my wife’s ghost said, “Long time no see. You didn’t
remember me for five years.” “Well, sorry. I’m… I’msorry for everything I did,” I said to her. I couldn’t see herface, but her voice was soft. “You killed me and my daughter. That is a big crime, youknow. But I am not angry with you because you were crazy then. And you are fine now,I think. You are here because you were thinking about your crime, right? I’m glad thatyou’re here now.” I was very surprised. I thought she wouldn’t forgive me. She
continued, “But I also think you must pay for your crime.” “Yes, I know. I’ll go topolice tomorrow,” I answered. Then she smiled at me, and she and her daughter
disappeared.
So now, I’m in the police station. I told the police
everything. The policeman listened to my story
silently. When my story was finished, he asked me,“Why did you decide to come to the policestation?” And I answered, “Because my wife saidso.”–The end–9Mike 先生からのコメント

To Know is To Die
This is an exciting science fiction story with a lot of detail. The writer describes
Ken Hongo’s confused feelings very well. There is also some nice humor, suchas the name, “Mr. Analein.”

The Reason
This is an excellent mystery/horror story, and the twist at the end is a great
surprise. Jack is obviously a quick thinker with an active imagination, and his sonmust have heard a lot of exciting stories while growing up.

GreedThis story is an interesting mix of many different elements, because it is a family
story and a fantasy and it also has an important moral. The witch disappearing
like a sand castle is a memorable image.

My crime
The writer of this ghost story does a great job describing the man’s feelings, suchas his crazy anger at the time of the murder and his guilt five years later. It’s anice surprise that the ghost is not angry at the man.

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宮下先生からのコメント

To Know is To Die
見抜く力があったがゆえに、殺されてしまったケン。一貫してドキドキする緊張感がたまらない作品。文章には巧みに授業で習った単語を入れながら、よいテンポを保った秀作。

The Reason
真実はいかに？人間の杞優かもしれない本質的な恐れが現実に。プロットがしっかり組まれたお話で、読み手を飽きさせず最後の一語まで楽しめる。

Greed
人間にとって本当に大切なものは何なのか、気づいてからでは遅いという心の重みを問う作品。自分がどうありたいかを改めて考えさせられる。文章の長さを変えることで雰囲気が出ている。

My crime
会話のテンポがよくなじみやすいこの作品は、潜在意識の中にある、後悔の念や人間の貪欲さなどを見抜いたものである。決め台詞もよい。

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