Occult Transfer Student, also titled The Supernatural Transfer Student, is the fifth chapter from volume eleven of the Horror World of Junji Ito Collection, The Town Without Streets.
Summary[]
Five high schoolers have formed a club to study the supernatural. Its members include leader Hikaru Shibayama, who exhibits minor powers of telekinesis; and Kiyoshi Kitagawa, who can see human spirits. The kids are excited to hear that Shibayama has been invited to appear on TV to demonstrate his abilities. At their school, a new transfer student named Ryou Tsukano arrives. Tsukano claims that his favorite hobby is going for long walks because he always finds something exciting and special. Although the club members think he's strange, they invite him to hang out with them.
Tsukano begins to "find" bizarre things around town that unsettle the others, such as flowers with a human eye growing out of it. He also demonstrates telekinetic powers far stronger than Shibayama's. One day, Tsukano summons the club members to a waterfall he has discovered, which wasn't there before. He says it has magical properties and demonstrates that the spray from the water can shoot down a bird from the sky. He believes that one could develop incredible abilities from bathing in the water. Shibayama has become withdrawn and quiet, wondering if he's really good enough to appear on TV. He's no longer sure that anyone would be impressed by his "power."
The following day, Shibayama goes missing and his friends know it's something to do with the waterfall. Kitagawa claims that Shibayama's ghost is at the bottom of the waterfall and Shibayama deliberately jumped to his death from the top. Tsukano says Kitagawa is wrong; Shibayama wanted to bathe in the water to enhance his powers, but fell to his death accidentally. Tsukano then leads the club members to a lake that has appeared from nowhere, into which the waterfall flows. Maiko, one of the girls in the club, is extremely upset as she appeared to have feelings for Shibayama. She accuses Tsukano of being responsible for Shibayama's death by causing all these mysterious things to happen. Tsukano just laughs it off and asks why they're not interested when so many supernatural things are happening around them now. The kids stare in disbelief as a sea monster suddenly rises out of the lake.
That evening, Maiko invites the other two girls in the club to sleep over and keep her company while her parents are away. They discuss the strange events that have been happening since Tsukano arrived. There's a knock on the door and Shibayama says that it's him. Maiko goes to open the door only to find that Shibayama is now a gigantic, grotesque zombie whose telekinetic abilities are magnified to a terrifying extent. The girls run to Kitagawa's house but find that a series of enormous stone statues now stand where his house was. Kitagawa claims he found it this way when he came home. Tsukano appears and Maiko tries to tell Kitagawa that Tsukano is responsible for everything that's happened. He is changing the town into a bizarre land of supernatural occurrences for his own amusement.
At this point, Shibayama arrives. Kitagawa can't believe what he's seeing. Shibayama tries to use his telekinesis to crush Kitagawa to death underneath one of the statues, but Kitagawa suddenly reveals superhuman abilities which he gained from bathing in the waterfall. He uses his power to slam the zombie into a wall, destroying Shibayama forever. Tsukano reveals that he saw Kitagawa push Shibayama off the waterfall because Kitagawa was jealous that Shibayama had been invited to appear on TV. Kitagawa didn't have the ability to see spirits, he just made it up for attention, but now he has very real powers because of the waterfall's magic. Kitagawa says that he likes the mysterious world Tsukano has created; and asks to join Tsukano in making the town "interesting." Tsukano says he can't accept Kitagawa's offer, as the latter's powers are still too weak.
In the morning Tsukano is gone, having supposedly transferred to a new school. Without his influence, all the wondrous things that have happened around town vanish, and the town returns to its former condition. However, Shibayama can't come back to life. Kitagawa disappears shortly afterwards and there are rumors that he is looking for Tsukano. The remaining club members' friendship dissolves. Maiko wonders where Tsukano is and whether he's still "finding" strange things along his way. She is forced to admit they will never really know the truth about him.