Inside the Earth... (also titled In the Soil) is a short story written by Junji Ito. It is the seventh chapter in The Bully, volume 12 of the Horror World of Junji Ito series.
Plot[]
Teranishi and Ejji go to a reunion at their old junior high school, with the main event being the unearthing of a time capsule buried twenty years ago. It contains all sorts of photographs and memories, including letters that the kids had written to each other. Teranishi recalls writing a letter to Kumi Shinoda, a girl whom the class despised because she was a relentless bully who complained about everything. She was especially bitter about the class humiliating her after she tried to kick a girl she disliked out of the school play.
Teranishi muses that she wrote her letter to Shinoda in the hope she would have matured when the time capsule was dug up. To her dismay, Shinoda hasn't come to the reunion. Ejji claims that he is still in touch with Shinoda, who calls her every day and still complains about things that happened when they were at school. She seems to have an almost perfect memory of their childhood.
Teranishi's reflection on Shinoda is interrupted when the time capsule is finally dug up. To the class's horror, they discover that it contains Shinoda's corpse; she had sealed herself inside and destroyed all her classmates' letters and essays. Moreover, Shinoda's rotting fingers are clutching a telephone that was inside the capsule with her.