A/N: A big shout out to Mod Kibou from The Kamunami Side (kamunamiparadise DOT tumblr DOT com) for this idea. I've been feeling burnt out lately, so this is a small writing exercise to help me get back up in writing, hopefully.

CH1: Things can change overtime, so who knows?

"Hey, did you guys check anything about this?"

"No way!"

"Come on, let me see!"

The group of four students at the back had a lot going on throughout their conversation. Plenty were rumors and gossip, a few about certain sports team and now, it's something about a new trend of some sort. The contents of which, Chiaki neither had any idea nor interest with. The rest of these classmate's back and forth about their new subject and someone presumably making a grab at the phone were tuned out; she felt it'd be rude to eavesdrop on them, even if it was in an accidental way.

Her attention reverted to the two friends she often walked to school with.

Sonia told a few personal anecdotes that happened while in her home country; Hajime listened on, only speaking up to ask a few questions. Chiaki listened in as well, mostly replying with a nod and the occasional comment like "That sounds really cool."

Come to think of it, Sonia never told anyone exactly where she came from aside from the fact she's European. It was quickly figured that it might've been something she wouldn't want to disclose at the moment, and so no one, aside from the unsavory few, really bothered to try and pry about it.

It's hard to imagine what life would've been like without them. Maybe she'd be walking to school while completely focused on her GGA and beat her high score in her favorite game again.

Well, she still does that. Sometimes. Just not very often because Hajime pestered her about it since middle school. It's something to do with road dangers and such.

As her two closest friends continued on with their conversation, she mostly listened and kept up in case they directly asked her something.

Both groups stopped at the curb as the pedestrian lights instantly went from green to red. "Bummer, that's too fast." Someone at the back group muttered. To pass some time off, while the back groups continued on with what they've been discussing about earlier, she decided to look around for a bit.

Nothing interesting to catch her attention on the way home; just a few people in cafes and other stores around. It's the same moderately busy street.

Her attention wavered around, eventually looking up high; Aside from the morning sky, a few birds, and something on that electric post. Again, nothing that can catch someone's attention-

'Wait, what was that?'

Chiaki turned her attention back up. It should have been easy to dismiss what she saw as something too surreal to even exist. It could've been an unannounced promo of some sort to promote an upcoming manga or game figure, or it can even be just some trick of the light.

As it is, she can't find any suitable explanations (or rather, excuses) to justify what she's seeing right now.

Perched on the top of an electric post was something she never saw before outside of some basic foes in some obscure games. In shape and color, it's very basic. Even from this distance, it looked like a tall, black humanoid of some sort in a crouched position; if she didn't know any better, it's easy to mistake it for a large shadow.

She can't make out any features of its face; she wondered if it's because of what looked like cloth wrapped around its entire body, or rather, it appeared to be made of that material.

Two classmates from the back group yelled, "Hey, the lights are green already, you slowpoke!" "Come on, we'll be late!" but she felt deaf to them.

The creature didn't have any eyes of the sort, but she swore that it looked like it's staring at her very being right now-

"Chiaki, are you okay there?"

Hajime's concerned tone of voice snapped her out of it immediately. Looking away from its nonexistent face, she saw her two friends stare worryingly towards her.

"Is something the matter?" Sonia asked.

She didn't answer; instead, she blurted out, "Did anyone see that?"

"Hmm? See what, exactly?"

"It's right over-" Chiaki momentarily turned back to post where the creature had been perching on earlier. "...There."

'Huh? It's gone already?'

Just like that, it's as if it's never been there in the first place.

"I'm afraid I don't see anything."

She shook her head. "It's nothing after all."

One classmate sighed and said, "All that spending full nights playing video games is starting to make you hallucinate really badly, huh. Come on, we should go before it turns red again. We'll be late and then get chewed out by the teach, and nobody here wants that to happen because of you."

As both groups stepped onto the sidewalk, Hajime spoke to her and said, "Don't mind what those guys said. Anyways, are you feeling tired today? If you are, I understand because honestly, I feel tired too."

A shrug was the response he received from her. "I guess I am. Thanks for earlier though."

"Don't mention it."

No one decided to question her about what she supposedly saw later on. She can guess it's because everyone silently agreed to dismiss it as a hallucination; even she's starting to agree with them.

When they nearly reached the school, someone suddenly interjected, "Hey, is it me, or did that weird guy looked at Nanami really hard just now?"

Curiosity got the better of her and so she lifted her head up to look for the person who, according to half of the other classmates' group, had stared at her. It didn't take long to find him; the 'weird guy' was a boy around the same age as them. He had long black hair and wore a full suit for some reason.

What caught her attention most are his bright red eyes: those eyes felt piercing, glaring, even.

The boy was across the street from them. He didn't look at anyone specifically, mostly staring into the ground. She isn't sure if it meant that those classmates misread it, or if the boy happened to look away when she checked on him.

"Do you know that guy, Nanami?" The same classmate asked.

She shook her head in reply, "I don't think I saw someone like him before."

"Guess that means he's just a freak, then." The third member of that group commented as he snickered. "Hehe, maybe he's one of those ajins."

The rest of the group chuckled as the last member said with stifled laughter, "That sure explains a lot, actually." He made sure to drag out the 'sure' part of his sentence.

"Knock it off, you two." Hajime interrupted; his voice a bit harsher than usual.

The same classmate defended himself with "Oh come on, we're just playing around, Hinata."

"Ajins aren't something to be joked around." He sighed, looking away from them. "You should know better than that."

The two groups entered the school gates. When the other group thought they were far enough, one of them muttered under his breath, "Geez, what's his problem, anyway?" Either the spiky-haired boy didn't hear them, or if he did, he didn't show it.

Aside from a joking remark from one member of that group, no one brought up the incident from that morning when they got inside the classroom.

"Alright, settle down, everyone." Their teacher requested as she entered the classroom. "Before we start, let's have a brief recap about everything we know about ajins so far. As everyone knows, the first one was discovered seventeen years ago. I'm sure most of you were only toddlers at that time." She lightly chuckled. "Anyways, currently, there are around forty-seven recorded ajins worldwide, three of them being here in Japan. There's a possibility that the count might be higher than that, however, as it's notoriously difficult to find one unless if the ajin died first."

As expected, that quickly grabbed most of their classmate's attention.

"Are we going to have a lecture about ajins today, teach?"

"Can ajins really not die, like no matter what, just anything you throw at them, and then they'll just get back up?"

"Is it true that you receive a million yen reward for turning one in?"

While the students chattered excitedly, asking questions of all sorts, besides his two friends, Chiaki appearing indifferent while Sonia is nervously trying to look natural, Hajime is another one who didn't appear interested, grumbling and visibly rolling his eyes at the topic, especially towards the last question.

"To answer all of your questions, I'm sad to say I can't answer them right now. Now, I know it's an interesting topic for you all, but we're going to cover the ajins and the history behind them in more detail this July."

Most students were really disappointed by it, a few even audibly letting it known by saying "Awww..." and "Huh!?", but from what Chiaki saw, her best friend sighed in relief about the news.

Besides what their teacher said earlier, the class was just like any other day. At the end of the class, a few peers gathered by, talking about the only interesting yet brief subject their teacher had discussed.

"Ajins aren't human, are they?" A girl asked.

"What're you talking about?" Her friend scoffed. "Of course they aren't; I heard that even if you kill them, they're not gonna stay dead."

Another group, the same one that walked to school with the trio of friends earlier that day, also had a discussion of their own.

"There were three ajins found in Japan, right?"

"I heard they didn't publicly release anything about the third one, not even a name or time it was found. It's just like one day…the government suddenly had another one out of thin air."

"You think it turned itself in or something?"

"Beats me."

Hajime stood up from his seat, grabbing his bag. He turned back to his two friends and forced a smile. "Hey, I think I'm going to head out now. I'll wait for you two outside the gates." Without another word, he left the classroom.

Just as Chiaki got her bag and prepared to leave, Sonia placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait. Before we follow him, may we discuss somewhere in private?"

After she nodded in reply, the two met up in the bathrooms. There wasn't anyone else around at this time, so this became a safe place to talk about the sensitive topic in case if someone else might hear it. Rumors and gossips are almost difficult to diffuse as soon as they're started, after all.

"If you don't mind me asking," Her friend began. "Since you've been his friend far longer than I have, do you know why Hajime constantly avoids the topic of ajins? Does he have a dislike towards them?" As if realizing the implications, she then quickly added as if to reassure her, "Not that I'm judging or implying that, of course."

"I honestly don't know either." Her shoulders sagged. "Even if I do, it's not my place to talk about it anyway. All I know is that it's always been that way and I did my best to understand that, I think."

"I see." Sonia nodded solemnly. "We'll probably know if Hajime were to tell us in his own time."

"I don't know if that'll happen anytime soon."

"I suppose you're right about that."

Their small discussion over, the two left to go home with their other friend. As he said earlier, Hajime was outside the school gates, waiting for them.

"You two took a while to get out of there." He commented, seemingly forgetting about his tense mood earlier.

"Sorry, Hajime. Sonia and I-" Chiaki began but then Sonia covered for her.

"-We were in the bathroom." The other girl finished. Their friend raised a brow about it but decided not to ask any further questions to prevent it from getting awkward.

"That's understandable, really. Come on," He beckoned them, both of whom now stood by either of his side.

"Let's go."

It's a quiet walk to home from there on out. No one brought up anything about Hajime's reaction to the topic of the immortal demi-humans earlier.

Sometime later, Sonia stepped aside. "I believe this is where we'll part for today." She departed from their group, waving a hand as she went off to her destination. "I'll see you two tomorrow!"

"See ya!" Were the replies from the remaining duo.

Hajime eventually bid his "Well, I'll off to home too. See ya tomorrow, Chiaki." not long after Sonia went home. She replied to him in turn as they went their separate ways home.

Now, it's just her again.

Prior to meeting those two people she'd come to call her closest friends, back then after she'd come home from school, she'd visit the local small arcade and spend some time there before coming home. Sure, she got scolded by her parents for being out so late, but it's not like she had a better way to spend some time.

Of course, that isn't true nowadays, not ever since she met Hajime from way back then and then Sonia last year. She did show them around to the arcade once (Sonia in particular, was absolutely thrilled), but other than that, she hasn't been there in a while. It's been long overshadowed by a newer, fancier arcade nearby and so aside from her, there weren't many people coming in.

For old times' sake, she visited the arcade, even if it's just for an hour or even a few minutes. Then again, that time isn't really guaranteed.

At the time she arrived, her line of sight momentarily went on to the person sitting on the public bench outside. It took a few seconds before the person's familiarity registered in her mind and reacted accordingly.

It's the boy from this morning.

After a while of speculation and thinking, she opted to let the crazy theories go and stepped inside.

(Chiaki ended up spending at least four hours inside and didn't even realize how late it was until she received a call from her mother who sounded calm but in reality was anything but that.)

Since a week passed, the boy is still there. This place must be his favorite hangout spot because if it isn't, then there is honestly no other explanation for why he showed up in the same place and the same time in a row. That is unless is he's actually a ghost or something like that, but that explanation's too ridiculous. If he was one, then he'd be at an abandoned building or a forest, not at a modest arcade.

It'd be best if she let the matter drop and mind her own business, but there's something about him that's making her curious. It might have something to do with the first time she saw him (No, it's not because of that weird comment a classmate said about him being an ajin, that's ridiculous even for her.), and maybe to apologize on behalf of her rude classmates as well.

And so, against the better judgment of normal people, instead of proceeding inside the building, as usual, she approached him with the same subtlety as one would in catching a 'mon.

"Hey, uh..." Chiaki started. The boy didn't turn to look at her.

'Okay, how do I start this off? Do I say "Mind if I take a seat with you?" No, that sounds too casual for the first meeting scenario and in games with situations like this, that gives a bad result. Maybe "Is it okay if I sit there" will sound better? But what if he turns it down or I end up sounding rude? If only there were choice options in real life, this wouldn't be so hard!'

"The weather's looking really nice today, right?" was instead what came out. The boy still didn't turn to look at her.

Somewhere in the distance, it felt like a crow was cawing at that stupid overused line.

'Real smooth of you. Note to self: maybe ask for lessons about this sort of thing from Hajime and Sonia, especially from the latter...'

Attempt No. 2 at the next afternoon can't be called a success either. Even with helpful advice from her two friends, the boy didn't bat an eye at her as she tried to come up quote-unquote 'natural' conversation starters that other teenagers her age would use.

Attempts No. 3 and 4 were somehow even worse than the previous one. She ran out of normal conversation starters soon enough, and so she resorted to talking about video games instead. In hindsight, it's not hard to see how that wouldn't work, since the boy didn't give any indications of whether he actually enjoyed those or not, except maybe for the fact that he was in front of the arcade, but that's probably just her grasping at straws.

As for Attempt No. 5...

The less said about it, the better.

On Saturday afternoon, Chiaki approached the boy again. As with the previous days, he didn't even glance towards her direction.

"Hey, I..." She started, her head bowed. "I just wanted to say, I'm really sorry if I made you uncomfortable in any way during those times." The boy didn't turn to face her, but she saw a slight change of expression on his face. It's hard to tell from this angle, though. "If you want, starting today, I won't bother you anymore. Again, I'm really sorry for all of that."

She turned from the opposite side of his direction and stepped away to leave him be. When she thought about, trying to approach someone like that wasn't a good idea in the first. In fact, if she were in his place, she'd probably want to be left alone and think that the person she never met before trying to talk to her constantly must be really obnoxious.

"I never implied your presence caused any discomfort." The boy's voice made her stop a meter away from him.

Turning back to face him, she can only say a surprised "Huh?". For the first time since she tried to strike a conversation with him since for the past week, the boy not only turned to face her but also spoke to her.

"You're an odd one." Was what he commented.

Approaching him, she glanced at the empty spot beside him. "May I...?"

The boy appeared to consider it for a while, and then replied with an internal shrug, "Go ahead."

That's all the encouragement she needed as a push. Soon enough, she filled the spot, taking the seat beside him. After that, her mind's a blank when it came to planning on what to do next, now that she finally managed to talk to him. For that, the next few moments became that of awkward silence.

Later, a thought occurred to her; she mentally beat herself for not realizing it sooner. "Ah, speaking of which, I almost forgot to ask you this, but what's your name? I'm Nanami Chiaki."

"..." The boy kept silent for a second or so and then answered, "...Kamukura Izuru."

With a gentle smile, she held her hand out. "Nice to meet you, Kamukura."

Izuru tilted his head down to stare at her outstretched hand. Chiaki momentarily worried if she did something wrong, and was preparing to retract her hand. "Um, you don't have to shake my hand if you don't want to-"

She felt his hand encase hers and lightly shake it as if this was the first time he shook hands with someone. "You could've told me."

"I guess that I just thought that...you know..." Her reply's rather sheepish.

No thanks to her previous failures, it's hard to come up with something to start up a conversation with. When she asked him about what he'd like to talk about, he just told her, "Whatever you want. Don't expect much of a conversation with me; however, I'll try to listen."

And that, she did. As he said, he didn't talk back that much, mostly nodding to let her know that he's listening and occasionally interjecting to ask her to elaborate about something.

Despite him saying she can talk about whatever comes to mind, she avoided the topic of ajins. She thought that because of what a classmate said, it might offend him somehow. Speaking of which, that reminds her.

"Oh, by the way, I also want to apologize for what my classmates said about you two weeks ago. What they said was really uncalled for."

If he expressed himself, he might've scoffed. "I could care any less of what others think of me. What I don't understand is why you'd apologize on the behalf of those people for something you weren't a part of."

"I guess I wanted to give it some closure of a sort. That, and since those guys obviously won't do it, I figured I might as well do it for them."

"You confuse me, Nanami."

The afternoon sky slowly dimmed. Realizing that it's almost late, Chiaki stood up and prepared to leave. Before doing so, she turned back to Izuru. The boy didn't stand up like she did, instead of remaining on the bench.

"Hey, Kamukura, is it okay if I keep meeting up with you? I mean, I wouldn't mind talking with you again. I'd like to get to know you better as well."

"If you wish to."

For more than two months, Chiaki continued meeting up with Izuru like she said she would. It's only been a short amount of time, and though not on the same level as Hajime or even Sonia, she felt comfortable around him. Sure, he looks a bit intimidating at first, but once you get to know him, he's not really a bad person. He still doesn't say much about himself, but if it makes him comfortable, then that's fine.

Around somewhere in the middle of May, after mentioning her love for video games before, Izuru asked her if he can try one. She was more than happy to let him borrow one. It surprised her at first when it turned out he's really good at those games, even if he did lose interest in them after a while. It didn't stop him from keeping the extra handheld she gave him, though.

They traded phone numbers too, which is a good sign.

It's the last week of July now. As the teacher promised back in April, she ended up discussing the ajins in more detail compared to back then, much to the chagrin of Hajime.

"If you all remembered the recap I gave you back in April, at the moment there are forty-seven ajin recorded worldwide-"

Most of the information given by the teacher ended up being phased out in Chiaki's mind. A few, new interesting tidbits she paid attention to (such as the first ajin being discovered in Africa after rumors of him being unable to die while on the battlefield), but the rest just became white noise.

'An ajin's voice is strong enough to paralyze humans, huh? That's kinda interesting...' Chiaki thought as she tried her best to pay attention to that part. 'Reminds me of the Thu'um, although that one does more than just paralyzing.'

"Now, are there any questions?" A hand was raised. The teacher raised a brow, not expecting the first hand she saw. "Yes, Ms. Nevermind?"

After her name's been called, she lowered her hand and then stood up, asking, "Why does the Japanese government want to keep the ajins within their custody in the first place?"

Their teacher placed a finger on her lip in thought. "That's a good question; I suppose your homeland deals with the ajins in a different way, so of course you'd be curious. Hmm, from what I recall, it's to ensure safety not only for the ajins under their custody but also for the safety of their citizens. Due to their inability to die, imagine what kind of chaos one can cause if say, a malicious person ended up being one."

"I see. Thank you for your answer." Sonia bowed her head and returned to her seat.

Later that day, a group of classmates gathered around one of their own. The one who's currently in the middle of the attention held his phone out, showcasing a video on it.

"Guys, come on and check this video out. Allegedly, this looks like a video of an ajin experiment."

"Woah, really?!"

"Is that real?"

"No way, that's got to be fake."

"Well, then why don't you check it out for yourself?"

As the students watched the video, one of them spotted a certain classmate in the corner and called out to him, "Hey, Hajime-"

"I don't want to see that shit." Hajime himself immediately cut that classmate off, packing his bag and leaving the room without another word.

That classmate scoffed. "I literally can't understand him right now. What is he, a girl?" Shaking his head, he turned his attention to the other two. "Hey, how about you, Sonia?"

"I'd rather not."

"Well, that's a shame."

Curiosity got the better of Chiaki, and despite the obvious discomfort of her two friends, decided to check the video for herself. The others commented on how they didn't expect her, of all people, to become interested in it. They gleefully put the video back in the beginning.

Now, Chiaki understood the reason why both Hajime and Sonia were so apprehensive to watching the video.

It wasn't that long, only about a minute or so, but that didn't make the content any less horrifying. Someone, presumably an ajin, was wrapped from head to toe in white cloth, giving them an appearance that likens them to a test dummy; if she squinted, she can see the numbers 002 written on the space where the ajin's face would be. The ajin was heavily restrained to a medical chair, flailing uselessly as they were shot repeatedly in the head.

Every time the ajin was shot, blood spurted out of the side of their head and they fell limp, only to rise back up as black matter form around them and they flailed, even more, repeating the process all over again.

Before the video finished, Chiaki, wide-eyed and speechless, grabbed her bag and ran out of the classroom, ignoring the surprised reactions from the classmates who showed her the video and the worried calls from Sonia.

Hajime, outside in the hallways, noticed her running by and immediately became concerned. "Chiaki, what's gotten into you-?"

She couldn't hear him as the video mentally replayed itself in her mind as she ran out of the school. The mental image of the ajin flailing and possibly even screaming if they were allowed to remain stuck in her thoughts.

'It's fake. It's fake. It's fake. It's got to be fake. It can't be real. It just can't be. There is no way any sane person would condone that kind of cruelty. No, no one can nor will approve of that, period.'

By the time she arrived at the usual meeting place, she's almost out of breath, panting hard while she tried to distance her thoughts away from the video footage.

"Hm, you're here earlier than usual. Is something the matter, Nanami?"

Without thinking as much about the consequences, she can only mutter repeatedly, "It's awful. It's so awful."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Izuru asked, his calm voice helping her snap out of those thoughts.

Though she did her best to reply, due to her state of mind and the fact she ran all the way here, she can shakily say what sprang to mind while trying to catch her breath as she took a seat next to him. "Kamukura...Classmates showed...online video...experiments...ajins..."

He raised a brow at the last two words. "You saw the video, didn't you?" At her nod, he sighed and said, "I figured as much. Did you believe it to be real?"

She shook her head. "I don't want to think it's real, not without evidence to support it, but from the way the supposed ajin acted, it looked too real. Especially whenever they're killed and then black matter comes out of them as soon as they're revived-" She didn't notice his reaction, but if she did, she would've seen Izuru froze at the mention of black matter. "...just the idea of it sounds too horrible to be true."

"Even if it sounds too unbelievable, it's likely there's an amount of truth to it." Upon seeing her disbelieving look, he added, "If there are no such experiments, then why does our government insist on taking anyone confirmed to be an ajin under their custody?"

"I don't want to jump on the conspiracies yet, but you make a good point there. That probably explains why there aren't much ajins around." She admitted.

"Still, you know, I can't help but wonder about a future where ajins don't have to hide. A future where they can coexist peacefully with humans sounds nice, I think." Now staying away from the heavy topic, she recomposed herself. "I guess you probably think it sounds really stupid."

His eyes narrowed. "The word 'stupid' isn't what I'd use to describe that dream. Impossible suits it far more."

"Maybe you're right about that, but maybe you can be wrong about that too."

"I have yet to see evidence that proves my thoughts wrong. If anything, it leans more on the contrary."

"I can hope. Things can change over time, so who knows?"

On the way home the next afternoon, Sonia piped in an important question she wanted to ask since that morning. "Chiaki, where were you yesterday? You had Hajime and I worried for you."

Chiaki blinked and then felt a bit of guilt for forgetting about that. "Oh, right. I was with a friend that time; really sorry for not telling you guys about it."

"That's alright, no need to apologize for it." Hajime helpfully said. "If anything, was the video from yesterday really that bad?"

"Yeah, it was. But thanks to that friend, I feel a bit better about it now."

"That's great to hear, then!"

The trio of friends kept chatting with each other along the way. It took her a while to realize this, but for all her talking about a new friend she made since the past months, she hadn't really told her two friends about Izuru nor made any plans for them to meet up. Maybe that can be arranged next month, after she asks Izuru about it, of course. He didn't look like the people-person type and might not want to have strangers suddenly thrown onto him and then make him uncomfortable.

The lights were still green for the pedestrians by the time they got on the curb. Not wanting to wait for a while, the group of classmates with them insisted on just going forward already before it turned red. It's only a few blocks away and there weren't any vehicles around, they insisted.

Both groups crossed the street; if one of them had turned back, that person might've noticed the light quickly switching from green to red.

The bus driven by an overworked driver sped too fast to stop in time at the group. Despite being so tired, the driver realized the situation he was in repeatedly tried to press the brakes to no avail. The closest person who'd be left at the impact would've been the blonde girl.

Nothing else was on Chiaki's mind that time, other than the fact she knew her friend was about to be run over.

"Sonia!"

What happened next became a blur.

Tires screeched to a stop. A group of four students stumbled away from the impact and back to the curb. Sonia fell back and landed on her side with a bruise, but otherwise unharmed. Hajime stayed on where he was, wide eyes falling in the line of sight under the bus.

Sonia forced herself up, a mouth covering her gasp as she stared in horror.

Underneath the bus was the limp, crushed and mangled body of her the person who was once Chiaki Nanami. The large vehicle obscured most of the horrifying sight; the forming pool of blood and her arm sticking out from under the bus is more than enough to let her friends know what happened.

A crowd of passersby began to form as the bus driver stepped out, panic filling his face as he feebly defended himself. Sonia didn't hear them, she can't. She was far too focused on the sight of her friend, praying fervently for a sign that it wasn't true, that her friend wasn't dead.

The fingers on the hand began to lightly twitch. The twitch turned into full movement as the fingers curled, and Sonia felt her hopes up.

Not wasting any more time, she turned her attention to a random bystander. "You there. Call for an ambulance immediately." The man hesitated for a while, but she remained undeterred and then added with a firm voice, "Please, my friend is possibly still alive, but trapped underneath that bus. She needs help before it becomes far too late."

The man dialed in the emergency number and began his call. "Hello, there was an accident here. Someone, a high schooler I think, got run over by a bus moments ago-no, she's still kinda alive but-"

Several startled gasps formed around the rest of the crowd. The rest of the man's words stopped when saw the reason why.

The high schooler who was run over not long ago slowly crawled her way out of the bus and shakily forced herself to stand on two legs. Her uniform and hoodie had large tatters over them and were bloodied, but aside from that, there wasn't a single wound found on her body.

"Sir? Sir?" The woman from the other line called, trying to regain his attention.

"She's...a...an ajin...?!"

'It hurts so much.'

She didn't regret pulling her friend out of the way, not even one bit, but it didn't change those heroics in video games isn't as cracked up to be when applied to real life. To think that she'd die so horribly this way. It may have been a short amount of time, but the pain she felt throughout it all was so agonizing.

Seconds that felt like an eternity passed. Everything went black.

The black void didn't last for long. For some reason, her eyes opened again and suddenly, the pain was gone.

The tangy smell of hot oil and the metallic scent of her own blood hit her nostrils. Instinctively, she used her outstretched hand and forcibly pulled herself out. Despite in the best shape she could've been right now, her body shakily stood when she forced herself up on both legs.

Chiaki slowly noticed the crowd gathered around her, however, their presence was small compared to what she saw in front of her. Eyes wide, mouth agape and gasping in fear as she witnessed black particles form around her arms.

Black matter, not unlike the ones she saw from the video a day ago.

"An ajin? Is that an ajin?"

"They really do exist?"

"To see an ajin in real life like this, I don't know what to say."

The crowd's murmurs grew louder, and suddenly she realized how every last one of them saw her come back from the dead. Their stares bored into her. Some took pictures or recorded, while others made calls. Suddenly, the person she was before this incident no longer mattered.

"Isn't there a big reward for anyone who finds one?" One passerby commented, oblivious to the growing dread from the teenager.

"I wonder who'll step in to take the reward, then." Another replied.

As if in response to that, the bus driver from earlier began to walk back. "Come on, now." The bus driver said as he took steady steps in approaching the newly discovered ajin. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure the government will take good care of you."

Once she heard that, Chiaki's mind played back the video she saw yesterday as a realization dawned upon her. That video wasn't staged. Images of the heavily restrained ajin, dressed like a test dummy, being killed and tested on with all sorts of equipment replayed in her thoughts.

'They're going to kill me. Over and over again, just to see if I really can't die.'

She should run away, run before anyone gets a hold of her and turn her over to the government to be experimented on for life. Since she can't die anymore, there'd be no escape when that happens.

'Run. Run. Run. Get out of here. Why aren't you running away? JUST RUN ALREADY!'

Her body froze. She can't make a sound.

The driver was at least a few feet closer to her, and then he stopped.

To the crowd, it would look like he just stopped for no explicit reason.

To Chiaki, she's fully aware of the reason why he stopped because she can clearly see it.

A tall, black humanoid, the same one she saw before, grabbed the driver's head; its long claws curled over his face, covering it save for an eye and the lower half, starting from the nose below. The driver's breathing grew rapid as if he knew that something unnatural just grabbed him.

Chiaki lifted her head up and only then realized how tall the creature was compared to her. It already looked massive before, but that's nothing compared to seeing it in person now. Though lacking a face, she can feel the intensity of its stare as she did back then.

Out of a sudden, the creature reared its long arm back and then threw the hapless driver over the policeman who just exited from the police car that arrived just now. The other policeman tried to make a move, only to hit the pavement while at the same time, the new ajin saw the creature pull the policeman's ankle and forced him on the ground.

The sight caused a stir among frightened bystanders. Hajime and Sonia tried to reach out for their equally frightened friend but were overwhelmed by the crowd. In the midst of the commotion, no one noticed the ajin slip past them and flee from the area.

By the time things had settled down as best as it could be, with the police placing yellow lines on where the incident took place while the press interviewed various people who'd been there, Chiaki was nowhere to be found.

It's night time now.

Chiaki curled around herself protectively, hidden behind a tree in a forest. Despite not being a runner in any way possible, she forced herself to run all the way here, not stopping to rest for a bit even if it meant there's a chance of figuratively dropping dead from exhaustion.

Dropping dead...hah, isn't that funny? Guess it isn't.

There is one thing certain about her newfound status as an ajin.

'I can't go back home again, not like this.'

There were some vibrations on her phone earlier, but she didn't check whether they were missed calls or messages, but if she did, she'd see that at least two missed calls came from Izuru.

At the same time, she had no idea what became of her friends and what they thought about her, now that she's been confirmed as an ajin. If they met again, can those her friends still be trusted?

Oh, who is she kidding? Where else can she go now?

The phone vibrated on the ground beside her. She almost didn't want to check it, but upon seeing the caller's name, a part of her wanted to answer it. Taking a deep breath, she accepted the call and then placed the phone near her ear. Hajime's familiar voice did well in assuring her.

"Hello, Chiaki? Are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here. No one's spotted me yet."

A sigh of relief was audible from his line. "Thank God for that. I don't know what I'd do if those guys got to you first." His tone sounded frantic for a second at the last sentence. "Anyways, where are you now? I'll be coming over to help you as soon as I can."

A part of her jumped at the hope of someone who's still at her side. Her first friend would never betray her, she wanted to believe that. She wanted to tell him her location, but at the same time, she can't help but hesitate.

Hajime's voice pulled her out of those thoughts.

"Hey, Chiaki? It's okay if you can't fully trust me right now. I mean, I'd react exactly the same way if I were in your situation. But, I'll still try to look out for you regardless."

That's all it took for her faith in him to win against her hesitation.

"Do you remember the shrine we visited a few times during your birthdays? I'm hiding in the forest near it right now."

"Got it. I'll be there as soon as I can. Until then, try to stay hidden."

Sighing in relief, she set her phone back on the ground. After Hajime arrives, the phone will be just junk now. More than a few games showed times of the characters' being tracked by their devices; she's not taking any chances with that.

It's hard to tell the time, but a good amount of it passed by. Nearby, footsteps were almost audible while a beam of flashlight swayed from side to side.

Tilting to the side, she hopefully called out, "Hajime? Is that you?"

Those hopes were quickly dashed away as the flashlight shone on her. She lifted a hand to protect her eyes from the bright light out of reflex. The source of the flashlight came from the policemen, albeit one who wasn't the same as either of the two earlier.

His eyes widened, likely in recognition of her face. He quickly grabbed onto his radio and made a call. "I've found the ajin. She's right here at the Takada Shrine's forest. I repeat, the ajin is at the Takada Shrine's forest."

The danger fully realized, despite what her friend said earlier, she turned tail and ran out of the policeman's sight. She didn't dare to stop even as she felt herself almost trip on the bumpy ground a few times.

"Hey! Get back here!" The policeman's voice grew louder even as she ran.

The disadvantages of the forest's thickness worked just as well in her advantage. It made running away from her pursuer that much harder, but so does for him as well. Not to mention, in survival horror, if she can't outrun something, then she definitely can hide from it.

And that is exactly what she'd do.

The large tree did its job well enough in hiding her from the policeman, allowing her to catch her breath for a while. Though nothing compared to the distance she ran all the way here, the stakes in this one was enough to render the same effect.

From this angle, she saw the same beam of flashlight waving from side to side. Soon after, the policeman called out with a loud and clear voice, "I'm not going to hurt you, so please surrender quietly."

She didn't dare to make a move. If she kept still and quiet enough, then maybe he'll go look in another place. As long as she doesn't do anything that'll attract his attention, he should go away soon.

The policeman's footsteps drew closer, dangerously close to the tree she hid behind. Her breath steadied and waited-

A loud thwack! followed by another, louder one.

"Grah!" A grunt from the policeman was what she heard, followed by a thud on the ground.

Still a bit cautious, she peered out from her hiding spot and saw two things that made her skip a beat. The first one was the collapsed body of the policeman. The second one was the familiar face of her oldest friend.

She tried to keep herself calm as she stepped out of her hiding spot. "Y...You're really here...Haji-"

Hajime raised an index finger up, interrupting her while he placed the baseball bat back inside the duffel bag. "We can't call each other by names outside, okay?"

She nodded, immediately understanding the reason why.

He turned to her. "Anyways, I apologize if it took me a while to get here. He didn't give you a hard time, did he?"

At the shake of her head, he glanced around their surroundings and back at the downed policeman. When the policeman didn't make any sudden movements, Hajime then took her by the wrist. "Come on, let's get out of here before he gets his senses back and call for backup." Both began to run, their steps audibly thumped on the ground. An escape route and transportation is already in Hajime's mind while Chiaki did her best to keep her pace up with him.

A few minutes after they're gone, the policeman eventually regained his senses. He grunted, feeling the ache from his sprained ankle and bruised head. Gritting his teeth, he called on to his radio. By that time, the two were too far to hear what he'd have said.

"The ajin is escaping with an accomplice! Place blockades on all possible routes and send reinforcements immediately!"