Iroha

by Monochromatic Mime

Gekkoukan High finds itself a new English teacher. What his employers don't tell him is that the school turns into a warped, demon-infested tower at midnight. Or that the messes he's expected to clean up are out to kill him. Then again, no one ever said that working for the Kirijo Group would be that easy... — OC novelization.

1. leaping off the cliff

Iroha
leaping off the cliff

When I was a kid the only monster that ever terrorized me was my older sister and Santa Claus was about as real as my third grade teacher's G-sized breasts. I've never made any wishes on shooting stars or birthday candles. I've never visited temples for anything beyond festivals, school trips, or New Years celebrations.

So when I found myself sitting across the school chairman and the daughter of Takeharu Kirijo — a red armband and an evoker lying inside the briefcase between us — I desperately scrambled my brain for anything, any explanation resembling grounded sensibility, that would re-organize my current predicament into something... realistic.

There were plenty of hot blooded men in Japan. Men younger than me, who'd eagerly cock that gun and leap into whatever fucked up fantasy these people were trying to weave. So why me?

This wasn't really the job I signed up for.

---

It was a choice between Gekkoukan and some other school in the middle of a country hick town.

"Hi. I'm Higure Nakajima. I'll be teaching you English," I droned.

10 years ago I would have been a blabbering mess of an idiot spewing off the first words that popped in his head. Nowadays the thought of standing at a podium with a set of 40 something eyes pointed my way had become as natural to me as Candlestick Park was to The Beatles. Still, I surprised myself with the level of composure I was projecting. It was my first day teaching here at a school like this: a school highly rated on a national level and backed by the Kirijo Group. The fancy facilities and expensive textbooks reflected their prestige. Yet the students of 3-D were just like any of the other high school students coming back from spring break. I could tell just by looking at their bored faces that they were wishing they were hibernating back in their beds.

Well, they weren't the only ones who weren't enthusiastic about being here either.

As long as they weren't a massive headache to deal with, I could care less whether I could get them to stand on their desks and go, "Oh captain, my captain" or not. I could tell right away that this year would be a noisy bunch, if all the gossiping during the welcoming ceremony was anything to go by.

Right now, the third hardest part about this job would be learning the names and faces of all my students.

"Excuse me, but what happened to Terauchi-sensei?"

But that was what seating charts were for.

I glanced down at the name 'Keisuke Hiragi'. Old-fashioned glasses, a neatly creased collar to his shirt, a fully buttoned uniform jacket, and a friendly smile bright enough to burn holes in your eyes. He was the classic image of your typical model student.

"I was told that Terauchi-san is away on maternity leave," I replied. "She won't be coming back to teach until next year."

I raised my eyebrow when several more hands flew up into the air. Let's see here... heart-broken school boys who look like they are about to breakdown. Oh, yes, and of course, gossip hungry-looking school girls who look like new years happened again and gifted them with a big fat otoshidama.

"And just for the record, I would also like to remind you all of the privacy policy that we have here at Gekkoukan High. If you do not remember what it is, you do have a wonderful source of knowledge in the student handbook that I passed out to you all this morning."

I knew of the importance of privacy. I also knew how quickly word travels down the hallways. I didn't want the reputation of a teacher who couldn't keep his damn mouth shut. At the end of the day, it would be traced back to me. That's how it usually goes. So I kept it short and simple and left it at that.

The disappointed groans were many but I ignored them.

Only one hand remained.

"Yes?"

"What made you decide to become an English teacher, Nakajima-sensei?"

Well here comes the number one hardest part about this job.

I was hoping to put it off as long as I could, but it looks like today is just not my day. This question just had to come from the one student I was wary of the most. She didn't look like her father at all, the exotic sanguine pigment of her hair and eyes contrasted starkly to Takeharu Kirijo's Japanese physique. Though she did inherit his intimidating hawk-like eyes that looked like they could literally petrify anyone who messed with them stone cold... and right now those eyes were pointed at me. I had no idea what they were looking for, but it was my first day on the job. So did I really want to risk saying something so stupid it would get me fired?

This was a rhetorical question of course. I decided to answer as though I was simply going through another interview, only with Kirijo number 2.

"English was my best subject when I was in school and I was interested in American culture for as long as I could remember. I decided I wanted to be a teacher after doing some part-time work as a tutor."

I thought this answer would be enough but several more hands rose up.

"Have you ever been to America?"

"Of course. I studied abroad over at California State University to get my degree. After that, I was a student teacher at a few public schools before I decided to return home to Japan."

"So then you've been to all 50 states?"

"Can't say I have. I have been to all the states on the pacific coast and a few states back east."

"What about Las Vegas?"

The boy slouching in his seat, Kai Shinomina, seemed to have a bird's nest going on in his brown hair. I recognized him as the boy who was chewed out by Kirijo for talking too much during the principal's opening ceremony speech. Going by his question, it probably won't be the last time either.

"It's what you'd expect from the movies. And no, we will not be going there for the school trip this year," I said immediately when I saw another hand shoot up in the air, "Besides, you have to be 21 in order to legally gamble."

I rolled my eyes as Shinomina began to count with his fingers how many years it would take for him to reach that age.

"Is it true that anyone in America can own a gun? Even a child?"

God. It's going to be one of those days, isn't it?

I have no idea who asked question but I hope their milk expires. Why was I being bombarded by so many ridiculous questions on the first day of school? Kids never got this excited when it came to lessons about comma usage. Okay. I know that it's only natural for them to be morbidly curious about another culture that gives its citizens the right to bear arms. But still... would it hurt them to be a little bit considerate about the situation their poor teacher is in right now? Do they not know who the red-headed student sitting in my front row is?

"Uh... well, gun laws vary from state to state. I believe you have to be 18 to possess firearms and 21 to purchase them. Contrary to what you might think, there are places in the U.S. where it is illegal to carry a gun in broad daylight. Not every American is gung-ho about guns."

Well, a year ago I was stuck in a really bad traffic jam where a driver three feet away from me was nearly shot dead because he happened to cut in front of a guy with road rage. But hell if I open that ugly can of worms with this class.

"Have you ever handled a gun before, Nakajima-sensei?"

I met the steely gray eyes of Akihiko Sanada. I had heard quite a bit about him due to his association with Kirijo. No family, but blessed with good grades, good looks, and a talent for boxing as if to compensate for that. Unlike Shinomina, Sanada seemed to be disturbingly very serious about his question. Out of the corner of my vision, I could sense Kirijo subtly shifting in her seat as if she was as uncomfortable as I currently was for being put on the spot once again.

"... No, I haven't."

In retrospect, that should have been the tip off that something was strange about this school. Instead, I read her reaction as a subtle warning to get my ass into teacher mode.

"Okay." Time to put my foot down. "It's been fun guys but things are getting a little too out of hand now. No more questions about firearms, or gambling, or Vegas, or anything. If you do, I'm writing you up. Okay? Okay. Does anyone have anything else they want to ask?"

Only one person raised his hand.

"Yes," I glanced at the seating chart for the umpteenth time, "Suemitsu?"

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

Well, it wouldn't be a typical day at school without someone asking that question at least once.

I sighed.

"Sure. Why not?"

---

It was only the first day of school and Ekoda already looked like he was going to strangle the next poor unsuspecting student that crossed his way.

"They're getting worse and worse with every year! If this is the generation that's supposed to lead the future, then this nation is going to the dogs," he hissed. "Why, if you compared today's standards to the Kemmu Era-"

The staff room is a lot like a classroom or the hallways during lunch break: full of gossip on all sorts of people. Once upon a time, I was a student. And I dreaded the thought of being dragged into the staff room where nothing but pages of apology letters to write and long lectures to sit through awaited me. I used to think that all teachers were stiff geezers who needed to get a hobby... but now I know better. The main difference between students and teachers is that teachers are being paid to put up a professional front. Outside the classrooms teachers could be just as irresponsible as a student who spreads rumors about a person they did not like. I suppose it's only human nature to trash talk other people. While I've had my share of nightmare students and could sympathize with him, I could tell this would be a long, long rant.

God. What am I, his counselor or something? This isn't what I signed up for.

Thankfully, I was well versed in the art of pretending to pay attention.

"-is supposed to be one of the best schools in the country! How is it that they managed to pa-"

I felt my cellphone vibrate. I held it under my desk, lowered my head so that my bangs could provide a cover for my eyes, and attempted to discretely read.

[in case u were wondering he has sebumi rika, moriyama natsuki, and aizawa emi assigned to his homeroom. ganguros. bad attendance, bad attitude, bad work ethics. even i would have a hard tiem dealing with them ╮(─▽─)╭]

"-arents don't do anything about it! Why don't they think about the teachers who have to clean up after their messes!?"

"Ah," I nodded distantly in Ekoda's direction. "Yes, I know it's totally frustrating when we always have to be the ones to discipline the kids."

"Right? I don't believe in corporal punishment but-"

Figures Isako would already be up to speed on the latest dirt.

Back in our high school years, she reigned supreme as the gossip queen. Her awareness was scary. Isako had everyone's names and faces memorized like the back of her hand and she would know the answer to someone's love confession before the confession even went down. She'd always claim that she had the ability to 'sense things intuitively', but I wouldn't be surprised if she bribed strangers, coworkers, and her own students for info. Maybe she even bugged all the hallways and bathrooms. Of course, she'd kill me on the spot if I were to suggest it out loud.

[Let me guess, he got on a girl's case for not following dress code. So she retaliated by humiliating him in front of her peers.]

"-nd if those spoiled brats don't want to be here-

[close she was also on her cellphone]

Huh.

"-then why not just let them leave?"

I pocketed my cell phone at that. The last thing I needed was Ekoda catching me. He'd just use this incident as more fodder to fuel his rage about other things gone wrong with this world. I remember the first time we met. All I did was slip up and say 'at two AM' instead of 'gozen niji ni' but he looked at me like I was a criminal out to defile Japanese culture.

"You trying to show off or something? You think you're so special since you got to teach in America for a couple years? This is Japan. You're Japanese. Speak your mother tongue," he snarled.

And then I was cooking inside a two hour lecture about how it was shameful for a pure-blooded Japanese man to pick up bad manners over in America... something about shaming my ancestors... blah, blah, blah. I couldn't be bothered to listen to it all. He made it pretty clear he didn't like me at all. A day doesn't pass by where I don't wonder if there was anything he did like. He hardly ever bothered hiding his hatred for anything foreign, not unless it was in front of Kirijo or the principal. And right now it seemed that his hatred of rowdy students surpassed even that.

It was a little after Ekoda finished that the other teachers entered the room. One game my coworkers in America often played at the beginning of every new year is, "Who has the best class roster?" And now I know it is a game common in Japan too.

"I got stuck with the French Exchange student," Takenozuka groaned.

"Oh, he's not that bad," Ono chided. "I actually got to speak with him this morning. He was having a ball when we were discussing the Sengoku era, that one. You just don't see that with our youngsters regarding their own homeland's history these days."

Ekoda darkened even more at that.

Takenozuka only raised his eyebrows, muttering under his breath as he sat beside me, "Are you sure he's not just a samurai otaku or something?"

He grunted. "Still, his funny way of speaking is going to be a pain to deal with."

"What about you Toriumi-san?" Ounishi asked.

"Oh, well I'm stuck with Yukari Takeba, Junpei Iori, and Kenji Tomochika," Isako replied flippantly.

"Iori and Tomochika I can understand, but what's wrong with Takeba?"

"Don't get me wrong. She's a good student. It's just... when you put in her the same room with Junpei..."

"Aaah, I see what you mean now."

"Isn't this the third time now that they're in the same classroom together?"

"Someone should consider setting them up."

"Eh, good luck with those two. I think Nishiwaki and Miyamoto have a better chance of getting together than Iori and Takeba."

"You think so?"

"I'm confident enough to put down 2000 yen."

"Hmph! Let's make it 3000 yen."

What goes on in the staff room is a secret to the students. But teachers liked to talk about the love lives of the student body more than anything else. More than the latest incidents with delinquent students or lessons plans gone horribly wrong. As for me, what my students like or like to do wasn't a concern of mine. All I wanted was to earn money and pass this school year peacefully but...

"I don't envy you at all," Takenozuka told me, when I revealed that I had Kirijo in my homeroom.

"And Sanada too. You'll have to be extra careful around those two. One wrong step and it's goodbye to your job and to your entire teaching career."

"Hell, any job at Tatsumi Port Island."

I recalled how my class went this morning and cringed.

"Don't worry about it, Higure," Isako said, patting me on the shoulder. "Knowing you, I think you'll last maybe 3 days."

"Gee, thanks for the overwhelming support."

She beamed, "Any time."

It was kind of hard to believe that the girl who was always passing around notes and reading manga in the back of class was now a teacher. But looking at her all suited up for the job, I suppose she somewhat looked the part. I hoped for the sake of her students that she was a better teacher than she ever was as a student.

There were several types of teachers.

In a perfect world, teachers would be experts on the subject they teach and a person students can easily connect to.

But you have teachers who have wikipedia-deep knowledge of the subject they teach and absolutely no social skills whatsoever.

You have teachers the students will adore to bits but can never seem to produce the test results the school board wants to see.

And then there were teachers like Ekoda who simply hated their jobs. I've seen guys like him at my other schools... in Japan, in America, way too often that it was actually rather depressing. They embodied a saying I used to hear often: 'Those who can't succeed, teach.'

They were unfortunate college graduates who were passionate about their majors despite the crummy job market for them. With a major like classical literature, you could take a gamble and write books that may get recognition and may get published. Or, you could try to instill the knowledge you spent years polishing and writing reams of papers for to a bunch of kids who couldn't be bothered to care.

It was clear he hated his job. But it was incredible that someone like him even managed to make it to his 9th year of teaching.

"I'll go insane at this rate," Ekoda grumbled.

"I already am," I deadpanned. "Y'know the best thing about schizophrenia? You're never alone."

He shot me an exasperated glare while the others chuckled.

I don't tell them that I was only half-joking.

---

"You will find that there are many misconceptions associated with schizophrenia," my doctor once told me, "It is not a disease that inherently promotes violence in individuals. It would be more accurate to say it is a mental disorder characterized by the distortions of one's perception of reality."

Seeing coffins everywhere.

Moon going green.

Blood everywhere.

Distortions of reality seems about right.

"Oh," I mumbled numbly, mind too shot up from shock to come up with anything else to say.

And really, what could someone say to that?

I was 17 at that time, my life already a huge mess without the help of a mental illness. I no longer had a high school to go to, I no longer had a home to go to, my relationship with my girlfriend at the time was rocky, and what I wanted to do with my future was about as uncertain as my place in the world. And now there is the sudden possibility of being locked away in the crazy house for the rest of my life.

"Wh-what," I struggled to keep my voice from cracking, "What... does this mean for me?"

"Well, Nakajima-san, it's hard to say at this point if your symptoms are really the result of schizophrenia."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"If we were to compare your case with other cases of schizophrenia, your condition appears to be rather acute. Irregular, even. You do not possess any of the paranoia, memory impairment, or other additional disorders that are sometimes associated with schizophrenia. In fact, it appears that only your sense of sight and your sense of time are being affected."

"Oh... okay..."

So basically, that was a good thing... I think. I'm apparently sick, but not as sick as most people with schizo.

At the very least it was predictable... It was only after a certain hour that the hallucinations would start occurring. It was my doctor, Hidefumi-sensei, who figured the pattern out. Though there were other details that were pretty sketchy. Like, why did the hallucinations always happen at that specific time? Why they happen did they daily? It was nice knowing that it ruled out any possibilities that there were triggers for these episodes, but why did they even happened at all?

"In a way, you can say this is a blessing. So as long as you can distinguish those hallucinations from reality, you should still be able to resume your everyday life with relative ease," she told me.

And then I was released back into society on the condition that I continue to take my medication and check in with a doctor every month. To be honest though, in all of the years I've been prescribed medicine, not one day came where I didn't experience an episode of some sort. So I continued to take them, lied about their effectiveness, and settled for a strict sleeping pattern instead.

If the hallucinations occurred at a specific time, then I could simply sleep through them.

If I'm not experiencing the hallucinations, then I can pretend I am normal.

At first I thought that maybe I was actually some kind of closet psychopath. What kind of person has hallucinations where everyone turns into a creepy coffin? But after giving it a lot of thought, I scrapped it. While I hated dealing with people, I didn't really want to see all of humanity dead on a daily basis. I mean, the coffins really creeped me out the first time I saw them. And while that was a lot of blood that I was seeing, Hidefumi-sensei assured me that I wasn't displaying any homicidal tendencies. Seeing as how I haven't woken up to any dead bodies yet, I continued to believe her.

After several years, I had become accustomed to the whole thing to the point where it was just a minor inconvenience. But there was one more mystery to my illness that continued to annoy me.

"Welcome home."

"Yeah, thanks."

I didn't need to see the speaker's face to know who it was.

At this time of hour, it can only be him.

"How was your day?"

"Awful," I answered automatically.

He first came to me when a combination of medication and alcohol went wrong. I first thought that Pharos was a split personality or something. But then I remembered what Hidefumi-sensei told me a long time ago. Schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are two separate mental illnesses. It's just that thanks to Hollywood and the media, people keep mixing them up together. Besides, even if I was seriously sick enough to have both, people diagnosed with multiple disorders aren't usually aware of what their other personalities say or do. Gaps of time in my memory never occurred unless it involved sleep, so that couldn't be it. So I came to the conclusion that if this boy wasn't a secondary identity, then he must have been another one of my hallucinations.

A very persistent one.

He keeps claiming to be a past acquaintance of mine but I don't ever remember meeting a kid like him.

I know he can't be real regardless.

I know he can't be real because he hasn't aged at all in the 8 years I've known him.

But I responded to him anyway.

Loneliness at this age does that to you.

And maybe that makes me only slightly crazy.

"Education system's different here than it was over in America. So I'm going to have to practically rebuild my lesson plans from scratch so that they match Japan's, well, Gekkoukan High's standards. Which means a bigger workload on my plate which is always fun," I sighed. "Normally, I'd just recycle the plans anyway and wing it but I don't think the Kirijo group would appreciate that very much. I'm not gunning for a promotion or anything, but I don't want to risk getting on their bad sides either."

After all, there was already that gun discussion today which I'm sure had left a lovely impression on Kirijo junior.

I tossed my coat onto the couch and dropped my bag near the coffee table.

"Oh. So then all those big books you've been reading lately...?"

"Yeah. And I've got several hundred more pages to go."

I cracked open one of my textbooks at that and flipped to a page I had marked with a sticky note. Pharos doesn't really care whether or not you're making eye contact with him while in the middle of conversation. If anything, he tends to be extra chatty when it's awfully clear you're not listening to a single word he says.

"So how are you getting along with your coworkers?"

"Okay, seriously Pharos. You've asked this question enough times to know the answer. Why do you keep on asking when it doesn't really mean anything to you?"

"Of course it means something to me. It's only natural to be concerned about how a friend is doing," came the simple reply and the simple smile.

God. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a broken record instead of a hallucination. Over the years, the only thing I've really learned about Pharos is that the mutuality of our 'friendship' is one of the things he will never budge on.

"... Aside from Isako, I didn't recognize anyone. It's only been a couple days so I can't really say I hate them yet. Well, Ekoda definitely hates me for sure. Isako though... it's weird seeing her again."

"How's that weird? The two of you are always IMing each other on the weekends."

"Yeah. But there's a difference between talking to someone online and talking to them in person. How do I put it... when I go and read her words from a screen she still sounded 18 in my head. Now, it really hit me today that she's..."

"An old hag?"

"... Sure." To a kid, I suppose 28 was old. "But it would be more appropriate to call her an 'adult'."

But admitting she was old would mean admitting I was old too.

"How come?"

"Er... well, women get touchy about their age."

Pharos tilted his head to the side. "I'm not sure I quite follow."

"You will eventually."

"Uh huh. You always say that."

The conversation drifted into silence after that. There was no point in explaining it to the kid when he probably didn't even understand what aging was. As if he could. I flipped to the next page and continued to read. As I was jotting down some notes, I could sense Pharos growing more and more restless. If his main method of movement wasn't that surreal teleportation trick, I suppose he'd be pacing around the room like any other kid. Rather than that creepy ghost kid you'd see in movies, he was more like that clingy little brother or that monster sidekick that would always annoy the protagonist.

"Higure, I'm bored."

Like that.

Always poking at me when he needs something to occupy himself with and throwing mild episodes when he doesn't get any attention.

"The computer is right over there."

"That's pointless you know."

I knew. I was just hoping he would forget about the electricity.

"Besides, it's boring being by myself. Why don't you play with me instead?"

I tapped my finger against the cover of my textbook and gave him a pointed stare. There was no way I was going to drop my workload on the spot just to play hide and seek or tag or whatever. Especially with a hallucination of all things. I wasn't that lonely.

"So close your book and come play. You're also bored anyway."

I frowned. It's not that he was wrong, but the way he said those words so matter of fact bothered me.

"If I don't stay on top of my work, I'm going to get fired."

"Does it really matter?" Pharos asked, with an irritating lack of concern.

"Of course it does! How else-"

"But you don't even like your job. You never liked going to school and you never liked your teachers. You never would've even considered becoming one if it wasn't for your parents," he stated, face eerily calm. "So is there really a point in trying so hard? Why not just quit and go back to the st-"

Before we knew it, the textbook was on the floor and I was standing up out of my seat glaring at him.

"Are you kidding me? Does it look like I can afford to do that? I've come too far now to simply scrap everything and start from scratch. I might not like this job but it's something."

"... You used to love taking chances."

"Time does that to you."

It changes people. It brings them disappointment after disappointment. It creates schisms between even the closest of friends. And it wears them down until they're too tired to care anymore. He was the one who told me that it took us all to the same end. If we were all heading towards the same destination, then I preferred my path to be the one with the least amount of struggles.

"Besides, I don't have that kind of luxury anymore at this age."

Great. That's pretty much admitting that I am old.

"..."

"Look, just leave me alone okay? I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Fine."

So he said. But he was still standing there and he was watching my tired face.

"How about going outside for a bit?"

"... What part of 'leave me alone' do you not understand, Pharos?"

"I'm saying this for your sake. You're always isolating yourself at home."

I snorted.

"That's because people are a pain to deal with."

"So then why not go out now?"

I raised my eyebrow at that, but he continued on.

"Everyone is asleep during this hour. So you can explore the city freely without anyone to come and bother you."

That's... true actually. At night there aren't many people outside. And even then, during this time of hour they'd just be silent coffins to me.

"C'mon. Let's go, Higure."

He's not real.

He's just the result of a chemical irregularity in the brain. Even if I were to accept his offered hand, even if he did feel like flesh and blood and pulse, I'd only be grasping at air in the end.

He is not real.

I mustn't do anything that will blur the line of reality and fabrication.

So I declined his offer like I always did before. He looked so incredibly crushed that if he were a human boy, I might have felt guilty for hurting his 'feelings'.

"Remember what I said about having a lot of work to do right now? Let's go tomorrow instead, okay?"

It seemed to appease him well enough since he disappeared after that.

Now, it was only me in this room.

I closed my eyes and soaked in the silence.

---

The final bell rang to my relief.

You know it's been a long day if you've been eyeing the clock constantly.

This enormous campus continued to feel like a maze and the names and faces of all the students students still came as a blur. The uncomfortable personal questions kept coming at me and I was still being scrutinized heavily under the inquisitive questions from Kirijo and Sanada. But at least I could go home now and take a break from all of that. As I began stuffing my notes and folders into my bag, my cellphone went off.

[gon 2 have a welcom bac 2 school party and ur invited! d=(´▽｀)=b happy hour nite escapade, try 2 b ther 10pm sharp]

Oh, that atrocious texting can only be Isako.

[Not interested.]

[WHAT!? Y NOT?]

Immediate reply. Gotta hand it to her though... her texting speed is on par with the girls in my class.

[I've got a lot of work to do. New teacher. These lessons aren't going to plan themselves.]

[but u got 2morrow's done right? the rest u can do l8er]

[Not a fan of drinking anymore. I quit that lifestyle a long time ago, Isako. If I go there, I'm just going to end up babysitting a bunch of drunks.]

[still... it's been years since we last hung out 2gether. if u dont feel like drinking, there's always karaoke]

I made a face at that.

She should know better.

The last thing I wanted to do was sing.

In front of other people.

[Definitely not going to go then.]

[o come on UR KILLING ME HERE HIGURE. ヽ(#`Д´)ﾉ]

[Sorry... call it a rain check.]

I pocketed my cellphone only to feel it buzz in my hand again.

What, she's not done yet after all that? It's starting to get annoying now.

[I know it's rather sudden, but can you come over to my office?]

It was not Isako this time, but the sender's name was just as familiar and nostalgic.

It wasn't a request I could deny. I owed him after all.

I closed the door behind me as I stepped inside.

"Long time no see, Higure."

"Yeah. Long time no see, Ikutsuki-sensei."

"Just Ikutsuki is fine," he chuckled. "You're no longer my student anymore."

He motioned towards the chair in front of him and I curtly bowed and took a seat.

Never in a million years would I have guessed that the math teacher I used to hate in high school would turn out to be the one to hook me up with my current job. To be fair, Ikutsuki-sensei was an easy-going teacher. Nice guy, but terrible sense of humor. His lectures were easy enough to follow. I just hated mathematics and that hatred carried over to the poor guy who happened to be teaching it. Nothing personal. I just didn't have many good memories regarding that subject. And that was why I was an English teacher and not a math teacher.

It was about a month ago when I unexpectedly ran into him. My return to Port Tatsumi Island was initially going to be a short vacation to attend my sister's wedding. I was killing some time by catching up with some familiar faces. I had just finished visiting my ex-girlfriend late at night when we had unexpectedly crossed paths. Initially, I was surprised he even recognized me, much less call out my name. I myself could barely remember the names and faces of former classmates from middle school, much less a decade's worth of students.

Yet somehow he did.

And he seemed very delighted to see me again, which initially threw me off because I used to think he hated me as much as I hated him. I'll be honest. I wasn't exactly the best of students in both grades or personality. When he learned that I was job hunting, he offered me a place at Gekkoukan High School. I soon stopped caring about details of the past after that. A significantly more generous salary than what the other schools were offering me and the school was only a 20 minute ride by train to a cheap but fairly safe apartment complex. Hell yeah. I would've been stupid to say no to that offer so I ended up settling back in Port Tatsumi Island.

"So what do you think of the school?"

I blinked.

"Ah, well..."

This Gekkoukan High was different from mine, from student body and staff right down to the architecture and the campus layout. It wasn't too hard for me to view them as separate schools. It was great since it made things easier for me to completely disassociate myself from the unpleasant memories I had here 10 years ago. I'm not gonna lie. If it wasn't for Ikutsuki-sensei's suggestion, it never would have crossed my mind to even come back here. It was all the more cemented with the pressure I could feel as an employee of a Kirijo-owned facility. But I couldn't afford to remind my school chairman why he hated me as a student so I sucked it up.

"It will take some time to adjust and get the hang of things but I think I'll like it here."

Ikutsuki-sensei smiled.

"I'm glad to hear you say that. By the way..." Ah, so now he's going to cut the small talk. "How have you been feeling?"

... Or so I thought?

I was taken aback.

"Uhm, what?"

"Your health," he laughed, as if that was the most obvious thing he'd be asking about, "Have you been experiencing fatigue or dizziness or anything of the sort lately? Any irregularities with your sense of time?"

"... No. I feel perfectly fine."

He sounded a lot like my doctor during a regular check up. I struggled to keep my face neutral despite the panic bells ringing in my mind. Did he somehow get wind of my condition? Is he trying to assess whether or not I was sane enough to handle this job? Does he think I'm going to be a threat to the student body?

This isn't good...

"Really."

I could see my nervous attempt of a smile reflected off the lenses of his glasses. One of the things I hated about Ikutsuki-sensei was that you can never tell what he's thinking when he's always smiling like that.

"Good to hear that my worries were for naught. I heard that the transition to another country overseas can be really taxing on your health. I know it's your home country we're talking about, but it's been a while after all."

"Ah, well... I do feel a little jet lagged, just a little bit. But it's nothing you need to worry over."

"I'm glad to hear that."

...

... is that it?

Is that really all he called me here for?

To check up on my health?

"Uhm," I awkwardly began, "If that's all, then I'm going to take my leave now."

Huh.

Turned out to be the case after all because he let me leave with yet another smile and a simple response.

"Be careful out there won't you?"

Any doubts I had about his intentions disappeared. I gave Ikutsuki-sensei a weak laugh.

Geez. I come back home 8 years later with a teaching license and he's still treating me like I'm a high school student. Part of me wanted to retort back sarcastically just like I always did in the old days but I held it in.

"It'll be okay. I'm not going to do anything crazy like drinking myself silly and getting behind the wheel. I can handle myself."

"Even so, Port Tatsumi isn't completely safe. Rumors of a bunch of strange happenings you know. People reported missing. People getting shot and killed right after midnight. And I'm sure you haven't forgotten about Apathy Syndrome."

"Of course I haven't..."

A mental condition that emerged in the late 90s that, as far as I knew, had no known effective treatment.

Symptoms consisting of a complete lack of response to one's surroundings.

Complete neglect of physical necessities like income, food, and shelter.

Possibly caused by exposure to stressful environments.

Loss of the ability to feel enjoyment or fulfillment in life.

... a lack of support from the people around you.

How could I possibly forget?

"But what does that have to do with anything?"

"It was on the news the other day. They're saying that the disease is resurging among the population again. It would be terrible if the same thing were to happen to you. Some strange and dangerous things can happen during the night."

"Thank you. I don't think such a thing is very likely, but I'll keep that in mind," I told him with a half-hearted smile.

---

It was getting close to midnight when I was about to leave my apartment.

I slipped on one of my many gray coats and began tying my shoelaces. I would've left earlier, but I wanted to wait for Pharos and bring him with me. It was his idea in the first place and yet the little brat was nowhere in sight...

"Hmph."

Well, he'll 'catch up' when he feels like it. Like he always liked to say, he was always with me no matter where I go. He'll show himself eventually. I flung the door open and began walking down the hallways.

"..."

Man, it is quiet in here.

And with the lights dimming down, the whole complex started looking like a backdrop for a horror movie. The elevators weren't going to open for me, like usual, so I began my search for the stairs. Running around this place all by myself... if I was a character in a horror movie, I guess I'd be one of the first to go. I knew that having such thoughts were silly, but the coffins really weren't helping at all.

Moonlight hit my face as I passed by a window.

On a whim, I took a peak outside.

I remembered the first time the hallucinations kicked in. The moon back then was full just like this one. The possibility that I was sick in the head didn't occur to me at the time and it all felt so real. My first thought was of how dead the city looked when all the lights were gone. I remembered feeling incredibly small and terrified in the face of that unholy green moon. And I remembered thinking that maybe the world was going to end after all.

"Well you know what they say: alcohol is the cause and solution to all of life's problems."

"... Pfft, have you seen the adults around us? They always look bored out of their asses doing the same repetitive jobs over and over and over again. But instead of doing something about it, they just complain about how shitty their situation is and pine over their 'glory days'. If that's what an adult is supposed to be, then I'd rather die now."

"Oh, well the predictions are pretty detailed you know. Let's see... they said there will be power outages, which would ruin our buses and airports and banks and..."

"... Say, Higure. It's supposed to be the start of a brand new millennium and yet there's still war and poverty all around us... Maybe, maybe it would be better if the world really did end."

Suddenly, things took a turn for the worst.

It started with the rumbling of the ground.

My knees fell to the ground with a sharp thud and I winced.

Was it... getting louder...?

"Whoa!"

... A-Akihiko Sanada?

"Nakajima-sensei? What are you doing here?"

I could ask you the same question. Unlike you, I actually live here.

It was at the tip of my tongue but then I noticed the gun in his hand.

Shit.

I had known first-hand that Port Tatsumi Island could be a little shady around nighttime, but I wasn't expecting to go through a robbery so soon. And from one of my own students no less. Ikutsuki-sensei's words come back to taunt me.

"Rumors of a bunch of strange happenings you know. People reported missing. People getting shot and killed right after midnight."

I swallowed.

"I know I just came back from America and all. But I really don't have anything of value in my apartment besides a couple of expensive textbooks."

And my cellphone and my laptop.

But admitting so would be asking to have those stolen.

Sanada followed my gaze and finally understood the source of my distress.

"Sorry," he quickly bowed his head.

I just stared at him.

It's not everyday that your student apologizes to you with a gun in his hand.

"I didn't mean to scare you, Nakajima-sensei. Don't worry, this thing here isn't loaded. And besides, I'm not here for that."

Right.

Then why are you even carrying a gun in the first place?

How did you, a high school student, even manage to obtain one?

In Japan of all places?

"Look, I know you have a lot of questions. But now's not the time to go over all the details. All I can tell you is that there's a dangerous threat coming this way. Actually... now that I've said it, it's probably best if you come follow me. It's dangerous to be running around at this time of hour all by yourself... your life could be in danger."

The way he phrased his words, it almost sounded like he was here to play bodyguard or police officer.

But.

How the hell can I trust you when you give me vague answers like that?

In the end, he was the one with the gun. I wasn't in any position to make any demands so I obediently trailed after him.

"... Hey, uh, Sanada?" I awkwardly began.

"Yes?"

"You say that there's a threat out there. Can I at least ask just what it is that's so dangerous?"

"That's..." He hesitated. "A big Shadow is heading our way."

Uh, what?

Excuse me?

"... 'Shadow'?"

The wall to the left of us exploded with a thunderous boom. I winced, recoiling from the sharp sting of something cutting into my cheek. Instinctively, my fingers drew towards my cheek and plucked it out so that I could hold it in front of my face and get a better look at it.

Glass...

A thin trail of blood dripped down my fingers and sank into the carpet. My own blood, my brain registered. I guess the glass came from one of the many windows that shattered from... whatever it was that broke them in the first place. And to my horror it came crawling from the rubble, a frankenstein mass of arms and swords, black like a—

"Ah, so that's what you mean by a Shadow..." I numbly said.

This is not real.

I was just having another one of my usual hallucinations right now. Well, it was a hallucination that felt terribly, terribly realistic. But it was just a hallucination in the end... nothing more, nothing less.

Or so I tried to convince myself. The cut in my skin continued to burn and the drumming of my heartbeat only grew louder — forehead running cold, breathing erratic, shaky hands... these symptoms of adrenaline rush were telling me that this thing in front of me was a predator.

That, hallucination or not, I will be in for a world of hurt if I take it lightly.

"Why don't you go out for a bit?" he said.

"You used to love taking chances," he said.

Well look where it fucking got me!

Despite the roaring, angry rushing of blood in my ears, they had yet to drown out Sanada's voice.

"Damn it!" he hissed.

And I didn't like the sound of it.

"What's wrong, Sanada?"

"We were supposed to regroup with the others and fight this thing together. Looks like we're just going to have to do things the hard way."

So there was a group of others that he affiliated with. And they all knew of this monster's existence? I thought back to the gun he had brought with him. If he had known that this monster was coming, then it made more sense that the gun was meant for this Shadow thing rather than me. That's what I had thought. But then he... pulled into a boxing stance?

What.

Just what the hell does he think he's doing? Don't tell me... oh man. Oh man, he's seriously going to take that thing on by himself!?

"Well, it'll be more fun this way."

Scratch that.

Maybe he brought the gun along because he's suicidal.

"Here I come! Rrrrrragh!"

All I could do was watch in amazement as he began pummeling the Shadow with his fists. The monster staggered after a blow to its head, proving that it was as tangible as any other human. The undoubtedly powerful force behind those fists vibrating with each strike that connected was something I'd never expect from Sanada's lithe body. I first thought that maybe he was just lucky. But it soon became clear that he wasn't Gekkoukan High's champion boxer for nothing. Not only was he able to handle his own against that monster, but he was able to send it crashing back through the walls from which it came from.

The toll of the battle kicked in at that moment. Sections of the hallway collapsed in on itself.

Then, there was silence.

"Huh, that was easier than I thought," the disappointment was plain in his voice.

As for me though, I was just glad that it was all over with.

I turned around to examine the extent of the damage. It was clear, now that I had a good look, that the hallway exit had caved in on itself. It was a pretty crummy situation but it wasn't something a 119 phone call to the fire department couldn't fix. Can you imagine how boned we would be if we had been trapped in here with that monster? But even if Sanada's fists didn't kill it, then all that debris falling on top of the Shadow definitely should have done the trick. I mean... it was almost completely dark, but I could sort of see what looked like a limp black hand so that means it's totally not going to get back up and— it's getting back up. It's getting back up.

Oh shi-

"WATCH OUT!"

Sanada had barely managed to dodge the first of the Shadow's many swords. One blade briefly grazed his jaw as he ducked under the second swing. Now their situations were reversed. The Shadow was the one with the initiative and Sanada was the one who had to be on the defensive. Within the next series of attacks, he found an opening and was able to disarm one of the its swords with a mighty strike...

But it left him with only enough time to leap out of the way at the Shadow's next attack— a calculated low sweep that was intended to knock him off his feet, quickly followed by two more swords that stabbed into the ground where he should have been. If it had actually hit him. But Sanada wisely moved backwards to create more distance between them with nothing more than a few tears in his clothes. Any lesser man would have been cut to pieces in that flurry of blades.

But instead of feeling deterred by the fact that he was nearly impaled to death, I could only see the primal excitement in his eyes and the hunter's grin blazing on his face.

He looked nothing like the stoic, serious student from my classroom mere hours ago.

In that brief opening, he raised his gun... to his head.

No...

No, no, no.

It was like something cold had wrapped itself around my ankles, chaining my legs to the ground and keeping me from moving.

But I wanted to.

No, not want...

I...

I had to do something.

I should be running over to him. I should be pulling the gun away from him and telling him that there was a better answer than this. Even though the fight was hopeless, we could still turn around and try to find another way out of here. We could leave it up to the police. It's not like this is a battle either of us had to fight in order to survive.

But in the corners of my frazzled mind, the chill of a miserable memory began creeping up. A girl stands where Sanada is standing, pale skin and lackluster eyes chanting over and over, I'm tired. I'm so... so tired. I just... want it all to e—

—BAM.

The monster swatted the gun out of his hand, the sound of it clattering to the floor echoed like a death sentence.

Oh... Oh fucking hell.

It was only then, with reality snapping back in place, that my senses came back and I could move. I only had a moment.

To do what?

And there it was, gleaming under the green moonlight, Sanada's gun a few feet away from me.

"Hey asshole!"

The monster turned towards my direction. If it had a face, we'd be making eye contact right now.

"Get the fuck out of my head," I hissed, trembling hands trying to steadily point the gun at its mask.

Click.

A blank.

Click. Click.

More blanks.

Okay. What the shit.

I examined the gun and what do you fucking know — this thing wasn't built to carry bullets. Oh, sure, there's a magazine attached to it but I can't rip it out and figure out why the hell it wasn't working.

Why isn't it working!?

"Nakajima-sensei!"

My body hurled towards the ground with a thud. But it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. It was only until I heard a second thud, one much louder followed by a painful crack, that I realized Sanada had pushed me out of the away and took the blow instead. I know I should thank him for looking out for me but...

"Why the hell are you carrying around a gun for self-defense if you can't even shoot it!?"

"It's... it's not a real gun," Sanada grunted through his injuries.

"What!?"

"It's called an evoker!"

An evo-wha?

I didn't have time to ask Sanada anymore questions. Another fist slammed his head into the ground and knocked him out.

Fuck.

Now what?

"Higure."

...!

I whipped around to find a boy standing next to me nonchalantly as if he had been there the whole time.

"Pharos...? The fuck? Right now's not a good time t-"

The boy held out a single finger, as if to demand silence, "If you don't want to die..."

He pointed that same finger at his temple.

In the same way Sanada had with his evoker.

I stared at Pharos incredulously. "You're telling me to shoot myself...?"

He gazed back me with utmost seriousness. "It's going to keep coming after you unless you do something, Higure."

I immediately thought back to 3 feet fissure in the ground carved by that Shadow's sword. I did not like the thought of being chased around by a monster capable of something like that that for the rest of my life.

"But. How is that... this gun isn't even loaded! Why would-"

"Trust me."

Somehow, the suicidal gesture of putting a fake gun to my head and pulling the trigger will increase my chances of survival.

God. Wording all of that in my brain made it sound so retarded. It was a retarded oxymoron with no logic whatsoever behind it.

Pharos was asking me to take a leap of faith.

But.

What other options do I have left now?

The exit collapsed. So unless we had Harry Houdini here with us — and he's been long, long dead — there was no means of escape. Pulling the trigger on the Shadow did jack shit to it and then there was the fact that Sanada, high-school-boxing-champion Sanada, younger-and-more-physically-fit-than-me Sanada, had just gotten swatted away like a fly by that monster.

And now said monster was coming for me.

My hands trembled as I brought cold muzzle to my temple.

I closed my eyes.

Images began flashing through my mind as I felt an electric force surging through my spine, down my limbs, and to my fingertips. This power, it's called

"Per-"

An explosion erupted in the distance.

"So-"

A human-like silhouette in the moonlight, blue eyes spinning down at us in electric wheels.

"Na."

'Are you going to kill us?'

'No.'

BANG!

There was the hollow sound of glass shattering in my head and more.

Thou art I, and I am thou.

From the sea of thy soul I cometh.

I am Orpheus, master of strings.

Great.

So it turns out that the evoker actually can do something and I'm not dead. But now I'm starting to hear voices. Like I wasn't already questioning my sanit-fuuuuUUUUUUUCK

its as if

there are hammers pounding my head into oblivion

a thousand needles sliding through my ears

cold coagulated blood bubbling up in my throat

i feel like

i

im gonna

a scream rips out of my throat

high above me that orpheus is howling too

there are

there are no bullets in this evoker

so why does it feel like im were gonna die

our head is

split

ing

I am death, the inevitable silence that lies beyond time itself.

through the whites of my eyes

i stared

im frozen

as that thing that crawled out from the shredded remains of orpheus

leaping at our prey

that other shadow

the executioners sword poised in the air

shredding it to pieces

the mask shatters

black inklike substance spilling

slipping through our fingers

sinking into nothingness

until theres only a limb left on the ground flailing squirming desperate to exist

but it is futile

we are absolute

Crush it.

...on't feel like going to school anymore. It's just the same boring routine day after day anyways, and everyone's so god damn stu...

... the hell did SHE get the promotion? All she ever does is sit on her cellphone all day while the rest of us are working our asses off. That bitch must've s...

... know. I know! I know it's bad not to know what I want to do at the age of 24 but I just...

... eah, yeah. I'm on it. Christ... This is such a damn waste of my time...

And then there was silence.

Silence in the air and silence in my mind.

The pain vanished as quickly as it came.

Only now did I realize that I was clutching my head the entire time. I don't know what happened to me just now. I don't know what the fuck is happening here at all. All I know is that there's Orpheus, floating above me as if he hadn't been ripped apart by Thanatos — like hell if I know how I came to know any of that — who, speaking of which, was no longer around. But I'd be perfectly fine if that freak never shows up again. God. It's a miracle that my head is still in one piece after all of that.

Damn it, Pharos. You should've given me a heads up.

...!

That's right.

"Hey! Pharos!"

But he was nowhere in sight.

Disappearing again on me huh? When I find that shitty brat, I'll...

I felt chills running down my spine.

Literally.

The air temperature suddenly dropped several degrees. Formations of ice began to crystalize around a portion of one of the walls. There was a loud cracking sound and then the blocks of ice imploded on themselves. Emerging from the mist came three silhouettes.

Shit. I just can't catch a fucking break can I?

I tensed, tightening my grip on the evoker. They looked human enough but...

"Senpai!"

"Nakajima-sensei!"

Huh?

Kirijo?

... and Takeba?

Whoa, whoa, Ikutsuki-sensei too!?

"Why are you guys-"

"Everyone be on guard! There are three more coming this way!"

Just as Kirijo said that, I could hear the sound of liquid squishing and bubbling through the cracks into the hallway. Black nothingness, the same substance as that Shadow, began to coalesce into the distinctive shape of three lesser Shadows, each with a mask of their own. And they gave off the same hostile aura as the last one that died.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"Are you serious!?" I hissed.

Definitely can't catch a fucking break.

I instinctively took a step backwards, only to feel my balance going a little wobbly. Yeah, that... evoker thing... it definitely did a number on me. I know now that I can kill these monsters with it but I hesitated all the same. That crazy ass tripping out happened after I used this evoker. Sure, they're out to kill me but... do I really want to risk getting lobotomized?

I heard a gasp from behind.

It's Takeba. She has an evoker of her own pressed against her temple, but her eyes are squeezed shut surely from terror. It was that little action that pushed me to step in front of her and take a deep breath.

Ugh. Okay, let's do this.

"ORPHEUS!"

I felt my energy draining with the simple action of pulling the trigger. Maybe it was because I couldn't sense Thanatos. Or maybe it was because I was actually getting adjusted to this evoker thing. But I didn't feel like something was trying to tear its way out of my body. And now that my consciousness and my five senses weren't hindered by that, I could get a better look at Orpheus. His skin was black like ash and his eyes glowed a supernatural red. For someone who claimed to be me, he looked more like those Shadows over there. But he had no qualms about charging at them to attack.

BOOM.

The remains of my sanity must have melted away because I could feel a force vibrate up my right arm at the exact moment Orpheus' right arm punched a hole into the middle Shadow's mask. Soon, we were a single mind in two bodies.

One of the remaining Shadows wildly swung at us. But we ducked, leapt to the right to avoid the other Shadow's attack, and twisted around.

If you're a Shadow, then our course of action is clear.

AGI!

Bright flames erupted from our fingers, one fireball after another, and consumed them. Where the giant Shadow before them had dissipated away into silence, these two wailed in pain. More voices floated into our heads just like the last time. But now we understood them to be the lingering thoughts of the humans those Shadows were derived from.

... WOW, way to say thank you, lady. I swear to god I...

... Ah, fuck it. I'm done. I'm just done with everyth...

... so pointless, I'm just gonna...

Soon, they drifted away into silence.

The Shadows were gone now, our mission complete.

Orpheus closed his eyes and vanished.

I opened mine only to see the room starting to tilt back and forth like an unstable seesaw.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah," I groaned. "Peachy, nice... bed I... g-good night everybody."

"Nakajima-sensei!"

Takeba's distressed face was the last thing I remembered seeing before everything went black.

---

White ceiling.

White sheets.

The mattress I'm lying on is incredibly comfortable.

Aaand my neighbor's obnoxious pop music isn't playing next door.

Okay, this is definitely not my room either.

"Ah, he's awake."

There was a voice nearby that felt faintly familiar, but before I had time to try to figure out where I'd heard it from, I suddenly found my body clamped inside a fierce hug.

"Oh my god Higure you're finally awake!"

—!

"M-mom!?"

And standing behind her was my sister.

"Wh-what's going oOOOOW!"

"Oh thank god you're okay! Do you have any idea how worried I was when I got a phone call at 2AM in the morning asking us to come to the hospital!? I nearly had a heart attack! You wouldn't wake up no matter what we said and after waiting for 10 days, I thought... I thought..."

Wait, hospital!?

Why the hell am I in a hospital?

To my disbelief her vice-like grip on me tightened even more.

"AaaaAAAGH! You're going to kill me at this rate Mom!"

But all she did was sob deeper into my chest.

"I told you didn't I?" my sister said with her ever familiar frown of disdain. "I told you that living in that old and dinky apartment wasn't a good a good idea. And what do you know, someone's Showa-era stove exploded."

...!

That's right.

Last night... last night I...

"... Unfortunately, they were only able to secure your belongings. Your flat itself, is, well..."

I'm alive.

I stared at my hands and wiggled them for good measure.

If I just ignored my mother's death grip, then my body felt perfectly fine. No pain or numbness. Not even a splitting headache or a hangover. If anything, it felt like waking up from a long, long nap.

"... you should've accepted mom's invitation to move back in with us when she offered the first time, I know you don't want to depend o..."

So all those creepy voices I heard, the sword-wielding mask monsters, and Sanada's fake gun that I blew my brains out with... all of that was just a terrible, terrible nightmare.

But if that's the case then why is it that the people in my dream are now in this very room observing us? I don't remember being close enough with them to warrant a hospital visit.

"Hey, Yuriko-neesan..."

My sister followed my gaze over to where Takeba and Kirijo were standing at.

"Oh yeah. They're the ones who found you and called us. Actually, this place is her family-owned hospital." Yuriko folded her hands and briefly bowed her head. "Thank you for taking care of my brother by the way. If there is any way our family could repay your family's kindness..."

Kirijo only shook her head and smiled.

"It's no big deal. I'm just glad to see that he's finally recovered."

The way things looked, it was as if last night... Er, that night, ten days ago... God, ten fucking days...

Well, none of that was real at least.

Like Yuriko said, it was only a gas stove malfunctioning. I don't remember any of that happening at all but it made a lot more sense than... whatever the hell that dream was supposed to be. Freud always did say that dreams were a product of the subconscious. Wait, no, he said it was a result wish fulfillment. Shit, who was it tha—

"Listen."

I snapped out of my thoughts and met Kirjo's calm gaze.

"I know you have a lot of questions on your mind right now."

Biggest understatement of the century.

"But right now is... not the right time to go into detail about that."

I looked down at my mother, still holding on to me tightly.

Shit. Takeba was staring at me too. This is the worst way to make a good impression.

I wished my arms weren't tied up so I can crawl under the sheets and bury my head in my pillows.

"We can talk later."

"F-fair enough," I conceded, trying to maintain the most nonchalant face I could muster. Maybe if I acted like nothing was wrong about a grown ass man being coddled to death by his mother in a hospital bed in front of his students, they would also think nothing of it either.

"Here."

I examined the piece of paper Kirijo handed me... directions to a student dorm? There was some kind of logo along with the word "S.E.E.S." printed on top of it. I'm not sure what the hell that's supposed to mean, but I guess that's another question to save for later.

"Please come to the dorm whenever you're ready."

"Alright."

No rush.

I needed to take this time to evaluate the damage that had been done anyways. But when I meet up with them again, I expect all of my questions will be cleared up.

---

"Okay. Let me start off by asking you this... would you believe me if I said that a day consisted of more than 24 hours?"

I blankly stared.

Takeba nervously wrangled her hands in her lap.

Ikutsuki-sensei simply smiled.

"... Excuse me?"

D-did I hear that right...?

I'm pretty sure that's I heard but... if that's really what he said... what the actual fuck.

"I'm not surprised by your reaction," Kirijo told me with a chuckle. "But you've already experienced this truth firsthand."

Oh god.

Not my honor student too.

I looked over to Takeba and Sanada. But Sanada only looked back at me as if we were just having your typical morning homeroom discussion and Takeba continued smiling tightly without saying anything.

Am I being tested here?

It must be a test to... I don't know... see if I'm qualified to be a high school teacher. Because I can't see any other reason why I'd be asked such a—

"You had to have noticed the signs... The streetlights went out... Nothing was working... There were coffins everywhere... Didn't it feel like you were in a different time...? That's the Dark Hour—a time period hidden between one day and the next."

...!

Hold the phone.

"You mean... to tell me that..."

"Yes," Ikutsuki-sensei smiled. "Those unnatural experiences you witnessed are not the result of schizophrenia, Higure."

...

So they knew about my medical history.

No.

What the hell am I saying?

Of course they would.

There was no way the Kirijo group would just let some random schmuck come in to teach at their school without doing a thorough background check on him. Even if he was a former student. If these people believed in this Dark Hour theory, then it would make sense why they'd hire someone who had been diagnosed with a mental disorder. But I just chalked up my employment as a result of my family's background and Ikutsuki-sensei's recommendation. I just accepted everything like an idiot.

A story like this though... I could not accept it so easily.

I've spent the past 10 years drawing the lines between sanity and insanity and what they were telling me would basically wipe it all out.

"Uhm, Nakajima-sensei?"

I snapped back to Takeba's concerned look.

"... Sorry. I'm just... This is a lot to-"

"No, no it's okay," She shook her head. "You just looked like you were going to pass out. Do you want something to drink or...?"

"No, I'm good." What I needed was hard liquor and I'm pretty sure none of my students under the age of 20 would have some illegally stashed somewhere. "Anyway, if there really is an extra hour that is... uuuh... 'hidden,' then why am I the only one who can see it?"

"Except you're not the only one," Sanada corrected. "We can see them too. Normal people don't realize it, since they're all sleeping inside their coffins. But, that's not what makes the Dark Hour so interesting."

'Oh, normal people are just sleeping when all of this happens.'

'Only the certain, special chosen are able to experience the Dark Hour.'

Right. Okay. That's... convenient for their explanation I suppose.

But that tidbit about something more creepier than everyone turning into coffins...

Do I really want to know what it is?

And what's up with that grin on his face?

"Those Shadows only appear during the Dark Hour, and attack anyone not in a coffin. It's our job to defeat them. ...Sounds exciting, huh?"

No, not at all actually.

I wonder how he can say that when those same Shadows hospitalized him.

"Akihiko!"

But it looks like somebody else was thinking along the same lines as me.

"Why are you always like that?" Kirijo's eyes narrowed. "You just got hurt the other day!"

"Now, now," Ikutsuki-sensei chuckled. "He does his work well."

This is just work to them?

Ikutsuki-sensei must've seen the look on my face because he looked at me, smiled, and continued, "Long story short, we're the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad-S.E.E.S. for short. On paper, we're classified as a school club. But in reality, this group is dedicated to defeating the Shadows. Mitsuru is the leader. I'm the club advisor."

Host clubs.

Paranormal investigation clubs.

And now a Shadow hunting club...

I thought only TV shows could get this creative but I guess I was wrong.

And taking into account who the club leader and who the club advisor were, no doubt it was sponsored by the Kirijo Group. They meant serious business.

"A Shadow feeds on the mind of its prey; the victim becomes a living corpse. They're responsible for most of the incidents on the news, if not all of them."

...

I took this information in and I stared long and hard at Kirijo and Ikutsuki-sensei.

"So... what you're saying is... that those cases of apathy syndrome are the result of a Shadow attack."

"That is correct."

Ikutsuki-sensei's smile was starting to unnerve me.

A lot of people I knew suffered due to apathy syndrome.

A senior who missed out on a free ride to Tokyo U because he was hospitalized the day the spring semester started. A star athlete who had to go through rehabilitation for his legs because they deteriorated by the time he woke up. A single mother who killed herself so that the life insurance could pay off her only daughter's medical bill. And some of them still haven't even woken up from it yet.

If these people know my medical history, then they'd already know this too.

It was a bold claim, saying that all of these tragedies were the work of monsters. To be honest, I had no idea how I should react to this. If they were lying out of their asses then I'd deck Ikutsuki-sensei in the face, school chairman or not. But if what they were saying was indeed true then...

Then that means my encounter with Sanada that night was no coincidence.

"Okay," I said with a calm tone that reflected nothing of how I actually felt inside. "If that's the case then the police haven't been doing their jobs very well."

"Unfortunately," Kirijo began to explain, "The police can't do anything during the Dark Hour..."

"Going back to how only a select few are awake during that time," I nodded in understanding.

Hence the necessity of having a defense squad in the form of... a high school club...

Right.

"I'm sorry." Well, I'm not sorry at all but I'm going to say it anyway. "But I find it hard to believe that you brought me here all this way right after I just got discharged from the hospital. You know, just to give me a brief lecture on something you guys clearly know plenty about. Telling me about S.E.E.S. and its objectives... you came to talk to me because there's something you wanted from me... am I right? And if I had to guess, I'd say that you want me to join your group."

"Yes... that's right," Kirijo confirmed.

Even though I said that, I was hoping that wasn't the case. Speaking of cases...

"So then, then in that briefcase is..."

"I see you have a sharp eye," Ikutsuki-sensei sounded pleased at this. "Yes, we prepared an evoker for you."

Kirijo stood up and moved over to open it up.

I see they also tossed in a matching armband to boot too.

"Okay." I've been saying that word a lot this week. "This... is kind of a lot to take in. I need time to think it over."

"I understand. Take as much time as you need."

"Thank you."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

My old man always used to say that when there's someone claiming some idea to be the absolute truth, question the hell out of them.

And who wouldn't in my situation?

They were claiming shit that cultists wished they had the creativity to come up with.

So there's actually 25 hours in a day.

Okay, that could explain why I was tripping out every single day. And I guess the whole time zone difference I experienced in America adds credence to that theory. Doesn't explain the power outages or the creepy blood effect though. And when clocks aren't working, it's really hard to tell if it's exactly an hour that passes, but I guess I'm just being nit picky now.

Still, if what these people are saying is true... then that means that the past 9 years I had been diagnosed with schizophrenia were actually just a mistake. There was no need to take thousands of dollars out of my salary to pay for years worth of medication and therapy. I was actually sane and normal the entire time! It was all actually just an irregular phenomenon occurring in mother nature that only a selective few can consciously experience and remember, that's all. Hahahahaha-ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

I buried my head in my hands and angrily hissed a string of words I knew I shouldn't be using in front of Ikutsuki-sensei and the students. But I could care less at this point. How could I care about the reactions of the people around me, when all of them are over the moon screw-loosed crackbrained psychotically out of their god damned minds insane.

Or maybe you're the one who's in denial.

Great.

Now there's a voice in my head that wants me to believe in this half-baked bullshit.

You picked up that evoker and pulled the trigger believing it would produce a miracle.

Hey, shooting myself in the head was Pharos' idea!

I had no choice but to listen to him.

If I didn't do something then they would have killed me.

Ah yes, see. That's the thing.

How can something that shouldn't exist even have the capability to kill you?

...

Th-that's...

Something that does not exist in the physical world should not have a physical form.

And without a physical body it would not be capable of inflicting wounds, much less death.

Yet when you faced them you felt fear.

Anyone would flip out if a freaky ass monster like that popped out of nowhere after a huge explosion!

And in the end you chose to engage in combat with those so-called imaginary monsters.

Twice.

Easily, you could have just accepted their appearances as hallucinations and ignore them.

After all, if they weren't real they wouldn't be able to do anything to you.

Ugh...

Rationalize it all you want, but it's true.

You were afraid of them because there was a part of you that acknowledged the existences of those 'Shadows'.

Those 'hallucinations' you experienced daily... if that was truly all they were, then there are contradictions to that theory.

But you never questioned them.

You, who questioned gossips, religions, conspiracy theories, didn't want to.

... Because I'm in denial?

Yes.

And... just what... would those contradictions be?

You know the answers to that question.

...

Shit.

All this thinking is getting me nowhere and I still don't know what to make of any of this. I still don't know what to do.

Well, actually, there is something I want to do.

I want to punch something.

Where the hell is Pharos so I can punch him for dragging me into this mess?

If he's even... even real-shit, is he even real!?

If he's real then how the hell does he know all this shit about me?

How does he know about the Shadows?

How does he know that those Kirijo custom-made evokers could kill them?

How does he pull off that damned appearing and disappearing act?

Why is he eternally 8 years old?

Where the hell is his mother?

And what the fuck is up with his clothes!?

God damnit.

Auuuuugh!

Okay, Higure. Let's take a deep breath.

Count to 3.

1...

2...

3...

Alright.

Calm down and think this over.

Let's say all of this is true.

There's enough excitement in my life as is.

My apartment is now a pile of rubble.

I can now say I've been hospitalized at least once in my life... and lost a week of my life over it.

And there will be a huge ass bill to prove it too.

But at least I managed to get out of that situation without getting crippled in the process!

... Which only means that if those... Shadow things... continue chasing after me then there's a good chance I might not make it out of Port Tatsumi alive.

God damnit. This whole entire thing really sucks.

I've already got so much bullshit on my plate.

So do I really need to add 'midnight police' to the list?

No.

No, I don't.

The last thing I needed was to make this hole any deeper than it already is.

Because let's be real here, Higure.

You know what you are, and what you are not.

You are not a hero.

You are not a good samaritan.

You never were, and you never will be. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that a loser who has spent more time in a library over a gym doesn't belong in any battlefields.

You're not suicidal.

Even if shooting yourself in the head with fake guns may have led anyone into thinking otherwise.

Despite all this reasoning, I knew it wouldn't be that easy to simply decline.

This is the Kirijo group we're talking about.

A family that is said to have more influence over Japan than most politicians had over their own cities. And I'm working at their school, living on their privately owned island. If they wanted to, they could probably strip me of a job and keep me confined here forever. To be honest, it's a wonder why they're even bothering with the farce of giving me a choice. I either die a painful death at the hands of monsters or a slow death in poverty and possibly something more terrible.

...

Shit.

This isn't the job I signed up for.

I was supposed to be just an English Teacher for a bunch of high school kids. I just wanted to make enough money to have a roof over my head and have food on my plate every day. Nothing more. Nothing grand.

So why is this even happening to me? Yeah, I am not a good samaritan but I can also say that the worst thing I've ever done is smoke a joint of weed. I've never shoplifted and I've never bullied some poor kid. Sure, there are monsters running around the city and they are making vegetables out of people and that's really terrible. But I've got a bunch of problems on my plate and this one isn't going to be one of them. If I can barely fix my own problems, how can they expect me to fix something as huge as this? There isn't anything one person, one guy like me, can do about it. They're asking help from the wrong person.

I should've taken that transfer over to Inaba after all. Though, maybe it wasn't too late. I knew it was only wishful thinking but I seriously contemplated the idea of running away, finding some shelter with the relatives I had over there, rebuilding my life from scratch, and forgetting this whole mess had ever happened.

And yet...

A different, tinier, softer voice in my head started to whisper.

...Won't you feel like a complete asshole when you flip through the newspapers and find one of these kids in the obituaries?

Look at them.

Look at all four of them gathered around you. That's all they have. Two teenage girls, a middle-aged man, and a teenage boy who busted his ribs trying to save your ass. Do you really think they'll last at the rate they're going? You may be a loser, but you're not completely heartless.

Are you?

...

I raised my head from my hands and accidentally made eye contact with those kids.

I shouldn't have done that.

Because I am reminded that they are just kids. Just 16 or 17. They reminded me that my former classmates were their ages when apathy syndrome first started cropping up...

...

...

Fuck my conscience.

I took a deep breath.

And another.

And another.

Then I opened my mouth to speak the words that I knew will damn me.

"... I'll join you guys."

Kirijo's eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

Sanada gave me a nod of approval.

Takeba breathed out a sigh of relief.

And Ikutsuki-sensei held out his hand with an irritatingly sunny smile on his face.

Reluctantly, I shook it. I haven't even gotten my first task yet, and I could already feel the weight of their expectations pressing down on my shoulders.

"But."

It took all my willpower to keep my gaze firm as I spoke to Kirijo and Ikutsuki-sensei.

"Only until S.E.E.S. becomes self-sufficient enough to handle those things without my help. Is that acceptable?"

Look at me, pretending that I had any control over the situation.

But Kirijo played along.

"I understand. That's reasonable enough. Though this will be only a temporary arrangement, I still want to thank you for lending us your assistance nonetheless."

And just like that, I went from slowly drowning to being barely afloat.

The arrangements were simple.

Needlessly busy and no doubt stressful as hell to accomplish, but simple enough to understand.

My day-time occupation would remain as it was originally intended: an ordinary high school English teacher. After classes were over, I would be the manager — in name only — of the special dorm these S.E.E.S. students were residing in. Which, really, was just a smart excuse to keep me near their base of operations for when the Shadow exterminating begins. At the end of the day, it would mean working overtime for the Kirijo Group.

"Naturally, we'll be increasing your salary for enlisting your services," Ikutsuki-sensei told me.

I heard a click and turned to see Kirijo put away her phone.

"Try to have all of your belongings packed by tomorrow morning, 9AM sharp," Kirijo added. "That's when the moving company will arrive."

"Wait, what?"

To my annoyance, Ikutsuki only chuckled.

"You'll be living with us. How else is the dorm manager going to manage the dorm if he doesn't have a room of his own? Ah, don't worry though. The costs of living here will be free of charge. That's not going to be a problem is it?"

"... No. It's not like I really had any other place in mind. Well, I was going to go spend the night at a hotel for a few days. But this would be more convenient..."

"Hahaha. Well then, you're in luck!"

Yeah. Convenient. All of this... everything... was being solved at the pace of a Disney movie.

Accepting each 'generosity' they offered felt an awful lot like going steeper into debt. That red armband was pretty much taunting me. The way it was now, I was obligated to repay them back... through the only service they wanted out of me. If I thought about it more, they made all of these arrangements beforehand without even knowing if I would agree to work with them or not... as if there was only one option in the beginning after all. Maybe that was part of Kirijo's and Ikutsuki's agenda in keeping me handcuffed to whatever goals they had in mind.

... Which, for all the long and bizarre explanations they had given me on the other world of Shadows and the Dark Hour, they never really elaborated on what the end game to all of this was. I seriously doubted it was as simple as keeping peace on the streets.

I mean, ten years ago there was an explosion at this school, their school.

And half of the student body had to be hospitalized due to apathy syndrome.

These people knew about the Shadows and how to kill them with their custom guns.

No doubt a technology behind the evokers that they, as a company, easily had the budget and the scientists to develop.

Which means that they had to have had some sort of data on those Shadows to base their evokers on.

Research on those Shadows... samples of those Shadows to work with...

So... if it isn't to play midnight police, then it is possible I am to be a test subject to provide further data on the performance of those evokers.

Or, if the evokers are already perfected... then maybe they needed a toy soldier for some political agenda.

To what end?

...

...

...

Fuck it.

I'm overthinking this.

Does it really make any difference knowing what the Kirijo Group is really aiming for? Let's say I was stupid enough to care about it and make it my problem... what could one homeless and debt-ridden guy like me do against one of the most powerful international companies on the planet? Nothing. I had already made up my mind to join them anyway. All I could hope was that Kirijo would keep her word.

There was one thing that I needed clarified though.

"Do you have any more questions?"

I sighed.

"Actually... yeah. I do," I warily began. "Can we go over my health care benefits again?"