It was like snapping out of a trance.

I gasp and blink a few times, taking a couple of moments to regain full consciousness.

Where am I?

There's a distinct smell in the air. It's off-putting yet incredibly familiar.

I look down at my feet and see a small puddle of blood.

My socks are soaked in it, my clothes are drenched with it, and my face has been painted by it. Why is there so much blood? Just what the hell happened?

I glance at the object lying on the floor with me, still oozing out all this blood.

Amai's body.

No, no, no.

No this is happening. This wasn't supposed to happen. Everything had been going so well, why did things have to take this turn?

I suffered and went through all that effort to avoid killing her, yet I did it anyway. I needed at least one of these people alive, I was already too deep to begin with, but now I've just dug myself deeper inside. All that planning for absolutely nothing.

I thought I could hold myself back.

What is wrong with me?!

You idiot, you utter moron, like what you've gotten yourself into now. You were supposed to spare this one, you were supposed to keep your cool.

I drop the knife and look around me. I'm in the backyard of the house.

So, I didn't travel very far when I lost my mind.

I press my hand on Amai's ripped neck. It's as cold as ice now. She's been dead for some time.

It felt like only moments ago we were sitting together, drinking tea. Now, she's dead at my feet and I don't even remember how I killed her.

Sure, it's undeniable that this isn't at least…slightly enjoyable. What I wanted most was to see Amai suffer and pay for what she did, and now I can admire the handiwork I did on her corpse.

But I cannot enjoy this. I cannot.

Right now, I need to focus on cleaning this mess up. I can regret my decisions later. I have to get rid of any evidence, I have to dispose of Amai's body, and this knife also needs to go.

But first, I need to retrace my steps.

I leave the backyard and slowly step into the house through the sliding door. On the glass of the sliding door itself, there are handprints in blood, spreading across to the very right. So, I forcefully dragged Amai outside then.

The house itself contains different signs of what I did too. There are broken shards scattered on the floor, stained red. I recognize the patterns on them, these are the pieces of the teacups. All of them are broken, not even one remained intact.

I step into the living room. The couch that Amai had been sitting on is also stained with her blood, and the stains have reached the carpet below.

Paintings on the wall have been ripped. The table that had been between Amai and I is completely smashed. In the middle of the room, it looks like a nail is on the floor, with blood at one end of it.

I glance down at both of my hands.

The torn-out nail isn't mine.

Small strands of hair are all over the seats as well. Brown, soft hair. Amai's.

I must have pulled them out. I reach out my right hand to grab the hair, but pause as I notice marks on the back of it. Red marks all over the back of my hand, still fresh, and I can feel a slight stinging coming from them. These are scratch marks.

So, Amai put up a fight.

None of the rest of my body feels sore. I have a headache, sure, but no other physical damage.

Now, to place the pieces together and figure out what happened.

Obviously I lost control. At some point, I must have attacked her from behind or thrown her into that broken table. Afterwards, I might've hit her against the walls and paintings, that would explain why the paintings are smashed.

As for the hair, I must have pulled them out during our struggle. At some point, she scratched my hand and I dragged her from the living room to the backyard, where I finished her off somehow.

Why can I not remember all this? Why do I have to look at this room and just make guesses? Did I seriously lose it to the point of going into a complete frenzy?

I was an absolute fool for believing that I could hold myself back. Of course I couldn't. I hated Amai and wanted to see her suffer, yet I did all that work to help her. It was only a matter until I lost my cool and did something reckless.

This house is a mess. I am a mess. This needs to be sorted out.

I grab my phone out of my pocket and call Info-chan. If anyone can help me out of a situation like this, it's that person.

But she doesn't answer. I call her four times but I get no response. Just how useless can she get? If she's planning on being a good tool, she has to be available whenever I need her.

I toss the phone onto the sofa and sit down for a moment.

Info-chan won't help me out of this one, and I don't have the luxury of waiting for her to call back. Whatever the situation is now, I have to figure out a way to fix it myself. First of all, Amai's body needs to go.

I go back out to the backyard, staring at the corpse under the moonlight. Now that I've properly calmed myself down, I can look at her body more carefully.

Her clothes are torn and most of the wounds are around her neck. I must've ended her with a few stabs to that area. The amounts of wounds are unnecessary too, but I guess I didn't really care when I descended into a frenzy.

I kneel beside her corpse and lower my head.

You deserved to die, Amai. Even if I hadn't killed you today, I would've tracked you down in the future and make you pay for trying to get close to Senpai. I do not regret your death, and while I don't remember anything, I hope your death was a painful one. It probably was.

But now, because of your death, I'm in a lot of trouble. This wasn't planned. I hadn't made any preparations. I have no idea what to do with you.

I cannot frame your death. I cannot take you to school. That would be foolish. Without Info-chan's assistance, there's no way I can take your body anywhere without being seen.

But it's alright for now. I know what I need to do.

Where do dead bodies go? Beneath the earth.

Father always had a shovel, but I have no idea where it is. My best bet is in the shed.

The shed in our backyard is small, pathetic, and falling apart. I'm not even sure why it's still here, it should've been replaced a long time ago.

I approach it. The door has a lock on it, but it hasn't been closed. Looks like someone didn't bother to keep people out. I might as well grab whatever I can in here.

I open the door and take a step inside. The dust floating around causes me to both cough and sneeze. This thing hasn't been cleaned in forever. Inside are the most basic of tools, screwdrivers, nails, a green rake, and a roll of duct tape for some reason.

Nothing too complex here. But at the end, I see a shovel leaning against the corner. It's wrapped in dust, just like everything else here, and a layer of it gets onto my palms as I grab it. Carefully, I lift it and take it out of the shed, making sure not to hit anything over with it.

Once I'm outside the shed, I begin patting away the dust formed on it. It's also rusted, having a brown, gritty look to it. I cannot even remember the last time Father ever used this thing.

In fact, he barely does anything. All he ever does is sit in the living room and say almost nothing. Why does he even have these tools? He'll never use them.

It's rather heavy, but I carry it over to Amai's corpse.

To bury a body right in the backyard of my own home is foolish and can quickly backfire, but I do not have a choice. There is nowhere else to put Amai, and now that she's dead she must be disposed of. If anyone ever comes over, I have to make sure they never get close to this backyard.

Ever.

No one can find Amai. No one must know of what happened here.

I start digging.

The ground is tough, the shovel barely digs into it. I have to place my left foot onto its edge and press my weight onto it to finally get it under. Then, with gritted teeth, I try digging out the soil.

This is incredibly difficult. I have to dig up the grass, the surface of the earth, and dig out the contents underneath. It takes almost all my effort to just dig a few times, and I've only managed to make a small hole, large enough for a rat.

Utterly pathetic, that's what I am. This shouldn't even be an issue. I should be able to at least dig a hole.

I keep going, and gradually I start to make progress. I cannot help but keep glancing over to Amai's corpse as I dig, unable to properly process the fact that she's dead.

To think things should turn out like this…

I truly did underestimate my hate for her.

Finally, when it looks deep enough to hold a body, I kneel over to Amai and carefully roll her in. She flops into the hole and lays there with her arms still sticking out.

It seems like I need to dig it just a little deeper, just enough so that I'm sure it won't be obvious when I cover it back up.

Now then-

Ring.

My heart almost drops.

I glance at the door, all the way from the backyard. The shovel remains stuck to the earth as I face towards the sound.

Everything is quiet. There isn't a single noise anymore. All I can hear is my own breathing, far louder than usual.

I slowly step back into the house, my mouth dry, and my knees weak. My eyes are glued to the door. I keep staring at it, expecting it to forcefully open at any moment.

But everything remains silent.

Am I simply hearing things? Have I become so utterly paranoid about being caught that I'm hearing sounds on my own now?

I take one step away from the door.

Ring. Ring.

No.

No there is someone outside.

My heart begins to race and I drop the knife in my hand.

Who could it be? Mother? No, she wouldn't return back to the house unless I told her to. Info-chan? No, she promised she wouldn't ever come back here again.

A neighbour? A stranger? Someone who mistook this house for another one?

There are too many possibilities, but whoever it may be, this is bad news for me. If anyone was to enter this house right now, they would see everything here. All of the blood, broken glass, smashed paintings, and Amai. It wouldn't take more than a few seconds for them to figure out what happened here and call the authorities.

And then Senpai would know. The word would spread.

The serial killer that had floated around our school as a rumour, he would know it's been me all this time. He'd know everything.

I cannot bear that. That just can't happen.

I'll leave the person outside. I won't allow them in. I haven't made a sound yet, and I'll continue not to. It doesn't matter who it is, they'll eventually go away if I don't answer the door, right?

Right…?

I stand there silently, glaring at the front door.

Ring.

Go away.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Please, I'm begging you. Just go away.

Ring. Ring.

Just leave. There's no one home. There's no one here.

Please, for the love of god, let me be. You can't come in. Just walk away.

Silence falls. The ominous ringing finally comes to a stop. I don't dare take my eyes off the door, still waiting there. Even though the person's stopped ringing, I do not hear any footsteps. They haven't left yet. They're still standing right outside, waiting for someone to open the door.

Why? What is their problem? Why can't they get the message? Just give up already.

A few moments pass and I can feel myself losing my nerve. Still no footsteps, they haven't moved an inch. This is ridiculous.

Carefully, making sure my movements are completely silent, I approach the door. I need to see just who it is.

And as I look through the hole in the door, I freeze on the spot.

Two men. They're both wearing blue shirts, black vests over them. A dog, similar to a German Shepard, sitting obediently beside them. A baton and small pistol strapped to the hip of one of them.

My hands begin to shake and I find myself unable to breathe.

"Sir? Ma'am? Are you in there?" One of the men finally speak.

My knees weaken and I drop to the floor, finding tears on my cheeks.

This is the end. It's all over.

Everything I've done for my love, for my precious Senpai. I did it all to make sure that we could be together and happy. We would've lived with each other, married and isolated from the rest of the world. We would've had children, beautiful and bright children to lighten up our lives. Our lives would've been filled with love and happiness. We would be happy.

And now that's all gone.

"This is the police, please open up."

He couldn't believe what had happened.

That damned woman. The Student Council President of Akademi High. She had ruined everything.

All of his work, all of those years of hard work, and she burnt it all to the ground in the matter of twenty four hours.

And it was all because he had interrupted her. All because he chose to help Ayano Aishi out when she got in too deep.

He had hired one man to infiltrate the factory where Aishi was being held and sneak in their steroid to help her. It was supposed to be impossible for it to ever be traced back to him, or any of his workers.

Yet Megami found the man on the inside, and everything fell apart. She forced the information out of him, and once she knew the location of where this steroid was being produced, she sent her countless men to tear the laboratories apart.

So many years spent on creating this steroid, and Megami destroyed it all.

Boss glanced at his assistant, scratching the back of his head in frustration.

"Can we recover from this?" he asked.

The assistant looked at the floor. "Sir, you know what were in those stations."

Boss closed his eyes and rubbed his tired eyelids.

All of this had happened because he had interfered.

He didn't regret it. No, of course not. He had saved Aishi's life twice so far, and he didn't feel even a shred of regret.

Unlike Megami, he could see the beauty of Aishi's existence. She was an odd one, that much was certain, but there was a charm to that. A schoolgirl that killed other students at her school without remorse and without hesitation…

Boss found that…incredible.

Sure, he knew that she would eventually be defeated. With the path she chose, it would end with her untimely death at some point. She was swimming in deep waters. One day, she would drown.

But still, he found her determination intriguing. And he knew that once she was defeated, she would at least go out with a bang.

And he wanted to help.

Not as a sidekick, or a friend. No, he wanted to help from the shadows. To be able to watch Aishi dance until the very end.

But his organization was small, and his men weaker. He could never take his revenge on Megami for what she did. All those steroids were gone. His work was finished.

Boss motioned his hand towards the door and his assistant quickly opened it up for him.

He entered the room and strolled over to the man sitting in the middle of the room, strapped to the chair by several ropes.

A singular bulb hung by the ceiling. Several men, all belonging to Boss, stood aside as he entered. A small pool of blood circulated the chair, spreading quickly across the ground. The dim light was focused on the man held into the chair.

The man's face was dirty. He had fresh tears on his face. He didn't have a shirt on and his body had been cut up and beaten to a pulp.

And he was still begging weakly.

"Please…sir…" he wheezed, his ribcage stinging. "I'm…sorry…I couldn't…"

Boss knelt close to the battered man. "You couldn't what?"

"I couldn't…take it. Her men…they pushed me…they tortured me…"

"And you were forced to give up the locations of our bases, huh?"

"There…was…nothing…I could do, sir…"

Boss smiled. "Hey, don't worry about it."

"Huh…?" The bleeding man panted, slowly looking up at boss with his bloodshot eyes. "What…do you…mean?"

"Torture is a horrible thing. It hurts, doesn't it?"

The bleeding man nodded, still crying.

"I understand. There was nothing you could do. Anyone would break under torture."

The bleeding man gradually found a smile. "You…mean it…?"

"Of course,"

Then Boss pulled out a pistol from his jacket and shot the bleeding man through the forehead.

Small chunks of brain splattered onto the floor and left stains. Boss looked the other way as the man slowly bled from the new flesh wound. He put the pistol back into its holster and walked back to the door.

"Useless." he muttered to himself. "Useless, bloody moron."

He strode out of the room and his men quickly trailed behind him.

This had been a major setback for him. With the steroid destroyed, his organization didn't hold a candle to other groups and gangs. He had also promised many powerful men across the country a large shipment of that drug, and now he had no idea what he would do or what he'd tell them. That steroid was the only reason that his organization was strong and feared. The moment word got out that they no longer possessed any of it, everything would collapse. Money would be lost. Ground would be taken. The intimidation they had set on others would fade to nothingness.

It was already clear to Boss, his organization would die. It might take a few weeks, or perhaps even a few months, but it would eventually fall. All he could do now was hope to retain as much money and influence as he could, just until his group finally disbanded.

This was the end of his organization, Megami had seen to that, but it wouldn't be the end for Boss. Oh no, he wasn't done yet.

He would still remain part of the game. He would be there to watch Aishi dance for as long as she can. He refused to be left behind.

He craved the madness and chaos looming over Akademi High, and he would be a part of it.

Boss reached into his pocket and held out his most precious, prized possession.

A small vial containing his wonder drug, the ultimate steroid.

He had made sure to always keep a vial for himself, just in case anything happened, and now it was the very last of the drug. This vial was the final ounce of his creation.

He clenched it happily in his palm.

This would be used well. When the chips finally crumbled down, he would make sure that this vial would spark things into its climax.

But this vial wasn't for him, oh no. He wouldn't be the person to use up the last one.

It was for her.

It was for Aishi.

It always had been.