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1

The cold wind stabbed at his cheeks. Shun’s eyes crinkled at the sight of the middle school he hadn’t been to in three weeks. But not because he had fond memories there. The memories that did surface in his mind were far from pleasant. Stopping in front of the school gate, he looked up at the gray sky. Cold, hexagonal crystals mercilessly soaked his cheeks. Wiping under his eyes, he looked around again.

Other than the snow covering the school building that had built up overnight, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was as if he was back on the very first day he’d refused to come to school. Familiar students passed by Shun as they made their way towards the building. No one said hi even though they hadn’t seen him in weeks. They wouldn’t even meet his gaze. He felt intensely out of place. It was like he was just some pebble on the side of the road.

However, strange as it might be, Shun actually preferred things this way. He had to laugh at himself for shivering with anxiety at the thought of having to endure stares. It seemed he wouldn’t have to worry about that. He put his hand to his chest, took a few deep breaths, and turned the corner to step through the gate.

His shoes squeaked like cute little animals as he walked through the snow. Listening to it lightened his heart with every step. He told himself that everything would be fine. Yet, as he approached the classroom, he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous. Scanning the room from the doorway, he didn’t see Hiroshi. He was apparently extremely fatigued and dehydrated after the ordeal, so perhaps he was just resting for the time being.

I’ll go visit him after school.

A few students ran past Shun. One bumped his shoulder, and he staggered slightly. He’d only stand out more if he stayed in the doorway forever. So, letting out a quiet breath and gathering his courage, Shun stepped into the classroom.

None of his nightmare scenarios played out.

A gaggle of girls were giggling over in the corner. A few of the boys were pretending to have a battle with cleaning supplies. There were even some splayed out on their desks asleep, clearly having stayed up all night reading comics or something. It was as peaceful as a normal school day could get.

Looking at the floor, Shun hurried over to his seat in the back by the window. There wasn’t a speck of dust on it, as if someone had kept it clean while he was gone. He sat down and took out his textbook.

“Good morning. Haven’t seen you in a while,” one of his classmates said.

He felt slightly relieved. Prying eyes would have been the death of him, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be completely ignored. It was like he was a ghost or something.

“You feeling better now?”

The boy was thinner than Shun and had eyes so narrow that they looked like they could have been drawn in a single stroke. He looked familiar, but Shun couldn’t recall his name. It wasn’t too long after transferring that he’d stopped coming to school, so it wasn’t all that surprising. Seemingly picking up on this, the boy introduced himself.

“I’m Kazuya.”

Perhaps it was just written all over Shun’s face.

“I know you just moved here. Must have been hard, huh? Pneumonia, was it? I caught that when I was younger, so I know how tough it can be. Are you okay now, though? You still look a little pale. You probably shouldn’t push yourself.”

“Oh... yeah, I’m fine. I’m all better. Thanks for the concern.”

Shun hesitatingly played along. His mother or the teacher must have lied in order to keep from making the situation worse. He was grateful.

It was doubtful anyone would believe him if he said it had all started with Takuro’s bullying. He was always wearing the mask of a model student, so most likely no one knew his real personality. Shun perfectly understood why none of his classmates had really questioned why he’d stopped coming to school. And yet, that disquieting feeling he’d gotten since coming today wouldn’t leave him.

Why isn’t anyone talking about the incident from two days ago?

The two violent deaths discovered at the Jailhouse had made big news on TV and in the papers. Moreover, one of the victims was the president of Smile, Takuro’s father. And three of their classmates—Takuro, Mika, and Takeshi—were currently missing. The police investigation was still ongoing, but there had been no news or leads.

Shun had seen a TV reporter speculate, with a knowing look, that someone must have been living in the Jailhouse illegally. They thought that when Takuro’s father had visited the mansion, they’d had an argument that had turned into an altercation. According to them, Takuro and his friends had been taken as hostages. But that couldn’t be more wrong. Takuro’s father’s killer wasn’t a person. It was a giant monster with blue skin. Takuro, Mika, and Takeshi had all been eaten by it after entering its lair, the mansion.

They weren’t the only victims, however. A week ago, Shinichi and Kota had trespassed there for fun and ended up monster food, too. In only ten days, five of their classmates had gone missing. Yet no one was talking about it. It was utterly bizarre. Especially since they’d all died after setting foot in the Jailhouse. Before, class breaks had always been filled with the latest buzz about the haunted old mansion. Everyone had to be thinking it: “They were killed by the monster.” So why wasn’t anyone saying anything?

“Hey...”

Baffled by his classmates’ apparent disinterest, Shun conjured his courage and decided to ask.

“Did you hear about what happened at the Jailhouse?”

The color instantly drained from Kazuya’s face.

“You shouldn’t talk about that,” he whispered and quickly shuffled back to his desk.

“...Huh?”

Shun was left staring at him blankly. It was such a stark change from his casual demeanor not five seconds ago. He had no idea what had just happened.

Suddenly, Shun felt an intense stare fall on him from the opposite corner of the room. He looked up to see that the girls who had been so engrossed in chatting earlier were now all looking at him. Each one had the same blatant look of fear on their face. When their eyes met his, they quickly looked away and began talking about something else. Their laughter sounded almost hollow to him.

“What was that?” he muttered to himself and glanced around the room.

It had looked like the very image of a normal classroom when he first came in, but something was definitely off. Shun couldn’t really explain it, but it was as if there was a tension in the air. On the surface, no one seemed to care about the Jailhouse incident. But that wasn’t it at all. It was like they were just pretending not to care.

The bell rung, signaling the beginning of class, and the students sluggishly took their seats. A few desks were empty. Shun looked at each one of them in turn. Takuro... Mika... Takeshi... They had all been attacked and killed by the Jailhouse monster. Their bodies hadn’t been found because it had scarfed down even their bones. Shun’s gaze stopped at certain desk by the window.

Anna...

His chest hurt, like it was being squeezed in a vice. He recalled the two of them heading into the hills behind school after being released from the police interviews. That was two days ago.

“What’s the matter, Shun?”

Her pupils as she’d turned around were wide open and empty, just like the blue monster’s. It was capable of instantly analyzing the DNA of creatures it consumed and then morphing into them. And the transformation wasn’t just physical. It could also copy its victim’s memories, which made things even worse. He’d never expected that Anna had already been killed.

After realizing Shun was onto her, Anna had disappeared. He hadn’t heard anything about her going missing, so it seemed likely she was still pretending to be human. That was the reason Shun had decided to return to school after skipping for three weeks. He had no idea what the monster masquerading as Anna was planning. There hadn’t been any rumors of a monster running about the neighborhood or anyone going missing, so it had to be lying low for the time being.

The monster had quickly gained intelligence after learning from the internet. It had to know that attacking people left and right would quickly spark a counteroffensive. All was well as long as the monster behaved itself in Anna’s form, but there was no telling when it would bare its fangs. Shun recalled the old woman who was attacked in the hospital three days prior. If that had been Anna’s doing, there was certainly a chance the tragedy might repeat itself.

The easiest targets would be their classmates. No one would be alarmed if Anna approached them. The monster just might be clever enough to obtain food without alerting the world to its presence. But Shun wouldn’t let the monster have its way. He swore to himself he wouldn’t let that happen.

If the monster does show up at school as Anna, I have to protect everyone.

No one would believe him if he started saying that Anna was the monster. So Shun had steeled his resolve and come to school himself so that he could act as quickly as possible if it did show up.

Anna...

He gazed at her empty desk with a heavy heart. It was something of a relief not to see her. If she had come to school and done something like try to walk off with another girl during a class break, he would have been forced to restrain her himself.

Shun bit his lower lip. Death was a sad and terrible thing. He’d lost his beloved grandparents to illness, so he knew all too well how hard it was. The moment you lose someone, that’s when the sadness is at its greatest. But eventually it fades, little by little. That’s what it had been like in the past. But this time was different.

As long as that monster existed in this world, Anna would never rest in peace. Every time Shun saw it passing itself off as her, his heart would overflow with sorrow. He had to put a stop to it. He had to kill it.

Bright red blood dripped from his lip. He’d been biting too hard. Somehow, he had to kill that fearsome monster. But from the outside, it would look just like he was killing Anna with his own hands.

Can I... do that?

2

Time passed quietly in relative peace. Shun caught himself yawning out of boredom during his classics class. This shocked him. He’d always been too nervous since transferring schools to even think about yawning. Especially after Takuro’s bullying began. Would Takuro summon him behind the school building after class? What outrageous violence would he be forced to endure this time? These questions had always kept him on the edge of his seat.

But it wasn’t like he’d suddenly blended in and become part of the class, either. He was tense after skipping for so long—that was fact. However, compared to being trapped in the Jailhouse, these nerves were nothing.

A swallow swooped past the window. Down below in the courtyard, some younger students were enjoying a snowball fight. It was peaceful. So peaceful, it was actually alarming. Was it really okay for him to just be lounging around?

In the midst of his mental wanderings, the students seemed to have gathered in a corner of the courtyard. They were focused intently on the snow-covered animal hutch. As Shun recalled it, there were two rabbits housed there. He’d taken a peek inside once. The rabbits were both dingy and unfriendly. He could hardly bring himself to call them cute. And honestly, they were quite unpopular. He’d never seen students gather around their hutch before. What was going on? For some reason, he felt an uneasiness in his chest.

Suddenly, the classroom door burst open, and the principal appeared. Shun nearly had a heart attack from the shock. Worry cropped up on the other students’ faces.

“Did... Did they find the bodies?”

“Don’t talk about that. You’ll be cursed, too.”

Shun could hear his classmates whispering.

Cursed...? What are they talking about?

The principal looked to the class and asked that Anna come with him to his office immediately.

“Um... Anna’s out with a cold, sir,” a girl in the front row piped up.

“I see. That’s fine, then. Sorry to disturb your class.”

The principal’s speech was polite as always, but there was a palpable tension in his voice.

“What’s up with Anna?” another student asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” the principal replied and left the classroom in a hurry.

For a moment the buzz of chatter filled the room, but the language arts teacher silenced the class with a word. The talking continued in the form of hushed murmuring.

“Anna’s a victim now, too?”

“Shh! Seriously, don’t! You want to be cursed?”

Why was the principal looking for Anna? Had the monster done something heinous already? The unease grew and grew in Shun’s chest. In an attempt to calm himself, he looked out the window.

The younger students were still huddled around the hutch. Someone in the group was shouting loudly. But whatever it was about, Shun couldn’t hear with the window closed. He stared hard, carefully watching the lips of the boy making a fuss.

B...L...O...O...D...

Blood? His pulse quickened.

T...O...R...N...E...A...R...

That was all he could manage to glean before the bell rang. On the vice-class representative’s signal, the class all stood and bowed to the teacher.

Shun looked out the window again, but the crowd around the hutch had been dispersed by the gym teacher. He couldn’t stop thinking about what could have happened there. He made up his mind to go investigate during the break, but as it turned out, he wouldn’t have to. As he was putting away his textbook, a girl from the class next door came running in and started talking about it.

“My brother just told me they found blood in the rabbit hutch!”

“What? How? Are the rabbits okay?”

“Apparently they’re missing. They’re searching the whole school, but they haven’t found anything.”

“Why was there blood? Is this someone’s idea of a prank?”

“I can’t say for sure, but... there were two pairs of rabbit ears in the coop.”

Shun pretended to prepare for the next class while eavesdropping on the disturbing chatter.

“Ears? What the heck? That’s gross. Maybe the rabbits fought and tore each other’s ears off? Then they ran off because of the fight?”

“I don’t think so. The hutch was supposed to be locked. There was no way for them to get out. Someone must have stolen them. But then that would mean someone tore off their ears, too...”

The fearsome visage of the Jailhouse monster rose up in the back of Shun’s mind.

It can’t be...

“God, that’s so creepy. Who would do that?”

“They wouldn’t share much, but apparently a student’s name tag was found in the hutch.”

“So they’re the culprit?”

Shun was nearing the end of his rope. He could now guess why the principal had come storming into the classroom.

Could the student’s name be...?

He suddenly felt sick. He almost threw up on the spot. Pressing down on his chest, he hurriedly stood up. The sudden force of it knocked his chair over backward, sending it clattering loudly to the floor. The students nearby all worriedly looked over at Shun.

“What’s the matter? You don’t look so good...”

“Sorry. I need to go to the nurse’s office,” he said simply and fled the classroom.

He ran down the hall and out the building, still in his indoor shoes. Once out in the courtyard, he felt a little better. Sucking in the freezing cold air, his racing heart began to settle. A few teachers were now gathered around the hutch. The principal was with them, a difficult expression on his face.

A little farther away was a group of students watching the teachers. They must have heard the rumors and come running to investigate. When they tried to approach, the guidance counselor shooed them away. Judging from the teachers’ reactions, the hutch was in quite a state. Shun would simply be shooed away too if he tried to approach. So, abandoning that idea, he stood there in thought.

Did the blue Jailhouse monster attack the rabbits? I don’t know why something that eats even the bones of its victims would leave behind just the ears, but if this is its handiwork, then there must be some evidence of it nearby.

The monster was no idiot. If someone caught it and raised the alarm, it’d become much more difficult to survive. It had to at least understand that much. That must be why it had gone after the rabbits and not a human victim. But once it had the rabbits, wouldn’t it want to find somewhere secluded to enjoy its food? Shun knew the perfect spot.

Turning his back on the hutch, he began walking along the school building.

3

Passing through the narrow gap barely big enough for a person, Shun reached the rear of the school building. Stacks of concrete blocks shielded him from sight. Thick groves of cypress trees created a dead angle so that, even looking from the school windows, this spot was a complete void. And Shun knew it all too well—this was where Takuro had dragged him time and again to inflict his merciless torture. Just being there brought back horrible memories. Shun’s knees began to shake.

But he shook his head to free himself from such thoughts and looked around. There were only a handful of people in the school who knew about such a secluded place on campus.

Takuro, Mika, Takeshi... and Anna.

Anna had known this was where Takuro would bully Shun. According to her, she’d learned of it from a ghost that haunted the science lab. If the monster that escaped from the Jailhouse had Anna’s memories, then it would surely know this was a safe place to come dine in peace. Shun carefully searched the area for any traces of its presence.

Thanks to the cypress branches overhead acting like a roof, there was hardly any snow on the ground here. That allowed him to spot what he was looking for with ease, although he really would have preferred not to see it at all.

“Hngh... Hrk...”

His stomach flipped. He tried to hold it in, but couldn’t. Shun threw up multiple times at the horrific sight. In the distance, the warped sound of a bell signaling the start of class rang out.

Next to a noticeably thick cypress tree were two rabbit heads huddled close together.