Chapter 2 - Kikan: Return

1

A strange, cold sensation on Hiroshi’s face roused him. Lifting his head and stroking his right cheek, he felt chilled water on his fingers. He readjusted his muffler and exhaled a great puff of white mist. Yesterday’s snowfall had partially melted and had turned to ice at his feet. Apparently he’d been using it as a pillow.

Hiroshi looked around. The scenery was perfectly familiar. He was in the school’s courtyard, almost in the dead center of it. Four of his classmates lay around him. Before Hiroshi could call out to them, Takuro stirred.

“...School? What’s going on?” he wondered aloud, stretching his back and shoulders. “We were just in the hills behind school, right?”

“Yes. We were, but...”

Hiroshi looked up to the giant clock face atop the school building.

6:23.

Judging from the first rays of sunlight starting to pierce the eastern sky, it had to be morning.

Hiroshi recalled being trapped in the Jailhouse with everyone. By working together, they were able to escape via a tunnel that took them up and out through a well to the outside world. And just as they were celebrating their exodus, who should appear but Naoki—their classmate who died in a traffic accident last year.

“I got myself a body, so now I can finally have my true vengeance.”

Just remembering the look of ecstasy on Naoki’s face as he said those words made Hiroshi’s skin crawl.

“You should all probably start running now. I’m still not used to this form. I can’t control it as well as you guys. I might just kill you instantly.”

In the midst of threatening them, Naoki had started to change. His body expanded and his skin darkened, growing larger and bluer by the second.

“Now... Let’s play our final round of tag, shall we?”

The moment they’d heard those words, a blue light had enveloped them.

“That’s the last thing I remember. When I woke up, I was here. What in the world happened?” Takuro asked while shaking their three still-unconscious classmates.

Luckily, everyone woke up immediately. No one appeared to be hurt. Hiroshi breathed a sigh of relief—short-lived though it was.

“Where’s Shun?” Anna nearly shouted.

And it was a good question. Shun was nowhere to be seen.

“What happened? You’ve probably figured everything out by now, haven’t you, brainiac?” Takeshi asked, scratching his head.

However, Hiroshi had no answer for him. There was too little information available to make an educated guess.

“Maybe this is a clue, but... I saw God glowing,” Mika said, her face taut with nerves.

All eyes focused on her. She was cradling a small, blocky monster in her arms like a baby.

“God? What are you talking about?” Hiroshi asked.

“You’ve seen it too, haven’t you?” Takuro asked in turn. “That monster there was a statue of in the annex chapel.”

Now that he mentioned it, Hiroshi did recall seeing odd decorations there.

“When the annex burned down, I brought it outside,” Takeshi chimed in.

Apparently the blue monsters of the Jailhouse worshiped this strange statue as “God.”

“But it’s merely an idol, correct? What do you mean when you say you saw it glow?”

“I don’t know what it means... but I saw it. That statue must have led us here,” Mika said, stroking the head of the monster in her arms—Fwuffy.

Hiroshi put a hand to his chin.

“We escaped from the Jailhouse just as the sun was starting to rise. At this time of year, that would be about 6:10 AM. And presently, it’s 6:20 AM,” said Hiroshi, gesturing toward the school clock. “That means it’s been less than ten minutes since we lost consciousness in the hills.”

“There’s no way you can get from all the way over there to here in ten minutes!” Takeshi immediately objected.

Hiroshi’s expression soured.

“I understand that. I mean to suggest this occurrence defies all logic.”

“Maybe the clock is off?”

“Judging from the sun’s position, it is most likely accurate,” Hiroshi answered instantly. “I can’t entirely refute the possibility that an entire day has elapsed since we lost consciousness, but since none of us seem to be suffering from exposure, I doubt that’s the case.”

“In other words, what? We were teleported here?”

Hiroshi recoiled slightly at Takeshi’s ridiculous suggestion. It was so unscientific that he would rather not even humor the theory, but the truth was that nothing else seemed to explain what had happened.

“What does it matter? We need to find Shun!” Anna said heatedly.

To Hiroshi, a solid understanding of their situation would be key to figuring out where Shun was, but trying to explain that to Anna right now would only agitate her. As such, Hiroshi chose to keep quiet and do things her way for now.

The largest obstacle in searching for Shun right now was that they had no idea where to start. That being the case, the most logical plan of action seemed to be going back to where Shun was last seen—the hills behind the school—to look for signs of him. But before Hiroshi could even open his mouth to suggest that...

“Shun’s right here,” a voice said from overhead.

Everyone looked up to see two figures atop the school roof. One was Shun. His arms were pinned behind him by the second figure: Naoki.

2

Anna took off straight for the school building.

“Wait a second!”

Kicking off the frozen ground, Hiroshi followed right after her. Anna stopped before the stone monument that stood next to the morning assembly dais. It had been erected to celebrate the founding of their middle school. On the surface of the stone, emblazoned with the school’s emblem, was the founding date of March 2nd, 2005.

Hiroshi placed a hand on the statue and looked straight up. Naoki and Shun were standing just inside the railing that encircled the roof. Naoki, who had transformed into a giant monster the last time they saw him, was now back to his normal form.

“Naoki, please calm down!” Hiroshi shouted as loud as he could to make sure they could hear him, while delivering his statement with all the calm he could muster.

The railing on the roof was only waist high. If Naoki felt like it, it wouldn’t take much to push Shun over. They couldn’t provoke him.

“Oh, I am calm! You’re the ones who seem agitated,” Naoki sneered with a silent laugh.

Despite the distance, the morning sun illuminated the expression on his face quite clearly.

“Welcome to the Jailhouse,” he said, the corners of his lips curling upward.

He wasn’t shouting, yet Hiroshi had no trouble hearing him.

“The Jailhouse? What’re you saying? This is the school,” Anna questioned.

“To you, maybe. But to me, it was no more than a prison. It was the same for you, wasn’t it, Shun?”

Shun, his face twisted in pain from having both his arms restrained, said nothing.

“Stop it! Let go of Shun!” Anna screamed.

Naoki chuckled.

“No need to worry. Shun’s the only one I have no intention of hurting.”

Only Shun?

Naoki’s choice of words got Hiroshi’s attention, and he raised an eyebrow.

“My wish has finally come true. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment?”

In stark contrast to the strained tension across Hiroshi and the others, Naoki’s voice was bursting with joy.

“Now, let’s begin the game!” Leaning over the railing, Naoki began rocking back and forth in excitement. “I will punish all of those who made me suffer!”

“Screw you!” Takuro shouted angrily from Hiroshi’s side.

“Ugh, you’re so annoying,” Naoki groaned, continuing to rock furiously. “Your yelling really grates my nerves, Takuro. As punishment, I’ll personally throw you into despair the likes of which you’ve never known.”

Naoki may have only looked like a scrawny kid, but his body was truly that of a powerful monster. The railing began to creak loudly as it warped underneath him.

“Everyone is going to die because of you. And once I’ve burned their horrible deaths into the back of your eyelids, you’ll join them.”

A section of the railing suddenly snapped clean off with a weak sound. For a second, Naoki’s body pitched dangerously forward. One of his arms remained wrapped around Shun’s neck.

Anna and Mika shrieked, and Hiroshi could hear Takuro catch his breath next to him. But in an impressive display of agility, Naoki caught himself and stepped back to safety. Then, with a flippant wave of his hand, he dragged Shun away and disappeared from sight.

“Damn him!”

An infuriated Takuro dashed toward the building. He tried to open the glass sliding door, but it was locked and wouldn’t budge.

Hiroshi stepped back and looked up at the clock.

6:30 AM.

In an hour, students would begin to arrive on campus. There was no doubt in his mind that Naoki was planning on killing all of their classmates when they showed up. They needed to find a solution before then.

Hiroshi took a deep breath and felt a tightening pain in his chest. It was only then that he realized how uncharacteristically tense he’d been.