Chapter Five: Heartbreaker

1.

 

“Kei, there’s a first year boy asking for you,” my classmate Mishima said.

I looked up from my book and asked, “Who?”

“Dunno. But he’s cute. Tch, the discipline committee president, eating all the young boys…” she cackled.

I gave her a pained smile, stood up, and went into the hall.

When he saw me, he bowed his head politely. “Niitoki-senpai? I’m Tanaka Shiro, 1-D.”

“Tanaka-kun? You wanted to see me?”

“You were on the gate this morning, weren’t you?”

One of the duties of the discipline committee members, which we all took turns doing, was to stand at the gate and monitor the students coming in and out.

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Did you see 3-F’s Kamikishiro-san arrive?”

“Naoko-san? I know her, but no, she didn’t come today. But she’s nearly always late…”

“She’s not in class either,” he said gravely.

“Really? Must be skipping.”

“No,” he said, quite sure of himself. “Recently, she had some sort of reason why she had to come to school every day.”

(Is this kid in love with her…?)

Seemed like it. Maybe he was gonna ask her out today.

“Hunh. I don’t know. If she’s not here, ask her tomorrow.”

“That might be too late!” he exclaimed anxiously. “You really don’t know anything?!”

“You call her house?”

“There’s never anyone there.”

“Eh?”

“Her parents are in the middle of an ugly divorce. Her mother’s gone to her parents’ house, and her father never comes home.”

“Really?”

“Everyone in the apartment building’s talking about it. Everybody I asked told me all about it.”

“Hunh…” I said.

Suddenly, a voice cut in from the side. “You should ask Kirima Nagi.”

Both of us swung around in surprise. My kouhai on the discipline committee, Saotome-kun, was standing there.

“Masami? What do you…?” Tanaka-kun said, wide eyed. Later, I found out these two were in the same class.

“I was just passing by; happened to overhear. Thought you might like to know.”

“Know what?”

“I don’t know any details, but Kamikishiro Naoko-senpai and Kirima Nagi have been friends since Junior High. She’s just off of suspension, so she might know something about Kamikishiro-senpai.”

I blinked. It was the first I’d heard of Naoko-san being friends with the legendary Kirima Nagi from the class next door. And here I thought I knew about most people in the school.

“How do you know that?” I asked Saotome.

“Oh, I asked Kirima Nagi out once. Picked up a few things back then.”

“You asked her out?!”

It took guts to even talk to the Fire Witch. I’ll give him that.

“She said no,” he admitted.

“What class is this Kirima person in?” Tanaka-kun asked forcibly. Somehow, he’d never heard of her.

“Second year, class D. Right next door.”

“Okay!”

“W-whoa, hold on there! No telling what’ll happen if you just burst in on her!” I said as if she were some sort of lion. But it was true. She’d punched out one boy’s front teeth before.

I couldn’t let them go alone, so I followed them to class D. I asked a girl I knew near the door. “Ah, Suema-san. Is Kirima-san here? I’ve got a first year boy who wants to talk to her…”

“She’s not here today.”

“Really? She came in the gate.” I knew my words to be true. I was on the gate. I’d seen her arrive.

“So, she is here? I haven’t seen her come to class, though,” Suema-san said, shrugging.

We looked at each other.

“What… what’s going on?” Saotome-kun asked.

“Sounds like she is involved,” Tanaka-kun said in a shrill voice.

“Hmmm…” I was seriously worried myself now. Naoko-san and Kirima Nagi… What were they up to?

As we stood there in front of the door, someone asked, “Could I get in here?” We turned around to find Yurihara Minako, the best student in the school, standing right before us.

“Oh, sorry,” Saotome-kun said, moving aside.

She nodded, and strode regally into the room like some sort of queen.

The bell rang, so we all split up and headed back to our respective rooms.

 

***

 

“Naoko’s vanished. I can’t find her anywhere,” Kirima Nagi said in a place steeped in shadows.

The man with her said nothing. His expression never wavered. Nagi grew irritated at his lack of reaction, and shook her head violently.

“I called her cell, but she didn’t answer. You don’t know anything?” she pressed on.

The man was unable to talk, so he simply shook his head slowly.

“She may have gotten caught in its net. That thing Naoko said was your sibling.”

“…………” The man did not respond.

Kirima Nagi scowled at him. Finally, she spat, “We should never have listened to you. We should have just called the cops, or the Self-Defense Force. If the world knew about it, it would’ve just washed its hands of the whole business and vanished to some place where we couldn’t follow. But if Naoko’s dead, then we’re already too late…”

She buried her hands in her face, her nail digging into her cheeks and forehead.

“…………”

The man didn’t move.

“Say something! You talked to Naoko, didn’t you?! Try and let me know what you’re thinking!” Kirima Nagi shouted, grabbing his collar. It was a Brooks Brothers cotton shirt that Kamikishiro Naoko had bought for him.

“…………” Even when she shook him roughly, he did nothing but stare back at her in silence.

“God damn it! I will find you, Manticore!” she howled, uncharacteristically angry. “And you’re gonna help, Echoes!”

He nodded. But, yes, there was something remote about that motion.

As if he were monitoring Nagi’s reactions.

 

***

 

It bugged the hell out of me, so I took gate duty again that day after school. In the morning, we had to check the cards as they went through, but on the way home, the job was simply boring.

“You are nosy,” laughed the first year kid who should have been on duty. He gave up his place happily.

Nosy?

I guess I was.

There’s a part of me that can’t stand to see something unclear, something uncertain. That part of me wants to fix those things. Once when I was at a friend’s house, they left me alone in their room with a half-done jigsaw puzzle, and when they came back, I had already finished it. They’d been pretty angry.

The reason that I was on the unpopular discipline committee—and the president of it, no less—was simply because of this “clarity impulse” of mine.

“Anyone? Who wants to do it?” they’d all ask, but nobody ever raised their hand. They just sat there in silence. And before I knew it, my hand was up.

It’s like a disease, I know.

With Naoko-san missing, if I hadn’t been asked, I’d never have gotten involved, but now that I had been, I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I’d cleared things up.

My friends tell me, “You’re like a big sister. There’s just something reliable about you,” which I took as a compliment (though, they may have been making fun of me.) But the truth is, it’s just my neurosis.

(Talking to the Fire Witch is scary, but if I don’t, I can’t settle down!)

But even when most of the students had gone home, and the sky was starting to darken, Kirima Nagi had yet to appear.

It was well past the time when the gate guard was free to go home, and I was starting to wonder what else I could do, when Tanaka-kun and Saotome-kun came up.

“Ah, senpai! Did Kirima Nagi go home?” Saotome-kun asked.

“No, not yet.”

“Oh,” said Tanaka-kun, hanging his head.

“Why don’t we look for her together? I’m sure she’s still in the school somewhere,” I suggested.

“That’s what we were going to do,” Tanaka-kun nodded. “We were talking about it in the classroom.”

“I’m a little worried about Kirima Nagi,” Saotome-kun said. She may have rejected him, but it seemed that he still liked her.

“But where do you think she is?”

“Somewhere where nobody would notice her—on the roof, or maybe under the gym? Oh, or the pool changing rooms…”

Saotome-kun suggested.

“Why would she be in a place like that?” Tanaka-kun said in an irritated voice.

“I don’t know. But everyone knows her, so she must be someplace like that, or somebody would’ve noticed.”

“Let’s check them out,” I said, and we headed back into the eerily quiet school.

 

***

 

While on our way to the roof, I couldn’t help but ask, “Tanaka-kun, were you and Naoko-san…?”

“Um,” he said, worried.

“Kamikishiro-senpai asked him out,” Saotome-kun interjected.

“What?!” I yelped.

“Masami! That was a secret!”

“Don’t worry, senpai won’t tell.”

I was still reeling as they spoke. “You’re joking, right?”

“I certainly thought so. I kept asking her if it was a joke, but she kept saying that she was serious.”

“Hunh…” I stared at his face closely.

“Please don’t tell anyone.”

“Okay, I won’t. But still…”

“It was pretty confusing, but I couldn’t think of a reason to say no, so I ended up going out with her.”

“But I could swear that Naoko-san had a different boyfriend…”

“Yeah, she does. Second year guy named Kimura Akio. Never really worked up the nerve to ask about that…”

“Kimura? He picked up Naoko-san, too? But it can’t be too serious with a guy like that…”

Kimura-kun was from the class next to mine, and he was an infamous playboy. Legend had it that he’d made a pass at every second year girl in the entire school. He’d even flirted with me—the discipline committee president!

“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I was never able to figure out what she really wanted.”

“Do you like Naoko-san?”

“D-do I?”

“Be clear,” my fixation popped right up and out of my mouth.

“If we’re going to the roof, the fire escape round back is better,” Saotome-kun said, glancing around us.

“Why?”

“The door’s locked, isn’t it?”

“Oh, right.”

As we went round the back, we saw somebody coming down the fire escape.

“Ah…!”

We chased after them, but they were gone before we could get there. But they were tall, and probably male, so we didn’t chase them any further. Whoever it was had headed towards the gates and was probably going home.

“If he was up there, than Kirima Nagi probably isn’t.”

“Yeah. Let’s check the gym.”

We went to the storage rooms under the gym.

They were locked. But luckily for us, I was on gate duty, so I had a master key that would open any door in school.

“Unh…” Saotome-kun pushed the heavy door open, and went inside.

“It was closed—I doubt she’s in here,” I said, peeking in. It was dark, so we turned on the lights. There was just one small fluorescent light, though, and it didn’t penetrate past the piles of mats, springboards, and other gym equipment.

“But she might be hiding somewhere,” Tanaka-kun said, moving to follow Saotome-kun inside.

But Saotome-kun came walking back towards us, waving his hands.

“Nobody here. And definitely no signs of anyone having been here.”

 

***

 

“—Nothing here,” said Saotome Masami. Behind him were the blanket and heater that Echoes had used, and several scattered food wrappers. They were hidden in shadow, and from where they stood at the entrance, Tanaka Shiro and Niitoki Kei weren’t able to see them.

“Any cigarette butts?” Kei asked.

Masami made a show of looking behind him, then shook his head.

At his feet was a little bell that Kamikishiro had kept on her school bag.

“Let’s try somewhere else.”

“Right. Saotome-kun, come on out of there. I’ll lock up.”

“Mm,” Masami said, leaving the evidence where it was, turning out the lights as he left.

“Where should we look next?” Kei asked, locking the door and turning towards the two boys.

“It just occurred to me, but maybe we should use the PA system to summon Kirima Nagi,” Masami suggested.

He had confirmed the presence of Echoes, and he knew that Echoes was presumably moving with Kirima Nagi. It was time to move the plan forward to stage two.

 

***

 

“The PA system?” I said, blinking at Saotome-kun.

“Yeah. That key can get us in the broadcast room, right?”

“Well, yes, it can—but won’t we get in trouble?”

“Probably,” Saotome-kun admitted. “But there’s no other students around, and the only teacher here is the one on night watch. I’d be more surprised if anyone cares enough to yell at us.”

“Mmm, well…it would be faster. Okay. I’ll handle the teacher.”

“Thank you for this,” Tanaka-kun said apologetically.

“Not like I’m doing it for you,” I said. “I’m worried about Naoko-san, too.” Why was I being so snotty? I was irritating myself. I was only doing this because I couldn’t settle down without making things clear. Only my words were impressive.

But I was worried about Naoko.

If Kirima Nagi had gotten her mixed up in something, and if it had gone bad, I had to try and stop it… I’m sounding very much like the ardent discipline committee president, aren’t I? I never meant to turn into something like that.

“C-come on,” I said, agitated, and set off, the two boys following me.

Unfortunately, being at the head of the party didn’t do anything for my image. It made me look even more stuck up. Dang.

 

2.

 

“Will Kirima Nagi-san, second year, class D, please report to the broadcast office? If you’re still in the building, we would like to talk to you regarding Kamikishiro Naoko-san. Repeat, will Kirima Nagi-san, second year, class D …”

Tanaka Shiro’s voice echoed through the darkened school.

Of course, it reached the ears of Nakayama Haruo, the one teacher still in the school on night watch duty.

But all he said was, “Umph…” He then slumped onto the table, knocking over his instant ramen, and started snoring.

He was the guardian of the master key that the discipline committee member had, and he was supposed to take it from them and record this in the log, but he was conked out before he could perform his duty.

“Uhn…nah…”

But this was not because of any laziness on his part.

His hands dangled towards the floor, much too limply for normal sleep. His face was pressed against the desk, his neck bent as far as it would go, and he was virtually guaranteed a stiff neck in the morning.

“Uhmph…unh, nahhhhhr…”

His snores were not considered attractive at the best of times, but now they sounded like a stray dog starving to death.

He was not asleep; he had clearly been knocked unconscious.

Nor was he alone in the room.

There was a girl standing next to him.

“………”

She glared up at the speakers as the voice flowed out of them.

There was a sweet, strange smell in the room. The smell had been enough to knock Nakayama Haruo out, but the beautiful girl with long, black hair did not even raise an eyebrow.

Of course not. She was the source of the smell.

Less than ten seconds after the PA announcement began, she was out the door of the night watch room and heading up the stairs.

For many years afterwards, Nakayama Haruo was to suffer a mysterious phenomenon similar to LSD flashbacks (though he was quite certain that he had never tried any drugs) in which his daily routine was abruptly disrupted by illusions similar to intense migraines.

Certainly, this mysterious “disease” was a curse, but he had no idea how insanely lucky he really was.

The only reason he had survived was by the whim of a killer, the fleeting thought that perhaps she had killed too many people already.

 

***

 

“——?!” Kirima Nagi heard the announcement as well, and looked up.

She was busy prying open the lockers of every student in the school and searching the contents. Naturally, she was looking for traces of the Manticore. Echoes stood beside her, disguised in a school uniform.

“How do they know I’m still at the school? And what’s this about Naoko?”

“Broadcast office…” Echoes plucked the words out of the broadcast, and spoke them.

“Can you sense something, Echoes?!” Kirima Nagi asked. Kamikishiro Naoko had explained to her that he could sense the presence of his clone, the Manticore.

“…………” Echoes put his finger on his forehead and tried to sense it, but shook his head, apparently drawing a blank.

“But an obvious summons like that…why the hell would it need to hide?” Nagi said angrily.

Echoes simply shook his head. He knew only that the Manticore had learned far more about human society than he had managed. This was a trap.

“…………”

He put his hand on Nagi’s shoulder, and pushed her backwards. Signaling her not to follow.

“Why not? It’s a trap?” Nagi said. She knew it, too.

Echoes nodded.

“That’s why we have to go,” Nagi said quietly. “We don’t play into this trap and it’ll change its face and make a run for it. It’ll leave the school. We’ll never catch it then.”

“…………”

Echoes watched the fearless girl carefully. In his heart, he whispered.

(Which is it…?)

But the girl who could hear that voice was no more.

Nagi pulled a pair of leather gloves out of her skirt, put them on, and took a stun gun off of the belt that she wore around her waist. The belt and gloves failed to match her uniform at all.

She squeezed the grip once, testing it.

With a crackle, a two million volt firework flew through the air.

 

***

 

“She’s not coming,” Tanaka-kun whispered. It had been at least five minutes since our broadcast.

“The teacher isn’t here either. What’s going on?” I asked. I was pretty sure Nakayama-sensei was on duty tonight. He was a little neurotic, but he definitely was not the type to let small things go, and an unscheduled broadcast was sure to set him off. Was he asleep?

“…………” Saotome-kun stood deep in thought, frowning.

“What now?” Tanaka-kun asked, turning to look at us, unable to wait.

“One more time,” Saotome-kun whispered.

“There’s no way she didn’t hear that. Maybe she has gone home.” I spread my hands.

“Yeah,” grunted Tanaka-kun.

Saotome-kun said again, more forcefully, “Come on, let’s do it again!”

But when he reached for the switch, all the lights in the room suddenly went out.

“—Wah?!”

There were no windows in the broadcast office. It was pitch black.

“A b-blackout?” I said, recovering slightly.

“Damn, the breakers!” snapped Saotome-kun angrily. I wasn’t sure what he meant for a second, but of course, if the circuit breakers went, so would the lights. Made perfect sense. He was clearly a fast thinker.

But why would the breakers trip? Unless it was done deliberately, they only tripped when someone was using too much electricity…

Fumbling around in the darkness, I managed to get the door open at last, and moonlight streamed in through the windows in the hall.

There was a black shadow standing right in front of me.

I didn’t even have time to look. The shadow pushed something towards me, and a shockwave hit my body.

“Hhh…”

A sound somewhere between a breath and a scream came out of my mouth, and I crumpled to the floor. I couldn’t move.

“President?” Saotome-kun cried from behind me. It sounded so far away. The shadow slipped swiftly past me, and launched itself at Saotome-kun.

The impact of him hitting the ground carried through the floorboards to me.

“Wh-who are you?” Tanaka-kun shrieked.

That was the last thing I heard. My consciousness slipped farther and farther away.

 

***

 

When I opened my eyes, I found myself tied up and lying on my side on a heavily waxed floor.

It was dark around me. But moonlight came in from somewhere, so it was brighter than the main building had been. Wherever we were was pretty open.

There was only one room in the school this large, with big windows along one side and wooden floors. It was the lecture hall.

(—Wha-what the…?)

I tried to sit up.

But my body was heavy, leaden. It was clear that I still hadn’t fully recovered from the impact.

Saotome-kun and Tanaka-kun were lying next to me. I prodded their backs with my knees.

“Hey!”

“Unh,” groaned Saotome-kun, stirring, and opening his eyes. “This…” he started to say, but quickly snapped his mouth shut.

“Mm? What?” I asked, looking around. I found what had surprised him. Two figures stood in the direction that he was looking.

“Everyone awake?” said one of them. It was Kirima Nagi.

The other one appeared to be a male student. He was wearing a uniform, but I didn’t recognize him.

“What did you do with Kamikishiro-san?” Tanaka-kun asked. It looked like he’d woken up first.

“You’re Tanaka Shiro, then? Naoko told me about you,” Nagi sighed.

“Kirima-san, what…?” Saotome-kun asked.

Nagi glared at him coldly. “I told you not to get involved, Saotome-kun.”

“But what’s going on?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“How can you say that?!” I shouted.

Nagi glared at me, surprised. “Committee President, I know why these two are here, but how did you get mixed up in this?”

“I know Naoko-san, too!”

“But don’t you think you’re trying a little too hard? Caused me no end of confusion.”

“I’m the one who’s confused!” I shouted, completely forgetting that I was talking to a violence-prone problem child. “Tell me what you think you’re doing, right this instant!”

She ignored me, and looked at the boy next to her.

“It’s none of them—right, Echoes?”

What did she mean? The boy she’d called Echoes nodded. What a strange nickname.

“None…of them…”

“You’d know, right? Even if it were lying low?”

“Kn-know…”

“None of them have been ‘altered.’ I see.”

Watching the two of them nod at each other pissed me off. “Stop whispering cryptically at each other! And you! You aren’t even a student here! I’ve never seen you before in my life!”

I’m not bragging, but if you’re on gate duty often enough, you do end up knowing everyone at school.

Nagi looked at me. “I apologize. We no longer suspect you. Time for you to go on home.”

This was much too selfish. “When hell freezes over!” I snapped. Somehow, I managed to get to my feet, despite the ropes binding me. I doubt I could do that twice. It’s a stunt you can only pull off when you’re too angry to notice.

“Mm?” Nagi frowned.

“I told you to explain yourself! How am I supposed to just forget a thing like this?”

“Well, well, well. I guess we see how you became committee president,” Nagi said, glaring at me. She looked like a yakuza. “But you need to keep quiet about this.”

“Why should I?” I glared back at her.

“For your own good,” she said coldly.

“Raaarh!” I snarled, contorting my body in anger. Since my hands and feet were tied, this made me lose my balance, and I fell over again.

(Oops…!)

I was just about to fall flat on my face when I felt someone catch me.

It was the boy who’d been standing next to Nagi, “Echoes.”

I looked up at him. He nodded, and undid my bonds.

From this close, he had a rather gentle face.

“Th-thanks…” I said, rubbing the rope burns.

He proceeded to undo Tanaka-kun and Saotome-kun as well. We were tied pretty tightly, but he pulled the ropes off like he was playing cat’s cradle. He looked frail, but he must have been pretty strong.

For some reason, he reminded me of Christopher Lambert’s Tarzan. His hair wasn’t as long, but he gave off a similar air. Kind of unworldly.

“Kirima-san, who is this guy?” Saotome-kun asked. Feeling a little jealous, I guess.

“Mm… uh… Well…my boyfriend,” Nagi replied, clearly lying.

“You can’t fool me that easily. What are you doing here? Where’s Naoko-san?” I glared at Nagi again.

“R-right! What did you do to Kamikishiro-san?!” Tanaka-kun yelled, turning on Nagi the moment he was free.

“I’m worried about Naoko myself,” Nagi said painfully, not meeting his gaze. She clearly knew something.

“Tell us. We can help.”

“No, you can’t,” Nagi snapped.

“Why not?!”

“This is not a normal situation. Unless you’re screwed up like me, you can’t possibly tackle it.”

She didn’t hesitate at all to call herself screwed up.

I shrank back a little at the strength of her words.

Saotome-kun spoke up, “Normal still not good enough, hunh?” It was clear that he was quite bitter about something.

He smiled a little. I looked at his face, and for some reason, felt the hairs on my neck stand up.

It was just an ordinary, affable smile, but there was something unnaturally relaxed about it, like when you’re playing a video game for the thousandth time, and a pattern you’re particularly good at shows up. His smile was calm and ruthless.

“Mm…” Nagi frowned. She must have said the same thing when she rejected him.

“Is Kamikishiro-san okay?!” Tanaka-kun insisted.

Nagi said bluntly, bitterly, “Shiro-kun, right? You should forget about her.”

“What do you mean?!”

“…………”

Nagi said nothing else.

 

3.

 

Nagi and this Echoes guy led us out of the lecture hall.

“Go straight home,” Nagi insisted.

“I have to give the key back,” I said sullenly. I wasn’t finished sulking about not getting an explanation. “Maybe I’ll report you.”

“Whatever,” Nagi said airily.

“What’s wrong with you?” I retorted. “What makes you think you have to be personally responsible for everything? Can’t you just let things be?!”

“Now, now, Committee President,” Saotome-kun said, patting me on the shoulders.

“But—!” I insisted.

But Saotome-kun was completely calm, the exact opposite of my state of mind. He spoke to me like he was soothing a fretful baby. “There’s nothing you can do. Kirima-san has things she needs to do.” It was like he knew what those things were.

“…………”

He was definitely too relaxed.

When I held my tongue, he turned back towards Nagi.

At his steady gaze, Nagi awkwardly looked away.

He spoke to her anyway. “Kirima-san. I do understand.” He took a mechanical pencil out of his pocket, and spun it around his fingers, very casually.

“We can never be satisfied with ‘normal.’”

“……?” Nagi stared at Saotome-kun, baffled. “What?”

“Looking back, I’m glad you rejected me. If I had been with you, then I would’ve been her enemy when I met her.” He sighed, almost happily.

Nagi frowned. “When you met who? What are you talking about?” She seemed confused. It looked like something about his turn of phrase had bothered her.

A little smile crept up the edges of Saotome-kun’s lips. “In other words, I can’t help but put you on the side of ‘normal,’ now.” His shoulders slumped.

Then he moved like lightning.

Before I even realized that he’d turned around, his arm was reaching out towards Echoes, who stood behind him.

The mechanical pencil was in his hand. His aim was true. The tip of it stabbed deep into Echoes’ throat.

“——?!”

Echoes staggered backwards. In an instant, Saotome Masami had buried the pencil all the way inside Echoes’ throat. Then he turned his attention back towards Nagi.

“Now, you are our enemy.”

A shadow fell towards us from above.

We all looked up, and saw a person dropping down from the school roof.

Someone I knew.

Yurihara Minako.

She was looking right at Echoes.

Falling on him—no, attacking him.

“——!”

Blood gushing from his throat, Yurihara Minako cut him open from his shoulder to his waist…with her mere fingers—her nails were hideously long.

She’d fallen more than ten meters, but bounded upwards again like a grasshopper.

There was no way she was human.

“Ah…” I could do nothing but stand there with my mouth hanging open.

“M-Manticore!” Nagi shrieked, following the leaping monster that looked like Yurihara Minako with her eyes.

That cost her her life.

Saotome Masami was standing right in front of her.

She looked down just in time to see his hand slash downwards.

The knife in his hand flashed.

“——!” Nagi’s voice never made it to words. It was a tiny little survival knife, the size of his palm, like a toy, but the blade was sharp, and it sliced her throat open.

“I just changed teams—from the killed, to the killers.”

I doubt anyone but Saotome Masami himself could understand the meaning behind his words.

Kirima Nagi spun around, blood spraying from her throat. She fell over.

“——!”

His throat pierced, his torso cut in two, Echoes was still watching Nagi. He clearly wasn’t human either.

He dodged Yurihara Minako as she attacked again, and dashed to Nagi’s side.

Ignoring Saotome Masami, who backed away, Echoes scooped up Nagi’s convulsing body, and leapt away. He cleared the roof of the school in a single jump, vanishing into the night sky.

He ran away…?

“Chase him! This is your chance!” Saotome Masami shouted, and Yurihara Minako reversed her course, leaping back the way she had come.

I was dumbfounded.

Beside me, Tanaka-kun wailed, then ran away screaming.

Saotome Masami swung towards me.

I was frozen stiff, and I couldn’t move a muscle.

“Heh heh heh,” he laughed. His smile was exactly the same as it had been a moment before, back when he was on our side.

But this boy had just killed another human being…

My knees rattled. I was shaking with fear.

“To be honest, the plan was for Kirima Nagi to kill me here, but oh well. This way was pretty fun too,” he said, grinning. Like everything was normal.

“I could get addicted to doing things myself,” he commented, walking towards me, moonlight glittering off the knife in his hand.

 

***

 

As Echoes fled upwards to the roof, he realized that there was little power left in his body.

The pencil from a moment before—instead of lead, it had been filled with a fatal poison created by the Manticore. He was infected.

“……!”

He quickly pulled the pencil out of his throat. But it was too late.

His feet and hands felt numb. Injuries that his massive regenerative powers should have healed instantly showed no signs of improving.

But what had happened?

That boy was the Manticore’s ally?

He hadn’t been brainwashed. Echoes was sure of that. But why would a normal human be working with a monster?

Echoes glanced down at Nagi.

She was no longer breathing. Her pupils were dilated, nothing reflected in her eyes. Her lips were half open, a stream of blood flowing out of them. She wasn’t moving.

This girl had protected everyone from the shadows, in secret, and it had killed her.

“…………”

Echoes stared down at her ashen face.

(Which is it…?)

He wondered inside. But only Kamikishiro Naoko could answer, and sadly, she was gone.

Yurihara Minako hit the roof behind him, giving chase.

Echoes gathered Nagi up again, and leapt off of the roof.

“You can’t get away from me!” The Manticore yelled, following him.

She was smiling. Saotome Masami’s plan was going perfectly.

Echoes was running, but he was too badly wounded. He could not hope to hide.

She was an imperfect copy, and would never have been his equal in a fair fight, but now the tables were turned.

When she next caught sight of Echoes, he was abandoning Kirima Nagi’s body in the bushes of the school’s garden. Clearly, he was trying to lighten the load, but it was too late.

Grinning from ear to ear, the Manticore flung herself at the slow-moving Echoes.

Her kick sent Echoes flying.

 

***

 

There was a low thud from the school garden.

I snapped out of it.

Saotome Masami was right in front of me, waving a knife.

I narrowly dodged it by rolling on the ground.

I got my feet up from under me and tried to run, but my right foot slipped, and I fell again.

I looked down.

My hands were resting in a pool of Kirima Nagi’s blood.

“Aaaaahhhh!” and at last, I was able to scream.

Saotome Masami came after me.

I tried to spin around. My fingers touched something.

It gleamed. It was the stun gun that Kirima Nagi had dropped.

“……!”

I snatched up the weapon.

“Grr…” Saotome Masami scowled.

“St-stay back!” I pointed the weapon in his direction, and squeezed the switch-like thing on the side.

With a crackle, fireworks spat off of the tip, but they were only a few centimeters long. It was but a tiny little light, and it didn’t look at all threatening.

“Hmph,” Saotome Masami smiled, coldly. “What are you going to do to me with that? That kind of weapon can’t kill anyone.”

“Wh-what are you people? That—Yurihara Minako thing… What is it?!”

“She is Yurihara Minako, but she is not Yurihara Minako. The original is dead. She is the Manticore.”

“Manticore…?” I could swear I’d heard that name somewhere. In a computer game or something. I’m sure it meant…

…Man-eater.

Oh. God. That meant… That meant Naoko-san was…

Saotome Masami saw my expression, and guessed what I was thinking. He grinned. “Exactly. She’s already been digested.”

He said it so normally. Without a shred of guilt.

“A-and all the other people who vanished?”

“Mostly. Well, there may be a few girls who just ran away on their own.”

“And Kirima Nagi was looking for you…”

That’s why she captured us. But she thought we had nothing to do with it, so she released us, without realizing that one of her enemies was hiding among us…

“You used us as cover, didn’t you?”

“You had your uses. She was a fool. She allied herself with Echoes, but it never occurred to her that his enemy might have allies as well.”

His complete composure put a match to the flames of anger inside me. They soon banished my fear.

“So you lied when you said you loved her?”

“No, that was the truth. But I no longer need her. Still, I wasn’t going to let the Manticore have her; no, I wanted to kill her with my own hands. Do you know how good that feels?”

“How the hell would I know that?”

I thrust my weapon towards him. He dodged easily.

“Beautiful, President. I love your eyes. I love strong-willed, powerful eyes.”

Grrr. “You little…” I swung my weapon wildly, not getting anywhere near him.

Then something passed over my head.

It was “Echoes.” He slammed into the ground. He’d been thrown there.

He was torn to pieces.

While I was distracted, Saotome Masami kicked my hand.

“Ah?!” I yelped, but the stun gun was already flung out of my reach.

From behind me, Yurihara Minako yelled, “Enough, Saotome-kun! I’ll finish things.”

“Okay,” Saotome Masami replied, picking up the stun gun and stepping away. I ran over to Echoes.

He was a wreck. His right arm was half torn off his shoulder, and there were holes all over his body. He was covered in blood.

“E-Echoes?” I said, pulling him upright.

He opened his eyes feebly.

A pained moan escaped his purple lips.

“President, it’s no use asking him to save you. He’s almost dead,” Yurihara Minako—the Manticore—said, laughing.

“That wasn’t so hard. You might even have been able to win without any tricks,” Saotome Masami said, evidently enjoying himself.

“I never thought he would be this weak,” the Manticore replied, amused. “I’m sure he used to be stronger.”

I glared at her.

“You aren’t human! You’re both devils!”

 

***

 

As he lay dying, Echoes heard the girl holding him shout, “You aren’t human!”

Not human. She meant they weren’t fit to be called human.

He still didn’t understand.

Which were humans?

Humans had captured him for being different, and forcefully and quite mercilessly studied his body. Humans had made the Manticore. But the people who had saved him, the cloaked boy in the black hat, Kamikishiro Naoko, and Kirima Nagi, were all human too.

Which was it?

Which was the truth?

“Ha ha ha! You are stupid, aren’t you?!” The Manticore laughed, mocking the girl. “I never was human! And Saotome-kun is nothing like you foolish humans. Devils? Fine with me! I think I like being called a devil!”

“You will be destroyed!” The girl shouted back, not at all cowed. “I will die here, and so will this man, but there will be other people who will stand in your way! No matter where you hide, there will be people who can’t ignore the distortions in the world that you’re trying to create! And you will be found again, just like Kirima Nagi found you!” Big tears were running down her cheeks.

She was sad.

Because she was about to die?

Then why was she holding him so tightly?

It was as if she was protecting him from the Manticore.

Like Kamikishiro Naoko had, when she found him wounded in town.

(Humans…)

He had no more time.

He had to make a choice.

 

***

 

“Like Kirima Nagi?” the Manticore chuckled. “I think I’ll be her next.”

“……?” I didn’t know what she meant. I had to ask. “What do you mean?”

“Just that I’ll change from Yurihara Minako into Kirima Nagi.”

At first, I couldn’t comprehend this. My mind went blank. Then I was horrified. “W-what?!”

“She’s an ideal specimen. She’s crazy, so nobody will say anything if I behave a little oddly; she’s rich, and has a vast information network set up. It’s perfect. There will be a commotion when Yurihara Minako vanishes, which I would prefer to avoid, but the benefits far outweigh that.”

“……!” I shuddered, turning to look at Saotome Masami. He had said that he no longer needed her. Because he had a new girlfriend now.

Saotome Masami stared back at me, expressionless.

I had no words.

“As for you, Niitoki Kei,” the Manticore continued. “The world will never know you’ve died. We will alter you, and make a slave of you. You’ll be moving around, but you will have no heart. Even if you meet a boy you like, you will feel nothing.”

I was horrified again.

I could see it.

The Manticore disguised as Nagi, and me standing beside her as her slave… I could see myself on gate duty, Nagi beside me, whilepointed her to her next meal… Even if the boy I had once loved and his pretty girlfriend came, I would think nothing, simply greet them mechanically…

And that’s not all. The Manticore’s terrifying words gave me a glimpse of a higher purpose.

She and Saotome Masami weren’t killing for their own self-preservation. This was just one part of their plan to take control of the world from us humans.

But if they graduated, and went out of school, what would happen to the world?

She came closer to me.

“……!”

I hugged Echoes’ body tightly.

Then…

Echoes slowly raised his wounded arm.

It was shaking. His fist wasn’t clenched or open, his fingers just hung there limply.

He pointed his hand at the Manticore.

“What? What’s that mean? You still think you can do something to stop me?” The Manticore smirked.

“…………” But Echoes wasn’t looking at her.

He was looking at the stars in the sky behind her.

And he suddenly spoke, using actual words, not to anybody, but to the sky above.

“My body into information, transmit to source!”

And the air around me filled with white light.

4.

 

That evening, a strange electrical disturbance was recorded in the area. Satellite broadcast monitors all went white, computer hard drives were cleared of all data, and a multitude of other similar unnatural phenomenon were encountered. The television stations and newspaper offices were deluged with questions and complaints. There were several investigations launched, with no real satisfactory results. But a number of witnesses said, “About that time, I could swear I saw the sky glow. It was just for a second, but it was like a bright light launched from the ground into the sky.” But these reports were never connected to anything, and were eventually buried and forgotten.

 

***

 

…I know what I saw.

Echoes changed into light, and that light swallowed the Manticore.

And a second before it did, Saotome Masami leapt in front of the Manticore, shielding her with his body—

I don’t know what he was thinking, why he was on the side of the Manticore, and frankly, I don’t want to know.

But there was one thing that I did have to admit—he might have killed a number of people for the Manticore, but that casual disregard for life sure included his own.

Saotome Masami was swept up in the torrent of light, his body blown away, not a trace of it left.

He was disintegrated…no, he was erased.

But moments before Echoes had self-destructed, the Manticore had been flung aside by her companion and out of the beam’s path.

“……!”

Even as I was flung aside by the shockwave, I desperately struggled to grasp the situation.

But no, I didn’t understand anything.

From my point of view, there was absolutely no way for me to grasp the first thing about what had just happened.

What the hell was Echoes? How could something that looked like a human turn into light and explode?! And what “information” was he “transmitting”? To who? I simply had no way of knowing.

(What’s happening—?!)

I hit the ground and rolled, screaming with frustration inside.

When I finally managed to stop myself, there was no light left around me.

Grunting in pain, I sat up, looked in front of me, and gasped.

She was standing there alone.

Half of her body was burned black, and smoke was rising off of it. The uniform she’d been wearing had been blown away, and beneath the moonlight, every inch of her slim, limber body was exposed.

“…………”

She was gazing blankly at the sky.

She didn’t seem to be looking at anything.

“…………”

Her lips trembled. Like they were scrambling to form words that never emerged.

“Ah…ahh…”

There was no expression on her face. It had been replaced by emptiness.

The face of someone that had lost something that they valued more than their own life.

As if half of her body had been torn away.

As if her capacity for joy had been pulled up by the roots.

She looked as if she could no longer perceive any meaning, like there was nothing left for her.

“Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhhhh!!”

Somewhere, her endless scream turned into a howl.

It was the sound of her heart breaking.

The scream seemed to shake the moon.

“…………”

I sat and watched, nailed to the spot.

But then I realized that was the last thing I should be doing.

(G-got to run…!)

As I tried to get to my feet, the gravel scrunched beneath me.

Like a mechanical response, the Manticore’s battered face swung towards me.

Our eyes met.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Even by the light of the moon, I could tell her eyes were blood red. The whites were completely soaked in crimson hostility.

“You die…!” she howled. “I’ll kill every last one of you!!”

As if her voice had been a trigger, I shot to my feet, and ran for it.

Naturally, she came after me.

I was running, but from the sound of it, she was walking, dragging one leg.

But the sound was getting closer.

(Waaaah!)

At the time, I was convinced that fear had finally driven me round the bend.

I was hearing things.

I could hear a melody coming through the bushes in front of me—an impossible, unnatural melody.

Someone was whistling.

Whistling a tune that should never be whistled, Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.”

Unnatural or not, at that moment I had no other straws to grasp at.

I ran for my life towards the sound.

When I was almost there, my leg slipped.

“Aah—!” I screamed, pitching forward, falling flat on my face. I smacked my forehead on the ground, and everything went black for a moment.

The whistling stopped.

I could hear the sound of the Manticore’s footsteps, several times louder than it had been a moment before.

“——!”

I spun around, and the Manticore’s hand was already reaching towards me.

This is it. I’m going to die…!

But just as that thought crossed my mind…

Fwsh!

It was the sound of something cutting through the air.

And then…the Manticore’s hand flew off, with a grotesque slicing sound…

It had been severed from her body and was now spinning through the air!

(Wha…?)

I saw something flash.

Like string.

It twisted like it was alive, and wrapped around the Manticore’s neck.

It tightened.

“——?!”

The Manticore’s expression changed. She snatched at her throat with both hands. But she only had one, and the fingers of it tried to get a grip on the string wrapped around her throat.

It wasn’t a string. It was a horrifically thin metal wire.

Ah, I thought. I had my answer. The reason I had suddenly tripped and fallen was because this wire had been strung across my path.

One end of the wire appeared to be tied around a tree.

The other end led into the shadow of the school building. When I looked in that direction, I felt my brains pour out of my ears.

“It can’t be—?!” I shouted.

There was a figure there, leaning backwards, pulling on the wire with black gloves. It wore a cape and a black hat shaped like a pipe. It was the very creature that all the girls in my class had been gossiping about.

“…The wrist was charred enough for me to cut through, but the neck seems to be stronger,” it said.

The androgynous voice, neither male nor female, was exactly as the rumors said.

But the face…was…

“M-M-Miyashita-san?!”

Yes, it was clearly that of my classmate, Miyashita Touka.

“Currently, I am Boogiepop,” she…no, he said clearly, in a boy’s voice.

“Gh…?!” gurgled the Manticore, eyes widening in surprise.

She was no more able to take this in than I was.

The wire was sunk deep into the skin of her throat. She was struggling to loosen it with her fingers, but it was cutting the fingers instead, and they were bleeding.

“Ghh…ghhhh…!

“You call yourself the Manticore?” Boogiepop said quietly. “You are much stronger than a human, but I can make free use of the strength that humans unconsciously keep in reserve to avoid exceeding the limits of their flesh. Since I am only borrowing this body.”

Then he suddenly shouted, “Now, Shiro-kun! Shoot it!”

I had no time to ponder what he meant. No sooner had the words left his mouth than an arrow pierced the Manticore’s chest.

I knew that arrow.

It was a duralumin arrow, that kind that the archery team used.

I spun around, and behind me was Tanaka-kun, who had not run away after all, but was holding a sturdy glass fiber bow, aimed at me—no, at the Manticore.

Her head was trapped. She couldn’t dodge.

“Aigh…”

I wonder what the Manticore thought at that moment, when she knew that she had lost.

She didn’t look at the arrow in her chest, or at Boogiepop, or at the archer.

I saw an expression steal over that empty face. To me, it looked like…relief.

“Shoot her head!” Boogiepop said, showing no mercy.

He killed her when she was at her most beautiful, before she had a chance to grow ugly; killed her without pain…just as the stories said.

Tanaka-kun let go.

The arrow was flung off the bowstring, and hit Yurihara Minako’s face dead center, smashing her head.

For an instant, what looked like cracks ran all down her body, and then she crumbled, changing into a purple smoke.

The smoke drifted in all directions, carried away on the wind.

A little of it drifted past my nose. It smelt of horribly thick, fresh blood.

 

***

 

“…………”

I couldn’t stand up.

Tanaka-kun came running over.

“A-are you okay?”

“Um… Y-yeah…” I shook my head, trying to recover some clarity.

But Miyashita-san walked in front of me again in that Boogiepop costume, and my thoughts scattered again.

“Wh-what is that?!” I asked Tanaka-kun, clinging to him like a toddler.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. He stopped me on my way back from practice, offered to help—you know him?”

“I…kind of know…of him…”

Boogiepop undid the wire from around the tree, and headed to the bushes where Kirima Nagi lay.

“The Manticore said Echoes was surprisingly weak. I wonder why…” he muttered. He (or was it a she after all?) kicked Kirima Nagi.

Nagi had been killed, her throat sliced open…but her body shook, and she sat up.

She’d come back to life.

“He gave you part of his life. You’ve escaped death again.”

Tanaka-kun and I could do nothing but gape.

Nagi moaned and clutched her forehead. She’d lost a lot of blood, and must have been anemic.

“Hello, Fire Witch,” Boogiepop said.

“You again,” Nagi replied, not at all surprised. She sighed. “If you were out, why didn’t you come sooner?”

“Your actions finally allowed me to uncover the nature of the danger.”

“I gotta be me all the damn time, but you only bother coming out when the shit hits the fan. You selfish bastard.”

“Don’t say that,” he replied. It sounded like they’d known each other for years.

“Is… Is it over?”

“Yes. Thanks to Echoes’ sacrifice and the committee president’s courage.”

“I see…” Nagi tried to stand, but wavered and fell over again.

Boogiepop made no effort to help her, instead coming back in our direction.

“I leave her in your hands. I’ll take care of the clean up,” he told us.

“…………” We made no response.

Boogiepop picked up the Manticore’s hand from the ground. He looked up at me, and made a strange expression, narrowing one eye, like he was smiling, but not quite. It was like he was playing dumb.

“Niitoki Kei—you certainly do have a strong will. It’s because of people like you that the world manages to remain a halfway decent place. In the world’s stead, I thank you.”

It was like a speech from a play. I had no idea what it meant.

Leaving me standing there stunned, he fled like the wind, turning the corner behind the gym and vanishing from sight.

And that was how it ended.

 

5.

 

“But how did Boogiepop become a rumor? He’s supposed to be a mysterious figure, his identity a secret. Who started all the legends about him?” I asked Kirima Nagi the next day after class.

“Probably Miyashita Touka herself,” Nagi answered. We were alone in the room. Everyone else had already left.

“Eh? What do you mean?”

“Miyashita Touka is unaware that she has an alter-ego known as Boogiepop inside of her. But she knows it unconsciously. You know, like how you talk about yourself, but say it’s a friend of yours? Same principle, she just told other people about her other self.”

“That’s it?”

“You should probably ask Suema about it. Well, not specifically, but she can explain it way better than I can.”

“Hmm… I still don’t really get it.”

“I don’t know much about that bastard myself,” she sighed. “Did everyone make a fuss when Yurihara Minako didn’t show?”

“The teacher asked if any of us knew anything, but nobody answered. It’s too soon for anyone to realize she’s actually missing, so not much is going on yet. But for a straight A student like her, skipping’s enough to get the gossip going.”

“Hunh…”

I’d called Yurihara-san’s house the day before, but the answering machine lead me to believe that both her parents were off on business trips. Nobody knew she hadn’t come home. It looked as though the Manticore had deliberately chosen to make her move while they were out of town.

But all hell would break loose in a day or two. Yurihara Minako would cause a lot more problems for the school than any of the other girls had.

Saotome Masami would be buried under her shadow. His parents probably already knew he hadn’t come home, but he was a boy, so they were unlikely to worry all that much if he was out all night.

“When was the real Yurihara… When was she replaced?”

“Not sure. But a pretty long time ago. She’d always been missing. It was just that up until now, we simply hadn’t noticed she was gone.”

“I guess that’s true…”

We both hung our heads.

It was a strange feeling.

We couldn’t tell anyone the truth. If we did, it would just make things worse for all of us. And even then, if word about Echoes got out to the institution that made the Manticore, it would just be asking for trouble.

“So, all it ultimately amounts to is nothing?”

“It’s better that way.”

“Yeah…”

We stood up.

Most of the other students had gone home, and the sports teams and clubs were all in full session. There was nobody roaming the halls or stopped at the shoe lockers.

We headed for the gates, and the girl on gate duty was very happy to see me.

“Ah! President! Thank god you’re here! Could you take over for me for a minute? I really gotta pee!”

I smiled and nodded, and she bolted off into the school.

“Everyone likes you,” Nagi grinned.

“Or likes using me,” I grimaced. I remembered all the times that Kamikishiro Naoko had talked me into fudging the numbers to make her on time. Which is how we got to be friends in the first place.

“Naoko-san is really…?” I said softly, suddenly horribly sad.

“Yeah…I think so,” Nagi whispered sorrowfully.

When Tanaka-kun had left us the day before, he’d said, “I don’t know how to say this, but I feel like I should thank you all for Kamikishiro-san. Thank you.”

He was almost crying.

“Tanaka-kun, what did you really think of Naoko-san?” I’d asked.

He looked at me sadly. “Truthfully, if we had found her, I would’ve told her that I wanted to break up. But now…I’m not so sure.”

“Hmmm…” was all I said.

I couldn’t figure out what I should say to her other lover, Kimura Akio. We would probably never speak to each other. If someday someone were to tell him, that would be—

But we all had to return to our daily routine, just exactly as things had been before.

“Naoko said something strange once,” Nagi said, looking up at the sky.

“She said Echoes was an angel. That the lord of the heavens had ordered him to investigate, and make the final decision on whether mankind should be allowed to live, or if it should be destroyed. He came here to find out if humans were a benevolent existence, or a malevolent one. If we were the latter, he would end our history.”

I was taken aback. “An angel?”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure she was reading a lot into this. She had a tendency to blow everything out of proportion. My guess is Echoes and Manticore were both failed experiments in biotechnology. But if she was right…”

“……”

“We’re still here. Looks like we’re off the hook this time,” she smiled sadly.

She had to say that. She couldn’t let her friend’s death be in vain.

But I couldn’t smile.

Nagi hadn’t seen the end of Echoes.

But I had. Clearly.

That light had made it as if Saotome Masami had never existed in the first place. It had turned the nearly immortal Manticore into a burnt crisp.

That was no biotechnological experiment.

It had beamed itself into space, but if something like that were fired at the earth over and over again…

“Then the one who really saved the world…”

“Wasn’t me, wasn’t Boogiepop…ultimately, it was that lonely little love-struck girl who was nice to Echoes. And we can’t even thank her for it now,” Nagi sounded almost irritated.

“…………”

I had no answer for her. I just stared silently at the sky.

It seemed so far away.

 

***

 

As Nagi and I stood there staring absently into the clear blue sky, a boy and a girl came walking together towards us. When I saw them, I couldn’t stop myself from exclaiming, “Ah!”

One of them was Miyashita Touka. The other one was a third year student with a promising career in design that I had fallen for and had my heart broken by, Takeda Keiji-senpai.

He looked a little nervous when he saw me, so I spoke to him first, to show him that he needn’t worry about it. “Oh, senpai,” I said as cheerfully as I could manage.

“Hey,” he said vaguely.

Suddenly, Nagi was standing in front of Miyashita-san. “Hmm. So you’re Miyashita Touka,” she said. It seemed that this was her first time meeting this side of her.

“Y-yes…” Miyashita-san said, nodding, in a cute little voice as far removed from Boogiepop’s boyish tones as possible.

“I’m Kirima. Nice to meet you,” Nagi said, and held out her hand.

To an outsider, it must have looked like the school delinquent was out to get her.

“Hey!” Takeda-senpai said, stepping up to protect her.

But Miyashita-san shook her head. “You, too,” she said, shaking Nagi’s hand. Perhaps she understood this unconsciously as well.

“See ya,” Nagi said, giving her a wry grin.

The two of them went through the gates, and I let out a big sigh, and stared up at the sky again.

I wasn’t able to look Miyashita-san in the eye. I tried to smile at her, but I just couldn’t.

There are too many things that just weren’t clear.

It should be simple to smile at someone, but sometimes it’s a terribly difficult and painful thing to do.

“It’s so hard to smile…”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

I shook my head. “Never mind. It was nothing.”

Nagi looked at me dubiously, but eventually, she looked back up at the sky, and began to whistle.

It was a song I knew. I sang along, softly.

 

Life is brief, young maiden, fall in love;

before the crimson bloom fades from your lips,

before the tides of passion cool within your hips,

for those of you who know no tomorrow.

 

The autumn sky was so bright that it made my eyes water.

It’ll be winter soon, I thought.

 

Boogiepop and Others closed.