"Will Kirima Nagi-san, second year, class D, please report to the broadcast office? If you're still in the building, I would like to talk to you regarding Kamikishiro Naoko-san. I 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 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.
"Uhh... 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.
"Umph... Uhh, Nahhhr..."
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 long, black-haired, beautiful girl 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 of the door of the night watch room and started heading up the stairs.
For many years afterwards, Nakayama Haruo was to suffer in 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.
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"...?!" Kirima Nagi heard the announcement as well, and looked up.
She was busy prying open the lockers of every student in school and searching 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 Kamikishiro?"
"Broadcast office..." Echoes plucked the words out of broadcast, and spoke them.
"Can you sense something, Echoes?!" Kirima asked, Kamikishiro 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?" Kirima said angrily.
Echoes simply shook his head. He knew that the Manticore had learned far more about the human society than he had managed to do. This was a trap.
He put his hand on Kirima's shoulder and pulled her backwards, signaling her not to follow.
"Why not? It's a trap?" Kirima asked. She knew it too.
Echoes nodded.
"That's why we have to go," Kirima said quietly. "We don't play into this trap and it'll change its face and make a run for it. It will 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.
Kirima pulled a pair of 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.
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"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 wasn't 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 in 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 as 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.
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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 - it 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!"
"Uhh," 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?" asked 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? Kamikishiro told me about you," Kirima sighed.
"Kirima-san, what...?" Saotome-kun asked.
Kirima 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.
Kirima glared at me, surprised. "Committee President, I know why these two are here, but how did you get mixed up in this?"
"I know Kamikishiro-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."
Kirima looked at me. "I apologize. We no longer suspect you. Time for you to go 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 one can pull off when you're too angry to notice.
"Mm?" Kirima 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 the committee president," Kirima 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.
"Raarh!" 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 pace when I felt somebody catch me.
It was the boy who'd been standing next to Kirima, "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.
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 unwordly.
"Kirima-san, who is this guy?" Saotome-kun asked. Feeling a little jealous, I guess.
"Mm... Uh... Well... My boyfriend," Kirima replied, clearly lying.
"You can't fool me that easily. What are you doing here? Where's Kamikishiro-san?" I glared at Kirima again.
"R-right! What did you do to Kamikishiro-san?!" Tanaka-kun yelled, turning on Kirima the moment he was free.
"I'm worried about Kamikishiro myself," Kirima replied painfully, not meeting his gaze. She clearly knew something.
"Tell us. We can help."
"No, you can't," Kirima 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 is still not good enough, huh?" 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 hair on my back 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.
"Mmm..." Kirima frowned. She must have said the same thing when she rejected him.
"Is Kamikishiro-san okay?!" Tanaka-kun insisted.
Kirima said bluntly, bitterly, "Tanaka-kun, right? You should forget about her."
"What do you mean?!"
"..."
Kirima said nothing else.