The sun was up. A cold breeze swept the countryside from the north, steadily diluting the summer warmth. The last of the cicadas were already out making their final hum. Soon, the chirping would be replaced with eerie silence. But the streets of Sendai had just sprung back to life, a typical kick-off to a mellow weekend.

Uptown, thick fog hovered above Izumi, stretching from the quaint shrines in the west to the tranquil outskirts of Miyagino. Why only that area? No one knows.

Although autumn had just settled in, dry leaves on a field of withering grass gave off an early winter vibe, a gentle reminder to get the kotatsu and bubble wrap rolls ready before the big freeze. And if you climb up one of the mounds dotting the prefecture, you'd be greeted by a sea of red and gold edging the cityscape.

Oh yes, it's that time of year again when trees have to endure an excruciating process called leaf abscission, marked by the degradation of their leaves' chlorophyll. That explains the change from green to yellow or orange or red. Who would have thought that such a mesmerizing spectacle has a terrifying backstory? But we love it, don't we?

Ever heard of schadenfreude? It's a German word for finding pleasure, satisfaction, or joy in someone else's misfortune, pain, or failure. Does our appreciation for autumn colors count as one? I bet not since onlookers are oblivious to the suffering of trees. All they see is a breathtaking transformation.

Let's face it, most of us have never heard of this leaf abscission. It doesn't even sound too bad. All we know is that leaves change color when the temperature plateaus near zero, and it's a lovely sight. That's why we never really feel sorry for the trees.

What's funny is that even those who know what trees go through this season couldn't care less, either.

But this odd human behavior is not exclusive to things like autumn foliage. We experience it all the time among our own species. We just don't notice it. Or, more accurately, we just don't care.

It's our nature to be happy at the expense of others. Although, that's just the bitter way of putting it. The truth is a person's happiness tends to cost another person's happiness. It's like there's not enough happiness for everyone, and there's nothing we can do about it.

Undeniably, the pain we have to bear if we happen to draw the short straw is beyond comprehension. And what do the lucky bastards say to us? – It's just the way it is. Life must go on.

Infuriating, I know. Somehow, they see beauty in that. Not so different from how we perceive Miyagi forests in autumn.

Amid this idyllic scene lay a strange figure. A young lad in his early twenties was sprawled flat on the ground. Yuki wasn't dead, just unconscious, with his hands gently clutching the dirt. In a few seconds, he'd be awakened by a disconcerting sound.

Sobs and crying echoed from a distance. Their resonance fluctuated with the morning draft.

While this unsettling sound wasn't loud, it managed to wake Yuki up. His body was weak, unable to stand up instinctively. It's protesting against the strain. As he pushed up with his arms and knees, his hands sank into the earth, the blades of parched grass tickling his palms as they split and crumbled.

Even in extreme cold, beads of sweat formed on Yuki's forehead. He felt slight dizziness, but he remained undeterred. He was going to stand up no matter what. And he did.

Finally, he was on his feet. But little did he know finding himself face down on the ground was the least of his worries. The scenes unfolding before him were about to get gnarly.

"Where am I?" He innocently asked himself while shaking the damp debris off his scruffy blue long-sleeved crew top, his face growing more anxious as he slowly opened his eyes.

Barely panicking, Yuki tensely panned around to try and identify any landmark that could help organize his muddled thoughts and find clues to his whereabouts.

"Wasn't I at a party?" That was the last thing Yuki could remember. "Don't tell me those jerks pulled a prank on me. This ain't funny!" Irritated but increasingly worried, he began wandering into the misty meadow.

"Unbelievable!" Yuki whined while visualizing the faces of all suspects he could think of, each adding a frown line to his forehead. But as the chaotic thoughts cleared out, the adrenaline kicked in.

"Hold on. What if I was kidnapped and left for dead?" He then briskly checked his body for injury. Thank goodness nothing was out of the ordinary. No wounds or trauma, except for the few tiny scratches on his arms from the strenuous effort of getting up.

"But why me? And why am I not hurt? Are they coming back?" The barrage of questions that usually streams a minute or two after an accident inundated Yuki at that moment.

"Maybe they thought I was a goner and just fled." Any victim of abduction would think that to comfort themselves somehow. "But it's also likely they are still around watching me from afar. You never know what runs through a maniac's troubled mind," he recoiled.

It was the first time he had whipped out that many probabilities behind a seemingly mundane predicament. Not helpful for his inner overthinking self.

What started as a calm and wieldy scenario suddenly turned unnerving. Yuki had watched far too many murder-mystery films to not realize how much trouble he was in. His situation was every protagonist's nightmare and difficult to escape from. Things could go horribly wrong depending on how quickly he could regain his memory.

Yuki uneasily reached into his pocket to take his phone out, the creases on his knuckles sliding fiercely against the edges of his fading tapered jeans. "It's not here. They must have taken it." At this point, he was almost certain someone attacked him during the night. And like every psycho in a serial killer movie, his attacker was probably nearby, watching his every move through a binocular that has seen at least a few deaths.

Before Yuki knew it, his feet were already pacing nervously in the direction of the creepy sound that woke him up. The wailing he had only heard a few times in his life lingered in the air as if the sky was mourning the passing of nature. It grew louder as he got closer.

Yuki understood that if his kidnapping theory was correct and his kidnapper was indeed a raving lunatic, he needed to get as far away from there as possible. There was no safer place than wherever that sound was coming from. Also, he believed anywhere but that field had hints about his situation and how he got there. The first thing he thought he should do was find a way to contact his parents.

The silhouette of what appeared to be miniature towers started to take form in the hazy distance. They were shorter than houses, some only a few feet high, but they definitely looked artificial. Yuki saw the fog finally diminishing before him, steadily expanding his field of view.

But the excitement to make out the spectral formations was fleeting. It was quickly replaced with terror as tombstones as far as the eye can see subtly came into focus. Of all the places he could be during such a frightening moment, why did it have to be a graveyard? Whoever brought him there clearly wanted to separate him from other human beings, further confirming his guess that they might return to finish him off.

Yuki's gut instantly churned with fear as he realized he was surrounded by death. His small steps quickly turned into frantic strides between sepulchral monuments. He could think of nothing else but to get out of there.

But first, the crying.

Now that he had made sense of the spooky sound dancing ethereally with the wind, he was sure people were nearby. A funeral must be taking place. Mixing in with the crowd is his next best course of action.

Yuki's anxiety gradually waned as the dirge grew louder. He could finally see people standing from a distance. He heaved a sigh of relief, then quickly sneaked in from behind the crowd. Strangely, no one seemed to be bothered by his presence. They all looked too absorbed in the ceremony to let out even a quick once-over.

Yuki decided not to push deeper to avoid drawing attention to himself. Having people behind and in front of him was enough to make him feel safe. That's what mattered. If anything happens, help is within reach. It's better than standing on the throng's fringes, where any brawny thug could snatch him away unnoticed.

"This is a huge funeral. I wonder who the deceased is. A politician?"

Despite his best effort to camouflage himself, his conspicuously blue garment betrayed him. He easily stood out in a crowd of black. It's a funeral, after all. But at least his attacker would hesitate to make a move now that he was hemmed in on all fronts.

Yuki had calmed down a little at last. But that was more than enough to reinstate his focus. He could finally concentrate on finding somebody willing to lend him their phone so he could call his parents. But he knew from experience that most people mistrust strangers, especially those asking to borrow their phones. With theft cases on the rise, he couldn't blame them for being wary.

He began scanning the crowd for an easy target and quickly spotted a few prospects. Normally, he'd approach the person closest to him, then walk away when snubbed. But his situation was far from normal, so he decided to up the ante.

First, he eyeballed the elderly gentleman casually leaning on the fence next to the pavement. He was isolated from the rest, unmistakably claustrophobic.

But Yuki doubted he owned a phone. And even if he had one, there's no telling if it had service. You know old people in the countryside – Their children gave them phones so they could call them occasionally. Not the other way around.

Then, Yuki turned his attention to the young chap sitting on the temple's staircase, savoring a puff of his cigarette. Exuding an obnoxious adolescent feel, this teenager reminded him of Kazuki, which instantly led him to change his mind.

Finally, he spotted someone who looked approachable enough. A lady in her late thirties standing a foot or two from the urn's final resting place.

You would think that all women attending a funeral would prefer donning a black kimono matched with a juzu around their arms. This lady was anything but that.

She struck Yuki as oddly out of place, too bold to conform to age-old traditions, and for good reasons.

For one, she was wearing a delicately embellished old silk ofurisode buckled with an obtrusively crimson obi. If she could confidently wear that at the funeral, imagine how she'd look during the kokubetsushiki. Even stranger, the nonstop wailing didn't seem to bother her at all.

At first glance, she looked like she was not an immediate family member, probably a distant relative or friend who was only there to pay respect. A closer look, however, would lead to a disturbing narrative.

But it wasn't the time for an unwarranted character examination. Yuki badly needed that phone, and he was determined to get it. So little by little, he sidled toward the front while running possible scenarios for how he'd approach her in his mind.

"How do I get her attention?" Like every apprehensive suitor, he nervously tried to look her in the eye to see how she'd respond. He remained fixated on her as he circumnavigated the burial plot to get a little closer. At this point, he was beginning to look like a creep sneaking up on his prey.

Yuki suddenly noticed something peculiar about this lady's conduct. While everyone else had their head down, some wiping away tears and consoling each other, she was facing forward, piercingly gazing at the other side of the circle.

So Yuki intrusively shifted his attention to where this strange lady seemed to be looking. He found nothing on that side bizarre enough to spark interest, except for a young couple standing in the front row.

"Is she looking at that woman?" Yuki could hardly tell, but it sure looked like it. "Where else could she be looking?" The couple, with the typical townspeople in the background, easily made an impression, probably because they were young and well-groomed.

His nosy brain continued to probe as he inched closer to his target. Then, the most frightening question crossed his mind. "Why is she staring at her?"

A deluge of evil thoughts engulfed Yuki, sending never-before-felt shivers down his spine. The sudden rush of paranoia petrified him momentarily, his eyeballs on the verge of popping out and his original plan higgledy-piggledy.

"Why is she staring at that woman like that?" He anxiously asked himself again, reflexively concealing his growing prejudice.

As soon as Yuki regained control over his body, he edgily turned his head to the lady again. To his horror, he found her looking right at him with a blank face. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" He slowly backed off and turned around. Then, he agilely walked in the opposite direction, the lady keeping her eyes on him as her image blurred in the background.

He tried to avoid eye contact with anyone so he wouldn't look more suspicious than that lady seemed to think. Nevertheless, he couldn't resist sneaking a peek at the couple the lady was gazing at, making a few guesses about her possible motive. He started to think the lady was scheming something sinister, and he was the only one who could stop her.

Yuki was never good at confrontation. He was also very cautious, always calculating his every move. Not because he's a deduction genius like Shinichi Kudo but because he preferred to keep to himself and stay out of other people's affairs.

This time, however, he felt a tad more outgoing. Besides Ren, this was the first time anyone else had experienced Yuki's genuine altruism firsthand. But perhaps it's because he was sensing danger.

Most people are innately compassionate. When we see a blind person innocently walking into a ditch, we don't just watch until they stumble. We instinctively pull them to safety no matter our label in society.

But don't get me wrong. This is different from schadenfreude. That's for psychopaths. Most people, including Yuki, would do the exact opposite. That's humanity taking charge.

But Yuki couldn't hide his curiosity about how things would unfold. He wanted to know what the lady's intention was and what she was planning to do.

So he observed from a distance, quickly looking away whenever he thought the lady noticed him. Even as the ceremony ended and the people started to disperse, the lady kept her eyes on the couple. Surprisingly, the couple had never noticed her. In fact, they were completely unaware that the lady was following them to their car.

Yuki started moving, trying his best not to lose sight of the lady and the couple. He took the other route leading to the exit. He desperately needed to get closer because the trees and gravestones blocked his view. He's afraid that he might lose sight of them if they made a turn behind a blind spot.

So he started jogging to ensure he'd get to the couple first. He went around to avoid walking past the lady. That would allow him to reach the couple from the opposite direction.

He saw the lady still discreetly following them. Yuki was itching to yell at the couple and let them know they were being followed, but he was still too far away and didn't want to be mistaken for the pursuer. He had seen this type of scenario in many films. The one who squeals often ends up being taken away by the police, while the actual assailant walks away scot-free, sometimes even succeeding in carrying out their crime.

"Please go somewhere else first. Please go somewhere else first." Yuki couldn't hide his distraught as he whispered his wish the couple would do. He knew that once the couple managed to get in their vehicle and drive off, the lady won't be able to follow them. So the chance that the lady would attack them before they reached their car was too high. That's why it was better for the couple to drop by somewhere or engage with other people until he got to them.

Yuki finally made it to the parking lot. There were a few cars between him and the couple. Behind them was the lady whose pace began picking up. He knew he was running out of time, so he ran toward the couple as fast as he could.

The couple was facing backward, so they couldn't see Yuki inching from behind them. Yuki planned to jump in front of them to startle the lady, hoping that would scare her off.

Fortunately, he got to the couple first, as planned. He quickly stood before them and looked the lady in the eye as if warning her not to get any closer, or he'd attack. The lady stopped and froze. The unfazed expression on her face suddenly morphed into extreme worry. But she wasn't backing off.

Instantaneously, Yuki felt a slight tingling on his back. Then all the energy in his body began to drain, making him drop to the ground.

"Wait, what's going on?" Questions cascaded down upon him again as he was slowly losing consciousness. The last thing he saw before the world turned dark around him was the couple inattentively standing next to him and the lady gradually coming into view, looking down at him with an enraged face.