School day.
In front of Tokiwagi High School’s gate, students entered the school in small groups.
A duty teacher stood to the side, greeting students as they passed.
His gaze suddenly locked onto a JK and called out, “Jiang Jian, what happened to your neck?”
A conspicuous bandage was wrapped around the girl’s neck, and the long sleeve of her shirt barely hid more bandages on her wrist.
“……”
Jiang Jian Yue opened her mouth, words tumbling in her throat, syllables colliding into a mess, only able to produce an “Uh……” sound.
She looked like a malfunctioning robot, expressionless, lips slightly parted, crimson eyes without a ripple.
Damn, I still haven’t become human.
The duty teacher felt a strange sense of uncanny valley.
He stepped closer to Jiang Jian Yue, concern in his voice.
“Is it something hard to talk about?”
Jiang Jian Yue pulled out her phone from her skirt pocket, fingers swiftly typing: Don’t worry, skin disease.
It wasn’t a skin disease.
The marks on her neck hadn’t faded.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, it was better to cover them.
She escaped the teacher’s questioning and made her way to the shoe lockers behind the Main Hall door.
After slipping her foot, wrapped in a white over-the-knee sock, into her indoor shoes, Jiang Jian Yue lifted her head to see a familiar figure flash by.
Could it be his respawn point was the shoe locker?
Come to think of it, her mutation could be blamed on this guy.
Damn it!
Damn it!
Damn it!
Jiang Jian Yue silently drifted up behind Yuki Asahi like a ghost.
“Eh?”
Yuki Asahi jumped, spinning around and hitting the shoe locker with a thud.
His face was haggard, dark circles under his eyes, looking lifeless even as he flinched.
Jiang Jian Yue’s tightly furrowed brow relaxed by about 0.1 millimeters.
Poor kid.
He didn’t do anything wrong.
“Jiang Jian-senpai, is there something you need?”
Yuki Asahi bowed his head, unable to meet her gaze.
“You know me?”
Jiang Jian Yue typed this line in her phone’s memo, pressing the screen to his face.
“Mm……”
Though curious about why senpai used her phone to speak, Yuki Asahi didn’t press further.
“Senpai is quite popular at school.”
He straightened up, looking at Jiang Jian Yue, who was a head shorter… at the top of her head.
This guy’s calm.
Though introverted and avoiding eye contact, Yuki Asahi’s emotions were steady, carrying a melancholic air.
He just killed someone (not human) yesterday, yet today he acted as if nothing had happened.
Was the corpse on the Rooftop not found?
Did that bullying dog named Maeda Kaiichi have no family to report him missing to the school?
Jiang Jian Yue, gathering intel, pushed up nonexistent glasses on her nose.
“Goodbye.”
She typed a waving emoji in the memo, mouthed the words, and turned into the Main Hall.
Yuki Asahi let out a breath, unconcerned as to why Jiang Jian Yue had sought him out.
There are so many things in this world I don’t understand. No need to know them all.
Morning passed in a flash.
After finishing a pineapple bun bought from the School Supermarket, Jiang Jian Yue attended her afternoon classes as usual.
That in itself wasn’t normal.
Never mind the Cleaning Staff’s daily routine, plenty of self-proclaimed lonely high schoolers ate lunch on the Rooftop.
The Rooftop wasn’t even that big; it made no sense not to find a corpse.
That could only mean one thing: the corpse had been cleaned up.
Yuki Asahi’s doing?
The first episode of the anime ended with a bug crawling on Jiang Jian Yue’s neck as she left the school; there was no after-credits scene or preview.
It was possible he returned to the school at night to clean up the corpse.
But could a student really clean up so thoroughly? He also didn’t have the ability to move a corpse with a vehicle.
After school, Jiang Jian Yue wandered the Rooftop, finding nothing except the shattered wall left by Yuki Asahi.
The job was done so cleanly, it didn’t look like an amateur’s work.
As a student, Yuki Asahi couldn’t have managed it.
She headed to the first floor of the Main Hall, where all the classes for the year were held, hoping to bump into Yuki Asahi.
Just as she turned a corner, she saw a familiar figure slip across from the Main Hall.
She jogged to catch up, seeing Yuki Asahi sneakily open a door with no sign.
Jiang Jian Yue approached the door and pushed it open without hesitation.
Inside, racks loaded with Monitoring Room equipment filled the space, their chaotic wiring a dizzying mess.
Yuki Asahi spun around, seeing the girl at the doorway, and hid something behind his back.
Jiang Jian Yue saw it was a Screwdriver.
She realized he was trying to destroy the surveillance footage—the Monitoring Room at the stairwell had recorded everything from yesterday.
As for classic detective stories, surveillance trumps all.
“Senpai, do you need something?”
Yuki Asahi tried to stay calm, but tension showed in his expression.
Jiang Jian Yue pulled out her phone and typed: If you destroy it physically, the Police can still recover it. I suggest overwriting the files multiple times.
Yuki Asahi’s golden eyes shrank, lips trembling as he read the memo.
She… she knows what I did?
He gripped the Screwdriver tightly in a reverse grip.
Jiang Jian Yue kept typing: If there’s Cloud Storage, destroying this won’t help.
Upon reading this, Yuki Asahi’s face turned white.
The Screwdriver clattered to the floor, his body bending slightly.
If this were a Conan filming set, the next scene would be the criminal’s confession, right?
“You know everything, don’t you, Senpai.”
A bitter smile crossed Yuki Asahi’s face.
“I didn’t expect things to turn out like this. It wasn’t my fault.”
I know it’s not your fault.
She typed this into the memo, but Yuki Asahi didn’t see it, lost in his own pain.
Jiang Jian Yue hesitated, then stepped forward, cupping his cheeks and pressing her phone to his face.
Tears shimmered at the corners of his eyes, making Jiang Jian Yue’s heart soften.
Always bullied and timid, when he finally fought back, he didn’t destroy who he once was.
His calmness was more like madness after everything was ruined.
A Victim’s life shouldn’t land them in the defendant’s seat.
“Let’s check the Monitoring Room first. It’s always breaking. Maybe it didn’t record anything?”
It wasn’t just consolation—worldwide, equipment malfunction and missing footage were common enough.
“……Thank you.”
Yuki Asahi replied lifelessly, sensing her kindness but unable to lift his spirits.
He opened the Monitoring Room’s control panel, and his slumped figure instantly straightened—all the screens displayed ‘Signal Lost.’
He called up yesterday’s footage.
Nothing.
Only the day before yesterday’s recordings appeared normal.
Even Jiang Jian Yue’s frosty expression showed a hint of surprise.
A missing corpse, conveniently broken Monitoring Room.
Wasn’t this too suspicious to not be the work of someone behind the scenes?
What was their motive?
Lost in thought, she didn’t notice Yuki Asahi beside her, lips tightly pressed, tears flowing uncontrollably.
“Thank goodness…”
Yuki Asahi wiped his face with his sleeve, sobs growing heavier.
Mm… Just a kid, after all.
Jiang Jian Yue instinctively patted his back in comfort, only to have him hug her tightly.
Her legs reflexively clamped together, feeling the warmth of his embrace, leaving Jiang Jian Yue stunned, arms frozen in midair.
In this life or the last, it was the first time she’d been hugged.
Disgusted?
She couldn’t feel that toward a child who’d just experienced such ups and downs.
If it was a close friend who’d gone through something like this and hugged her in relief, she wouldn’t have felt anything extra either.
Maybe she’d even join in, yelling, “Damn, that’s awesome! You got through it!”
It just felt… a bit warm.
A few seconds later, realizing his loss of composure, Yuki Asahi hurriedly let go and bowed.
“Sorry! I lost control!”
Jiang Jian Yue’s expression didn’t change.
She just nodded, bent down, and picked up the fallen handbag.
“Congratulations.”
The characters on her phone screen emitted a strange chill that made Yuki Asahi uneasy.
The two left the room and walked side by side toward the Main Hall entrance, an awkward air between them.
Yuki Asahi tried to speak, but the words stuck in his throat.
The conversation was finally broken by Jiang Jian Yue—or rather, her phone.
“The corpse on the Rooftop—did you deal with it?”
Yuki Asahi shook his head, lowering his voice.
“No. When I went to check last night, it was already gone.”
“Is it possible ‘it’ is still alive?”
“…I don’t know.”
“It” was likely alive during that period, especially if that small bug was the Monster’s main body.
Could a corpse really run away on its own?
That would be too terrifying.
“I’m not going.”
“Song Wei! Do you not have the courage to admit your own mistakes?”
A quarrel broke out between a boy and girl at the stairway corner.
As they passed, curiosity made them glance over—only to be drawn into the dispute.
A blond boy gripped a purple-haired girl’s hand, eyes lighting up when he saw Jiang Jian Yue.
“Jiang Jian!”
The purple-haired girl turned in shock, then avoided their gaze, lips pressed tight.
Two people I don’t know.
Yuki Asahi realized he shouldn’t stay to listen to gossip.
“Excuse me. I’ll leave first.”
He bowed slightly and left.
“My apologies for troubling you.”
The blond boy looked at Jiang Jian Yue with a complicated expression.
“You know about the recent rumors, right?”
So, the rumor about me stealing someone’s boyfriend.
Jiang Jian Yue instantly lost interest, turning her gaze toward Yuki Asahi’s back.
“Song Wei was just emotional at the time and said things she shouldn’t have to friends. I didn’t think the whole school would find out… We should apologize, Song Wei?”
“……Are you mocking me?”
The girl’s voice shook as she shook off his hand.
“I know I’m not as pretty as her, but aren’t we childhood friends? Why, why do you like her? Is there something about me you don’t like?”
Ah… What a mess.
Jiang Jian Yue stared at the departing figure.
Suddenly, her red pupils trembled as she saw a black shadow dart from the corridor toward Yuki Asahi.
Instinctively, a voice rasped from her throat—the one that had been unable to speak clearly since she woke up.
“Yuki!!”