The cries stopped, I halted my breathing to vomit all over the muddy grass ground, my mind rushing around in circles attempting to rationalize what I had just seen, but I couldn’t. It was a murder that I was an accomplice in, and as the tears rolled on down my face like a river, Aika was at my side, despite everything, she was attempting to comfort me, it was enough to make me forget what I had just seen, but in that very moment, the thing that I needed the most was someone to tell me it was alright.

“It’s alright.” She said with a tranquil tone. She put her arms around me, her face was one of shame.

“T-those people… they’re al-l dead… I don’t understand… why? Why?”

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was quiet, yet distinct. She seemed ashamed of ever doing such a thing, like it was something she never wanted to show to anyone.

“I had to do it though, those… ‘people’ are knowingly or unknowingly the enemies in this situation, who are using you.” As I cried on her shoulder, I reflected on myself, noting how much of a pitiful sight this must be. I couldn’t show weakness, especially not to her, but I couldn’t just force myself to stop crying. I think in that very moment, I became more dependent on Aika than anyone else in this godforsaken world. This person… well, I had to put all my trust in her… I mean, what else was I supposed to do?

She spoke to me, “I will not lie to you, Yuuki Hayashida, things will get worse before they get better, but don’t think there is nothing in it for you…” She glared into my soul with those crimson eyes and told me about a proposition. “Hayashida, how would you like to meet your dad?” My tears halted. In confusion, I looked at Aika with a puzzled face, for you see, my dad was dead, or to be more precise, I had never met him since he died before my birth.

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is…” Her glare became even more scintillating. “You can meet your dad, who you never met.”

A few minutes passed, I thought about her offer. I had never seen death before. Well, not any people dying. But how easily she pulled the trigger scared me. Absolutely no hesitation, whatsoever. These people, however, I don’t know what to think anymore.

Aika opened the brown envelope, it contained what seemed to be all ranking personal starting from lowest rank to highest rank. Clearly, there must be higher ranks, as the ranks go from A1, the smallest rank, to F3, the highest rank. However, this ‘Jacob Barron’ character was only in the ‘B2’ category.

“Yuuki, do you think you can pick up any sort of intel from here and put it into the duffle bag?”

“Oh yeah, sure thing.” My nerves had calmed down. After first seeing real death for the first time, I had quickly become desensitized to it, something I never thought I would say. Or maybe it’s just my brain not fully comprehending what had occurred. Honestly, I have no idea and to be quite frank, I would rather keep this state of mind than go back to how I was earlier.

I looked around the dim yellow-orangey-lit room, searching for anything, absolutely anything that could be of use to us. But to be truthful, the only reason why I was being so active was to try and forget what I had seen. I sat at the console, analysing the many buttons and switches that were all rowed up neatly. On top of the console, was a bunch of files. These files were some of what Yamaguchi didn’t decide to look at, I picked one up. It was in English so I couldn’t read it. However, I could pick up a few key phrases, some names, and places, but most of the text had been redacted. A picture of a man may be in his late twenties or early thirties, accompanied by a picture of said man. I put all the files in the duffle bag and moved on with my investigation. Moving around the room I had noticed a few things, some sort of recording device, I didn’t know if it worked though, so in an attempt to switch it on, a voice came out of it. It appeared to be an audio log of sorts.

“Day 1, our previous attempts to translate the number-letter sequences have been… unsuccessful, to put it lightly, test subject [REDACTED] has failed to translate the required number-letter sequence, test subject [REDACTED] is now being used to translate the sequence, awaiting further instructions.” It ended abruptly, confused, I listened to it again, and again, and again. I grew tired of listening to it, but I felt like there was something crucial missing, so I kept listening, I memorised the entire speech. It was like an itch I couldn’t reach. Was it the redacted parts? ‘failed to translate the required number-letter sequence…’

I couldn’t tell you what I thought, because I didn’t know what to think. I put it in the duffle bag, making sure it was intact.

“Hey, Yamaguchi, I think that’s about everything!”

She zipped up the duffle bag and put it over her shoulders.

“Ah, thank you for that, Hayashida, daylight will come soon, I think it’s best if we get going now.”

“O-oh yeah, sure, but… what do we do now? You know…” I lowered my gaze and put my hand on my shoulder.

“About the body’s…”

“You needn’t worry about that. If I were you, I’d... well forget about it… but I know that’s a pretty tall order, considering. But once more, foolish. Get used to it, Yuuki, it’s the only thing you can do. Because what you saw tonight was only scratching the surface of the depravity, sickness, and horror you will have the pleasure of witnessing, and taking part in once you’re so far gone into the rabbit hole. But believe me, it gets easier, it doesn’t go away; that sense of terror, but it gets easier. It does…”

“I see…” it hurt me to be told that, but I was grateful to her.

“So, what will we do now?”

“You go back to my apartment, overlook the balcony at around 5:30”

“W-why’s that then…” Yep, I could definitely sense some sort of dangerous activity involving this broadcast station…

“Call it… a firework show.” She… she was being serious, wasn’t she? I also remembered something else being at the very bottom of the duffle bag… could that have been…?

“But wait, I-I don’t even know the way back to your apartment, how am I supposed to get there?”

“Don’t worry, I have that covered.” She handed me a poorly written guide on how to get back to her apartment that was scribbled on as ‘My Headquarters.’ “How cute…” She also handed me her keys, she told me which key was for what, and when I got in, to lock the door behind me. Apparently, she also owned a car, which was also one of the keys on the chain. God knows how she hasn’t been pulled over for underage driving… wait, didn’t she say she’s immortal? So then, how old is she exactly?

“Good luck, Mr. Hayashida.”

“What’s with that? Kinda cute though…”

So I set off on my journey back to the apartment, feeling like a ninja, sneaking around in the crack of daylight, I pulled off some awesome ninja moves since no one was around, then realizing I was ‘pulling off’ these aforementioned ninja moves, I stopped doing them seeing as how pathetic I looked whilst doing it and immediately felt sad again knowing that compared to someone who literally has no qualms about killing, stealing highly classified government information, committing arson, and apparently driving underage… above many other things, I was just some kid being dragged along for the ride. I was a spectator, who so happened to be at the epicentre of it all. Someone who will probably be used by everyone, and someone who will get in the way of everyone who is trying to protect me. “I wish I could have some cool power…”

I arrived at Aika’s apartment, pushing the key into the slot then turning it, the door opened without any problems. I was relieved to say the least. If she had given me the wrong key, then I would have to sit out here for god knows how long…

I checked my cell phone, it read 5 o’clock. Not too shabby, thirty minutes to wait for the ‘firework show’, as she calls it.

Thirty minutes had passed. I was now overlooking the radio tower; I felt the calm breeze hit against my face. A couple more minutes passed and, nothing… “She did say 5:30 ri-”

An explosion, starting from the bottom of the tower, worked its way up to the top as its fiery blaze engulfed the entire building. In perfect symmetry with the rising of the sun, the bright blaze burned throughout the new morning sky. Seconds later, the aftershock almost threw me to the ground. Windows shattered all throughout the neighbourhood, the sounds of the birds tweeting were rudely interrupted by the sound of car alarms going off and the loud barks of dogs far and wide. It was like all the animals in the surrounding area sang in unison against the loud boom. You could hear their melodic screeches for miles on end, and it was beautiful. And as I punched against the wind in excitement, I found myself believing I was crazy, and as I laughed manically on the floor, with tears streaming from my eyes, I realized, fully now, what had transpired today, and that I was completely involved within it, no turning back. How I miss when I could wake up each morning knowing what was going to happen, and how secure I felt about… well everything in life, and to have it all stripped away must have made me laugh a little, well… more than a little, I was bawling on the floor in complete euphoria.

I stood up, regained my balance, and looked upon the shadowy blaze, basking in its glory, and despair.

“Aika! Look at you go! What a sight to behold! Goddamn it, this… th-th-this is… amazing!” Three more cheers jumped out of my throat and bellowed into the air, cheering on the fiery magic of the explosion.

It settled down. From my view, I got to see the rest of the building crumble away as the massive wave of dust particles collected underneath the rubble. Everything grew much more silent minutes later. My euphoria turned into mundaneness, like the feeling I had been experiencing for 15 years of my life, and then eventually, turned into sadness. A frown found its way on my face. “What now?” I thought to myself, but this was truly the first time I had even considered how we would go forward from here. I can only let Aika lead me to her eventual demise.

I was tired, very tired, I needed sleep, I walked over-, well… no, more like I shuffled over, knocking over nearby accessories on tables and chairs until I steadily made my way over to Aika’s bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Many hours had passed, lying in the same uncomfortable spot I had been lying in for the last hour. I had no dreams that entire time. When I woke up, I found myself being stared down upon by the one and only, ‘Aika Yamaguchi’ with what appeared to be an unnatural grin on her face, like she was an alien practicing human emotion. Two flickering sounds of a low-quality sounding camera shutter and a flash assaulted my senses. “No, no, no, no… no God no, please… she isn’t doing what I think she’s doing, is she…?”

Yep, no doubt about it, that was definitely my picture being taken in... whatever ungodly pose I was in when I fell asleep… I had realized I tend to do this when I fall asleep, especially when in a deep sleep, I mean hell, I ended up on the floor at one point.

“Oi, oi! You better not-” It was too late, with a little twirl from Aika, and me attempting to grab MY PHONE from her hands, it was too late… I fell to the ground in defeat. Still in my uniform, I attempted to stand up, this time succeeding in this medial task. After regaining my footing, Aika handed me my phone. “Not cool…” still proceeding to grin, opened the bedroom door, waving at me to signify that we are leaving, where we are going, I have no clue, one can only assume school but… well, that seems like a distant dream now.

“You’re still in your school uniform, good. Well then, we shall wait at the bus stop.” She grabbed her keys and left the apartment, she signalled for me to follow, so I did. Locking the door behind us, we called the elevator. The sun had risen, it was another beautiful June morning, 7 o’clock on the dot, we could probably be at school in the next hour if there wasn’t any traffic.

We reached the bottom floor and the elevator doors slid open with a creak. As we were walking to the bus stop, it felt like I was constantly being watched. Faces, faces, faces… all these faces looking at me. It was at this moment a terrible thought came to my mind. “Do they know? About everything? About what had happened this morning? That… I was involved in it… just maybe… they’re here for us?” Everyone was on high alert, and rightfully so. Police cars passed by on our way, their sirens blaring out in the early morning breeze.

“Head up, Yuuki. You look suspicious.”

“Oh yeah… I guess you’re right. Thanks for that.” But really though, having her warn me was like a guide I never knew I would’ve needed. I don’t want to be too reliant on her, but just knowing I’m not in it alone is good enough. The bus stop had plenty of people, waiting. Some people all dressed up in suits, some old, some young with their parents, and some looking like they are commuting to school. I noted one of the uniforms.

“Wait… that’s our uniform. She probably goes to our school then.” I didn’t think anyone besides Aika would be crazy enough to attend school that far away from their house. I saw the bus coming on the other side of the road. We were the first ones to get on. We sat right at the back. Everyone looked gloomy on that bus, even the bus driver, but that was to be expected. I didn’t try to make eye contact with most people on the bus, just looking out the window as the bus drove on by, noting all the nearby buildings.

“So, you didn’t really say where we were going.”

“School, like everyone else.”

“Of course… say, you don’t intend to destroy the entire school this time, huh?” “I kinda hope she does though, that would be nice.”

“Hayashida, I understand we are at the back of the bus, but spewing off such comments isn’t going to help us, you know…” Thanks for remembering my idiocy so I don’t have to… God, why am I always like this…

“Well, in any case, I wouldn’t recommend saying anything unnecessary that can hurt us. When we arrive at school, go about your day as usual. Maybe… I don’t know, talk to that odd friend of yours, what was his name again… Yabumi…?”

“Yeah… ahaha~, Natsuki Yabumi actually.”

“Say, how long have you two known each other?”

“Roughly since elementary school.”

“So you have a pretty rich history with each other then?”

“Ahh… I mean I wouldn’t say that…” My face was getting a bit red but thinking back to those simpler days made me smile, when me and Nastuki would always hang out at the park, not really doing much… just hanging out.

“Really? I thought you were closer than that… disappointing…”

“Disappointing, you say… in what way…” She is not taking this where I think she is, is she?

“Oh, you know…” Her words hung on a thread.

“I thought you two were… closer…”

“Well, sorry to ruin your next manuscript but we’re not like that, my God…”

“Don’t worry, I am simply ‘pulling your leg.’” “Was there really a need to air quote that? Seriously… it’s like dealing with a kid…”

I looked around the bus, and then looked back at Aika. “Are you sure we aren’t being followed?”

“Probably.”

“W-wait what, what? Are you kidding me?” I tried to keep my voice down as not to attract attention.

“Why didn’t you tell me? w-what the hell are we gonna do now, huh? W-we’re fucked! Just absolutely fucked!”

“Calm down there, it’s not like they can do anything, only observe, plus I’m here so that would be a definite no-no.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have, let’s say… a bit of history with these people, a lot of history, if you will.”

“Say, Yuuki… wanna have a game of spot the spy?” I was a bit shocked by her calmness about the whole situation, and even more shocked at how she managed to make up a game about it. Impressive, Yamaguchi…

“Sure… I guess, how exactly are you supposed to spot the spy?”

“With deduction, of course. So, who do you think is the spy?”

“Well let’s see…” I scanned the bus, looking for potential candidates. I spotted a man in a trench coat reading a newspaper, he was also foreign. “Pretty big giveaway if you ask me… this is what you call an inconspicuous disguise?”

“If I were to guess, I would assume it’s that guy over there in the trench coat.”

“Really? Interesting guess… but that wouldn’t have been my first pick… look over there…” She pointed over to the front of the middle of the bus, a girl was sitting there. I remembered that it was the same girl who was wearing our uniform.

“Why do you think her? She looks normal to me.”

“It’s not really about normality, although if you couldn’t tell already, she has an earpiece hidden by her hair in her right ear.” I did a doublecheck, looking over to the girl. “I can’t see it, wait a minute…” I could see something reflecting off the side of her head from the sun, it was shiny. “Jesus Christ, you’re right…”

“That’s not the only thing though, her mere presence on this bus is reason to be suspicious, her uniform I’m sure you’ve already noticed, is one of our own, and considering how far out we are to the school, means the likelihood of her spying on us goes up considerably.”

“That means that there could be more at our school, right?”

“Whether they would risk that or not, is up for debate.”

“What do you think, Yuuki? Do you think they have more?”

“I don’t know… after what you said, it does seem less likely. But I’d say maybe.”

“Damn, I didn’t know I had it in me to be a detective!” I laughed in my head at the thought.

An hour had passed, there didn’t seem to be much traffic on this hot summer’s day, however, many people were out and about on the streets, that was the case, but we were reaching the countryside. The numbers dipped the further out we went, we were entering the boonies, the place I was most familiar with.

When the bus stopped, the only people left on the bus were me, Aika, and that girl that got on with us. The bus took off. It was around 8 o’clock now. We made our way to the school in the blazing June heat. Aika and I both had our blazers around our waists. The news said that today was going to be the hottest day of the year, they weren’t kidding. The sun hit my neck hard as if it was trying to get through my skin by piercing it open, sunray by sunray it tore at my skin. “Damn it, this won’t leave a good mark…”

I saw the school now coming into view, I could see Aika increasing in speed, so I followed suit. Entering the school, I could see everyone walking about hastily, some people relaxing, sitting under the tall birch trees, and some making their way to class. If this was me a couple weeks ago, being in such heat, walking to school, and sitting in a classroom for 6 hours each day would make me sick to the stomach, but something about today made me a bit happier. Suddenly, I saw the sun as a kind of hope, rather than something I disdain.

Walking up the stairs didn’t become a chore, but something I enjoyed doing. Everything I thought I disliked became something I had no qualms about doing. We reached the classroom; half of the class was empty. You see, we were a bit early today, and I felt a lot more refreshed. Aika and I sat at our desks. Natsuki came rushing from the sliding doors in shock. “Y-you’re earlier than me…? No way…”

“Yeah? Well… read em’ and weep!”

“I don’t believe this… how far I have fallen…” we joked around for a bit, taking in the leisure before class began. If there was one thing I missed when summer left, it was this. The summers for me and Natsuki are always really cheerful, it always has been. Whenever the start of the summer vacation began, we would always hang out at his house and goof off for the rest of the day, playing video games and such.

The teacher had walked through the classroom, the same old stern look on his face. He was wearing an old jumper and had round oval glasses. I couldn’t blame him for looking like that. Imagine having to teach 30 students on a hot summer’s day, absolute hell.

“Okay everyone, take your seats.” And so the routine began, we stared at the chalkboard we had grown so fond of throughout these few months.

Eventually, lunch rolled around. Everyone moved about in quick paces, leaving the room and heading off to the cafeteria or their clubs, whilst me, Aika and Natsuki stayed put.

“What are we doing then?” Natsuki asked in curiosity.

“Yeah… what are we gonna do?” I looked at Aika specifically. I guess Natsuki picked up on this as we were now both looking at her.

“I’m going to need time to think about it.”

“We could always stay here for lunch, right?” Natsuki pointed out, although Natsuki didn’t really know the full intent behind what me and Aika were saying.

“Well, anyways, I’m going to the cafeteria. Do you guys have lunches?”

“Well I do, but I don’t know about…” I looked towards Aika.

“…Aika?”

“I do.”

“Alright then! I’ll meet you both back here in a bit. Oh, and Yuuki…” he leaned towards me with a grin.

“You seem to be getting along with Aika, alright…” I almost choked on my own spit.

“Oh… I don’t know what you could possibly mean by that… maybe you should be on your way to the cafeteria by now… huh?” My words did nothing to get that grin off his face. He dashed off to the cafeteria.

“It seems like you two are closer than I originally thought...”

“T-that… look, I’m not like that… I like girls, damnit! Why should I be punished for the situations he puts me in!? A-anyway… it’s not like that… I mean we have known each other for a long time, but…” My words stumbled over my tongue as I tried to weasel my way out of Aika’s death trap.

“Well…? Do you know what we’re gonna do now? You know, about that…”

“Very subtle…”

“E-enough of that! Look, we could be in serious danger…” I tried lowering my voice. Honestly, I felt pretty cool, like I was on the run from the government. Oh, wait.

“Seriously… I know you’re supposedly ‘immortal’.”

“Yes, I am.” She interjected.

“Anyways, I’m not, so I could be in serious danger! So… what are we going to do?”

“After you left to go back to the apartment, I did a little more snooping around in there. In a nearby closet, I found some more stuff, most importantly, a computer.”

“If she found something like a computer in there, who knows what the contents on that thing could contain…”

“Knowing that, I tried connecting it to a wall socket, it turned on, but…” She seemed hesitant to talk.

“It was password protected.” “Well of course it was… that’s like military-grade stuff, y’know?”

“I brought it home with me, obviously. But I still haven’t managed to crack the password.”

“Can’t you pay people to do this stuff? I’m pretty sure they have shops all over Akihabara that can do this kind of stuff.”

“You must be kidding… it can’t be that easy…” she said in a short breath.

“Well, it’d cost you though.”

“How much?” Her eyes glimmered in curiosity.

“I-I don’t know… how long is a piece of string?”

“What a stupid question…” She murmured under her breath with a dissatisfied tone.

“Exactly!”

“What? Anyways, I’ll just add it to my places to go list…”

“You’re joking… right?” Of course, I knew she wasn’t joking, but by any chance she was, I wanted to cling onto that thought.

“What about that other guy? Jacob Barron… was his name?”

“He will have all the info we need.”

“How do you know?”

“Let’s just say I’ve had my fair share of experiences with him.” I didn’t want to pressure Aika anymore than I had to, it seemed I nearly stepped on a landmine.

Natsuki had returned with his food. He grabbed his seat and sat down. “So, what were you two love-birds talking about whilst I was gone?” He seriously just said that. I expect nothing less of the great Natsuki…

“Natsuki, I swear to god…” I placed my palm against my forehead.

“Just kidding just kidding… seriously though, what’re we gonna do?”

“It’s nice and sunny outside, I guess that wouldn’t be a bad idea, right Yamaguchi?”

“I suppose.” We left the classroom. I and Natsuki were in good spirits, however, Aika seemed to be keeping a close watch of her surroundings. I couldn’t blame her. Her paranoia of the students became much more apparent as we went outside, with everyone walking, running about. Some people taking sports equipment into sheds. Some sitting on benches, minding their own businesses. Some lying under the birch trees, and some teachers walking by. Her wariness also catched Natsuki’s eye. “Hey, Yamaguchi, are you doing alright? You don’t seem to be doing too good, is it the heat?”

“N-no, no… I’m fine. You may be right, it is quite the hot day, isn’t it?”

“Well if you want, we can always go back insi-”

“Oh no, don’t worry about me, let’s just go somewhere with shade.” Those big birch trees seemed to be the only places with an adequate amount of shade. The one over in the far side corner didn’t have any people near or under it.

“Oi, Natsuki, didn’t you say you were gonna tan this summer?”

“Well… yeah… I don’t know, it sounded like a good idea at first, but I’m not so sure now…”

“I wonder where all that confidence went…” For the remainder of lunch, we were exhausted. I could tell Aika hadn’t gotten any sleep either as she was fast asleep the minute she laid down. Committing several crimes, including but not limited to blowing up an entire radio tower, does tend to take some energy out of you.

“Natsuki, I need your opinion on something.”

“Uh- what is it?”

“You see, I’ve got this laptop, right? And I kinda forgot my login… how would you go about unlocking it?”

“Eh? Umm… I’d probably take it to a shop to do it for me.”

“Figures… there aren’t any shops that do that around here, at least.”

“Then, where would you go to get it unlocked?”

“Dunno, it’s not like there are any places out here, is there?”

“Yeah… anyway, I’m way too tired to be still awake.” Like that my head hit the hard grass floor.

“God damnit!” Natsuki laughed at me in mockery.

I fell into a deep sleep underneath a shady birch tree, before I fell asleep, I wondered what was going through Aika’s mind when she killed all of those people back at the broadcast station. It still made me question Aika’s integrity. What is Aika? That part was still unclear to me.

I heard a lite tap on my shoulder, it was Natsuki waking me up from my slumber.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t fall asleep either, or we would still be out here until final period…”

“Yeah… sorry, maybe falling asleep wasn’t the smartest thing to do…”

“Well, don’t sweat it, you might wanna wake Yamaguchi up as well.” Oh yeah, she looked like she completely passed out. Looks like even immortals need to catch up on their sleep.

“Oi, Yamaguchi…” I lightly tapped her shoulder, one eye opened.

“Oh, it’s just you, what can I help you with?” Seems like she’s back to normal again.

“Ugh… Natsuki… class… go…” A random assortment of words left my mouth as I tried to formulate a coherent sentence from my half-functioning brain. She got the gist of it and sluggishly rose from the sun-heated grass.

“Let’s go then.” And off we went back to class in the scorching hot sun. Aika led us back to the classroom as me and Natsuki trailed behind.

We reached the classroom. As I wiped the sweat off my forehead, I slid open the door and sat down in my place. For the remainder of the lesson, it was bliss. I began writing down some things on a piece of paper. On a more important note, the content of which I was writing was ideas; ideas for how we were going to get a hold of someone to help us crack the password on the computer. As I jotted down my ideas, I realized how far off we were from moving forward. And that’s a second thing, where are we going? It was like I was in a long tunnel, but I could only see so far in front of me before all light was cut off.

Natsuki was bliss, Aika was contemplative, and I was… well… me, I guess. As I sat there, gazing out the window, thinking of more things to jot down.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing…” An abundance of nothing, if you will. I was completely lost in thought, one thought bounced to another rapidly as I tried to organize my mind. Could you blame me, though?

"Like seriously… what the fuck even is this situation that I’m in? Can I say that? Am I allowed to let my thoughts out? Because this situation I’m in is seriously fucked up, no matter how you slice it."

I once again longed for a much quieter life, a life I could know for certain what was going to happen, and I could make arrangements for the future. Now what? For the first time in my life, I am uncertain about my future, and I don’t know what to do.