When new syndroid models were manufactured every two years and so, the public was quick to acquire them and would request upgrades (as to maintain their current looks if they had wanted to), it became a common trend, just like the ancient trend of upgrading smartphones back during the twenty-first century.

Seto Fukami was one such contributor to the syndroid upgrade trend. He was an average man, if average was a word still fit for use, hitting the end of the big ol’ 30s. He lived in the southwest section in the outskirts of Sector Ten, where most slums were located and all the superstructure buildings towered over each other like it was a competition, and worked full-time in the manufacturing department of the SYN Corporation, his dream job — which went as far as just being in the corporation, even if he was just to be a janitor. Despite having such a high-statues job due to his skill, or so he would state sometimes, he was still a nobody in the eyes of many, he wasn’t married (divorced to be more precise) and had connections with none, or even his co-workers, who heavily disliked him for his personality and behavior. He was a nasty piece of work, to say the least.

But maintaining a “healthy” routine and a set of rules in his life was what kept him still living in the new society with no problems. He always made sure to make it to his workplace — which was the tallest tower to ever exist in the city in the region of Fujiwara — early in the morning as soon as he was done with his first breakfast. His second breakfast was always due after he was done with sorting out all the coded empty syndroid bodies contained in the cryo-canisters. Lunch was a luxury he had during the normal lunch hour in work. By evening, after he had all three meals of snacks during the day and afternoon, he was sure to spend some time in his favorite bar, “Stormcloud’s Midtown Lounge,” meddling continuously like a sicko with the various waitresses there — as long as he paid good money, he was in the clear, an ideal customer — that made the place look like a maid cafe, and drinking and smoking till mist fogged his sights and blaze rested in his throat. At the very end of the day, he would be back at his monotonous apartment, which only had the splendour, like many apartments in the area, of adding the facade of the “dream apartment” through holographic settings. His artificial syndroid maid, or wife, whichever he preferred to his mood, would be waiting for his arrival so that she would prepare dinner, and later supper, for him. But if the keg happened to be too much for him, beatings, assault or nothing would be what his “wife” would receive. This was Fukami’s usual routine, the one he kept doing for three years now.

Someone could easily wonder how Fukami managed to do so much in his routine with his low-income job of just being a watchman of supplied bodies. His life was merely a mystery to everyone, since nobody cared enough about him to ask about him, to have knowledge of who he was — even his “wife” knew nothing about him, yet she still served him because it was her purpose for existing. Fukami was a man mysterious enough to have another life hidden from even those who knew that life. He had desires, many desires that would make one naturally question his mentality.

In this day and age, camouflage and disguises evolved in a way that no one would have imagined. People could easily use implants to disguise their entire appearance to someone else’s, similar to the apartments’ custom holographic appearances. Someone could even disguise themselves as a fictional character, bringing those characters from fiction to reality — a dream come true to anime fans and those generally obsessed with fiction. But unless you were a chinless wonder who made a living out of the misery of the commoners or a tramp who turned to a life of crime, such implants were impossible to have in possession. They would normally cost one’s entire life insurance, which was a hefty cost in the new world, but they still weren’t higher than the cost of acquiring an entirely new syndroid.

Fukami, like the many commoners, would usually be ruled out of owning a camo implant. But his other life, the life that had ties to the yakuza and the underworld, could provide him much more than just that implant. Yet he rested on just owning the camo implant in exchange for the work he would do for the yakuza, which never went beyond the border of average crime. He did not look like much from his oversized appearance, but he was quite useful and efficient in many of the jobs the yakuza and the other underworld firms offered him.

Now, he would disguise himself as various celebrities and even fictional characters he admired, and would stream himself live on the net to gain attention and love from anonymous nobodies. One time, he went to an annual cosplay convention disguised as an anime character, then switched midway to a celebrity. This triple life would grant him many, many gifts. Most of which he barely even dreamt of having.

But when the time to call out for help… no one knew his name.

Fukami was not the only to “disappear” that year… for another case followed suit.

Chimes of screeching felicity echoed through the dorm halls, as girls swarmed in groups across it. “Stormcloud’s Midtown Lounge” bar employee dormitory had always been a clamour fest before, and after working hours, the entire dorm was packed with female employees.

The bar, despite not being as crowded as much as the other bars in the area during working hours, was at its peak. It used to be completely deserted a few years back. It wasn’t until its previous owner, Jean Pierre Martin, a foreigner, had died, and the bar was sold to one of the city's own. The new owner, Daichi Tsukiyama, decided to coil the aesthetics and performance of the bar to the maximum degree. He started favoring female waitresses over male ones, for he had originally wanted to turn the bar into a maid cafe, but the permits weren’t in his possession. As such, the only male employee that remained was the bartender, who would also switch shifts with a female bartender every so often. What also made the bar so popular among workers, was the fact that workers were offered a dormitory in case they needed one, free of charge, but since most employees were female, the dormitory soon changed to a female-only dormitory, and the owner did not complain one bit, business was flowing after all.

‘Hey! Rise and shine, party girl!’ a girl called out to Kaede, who was still hungover from last night’s keg party, which was done in celebration for her finally reaching the legal age of adulthood (the age of twenty for the countries under the Nearon rule), she wasn’t very close with the other employees in the dormitory besides her ex-roommate (who she still kept in touch with outside of work), but the girls would just shove in every excuse they could have to throw bashment. Kaede leisurely opened her eyelids, she upended her upper body to the front, sliding the sheets off her, as she looked at the other girl — who stood by the outlined gleaming doorway. Her eyes twitched, and her hair was messier and weirder than usual. Kaede stretched her arms in the air and let out a huge yawn.

‘You done with your sleep talking?! You kept yelling about letting someone go.’

The other girl chuckled, and wended her way outside the dorm room. Kaede, alone in the room, raised an eyebrow at the oddity of the girl’s words. She laid in bed, and groaned while she held both her hands against her head. That was all a dream?! It felt so real, she thought about the bizarre nightmare she had encountered. Although she vaguely remembered that nightmare, it remained as nothing but a scene of her running down an endless avenue in the middle of the night. Why was she running? What was she running away from? To this, Kaede had no answer.

She strolled off the bunk bed she had lied in, but immediately jumped aback, tripping on the floor in return, when faced by the rhombus shaped window of her room. A large physique of a woman (around thirty feet tall), beaming with crimson, stood right outside of the window, dressed in a neon blue lit garb made of silk, the words “LIMITED TIME OFFER” spiraled around the woman’s body. Kaede smacked the curtain button annoyingly, pulling the synthetic roman shades down, and settled in front of her reflection at the full length mirror on the wall; out of nowhere, a voice circulated from the mirror — 'Would like to turn on Makeup mode?' — as icons popped up showing makeup tools. Digital mirrors weren't something new, but Kaede was surprised by the fact that the mirror asked her for a makeup mode, she had had a standard digital mirror the whole time she had stayed at the dormitory, and the only mirrors with such options were situated in the open bathroom. Kaede heard the sound of her AIrect, a small, palm size, rectangular pad (equivalent of a phone), going off with memos, she snatched it off the astro lamp table — which she had bought from an unobtrusive, yet highly conspicuous, auction, such items were antiques that should be held in museums at the least, but there they were, being sold at a street auction for a dirt cheap price. Kaede pulled a footstool in front of the mirror, switched her AIrect on, and began fixing her bleached colored mess of a hair; on the AIrect crystalline screen was a message from her ex-roommate — “Hope u liked my new gift! ❤” — Kaede snickered at the following message — “Dont get too excited tho, I only bought it since Im not there to take care of ur looks.” — Kaede sighed as she took a look at herself in the mirror, her hair was short (around shoulder length with side swept bangs). She coated herself in a baggy, almost twice her size, purple tee-shirt. Her looks were fine, she thought nothing of it. Another message shifted her focus back on the AIrect — “Anyway, dont do anything stupid till we meet at the lecture tonight. xoxo” — Kaede tapped on the screen to type a response, before a bang on the door bashed her ears, sending her away. Her roommate stood at the doorway, she had returned to gather clean clothes for her shower, and told Kaede to do the same. Kaede looked backed at the mirror, before pulling her shirt to her nose, she pulled it away in disgust, summer hasn’t started yet and her tee-shirt was already full of sweaty odor.

Kaede picked up her feet towards the shower room like a scalded cat, where a few girls were already showering, she curled the valve as warm multiple droplets of water plummeted against her skin, stroking it at a pleasured speed. A flood of thoughts would engulf one’s head normally during times like these, but the continuous chatter broke it, Kaede wished she had plugged her AIbuds earlier, so that she would have listened to worthwhile music instead of useless banter between airheaded girls. On the spur of the moment, she felt an intense itching feeling grow throughout her left hand, as she kept scratching it non-stop, rubbing it with soap didn’t do anything either, the itch was still there.

‘Oh that hand might be getting rusty, you can just replace it with another SYN hand, can’t you?’ a girl showering beside Kaede called her out, she stood in the shower stall right next to Kaede, ‘Or wait, better yet, why don’t just upgrade to a Synth?’ Kaede continued showering silently as if the other girl’s words meant nothing to her but annoying brags, and complains.

Despite the obvious trend of upgrading Synths, Kaede had remained in her original syndroid body ever since she was born, she had never wanted to change it or upgrade to a new one, which was perceived as abnormal to some of her co-workers, even with people she had come to know. Kaede liked how her original appearance was. Even if there were upgrades, she just wanted to maintain the fifty percent of humanity she was born with, if one were to change or “upgrade” themselves, would they really be the same person anymore?

‘Just leave her! She’s a Neo…’

Another girl passed by, warning the girl beside Kaede of her state. Kaede grit her teeth, turned off the water, and stood in the shower stall, thinking about the other girl’s words, sometimes she hated the girls who worked with her, ever since her ex-roommate had left, she had wanted to leave too, but she couldn’t, she needed the money.

‘Don’t let her bother you,’ a girl approached Kaede, trying to comfort her.

‘Yeah!! You have a smoking body, babe!! No need to change it.’ another girl from a far away stall called at the top of her voice.

'That’s a foreigner for ya!’ another girl spoke to the girl from the far stall.

Kaede stood silently, and only pulled a slight smile, those who would mock her were only jealous of her appearance, she would convince herself. As she was cleaning herself with a towel, a voice announcement came through one of the many speakers placed throughout the dormitory — ‘Breakfast at 7! Better hurry up girls, the boss says today will be a streak!’ — Kaede took herself back to her room, as she discarded the clean clothes she had brought with her to the shower earlier, and pulled out her work attire, which was a normal waitress uniform that you would see in any restaurant or cafe — the owner stuck by the rules after all “NO OVER-THE-TOP UNIFORMS!”.

At the dining room, where Kaede had made her way to, everyone was situated, already eating, and having fun chatter. A girl grabbed Kaede’s hand, and hauled her to the table, as they both sat beside each other, the girl was called Aya, Kaede had recognized her, she was the one who had shouted for her in the shower earlier. Aya was always considered the life and soul of the entire staff team, everyone loved her, she would always take one for the team if any trouble spurred up, and always stood by everyone who faced problems, she was a natural leader.

Kaede stuck out her hand to grab a piece of bread, but her hands twitched back,

Aya noticed it, held Kaede’s hand and put it away, she handed her the piece she had wanted and gave her a smile. Kaede stared at Aya for a while, Aya had a pixie cut pink hair and a perfectly shaped face, she was beautiful, Kaede would think, she had wanted to become like her one day, both in looks and personality; Kaede had always been energetic and lively towards the people she had met (even her ex-roommate), but it was always a facade she would pull just to fit in the weird hellhole of a society she lived in, Kaede had wanted to have genuine lively personality like the one Aya had. She ate quietly among the blowout that was the dining room, as she continued on with her thoughts.

'What’s your plan, Kaede?’ a question shot Kaede’s thoughts in a scatter, she was so out of the world with her thoughts, that the question gave her a shock.

‘H-Huh?!’ she looked at the others with confusion.

‘Your plan! What do you plan to do after all of this? Like what’s the reason for you working here?’

'I... don’t have one exactly, ha,’ Kaede chuckled nervously, she lied, but not entirely. She had transferred to Koeski University, one of the finest universities out there, last winter after earning a half tuition scholarship there, and the only way to pay the remaining funds was by working, so the only reason she had worked at the bar was because of the good wage and free residence. But other than that, she had no plans for what lied after college.

‘Bullshit!’ a girl sneered, ‘Well, I ain’t gonna pressure so whatever. What about you, Aya?’

Aya sipped the last drop of drink from the straw, slammed down her drink, before letting out a huge exhale, ‘I plan to go Offworld! I can’t stand this shitty rock anymore.’

Everyone was amazed at Aya’s answer, she had a very ambitious dream, they all would think, going Offworld wasn’t exactly something one would easily do, especially if you would target an off-galaxy planet, that was something only members of the upper crust would do. So unless you had a very strong connection with someone with power, Mars would be as far as you could go with Offworld travel. Kaede did not care for Offworld travels, little to everyone’s knowledge, she wasn’t a Terran (a habitant from earth), she was born Offworld, on Jehovah, an industrial planet originally made by terrans, it was one of the many planets “humanity” would come to create during the “founding era” in the middle of the twenty-second century — shortly after Offworld travel had become accessible to the public. Kaede was born to a terrain father and a jehovahian mother, but she had never seen her father since birth, he was a mystery. At the age of nine, she had lost her mother to illness. Becoming an orphan wasn’t easy in Jehovah, the planet was newfound and was basically an interstellar travelers’ rest to some people, handling orphans was not yet accessible to the planet at the time. For a full year, Kaede would switch households as the terrain council on the planet would look for her absent father, and at the end of the following year, she was sent with an Offworld travel fleet to Earth, where she would receive proper care from her father’s family; her father’s identity was revealed and the council was able to reach him, but he was a man of many responsibilities, and due to that, it was only up for Kaede’s stranger of an aunt to take care of her.

Come the age of sixteen, and Kaede was free to the world of Earth. Compared to her home-planet, which was always surrounded by steam factories, and houses that looked like they were made out of pipes, Kaede had viewed the cities of Earth as a dream come true, neon lights everywhere, skyscrapers that reached the beyond, she had only seen such things through her vizor when she was a kid. The life Kaede had lived on Earth was a life full of luxury — her aunt and her husband were considered people of high positions in the city — but she only viewed that luxury as a world empty of color and taste; a world that was not for her. And it was that view that led to Kaede’s current state.

'Oh look, it’s raining!’ the sound of the girls’ chatter was yet to break Kaede’s reminiscence once again, ‘You know what that means, girls?’

‘Boys!!’ most girls said in unison, it had come to the attention of the staff that during the rain, not only did the amount of customers increase, but most customers were young boys around the age of Kaede’s (the youngest in the staff), or a bit older. All the girls would prepare themselves nicely, so they would, hopefully, catch the attention of one or two.

‘Word on the street is that more Yakuza have been roaming the area recently,’ a girl spat out her hearsay.

‘Yakuza?! In Central Street? That’s new,’ a discussion about a Yakuza clan opened up in the room, especially about the clan’s young son and such, the girls wouldn’t stop.

Kaede finished her food, and dashed out back to her dorm room, as the nosiness that crammed the dining room continued. Nobody noticed she had left except for Aya, who was sitting beside her, she watched Kaede as she walked out, but then shifted her focus back on the table. It turned out that the girls pretended to not see Kaede leave, they were soon to shift their topic on her as they continued their prattle about the Yakuza, they talked specifically about the Higashi clan (a highly respected clan among the Yakuza), one of the sons of the head family was a usual customer in the bar, the girls had noticed that he would often request Kaede to serve him during his time at the bar, the girls were soon to find out that he had attended the same university as Kaede’s, gossip about them having a “fling” was soon to transpire among workers not only in their bar, but in other bars as well — it was concerning a member of a Yakuza after all. No, was the answer Kaede would give when she was faced with the subject, if anyone had known her better, Kaede Jaeger wasn’t a fan of boys or men — almost hated them — she did not bother with such ridiculousness. For she hadn’t any feelings or affection towards anyone, she was the type of person the vulgus would deem as an individual with a heart of ice. And it was her hatred towards men that led to this conclusion, she always thought of them as useless husks of muscles who always think of how to pleasure the opposite sex, no more, no less; that could be also credited to the fact that her life had almost turned to torment because of an absent father, a man. But only a few like Aya and Kaede’s ex-roommate would believe her answer. The others wouldn’t and, blinded by jealousy, they would continue to stretch out the rumors that every single individual had a story of their own concerning the matter. The girls, at that time, had originally brought out the topic of the Yakuza to pressure it on Kaede; but Kaede, having sharp tendency towards conversations as usual, was quick to read the situation before it even started, and left the room. That only increased the spark in the already lit topic for the girls, “She’s avoiding us! They’re totally together!” Such answers spiraled so loud across the room that Kaede could still hear them from her dorm room.

Kaede, knees crossed on the floor of her room, pulled out her AIrect to speak with her ex-roommate — “I can’t take this dumpster anymore, wish I could just live with u.” — Kaede was truly done with the bar’s dormitory, everyone besides her ex-roommate and Aya disinterested her; as much as she thanked God that there was a place she could stay in, she would wish for some chance to spring up to get her out of that hellish dormitory. “They bother u again?” — the ex-roommate would reply back to Kaede’s memo, Kaede rolled up her knees to her face as she sat on the floor beside the bunk bed — “No! I just don’t fit in, u know.” — she felt her hand twitch once again, she dropped her AIrect and pounded her twitching hand against the floor, before raising it back up with leisure, she played with her fingers as she felt the itch go away, her hand had returned back to normal, she would think. “Then pack them all up like sheep, u’re the hunter.” — Kaede chuckled at her ex-roommate’s memo. “Oops, gotta rush, roommate’s here. See ya!” — the message was sent before Kaede could respond to the previous one.

Kaede turned off her AIrect and gazed at the abyss beyond, the city, through her window, as she chuckled on her recollection of past experiences with her ex-roommate, she wished she could at least taste the bit of fun she had with her once again. Kaede santured back to her bed, and settled down with a monotonous mood starting to overwhelm her. She rested her head against the wall. A wide screen resided onto the wall facing Kaede, she would always forget that the owner would gift the dormitory with fancy technology every now and then. Feeling weary to the brim, Kaede grabbed the screen’s remote, which was only a few inches away from her on the bed, and turned on the screen.

The first channel program to greet Kaede was the usual foreign comedic talk show that had begun to take popularity recently, since it started airing in Nihon, instead of being outsourced to being a bootleg version. Another channel later showcased the recent campaigns concerning the city elections that were to come in a few months. Uninteresting topics were all what most channels contained, that Kaede started to wonder if the media actually cared about the people by presenting entertainable topics like it would usually be, or were they truly setting an agenda on the public like what all those conspiracy theories on the net would claim.

‘This week marks the second month ever since the catastrophe of what many people call the Suicide Syndrome,’ the third channel had a woman speaking through a new telecast, her face was deprived of any emotion, expressionless like all those reporters you would see on the news. The world of the medium were at it again, trying to remind the people every time of what was wrong in society (to make it appear that they actually care about the issues the world face), yet they themselves acted like it was nothing, that everything was perfect, and what better way to do that than to pull the facade of the Suicide Syndrome: the noxious mysterious worldwide phenomena, ‘The Suicide Syndrome is an unknown disease that seems to only affect the youth of our world and always leads to death.’

It was not a disease — like many would think. The syndrome appeared more like a state of mind that one could get sucked into, causing them to lose sense of reality. Doctors and scientists always tried their best to identify what kind of disease or disorder it was, yet there lied the problem: Doctors and Scientists. A phenomena as extraordinary as the syndrome would not require single-minded men like them; it required those who can look beyond the horizon.

The extraordinary phenomena seemed like Kaede’s cup of tea, she was an occult and paranormal fanatic, even when it was considered forbidden due to its lack of facts in the new world. Kaede was startled by the news, almost tripping off her bed as she tried to approach the screen. She stood in front of the screen, carefully watching and listening to it as if paying attention to a college lecture. The fact that she hadn’t heard of something as big as that until that time surprised her. Something as grisly and puzzling as that syndrome should have been the talk of the city for a while if it had lasted up to three months, it was surely supernatural, that thought excited her, however, it made her understand the lack of maelstorm for the subject as well, because it was “supernatural”, so only those who are as nutty as a fruitcake would talk about it mightily.

‘The Syndrome has taken the lives of over twenty-five teenagers over the past three months in Termnius alone, and while there have been no reports of suicide since last month, there is always the possibility of it returning or affecting your child,’ the reporter continued, ‘If you see any of the previous symptoms, contact the emergency services and let them know immediately.’

When it first began, people were more attentive to it — terrified from it even. But as time progressed, the syndrome’s fear effect on society began to lose its toll, it developed into incidents that people would casually chatter about during their hangout, or with their co-workers at work — a subject of gossip and complain, that’s all it had become recently.

Roused, and curious on top, Kaede immediately tapped on the watch resting on her wrist, as she was surged by a stream of holographic web tabs and a large user interface. She set her search on the “Terrorizing Virus” across the web, yet she didn’t expect the results to be… severe.

As strange as its name was, it was within reason with context — even if people suddenly acting strange before offing themselves was a complete contradiction to the definition of reason. Nobody has been able to identify the reason behind it, some believe it being a virus and others believe they're a series of murders — the latter is more common. It all started on that day, on March 10th of 2184, exactly three months before things hit the fan. A young girl, fifteen of age, was on a trip with her friends in the Yamamoto ward. No signs of depression, anxiety or paranoia, were shown on her appearance that day. No suspicious activity prior to the incident. Mental illness was out of the equation. She was in perfect health condition, just fraternising with her classmates before the fun was short-lived. Without warning, she stopped on the sidewalk, treaded slowly towards the wide street, all the while the boisterous horde of the commonality drifted her companions away, and by the time they had noticed her disappearance, early was a luxury they didn’t possess. She lifted her hands free and jumped right in front of a moving truck, leading to her death.

Other incidents that soon followed were different from the first, but they all occurred with the same patterns of each other: Abnormal Behavior. Disappearance (for days or a week). Sudden Suicide. Then it all clicked in Kaede’s mind, connecting the dots was easier than rolling off a log, the answer she simply thought of was to be considered terrifying if it were anyone who thought of it, but not Kaede, she was bouncing off the walls. All the tabs instantly faded from her vision, she sat with excitement drolling off her face, like a dog awaiting their treat. She couldn’t wait to contact her ex-roommate and discuss her findings.

But that would be for another time.

Kaede felt her vision suddenly lose focus, she groaned as she fluttered her hands on her the lamp table, reaching for her glasses; she had been wearing vision lenses one of the girls in the dormitory recommended lately, but even those were full of kinks. Kaede removed her lenses as she slid her oversized thin-framed glasses against the middle of her nose and up to her eyes were they rested, she flanked herself off the floor and onto her mirror, she didn’t have much confidence with her glasses on, she felt geeky — to use a more simple term. Kaede immediately brushed off those thoughts with a shake, she was an adult, she would think, she should have no longer cared for such idiocy as that, despite that, she turned on the makeup mode on the mirror, to test how it would “fix” her up. “Hypothesis: the dye on your hair is wearing off, suggestion for a new one?” — the mirror’s words sent Kaede into confusion, but then realization hit her, the roots on her hair were of a brown color, compared to the rest of her bleached hair, but that was just how her hair was, that was her natural hair color; the mirror might have mistaken her hair color for a dyed one. Kaede touched the “deny suggestion” button with a pout expression on her face, and swiped out the makeup tools as she scrolled through them.

‘Oh honey, you needn’t do that,’ Aya appeared at the room, arms resting by the doorway, she gazed at Kaede with an oddly enticed look in her eyes it puzzled Kaede herself. Aya approached Kaede at a leisurely pace, carefully placing one foot in front of the other, before resting exactly one inch away from where Kaede had stood; she stuck out her hand as she laid it on the frame of Kaede’s glasses, she carefully slid the glasses off of Kaede, before throwing it on the bed they both stood by. Aya then stretched both her arms, revealing a bizarre upside down Ankh tattoo located on her left arm that Kaede had never seen before, she then rested her arms on Kaede’s shoulders, ‘Ya know, Elios has got his eye on you for a very long time, but you wouldn’t even bat an eye,’ Elios was the only male bartender in the bar, ‘I mean, it would make sense, he’s about your age after all, so he probably finds comfort in talking to you. After all, despite your flaws, you are the beauty queen of our staff, the one stand out act in the bar. And everyone agrees with that, don’t you? Cause I do.’

Kaede dropped her eyelids in confusion, she could feel Aya’s voice, and another, echoing in the room, penetrating her ears cogently. She tried to shrug Aya’s arms off her, before quickly reaching for her glasses on the bed, only to find Aya snatching it away in the spur of the moment, Aya smirked rascally as she raised her hand in the air to remove the glasses away from arms reach, she backed away as she began to giggle like a child opening their very first Christmas present. Kaede could not grasp what has befell Aya, she thought Aya might have drunk too much, but then she remembered, Aya doesn’t drink, Kaede thought that she might have been the one going crazy. Kaede tried reaching back for her glasses, but Aya pushed her back onto the bed with an unbelievable force, then proceeded to slowly creep by the doorway before completely vanishing from sight. Kaede pulled herself back up, despite feeling a boulder had hit her earlier, and dashed at light speed to the doorway; she peeked outside, nothing, nobody was in sight, no sign of Aya, nothing at all, only the endless patterned halls, replicating those huge, yet somehow condensed, old patrician hotel halls.

Tracking down where Aya had went wasn’t exactly effective, due to the fact that Kaede was wandering aimlessly without her glasses, or even her kinky lenses, she felt the blur on her vision increase with every movement as if her eyes were slowly turning black. Kaede held on to the wall railings as she continued down the hall, before making a turn to the right, only to see the familiar desolate halls once again — like a continuous pattern. Right at the far end near another intersection lied a figure that looked much like Aya.

Kaede, thinking it was truly Aya at the intersection (because of her poor eyesight), would call out to the figure she had seen, ‘Heyyy! Give it back to me,’ she staggered her course towards the unidentified figure.

Another giggle pulsated through the halls, the pitch was deeper this time, emitting a — if someone would say — sinister premonition, the figure vanished quicker than a silver bullet that Kaede could not discern which direction it had gone. Kaede stood at the intersection, dumbfounded by the situation she was in, she gazed at both directions of the hall, but her vision could not help her ascertain if someone had stood in the hall at all — her vision was getting worse. Kaede, jaded by the cat and mouse game Aya had thrown her into, retraced her steps, and decided to head to the dining room where everyone was at that moment; even if there was the possibility of nobody listening to her, she at least needed to try. She could not believe Aya, the self-effacing and lovely girl she had always known, would do something as nonsensical as the prank she was tugging at her.

Kaede carried on with her stride towards the dining room, but something was wrong, every time Kaede would turn at an intersection she would see the same familiar hall once again, the corridors weren’t ending to the point that Kaede thought that she had gotten lost. But the dormitory wasn’t that big, she would think. With barely any vision, Kaede felt an uneasy feeling sink over her down to every point in her body, she decided to head back to her dorm room, she no longer cared for her glasses or if she had found anyone. But once again, the corridors weren’t ending, everything was the same. With the bizarre aura expanding, Kaede dashed into one of the doors she had found, she was going to be safe, she thought, but as the door slid, another corridor came into view beyond the door. She could not fathom the scene, she closed and opened the door once again, yet it was still the same. Kaede slammed the door closed and rested by it. The sensation of an eerie blare sweep into her ears sprung up in a trice, she held both her hands against her ears trying to deafen out the sound as she slowly slid onto the corridor floor. The sound came through like a sting, on the surface, it simulated the sound of a screeching static; beyond that, Kaede could hear slight mutters and whispers, words she could not come to perceive at the minimum. She would almost scream but her voice wouldn’t come out, and tears wouldn’t come out of her eyes — like usual.

An image fulgurated in Kaede’s eyes, almost blinding her entirely, and as the layer of plain white steadily disintegrated, she found the hallway staring back at her. Twisted, was what the world was becoming in Kaede’s eyes, like she had taken the wrong medicine, or that she was on the effect of a drug to be more precise. The hallway kept zooming in and out as if Kaede was being pulled through and away. Her mind slowly started to fade away, but she felt like it was melting down to the core. The image in front of her started to dim and change, becoming vague that she couldn’t discern, not only the details, but what it was in the first place. It didn’t seem like the hallway from the different color scheme, the hallway was full of lights and a bright orange color, but this… this new spectral scene was something out of this world entirely. Black lines started to form in front of Kaede, and crawled their way towards her. If not for the metal jingling sound against the floor, Kaede wouldn’t have been to tell that the black lines were chains in reality — if this was even reality. These “chains” crawled up to Kaede’s body, and locked her up at every joint in her body, even wrapping themselves around her mouth, preventing her from screaming or speaking — she couldn’t do so in the first place.

Darkness was the next thing that followed and Kaede’s mind simply slipped away into the abyss.

Kaede’s room remained empty, completely devoid of life. Right outside the room, frantic footsteps could be heard, but no one was there to hear them. The girls were marching their way in the hallway to the stairs down to the bar.

It was time for work… but Kaede was nowhere to be seen.