Himura Ketsueki was in the bathroom when it happened. Suddenly before his eyes a blue screen showed up.

Your world and another are merging. Prepare yourselves!

If that wasn’t enough, soon after another screen appeared, one with more direct detail.

You are now a part of a challenge! Complete the challenge or survive until someone does!

And as before, another blue screen appeared.

Challenge: Impostor!

Shapeshifters have infiltrated the building! Root them out and kill them before it’s too late! 

This screen lingered awhile, read over many times by Himura’s surprised eyes before they returned to their usual state of tired and uncaring.

This appearance was not expressive of his inner feelings, a look he’s shown to the world for as long as anyone who knows him can remember. His inner feelings were the opposite of his outwards appearance, bursting with joy at what this means.

He can kill something.

To put it plainly: Himura Ketsueki, 17 years old, high school student, decent looks with an paleness to his skin that reminds one of a ghost, is a bit of a sociopath.

To clarify, he is not evil. He isn’t even mean. Himura, is merely apathetic. As with his visage his feelings have been as they have for as long as can be remembered, a joyless life in which he has found no satisfaction. It’s for this very reason not much interaction is made between Himura and his classmates, beyond what is necessary. No childhood friend either, as he rarely went outside of his home except for school.

As for why the thought of killing brings him bubbling excitement?

It’s because Himura has always wondered. Wondered if killing something would make him feel. Bugs don’t give any sense of feeling when killed, and despite his generally apathetic nature Himura likes animals for their simplicity.

This leaves him two things, people, and whatever a “shapeshifter” is.

The first choice hasn’t been acted out by Himura simply because he never had cause nor reason to do it, but now in a situation where it seems the world is changing, and there are creatures about that are out to get him, the greatest reason to kill since time immemorial has been given to him.

To survive.

As to thoughts on him seeing the blue screens being his own delusional mind?

Not even a thought passed by on this, Himura completely confident that he is ‘sane’.

With his thoughts in order, Himura fishes out from his pockets a pen he carries on him for the those times a person needs to write.

He is not alone in the bathroom, another boy occupies the room along with him, and despite years of practice it is all he can do to hide a smile from creeping onto his face.

‘I finally get to kill someone. Will it be a rush like murderers say? Or a feeling of emptiness?’

The other boy exits a stall, smiling at Himura as he makes his way over to a sink nearby.

Gripping his pen, Himura saunters over to the boy, releasing his hold over his facial muscles to let forth a smile that would creep out a normal person with a glance.

The boy he approaches shows no sign of being unnerved, and continues to wash his hands while smiling at Himura. Before long Himura is next to the boy, both still looking at each other with smiles.

Himura’s pen gripping hand rockets forth aimed for the boy’s neck, the boy’s eyes widening in surprise and shock but unable to stop the oncoming point of the pen as it pierces into his neck, hands clutching at the freshly made hole as blood spews forth between his fingers.

First comes his collapse to the floor, then the gasps for air as he finds himself unable to breathe, the entire sight pitiful.

Himura remains unfazed throughout the ordeal, eyes locked on the dying boy whose eyes slowly lose focus until finally the light of life winks out from them. Himura smiled during the whole thing.

At the boy’s death another blue screen pops into view of Himura.

Congratulations! You’re the first to kill a shapeshifter! As a reward, you may choose one of the following

- Mirror of Revealing

- Skill: Lesser Shapeshift

Wondering what these things do, Himura is surprised to find thinking about it opens up a new panel with the information on the mirror on it.

Mirror of Revealing

Shows the real appearance of whatever is reflected off its surface

Himura repeats this for the skill.

Skill: Lesser Shapeshift

A degraded version of the namesake ability of the shapeshifter monster, allows the user to slightly alter their appearance. Amount and speed of alteration improves with use and successful application of the skill

After a bit of thought, Himura chooses the skill. His reasoning being rather simple.

‘It sounds cooler than just a mirror, and it’ll help me hide my identity if I ever need to.’

Why he would need to hide his identity, only Himura knows what things he’d do to have that kind of need.

Plus he was excited at the prospect of the skill, something he was completely foreign to.

Beyond listening to music and books, Himura wasn’t much of a gamer, never having much exposure to the medium of entertainment. For the reputation of video games, it’s probably for the best it’s not associated with someone like him.

Upon choosing his reward, Himura felt a change in his body, as though he were slightly more malleable. As to how to tell this he couldn’t fathom where to begin, except by using his new skill.

The process to use his skill memorized in his brain the moment he chose to receive the skill, activating it was simple. So with the boy he just killed as his base, his face peering into the mirror back at himself, he begun to shapeshift.

'I'm gonna rearrange your face!' became literal for Himura. As soon as he began to alter his face, pain like no other assaulted him, nearly causing him to scream.

Thankfully, if it can be a thankful thing, the pain was bad enough he couldn’t muster the strength to scream.

The result of his attempted shapeshift was far from the intended look, his face distorted as his nose was elongated, lips slanted, eyes uneven, and his eyebrows close to becoming a unibrow.

Seeing this first run at shapeshifting Himura couldn’t help but be disappointed. With the pain, the required concentration couldn’t be mustered by him and it could only be expected that this would be the end result.

Steeling himself for attempt number 2, this time he gripped the sides of the sink in anticipation. His goal this time was to revert his face back to normal. Going out as he looks now would instantly label him as suspicious, rightfully so.

Counting down from 3, 2, 1, Himura began to shapeshift a second time.

The pain again flared, but the ease in shapeshifting was incomparable to the difficulty of the first attempt, and the result this time was as well miles different.

Himura’s features returned to their original handsome appearance, his brown hair covering over his eyes, of which are of a red hue.

‘I don’t want to do that ever again…’

Bummed about the prospects of this skills future use, staring at his face to make sure everything is as it should be, Himura notices the blood on his his uniform. Removing it to wash it off in the sink, he finds the blood harder to remove than he thought it would be.

Before long he gives up, opting to remove his shirt. Revealed in a skinny body without blemish, the previously seen skin’s unhealthy glow further amplified by the additional skin shown.

‘I’ll just grab my gym shirt from my bag.’

Staring at the lifeless corpse of the shapeshifter, and the pool of blood surrounding it, Himura decides against trying to hide it. Bending down, he retrieves his pen from its neck, and washes it off in the sink.

Giving it one last look, Himura goes over his thoughts for killing the boy so unhesitatingly.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

‘No one smiles at me. Everyone always regards me like a wall. And I don’t smile at anyone.’

Shaking his head at how deadly a lack of information turned out for this creature, and wondering at how they expect to infiltrate like this.

He failed to imagine that they didn’t even know about him at the least.

Walking out of the bathroom he glances at his pen, his hand gripping it hard.

‘I killed someone….well, something at least. It felt….strange. I didn’t feel a rush of euphoria but I didn’t feel a sense of loss either. It just felt like I did something expected.’

His gaze lingering on his pen for a short while more as I he makes his way to his classroom, he puts it away and continues on.

______

Theresa Cassius watched as the young boy killed the shapeshifter.

-whistle- “Has some brains. Doubt he’ll make it looking as weak as he does though.”

Fiddling on a device similar to a tablet, far more archaic looking yet at the same time with far more finesse, she swipes between views showing different parts of the school, various scenes of confused faces and teachers trying to calm the growing panic.

“Boring….when this assignment is over, I swear I’m go-”

Before she could finish voicing her desires, the video on her stone tablet swirled until it presented a beast of a man, with great horns that roll back after emerging from the corners of his forehead.

Theresa herself has horns, set farther back on her head, emerging from her black hair to jut out a tiny bit before twisting up to point towards the sky. Her horn size pales in comparison to that of her father’s.

“Father, for what reason do you contact me while I’m on assignment?”

Theresa’s voice is void of emotion, her voice monotonous with the feeling of being rehearsed.

“I know you’re on assignment daughter, but there is news regarding your future. We have secured a deal with the Delios noble family and you are to be wed to their son, Yulik Delios. In turn our two families will have a greater standing in the Demon Courts as we seal our alliance through the marriage. I am to assume there is no disagreement with this decision?”

The question is asked in a voice that does not allow room for ‘no’.

“Of course father, I am yours to do with what you will.”

Smiling smugly, Theresa’s father continued.

“Good, very good. This is exactly what our Cassius family needed, for too long have we been looked down upon. Hurry with your assignment and return, there is much to do and I do not like to wait.”

The threat hanging in the air long after the communication ended, Theresa could only sigh at the news that made her father so happy.

The daughter of a Demon noble, it is her position to be used as a political tool regardless of her martial prowess. This is proven in her current assignment, and the fact she has no say in what her father does with her.

A considerable warrior for her age, Theresa trained all her life trying to avoid a fate of being a mere tool for her family, at the expense of friends and her own happiness, striving for having freedom. All for naught, as she found herself working as a mere observer for this batch of humans of this world integrating to their own, a position that could be filled by even a low ranked demon.

With a depressed sigh, Theresa leans back in her chair as she rubs her forehead, hands hale and healthy along with the rest of her body. The result of years of hard training, her body exudes sensuality and strength.

“After this assignment I’m going….ah, forget, the dream was crushed soon as I got that communication.”

With a tired stretch, Theresa swipes until she’s back onto Himura, absentmindedly watching him as she thinks of her future, all but set in stone to be the wife of someone she holds no feelings for.

“I would love to kill someone right now. But I can’t do that. But no~, killing new citizens is against the rules. Pah, what shit. Not like they’ll find their new world any less dangerous than an end brought by my blade.”

_______

Making his way towards his classroom, thinking over what he can do with < Lesser Shapeshift > that might not hurt so much as rearranging his face, Himura is stopped by a teacher, a burly man who looks to be a coach.

“Hey, why don’t you have a shirt on?”

Himura stares blankly at the man, unsure of what to say. Beyond the fact he doesn’t have a good reason to not have a shirt, Himura isn’t much of a talker in the first place. So after a while of repeated questioning on his shirtless state, it’s all Himura can do to respond with a lie, his voice quiet and subdued.

“I-I vomited on it and threw it away. I’m going to get my gym shirt from my bag in m-my class.”

Squirming ever so slightly under the gaze of the teacher, Himura finds himself feeling distressed by more than his own exposed torso. Before long the teacher asks Himura to follow him to the office.

Along the way the teacher asks more questions, finally arriving at one Himura had been waiting for.

“I’m guessing you’ve seen the screens, huh? Damn things have gotten everyone in an uproar, it’s all we can do as teachers to keep order. Why were you even out anyway? Everyone should be with their classes.”

“I-I was in the b-bathroom.” Himura’s stuttering both from discomfort talking and the cold permeating the school hallway, his shirtless body useless with his lack of any sort of fat on his body.

“Damn kid, must’ve been a real shocker being all by yourself when the screens showed up. I about shit myself when they popped up out of nowhere, hahaha!” The teachers laugh hearty as though it was only right to laugh.

Some time later they arrive at an empty classroom, apparently the teacher’s own.

“Step inside real quick, I wanna talk to you before we make it to the office, alright?”

“Y-yes sir.” Himura hurried in, hand in his pocket gripping his pen.

The teacher waits for him to enter, following in. Turning around he shuts the door, locks in, and before he can turn around Himura’s pen is at his throat and piercing it, the pen itself lodging inside.

A repeat of the last death, although longer in length because of the size difference, the man collapses, asphyxiates, and dies. A new panel emerges in Himura’s sight.

< You’ve earned a new title: Murderer >

Wondering what it means, Himura pulls up its information.

Murderer

Requirement: Kill a member of the same species without need to.

Effects: Nearby members of the same species feel unease around you. Members of the same species that have been recently attacked by you can be tracked intuitively, with the strength and detail of this ability increasing as your body count rises.

Himura is unfazed by the revelation that the man he killed wasn’t a shapeshifter but a regular human, chalking it up as a failure in his decision making.

‘Moreover, the title has interesting effects.’

How do people feel when I’m around them? Do they have to know I’m there or is it based on how close I am? How does the tracking work, is it like a sixth sense? These questions are what mainly consumed Himura’s mind after the killing.

During this time he as well searched the classroom, coming up with a boxcutter out of the teacher’s own pocket. Forgoing his pen, leaving it in its current resting place of the dead teacher’s neck, he uses his newly acquired boxcutter to cut off a piece of the teacher’s shirt to wipe off the blood that got on him from the blood spurt.

Glancing at the teacher’s body, he moves it out of sight from the outside window’s looking out towards the halls, glad for the lack of activity in this part of the school.

With the body out of the way, Himura one more makes his way to his classroom.

______

“Oh, he’s killed another one. Human this time though. He’s certainly has the mindset for killing, I don’t think he’s hesitating at all.”

Theresa watched as Himura’s pen ended the teacher’s life, viewing it with the same look as Himura did himself, one that held no pity for the dead and dying but more concerned with the actual process.

“Maybe I misjudged him, despite his appearance he might just be a strong candidate for recruitment.”

Before Theresa could consider this further, an incident at another part of the school caught her attention, quickly swiping over to view the classroom.

What she saw brought a smile to her face, surprised at the unexpected show this has turned out to be.

_______

This time Himura didn’t run into any wandering teachers, everyone in their classrooms trying to keep everyone in order.

After a bit of walking, having been lead in the opposite direction of his class by the teacher, he finally reached his classroom. The teacher wasn’t in sight, and in the center of the classroom a circle of bodies.

Being a little taller than average, Himura was able to make our in the middle of the circle two teens holding switchblades, the weapons slick with blood.

“Get back! We ain’t no damn shapeshifters or whatever the fuck! Next one to get near gonna get cut up like the last, so back the fuck up!”

With obvious distress in his voice, he yelled at the surrounding mass of bodies. The students stared back in emotions ranging from shock to anger. The reason probably had to with the blood on those guy’s knives, Himura thought.

Ignoring the commotion, Himura made his way to his bag, his desk thankfully at the back corner of the room. With a satisfied look on his face unseen by his fellow classmates even before everything changed, Himura put on his spare shirt. By this point the situation in the middle of class began to change.

One of the surrounding students, with eyes welling with tears and fury, suddenly grabbed a chair and rushed towards the duo.

“You fucking bastards! I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll kill you!”

The duo is taken by surprise, and one of them has their blade knocked out of his hand. Seeing this, the rest of the class hesitates, before more join in to rush the two.

After that it was a period of chaos as the mob looked to disarm and beat down the two. Before they could accomplish the first part wild slashes from the delinquent who remained armed slashed two more students, although in his haste the slices weren’t anything life threatening.

Before long the mob had them on the ground, their bodies suffering blow after blow until their whimpering voices could no longer be heard and their bodies ceased to shudder in pain.

Their deaths all but confirmed, Himura’s classmates disperse from on top of their bodies, finally giving him site on what caused this all in the first place.

Lying around where the duo had their last stand were the corpses of a boy and a girl. Over the girl’s corpse wept the guy who began the charge against the two.

Ignoring the heaving students around him, Himura walked over to pick up one of the dropped switchblades. As he was to pick it up however, one of his classmates noticed him.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

An athletic looking boy posed the question, stepping up to Himura and staring him down, the adrenaline of what just happened still pulsing through his veins and urging him to take action.

Himura himself ignored him and continued to bend down to pick up the blade. Seeing this the boy pushed Himura away from it, sending curses along with.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing, think I’ll just let you pick that up you fucking wimp?”

Having been pushed to the ground since he was crouching, Himura picked himself up and approached the boy.

“The fuck you want, want to fight you little skinny shi-”

Before the boy could continue his fronting, Himura’s boxcutter was repeatedly entering the boy’s stomach, once, twice, three times before keeping count became pointless.

Leaving the boy bleeding to death on the floor, Himura bent down to pick up the switch blade once again, wiping the blood off it on the corpse of its owner, before walking out of the classroom.

No one stopped him, both an effect of Himura’s < Murderer > title, and the calm smile that found itself on his face, they found themselves too frightened to approach this peer of theirs who just killed without batting an eye.

Himura himself didn’t deign to notice them, trying to figure out how he feels about killing and if it’s like he imagined. Before he could delve into his thoughts, however, he noticed a new panel set off to the side of his vision, that enlarged into his view as he focused on it.

Actually, this panel has been there since he first killed the shapeshifter, but had been pushed aside for the rewards.

The enlarged panel read,

You have leveled up!