I crumpled the note and shoved it in my pocket.

  Awesome. Just what I needed right now! I mean, who wouldn’t want to start their morning with a healthy dose of blackmail? What did it say again? ‘Consequences will arrive in due time.’ Pfft, give me a break. If the author really wanted me to take this seriously, maybe they shouldn’t have written their letter like a villain from a video game.

  Before I left the dorm, I shot Ryu a quick text to let him know I had found my bag, to which he responded:

“on god”

  I pushed the front door open, took one step outside, and then immediately was struck with a single invasive thought: ‘You forgot to brush your teeth.’ God damn it. I turned around and pushed the button to the elevator.

  Yukio peered over from behind the desk. “Oh, they’re out of order today. I forgot to put the sign up. Clumsy me, huh?”

  “Why?” I asked. “They were working perfectly fine last night.”

  “I don’t look like an electrician, do I?” Yukio was right - No self-respecting electrician would wear gray pants with a brown sweater in this weather. “Unfortunate timing, though. I’ve lived here for over a year, and the elevators have almost never broken down.”

  I checked the time - Six minutes until class. “Lucky me.” I dropped my bag off next to Yukio’s desk and sprinted up the stairs to my room. It took a few tries to get my key to work, but it finally scanned properly after approximately three attempts. I was in and out of the room in about 15 seconds, hoping that it wasn’t enough time for Ryu to notice that only half of those seconds were actually spent brushing.

  My path down the stairs was briefly halted by the presence of a tall boy that I had seen one too many times within the last 24 hours for my liking. “Genjo?” Shiraki looked over his shoulder and waved. “Didn’t think we’d see each other again so soon!”

  I threw my hood over my head as a sudden jolt of pain flickered in my right eye. “Yep. Me neither.” I used my slender body to my advantage by skirting around him and continuing down to the lobby.

  Shiraki kept up with my brisk pace. “Where are you headed off to?”

  I swiped my bag off the ground and quickly inserted my arms through the straps. “Class.”

  Before I could step out the front door, Shiraki had already started holding it open for me. “How about that? I was just about to-”

  “Thanks.” I kept my head facing forward as I walked outside. “See ya.”

  Shiraki hurriedly jogged after me. “Actually, my class is in this direction too. Care if I-”

  “I… didn’t tell you where my class was. How would you know?” I pressed my hand on the side of my headphones and pretended to raise the volume on my MP3 player, hoping he would just assume I wasn’t listening to him anymore.

  This plan was unsuccessful. Shiraki stepped up to walk by my side. “I have a course during the same time slot in Suzuki, the Geology building. Your class is in Fujiwara, is it not?”

  I slowly lifted the ear cup on my headphones. “...Pardon?”

  Shiraki’s eyes immediately scattered. He stopped and took a quick bow. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to sound like a stalker.” Task failed. “I just make this walk every day for class, and I typically see you as well. Our routes split around a certain point, so by process of elimination, I-”

  “Yeah.” I slid the ear cup back over my ear. “...Fujiwara.”

  The brief remainder of our walk was silent until we reached the route split that Shiraki had eerily mentioned prior. He raised his arm to give me a wave. “I’ll see you around-”

  I sped up so he would leave my hearing range sooner. Inside Fujiwara, the lingering smell of formaldehyde assaulted my sense of smell, because it seems that none of my senses can go more than a few days without being attacked in some way. Based on the smell, I’d wager they’re probably starting to meet for biology lab - Guess I should keep an eye on my email for my time slot.

  A crudely written sign on the door to my theatre classroom read as follows:

  ‘Sorry! Class will now be held in Room 3A on the Byrne Center Mezzanine. - Jennifer’.

  Oh boy, one of my classes being moved to another building? The déjà vu was almost palpable.

  Aiko snuck up from behind and poked me in the shoulder. “Hiya! Whatcha doing just standing here?” I pointed at the sign on the door, and she squinted really hard to read it. “...Well, that’s stupid.”

  “You’re telling me.” I looked over at the white lace bow that Aiko had tied to her hair, resisting the urge to pull on the end and unravel it. “You wanna skip?”

  “Aww… But I already had to skip last time…” Aiko tugged on my sleeve. “We have to go today. It’ll be a bad look if I miss two days in a row.”

  I didn’t bother trying to wrestle my arm out of her iron grip. “And that affects me… how?”

  Aiko gave me an icy stare before dragging me with her as she marched off to Byrne. “Because I can go ahead and narc on you to the teacher whenever I want, and she can give you a zero for skipping.”

  “Come on, Aiko,” I complained as she yanked me out the front door by the wrist. “You wouldn’t rat me out to Jennifer…”

  “Well, Jennifer won’t have any problems if you go to class.” Why did she have to say that name like a jealous girlfriend would mention one of her partner’s co-workers? “Besides, it’s not like this class is hard. It’s an easy A, dummy.”

  Several people were still walking on the sidewalks around us. Getting nervous that people were staring, I pulled Aiko’s hand off my arm and went back to strolling with my hands in my pockets. “Maybe for you.” I took off my hood to stop suffocating from the heat. “Most people didn’t come out of the womb knowing the difference between stage left and stage right.”

  Aiko abruptly grabbed my hand and pointed to the right. “Not that hard. If you’re sitting in the audience, this is stage left…” She delicately turned my finger to the left. “...and that’s stage right!”

  “Stop doing that!” I wiggled my hand out of hers, hoping I didn’t somehow tear her gloves with my nails - which were long overdue for a trim. “Why does it have to be backwards like that?”

  She leaned sideways to laugh directly in my face while we walked to class, holding her hands together behind her back to resist the urge to grab mine without consent again. “Oh, you’re gonna hate learning upstage and downstage, then.”

  Instinctively, I reached forward to open the door to Byrne before promptly getting humiliated once again as the automatic doors slid open. Who the hell installed these stupid things with fake door handles on them, anyway? I quickly put my other arm forward and pretended to stretch them out in front of me. “Too late to drop out?”

  Aiko followed me up the stairs to our classroom on the mezzanine floor. “Follow your heart! That’s probably what my dad would tell you.” We dropped our bags next to two desks in the center of the room. “Have fun explaining that to your folks, though.”

  I shrugged. “Eh. Wouldn’t be the first Sazama to do it.”

  An expression of curiosity immediately took over Aiko’s face. “Hm? What does that mean?”

  “Oh, right… My-” I stopped myself before I spoke any further. “...it’s nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  Aiko crossed her arms and scowled at me. If I could read minds, I’d know which variation of the phrase, ‘You’re doing it again,’ was on the tip of her tongue. “Fat chance - I don’t forget anything, you know. See?” She reached down into her handbag and pulled out a purple ballpoint pen - The one that I had left in her dorm. “Here! You better not lose this again, stupid.”

  As she held it out for me to take out of her hands, my eyes fixated on her gloves. Come to think of it, I’ve never actually asked her why she always wears those black lace gloves everywhere. Sure, they usually compliment her outfits - But don’t they get inconvenient? What does she do when she has to eat food or wash her hands? Wait… Please tell me she washes her hands…

  The pen jiggled in Aiko’s hand as she moved it a little bit closer to me. “Uh… You alright up there? Want me to leave a message after the tone?”

  “Oh, shit… Thanks for finding it for me.” I quickly snapped out of my trance and took the pen from Aiko, accidentally brushing the tips of my fingers against hers - Rather, the fabric on the exterior of her gloves. Despite the lack of direct skin-to-skin contact, it was still a little bit embarrassing. The gloves were translucent - You could see the skin underneath them just fine, but they still acted as a barrier between her hands and the outside world. It was poetic, really - How something as silly as her gloves could say so much. I wonder if she sees it that way, too.

  Aiko seemed entirely unfazed. “No prob!” She adjusted the bow in her hair and tightly pulled her gloves down to her wrists while looking at the board. “Ugh, today’s just another lecture.” She reached for her phone and held it in her lap. A few seconds later, my phone started to buzz in my pocket, for what I’m certain were unrelated reasons.

[Text Message: Aiko Matsuura :P]

(Attachment: 2 Images)

“buy me one of these?? (✿◦’ᴗ˘◦)♡”

“pretty please???”

“Text your dad???”

“ugh i know i get it”

“but he’s workingggg”

“plus he’d get upset if he knew i was on my phone during class”

“Damn.”

“No wonder you’re always broke”

“ew like ur one to talk”

“(⋟﹏⋞)”

“didn’t u apply to that record shop?”

“go follow up with them!!”

“Oddly supportive of you, Aiko :)”

“...you’re gonna ask me for money aren’t you”

“what in the world r u talking about??”

“and its not like a milkshake or two is gonna break the bank”

“I’m not paying for yours if that’s what you’re wondering”

“drat (T⌓T)”

“foiled again!!”

  From the way that Aiko and I talked to one another, I wouldn’t blame her for assuming that I had all but forgotten the topic I was trying to avoid going into detail about earlier. Normally, her upbeat attitude and wildly unpredictable behavior does an excellent job at distracting me from those types of thoughts. But these ones were… different.

  ‘Wouldn’t be the first Sazama to do it.’

  I’d been avoiding thinking about it much since I got here - the US, I mean - because I was scared that it would be the only thing on my mind if I hadn’t fought it back. Honestly, it’s a miracle that I made it almost an entire month before it finally caught up to me. There was something - no, someone - that I was looking for here, but I knew it would be pointless to dwell on it. I don’t know why I told Aiko what I did with such certainty, considering I didn’t even know about that person’s whereabouts myself.

  Even so, wherever she went, I wish Sui had told me.

  My daily allotted sad-boy hour was interrupted by a collision between my left shoulder and Aiko’s handbag. “Up and at ‘em, soldier!”

  I gave a half-hearted salute before getting out of my desk and following Aiko out of the classroom. “You know what this school needs, Aiko? A damn bell.”

  Aiko hid her mouth using both hands to cover her yawn. “With how often you’ve been zoning out lately, they should just staple the bell to your forehead.”

  “Come on,” I groaned as I wiped the beads of sweat off my forehead. “You’re acting like staring off into space is new for me.”

  “Don’t play dumb,” Aiko said sternly. “It’s been way worse lately. Are you sure you’re not still sleep deprived?” She promptly shifted into Nurse Aiko mode, putting the back of her hand against my forehead to get my temperature and pulling apart my eyelids to check my pupils. “Can’t tell if that’s a stress-sickness fever or a wearing-a-hoodie-in-the-middle-of-spring fever.”

  I kept on walking toward the exit. “Neither. I’m telling you, I’ll be fine.”

  Aiko followed me out the front door, clenching her fists like she was raring to fight in the middle of the Byrne Center. “Genjo, I want you to take your health more seriously. One day, you’re gonna thank me when-”

  Another jolt of dull pain flickered in my right eye. I stopped in my tracks, covering my eye with my hand. “Argh!” I exclaimed uncontrollably. Despite the pain lasting no more than half a second, that didn’t make it any less of a surprise, and not the good kind.

  “Hey, everything alright?” Aiko’s arm habitually wrapped around mine, trying to make sure I wasn’t at risk of falling.

  Once the fleeting pain subsided, I lifted my head and uncovered my eye. My gaze drifted to the right, landing upon one Jo Shiraki, leaving Suzuki Hall donned in his charcoal gray suit jacket. Frankly, I was sick of running into him - And I sure as hell didn’t want to risk him running into Aiko.

  Our arms already locked together, I hurriedly stepped back into the Byrne Center, pulling Aiko along with me. “Woah!” Aiko stumbled a bit as we ran. “The heads-up was appreciated.” She didn’t sound angry, but I still felt bad about the suddenness of it all.

  “My bad, my bad, my bad…” I repeated under my breath as I dragged Aiko out of view of the front door. “...Sorry, I saw-” I awkwardly unlocked my arm from around Aiko’s and we sat down at a white, metal table. “...Shiraki was outside. I was worried that seeing him would make you feel uncomfortable.” The itching feeling in my arms returned. “Guess I could’ve handled it a bit better though, haha.”

  Aiko playfully, yet aggressively, rubbed my arm with her fist, making the itching sensation disappear. “Aw, shut up - Thanks for looking out for me.” Her eyes scattered, jumping from wall to wall, like her train of thought was getting into some trouble at the junction. “He… wasn’t walking over this way, was he?”

  I simultaneously felt my fever rise and a chill run down my spine. “I don’t think so. I just got worried because, apparently, he knew I had a class in Fujiwara - At least, until it got moved to this building today. And since you’re in that class with me-”

  “Wait,” Aiko leaned closer, resting her forearms on the table. “You mean he figured that out… without you telling him?”

  “Yeah. Weird, huh?” My eyes glazed over, once again gravitating toward her gloves out of boredom. I noticed a small quirk that Aiko has when she goes into Detective Aiko mode - She habitually taps her right middle finger against whatever her hand is holding onto. (Thankfully, the gloves muffle the tapping sound enough to prevent it from becoming annoying.) “He said that he didn’t mean it to come off in a stalker way, but-”

  “Oh, it absolutely comes off in a stalker way.” Aiko twirled the wire to my headphones around her finger. “Listen, Genjo; If I were you, I’d be fucking terrified if some guy I’d only known for a day already learned my school schedule. Personally…” Aiko scanned the vicinity for people to leave before whispering close to my ear. “I’d keep an eye on him - and an eye out for him. Something seems off.”

  I similarly found myself with a portion of the headphone wire around my right pointer finger too. “You wanna wait here for a bit, then?”

  “Nah, hiding is lame. And besides, I can’t miss history class just because of some weirdo.” Aiko slid her finger out of the coiled up wire, tangling it up in the process. “Oops… Hope I didn’t mess it up too bad…”

  “Don’t worry about it.” I waved Aiko goodbye as she stood up to leave through the side exit. “I’ll see you in class?”

  Aiko stuck her tongue out at me and peeked her head through the door on her way out. “I don’t know… I might skip!”

  The instant that the door slammed shut, I grimaced through yet another eye spasm. Seriously, what the hell is with me today? I put my headphones back on before taking a quick trip to the restroom to check myself out in the mirror. Here’s hoping I didn’t manage to catch a nasty case of pink eye…

  As soon as I stepped up to the sink, I suffered the worst twinge of pain in my eye yet. I fought back tears as I involuntarily bent over the sink, holding myself up with the palms of my hands. With the remainder of my will, I lifted my head to look in the mirror - Flashes of purple flickered in my right iris in rhythm with the pain. I turned the knob to the sink faucet and splashed a handful of cold water in my face. When I looked back into the mirror, the pain - and the flickering - stopped.

  ‘This is strange, even for me,’ I thought to myself. ‘Petrov must be acting up again. I guess it has been a while since-”

  Through the reflection in the mirror, I saw someone enter a stall behind me. I recognized their hair - That damn shade of silver. As soon as I heard the lock to the stall door slide shut, I hurried out of the restroom and left the Byrne Center for good. I reached into my pocket for my MP3 player.

  Instead, my hand was met with the weightless grit of a crumpled piece of paper.

~

  “To whom it may concern,

  This week, we will have our first meeting of the laboratory portion of the Foundations of Biology course. Each lab section has been divided up based on alphabetical order. Last names starting with A through I will attend Section 1. Names starting with J through S will attend Section 2. All remaining students will attend Section 3. Dates, times, and classrooms will be listed in the spreadsheet below. Be sure not to attend the wrong section. Failure to attend the first lab will result in being dropped from the course. Please double check the spreadsheet to assure that you know when and where your lab will meet each week.

*   Prof. Charleston Greene”

  Damn, this school sure loves their spreadsheets, huh?

  I covered my head with my hood when I walked back into Fujiwara, pulling tightly on the strings to shield my nasal passages from the scent of formaldehyde that was still drifting through the air from the previous lab session. I never liked the smell of formaldehyde - Well, I guess nobody does, but that’s beside the point. It reminded me of… the inevitable, to put it lightly. I would always put myself in the shoes of the poor little frog, doomed to soak in a bath that refused to let it return to the world from whence it came. Maybe that’s why I’ve always been afraid of frogs… Or maybe Taisuke just snuck tadpoles into my lemonade one too many times when we were kids.

  The air conditioning was running at maximum capacity when I stepped into the lab, trying its hardest to cleanse the air of the dubious stench of chemicals. I sat down at an empty table away from the rest of the students who had shown up before me. Personally, I never really understood the appeal of being the first person to get to class every day. It’s not like they gave you extra credit for being in the room longer than everyone else. Otherwise, I would’ve started sleeping past the bell years ago. I preferred not to associate with too many people like that, lest everyone else think I’m just as much of a tryhard as the others by proxy.

  I kept my head down as I tapped my fingers to the beat of my music on the lab bench, occasionally looking up to see if anyone was sitting across from me. Each table fit exactly three people, which is a pretty strange number for a lab group in a school. Even though this is a relatively small academy, you’d think there’d at least be enough students to have four to a group. One of the tables already had three students occupying their seats, but they weren’t even talking to one another. A girl at that table was playing online chess on her laptop in full view from my seat. I didn’t know the first thing about chess, but I knew enough to notice how odd it was that she was almost exclusively making moves with her bishops. Was it because of the unpredictability that comes with the diagonal movements… or was she just bad at chess?

  For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off the bishop, though. I followed its every movement as it darted across the board, picking off her opponent’s pieces one-by-one. The bishop… Why was I getting a weird feeling that I was being watched when I looked at it?

  “I look forward to working with you, Bishop.”

  …No, that can’t be it. That’s just a coincidence… right?

  “Welcome to my game… You are no longer in control… The Pawn knows no better - His actions are decided by the player, and the player alone.”

  That note… Why am I still thinking about it? It’s just some stupid joke. There’s no reason I should be taking it seriously. So then tell me, when I watched the bishop make its every move, why did I feel someone watching me, too?

  As soon as I heard the voice coming from my left, I practically fell off my stool. “Yo, earplugs, mind if I sit next to ya?”

  I recognized that accent - I mean, how could you not? It had a distinct and harsh twang that I don’t think a single other student at this school had. “Uh…” I looked at the short, muscular girl with the green hair. She had an aura that told me if I said no, she’d probably pick me up out of my seat, throw me over her shoulder, and take it from me anyway. “...Of course not!” Smart move, Genjo. You get to live another day.

  “Word.” She pulled the stool out from under the table and sat diagonally to my left. “Didn’t wanna leave ya here without any friends. You were lookin’ mighty lonely over here.”

  “Thanks?” Nice to see that I still fit the ‘kid who plays alone at recess’ stereotype. I turned my music down and kept tapping the table to the same beat. “...Haruka, right?”

  Haruka’s head snapped in my direction to make direct eye contact with me - Almost too direct. “I don’t remember tellin’ ya my name.”

  I felt my fight-or-flight response kick in. “Oh, um… You said it in class the other day, when Dr. Greene was asking questions, right?” Sweat ran down the back of my neck. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

  Her eyes narrowed, staring me down with the intensity of a crashing wave. “...Damn straight.” She rolled her neck, making a few *pops* and *cracks* in the process. “Kinda forgot about that one, if I’m bein’ real honest. Payin’ attention in class ain’t really my style.”

  Nice save. I reached back and wiped the sweat off my neck. “...That’s certainly one way to approach going to a university.”

  Haruka’s knuckles cracked, the sound echoing throughout the lab. “You’re not sayin’ I’m stupid, are ya?”

  Out of the frying pan, into the fire. “No, no no no no no… I meant-”

  “Did somebody call for stupid?” Rinji, swooping in to save the day, nonchalantly snagged the seat diagonally to my right without even a shred of doubt that either of us were saving it for someone other than him. “Because I think I’ve got more than plenty to go around.”

  Haruka pointed fiercely at Rinji. “You were the dumbass who forgot his notebook the other day, weren’t ya?” She gave him a cocky smirk. “I’m surprised you even found the damn room today.”

  Rinji exhaled through his nose and pushed his glasses back up in front of his eyes. “Pretty easy to find when you can hear the country bumpkin from all the way across the building.”

  A few of the test tubes on our rack rattled as Haruka’s fist hit the table. “Oh, is the pothead about to lecture me about keepin’ a low profile?”

  “Not a pothead, miss.” Rinji grabbed his vape from behind his ear and took a quick hit. “Smoke’s not really my lifestyle. Not trying to die that early.”

  I waved to dissipate the cloud of vapor.. “Hey, isn’t this a smoke-free campus?”

  Rinji smiled. “Yeah. That means smoking is free here, right? I’m just following the-”

  Haruka’s arm reached for Rinji’s vape, snatching it from between his fingers before he had the chance to even see it coming. “Try workin’ on your English, city slicker.” She jokingly started to put the vape in her mouth before the TA walked by, took it from her, and walked away. Rinji and I struggled to hold back laughter while looking at the absolutely flabbergasted Haruka, who hadn’t moved a muscle in her entire body for several seconds.

  Apparently, this must’ve been the TA’s signal to get things rolling, because he quickly began going over the lab procedure. Our task was to cut open and dissect a frog, separate and label all of its organs, and take note of any irregularities.

  I raised my hand. “Why a frog, specifically?” I asked with a quiver in my voice. “Don’t we usually start with something like a cricket, or a rat, or anything else?”

  Our TA pointed at the board. “Because the slideshow says we’re dissecting a frog,” he said in the most monotone voice possible. “I’m not the one who picks the animals, I just order them.”

  Rinji leaned over to me and whispered, “What’s the matter? Afraid they’re gonna give you warts?”

  I flicked his bangs with my finger. “That’s exactly the matter.” My skin started to crawl at the thought of touching it. “They’re fucking gross.”

  After the TA finished his brief lecture, he started passing out the dissection kits, and Haruka got up to get the frog out of the freezer and lead it to its slaughter. “Well.” Haruka dropped it on the table, making an audible *splat* come from inside the container. “I’m gonna let the two of y’all figure this one out.”

  I audibly gagged at the sound of the frog hitting the table. “Nope. Nuh uh. Not in a million years.” I slid the scalpel across the table to Rinji. “You do it. I’m not touching the damn thing.”

  Rinji picked up the scalpel without a care in the world and started cutting open the package - The only thing separating me from whatever freak of nature awaited us inside. “Come on, Genjo. It’s dead - It’s not gonna jump out at you when I take it out.”

  “Oh… Why did you have to put that image in my head?” I put my head down and prayed that I wouldn’t have to see any of it, dissected or not.

  Haruka leaned over and shook me by the arm. “Get up. A lil reptile never hurt nobody.”

  I tried to block out the sounds of the scalpel slicing through the frog’s eerily preserved flesh. “Haruka, I can think of at least three things wrong with that sentence.”

  The sounds of scissors cutting and organs squishing abruptly stopped as Rinji raised his hand to call over the TA. “Hey, something seems a bit weird.”

  “Hm? Let me take a look.” Our TA walked over and stood inches away from Rinji as he hovered over him. “What seems to be the issue?”

  Rinji pointed at the inside of the open cavity that he had carved into the frog. “Aren’t there supposed to be two lungs? I don’t know why I can’t find the other one.”

  The TA looked at the lung for a few seconds, turned to Rinji and said, “Well, it’s certainly not alive anymore, if that answers your question,” before walking away.

  Haruka zipped up the top of her black and orange tracksuit jacket until it completely covered her neck. “Hey, city slicker, mind if I take a crack at it?”

  “Go nuts.” Rinji, disregarding all lab safety rules, tossed the scalpel at Haruka, who caught it perfectly without a scratch.

  “Hell yeah.” Haruka started digging around inside and removing organs at a rapid pace, making Rinji look like a sloth on opiates by comparison. “So, uh…” She scratched her head with the hand that she was still using to hold the scalpel. “Which one of these contains the DNA?”

  Rinji squinted while looking at the intestines. “I think… these ones? I’m not sure if-”

  “All of them.” I lifted my head and slid my seat across the tile floor until I was in between Rinji and Haruka. “DNA is in every cell - Did y’all know anything about biology before taking this class?”

  Haruka raised an eyebrow. “A lick of it.”

  “Not a damn clue.” Rinji replied with a sneer.

  “Oh my-” I threw a pair of nitrile gloves on and took their dissection tools out of their hands. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this.”

  “Cut us some slack.” Rinji leaned up against the table. “Not all of us are science people. Some of us are still learning the basics.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I picked up a pair of safety glasses with the back side of my fingers and fumbled them onto my face. “What are you guys studying, anyway?”

  Rinji started picking at his fingernails out of boredom. “Zoology, or something like that.” He looked up at Haruka. “What about you, Haruka? Exercise science?”

  Haruka scoffed, still taking the opportunity to flex. Her muscles were extremely toned, especially for her short and slim body type. “I’m takin’ that genetics stuff. Pretty on the up-and-up, I hear.” Yet she didn’t even know that DNA isn’t stored in a pouch.

  “Sick.” Rinji leaned in to look at the frog again. “What about you, Genjo? Having fun over there?”

  “What does it look like?” I eventually found a large organ near the posterior end of the frog, so I started lightly poking at it with my scalpel. “Wait, is this-”

  “What are ya waitin’ for?” Haruka slammed her hands down on the table in anticipation. “Cut the damn thing open, already!”

  The table briefly shook, causing my blade to slip and immediately slice open the organ - As it turns out, it was an egg sac. A massive pile of eggs spilled out, bursting out of the frog and making a mess all over our dissection table. I didn’t have time to process whether or not that mess included myself - I was still in shock and trying to make sure I hadn’t accidentally swallowed one.

  Dozens upon dozens of frog eggs, all containing tiny, black dots. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched by a hundred small eyes. The eggs started to blink at me. I wanted to throw up more than I had ever wanted to before. Eyes… Why were there so many eyes? Why are they everywhere I go? My room… The trees… In class… Can’t they just leave me alone???

  Rinji grabbed me and dragged me away from the table. “Hey, you good, man? You look like you just killed a guy.” When he started wiping down my jacket, I realized that I must’ve gotten some frog ooze on it. “Here, I’ll take this-”

  I threw his arms off of me. “No.” I pulled my jacket closed and zipped it up. “I’m fine. Just… leave it on.”

  “Heard.” Rinji and Haruka walked me out of the classroom and waited out in the hallway with me. “Let’s just get some fresh air, alright?”

  Haruka looked down. It was the first I’d seen her without her temper. “Listen, I’m sorry about that, Genjo. I wasn’t thinkin’. I really gotta be more careful ‘round all that lab stuff. I-”

  We stepped outside into the blistering heat. “You’re alright, Haruka. Accidents happen.” I took my sunglasses out of my pocket and put them on my face. “I’ve just been… on edge lately.”

  “I get it. Shit’s tough out there.” Haruka stood inside the doorframe and leaned against the hinges with her hands in her pockets. “Get on outta here. We’ll just tell the man ya needed to go to the hospital or somethin’ and just finish the lab for ya.”

  Rinji sighed. “Ugh, I’m jealous. Why don’t I get to skip too?”

  Haruka smacked him upside the head, putting a quick end to his complaining. “Shut your trap and get your ass back in that lab, Okubo.”

  “Hey, hey, hey!!” He shouted as she dragged him through the door by his earlobe. “Can’t a guy make a joke around here?”

  The smell of formaldehyde finally dissipated as the door to the lab shut behind Haruka and Rinji. I decided to take their advice and head somewhere for dinner.

~

  “And what I was thinking about for this shot here…” Hiro’s storyboard for his film project was sprawled out across the table on the patio of the dining hall. “...It would start out as a still shot of the sunset over the hill, but as the color of the sky turns from orange to red, I’m gonna pick up the camera and walk towards Ryu. Then-”

  Eiichi leaned forward to take a closer look at the storyboard panel. “Wait, why the hell is Ryu in this, but not me? I thought you said this was a movie about a social media star!”

  Hiro waggled his finger at Eiichi. “That’s exactly why I didn’t cast you, my friend. If I had chosen you to play the part of my protagonist, a washed-up influencer on the brink of self-destruction, it wouldn’t be acting then, would it?”

  “Eh, we can ditch some of those adjectives you threw in there, bud.” After thorough examination of the panels of the storyboard, Eiichi started to mimic some of the poses that Hiro had sketched for the main character.

  I was more focused on the intense amount of detail that Hiro put into drawing faces. The whole point of a storyboard is that it’s a rough draft for a film, so why go through all the effort to add eyelashes and fingernails? It seemed like a waste of time to me, but I suppose there’s always going to be a method to Hiro’s madness. We were lucky it wasn’t windy out - Otherwise, the whole thing would’ve blown away by now.

  “Anyway, back to that shot…” Hiro repeated the opening pitch for the shot almost word-for-word like he needed to regain the momentum to get the ball rolling again. “Then it’ll slowly rotate and zoom out on his face, mimicking the appearance of a front-facing cell phone camera. It’ll stay perfectly still until the sunset concludes, leaving our protagonist in the dark…”

  “Hiro, how do you expect Ryu to sit still for the entire sunset like that?” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought. “It’s a cool shot, don’t get me wrong - I just think you might need to rethink your casting choices.”

  Eiichi gave Hiro the most subtle of winks. “You know, I could-”

  “That’s it!” Hiro slammed his hand down on the table with a huge smile on his face. “Genjo, your girlfriend is an actress, right?”

  “Not what I had in mind, exactly…” I said with an exacerbated sigh.

  “Yo, Hiro!” Eiichi slid his chair over and gave him a noogie through his baseball cap. “We’re supposed to wait until after Genjo confesses to her before we start calling her that, ya little rascal!”

  Hiro simply laughed it off. “Haha, sorry… Bad joke.”

  I rolled my eyes as I gave my right arm a quick punch to preemptively fight off the itch. “Eiichi, I think you’re rubbing off on him too much.”

  “That’s right, baby - Born and raised.” Eiichi stopped and jokingly grabbed onto the brim of Hiro’s baseball cap, acting like he was about to lift it up and flick it off his head. “He’s been learnin’ from the best around-”

  Hiro grabbed onto Eiichi’s wrist faster than any of us could even blink. Both of us went silent. The energy at the table had changed so drastically that I didn’t even know quite how to process it, but from the redness forming underneath Eiichi’s skin from Hiro’s firm grasp, he didn’t do it for no reason.

  With a deadpan expression on his face, Hiro muttered, “Leave it the fuck alone.” His grip on Eiichi’s wrist tightened by the second.

  Eiichi quickly let go of the brim of Hiro’s hat. “Woah, sorry about that, dawg. Didn’t mean to-”

  “Just… don’t do it again.” Hiro just as quickly released Eiichi’s hand. “Excuse me, I… need to cool off somewhere. I’ll be back.” With that, Hiro stood up and walked away, leaving his storyboard behind.

  I took my sunglasses off and wiped the lenses, wondering if I had somehow seen that entire interaction unfold incorrectly. “Eiichi, your track record for making people leave the lunch table isn’t looking so great for you.”

  He ashamedly put his hand into the pocket of his overly-expensive shorts. “I don’t know what I’m doing, man. Every day, I’ll just be chillin’ here with you guys, and the next thing I know, I’ve accidentally scared someone off.”

  “Well…” I felt the crumpled paper note rub against my fingertips. “You don’t do it on purpose, do you?”

  Eiichi put his other hand in his pocket and reclined into his chair. “Of course not. If I wanted to scare you, I’d prank you guys way more often than I do now.” That’s encouraging. “I just didn’t expect Hiro to spook us so bad - I seriously thought he was gonna tear my hand off.”

  “Hey, you couldn’t have known.” I took a glance around the area, but didn’t see Hiro anywhere. “I wonder why he got so upset about the hat, though.”

  “Beats me.” Eiichi moved his food a bit further away from Hiro’s storyboard so he wouldn’t risk spilling anything on it. “Never seen him without the damn thing on.”

  “Wait,” I asked. “Did you say ‘never’? Dude, don’t you live with him?”

  Eiichi stared across campus at a girl that didn’t resemble the one that we met in class yesterday whatsoever. “He sleeps with it on, too. It’s pretty wild.”

  “Damn, and I thought I wore this freakin’ hoodie too much.” Unable to take the heat anymore, I fully unzipped my jacket. “Fuck, this weather is getting ridiculous.”

  “Feels sublime outside, if you ask me.” Eiichi’s hair matched the hue of the sky almost perfectly. I guess that was his criteria for whether or not the weather was satisfactory. “Perfect night to go out, from the looks of it.”

  “Going out?” I scoffed at Eiichi’s notion. “Can’t you wait until the weekend?”

  Eiichi laughed. “What the hell do you think we’re in university for? As long as I get my work done, who cares when I go out?”

  I did a casual shoo-ing motion with my hand. “Yeah, yeah… I’ll pass.”

  “You’re missing out, man.” He returned the gesture with more of a beckoning motion. “A little birdie told me there’s something huge happening downtown tonight.” Eiichi stood up and picked up his bag. “I gotta dash if I’m gonna go out later. Lots of homework I need to knock out first - Homework that somebody told me they wouldn’t help with??”

  “Hasn’t changed,” I shouted jokingly as Eiichi strolled away.

  I continued sitting at the table to wait for Hiro to return. He was taking a lot longer than I was expecting, to the point that I started to wonder if I should just throw out his food before he gets back and finds it cold. I stared at the faces on Hiro’s storyboard - A strange feeling told me they were all staring directly back at me. ‘Tonight…’ That word kept repeating in my head. I even thought about Shiraki. I frantically looked around, worried that I would see him watching me from a nearby table. Paranoia surged through my brain, filling it like a bucket. I figured that there was only one way to get it to stop.

  So I pulled the note out of my pocket and uncrumpled it. Something kept nagging away at my mind, telling me to reread it, hoping it might-

  “Hey! I’m back!” Hiro abruptly shouted from behind. “Did Eiichi have to leave?”

  I scrambled to fold up the note again, but fumbled it in the process. “H-Hey! Are you feeling better now?”

  Hiro sat down in his original seat exactly how he sat in it prior. “Thanks for watching the storyboard for me. I don’t know what I would’ve done if it had gotten ruined.”

  While he didn’t answer my question, I wondered if it was worth it to press him about it. Maybe it’s best if we just don’t talk about it anymore. “Any time.”

  “By the way,” Hiro asked as he started folding up the storyboard. “What were you reading just a second ago?”

  Shit. “Oh, it was nothing-”

  Hiro looked confused. “Sorry. You just looked a bit stressed reading it, so I figured it must’ve been something serious.”

  “Well, that’s a way of putting it.” I didn’t know why I was taking this note so seriously all of a sudden. Was it the lack of sleep? Or was it Shiraki suddenly appearing in every little corner of my life? And on top of it, now I have to deal with this stupid note? I felt like I was in solitary confinement, locked in a room where the walls and ceiling were made of eyes, watching my every move. And the worst part… the cherry on top? I didn’t even know if the note was real.

  But come to think of it, the note only told me not to disclose it to anyone - Not that I couldn’t reference it indirectly… If I had any chance to test the note’s validity, I suppose it would be now. “Actually, I was wondering-”

  Hiro immediately sprung into action. “YES! Ask me anything - anything. I’m ready.”

  I slowly shoved the note deep into my pocket again. “...if you knew anything about chess?”

  His smile instantly flipped upside down. “Nope! A lot of people tell me I look like someone who’s really good at chess. Is that a compliment? Because I was always pretty bad at-”

  “Gotcha. Not a chess player.” I guess that rules out the possibility that this was all a prank from Hiro - not that it was likely in the first place. “Do you know anyone who-”

  Hiro started listing off people at lightning speed. “Well, there’s my mom, my dad, my cousin, Shinjiro-”

  I sighed. “I meant here.”

  “Hmm…” Whenever Hiro actually had to stop and think for once, it makes it seem a lot less likely that you’ll get an answer. “I could’ve sworn I knew someone who told me they play it. Can’t say I remember their name, though.”

  Damn - If Hiro’s photographic memory couldn’t put a name to a face, what chance do I have? “Thanks, that actually helps a lot.” Based on what Hiro just said, the odds of this being more than a simple prank just skyrocketed. “Oh, and another thing - Have you heard of a place called ‘Cracked Palm Square’ by chance?”

  Hiro’s eyes lit up once again. “Yeah! Eiichi mentioned it this morning. Something about a party happening there tonight, I think?”

  Everything clicked into place.

  “Holy shit.” I quickly got up, threw my bag around my shoulders and ran to the West Dorm. “Thanks, Hiro! See ya later!” I was so caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t have time to wait for his reaction.

  I had a party to crash.

~

  As soon as I entered my dorm room, I threw my bag on the ground in its regular spot and immediately started texting Eiichi.

[Text Message: Eiichi Kido]

“Hey, man”

“Sorry if you’re busy”

“But can you text me back ASAP?”

“I got a question about something we talked about earlier.”

“depends”

“if ur gonna do my hw, i’m free”

“if not”

“uh”

“i’m not”

“Not the homework, sorry”

“I wanted to know about that party you mentioned.”

[Eiichi Kido has notifications silenced]

  Oh, for fuck’s sake. I clicked the button that read ‘Notify Anyway’.

“what the fuck”

“why didn’t u lead with that”

“Because I don’t usually ask about these things”

“You would’ve thought I was the wrong number.”

“whenever there’s a party, no such thing as a wrong number”

“Can you give me the details?”

“damn, someone’s impatient”

“it’s at some weird place”

“called titties + ‘tinis or some shit”

“idk americans are fuckin weird”

“The one at Cracked Palm Square?”

“should be”

“i heard its from 10-2”

“not like you go to sleep anyway”

“Not funny”

“Anything else?”

“...it’s a party”

“just don’t drink too much”

“can’t have a hungover chem tutor”

“We’re both 18, but alright”

“that never stopped anyone”

  Ten o’clock?? I tried to think of ways to kill time for the next… four hours. I reached into my bag for one of my notebooks and found the CD jewel case laying at the bottom. I stared at the front cover again - ‘Felonious Embrace - Love Songs Without Titles’. Did I dare put a random CD that someone left in my bag into my computer?

[Text Message: Hiro Takamaru]

“Hey”

“Do people still put malware on CDs?”

“Is it 2003?”

  I popped open the disc drive to my PC and inserted the CD, quickly running it through an antivirus software just to be safe. Seeing the long list of .mp3 files without any distinguishable names would’ve scared me a lot more if not for the title of the album in question. After making sure they were indeed actual audio files, I downloaded them to my MP3 player and decided to give it a listen while I worked on my portion of the chemistry project.

  Fifteen seconds later, I remembered why I don’t listen to a lot of idol music.

  Ryu stepped out of the shower and cracked open the door to the bathroom. “Who’s there? I’m warning you - I have a knife.”

  “No you don’t!” My head rolled back as I leaned back in my chair.

  “Oh, it’s just you.” Ryu quit shouting. “I figured it was someone else based on the music.” I heard the sound of the shower shutting off, followed by Ryu’s wet footsteps against the tile. “Seriously, what the fuck are you listening to?”

  “Don’t know.” I turned the volume down slightly while I scoured the web for facts about fucking coal of all things. “Found it in my bag this morning. Figured I’d take it for a spin.”

  Ryu loudly rummaged through his dresser behind me. “Keep it to your headphones. I can’t stand the high-pitched voices that all of those anime idols use.”

  I kept my eyes glued to my screen, praying that my screen wouldn’t go dark and show me Ryu’s bare ass in the reflection. “Wait, this is from an anime? That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

  “Really? I’m surprised you haven’t seen them at least once.” Ryu’s belt made plenty of racket as he wrapped it around his waist. “Felonious Embrace is all over that stupid app where Eiichi posts all of his videos. They keep showing up on my recommended feed, no matter how many times I click ‘not interested’ on their posts.”

  “Good thing I never downloaded it.” I turned around and saw Ryu struggling to pull a t-shirt over his head without getting the collar wet with his yet to be dried hair. “By the way, those recommended algorithms are based on your own searches.”

  Ryu gave up on putting on the shirt and begrudgingly plugged his hair dryer into the wall next to the sink. “I don’t watch hentai, if that’s what you’re implying.” He raised his voice to compete with the obnoxious blowing of the hair dryer. “My… somebody I know from back home listens to that garbage. He won’t stop reposting their dancing tutorials, and even then, he still can’t dance! I don’t get the hype.”

  I turned up the volume on the computer until it was just a bit quieter than the hair dryer to see if it would bother Ryu enough for him to say something. “Why don’t you just unfollow him?”

  He twisted the knob on the hair dryer, increasing the intensity of the blow dryer. “Complicated.” Ryu and I engaged in a battle of steadily raising the volume of each device until we received a harsh knock from the other side of the wall begging us to stop, to which we obliged. “So, what’s the occasion?”

  “Hm?” I was too fixated on my research to connect the dots between those thoughts. “What are you talking about?”

  Ryu leaned up against my desk. “I’m talking about how you never start working on anything this early. You always put it off until the last minute when you leap out of bed and sprint to your computer to finish it.”

  I waved him off with a slow flick of my wrist. “That was one time.”

  “My point is…” Ryu picked up the CD case and started analyzing it from top to bottom. “...It’s unlike you to suddenly want to get all your work done just for the hell of it. You’re going somewhere tonight, aren’t you?”

  I stopped typing. “Ryu, I’m not-”

  “When you spend 10 years lying to your dad about where you’re going, you get a knack for spotting lies yourself.” Ryu placed the case on the CD rack (not in alphabetical order, I might add) and made direct eye contact with me. “I’ll ask again - You’re going somewhere, aren’t you?”

  The shade of green in his eyes wasn’t as unsettling as the blue that had been haunting me for days. Even so, I didn’t feel at ease looking directly into them. I couldn’t tell him about the party… the note… anything. “...I’m just hanging out with Aiko later. Not a big deal or anything.”

  Ryu squinted his eyes at me. “Oh, really? I was just about to shoot her a call real quick.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and started to open up her contact. “I’ll just let her know that her star-student boyfriend is hard at work right now, and that he shouldn’t take much longer.”

  “Don’t.” I rolled my eyes. “I was trying to keep it on the down-low for a reason.”

  “Oh, you’re scared of people finding out that you’re dating?” Ryu backed away and pressed the call button on his phone. “I’ll try not to let her figure out that I already know. That's alright with you?”

  I stood up and took a step towards him. “I’m serious. Drop it.”

  Ryu shrugged as he held the phone out, letting the dull ringing sound play out in front of me. “Are you sure? I think she’s just dying to hear your voice right now. Won’t you-”

  I grabbed Ryu by the wrist. “Fine. You win. I’m… not going to Aiko’s place tonight.”

  Ryu smirked and canceled the phone call with a light tap of his thumb. Instead of another quip or comeback, he silently waited for me to let go of his wrist.

  I released my grip and put my hand back into my pocket. “...I’m going to a party later.”

  For the first time tonight, Ryu looked genuinely taken aback. “You’re going to a…” He looked at me, then down at his phone, and then back at me. “...You’re fucking with me again.”

  “No, I’m serious this time!” I quickly came up with the best explanation I could give without revealing too much information. “I’m going with Eiichi. He invited me to go along with him, and I think it’s best that I don’t let him go by himself in case he gets into trouble.”

  Ryu was quietly lost in thought for a moment. His eyes darted across the room while he scratched at the underside of his chin. “There’s not gonna be alcohol there, right?”

  I recalled the story that Ryu told me about his biological father. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but I understand why Ryu would have his reservations regarding drinking, even in small amounts. “If there is, I’m not drinking a drop.”

  He exhaled a deep breath through his nose. “Promise?”

  I made firm eye contact with Ryu. “I swear on everything I’ve got.”

  Ryu smiled and held out his arm for a fist bump. “If you meet any hot chicks, give them my number.”

  I gladly returned the gesture. “And why wouldn’t I just give them my number instead?”

  “Thought we established that earlier.” Ryu waved his phone, displaying a notification on his lock screen reading ‘Missed Call - Aiko Matsuura’ at the very top. “You’re already tied down.”

  “Haha. Very funny.” I went back to reading an absolutely thrilling research paper about coal ranking, because somebody decided that different types of coal needed to be placed in a hierarchy for some reason. “Any big plans on your side of the room?”

  Ryu clicked his pen, still visibly disappointed that it wouldn’t transform back into the knife. “Hiro keeps bugging me about recording something for his film class. I don’t get why he can’t just ask the theatre students to do it instead.” Eventually, he gave up on the pen and dropped it back into his shirt pocket. “I wasn’t kidding about needing to call Aiko earlier. I’m trying to get her to take the role instead.”

  I endlessly scoured the internet for the most visually appealing diagram of the steps of coal formation without a watermark. “I wouldn’t count on it. Hiro was quite particular about each and every frame of that storyboard, and I’ve seen how Aiko performs - She’s like if a jar of assorted nuts came to life and started acting.” I looked out the window and saw that the Sun was already setting - Even if Ryu went over now, it would be too late to get the shot that Hiro needed.

  “Ha, you’re damn right about that.” Ryu stretched his arms behind his head. “I think if you put those two on the same project, Hiro would probably have steam coming out of his ears like a cartoon character within an hour.”

  “You know, if Hiro told me that he ran on steam power, I’d probably believe him at this point.” I took out my notes and started comparing them to my project slides. “Say, how much do you know about insect repellant?”

  Ryu took a few seconds to respond, waiting until after he finished carefully gluing two pieces together on his model ship. “Next to nothing. There’s no bugs in the ocean to repel in the first place.”

  I reclined in my desk chair. “What about-”

  “Don’t you dare say that crustaceans are bugs.” Ryu tossed the excess plastic from the model kit in the trash. “And you’d better not let me catch you skipping biology tomorrow.”

  The next few hours flew by, broken up with occasional banter whenever Ryu and I needed help on our work or just to vent out any frustrations. I actually made pretty substantial progress on my project during that work session - My section on lignite coal was nearly complete, and I was at least halfway through my research on the insect repellant. Ryu, on the other hand, was still in the process of actually putting the ship inside of the bottle.

  I unplugged the charger from my phone and shut down my computer. “Alright, I’m heading out. I’ll keep you updated if something happens.”

  Ryu made a grunt that was likely shorthand for ‘Mhm,’ and went back to setting up the rigging on the masts of the ship. I grabbed my wallet and walked out the door.

  …Only to be immediately greeted by Yukio. “Good evening, Genjo.” He sounded exhausted, as if he were barely fighting back against the urge to sleep until he could return to his room. “Where are you headed off to?”

  I blurted out the first place I could think of in a panic. “The phone repair shop.” Damn it… They’re probably not even open this late.

  Yukio removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t know they were open this late.”

  “That’s what I’m saying!” Why did I say that out loud? Am I stupid? I looked at the time on my phone - 10:28 P.M. “Well, I gotta go catch them before they close! I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Ichioka!” Without as much as a second to spare, I booked it down the hallway in the most suspicious way possible, hoping Yukio was too sleepy to pick up on any red flags - Including the fact that I had already fixed the crack in my phone screen the day prior.

~

  Eiichi and I stepped out of the taxi that he had called to drive us down to Cracked Palm Square. The air around us smelled… unique, to put it nicely. Whether it had anything to do with the people who were smoking something on the street corner, the man covered in dirt and sweat with a snake around his neck, or the opaque water gathered along the side of the curb had yet to be determined. I pulled my hood over my head to try and block it all out. “Eiichi, I already regret this.”

  “Ah, loosen up a little, Gen!” Eiichi gave me a pat on the shoulder and walked ahead, implying that I needed to follow close behind. I did so reluctantly. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s a private venue, so there’s not going to be a bunch of riff-raff crowding up the-”

  “Wait, it’s a private venue?” I resisted the urge to smack Eiichi upside the head, instead holding my arms close to my sides with my hands deep in my pockets. “Why didn’t you tell me? How am I supposed to get in?”

  Eiichi twisted his upper body and cracked his back while we walked. “Relax, it just means they have standards. As long as we don’t look like we’re homeless, tweaking, or both, we’ll be fine - Especially if you’ve got your-” He looked down at my shoes. “...Did you not remember the bandana?”

  “No?” I took a glance at Eiichi’s shoes - He had a purple bandana tied around his right ankle. “You never told me to wear one.”

  He crossed his arms as his expression became one of confusion. “I thought it said so on the graphic.”

  My eyes rolled back into my head. “Eiichi…” I groaned, trying to sound less annoyed than I actually was. “You never sent me the graphic.”

  “Shit. My bad.” Eiichi chuckled quietly to himself. “It’s part of the whole theme - When a chick wants to talk to you, they’re supposed to reach down and untie your bandana and tie it around their head.”

  “So…” I nervously scratched behind my ear, still looking down at the sidewalk as we traveled. “Does that mean I can’t get in?”

  Eiichi started snapping his fingers to give his hands something to do. “Nope. People will just assume you’re already taken.”

  “Great. As if I haven’t gotten that enough today.” I finally looked up from the sidewalk when I saw Eiichi’s feet stop in their tracks. In front of us was a wooden staircase that went up above the entrance to a quaint pizza restaurant, leading to a club that was playing music so loud that the front door looked like it was about to fly off its hinges. “Is this the place?”

  “Yessir.” Eiichi took his first step up the rickety wooden stairs without any hesitation.

  I quickly followed suit. A large neon sign hung off the side of the deck before the front door reading ‘Titties + ‘Tinis’ in the tackiest font known to man. “God, I can’t believe that’s actually the name.”

  The bouncer didn’t bother to check our ID’s - Which I’m almost certain was incredibly illegal - and stepped aside, letting Eiichi and I enter what was quite possibly the loudest place I had ever been to in my entire life. The club was poorly lit, merely illuminating the dance floor with black light strobes scattered across the ceiling. My ears started to ring from the sheer volume of the music blaring from the massive speakers on the walls. If not for the admittedly infectious beat, I would’ve already torn my ears off by now.

  Eiichi dragged me deeper into the crowd of people. “Come on, Gen! This party’s not gonna throw itself!”

  I tripped over my own feet as I was suddenly thrust into the middle of the action, bumping into several people in the process. “Sorry! Um, sorry. I’m sorry!” I apologized individually to each and every person I stumbled into while I weaved through the crowd. If the claustrophobia wasn’t enough, the sight of countless bandanas tied to ankles reminded me of the reason I even agreed to this in the first place - But how on Earth was I supposed to figure out which of these hundreds of people was the right one?

  So many purple bandanas wrapped around so many ankles… and so little time to check them all. I tried to make my way towards a wall so I could take out the note and reread the instructions, but people kept touching me - intentionally and unintentionally - as I trudged through what felt like an infinite dance floor. The stench of alcohol on everyone’s breath started to make me feel sick. Unable to find a way out, I decided to just pull out the note and read it in the middle of the crowd.

  ‘You must arrive alone. If The Delegate spots you with any other suspicious party, they will cease all further proceedings. The Delegate will have a purple bandana tied around their left ankle. When you approach The Delegate, they will ask you if you’ve gotten a ring fitted lately. You will respond-’

  Another person in the crowd bumped into me from behind, causing me to accidentally let go of the note. Before I even had a second to reach down and grab it, the note had already been trampled over until it had deteriorated into dust. Thankfully, I was still able to get a bit of information out of it. ‘The Delegate’ should be wearing his bandana on his left foot, not his right foot like everyone else - Not that it was easy to tell the difference when everyone’s legs were constantly moving.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, asshole?” A voice shouted from across the club, although not many people seemed to care - or perhaps they were too far gone to care. I stood on my toes to look above the crowd. To my surprise, the ‘asshole’ being screamed at was… Eiichi??

  “What does it look like I’m doing?” Eiichi was staring up at a man nearly twice his size, and Eiichi wasn’t exactly a weak individual himself. “Damn, you’re even more of a piece of shit than I thought.”

  The man was furious, his head barely containing the blood vessels that looked like they were about to burst out of his skull. “Do you know how much those drinks cost me, kid?”

  Eiichi was unfazed. “Don’t care. Probably cheaper than whatever medical bills you would’ve made that girl pay for.”

  “Wanna say that again, punk?” The man grabbed Eiichi by the collar of his leather jacket and pulled him up like a bully trying to act tough in front of the rest of the class. “I’ll give you another chance before I knock your teeth in.”

  He smiled at the man, as if to put his teeth on full display for him to take his pick of which to break first. “Gladly. I’ll tell the whole club if you want me to.”

  I forcibly pushed my way through the crowd to reach Eiichi before he could get beaten to a pulp. “Dude, what the fuck are you-”

  “Hey, everyone!” Eiichi shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. “I just watched this sack of shit try to sneak some drugs into this girl’s drink because he’s too much of a fucking loser to actually talk to one!” I glanced at the spilled cup on the ground. The liquid spilling out of it was cloudy and fizzing with bubbles - Definitely spiked with some type of benzodiazepine. Eiichi looked back into the man’s eyes with a wide grin on his face. “Go ahead and hit me, ya fuckin’ troglodyte.”

  The man was milliseconds away from taking Eiichi’s offer, swinging his fist straight at Eiichi’s face before security restrained the man and pulled him away from Eiichi. I ran over and grabbed Eiichi by the arm until we had blended into the crowd. “Are you fucking insane? That guy was about to blow your head clean off.”

  Eiichi gave me a light shrug. “I watched him spike a girl’s drink, and I wasn’t gonna not do something about it. Simple as that.”

  “Oh my god, you really aren’t afraid of anything, are you?” I looked at the time on my phone - 11:59 P.M. Shit. What was the time I had to find The Delegate by, again? “Fuck, I’ll be right back. I gotta use the bathroom.” I started to walk away from Eiichi in a random direction.

  “Gen, the bathroom’s that way.” Eiichi pointed behind him with his thumb.

  Damn it, damn it, damn it… I found a girl in front of me and tapped her on the shoulder. I whispered, “Hey. Hi. Nice to meet ya! My buddy over there with the blue hair wants to buy you a drink. Trust me - He’s the last person in this building who’d try to drug you,” before sliding around her and disappearing into the mob of people. I scanned each and every person I passed by, but there was no bandana on any left ankles in sight. I’m fucked. I’m soooo fucked. How am I supposed to-

  In my pursuit to locate The Delegate on time, I was unaware that I was centimeters away from colliding with the person passing by in front of me. I stopped myself in time, but she still flinched and stopped immediately as well. The girl brushed her blonde hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” She seemed about my age, maybe a year or two older, but she sounded a bit quiet and awkward - Certainly not the type of person you’d expect to meet at a club. “I didn’t mean to-”

  “You’re fine, I promise.” I started to move around her so I could keep looking around. “Sorry, but I’m-”

  The girl stepped in front of me before I could walk away. “No! I was-” She stopped and timidly looked down at the ground. “I mean… I’m Erika. It’s nice to meet you.”

  Wait, is she hitting on me? Ugh, I don’t have time for this! “Genjo. The pleasure’s all mine, Erika. Now, if you’ll excuse-”

  Erika grabbed my hand and lifted it up so she could take a closer look at it. “Wow, you have really nice hands, Mr. Genjo!” Great. As if I don’t already know a girl who likes to touch my hands without asking. Erika traced my ring finger with the tip of her fingernail. “Do you wear any rings? Your fingers are, like, the perfect size for you to pull one off.”

  I pretended to shiver in an attempt to hide how badly my hand was shaking. “Not really. I mean, my dad gave me a ring a few years ago. Why do you-”

  “Really? That’s cool!” Erika wrapped her finger around the base of mine, mimicking what the ring would feel like. “I hope it still fits. Have you gotten it fitted recently?”

  For some reason, that question felt unsettling. Why was I suddenly getting déjà vu again? I’d had enough of this feeling for one day, and it was made even worse by the fact that I had no idea why it didn’t feel right.

  Erika cocked her head to the side. “Hm? Mr. Genjo? Is everything alright?”

  My eyes were unable to stay still for more than a few milliseconds at a time, glancing all around the club, looking for anything at all to ground me back to reality - And that’s when I finally saw it.

  A purple bandana tied around Erika’s left ankle.

  I looked over Erika’s shoulder at the clock on the wall - 12:01 A.M. on the dot. I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked back at Erika. “No, but there’s…” Shit, what was I supposed to say again? “...plenty of tight women here, instead?”

  Erika burst out laughing, letting go of my hand to cover her mouth. “Aww, you’re that desperate to blow me off, huh?” She turned around and made a beckoning gesture with her hand. “Follow me. I think I might know what you’re looking for.”

  I followed Erika down an unlit hallway that ended with an ominous red door labeled ‘Private Suite’. I looked over my shoulder just to make sure that she wasn’t only leading me back here so somebody could sneak up from behind and kill me. “Hey, Erika…” My stomach dropped as I watched her twist the doorknob. “You wouldn’t happen to know an ‘Aznable’, would you?”

  She merely smiled and slowly pushed the door open.

  The inside of the Private Suite was, as expected, much nicer than the rest of the club. There were seats with cushions made out of red leather, a chandelier made of glass that hung from the center of the ceiling, and a long wooden bar that made up the entire left side of the suite. The shelves were lined from top to bottom with what looked like every liquor known to man (Compared to this, Daniel’s bar at the tavern looks like it’d been robbed overnight).

  And in the center of it all… a table. Atop this table was a chessboard, set up almost perfectly for the start of a new game - That was, except for one missing bishop on the opposite side of the board. Behind this table, a large round chair sat facing away from the board. I could only barely make out the pair of black dress shoes that rested on the ground behind the chair.

  I stepped closer to the board, feeling a pit starting to form in my stomach. “Okay, I’m here.” I stopped right next to the chair on my side of the table. “I did everything you asked me to do. Now what?”

  Whoever it was in the chair began cackling. It felt forced and controlled, but that didn’t make it any less sinister.

  I clenched my fist. “What’s so funny?”

  The figure in the chair finally spoke. “Not quite ‘everything’, my friend.”

  That voice… No - It couldn’t be. Why would it be? I watched as the figure lifted one leg off the ground and crossed it over the other. The chair spun around until I finally caught a full glimpse of the man behind ‘Aznable’.

  Shiraki was holding the missing bishop in his hand. He delicately reached forward and placed the bishop in its respective place on the board, rotating and centering it on the square until it perfectly matched the others. “You were supposed to arrive alone.”