“Monday again.
What a pain…”
I dragged myself out of bed once again, still very, very sleepy.
Eventually, I managed to sit up with a yawn so wide I nearly dislocated my jaw.
After Hira’s lecture on Friday, I decided to make a small effort.
No point adding even more to my record of late arrivals.
Twenty-seven is more than enough.
After showering, getting dressed, and eating breakfast, I headed to school, a trip that, thanks to my motorized bike—which is definitely not illegally modified—takes me barely six minutes.
My sincere thanks to whoever decided to put a bike rack right outside Hinode.
All of this means I can wake up late and still get my minimum eight hours of sleep.
Hell yeah.
Our school is modern, although some areas still preserve traditional Japanese buildings, with tiled roofs and Shinto symbolism.
Pretty nice, if you ask me.
Like almost everything in Kyoto tends to be.
There’s a reason it’s basically the mecca of traditional Japan.
We even have one of the most famous landmarks in the country, Fushimi Inari Taisha, with its thousands of red torii gates.
I reached my seat.
I didn’t greet anyone, and no one greeted me either.
I transferred to this school a few years ago.
I arrived when I was twelve, three years ago now.
Fitting in wasn’t easy.
Actually, I never really managed to.
Part of that was because of the bad reputation I’d earned for being pretty irresponsible at school, but mostly because of something that happened a year and a half ago.
Not even becoming the best player on the school’s football team has done much for my popularity.
Maybe that’s partly because I don’t exactly go out of my way to make friends.
The rest of the team doesn’t particularly like me either.
When I’m on the field, they don’t get much of a chance to shine.
As for that incident I mentioned, it happened not long after I joined the football team.
One of my teammates started giving me shit after practice.
He said the coach only played me because I had connections.
That ever since I’d joined the team, nobody else got a chance to stand out.
That all I cared about was scoring goals and taking the credit, and that I didn’t give a damn about the rest of the team.
Then he started calling me a freak, saying I never talked to anyone and thought I was better than everyone else.
Things got out of hand, and I shoved him.
I didn’t mean to hurt him, but I accidentally used my energy.
Luckily, it wasn’t enough to leave him paralyzed or anything, but it was enough to seriously hurt him.
He even had to spend a couple of days in the hospital.
That almost got me expelled.
Since then, not many people approach me in class.
They think I’m a bad influence…
And maybe they’re right, but I wasn’t always like this.
I changed quite a bit after I started seeing those monsters.
At first, I was genuinely terrified of them.
For months, I struggled to go outside alone, and more than once I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat after dreaming about them.
Eventually, I got used to their existence, but I’d be lying if I said they didn’t leave a mark on me.
Little by little, I became more distrustful and more solitary.
I’ve got a decent sense of humor now.
I didn’t turn into some bitter asshole or anything, but ever since then, there’s always been a part of me that prefers keeping its distance from everyone else.
At school, people usually only approach me when they need something for class.
Some girls look at me every now and then.
I guess I’m somewhat attractive, just apparently not attractive enough for them to approach a guy with a bad reputation around school.
In Japan, reputation is everything when it comes to social relationships.
“Everyone, take your seats.
Open your math books to Chapter Six: Matrices and Determinants,” said Hira Nogai, our homeroom teacher, who also taught most of our classes.
“I see you’re early today, Nagi.”
“The alarm actually did its job this time,” I replied.
A few people laughed…
With me or at me?
Whatever.
Sometimes I play the famous role of the class clown.
People like that, the funny ones, tend to be lonelier than they try to make themselves look.
Besides, if I don’t make jokes in class, I’ll fall asleep.
One math class and one English class later…
It was time for P.E., my favorite subject.
Everyone’s favorite, really.
The only class where you can turn your brain off.
My superhuman body made it by far the easiest subject for me.
First, they made us run.
Everyone ended up sweaty and exhausted except me.
One of the perks.
Then they gave us free play.
The girls started playing volleyball while the boys played football.
That gave those of us on the team a chance to practice a little for what was coming.
“Takeshi!
Over here!
I’m open!” shouted Hirato, one of my classmates.
The ball came toward him from a cross near the sideline as he charged toward the goal.
Two attackers against a single defender, who had to stop the play on his own.
That defender was me.
A two-on-one.
I activated my eyes and saw that his leg was about to move for a pass.
He’s going to pass it to his teammate, so what I need to do is…
I suddenly rushed forward at the exact moment Hirato made the pass, anticipating it and stealing the ball for my team.
“What the hell are you doing, Hirato?!”
I took the ball and dribbled past them one by one, using different tricks to get around each player.
I go through these guys like they’re training cones.
This doesn’t even make sense.
It’s not even fun.
And, of course, the goalkeeper couldn’t do anything either.
Thanks to the signals from his brain, I already knew which way he was going to dive before I even took the shot.
Goal.
“What the hell was that?” the goalkeeper muttered, completely defeated on the ground.
Even so, I didn’t want to attract too much attention, so I didn’t go all out for the rest of the match.
“Nagi-kun is really good at football,” one girl said.
“He could probably go pro.
You know what I heard about him?
A friend told me he hit another student and sent him to the hospital.
They say he’s a bad person,” another replied.
“Yeah, there’s definitely something weird about him.”
I went home that afternoon.
It had been a nice day, I guess.
Until my father came home from work.
Again.
Another monster on him.
Again, I killed it.
If this keeps happening, something could happen to Dad.
During dinner…
“Dad,” I asked, “have you been going anywhere different on your way home lately or something?”
“No, son.
Why do you ask?”
He looked tired and sore, although somewhat more relieved after I’d taken care of the creature.
I’ll get my answers without making it obvious.
Let’s see if I can get something out of him.
“I don’t know, I just noticed something.
Never mind…
How’s work?”
“Not great,” he admitted.
“Things have been a little tense lately.
Several of my coworkers have taken sick leave.”
“Why?” my mother asked.
“It’s been happening since last week.
More and more people are saying they feel nauseous and sick whenever they go to work, but then they get home and start feeling better.
They come back the next day and the same thing happens all over again.
On top of that, ever since the staff cuts, it’s not like we have people to spare.
We’re stretched pretty thin, so we need to figure this out soon.”
“I’ve been dealing with some pain myself, but a little pain isn’t going to stop your father from taking care of his responsibilities.
Besides, it goes away once I get home.”
“Maybe there’s something wrong with the ventilation?
Perhaps the air quality in the building isn’t good,” Mom suggested.
Close, but no, Mom.
In Dad’s case, it’s because I intervened and got rid of the monsters.
His stiff neck was caused by having those things clinging to him.
I guess the others didn’t have any directly attached to them and were simply getting nauseous and feeling sick from spending so much time in the same environment.
Maybe Dad has traces of my energy on him from living with me, and that’s what attracts the monsters?
I’ll think about that another time.
Either way…
Bingo.
My intuition hadn’t failed me.
His workplace was where those things were latching onto him.
It had to be acting as some kind of focal point, and right now, the place was probably infested with them.
Still…
Why would so many monsters gather inside an office building?
Could it be because the employees were afraid of the staff cuts?
That’s something negative, and I already know these things are attracted to that kind of stuff, but…
I don’t know.
Compared to deaths or accidents, it seems pretty trivial.
In any case…
I have to do something.
“Hey, Dad…
Where exactly did you say your office was?”
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