Middle of the Ocean, Present
Ryota, now in his right mind again, remembers the direction he needs to drive the boat to get the group back to their home.
Arius, not having spoken since the orphanage event, stays silent. With no care to the setting, Ryota breaks the silence that lingers.
“Niche, don’t you think that was… kind of overkill back there? On the way back to the boat, I saw the inside of the orphanage through the big front door. From what I could see…people were burning. I assumed that letter you wrote was part of your plan – mainly because it had your name on it – but I also did hope you were bluffing. You know, I’m sure they would’ve complied if you hadn’t forced them to.”
Arius stays silent out of fear of Niche, and Niche purposefully doesn’t reveal the information that would’ve broke Ryota at that moment: the people in there complied before Niche burned them all.
Niche replies, “Do you know what they were doing to you in there, Ryota?”
“No, but I assumed you had some way to communicate with me. I saw that camera facing my room; I thought you found a way to hack into the cams of this building and broadcast that camera to the whole place.”
“It’s worse than that. Those security cameras were being broadcasted to everyone. And it wasn’t just that camera, too. There were twenty different cameras, all hidden in your room at different angles. Other people could also pay for things to be done to you. That fly and object that tripped you were placed there intentionally. They kidnapped you, invaded your privacy, and forced you to play in their game.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize that. But I mean… did you have to kill them all? You could’ve only killed the ones who actually paid for stuff.”
“Nah, they were all evil. If they didn’t bet already, they were planning to. Exploitation of any person in general is evil and should be justly punished. Those were a bunch of perverted, sadistic, manipulative, pedophilic, people. All of them. They’re contaminated. All were dirty. That whole building was,” Niche voice strengthens and crescendos into desperation. “They’re all contaminated. I had to do it, Ryota. That was the only way to clean it. It -”
“But what about—” Ryota starts, trying to interrupt Niche’s rant to stop it from spiraling.
Arius interrupts Ryota’s interruption, saying, “What is that smell? Its like something is rotting. You guys smell that, right?”
Niche and Ryota, having forgotten Arius was on the boat, come back to reality. When they do, they smell the fishy rotting smell.
“You’re right,” Ryota says, slowing the boat to a stop.
Arius looks into the distance, and once he sees it, he calls out, “Hey guys! There’s a dead shark! It’s just floating on the water! What the hell? That’s what’s making the smell. Oh, gosh, who would kill a shark? Is that even legal?”
Niche and Ryota look at each other.
“Yeah, that’s sad. Whoever did that must be a ,” Ryota says, looking at Niche with a ferocious intent as he talks. Arius doesn’t notice this gesture. “Anyways,” Ryota continues, now talking to Arius, “we should get back soon quick. It’s gonna be a long ride, and its already getting dark.”
“Yeah,” Arius says.
Dock, Night, Present
They get to dock at their city, but by this time the sun has already set, and the streets are lit up by streetlights and some shops that are still open.
Industrial District/City Streets, Present
As the walk away from the quiet dock town to the bustling city streets, they notice the state of shops change. More shops are now open, and the nature of these shops shifts dramatically from necessities in the fishing town to consumer goods in the metropolitan area. One of these shops in particular catches Arius’ attention.
“Hey…” Arius starts, breaking the silence and squinting at something in the distance. “Isn’t that… Raizen?” he asks while pointing at a pet shop window across the street with Raizen sleeping on a giant pile of food.
“You’re right,” Niche says. “I forgot about him. Didn’t I give him to you, Arius?”
Arius’ face turns red, then Niche’s demeanor changes to playful as he says, laughing, “It’s fine. I know whatever happened wasn’t your fault; he probably dragged you into some chaotic shit. Don’t worry about it too much, Arius.”
The three go into the pet shop.
The owner looks relieved to see them. “Is this…
cat?” he asks.
“Yeah, we’ll buy him,” Niche offers.
“Please, just take him. He’s been eating everything and somehow talking to the other animals. The creepiest thing is that the other animals to him. It’s been disturbing.”
Niche grabs Raizen, who wakes up annoyed.
“Ugh, finally you’re back,” Raizen says relieved. “Sorry for that uh… thing, Arius. Got a little out of hand, but I’ve served my fair share of boredom in here.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Niche puts fifty dollars on the cashier’s register for “all his troubles,” thanks him for the cat, and leaves with Ryota and Arius.
Residential District Streets, Late Night, Present
Niche walks home with Raizen dragging himself next to Niche.
“So,” Niche asks, “how was it over there? What happened in your day?”
“Not much. At least, not as much as I hoped for. I kind of forced Arius into going skiing on this difficult black slope and…you could say the slope was a lot steeper than just a black.”
Niche chuckles, “I’m guessing you went first, and Arius refused, right? And you somehow got caught when u ‘skied’ down – or maybe ‘fell’ down would be a better word? They cared for your ‘injuries?’”
“Pretty much. Although I’ll have you know I was
injured. I just had to pretend I was hurt so they’d believe it,” Raizen looks away sassily, scoffing.
“Ah, my little manipulator,” Niche says, leaning down to ruffle Raizen’s fur at they walked.
Raizen, pretending to not like the petting, asked, “So, what’d you learn today?”
“Hm. I guess nothing too important. Just that some people are a lot worse than you think, you know? You’d never be able to guess what people really do in their free time. Even if you could guess, you would never be able to imagine how they could find such a weird hobby so .”
“Sounds specific, but I guess I agree,” Raizen responds.
School, Next Day, Present
Niche gets his tests scores back. English: 87%. Physics: 89%.
He stares at the papers.
“Nice scores,” Ryota says, glancing over, snarling.
“Very funny,” Niche replies, smiling.
Niche spreads the tests out, analyzing every red mark.
He starts a mental journal. For English, he begins obsessively questioning causation in everything. Why did Maruka choose that lunch table? Surface: it’s available. Deeper: corner position for observing everyone. Even deeper: childhood need for control manifesting through spatial positioning.
For Physics, he calculates work in daily life. The angle Usui opens his locker (exactly 42 degrees every time). The air resistance on falling papers. The momentum transfer when students bump in hallways. How far that paper airplane thrown in class goes.
“You’re overthinking this,” Maruka says, watching him measure the arc of his pencil movement.
“I need to understand the patterns I’m missing,” he replies every time.
He fills mental pages with calculations.
During the middle of fifth period, Niche is calculating the optimal sitting posture for the least force on the spine when—
His pencil drops. His hand twitches. Then nothing. He picks it up, continues writing. But for just a moment, his handwriting wavers. Something’s wrong internally, but he pushes through.
Niche's Room, Night, Present
Niche sits perfectly still at his desk. He can't lean back because the roaches will gather in his spine. If he lies down, they cluster in his skull. He maintains perfect posture, perfect focus, and perfect control.
His flames flicker internally. Burning. Always burning.
The clock reads 2 AM. Then 3. Then 4.
He doesn't blink. Blinking means a microsecond of lost focus. A microsecond where they multiply.
But he's been saying that for months now. And every time he tries to summon enough fire to melt the glass, the roaches surge, distracting him.
His hand moves toward the drawer where he keeps a knife.
5 AM. Still awake. Still burning. Ryota didn't even notice despite standing right next to him.
6 AM now.
Ryota walks into Niche's room without knocking. "Alright, I'm getting bored. Let's do this already—"
He stops. Niche is sitting at his desk, staring at nothing. He hasn't moved in a while. Just yesterday at school Niche was fine. Or rather, he fine.
"Woah, Niche, you good?" Ryota looks concerned.
Niche's eyes slowly focus on him. His response comes delayed, like his brain needs extra time to process. "Oh. Yeah. Let's... let's do it."
He doesn’t even question what Ryota’s doing here. Why Ryota’s at his house at this particular day. Why Ryota is there at 6 in the morning. Why Ryota is even here in the first place; how does Ryota expect to help Niche at all? But these questions don’t flow into Niche’s mind. Rather, maybe they do, but they are suppressed. Not now. Now, there are more urgent matters. More important things to get to. At school, Niche can pretend. It takes energy, but he can do it. It’s possible, in other words. Because pretending is easier than the roaches, right? Anything is easier than the roaches. So, this must mean anything besides the roaches is possible. That’s just how it works, at least to Niche. Breaking and exposing a criminal front is easy – infinitely easier compared to right now. Why, then? Why are the roaches so difficult? Niche couldn’t answer this. He simply doesn’t know. There must be a reason, right? He just has to find it. Or maybe, the reason is so undesirable to Niche he already knows it but pretends not to. He tries to force himself to hide it, like a child in the winter opening their Christmas presents but trying to pretend to not know what’s inside. What then, is the fun part? The interesting part? What is the boring part? The strange part? There is one final question Niche could ask to summarize all these concerns and ideas revolving this one event, known as the “intelligence trial,” but more specifically the roach infestation inside of Niche’s body: what is the point?
