Chapter Text
“K, here’s my first draft of the lyrics.”
“That’s great, Yuki. Enanan, what about you?”
“I’ve got some rough sketches, but I wanted you to help me pick one.”
“So indecisive, hehe…”
“Amia!”
Nightcord at 25, an underground music group that meets at 1am (or 25 hours?) every night on Nightcord, the messaging app. Its four members, composer K, lyricist Yuki, artist Enanan, and video editor Amia are just as anonymous to each other as they are to the world.
However, as it is now around 3am, they are currently logging off.
As K ended the call and closed Nightcord, a notification popped up from a news site: ‘MISSING PERSONS AT AN ALL TIME HIGH IN TOKYO’. Interesting phrasing. Hopefully ‘missing persons’ wasn’t a euphemism for something else. Maybe she would read the article tomorrow. Yawning, she switched the computer off and went to sleep.
~♫~
Yoisaki Kanade woke up not to crisp chills or birds tweeting, but the growl of cars and chatter of passersby. She rolled over in bed; it was already 1pm. In the daytime, she was not K, the talented musician, but a shut-in girl who scarcely saw anyone but her housekeeper.
She clambered upright, groaning as she stretched, before sitting down at her computer. As it started up, she recounted last night’s events… working on N25’s third song, Enanan teased by Amia, as usual… some news report that had somehow caught her attention, and yet, she couldn’t remember what it was. Well, either it was the constant sleep deprivation, or if she forgot, it wasn’t important.
There was no one to remind her to take her online classes. Ever since her mother died, and her father had fallen into a coma due to overexertion, she had lived alone. While her grandmother paid for the house’s utilities and hired the housekeeper, everything else Kanade did herself, with questionable results.
It was nearly three o’clock when she finished the last of the integration questions - maths had never been her strong suit. Kanade got up and promptly headed to the kitchen to cook, or more accurately, pour boiling water in lunch. But when she opened the cupboard, it was empty. Damn. She really should’ve stocked up on cup noodles earlier that week. She stuck her head further inside, but there weren’t any canned foods either. No point checking the fridge; she wouldn’t really know how to cook with raw ingredients anyways. That left her no choice but to… go outside.
The weather was temperate, though more on the warm side since it was June. By the time Kanade set off, it was well into the afternoon, so the sun was also high in the sky. Fortunately, she lived in Shibuya, so the supermarket was only a short walk from her house. As she waited at the Scramble Crossing, she found herself looking up at one of its giant screens, currently broadcasting a news report. Suddenly, she perked up. That it was - the article she’d seen yesterday, about the missing people.
“Missing persons cases have almost doubled since 2016, a new high in Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police are working round the clock to investigate these unexplained disappearances, and have also advised members of the public, especially young women, to remain vigilant and not to stay out in the dark.”
Unexplained… So they had already ruled out suicides. Kanade sighed. It was a relief on one end to know that people still treasured their lives, but a little scary on the other to hear those lives were being taken from them, and without explanation. Was there some serial killer on the loose?
She looked up, just as the blue pedestrian light turned red again. Her punishment for zoning out. She stared up at the cloudy sky. Hopefully she’d make it home before dark.
~♫~
Unfortunately, Kanade would not make it home before dark. The supermarket she usually went to had closed that day and she’d had to walk an extra two kilometres to find another big one, which was some effort. Then, she spent most of her hour in there trying to find the new cup noodle flavour, only for an employee to tell her it had been recalled for health concerns. Finally, she had popped into the music store to check out some CDs, but ended up caught in a conversation with a girl absolutely obsessed with her long hair.
At last, she waved the girl goodbye and exited the store. She set her shopping bags down as she waited at a streetlight, casting her gaze to the setting sun that seeped through the towering buildings of Shibuya. Perhaps she would’ve enjoyed its warm, yolky flame from the comfort of her bedroom, but right now, the only thing on her mind was getting home. The warning on the news earlier only made her feel more anxious.
She took out her phone, opening the map app to search for a shortcut. Eventually, she managed to find a route that would avoid most of the foot traffic, though it was no shorter than the way she’d come. She sighed, beginning the gruelling trek.
While Kanade was no stranger to technology, she was to the layout of her own city, but nonetheless realised the map app had led her straight into a very unfamiliar area of town. In the flickers of streetlights, she could glimpse walls matted with flyers and graffiti, and… was there a person in the window watching her? Not to mention, it was definitely nighttime now - the sky above had become a pitch-black abyss, and the temperature had dropped noticeably.
She peered down at her phone. Still on the route… apparently. Maybe it would be better to ask someone for help, if only just to know she was on the right path. Kanade squinted; there were two people in the distance, walking so close they were basically touching. Probably a couple - she could ask them. After all, what were the probabilities of two people meeting and also being serial killers?
“No…” Was the girlfriend drunk? She looked slumped over the guy’s shoulder. Then again, it was hard to see. Had the air always been that smoggy?
Kanade sucked in a deep breath. “Excuse me, I’m-”
Then, her eyes widened. That guy wasn’t carrying her, he was strangling her! In fact, as he looked up, the fangs protruding from his lower jaw needing no introduction… he wasn’t a guy at all.