At Night, I Become a Monster

by Yoru Sumino

  So that was why he was in the classroom so early. That was calamitous. For Yano.

  “So when’s he gonna do it?”

  “No idea. I mean, it’s not like there really is a kaiju.”

  Didn’t seem like I was going to get any more information out of him. It annoyed me a little how flippant he was being, but after thinking about it for a minute, I realized that his attitude was normal. I was the one acting weird.

  “You really care that much, Acchi?” Kasai asked. “Don’t tell me he’s got even you hooked.”

  “I’m not gonna sneak into the school.”

  “’Course not, you’re too serious.”

  “That’s right, I’m not like you, Kasai.”

  “Wha?”

  His expression suddenly darkened. That happened now and then. It was pretty rare, but occasionally, when I messed with Kasai, he would suddenly make a very unhappy face. Everyone gets pissed off now and then, but seeing that sort of expression on someone as carefree as Kasai made me nervous.

  “I mean, uh…”

  He laughed then. “Ahaha, seriously man, what is with you, Acchi?”

  Kasai smiled wider than before, slapping me again on the shoulder as though he had seen the fear come across on my face and simply found it funny. That calmed me down in a hurry.

  It also just so happened that the one person who could always brighten up Kasai’s mood was passing by as we left the restroom. It was perfect timing, both for Kasai and for me. It was Midorikawa, who was walking towards the cafeteria. I got the impression that she brought her own lunch every day, but maybe she was on the way to buy some juice or something.

  “Yo,” Kasai called energetically from behind her. “Midorikawa, you off to the snack counter?”

  Despite his enthusiasm, she turned languidly, with no hint of surprise. She nodded with a simple “Mm.”

  Any normal person, at this point, might have offered up at least a “What about you two?” But if you waited for something like that from Midorikawa, you’d be there until sundown. Perhaps realizing this, or perhaps just wishing to prolong the conversation, Kasai continued to speak, his voice slightly higher than normal.

  “By the way, Midorikawa, have you heard? Apparently a kaiju’s been showing up around here lately.”

  Midorikawa tilted her head and said nothing. Her way of saying no. There were times, now and then, when I really wondered whether she could even say anything other than “Mm,” but she always managed a proper reply when the teachers called on her in class.

  “Apparently, there’s a kaiju that comes out at night. Honestly, I don’t believe it.”

  “Mm.”

  “A bunch of people say they’ve seen it, though. You have any interest in things like that, Midorikawa?”

  “Mm.”

  “Whoa, seriously? I’m surprised, ahaha. Well then, if I hear anything else, I’ll let you know.”

  “Mm.”

  “Anyway, we’re gonna go play soccer. Sorry for interruptin’ you.”

  “Mm,” she said, which perhaps meant, “Yes, you did interrupt me.” She gave a nod, and, as though she deemed the conversation over, turned her back and left without another word. It seemed awfully rude, but Kasai was grinning and in high spirits, so I guess that was fine.

  We finally headed to the entrance, me walking alongside Kasai, whose mood was fully restored. The other guys had already started playing. “C’mon, hurry up!” Kasai demanded, dragging me along. Pretty presumptuous for someone who had caused the delay himself. We arrived quickly at the shoe box designated for our class, finding someone already there.

  “Oh hey, Nakagawa. Don’t usually see you go outside.”

  Kasai was already opening the door of his own shoe locker as he spoke to her and perhaps didn’t see what Nakagawa was holding in her hands. I did, and realized why she was standing there. Maybe that’s why the two of us locked eyes for a moment before I averted my gaze.

  “Are you two going to play soccer?” Nakagawa asked, not appearing at all concerned with being caught.

  “Yeah. What about you?”

  It was then, as Kasai shoved his feet into his athletic shoes and looked up at Nakagawa, that he seemed to finally notice what she was holding in her hands.

  “Whoa, what the heck?!”

  Nakagawa laughed. It was a pair of shoes, gripped in a cleaning cloth, along with a box cutter.

  “I thought it was time for a little payback,” she said in a lilting tone, looking from Kasai to me. This time, I averted my gaze in time.

  “Ah, those are hers, huh?” I asked.

  “That’s right!”

  Nakagawa seemed overjoyed at my confirmation. It was very much like seeing a princess who had been lauded by her subjects before the eyes of a handsome prince.

  I guess she was certain that Yano was the culprit. As I mulled over this conviction, which the rest of the class seemed to agree with, Kasai gave a rather impressed-sounding, “Oh?”

  Nakagawa’s eyes flicked immediately back to him.

  “So, you’re sure, then?” he asked.

  “Hm?”

  “You figured out for sure that she was the one who did that to your shoes?” he asked innocently, putting to words what I could not.

  Her lips pursed.

  “Well, there’s no evidence, but it’s obvious, isn’t it?”

  Evidence, huh? Seemed like a lot of people liked playing detective these days.

  It was not at all strange for her to come to this conclusion, given what had happened with Iguchi, I thought, but Kasai did not appear to agree.

  “Then it’s kinda soon for that, isn’t it?”

  I don’t think that Nakagawa was expecting such a reply. It was surprising even to me. Though he would never do anything to her directly, I assumed that Kasai harbored a deep-seated hatred for Yano. Where he differed from the others in our class was that he didn’t hate her out of some herd mentality or a sense of unity or even justice, but because she had hurt someone he cherished, pure and simple. Thus, I figured that he was indifferent to all the things that others did around him.

  Doubtless, Nakagawa never thought she would be admonished by a classmate about something regarding Yano—and especially not Kasai. “Y-yes, I guess you’re right,” she muttered, smiling only with her lips. She dropped Yano’s shoes on the spot, passed between us, and left.

  Guess she was embarrassed, I thought as I watched her walk away.

  “All right, let’s get goin’,” said Kasai.

  “Yeah.”

  As I followed behind Kasai, I silently thanked him—not for the fact that Yano’s shoes had made it out of this unscathed but for chasing Nakagawa away.

  To be honest, I had never been very fond of her. Maybe it was because her good looks gave her confidence or something, but she was the kind of person who had no qualms about harming those whom she deemed below her. Even before the class came to hate Yano as a whole, Nakagawa would talk to Yano in that wheedling voice of hers and then make fun of whatever Yano had said with the girls she actually was friends with. Moreover, Yano was not her only target; Iguchi and other weak-willed classmates were all fodder for her ridicule.

  All the better that she was hurt by Kasai, I thought, who she thought so highly of. If it hurt her a bit to be admonished, that was for the best, whether she took it as being over her lack of morals or because she’d leapt to conclusions.

  When I thought of how Nakagawa’s gaze trembled, despite all that bravado of hers, my heart felt just a little bit lighter.

  At the same time, I realized how stupid it was for everyone to wish for someone else to get hurt. Instead, I wished for Kasai—who was jovial and emotional but possessed a sharp sense of judgment—to have his prayers finally be heard. In other words, I hoped Midorikawa would have slightly better communication skills from here on out.

  The day finished with no other major incident to speak of. The only other things that happened were eraser crumbs being tossed at Yano during clas
s and Takao’s missing bike being discovered in the nearby river.

  Tuesday

  Night

  AS SOON AS I TRANSFORMED that night, I rushed to the school. I had no idea when Motoda and his goons planned to show up, which meant that it could happen today. Having a group of boys and one girl all alone in the school at night could become an issue even outside of bullying.

  As I arrived at the classroom, thinking how throwing a monster into the mix might only exacerbate things, I found that Yano-san had yet to arrive.

  How strange, I thought, since it was already during the time that she referred to as midnight break. Perhaps she was depressed about what had happened during the day and had decided not to come for once. Now that I thought about it, that would be perfectly reasonable. The incident with Iguchi was one thing, but to be pinned as a criminal for a crime that no one could ever prove, to be called out and have accusations tossed at her that no one would even think to take back…

  “Wah!”

  “Gwahh!!”

  As I took my seat in the back of the classroom as always, I was startled by a loud sound from behind and let out a shout. At the same time, the black droplets of my body went flying out as they had once before, knocking over the nearby desks. The violent sound of the chairs striking the floor overlapped with the sound of the cleaning supply cabinet closing.

  “Hey.”

  A few seconds after I called out, the cabinet creaked open. Inside was Yano-san, tittering evilly, her eyes two crescent moons.

  I grew immediately annoyed. That was becoming something of a nightly occurrence. And here I had been worrying about her. “Quit it. For all we know those guys might show up today.”

  “Do you know…when Noto-sensei’s birthday…is?”

  “Now, look…”

  She really needed to be more serious about this, I thought, and then stopped myself. Surely this bad habit of not listening when others spoke had been thoroughly ingrained over the dozen-odd years she had lived up until now. I could see in her eyes that she thought absolutely nothing of my warning.

  Still, why on earth was she talking about Noto-sensei’s birthday?

  “I dunno. How come?”

  “It’s…next week.”

  “And how’d you learn when her birthday is?”

  “I…asked her. She’ll be…thirty-three.”

  Two things about that surprised me. The first was that Noto-sensei was thirty-three. Kasai had already told me that she was probably around thirty, but I had been thoroughly convinced that she was still in her twenties. And I wasn’t the only one—all of the students called her “Non-chan,” like it was nothing. The second was that Yano-san was on good enough terms with Noto-sensei to be discussing her birthday with her. Maybe she escaped to the nurse’s office to take breaks when she got overwhelmed, like Noto-sensei was always encouraging us to do.

  Of course, what one counted as “overwhelmed” was a matter of perspective.

  Yano-san clambered out of the supply cabinet and swayed her way over to her seat. Now, we were in our usual positions.

  “I was thinking…of giving her…a present.”

  “Seriously?”

  The idea of giving a birthday present to a teacher was shocking, but now that I thought about it, plenty of girls gave chocolates to the young male teachers on Valentine’s. It really wasn’t all that strange a notion. There was just something very peculiar about the idea of Yano-san being the one to do it.

  “Well, I guess that’d be good?”

  “Are you…the kind who pushes something you like…on other people…as presents? Or the kind…who gives people things…that they like?”

  “I’m the type who gives something appropriate that won’t cause trouble for them.”

  “Is appropriate…different from adequate?”

  What do you think? I thought, shaking my head side to side. “Appropriate means thinking about how the other person might react and choosing a gift that most people would be a least a little bit happy to receive.”

  “Hmm… It’s hard to…live, when you have to think about so many different…things.”

  To me, it would be much harder to live without considering all of these things, but that was a topic I was not about to broach.

  “I want to try to live…a bit more simply than…that.”

  “Yano-san…don’t you think things would be better if you did think about things a little more?”

  That much of a warning was appropriate, I felt.

  “But then things would…be as hard for me…as they are for you.”

  “…My life isn’t all that hard.”

  Not like yours, I meant.

  “It’s fine. Don’t worry so…much, Acchi-kun.”

  No, I had just said that my life wasn’t hard. Listen for once. Being needlessly comforted was truly grating.

  I tried to make what I thought was a slightly unhappy face, but Yano-san continued.

  “Noto-sensei was saying…something.”

  “What?” I asked.

  Still sitting in her chair, facing me, Yano-san patted her chest. Perhaps she was imitating Noto-sensei or something. “Difficult things can be good…for you. Keep on…living. You can live a bit…more freely, once you’re an adult.”

  “…”

  “What do…you think? Moving…isn’t it?”

  Yano-san, reveling in it all, appeared to mistake my silence for deep emotion. It occurred to me that demanding someone be moved was a surefire way to break the mood.

  I wasn’t silent though. I was dumbfounded that Yano-san had so proudly related those words.

  Noto-sensei knew what was going on with Yano-san, and she had given that advice to her. Somehow, she knew all about how Yano-san was treated by the class, what her daily life was like at school.

  If she knew, then why hadn’t she done anything? Why had she only given her those knowing words, instead of stepping in to save her? She was a teacher, wasn’t she? An adult.

  My whole body shuddered.

  “What’s…wrong?”

  “Nothing,” I said.

  Honestly, I got it. I understood. If Noto-sensei knew about it, then that probably meant that she couldn’t interfere. Within the bounds of the classroom, within the bounds of the class, within the bounds of our shared unity, teachers and other adults were outsiders through and through. Those of us on the inside knew that better than anyone else.

  Nothing could be done from the outside. If anyone were to meddle, things might just end up much, much worse.

  “Are…you hungry?”

  “Wait, now that I think about it, doesn’t talking about Noto-sensei count as talking about the daytime?”

  I offered up her usual retort, forming a grin with my monstrous mouth. Of course, it was not that I actually intended to do her any harm. More than anything, I thought that employing her usual mysterious logic might give me some kind of escape, or maybe she’d pretended not to hear me and I could change the subject or something. Either one would distract her from my silence, so either one was fine.

  However…

  “It’s not a daytime topic, so it’s…fine,” said Yano-san.

  “…What do you mean?”

  “C’mon, Acchi-kun, let’s fix…the desks. You’re the one who knocked them…over, after all. The…poor things.”

  As usual, she had no interest in actually talking, so I said nothing more, silently fixing up the desks. Yano-san clumsily tried to help, but her hands kept slipping, sending the desks tumbling once again to the ground. Pity the poor furniture that suffered at her hands.

  “Be careful. What’ll you do if someone hears that noise?”

  “Who?”

  “The guards, or those other guys, if they came here.”

  “Isn’t it good if the in…vade…ers find us?”

  It took me about ten seconds to reconstruct that word in my head into “invaders.” Honestly, that seemed like a term better applied to a kaiju.

  “You want t
hem to find us?”

  “If not, then how…will you chase them off, Acchi…kun?”

  “Ah, gotcha. If I don’t scare them off, they might set up base here.”

  “Yes…ob…vi…ously.”

  Seriously?

  Unfortunately, she wasn’t wrong. I swallowed back the complaint lingering in my throat and pondered the best way to deal with the invaders.

  “I’ll leave a clone at the front gate, then.”

  “Your Sha…dow, right? Shadow.”

  I continued, “When they get here, I’ll lure them into the building and then come after them.”

  “Sounds…good.”

  I quickly prepared a clone and sent it to the gate. This one couldn’t change its size or breathe fire. Furthermore, if I sent him outside of the gates, he would vanish—perhaps because I had only envisioned him as being useful within the school, the first time.

  “Come to…think of it, who was that, yester…day?” Yano-san asked.

  The question came so abruptly that it took me a moment to process what she was talking about.

  “Oh yeah, the one who set off the alarm in the courtyard?”

  “May…be some idiot from our…class.”

  As I wondered why Yano-san would assume that, I recalled something—though I didn’t do it of my own volition.

  “Nakagawa-san was saying that someone threw her shoes out into the yard. Maybe whoever was here yesterday dropped them.”

  “That’s day…time…talk.”

  “But them dropping them might’ve happened at night,” I pointed out.

  Yano-san fell silent despite her initial protest, as though having accepted this explanation. I ignored her immediate, childish reply of, “Can you…prove it?”

  “If it is someone from our class, I wonder who.”

  “Someone who hates Yuri…ko-chan.”

  By Yuriko-chan she meant Nakagawa. When I thought about the people who hated her, a single human immediately came to mind. Not a monster, a human.

  “What’s your de…duction, De…tective Acchi-kun?”

  Though I couldn’t make anything approaching a “deduction,” I at least knew that the culprit wasn’t me, so I had to start with considering the retreating form I had seen the night before. The person was short, though not as short as Yano-san, with hair that did not extend past their shoulders.