A Gift that should never see the light of day. A smile that's too perfect to be real. And a classmate who's about to find out the truth.
Kazama Shinji hates Mistrea Island—the isolated academy where the Gifted are caged until eighteen, and where his ability to manipulate corpses makes him a freak among the "talented." He keeps his head down, counts the days, and tries not to think about why his childhood friend Yuuka's smile sometimes looks hollow.
Then Hiiragi Nana transfers in. Sweet, popula
Talentless Nana: The Shadow Observer - Night of the Accomplice — The Boy Who Saw, and the Girl in the Mask
I hate this island.
Every morning, when I open the window, the same smell of the sea drifts in. Salt, and the damp air rolling down from the mountains. And somewhere far off, the cry of a crow. Three hundred and eighty kilometers from the mainland. Mistrea Island. It took four hours by boat to get here.
"...Hah."
A sigh escapes me. All I can see from the classroom window is the foot of Mount Zenova, blanketed in green, and beyond it the gray expanse of the ocean. The horizon is always hazy — I've never once caught a glimpse of the mainland.
I'm Kazama Shinji, seventeen years old, a student at this island's full-boarding academy. Its official name is Mistrea Academy for the Gifted. On paper, it's "an educational institution for youth with special talents." But the truth is something else entirely.
This island is a cage for isolating the gifted.
Just 0.3 percent of the Eldrant Republic's population carries a Gift. At twelve, you take the aptitude test, get assigned a registration number, and by law you're required to enroll in this academy until you turn eighteen. The Gifted Isolation Act. Break it, and your parents are fined five million lira.
In other words, we can't leave.
The ferry runs twice a week. Outside communication is limited to fifteen minutes, once a week. Beyond that, all we can do is send internal mail on the terminals the academy issues us.
"...It really is the worst."
I didn't come to this island by choice.
In the classroom, my classmates are making noise again today.
"Hey, I swear my Gift leveled up again yesterday."
"Huh? Gifts have levels?"
"It's a feeling, okay, a feeling. But seriously, I think the temperature of my flames went up."
Moguo is showing off his palm, looking smug. A pyrokinetic. He calls himself the "Noble Prince of Flame" — a chubby, buzz-cut guy who always plants himself in the middle of the classroom with two lackeys in tow.
I can't join conversations like that.
No — to be precise, I don't want to.
My Gift is corpse manipulation. Anything dead I touch, I can move at will. Duration depends on the state of the body — anywhere from five minutes to two hours. Range, about ten meters.
...Pretty awful, right?
I don't want anyone knowing about a Gift like this. While my classmates are hyping each other up with "isn't my Gift amazing," all I can do is stare out the window and wait for it to pass.
My bangs fall into my eyes. I push them back with my left hand and sigh again.
"Shinji, you're staring out the window again."
The voice makes my shoulders jump.
I turn around. Standing there is Sasaki Yuuka. Her short black hair is gathered on top of her head, a slightly rebellious cowlick bobbing. Her big, bright brown eyes are laughing at me.
"Morning, Shinji."
"...Morning, Yuuka."
Yuuka is my childhood friend.
We've been together for as long as I can remember. Our houses were next door, we went to the same elementary and middle schools. And we ended up entering this academy at the same time, too.
"You know, Shinji, you're always staring out that window. Do you like the ocean that much?"
"It's not that I like it. It's just... habit, I guess."
"Hmm?"
Yuuka tilts her head and sits down in the seat next to mine. Her uniform skirt flutters.
"Let's eat lunch together today. I hear the onsen-egg rice bowl in the cafeteria is really good."
"...Sure."
Honestly, I wanted to eat alone, in peace. But I've never been good at turning down Yuuka's invitations.
Yuuka smiles. Seeing that smile, something deep in my chest eases, just a little.
...And yet.
Lately, sometimes, I think about it. There are moments when Yuuka's smile looks somehow hollow.
Her eyes are smiling, but behind them is emptiness. For just a fraction of a second, her focus slips.
My eye for detail tells me so.
But I never had the courage to say it out loud.
"Then at lunch break! I'll go ahead to the cafeteria and save us seats."
"Yeah, thanks."
Yuuka gives a little wave and runs off across the classroom.
I watch her back for a moment, then turn my eyes back to the window.
The sea is gray again today.
Lunch break.
The cafeteria, "Mist Dining," is packed with students. Three hundred seats. It's on the first floor of the largest building on the island.
I'm sitting at the window seat Yuuka saved for us, eating the signature Zenova onsen-egg rice bowl. A hundred and eighty lira. The soft-cooked yolk coats the rice — better than I expected.
"Shinji, you actually like egg-on-rice?"
Yuuka is laughing from the seat across from me. She ordered the seaweed ramen. Four hundred and eighty lira.
"No, it's my first time. This is pretty good, actually."
"Right? The head chef here is from the island, you know. He says he remembers every student's face. Isn't that amazing?"
"Huh."
I take a bite of the rice bowl, then happen to look up.
Near the cafeteria entrance, a cluster of girls is squealing.
"Nana, over here, over here!"
"You're so cute today too!"
At the center of the commotion is Hiiragi Nana.
Bright brown hair tied in twin tails. The ribbons suit her perfectly. Her big amber eyes sparkle. She's about five foot two — petite, delicate, with a face as perfectly put together as a doll's.
"Hello, everyone! You're all full of energy today, aren't you?"
Nana speaks politely to everyone. Well-mannered, cheerful, never shy with strangers. She transferred in only recently, and she's already the most popular girl in class.
"...Hiiragi really is popular."
"Nana's adorable. I like her too."
Yuuka stops her chopsticks and stares at Nana.
Her eyes narrow, just slightly.
"...Yuuka?"
"Hm? What?"
"No, nothing."
I swallow my words.
Just now, Yuuka's eyes — for a split second — seemed to lose focus.
...I'm imagining things.
I try to tell myself that. But a small thorn of unease lodges itself in my chest.
Afternoon classes end. It's after school.
In the classroom, Nana is surrounded by classmates again.
"Nana, try reading my mind!"
"Hey, no fair! Me too, me too!"
Nana laughs, looking a little troubled, and peers into each of their faces.
"Let's see... Moguo, you're thinking about the ramen you had for lunch today. And you're thinking you want to play games when you get back to your room."
"What!? How did you know!?"
"Because there's ramen broth on the corner of your mouth."
The classroom dissolves into laughter.
Nana's Gift is telepathy. She can read people's minds — or so it's said.
But sometimes I wonder.
If she really can read minds, why doesn't she ever see through me?
Not the fact that I'm hiding a corpse-manipulation Gift. Not the fact that I hate this island. Not the fact that Yuuka's smile unsettles me.
...Well, maybe "telepathy" doesn't mean she can see everything a person is thinking.
Even so, that smile looks somehow manufactured.
From the corner of the classroom, I watch Nana vaguely.
One of my classmates whispers something in her ear, and her face lights up.
"Really? I'm so happy! I want to be friends with all of you."
That smile is flawless.
Bright, innocent, a smile that makes everyone love her.
And that's exactly why it looks so unnatural to me.
"...Whatever."
I mutter under my breath and leave the classroom.
Evening.
I'm lying on my bed in my dorm room when my terminal buzzes.
"Tonight, 9 p.m. Sloane Cliff. Come alone."
The sender is Yuuka.
"...Sloane Cliff?"
Twenty minutes on foot south of the academy. A thirty-five-meter cliff. No streetlights at night — it should be pitch black.
At this hour, at the cliff?
What does she want to talk about?
But I can't refuse Yuuka.
I pull a faded hoodie on over my uniform. Unconsciously, my fingers trace the wristband on my left wrist. An old one — we bought matching ones, Yuuka and I.
The dorm hallway is quiet.
The other students have already gone back to their rooms by now. I kill my footsteps and slip out the back entrance.
The academy at night has a completely different face from the daytime.
The lights of the main building glimmer faintly in the distance. The grounds are empty. The wind comes down off Mount Zenova, rustling the trees.
I start walking down the road south.
Off the loop road, onto the narrow path toward the coast. The streetlights end here.
Only moonlight lights my feet.
The sound of the waves grows steadily louder.
(What does Yuuka want to talk about?)
I think as I walk.
Something she'd go out of her way to tell her childhood friend at a cliff at night.
...Could it be a confession?
No, probably not. With Yuuka, that's not it.
Even as I think it, my heart is pounding strangely.
I shove my hands into my hoodie pockets and pick up the pace.
It's a little past nine when I reach Sloane Cliff.
The top of the cliff is wider than I expected.
The ruins of an old lighthouse cast a black shadow in the moonlight.
"...Yuuka?"
I call out. No answer.
The sound of the waves echoes up from below the cliff.
Yuuka is nowhere to be seen.
What I hear instead is a man's voice.
"Hiiragi, what did you call me out here for at this hour?"
I instinctively duck into the shadows.
My heart lurches.
The voice belongs to Nakajima Nanao. A classmate. A serious, quiet guy.
And standing across from him is Hiiragi Nana.
Under the moonlight, Nana's twin tails sway in the wind.
"Sorry, Nanao. I just wanted to talk."
Nana's voice is the same soft, polite tone as in the daytime.
But I've already seen it.
Something is clutched in Nana's right hand.
Something small, catching the moonlight, glinting.
"Talk about what? Calling me out here at night — something's off."
Nanao's voice is trembling slightly.
"It's fine. This will be over quickly."
Nana takes a step toward Nanao.
I hold my breath in the shadows.
My heartbeat is deafening.
(Stop. Stop. Stop.)
I scream it in my mind. But my body won't move.
The next instant, Nana shoves Nanao hard in the back.
"Whoa—!?"
A short scream.
Nanao's body disappears over the edge of the cliff.
Falling into the darkness.
The scream recedes.
And then the sound of the waves swallows it.
I can't even make a sound.
My breath stops.
My fingertips go cold.
Nana glances down at the base of the cliff.
Then, slowly, she turns around.
The moonlight illuminates her face.
The bright smile she wore in the classroom is gone.
What's there is a cold, blank expression.
Her amber eyes stare straight at the shadow where I'm hiding.
"...Oh my."
Nana's lips move slightly.
The corners of her mouth slowly curve.
She smiles.
So cold it sends a chill down my spine.
I can't move, as if paralyzed.
Nana's gaze catches me.
Those eyes are like a beast that's found its prey.
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