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 - The Accomplice's Demise—The Puppet's Counterattack and the True Face Beneath the Mask
The smell of the tide clung to the back of his nose and wouldn't let go.
Kazama Shinji walked alone along the dark cliff path. A moon floated in the sky, but its light was smothered by thin clouds—it barely illuminated a single grain of gravel underfoot. The sound of the surf broke rhythmically deep in his ears. Only that sound—zaaan, zaaan—echoed unnaturally loud. His soles pressed into dry earth. His lips, exposed to the salt wind, stung. He swallowed hard. His throat was parched.
(Yuuka's orders were to bring Nana-chan here.)
(But will Nana-chan actually come?)
Sloane Cliff. Twenty minutes on foot south of the academy. A thirty-five-meter precipice. The place where Nakajima Nanao was pushed off by Nana. And the place Yuuka had chosen for tonight's final act.
(This is where it all ends.)
Shinji stopped walking.
Atop the cliff stood two figures.
One was small, with a twintail silhouette. In the moonlight, her light brown hair floated softly. Hiiragi Nana.
The other was a girl with short black hair gathered atop her head. Sasaki Yuuka.
The two faced each other.
"Nana-chan, you came."
Yuuka's voice had its usual bright tone. But mixed with the surf, it rang thin, as if coming from somewhere far away.
"Shinji brought you here properly. Good boy, good boy."
Yuuka turned toward Shinji and smiled.
She smiled. She was supposed to have smiled.
To Shinji's eyes, that smile looked like a pasted-on mask. Her eyes weren't smiling. Her bright brown irises were like glass beads, reflecting no emotion.
(Yuuka...)
Shinji felt something tighten deep in his chest.
"Hey, Nana-chan."
Yuuka took a step closer to Nana.
"I've been thinking I want to talk with you more, Nana-chan. Because it seems I've seriously fallen for you."
Nana said nothing. Her amber eyes watched Yuuka quietly in the night darkness. The ribbons of her twintails swayed in the wind.
"What do you think of me, Nana-chan?"
Yuuka tilted her head. Her ahoge bounced.
"...Yuuka-san. Are you really all right with this?"
Nana's voice was low and quiet.
"Huh? With what?"
"Making Kazama-kun bring you all the way here. Was talking to me really all you wanted?"
Nana didn't back down an inch. Shinji held his breath between them.
(No. Nana-chan knows.)
(She knows what Yuuka's real goal is.)
Yuuka stared at Nana for a while. Then, softly, her expression vanished.
"...I see. And?"
Emotion drained cleanly from Yuuka's voice.
"How much do you know about me, Nana-chan?"
"That you're controlling Kazama-kun with your ability. And that your real ability isn't super strength—it's corpse manipulation."
Nana said it plainly. Yuuka narrowed her eyes.
"Huh. So it's all out in the open."
"Yes. That Kazama-kun is your puppet. The reason you approached me—all of it."
Nana glanced at Shinji for just a moment. In that gaze, something complicated seemed to swirl.
(Nana-chan...)
Shinji felt he had to say something. But no words came.
"Hmm. Then this'll be quick."
Yuuka slowly approached Shinji.
"Hey, Shinji. Who was it that told Nana-chan my secret?"
Yuuka's hand touched the nape of Shinji's neck. Her fingertips were cold. Shinji's body went rigid.
Corpse manipulation. The power to freely control any corpse she touches. Yuuka's fingertips moved slowly across Shinji's skin.
(No. Not yet.)
(The instant right before activation. That instant when Yuuka's emotions are at their thinnest—that's what I aim for.)
The conversation he'd had with Kyouya the night before raced through his head.
"Yuuka's ability has a blind spot. For just an instant before activation, her emotions are at their thinnest. In that instant, you might be able to escape her control."
Yuuka's fingertips lifted from his neck.
That was the moment. Shinji poured all his strength into his fingertips.
(Move. My body, move.)
Shinji's right hand moved. By his own will, it moved. With that hand, he grabbed Nana's arm.
"Please, Nana-chan."
His voice shook. Words spilled out as if wrung from deep in his throat.
"Turn Yuuka back... back into the real Yuuka. The price of her corpse manipulation is eating away her emotions, bit by bit. At this rate, Yuuka will lose herself. I don't want to be a puppet anymore. But more than that—I don't want to lose Yuuka. Please, Nana-chan. Save Yuuka."
Shinji's words were swept away by the night sea wind. Nana stared at his hand. Her amber eyes were wide open.
"Kazama-kun... you, by your own will..."
Nana's voice trembled faintly.
"Shinji."
Yuuka's voice came from behind him. A cold voice.
"Just now, you escaped my control, didn't you."
Yuuka slowly drew closer to Shinji.
"How? Did you aim for that instant? The moment my emotions are thinnest?"
Yuuka's eyes were stagnant, like a dark sea.
"Amazing, Shinji. I'll have to rate you higher."
Yuuka smiled. That smile was no longer human.
"You want to break me? Then I'll break you first."
Yuuka's hand touched Shinji's shoulder. Strength drained from his body. His vision blurred away.
(Being controlled again.)
Shinji's body began to move at Yuuka's will. His right foot stepped forward. His left foot stepped forward again. Toward the cliff's edge. Toward the thirty-five-meter drop.
(Stop it.)
He screamed inside his mind. But his body wouldn't stop. One step. Another. His soles pressed into the gravel at the cliff's edge. A crunching sound.
(Yuuka. Do you really intend to drop me?)
Shinji's body stood at the cliff's edge. Below, he could see the rough waves smashing against the rocks. White foam rose and vanished on the dark sea.
"Goodbye, Shinji."
He heard Yuuka's voice. Shinji's body tilted forward.
(It's over. I end here. By Yuuka's hand. Maybe that's fine. If that's what Yuuka wants.)
Shinji closed his eyes.
That was when it happened.
"—Don't you dare."
Nana's voice cut sharply through the night air.
The next instant, the force controlling Shinji vanished. Shinji dropped to his knees at the cliff's edge. His breathing was ragged. His heart pounded loudly in his ears.
(What just happened?)
He looked up. Nana was gripping Yuuka's wrist tightly. In Nana's left hand was a small vial.
Assassinate. A tasteless, odorless poison used by the Obsidian Committee. Anyone who takes it suffers cardiac arrest and is diagnosed with "acute heart failure."
Nana pulled the vial away from Yuuka's wrist. Then she drew back her arm and hurled it toward the sea. The vial glittered for an instant in the moonlight, then vanished into the darkness.
"...Ngh. And I'm supposed to be a processor."
Nana murmured quietly.
"This is a violation of my mission. My targets were neither Kazama-kun nor Yuuka-san. And yet I threw away the poison. To save you both."
Nana's voice was trembling.
"Nana-chan...?"
Yuuka's voice was bewildered.
"Yuuka-san. Your ability is corpse manipulation. And the price is the loss of emotion."
Still gripping Yuuka's wrist, Nana spoke.
"But inside you, there's still a faint trace of emotion left. The feeling that you want to protect Kazama-kun—that alone hasn't disappeared."
"How could you possibly know that..."
"I can tell. Because right now, I can feel the trembling coming through your wrist. In that moment when you tried to drop Kazama-kun from the cliff, your fingertips were shaking."
Nana released Yuuka's wrist.
"I won't kill you. Instead, I'll temporarily offset the price of your ability. Using the resonance between my mind-reading camouflage technique and your corpse manipulation, I'll forcibly dissolve the accomplice contract."
Nana placed both hands on Yuuka's cheeks.
"Don't move. It might hurt a little, but please bear with it."
Nana's hands glowed faintly. Or perhaps it only looked that way because of the moonlight. To Shinji, it felt as though some invisible force was flowing from Nana's hands.
(Ability resonance... Nana-chan is supposed to be powerless. But right now, something is definitely happening.)
Yuuka's body jerked violently.
"What is this... my body's hot..."
Yuuka's voice shook painfully.
"It's all right. Just a little longer."
Nana closed her eyes. A long silence. Only the surf echoed.
Eventually, Nana let go. Yuuka collapsed to the ground where she stood.
"Why..."
Tears spilled from Yuuka's eyes.
"Why did you save me, Nana-chan...? I used you, and I tried to kill Shinji..."
Yuuka cried without even trying to wipe her tears.
"...I'm the same."
Nana crouched beside Yuuka.
"I was using you both too. I approached you to monitor and process you. And yet you sought genuine friendship from me. Kazama-kun saw through my loneliness and pitied me."
Nana gently stroked Yuuka's head.
"I just wanted to be real friends with you both."
Nana's voice broke for the first time. The mask came off. Not the mask of the bright, popular girl, nor the mask of the cold, ruthless processor. It was the bare face of a seventeen-year-old girl.
"I'm sorry, Yuuka-san. I'm sorry, Kazama-kun."
Nana wept. Shinji sat at the cliff's edge, watching them both.
(Nana-chan cries too. Yuuka's crying too. And me...)
Tears spilled from Shinji's eyes as well.
(I'm free now. Freed from Yuuka's control. But it's not all happiness. Yuuka's emotions won't fully return. Nana-chan has defied her mission. Nothing is resolved.)
Even so.
(But we've taken one step forward.)
Shinji looked up at the sky. Through a gap in the clouds, the moon showed its face. White light quietly illuminated the three of them.
Dawn broke.
The academy cafeteria, Mist Dining, was filled with morning light. The aroma of the famous Zenova hot-spring egg-over-rice drifted softly through the air. Head chef Dario Fen was at the back of the counter again today, stirring a large pot.
Shinji stood at the cafeteria entrance holding a tray.
(Will she come?)
He looked at the table in the back. Yuuka sat alone. Head down, eating nothing, tracing the wood grain of the table with her finger.
Shinji took a deep breath and started walking.
"Morning, Yuuka."
Shinji set his tray across from Yuuka. She slowly raised her head. Faint shadows under her eyes.
"...Morning, Shinji."
Yuuka's voice was small and hoarse.
"Here, drink this. I made it. Warm soup."
Shinji placed a small cup in front of Yuuka. Steam curled up from it.
"You made it, Shinji?"
"Yeah. I asked Dario-san at the cafeteria and borrowed the kitchen for a bit. Chopped up some vegetables and simmered them in consommé. Can't guarantee the taste, though."
Shinji scratched his head, embarrassed. Yuuka wrapped both hands around the cup.
"...Smells good."
Yuuka brought the cup to her lips. One sip. Another sip.
"...It's warm."
Yuuka smiled faintly. It was the first real smile since the night of the discard declaration. Something warm spread deep in Shinji's chest.
(Yuuka's smile is back. It's not complete yet. But Yuuka is definitely here.)
"Hey, Shinji."
Yuuka set the cup down gently.
"I still don't know if my emotions are really there. Whether my feeling that I want to protect you is real, or just some leftover residue."
Yuuka stared at her own hands.
"But just now, I thought this soup was delicious. When I thought about how you made it for me, something ached deep in my chest. I don't know if that's what happiness feels like, but..."
She raised her face and looked at Shinji.
"But I thought—it's not so bad."
Yuuka smiled a little again. Shinji was at a loss for words. Instead, he took a sip of soup. The warmth traveled down his throat and settled in his stomach.
"Good morning, you two."
Nana came over carrying a tray.
"Nana-chan."
"May I sit next to you?"
"...Yeah."
Nana sat beside Yuuka. The three of them awkwardly gathered around the same table. Silence fell. But it wasn't the heavy silence of the days before.
"...Hey, Shinji. Let me have a sip of that soup too."
Nana pointed at Shinji's cup.
"Huh? Oh, sure. Go ahead."
Shinji offered the cup to Nana. She took it and sipped.
"...This is a little salty, you know."
Nana lau
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