The plan that Tobi, Ryuuko, and Monika had come up with was to box Asamiya in to cut off his escape, then demand his help. From there, they’d just have to figure things out as they went. The truth was, they hadn’t discussed anything specific beyond that point. Tobi hadn’t given it any thought at all, and from the look of things, neither had Ryuuko. Monika, however, had come prepared.
She took the lead, and the others followed after her. Eventually, they arrived at a large supermarket about ten minutes’ walk from school. It had a food court, and Monika instructed Ryuuko to save seats for everyone while she and Tobi stopped by a hamburger shop and ordered four set meals with drinks and fries. Tobi wound up carrying two trays with two meals each, one in each hand. When he and Monika got back, Ryuuko and Asamiya were seated and waiting.
“My treat,” Monika said, gesturing to the food with her chin. It came off a little haughty, but she had paid for the food and she’d even ordered one of the more expensive meals on the menu.
Tobi set the trays down on the table without comment.
“I got big tomato cheeseburger sets with melon soda for everyone. You’re all cool with that, right?” Monika asked as she sat down beside Asamiya and crossed her legs.
Tobi took a seat next to Ryuuko.
“Th-th-this… This is so…so lavish,” said Ryuuko. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.
“…You sure this is all right?” Asamiya asked Monika.
Tobi couldn’t tell if he was suspicious of her or just felt bad that she’d paid for him. Probably both.
“Call it a thank-you for lending us a hand,” Monika replied, acting like it was no big deal. “I’ve got plenty of money, don’t worry.”
Tobi had never heard a middle schooler say that before. Asamiya glanced at him and raised an eyebrow, silently asking if it was okay to accept the food. Tobi didn’t know how to reply. He wasn’t entirely sure, either.
“Well, down the hatch,” Monika said. She quickly unwrapped her big tomato cheeseburger and took a massive bite. “Now, that’s good stuff.”
“Gaaah…!” Baku wailed.
Watching Monika eat had set him off all over again, even though he was hungry for a completely different sort of food. Tobi was having a hard time resisting as well.
“I’ve never eaten a hamburger before… Or drank melon soda!” said Ryuuko. She’d started trembling.
“For real?” asked Monika. She’d already polished off half her burger in two bites. She smirked and flashed Ryuuko a thumbs-up. “Well, try it. These things rule, trust me.”
“W-well, then. Pardon me…” Ryuuko carefully unwrapped her hamburger, closed her eyes, and took a bite. “Mmh…!” She chewed. “Mmh! Mmh! Mmmh…!”
Ryuuko’s eyelids twitched rapidly with each incomprehensible, closed-mouthed grunt. It was a very funny sight.
“…Okay, I’m going for it. Can’t resist,” Asamiya said before digging into his meal as well. He looked like he was enjoying it quite a bit.
“C’mon, Tobi! You too! Hurry up!” Baku urged.
He didn’t need to say anything—Tobi had also reached his limit. He wasn’t sure why he’d been holding back in the first place. Pushing aside that question, he unwrapped his burger and bit straight into it. Nearly letting out a grunt of his own, he clamped his eyes and mouth shut and chewed intently. He could taste the bread, the burger, the lettuce, the cheese, the ketchup, the pickles, the pepper, and every other ingredient separately, and yet at the same time, all of them came together in perfect harmony with one another. It felt like his mind had gone numb.
“…What is this?” Tobi murmured. He could only describe the flavor as violent. It was like his meal had just reached out and punched him straight in the face.
“How is it?!” Baku demanded.
“Yum,” said Tobi. It was the only word he could muster.
For a moment, Tobi focused single-mindedly on his meal. The four big tomato cheeseburger and french fry sets vanished into the middle schoolers’ stomachs in the blink of an eye. Tobi, Monika, and Asamiya drained their melon sodas in no time as well, though Ryuuko took time to savor hers sip by sip. She enjoyed carbonated drinks, but apparently the fizziness could be a little much for her.
“So what did you want help with? What am I supposed to do?” Asamiya asked as he unconsciously folded up his burger’s wrapper. Tobi assumed it was a habit of his.
“First, let me ask you this,” said Monika. “Have you noticed anything strange lately?”
Asamiya’s hands froze in place. He looked downward and frowned. “…‘Anything strange’? Where do I even start?”
“Figures…” Tobi found himself staring at Asamiya’s neck.
The slender, translucent zingai—the one that looked like string or maybe a snake—was still slowly strangling its master. Though maybe it only looked that way to Tobi. He wasn’t even sure if zingai could hurt their masters. Considering his and Ryuuko’s experience, it was difficult for him to imagine.
“I mean…I guess there was the stuff with Kon and Masaki. But the biggest thing was what happened to Miyu—” Asamiya stopped and corrected himself. “To Takatomo, I mean. As far as I’m concerned, anyway. She and I go way back, and we still don’t know why she did it. I had a feeling that, well…that something was a little off about her, I guess. This is gonna make me sound crazy, but…for a little while, I thought I could hear this weird voice in my head from time to time. Haven’t heard it lately, though. Weird, right?”
Tobi knew exactly what Asamiya was talking about. That voice had been the work of Shuuji Masaki’s zingai. It had influenced the mental state of his classmates by speaking directly into their minds. In that sense, what Asamiya was saying wasn’t weird at all.
“I meant more recently than that,” said Monika.
Her casual, indifferent tone irritated Tobi. Can’t you be a little nicer? She could have shown more consideration… Though she had paid for their meals, he supposed. And that big tomato cheeseburger set was pretty delicious.
“I’m asking about after I transferred in, not before,” said Monika. “Does anything come to mind?”
“Anything weird, huh?” Asamiya tightened his fist around his burger’s wrapper, reducing the half-folded square of paper to a crumpled ball. “You mean aside from your transfer, right?”
“Naturally.”
“In that case, now that you mention it…” Asamiya dropped the ball of paper onto his tray and pulled out his phone. “An app showed up on here. A social network thing. I don’t remember installing it. It was just there one day.”
“Have you been using it?” Ryuuko asked, furrowing her brow.
“I mean, I thought it was sketchy,” Asamiya muttered. He’d brought out his phone, but he kept the screen facing downward. He seemed reluctant to show it to them. “But I could always just delete it. Apparently, it does that on its own if you don’t log in for a full day. So I ended up giving it a try, because, well, why not…?”
“What’s this app called?” Monika asked casually as she rested her chin in her hands.
“HEA,” said Asamiya. “It stands for Happy Ever After. I tried looking it up, but I didn’t find anything. I seriously have no idea how it got installed in the first place.”
“Let’s have a look,” said Monika. Before Asamiya could react—before she’d even finished speaking, in fact—she snatched the phone from his hand. She had surprisingly quick fingers.
“Ah!” Asamiya exclaimed.
“Need your fingerprint,” Monika said, shoving the phone in Asamiya’s face.
“…There’s personal stuff on that thing, you know?” he grumbled, though he pressed his thumb to the phone to unlock it anyway. “I don’t really want someone snooping through my posts…”
“No worries. I don’t give a crap about your private life anyway,” Monika said as she started swiping away at the phone. “This one, right? HEA?”