Cuts start to form

(Just to make it clear, Masuo Ishida and the rest normally speak in Japanese so anything that is in English will be like solo leveling with the <> things).

We didn’t get a job (obviously Me and Jiro), to be fair I was rushing through everything but Jiro is just awful at everything or he just didn't show up at all for some reason.

We arrived at Anton’s house one hour after we were done (we did not have a car) to find the rest of them watching a movie.

“Hey, you didn't wait for me?”, Jiro wines to them.

For some reason, I decided to look around the place, instead of absentmindedly walking through it.

Right next to the door is the living room with a couch with all of them on it facing an 85-inch TV which has a live-action movie I have not watched.

Daitan is lying on the floor with a pillow behind her head, the rest are on the couch watching except for Reina who is typing on her computer.

They’re all wearing the same clothes from the morning except for Reina who’s now wearing a plain white, long-sleeve t-shirt.

Anton is looking very intrigued by the movie, Daitan, and Reina seem uninterested, and Atsuo seems to be trembling, probably just scared.

Beyond the living room is a kitchen which just has 4 packs of instant popcorn 3 of which have already been used.

It then goes into a long hallway with doors all around including the door that hit me in the face that has a piece of paper taped to it that says “Open slowly”.

“You wouldn’t like it, it's a horror movie” Daitan replies, adding, “I think” in a slightly confused manner.

I see Anton stand up and he stammers “<American Psycho>"is the greatest horror movie of all time, and I didn't spend hours finding a dub of it for you to complain”.

At that exact moment the movie cuts to a sex scene “Oh right I got the uncensored version” Anton remarks.

“Now this is a movie,” Daitan says in a way where I can’t tell if she is joking or not.

Reina looks up to say something to Jiro, sees the TV, pauses for a second, then says to Jiro “If you want we have one more popcorn packet that Daitan didn't eat”.

Jiro rejects the offer and goes outside to do… Something? And that's when I remembered what I was going to ask Jiro.

“Where am I gonna sleep if I really am staying here?” I ask them “Is there like a guest room here?”.

“Sorry, there’s no guest room,” Atsuo says a bit timidly "We'll probably need to get an inflatable mattress”.

“Or” Daitan interjects “Masuo could sleep in Anton’s king-sized bed and sleep together like one of Reina’s Yaoi manga”.

“No” Anton barked in a tone that felt like he would punch the wall and destroy the whole house into a crater if that happened.

“It's fine” I murmur “I'll just sleep on the couch for now” and go to the kitchen for some popcorn as dinner.

While I’m walking there I see that Reina’s room is slightly open, the dent that I made earlier in the day, still on there.

I looked into the room and there was a desk with a night lamp, a window that was covered with some blinds, and a trash bin overflowing with balled-up paper.

The bed is for a single person with standard bed sheets and blankets contrasting with the slightly orange room.

I'm about to look away when I see something that feels like a demon altar made of bones compared to the rest of the room.

Under the bed, something is there and it seems like a knife with blood stains, the blood stains look like from just an hour ago.

I just stare at it for a few minutes just double checking my mind and thinking there is just a knife under some person's bed that I have known for less than a day.

I decided not to tell the rest of them, who knows? It may just be a prank that she is doing or it’s some prop for some anime convention, not that she’s a murderer.

So I made my popcorn and finished the movie. I didn’t understand any of it but I think it was good. And slept on the couch trying not to think about it (which I’m very good at).

I wake up, not normally, or being stabbed by Reina. But with Anton sitting right on me, knocking the wind right out.

“What the fuck?!” Anton yelps. He is wearing some pajamas of some rock band which I don't know about and some AirPods in his ears, probably listening to some music.

I try to stand up, but instead, I roll out of the couch, almost hitting my head on the corner of a table, and flopping down.

“Oh right,” Anton remembers “You were the guy who fell in my car yesterday” his tone of voice is way more relaxed now.

“Yeah” I grunt as I get up from the floor “So-” I'm about to ask something then I realize that Anton is not there anymore but already lost in the world of music.

I ask “What are you listening to?” and Anotn says back “Wait, you’re asking me what I'm listening to?” in a tone like he’s a kid about to ramble about the story he made.

“Yeah, I guess” I reply and he incessantly goes and talks about it “I’m listening to the classic <Red Hot Chili Peppers’s Other Side>, you want to listen?

“Sure” I reply, not mentioning that I have no idea who the <Red Hot Chili Peppers> are as he handed me an airpod to listen to.

I put it in my ear and he plays it and after I hear the first line I take it off and ask “What the hell does <Turn me on, take me for a hard ride?> mean?”.

“That’s the beauty of American music, it can be good without lyrics that make sense,” Anton says.

I sigh and put it back on <How long, how long will I slide? Separate my side, I don't I don't believe it's bad> The guy kept singing but what put me off was the last line.

<Slit my throat, it's all I ever’, ‘How long, I don't, I don't believe it's bad Slit my throat, it's all I ever> and the song finishes, and goes into an ad.

Throughout the whole song, Anton was lip-singing along to it and when the song stopped he asked me “So?”.

I reply with “So what?” continuing with “You showed me like 30 seconds of a mediocre song”.

When I said mediocre his eyes went back to what they were yesterday, Bam! He just punched me in the face and walked away.

I’m just dumbfounded for a second while sitting on the couch when I remember the lyric <Slit my throat it's all I ever> and realize that’s perfect.

The plan was to go into Reina’s room, take the knife, and kill myself by slitting my throat and exposing Reina. “At least I’ll do one good thing before I go.” I think to myself.

I decide to wait for now and do it when I am certain that everyone is asleep. but first, I’m gonna help Anton cook breakfast (might as well have miso soup and rice now).

After some time, Atsuo, Jiro, and Reina come out and eat in that exact order.

The rest goes by in a blur, they probably said some meaningful things but I was so focused on making breakfast I didn't hear a single thing.

When I finished breakfast I realized that Daitan wasn’t there so I asked “Is Daitan coming?” to everyone

At that exact moment, I heard from her room “<What’s up everyone! It's me, Pokisane, and today…>” Then we couldn't hear her anymore.

“Really !! She’s streaming right now?” Jiro asks “Her entire body must be Twitch-ing from how little she eats” Everybody including me groned.

After a few minutes, we’re all in our normal routine. Reina is typing, Anton is listening to music, and Jiro is looking through this thing called <Reddit>.

I have no idea where Atsuo went but she is probably in her room. Meanwhile, I’m just twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to all go to sleep.

“HEY REINA!” Daitan shouts from her room, the first time since the last time we heard her, not including some screams and laughs from that room.

“What?” Reina replies back in a tired tone.

Daitan opens the door slightly and asks Reina “Can you help me understand this poem?” Reina asks back “Was it Yuri’s poem again?”.

Daitan nods and opens the door more while introducing her Twitch chat to Reina as she walks there with her laptop still on the table.

I decide to follow her there, I mean I have nothing else to do. As I come in I look around a little bit.

Behind Daitan is a logo that says <Pokisane> written on the bottom which I assume is her Twitch logo.

Right out of what I assume is her camera’s vision is a single bed that has a lot of model magazines and “How to lose weight fast” magazines all around it.

“Ok, what is it this time?” Reina says, still tired.

Daitan is gesturing to the screen so I decide to read it too. It just seems to be a piece of paper slapped on the screen with a school environment all around it.

The paper is titled <The Racoon> and the whole thing is written in English cursive throughout and there was a scroll thing on the right to indicate there is more.

Reina started to speed-read it in English “<It happened in the dead of night while I was slicing bread for a guilty snack>”.

“Why are you having this in English?” I ask Daitan and she replies with “<Most of my audience is American so I speak in English>“.

Daitan looks at her chat and starts to argue with them about something, which Reina ignores. She continues at her pace until she gets to a certain line.

As she is speed reading “<Every time I brandish my cutting knife the raccoon shows me its excitement.>“She starts to slow down.

After that, she has a sense of realization on her face and reads the last 2 lines even slower.“<A rush of blood. Classic Pavlovian conditioning. I slice the bread.>“She pauses for a second and then finally reads “<And I feed myself again>“.

“So,” asks Daitan almost instantly, a bit annoyed after arguing with her chat. I also noticed that her chat’s speed is now double the speed it was when I first went in.

I look back at Reina and see that she is visibly shaking. After 5 more seconds, she blurts out “No I don’t” and Reina scutters away to her room and closes the door slowly. I don’t know why but I can feel that she’s lying about her not knowing.

I waited for….. Idk something to happen …but nothing does . so I ask Daitan what she was arguing about in her chat.

“Every time a new guy comes into my stream the chat just explodes with them asking ‘Is that your boyfriend?’ and I have to argue with them to drop it,” Daitan says.

“Like I mean this is just outrageous I just met you 3 days ago why would we be dating when I-’ she continues until that point where she just stares out for a second.

“<Well that was a waste of time>“ Daitan says to her chat while nudging me out of her room.

I go out to find Jiro and Anton fighting over the TV remote, “You’ve watched American football for 5 straight days, it is time -you give it to us” Jiro argues.

“First of all it's football” Anton retaliates “And second I’m not watching some Japanese game show where the voice actors of Boku no Hero cook an omelet”.

“Hey!” Jiro wails “That is top-tier TV while you just want to watch 50 misogynists wrestle each other for a brown egg”.

Anton says something back but I'm now just ignoring them, I think to myself “I probably just need some air” and walk to the door. Both of them did not notice me.

As I am about to open the door it opens for me and hits my nose once again.

“What the fucking hell, again?!” I exclaim at the door.

On the other side walks in Atsuo who seem to have just come back from a walk.

She looks at me, pauses for a second, and gives me a hand to get up.

“Not only is she pretty but also so kind,” my brain thinks for myself, and then after that though I slap myself on my face.

“You okay Ishida?” Atsuo asks.

I tell her I’m fine and get up by myself. Back in the room I still see that Anton and Jiro are still arguing about who gets the TV remote.

Suddenly Jiro falls to the ground while clutching his throat.

Anton rushes to him and goes through what looks like a routine of asking him “Are you ok” and “I can help”.

Me and Atsuo just stayed where we were, for me, it’s because I don’t know the Heimlich maneuver and I'm assuming Atsuo is the same.

After a few seconds, Jiro stops choking (or whatever was happening) and gets up from the floor like nothing happened.

He looks at all of us for a second and then tries to run out the door but before he can even take a single step Anton grabs him.

“What the fuck” Jiro barks “Let go of me” but Anton keeps a firm grip asking “What the fucking hell was that”

“It was nothing” Jiro claimed “Now let me go” but Anton was not convinced, saying “You can’t just fall on the ground and say that was quote on quote nothing”

“Why do you even care?” Jiro yells back and instead of saying anything back he just has a sad look on his face.

His grip loosens and Jiro stumbles a bit, Anton doesn't try to stop him in any way he just sits down on the couch and looks on the verge of crying.

Throughout all of that, Atsuo and I were just standing around like we were watching a mystery movie that we hadn't solved yet.

Jiro looks at us and walks to his room, Atsuo soon follows and goes into her room.

I decide to ask Anton what was that, and he responds “fuck the hell off” so I did “fuck the hell off” but it did still bug me throughout the next 2 hours.

The silence was broken by Daitan screaming “<OH MY FUCKING GOD!>“ at the top of her lungs, waking anyone up in a 30-mile radius.

I decided to ignore it and wait until 10 p.m. when everyone is sleeping, except Daitan who is still streaming for some reason.

It’s time now.

I sneak into Reina’s room, making sure I make as little noise as possible and I see the knife under the bed.

I realize it has more blood around it than before but I ignore it.

I pick up the knife and hold it to my throat.

Then I remember everything that happened today from the confrontation between Anton and Jiro to Reina and that whole thing just before.

I try to put It out of my mind but I can’t stop thinking about all of it and what it means.

Then I remember Atsuo and my brain and body are just clashing on what to do.

I must have made a sound because at that moment Reina woke up and instead of yelling or shouting, she just looked at me with horror in her eyes.

“Well fuck” I mumble to myself.