Apr 30, 2026
First and foremost i'd like to say that this story's vibe and atmosphere are great. From chapter 1, there's a lot of intrigue and build up for the mysteries that are gonna be uncovered throughout the 15 chapters.
No story is perfect, and this one is not as well. But it has a great soul that i think every story should achieve.
I might be a bit biased, since i am a friend of the author. But i will say now, that i am not, and i trully believe this to be a great work.
Non spoiler part:
I'd recommend reading the story to the end, it only gets better and better with each chapter. The mysteries accumulate and each character goes through their own thing.
While there are some slight grammatical errors or sentences that feel a bit weird. I think they're sparse and easily Ignorable on the long term, because overall they get outshined by the story itself.
I believe that the characters and the mystery are the best part of this story overall.
So I'd really recommend you to read it. It's an overall short read but you'll find yourself enjoying it.
!!!!Now onto the spoiler part of the review!!!!!!!!
Characters:
The story has two main characters from my pov. Yuka and Himari. While there's Koyomi which is also related to Himari, i do believe she's just used for plot which is understandable for her overarching rule.
I think the way the authors ends each character is done really well for affecting the reader, but one of my biggest gripes is that it feels underutilized?
As an example, for Himari's death. It's off screen, while i know it makes sense story wise, it also underpalyes it a bit? i feel as if we saw it and felt her overall going against the scientists moment it would've been much better.
I like Yuka's since it does everything it needs from the story. But i have a gripe with it that i will talk about later.
As for the other characters, each one servers their respective purpose overall. Which is a great thing.
Plot and mysteries:
It's simple, most things get explained about 10 chapters in or a person can figure most of them with a bit of thinking. It's not a bad thing, because it's a short 15 chapter story, that's why i think it fits.
What i liked:
I liked how the story, even although we spent little ti2me with most of it's characters, gave them each weight and let us care about them. Which gave the emotional weight a good hook on me as i read.
I liked how we learnt gradually of the mystery, and how the plot twists recontextualizes everything we know in a way that makes sense.
What i disliked:
Ok, i went into this story. trying to enjoy it as much as possible, i don't have much gripes with most elements, the ending is good, the characters are, but one thing that kinda made no sense to me.
It was Kensaku himself. So i am going on a rant about his character for a bit.
Kensaku is set up to be this terrifying mastermind. He runs the illegal top secret, complex experement on humans. keeping people trapped in there for years.
Yet, when the climax hits and we meet him. He's one of the most stupidest characters there is.
He is very passive, in chapter 13, yuka talks and rebels at him, mentioning the leader. Kensaku has all the knowledghe of this. Yet what does this person, who is built to be this mastermind do? nothing.
Then in chapter 14, he watches yuka \and takeru walk to the exit. He knows tjhey are record evidence to take him down, and instead of stopping them, taking the camera or killing them to protect his life's work. He says it's broken and will just entertain their attempt at freedom.
This feels like the plot is trying to make him stupid for the sake of it. It strips him of all his charactarization that was said about him, he feels like a plot conveinece that was used to move the story. Which i wouldn't really care much about, if his character wasn't stated to be otherwise.
Another issue i have, is how did the leader do his master plan? He's a gaint robot. It was also said he can't go into the vents. So how did he start this whole thing? how did he get the letters under the mc's door?
Furthermore, his plan to expose the facility 2requires sending yuka and himari on a suicide mission to get camera footage. When the leader himself has cameras in his screens in his hideout? He already had access to all the classified files, and the expweriment logs. He could have just leaked those, but instead he sends two girls which was necessary to prove the facility existed. It makes himari's death feels preventable, which leaves a slightly annoyed feeling to me.
Also i feel like Takeru had the least character out of cast. Ig it makes sense since there was no focus on him, but i would've loved it if there was more.
My thoughts to the author:
Ok, i know i didn't like most of the logic of the story or whatever. but the reason i am frustrated is because i was invested, and thought the story really did make me care about those details.
You written the story, and characters with soul, and i enjoyed every words of it. Of course not the moments when i was frustrated with things.
The story is great, and i am happy you wrote it. And hope you write even more.
My favorite scene was the ending itself, i loved the way you set things off to go.
And now you finished it, congratulations to you. I don't want you to critique yourself or reflect on my self pessimism, only to focus on the logic of your future stories more. I am proud of what you wrote, and i will say it's your best story.
Thank you for writing this story, the end was truly black and crimson.
8.5/10.
