In the morning, Kai checked his appearance in the mirror. He removed the facial hair that had been accumulating over the last few days and tried to clean himself up as much as possible before pressing his clothes and heading out.

Coffee and fresh hot bread for breakfast preceded his train ride. The gentle hum of the city and the softness of the morning light were more interesting to him today—a break in his routine.

School kids began to come on gradually, which was nothing out of the ordinary, but when he was due to depart, he was cut off by a group in winter blazers. He noticed that their colours matched those of the school he was headed to.

They apologised, and Kai waved it off as inconsequential.

"Er, Kamina High School? I'm attending an interview there."

One of the boys nodded and stayed back on the platform to provide him with instructions for reception but paused when he mentioned the JMA program, scratching the back of his head and smiling.

"Oh, you must mean the other campus? I think they're with us officially, but we never see any of them. We never even see any of the teachers either, but I guess they only started this year. Principal Nakayama goes over there sometimes though..."

Kai frowned and showed the address he was given to the boy.

"Yeah, that's them. They're attached to our school behind the carpark, right at the top of the hill, supposed to be quiet for therapy reasons I guess?"

The boy shrugged with a polite smile and left to catch up with his friends, leaving Kai to pause briefly before deciding to move on. Checking his watch, he hurried on.

After seeing reception and receiving a visitor's pass, he exited and walked around to the teachers' carpark. To his side, the school was already bustling—students moving in groups, announcements over the PA system, a teacher calling for students not to run on the concrete. But ahead, he could just make out the corner of a building off in the distance at the top of the hill. It was surrounded by trees and dense vegetation, set apart from the rest of the campus. Signs along the chainlink perimeter fenceline periodically warned that trespassers were not welcome.

Other signs informed that the land was being revitalised as part of a re-vegetation program. Artificially constructed wetlands hugged the base of the hill, and school farm buildings appeared to be attached to them on the far side.

Kai noted with mild interest that a mechanical gate and intercom were present at the end of the carpark. He pushed the button and did his best to stand professionally in front of the camera. After a few moments of silence, the intercom crackled to life.

"Name?"

Kai held up his visitor’s pass to the camera.

"I'm Kai Fukami, here for the 9 o’clock interview."

A sudden buzz and a click, and the gate began rattling across its tracks.

"Follow the road up until you reach the main building, Mr Fukami. Buzz again to get in, thank you."

Kai looked back at the school once, listening to the sounds of school commencing before turning his gaze into the strange compound ahead as he proceeded up the driveway.

The road stretched and gradually rose with the curvature of the hill, a relentless slab of unyielding concrete, wide enough for two cars to pass comfortably side by side. Its surface was flawless, bordered by sharp, freshly painted curbs that sliced cleanly through the natural slope of the hill. There were no cracks, no stray weeds, just smooth, cold grey.

As he walked, Kai noticed security cameras spaced at even intervals, fixed high on plain poles that didn’t quite blend into the surrounding bushland. Every few steps, another red blink, another silent eye. Beneath the hum of cicadas, he thought he could hear machinery—the kind of stillness that didn’t belong to trees or wind, but to something measured.

Here and there, half-buried under creeping undergrowth, he spotted cracked stone figures, barely standing, and the remains of weathered steps that looked far older than the road they now flanked. Edo-period? He couldn’t be sure, but the shapes felt familiar—deliberate, cultural. Was there a temple here once? He hadn’t heard of one, but if the land had been private, that might explain it. These days, old families were selling off land that had been in their name for centuries. If development plans had existed, he doubted they’d gone through public consultation. A site like this would’ve been protected. Or should’ve been.

His eyes climbed to the top of the hill where a squat, plain building stood waiting. Next to it, humming much louder than seemed necessary, was a massive hospital-grade air conditioning unit—its presence oversized, almost absurd, like it had been dropped in from another setting altogether.

The whole place felt off—an echo of something long forgotten, now masked beneath layers of cold metal and concrete, hidden behind fences and watchful eyes.