Kurohane

It started subtly. Too subtly for a casual viewer to catch.

One scene showed Yuki eating lunch on the rooftop with a classmate. The conversation was basic—boys, tests, the weird smell in the science lab…

But as her friend spoke, Yuki's eyes drifted.

Not lazily.

Sharply.

To a crow flying in the sky. Her lips twitched.

"Did you know," she said suddenly, cutting her friend off mid-sentence, "that crows remember faces? Especially human ones. They even pass on memories to their children."

"...Huh?"

The friend blinked.

Yuki smiled, too wide.

"Useful fact. Don't worry about it."

Cue uncomfortable laughter.

And that's when the shift began.

One night Yuki paused in front of her mirror. The music faded. She scrubbed her hands. Again. Again. And again. And again…

A close-up showed her hands red and raw.

The camera lingered.

Then cut. The screen turned to black…

The next day, a man was found dead behind a convenience store near Yuki's route to school.

He'd been sliced open. No suspects. The police on the news looked baffled.

It was sudden for them. 

No suspects were caught… Hell… no trace of the suspects was seen.

Police cordoned off the site, leaving only investigators on the gruesome scene of the crime.

They combed every rock for details or evidence, yet they didn't find any. It was like a ghost…

The teen on the front-left seat smiled at this.

He knew… the real movie is now starting.

That night, the screen went black… only to fade in again to a very different Megumi Yuki.

Still in uniform. Still plain.

Only this time, she was wearing latex gloves, standing in a dimly lit alley, wiping blood off a pair of garden shears.

"Another fertilizer candidate,"

She whispered, chuckling softly.

Then she whistled, and a black cat strolled up to her, brushing against her shin like a fan seeking an autograph.

The next twenty minutes became a montage of double lives.

In the morning, she was Megumi Yuki, quiet, helpful, the kind of student who reminded the teacher about homework. The girl who once gave her umbrella to a classmate during rain, then walked home drenched with a smile.

By night?

She was the Kurohane Butcher, an urban legend whispered among late-night forum users and desperate true crime UsTubers. Methodical. Precise. Always clean. Her victims? Mostly criminals the law failed to catch, and a few rude people who kicked cats.

The shift in tone was jarring, but masterfully done.

One minute she was trimming the school's flower beds for extra credit.

Next, she was removing a body's teeth with sterilized pliers while classical music played in the background.

And the teen watching in the front row?

He leaned forward, eyes wide, grinning like a child seeing candy for the first time.

Nice. I like her already.

Yuki had rules. A list. A journal. She kept it in her sock drawer under old manga volumes.

The camera even showed it for a split second. Neatly labeled:

_______________________________________________________________

"Rules to Be a Functional Serial Killer While Passing Math."

-Always clean up.

-Don't kill before tests.

-Pet all the cats.

-No killing teachers. Unless they really deserve it.

-Leave no blood on shoes.

-Wear gloves, you idiot.

-Smile. They never suspect the smiling ones.

_______________________________________________________________

It was unsettling. But also kind of hilarious.

In one scene, she helped an old man cross the street… only to poison a corrupt city official ten minutes later with a smile and a...

"Have a nice day!"

There was even a scene where she borrowed a chainsaw from the gardening club, returned it spotless, and politely thanked the club president with a bow.

"You're so diligent, Yuki-chan!"

"Oh, I try,"

She replied, her expression unreadable.

There was even a chase scene in the third act... Yuki being tailed by a nosy detective. She dodged him by pretending to attend a drama club meeting. Her excuse?

"I'm the tree in the background."

She literally stood still for twenty minutes.

And the detective bought it.

At one point, the film cut to a montage of her being suspiciously absent from multiple club photos. She was there, but always behind a bush. Or half-cropped. Like a ghost in every image.

The camera lingered on the smallest of details. Her shoelaces, always double knotted. Her pencil, always sharpened to a needle point. Her lunch, packed with a precision that would put military rations to shame.

You began to wonder: has she always been this way?

The final act took a turn for the dramatic.

Yuki was almost caught.

A boy in her class... Yuuta Morishima. The kind of guy who didn't stand out either, which perhaps is why he noticed someone like Yuki at all. Background characters often noticed each other, like stars blinking Morse code across a dark sky.

He wasn't popular. Not invisible, either. Average grades, average face, part of the school's photography club. He was the one who handed out photos after school events, who quietly captured memories and edited them late into the night.

And one day, he noticed something strange.

A photo from the school's recent field trip, everyone was smiling under the sun near the river. Except… something was off.

Megumi Yuki, who had definitely been present, was gone from the shot.

Not absent, gone. A faint shadow where she had stood. A shoe barely visible at the edge of the frame. And yet, everyone else had perfect clarity.

He checked other photos.

Sports day, she was half-obscured behind a banner.

Cultural festival, blocked by a paper fan.

In every group photo, she was either at the very edge or cropped out entirely.

Yuuta's curiosity piqued.

Was it deliberate? Was she camera-shy? Or… something else?

Then came the blood.

One late afternoon, as the golden hour painted the school hallway in honeyed light, Yuuta spotted Yuki by the shoe lockers. She had just slipped on her school shoes, neatly aligned, no creases, of course, when something caught his eye.

A tiny smear of red on her cuff.

Barely noticeable. But to a photographer trained to spot blemishes in portraits, it was unmistakable.

He blinked. Looked again.

Gone.

"Yuki… Going home already?"

She turned.

There was no surprise in her face. Just a mild acknowledgement, like someone glancing at a passing cloud.

"Yes. The sun's setting. I like this hour."

"Me too," 

Yuuta said, falling into step beside her.

They walked together down the path lined with vending machines and cherry trees. The air was still. Crisp. A cat meowed in the distance.

He glanced sideways.

"You know…. you're never in any of the school photos."

She didn't answer.

"I mean, I take a lot of them, and I thought maybe it was a coincidence. But then I checked. You're always just outside the frame."

Still no answer.

"So I started looking through the shots more carefully. And you know what's funny?"

Pause.

"The crow in the background always shows up too. Every time."

That made her stop.

Not abruptly. Not startled. Just… a slow halt. As if she were a wind-up toy running out of power.

She turned her head slightly.

"Do you like birds, Morishima-kun?"

He blinked.

"Uh, I mean, I guess?"

"Crows are misunderstood. Smart. Vengeful."

Her voice was soft now. Almost thoughtful.

"They mourn their dead. Did you know that? They hold funerals."

"Okay,... but you're dodging the question."

"Am I?"

They were now alone on the school's back path, where no cameras reached, and where the only witness was a weathered old statue of some founder no one remembered.

"I saw something… The alley behind the grocery… A week ago."

Her eyes were unreadable.

"You were there. And there was someone else. A man. He didn't walk out with you."

The silence stretched.

She finally blinked. Then gave the faintest smile.

"Morishima… do you like cats?"

"What?"

"Cats. You know. Small, furry, judgmental."

He stared at her, confused.

"I guess? What does that have to do with?"

She stepped closer. Slowly. Calmly.

"I like cats too," 

She whispered.

"But I don't like people who hurt them."

A flicker of something crossed her face.

Not anger.

Not even malice.

Just… stillness.

The kind that precedes a thunderstorm.

Yuuta's throat tightened.

"Are you threatening me?"

She tilted her head.

"I'm answering your questions."

"I could tell someone… I could go to the police!"

"You could."

She said, almost brightly. 

"You should, in fact. It would be the right thing to do."

He swallowed. 

"And you're just… letting me go?"

"Why not?" 

She smiled, as if this were a joke.

"You're free to do what you want, Morishima. But once you open certain doors, they don't close again."

Then she turned away, walking off into the dusk. Her steps.. light, as if nothing had happened....

Yuuta stood there for a long time.

He didn't run.

Didn't scream.

But something inside him cracked.

The next time we see him, it's a wide classroom shot.

Yuuta is at his desk, eyes open, staring at nothing. His classmates laugh, chat, and pass notes. The teacher drones on.

And there he is, motionless. Blank.

He mumbles something.

The subtitles translate:

"Crows… remember…"

The teacher asks if he's okay. He doesn't respond.

Someone waves a hand in front of his face.

Nothing.

And just off to the side, Megumi Yuki passes by.

She pauses.

Place a candy on his desk.

"Sugar helps with shock,"

She says kindly.

The camera doesn't focus on her.

It focuses on Yuuta's hand, trembling slightly.

And then, on the candy wrapper.

Plain.

Red.

With a crow printed on the foil…

By the end of the movie, Megumi Yuki remained uncaught. She sat in the classroom like nothing ever happened, writing an essay on morality. The essay was titled: "Justice in a Lawless World."

The final shot was her walking home, petting her favorite street cat.

She paused.

Looked at the camera.

Smiled.

The screen was cut to black…