Myoker (Narrator):
"My name is Hajime Myoker. I'm sixteen years old. I'm in high school… unfortunately. My grades? A disaster. I don't like studying, or sports, or anything except anime and manga… ah, what a dark world."
He grudgingly packs his bag and is about to leave, but his mother's voice stops him.
— "Hajime! You forgot your breakfast! You can't leave it behind every single day like this!"
— "Mom… I want to buy something at school."
— "Impossible! School food is full of fat and carcinogens! If you don't take your breakfast, you won't get any allowance for a whole month!"
— "Damn… fine…"
— "Promise me you'll eat it… and don't give it to the cats like last time!"
— "I promise…" Myoker replies in a faint, desperate voice.
Outside, his friends are waiting for him: Shoto, Natsu, Ryan, and his girlfriend Miwa.
— "You're sooo late, Myoker! Did an alien abduct you yesterday and just bring you back?"
Myoker:
— "No… I just overslept. Drop your delusions, Shoto."
— "Did you prepare for the history test?"
— "Test!? What test!?" Don't joke with me like that, Natsu, Myoker replies, his face showing genuine worry.
— "Don't tell me… you forgot?!" Miwa's face is stunned. "The teacher told us about it yesterday."
Myoker suddenly recalls the teacher's words from yesterday… his face turns pale, his pulse races, and he almost freezes from panic.
— "Damn it!!! I completely forgot! What am I going to do now?! Mom's going to kill me! She's already mad about my previous 51%!"
Ryan places a hand dramatically on Myoker's shoulder:
— "Don't worry, Myoker."
Myoker feels a surge of hope, thinking Ryan must have studied and will share the answers.
— "Will you tell me the answers?!"
— "No, I didn't study either," Ryan replies with an innocent, mocking smile.
I'm dead! I'll be kicked out of the house, and my dad will cut off my allowance!
— "Simply… pretend to be sick and skip the test," Miwa suggests with a frightening expression.
Shoto suddenly stops, looks up at the sky with deep eyes filled with conviction.
— "I'm convinced tests are a government conspiracy meant to destroy friendships, by sending us to different colleges… thus fragmenting society to make us easier to control."
He looks around… they've left him behind.
— "Hey! Wait up! Come back!"
They arrive at the school. Myoker stands at the entrance, hesitating.
— "Should I go in… or run away? Is there nowhere to hide? Could the school collapse right now or a meteor strike?"
Miwa grabs his hand and pulls him toward the door.
— "Come on, it's just a test."
He struggles as if they're dragging him into hell.
— "Let me go! You monsters! This is illegal!!"
The teacher's sharp voice behind them:
— "What are you doing here?!"
Miwa stands stunned, while the trio—Shoto, Ryan, and Natsu—start to flee… but the teacher lunges at them and hoists them off the ground by their collars.
— "You brats! Don't you know who I am? This school isn't for anarchists and fools like you!"
He turns back to continue scolding Miwa and Myoker… but finds they've already slipped inside.
— "Hey! Wait, you little beasts!!"
In the exam hall, Myoker trembles, sweat pouring from his brow, his eyes wandering anxiously to the door.
Okay… don't be afraid… it's just a test… a trivial test… what could happen?
Of course I won't fail like… like last time, right?!
[The proctor passes by and places the exam sheet on the desk.]
Myoker closes his eyes with one hand, breathes slowly as if his heartbeat sounds like prison drums.
— "Come on… just open it… open it…"
[He slowly opens the sheet… looks at question one…]
[A heavy silence—his eyes widen in shock.]
— "W-what…? What is this question…? Impossible… this isn't in the syllabus!"
He feels overwhelming fear.
— "Okay, next… the next one will surely be easier…"
He flips through the questions—one by one—but he doesn't know a single answer!
He whispers to himself, his face ashen:
— "What do I do…? What do I do now…? What should I do…?"
He looks around—everyone's writing… pens moving fast… even Ryan looks immersed.
Even Ryan? Damn… he deceived me!
— "Hey! Ryan! Ryan!!" Myoker tries to catch Ryan's attention.
But… Ryan doesn't hear. Myoker tears a small piece from his paper, crumples it into a tiny ball, and flicks it at Ryan.
It bounces off his forehead. Ryan turns annoyed.
— "What's up?!"
— "Answer me!! Quickly! What's the solution to question one?"
Ryan flips his paper to show Myoker… only his name is written, and he's drawn a cartoon character.
— "Put 'roar' for all of them," he declares. "Those are my answers."
Myoker's face turns to pure horror.
— "Mom… she'll kill me… no way around it."
When the exam ends, the four friends gather under a tree in the courtyard.
— "So how was the exam, Myoker?" Miwa asks.
— "Huh? I answered everything… everything with 'roar'!" Myoker fakes a nonchalant expression though he knows inside he's going to fail and his mom will kill him.
Miwa pulls out the answer key she secretly took from the teacher after the exam.
— "Weird, there's only one 'roar' out of twenty answers!" she replies mockingly.
Myoker turns slowly to Ryan, eyes burning.
— "You bastard…"
Ryan takes off running, laughing:
— "You trusted me!!"
Myoker chases after him; Ryan sprints away.
_
Myoker returns home, his heart heavy with worry, carrying the burden of a test doomed to failure. He opens the door slowly, and finds his mother waiting there, her eyes a mix of concern and severity.
— "How was the test?"
Myoker catches his breath, stunned by her sudden presence, and tries to conjure a fitting lie.
— "Stay calm, everything's fine… it went well."
Then, in a steady voice:
— "It was good… I didn't face any hard questions."
His mother forces a cold smile that barely hides a hidden threat, looking at him with stern eyes.
— "Good… but remember, if you score less than seventy percent, you won't have a place here anymore."
Her words drop like a weight on his heart; he nods quickly, not daring to respond.
He enters his room, throws his bag on the floor, and collapses onto the bed, surrendering to a momentary relief. He opens the manga that has always been his only refuge.
He immerses himself in its pages until sleep overtakes him, and he drifts into another world far from the pressures of reality.
At eight o'clock in the evening,
He awakens to the ringing of his phone; the screen lights up with consecutive messages from his friends:
• "Hey, Myoker! Come quick!"
• "We're watching 'Giganturoid'!"
• "We bought you a ticket!"
• "If you don't come, we'll sell it to someone else!"
He replies hesitantly:
— "But the movie shows in a week?"
— "No, the studio decided to release it today!"
Myoker is stunned.
— "What?"
— "Come fast to the gift shop, and don't forget to bring a battery."
— "Battery? Why?" Myoker asks.
— "Don't ask too much, just bring it and come."
Myoker sighs.
— "Alright, I'll be there in five minutes."
He sneaks out of the house quietly, trying not to wake his mother, meets his friends near the shop.
— "Okay, where are the tickets?"
— "What tickets?" Natsu answers with a mischievous smile.
Myoker pauses.
— "What do you mean? I…"
Before he can finish, Miwa grabs his hand and pulls him along.
— "Just come with us."
— "Hey! What's going on? Tell me!"
They don't answer and start walking until they reach an old, abandoned house, the air thick and eerily silent.
— "What is this? Are you all crazy?! You said you were taking me to the cinema!"
— "We were kidding, fool." Ryan sticks out his tongue.
— "What are you talking about?! Someone answer me, why the hell are we here?!"
Shoto (joking seriously):
— "Who knows? There might be aliens, or a secret plot to destroy the world!"
— "What plot?! Miwa, Natsu, why are you with these maniacs?"
— "Sorry, Myoker, but we want some fun."
"Fun?! This is a haunted house—what kind of fun?"
Miwa places a hand on his head in a strict tone:
— "Listen to me, fool. Either you come with us, or we send your exam results to your mother… every last page, even the ones you tore up!"
— "How dare you, you traitor?!"
Miwa and the others step forward.
— "The choice is yours."
Myoker, angry but resigned:
— "Stop, you brats!"
The four stand before the door of the abandoned house.
— "I'll go in last."
Miwa (firmly):
— "You'll go in first."
— "Impossible. I won't go first no matter what."
— "Even if we show your test results to your mom!" Shoto taunts Myoker.
— "Damn you all!"
He places his hand on the door and it swings open suddenly with a terrifying creak—Myoker screams and stumbles back.
— "What happened? You coward?" Shoto mocks.
Myoker (harshly):
— "Shut up! You go in if you're so brave."
Shoto (joking):
— "My test results!"
Myoker enters slowly, trembling, holding his battery-powered torch. The place is pitch-black and frightening.
Natsu (worried):
— "Is it safe in here?"
— "Yes…"
They all enter and continue creeping forward until they come upon a horrifying head statue. They all scream and try to escape, but it turns out to be just a statue.
— "Enough! Can we go back now?"
— "Of course not, you potato-head!" Miwa snaps at Myoker.
Myoker notices a white scarf on the floor in the corner and decides to scare his friends. He drapes it over himself and approaches them. The friends shriek in terror and run outside.
— "Now who's the coward here?"
Myoker pulls off the scarf, laughing—but then suddenly freezes, turning around to see a ghost behind him.
The moment he turns, every trace of his false bravado vanishes from his face, and he lets out a tremendous scream that shakes the house.
— "Aaaaahhh!! A g-g-g-ghost!!"
He runs toward the door at lightning speed, but his usual bad luck holds—he crashes into a lab table behind him. He falls to the ground in pain, and at the same moment a strange glass vial tipped over from the edge of the table, pouring a swirling black, green, and white liquid into his mouth. He swallows it by accident… amidst the screams and chaos, he doesn't notice a thing.
After a moment, his scream gradually subsides as he approaches the "dark ghost"… only to discover it's a 3D hologram that lights up automatically whenever a living body approaches. He touches it to confirm, but is startled when the hologram speaks in a chilling voice:
["Drink what's in the vial on the table or I will kill you… run away and I'll kill your family."]
Myoker screams for a moment, gasps for air, then says:
— "Damn it… it was just an annoying lamp."
Outside, the four friends are in a state of collapse:
Shoto trembles:
— "I…I saw a ghost with my own eyes… it was a bird!"
— "Myoker is still inside!" Ryan says anxiously.
Miwa (gasping):
— "Did the ghost… eat him?!"
— "I don't know… maybe it abducted him!" Natsu replies.
Shoto breaks down crying:
— "Myoker… you were such a good kid… I'm sorry I broke your pen in fourth grade."
Suddenly, Myoker emerges quietly from the house, handing them tissues. They take them without even noticing he returned.
— "Forgive us, Myoker… you were our dearest friend."
— "Wait! Am I not your dearest friend?"
— "Now's not the time for competition!"
— "Rest in peace…"
— "I'm not stupid!" Miwa teases him.
— "Okay, what's 17 plus 59?"
He tries to calculate:
— "Umm… 19… plus… 59… I think… 67?"
— "The answer is 76, you pathetic fool." Shoto replies.
After moments of hugs and tears, Miwa wipes her tears and says:
— "But wait… if what we saw was just a hologram, let's go back inside and investigate more."
Shoto turns to her, face ashen:
— "What are you saying?! Impossible! I'm not going back! I'll die!"
Miwa raises her hand confidently:
— "Whoever wants to go back inside, raise your hand!"
Instead of hands, silence reigns… then one by one they slip away with excuses:
— "Ah… I remembered I have homework!"
— "My mom told me to get home early!"
— "My battery's charging, I can't… I'll die without it."
— "Hey! Stop that! Cowards!"
But even Myoker himself starts to back away quietly, pretending not to hear.
Miwa (shouting):
— "Even you?! You coward!"
Suddenly her confidence melts into tension as she looks back at the dark house again… the wind, the shadows… the atmosphere grows more frightening.
She takes two steps toward the door, murmuring to herself:
— "Should… should I go in? It's just an abandoned house… right?"
But as she takes another step, she catches sight of a massive shadow moving slowly inside.
She gasps:
— "A g-g-ghost?!"
She screams at the top of her lungs:
— "Aaaahhh!!!"
And turns to run as fast as she can:
— "Myooookerr!! Wait for meeee!!!"
The others turn in alarm… she reaches them, panting, trembling, on the verge of tears.
It turns out to be an old gray cat at the back door of the house, meowing innocently.
Myoker sneaks back into the house as usual, trying to make no sound. But he is surprised to find his mother standing in the doorway, holding a long stick, glaring at him.
— "Where have you been?"
— "I was… breathing… fresh air."
— "Come to bed, you idiot."
He enters his room, but suddenly feels a strange pain in his head. He collapses to the floor, writhing and groaning, veins bulging on his face and hands.
— "What is this… the pain… spreading through my whole body!"
He tries to stifle his cries so his mother won't hear, and after minutes of agony… the pain stops abruptly. He breathes slowly and lies down on the bed:
— "Is this because of the fright I went through?... I need sleep, it's late."
The next morning—for the first time in years—Myoker wakes up before his alarm… at five a.m., feeling energetic, focused, and in a great mood!
— "What is this? I've been awake since dawn? This is unnatural! I feel like I'm seven again!"
He opens his history book only to take the money he's hidden inside—and to his surprise:
— "Hey… why do I remember everything on this page?"
He opens another page… then another… and discovers he's memorized the entire book just by looking through it.
— "I… I've memorized the whole history book! This… is impossible!"
In a state of shock, he runs to his father's bookshelf, finds a book titled "1000 Puzzles and Riddles," and begins solving them. Within an hour and a half, he has solved every puzzle, including the extras.
He checks the answers… all correct.
He blinks slowly and murmurs:
— "This… isn't a dream."
He runs to his room, closes the door behind him, sits down, breathes deeply, then…
Laughs.
He laughs for a long time.
— "I won't study ever again! I've become superpowered!"
"No, what am I saying? This is just fantasy."
"Wait—why am I speaking like a sage now?"
But when he stands in front of the mirror he notices something else…
— "My face… my figure… my muscles… they've improved?!"
He approaches the mirror, unable to believe his eyes.
— "I've become… handsome… my features have changed too."
He sits on his bed in astonishment, not knowing whether this is a blessing… or a curse.