Abstract

Ann, a beautiful second-year junior high student, suddenly finds herself being ignored by her friends. The bullies are a group of girls at the top of the “popularity hierarchy” in her class, and Ann knows that this type of bullying is not uncommon. On the surface, Ann somewhat maintains a relationship with these girls, but underneath, she’s becoming more and more immersed in a morbid fascination with collecting articles on suicide, accidents, and deaths. One day, Ann sees Tokugawa, a boy at the lowest level of the popularity hierarchy, on the riverbank. He’s seemingly trampling animals to death. Sharing the same “darkness” between them, the two sympathize with each other, prompting Ann to ask Tokugawa to kill her. He agrees, and the two meet in secret to plan the murder. But after Ann is targeted by bullies again, she sees that there is another side to Tokugawa, and it terrifies her. What will happen to their unusual friendship? And will Ann be murdered by Tokugawa?

Author’s Information

Mizuki Tsujimura was born in Yamanashi prefecture in 1980. She debuted in 2004 with 'Tsumetai Kosha no Toki wa Tomaru', which won the 31st Mephisto Award. In 2011, she won the 32nd Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Prize for New Writers for 'Tsunagu', and in 2012, she also won the 147th Naoki Prize for 'Kagi no Nai Yume wo Miru'.