Period 23: The Day I Became A Demon - Part 1

Period 23: The Day I Became A Demon - Part 1
Period	23
Volume	6
Previous	Period 22: The Land Of Mermaids
Next	Period 24: The Day I Became A Demon - Part 2

The Day I Became A Demon - Part 1 is the 23rd chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 3rd chapter in the volume 6 manga.

Premise

Kana and Erika are best friends; but after an incident with a bully, Kana suddenly finds everyone has turned on her- including Erika.

Summary

One day on their way to school, friends Kana and Erika discuss the rumor of the ghost on the second floor of the old school block. If you write your name on the roll left in one of the classroom then a wish will come true. Erika thinks the rumor sounds fake, but she adamantly refuses after Kana suggests they try it out. Kana teasingly accuses Erika of being scared, causing her to hurriedly take back her words.

Since grade school Kana and Erika have been friends. They are very close and everything they do is the same naturally; like choosing the same bags for middle school and charms. Their friendship had no bounds.

One day, Erika finds Kana in the classroom after she decides not to participate in swim class. She's surprised Kana is skipping as well, and although Kana claims she has stomach pains, it's painfully obvious that she didn't want to be separated from Erika. Erika suggests they play volleyball and they leave for the gymnasium. Their game goes well until Erika hits the ball too hard, causing it to roll into the locker room. Kana chases after it when she overhears some girls chatting about a third year on the basketball team. Erika locates her to warn her to ignore those girls, one of whom -Tsukamoto- attends the same cram school as her. The girls begin snickering after they catch Kana observing them again.

For some reason this left Kana with a bad feeling, but she wasn't sure why. After school she is disappointed when Erika informs her that she got assigned Day Monitor, so she can't leave yet. Seeing how sad Kana looks, Erika recalls that they made plans to visit the brand new manga shop that opened recently. She reminds her that they can hang out tomorrow and Kana takes off with raised spirits, until she bumps into Tsukamoto. The girls ask if Erika spoke poorly of them earlier and Kana quickly denies anything. They let her go after further interrogation, then they claim she isn't a good person. Kana gets angry and demands an explanation for this, but they brush her off, forcing her to leave.

That night Kana struggles to sleep as she thinks about the confrontation with Tsukamoto. She wishes she had just ignored them as Erika advised, but for now all she can do is let her know about it the next day.

It's pouring rain as Kana runs to school. She overslept and she's very worn out, but to her surprise she discovers Kana isn't waiting for her like usual. This worries her as she makes her way to class, where she is startled to find her desk has been tipped over and its contents spilled out. Hearing Tsukamoto confirms her suspicions, but as she approaches her to tell her group off, she sees it has extended to the rest of the girls in her class, including Erika. Kana attempts to speak but before she can say anything, one girl makes a suggestion that none of them speak to her. Otherwise they will be ignored too.

Shortly following this the classroom became divided; every girl sided with Tsukamoto, while the boys refuse to get involved and feel bad for Kana. She has no idea what caused this to happen.

Suddenly, with teary eyes Kana awakens in bed. She is relieved to see her mom, who woke her up noticing how upset she seemed. Kana realizes she was having a nightmare and calms down. Until she goes to meet up with Erika like usual and she never shows up, causing her to painfully acknowledge that she was turned on. She arrives to school to find drawings on her desk, along with insulting papers. Her girl classmates remain distant and continue making fun of her as she tries to accept isolation, but she can't stop crying while wondering why Erika turned her back on her. She can't recall doing anything wrong.

A Teacher approaches Kana noticing how sickly she looks. But knowing that speaking out will only make things worse, she claims she is fine. She quickly stops by the restroom still feeling helpless and confused, and to her alarm she finds crude drawings on her desk involving the Teacher she just spoke to. She angrily chews out the girls responsible since she refused to speak up, and she is further distressed upon discovering the plush charm she bought with Erika has been mangled.

She breaks down in tears seeing Erika wielding a pair of scissors, then she demands an explanation. This charm was special to them, they both had one. Erika bluntly tells her to suck it up because she isn't stupid, defending her would only make her be targeted by the bullies too. If she can't handle it then she shouldn't bother coming to school at all. Kana is shaken by her sudden cruelty and she remembers back when they began attending this school and the promise they made.

Just then Kanamoto arrives with friends to collect Erika, who mockingly suggests that if Kana is so unhappy she should go to that old block to make a wish. Kana sadly observes Erika to realize that as a further stab to the back, she discarded her old bag for the one Kanamoto and her friends use. As rain continues to pour outside Kana steps into the old block of school with her destroyed bag.

She looks through the remnants of the room as a girl with long black hair observes her as she locates the roll book. She remembers her discussion with Erika about it a few days ago and opens it to find several names, but as she starts writing her name down she recalls other precious memories shared with Erika. She begins to cry again, but after seeing Erika wrote her own name in the book she expresses frustration, considering how against this she was. She writes her name over Erika's in big, bold letters, then she wishes that she would disappear.

Suddenly, laughter begins to fill the room.

Kana realizes that as of today, she will become a demon.

Characters

• Kana Araki
• Erika Katori
• Tsukamoto
• Miss Araki

Trivia

• This is the second story to lack the prologue/epilogue.
  • This is also the second story to be in 2 parts.
• This is the second story Yomi makes a cameo in, playing a minor role towards the end of the first part.