Shonen Beam

[scanlation by CXC Scans]

Escaping through the ventilation shaft? Not in this manga.

Sakaki Kenji must not be a fan of that cliché

Hiina’s hand was unable to stop a ceiling fan. This is unequivocally a good thing. Too many fight-capable characters can fill a mystery-puzzle manga with more plotholes than you can shake a stick at. Limited, specific powers offer the opportunity for significantly more writing depth.

Haiba falls back under, then finds the last piece in the ceiling fan. There was indeed trickery at work here. The fact that this room was basically designed as an unwinnable puzzle suggests Enigma (or someone, anyway) has a penchant for watching the participants squirm while having an obvious solution right before their eyes. This brings the possibility of a torture-maniac type villain all the more likely.

Haiba’s way of stopping the ceiling fan – wrapping his jacket around his arm for a cushion – is a believable one. Hiina proves herself useful one more time in stretching to grab the final piece. Game clear.

This series definitely has a love triangle brewing. Works for me, I guess. Hiina is interesting enough, and Shigeru is a character who fits a fairly standard childhood friend role (for now, anyway).

It feels a little bit soon for Haiba’s power to be evolving. His current dream diary power is useful enough in the e-test without having to give him anything extra this arc. Obviously we can expect the power to evolve at some point, and the hint here makes it fairly clear as to how.

Maybe the improved foresight on Haiba’s part is just an offset to balance the fact that he’s now flaunting polka dots. That sweater will take some getting used to.

Good time to balance the puzzle-solving with the events of the outside world. Naturally, their attempts to reach the people walking around outside fail; it’s never that easy. There are people there though, which, as Haiba points out, is big. Eventually, people will be using this school. Unless the characters are somehow intangible, they should be able to communicate then.

… not if the people in question are already “infected” by shadows, though. Pretty shocking page, that. Either this world isn’t the real one or Matsurigi is not the shadow’s first victim. Creepy.

You don't want him picking your kids up from school

The girls are taking a well-deserved rest. This other diary entry now opens the door to showcase the remaining two male characters, and to get a better look at what’s happening to Matsurigi. What it does not open the door to is having the girls kidnapped while they sleep.

Final Flash: Getting the last puzzle piece was cleverly handled, and the revelation in the latter half was a creepy one.