Chime

Matsuoka is a teacher at a culinary school. One day, a student, Tashiro, says something strange during the lesson: “There’s a noise, it’s like a chime. Someone is sending me a message.” The people running the school warn him that Tashiro’s a little odd, but Matsuoka isn’t bothered by it at all and continues treating him normally. However, on another day, Tashiro says, “Half of my brain has been replaced with a machine,” and takes drastic action to prove it. Some days after the incident with Tashiro, Matsuoka is teaching a female student, Akemi. Matsuoka continues teaching unenthusiastically but when she complains that a whole chicken leaves her feeling uncomfortable, something incomprehensible overtakes him. Both at the school and at home, a strange dread begins to undulate in his ordinary existence…