Oppressive Stretched Canvas

When a ventilation mishap at the corporate headquarters forces her and her eccentric colleagues to work from their private wards, Purin is thrust into an isolating week of "remote labor" that is anything but restful.As Purin navigates absurd plumbing-related disasters, invasive supervisors, and the moral implications of her art, she begins to realize that her isolated existence is a carefully maintained prison.

In the sterile, high-security halls of Clover Ward Media Tech HQ, "talent" is a commodity, and freedom is a long-forgotten dream. For Purin Fujioka, life has become a routine of state-sanctioned forgery and "work limbo," where the only escape is the four walls of an apartment that feels more like a well-camouflaged prison cell.When a pheasant infestation forces the section talents out of their usual work units, Purin finds herself hosting an unlikely gathering of her peers...the enigmatic and manipulative Nushiru, the chaotic and unpredictable Anna, and the hauntingly detached Ginko. What begins as a routine social visit quickly unravels into a series of psychological games and a cold confrontation with the families they were sold away from.

Having recently witnessed Nushiru commit a cold-blooded double murder to protect one of their own, Purin is haunted by the realization that violence has become a casual, unremarkable resolution to their problems. While her friends (the unpredictable Anna and the stoic Ginko) seem unfazed by the growing body count, Purin seeks solace in the advice of a reclusive artist, Rin Kawai, only to discover that their unit's rebellion against corrupt supervisors might not be as unprecedented as she thought.As the group flees a disastrous family reunion that devolves into a restaurant-wide brawl and a city-wide police lockdown, they find themselves hiding out in a cramped apartment, bonding over dark secrets and a shared, uncertain future.

As Purin is forced to navigate the cold, corporate protocols of a psychological evaluation designed to measure her loyalty rather than her health, she realizes she is just another "rat in a cage" for the management to experiment with. To avoid being locked away indefinitely, she must learn to wear a mask and lie about her own sanity.To this end...seeking refuge from the suffocating pressure of the Ward, Purin finds herself pulled into the chaotic orbit of her eccentric friends once more. From a midnight heist involving hundreds of stolen bathing suits to a narrow escape from a fitness center, she will beforced to wear a mask of sorts (be it figurative or literal).