Chapter 1: Prologue

---

Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

TOC | Raws | Next

---

“Whyyy didn’t I accept her invitation. Maaaan, I messed up, she even went out of her way to invite me and everything too…”

Kazuya was lying on his side on his bed. The screen of the phone in his hand was displaying a picture of three girls in yukatas.

‘Cute, aren’t we? It’s a pity you can only see us like this through a screen!’ was the message that had come with it.

The girl in the middle of the picture, the one who had taken it, was his classmate and childhood friend since grade school, Saori Manabe. Kazuya had turned down her invitation to go to the fireworks festival because he had thought it would have been too embarrassing to be the only boy in their group of four.

Thus, the sixteen year old Kazuya Shiina was lying on his bed in his room, listening to the fireworks being set off far away.

He was the only one in the house. His parents had died in an accident when he was little, so he had been brought up by his grandfather, who had also passed away the year before. With no siblings, he had enough money inherited from his parents and grandfather that he wouldn’t have to work until he graduated from university, and so he spent his days at school, at home, or going from one to the other. At school, he was slightly above average, and his looks were much the same.

Outside, the loudest set of sounds yet went off, signalling the end of the festival.

“That’s it for this year’s fireworks, huh. Well, no point thinking about it now, it’s almost over anyway. Guess I’ll have some ice cream.”

Kazuya left his room, went down the stairs, and headed to the kitchen.

“What type should I have today? I’m in a shaved-ice mood right now, so I guess that’s what it’ll be.”

He opened the freezer, only to see a disappointing lack of ice cream inside.

“Ugh, seriously? There’s none left over. Guess I’ll go buy some, and go on a walk while I’m at it.”

He ran up the stairs, grabbed his wallet and phone, and set off towards the convenience store.

He looked up at the cloudless, beautiful night sky. The smoke slowly blowing over from where the fireworks had been set off was the only thing blocking out the stars.

Now that the fireworks festival was over, more and more groups of people were heading home.

They were all smiling, talking about the fireworks as they walked along.

“I wonder if they’ll have some new kind of ice cream?”

Not even sparing a glance to all the home-goers in their yukatas passing him by, Kazuya was thinking about what kind of ice cream to buy.

Then, when the shop was in sight, a scream suddenly came from in front of its entrance.

“Kyaaaaaaa!!”

“Ruuuuun!!”

Couples and families in yukatas were all running away.

Then, a man waving a knife around wildly exited the convenience store.

“I’ll kill you all!!!!! Die!!!!”

The knife in his right hand, he chased after the people running away with bloodshot eyes.

Then, he began going towards Kazuya while shouting incoherently and swinging his knife around.

“Uwaa. You’ve gotta be kidding me. I’ve gotta run.”

As he turned around to run, he spotted two middle-school-aged girls in yukatas whose legs had given out.

“Run, you two!!”

Kazuya shouted at them, but overwhelmed by such a sudden crisis, they didn’t seem like they would be able to run away soon.

“–– Damnit”

Taking a deep breath, Kazuya turned towards the knife-wielding man.

He went down into a half-crouch, focusing on the timing.

“Goooooo!!!”

He jumped at the man, tackling him to the ground.

The two of them rolled along the pavement.

Kazuya ended up on top, pinning the man down.

“Someone please take his knife away!!”

Right as he said that, the area around his stomach suddenly felt really hot, a feeling that spread out to his whole body.

“You bastard!”

Kazuya punched the man.

The man let go of his knife due to the power of the punch.

The knife slid and bounced away, out of reach of both of them.

A couple of people from the crowd that had gathered helped hold the man down now that he had let go of the knife.

Kazuya had been able to ignore the hotness around his stomach due to adrenalin, but as he looked at the place he had been stabbed, the blood kept on flowing out, staining his T-shirt red.

Too weak to stand up, he turned around, now lying on his back.

He looked up at the night sky.

He turned his head a little, someone on their phone calling an ambulance coming into view.

Someone had brought out a bunch of towels from the convenience store and was trying to stop the bleeding.

And the two middle-school girls who had been sitting on the ground unable to move out of fear also came over to him.

“Y-you’re Kazuya-nii-san, aren’t you!?”

The girl with light makeup on her face looked familiar to him.

“Ah right, you’re Saori’s little sister, Manami-chan, huh… Long time no see…”

“Yes! That’s right. I’m Manami. Thank you very much for saving us. I shudder to think at what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in…”

Manami thanked him, crying.

Despite the efforts of the people giving him first aid, his stomach wasn’t bleeding any less.

Kazuya’s consciousness was fading more and more, and his whole body felt cold as if it were frozen.

“––I’m glad you two’re safe. I kinda feel faint though…”

“Kazuya-nii-san! Don’t close your eyes!”

Manami gently shook Kazuya’s shoulders. But, he was unable to muster up any strength at all.

“…Sounds… kinda… impossible…”

“Kazuya-nii-saaaaaaaaaaaaan!!”

And with those final words, Kazuya lost consciousness.

---

TN: not mtl, unlike the previous tl’s version of this
yes, i’ll be doing all the chapters i didn’t tl previously

---

TOC | Raws | Next