A girl responded to her classmate’s cheerful voice with a slight nod of greeting.
“You sure cut it close day in and day out. You could always get going three minutes earlier, so why do you wait until the last second? Playing a one-man game of chicken?”
“Negative.”
“I see. That’s fine, but as the class rep, I’ve gotta tell you not to be late.”
“Positive.”
Her response was almost mechanical. Once she finished her unemotional exchange, she moved in Mutsuki’s direction. Technically, she was approaching her seat by the window.
She was the polar opposite of Kurikara Saya. She never asserted herself, so her aura or presence was practically nonexistent and she did not stand out much. At the same time, she was brimming with a calm attraction that mysteriously kept one from looking away once they did look her way.
She tended to keep her transparent eyes narrowed and she had a tall bridge of the nose. She did not seem to wear any lipstick, but her lips had a natural glossy pink color. The messy look of her curly hair was somewhat childish, but the noble atmosphere of her expressionless face gave her a sense of dignity beyond her years. She managed to hold both a child’s cuteness and an adult’s beauty.
Both boys and girls wore a blazer at Megutono Academy and that accentuated her slender figure. From the shoulders to the upper arm and down to the stomach, her blazer was clearly sewn as narrowly as possible.
But at the same time, she was not too skinny. Her chest and hips provided a stark contrast to her slender waist. Her hips were positioned high enough to be immediately noticeable. She wore gray socks over her lovely legs which were full-bodied and filled with life.
To match her face, her figure was as perfect as a model’s.
“Um…”
Mutsuki tried to speak up.
He only wanted to say “good morning, Ibekusa-san”. He would only be copying what Sakae had done so easily.
But…
“…”
He could not say a word before she sat next to him in her own window-side seat.
His cheeks filled with intense heat and his mouth refused to move.
“Okay, everyone, get in your seats.”
Meanwhile, their homeroom teacher arrived.
Yet again, he had been unable to speak to her.
He barely listened to the information being presented to him and instead took furtive glances toward her seat.
She was resting her head in her hand and starting expressionlessly out the window.
Outside, he could see the magnificent stone hexagonal pillar and the clear blue sky of early summer behind it. The clear sunlight had completely swept away the colors of daybreak, leaving a blue so pure it seemed to suck one in.
The girl in front of it seemed so transparent she would vanish into that sky.
Her name was Ibekusa Machina.
In a way, she was a class celebrity. Her beauty was naturally a factor, but it also had to do with arriving at 8:30 sharp every morning yet never once being late, as if she had a clock installed in her body. Also, she barely spoke with anyone.
“…”
Mutsuki looked her way again and again. He was enraptured by her beautiful profile, but he gave a disappointed sigh at the fact that he could not grow beyond simply looking.
And thus Mutsuki’s day began.
He worked hard for his family, he had stupid fun with his friends, and he failed to speak to his crush.
This was but one page from the many harmonious days of his life.
And he remained entirely unaware that the discord decorating human history was fast approaching.
Even afterschool, Mutsuki’s normal life continued as usual.
Ibekusa Machina would always arrive just before morning homeroom and leave as soon as the final homeroom was over. Mutsuki wanted to say “goodbye” or “see you tomorrow” but gathered his things with a gloomy sigh when he could not.
Sakae’s home was near his, but they did not usually walk home together. Mutsuki had no afterschool activities, but Sakae was always busy with his class representative work.
“Fuujiiitaaa-kun. Bye-bye.”
“Bye-bye, Kurikara-san.”
He left the academy as Kurikara Saya and his other classmates said goodbye.
He had nothing in particular to do, so he headed straight home.
The town was not quite a city but still had a fair number of people, so the station located on the way home was always filled with officer workers and students heading home.
More cars were honking their horns than usual, but that had nothing to do with Mutsuki on the sidewalk. He ignored the din as he walked straight through the station area.
Suddenly, his cell phone began vibrating in his pocket.
He pulled it out to find an unknown number on the LCD panel. The numbers for his friends, family, parents’ offices, and little sister’s kindergarten were all saved, so he wondered who this could be as he answered.
“Gather heaven, earth, and hell,” said a voice, “and you will have everything.”
“What?”
“The world was created from discord. …You’re about to be in trouble.”
“Um…”
“Run away.”
The nasal alto voice belonged to a grown woman, but he did not recognize it.
The boy frowned because he had no idea what the woman meant.
“Who is this? This cellphone belongs to Fujita Mutsuki.”
“Make sure you survive until Ange gets there.”
“…”
Survive. He stopped because that dangerous word brought the opposite outcome to mind.
He happened to stop in front of the large wall fountain that made a nice landmark for the roundabout in front of the train station.
“That is hell. You mustn’t stop there.”
“Eh? Eh?”
“The spring has already been wound. Get away from the roundabout!”
Before the woman finished speaking, the screams filling the station area told him something was wrong.
“…”
The woman was still saying something, but Mutsuki dropped his phone on the edge of the fountain.
That was hardly surprising given what had happened.
A bright rouge Porsche was noticeably parked in the middle of all the cars filling the station roundabout.
It was stopped right in the middle of the road which explained why the cars had been honking so much. But those horns soon became screams.
Everyone watched in shock as sounds of scraping metal came from the Porsche and it ceased to be a car.
“Ah…Ah…”
After the hood opened, metal claws burst out and stabbed into the ground to lift the tires from the ground. Next, the convertible chassis bent like an accordion and rose up in a menacing pose.
Then, the emblem on the bumper lifted its head to look in the boy’s direction.
Its glossy, streamlined red body showed off its dark engine. Just as a rhinoceros beetle looked like a jewel from the top but revealed its grotesque underbelly when flipped over, a sense of indescribable revulsion filled the roundabout with panic.
(What…is this? What is this? What is this?)
Everyone began to flee the station area, but Mutsuki was frozen in place. The air felt as thick as molasses and his legs refused to move.
As the car monster stood up like a human being, he noticed its headlights turning his way.
The Porsche seemed to forget it had tires, so it dragged its body along by its claws to approach the dumbfounded boy. The weight of the car produced an awful scraping noise on the concrete.
“~~”
The scraping almost sounded like the whinnying of a horse and the boy fell onto his butt.
Even after his hips gave out, the Porsche continued toward him.
“…sten! Listen, Fujita Mutsuki-kun!”
It stopped just as it crushed the dropped phone with its claw.
As the dumbfounded boy watched, something strange happened to the destroyed phone. The bisected parts clung to the claw and became a phone once more.
“Mutsuki-kun, calm down and listen. You can’t stay there!”
The phone still functioned.
It all felt so surreal that Mutsuki started feeling faint.