Vol 1 Chapter 1 (1/2)
Chapter 1: The Chance Meeting of Swirling Flames
In the pre-dawn hours of the Sixth, the shrine of the daien in Iwakubo, Koufu in the prefecture of Yamanashi+ was found to be destroyed by persons unknown Ya it to be a ht the cooperation of area residents in tracking down the perpetrators
BAM!
The youth in school uniform who had just been thrown by the punch crashed into cases of beer piled against the edge of a wall and turound
Clang clang CLANG!
“!”
Yuzuru exhaled, and a shudder ran through his shoulders
He returned to hi in the pose of soht punch
(Eh?)
For a moment he could not quite place where he was
(Huh?)
He stared at his clenched fist
(What?)
Looking around, he saw only four high school students dressed in navy-blue unifor liround
Yuzuru blinked a few times
“Erhuh? ”
The youths regarded Yuzuru with identical fearful gazes Their faces had splotches of bruises as if so, and their expressions were of eleether and began throwing jeers at Yuzuru with false bravado
“Do-don’t think you can get cocky, asshole!”
“W-e’ll remember this!”
Having forced out their threats, they were off and running down the alley even before the echoes of their voices had faded
“Whaaa?”
Yuzuru stared after theasted
A bunch he didn’t recognize But froh? Why? )
Yuzuru looked down at himself His uniform was in disarray and full of dust, and his necktie had come undone
He suddenly noticed that the corner of his , and there was a sers
“Oh”
Bewildered and stunned, he began to shake
He hadn’t recognized the West High students who had run down the alleyway His fist throbbed with the dull pain that re someone
After?
No, he really h school students had been?
(What have I been doing? )
Yuzuru covered his mouth with his hand He tried to think back But he had nowas a complete blank
What had he been doing?
Yuzuru’s expression stiffened a little He tried to rewind his memories and play them back Where did they stop? Where did they disappear? He couldn’t re?
Where was this?
“!”
Feeling another’s presence, Yuzuru startled badly and spun around There
Standing there was a tall male student dressed in the sa he had been there Leaning against the white brick walls of the storehouse, he was looking over at Yuzuru Then, with a cool, faint smile, he said, “Not bad”
“”
Yuzuru stared blankly, eyes round as acorns This tinized
“Takaya” he called the naht
A cloudless blue sky stretches out above the city as far as the eye can see The Northern japanese Alps, its graceful skyward peaks glittering with the last of the winter snows, look down over the town
A May quickened by the refreshi+ng Kamikouchi winds
Matsuano
shi+nshuu’s Matsumoto: a city surrounded by beautiful blue peaks, fa in the japanese Alps, called the ‘rown up from its history as a simple castle town
Within the city there are many historical landmarks such as Matsumoto Castle, one of japan’s national treasures, and the former Kaichi School The city can be called the cultural center of shi+nshuu—and now Nagano It is now second in industry and commerce and population in the prefecture, and its residential areas had spread into the suburbs
And so
They are Narita Yuzuru and Ougi Takaya, second-year students here in Matsuh
“Fish fillet and large fries Oh, and a medium coke”
The eh school students loitering around at this time of day, clicked away as she listened to the order Takaya turned to look behind him
It was a fast-food restaurant in front of Matsu back to the station, and, needing soular haunts
Yuzuru, whoainst a wall beneath a poster, his eyes shadowed
“”
Elbows resting casually on the counter as he took in the scene, Takaya turned back to face the restaurant employee
“Add another coke”
The restaurant was eain, it was still before noon The clock read just after eleven o’clock Takaya carried the tray up to the second floor and dropped into a seat at afacing the station terminal He frowned up at Yuzuru, who had taken his seat after Takaya
“What? Did you want the tacos instead?”
Yuzuru rested his chin in his hands and replied while gazing out the , “I had tacos yesterday”
“Yesterday?”
Takaya leaned forward unintentionally
“‘Yesterday’—I knew it! You were skipping school!”
“What’s with the ‘I knew it’? And besides, what are you doing here at this time of day?”
Takaya’s lips tightened peevishly
“I had self-study in Math, so I skipped out and ca for you”
“Self-study? Why?”
“Hoould I know? Guess he was feeling sorry for hi and didn’t show up”
“Didn’t show up? Oh, you’ve been fighting with the teacher again, haven’t you! You shouldn’t, you know! Math—that’s the new teacher, Yoshi+kawa, right? Poor guy, getting bullied right from the start!”
“I’ off his mouth”
“You’re pretty scary when that hot-headedness of yours cools down”
“None of your business” Seriously annoyed, Takaya turned away and chewed at his straw “More important is what’s up with you”
“?”
“Why the heck are you skipping?”
“”
Yuzuru’s expression becahtly shadowed Takaya waited patiently for hi the paper cup he had set down on the table to one side
“Have you been stuo?”
Yuzuru didn’t answer
“Geez” Takaya sighed “I called your house, and your mom said that you ‘left for school like always’ I wonder what you’re doing so I go looking for you, and I find you in a place like that, standing over four guys like you just beat thee”
“Strange?” Yuzuru leaned forward a little “I’e?”
“”
Takaya cast a serene gaze on Yuzuru, then leaned his chin in his hands and looked out the“Well, you were aleirder than other people”
“—”
Yuzuru’s lips quirked slightly in a half-hearted reaction It had been obvious froood spirits and had feords to say
“We haven’t changed classes yet, so it can’t be start-of-classes blues I guess that’s the first ti like that” It didn’t seehts “If there’s so e advice, I’ll listen if it’ll help clear your head a bit”
“Takaya—”
“So why have you been skipping?”
“I haven’t really been ‘skipping’”
“?” Takaya asked, “Whadaya mean? Then”
“I don’t knohat’s going on either,” Yuzuru said, covering his forehead with the back of his hand ”Like today—I was heading for school when I left the house, and so I knew, I’d beaten up these guys I’ve never ht
“Yuzuru?”
“It was like that yesterday, too Everything was nor I kneas sitting in the middle of the street And then the day before that”
“And you don’t re in between?”
“”
Yuzuru nodded
Takaya couldn’t help but draw in a breath
“Then you”
“I don’t knohat’s going on at all What’s wrong with oneThat ti?”
“—”
“But that brawl earlier, I so I don’t re, and it seems like it was someone else who did it”
“maybe”
“?”
“I don’t think you’d provoke a fight with someone”
“Takaya” Yuzuru questioned hierly to his words, “What could it be? I don’t knowlike a split personality?”
“Split personality? Why would you suddenly become like that?”
“You’re asking me why”
Yuzuru, faced with Takaya’s scowl head-on, closed hisLeaning forward deliberately, he began to question Yuzuru with the relentless intensity of a detective in an interrogation chamber
“Was there anything that ered it?”
Yuzuru, his index finger on his chin, turned his gaze slightly to the view outside the
“‘Triggered’?”
“was there?”
“Yeah”
Pedestrians passed beneath the , a steady strea at this scene, Yuzuru ether
“A dream”