"It's been a year since Haruko left. I never did quite understand why she ever came in the first place, but since she's been gone, it's almost like the town died with her... almost as if she was the heart and soul of the place, and her disappearance was all the more reason for it to slink back into the darkness..."
I wondered this to myself as I looked wistfully outside my bedroom window. True, the town had never been more... "alive" than when Haruko was around, but I didn't care either way. Feh... I like it better without her anyway.
At that moment, my door practically exploded as shards of wood flew in every direction, and I wheeled around. From the clearing smoke I could make out what appeared to be a tall girl holding a guitar.
No... it couldn't be...
"H...Haruko?"
I ran to the figure to see who she was, but suddenly found myself being held in the air by my neck.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW HARUKO? WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!"
"(gack)... what are you... talking about?... I... didn't... (choke) do anything..."
As the girl flung me to the ground, I looked up and saw that she was deinitely NOT Haruko. Her purple hair fell to her side as she looked at me with her menacing red eyes. her attitude was obviously different as well. In fact, the only thin that made her similar to Haruko was the she held a bright red guitar in her hands, which gleamed in the sunlight passing through my window.
"What's your name, punk?"
"N-Naota" I said as I stood back up, "and who the heck are YOU?"
She flung her hair back, those eyes of hers scanning my every move, like a hawk desperate to kill its prey.
"Name's Okurah, and you'd best remember it, because know that I know you know who Haruko is, you're going to help me FIND her."
"...and if I refuse?..."
"NOT AN OPTION!"
She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, and for some reason I wished Haruko was here right now...
END OF EPISODE ONE