Prologue『Turning Point, To This《Normalcy》—』
Wow, I'm fucked up.
From a normal moral standpoint, that's what I would definitely be thinking.
However, as much as I would like to think and act normal, that's not what I am. Going to my wit's end to play the image of a normal high schooler is definitely satisfying; but I would never truly have that freedom anyways.
So— with this unconscious female body lying in front of me and covered in blood…
I merely laughed.
And so, on April 8th, right after the big start of my second year of high school—
I, Haikane Tenryou found myself breaking away from the normalcy of my everyday life.
ABK
"... Oi, class has started already."
The voice that echoed to the left of my person was one that was definitely masculine. Being in Kuoh Academy meant you were completely dwarfed in terms of the male to female ratio of classmates. Roughly four females could be found for every single male you could find.
Niwaka Hayato, one of the five male students in this class including myself tapped my shoulder.
"What's wrong? Stop gazing at the wall..." He poked fun at me, "Or are you just staring at Yuzuha-san like us?"
The person in question Hayato was talking about was of course, the ever so popular Yuzuha Hirai who was happily chatting with the majority of the feminine class.
"Ah… Yuzuha-san is quite pretty today too…" One of the other guys in our little male-circle stated.
Of course, without a doubt I would agree completely with him. With her sunshine blonde hair, slender figure and—
"Don't let her delicate body fool you, her chest size for her body ratio is… big!" Hayato laughed. He was right, her body curved where it should curve and it didn't where it shouldn't curve.
If not for their discrete ways of talking about the girls, they would definitely be compared to the likes of the first-years, the Perverted Trio.
Looking at my fellow guys, it was without a single question that their gazes were focused on top of the aforementioned idol. Though Yuzuha Hirai didn't have the outside ephemeral aura like the likes of the Nadeshiko Akeno Himejima or the outside, unattainable beauty like Rias Gremory… She was about as close as you could get to a "perfect" and "normal" student without straying outside of the social norm too much.
They went on to mention about her beautiful face, nice figure and that, "she has brains along with her looks! She's an actual gold mine! Looks, brains, AND a personality!? Look at her, even being friends with her would make other girls feel comfortable talking to you!"
He wasn't wrong in any sense of the word. Like he implied, she had perfect grades. Yuzuha Hirai seemed to be a perfect being without any flaw.
These few goons went along, discussing Yuzuha Hirai-san as if she was some big celebrity and gossiping about her.
A short laugh escaped my mouth as I snickered at their overly serious discussion.
I agreed that she was perfect, ideal, and out of reach; perfect for people to chase after.
And that's what bothered me the most.
… Had if I didn't know the truth already.
Either way, our situation is dependent on our shared past.
Though, no one other than myself and her knows of our relationship as childhood friends.
"Oh yeah, Haikane; did you hear about the news?"
Oi oi, Hayato-san, you're not giving me any context here.
"No idea what you're talking about, probably doesn't concern me in the first place."
He laughed, "Well, I'm doing this as a good friend you know?"
And so, I looked at him; waiting for a response.
"There's been a string of murders, and male highschool students have been the most common victims."
I wasn't surprised, when I walked to school this morning, I heard two female first-year students discussing it, saying that, "Could it be him?" and the other one replying, "Ah, it possibly could be." It seems that they were debating on whether this recent disappearance could've been the result of this murderer.
"Going on, yesterday, a old man was killed."
"So of course, that means he's still on the loose."
"Bingo."
He looked around before telling me more information, "I looked into his movements for a while, and it seems like Kuoh is going to be his next place of residency… The authorities are keeping quiet about his linear movements to avoid panic."
"I see."
"Seriously? No reaction? Your life is at risk after all."
"You know better than any other guy here that I'm definitely not in risk."
A few students walked in. Including the aforementioned Rias Gremory and another celebrity, Sona Shitori.
"Either way, you should tell your friends to keep an eye out for the next week or so…"
And with that, we stopped talking as we were interrupted by the teacher walking in.
With the usual pace of the day, homeroom started.
If one were to observe the classroom; you could easily divide the class up into three sections.
The first section being the popular ones. Composed of roughly five students. Rias Gremory, Akeno Himejima being the staple two of the five others. One could consider the previously mentioned Yuzuha Hirai here too.
Following that, the second section, where I belong; I would like to say. This would be the "normal" section. Most of class belongs here.
Finally, the third section of outcasts. You could also say I belong here, but this is highly debatable whether anyone truly belongs here.
Logically, the ones most likely to be targeted by the murderer would be the ones in the section of outcasts.
Being a male could also directly put you in the section of the outcasts. Hayato is a good guy, so he probably told me of that information to keep an eye out for me.
Due to the authorities not having any clear leads at all, the police and law keeping force of Kuoh can't do anything either.
You could say that the murderer could be a ghost that the police have been chasing for a while.
After all, Hayato and I personally have been investigating a bit into this too. Not together; I investigated individually and so did he.
Though our research wasn't done to look out for us in particular, we did it for the sake of the preservation of our normalcy.
Of course, I concluded that the popular students would never be put into harm. They know more than I do, after all.
Hayato and I definitely aren't taking any action.
All our information boiled down to basically; "female students wouldn't be harmed."
So with the revelation that an old man had been murdered; we have definite proof that the person is currently at Kuoh.
"Tenryou-kun~, class is over, you know?"
Ah, the popular idol has appeared.
Yuzuha Hirai
"... Sorry, I zoned out."
We weren't close to the ends of being called "friends" but merely "acquaintances"
"Yuzuha~, it's time to leave~." A classmate called out to her.
She nodded and left, her sunshine-like hair trailing behind her.
…
No one's left in the classroom.
I guess I should get going too.
I promptly picked up my things and left the room.
The rest of the day went by similarly, I didn't have anything special happen to me.
Just what I wanted.
I thought I would just leave to go home like normal, at the end of the day. Then the public announcement system opened up.
Surprisingly enough, the student council president was the one that was speaking through it. The current student council president is the ever so annoying Hayato Niwaka.
My previously mentioned friend is actually quite the academic genius. In second-year, he's already the student council president.
I only know two of the student council members right now, to be completely honest. Hayato and Sona Shitori-san, the current vice-president.
Sona Shitori, a student who has been here for two years now would be a better candidate for student president, but she insisted on "learning more" or whatever.
Being completely honest, I guarantee that she would be doing a better job than Hayato if she were the current president.
Hayato does nothing.
You could even say that Sona Shitori and the rest of the student council run the school by themselves.
So when Hayato's voice is the one that popped out of the speaker on top of the classroom door, to say I was surprised is an understatement.
"All student council members, please report to the council room." Or so he said.
Oh well.
It's not my business to deal with anyways. I'm in the very valuable "go home" club.
But then I felt a hand on top of my shoulder, a slender effeminate one.
"Tenryou-kun, can I speak to you?"
Once again, the normalish idol talked to me. I looked around before affirming that I was free.
"There's a lot of people around here. Let's go somewhere else instead?"
Consequently, this sounded like a confession… Or something like that. Thus, a few sounds of question were heard around. Not that I'm a person of popularity, but being one of the few males in this school does drag attention to you.
She giggled and dragged me back into an unoccupied classroom.
…
Then her demeanor changed.
"The higher ups want you back."
She stated.
"And I don't want to go back."
My stance was one that was an unmovable rock.
"Yes, but your will is irrelevant here. While you don't have your Sacred Gear anymore, your talent with magic is still appreciated. You've been ordered to go back."
But her stance was one like a unstoppable force.
"Then tell someone to come pick me up personally. If it's just you, Yuzuha; you can't force me to do anything."
She smiled, it wasn't a meaningful smile or anything, but it was a smile nonetheless.
"You're not wrong, you still have greater authority than me despite being excommunicated. But you know that I've been sent here at the same time as you for a reason right?"
"Of course, it's not a mistake that you showed up a week after I appeared here."
Obviously, she wasn't surprised that I knew. It was quite obvious after all. She knew me well enough to at least be able to tell that.
"Then you should understand my point. It's not just that I'm following orders, but I've been told that the murderer around is of Biblical origins. Kuoh isn't safe for you anymore."
"You should also know that I'm perfectly capable of defending myself."
"The point isn't that you can take care of the culprit. It's that you're developing relations with people that could be killed at any point."
There's no way that's the case.
"I'm not like I was a few years ago."
"But you're still the same person at the core."
You're contradicting yourself.
We stared at each other at a standstill.
Sighing, she revealed, "This isn't an order from the human side."
She continued, "This is from Yasaka-sama's council."
You could compare that reveal to... perhaps a sea crashing down on me.
"..."
"Then, I had no choice in the first place."
Nodding, she pouted, "It was selfish for you to leave Kyoto in the first place. You're the heir to the infamous Sacred Gear household, after all."
"And a person without a Sacred Gear doesn't fit in with the Sacred Gear household."
「Spear Genesis」doesn't exist anymore, after all.
"... Doesn't matter. Either way, we're leaving tomorrow."
She walked outside, and with her exit; I heard a chorus of people conversing to her.
Step... step... despite the situation being one where many different voices collapsed on top of each other, her footsteps were the only thing that I could hear. It made me feel like I was watching a scene from a film. However, I could tell that her footsteps were unwavering and though Yuzuha's voice did overlap with the rest of the students, the footsteps never stopped progressing.
She was moving forward. Forward in her life.
While mine...
…
And so; my daily school normalcy—
It came to an end.
Or so I thought.
Because as I left the school, I found myself letting out a deafening sound called laughter due to finding a body laying before me—
Yuzuha Hirai's body.
ABK
There's an awful lot of police officers around Kuoh's campus today.
Another boy fell victim to the boy-killer after all—
"Did you hear? The culprit of the recent murders was recently found in Kuoh! The student council was discussing about it yesterday!"
"Yeah! Dudeeee, let's go ask Hayato about it!"
"Are you sure? He seems to be stressed, for once."
I walked into my classroom.
Sitting on Yuzuha Hirai's seat.
I found a black haired beauty.
「discord. gg/xEApPAS 」 to meet me.
Beta'd and proofread by demonicjester01. Go read his ONE single piece of writing. The early chapters are rough, but he really shines later on.
