"Kimiko! Come on, stay with mommy, okay?"
"But mooommmmmm….look at that! It's a grandfather clock, just like the one Uncle Hiro has!"
Tick, tock, the clock went in the display window, the time displayed: 1:12 PM.
It was a peaceful, temperate day in Kumul, China. The sky was slightly gray with rainclouds, and a light amount or precipitation was currently falling down onto the Earth. Tomoya Kimiko was at the moment wearing a light blue sundress, currently a little damp due to the rain that the seven-year-old had lingered in. A few traces of raindrops fell from her ravenette hair down to the pavement of the sidewalk.
The golden pendulum of the grandfather clock swung, side to side, mechanically ticking away each second as the hands of the clock, ticked on slowly but relentlessly. For some reason, the motion of the clock's face entranced Kimiko so dearly. Her blood-red eyes couldn't help but follow each movement the clock made. It was almost...serene, therapeutic.
"Oh, well yes it is, Kimiko. But come on, we're going to be late. You don't want your father to get angry at us for being late to the big presentation he's got, right? Come on."
"Oh, but Mom~ When will we get one of those?! You promised me that you would get one for my birthday, and my birthday is only in a week, so why can't you get it now…?"
Kimiko's mother simply sighed in defeat, but then maintained her stern tone. "If it's in a week, and if it /is/ the thing that you want, that your heart really wants and nothing else, then I will /get it in a week./ If you do like time, you need to learn of its mechanisms, how cruel it can be sometimes...oh, did I say that out loud? No matter then. Come on, Kimiko, let's get go-"
The air would thicken. Pulse, Energy would gather at a single location so much farther away from the two of them until it would…
Quake.
From the epicenter about 300 miles away, devastating spatial energy would pulsate, screeching, vaporizing all in its way.
Destruction was an understatement of what the spacequake brought. No, a better word would be….deletion. Everything that it touched was subordinate to the sheer power of the malformed distorted space that the quake was currently spreading. The speed of the blast was also awe-inspiring, almost. Nothing got in its way to even slow the destruction down. It roared on, and on, and on, and on…
It finally made its mark in Kumul, but the energy at this point had started...to die. Yes, 300 miles away, the spacequake's power was starting to wane, before it stopped midway into the city. THe city was...somewhat spared.
Somewhat.
Well…
Destruction still roared through half the city, and not even cleanly. Because it did not have enough energy to vaporize the buildings, the houses would instead...be vaulted off into the inner parts of the town, objects now dangerously falling all over the city.
Some of which were headed to Kimiko at the moment.
"KIMIKO!"
Kimiko's mother carried the ravenette girl up into her arms and ran for the nearest shelter, wherever it may be. Although, there wasn't many options really. It was all open, and there were a /lot/ of objects raining from the sky. Pieces of buildings, cars, streetlamps, trees, anything imaginable really.
Roars of pain and screaming could be heard all along as people finally realized what was happening, adding to the death toll of now 150 million people due to this spacequake.
Would Kimiko and her mother be among them?
"Mommy, what's happening?! Why is there screaming?! Why IS THE SKY FALLING?!"
"Kimiko, it's alright, just look at me. Don't look at anyone else! Look at me, alright?!"
A car landed right in front of Kimiko and her mother, forcing the mother to stop suddenly and continue around it. She saw a staircase down into a house's basement, and she would rush down towards it.
"No wasting time. I'm sure that the owners will understand, no?"
And so the mother literally kicked the door open, bringing herself and her child inside. Screaming continued, and the sound and shaking of objects falling from the sky would continue.
"...We're safe, for now...thank Heavens."
"...What….why…..Mommy, what happened…?"
"I don't know, but the important thing is, we're safe. Now we can calm down. Finally."
The First Spacequake. Its epicenter in the middle of Eurasia ravaged throughout the land, and it took 150 million people with it, leaving no evidence of anything that it touched. That is what happened 30 years ago, and it will be forever remembered as Calamity Zero. And from there, Date a Live would make its name…
But what it doesn't reveal is the...painful history of recover, on how the world recovered from Calamity Zero, how it was able to rebuild, on how more Spirits were created and caused Spacequakes on their own.
This tale of Tomoya Kimiko will be revealed, in all its detail, with nothing to hide, and nothing to distort. All of it is real, no matter how you may try to see it.
This is the reason why…
Why I must accomplish my goal.
Kill the First Spirit.
And thus ending all Spirit's Existences.
...Yes, that includes myself. I'm well aware.