It was a moderately sunny day. The temperature outside was approximately twenty degrees. It wasn't blistering hot, yet you couldn't call it cool either. It was perfect for the first day of high school.

I walked down the sidewalk in high spirits. It was a day to officially shove my past behind. Many people also made their way to Sobu High. From their cheery chatter, it was blatant that everyone was excited for this new start.

"Meguri-chan, wait up!" exclaimed a second-year student.

"Muuuuuu, you're just too slow," responded the other second-year student.

O-Oh man. I knew that high school students were a feast for the eyes compared to middle school students, but this was a bit much. This is bad. The beta endorphins are flowing through my veins, and I'm about to hit Hysteria Mode!

Similarly to those second-year students, other students walked side-by-side, chatting as they went along. I was the odd one out, walking all alone. It's really difficult being the special one, so it can't be helped! Right?

I looked up at the sky. A few clouds hung in an otherwise bright blue sky. This was my chance. I could not forge any real friendships in middle school. But it didn't matter now. Today, I was a blank slate. I could make new friends at Sobu High. I needed to forget my past failures and debut as a renewed person.

In front of me, a girl with her hair in a bun was walking her dog. The dog was waving its tail back and forth with a high frequency. It seemed the cheerfulness of the people heading to school reached even animals. Well, for someone like me, the pure and in-your-face enthusiasm exhibited by the dog was a little unsettling. Maybe that's why we owned a cute and cool cat at home.

O-Oh no, I was almost to the school. Only ten minutes left. I was starting to get a bit nervous. What should I do when I got there? What should I say and who shall I say those words to? It was hardly a problem for me to converse with someone. At least that's my personal evaluation. The problem was, what would I say? What would even talk about? Forget that, would I even find people who were free?

Compatible people were quickly attracted to each other like bees to honey. In hardly a few months friendship circles would be closed off from recruitment. I needed to act fast.

I slowed down slightly. Perhaps the nervousness was getting to me. I started to have second thoughts. I felt a slight urge to run away. Past failures were not easily hidden under the rug. A part of me was looking forward to this day and meeting new people. Yet, another part of me was knew that I absolutely wasn't a person that could easily make friends. That wasn't self-loathing; I never once hated myself. It was an objective truth.

I sighed. In the end, the blank slate was created by using a whiteboard eraser to wipe out the existing text. Residue would remain.

"Ah, Sablé, wait up!" yelled the girl in front of me.

Her dog became a little bit too excited thanks to the unending hype of the students. It began dashing down the sidewalk, forcing its owner to jog while holding onto its leash, being dragged by the dog. The role of master and pet seemed to have reversed in that moment, much like Ash and Eco.

A breeze blew past me at that moment due to a car passing by. They were the automobile commuters. Ah, what a waste of precious fossil fuel. Why couldn't these people just bike to school? I would usually do that myself, but I decided to walk today to burn off the extra excitement energy from this morning.

My sixth sense detected another car coming from behind me. Wait, I thought I stopped that chuuni nonsense ages ago. Well, I still looked back over my shoulder and confirmed that there was indeed a car coming. And at quite the high speed too. Wow, sometimes I scare myself with my prowess.

"Sablé , stop! I can't hold on much longer!" moaned the girl.

Her white hands tipped with red from constricted blood vessels suddenly let go of the leash. Without a restraint, the dog was free to run as it desired. It rushed beside and between the legs of various students, prompting various Kyaaa's and Oh My's. The girl profusely apologized to each and every person who had the pleasure of brushing their legs against the dog's fur and acting as a whipping target for the dog's tail as she chased it.

Suddenly, the dog decided that it had enough of this side of the sidewalk and turned its body to the side. It sprinted straight onto the road. Come to think of it, wasn't that car rapidly approaching at this very moment?

It was obvious to anyone what that meant. An unfortunate accident was about to occur.

I felt a little chilly, staring at that scene. In mere moments, the dog will be reduced to a bleeding, writhing wreck. Once that happened, the girl would definitely break down and cry. Her joyous high school beginning would be crushed, leaving her with a traumatic memory instead.

Come to think of it, I was once ruined too.

A scene replayed in the back of my head. It was middle school. The evening sun tinted the classroom in a drowsy orange. Orimoto and I were the only ones in the classroom. As usual, we were chatting about meaningless things, enjoying our youth. But I had another reason to be with Orimoto at that time.

"I love you. Please go out with me," I said to her.

Orimoto looked shocked. But it wasn't out of embarrassment. She looked awkwardly to the side and told me one single line.

"Um, can we start by being friends?"

The next day, the moment I entered the classroom, I was teased about my confession. On the blackboard, someone wrote on there "Hikigaya is head over heels for Orimoto!". My desk was plastered with writing, saying similar things like "Hikigaya x Orimoto OTP" and "Hope you weren't rejected too harshly!".

From then on, I became the central object for scorn and amusement. Nonstop bullying and teasing accompanied me day after day. I was subject to prank after prank and was called insulting names after insulting names. It was a seemingly endless hell.

I was never a person who stood at the top of the food chain. It was at that time that I stopped trying.

The girl whose dog is meeting its imminent accident will head down the same path as me. Having a failed launch will make the rest of the journey rough. Her outlook will, undoubtedly, be twisted. A ghost of pessimism and self-depreciation will follow her, scaring away potential friends. Rumours of this incident will spread. The people that she will meet would pity her, rather than see her for who she is. In other words, any relationships she forms will be on the basis of pity.

She would be ruined like me.

But was this right?

Was it fine to let it be this way?

Being a veteran of on the battlefield of life, was I okay with having this girl become a monster like me?

What I needed to do was already decided.

I was already running by the time I thought that.

This might prevent me from having a successful start. I may be closing myself off to making friends. I knew that. But it didn't matter to me. What I needed to do now was far more important.

My legs carried me onto the road. I headed straight for the dog.

I grabbed hold of its fur and hugged it tightly in my chest. The sight of an oncoming mass travelling at a high speed filled my vision.

Thump.