Hanged Man's Eye
Chapter 0: Why the Devil Cried.
He stands on the ground staring proudly into the sky, like it belonged to him. Even if his back was bare of the wings that would mark it as his.
What?" His voice is curt and tired, like he's talked a lifetime. Useless empty words that have no meaning.
Haruka knows the feeling.
"Where are your wings?" Haruka asks and there's a look on his face.
It doesn't stay there for long, it flits across his face before he hides it under his blank expression. But Haruka still sees it somehow.
"If I knew, I wouldn't be here talking to you."
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His name is Kisaragi Shintaro and he's Haruka's junior.
He's friends with a girl with wings, a girl with a sweet smile and a scarf that cuts a warm red in the dim winter evenings. Even though her wings are half-unfurled, she walks beside him, casual chattering filling the space between them.
Ayano was fast friends with Takane and by extension, with Haruka. Which meant that he'd started to spend more time in the wingless angel's company.
A wingless angel.
It was a rare case, but not that unusual. Of the angel race, there were a few angels that made it to their twenties without ever developing them.
When he spends time with them, Haruka sometimes even forgets about it.
They talk as normal teenagers do. They play video games, gripe about classes and tests, hang out after school. They eat lunch together. They eat lunch on the roof, just like normal teenagers.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Shintaro's a little more irritable than usual on the roof, he fights with Takane a little more frequently.
But it's nothing out of the ordinary, right?
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On the tenth day that Haruka had known him, he sees him stare at the sky. Just like he had the first time they'd met.
But this time he can see the look on his face. His chest constricts and he's scared for a second before he realizes that this is a pain that he doesn't know.
No, he does. No, he doesn't.
He's not sure.
But when he leaves with Takane, it doesn't go away. Not for the entire day. Not for the entire night.
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On the eleventh day that Haruka had known him, he sees Shintaro alone on the rooftop.
Standing on the ledge on the other side of the wire fence.
With nothing but air, sky and the faraway ground in front of him.
He's facing Haruka, his fingers are gripping the metal fence tightly and...Haruka can actually hear him. Hear him crying.
He hears Haruka gasp and his foot slips.
And before Haruka's horrified eyes, he falls.
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