And now for a friendly disclaimer. I do not own any of the following characters. All characters are the property of the talented Jin Kobayashi. Besides, I don't think he'd like what I've got his characters doing.

WARNING. This is a very dark and disturbing piece. Do not read if you are adverse to acts of violence, twisted torture or seeing one of the most cheerful characters of this particular series engage in some truly fucked up shit. This chapter will be about as light as this story gets. This story came about as a natural reaction to reading the School Rumble fanfic Presto Sostenuto by the author chromate. Though it isn't necessary you read it, I am basing this opening chapter around the events of that story. Anyway.

Enjoy :D.

It was a particularly nasty winter evening out in Yagami City. Snow, rain, and wind all mixed together to lash at the house. There was no way anyone in their right mind would want to be caught outside. Not tonight. This suited the young woman sitting at her computer just fine. It meant no visitors would be likely to show up unannounced. And she had something very important to take care of. Something she felt she should have done a long time ago.

Tenma Tsukamoto looked at the form she had filled out online. The form being already complete, all she had to do was click the submit button. Which had been the case for the past 30 minutes or so. Tenma had to admit that even after all this time and all the pain her friends and family had been through, especially Yakumo, this was still something that unsettled her, just a little bit. And that was saying something. There was almost nothing in this world that Tenma cared more about than her little sister, but…

If she submitted this…there was no turning back. Admittedly that was because the contract labeled, in no uncertain terms, that once the form was submitted, there was no reneging. At all. Tenma could understand why that was in the contract. This was not the sort of thing you agreed to lightly. She knew this wasn't a lawful act, no matter how she felt. But Tenma had long since stopped caring about legal and illegal. Besides, on a deeper level, she understood what it was really there for. Fundamentally speaking, even just asking someone to do something like this…it meant walking down a path that few came back from. Unscarred that is.

It was a horrifying thought she realized, but Tenma wasn't sure if she even wanted to come back given the choice. She couldn't be the upbeat, sunny one that did her best to always cheer others up. Not anymore. Because she knew in her heart that the other side of the world she had been so blissfully ignorant of could no longer be ignored. No, not since that night where everything flipped upside down and crashed down on the Tsukamoto family.

Three years. Three years of watching her sister suffer had slowly ground out just about every trace of sunshine in Tenma's heart. And it wasn't just Yakumo. Kenji Harima had suffered as well. Even though Yakumo had never once blamed him, Tenma knew. She knew Kenji blamed himself for what had happened, and it had eaten away at him. She knew because she felt exactly the same way. The boyfriend was supposed to protect the girlfriend. Big sister was supposed to protect little sister. Three years ago they both failed.

Three years ago Tenma had been at Eri Sawachika's house, with her other friends Akira Takano and Mikoto Suou, for a sleepover. Akira had received a phone call late that night. It wasn't until Akira's voice had started rising a bit that everyone stopped what they were doing. Akira was always in such control of her emotions that any kind of loss of composure was a surprise. And that was before she yelled at the person on the other end. The other girls just gaped at how angry Akira sounded. And when Akira dropped a chess piece she had been holding, they saw something that Akira had probably never felt before.

Shock.

The person on the other end had been Hiroyoshi Asou, a fellow classmate. He probably chose to call Akira instead of Tenma for fear of what might happen if he told her directly what he had come across. After closing up at the restaurant they worked at, he had been walking Sarah Adiemus, his coworker and Yakumo's best friend, to the Tsukamoto home for a sleepover the two had planned with Tenma away at one. Sarah was feeling a little worried since Yakumo wasn't answering her calls.

After turning down a street that Sarah told Asou was a shortcut she and Yakumo used, Sarah was once again trying to call when Asou brought her to an abrupt stop. The street was poorly lit…and he could hear…something. He almost figured he was hearing things, but he didn't feel like taking chances on a street like this. In daytime it was probably fine, but he had no idea what would possess either girl to use this street at night. It was probably a good thing Asou hadn't taken no for an answer about walking Sarah to the Tsukamoto's.

Keeping Sarah close, he kept an ear out for that noise. As it grew louder, he realized Sarah still had the phone pressed to her ear. A random thought flitted through Asou's head. Was it possible…no, that was unlikely. If that was Yakumo's phone he was hearing, wouldn't she answer it? This would have made Asou feel better, were it not for the next logical thought that came screaming at him. His heart started beating just a little bit faster. What if Yakumo couldn't answer?

That thought really bothered him. While not exactly close to the girl, Asou nonetheless would feel bad if Yakumo was in some kind of trouble. He needed to check. Just to be sure. He'd never forgive himself if he didn't and his intuition had been correct. He told Sarah to stay just a bit behind him. Spotting a nearby alley, he moved closer. The noise, which sounded kind of musical, seemed to be coming from there.

Dialing Yakumo's number once more, Sarah was starting to feel really nervous. Yakumo's phone had gone to voicemail again, and Asou was acting kind of odd. Why was he walking towards that alley? It was a dead end. There was nothing down there as far she knew. And was she hearing things? She had to be, because whatever it was sounded like Yakumo's phone when it rang.

Sarah almost didn't see Asou stop, so concentrated on her phone as she was. Asou was staring down the alleyway, a look of disbelief on his face. Weird. What did he see? She looked over to the left. And screamed.

Asou could barely think straight. What the hell was this! He had been serious when he told Sarah he didn't want her walking home alone in the dark. All sorts of trash used the cover of darkness to hide in while waiting to strike. Thugs. Murderers. Rapists. Asou had wanted Sarah to take him seriously when he told her that the idea of her walking around at night alone worried him, but she just laughed calling him a worrywart. It had irritated him that she was so flippant about it. He gritted his teeth.

But that didn't mean he needed a fucking example!

Sarah was screaming the girl's name. Yelling for her to wake up. What happened. Why. Yakumo! This was…this was just so wrong. What had she been doing here? Where the hell was Harima? Shouldn't he have been walking her home?

Asou only vaguely remembered dialing a number on his phone, one he figured he might have to use someday. It was only pragmatic to think so. But Asou never thought it would be for something like this. As he heard the ambulance arriving, all he could do was stare.

Stare at Yakumo sitting on the ground, back to the wall with a crying Sarah clutching at her. Her clothes were all messed up and torn in a few places, her book bag nearby. There was what looked like blood on her face. It was a little hard to tell in the alley lighting. There wasn't much evidence of a struggle, if any, it seemed. ...Wait, evidence. This was a crime scene, wasn't it? Damn, wasn't one of the rules in all those cop shows "don't disturb the crime scene" or something?

Well, just to be on the safe side…moving over to Sarah to try and draw her away just a little, Asou happened to get a closer look at Yakumo's face. When he realized what the stuff he thought was blood really was, he almost gagged. Whoever did this, he thought, was a sick fuck.

When the ambulance showed a few moments later, Asou pulled Sara back some more and let the paramedics work. When Sarah tried to go with Yakumo into the back of the ambulance, the paramedics tried to stop her, which only succeeded in making her more hysterical. Asou was already in a foul mood, and seeing Sarah lose control was making him even angrier.

Somehow keeping the frustration out of his voice, he managed to convince the paramedics to let them ride with Yakumo in the ambulance, though Asou had to sit up front. Truth be told, that didn't bother him much. Sarah being the best friend after all, it was only fair. What bothered him was the growing realization that he needed to make another call. One that he really didn't want to make for obvious reasons. His conscience didn't care. Taking out his phone again, he dialed another number. At the very least, he would dial someone that could handle the situation.

Asou's memories of that night and the months-long nightmare that followed had dimmed to a bearable extent in the years that followed. It helped that he had decided to become a police officer, and then detective soon after, in a way to focus his frustration on something good. Tenma didn't have that luxury.

That night and everything after was stuck in her head with a clarity like crystal. And she didn't have the luxury of a job or even a hobby where she could channel all of her hatred. Because that's what it was. If things had just ended after the trial of the man who had done this Yakumo…

It may not have been easy (and who's to say they would have even been happier?), but they would have had a chance at moving on. There were limits to everyone's tolerance. And instead of leaving well enough alone, the man who raped Tenma's sister decided to take her limits…

And set them on fire.

Thus ends chapter 1! Not that messed up you say? Well, okay that's fair. We'll see if you still say that as the story continues.