Kuri Hikawa headed out onto the soccer field. She was just planning on watching; she liked to watch the sport being played, and Darren was playing today. He was a really good soccer player.
Truth was, she was in a really bad mood.
Her twin sister, Reiko, was heading off to finishing school tomorrow.
Kuri didn't have any friends, and actually didn't even speak out loud. Her sister had always spoken for her. The two thought they were perfectly normal until they first attended school in kindergarten.
That was when the incident happened.
Kuri had been taking care of the class pet, a gerbil, when some little girls and began to pick on her and bully her, trying to get her to speak. They knew she was soft on animals, so one of them had threatened Gerbie the gerbil.
Thinking back, Kuri knew the gerbil had been in no danger from a five-year-old girl, but she hadn't known that then.
So she had gotten angry. All she could remember was glaring at the girl and then she crumpled.
They'd had to move. The girl had gone into a coma, and she recovered after two weeks, but Kuri had been devastated. She was sure she had killed that girl.
So even though she had the ability to talk at her age, she didn't. No talking. No friends. Nothing.
But then Reiko had been chosen by the strange recruiter, Mr Crepsley. He had chosen her to go into a special honors program, and they couldn't say no.
Kuri sighed silently. Looks like another win for their team, but—oh man, she couldn't believe it! The older kids were picking on Darren.
Maybe she was stupid, or maybe she needed someone now that Reiko was leaving. But Kuri couldn't let this stand.
Kuri ran up and stood between Darren and the bullies, a fierce look on her face.
"Leave him alone." Kuri said.
"She can talk!" The older kids yelled.
"Whoa you made the mute talk Darren!" Steve said. "She's pretty tough too."
"She has a name. It's Kuri. I know you guys. Darren, Steve, Tommy, Alan. Best soccer players in the class." Kuri said.
"You live in the big temple right?" Darren said. "I heard it's haunted."
"Sure is." Kuri said. "I'm a priestess in training. Ghosts don't scare me. Some of them are helpful actually."
"So is it true you killed a kid?" Steve asked.
"Steve!" Darren said.
"I didn't kill anyone." Kuri said.
"So why did you wait till now to start talking? And why us and not some girl or something?" Steve said.
"All the girls here are annoying. I started talking today because my sister isn't here to talk for me anymore." Kuri said. "She went away. Now. Who wants to come visit Hikawa Shrine?"