BATTLE ROYALE
Black Lotus
-PROLOGUE-
I must be dead.
Brief flashes of a dim reverie flooded his mind. Uniformed students, murdering one another beneath a haze of crimson sky…a sky nearly as red as the ground upon which it lit. It was like some kind of twisted mirror. Two of the students stood out in particular…a boy and his girl. What was her name? Keiko? No, that wasn't it. That was someone else. Noriko…and…
"Shuya."
A flutter of light. So bright, it was…was this the heaven that Christians always spoke of? A face, so close to his own that he could have reached out and touched it. Did he still have arms? A girl's face, stern…and then another, very different face, belonging to a young woman. Very different. Pretty. Something cool slid over his brow. If this was heaven, was she an angel? He wanted to ask her.
Something stung his arm (ah, so he did have arms, after all). And then…
Then…
A soft whisper. "It's all right. You're safe, now…whoever you are. Don't be afraid."
Afraid? I'm not afraid. And my name…
The lights were going out, melting together into a muted grey…puddle. A puddle in the sky? That didn't make any sense, at all.
My name is Kawada Shogo.