I own nothing.

It was dark outside when he woke up. He turned to look at the clock on the wall.

11.30pm

That was when he realized the first of his problems.

His body lay bare on the bed, illuminated by the moonlight shining through the door, and he instinctively pulled the blanket up to protect his modesty from… no one.

He did not remember going to bed without his clothes. In fact, he did not remember going to bed at all.

That was when he realized his second problem. He did not remember anything. Really, nothing came to mind. What time he went to bed. What he did yesterday, the day before, or any time before he woke up. He could not recall any of it. He did not know where he was, or why he was here.

He did not know who he was. No name, no family, no history, nothing.

He frowned. This was… going to be a problem.

Did someone do this to him while he was asleep? Or did he just have some kind of accident? Or maybe he had hit himself in his sleep? He raised a hand to inspect his head. There was no pain, blood or any sign of physical trauma.

That worried him further. Did he suffer a stroke? He crossed that out. His body looked too young, maybe five or six years old, he would most likely be dead if he did.

He studied his bedroom. He noticed that he did not sleep on a bed, but a sheet. His room looked like a tradition Japanese room consisted of eight tatamis. He deduced he was in Japan. There were no pictures or any kind of memorabilia that would help him in his identity crisis. His room was as empty as his memory.

He sat up and looked through the window, perhaps the outside would help jog his memory.

It didn't.

The only thing he saw was tree, many trees. It seemed he lived inside a forest or something similar. No one was there now obliviously, but he felt that it would look very pretty in the day. Perhaps he would take a stroll there tomorrow.

Once again, he found himself frowning. His amnesia was being awfully selective with the memories consumed. His mental skills and characteristics were completely untouched, but anything to do with his background and history was completely gone without a trace. It was as if he was given a blank slate, a portrait repainted white.

He wondered what he should do about it, but voice snapped him out of his thought.

"Oh, you finally awake."

It was a beautiful girl. She has two low pigtails, and wears black horn-rimmed glasses. She might be this house's owner.

"I found you unconscious in the forest so I brought you here. Are you okay now?"

He nodded my head. Excepted for having an amnesia, there was nothing wrong with his body.

But suddenly, I found myself collapse on the bed. Every strength in my body disappeared. This made the girl panic.

"A-Are you oka––"

*grumple*

The sound of his stomach cut her off.

"Ahaha. It seemed our little boy feel hungry now."

He thought something important to him just flew away.

"Ah! We still haven't introduced, right? I'm Amagiri Haruka. What about you?"

He was about to say that he didn't remember. But suddenly, a word came to his mind.

"Makoto… My name is Makoto."

It had been ten years since Makoto was adopted to the Amagiri family.

In those past years, he had found something else about his history. The first was he used to practice kendo. Her sister said that when she first trained him. His reflex and his skills were too good for an amateur. The second was Persona. He first discovered this when he had a duel with his sister. She deemed this power was too dangerous, so she sealed his power before she went missing five years ago.

That was the reason why he decided to attend to Seidoukan Academy, his sister former school. He thought he could find some leads to his sister's whereabouts.

Then something caught his sight. Makoto caught it almost by reflex as it fluttered down from the sky. What he grasped in his hand was nothing quite so spectacular, it was just a handkerchief.

"...Was it stolen by the wind?" If that was the case, then where on earth did it come from...? Looking around as he thought that, Makoto spotted an open window.

"From there, I guess."

Though there was an iron fence about two meters high between the walkway and the building, Makoto jumped over it lightly, without needing a running start. Taking hold of a nearby tree branch, he casually climbed up.

"Sorry for intruding. Is this handkerchief…"

But, his good intentions had resulted in problems –– and big ones at that –– of which there were two. One was that the building was the High School Girls Dormitory of Seidoukan Academy. And another was that the owner of the room was just in the middle of getting dressed.

"Eh...?"

"Huh...?"

The girl, who was slipping her foot into a skirt, and Makoto stared at one another's faces with altogether dumbfounded expressions.

The girl's age seemed around the same as Makoto's, 16 or 17 years old.

With pale green eyes like young leaves, and skin as white as fresh snow. The color of the long hair which flowed down to her waist was not so deep as to be called scarlet, though also too bright red to call pink. If you had to pick a color... it would be rose.

Her face was also stunningly beautiful.

Besides, the girl was half-naked.

If this was someone, they would likely flustered and panic. But Makoto was not that someone. With his usual stoic face, he said.

"Ah, sorry. I just want to return this handkerchief."

Makoto pointed to the thing in his hand.

"Wh-wh-wh…!"

The girl, on the other hand, had finally grasped the situation. Her face dyed bright red, she flapped her mouth open and closed.

As the girl deeply inhaled while hurriedly covering her body, with tears in the edge of her eyes, she fiercely glared at Makoto.

"––Tu-turn the other way!" She said in a low voice with barely repressed emotions.

"Eh?"

"It's fine, just turn around already!"

At that peremptory tone, he obeyed immediately.

The light sound of clothes rustling came from behind him. He waited for several minutes.

"Phew... O-okay, it's fine."

Finally hearing her voice, Makoto turned his head back and saw a splendidly beautiful girl. Even though his face didn't show it, Makoto was silently admiring the girl.

"So, the handkerchief?"

"Ah, yeah. Here, is this yours?"

Makoto was finally able to finished his question from several minutes before.

"..."

The girl opened her eyes wide for an instant, and soon after breathed deeply as she felt relieved.

"Thank God..."

And after she received the handkerchief from Makoto, she gently held it to her chest. "...Sorry. It's something very... very precious to me."

"I just happened to come across it."

"Even so, you saved me. I'm really grateful." The girl bowed deeply and politely to Makoto, who scratched his head while being embarrassed.

––But.

"Now then, do you think that it's all settled?" With her head still lowered, the girl muttered so.

Her voice was different from that of until now, filled with emotions that could explode at any moment.

"Eh...?

The face of the girl, who slowly raised her head, was wearing a smile. But her eyes did not laugh at all.

The edge of her lips which drew an arc with a smile was convulsively twitching.

"Then –– go to hell!"

The next moment, the whole atmosphere of the room changed.

The Prana of the girl increased explosively, and the atmosphere rumbled. A chemical element was converted by the Mana, which given direction, awakened the phenomenon.

"Come into bloom – Amaryllis!"

At that moment, a huge fireball appeared before the girl, and was aimed at Makoto. He reacted immediately by jumping from the window.

A roaring sound echoed almost at the same time. Looking up, a huge flame flower opened its bud in the air. It was a large flower of exploding flame, with overlapping blazing petals.

Inside the window, where some sparks still poured down, the girl appeared and let her body lightly leap from the opened window.

"Oho... to be able to dodge that, you are pretty good." The girl's anger spread in her voice, even though she offered some admiration.

"Fine then, if that's the case, I will take you a little more seriously."

With an expressionless face, Makoto raised one hand to calm the situation.

"Wait a minute."

"What? If you would have just stayed still, I could have just cooked you to well done and let you off."

"Why are you going for my life?"

"Since you peeped on a maiden changing clothes, it would be only natural to compensate with your life."

The girl calmly declared such a dangerous thing.

"Then what was the thanks you gave me earlier...?"

"I'm of course thankful to you for returning the handkerchief. But... this and that are different issues."

"I don't think I understand."

"It's not unreasonable to beat up a pervert who sneaks into the girl's dormitory."

"Girl's dormitory?"

Makoto, with a confused face, look at the girl and the building.

"Don't tell me... you didn't know?"

"For your information, I just recently arrived here. I'm a new student."

Makoto said as he showed his brand-new uniform.

"OK. I'll believe you." The girl again, said with a smile. "But, after all, this and that are different issues."

Around the smiling girl, fireballs yet again appeared. Though smaller in size compared to that of earlier, this time there were nine in total.

"Come into bloom –– Dancing Nine-Tower-Flower!"

Nine fireballs in the form of a lovely primrose, each with a different orbit, attacked Makoto. He twisted his body and dodged all of them with ease. With an experienced fighter like him, this is just child-play.

"I see, you don't seem to be just a pervert."

The girl praised him. She seemed once again to revise her opinion of him.

"You're an extraordinary pervert."

He was promoted from a normal pervert into a super pervert. Things just got more and more troublesome.

"I accept that it was my fault for not confirming the building. But can we just deal with this peacefully?"

"You have made your point, but it doesn't settle my anger. And so, we will follow the rules of this city. Fortunately, since you seem to be talented in your own way, you won't complain... Right?"

The girl said this, and stared straight at Makoto's face.

"What is your name?"

The girl suddenly asked his name. Makoto thought that she wanted to report him to the staffs.

"Amagiri Makoto."

Regardless, he still gave her his name. All Makoto wanted now was settling this problem as soon as possible.

"I see. I'm Julis. Ranked fifth in Seidoukan Academy, Julis-Alexia van Riessfeld."

The girl, who named herself Julis, raised her right hand to the Seidoukan Academy's school badge, a "red lotus", adorning her chest.

"In the name of the red lotus serving as proof of the inflexible, I, Julis-Alexia van Riessfeld hereby challenged you, Amagiri Makoto, to a duel!"

"Duel?"

To Makoto's surprise the school badge on his chest started emitting a red light in response.

When petitioning for a duel, the decision whether to accept or reject it must be requested.

"If you win, I'll quietly withdraw my complaint. But if I win, you'll do whatever I want you to do."

Saying so as if it was natural, Julis grinned and laughed. All he did was returning her handkerchief. How it came to this was beyond him.

Makoto looked around when he heard several footsteps coming. He realized that the two of them had become the center of attention. They probably heard the commotion and came. He got no choice but to accept the duel.

"I accept your duel request."

As proof of acceptance, Makoto's school badge once again shone red.

"Do you intend to fight me barehand? Or your hands are your weapons."

"Well, I use sword. But I don't carry one."

As if reacting to his words, something was thrown toward Makoto from the ground. It was an activation tool for Lux.

Makoto then activated the Lux in his hand. A dazzling light blade of concentrated Mana grew in the empty space. The length of the blade was about one meter. Seeing this, Julis also activated her Lux. Unlike Makoto's, it was a rapier of a thin flexible light.

"Well, are you ready?"

"Come into bloom –– Longiflorum!"

When Julis swung the sword, spears of huge pale flames manifested along the arc. The flames which carried the shape of the trumpet lily were flying to pierce through Makoto.

But with a swing of his sword, Makoto dispersed the spears of flames with ease.

"What?!"

"If you think this is enough to defeat me, you are overly mistaken, Julis-san."

Makoto said with a challenging smile. He did not like fighting. But if he fought, it must be with a good opponent. He didn't want to waste his time fighting the weak.

"Julis is fine. It seems you are not someone to be taken lightly. I will be a bit more serious."

A huge amount of Prana started gathering around Julis.

"Come into bloom – Amaryllis!"

As a huge fire ball appeared before Julis. It was the same technique she used to kick out Makoto from her room, but it was twice as big this time.

Makoto bent his waist and stood ready, just before he dodged, Julis tightly clenched her fist.

"Explode!"

"…!"

Upon command, the fireball exploded in front of Makoto's eyes. Even if it was difficult to make it hit directly, it would be impossible to completely dodge it if the explosion occurred at this distance.

The visibility was lost due to the raging flames. While protecting her face from the thunderous blast, Julis was convinced of her victory.

––However.

"Tempest Slash!"

As what one would think looked like a sword slash flashed, the flame petals were torn up crosswise.

The next moment, a black shadow which appeared from the break of the flame closed the distance in one breath.

Once she recognized that the shadow was Makoto, he had already jumped into her bosom.

It was an incredible speed. It was in another league compared to his movements up to now.

"Y-You!"

Julis who reflexively tried to attack, was struck by Makoto's sharp voice.

"Get down!"

Before Julis understood what was going on, she was pushed down. Makoto's face was within a hair's breadth and her heart leapt.

"Y-You, what are you...!"

Still, raising her voice in protest –– she unintentionally opened her eyes wide. There was a shining arrow stuck in the ground where Julis had been standing until now. It then became particles of light and faded away before her eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"What am I doing? Saving your life, of course."

Makoto said as he narrowed his eyes and looked around. He tried to find the attacker but it was a futile action. The attacker must've run away already.

Unbeknownst to Makoto, his hand had grabbed Julis's developing bulges for a while. As soon as she realized it, Julis's face dimly dyed red.

"…Ah."

Makoto, who then also realized, hurriedly jumped back.

"It was not on purpose."

Makoto said with a low tone and an expressionless face. It just liked he implied that he didn't have any interests, which inflamed Julis's anger.

"Y-Y-Y-You…!"

In response to Julis' anger, flame flowed around her. She could not control her Prana because of excessive anger. Makoto could only sigh tiredly as he prepared for the worst.

––And.

"Yes, yes, we will leave it at that."

Together with a calm, profound voice, a dry slap rang out.