Jiro abruptly sat up on the river bank after regaining consciousness. There was a thickness in his lungs from all the water he inhaled, causing him to gag and vomit it all out.

Jiro finally got all the water out of his lungs and laid back on the hard soil beneath him. He gasped for air as he stared at the sky.

"Where am I?"

Jiro sat up again and looked around him. There are footprints from the river to where he was lying to the riverbank upstream. He saw the jacket on his lap that was drenched with salt water and his blood.

"What happened?"

Jiro lifted the jacket and saw a name on the tag in faded kanji.

"Oto-Otonashi Yu-Yuzuru? Otonashi Yuzuru? Who's that?"

He carefully examined the cloth and he came to the conclusion that it was someone he didn't know that saved him.

Jiro abruptly stood up and wobbled about before catching his step. He clutched the wet jacket to his chest as he followed the fresh footprints.

"Otonashi! Otonashi! Yuzuru Otonashi!" Jiro called out to the unknown man. Maybe he knew what happened to him.

He continued calling out that name until he saw the figure of a teenage boy with orange hair standing in an open space.

"Otonashi!" he called once more. The boy turned to him and Jiro smiled. "Are you Otonashi?" he asked.

Otonashi nodded. "I am. I see you regained consciousness. Are you okay? What happened to you?" Yuzuru asked. Jiro's face went blank.

"I don't know. I can't remember," he mumbled. He walked to Otonashi but stopped when he saw the same thing Otonashi saw.

Bodies. Tons and tons of bodies.

"What the –ah!" Jiro fell to his knees, clutching his wet brown hair and screaming in pain.

"Are you okay?!" Otonashi asked, kneeling down beside the boy he saved.

"It hurts! Otonashi -ah!"

Jiro's head was spinning with images of a bus full of students all happy and cheery one minute and cut into pieces the next – him being one of them.

The screaming stopped and Jiro took short but deep breaths. "Are you okay?" Otonashi asked again. Jiro looked up and nodded.

"I remember everything," he said. Otonashi looked out at the bodies.

"Was it bad?"

"Worse than it looks."

"They're okay, you know."

"Really?"

"Yeah. They'll wake up soon, maybe," Otonashi reassured. He stood up and held out his hand to Jiro. Jiro took it and introduced himself.

"I'm Jiro Akiyama. Thanks for saving me."

"No problem. Can you tell me what happened?" Otonashi asked.

Jiro was about to open his mouth, but he was interrupted by a female voice behind him.

"I can tell you everything, Otonashi-kun."


Author's Note

Sorry for the loooong wait. (^_^"') I was planning all the characters out. From now until Halloween, I'll be updating this and my other ongoing stories a lot more frequently, so be sure to look out for updates!

Until next time, sayonara~!