Chapter Summary: Currently senior high school students, Chiaki and her longtime-friend Hajime are beginning their second semester together. While on their way to school, Chiaki spots a strange creature formed out of black ribbons, which weirdly enough, no one notices except for her. Around the same time, a mysterious boy appears in their town.

A/N: Minor warnings: elements of casual dehumanization

Eighth of September

The scene was the picture definition of idyllic. People went about their everyday lives. A stray cat or two can be seen loitering around the streets in search of food; the lucky ones received some from humans cooing over them. Traffic was fairly medium when compared to similar districts. There's nothing quite special to note about the small town of Mitsutoshi in the Chiba Prefecture.

Alongside the somewhat busy streets, several students no more than a handful converged onto a singular small crowd. Most if not all of them were rather young; not a single one of them went past the age of at least nineteen years old. They wore the standard winter uniform, consisting of a blazer, an undershirt, and a pair of pants, or in the case of female students, skirts.

With summer vacation over, today is one more average day to school for those returning students.

Among the students, one guy from a group of three asked a friend beside him, "Hey, uh, I don't want to sound too paranoid, but I've been hearing people say that the end of the world's going to happen soon."

"You mean the one where they say the world will end exactly on December twenty-first this year?" The second guy asked with a raised brow.

"Yep, that one." The first guy confirmed. "I think it's got something to do with an ancient calendar which also happened to end at this exact year. If it's true, then everyone in the world's only got more than three months left." He clasped his hands around the sides of his body, shivering as he then chattered, "Ahh, I hope it's not actually true! There's a lot of things I still want to do in my life! Like getting married to a hot lady!"

"Don't be ridiculous. And also, nobody wanted to know about that one." The second guy sighed and rolled his eyes at that notion. "Every sane person knows that the world isn't going to end this year, or if it ever will. Only cults believe in that."

"Hmph." The third guy for their group huffed. "Don't know about you guys, but if the world's going to end, at least I don't have to worry about college. Wish it could end right now so I don't have to go to class today."

"Hey! Don't actually wish for that, will ya?" The first guy shrieked, flailing his hands around in attempts to smack the daylights out of the third guy.

The third guy raised his arms in return as an attempt to deflect those attacks, that is if they can even be called like that. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!"

While the three continued with their friendly banter, a due of students right in front of them overheard their conversation. It's impossible not to, not with how loud the three guys were being. Aside from the boy, Hajime, inwardly wishing that he hadn't eavesdropped by accident, neither of the two commented at all about the topic the three guys presented.

"Time sure flies a lot faster during semester breaks," Chiaki mentioned. Everyone she knows has been back to class for at least five days now, and yet the effects of vacation hangover still lingered onto her.

Hajime turned grateful at the change of topic that helped distance itself as far from the three guys' conversation as possible. "Yeah, I can agree with that. It doesn't help that time slows down in class while they're at it." While he didn't personally experience it for himself, Hajime is familiar with said hangover and said effects, and so he sympathized with his friend.

"If they can switch places, it'd be a lot easier." She yawned, a hand reaching up to somewhat cover her mouth.

He chuckled at those thoughts. "I wish."

As far as schools go, the one they knew everyone went to wasn't far. Depending on where a person lives, it only takes a ten to thirty-minute walk from home, and in some cases, a thirty to forty-five-minute train ride afterward.

Just as the students stepped onto the curb before the pedestrian light, the traffic lights went red. To add insult to injury, many vehicles of different shapes and sizes then zoomed past them.

"Aw damn it. It just had to turn red just as we got here." One student grumbled, lifting their head to stare at the offending traffic light; maybe if they glared at it long enough, it'll turn itself back to green. That was their plan, at least. It felt like it's already working for them. At the same time, several of them just learned to sort of accept it and move on; they then started to chat amongst themselves to kill some time while the light turns back to green for them.

As for the two, Hajime took the chance to press over his stiffened back and shoulder, humming in satisfaction all the while. It's been a while since he'd walked this way. Then again, he did slack off a bit during summer, so that's partially on him.

As for Chiaki's case, if it were the old her, she'd whip out her console and play her favorite game until the light turns green again. She won't be lying if she said that the desire comes out sometimes, but ever since Hajime became her friend, she began to tone it down somehow, if not managing to rid of it altogether. He was such a worrywart, always telling her about possible road incidents.

And so, she let an old habit slowly die and opted to pass the time by letting her eyes wander around for a while. The roads remained unchanged for the most part. Still, the same old gray color, still the same people, and she can recognize the stray cats that wandered around. Then again, that tall statue on top of the utility pole looked new.

'Wait, I don't think that's a statue.' She glanced back at the supposed 'statue', squinting a bit. For a few moments it was as still as one, but when saw a small movement from its head, she thought it was just the light tricking her eyes. When the 'statue' moved again, this time shifting its foot to stabilize itself, she's now convinced she wasn't seeing things.

Upon closer inspection, the once-assumed 'statue' was a tall, humanoid figure perched itself on top of one of the road's utility pole. It's impossible to mistake the figure for a human, not when it was covered from head to toe in black cloth and if she examined further, she'd notice that its body as a whole was actually made from that same material, not just simply covered in it. Its limbs were long even by normal standards; its arms had almost the same length as its legs. Since its current position faced away from her direction, she can't catch a peek on its face.

For now, the figure seemed to content itself with observing the crowds of pedestrians below. She'd see it turn its head in different directions, from left to right, and then it'll secure its position by grasping the pole's cross-arms with its curved, hook-like claws.

She thought it's weird that no one, not even a single pedestrian took notice of the strange being above them; adults and teenagers either stood still or conversed through their phones while hyperactive children had to be kept still by their parents. It's hard to miss it, not when it looked like it'll tower over everyone in the area.

While continued to muse on her thoughts about it, she nearly jumped back when the figure turned its head towards her. The figure's head is completely blank like a mannequin. 'Did...did it noticed I was staring at it?' Her breath hitched; she wanted to look away, but she couldn't. She didn't know if there were consequences for looking away from it, and she didn't want to find out.

The figure shifted its position once again, this time facing its full body towards her direction. While doing so, it tightened its grip onto the pole. Its head leaned forward, and at that moment, she swore it focused its attention solely onto her.

She kept herself in place, wide eyes failing to withstand the figure's blank, haunting stare.

"Hey, the light's already green!" One of their classmates called, but she couldn't hear him. Similar calls from the others fell deaf to her hearing.

The figure didn't even have eyes or anything that suggested some form of facial features, and yet it still felt like it was glaring onto her very being-

"Hey, you okay?" Hajime called out, patting a hand onto her shoulder. That was enough for her to snap back with a gasp. It's only when he gently pulled her with him in crossing the pedestrian lane that she saw the other group's a few feet away from them."You kind of zoned out for a moment there. Everything alright?"

"Did you see that?" She half-blurted, half-whispered to him.

"Hm? You saw something, Chiaki?"

"Up there, on top of the electric post."

He turned his body back and then reared his head up at the specified spot. He squinted. "I don't see anything."

'How can anyone miss it?' She grabbed onto his hand and let the index finger up, gently raising it to help him see the exact spot. "You can't miss it. It's right-" Her friend's finger did point to the same spot where she last saw the figure, but by then, the spot's been long empty. "...It was right there."

Stunned, she let go of her friend's hand. She looked around the surrounding areas to catch even a glimpse of where the figure had gone to. For something so tall, it somehow managed to slip through everyone's notice. 'It's gone? But how?'

Unsure on how to react next, he tried to lighten the situation up a bit. "Sorry, I might've scared it away." He said, under the impression that she saw an abnormally large bird or something similar. He saw her only shake her head with a "No, it's okay." in reply.

The two caught up to the two once they were five feet away from the school gates. The third guy from the friend group turned around and noticed them. 'What's gotten into you two?' He wanted to ask but decided against it; besides, he already had a feeling about what it was.

"Nothing happened, that's what." Hajime sharply answered as though he instinctively knew about that unheard question.

The third guy retorted, "Nobody said anything."

"H-Hey," the second guy stammered, interrupting the two boys. Once the second guy got their attention, he shakily pointed a finger towards the source of his skittishness. "Since when did that weird guy get here, and why is he staring at us?"

Everyone got a good look at the really out of place boy standing on their other side. He looks to be about the same age as them, but he isn't wearing a uniform like them; instead, he's clothed in a black suit and tie much like a businessman would. The strangest thing about the boy was his long and untamed locks of hair; even from their side, they'd see its length reached his waist at most.

Before these friends get further agitated, one member furrowed his brows. "Actually, I think he's just staring at one person in particular." The third guy noted, jabbing a thumb towards the direction of where the boy's supposedly staring at.

The rest of his friends followed that direction with their eyes and it led them to someone right beside Hajime, who's now giving the three stooges a heavily resigned 'Please, you can't be serious' look.

He had a bad feeling that one of those stooges will ask his friend about the stranger sooner or later, and in a tactless way too. He knew it's inevitable, and so he beat the three to it instead, turning to her and asking, "Do you think you've seen him from somewhere?"

Chiaki glanced at the boy, taking his features in to see if anything familiar rings up to her. She shook her head. "No, I don't remember meeting someone like him before."

"Huh, guess he might be someone new to town. We haven't had one of those in a while." Hajime mused, a small smile on his face. "See? Nothing everyone has to worry about."

"Or," The classmate whose name Hajime didn't bother to remember and who also happened to be the first guy from that group. came up between them and rudely interjected, "maybe he's one of those ajins." He narrowed his eyes, pointing an accusing finger towards the boy as if he were a detective and the boy, a suspect to a serious crime.

Seeing that it soured the conversation's direction, Chiaki called out to that guy, "Hey, that isn't very funny."

"Shush, no one knows that guy." The first guy raised a finger to silence Hajime's friend for a moment, her words completely flying over his head, and then returned that same finger to its accusing position. "Look at him, what kind of normal teen dresses up in funeral clothes? If you didn't notice, then pay extra attention to that messy and ridiculously long hair."

And then the first guy proceeded to demonstrate that fact by tracing his finger over an outline of the boy's hair. "Only someone who can't die won't even bother to take care of themselves. Something like that will never cross their minds, not if their body will reset anyway."

As the first guy continued to list off petty reasons to suspect the boy for such, Hajime placed a hand onto his forehead and turned to Chiaki, letting her see his 'Can you believe what he's saying?' look. It didn't help when the other two completely bought first guy's BS, as they now murmured among each other.

One of them, the third guy, to be exact, cringed. "Those red eyes, I swear I saw them glow for a second there."

"Another sign that guy isn't human, not even a little bit." The second guy shook his head.

"We should alert the police right now! Everyone knows how dangerous the ajins are." The first guy hollered. "We should do it before he kills us or worse-" He never got to finish the rest of his rants.

"Knock it off, you three." Hajime snapped at them with a harsh tone in his voice, interrupting any further relevance to the tired topic. He let them stare at him in disbelief, as a way to cool himself down. When he's certain he's calm enough, he added, "Ajins aren't something to be taken lightly or joked about. You of all people should know that."

With that over, he refused to entertain the three further. "Come on, we should get to class before the bell rings." He turned away from the three, silently urging Chiaki to come with him. As she did so, she turned her head to check on the three, only to see them grumble.

"What was Hinata's problem?"

"Yeah, we were just playing around for a bit, that's all. A little bit of harmless fun isn't going to hurt anyone."

"He's always been a mood-killer. A guy like him wouldn't know about anything even if it hits him right in the face."

Having heard enough, she took her attention off them and back to her friend, feeling concerned for him. "Hajime..."

They knew each other for a long time now, and so, he had a good idea of what she's about to say next. Letting a small, relaxed smile on his lips, he told her, "Thanks for the concern, but I'm okay. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. I don't like confrontations, but someone's gotta tell them to stop being a bunch of pricks." He sighed. "I hope I wasn't too harsh on them."

"Even if you were, you're still in the right." She reasoned. "That was rather uncalled for them to do."

Hajime can't say much about that. Chiaki truly has no idea how much he appreciates her company.

Compared to the events before this, classes were relatively uneventful. Same classmates, same teacher, and still the same old amount of class activities. On the plus side, besides Hajime being rather stiff when confronted with the trio of friends they shared a hometown with, there were no lingering hostilities between them for that one incident.

Throughout the whole time before the class itself went to the end for the day, Chiaki's mind will often linger away from the subject that's being discussed and instead, it'll focus on the window onto her left.

Perhaps if she looked there long enough, she'd catch a peek on the figure she saw earlier and perhaps, have her questions about its exact nature answered.

When it's clear that no, she most likely won't see it again any time soon, she inwardly sighed and dragged her mind back to pay attention to the topic.

Maybe she's just seeing things after all.

When it came to school days like now and other school days before their high school, both of them would often walk to their school together; but, when it came to the end of the day, Hajime wouldn't be able to join her on the walk home. It's almost ironic.

"I'm sorry. My parents got me to a cram school. I won't be able to make it home until past ten." She remembered him telling her that to explain why he can't do so the first time around. It kinda hurt back then, but she understood; she can understand that his parents only want the best for their son and his future as a whole. She knows that her own would've done the same thing.

She decided not to linger on those thoughts. Before meeting him, she'd been used to walking to and from school alone. That alone couldn't have changed everything.

In the past, her next stop after class is to go to her favorite arcade nearby. Technically, people knew it's not exactly encouraged for students to lounge around public areas after class, but that didn't stop her back then and it certainly won't stop her now. When she reached the same place, she paused on her tracks.

He's right there, on the public bench in front of the town's arcade. It's him, the boy from this morning.

'What's he doing here?'

Chiaki had little to no idea on what to do next; socializing was never her strong suit and it's more of Hajime's thing, after all.

The boy spoke up and she heard his voice for the first time. It's softer than she expected from someone of his appearance. "It's rude of you to stare like that." And he said all that without looking once towards her direction.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, lightly bowing her head. "I just saw you here, and well, we did see each other in the morning." She snuck a peek at him; his poker faced-expression didn't change in the slightest. Recalling the event, she also added, "And, I want to apologize on behalf of my classmates this morning. Everything they said to you was rude and uncalled for."

It wasn't particularly loud, but she did hear a scoff. "It didn't matter much to me." The boy replied.

Chiaki turned her attention back on the arcade's entrance for a moment; she's supposed to have gone inside by now, but right now, after seeing this boy on the public bench, she thought back on what Hajime said back then.

'Maybe he is new to this town.'

She held her hand out to him and introduced herself. "My name's Chiaki Nanami."

The boy briefly looked at her offered hand; despite his stoic expression, his own arm was half-raised in clear hesitation. His fingers twitched while his hand stayed frozen in the air. She quickly saw his reaction and sheepishly retracted her hand. "You, you don't have to shake hands with me if you don't want to." He visibly relaxed himseld, letting his hand down and then placing it back on his lap.

'Physical contact is out of the question, then. That's okay, though.'

"Is it okay if I take a seat?"

"Do whatever you wish."

And so, she did. She took a seat on the bench and was a respectable couple of centimeters of space of space from him. Glancing back at him, she asked, "What's your name?"

The boy's face didn't show it, but his body betrayed him by freezing up for a moment. At first, she wondered if she might've done something wrong, only for the boy's briefly tense body to relax as if nothing happened and he answered, "...it's Izuru."

"Izuru..." She repeated his name, getting herself used to its syllables. She didn't stop the genuine smile on her face as she then remarked, "That's a cool name! Is it your family name? Or is it maybe your given name-"

"I don't have any." The boy, now known as Izuru, cut off in the same calm tone he used before.

"Oh." She slumped, knowing that she hit a sore spot she shouldn't have. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry like that."

"You wouldn't have known." Aside from that reassurance, he didn't reply to anything else related to that topic. She got the message; she won't ask him about anything too personal. It's fair since they've only met today.

Still, she can't help but wonder why he visited this town. It's far from a tourist spot and it's just like any other ordinary town in the region. In fact, it can be compared to the most bare bones town most players begin with in a lot of games, especially RPGs.

"There is nothing wrong with normalcy." Izuru suddenly spoke up as though he read her mind. A part of her is surprised at that, but at the same time, there were a lot of people who've told her even with her plain facial expressions, she's really easy to read.

She can only let out a relaxed chuckle. "Yeah, that makes sense. It is easier to take in compared to the big cities."

Before she knew it, she was conversing with him rather smoothly, even though he isn't much of a talker and was more of a listener kind of guy. He didn't talk about things related to him, nothing about his hobbies, his likes or dislikes, nothing; instead preferring to hear her thoughts and occasionally respond now and then. Overall, he's a pretty mellow guy and if she didn't think her classmates were, in Hajime's words, pricks for picking on him before, then she would now.

As time went on, she was so engaged she didn't even notice the sun had set already. Chiaki stopped herself. "Oh, it's already late. I'm sorry, but I think that's enough for today."

"That's understandable." She heard him say as she stood up from her seat.

As Chiaki gathered her belongings and prepared to leave, she turned back to him and ask, "Hey, Izuru? Is it okay for me to come to see you again tomorrow?"

He didn't reply. Before she can wonder if it was something she said, two words came out of him.

"Next Saturday."

"Huh?"

"Next Saturday." Noticing her confusion, Izuru clarified, "It happened that today was a Saturday and thus, I am allowed to spend some free time. However, for the following days, I'd be busy and I can only remain available every Saturday. Will it suffice?"

Chiaki thought about it. While it's for the wrong reasons, her classmates did have a point about him wearing a suit and tie, which isn't something a normal teenager would wear. Therefore, it's not unreasonable for her to assume that maybe he's from a rich family who's here for his reasons.

She nodded, completely understanding why he might've done that. "Yeah. Saturday sounds good."

"Then it's settled. I'll be here next Saturday again." He confirmed. "In the meantime, you shouldn't do anything reckless on your way home."

She had no idea what drove him to say that. Maybe it's something to do with his background and so, he thought it'd be a piece of good advice for her? Either way, it's pretty thoughtful of him to do so.

As she went on her way, she waved back at him. "Don't worry, I won't! See you soon!"

Her silhouette seemed to get smaller and smaller as she went further away from his vicinity, until she is no longer visible within the darkened streets.