My name is Kenji Sato, though my parents and the guys at school call me "Ise." I'm a first-year in high school who's in the springtime of my youth. I once heard a fellow student I didn't know frantically ask their friend "Isn't that Ise?" so I'm not sure how well known I am. Surprisingly popular? Nah, not really. Honestly, I'm mostly infamous for my violent nature, so much so that I've even been accused of beating up the Girls Kendo Club.

I did, mind, but that's beside the point.

The point is that my rep isn't particularly conducive to the dating scene. At least, not being the recipient of confession. So, hearing "Will you please go out with me?" from a girl with a blank expression was certainly quite the surprise.

Now, of course, I'm a healthy, heterosexual, teenage boy. Everything works down there, and this girl hit all my strike zones. Her name is Honoka Suzuki, with long, black hair and a nose that rounds off just so. She seems to use foundation a bit too liberally, as her face seems a bit uncanny, but I merely attributed that to the inexperience of youth, and she was very cute according to my own personal tastes overall. Therefore, In the end, I accepted her confession, though it's not like there was to be any other outcome.

Vain? Possibly, but I don't have many prospects. No one wants to date guys with violent reps, and I can't exactly blame 'em for that, so the least I can do is get with the cute girl I can and try and treat her well.

Which led me to our first date. On time is late, so I arrived half-an-hour early and spent the time psyching myself up. It wouldn't do to leave a bad first impression. While doing that, some creepy nerd handed me a leaflet with some kind of geometric design in a circle and the text "Awaken to your true self!" on it. Probably a LARPing thing, but I tuck it away. Who knows, might be fun, probably not, though.

When I saw her, I adjusted my brand-new coat I had bought for the occasion (business casual) and mussed with my gelled hair before calling out to her with a "Yo!"

As we started walking, she held my hand. She was kind of cold, but I don't think much of it. It was autumn after all, and I was more concerned with the date itself anyway. Her fingers were small. We stopped by a clothing store, a family restaurant (she ordered a parfait for the both of us, a bit weird), and finally stopped at a park a bit off from the city at sunset.

Guess this is the end of the road. Can't say I was satisfied, but whatever, there's always next time.

"It sure was fun today." Honoka said, though since she kept the same blank expression the whole time, even at that moment, I'm honestly not sure if she was telling the truth or was more in agreement with my own assessment.

"Hey, Ise-kun." She started. I didn't respond, but she kept going. "There's something I want to do to celebrate our first date. Could you listen to my wish?"

It seemed like a basic setup to the end of a normal date, the kind you might've heard a thousand times before, so I merely raised an eyebrow. I can't raise individual eyebrows, though, so my whole brow goes up a bit instead, but it conveys the same message regardless, so she continues.

"Will you die for me?"

The words came out of her so monotone, I could only think of a robot. She must truly have been bored of it. How annoying. If I were to die to a serial killer, couldn't they at least find pleasure in the act?

"Will you die for me?" She repeats herself. The intonation is exactly the same, such that, though a trite expression, it truly did call to mind a broken record. I wanted to punch her. But then:

WOOSH

Honoka vanished, and in her place a spectral dragon appeared. It was a western looking dragon, but it seemed as if it wasn't quite there, almost like an apparition. But then, an echo of Honoka's voice spoke.

"The short time I spent with you was fun. It was like playing house with a little child." She said as if reading directly from a script.

Then, the spectral dragon reared its claws, and pierced me through my stomach.

Then, she again spoke as if at the first table-read of a particularly tone-deaf actor. "Sorry, you were a threat to us, so we decided to get rid of you early on. If you want to hold a grudge, then hate the God who put the sacred gear inside you."

I should've been worried about the hole in my gut, I should've been terrified at the prospect of death, I should've been confused at the strange term she used. But I felt none of that. Instead, I felt like I've seen this exact scene play out a hundred, a thousand, a million times before. More than anything, I felt true understanding and connection with another person I haven't felt before in my life. An understanding and connection with this person (or dragon, evidently) who seems to have killed me.

Because I too now know the true depths of boredom the psyche can bring.