Nagazora City was as lively as ever even past midnight. The streets continued to be lit brightly by a mixture of yellow streetlights and multicolored neon signs, illuminating the dense crowd of cars and people that continued to linger in the city despite the current time. A lone skyscraper towered over the entire city, dwarfing every other building in sight with its sheer height and size. On the sides of the skyscraper was scrolling text that read "Massive Electric Corporation", alternating between Japanese and English. Its visibility within the skyline of Nagazora made it a symbol of the city itself.

A lone teenage boy looked out of the window of his apartment. The light emitted from the street was enough to illuminate his bright red hair and yellow eyes slightly. He continued to admire the nightlife of the city for a while before he turned his head back towards his room, which was still a mess. He had just moved into Nagazora City, and it was clear he wasn't done unpacking his belongings. He groaned as he looked at the dimly lit cardboard boxes on the floor, dreading the amount of time and effort he would have to spend to get everything in order.

He rolled to one side of his bed and checked his phone on the nightstand. It displayed 01:56. He rolled back onto his back and closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep.

In a few days, he would have to attend Chiba Academy, and it wasn't something he was particularly calm about. A part of him was excited for obvious reasons, but he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to fit in. He knew that many of the people attending there had parents with significant political standing and had significant amounts of money. His parents were neither of those. The only reason he managed to get a spot was due to his academic performance, and even then he was doubting himself.

He rubbed his face. He decided that there was no point in constantly worrying about the inevitable. He would cross that bridge when he got there. Until then, he had something more immediate to deal with.

He hugged his pillow and eventually fell asleep.

\\\\\\\\\\

\\\\\\\\\\

The day arrived faster than he anticipated, and soon he found himself facing his new classmates. All of them stared at him, some with curiosity, some with dismissal, and some with indifference. A feeling of dread started creeping in. He wasn't sure if he would ever fit in, but either way, he had to make the best first impression he could.

"Hello," he began with a bow. "My name is Komeiji Rei. I hope we can get along well."

He looked around after finishing his very brief introduction, hearing some quiet but audible murmuring. He sighed internally, figuring that he would probably get used to the isolation.

The teacher directed him to the only empty seat in the classroom, and he promptly sat down, keeping his head down as he did from mild embarrassment. Just pretend it's like a normal day, it'll be fine… it'll be fine.

"Komeiji?"

His brief train of thought was broken when he heard a voice calling out to him, which he didn't expect in the slightest. He looked up and turned to his left to see a girl with dark purple hair, which was tied up with a mauve bow with white polka dots. Her uniform had a similar shade to her hair, accompanied by a bright yellow tie on her collar. Her face exuded elegance but seemed to hide a glint of cuteness.

She introduced herself. "Hello, it's nice to meet you. My name is Raiden Mei. I hope we get to know each other well."

He didn't know how to respond, so he nodded, and that left them to awkwardly stare at each other for some time before turning back toward the blackboard wordlessly, pretending that never happened. He was never really good at this kind of polite speech in the first place, and it wasn't setting a good precedent for the rest of his day.

The bell rang, and the first period was already starting surprisingly quickly. He decided that he would keep his head down and see what happened next.

\\\\\

It was the first recess of the day, and he was surrounded by his new classmates. Not because of him, but because of the person sitting next to him. Already he was assaulted by a concoction of requests that were all directed towards the girl beside him, so much so that he couldn't interpret what they were saying at all. He wondered why she was so popular with everyone else and wanted to ask someone why, but he didn't want to embarrass himself more than he already had today.

Mei seemed to decline their requests as she shook her head and left the classroom, taking her Chemistry book. He internally sighed with relief, knowing that the crowd would disperse soon-

"Hey! Why does he get to sit beside the Queen of Thunder?"

"Yeah! It makes no sense! He already got the best seat as soon as he transferred here?"

Unfortunately for Rei, the crowd did not disperse as he had hoped, and instead, it seemed to get worse.

"…What's going on?" he asked out of instinct, still largely confused about why Mei was so popular.

"You!" A blue-haired boy pointed at him, seemingly furious, his face green. "How did you get this seat?"

"…Because it was the only seat available?"

"That seat was supposed to be mine, and you took it from me!"

"Sorry… If you want, I can ask the teacher to-"

"Nope! I'm teaching you a lesson!"

He grabbed him by the collar and shoved him onto the ground, falling on his back. The boy then left, and so did the crowd.

"Yeah! You showed him!"

Rei remained on the floor, slightly dazed and largely feeling a sense of dread creeping in. He felt that he would probably not last long in this school.

…

"Are you okay?" A soothing voice called out to him, and he looked to his right to notice Mei looking at him.

"Raiden? Didn't you leave?"

"I heard them yelling at you, and I was concerned that they were going to hurt you, so I came back to check."

"Oh… I'm fine." He then stood up and set his chair upright. "Just a bit confused, that's all."

"Are you alright, Komeiji? Is something on your mind?"

"Nothing, just… I'm a bit worried that I won't fit in at all… You seem very popular with everyone else, Raiden."

She shook her head. "I don't like it."

"Why?"

"It feels… It feels fake. I feel like they all want to be friends with me because I'm the heiress of the Massive Electric Corporation, and not because they genuinely want to be friends."

He blinked. "Wait, you're the heiress of the ME Corp?"

"Yes." Something in the back of her head told her that she shouldn't have said that.

"Oh." He scratched the back of his head before chuckling. "Heh, I didn't notice… I don't keep up-to-date with this kind of stuff. So… you think that they only like you because of that?"

"I don't know… it's just a hunch, but it definitely doesn't feel right."

"I see…"

They awkwardly stared at each other for a while, and only did they realize they were staring when the bell rang, indicating that recess was over. They looked away, their faces reddened, before sitting back down in their seats immediately to prepare for the lesson ahead.

\\\\\

Lunch period came around, and it was already going well, especially when Rei couldn't find his bento box anywhere in his bag.

"Dammit, did I forget to pack my lunch this morning?" he grumbled as he dug through his backpack to no avail. "Fine…" He gave up and thought it would be best to do something else other than pointlessly trying to find something non-existent. He turned to his right and noticed Mei was surrounded by people again, this time with some of them holding bento boxes, including the blue-haired boy.

"Pleaseeee? I want to eat lunch with you, Mei!"

She shook her head. "Thank you, Touki, but please allow me to refuse."

"I insist!"

She shook her head again, her face showing visible discomfort.

Rei understood why she didn't like being popular like this and decided to stand up for her. It was probably a stupid decision, but he decided to go for it regardless.

"She already told you she isn't interested, so why are you still asking her?"

"Ex- Excuse me?" Touki glared at him, furious again. "What do you think you're doing?"

He realized it was indeed a very bad idea, especially as Touki slowly approached him.

"Let me tell you this one thing," he whispered in a menacing tone. "If you get between me and Mei, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Do you understand?"

"…Yes," Rei lied.

"Good. Now shut up." He then returned to his seat, presumably still fuming. Everyone else who was surrounding Mei decided that there was no way they could convince her to eat lunch together, and they all left as well.

…

"Komeiji?"

"Hm?"

"I want to thank you."

"Huh?" He turned to his right to face Mei, who was holding her bento. "Eh… I just wanted to help you out a bit, Raiden…"

"No need to be so formal. You can just call me Mei."

She then handed her bento to him. "Please take this as a token of my thanks. I saw that you forgot your lunch today."

"H-Huh?" He was shocked and didn't know how to respond. "N-No, no need… I'll be fine, you should eat your lunch-"

"I insist." A beautiful smile formed on her face. "Please take it."

He continued to be hesitant. "A… Are you sure this is oka- mmph!" He felt something enter his mouth, and it tasted like crackers. It took a bit for his mind to process the situation, but he quickly realized that Mei had just stuffed crackers into his mouth.

Mei fed him crackers.

…

The entire class turned to look at the two in awe and jealousy. After all, Rei had only just been transferred here and had already gotten close to Mei.

She withdrew her hand immediately after realizing what she had done. "Ah! I'm sorry! I- I don't know why I just did that!"

"Ha… ha…" Rei let out a strained laugh before falling backward onto the floor with a loud thud.

"Rei! Are you okay?"

As Mei went onto the floor to make sure he was okay, Touki felt himself becoming a shade of green.

\\\\\

\\\\\

"How was your day today?"

"Fine."

"Is something wrong?"

"Nope, nothing special happened."

"Really? Not at all?"

"Nope."

"You forgot to bring your lunch today. Are you hungry?"

"No."

"I hope you're settling in well."

"Mom, I'm 16, not 6!"

He closed his bedroom door behind him and flopped onto the bed, his mind still restless over the events that had transpired that day. Especially the incident when Mei had stuffed crackers into his mouth. He didn't expect that to happen at all, and on his first day studying at Chiba Academy no less. The fact that he found her attractive and that she was the heiress of one of the largest conglomerates in the world did not help whatsoever. There was something about her that made him unable to not think about her. Was it because she was personable? Was it because of how cute she looked? Or maybe it was just because of her social status…

He couldn't deny that he liked her at least somewhat, and that was worrying already. So he tried to think of the situation from a different angle. His future school life didn't seem so hopeless now that he was at least getting on good terms with someone. The fact she willingly approached him despite the ambivalence displayed by everyone else gave him some hope. Maybe the decision to transfer wasn't so bad after all.

But he was done thinking about today. He booted his computer and prepared to play Kallen Fantasy to keep his mind occupied with something else.

\\\\\\\\\\

\\\\\\\\\\

A tree.

A yellow tree.

He had no idea how to describe it, other than saying it was somehow more imaginary than imaginary, yet more real than anything else. The tree was impossibly large with an infinite number of branches that stretched out in all directions. Each branch had an unequal length, with some being very short and others stretching out into literal infinity.

He glanced at one of the shorter branches, and by complete accident, he managed to see what was in it — A world that was destroyed, glassed by an omnipresent corrupting force. He looked away, the image of the world he was looking at fading away when he did. He wondered if the tree was some sort of multiverse.

With his curiosity piqued, he decided to peer into as many branches as he could. Some showed humanity still in its infancy. One showed the image of a white-haired girl meeting her demise in what looked like the 1400s. Another showed a space station orbiting a blue planet and a train floating in the vast expanse of space.

He then noticed a single blue branch. It stood out from all the other branches, and something about the branch seemed odd. As if it didn't belong here. The tree seemed to be fighting the blue branch, constantly trying to reject it, but a formless, shapeless object was stationed at the region where the branch connected with the trunk of the tree, seemingly trying to pacify the tree.

He peered into the blue branch, and he saw…

The alarm clock on his nightstand shrieked, indicating it was time to wake up.

\\\\\

It was another early morning in Nagazora City, the rising sun hiding behind the overcast sky. It was still an hour away from rush hour, so streets were still sparsely populated with few cars on the road.

Rei looked at the looming presence of Chiba Academy as he approached it, sighing. He was in a weird position, both dreading and looking forward to the day ahead, still wondering if he would ever get along with his classmates, and still thinking about the time when Mei impulsively fed him crackers.

His train of thought was interrupted when he saw a black limousine pass right by before stopping by the school gates ahead. A crowd of people gathered near the limo, waiting eagerly for the person inside to leave the vehicle. The door opened, and Raiden Mei elegantly stepped out of the limo before entering the school campus, the crowd following her as she did. The limo's doors closed automatically before driving off.

Realizing he had been staring, he shook his head and continued walking towards the school. He passed through the school gates and managed to avoid the ire of Touki before arriving at his classroom. The first thing he did after sitting down was to make sure he had brought his lunch, and thankfully he did. All that was left was to keep his head down and hope the rest of the day was uneventful.

\\\

Rei left the classroom as soon as recess started, wanting to get as far away from his classmates as quickly as possible. He felt a certain air of hostility that was directed toward him, and he felt uneasy. He presumed that they didn't like him because he lacked the social or economic status that everyone else had and yet he got to sit next to Mei. He wondered how long he would continue to study in this school at this rate as he walked down the corridor, looking straight at the ground.

He thought about it another way. Ironically, the seemingly condescending attitude of his classmates so far was also the reason why Mei approached him in the first place. He deduced that if he got on even better terms with her, the rest of his school life wouldn't be as miserable-

Rei was so deep in thought that he accidentally bumped into someone. He couldn't regain his balance in time and he fell onto his back. He tried to get back up, but something- no, someone was in the way. He realized that someone had landed right on top of him when he fell.

That someone was Mei.

The air seemed to get heavier as they both realized how close they were to each other, their faces almost touching, and they could feel each other's warm breaths crash into their faces. Neither of them moved a single inch, all while their embarrassment built up at an exponential rate.

…

Their embarrassment hit a limit, and they both screamed before jumping up and running away in opposite directions. All they could do was hope that the section of the corridor they were just at was empty.

For the rest of the school day, their faces were seemingly permanently reddened, and they refused to look at each other.

Thankfully, nothing else of note happened.

\\\\\\\\\\

\\\\\\\\\\

The tree entered his dreams again. He found this odd, since no dream he ever had, or at least remembered having, ever appeared again in subsequent nights of sleep, and definitely not after a whole week passed.

He seized the opportunity to peer through the infinite branches of the tree, and it was rather fun peeking into them. He saw many different worlds, some with striking similarities to real life, and some entirely different. He saw a world where a white-haired girl once proclaimed that she would become 'the best Valkyrie ever'. He saw another world where the entire planet was essentially a hotel, its guests willingly entering a dream to experience infinite merriment.

After some time, he stumbled onto the blue branch again. Not letting the opportunity slip away like last time, he peered into the branch as quickly as possible.

…

A red-haired man sat beside a purple-haired woman, who was lying in a hospital bed, unmoving. She was encased in a large see-through shell and hooked up to a large assortment of hospital equipment, all whirring and beeping as they checked her vitals. Branching pink lines covered her deathly pale skin.

The man sniffed as he looked at her, immense sorrow written on his face. "M… Makoto… the doctors said that you at most only have a month left to live."

The woman weakly sighed, her voice muffled behind the glass shell. "I… I see…"

"Why…? Why did it have to happen to you? You… You didn't deserve it…"

"And yet it happened…"

"I know… but…"

A deafening silence passed before Makoto spoke again. "Rei… I want you to do me a favor…"

"What is it…?"

"…Let me die a quick and painless death."

"W… What?" He struggled to process her words. "You want to undergo euthanasia?"

She sadly nodded. "Please…"

"B… But I don't want you to go… Not so soon…"

"I… I know it's hard… but please… think about it… If you keep me alive, you will have to watch me slowly wither away… Trust me… it would be much better for you if I died with a smile and not when my condition deteriorates even further…"

'Rei' clenched his fists. "I… I…"

"I'm sorry, Rei…"

"…Alright. I'll… I'll ask the doctors if they can arrange for you to be subject to euthanasia…"

Makoto began crying. "T… Thank you, Rei…"

They looked at each other through the glass shell. Makoto placed her hand on the inside of the shell, and 'Rei' placed his hand on the outside, lining his hand with hers.

"I love you, Makoto… forever and always…" 'Rei' sobbed.

"I love you too, Rei…"

The alarm clock yanked him out of the dream. He groaned before pressing the snooze button on the clock, annoyed that his dream was interrupted again. He wondered what was up with that scene he had just seen before pushing the thought into the back of his mind.

\\\\\

The other 3 days of his first week of school were surprisingly uneventful, and he was glad that he at least didn't have everyone in his class hate him. Well, except for one person, but that was a separate issue.

Today, there was another empty seat that was beside Mei. The class was filled with murmurs as they wondered who would take that spot.

The bell rang, indicating that the school day had officially started, and the class teacher stepped into the classroom. Everyone stood up and bowed to greet the teacher before sitting back down.

"As you may know," the teacher began. "Hikari has left Chiba Academy, which means this class now has room for a new student." She gestured at the door, telling whoever it was to enter the room, and whoever received the signal seemed to be too excited.

A white-haired girl with bright cerulean eyes barged into the room with excessive enthusiasm. "Hi everyone! My name is Kiana Kaslana!" This was then followed by her attempting to strike a pose but failing horribly and falling to the floor, causing the class to chortle. The teacher did not say anything else, and she silently gestured to Kiana to the only empty seat in the classroom, to which she jumped up and happily skipped over before sitting down.

Rei rubbed his eyes. Today was not going to be an uneventful day.

\\\\\

"Rei?" Mei asked. "Can you help me with this question?"

"Sure," he replied as he looked at the question she was pointing to. "Oh, it's this question. To be honest, I don't know how to solve it either."

"Oh… How about we solve it together?"

"Okay!"

They were busy trying to solve the math question when they felt something push them together, their cheeks now pressing against each other.

"Wow! You look so cute together!"

Rei recognized the voice to be Kiana's. Even though he had only known her for 2 school periods so far, her eccentricity made her stand out immediately. "W-What are you doing?"

"E… Eh…?" Mei whimpered as Kiana hugged them even tighter, their faces now as red as a tomato.

"Hmmm…" Kiana thought for a moment before a light bulb lit in her head. "Aha! I think you two should marry!"

An awkward silence filled the air.

…

"M-Marry?" Mei finally spoke, and Kiana nodded enthusiastically.

"W-Why do you say that?" Rei asked with much embarrassment.

"Because you look like a cute couple together!" she excitedly replied.

"B… But we're not even a couple…" He stammered.

"Do you even like her?"

"U… Uhm… M-Maybe…?"

"HUH?" Mei accidentally yelled, taken aback by Rei's response.

"W-Wait, I didn't-"

"Then there's no excuse!" Kiana put her hands on her waist.

"Uhiforgotsomethingimportantineedtoleavenowsorryokaythanksbye!" Mei then ran out of the classroom, covering her face. She was glad nobody else was in the classroom, or it would've been catastrophic. She hoped to God that Kiana wouldn't run her mouth, or she would have a lot of explaining and denying to do.

"HEY!" Kiana yelled before giving chase.

Meanwhile, Rei just sat there, his mind still short-circuiting from what had happened.

Do… Do I really like Mei…?

No… It's too early for that… We've only just met less than a week ago…

He buried his face into his desk, hoping that the rest of the day wouldn't be as… eventful.