Prologue

‘Damn, that dream was so good!’

These were the thoughts of an ordinary guy. A guy coasting through life as if everything went his way. It does not. In fact, it was about to get very, very unusual for such an ordinary guy.

‘But these grades won’t get me into Sobu.’

Bringing himself out of his reverie, the ordinary youth stopped stretching his pale arms, tucked his left into his pocket and pulled out a scrunched sheet of paper with his right.

As the guy glanced over the eight lines of text, his breezy expression faded.

“Shame…” he sighed.

His eyes hovered over one letter inked onto the sheet – an A.

'An A huh?'

He glanced at the other letters placed on the sheet.

‘Yay,’ he thought rather sarcastically. ‘Three C’s’

Choosing to ignore the four other letters on the sheet, he stuffed it back inside his jogging pant’s pocket; then started walking down the path

Despite his ordinary abilities, his appearance stood out in his new environment. Knight Yuudai was not fully Japanese but part English, after all.

Due to his foreign appearance, it was natural for people to stare at him once in a while. A few people rushing past had already given him some glances, as did a girl sat on a public bench a few metres away. So, despite only just moving to Japan, Knight had gotten quite used to this.

Thus, it was only natural that he didn’t notice that the girl seemed to be doing more than just staring. It was like she was tracking his every move.

Ignorant to her gaze, he stopped walking and looked to his right.

‘Ah, that must be it.’

Across the road stood what should become his new school – Sobu High-school. Of course, Knight knew that with his grades, that wouldn’t be the case, but he didn’t care.

A couple of months ago Knight became parentless. So, after Knight finished his exams in England, he was forced to move to Japan with his grandparents and their adopted daughter.

His hands snug tight within his pockets, Knight walked to the edge of the pavement.

His faded green eyes watched as a small four by four passed the crossing. The light still red, he checked for any more cars.

The road was empty apart from a white truck in the distance.

‘Come on, turn green already that truck won’t be here for a couple of minutes.’

Answering his call, the light turned green. Breathing out with, “Sweet,” he dawdled across the road.

‘Well, that was quick-’ Knight’s idle thoughts were squashed by a blaring horn coursing through the air. Caught completely unaware by the deafening noise, he failed to sort out his feet and stumbled to the floor.

“Shit!” Knight cursed as the hard asphalt surface pressed against his body.

The truck was still approaching as he scrambled to his feet and it hadn’t slowed down, contrary to the constant beeping.

“The hell!? It was minutes away!”

The truck had gotten closer and still hadn’t slowed down. It was even faster.

 Knight's heart began to beat rapidly as a chill tickled his body, freezing him in fear.

“-NGH!” Knight huffed and puffed as shoved all his strength into moving his legs. Nothing came. “All I have to do is move my fucking legs-!!”

A soft, strident scream pierced Knight’s thought and sliced through the fear numbing his body.

Without hesitation he dove forward, his hands grazing the hard ground and his heart slamming its cage.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.”

Failing to ignore the pain, Knight got to his feet and stood there. He silently stood there, processing what just happened.

All he came to were two rhetorical questions: ‘Did that guy just try and kill me?’  and ‘That was a green light… right?’

“Mister,” a girlish voice called out, stopping Knight from doubting reality any longer.

It came from the direction of the place where he was nearly transported to another world.

Knight saw a small brunette girl running towards him, “Mister” she cried once more. Knight turned around. ‘*Sigh*, please don’t bother me.’ He thought rather emptily whilst trying to ignore many ‘misters’ he could hear. After a few seconds, however, the girl had evidently had enough.

“MISTER” she cried, seeming like she was at the last straw.

‘*Sigh*, what will they think if I ignore a little girl.’ Knight asked himself as he noticed quite a few looks of disgust. He began to turn around when a stentorian roar burned his ears.

“MISTER”

Knight's whole body trembled. His thoughts swallowed by that deafening roar as the empty noise rung in his ears. Desperate to escape the suffering, Knight slammed his hands against his ears, his face contorting into an expression of agony. His body gave way, throwing Knight to the floor. Too focused on blocking the sound than to protect his body as the rough pavement ripped his skin.

His body was now trembling, his hands still clutching the shaved sides of his head. Forcing an eye open Knight saw no one else in pain. As a matter of fact, no one had even noticed his suffering.

Eventually, Knight's thoughts broke through the dinning roar, ‘what the hell is this shit?’ Although his thoughts had broken through, they were too jumbled to do nothing more than wonder what was happening. It was the pain-

“-Excuse me?” A soft voice hushed the ringing in his ears. The trembling ceased and the pain had been soothed. Knight relaxed his body and took his hands away from his distressed face. He was confused, but his body wouldn’t go on guard.

“What…the hell?” Knight's thoughts were hazy as his eyes creaked open to reveal the cloudy sky overhead. His back felt stiff laying on the hard pavement beneath him. The weariness overwhelming his body was accompanied by a sense of tranquillity as his heavy eyelids closed themselves once more. '...just a few more minutes...I can relax for just a few more minutes...'

Those moments stretched on far longer than he anticipated as he drifted off into a blissful slumber shortly thereafter.

 

*          *          *

 

“Excuse me, Misterrrrr?”

Knight’s mind was roused by the soft yet abrupt calling of his name along with the sensation of his arms being shaken.

With his eye-lids drowsily clamped together, he uneagerly changed into a sitting position and softly tore them open with a slight rub of the palm.

“What is- The fuck!?” The world around him changed in an instant, almost like someone had switched camera angles in his brain. The strange, sudden influx of information startled him, making him feel dizzy as he tried blinking his heavy eyelids several times.

Knight rested his head on his hand as he contemplated this strange feeling. Then-

“Argh, shit!”

 -His mind was blown into smithereens, slapping his heart into motion.

Spluttering, he rushed to clutch his head and soften the explosion. There was pain, then it vanished, then it came back. “The fuck?” Knight’s body felt like it had just woken up from a short nap, though that didn't match up with his current perception. Everything changed from before he clocked out, yet that couldn't be right.

Suddenly, the pain infecting his head disappeared once again, calmed by a wave of serenity. Then, two soft and calm hands cushioned Knight’s trembling hands.

Regaining his senses, he noticed that the pair of hands belonged to a small girl.

“It’s alright mister,” she spoke, soothing all of Knights worries. “I’m not sure what happened but I can tell you’re in deep pain.”

Knight was speechless, he was nearly thoughtless. All his worries were being ebbed away by this girl’s soothing voice and soft touch. His confusion wasn’t being resolved, yet it was disappearing.

A nod of the head was all he could manage.

The girl, still holding his hands, sat next to him on the wooden bench.

“…”

The pair were sat on a wooden bench.

‘Wait…what?’ Belatedly noticing where he was, Knight escaped from this thoughtless paradise. ‘How the hell am I sat on a bench? I was-’ He gulped down his words just as he formed them. He noticed his increasing nerves and it only felt natural to take a deep, relaxing breath.

“Please take a few moments to calm yourself, mister,” the innocent-looking girl spoke, loosening her grip.

Those words allowed Knight to fully calm himself. They allowed him to try and comprehend what the series of events. As he sunk into thought, his body turned to stare into the girl’s cloudy eyes.

Slowly, the pieces fell together. ‘Don’t tell me…’ With the image getting clearer and clearer, his hand tightened its grip. As the calming cushion crept away, Knight’s hand gripped it again. ‘…That she’s the one who hurt me?’ His body told him it wasn’t possible, squeezing the cushioning hand even harder. Yet, the picture was already pieced together.

“…er?”

As Knight’s mind and body debated, a couple of middle-schoolers were calling out an officer.

"...Officer? Officer! This man is acting incredibly suspicious towards that minor. Officer!" Luckily for Knight, the officer seemed too busy stuffing down his doughnuts and watching the baseball game to hear them.

Though Knight didn't see it, an incompetent officer had saved him. He was allowed more time to-

 “Um, mi-mister?” The girl, trapped by Knight’s hand, spoke with a slight tremble. Her face was visibly distressed.

However, her words went unheard to Knight, stuck in deep thought. The puzzle was pieced together, but everything about it made no sense. ‘It just doesn’t make sense. That truck was nowhere near close enough to run me over. Did she teleport it or something?’ As his creativity was forced to fill in for his lack of understanding, a glimmering teardrop from caught his attention. ‘Could she really…’ Another teardrop. And another. The tears had burst through the dam, finally drawing Knight’s attention. He was now back in reality and realised what this looked like to everyone around.

“Oh, shit.”

Yet, his realisation was too late.

“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLP”

Knight snapped his back at the speed of light. He noticed the anti-socials whipping out their cameras. Working women dialling 110. ‘Shit, shit, what the fuck do I do?’

His body tensed up in fear. There was only one option floating in his

 “Sorry, sorry” Knight hastily tried to apologise. “I’m sorry, I tell you I’m sorry, okay.” He placed his hands upon her delicate shoulders, “I didn’t mean to upset h-”

Her frightened scream became shrill and penetrating. She would slash down any of his attempts to get out of this situation.

“Ah, shit. This is worse!” Knight slammed his hands against his head and clutched his caramel curls on the edge of his fringe. ‘What the hell do I do-’

He was at the point of curling up into a ball. But then his vexatious worries were made a hundred times worse; he heard one of the middle-school girls screaming at the officer.

"Officer! LISTEN, OFFICER! This man is ASSAULTING that minor. DO SOMETHING!"

She didn’t seem to care that Knight had stopped. Apparently, a crying kid could block a person’s thinking process.

Then, your not so average officer wiped the crumbs off his face. He was a monumental man, dressed in blue, and he had heard the girl this time. As he witnessed a poor, innocent girl crying at the hands of a hooded youth, he snatched his baton form the holder.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” His deep voice sounded just as loud as the stentorian roar that crippled Knight ten minutes before. The world was giving Knight no luck today. It was as if God was punishing him for his ordinary life, turning his luck into misfortune. "Get away from her you pedophile!"

Knight’s body went limp. 'Pedophile… pedophile.' The officer’s tragic words singed into Knight's mind, 'pedophile… Could he not of spared me the hate and call me a pervert instead.' Knight wallowed in despair. With no hope of escape, he relaxed his body and fell back. With his head dangled off the bench, Knight covered his face. The next best thing was to hide after all.

‘So, this is how I spend the rest of my days hu? As a falsely convicted pedophile? Well shit.’ Knight had truly fallen into despair. With the only above-average thing about him -his luck - failing him, he gave up. “Maybe the judge will believe me…hahahaha... ha… ha… ha… Aaah.”

Knight continued to laugh to himself, the word ‘pedophile’ bouncing around his head. However, because of this, he had failed to realise that the girl had stopped screaming.

The officer and everyone else around had frozen, and so had Knight.

Failing to realise that Knight wasn’t conscious, the petite girl crawled slowly upon his lifeless body. “Huh?” She sat on Knights frozen body; her legs, wrapped thigh-high by black silk, sprawled on his sides.

“Damn,” the innocent-looking girl uttered words that she surely couldn’t have meant. ‘I didn’t mean to this.’ She stayed sprawled on Knight’s stomach for a few seconds, her miniskirt spread upon his sweatpants, and released a soft sigh, ‘oh well.’

She leant forward until her face was as close to touching Knight as it could get; her soft, wet lips as good as touching his. Then, she inhaled and slowly breathed the airt back out and onto Knight’s chapped lips.

His lifeless body awoke from the warm breath.

“Ungh.”

Knight was speechless as he opened his eyes to see two, foggy orbs softly staring into his – ‘The hell!’

Knight immediately rolled off the bench, pushing the girl off of him. Except, she wouldn’t come off.

“Hey, Mister! That isn’t nice,” the girl tried exclaiming but all Knight was thinking of was getting as far away from her and any court case that might be fired his way as he could. His despair a thing of the past.

Just before she could tighten her grip, Knight quickly grasped her arms and threw her off his chest. But she didn’t fall to the floor with a thud. Instead, she swivelled around onto his back.  

“Why the hell are you using me as some sort of climbing frame?" Knight was getting frustrated.

Before he tried slamming her against a wall and risked the wrath of the Gods, the girl snuck her hands in front of his face, covering Knight’s lips. He was immediately calmed.

“Mister,” she whispered; her hot breath caressing his ear, increasingly acting like she was older than she appeared. “Look around.”

His body did as was ordered: He saw the huge officer frozen mid-run; cars stuck in motion; a large crowd staring right at him. Knight knew that for whatever reason, they couldn’t move. Yet he didn’t want to chance anything.

However, as took a step to run, he was hit with a heavy burden. It was the girl, and she was a lot heavier than she looked. It was like the weight of a fully-grown woman was condensed into her small frame. 'What the hell happened? Where was she storing all this fat?' He idly wondered as he started to run-

"Ack," Knight squealed.

"Oh, I'm sorry," The girl apologised for kicking his liver with her dangling feet. "Total accident."

Ignoring the empty apology, Knight wondered what was up with her, ruffling his ash fringe in confusion, 'I can't get a read on her personality at all. She seemed so innocent but no innocent girl would randomly do that...unless she knew what I thought.' Knight shuddered as that disturbing thought entered his mind.

The girl then jumped off of the human climbing frame and stood in front of him, staring intently with her misty eyes. This was the first time Knight had gotten a proper look at the girl, all he remembered was her alluring hot breath, though Knight pushed this to the back of his mind as she was just a kid and he didn't want the FBI asking for his location.

The girl had shoulder-length flaxen hair, apart from a bundle of grey-dyed strands extending past her shoulders and drooping down her back. The extension, connected to the centre of her shoulder-length hair, was tied in place by a silk black ribbon. 'Man, she really loves silk.' Knight thought as he looked down to see her legs covered by even more black silk, that stopped thigh-high.

"...Zettai ryouiki," Muttered Knight, instantly recognising the combination of skirts and thigh highs that he loved.

"Mister. Please can you remove your eyes from down there," the girl went bright red and though she had a hint of anger in her face, her words did not show it.

Knight didn't bother to apologise and just shook his head as he removed his glare from her thighs.

As Knight focused on her face, he began to feel that it was unnatural, just like the unnatural weight of the girl. Her face didn't suit chocolate coloured hair. It was quite peculiar. Her face was too innocent. Knight knew she wasn't all innocent after being kicked by her before. Something was off about her.

'Wait…?’ Before, he was too busy with the crowd to notice, but he realised that her eyes were strange. They were a lot stranger than how unnatural she seemed as a whole. Her eyes weren’t just grey. They carried a sense of being otherworldly. It felt like she harboured inherent hate for most living things, including herself.

"I'm sorry for all this trouble mister."

‘Huh.’

A horrid thought crossed his mind. 'No, no. Please don't be what I think. All this trouble? Why is she apologising for that?' Knight worried. 'AHHHH, she's just that type of nice kid to apologise for other people's misfortune…' He told himself.

"I'm sorry for trying to kill you. I'm sorry Mister"

All the life that was inside of Knight escaped into the blowing wind, making his body go cold. His faded emerald eyes looked even more lifeless as he dropped his head in sheer disbelief.

'No way. How…. How?' he placed his hands on his lustrous brown hair above the ash fringe, as his thoughts were muddled

The girl then gathered Knight's cold hands and a warmth spread through them, the life was returning to his body. His thoughts could now be clear.

"It's alright Mister, I'll explain everything. Trust me." The girl spoke softly as if she didn't want to trouble Knight anymore.

"Yeah, you will." Knight didn't care about her 'innocence'. ‘What the hell is going on? She better explain it.'

"Oh, I'm sorry if you misunderstood but I can't explain yet. I have to…" Her voice trailed off and a cute smile appeared. "I'm sorry."

"No. What were you going to say?" Knight wanted to understand now. This was not normal. He needed to know.

"Okay then. For this I truly am sorry." her cute smile held a hint of sadness as she raised his hands, placing her soft lips against them.

'The fuck?' Knight wondered, trying to hide the fact that this made him happy. He had never been kissed before if you could call it one.

"Sorry it had to be you." The strange girl dropped Knight's hands, careful not to disturb him.

"What?" Knight was puzzled.

The girl placed her hands upon Knight's stomach, 'what the hell?' Knight was really confused now.

"Whoa. " the girl weakly pushed Knight. "What was that for?" Knight asked, but the girl simply averted her gaze. 'Wait a second. I swear I was closer to the bench than this. How did I get to the road? Did she push me a couple of steps? Weird.'

He looked back at the girl. Her arm was held to the sky and her middle finger pressed against her thumb.

"Hey…what are you doing?" he asked her, holding back the urge to address her as a 'weirdo' after her earlier stunt.

However, she ignored Knight yet again and clicked her small, soft finger.

Then, a blaring horn coursed through the air.

"What the fuck…" Knight slowly turned his head to see a large white truck inched from his face.

"THE-" Knight was cut off as the truck collided with his whole body.