Nakamura Himawari, also called Lumiya, didn’t come from outer space or another dimension as she often stated. In fact, she came from a surprisingly near and normal place—Osaka.

It was back when she just entered middle school. She had been looking forward to it, mostly because she was already bored of her tedious life in elementary school. Even there, she had been quite an abnormal kid. It was known that she had strange hobbies, but no one knew what those were in particular.

But most importantly, her grades were very good. Outstanding. Even perfect. Teachers often praised, encouraged her to take part in competitions, even suggested that she might go study abroad soon. Everyone was jealous of her successes, especially that she was putting in a surprisingly low amount of effort.

But even in elementary school, she often found herself on her own. There were some people that talked to her sometimes, but finding a company had never been an easy task to her. Again, she was a completely normal girl back then. Nothing had broken in her yet, so she naturally felt a need for socializing as everyone.

That’s why, when she was graduating, she was set on changing herself in middle school. She decided that she was going to make a whole lot of friends, become popular, pretty, maybe even find a boyfriend. She knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but she was going to do that no matter what.

“I am… N-Nakamura Himawari. Nice to meet y-you…”

Standing in a classroom full of unknown faces, it was only obvious that she wouldn’t be confident. In fact, she had always been shy, so introducing herself for the first time wasn’t an easy task.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, she couldn’t find it in herself. She wasn’t confident enough to approach someone, even if they were alone. She spent the entire first week thinking about talking to someone, but thinking was all she managed to do.

Hopes that someone would approach her instead turned out to be in vain as well. She simply couldn’t find a common topic with anyone, and her voice was too small to be heard in the loud classroom.

Before she knew it, she was left out alone again. She spent entire days without opening her mouth except for when she was called out by a teacher, sitting in the last row, and staring outside the window with an immense feeling of boredom. She accepted that it was her destiny—maybe she just wasn’t meant to be a part of this world or something, she thought.

But, unfortunately, being such a seemingly vulnerable and frail loner, and an object of envy for many, she wasn’t going to persevere unnoticed this time.

“Hey, Nakamura.”

The girl, caught off guard, looked away from the window with her blue eyes to direct her gaze at the girl who just approached her with a group of friends behind her. She recognized them—after all, they were probably the most popular bunch in the class. What would they want from such an uninteresting girl like her?

Not only was she not used to dealing with people, but also the face of the popular girl looked nothing like friendly. She let out only a small noise to respond.

“Lend me your notes.”

Himawari had never lent her notes for everyone, but as a diligent student, she was keeping them up to date and quite clean. Those girls didn’t know yet that her handwriting was, in fact, horrible—but she, as the person who wrote it, could read it without any bigger issues.

That’s why she didn’t think that they would be able to read her notes, but more importantly, she didn’t feel like giving her notebook to anyone at all. Because why would she? It wasn’t like they were her friends.

But… looking at their scary faces, she couldn’t refuse. Politely, she handed the notebook to the girl standing next to her desk.

She took it with a quick and aggressive movement and promptly opened it.

“Pff…” browsing through the pages, a condescending grin appeared on her face. “What’s that?”

“…!” Himawari forget about something among the stress. Since she was often bored during the classes, she had done various things she wasn’t supposed to in her notebook. She usually erased them, but the latest one was left.

A drawing.

Embarrassed, she wanted to take the notebook back. But she couldn’t. They were too scary. Besides, it was too late now. They had already seen it.

That’s why all she could do was stare at the surface of her desk, dejected, pretending not to hear anything.

“Haha. So that’s what you’re doing in that little corner of yours…”

“…” she tried to avoid showing any reaction.

“See? I erased it for you. But your writing is sooo ugly. Well, I’ll be taking that notebook. Maybe I’ll give it back. But maybe not!” having torn the page with the drawing, they finally left her alone.

It was clear for her now—they didn’t have good intentions as to her. Despite always being alone and quiet, nobody had been so mean to her before. She did nothing about it, hoping that it would be a one-time situation. But… as it soon turned out, she became their target.

The notebook was never returned to her.

It all started as little pranks, but seeing that she showed no intention of defending herself, she became their target more often.

“Don’t mind if I do~~”

Those people are so stupid. Why can’t they just leave me alone, like it’s always been before?

For instance, they often helped themselves to her lunch without her consent. She was frustrated, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She didn’t tell the teacher, since she thought it wasn’t serious enough… at least yet.

The girl never showed any signs of it bothering her, but the anger was gradually gathering inside her. And it would never be unleashed outside.

“Oh, I’m so sorry~! I didn’t know my leg was there!”

The lowest scum of society.

“Achoo! Oh, I didn’t mean to sneeze on you, Nakamura!”

No… they are all like that.

And so, it became more often and more aggressive. At some point, she started walking out of the classroom at breaks to avoid being picked at, but her hideouts were found soon.

Gradually, she started convincing herself that it wasn’t for her. That she wasn’t meant to be a part of society. That she was different, special. In reality, it was most likely merely a defense mechanism.

And…

•

At that time, she lived in a regular apartment together with her parents, although they rarely were home because of their jobs.

That’s why she, having nobody to play or even talk with, spent entire days alone. Sometimes she could find something interesting to do, but most of the time, she was simply bored.

One day, boredom led her to idly browse through all wardrobes in her house. She wasn’t particularly interested in clothes—to school, she had to wear school uniform, she had no choice in that matter. And once she got back home, she almost never went outside for as much as a walk, so she just changed into pajamas.

This time, she discovered something hidden deep in her wardrobe that piqued her interest.

What’s that…?

She held the entirely black garment in her hands, looking at it with dispassionate eyes. The cloth was strangely thin, and also it was long.

A black dress.

Despite her indifferent expression, she was intrigued enough to try and put it on, just to see how she would look in it. Again, she had never been particularly concerned about her looks.

She took a mirror and put it in the middle of her room, where she changed herself and slowly, reluctantly took a look at her reflection.

With one of her hands, she covered about a half of her face. The reason was quite weird, but simple—it was to calm herself down. In fact, she particularly disliked looking at herself. She just found it appalling.

But…

The moment her gaze met her reflection, she felt as though she had been enlightened. For the first time ever, she liked the look of herself. Moreover, she found the dress oddly comfortable. Just as if it was a perfect match for her.

Unfortunately, it was a little bit too tight, which caused it to be quite uncomfortable to wear. How the dress found its way to her wardrobe was simple—back in elementary school, she was supposed to perform on stage. That dress had been prepared by her parents quite early, but she didn’t end up wearing it in the end, because her role was soon changed.

Spreading her arms wide, she made a spin and watched as the skirt fluttered along with her.

“Fufu…”

Many ideas appeared in her head at the same moment. It was just as if she finally found her place in this world—those thoughts had been lingering in her mind for a while already, but this dress was a trigger.

Soon, she found and ordered similar clothes online (because she was too shy to go to a store and find something similar there—after all, those clothes were quite unusual), along with a few more accessories she thought would match her new image well.

Why was that? What was she going to do with them?

She didn’t think of herself as a human anymore. Or at least, she didn’t want to be one.

•

A few days later, the package arrived. She put it in the center of her room, which was dim because of the shutters being always closed, and even though nobody was home, she was quite reluctant before opening it.

Her hands were shaking, and she gulped as she opened the package. There was some anticipation in her as well.

First, there was a black dress, but it was different from the previous one in more than just size. It had some white accents, and it was also slimmer and thinner, mainly because it was supposed to be worn under the coat she took out next.

The garment was entirely black and thin, but the most surprising part was the unusual addition on the hood—a pair of cat ears.

In the package there was also a pair of opaque gloves that could cover her entire arms, as well as the thing she had been quite hesitant about ordering—an eyepatch.

“…”

Uneasily, she changed into those new clothes. She tried to convince herself that there was no reason to be embarrassed, as there was no one watching her.

She put on the dress, the gloves, and the coat, and then, there was one more thing left.

Her blue eyes looked at the hand holding onto the item—the eyepatch. She realized that it was an unreasonable idea—why would she block half of her eyesight for no apparent reason?

Maybe… because there is no point looking at this ugly world?

Nervously sighing, she closed her eyes, pressed the eyepatch to her left eye and fixed it on. Then, she lowered her hand and gradually opened her eyes again—but one of them saw only darkness.

“Uh…”

The view of the dim room reached only her right eye. At first, it made her quite dumbfounded, because her depth perception was now obstructed. Luckily, she had never had any issues with her eyesight though.

But more importantly, it was time for her to finally take a look at the mirror, which was prepared by her earlier.

She was nervous and hesitant. Even though nobody but her would learn that this ever happened, she was still embarrassed. But gradually, she turned around and saw her entire new image.

She was expecting to be immensely abashed, to throw those clothes away and forget about them forever, but…

At the moment she saw her reflection, she opened her mouth ever so slightly. Because… she didn’t hate the way she looked now. In fact, she liked it.

“Fufufu…”

For some reason, she didn’t feel lonely anymore. It was just as if the reflection was a whole different person—and she started talking to it, which basically meant that she was talking to herself.

“People are dumb… scum, filth… That’s why this world would be better off without them.”

“And that’s why I am not human anymore.”

“No, I have never been human. Why was I always alienated by them? This is the answer.”

“And I don’t need them anymore. I never truly needed them at all.”

“Fufu. Humans are so foolish. They will never realize that I’m above them. They may keep toying with me, but they don’t realize that they are the ones losing.

“And one day, I shall exact revenge on them.”

“But I shall remain hidden for now. I will hurt them when they expect it the least.”

“And my new, true name… shall be Lumiya.”

“For I am the one enlightened, as they remain in the darkness. Fufufu!”

And thus, Himawari had died, and Lumiya was born. In fact, she knew all along that it was all merely a pretend game—but sometimes she allowed herself to be immersed in it, since it simply made her feel better.

She was going to wear those clothes only at home for now, but she decided to wear the eyepatch to school from then on.