Quiet and unnoticed as always, the girl sat down at her desk in the classroom. It was the beginning of her second year in middle school, but not much had changed. The people remained the same—nobody transferred in or away. The room was filled with idle chatters, which made it quite noisy. The girl, naturally, didn’t talk to anyone, just as usual. She just took advantage of her seat placement, which was right next to the window, to stare outside.

However, there was something different about her today. Her classmates didn’t know that she had undergone a change, or rather, the process of changing had finally come to an end after a few months or even years.

The only external sign of that was small, but very noticeable. A black eyepatch was covering the girl’s left eye. All she saw with that eye was nothing, darkness. Only her right eye could see and be seen by the outside world.

Most of her classmates were not interested in her at all, so they either just turned a blind eye to it or commented, “Huh, odd” and forgot about it.

“Did something happen to your eye?” a certain teacher was interested in it enough to call her to the faculty room, expecting an explanation.

Of course, it wasn’t a situation comfortable for her. Not only was she shy in general and would rather avoid explaining herself before anyone, but also this time, she had no logical reasoning behind it at all. She couldn’t just tell that she gained powers overnight—they would either laugh her off and tell her to take it off, which was something she promised she wouldn’t do, or call her parents and send to a doctor, which would be quite a big issue for her, especially that she was supposed to be an honors student.

That’s why, in this stressing situation, she had no choice but to think of a lie.

“Y-Yes. I got hurt…”

“I see. I hope it recovers soon.”

Fortunately, the teacher believed her explanation. There was no way they would keep believing it if she kept wearing it constantly for the two years of middle school that were left—at least a formal note from a doctor would be required if she really lost half of her sight.

But there wasn’t anything else that she could do.

“T-Thank you.”

She would probably be left alone for some time now.

•

As much as most of her classmates didn’t pay attention to her whatsoever, the group harassing her couldn’t leave it alone.

“Huh? Did something happen to your eye, Nakamura?” in a falsely polite manner, the delinquent girl approached her desk at lunch.

“Y-Yes…”

You are the dumbest of humans out there. I hate you so much.

“Pff. I see”, she left her with a snort.

That confused Himawari. She wasn’t going to do anything mean to her? Well, she was glad, because she truly didn’t want to be bullied. Nevertheless, it seemed suspicious to her, as she was already approached and only light laughed at. Himawari began worrying that she might have been planning something bigger.

Everything became clear on the next PE lesson. Her class was playing dodgeball that day—since she was usually unnoticed, it wasn’t rare that she managed to be the last person standing. However, she could never hit her opponent properly, so only her being left was equal to the team already losing.

But something was different that day. Some girls from the opposite team clearly began targeting her, and some from her own team even hindered her so dodging became more difficult.

Moreover, they were always aiming for her head, which was probably the most sensitive place one could get hit by a ball. Again, she had an eyepatch on her eye. One of its biggest disadvantages was the loss of depth perception, which meant that properly judging the distance to the ball was more difficult than usual.

With all those hindrances, they managed to hit her soon, exactly where they were aiming at—her head.

It wasn’t anything serious enough for the teacher to intervene, but it certainly did hurt. Himawari was mad, but she couldn’t do anything with it. It was clear that it was done on purpose.

Tch. You worthless filth.

•

Constantly vexed, the only fun she found in her life was wearing odd clothes and talking to herself in a grandiose manner.

Standing before the mirror set in the middle of her room, she spoke as she covered half of her face with her glove-covered hand.

“They may be worthless, but they are a major hindrance.”

“Unfortunately, it is not within my ability to get rid of them. After all, I have agreed to follow this world’s rules until it is time to implement my plan.”

“I have to withstand those attacks… but fufu, they certainly are foolish.”

“They have no idea who I am.”

“Nor do they realize what consequences are waiting for them from bringing my anger on them.”

“Now, this world is on its way to ruin. But that’s great. Splendid, indeed. After all, I, Lumiya, hate this world and every being standing upon it.”

“And I shall become the one who ends it. Fufufu!”

After the peculiar laughter, silence filled the room again. Her eye was fixed on her expression in the mirror, which was one of a character completely distinct fr0m Himawari. It wasn’t supposed to be a lonely and frail girl, but a powerful and sinister entity. That’s exactly why it had a separate name, Lumiya.

But…

It would be better if they disappeared. But they won’t. This world sure sucks.

•

A certain day, after school. Himawari didn’t attend any clubs, so she was preparing to go home—in fact, she was in the middle of changing her shoes. She thought that her suffering for the day was over, but unfortunately, she was gravely mistaken.

Her vision became hazy as suddenly, an unfamiliar hand touched her shoulder from behind.

“Would you go with us, Nakamura-san?” a voice filled with malice called out to her.

Startled, and upon realizing her situation, scared, Himawari again could not refuse. Either way, she doubted that she would be able to run away, as the grip on her shoulder became strong so much that it hurt.

She dreamed of how nice it would be if she could just leave her body or pass away at this very moment. It would allow her to avoid suffering again.

Also, she was twice as scared as usual—after all, it was her first time being called out by them after school.

“Hey, you will go with us, Nakamura-san, right?” the girl repeated with spite.

“Y-Yes…” she responded, trembling.

“Hmph”, the girl didn’t let go of her shoulder as she led her outside.

Himawari tried her best to somehow disable her mind, but to no avail. With each step, she became more and more frightened. Something scary, absolutely unpleasant was awaiting her. And most importantly, it was something unknown.

She was led to a place behind the school building. It seemed like one of those places that were never attended by anyone, hence no one could see them. Moreover, there were more of those girls waiting there. There were five of them in total.

“Ouch…” the girl who was grabbing her shoulder forcefully pushed her forward, which made her fall to the ground. She seemed to be the strongest of them all—Himawari’s strength couldn’t compete with hers. Her attempts to stand up were repressed, which caused her to stop trying soon.

“Now then, will you show us what’s under that cloth?”

“We know that your eye is not hurt. You’re spouting nonsense about it having some powers, right? Haha!”

Himawari froze as the bully girl’s words reached her ears.

H-How do they know about it? It was supposed to be a secret…! No way, were they eavesdropping on me…?

•

A few days ago, Himawari was eating her lunch on the rooftop just as usual. It had lately become her favorite place—a nice wind blew through, cooling her down, the view surrounding it wasn’t half bad, and most importantly, it was empty. It meant that she could eat without worrying about being bullied by them again.

“This is so stupid. Don’t those humans have better things to do?”

Himawari had developed a habit of talking to herself as of late. It was a way of letting a bit of the anger gathering up inside her every day out—even though nobody had been listening to her, she was satisfied enough, at least for now.

“But… fufu, a new power has awakened in me. Covering this eye was meant to be merely symbolic, but what a surprise! There has been something immensely powerful lingering inside me all this time. Fufufu! Now, those humans mean nothing to me. However, I cannot use this power yet. That’s why I have to keep it sealed for now.”

As she gazed into the brightly blue sky, she bit into a rice ball.

“Fufu! Just you wait, you foolish humanity. I shall take revenge on you when you expect it the least. I will start with this exceptional filth bothering me… they will beg me for forgiveness one day!”

She was sure that there was nobody else but her on the rooftop. That’s why she had been talking to herself loudly and without hesitation, just as she’d been doing in her own room.

However, there was, in fact, someone listening on to her. The usually quiet, but diligent girl had been speaking like a demon lord from a fantasy novel. What would she do if someone taped her?

She didn’t think about it until that day. And she regretted it a whole lot.

•

Unfortunately, it turned out that the girl eavesdropping on her was one of the girls bullying her—the worst turn of events possible.

Moreover, the girl was just showing her a recording of her words. Himawari had never before realized how truly embarrassed they were, and how much of a mistake was to do it outside of her room.

“See?” the bully mockingly laughed at Himawari.

She was obviously shocked, even terrified. She was already immensely humiliated, but with that recording, there were too many heinous things they could do to her. Showing it to all her classmates. Showing it to the teachers. Showing it to her parents. Or posting it on some social media for everyone to laugh at.

It went without saying that no matter how unpopular, unnoticeable, and uninteresting she was, she wanted to avoid it.

“Now, what are we going to do with this?” with cruel smiles on their faces, the girls looked down on the eyepatch girl.

“Now, now!” one of the girls reached with her hand for the girl’s face.

“Uhh…” Himawari struggled to not let them take off her eyepatch.

Instead of trying to keep the hands away, she used both of her hands to push at the eyepatch so that it wouldn’t be taken off. Her determination was great, just as if there really was a power she didn’t want to ever leak out.

“We won’t show it to anyone if you don’t struggle. Okay?” her voice was falsely cute.

“…” Himawari didn’t want to listen to anyone. She wanted to disappear from that place, because she knew they wouldn’t leave.

“Hahaha! Or no, fufufu!”

“Now, would you show us that eye? That power of yours seems really cool~~”

“Yeah, yeah! I’m so glad to be friends with someone so powerful!” they were, obviously, mocking her.

“no…” Himawari still kept struggling.

“Huh?? Did you say something?”

“…”

“You want this thing taken off? Leave it to me”, the girl who brought her there suddenly spoke. Apparently, she was the strongest one.

“Oh? Haha”, the bully let go of Himawari’s eyepatch.

Without a word, the strongest girl approached her and with one hand, broke through the protection and tore the eyepatch off. While Himawari was exceptionally weak, her strength was impressive either way.

“…!” the eyepatch was thrown away, and Himawari used her hands to hide the left eye in panic. Her face showed immense fright and was awash of sweat.

“Pff. Nothing happened”, one of the bullies commented.

The eyepatch was lying on the dirty ground a few meters away from her. She wanted for them to go away as soon as possible so she could go grab it back.

“Actually, it’s not that much fun.”

“Yeah.”

“But you certainly are foolish. Fufu… hahahaha!” one of the girls mocked Himawari again.

“Listen. Everyone will hear this if you tell anyone. So be a good girl and do what we tell you to, okay~?”

“…” Himawari did not respond.

“Let’s go.”

“Right.”

“…”

Himawari’s eyes were closed, so the only sign of those girls leaving were their footsteps disappearing into the distance.

After a moment, when she felt comfortable enough, she looked around, and having seen no trace of them, went to grab the eyepatch and put it back on her left eye.

“…”

She didn’t feel like talking in her odd manner anymore. She just slowly started walking home, with her mind overcome with fear.