CHAPTER 1 - Bad Day

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A bright Tuesday morning.

In the XX prefecture of Japan, there was the YY school, and in that school was where you could find the average classroom, with seats littering the room, and a big chalkboard at the front.

And looking like it was routine, a male student with brown hair and bodily features that would certainly be considered 'above average' by human standards arrived at his classroom carrying a heavy bag filled with god-knows-what.

He pulls out a phone from his pocket, and opened the lock screen, clearly checking for the time.

‘That … seems to be about correct.’ Hiro thought, nodding as his seat next to the window, basking in the morning breeze that swept across his face.

It was an hour before his first period began, The classroom was always empty if one went early enough in the morning and it became a habit to enjoy the 60 minutes of pure peace and tranquility paired with the relaxing cold and humidity in the air that came with it.

“Uoooghh …” Hiro groaned, as he tried to recline to the best of his ability on his seat, unlocking his phone and immediately checking news on his phone’s browser.

‘China successfully lands second batch of colonists in Mars!’ by Morning in Beijing Channel

‘Too out of this world.’ Hiro scrolled to the next

‘Eighth Mexican Civil War ends in victory of the Frente Nacionalista Catolico Mexicano (Mexican Catholic Nationalist Front), will they get it together this time?’ by North America News

‘No, they won’t, this is the second civil war this year …’ Hiro rolled his eyes as he went on to the next one.

‘PRINCESS OF LOUSIANA GOES MISSING!’ By the 23rd Century News Association

‘Hmm? Some interesting news finally …’ Hiro thought, as he selected the article and read even further, clearly engrossed just by the headlines.

‘Lately around the world there have been numerous missing person cases with very strange circumstances. People simply vanishing out of their homes without a struggle and no traces of anyone or anything taking them.The world governments are in a frenzy trying to find the cause of these disappearances and trying to find any and all connections between the cases …’

‘Ah yeah, there’s that too …’ Hiro rubbed his chin, recalling what he remembered of the news exactly.

‘Right … it was like that.’ Just as the report said, all over the world, there have been multiple people around the world suddenly disappearing with no explainable causes.

Now, one might actually think to themselves ‘Don’t a ton of people go missing every year?’, and if one does, they would absolutely be correct.

‘The numbers are quite amazing …’ Millions of people go missing every year, people who would either be found or never be found, it wasn’t a case that was exactly unique in itself, and it was definitely not something that the governments of the world would really focus on, at least on a large scale.

‘However …’ The disappearances of these times were … quite unique to say the least, so unique that there was no choice but to pay attention to them.

First of all, it was the nature of the disappearances which brought a substantial amount of motivation for the focus.

In normal missing person cases, there were usually leads that led to dead ends, for example

But as for a lot of these cases, many people could disappear very abruptly, for example, you could find you and your friend outside, your friend informs you about him going to take a crap in the nearby bathroom, you see him going to a porta-potty and enter it, wait for hours on end, and then knock on the door out of impatience only to find him just gone.

Such cases were frankly, too abrupt. Too unrealistic, almost as if it was a bit magical.

‘... Most notable of the latest disappearances is the vanishing of Lara Price, son of Oliver Price: The current elected State Holder of the Republic of Louisiana …’

‘Ah, the Republic of Lousiana?’ Hiro wracked his mind further, remembering the Republic of Lousiana, a relatively new nation that sprung into existence during the dissolution of the United States of America, has one that was always been considered a regional power that has stood against all odds controlling a territory almost identical to the colony of French Lousiana and has maintained that territorial integrity against the Pacific States to its West, Texas to its South, and the numerous other warlords to its Eastern flank.

It was a respectable nation, with a democracy that elects what are basically presidents that rule for life, State Holders as they are called.

Which brings it to the second reason why the mysterious vanishing people’s cases are simply so important.

‘... The Lousiana cabinet is in a panic, gathering potential ransom funds while hiring the best detectives and military contractors to find their daughter …’

The fact that the cases are indiscriminate, and can target anyone, i.e, even those within positions of power.

Hiro sighed, wondering what the world has gone to, before he was interrupted with a light tap to his cheek.

“Whatcha reading there?” A soft voice, one that pulled him forcefully back into reality whispered into his ear.

“Wah!?” Hiro almost jumped out of his seat, giving the girl who whispered into his ear an amused expression on her face.

A girl with silky long black hair, clear pale skin, warm but almost devilish red eyes and a wonderfully perfect figure stood just off to Hiro's side. She looked beautiful in every way but something stood out on her face that seemed quite out of place …

A black barcode on her left cheek, a clear taboo in Japanese culture with tattoos even in the 23rd century still signalling one to be either a delinquent or even someone from the Yakuza … and up above her eyes in the middle of her forehead was a new addition to her wonderful facial features. A white cotton bandage held down tightly by strips of medical tape, meaning she was just recently injured, making her look like even more like a delinquent.

However, from the way she conducted herself, and from how rough her hands look in comparison to her face, it didn’t frankly seem like she was just a hooligan, and instead made it seem like she was actually someone dangerous.

‘What am I doing with my life …’  Hiro was beating himself up internally, over his cowardice for not even trying to disappear.

‘All I can do is go with the flow really …’ Hiro sighed once again.

“Rei … what are you doing?” Hiro asked, rubbing his head, and then stared at a particular spot on her head, obviously curious as to what happened to it.

“Good morning to you as well.” Rei extended her right hand, as if demanding for something that Hiro had.

Hiro nodded, reaching for the heavy bag, with both hands, and then gave it to Rei, who took it effortlessly with one hand, and sat on the seat next to Hiro.

“Let’s see what we have today …” Rei said, as she moved to open the bag’s zipper, with Hiro looking over, seeming quite curious about the thing on her forehead.

“Did you perhaps … get into a fi–” Hiro opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of ripping plastic, which firmly stopped him from speaking further as well.

Kriiik!

Rei didn't even wait before Hiro finished talking and opened a snack and started munching on it.

'Haaaaagh, she really is a glutton...' He thought, still staring at Rei, which eventually got her attention, and in turn made her get the idea, and then formally addressed it.

“Ah this?” Rei touched the medical patch on her forehead, before showing a faintly bitter expression.

“Yeah.” Hiro simply affirmed.

“Fell down the stairs.” Rei waved the expression off, shrugging to further enforce the idea that she didn’t actually want to talk about it further, making Hiro nod in understanding.

‘... Yeah I don’t understand.’ Hiro thought, sighing inside his head as she thought about the other possibilities for her injury.

Frankly, considering the rumours surrounding her, it wouldn’t even be over the top to say that she could be one of the Gifted in disguise.

That being that one scandal that happened almost a year ago, back when Rei wasn't well-known in school yet and was only seen as an "Overly-pretty stuck-up rich girl".

It happened during a field trip almost a year ago. The whole class was resting from the activities they did in the day and were now in a motel in WW city. The students were grouped into 4 and were sent into one room, but coincidentally Rei was the only one who got a room to herself due to there being an odd number of students. In the middle of the night, screams and death throes were heard from Rei's room, everybody in class got up and quickly rushed into Rei's room. And upon arriving the teachers and students were met with the scene of Rei holding a bloodied broken piece of wood in her hands, it looked like it was torn off from a chair and it was covered in blood as well, the floor was drenched in blood and broken teeth, two men were seen on the ground half alive and groaning, barely conscious. Rei was staring at the window, and the her voice that said 'How unsightly' was heard.

Upon seeing this, the startled teacher mustered up his courage and asked Rei what happened, and Rei responded with …

'What does it look like to you? Two men invaded my room saying vulgar things like they'd violate me and steal my chastity.'

And upon hearing this, the two men groaned as if denying what she said, but then at that moment Rei stepped on their unrecognizable faces to shut them up. Afterwards she said to the still dazed teacher

'Hey when are you going to call the police? What would your superiors say if they learned that a student's room was barged into and her chastity was almost stolen on YOUR watch?' The teacher's face quickly paled before he finally came to his senses and called the police. The field trip was cancelled before one of us could even know what happened next, the issue was quickly brushed off like nothing ever happens after all.

…

‘Haha … no that’s ridiculous …’ Hiro slapped himself on the head for thinking something so silly, looking at the girl next to her chow down on convenience store snacks like red bean bread, melon bread, pocky sticks, jagariko, among other things.

How could such an innocent and frail-looking beauty be Gifted? It would be such an absurd thought …

Hiro once again sighed, as he opened his own melon bread and slowly nibbled it away.

And finally, after a short while both Ryuuji and Rei eventually finished the food, a trace was nowhere to be found.

And then those moments were met in silence … followed by.

"G-Good morning …” A meek girl stood by the door wearing the same styled uniform as Rei and Hiro, also carrying a bag that mimicked Hiro’s, bowing as she greeted both Rei and Hiro good morning.

‘Though … it’s more like she’s only greeting Rei …’ Hiro thought as she saw the girl nearing Rei, bowing once more in her presence as she handed out her ‘offering’, with Rei showing an amused smile and then taking it for herself, and then immediately started chowing down once more.

“Uruka, dwid you being the gwood shwit?” Rei spoke even as she was stuffing her mouth, and Uruka swiftly replied.

“Y-Yes … I bought it as you asked …” Rei showed a delighted expression, as she dug further into Uruka’s bag and then found tupperware with what seems to be strawberry cake inside.

With Rei’s pleased expression, the meek girl, Uruka as she was known, sighed a bit in relief, and was going to head for the front row, her trajectory seeming to be the one nearest to the door, the farthest possible seat from where Rei was sitting at.

Pat pat. Until Rei interrupted her, by patting on the seat next to her. Which made Uruka show a bitter, yet somewhat faintly fearful expression.

No further communication was made as Uruka, sat down next to Rei, and pulled out a manga.

‘No Game No Life Volume 9 … now that I think about it they were going to release season 2 tomorrow … damn overtime.’ Hiro remarked to himself as he scrolled on his phone for news about the anime, Uruka helped herself to reading her manga, and as Rei chowed down on her new batch of food.

However, as a bright light enveloped the floor of the classroom, the light patterned across the wooden floor seemed like something akin to magic circles one would find in a western black magic book bought in amazon.com.

"it's happening...It's finally happening..." Uruka started mumbling something incomprehensible.

"Wha-What is happening!?" Hiro blurted out, clearly confused as to what was going on.

*BANG* *BANG*

"Shit the door won't open!" Rei made a speedy sprint to the door, seemingly trying to break it.

The light grew brighter and brighter.

Until it enveloped the whole classroom and it was too bright to see anything anymore.

But even then, Hiro was still facing the direction where Rei was.

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“Welcome Heroes! The Kingdom of Malta is in great peril, and I, Valentin Gasciulli, King of Malta, and loyal servant of the Goddess Ylen, humbly request you to save our nation!”

Uruka looked excited, conversing with the King already, even while she was still at the floor.

However Hiro just silently kept staring.

Not at the King who summoned us here, not at the beautiful Yellow-haired girl standing beside him.

Not at the armoured knights which surrounded us, or the background which was littered with top-of-the-line architecture which belonged in the medieval ages.

“This … has turned into a very bad day …”

She mumbled something.

Hiro was staring at her face, which had a completely expressionless and unfocused appearance, but when he stared at her eyes what he saw was …

A void full of deep seething anger, fury, hatred … and hunger?

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Kekw

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