Shiratori Haruto

“Well, he’s enjoying…” I thought with a smile on my face. I had my eyes fixed at Itsuki, who was upon the shoulders of the excited crowd who were celebrating his win and chanting his name.

“ITSUKI! ITSUKI! ITSUKI!” They chanted as they raised their fists in excitement.

I turned my head to the left, and looked at some girls in long knee-length white frocks saying with a huge grin on their faces, “Takemura-san is so cool!”

“It’s like the first time someone has defeated one of the seven sinners!”

“I wanna marry this man when I grow up!”

I silently laughed a little, and then turned my head to the front again. At the front, a man beside the one with Itsuki on his shoulders was announcing, “And therefore, today, the whole Surfurine Town is gonna celebrate all night long!”

“Yay!” Everyone shouted and raised their arms up.

The man at the center then tilted his back to his right and moved Itsuki’s body on top of him to the ground. Itsuki moved his right leg down, fixated on the ground, moved his left leg across from his shoulders, stumbled a little, and then stood back on the ground. He had a wide grin on his face, his white teeth clearly showing his confidence as he stood in between all those people.

Airi, who stood at a distance, with Ichika’s right arm on her shoulder, slowly walked to the front with Ichika and looked at the celebration with a smile. “The people of this town are so happy,” Airi commented.

“Yeah,” Ichika replied, her head still fixed at the front. “All those people we never knew are today celebrating all this with us.”

“Mm,” Airi nodded. She continued to walk beside Ichika slowly, who had her right arm on her shoulders as she walked with her broken right leg. Airi then suddenly frowned a little on top of her smile, “Wait, how did all these people know about the fight anyways?”

“Kabata-kun might have advertised it a little to embarrass us in front of all these people.”

“And see how it turned out!” Airi enthusiastically replied.

“Yeah,” Ichika replied with a smile.

I moved my hands inside my pockets as I glared at the fun going on in front of me. “Well, he’s having fun…” Then, I tilted my head down. “But why am I not having fun then?” I gulped in, and started to examine my black shoes as I moved the toes of the right foot up. “He doesn’t even remember me. Why can’t anyone see what I’m going through and help me out?” I then turned my head up again. “It won’t help if I go back again anyways. This experience… I can never get this feeling out of my head. I will never forget it all. I can never go back to my past life…”

“You know, when such hard times hit, they hit hard. I myself was unable to comprehend what I was thinking, but at that time, it all… made so much sense to me… I didn’t really think about all that rationally, maybe. But, all I had was this feeling that everything in my life is already over. That… was when a damned idea hit my mind.”

“I don’t wanna be alive anymore.”

“Seeing people around me happy and no one to even make sure what was going through my mind made me so… so dejected.”

“They won’t really care anyway. At last, who can see my sadness? Who can see this… this dark aura beneath my smiling face? Why can’t Itsuki see the basic changes in my behavior? Why… has everyone suddenly left me… Everyone I used to care about… Everyone I loved…”

“Why me?”

“What is this feeling?! What is all this inside me?! What is this dark aura surrounding my whole body?! Why… can’t anyone seem to notice this aura… this feeling… this despair… that I have inside me?”

I stood in between the dark abyss alone, my head tilted down, my hands inside my pockets, and my eyes fixed on the toes of my right foot which rose up as I looked at it. I could hear the chatter of all those people beside me, talking and laughing and joking and playing and celebrating. The silhouettes of all those people, their faces pitch black just like their bodies, and their faces smiling and laughing as they all talked to each other in the ground, appeared all around me. I turned my head up as I stood in between all those black silhouettes walking and gathering up. In my front, I looked at a silhouette covered completely with a bright yellow light coming from all across its body. Many silhouettes had their faces at him, and that figure was a little smaller than the others. It had a broken sword in his right hand, and a bright smile on his face. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. PAT. A silhouette with the same black legs and body from behind me walked towards me and patted on my back. It patted on my back once and kept its right arm across my shoulders and stood beside me. I turned my head to the left and looked at the silhouette. It turned at me, and said, “I’m you, pal!” I then turned my head to the front with that same painful smile and narrowed eyes. The head of the silhouette turned to the front. “I never even thought I’d end up like this.”

“How did I?” I asked, tightened my lips as a sign of fake sadness, and then loosened them again.

“It’s just fate, pal. You lost your world, at last. You might have to spend the rest of your life here.”

“What should I do, then?”

“Well, maybe you can try finding your place in this world… or die.”