Takemura Itsuki

“W-What…?” My eyes were wide open. “Ichika told me th-that it’s a secret…?”

“She’s right, actually,” Kurayami said as he turned his head at me and smiled. “But people are getting to know about the prophecy. At last, information can leak as easily as water does.”

“So, who’s the hero?” I asked. “Is it… me? Or Haruto? Or Ichika? Airi? Who among us is the hero?”

Kurayami closed his eyes, turning his head backward. I looked at him, tilting my head back, as I looked at him slowly turning back and walking away, his eyes closed, his smiling head tilted down, and his hands in his pocket.

“Yamazaki-san!”

“It would have been so simple had I known who’s the hero, kiddo,” I looked at his back walking away as he said. “I needa find the hero. It’s my job. And right until this point, I’m still a failure in it.” He then turned his head backward at me. “No one knows who the real hero is, Takemura-kun. I don’t even know if he’s among us or roaming outside. A hero is said to reveal himself only on the battleground. So technically, what I’m supposed to do is to make that battle happen. I’m playing my part in the prophecy. That’s all.”

“D… Do you know about the prophecy? Do you know what happens in it?”

Kurayami silently kept glaring at my questioning eyes with a small smile. “I know a lot more than you think.”

***

Tachibana Ichika

I was walking in between the rows of wooden tables with people seated, eating food, drinking, chatting, and laughing all around me. I then turned right, which had some tables on my left, the entrance at the left corner, and the table on the left side, where Yumiko was standing, preparing coffee with her metal utensils. I turned to the right at her and stood in front of the table which was filled with orders to be served to the customers. “Yumiko, do you know where Yamazaki-san and Itsuki have gone?” I asked her worriedly.

Yumiko, who was pouring coffee in some grey metal cups on the table, turned her head to her left at me. “Uh, I don’t know.”

“It’s late in the evening,” I turned my head to the right, from where I came in from, and looked at the window fixed at the back of the table where some girls sat and talked, with their whispers and laughter faintly touching my ears.

“And you see, that guy was head over heels!”

“Ahaha! You should have…”

“Today’s girls just don’t understand boys,” I commented in a low tone.

“That’s because they’re still kids,” Yumiko replied in a little playful and melodic voice. She then turned to me, put the kettle down, took up the metal tray with those cups, walked a couple steps at me, standing in front of me, and then kept the coffee tray in front of me at the table. “And anyways, Yamazaki-san and Takemura-kun are both strong enough to fight for themselves. Don’t worry about them.”

“Yeah,” I said, taking up the tray in my hands, turning right, then walking the same path where I came from, and then turning left at the turn inside the dining area where the majority of the people sat. As I walked down between the two rows of tables, looking at the lustrous dark coffee served on the six cups kept over rows of two, I thought, “Itsuki… it’s been days since I’ve talked to him, even though we live in the same building. And I decided it’s my job to take care of him.”

“… I should talk to him tonight.”

***

Suzuki Tadashi

I turned to the right and entered the open stables, where horses were eating hay with their heads out of the little cut square on their stables. I walked inside with the thin fluffy white cloth bag in my right hand. My footsteps thumped the ground as I walked. I turned my head right and left, up and down, scanning the whole place. “Where’s Matsuda-san?” I thought. “Huff,” I sighed. “He should not leave this place open if he’s going out.” I turned my head back, looking at the open door of the stables. “Even the door was left open.”

“Where the fuck were ya all this time?!”

I turned my head to the front, and looked at the drunk figure with long and messy hair, beard, and mustache, with a green glass bottle of wine.

“M-Matsuda-san?” I narrowed my eyes a little.

“I told ya to come back in five minutes,” He narrowed his eyes angrily. He then threw his bottle down on the ground angrily. BANG! The bottle broke into a thousand shattered pieces of glass scattered all around. “Ya think ya can just ignore my commands?!”

“N-No, M-Matsuda-senpai, I-I-I… T-There was a strike going on—”

“Stop fucking around, kid,” He angrily shouted. “Now lemme tell ya why ya needa follow my commands.” He bent down, and with his fingertips, took up a big piece of glass. He then stood up straight again. My eyes opened wide in shock and horror as I looked at him. He then stepped towards me, his head bent a little down and his eyes covered by his messy long black hair.

“S-S-S-Senpai…” I stepped back.

“There’s no running back, fucker.”