“Huaaahhh…”

 

Gilbert couldn’t help but yawn. His eyes skimmed the front of the classroom, landing on the clock. It hadn't moved at all from the last time he looked at it, which was a couple seconds ago. That was strange. Maybe he had awakened to the power to stop time? A few seconds later, the minute hand jerked forward, demonstrating that he hadn't. He yawned again. Boredom was an understatement for how he currently felt. Tsukihara-sensei was writing something on the board, but he could barely make out what it said through his half-lidded eyes. Thankfully, right before his drooping head was about to slam into his desk, the bell rang.

 

Sighing, Gilbert stood up to stretch his legs. It was only the first class of the day and he already felt like skipping the rest and going back home to sleep. Class, today of all days, felt much duller than usual. Looking around, it was obvious that he wasn't the only person to think this way. With Christmas day tomorrow, the classroom felt more animated than usual. The excited hubbub of his classmates was even able to reach the corner of the classroom that he sat at. Not that it really mattered to him. Like usual, Gilbert tuned out the noise and looked outside. It hadn't begun snowing yet, although the forecast had said that it was sure to happen today. With no snow outside and no Christmas decorations allowed inside Sirius Academy, the day really did feel the same as any other. If anything, it felt worse since the noisiness of his classmates only irritated him. People would call him a sourpuss for this, but he just didn't see the point of celebrating Christmas if it didn't change anything about his daily routine at all. All he was looking forward to was sleeping in during the break.

 

At the same time, a slight expectation had also emerged within him. After all, there had been a change in his everyday life.

 

“Gil, you're sort of killing the vibe with that bored look on your face. Guess you're having a cheerless Christmas tomorrow, aren'tcha?”

“...Shut it, Toya.”

 

Gilbert looked up to see a boy with dyed hair and piercings talking to him. While he was distanced from the class because of his indifference, Toya’s flashy looks scared others and made him hard to approach. As a result, the two of them couldn’t quite be called friends, but as mutual outcasts, they were able to get along with each other. Of course, this wasn't the change that drew Gilbert’s attention. Toya was someone that he had known since the beginning of the school year. It was the black patches that were visible all over Toya’s body that interested him. The patches would blink in and out occasionally, with Toya looking normal one moment and a patchwork of a person the next. Gilbert could also swear a faint buzzing could be heard if he got too close to the patches, but he had dismissed it to be his imagination. 

 

“Hmm? Is something on my face?” Toya flashed a cocky grin at him. He was almost tempted to point out the strange marks on his body, but held his tongue. The patches had begun a week ago and the surprise he initially felt had diminished greatly. All his classmates acted as if nothing was wrong and bringing it up to Toya only got him laughed at. It also wasn’t just Toya that had this weird “black patch”, all of his classmates did. What seemed like a one-off hallucination became more of a disease as everyday he saw more and more of his classmates covered in black.

 

Yet, that was all it was. 

The class went on as usual and Toya continued to chat with him like nothing was wrong. The strange patchwork would spread to more of his classmates everyday, but nothing seemed to come of it. The anticipation of a life-changing event shrunk more and more as the week went on until it was practically a speck of dust. The only thing that kept his interest alive was the fact that he had still not been "infected". Gilbert wondered what would change once it did happen. Would he see the world differently? Maybe act like someone else? 

Probably not. These black patches changed nothing other than his classmates’ appearance. So, why would it be any different for him? A sigh escaped him as the next class began. If he had gone insane from boredom, he had hoped that he would at least be seeing something more exciting than some dark spots.

 

…

 

After school was a slight reprieve to this monotony that Gilbert felt. At least this was a time in which he could freely do whatever he wanted, even if he didn't really have anything in mind. While he would usually go to an arcade or wander the streets aimlessly, today had been an especially dull day for him and he wanted to go somewhere new. This wasn’t hard considering Ordinal City was an extremely large metropolis with several districts to explore.

 

“Starry’s? No, I went there yesterday. Maybe I should just walk around then… what's this?” Gilbert was thinking aloud to himself when he saw a poster for the new boardwalk carnival that had opened up recently.

 

‘A carnival, huh? Seems like a good way to kill time today.’

 

Having made up his mind, Gilbert walked towards the nearest station. He slid his pass into the toll gate and waited for the next train to Ordinal Beach. The trip wasn't anything special as Gilbert absentmindedly looked at his phone, occasionally looking up to make sure that he was not missing his stop. 

 

When he arrived, the smell of salt and sand hit his nose and Gilbert could feel himself getting slightly excited. A sense of nostalgia along with a childish thrill was filling his heart. Since it was December, the sun was already low in the sky, but its crimson and amber hues only made the beach more beautiful. The beach was almost empty as well, most people having better things to do on Christmas eve. This only made Gilbert happier as it meant that the beach and the boardwalk was also devoid of trash and people, giving it a very clean and picturesque atmosphere.

 

As the cold breeze brushed past his face, he thought to himself that it was a ‘pretty worthwhile trip overall.’

 

Having taken in the beach in its entirety, Gilbert got ready to check out the carnival that he had seen on the boardwalk pier at the end of the beach. It was what he came here for, after all. Just as he was turning around, something in the corner of his vision caught his eye. He stopped to look closer and realized that it was the figure of a person. 

 

A collapsed person.

 

Gilbert immediately began running to check if the person was okay. He was blunt and indifferent to his surroundings, but that didn’t mean that he was okay with people dying or being injured in front of him. As he got closer, the figure revealed itself to be a collapsed girl wearing a red scarf. Her school uniform also suggested that she was around his age. A white beret could also be seen on the ground a few feet away from her body, probably dropping there when she fell down.

 

Still, this only increased his urgency and he propped the girl up and shook her. 

“Hey! Hey! Wake up! Are you okay?”

The girl blearily opened her eyes and spoke weakly, “...So…hungry…”

“Huh?”

Before Gilbert could react further the girl’s stomach growled loudly.

 

Guuurgle. 

 

“...”

“...Food…ouch!”

Gilbert let go of the girl and stood up. He felt stupid for thinking that the girl was in a dangerous situation when in fact she was just really hungry. He was about to walk away when he felt something tug on his leg.

“Wait! You won’t just leave someone to starve to death, would you? Especially not a pretty and cute girl like me? You wouldn’t, right??”

Gilbert ignored her and continued walking forward, dragging the girl along with him.

“Please! I haven’t had anything to eat in 3 days! Don’t just ignore me and leave!!!”

After dragging the sobbing and wailing girl halfway across the beach, Gilbert sighed and looked at her. “Fine. I’ll feed you, get up.”

“Haha! I knew it, men are just so simple-minded in the end. Bet you couldn’t resist how cute I was, huh?” The girl stood up right away and smirked at him. She was covered in sand and had a slight nosebleed from how she had been dragged by Gilbert. Her beret had fallen off into the coarse sand a long time ago. That is to say, her appearance was so pitiable that he couldn’t even find it in himself to retort. 

 

“Just follow me.” He sighed.

 

…

 

“Mmm! This is delicious! Ah, are you not going to finish that steak? Can I have it then?”

 

Help yourself, Gilbert replied as he slid his plate over to the girl. He had brought her to the closest restaurant he could find, which turned out to be a fairly empty family diner. It had worked out as it had also given the girl the opportunity to clean herself up of all that sand and dirt. Well, as clean as she could be. Looking closer, Gilbert noticed a few smudges that she had missed on her beret and uniform. Although, now that Gilbert could take a more detailed look at her, he had to admit that she was, in fact, pretty cute. She had short brown hair and eyes with a slight redness on her cheeks, most likely from how long she had been outside. A girl-next-door type rather than the type to turn heads constantly on the street. 

 

“Hey, slow down. You’re gonna choke on your food at that rate.” She immediately proved him right as she began coughing heavily. He passed a glass of water towards her. She gratefully accepted it and drank it all down.

“Puhaa! Thank you, I almost thought I’d die there." She put down the cup and looked at him. “I should introduce myself, my name is Cardinal. What is yours, great savior?"

"Gilbert. Also, I'm not a savior, I just did what anybody else would do. You said your name was 'Cardinal'?"

She nodded at his words, "The one and only!" He seemed to be the only one who found it to be a slightly strange name as she carried on, "Gilbert, hmm... Then I'll just call you Gil! It rolls off the tongue much better, don't you think?" He shrugged at her words as she continued, "So, Gil, I'm sure you're curious about why such a cute girl like me was collapsed on the beach, right?"

"No, not really."

"I'm glad you asked. You see, I recently came to this city to accomplish my mission when I encountered unexpected difficulties.”

 

The name was slightly distracting, but Gilbert was more flabbergasted by her blatant lies. ‘Unexpected difficulties, huh? Why are you trying to make it sound better than it actually is when you just collapsed from hunger?’ 

 

He held back his thoughts before opening his mouth, "How are you planning on paying for the food, by the way?”

“Hahaha! Weren’t you listening, Gilbert? I’ve only come here recently, in other words, I have no money! Did you think I would be lying there just for fun—”

“Excuse me, waiter! Yeah, there’s a person stealing my food right now—”

“W-wait! I have other ways to repay you! Don’t be so hasty!”

“Other ways?” Gilbert looked at Cardinal. She didn’t seem to be lying about the money and it did seem to be true that she was new in the city considering how desperately she begged him for a meal.

 

To his surprise, Cardinal suddenly blushed. “Uh, even if I said that, I didn’t mean that I would repay you like that…I’m a pure maiden so…”

“Huh? When did I ever ask for that?”

“Well…you were just staring so intently at me so…”

“Yeah, don’t need it.”

“Ehh?? But you were looking at me so intensely just then! Licking me all over with your perverted gaze!”

“Like hell I was! I was just wondering if you were telling the truth!”

Gilbert realized that he had attracted the attention of everybody in the restaurant. Two girls sitting across from them shot him dirty looks and he heard mutters like “he’s terrible”, “what a beast”, “I feel so sorry for that poor girl”.

 

He sighed, it usually took a lot to rile him up, but this girl was doing it every couple of seconds. Seriously, this girl he had known for less than an hour was already pushing his buttons better than Toya. He had a feeling that getting involved with her would only bring him an endless amount of headaches. “It’s fine, I can pay for the meal. Just don’t collapse again and remember to eat something.” He stood up, “Anyways, I’m heading out now.”

“Please wait!” Cardinal grabbed his arm as he stood up to leave. “Actually, I have a request to make of you—”

 

Just at that moment, the wall next to them exploded open.