Episode 1 - Encounter

Ring ring! The sound of a bell breaks the silence, followed by the fog that split upped by a bicycle, rolling straight on an empty road. As you look higher, the house that was blocking the horizon starts to show the sun, reflected from its roof. You can see Chisiki School appears on the distance, as the sunlight bounces from its window.

The sound of the rubber wheel stops, making a screeching sound that wakes up the hair of the skin. A foot stops the bicycle from going any further, as the bicycle tilted to another direction.

The sun is still rising from the place where it sleeps, keeping the black metal used to make the gates still cold. You cannot see clearly once your eye tries to look at the garden, deep inside the school yard, since the mist covers them all.

A boy then gets off from his bicycle, standing side by side of it, holding the bicycle with his right arm. This boy looks like a naughty child, with his hair being uncombed. His eye is really wide, but that goes different with his pupil, it's really small. He basically looks like a wild street cat.

"Aand it's Kosei! The most agile yet short student in the class! This is his first time walking on the very infamous Chisiki school, after receiving his scholarship from the annual scholarship test by the Chisiki school! "

As he starts to walk to the gate, the sound of footsteps came from the school yard. Wrinkling sound of keys being picked and a bold foot step makes it clear who is coming right to the gate.

"Oh, young kid! coming really early to yer school today eh?" a deep voice coming from a silhouette that gradually becomes clearer as it gets closer.

Kosei's eye straight up look at the spot where the voice came from, as he see a muscular man walking to open the gate. His body has a strong build, it surely can lend a hit a ton of power in one punch to a target. Kosei who noticed how short he is compared to him just straight up take a gulp of his own gut.

His nerve i shouting at him, danger is coming!

He sweats profusely as the guy's footsteps are getting louder.

"Aha, yes yes!" he replies, super nervously.

"Looks like youre the one that got in by scholarship, right? right?"

Kosei sweats nervously even though it's cold outside. He just nods while his eye is stuck looking at figure slowly coming close to him, like a terror walking in front of his eye.

He really had a bad past with big person.

"I heard one of your kind has dropped out last semester.."

oddly when the guy said that, Kosei heard a crackling noise. The voice of him talking seems like an eye, shining in the darkness, constantly looking down at Kosei.

{Kosei inner soul speaking: "what the ****..?!"}

The footsteps sound stopped. Kosei is closing his eyes out of fear. Not so long after that, the sound of a gate being unlocked goes through Kosei's ears. He takes a peek as his curiosity peaked to the top of his head.

He sees a muscular, yet wrinkled old man is opening the school gate. His face's wrinkles show that he is on his late 50. It looks like he is wearing a big size butler suit. The warm light of the sun illuminating his face shows how wise and kind this man is, that it can preview how contrast his expression between his face and his body.

"and the gate is, open! You can enter, young master!"

The officer opens the gate while bowing down to Kosei, opening his arms and directs it to the school. But Kosei also bows down to the officer..

...

The silence ends up with an awkward atmosphere..

The old man opens one of his eye to peek at Kosei if he has gone, just to finds out he is still there freezing, bowing down at him.

"Young master, you don't have to bow down!"

Kosei looks at the old man, his eye look at the old man standing, then look at himself, still bowing down.

"eh..?"

Kosei that can finally retrieve his own body sense just quickly stands up straight, with his bottom teeth showing, because of how weak he is at this kind of situation.

"But thankyou, young master.. you're such a gentleman!"

The old man said, while his hand is thanking Kosei for his generosity.

"No no, I'm not that good! Anyways, it's what I should do to older people than me!"

Kosei looks to the ground, blushing because of the old man's compliment, while his hand is scratching his head. Not so long after that, he heard sobs on his ear, he quickly looks up to the old man's face seeing him crying because of how touching Kosei words are.

"you're the first students able to talk like that to me! very well, young master!"

{Kosei inner soul: "What have i done..?!"}

"Anyways, thankyou for your manners, young master! you have made my day."

Kosei hasn't finished processing the events that happened just before, but then decides to move his legs towards the school building. He tries to look away, not making any eye contact with him. The old man then turns back and walk to his guard post. Kosei remembers something, then he looks back, to see if the old man has walks away.

"Old man!" He shouts while waving his hand.

The old man looks at Kosei and put his hand on the side of the mouth, preparing to shout, while jogs to Kosei.

"What is it, young master?"

the old man is jogging to Kosei, which is standing still in front of the school building.

"What's your name, old man?"

The old man's expression looks relieved, and then he answers Kosei.

"Oh, you can call me Hans!"

Kosei then bows down once more to Mr. Hans.

"Thankyou for opening the gate, Mr. Hans! I hope you will have a great day!"

"Oh, it's not a problem!

Both of them went silent for a while. But after that, a memory goes through Mr. Hans' head.

"I almost forgot to tell you something, young master!"

Kosei's attention goes to Mr. Hans, when he almost reaches his right pocket.

"What is it?"

Mr. Hans takes a deep breathe before telling Kosei.

"You see, Chisiki school is one of the most prestigious school in japan."

Kosei's eye turns narrow as he feel the talk is serious.

"Some of the students here looks stressed after entering the school, even I have encountered some of the students that are trying to suicide."

Kosei's heart rate drops.

{Kosei inner soul: "What the hell is wrong with this school..?!"}

"So please, young master, if you feel any disturbance coming once you study in the school, please don't push yourself too much. I'm sure being able to keep up in a prestigious school like this is hard, but it's not worth trying if it ends up losing your life."

Kosei then takes a deep breathe. He does has a fear in his heart, because he never actually met with someone who really suicides because of school. But then, he releases his breathe with a big sigh, then look up at Mr. Hans. He clenched his hand into a fist, then points his hand at himself with his thumbs, showing how confidence he is. He smiles, showing his teeth.

"Don't worry old man Hans, I'm a strong person!" he shouts.

Mr. Hans only stares at Kosei, then smiles.

"I wish you will have a great experience in there, young master!"

"Of course! kehehe!"

Kosei than walks to the school building while waving his hand to Mr. Hans. Mr. Hans is standing, waving his hand at Kosei while he watch him enter the school building. When Kosei has disappear from his sight, he then proceeds to walk back to his guardhouse.

The old man then opens the guardhouse room, revealing a big wallboards covering the front and right wall. There are a lot of threads, writings, and paper posts filling up the entire wallboard. It all ends up at the very corner of the wallboard, with some notes in it. There are some directory on the notes. Mr. Hans straight up walk to the notes, and then check the first list on top of it.

"This is the first time the list is checked.."

He then sits on a wooden chair, facing those wallboards. His face wrinkles got tensed as he starts to drown in his own solitude. He then closed his eyes, remembering his past day.

"Is he probably the one that appears on the old prophecy?"

The wood floor on the guard house is super clean, since Mr. Hans regularly clean them everyday. How clean the wooden floors are measured by how reflective the wood is, that it can reflects Mr. Hans sitting on top of the wooden chair with the wallboards as it's background.

There, Mr. Hans can't stop thinking on what will happen to the school if the prophecy is true.

But this, will be the story of another issue.

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