"A starry night loomed above, pretty enough to ignite the heart of any man, yet not one of them cast their eyes upward to see it. All they cared about was moving their shoes over the tarmac and no amount of starlight could make them raised their head.

Except for me, on a whim, I looked to the sky and noticed it must have been a night just like this that Van Gogh got his inspiration. And my inspiration was "I'm going to search for a ghost."

And that was how I stood in the front of a lone structure, it was left disregarded with no one near it. The walls had weakened, the paint wore off and layers of dust coated over it. The building surely looked aged. It had been abandoned but was taken over by pigeons fluttering in the rooms and nesting by the windows, spiders building webs and bats sheltered here for the night, it wouldn't surprise him to see a ghost anytime now.

But the moment I entered the old factory, I didn't see a ghost or the security guard. Rather, I saw a bear fighting against several small green humanoids.

And by the time the fight was over, the bear turned into you." Explained Haruto.

In front of him, Hinagiku was looking to the floor, clenching the corner of her skirt with a pale face. "W..."

"What? Got a problem?"

"W...why are you explaining it as if you are a protagonist in a cheap light novel?"

"THAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?!"

Haruto grabbed Hinagiku's shoulders and shaking her body, causing her to cry and scream as if her life was in some kind of a grave danger.

"Anyway, you better explain what happened last night!" Shouted Haruto.

"E..explain what?" Said Hinagiku as she rolled her eyes.

With a straight face, Haruto showed her a video from his phone. A black bear, its teeth were exposed in an angry fashion. They were sharp, white daggers, hanging inside a dark factory, slicing the green creature body until they bled to death. Its paws were rooted to the ground, but the bear furiously clobbering the small green humanoid if they made any sudden movements. And after the corpses piled into a mountain, the bear slowly turned into a girl with a small figure and casually walked away with a smug expression on her face.

"O...oh... that's a good CG." Said Hinagiku with a troubled expression.

After letting out a sigh. "Yep, then you don't mind if I upload this on the internet, right?"

"U..urgh...please...don't... I get it..." Said Hinagiku as her face turned pale.

***

After Hinagiku said that, she left a piece of paper to Haruto and telling him to meet her at the address on that paper after school.

But...

(What is the point of this address if we're walking together?!!!)

As soon as the school was over, Haruto immediately went to the designated address with Hinagiku, and under normal circumstances, one would have thought that they were a couple but in reality.

"Poor girl...", "She'll be fine, right?", "Should we call the police?" Words were slipping from the pedestrian big, lousy mouths as they were whispering like an emergency alarm in the middle of the disaster. Everyone that saw them carried the same expression, worrying about the girl that was walking with dropped shoulder and horrified expression.

"Oi, Hasegawa."

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"Y...Yes!!".

"Maybe.. you should walk a few meters away."

As soon as Haruto said that, the girl named Hinagiku immediately dashed a few meters away from him, faithfully followed him while occasionally hiding behind the electric pole.

***

The house looked like a cut out from Architecture magazine. Everything was geometric, the roof was flat for a start and the door as wide as it was tall. The windows took up entire walls with only polished steel beams to break them into yet more rectangles. The look would have been entirely metallic like a mini downtown skyscraper had it not been for the cedar beams of the external porch and the matching raised plant beds that contained only white blooms.

"P..please wait in the living room!!" Said Hinagiku.

Then she immediately dashed away to the second floor, completely leaving Haruto behind in the entrance.

"...Which way is the living room."

He strolled around and assuming the room with the big sectional sofa; obviously made for the style rather than the comfort, the human-sized television, and the home bar filled with a variety of drink was the living room.

And just as Haruto finally made himself comfortable in the said living room, he heard the sound of something metallic smashed into the floor, and it went on for a couple of seconds. He didn't think he ever heard that kind of factory level noises inside someone house.

And a few minutes later, Hinagiku walked out from one of the rooms on the second floor. Her green blazer uniform already changed with a blue coloured tracksuit.

"E..erm...this way..." Said Hinagiku as she beckoned Haruto to the second floor.

***

"U..um...sorry...my room... is a little messy..., feel... free to sit wherever you like." Said Hinagiku.

(This isn't little!!) such a thought crossed Haruto's mind as soon as he saw Hinagiku's room.

It was practically a shipwreck combined with a dumpster, it was full of brown coloured chests, wrapping of snacks, dirty laundry, mangas and video game disks and an out of place old wooden door placed on the wall.

It was a miracle if Haruto could find an empty place to sit without breaking anything in this room, though there was one thing that had bothered him for a little while. "So...Why are you taking me into your house?"

"Er...erm...it is closer..." Said Hinagiku. "A..and...feel free to take a weapon from my room."

While wondering what was closer and what was the meaning of 'take a weapon'. Once again Haruto glanced to the floor and if he focusing on his vision, he could find different variety of weapons such as a sword, short spear, or handaxe hidden and scattered across Hinagiku's room.

"...WHY ARE YOU HAVE A FREAKING SWORD IN YOUR ROOM?!!" Or that was what Haruto wanted to shout... if he wasn't so surprised by how clean Hinagiku's room was.

After taking a deep breath and trying to act calm, he started to listen to what Hinagiku said and searched for a weapon; the one he knew how to use. And as he strolled around her room.

"D..don't look under my bed!!" Shouted Hinagiku with a red face.

"A..ah! That area is off limit!" Shouted Hinagiku when Haruto walked toward her drawers.

"T...there is no weapon in that place!!" Shouted Hinagiku when Haruto tried to search inside of the wooden chest.

"J...Just take this sword!!" Shouted Hinagiku.

Ignoring her offer, after spending a few minutes while Hinagiku occasionally blocked his path, at the very least Haruto found out a weapon that he wanted.

It was a standard wooden recurve bow and lucky for Haruto, the quiver and 20 arrows were neatly stored beside the bow.

"U..uhm... are you sure you can use that? don't you want a sword? how about an axe? or a scythe?" Said Hinagiku.

Haruto stood and took a stance with the bow in his right hand. He then placed the fingers of his left hand on the bowstring as if he was holding an invisible arrow, and slowly drew the string back. "Nay, I'm fine with this."

"T-then! Narita-kun! What time is it?" Shouted Hinagiku as she walked to the old wooden door, though this was the first time she directly looked to Haruto's eyes.

"Time?" Haruto tilted his head with slightly raised eyebrows and took a glance at her clock. "It is 4:38, why?"

"Er...erm... what time is it?!" Ignoring Haruto's words, once again Hinagiku asked the same question and again, and again.

Realizing she wouldn't let him go or answering any of his questions until he replied to hers, after thinking for a while and letting out a deep sigh.

"Your snack time?" Said Haruto.

"Boo! That's wrong! Here! I'll give you a clue! It is two words, the first word is an adventure and the last word is time! So what time is it?!"

"...Adventure time?"

With trembling body, she gave Haruto a satisfying smile that just seemed so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness and slowly opened the old wooden door.

What welcomed them was a golden plain spread to the horizon, golden-tawny grass and golden green wheat checker-boarded in a pattern, rustling gently in the breeze, flattened in waves with each gust of wind, only to spring up as fresh as a bunch of flowers.

"Welcome to Eflaria!" Said Hinagiku.

Haruto's mouth hung with lips slightly parted and his eyes were as wide as they could stretch. No matter how much he thought about this, wasn't the personality of the girl called Hasegawa Hinagiku had changed a little too much!?