As I flashed back to the scenes listed inside my brain, I remembered a particular group of students that wouldn’t stop harassing the students in my school in various ways. They were even inclined to bully a person in the same class as me that I considered a friend, a person named Hirato. Since we’ve talked to each other a couple of times after the school semester started, I found myself hanging out with him every day in no time at all.

Everything was fine though until I found him hanging out with those delinquents one day. At first, I thought they were just friends hanging out together, but later on, I found out that they were abusing him in various ways.

To make it clear, he was a target for bullying. Since I was his friend, I wanted them to stop bullying him, so I decided to speak to the delinquents in an attempt to convince them, one way or another. I didn’t think for a minute though that they wouldn’t care about anything I had to say.

I then followed them as they took Hirato to the school bathroom and began to oppress him. When I opened the bathroom door, I saw one of them using a bucket to throw water on Hirato’s head.

He then followed that with a menacing yell, “Is that all you’ve got?! Didn’t I tell you to get everything in the paper I gave you yesterday? Huh?!”

Hearing him shout, I stepped forward. When they noticed me, I stopped walking forward and questioned them, “Why are you doing this to a classmate? Aren’t you friends?”

They then burst out laughing when they heard me, treating it as nothing but a joke. Smug, the boy who appeared to be their leader, smirked before asking, “Huh, who is this sissy?”

Compelled to reply, I said, “The word absurd, it would fit you better!”

I immediately realized what I said, but there was no way I could back out now. Enraged by what I said, he then smiled and walked over to Hirato before saying, “What if I prove that you’re the one at fault here? You defended this weakling, so I’ll show you how wrong you are so you learn not to speak carelessly about me.”

I was struck speechless by what he said.

He then stepped out from his position behind Hirato’s back with a smile on his face while approaching me one step at a time.

While observing him, I tried to figure out what he was planning. Getting closer, he raised his hands and pushed me, hard. As a result, I fell over after losing my balance.

While I attempted to stand up, I tried to grasp the reason behind his actions. He then looked towards his friends and commanded, “Restrain him.”

“What are you trying to do?”, I said.

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At this moment, two of his friends approached and gripped me from my armpits, restraining my movements completely.

Their leader then sneered at Hirato behind him,

“I’ll only forgive you on one condition, if you beat in his good-looking face.”

Shocked by his words, Hirato looked down at the ground anxiously.

As he tried to think about it, their leader said impatiently, “What are you waiting for?”

While I was concentrating, Hirato approached me, hesitant to follow his commands and punch me. Since he essentially had no choice, he punched me right in the face. He didn’t put enough force into it, to meet the leader’s satisfaction, but it did have enough sound to make a loud smack.

Livid, the leader said, “Is that everything you have? It seems that you don’t actually want my forgiveness!”

Hirato panicked and spoke to the leader, “I’m sorry, please give me another chance.”

The leader said, “This is your last chance, there won’t be a next time.”

Since Hirato was so frightened, he became aggressive and punched me in the face in response. Following his punch, I felt dizzy as I fell over and landed with my weight on the ground. Seeing the blood on my face afterwards, he shuddered and cringed. Their leader then stepped forward and squatted by my face. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear a single thing he was saying.

I barely heard him, “Make sure you come here tomorrow with my stuff.”

He then threw a piece of paper with a list of items in my face. He then walked over to Hirato and grinned. With a mean, hard look on his face, “Wasn’t that easy? Since we have this person to do your job for you, you’re free to go as promised. Don’t ever let me see your face again, you hear me?”

He then ran away without looking back. Afterward, they left the place one after another while chattering what they should do next.

After a while, I was able to regain consciousness, so I decided to report what’s happened to our private tutor before going to the nurse.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t helpful at all. It even made things worse for me. Their bullying increased even further, and they started placing traps in the classroom for me. This made my school life even harder to bear. With this, I can now wrap up the situation that occurred in the past few months that led to the day when everything changed.

That day began as any other normal school day. When school finally ended though, I decided to take a shortcut home. I anxiously passed through a dark road, and then I approached that fateful abandoned alley that had a cold atmosphere and a fishy odor.

As I stepped into the alley, I was suddenly caught off guard by a girl’s beauty. She had a slim body and was really gorgeous. She had silky violet hair that was glowing in the darkness. She also had brilliant purple eyes that portrayed innocence and an angelic face.

I could hear her shouting stuff that I didn’t understand at first. However, I then noticed a group of four young men around her. She kept trying to pass through, but they kept approaching her before one of them suddenly grabbed her hand. I was getting frustrated, so I decided to walk closer with the intention of helping her. While I was doing so, a sudden flashback made me remember what happened back then with Hirato, causing me to hesitate.

A weakling like me with such a fragile body wouldn’t be able to help her. Frustrated, I tried to think of a way I could salvage her from this situation.

I thought about rushing towards the main street to ask for help, but then I realized it would be too late once I did so.

Unexpectedly, our eyes met as soon as one of the young men yanked her away. For me, it felt like time suddenly stopped, which is when I met the strange voice.