~Wednesday, the sixteenth of October, 8:22~

The day of the sixteenth of October had a tangible feeling to its air, a sense of mystery. A strange feeling of unknowing despite it being the same, recognizable earth. Students of Akumu High School also felt it as they started approaching the school gates, a feeling that had been placed with roots from the day the teachers all disappeared.

But their feelings wouldn't matter for long, everything distinguishable about them disappeared as soon as they took a step within the obligatory gates.

The feeling was however not felt by Amatsuyu Kougaku, with red hair that sparkled just a little bit more than usual in the morning sun, an authentic smile that went from ear to ear, and a slightly modified school uniform, now with a streak of blue across his chest, almost bounced with energy as he dance-walked towards the gates.

Unlike the others, he kept himself as he crossed the obligatory gates he disliked.

"Let's start!"

…

"I'm gonna be late! Shit!"

Kaharu quickly jumped out of bed as he realized his blunder, putting on his school uniform as quickly as he could. He was usually pretty keen on picking up on atmospheres around him, but he didn't feel anything special that morning. Perhaps that was because he was excited to have his mock-duel with Onata that day, as they'd promised. He was really interested to see the alleged "true strength" she boasted about the day before, either way it was a fight he could get excited for. But he also had a thought in the back of his mind, telling him his own incompetency. The fact that his powers were weak had really made an impact on him, as he started to undermine his own strength. It wasn't voluntarily, the perception of his own powers were forced onto him. It felt so grounded in reality, after all of the times he'd used his powers to try and carve his near future, and those times he lost in that desire. Maybe his new perspective on powers stemmed from a desire to never lose again, a grounded view that would put him on the correct road of getting stronger. Either way, his weakness was constantly reminded.

It wasn't until he reached the school, which should've been a usual sight, that he felt something strange out of nowhere.

It looked menacing.

There was nothing, purely physically, that warranted such a feeling. But everything looked darker, a previously unseen shade looming over the buildings. Kaharu figured it was the result of a negative opinion of school, creating a visual bias.

He continued walking, across the obligatory gates, with a faint smile. Just that state in itself was a surprise to him, it felt like he was reaching for something. Like he had something to do. A sensation that set him free inside his heart, and made him feel like his steps were a lot lighter than they usually were.

Passing by unused shoe lockers, empty hallways, filled with an awkward and unsettling silence, Kaharu walked slowly up the wide stairs.

Something wasn't right.

It was completely quiet, not a single noise being heard at all. His shoes squeaking across the floor, and the sound of adjusting his arms were the only things heard. It felt off, he thought for a second that he might've gone deaf, but a punch to the wall confirmed that his hearing was still in for the loop.

Maybe they had a day off?

His heart calmed down as he realized that that might've been a possibility. He reached the floor he was walking towards with squinted eyes and a smile. But the corner of his eyes quickly challenged his new state of calm.

Kaharu Kahari's heart sunk immediately as he saw a student walking, completely devoid of anything animate, across the hallway with a badge on their shoulder.

It wasn't a day off.

His shoes squeaking more frequently against the clean floor, Kaharu ran away.

He had turned into a coward, everything about the situation he was in felt completely wrong. Barely anyone outside of the classrooms, a creeping silence in the darkly shaded school, and a barely alive student, removing any hopes of it being a normal situation.

But his heart sunk even more as he passed through the desolate corridor to his classroom, as he peeked through the sliding doors, a room full of silent people entered his view.

Without talking, without moving, without reacting, without anything, they were just sitting there, staring emptily into the also empty blackboard in front of them. Calling them people felt odd, as nothing about their demeanor would signal that, their eyes completely void of anything. The usual voice making Kaharu sleepy in the morning was replaced with that screeching silence that made him more awake than he'd ever been at school.

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Even though he wanted to run away, Kaharu forced himself to enter the classroom as it would've been the action of a coward to run away from the problems in front of him. He needed to face them, but he almost considered it a mistake as soon as he entered the room. The vibe was undeniably stronger in the room, a fact that was made clear with his first step into the room. Like his mind being put into a completely different environment, his feelings converted as well. Sitting down in his chair, pulling it from the desk with quivering hands, he looked to his left and Naomi who sat there.

After a slight hesitation, he asked her

"What's going on, Naomi?"

Silence returned as Kaharu looked over at her with suspense. She slowly turned her head towards him, pointing her soulless eyes right at him, and said, completely toneless

"You are not Master."

The reply shocked him, as he felt his heartbeat spike for a second. As her head returned, he compared this situation to the usual. The happy tones of her speech, the smile, and her subtle movements, all of it was replaced by that shameless copy. A knock-off trying to mimic the real deal. A blatant imposter, yet it was the only real one present.

-What's going on!?

Why is everybody completely dead? Did something happen?

Furthermore, why am I the only one seemingly alive? -

A sudden urge to return everything to the previous status quo was suddenly urged into Kaharu as he realized how disturbing the situation seemed to be.

But as he continued to think about it, with a scarily peaceful quiet as the backdrop to his thoughts, a thought entered him

- Isn't it better this way?

There aren't any students to gossip about my idiocy, there aren't any annoying teachers trying to cram down their morals into me and it's peaceful. I could do whatever I wanted within here, without anybody knowing about it.

I'm…

free…? -

The more thought he put into it, the more desirable it felt to just let this be the new status quo instead. The new calm to lean on, as he, presumably, could spend the rest of his previously-hated high school years in this state of nothing.

Unabridged freedom, the idea allured him to a scary degree.

To test the scenario out, he flipped his table, threw a chair, touched a student's hair, all to make sure he was truly in an inconsequential setting. He dragged his lecherous eyes towards the chest of a student there, staring for a second.

*SLAP*

He slapped himself in the face to make himself face reality for a second, doing what he thought of would cross moral boundaries even he had in his head. But the thought itself was tempting, as everything else also was.

The fake-blonde student with a purple school uniform dug himself deeper into the fantasies as he jumped around the room, doing whatever he wanted.

For each second that passed, his moral walls wore down as a sequential set of actions drove him to break more unwritten rules. He broke loose completely, maybe releasing pent-up stress, maybe fulfilling his unfulfilled ambition from his subconscious, maybe deluding himself to be a greater being than in reality.

With a smile, sourcing itself from a place he'd never explored before, Kaharu approached Naomi again and ran a cold finger across her arm. That finger, along with his hands traced her upper torso until they faced the prize he'd seen before. With those lecherous eyes surfacing again, he was about to do something as he caught something in the notebook in front of him, writing that made him freeze up with the worst gut feeling he'd ever felt.

"I should probably give Kaharu my Japanese notebook, he could probably use it"

"How about a cool protagonist with fire moves that are named after volcanoes?"

"Boredom, that rhymes with…"

"I wanna go to an arcade with Kaharu, that would be fun. That would also clear our misunderstanding, right? Oh, and Melliacci!"

All were written in her notebook in front of her, probably scribbled out in boredom during lessons as Kaharu dozed off in ignorance. The unreadable, yet recognizable, line "I'm sorry" was displayed in the corner of the most recent page used.

- This is a person…! -

Despite it being an obvious remark, the realization made Kaharu drop down to his knees with a hand covering his mouth. The crimes he had committed so far hadn't been too dangerous, but the fact that he lost himself completely drew out very raw emotions from him. A devastating blow to his heart, a sense of his soul leaving his body. He'd been treating the people in the room like objects. Like toys for him to exert his freedom over, like tools for his temporary happiness. Their completely soulless demeanor had tricked his brain, and he felt the soul-crushing sadness of being the aggressor.

The hands covering his mouth grabbed it even harder as he strengthened his bite in sadness and intense frustration directed at himself.

Disgust, the feeling made up his constitution.

He was about to do something completely off-the-chain, and the scariest part being that he thought nothing of it as he drew his hands towards Naomi's chest.

A tear.

A tear dripped down his right cheek as he looked over to the seat of Tsukino Scott, marking her completely emotionless face, as he reminisced to their blissful smiles a couple of days before. A state he envied at the time, was this just bitter revenge? Had his heart grown that petty?

He wanted to protect that smile, he wanted the happiness of others to blossom. That was the whole point with his new goal, wasn't it? Yet he fell back into a selfishness, trying to make up for a long time of hateful loneliness.

*Zzzzooooooo*

*SLAP*

After loading his fist with the most electricity he could muster, he slapped himself yet again. Just to remind himself of his previous state, and to try and beat sense into himself.

The fact that it barely hurt him was a painful reminder of the relative weakness of his powers. There was seemingly nothing right about him.

- I'll… -

Drawing to darker expressions, Kaharu looked again towards the door, with eyes in pure anger and a hand almost losing circulation from its tight grip, as he swore to himself

- I'll end this idiotic farce.

I'll end this dumb status quo.

I'll break this environment.

EVEN IF IT KILLS ME -

…