Chapter Text
The night sky is vastly different here compared to the city.
He looked outside his window, recalling everything that’s occurred so far upon arriving in this sleepy little town known as Inaba. Apparently…he was coming across the turning point in his destiny, where if he wasn't careful…his foreseeable future will vanish.
That's what the strange man with the large nose in his dreams said.
My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen. Although…your potential fate seems to be…beyond what is normally expected. Perhaps because your fate isn't yours alone anymore. How curious…
What did he mean by that? What would happen here?
The only thing that came from it was a painful headache. That same pain that struck once he arrived here.
"Hello."
He looked off to the side. Maybe he shouldn't have wandered from the gas station while in a town he entered for the first time.
Amidst the light fog, he found himself near a flood plain, across the road. And right now…talking to him was…
A girl. A kimono wearing girl with a long purple ponytail and striking red eyes. In her hand was a toy katana. She looked around 6 years older than his cousin, Nanako.
"You're new," she simply said. "Are you here because your past life was getting boring? Are you looking for change?"
She continued on before he could even reply. "I'm sorry…there's not much to do here. Inaba is small. But still…I hope you can find something to do here. Find some way to live your life."
A small blue butterfly fluttered close to the two. The girl smiled, and extended out her hand. Soon, the butterfly dainty landed in her palm.
"I was always told how everything must eventually come to an end," she whispered. "That's why I spend a lot of my time doing new things, and meeting new people. It's fun. But…"
Her smile grew wistful. Suddenly, she crushed the butterfly.
"...Again…all things must come to an end."
She brushed off whatever butterfly residue was on her hand. "So…I want you to promise me something, okay?"
She held out her pinky finger.
"I want you to promise me that you’ll have fun here, even if Inaba is small, and even if you aren't here for very long. Meet people. Experience new things. Things like that. Okay?"
…What a strange promise from a strange girl. But…everyone had nothing but idle dreams when they were kids. He thought this was just one of those cases.
And…maybe getting out in the city during his stay would be good for him.
So…he pinky promised.
He shook his head again. That headache was starting to fade now, thankfully. He was still alone, as always.
Alone…starting life with not much to his name. Just him and his small belongings.
He dug in his pocket, pulling out one of his cheapskates from when he was young.
…A dull, yellow stone.
…What would happen here? What destiny did he have in store?
A small part of Yu Narukami hoped that he was ready for whatever came next.
It was time to get some sleep. Yu's first day of school started tomorrow.
Yasogami High.
Yu eyed the halls of the modest school as he walked through them. One of the first things he noticed was how much the students gossip. Like, they didn’t even try to hide it.
"Hey, look at that guy! I think he's the transfer student!"
"Wait, another one? I've heard that song and dance two times already! How many transfers ARE there!?"
"He's still from Japan though…right? He looks Japanese…"
"Huh!? You mean we have a FOREIGN transfer student around here!? Damn, this town's finally getting interesting!"
So…Yu wasn't the only one in this boat. Though he still expected to be the talk of school for a while. If what he's heard about this town being too quiet for its own good was true, then this was probably the most exciting thing that has happened around here-
*Thump*
"W-wahhh!"
Yu backed up after the sudden impact on his chest. Someone had fumbled into him while they were in a rush to get to class.
His eyes landed on the person in particular. A girl, much shorter than him, with blond hair loosely reaching to her back, complete with two circular blue hair accessories. She wore the universal Yasogami High winter uniform, no add-ons or changes present.
The girl’s bright green eyes instantly took on an apologetic look. "I-I’m sorry!" She bowed down. "I'm…I'm new, so I ended up getting a bit lost…at this rate, I might be late for class!"
So this was one of the other transfer students. Yu opened his mouth to speak.
"Geez…can't do anything on your own, huh?"
That didn't come from him. The girl turned around, and both noticed someone approaching them. A boy, taller than both of them, with stern heterochromatic green (left) and red (right) eyes. His hair was large, wild, and spiky white, standing out more than Yu's stylish silver bowl cut. Both of his hands were gloved, but his right seemed a bit more bulky than average. His school outfit was halfway unbuttoned, revealing a red undershirt that had a logo of some black beast. He also had a couple of extra bulky belts present around his waist.
The boy rubbed his face in annoyance. "You should at least have the decency to look where you're going, before you run off like that. Dumbass…"
"I'm…sorry…" she muttered out again. The boy simply sighed, and turned to Yu.
"You a second year, or a third?"
Yu held up two fingers. The boy nodded. "Well then…do me a favor, and deal with Noel. Got my own shit to settle out here, with all those transfer papers…" Right, by the end of the day, Yu had to turn in a small emergency card to the front office. He decided to finish the rest of it during lunch, and it looked like these two were as well.
Yu eyed the office in particular for a bit, long enough for the boy to notice. "What, you transferred, too?" A nod yes. "Well, damn…a LOT of transfers this year. Well, I doubt it'll matter much."
He abruptly turned towards the stairs. "Later, Noel. Meet me by the front office when school's over."
The boy went on his way. Noel gulped, and took in a deep breath. "Okay…okay…first day…I can do this…!"
She remembered Yu's existence, and all that self confidence fell flat again. "Eep! S-Sorry! We-we should get to class! Ah, do you know where class 2-2 is, by any chance…?"
Class 2-2…that was his class. Looked like they're classmates. Yu nodded, and went to the staircase. He turned and made a "Come on" gesture with his head. Noel followed the quiet transfer up to the second floor. If Yu wasn't mistaken…this was where the second years were.
He caught a glimpse of the boy with white hair again going up the stairs again. Was he a third year? That’s a shame.
"Ah…I think I see it!"
Yu looked ahead, and sure enough, one of the rooms had two doors with tags labeled 2-2. In front of one of them was another boy who stood out a bit.
For starters was his similarly spiked hair in a similar vein to the first boy Yu saw with Noel. The only difference was that his was a dual toned blond with black tips. He also had a prominent cowlick at the front of it. His eyes were both red and sharp.
His clothes were buttoned up normally, but both black shirt and white undershirt weren’t tucked in, making it look sloppy but distinctive anyway. He had an excess of purple belts around his waist, which also had some sort of purple pouch attached to it. Wrapped into the pouch was…some long object, Yu didn't entirely know. The sleeves of his outfit also had the same purple belts, wrapped around the wrist area like cuffs. In his hand was a piece of paper, which Yu recognized as the emergency card.
The second boy was staring at the labeled class number for a bit. He seemingly mumbled something to himself, before sighing and entering.
Yu and Noel followed him. Opening the door, Yu caught a good glance at the various students talking amongst one another, probably about what they did over the break and all of that. Yu tried scanning for any seats.
"Hey." He turned to the side of that voice. It was the boy with black and blond hair. "You don't look like regular kids here. Guess we're in the same boat. Sucks, huh?"
Yu…had no opinions on that, really. He just moved here. The boy shoved his hands in his pockets, and let out a begrudging sigh. "I'm not really looking forward to this. Having a reset button is not what I needed right now."
Did he…really not like being here? Noel cleared her throat. "Um, w-well-"
("OH, NO!")
Everyone flinched at the sudden high pitched voice screaming. Several heads, Yu's included, turned toward the entrance.
There was a short girl frantically frisking through her backpack looking for something. Out of all the people Yu's seen here, she stood out the most. For starters, she was distinctly not Japanese, with her wide silver eyes. Not gray, silver. They had more of a sheen to them, if Yu really had to describe them. There was also her neck length hair that was…red? Black…? …Both?
What stood out the most was the red hooded cloak pinned on her otherwise normal school outfit like a cape. Where did she get that? Why did it match her so well?
The girl continued to speak to herself in a language nobody could really understand. ("I forgot my card! Oh, what am I gonna do!? It's too late to rush home now and get it…maybe I can call someone at the house? But, wait…noooo…! Didn’t they step out when I did!? Ohhhhhh…!") It took a moment for Yu to realize that was English.
The boy with the belts cleared his throat. "Uh…you alright there?"
("Eep!") She turned to face the group that was still standing. After a moment, she bowed.
"Very sorry!" She spoke Japanese this time, but it was very slanted, forced, and grammatically incorrect. "This is…Ruby Rose! I…forgot my card! Maybe I can copy from one of you, Pleeeease?"
"Huh? I…" the black and blond haired boy tugged at his shirt. "...Well, sure. Here…"
"Thankyoythankyouthankyou! Let me just-"
"Awright, shut yer traps!"
The girl with the hood stumbled forward, caught off guard by the loud voice. A middle aged man with a bad back (and even worse teeth) had entered the room, and he already looked pissed.
The man stood in front of the pedestal at the front of the room. "I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from here on! And there's one thing I wanna get out there before anything else!"
He ranted about how kids like them are more prone to falling in dumb love, and how that won't be happening on his watch. Something like that, anyway. Yu zoned out a bit.
"As you can see here, we got a whole bunch of poor saps that call themselves 'transfer students' here. Guess the big life was too good for them, so they were thrown here! Heads up brats: Nothing’s changed! You were losers there, and you're losers here!"
…Can teachers say that to their students?
Yu felt…irritated. That rarely happened with him, but this guy just casually peeved him off like that. What gives!? So when Mr. Morooka told the group of four to "tell them their names; I don't care who goes first," Yu opted to speak his mind.
"...Who're you callin' a loser?"
But it looks like someone beat him to it.
All eyes landed on the blond and black haired boy, who was giving Morooka his own nasty glare. "If anyone here's a loser, it's you, with your wide-ass teeth. Seriously, the hell's with you!? Who gets off talking to kids like that!?"
Obviously the teacher didn't like that. "Is that what you think, kid!? What makes you think that you're hot shit!?"
"I don't need to be hot shit to know you've wasted your life, you deadbeat!"
Uh-oh. Things are getting heated here. The two girls looked like they might die from second-hand embarrassment. Yu had to salvage this situation!
"I second that, by the way."
There. Crisis averted. Courage increased. Yu felt Reliable.
The boy jabbed a finger in Yu's direction. "See? He gets it. We're all thinking it."
That was when Morooka started to seethe. And that was when a girl wearing a green sweater raised her hand from where she was sitting. "U-Uh, excuse me! There's a free seat here for one of the transfer students!" She pointed next to her, where there was a free seat, among various others scattered across the room.
"Huh?" Morooka seemed to forget about the spat he was having at the moment. "Yeah sure. You got options, brats. So hurry and pick one!"
The girl with the red cloak, Ruby, let out another meep, and plopped down in an empty seat right in front of a girl with black hair and a red sweater. The blond girl, Noel, rushed all the way to the back of the room, and sat down, face red with embarrassment. Yu saw a bubbly brown haired girl whispering to her almost instantly, trying to cheer her up.
The black and blond haired boy muttered "Whatever," and sauntered towards a seat towards the window, already looking out and watching the rain fall. That left Yu, who picked the empty seat next to the girl with the green sweater.
Said girl leaned over. "He's the worst, huh? The worst part is: we gotta deal with this for a whole year." She whispered. Yu gave off the tiniest hint of a smile.
Mr. Morooka shouted again, snapping the class' attention back to them. And like that…Yu's school life has begun.
"You promised that you'll write."
He did. Because she couldn't just buy a phone. Oh, well. She was old fashioned like that.
"I…I don't understand." Noel's voice, on the verge of tears. Why can't you come with us? You…you said that you were waiting for someone, but-"
"Enough blubbering. She made it very clear why."
He shot his brother a dirty look. "Don't do this. Not now."
"Please…stop fighting." At her plea, all three kids settled down.
She took a deep breath, looking back at the partially reconstructed remains of what seemed to be a burned church.
"I do see what you mean, Noel. This place… home…it has so many bad memories. Staying here wouldn't be a good idea. But…I have to. Someone made a promise to me here, and I don’t want him to break it."
She turned back. "But for you three…being here longer than you already have will hurt more. You…you need to move on, and go forth on your own."
What she said was true. But the question wasn't "can they change?" It was "will the world let them?" Because for the longest time…
It felt like he was fighting against the entire world.
"Brother…"
He shook his head. "I'm fine. What do you care?"
"No!" A slap stung his cheek. "No. More. Listen to me-look at- look at me."
He felt a soft hand forcefully tilt his head towards her.
"Ragna. These two are the very few people you have left in your life. Don't cut them out of it. Please…"
She started to cry, and he hated it. Normally, he didn’t care what others thought of his actions, but she was the one exception.
Ragna felt her latch onto him via hug. He found himself returning it, and he felt two others pile on.
She sniffed. "Ragna…Jin…Noel…please…please protect each other. Without one another, you'll be alone, and that's the worst feeling in the world. Promise me…!"
Ragna took a deep breath. "...Yeah. I promise, Celica."
"I do, too," Jin seconded.
"I…I…promise that I will," Noel shakily vowed.
They stayed like that for who knows how long. None of them wanted to let go. If they did, then…they needed to move on.
None of them wanted to. But the world didn’t care.
"Hey. You okay there?"
Ragna snapped to attention. Some random classmate was snapping his fingers in front of his face, trying to get his attention. Ragna shook his head.
"Shit, sorry…what did I miss?"
"We can't leave yet, remember? Some teacher's meeting or something. Bad way to start your first day, isn't it?"
Ain't that the truth. But, seriously, Ragna can't leave?
…Says who?
"Oh, we can't leave? Who's going to stop us? The cops?"
Ragna stood up from his seat, grabbed his stuff, and simply left anyway, much to the bewilderment of the other students in his class.
He walked through the hallways, recalling that his brother was in class 3-1, 2 classes down. He considered leaving him, after he bailed on him and Noel this morning, but…
"Ragna…Jin…Noel…please…please protect each other. Without one another, you'll be alone, and that's the worst feeling in the world."
…Shit. Celica would already be disappointed in him.
He walked over and simply barged in. Sure enough, Jin was simply sitting alone, nose deep in a book of his.
"Jin." He looked up. Ragna made a "come on" motion with his head, and waited for his brother to gather his stuff.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Ragna turned at the sound of that annoyingly haughty voice. Glaring back at him with pale blue eyes was another third year (transfer student, face and accent checks out) with snow white hair styled into an off-centered ponytail. The fact that she was wearing silver earrings and high heels wrote her off as the obnoxiously high class socialite. Bad combo to have in bumfuck nowhere, but that's just Ragna.
"Going home," he bluntly said. "What of it?"
"You did hear the announcement, yes? No one is allowed to leave yet without supervision. Or do you mean to tell me that you can’t understand the simplest of instructions?"
Well, now she's done it. There were three things that Ragna hated above all else. One of them was people with that irritating "holier-than-thou" attitude.
He took a menacing step forward. "Watch it, lady. Unless you wanna add another scar to that mess you call a face…I'd stop talking."
She went silent, along with the rest of the class, but it was clear that she really wanted to say more. She turned to Jin, who had watched this with an uncaring expression.
"I'd listen to him," he simply said. "My brother’s not one for making empty threats."
He turned to leave, Ragna following him. In one move, two of the transfer students here have established themselves as grade A assholes. They both knew this.
"...Celica won't like hearing about this," Jin mused.
"Then keep your mouth shut about it," Ragna said with a teasing grin. "Celica never said anything about playing nice with everyone."
"Hear, hear."
They reached Noel's class, just as the intercom speaker erupted to life. The announcement was that an incident dangerously close to school grounds had occurred. The students were to leave campus as soon as possible, and not bother the police now sprawled all over town. "Oooooh," Jin winced with fake sympathy. "If you only waited 2 more minutes, brother~"
"Oh, shut up." Ragna would deal with whatever came from pissing off Snow White later. At least now they can leave without any more hassles.
He barged into Noel's class, and brought her back out a moment later. Noel shrunk under Jin's gaze.
"Got everything?" The oldest of them asked. Jin and Noel nodded. "Then let's go."
Walking through the streets, seeing cop after cop after cop, it was clear that someone was killed or seriously injured. Just another hassle to deal with. Ragna knew that it would be hard keeping his head low. One way or another, someone would drag him and everyone else into this mess.
But can they not? It was just the three of them here in this quiet city. The closest thing to a guardian they had was back in the Ikaruga region all the way up in northern Japan, near her birth town, Kazamotsu. If they can just get to the house they managed to rent out, that would be great.
Noel hummed. "W-What do you think's going on?"
"Who cares?" Ragna supplied. Noel, the poor girl, actually tried answering the rhetorical question.
"W-Well…the police, obviously. If it was a simple crime, like a robbery…then they wouldn't need to keep us from leaving school. But there's clearly more to it than it seems-"
"Ugh…that was sarcasm, idiot," Jin chastised. Unlike with Ragna, where there was a playful edge to his voice, this was full fledged disdain in his voice. Noel clammed up.
Ragna glared. "Hey, easy." Jin simply scoffed and turned to the side, adjusting his glasses.
Now the walk home was awkward. Thankfully, it didn’t last that much longer. Reaching the small line of tiny homes tucked away in a cramped street, Ragna pulled out the keys and pried open the door to the third house down the line.
…It really was small. Neat, but small. That's all that 3 kids could afford with the funds from a nun, really.
Ragna plopped his stuff down on his futon in the living room. 2 bedrooms meant that he got stiffed out of a room, not that he cared.
"Alright…any network here?" He grabbed the remote and turned on the tv. The channel was currently on the local news station, right in the middle of a live broadcast. If Ragna had to take a guess…
"-on today, a woman was found dead near the Samegawa River in Inaba."
"Son of a bitch," Ragna growled. This was just what he was afraid of. Now instead of a quiet life in this small city, this comes in. It's only a matter of time before this is all anyone talks about.
Sure enough, Yasogami High's school zone was shown on tv. Ragna heard Noel's breathing start to accelerate. Oh, no. She's freaking out.
"The deceased has been identified as Ms. Mayumi Yamano, a 27 year old ann-"
*click*
The channel suddenly changed to a Phoenix Ranger Featherman R rerun. Ragna and Noel looked away, and saw that Jin got his hands on the remote.
"Drop it," he muttered. "Fretting about this would be an annoyance I'd think we'd be better off without."
While Ragna did agree with how he didn’t want to get involved in this…he still wanted to know the details. A person was found dead in the town where nothing happens. Was this a suicide, or…
If it was homicide, then…Ragna needed to really keep an eye on the two of them…and himself. Who's to say one of them wouldn't be next?
Jin tossed the remote back to Ragna. "I'll be in my room. Let me know when dinner's ready." He headed off to his own devices.
Ragna bit back a curse. He really hated how cold and aloof Jin was towards most things. He and Noel were one of the few capable of getting through him, with varying mixed results. And 8 times out of 10 it didn't last.
Noel looked completely downcast. Ragna couldn't stand her being like that, try as he might to ignore it. So… "How was school? No one gave you too much trouble, did they?"
The attempt at small talk was enough to get Noel's attention away from the subject of dead people. "Oh! School was…school."
"..."
"...Sorry! A…a lot happened. I share a class with three transfer students. Two of them…insulted the teacher, and made a scene."
Three transfers? That made what, seven now? Him, Jin and Noel, the three, then that one bitch in Jin's class. Geez…anyway…
"Was the teacher asking for it?" He questioned. Noel went silent. Talking trash behind people's backs wasn't really something she did as freely as Ragna and Jin.
"...Well, at least you managed to settle in fine, right?" He tried changing the subject.
To his surprise, Noel nodded and said "Mm-hm! I already made friends! There's Makoto, Tsubaki, and…Mai, I think? I'm pretty sure that's her name…oh! And I also heard about this urban legend that happened around here!"
Oh, boy.
"You actually believed in some slop someone told you?"
Noel grew a very rare teasing smile. "You're just worried that it's a ghost story."
"Ugh, shut up!" Ragna groaned in annoyance. "I grew out of that!"
"Mostly."
Ragna stood up, throwing his hands in the air. "Y'know what? I don’t care anymore. I'm making dinner."
"Oh, Ragna! I wanted to ask you if we can go to Junes one day! They’re known to have the finest ingredients around, and I wanna try cooking with them!"
Ragna gagged. "Regional Variant Death Dinner" was a whole lot of bad words mixed together. "Uh, no."
"Whaaaat!? Why not!?"
Later on, during the night, Ragna fiddled with a small trinket of his that he had since his days at the church. A silver bracelet that came with something embedded into it.
…A dull, blue stone.
…It was pretty smooth, despite appearances. Although Ragna was more of a red and black kind of guy really, he felt that the color blue represented him better. Celica thought so, anyway.
Speaking of, he should probably write to her. Tell her that he at least made it here safe and sound with Jin and Noel. He should at least get that out of the way, along with-
Shit! Forgot my emergency info!
Ragna let out a growl. Tomorrow for sure. Even if some random shit happened tomorrow, he would get that done and out of the way!
With a grunt, Ragna stood up, and dug around for stationary, envelopes, and a writing utensil. He found none of those, as they just moved into this house, and didn't have time to start placing items in drawers. Ugh.
He thankfully found paper and a pencil in his bag, and quickly wrote down a curt message.
Hey Celica,
Made it here alive and everything.
Jin and Noel are the same as ever. Starting to settle down here.
Will tell you more as time goes on. Later.
~Ragna
There. That should do it for now.
It was short, but Ragna didn't have much to tell her. Well…other than "someone died here on our second day here, shit's wild." But would you really tell that to your foster mother who was a thousand miles away? Ragna didn't want to give her a heart attack.
Either way…still no envelope. Guess he really had to wait till tomorrow. Jin and Noel were already in bed. Nothing new. He was usually the last to fall asleep. So that’s what he'll try to do.
The only thing the third-year could do was pray that life here wouldn't beat his ass like it has his previous one.