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Not a star can be seen at this night’s London night sky. It was as gloomy as it has always been.
Under that dark sky, a dim street light illuminated bright red blood, flowing through the cracks of the cobblestone.
The frigid cold eroded his consciousness little by little, while his labored breathing were pushing out white breath.
And amidst his dimming vision, there’s a beautifully ornamented golden gun pointing at him.
“I’m sorry, but please die!”

Bang…

Kana abruptly woke up from her sleep, discovering that she has rolled herself out of the bed.

The fan of her computer, which she forgot to turn off last night hummed on, sunlight peeked through the gap between the curtains, shining on Kana’s sides. She wiped off the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. She took deep breaths, in and out, to stabilize her racing heart, driven by fear.

With a clunk, the door to the bedroom opened.

“Big sister, you’re awake.” a silhouette of a small ball of energy entered the bedroom. She showed no care for Kana’s condition, she simply pulled open the curtains.

Blinding stream of light shined onto Kana’s face, “Good morning, Eru,” Kana mumbled. She then pulled her pillow from the bed and covered her face.

“Wake up, let’s go to school.”
“I’m not going.”

Eru took her pillow away, pinched her nose, and then said, “You ranked the first during the entrance exam, but then skipped school for a month. Are you trying to blow up the school’s fuse?”

Kana rustled a bit before sitting up and angrily replied, “It’s your fault for lying to me! You said that even though my attendance rate wasn’t enough, I would be able to attend Kamiyama high school if I aced at least two exams. In the end, it wasn’t even considered!”

“Isn’t being the first in entrance exam good enough for you?” Eru smiled, “If you sleep in again, you would have to eat mom’s breakfast instead.”

“How cruel…” Kana finally tardily stood up.

Eru put her uniform on her bed and head down to prepare breakfast, but before leaving, she turned her head and said, “today is your seventeenth birthday, so let’s celebrate it by attending school for a day.”

‘Celebrating birthday by attending school? How unorthodox’, Kana sliently criticized, as she took off her pajama. Without intending to, her eyes fell on the full-body mirror in her room, and her hand stop moving.

Kana wore only her underwear in front of the mirror. The figure that was reflected was of a young girl that was not tall, but has a pretty face, lithe and graceful figure, was fair-skinned, and most importantly, her chest has developed to a decent size, yes, to the size of a child-rearing breasts.

‘It’s already seventeen years, huh’, she thought to herself, and she sighed.

It has been seventeen years since she was killed on a road in London in my previous life. Regardless, she was still haunted by the flashback of the event. That damned gun that killed her kept appearing in her dreams, and my heart was shot over and over.

Due to this persistent nightmare, since small, Kana has been neurotic and couldn’t regularly converse with normal person. She would always feel sick and convulse once she approached a group of people. The hospital has diagnosed her with autism, to the extend of recommended her family, the Chitanda, to enroll her in a school for those with special needs. The family only conceded after she attempted suicide twice.

She had faked her suicide attempts, for she was too scared of death. Kana was too scared to kill herself.

She had endured this life with weak mental state for seventeen years!

“We definitely need to celebrate it,” Kana lightly smiled at the mirror.

Girls’ uniform only have skirt, although Kana was still a little opposed with wearing one. While suiting up her skirt, she began reminisce the “gym-like” uniform from a certain country on the other side of the sea. Boys and girls wore the same uniform, displaying ample display of gender equality, unlike this short and tiny skirt, where you would feel breezy while wearing it¹.

Her bag has been sorted out earlier, or to be precise, it has not been touched ever since Eru hauled it home from school. After pondering a little, Kana took out an electric baton from her drawer and stuffed it into her bag. And then, she walked downstairs with her bag and sat listlessly on the dining table.

Eru, wearing a cute apron, held her breakfast and placed it in front of Kana, and then fixed Kana’s uniform, saying “You have to button up all the buttons on your uniform, or the Public Morals Committee will deduce your mark.”

“The Public Morals Committee is really strict.” Kana has nothing to rebuke that. She proceeded to crack an egg on top of her rice.

Raw chicken egg mixed in rice for breakfast is the Chitanda’s family’s tradition.

Eru sat at opposite side of Kana, informing Kana of the school’s situation while eating her own breakfast.
“Our high school is a preparatory school, so the material is a little harder compared to other schools. However, I believe that won’t be a problem for big sis.”

“You really believe in me,” Kana commented while taking a slice of pickled cucumber.
“Sis could enter the Tokyo University just by studying a little,” Eru said with conviction as she clenched her small fists.

In Japan, whether you want to struggle or relax during high school depends the most on the student’s intention.

Some high school graduates decide to hunt for a job right out of high school and officially join soceity. In that case, naturally, you may as well enjoy your last school life.

If they instead opted to pursue further education in a university, then they need to work hard a little. School lessons would definitely not suffice, so a lot of them would sign up for cram schools or tutors. If they want to enroll in a top university like Tokyo University, then they should be prepared to fail their first attempt, and attempt again.

Kana’s mouth twitched. It wasn’t that she hate studying, she merely thought that attending university is a pain.

Chitanda family’s situation is considerably decent. They own a fifth of Shiragawa village’s land, and also own its own agricultural company. Kana’s plan after graduating high school was taking a sinecure in the company, and then ask for some shares of the company, which would satisfy all of her life’s needs more or less. She didn’t see any reason to attend a university.

“by the way, the school has a lot of clubs. Track and Field, Baseball club, Football club…oh, if sis doesn’t like any of these, then there’s also the Shogi club, Cooking club, Acting club, and the kind. I personally have joined the Classic Literature club. It is a club with only four members. It isn’t as exciting as other clubs, but we still have our own club room. If sis would like to join, then I can prepare sis bento every day…” Eru continued jabbering on. It was clear as day that her words denoted concern, and it seem that she was very worried that Kana’s high school life would be boring.

Kana suddenly thought of Eru’s excellent academic results. She would definitely choose to pursue further education. On that account, going to university with Eru instead wouldn’t be a bad choice.

After finishing breakfast, Kana waited in the living room while Eru tidy up the dining utensil. Their father, Chitanda Yukihiko walked out of his room in his pajama.

Seeing Kana’s outfit, he looked surprised, “are you feeling like going to school?”

Kana affirmed with an “nn”, likely to affirm his words.

Chitanda Yukihiko is used to Kana’s cold treatment. Firstly, she has been disagreeable since childhood, close to no one but her little sister. Secondly, he is always busy with his work, rarely talking with the girls.

He nodded, and then said, “Behave yourself at school, don’t cause trouble. You already skipped for a long time, the school has been very lenient on you by not expelling you yet. If you have any trouble with your studies, you can ask Eru. I won’t tell you to get good grades, but please do at least graduate from high school.”

Yukihiko served as the company’s director. He was still a little sleepy, he threw admonishing words at Kana out of habit.

Kana likewise, merely went through the motion, replying with only two nn, not indicating any agreement nor disagreement.

1. I don’t know which country she was referring to, although the unisex uniform that a few school in China would dictate came to mind. The uniform looks like gym clothes, which is why I refered to it as “gym-like”. I don’t feel like digging more about the gender equality stuff, so I will leave that one with “no comment”.