1 Prologue
"Can't you convince the coach to just give us a break today…"
"Don't complain, didn't he give you guys a 3 day break just a while ago."
"But…"
Amidst a busy cafeteria a group of people were sat together eating their lunches, within it was one guy who complained to the person next to him. Leaning against the cold table he glanced at the guy who responded to him in a blunt tone.
He had dark purple hair and mysterious green eyes which blended well together to show off his handsome appearance. He was wearing his school uniform but the guy was able to see that he was wearing a black long sleeve underneath for some reason despite the hot weather they were currently in.
"Haah then can't you just take my place in the upcoming tournament and I'll just enter the one after it."
"...You do know that I have zero endurance right? That's why I'm an assistant rather than a player."
"Oh right. You know Yuuto, you should try and increase your stamina or else your future girlfriend might get disappointed."
Yuuto who was eating his food suddenly stopped the spoon in his hands and stared coldly at his friend who was leaning his face against the table.
"Yeah like yours will enjoy themselves with your tootsie roll."
"The hell did this bastard say?" The guy felt his eyes twitch hearing Yuuto's quick response.
"I said that we should do some extra conditioning today."
"W-Wait just a minute. That was something completely different?!"
The guy felt cold sweat drop down his back as he felt the frosty stares he was getting from the people at his table. They were all part of the taekwondo club at their school and the thought of doing extra conditioning on top of their practice made them already mentally exhausted.
Yuuto scoffed but there was a hint of amusement on his lips as he continued to eat his lunch. The guy gave out a sigh of relief as he found out that Yuuto was just joking and decided to keep quiet before he said anything else.
'Well it's not like I try to stay this way.'
As Yuuto was eating his food, he thought back to how his body was a bit annoying as he's been exercising for a good portion of his life but his stamina seems to only increase by a miniscule amount each year.
It might be due to his childhood of being in the hospital frequently due to getting strong intermittent chills periodically but he was able to quickly deal with the chills due to some interventions his late father had come up for him.
This ranged from eating hot/warmer foods more often to exercising despite his lack of physical endurance.
Thankfully to these interventions, he is now able to do the same physical activity that was a bit lower than the normal person but anything more can be a bit too much for him.
"Oh right I'm not going to be at your practice today."
"Eh."
Yuuto's friend suddenly moved upwards as he separated his face from the table and looked at him.
"Why not?"
"Extra shift at the library."
"Damn I thought I could have you spectate my sparring matches today."
"Just tell someone to record it and send it to me later."
Yuuto placed a spoonful of his food into his mouth as he absently replied to the sulking voice of his friend. The guy's eyes began to brighten up as smirked at the people across from him.
"Coach you really are the best~"
"When did I get promoted?"
"I don't know, just now?"
"Just eat your lunch man."
"Yes sir!"
Yuuto smiled wryly as he watched his friend finally dig into his food.
*CRASH
Hearing a loud sound suddenly appear from beside them, Yuuto and everyone at his table turned around and saw how various pieces of glass cups were suddenly dropped as the person holding it accidentally bumped into the table he was headed towards.
"Unlucky rubber ducky."
"He sure is. Would he get 7 years of bad luck from that?"
"That's only if he breaks a mirror."
"Is that not the same?"
Hearing his friend's dumb question, Yuuto decided not to speak any further and finish his food up as he felt like his brain cells might cease to function if he continues to talk to the person beside him.
***
Yuuto continued on with his day and after a few hours the school bells finally decided to ring and allow its students to pursue their own personal business other than the school work they have been assigned.
Adjusting the button on his uniform, Yuuto walked into the library that was just a few blocks away from his school and made his way towards the front desk where there was no one behind it.
"I guess the person already left..."
Yuuto mumbled as he placed his bag beside him and made the area around him a bit more organized. Seeing that his space was up to par with what he liked, he opened up a book that he had saved and quietly read.
He continued to read as he waited for any person who would need his assistance but he began to realize that it might be a quiet shift for him today.
Seeing that the few individuals who did enter the library just decided to sit at one of the available tables and open up their textbooks, Yuuto continued to sit quietly behind the large wooden desk.
*Creak~
Yuuto once again heard the distinctive sound of a door opening and he looked up to see who it was.
'...Is he cosplaying...?'
Yuuto's face turned strange when he saw a person wrapped up in a black cloak which looked like it could be easily opened from the front. The figure had his head covered by the hood and Yuuto was only able to figure out that it was a man from the outline of their physique.
The man gradually walked up to the front desk where he seemed to have locked on towards Yuuto's presence.
Yuuto saw the man walking towards him and decided to ignore the person's cosplay since it wasn't the first time a person had done something like this.
"How may I help you today?"
Putting on a friendly smile, Yuuto asked the person in front of him and he watched as the person placed multiple books on his desk.
The books continued to pile up as Yuuto began to wonder where he kept all of these since he seemed to pull all of them from the pocket inside his cloak.
"For you."
"Huh?"
Yuuto spoke out in confusion hearing the voice of the man and stood up as he saw the man suddenly turn around to leave.
"Excuse me! Is this for returning or…"
His voice began to trail off as the unknown man continued to ignore his voice, leaving Yuuto a bit dissatisfied.
"...At least he's nice enough to pile them up for me.."
Grumbling to himself, Yuuto let out a sigh and began to organize each book as he entered each of the barcodes to see if these books were checked out at some point and if they needed to be returned.
'His taste sure is something.'
Nursery rhymes, space, women's magazines and even communicational skills were just some of the types of books Yuuto had to scan back into the library's system.
His amazement began to grow when he began to see some books he didn't even realize were even available in the library he was working at.
'This cover's creepy as hell.'
In his hand was a book which showed a woman whose eyes were blacked out and he quickly placed it into the trolley after signing the book in. Yuuto looked at the next book and began to wonder if its contents would be as unique as the previous one.
The next book was small in size but its intricate white borders and dark blue background made him stare at it for a couple of seconds.
"[Memory of the World]...? Some kind of fantasy book I'm guessing."
Yuuto whispered as he curiously looked at its contents but squinted his eyes when he found that each of the pages inside were blank.
Scanning its contents for a while longer he was unable to find any sort of words inside and began to wonder if this was a book that accidentally got caught up in the pile given to him.
Thinking for a brief moment, Yuuto decided that he would just leave it in the backroom and would wait for that man to come back if he ever decided to come back.
He pushed the book to the side and returned his attention back to scanning the rest of the pile in front of him.
Unknown to him that the book that he had just placed to the side was nowhere to be found, as if it wasn't there in the first place.
***
"Good job today."
"Luckily there weren't a lot of people so it was a lot tamer than usual."
Near the front desk Yuuto raised his arms in the air to stretch and wrote one last thing in the catalog in front of him while another person who looked to be in his late 60's stood next to him with a smile.
This person was one of the other employees that worked the same shift as Yuuto so he was helping him to clean up as they were now closing the library for the day.
Finishing what needed to be done he placed the pen in his pocket and got up to look at his desk one last time before he left.
Yuuto scanned his area and double checked to see if he missed anything such as leftover scraps of paper or books that were left behind on the table. Noticing that there was nothing left, he took his school coat and hung it around his shoulders but subconsciously felt a nagging feeling tugging on his mind.
"Be sure to get home safe. You can just leave the rest to me."
"Ah! I understand, I'll meet you again tomorrow and I hope you get home safe too!"
Letting go of his thoughts, Yuuto waved at the man and quickly said his byes before putting his bag on and leaving the library.
Going through the doors he was able to see the orange sun setting down on the horizon. A gentle breeze brushed against his purple hair causing Yuuto to shiver, making him close up his jacket with the intention to quickly get home.
He started to walk down the sidewalk and placed his hands in his pockets to hide his hands.
"Still haven't found it?"
"We had a few traces but they all led up to a dead end before we could get anything tangible."
"Tsk."
A few hushed voices escaped through a small alleyway that was on Yuuto's right hand side which caused him to peek at them from the corner of his eyes.
"Just keep on searching since it should be in this area judging by the energy I was able to get a whiff of just a few hours ago. Any worthy memories from the individuals you've encountered so far?"
"None. I thought there would be a few with some substance but I think I might have overestimated the value these beings had within them." An empty tone replied to the person beside them.
Yuuto felt a few hairs rise on his arms as he heard the tone but decided to just ignore it and turn his attention away from them.
As he turned away, a brief moment of contact was conducted through one of the eyes of the people standing in the alleyway but that was broken when Yuuto reached past the gap created by the alleyway.
"....."
The person stood still for a while before he opened his palm and a whitish aura began to glow within it. They raised their arm and pointed it towards the approximate direction Yuuto was headed.
"Is something wrong?"
"..That individual that just passed by… I was unable to access his Nexus…" A frown appeared on the person's face as he recalled what just happened.
"That's pretty uncommon isn't it? Especially in this sort of world."
"You're correct. Let's take a closer look, we might get some high quality memories if we investigate that man further."
The two individuals and two others behind them began to leave the alleyway in order to follow Yuuto who caught their interest.
'Why the hell are they following me.'
Yuuto who was walking, felt multiple stares poking at his back as he went down his route to get home.
Using the reflection of the store's windows that was beside him, he was able to see 4 people in jackets following him.
'I'm really not in the mood to get robbed right now.'
Yuuto noticed that the people following him were very suspicious as they followed his every step regardless if it was awkward or not.
Reaching the end of one of the sidewalks, Yuuto turned to his right before bolting his way down the pavement to either reach an area where there were other groups of people or a building where he could safely enter.
But as he ran he began to notice that there were not many or in fact zero signs of people in his vicinity.
'What the hell…'
Feeling his breath getting faster and energy falling quickly due to sprinting down the pavement, he suddenly stopped when he noticed two people blocking his way.
"Do you mind letting me know the reason you guys are following me? To my knowledge I don't recall doing anything bad."
Yuuto stiffly spoke as he noticed that he was faced with four people, two at his front and two at his back. He looked at the person in front of him but his mind was racing, trying to find paths where he could escape if he needed to.
"It's nothing really, I just want to confirm something since I found you pretty interesting." One of the people with their hood on, spoke in a deep voice as he slowly walked towards Yuuto.
"..I'm sorry but I unfortunately don't swing that way."
"You may have misunderstood my intentions."
"....."
The person's face, although hidden by his hood, Yuuto was able to feel a pair of cold eyes staring his way.
Without any warning the person stretched his arm towards Yuuto who quickly dodged and ran towards an empty space, entering a dark alleyway leaving his bag behind for them to take.
"Annoying…"
"Shi—"
As Yuuto ran towards the alleyway, he felt a heavy pressure press against the left side of his body causing him to crash into the brick wall.
A painful and dull pain began to spread through his back as Yuuto winced, clenching his right side.
'What happened…?' Yuuto's mind began to question his surroundings as he tried to find the cause of what made him crash into the wall.
"Just stay still for me okay."
The person stood above Yuuto and once again reached his hand towards his head. However once again he recoiled his hand back and clenched onto his left thigh in pain as it had a pen lodged into it.
"You!!"
Yuuto responded to the person's furious gaze with a frosty gaze as he quickly got up and ran through the dark alleyway, clenching onto his right side taking advantage of the opening.
*BANG BANG
Yuuto winced in pain as he fell to the ground and felt a hot searing pain suddenly appear on his shoulder.
"You were too careless."
"....."
"But taking this form to fit in sure has some disadvantages." The person who had the gun spoke as he looked at his companion who had a pen buried deep into his thigh.
One of the people who accompanied the man lowered the pistol in his hand and walked towards the one who pulled the pen out that was lodged into his thigh.
The other two began to recuperate with the two while Yuuto tried his best to stand back up.
"I advise you to stay there or else another shot may happen."
Yuuto faced the person who pointed the pistol in his direction and stood still as he held onto his bloody shoulder.
'What do they even want? I left my bag already but they're still chasing after me. Did I just get unlucky….'
Yuuto tried his best to apply pressure on his shoulder to prevent any more blood from pouring out and quietly reached for his pocket to get his phone in an attempt to send his location to authorities by using his phone's emergency settings.
'Hmm? My phone….'
A frown appeared on his face as he tried to feel for his phone but instead he felt something smooth and leather like instead.
His bloodied hand touched the object and Yuuto pulled it out and what he saw was a familiar book with intricate white borders.
"How did this end up here.."
As if to respond to Yuuto's quiet mumble, the book began to allow a portion of blood that was on his hand to seep into its cover causing the temperature around Yuuto to drop rapidly.
A sharp and cold breeze began to flow around the alleyway causing the people who were following Yuuto to find the source of the sudden drop in temperature.
"That..!!"
"So he had it!?"
Yuuto looked up and saw that the people following him were boring their gazes onto the book he had in his hand and saw them rapidly approaching.
However before they could reach him and do anything, the space surrounding them seemed to have froze while the temperature began to decrease even further.
*CRACK
An audible crack started to emerge while the space behind Yuuto began to gradually break apart as if a glass was about to shatter.
*WOOSH
The crack began to persist before it finally reached its limits, causing a hole to appear from the visible broken bits of fragments that floated behind Yuuto.
A sharp gust of cold air was released as a portion of the space broke apart leaving the people who were approaching Yuuto to be encased in a layer of white iridescent ice.
"...I'm too tired for this.."
Yuuto tiredly laughed as he didn't know how to react to all the strange things that suddenly happened and felt a force pulling behind him.
The hole in space that suddenly appeared, pulled onto Yuuto before he was eventually sucked in and brought to whatever location was on the other side.
The four statues of frozen ice that was left behind began to quickly crumble and slowly turn into white dust, following Yuuto inside the hole.
As the last speck of dust began to enter, the broken fragments of space began to mend back together. Leaving the alleyway silent as if nothing strange had occurred in it.
