Miyuki Kiseki was in terrible shape, a candle guttering in wind; her warm, approachable face had turned into a lost boat in fog. Her friends worried like sparrows huddled under rain.
“Vice President? Vice President Kiseki?”
A girl from the Student Council waved her palm in front of her, like fanning smoke from a dazed mind.
“Y-yes... what is it...”
Mizuki blinked back to herself.
“I’ve been calling you nonstop. Seriously, what are you even doing?”
“I’m sorry...”
“Forget it, let’s keep working. About the report that victims are starting to decrease...”
The rest washed over her like distant surf; she slipped back into her own sea of thought.
After the Student Council’s daily routine, Mizuki dragged her tired body to class, heavy as wet cloth. Her pale face drew eyes like moths to a white lantern.
As vice president, her name carried light; a cute face and gentle air made her known across campus. Yet that gleaming girl now wore storm-cloud brows, worsening by the day.
She knew why she had turned into this; the reason sat like a stone in her chest, a secret sunk deep.
That day, Miyuki Kiseki faced a storm she never imagined. She had thought crime was a far-off thunder, never striking her roof. Instead, it hit, and she stood as a witness.
She saw the dead. Piles of bodies carved into her mind like frost patterns on glass, impossible to scrape off.
That blood-soaked scene, limbs severed like broken branches, and a floor washed in red—memories that would never thaw.
She vaguely remembered someone snarling when discovered, a wolf caught in a trap. Terror flooded her veins, and she ran like a startled deer.
Afterward, she reported it. The police stepped in, boots on wet stone. Strangely, they found no corpses at the scene, as if the snow had been swept clean.
Worse, days later, they simply closed the file and told her nothing had happened. They said she was playing a prank, like tossing pebbles at iron gates.
No. She had seen it. Those facts dripped red; they couldn’t be false. Someone had wiped the tracks. Yes, someone had to. Why won’t they believe me?
She wanted to shout like thunder breaking a clear sky, yet her voice stayed trapped behind her teeth.
She had seen a murder scene. So why did it all melt away like footprints in rain...
Mizuki never thought she was special; vice president or not, she saw herself as one leaf among many, a person drifting in the same city wind.
Yet fate played tricks, pulling this ordinary student into something eerie. It wasn’t simple; evidence should have been a thread to follow, cameras a net to cast. But the water stayed dark, and nothing surfaced.
Her sense of justice was more heat than steel, a flare that pushed her into action. Maybe “for everyone” was really for herself, a brittle pride needing a mask.
Not to protect friends, not to seek justice, but to guard her little ember of dignity, to stand tall and feel like she could be someone special.
Perhaps, that was all.
“Mizuki, Mizuki?”
Confusion pressed on her like mist. Why had she spoken such sworn words to that “boy”?
“Mizuki!”
“Mm?”
She finally noticed someone calling her name. Mizuki raised her face, eyes clouded, like water after rain.
“Maya...”
“Honestly, Mizuki, what are you doing? You’ve been spacing out all day, nothing like the Mizuki I know.”
Maya Hanazaka complained, arms crossed like a small shield. She was a little upset at being ignored.
“I’m sorry...”
She showed the same dejected look, a wilted flower. It had become her mask these last few days.
Seeing Mizuki still unraveling, Maya couldn’t hold the flame of anger; it flickered out.
“Alright, I’m kidding. Don’t sink, Mizuki.”
Maya wanted to comfort her, but words scattered like leaves. She didn’t know what storm had hit the girl before her.
From the window seat, Yun Shi glanced over, a calm lake face hiding ripples below.
What happened to Mizuki? She was fine days ago. So why...
Yun Shi turned the question over like stones in a stream, coming up empty. It was hard to imagine that gentle girl falling into such ruins.
It had to be something. Otherwise, with her nature, she wouldn’t crumble like this. If so, then what stirred the water...
No answer. Silence like sealed ice.
Yun Shi let it go. She planned to ask Sham about the Underworld today, and also pry into Mizuki’s situation. If needed, she’d ask Mizuki to handle it.
Still, seeing this girl like a flower bruised by hail, it was hard not to care.
Mizuki’s spirit sagged, a kite with its string cut; even small shocks could rattle her. It wasn’t her fault—after such a scene, no ordinary student could laugh like sunlight.
Worse, the police didn’t believe her. They called it a false report, a joke. She stood lost, a traveler at a forked road with no signs.
She worried about retaliation, shadows following her steps, because she’d seen what shouldn’t be seen. If not for a stubborn thread of resilience, she wouldn’t dare come to school.
Deep down, she told herself she was overthinking, and forced herself to be a student again, the way winter forces breath into cold lungs.
“Miyuki Kiseki.”
“Eh!”
The sudden voice scared her; her mind snapped clear like ice under a crack.
“Why, am I that scary?”
Yun Shi clicked her tongue, tsk like flint. She looked annoyed, clouds gathering.
“Y-Yun...”
“I’m asking you. What are you even doing?”
“Doing... what...”
“Isn’t it obvious? This isn’t you at all. Normally, you wouldn’t be like this.”
Yun Shi spoke straight, her gaze a tight bow string. Mizuki’s confusion deepened, a fog bank thickening.
“I... I don’t even know what I’m doing...”
“...”
“I’m a self-righteous hypocrite. I can’t do anything, yet I talk big, saying I’ll save everyone.”
“In the end, I can’t even save myself...”
“...”
“Hey, Yun, do you believe me?”
No way, right? Because I’m... hopeless.
“I believe you.”
“!—W-why?”
“Well then, why indeed.”
Yun Shi lifted a palm, bored as a cat yawning in shade.
“At least, you’ve never told me you’ll give up. So why would I choose not to trust you?”
“...”
Just because... just because I never said I’d give up, you chose...
“Shoulder your own responsibility, you hopeless idiot.”
Believe me...
Mizuki looked quietly at the “boy” in front of her. Her chaos and helplessness drained away like rainwater, leaving a clear pool.
This person was strange, in the best way. Those eyes spoke like morning light; the mouth was strict, but the gaze whispered, You’re not wrong.
“You’re you. Where do all these silly reasons come from, honestly.”
Yun Shi stared at her like rejecting a bitter taste, yet Mizuki felt no fear. Her mood smoothed out, a silk ribbon unknotted.
The troubles gnawing her the last few days seemed less heavy. Because this person stood here, the weight felt lighter, like a load shared.
“Thank you, Yun.”
Thanks to you, I finally understand. It was just me overthinking. With you all here, I don’t have to be afraid.
“Good. You—hold on, you—”
Yun Shi suddenly remembered something; her face sharpened, lines turning firm.
It was strange, this sudden plunge into gloom. Without a special cause, it was hard to imagine. With her nature, the cause would be large.
The Underworld.
She might have been...
“You couldn’t have...”
Caught in the Underworld’s turmoil, could you?
If so, everything made sense. That dark place could reach out like cold hands from under the bed.
“What’s wrong, Yun?”
“I... no, it’s nothing.”
If you really got pulled into the Underworld, then this is the worst possible turn.
