Chapter 0: Prologue

“I like you! Please go out with me!”

A confession, as cliche, as it would be, on the rooftop of the school, the male student had asked out a fellow female.

“I...I would love to...But, you know that it is impossible for us…”

“Our Solus doesn’t match.”

X

The Year 2050. A certain discovery was made in the lab of a certain researcher.

“I...I finally got it...The undeniable evidence! The proof of the link!.”

“The linkage between souls, Solus!”

Solus, a term that was introduced during the latter half of the year 2050. The now-famous researcher, Professor Harrioth Dynsiel, made a groundbreaking discovery of the human soul.

As we go about our daily lives, have we not felt, from time to time, a sense of pain or feeling, be it mild or severe, appearing out of nowhere? Some would simply brush it off, others may have thought they had accidentally cut themselves or felt unwell. What if that was not the case?

According to Professor Harrioth, the soul, which was thought to be a mythical belief as it had no physical form, actually existed in the form of a certain wave. Each wave was unique in its way, defining its owners.

“And now, I will show you definite proof that the Solus exist!. Behold, the two samples that I had found after much work!”

As Professor Harrioth explained what the Solus was, his assistants had ushered a pair of male and female onto the stage.

“These two right here, are linked by the Solus. Now to show what the Solus means, we would begin to do a live experiment!”

At the cue of the professor, the assistant took out a needle and poked it into the male’s arm. As the male started to bleed from the injury, his female counterpart flinched from the same spot. What appeared on the female’s arm was a light bruise, at the same spot where the male had been poked.

The room was filled with countless gasps and murmurs, all in awe of the event that was unfolding in front of them. What shocked them was not simply just the injury that seemingly appeared on both of them, but rather, the fact that they were completely separated by a wall and isolated in their chambers, unaware that there was another person behind the wall.

“And that...is Solus.”

XXX

“Solus huh...Can’t believe it’s already been almost 30 years since it was first discovered.”

“Izuya! You better hurry up or you will be late for school.”

“Got it, mom.”

I closed the video that I had playing on my laptop as I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs. Looking at the documentaries of Solus, my first thought was that it would have plunged the world as we knew it into chaos. People would always live in the thought that their chosen partner was not their ‘fated’ one and what would they do if their Solus partners showed up one day.

Surprisingly enough, the people took the news rather calmly. There was certainly an uproar at first, but nowadays, people continued pursuing who they loved, treating Solus much like a Cinderella fantasy where Solus was the heels. Although, there was some household that took the Solus terms seriously and only allowed for relations through Solus pairing and continued till this day.

“Hurry up and eat your breakfast. You wouldn’t want to be late on your first day at school would you?”

Today marked the first day of High School after my graduation last year. I was lucky enough to have scored one of the top scores during the exams which netted me a scholarship into a fancy private school.

As I hurriedly gobbled down my breakfast, I took my bag and stood up in a hurry.

“I’m heading off!”

“Hold it! Sigh, at least make your tie straight and keep your hair neat. Kazekono Private is where all the fancy rich kids go, you wouldn’t want to be made fun of would you.”

“I got it, I got it. I’m off now!”

I made my way to the train station, crossing paths with students wearing other uniforms, all while attracting some gazes.

“Well, I guess a Student from Kazekono taking public transport to school is a rather rare sight huh?”

Kazekono Private High. A school where the elites of the elites go to. Most of the students are either rich kids who essentially paid their way into the school, athletes, or people who got exceptional results on the national test.

I was one of the few who scored high on the test and got a scholarship into the school, although I would be the only one, who is from a middle-income family, accepting the scholarship. From what I heard, the others who scored high on the test all denied the scholarship, saying they could pay for their own.

“Typical rich kids, not knowing when to take what they can and flaunting their wealth.”

Not realizing I said that out loud, other passengers of the train were looking at me as if I was a weirdo, mumbling to myself. As I got off the train and made my way up the slope to the school, countless cars were driving by, stopping in front of the entrance, with students getting off.

Clutching my bag tightly, I made my way through the gates and into the school before getting stopped by someone.

“Excuse me. Could I get your name?”

“Hikaru Izuya, I enrolled on the scholarship.”

After hearing that I was the student who got the scholarship, the man who I assumed to be a teacher, dropped his kind attitude and became more informal.

“Oh, you are that kid huh. Get to the auditorium and don’t make a fool of yourself.”

After shooing me away inside, he began his meek act again and began welcoming the other students in. The difference between his attitude before and after confirming my identity was repulsive. I guess this is a school for the elite after all. They wouldn’t look good towards common folk like me.

In the auditorium, I took my seat near the front end and sat down, away from the other students who were already in their groups. As I was looking through my phone, I felt an arm over my shoulder as another student sat next to me.

“Heya Izuya. Quite the early bird aren’t you?”

Amagami Ikuro, heir to the Amagami Group who is famous for being a high-end food company, and my best friend. We went to the same elementary and middle school, essentially growing up together. Despite our social difference, we were rather close.

“Phew, I’m at least relieved that you are here as well, and not acting like another typical snobby rich kid. Or are you going to regress to those years?”

“H-Hey. That was ages ago! When are you going to let me off the hook from that?”

When we first met in elementary school, Ikuro was as arrogant as he could be, believing that everyone should have listened to him and shut those who didn’t with wads of cash, including the teachers.

He had tried to do the same to me when I outright ignored him, not caring whether he was the heir to a famous group or god himself. At first, he was pissed and coerced others into bullying me but after a certain event, he got closer to me and told me that I was the only one he could be real with, not caring about his social standing.

“You are doing the freshman speech right? Seeing how you were the top scorer and all.”

“Yea, I was up all night going over the speech again and again.”

Not long after, the hall was filled with all the students and freshmen. The Principal came onto the stage and made her speech. Judging by her young looks and attractive figure, one wouldn’t think that this woman who was dressed in a fine suit, was the Principal of this elite school.

“And now, I would like to welcome our Freshmen representative up on stage to give their speech.”

As I grasped my notes on the speech in my hand and prepared to get up, I saw that the Principal’s gaze was not on me, but rather on the opposite end of the row of seats.

“Mikase Suzuha.”

“Here.”

A long, black-haired beauty stood up on the opposite end and made her way past me, and to the stage. She then began to recite the speech.

“What the heck?! Didn’t they send you the letter that you were supposed to be the representative?

“Calm down, Ikuro. There’s no point in making a fuss about it at this point.

Despite telling Ikuro to calm down, I was having difficulty trying to calm myself down. They had informed me to make a speech for today over a month ago after determining I was the top scorer. I wasn’t informed that the representative had been changed either.

I could have sworn I saw the Principal looking over before moving her gaze to Mikase Suzuha. With that, I could very clearly see, the school’s view on me being the top scorer despite being of common birth.

“So that’s how it is…”

This was their way of saying I wasn’t welcomed here.