Another day of torrential rain, typical of June in the country of Japan. Ren Tachibana is walking home in the heavy downpour, somewhat irritated about his soaking wet shoes and gingerly nursing a black lump on his jaw. 18. A high school student of Takegawa High in Tokyo. A reserved student most of the time, but, due to his unshakeable sense of justice, quite frequently gets into fights with bullies at his school. He was on the way home in the evening, after having served another period of detention for being caught by teaching staff fighting with (yet) another bully at recess time, and the lump on his jaw was the result of that confrontation.
Ren tilted his umbrella to look at the dark clouds above. He let out a deep sigh. He hated the rainy season, and every time it came around, he would frequently entertain the thought that the only good thing that could come out of the rain would be that it flooded the school grounds so badly that school would be cancelled. However, that scenario was overwhelmingly more fantasy than probability and the rainy season usually just dampened Ren's spirits. But that was Ren - somewhat dreamy, and the good side of that attribute was that he was idealistic, while the bad side was that he was often lost in his own world and handicapped for life in the harsh world of 21st century Japan.
Ren plodded his way down the street. He was walking a path along the sidewalk next to a storm drain that gushed turbid muddy water. He ran his fingers absent-mindedly along the top of the railing that separated the sidewalk from the storm drain. His mind drifted to memories of the day he had just had.
A long plaintive wailing snapped him back to the present. It came from behind him so he turned around to locate the source. He saw a cat struggling to stay afloat in the roaring waters of the storm drain ...
Dropping his umbrella, he leapt across the railing and stooped at the edge of the storm drain with his left hand wrapped tight around the railing. He extended his right hand toward the floundering cat ... 'Yoshi!' He thought to himself when he realised that the cat would come towards him close enough to the edge of the storm drain where he was for him to grab it as it was being swept by.
Ren managed to grab the cat by the nape of its neck and lift it out of the water ... He stood up and dropped the cat on the sidewalk on the other side of the railing. He then climbed the railing, this time, slowly.
It was a pure white cat with no markings. Ren stooped and stroked it on the head. It looked at Ren with its cute, shimmering eyes but then suddenly turned to face the direction it came down from and hissed fiercely. Ren looked up in the direction that the cat was facing and caught sight of a huge shadowy figure disappearing behind a building. It was really tall and big and Ren wondered if it was human ...
The cat licked the area of the sock covering his right ankle and Ren took that to be a show of gratitude. He stroked the cat some more, but suddenly it started to scamper across the street. As it left, Ren caught sight of a bleeding cut on one of its hind legs. "This won't do," Ren thought to himself. "It could get infected without proper treatment especially considering that the cat would run around in the wild doing things like rummaging through rubbish bins for food." Ren followed the cat, still neglecting to retrieve the open umbrella that he had dropped on the sidewalk ...
The white cat eventually went into an alleyway, with Ren following behind. It stopped and looked around a bit but failed to see Ren who had not reached the entrance to the alleyway yet. A bright flash of light lit up the alleyway as Ren was stepping into it ... When Ren regained his sight, he saw ... what could only be described as a catgirl in the alleyway where the cat once stood ... Ren let out a loud gasp and the catgirl turned. She looked shocked but recovered quickly.
"It can't be helped. I guess you have seen everything." She walked up to Ren and gave a deep bow. "My name is Luna and I am a representative of the Stellar Vanguard. Please take good care of me."
(Chapter 1 end)
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