Prologue

As I opened my eyes in the morning, a strange feeling came over me. This had been going on for the past few days. Although I had seen my room a million times, it still felt new. I couldn’t make sense of it. I knew the street well too, but somehow everything still felt foreign. Pleasant spring warmth caressed my face as I, sixteen-year-old Reina Mitternacht, headed to school through the streets of Bliss City’s suburbs.

This city, like many others, was considered a real utopia. Clean roads, towers with planted green levels, vehicles operating on renewable energy. Despite this, the whole thing made me uneasy. In addition, I kept having recurring dreams about a strange girl with whom I was talking carefree in a flowery meadow. Time seemed endless. I could have stayed there forever. As if I had always known her well. After waking up, I always felt a kind of sense of loss and sadness. It was like a gaping void. Even though, as far as my memories went, I had never known this person, for some reason it hurt that she wasn’t with me. The reason was unknown.

Arriving at school, I noticed a few students running, which I did not tolerate without comment.

“No running in the hallway!”

As a member of the disciplinary committee, I was responsible for order. They wanted to recruit me already in my first year because many people said I had an intimidating aura, commanding respect. The student council members also encouraged me to try. I had no desire to play school police, but after so much pleading, I gave in with a sigh.

As I was heading towards my classroom, I ran into my friends from the student council, Valent and Merona. The former was a calm guy, while Merona was a fussy but well-meaning girl. They liked talking with me, and I didn’t oppose it. Although deep down I too was tormented by uneasiness at such times. They felt like strangers, even though we had known each other for a long time. Of course, I didn’t talk to them about this.

What also seemed interesting was that with some students I had never exchanged more than a few words, yet something kept nagging at me that I somehow knew them.

Sometimes I began to feel confused. Not to mention the other anomalies. For example, one day I wanted to visit old Mr. Johannsen, who often took care of me as a child when my parents were busy. As far as my memories went, they had said he often went hunting in a forest outside the city limits recently. I also believed that was his main hobby, although I had never actually seen him hunting. But recently I received the shocking news that Mr. Johannsen had been dead for ten years, and in his last years he had lived somewhere completely different. Not where I had visited him as a child. Yet the most bizarre thing was that his relatives told me the old man had never hunted. In fact, he was repulsed by weapons. They didn’t understand where I had gotten the rumor about hunting.

However, during school I didn’t have enough time to ponder such things. At the moment, I was heading to my classroom to set a good example. I always took my seat well before the bell rang to prepare for the lesson. When the bell rang and the teacher arrived, he soon made an unexpected announcement.

“Today your class will be joined by a new member, who transferred from our sister school in the city center.”

After a brief pause he looked at the closed door of the room, then continued.

“Kaori. Please come in.”

Then a girl with royal blue hair entered, with a cute side ponytail and red eyes radiating liveliness. However, I flinched for a moment. I had no idea why, but I felt a strong sympathy toward her. Who could she be?