Chapter 1

Our teacher, Mr. Garlet, asked the new girl to introduce herself to us. She then playfully skipped to the front of the board and cheerfully looked through us.

When she noticed me, she seemed surprised for a moment. Even so, she quickly came to her senses and cleared her throat.

“Hi! I’m Kaori Daylight! I can’t wait for the fun together…! I mean the work together!”

However, what happened next was not what I expected. I thought everyone would laugh, but there was no reaction at all. In fact, after the introduction most of the students didn’t even pay attention to her. Some rummaged through their pencil cases, while another stared at the textbook. The teacher was also looking at his gradebook instead. For some reason, the whole situation felt eerie. The girl’s smile remained, but there was a bit of sadness glimmering in it. I had no idea what was happening. But I felt sorry for her.

“Teacher! Where will you seat Kaori?”

My raised hand made the teacher realize he hadn’t done anything with the new student yet. After a brief apology he started scanning the possible empty seats, whereupon Kaori enthusiastically pointed at me.

“I want to sit next to her, if possible!”

After checking with me, the teacher agreed to the arrangement, so I gained a new companion. As she took her seat, I introduced myself, and she whispered questions. She wanted to know why I was interested in her. Even the question itself was incomprehensible to me. I thought she was joking. So with complete naturalness I informed her that it was proper to be attentive to a new classmate. She might need help. But she shouldn’t overthink it; I consider this some kind of moral duty. My answer didn’t seem to convince her, but for some reason she let the matter go. Meanwhile, I wondered why her presence affected me the way it did. The idea of talking to her about it crossed my mind, but for now that didn’t seem like a good idea. She might have thought I was some weird stalker.

Most of the morning continued uneventfully. Not only the students but all the teachers literally treated Kaori like a ghost. During the break one of the boys accidentally knocked her over but walked on without apologizing. This made me somewhat angry.

“Hey, you! Watch where you’re going!”

He tried to brush it off as no big deal, so I almost argued with him. But Kaori talked me out of it. She didn’t think it was necessary to make an issue of it, so I let the boy go. I questioned her, saying I was a member of the disciplinary committee. It was my duty to supervise safety. But according to her, it wasn’t others’ fault that they didn’t notice her. For some reason it had always been like this since she was born. Even her parents barely paid attention to her. Naturally, I told her that this wasn’t normal. Yet she pretended to be in a good mood and told me not to worry about it. The anomalies I had experienced recently—my feelings about the city, my false memories of certain people, and Kaori’s ghost-like nature—made it obvious that something was wrong. I had to get to know her better. So I offered to show her around the school after classes. I would show her everything. The teachers would have assigned someone for the task anyway. Luckily, she didn’t hesitate to accept my offer.

In the afternoon, after classes, we explored the school’s other rooms as planned. For example the chemistry lab, the music room, and the gym. In most places I had to warn her not to touch anything, because she was too curious by nature. When opening the equipment storage cabinet, she managed to spill a pile of basketballs on herself, which made me hold my head. But despite her clumsiness, the girl always kept her good mood. I just wished I knew why she was so energetic.

In the meantime, I noticed the difference between our uniforms. She was still wearing that of our sister school, which was in the city center.

“Don’t forget to apply for your new uniform tomorrow. If you delay too long, the teachers will get grumpy.”

“Okay, okay. Got it, boss.”

Even this she managed to respond to playfully.

Only the schoolyard, the outdoor sports field, and the swimming pool were left. But before we could leave the by-then almost empty building, something extremely frightening happened. A few students near us froze motionlessly and turned blue. Then a windy breeze hit us from behind. Turning around, we noticed a purple swirling mist, and after it dissipated, we became aware of a man wearing a cloak.

The shock made no sound come out of our throats. As he took two steps closer, we recoiled slightly.

The man stared at me in surprise.

“How…? Outside the target, you’re also unaffected by the time freeze?”

We didn’t understand anything he said. The man noticed this, so he let the topic go.

“Doesn’t matter. Stay out of this. I only need to finish her…”

As a purple light sphere shaped like a pocket watch formed in the man’s palm, I sensed something bad. I wanted to warn Kaori, but it was too late. He hurled the destructive energy mass toward her, so I threw myself at the girl. Lying on top of the fallen girl, I noticed the hole burned into the wall. Terror began to overwhelm us, but I gathered my courage. I grabbed Kaori by the wrist and ran.

“This way!”

I rushed with her out of the school entrance, but the man literally appeared in front of us out of nowhere. Terrified, we fell to our knees, and the man examined me.

“You think there’s escape? You have no idea who that someone is next to you… But if you stand in my way, I’ll erase you along with her!”

The man took out a medallion-like little clock and chanted.

“In this upturned time, I carve a chaotic space! Come, Clockster!”

The clock in the man’s hand began to shine, and eerie ticking struck our ears. On the ground a purple magic circle in the shape of a clock was drawn, above which elemental particles gathered to form a roughly three-meter-tall clock-like monster. One of the creature’s mechanical arms ended in a drill, and it let out a blood-chilling mechanical growl.

Kaori and I clung to each other trembling. We had no idea what would happen to us now.