Volume 1 - A Child Prodigy's Husk

<Author's Notice>

A chapter full of monologues... but an understandable summary at its finest... Also, double chapters today!

It's not the first time that I've been asked this question... I've probably been asked by a lot of people that I met with this question in mind...

"How did you even live up to right now...?"

It's not like they meant that they despise me from even breathing or existing in this world... but the fact that they're questioning my existence after what happened does make sense with their own curiosity peeking through what was considered to me, a part of me, basically.

My name is Nakamura Kurayami. If I consider my current age as well as the age when I died, I will be around over 22 years old. It has been 5 years and 11 months since I got reincarnated in another world. A world of magic and swords... as well as a world that's threatened by the advent of the reborn Demon Lord.

But before all of that happened... 22 years ago... I've been born as a child prodigy to my Mom and Dad who was your typical Japanese family. Apparently, I am the only child of the family which led to my parents efforting themselves into nurturing the young me into something that they thought would be... something...

Yes, they didn't know that I was a child prodigy until around 5 years old when the toddler who was me started learning Mathematics back at kindergarten school. And the teachers there have found out that I've perfected all of their written tests that I answered in a silly-willy manner.

They continued to nurture the talent that they thought I got at the time in Mathematics, while at the same time, I was engrossed in Gundams and Mechas that I watch on morning anime shows. That habit happened up until before I died.

Anyways... With that relationship with Gundams in mind, it was a reason for me to get perfect grades for any science and math-related subjects that were tossed at me during both elementary and the first 2 years of my middle school which was enjoyable at best. 

I was also being pushed on joining a lot of academic contests where I scored more or less what was expected of me, but I never really wanted attention for the most part so I intentionally win 2nd place overall. 

And the best part was that, contrary to popular belief, I have not been taken down by anyone who tried to bully me...

Well... that might be far-fetched, but while in the midst of studying all of those, my parents also forced me into being taught Karate and Kendo arts too. While it did help me have an unproblematic school, for the most part, there were instances when I've been brought to the hospital... along with the injured students who tried to attack me...

But my life traversed pretty well up until after the first month of my 3rd year in middle school started when I got called up to the Principal's office which I thought was uneventful at first.

It’s currently 12 noon at the moment when the school’s public address system rang as a signal for lunch to start.

But what’s different today on the school’s public address system was not that it rang with the tone that would be heard when lunch starts, but with someone being summoned to the Principal’s office.

[Attention. Nakamura Kurayami from Class 3-1, please come to the Principal’s office. I repeat. Nakamura Kurayami from Class 3-1, please come to the Principal’s office. That’s all and have a wonderful lunch, everyone!]

As the school’s public address system exits out, my entire class was in a usual mood since the usual event that I’ve been called to the Principal’s office is with the usual move of inviting me over to some kind of contest or stuff that I need to participate.

So I was going to the Principal’s office at lunch while half-expecting that it’ll be some bothersome stuff involving academic competitions and stuff.

When I went towards the front of the Principal’s office, I knocked on the door three times and opened the door a little bit before saying.

[Pardon my intrusion, Mr. Principal.]

[Come in, Kurayami-kun.]

As I fully opened the door, I can see both Auntie Mii and Uncle Josuke who were currently having a very solemn expression on their faces while sitting down with the Principal. 

Why are Auntie Mii and Uncle Josuke there? If it’s something important, they would’ve probably called Mom and Dad to the school.

[Auntie Mii? Uncle Josuke? Why are you here to school?]

[Kurayami-kun, please sit down for a moment.]

[U-Unn…]

I hesitantly sat next to Auntie Mii when she immediately hugged me very tightly as she started to cry, and Uncle Josuke immediately got up and rubbed Auntie Mii’s back.

[W-Wha… What’s happening, Auntie Mii?! Why are you crying all of a sudden?!]

I asked the two of them while having a panicking expression to which Auntie Mii replied…

[Uwaaaaah! S-Salome-nee… and S-Satoru-kun… *sniff* *sniff*]

[E-Eh?! What happened Auntie Mii?! What happened to Mom and Dad?! Uncle Josuke?!]

I frantically asked Auntie Mii and Uncle Josuke who started to shed some tears as well while comforting Auntie Mii.

While I was wishing for them to not answer the question that I was asking, it was the Principal who answered my question.

[I’m sorry, Kurayami-kun… But your parents got involved in an accident earlier morning on the highway while on their way to work.

The accident itself is so severe that the emergency firefighters had to cut away the top of the car a few hours later, but they did not make it out alive before they even reached the hospital. I’m sorry, Kurayami-kun.]

When I heard the Principal’s words word by word, I felt as if my world turned around upside down in which what I can only hear were Auntie Mii’s intensified crying while calling out my Mom’s name while Uncle Josuke immediately hugged the two of us and joined in with Auntie Mii.

Strange enough, due to the shock that I felt at that moment, I have not felt the need to let everything I feel at that moment out.

Yes, I may feel sad, remorse, regret, or guilt that I haven’t said the three words that I want to say to them for the longest time, but no matter how I wanted to cry…

I just can’t cry.

After the whole breakdown that happened earlier, the Principal ordered me to return home and rest for the whole week which I obliged with such an expressionless face and inflectionless tone and left the school after 1 pm at the time to prepare and see my parents at the hospital.

When we arrived at the morgue inside a hospital, they advised us not to open the black body bag which contained their bodies due to the severity of the injuries that they obtained as per the advice of the doctors. But it's really weird that I can't cry along with my auntie and my uncle who were with me in grief...

After a week or so, the proceedings went pretty well, but I was feeling pretty conflicted with the results of forensic results. So I've spent a few months on and off after school, privately investigating the cause of the accident from my own findings. 

I've also built a lot of connections between the law enforcement and the political theater inside Japan just to gain access to every information that I need to properly investigate the accident that caused my parents' deaths.

There was nothing but utter curiosity for me to try and find out what happened that led to their deaths. It would be uncomfortable for me to feel vengeful or anything negative during those times as it would only cloud my judgment when it comes to investigating it. 

Or at least... that was only my mind's escape to the immense emotions that I will have to suffer, that my subconscious mind intentionally did that.

After a few months, it was found that a series of freak occurrences have caused such an accident to happen. 

The other driver's ECU experienced multiple series of bit flips from a massive solar flare activity that caused cosmic rays to enter the atmosphere which made the engine run uncontrollably faster than what was pressed... 

The brake discs already nearing their end of life which caused them to break when the hand brake and the brake pedal were used synchronously by the other driver.

A semi-flat tire that my parents' car had on the back right tire which would also be instrumental as to why the car lost its handling after being bumped by the other driver's car at 160 kilometers per hour and got flipped multiple times due to the impact force, and impacting towards a concrete barrier while flipped upside down.

All of them were solved by me which not just gave forth the justice that I think would be served for my parents... but also to the other driver who survived the crash with what was initially thought as "homicide" turned into such a freak accident that made headlines around the country...

But now... with everything done... it seemed as if a thorn inside my heart has been removed... though it seems that it will only hurt more when removed... It felt like I was now only a husk that once enjoyed the world to its fullest.

"I may have the necessary knowledge that helped bring justice to the deaths of my parents, but there was no merit in doing so anyway when the ones I am supposed to put the effort into solving it, were dead."

That's what I thought to myself deep in my heart as I continued on living for their sake as I kept what I wanted to feel, inside my heart. Locked out. I don't know why I did that, but I felt like it was suitable for me to do that...

But the wound itself has been tended by the very people that I now treat within the world of Earth as my family. I met my family from the Genius Directive inside the school that I'm on. I met a lot of people inside the class, and the school as well...

And at the same time frame, I also met Shirokusa for the first time after my second year of high school has started... for about 8 months... She was a colleague at first with the same interests in mind... and since I became the President of the Genius Directive, the club I'm on when I was in high school, she naturally became my Vice President, and worked with each other in numerous things that I couldn't even count for the past 8 months...

It was the first time I developed something like my wanting of a romantic relationship that I didn't initially seek in the past... but sometimes, the timing would not be on my side for this one...

Because on December 17, I died in a freak accident of having two 6-inch wide poles impaled through me.