K stands for Kurosaka

"If you wanted to stealth, you should have grabbed me along…”

It was the next morning and Ayato almost had the nicest sleep in all of his schooling years.

“I’m sorry. I was trying to get us these devices that would enhance our matchmaking efficiency!”

“Almost” as he was forcefully awoken by the chirpings of a yellow chick.

“See, they are matching, I got one for you and one for…”

Ayato made sure to walk faster than his self-proclaimed partner, who had adopted her human form, in his attempt to get away from her yappings.

Mid-sentence, he heard the sounds of her hurling something in his direction and he caught the small object square in his hand without even looking back.

In his hand was a ring that is less gold and more neon fluorescent yellow.

And on his partner, Pip, she was wearing a matching ring as her earring dangling from her right ear.

It didn’t take him a second thought before he threw the ring in the opposite direction.

“HEY! If it’s for yesterday, or the past two weeks, I already said I’m sorry. Why are you so mean~!”

While running after the ring that was soon making itself disappear into oblivion, she complained while streaks of tears comically trailed after her as if ignoring all physics of water or gravity.

“...”

…

“NOT ONLY ARE YOU IGNORING ME PHYSICALLY, YOU ARE IGNORING ME IN THOUGHT TOO!!”

With that as her last cry, she vanished past the second corner as she chased after the thrown ring.

The road to school had finally quietened down and other students began walking in the same direction as him.

“Hey, have you heard about the rumour about Tsukimoto-senpai…?”

“Of course I did. He ran past my block last night. If I didn’t see him now, I would have assumed that he was still running.”

It was always interesting for Ayato to listen to gossip like this. He always had a blast hearing the bizarre theories others would come up with regarding the things that he would do.

“I think he was chasing down something, or someone…”

“Now that would be quite the sight. Personally, my favourite mystery from the school is [The Phantom Violinist]...”

Although for what happened yesterday, the truth may be stranger than fiction.

“Good morning, Tsukimoto-kun! Any plans of joining Track?”

And speaking of her, Yoshinori Sayaka appeared to make herself shown at a distance that was not too close or too far for a friendly chat. Unlike someone…

“Don’t worry about what others say, but you didn’t need me to tell you that, did you? Still, as a member of the Public Morals Committee, I may have to investigate this noise complaint that they have noticed.”

With an ear to listen to the students’ troubles and a heart to serve, it wasn’t a coincidence that she was widely respected.

“Anyways, want to run again after training today? We explored the whole city yesterday, I suggest making our way to the next to push our limits.”

Casually spewing such terrifying recommendations, Ayato whipped out his phone and texted the number he earned from his 10km of blood, sweat and tears yesterday.

[No thanks!]

♡♡♡

In his own special way, he managed to make friends with someone, something that he had not done for a very long time.

It wasn’t his intention originally, although it made him feel even stranger if he were to really state his original intention.

To know more about her in order to match her with another random boy she never met? Don’t make me laugh…

However, the reality of the situation was that the strange red thread above her head was still real and only to him. It is currently phasing through the teacher’s face as he taught arithmetic to the class.

In the two weeks of researching, he used the phenomenon to easily locate the two of them in a crowded area like the cafeteria.

If he was able to follow the thread starting from Yoshinori-san, he would be able to find the boy on the other side:

Kurosaka Kanata.

However, the thread would disappear as soon as he lost sight of both of them, so he would never be able to utilise that function effectively as a means of locating the other from a place far away.

He didn’t have a difficult time getting to know Yoshinori-san since she was one of his classmates but Kurosaka-san was… different.

It was not difficult to find him in a crowd.

Just look for the boy who no one dared to step close to for a 10-metre radius. You would find him in the centre more often than not.

Yet, “easier to find” doesn't equate to “easier to approach”.

His face was more handsome than the average boys in school so he was sure to have a fair share of secret admirers but his signature cold stare deterred any who would so much as think of coming close.

Not to mention, his family name, [Kurosaka].

It was a rare family name so it wasn’t hard to discover which Kurosaka family Kurosaka Kanata belonged to.

A famous one too. So famous that all delinquents and delinquent-wannabes would make a 90 degrees bow every time they were near Kurosaka-san.

In simple terms, the Kurosaka Family was not a family that anybody wanted to mess with. It was an unspoken fact that they were the face of crime and the darkest underbellies of the city.

Some even speculated that their control spread to all industries be it politics or education, but no one would ever be able to verify such a claim, nor would they live on to be credited for such brave confirmation.

All these red flags were screaming to Ayato to steer clear from the boy called “Kurosaka Kanata” with every ounce of strength imaginable, something he had been trained for and could do so effortlessly with the experiences he gathered from his time in school.

Yet, he found himself inexplicably drawn to him. And not just him alone but also the “her” to whom he was connected by an imaginary red thread and the whole premise of what occurred two weeks prior.

Being a “matchmaker”... is exhilarating…

A feeling that Ayato didn’t remember he could feel since school had always been a place for him to run away from.

Standing before the Kurosaka residence, he was greeted by the grandiosity of the place even from a distance.

It wasn’t a mansion or a castle, its tallest buildings wouldn’t go past the second level but it had every house around it beat just based on how large a space the single residence occupied.

Where it stood, eight typical Japanese homes could occupy that same space.

And with tall walls surrounding the entire residence, no one from the general public could catch a glimpse of what shady business could be going on behind those walls.

Ayato could bask in awe in the presence of the residence but he remembered that he originally came here following Kurosaka-san.

This seemed to be the limits of his investigation for the day so he was about to make his leave when his phone began to vibrate.

It was not a call, no one ever called him. Instead, it was a message from Yoshinori-san.

[Offer for running is still up. You sure you don't want to come?]

[No thanks! x2]

Typing quickly into his phone, he once again denied the request of the captain of Track and Field. No one was there to tell him but a smile was forming on his face.

Distracted by his phone, he was also unable to sense the approach of a huge looming shadow from behind him.

♡♡♡

"Say, what do you think K stands for?"

One moment ago, Ayato was conversing with a friend over the phone and the next, he found himself being questioned by a hoarse voice.

His vision was obscured by complete darkness as a bag or cloth was seemingly placed above his head.

"Boss, we found this kid wandering suspiciously around the house."

A curt report sounded off from somewhere else. Ayato tried to move towards that sound but he was unable to.

Both his hands and legs were tied to the chair he was sitting on.

"Good work out there. But he's just a kid. What would you do if you traumatised him for life!?"

SMACK!

A sound of a blunt object hitting something soft, followed by a soft groan.

Ayato could not speak with the cloth stuffed in his mouth, nor would anyone else dare to.

Only the soft regular beatings of bamboo hitting rock from a Shishi-odoshi nearby cut through the dead silence.

The cloth draped over him was finally removed and facing him was an old man donning a set of jet-black haori and hakama, rubbing away at a dark-brown stain stuck to his walking stick.

Behind him, an adult man writhing in pain.

For the second time, Ayato heard the most terrifying question to have ever been uttered by mankind:

"Say, what do you think K stands for?"

[End of Chapter]