Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 8 Chapter 1

Status: Incomplete

38% completed

Chapter 1: Fireworks and Friends

What if you knew you might die tomorrow; what would you do?

I had thought long and hard about this.

Like eating a parfait until you were full or using all your pocket money to buy every CD you wanted.

I had plenty of delusions about such nonsense but always, I would arrive at the same answer.

Of course, my answer might not be the same as everyone else's. The answer everyone came up with might be different for all I know.

However, I was certain that I would be with the ones I liked. That was because I did not have a lover in the same school as me.

Sharing so many laughs with the people I liked, laughing until our tears were seriously starting to flow; I thank them all for that.

Thank you for being at my side.

Thank you for laughing with me today.

Because you are all here, my life has been fun, I said.

However, regarding my own death, I want to die not knowing when it comes. That way, no one need feel sad for me. No one need undergo a colorless life because of me.

That's why all I want is to have fun with everybody.

Those guys sure are an interesting bunch among other things.

I just wish to share many smiles with them.

And thus disappear like that.

Leaving behind those memories, I would disappear.

With a feeling of "I haven't seen her lately," I would disappear.

I know I might die tomorrow.

I know the near future might be the day of my death.

That is what I want to do.

And so,

"......"

From the time she was a child, Aomi Izumi knew her time of death.

With each passing year, the tumor that had formed in her brain grew larger.

Doctors feared that she would be dead before her 18th birthday. To top it off, this was a disease without any known cause and thus, no treatment for it.

Her parents desperately ran around numerous hospitals but they all also weren't able to do anything about it.

And so, from that time onwards she always had the same fantasy.

Perhaps she would die tomorrow?

Perhaps she would die a month later?

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

"......I'll be 16 very soon and before I know it, I have only 2 years left."

Izumi murmured to herself in despair.

The place was the student council room.

The date was the 1st of September; the day summer ended.

As expected with today being the last day of summer, the school was devoid of students.

Deserted and silent, in the center of the room where nothing else could be heard apart from the voices of cicada,

"aa...mou...today, summer ends," she said exasperatedly.

"I...."

She started to say, but quickly swallowed those words. They were words that cannot be said. They were words she would not say.

(That is why— I only have two more summers left— I should not be saying stupid things.)

"I send a mail and e-veryone doesn't respond. Let's write the same mail again and bug them."

She said with a playful smile on her face.

Pushing down on the desk with her slender legs which extended from a short skirt, she inclined the chair which she was sitting on without turning over. Being the only person in the room now, she didn't care that her panties could be seen under her upturned skirt.

"Huhuhu♪"

With that, she hummed as she handled her mobile, pushing the resend button.

The recipients were everyone in the student council. The mail's content was

"Hey, everyone, today's the last day of summer, in case you all didn't know! Soooo.....everyone! Let's assemble in the student council room today and have a hell of a time! The fireworks are already prepared. And so, let's party until dusk and then light the school up with fireworks! Dinner will be pizza among other things.

—Izumi"

After confirming the contents of her message, she cast a glance at the four firework sets in a corner of the student council room that she bought with her pocket money.

"U..mu...This is going to be fun."

She muttered in a rather lonely manner.

With that, she bit into the Gari Gari Kun in her right hand.

One bite.

Two bites.

Three.

Eating ice-cream in the air-conditioned student council room, Izumi's body was quickly cooled.

After four bites, she looked at the Gari Gari Kun's stick. Written on it, was the character ア.

"Wawawa, isn't this atari! Lucky!"

She squealed.

But of course, being alone in the student council room, there was no one around to share her delight.

And so she....

"Che....being alone is boring..."

Her lips pouting slightly to a point.

At that moment, her mobile vibrated.

A mail had arrived.

"Ohhh....they've replied...!"

She said as she opened her phone.

It was a mail from Serge. On it was "Ah, apologies Izumi-san. Today's the last adventure of summer and I have a previous arrangement with my partner. But I'll join you tomorrow."

Adding to this was a mail from Serge's younger twin brother Hasga.

"In the event that this isn't the case, we'll set the fireworks off some other time."

In the end, that was all the mail she got.

The others, Gekkou, Mirai, Taito, Himea, she did not get any mail from.

"Everyone's busy huh."

She sighed as she stared at her phone. Standing up, she headed towards the corner of the room and looked down at the four sets of fireworks she bought.

"What to do with these... Don't tell me I'll end up playing with fireworks alone?"

What was she saying...anyway, that sounded rather fun, she thought.

A lone girl setting off four sets of fireworks at the end of summer.

"Te...what's this, it's good being alone..."

She said but what was good about it, she didn't know as she turned her gaze outside the window.

While it may not yet be dusk perhaps setting off fireworks to clear the mood would be a great idea she thought as she looked at the sky outside the window.

However, out there....

"Eh?!"

Her voice raised reflexively.

Why is there a girl suddenly appearing outside the window?

It was a girl she did not recognize.

She was without a doubt, not Japanese with her odd silver hair and blue eyes.

She was wearing a sailor uniform that did not belong to Miyasaka High but which appeared to be the garb of some rich girls' school. Her short skirt was at the same level as Izumi's and at her hip was an unusually long nihontou which completed her strange appearance.

She was a really pretty girl.

Her age was around Izumi's fifteen with it being possibly one, two years younger.

However, that pretty girl was outside the window of the student council room five storeys off the ground. Additionally, her slender legs were raised upwards with all her strength.

Those legs forcefully struck the window.

The window did not break.

In fact, there was no sound from the window being kicked.

With a powerful barrier having been cast over this student council room by Gekkou, such simple intrusions wouldn't work.

But the silver-haired girl just smiled amusedly.

From her hip, she drew her nihontou.

With that, Izumi finally....

"Crap."

It was an enemy.

An attacking enemy.

Who that girl was, Izumi may not know but it was obvious she wanted to invade this place.

And furthermore, she was apparently capable of penetrating the protective barrier that the Military maintained over Miyasaka High.

"Wh...what the hell?"

Izumi sputtered as she turned to run.

She ran away from the window, towards the exit of the classroom and out into the hallway.

However, there were sounds from the direction of the corridor. They sounded like the echoing footsteps of ten or so running men.

"Here as well...!?"

Izumi faced down the length of the corridor.

From the direction of the far end came a group of armed troops.

"Wa wa, dammit!"

Izumi frantically shut the door of the classroom and engaged the lock.

She dashed to the back of the room and opened the locker where cleaning implements were kept. She grabbed the two pieces of the charm that was kept at the top, returned to the door and stuck one of them on the lock.

"Lock."

A voice resounded from the door.

Ignoring that, Izumi ran towards the front entrance of the classroom, shut the door and locked it.

"Open up!"

The armed soldiers angrily cried from outside.

They rammed the door. Cracks began to readily appear in it.

One more kick and the door would be broken down.

But before the fatal kick could be delivered,

"Teriya!"

Izumi stuck the other charm onto the lock.

Once again,

"Lock"

A voice resounded from the door.

At the same time, the barrier which had been prepared on the door beforehand activated.

The door became unyielding in the face of the soldiers' kicks. On top of that, the sound of the kicks faded to nothing.

Faced with this, the soldiers opened fire with their machineguns.

Amidst the dakadakadaka of gunfire, it was completely different from an overseas action movie. With roaring bursts that shook the room to its core, round after round was pumped into the door in an attempt to shatter it.

However, despite all that, the door did not even move an inch.

“Oooh….Gekkou-pon’s awesome!”

Izumi said in response to that.

Swiftly moving back two, three steps, her eyes narrowed.

“But I’m trapped in here….”

She said in an unexpectedly excited manner.

Through the small glass panel on the door, Izumi could see a group of around ten armed soldiers.

Behind them, the silver-haired girl raised her sword to slice the glass panel apart.

And despite the fact that she could hardly be more trapped with enemies closing on every side,

“Eh, he, he”

Izumi still laughed in a slightly amused manner.

She began to work the mobile in her hand.

“There’s an invasion of the student council room. From the point of view of this idiot who’s afraid of dying before her 18th birthday, it seems as if Death is at her side every day. Well, is this the fate of our trapped Izumi-chan…!?”

She said. Seeing Gekkou’s name in her contact list, she pushed the button.

However, there was no call tone. Instead,

“The number you have dialed is not responding…”

“Sorry Gekkou-pon. I’m a prince in distress!”

As she said that, two more people joined the enemies outside the glass panel.

The silver-haired, nihontou wielding girl and a tiny girl around the age of eleven or twelve appeared.

As expected, that girl too was wearing a white and red based uniform of a wealthy girls’ school.

Black hair.

White skin.

Eyes of deep crimson.

From that alone, it was clear she was not human.

While her face was cute, she was however, utterly devoid of spirit or vigor.

The silver-haired sword-wielding girl spoke to the tiny girl. And as the barrier was frail, her voice could be heard.

“Pelty, take out that barrier as well as this glass pane.”

And with that, the tiny girl called Pelty nodded.

“Uun”

She gently struck the glass with her hands.

In that instant, Pelty’s hair spread out in all directions.

It was just like the transformation that occurred when Gekkou’s demon seal on Mirai was broken.

Swiftly, power gathered in the heart of that girl.

Additionally, the uniform she was wearing split open, revealing a black dress-like outfit with a fluttering mantle beneath.

And thus Pelty said,

“Gather here, Death.”

And her hands struck the glass

At that moment!

“….”

At that moment….!

The glass…..did not break. For some reason, nothing happened.

Izumi reflexively gasped.

“Eh?”

Once again, Pelty looked up without any expression on her face at the nihontou girl.

“Liene”

“Yes?”

“…..I failed.”

“I can tell just by looking! Anyway since your power can only be invoked around once out of every five attempts, rapid fire!”

The nihontou wielding girl called Liene cried while pointing at the glass.

At that, Pelty made a face like that of a child throwing a tantrum at her parents.

“…..Don’t order me.”

“Just do it already!”

“…..mu….”

Without expression, Pelty….

“Ei”

Struck the window.

“Ei”

Strike.

Izumi raised her brows at that.

According to the conversation just now, Pelty’s power had a one out of five chance of not triggering. However, it was simple for five strikes on the glass.

The probability of her power activating was 20%.

She may not know what is going to happen when Pelty’s power went off but nevertheless, a power with such a stringent condition for activation could only be a strong one.

If that was true, then the barrier attached to the glass would be shattered—

“Ei, ei, ei”

It would really be shattered.

“Ei, ei, ei, ei…Eh? It won’t activate.”

“Tte, why the hell are you so unlucky!?”

It seemed that the glass panel would really be destroyed a moment ago yet for some reason they were noisily arguing outside.

Apparently, it wasn’t the case that Pelty’s power would be definitely invoked if she struck the glass five times. Rather, there was a 20% chance of activation each time.

As such, there was above all, a possibility that she would fail again and again without end.

“…..”

Izumi looked at the Gari-Gari Kun stick in her left hand that had been forgotten up till now.

The ice-cream had already melted all over her hand but in the middle of the stick, the characters for atari shone brilliantly.

“Ho-ho-ho. I, who got the Gari-Gari Kun atari today, shall bravely take on chance!”

No sooner had she said this, she deftly manipulated the phone in her right hand until Kurosu-sensei’s name appeared.

She pushed the button.

The call tone buzzed three times

“Yes?”

Kurosu answered.

“Ah, sensei….right now…”

Izumi responded.

“You are under attack?”

“Ah…so you know about the current situation too? In that case, you could help me he-“

But Kurosu interrupted,

“But right now I’m also fighting with a witch…”

As he was speaking, a girl’s voice could be heard,

“You are ignoring me, an A-Class witch? Ha ha, It seems you have a death wish, Kurosu Philier!”

“Oh, oh…hold on Izumi-san.”

“Eh?”

“Let me kill her first, then I’ll call you back later.”

“ Wai-”

But the line had been cut.

On top of that, again from the side,

“Ei”

Pelty’s voice rang out.

At that moment, at that very moment this time round!

In the heart of her tiny hand, light burned.

However, that was light made of darkness. For an instant , that light burned brilliantly.

And in that very instant, the glass panel vanished.

No, it wasn’t just the glass panel alone. Rather the frame as well, along with the entire wall which extended up and down through the various floors of the building vanished without a single trace.

“…..Nn. It works now.”

Pelty said without any expression yet she puffed her chest out with pride. At this, Liene,

“Well done!”

She exclaimed while rubbing Pelty’s head.

Pelty nodded in satisfaction and while looking up at Liene, said

“….Are you praising me?”

“Yeah”

“…..Huhuhu. I see. Yeah…that’s because I have enough worth to be praised.”

She said.

The two of them entered the student council room.

Having ultimately failed to call for help, Izumi was face to face with the approaching enemy.

“Wa-oh, maybe this is really ‘game over’ Izumi-chan?”

She said to herself.

Honestly speaking, she was the weakest member in this student council room.

She could do with a personality like Gekkou’s, and she did not have an immortal body like Taito. Neither was she a demon like Mirai-chan or a magic-user like Hime-chan.

She was just a simple human without any of these.

“How am I going to fend them off ….”

She said while staring at the nihontou maiden and the “ei, ei” calling girl.

She concealed her mobile at her back, in her hand and blindly sought her contact list. Right now, the cursor was hovering over Kurosu-sensei’s name. She shifted it to the icon immediately on its left.

Nihontou in hand, Liene approached.

“Hey, you. Are you a member of Miyasaka High’s Student Council?”

She asked.

Smiling, Izumi replied,

“No….errm….when asking about someone shouldn’t you introduce yourself first? This is just like what you would read in a manga…”

However she failed to draw any response from Liene who swiftly drew a step closer. She raised her blade and rested it on the nape of Izumi’s neck. With just a slight tremor, she could feel it slicing into her thin skin.

Unlike anything she’d ever read in a manga before, if she tried anything funny, her neck would be severed. In the light of this development, Izumi looked up at the nihontou, then at Liene.

“I may be Japanese but that’s the first time I’ve seen a real nihontou.” She said.

Liene glared at her with those beautiful blue eyes.

“Quit joking. Just answer my questions. Fail to do so and your head will fly yeah?”

“But if my head flies then I can’t answer your questions no?”

“Don’t try quibbling with me.”

“Ah ha…I’ll take note of that.”

Izumi laughed.

To the point that her body was almost trembling, she laughed shrilly.

Liene looked at her with a suspicious expression.

“Where are you getting such calm from?”

“Who knows?”

“I’ll really kill you if you continue shitting with me you know?”

Izumi smiled

“Please go ahead.”

And she raised her chin, baring her neck.

Making a nervous, slightly ecchi expression, she asked

“Errm….as this is my first time….it won’t hurt right?”

A bewildered look came over Liene, but Izumi paid her no heed, stretching her head further towards the sword.

Liene drew back her blade in shock.

She took a step back.

And then,

“What the….this person….”

She said in a slightly frightened voice.

And then, an expression as if she’d realized something came over her face.

“….A trap huh”

She groaned.

Izumi laughed.

“No, no…..This is no trap. Here, here, come slice my head off.”

“I’m not falling for that!”

“Eh….I’ve always wanted to have my head cut off by a Japanese sword.”

Izumi said as she smiled mirthfully.

Liene stared warily at Izumi.

“….”

Izumi relaxed a little.

It appears she had the initiative.

For the powerless Izumi, this was her only chance in the confrontation.

She had to prey on the fears of her opponent who was in the heart of Military territory and get her thinking that the person in the student council room of Miyasaka High cannot possibly be a mere human.