Night settled over the shelter dormitory.
Inside her bed, Asa Mitaka lay awake, unable to sleep. The silence felt unfamiliar without Gurambun beside her. She kept turning over the same thoughts.
Was Gurambun sleeping comfortably in its new home now?
Did it have a warm cat bed?
Was it alone, or surrounded by other cats?
If there were other cats, would they fight?
She was not the only one still awake.
A girl with short yellow hair turned over in the neighboring bed and whispered softly.
"Hey, Asa. Are you asleep?"
Asa blinked at the ceiling.
"Hmm? Hashimoto, were you calling me?"
"Yeah," Hashimoto Saori replied quietly. "Where did your cat go?"
"You mean Gurambun? The dorm manager already sent it to a new home. Why?"
Hashimoto hesitated. Her expression grew uneasy even in the dim light.
"This afternoon, when everyone went to the river to catch fish... they saw a cat underwater. It looked a lot like yours."
Asa's heart suddenly tightened.
"It has to be a coincidence," she muttered quickly, almost convincing herself. "Teacher Igawa said Gurambun went to a new home."
Creak.
The dormitory door slowly opened.
A flashlight beam cut through the darkness.
"Children, it's lights out. Stop whispering and get some rest."
The voice belonged to the dorm manager, Igawa Yui.
Asa sat upright, staring toward the figure standing in the shadows.
"Teacher Igawa... Gurambun is doing well, right?"
"Gurambun?"
Igawa paused.
Then she laughed softly, though the warmth from earlier in the day was completely gone.
Her voice turned cold.
"I threw that dead cat into the river and drowned it."
Silence filled the room.
"Asa, everyone here lost their families," Igawa continued calmly. "Yet you still had a cat keeping you company. That isn't fair, is it?"
"...Ah?"
The world around Asa felt frozen.
Memories began crashing together inside her mind.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Wishing Asa happiness and health.
Quick, blow out the candles.
She inhaled and blew.
The candles vanished in a single breath.
Asa is amazing. Try on the new clothes Mama bought you.
You are growing so fast.
Then wind roared.
With one breath from the Typhoon Devil, the house disappeared.
Is this cat injured?
We have to save it.
Asa, run!
Bang.
Her mother shoved her away and was crushed beneath a speeding car.
At least... the cat survived.
Let's name it Gurambun.
Teacher Igawa, please let Gurambun be happy.
We saw a cat in the river. It looked like Asa's.
Everyone lost their families. Why should Asa still have something?
It isn't fair.
It isn't right.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Asa's thoughts collapsed into chaos.
Her body suddenly flipped upside down.
Slowly, impossibly, she began floating upward.
Yoru clenched her teeth.
"Damn it... has she completely shut down?"
An invisible force dragged them toward the sky.
Clap.
Yoru grabbed a roadside guardrail just in time, stopping their ascent.
Nearby, Kobeni Higashiyama let out a terrified scream as her body lifted into the air.
And she was rising faster than Asa.
"What the hell is happening?!"
Yoru tightened her grip on the railing with one hand and lunged forward, grabbing Kobeni's arm with the other.
All around them, people began floating upward.
Drivers were pulled from their seats.
Cars lost control and slammed into each other, triggering crashes across the street.
Fire spread.
Smoke filled the air.
Above the city, doors suddenly appeared in the night sky.
Doors leading to Hell.
They opened and closed repeatedly, swallowing the humans drifting upward like offerings.
Walking calmly through the chaos was the Falling Devil, holding a severed head delicately in both hands. Her posture was elegant, almost graceful.
"The heavier the sorrow," she said pleasantly, "the easier humans fall upward into deep space."
She smiled faintly.
"Humans seasoned with tragedy taste the best. Please enjoy yourselves."
Yoru's expression darkened.
Her control over Asa's body was weakening fast. Asa's grief and fear were overwhelming everything.
Worse still, she was holding onto Kobeni, whose despair ran even deeper.
The strain felt unbearable.
The guardrail creaked loudly under the pressure.
It would not last much longer.
Yoru snarled.
"Coward, get a grip! Wake Asa up right now!"
Her voice sharpened with threat.
"Otherwise I'll turn you into a weapon!"
But the threat only made things worse.
Kobeni trembled violently, tears streaming downward while her body continued rising toward the sky.
Her emotions finally shattered.
"My parents bully me!"
"My teachers bully me!"
"Devils bully me!"
"And now even you, Asa, want to bully me too?!"
Her voice broke into hysterical sobs.
"Why does everyone bully me?!"
"I didn't do anything wrong!"
"This is all... all your fault!"
Three Years Earlier
Seventeen year old Kobeni Higashiyama was still a high school student.
After classes ended, she waited outside a junior high school to pick up her younger brother from cram school.
Kobeni was the fourth child in her family.
She had two older sisters and an older brother.
The eldest sisters were twins, six years older than her. Both were already married and rarely contacted the family anymore.
Her older brother, two years older than Kobeni, was a ronin, a student retaking university entrance exams after failing to achieve his desired results.
Their parents fully supported him.
He had always earned the best grades, so they believed investing in his future was worth it.
With everyone else busy, the responsibility of picking up the youngest sibling naturally fell to Kobeni.
She never complained.
Among all her siblings, her relationship with her younger brother, Higashiyama Yori, was the closest.
By 9:30 p.m., a small boy carrying a backpack walked out through the school gate.
He looked strikingly similar to Kobeni.
Not just in appearance, but in personality as well.
The moment he stepped outside, he nervously looked around.
"Yori, over here."
Kobeni waved while standing behind a small food stall, wearing an apron as she cooked oden.
She had reached an agreement with the stall owner.
From five in the evening until eleven at night, she would run the stall after school.
In return, she received twenty percent of the earnings.
Kobeni thought it was a good deal. Otherwise, she would only be wasting time.
Like her brother, she was approaching university entrance exams.
If she saved enough money now, she could pay for tuition herself someday.
Still, her grades were far behind his.
Sometimes she envied him.
If she could achieve even his first exam score, she would already feel satisfied.
Unlike him, she had no grand ambitions.
Any university that accepted her would be enough.
Yori walked behind the stall and carefully set down his backpack.
"I... I'll help you cook, Sister."
Warmth filled Kobeni's chest.
Her older brother would never help like this. He would only tease her before eating everything.
"Alright," she said with a small smile. "Eat this first. I heated it specially for you."