A girl with ash-colored hair and wavy ends stepped out of a black car as her driver saw her off with a slight gesture. The moment her foot hit the pavement, she headed toward the square at a brisk pace, turning her head from side to side with each step. She was looking for someone.
She had a subtle yet striking presence at the same time. She didn't draw attention in an exaggerated way, but it was hard not to notice her if she crossed your path. She was dressed comfortably and casually, as if she hadn't paid much attention to what she grabbed from the closet: a hoodie covered her torso, its sleeves long enough to hide part of her hands. She wore shorts over black leggings that covered her legs down to a pair of sneakers that moved with rhythm. A small black bag hung from her shoulder, and tied to the strap, a cap added an even more laid-back touch to the outfit.
Her steps paused for a moment when she found who she was looking for: a boy she had met a little while before. Seeing him, a small smile spread across her face. She raised an arm and called out to him from a distance.
***
Kai blinked. Once, twice. There she was, walking toward him. Kanon. She was waving!
It wasn't an illusion. It wasn't a hallucination brought on by anxiety or by too many fizzy candy. It was real, flesh, bone and all the other things humans are made of. And she was getting closer.
Kai turned slightly toward his friends, a stupid smug smile on his face. Matt had one eyebrow raised and his mouth half open; any trace of expression had drained from Shun's face, leaving him completely silent. Gon was coming back with his drink in hand, and was now looking back and forth between Kanon and the others—a second later he took a step back as if to leave, but stopped. He seemed to need to process everything before making any decisions.
Good. He wasn't the only one who could see her. And to think that just a moment ago they had him down as crazy.
'Victory, ahh sweet victory…'
Kai turned back toward Kanon. Then it truly sank in that Kanon was actually there. Without thinking, he adjusted his posture—and the moment he did, he started to tire from keeping his back straight.
'Okay, perfect. Stay calm. Don't say anything stupid. Don't do anything stupid. Act like a normal person.'
Kai stood up to say hello and tripped over thin air just seconds later. He didn't fall—he had good enough balance for that—but he came close for longer than he would have liked. Would that have been more embarrassing than just falling outright…?
'Of course I can't have a clean win…'
He looked up with the absurd hope that Kanon hadn't seen him trip. A hope that instantly evaporated when he saw her look away and cover her face with one hand, clearly holding back a laugh.
Kai wanted to die on the spot. But he simply sighed.
Kanon's voice caught him off guard:
"I thought this before… has anyone ever told you that you sigh too much?"
Kai sighed again, this time without meaning to.
"My dad, all the time. But it's not like I do it on purpose."
Now that he was face to face with Kanon again, he had no idea what to do. Should he shake her hand? Wouldn't that be too formal? Awkward? What about a hug? No, no, absolutely not. What should he say now? Should they bring up the cracked sky? Where they were headed next? Should he introduce her to his friends?
No… that he'd have to do regardless.
Kai turned his head to check that his friends were still there. He took a deep breath to brace himself. Kanon, noticing, raised an eyebrow. Kai pretended not to notice and gestured vaguely behind him.
"So… um, they are… my friends. The ones I told you about. Over text…"
'Brilliant, Kai. What a great introduction—so detailed. I'm sure no one needs names or any kind of context.'
Kanon looked at them with a slight smile and gave a cheerful wave.
"Hey, Kai's friends."
Matt was the first to step forward. Shun raised a hand in greeting without saying a word. Gon, drink in hand, pretended to look the other way as if he had nothing to do with the scene.
"Hi," he murmured with some indescribable emotion, dropping the act a few seconds later.
Matt shook Kanon's hand when he reached her and looked at her with a slightly too serious expression.
"Good afternoon. So… how do you know this guy?" he asked in a flat tone, pointing at Kai with his thumb.
Kai sighed.
"I told you, didn't I? Do you still think the sky thing is made up? I met her earlier."
But Kanon smiled for a fraction of a second when she glanced at Kai, then launched into her performance: she brought a hand to her chest, feigning drama:
"Oh, what a cruel fate. Have you forgotten that this was not our first meeting? Have you forgotten our encounter at the gates of school? It was so… like something out of a movie."
And she looked up at the sky as if reliving the scene with nostalgia.
Kai noticed how the three of them were waiting for an explanation. While Kanon kept her gaze skyward, she watched him out of the corner of her eye, waiting to see how he'd handle it.
"It w-wasn't… What are you talking about? Didn't I just see you running around? We didn't even talk or anything."
Kanon sighed, distraught:
"Oh, poor me. Now they'll think I'm crazy. Cruel fate…"
And somehow, all three of them managed to convince themselves that the one with the problem here… was Kai.
***
The group was already heading toward their destination, split in two: Matt, Shun and Gon walked ahead, while Kai and Kanon were a few steps behind. Kai felt a little uncomfortable with that arrangement, but he didn't want to force Kanon to join the group. They'd come together further along.
"Do you want any more details about any of them?" he asked.
Kanon looked at him, slightly surprised.
"Actually, Shun and… Matt…? are in my class. We've never talked, but I've seen them around. The other guy, Gon—I'm a little curious about him." Kanon put a fairly noticeable question mark on her tone when she said Matt's name.
"Gon? He's a good guy. Sometimes he says questionable things, but he's usually a mediator… when he feels like it."
"If you say so… I guess that's fine. By the way, about 'Matt'?" she asked directly, seeing that Kai wasn't going to bring it up on his own.
"What about him?"
Kanon pointed at him.
"Why do you all call him Matt?"
Kai blinked. They'd been using that nickname for so long that his real name had completely evaporated from his head.
"Ah, right. It's… a nickname, I think? I don't even remember where it came from."
Kanon narrowed her eyes with a smile.
"I see."
After a few seconds of silence, Kanon studied Kai and his friends, her gaze shifting back and forth between him and them. Kai pretended not to notice.
"Kai, are you foreign?" she asked casually, out of nowhere.
Kai raised an eyebrow without saying anything, wondering where the question had come from.
"I-I mean, your features." Kanon tried to justify herself.
Kai glanced alternatively between his hair and his friends'—his own wavy and light brown, theirs jet black, with only Matt having curly hair. He was also the tallest of the group, edging Gon out by barely two centimeters. And while they all had dark brown eyes, Kai's were light.
'Nobody's ever asked me that before, although my mom is foreign…'
He stole a quick glance at Kanon—ashy hair, blue-gray eyes—and brought a hand to his chin.
'If I look foreign…'
"What are you then, an alien?" it slipped out before he realized he'd said it out loud.
Kanon laughed and pointed at her hair.
"It's dyed, okay!" she huffed with a smile.
As they moved towards the building, the surroundings began to change. First narrow streets, then alleyways packed with broken glass, shattered windows and graffiti everywhere. Then buildings on the verge of collapse, shady bars on every corner and the odd homeless person sleeping on cardboard next to a puddle of questionable origin. An unfamiliar, nauseating smell hit them with every turn they took.
Kai noticed none of it. His gaze was vacant, lost in some thought he couldn't have explained even to himself. He had simply switched off. He tended to do this—go into low-power mode.
A guy walked so close to the group he nearly brushed past them. Kanon tensed up.
"Did you see that, Kai? That guy gave off seriously bad vibes… he was tattooed from head to toe. Did you see his tattoos?"
Kai snapped back, confused.
"What? What guy?"
He turned around. There was nobody there. Kanon watched him for a few seconds.
"You were so far gone I almost didn't bother talking to you. Are you okay?"
Matt turned around from the group ahead.
"Don't worry. It's pretty common. He tends to check out and then come back when he feels like it, like paying attention to anything takes real effort."
"I find that quite offensive, actually."
He then remembered the thing about his sister. Two days ago he noticed she had three moles under her eye, forming a triangle. He'd seen her every single day since she was born. And yet, he'd never once noticed them. How bad was that?
After that brief exchange, the group gradually started to come together. Kanon loosened up with every step—dropping comments, replying naturally—to the point that by the time they reached the building they were going to explore, no one would have guessed they'd only just met her.
Kai thought to himself:
'She's settled in really fast, it's impressive. Is this just what normal levels of social ability look like, or is she some kind of social genius?'
The sight was… not exactly encouraging. A two-storey building—if you could call it that when half of the second floor had caved in—completely run-down in a rough part of town was not somewhere anyone with any sense would choose to spend the afternoon. Yet there they were, so the real question was: who was worse off? Kai, for practically dragging the group there, or the others for agreeing to come?
The building was crying out for a fresh coat of paint at the very least; patches of bare brickwork showed through every few metres, walls covered in graffiti and flyers for shady businesses. Open dumpsters lined the side of the place, though whoever had been hanging around clearly hadn't known they were there, given the mess strewn all over the ground.
By the time they arrived it had already gotten dark, and of course the only two streetlights around had their bulbs smashed and wires cut by some vandal.
Kai took a deep breath before wrinkling his face for a moment.
"Well, the air is… breathable, even if it reeks and all that… it's breathable."
Everyone looked at him with the same expression, as if wondering what was wrong with him. Clearly a lot, but it still bothered him that they looked that way.
"We can still turn back, we could go get ice cream or something," Gon offered, with a strange mix of reluctance and indifference.
"Are you serious? Now that we're already here? You all do the same thing every time I want to propose a plan."
For once, this was something Kai had organised and actually wanted to do.
Not that he was particularly passionate about wading through trash and who knows what else, or through half-rotting buildings—but he had long since grown tired of everything, bored of everything around him. Sad for someone who had lived so little, but that was his sad reality.
His one dream was to live the kind of extraordinary experiences the protagonist of a novel might have: find a cursed object at school, have a ghost pop out of a gashapon machine and hand him a magic watch, get summoned to another world by some witch… that sort of thing. Of course real life was far more boring than any of that, which was why he had to manufacture that kind of event himself.
Things hadn't turned out too badly so far—before they'd even reached the place, not only had he witnessed the sky crack open, but a new character had joined the roster. What would happen once they were inside?
"Honestly, the place doesn't inspire much confidence. But unfortunately you're right—we've turned you down too many times. We at least owe you one."
Kai couldn't believe it. Matt was backing him up. Him? The number one opponent of his plans? The ultimate skeptic?
"I'd appreciate the support, but… what do you mean it doesn't inspire confidence? Have you actually looked at it? Look at those broken windows, that fallen door, that graffiti! Have you seen the graffiti?"
And there was no denying it: the graffiti decorating the building had real style. Kai would have loved to watch whoever made it at work. These weren't the erratic, poorly drawn scrawls you usually see tucked away in some random alleyway. No. These were magnificent works of art, worthy of admiration.
"Maybe we should turn back after all…" Matt murmured.
Of course he was going to say that… but at least in that moment Shun took Kai's side—he was fed up with the same old routine too. He was also looking for something more.
"Matt, aren't you being a bit of a coward? What other reason is there for always shooting these plans down?"
'A bit aggressive but not bad,' Kai thought. 'I wouldn't have said anything very different.'
Matt glanced over at Gon as if making his case with his eyes, but it wasn't a particularly strong argument—today was an unusual case where Gon had been the one to say no first. Gon didn't usually take sides. Since Shun often couldn't make it because of work and stuff like that, it was usually Gon, Matt and Kai who hung out together. And Matt always managed to talk Gon out of whatever Kai had in mind.
"So we're two-two, aren't we?" Kai declared, somewhat defiantly, one eyebrow raised.
"Looks that way," Matt agreed.
Of course, this had never been a democracy. Kai had only brought up the tie to set up his final move. If he won the argument, they couldn't say no anymore. And who picks a fight they know they can't win?
Kai probably would. God knows he was an impulsive one.
But this time he had already spotted the key to his victory before things had even begun. And he didn't need to say another word.
A fifth variable was gazing at the building with bright eyes. That gleam, that expression said it all: she had never done anything like this in her life, and she was dying to go in.
Kai didn't even need to open his mouth for Kanon to fall on his side. And once they were a majority, Gon would too. Matt would be the only vote against.
But honestly… who cares about a minority of one?
Just as Kai had predicted, that's exactly how it played out. Everything unfolded according to plan—his carefully thought-out and not at all spontaneous plan.
He was on his way to lock up his bike alongside Shun, while the others waited at the entrance. A padlock hadn't felt like enough, so he hid it behind the dumpsters. He was still uneasy about it.
"Right, is everyone ready? You can still turn back, you know," Kai said, shooting a none-too-subtle look at Matt.
"You don't have to tell me. I know I can leave."
'What? Did he miss the sarcasm? Is he actually going to leave?'
Matt was looking at him with a calm smile. Kai sighed when he realized Matt was throwing it back at him.
Everyone put on the masks and gloves they'd bought and pulled up their hoods. Kanon, of course, wasn't prepared; until a couple of hours ago she hadn't even known she'd be coming here. Kai rummaged through his backpack looking for his spare gloves and the extra mask he'd bought by accident.
He held out the gloves and mask to Kanon without saying anything; he didn't know what to say—in fact he wasn't even looking at her. He didn't see the way Kanon's expression lit up as she took the mask and gloves with delight, didn't even notice that the gloves were slightly too big when she put them on.
"Right, now that we're all set let's go in."
Kanon snapped to attention, straightening her back.
"Sir, yes sir!"
Kai returned the salute and walked up to the door, phone in hand, pulling out his pocket knife. He ended up leaving his flashlight behind because of his sister's meddling.
'Good thing they didn't see that, who knows what they would have said.'
They had all seen it, but decided to take pity on him and say nothing.
And that silence was broken by the loud creak of the door as Kai shouldered it open. A cloud of dust drifted at ankle height and Kai drew in a breath through his mask.
'Ahh, the smell of adventure, exactly as unpleasant as expected.'