“Why did you do that?”
Since the lights were off, the clouded sky had made everything darker. It was hard to see the appearance of the girls standing in front of each other.
“We are friends, aren’t we?” one of them asked with a voice that was about to break. “We promised we would watch the stars together, didn’t we?”
The room was briefly illuminated by a lightning and it revealed a girl with pink hair crying while clenching her teeth. But the one in front of her remained silent. That attitude ended with her patience.
“Answer me!”
The skies roared with her.
“Stop this nonsense, Hoshigawa. No star will shine in the middle of this storm.”
Finally daring to reply, she slowly turned around. One would easily describe the dark-haired girl’s smile as evil.
※※※
It was thirteenth day of April, 2015. A Monday which began just like any other.
The cat-shaped alarm clock woke Rizel up early in the morning. She got dressed for school and walked downstairs to eat the healthy breakfast prepared by her mother. After carefully washing her dishes, she brushed her teeth, grabbed her school bag and took off.
A 20 minutes trip got her to her destination: the Arimyou Middle School located near Tokyo Bay. The girl reached the lockers, changed her shoes and made her way to the 2-A classroom on the second floor of the first building. Unfortunately two of her classmates decided it was a good idea to have a conversation right in front of the door.
“Why are we still discussing this? There's always weird people like him. Just last year we were asking ourselves why would anyone walk through the hallways wearing a swimsuit, pretending to be a magical girl.”
“Hey, maybe she would join his pirate group!”
They were talking about the events which happened the week before, during the entrance ceremony, in which a boy wearing the uniform from a different school interrupted the speech of the student's President. While there wasn't any important consequence, the mystery of the boy's identity was still a topic of interest around Arimiyou's hallways.
“Excuse me, would you be so kind as to step aside?” It was with a beaming smile that the girl approached her classmates. “You're getting on the way of mankind's progress.”
The blunt declaration left them silent. All they could do was move aside and let Rizel walk inside.
“Thanks, you two, I'm sure humanity will appreciate it.”
Rizel reached her desk and put her bag on it. It was then that her classmates regained the ability to speak.
“Damn Hoshigawa, who does she think she is? Dying her hair pink and wearing those star stickers.”
“Guess we should be more careful when talking about last year's 'magical girl' incident.”
They spoke in a low tone, but even if she could hear what they said, it wouldn't bother her. It's not like they were the first students ever to criticize her. She was more than used to her classmates dissing her in whispers. All she could and was willing to do was to keep her free-speaking attitude.
Yes, so far everything felt just the same, Rizel was accustomed to a boring school life. She didn't have a lot of friends, and did not participate in any extracurricular activities. All she had to do was get into the classroom, sit through class and comply with the assignments.
“Rizeru-chan!” screamed a little girl with a hair bun, as she rushed to her desk.
“Hello, Asucchi.”
“I saw him, Rizeru-chan! I saw…!”
She was starting to lose her breath. The sight of her friend rushing into the classroom wasn't surprising at all. Asuka had a habit of getting late to school.
“Calm down, Asucchi, you're here now. What's the matter?”
After a long, heavy breath, Asuka tried again.
“Vanilla-sensei… He's coming… and he—!”
“Good morning, students!”
Then it hit her. Not only did their teacher arrive, he was not alone. With a bit of delay, the class representative gave the order to stand and bow.
“Today a new student will be joining our class. And he comes from Hokkaido!”
Everyone immediately recognized the wild-haired boy who came with their professor. Dressed in a different uniform, wearing his jacket over his shoulders as if it was a cape, his right eye covered by an old-style eyepatch, he was without a doubt the intruder of the entrance ceremony. The self-proclaimed Captain stood in front of the class.
“Please, write your name on the blackboard.”
The students stared in silence. The arrival of the intruder sparked silent reactions on them. Some were trying to hide their laughter, others murmured about his appearance. Rizel took a quick glance at her friend and noticed her eyes shining out of admiration.
The boy finished writing. The characters read “Shiroku Yume”.
“So, Yume-kun, would you like to tell us anything about yourself?”
He smiled and looked at the baffled expressions of his new classmates.
“Listen up, Arimyou students. I'm sure most of you remember me, so there's not a lot to say at this point.”
Rizel was unsure about what to think. On one hand a student who claims to be a pirate could be the most interesting thing that has happened on the school in a long time, but why should she care about a wolf of the sea?
“I am Shiroku Yume, captain of the Space Pirates of the Round Table!”
“… Alright! Well, Yume-kun, please take the free seat at the back of the classroom.”
He followed the instruction and walked to his desk, passing right in the middle of the two friends.
“Now, everyone pay attention, I'm about to start the roll call.”
Without wasting a second, Rizel took a pink notebook and a mechanical pencil out of her bag. She skipped several doodled pages before finding a blank one and started sketching a girlish figure, with hair styled in twin-tails, wearing an unusual attire reminiscent of a sailor uniform, and holding a staff with five orbs and a star-shaped ornament.
Space. That one word changed everything for her.
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