Prologue

……Sigh, again?

I heaved a sigh as I entered the classroom and looked down at my seat. The dismantled pieces of my desk and chair were scattered in the place where they once stood. I heard the sound of giggles and laughter, so I turned to look.

The boys were staring at me with smirks on their faces, not even bothering to look away, as if they were trying to tell me that they were the ones who had done it. And yet, they were laughing up a storm, as if they were convinced that they wouldn’t be scolded for it.

…What a load of crap.

But I had to commend them for the hard work they had put in. Rather, I was impressed that they’d put in this much effort for something so stupid. What was so funny about this?

When the other classmates who were coming into school saw me and the state of my seat, they didn’t even react anymore. They hardly spared a single glance at me before starting to chat with their friends.

My classmates must have already gotten used to this situation. In fact, this was the 37th time that there was something wrong with my seat in the morning. It wasn’t a surprise that they didn’t think anything of it anymore. The people who had looked at me with pity in the beginning now already accepted it as a normal part of their lives. I couldn’t do anything about it, so I took the dismantled parts of the desk to an empty classroom and brought over a spare desk.

Then, after I had made another trip to bring over a chair, I noticed a vase of flowers sitting on top of my desk.

“Huuuh~? Did someone pass away today?” One of the guys mocked in a mischievous tone. The boys around him laughed with him along with a few girls as well.

At that moment, our homeroom teacher came in. He noticed me and furrowed his brows. “Hey, Bouchibouchi. Hurry up and get to your seat.”

….The same as always with this teacher.

The typical fencesitter type who didn’t like dealing with trouble. No, if anything, I would say it was more like he was tacitly supporting it. How could someone dare to take up a job as a teacher if they could just turn a blind eye to these kinds of situations over and over again?

I did as I was told and took my seat. My seat was at the very back, so I left the vase on the floor behind me.

After homeroom, class began immediately. For a while, a moment of peace ensued.

But when recess rolled around, one of the guy students, as always, came over and kicked my chair for absolutely no reason.

“….!?”

I almost fell out of my chair, but I managed to stop myself from falling over. Seeing me frantically catch myself, the bunch of idiots all started laughing. I glared at the guy who had kicked my chair.

“Oh? Got somethin’ to say, loser?”

I knew it was pointless to say anything. But even still, I couldn’t help reflexively directing my anger towards this guy. I just told him to not kick my chair, and then I settled back into my seat.

Watching this scene unfold, some of the more timid girls left the classroom. The guys who didn’t want to get involved tried to pretend to be asleep. Why had I fallen into this situation?

The reason was quite simple. It was because I had stood up against the guy who had absolute power in the class… or rather, the entire school. I glanced over at the culprit who had put me in this entire situation.

He was obnoxiously chewing his gum while looking over at me like I was a pest. He was a typical delinquent type of student with dyed blond hair and multiple ear piercings. However, contrary to his appearance, he properly attended classes, and his grades were among the highest in the grade. The teachers’ impressions of him weren’t bad. Rather than that, they were afraid of opposing him.

After all, this guy―Ohsaka Aito, was the grandson of the chairman of this school, Ohsaka High School. The chairman really doted on and spoiled this grandson of his. It was well known that Ohsaka had caused problems that involved the police several times, but he had used his connections to cover them up.

The authority of the chairman. No one could go against Ohsaka, who used this authority to push others around to his heart’s content. As a matter of fact, everyone spent their time paying attention to him and trying to curry favor with him. However, I was the only one who had stood up to this moron who tried to act like a king.

About two months ago, I entered my second year of high school and was unfortunately placed in the same class as Ohsaka.

“Hey, you. I’m thirsty. Go buy me a beer.”

Naturally, I thought he was joking at the time, so I laughed it off and responded with, “No way.”

After which, he suddenly punched me in the face.

At this point, I said, “Alright. Let’s do this then, scumbag.”

I got pissed off and punched him back, right in the face.

As a matter of course, my actions caused an uproar. After all, someone had just raised their hand against a person whom everyone had to go out of their way to suck up to.

After that, Ohsaka always had his eye on me, which was why I was being bullied like this. From that day on, my friends and the acquaintances who I used to talk with began to distance themselves from me. In the end, no one wanted to get close to me. On top of that, many of them followed Ohsaka’s lead and joined in on bullying me. Some of them had even been good friends with me during our first year.

In the end, human beings only considered themselves important and just wanted to protect their own little world. There was no right or wrong. It was something that was instinctive, so I couldn’t hate them for that. But even still, after experiencing the actions of all the people of this school, I had given up on expecting anything from humans.

For example, even if I took advantage of an even greater power to somehow remove Ohsaka from this school, it would be impossible to have a peaceful life with these people afterwards.

I already knew deep down that humans weren’t beings that were deserving of trust.

During recess, Ohsaka and the others left the classroom to go to the restroom. I was thinking that I could spend this time in peace, when…

“U-Umm… Bouchi-kun?”

The one who spoke to me was Totoki Koine, a girl who was the class representative in name alone.

“…Do you need something?”

With a short, nervous laugh, Totoki worriedly glanced over at the classroom door to check before speaking.

“Well, uh, a-are you okay?” (Totoki)

“It’s none of your business.” (Bouchi)

“…I-I’m… sorry…” (Totoki)

It was just irritating seeing her try to express her concern for me while being terrified of Ohsaka and the others coming back.

“Even though Totoki finally went out of her way to talk to him.”

“I know, right? Who the hell does he think he is?”

“Isn’t that why he’s always being bullied? What an idiot.”

The other classmates were uttering such misdirected comments. Don’t talk if you don’t know anything. It’s all of you who are the wrong-doers here.

I had told her to just leave me alone, so she returned to her seat after apologizing to me one more time, her eyes downcast.

Then, at lunch time, I was taken to the back of the school building by Ohsaka and his cronies, no questions asked. This was a familiar act that occurred all the time, and there was nothing surprising about it. That said, they dragged me here about once every 3 days. In short, it depended on Ohsaka’s mood.

I was going to be beaten and kicked, and all of the contents of my wallet would be taken from me. Of course, that was why I didn’t even bring my wallet anymore.

“…Oi, oi. Try to resist a little, won’t you? You’re so damn boring. You were at least reckless enough to hit me at first.” (Ohsaka)

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Then get those three guys stepping on me to move aside! I’ll mess you up!

My face and body were already swollen like a boxer after a long match.

“I’m already tired of beating him up… Should we try killing him?”

When Ohsaka muttered that, the ones who turned pale weren’t me, but his cronies. They were fine with punching and kicking me, but naturally, killing was out of the question.

“I mean, who would be sad even if this one piece of garbage were to die? I already know that your parents are dead. Ever since your first year, you’ve aaalways been living alone. Ah, what a pitiful guy~!” (Ohsaka)

How dare you say that when you don’t mean it at all.

“Oi, Ishida. Cut his throat with this.” (Ohsaka)

Ohsaka pulled an army knife out from his pocket and handed it to Ishida, one of his cronies. But…

“Eh, m-m-me…?” (Ishida)

“Who else would be other than you?” (Ohsaka)

“T-That… that would be…” (Ishida)

As expected, killing someone was too much for him, as his swimming gaze clearly suggested. The other guys were averting their eyes, pretending to turn a blind eye to it. Really, what a rotten bunch.

“It’s fine… just kill him.” (Ohsaka)

“….” (Ishida)

Annoyed that he didn’t say anything, Ohsaka delivered a kick to Ishida’s stomach. The defenseless Ishida took the kick with a loud grunt and sank down to his knees.

Ohsaka came up to me and slapped me on the cheek with the flat of the knife.

“Look here. If you cry and beg for help, I’ll let you go, okay? What’s the point of not giving in?” (Ohsaka)

“……” (Bouchi)

I just directly returned Ohsaka’s gaze without saying anything.

“Tch… those eyes again, huh? …Man, what a killjoy.” (Ohsaka)

With that, he seemed to lose interest, so he turned around and left. The rest of his gang hurriedly followed after him, carrying off the guy who had taken Ohsaka’s kick.

“…Ugh…!”

I dragged myself over to the wall and managed to sit myself up with my back against it.

“Ouch… Hah, I guess he got me good again.” (Bouchi)

The wounds I received three days ago haven’t even fully healed yet…

I’d reckon that it wasn’t really like me to keep getting beat up like this, but I couldn’t say anything back since they would always beat me to a pulp every time. As soon as I healed, they would beat me up again, so it was like going in circles.

After sitting there for a while, the bell rang. It was the start of the next class.

“……Sigh.”

But despite everything, I would never give in to them. I would rather die than bow down to those guys.

Even if they torture me or kill me, I will live my life defying them until my last breath.

That phrase was the only belief I had inherited from my late father.

“Listen up, Bouchi Hiiro. Don’t live a lame life by averting your eyes from things you don’t agree with.”

My father protected that belief until the very end of his life. I respected my father more than anyone else in the world. I wanted to be just like him in that aspect.

This was exactly why I refused to run away or turn a blind eye to things I didn’t agree with, even if it meant facing this terrible bullying where not a single person would help me.

“I… won’t lose, Dad.”

I clenched my teeth and got to my feet.

And that’s when it happened.

―PRRRIIIIIING!

The noise that sounded like glass shattering echoed directly in my head. In the next moment, I felt as if my entire body had been plunged into lukewarm water.

“……What the hell was that?”

I was worried that I had been beaten up so badly that there was something wrong with my head. Man, I was sold on its sturdiness, too.

Just as I thought that―

“KYAAAAAHH?!!!”

Suddenly, distant screams sounding like they came from the female students cut through the air.