| Spring, at 16 years old. |
| I met a devilish man. |
| Highschool 2nd year’s class change. Friends uniting, seperating, new classmates shuffling into new classrooms, glancing at each other with excitement yet anxiety. |
| Who I was with did not matter to me. |
| Whilst checking the seating arrangement on the blackboard and organizing my desk, suddenly someone spoke from beside me. |
| “Hey, Kamikizaka, is ‘Reiji’ your real name?” |
| At first, I wondered what in the world he was saying. |
| The one who’d struck up such a friendly conversation was a boy in the same class as me, Tachibana Yukio. |
| I had no intentions of becoming familiar with any of my classmates, I didn’t even plan on remembering their names. But he alone stood out among others, and despite myself, I couldn’t help but remember him. |
| He stood out, but not in a good way. |
| He would trip on nothing and scatter his things across the floor, or spill his bento all over. Each time, his clumsiness was unbelievable, and the class would laugh. |
| “It’s hard to write and hard to read, so can I just call you ‘Reni’?” |
| I ignored his inane question, but he stubbornly kept trying to talk to me. |
| Besides, you shouldn’t shorten people’s names without permission. |
| “What do you want. Besides, you won't even have much of a chance to my name.” I replied. |
| At that moment, Tachibana shoved a club creation form at me with the name “Kamikizaka Reni” filled in. |
| “Reni, Let’s do theater together.” |
| He said to me who was taken aback, and smiled widely. |
| After that, Tachibana followed me around. |
| When I tried to slip away from Tachibana after school and hurry home, he ambushed me in the school gate and followed me. |
| His persistence is to be feared. |
| A reason, he enrolled in this school after hearing that there was a drama club, but the club disbanded the year before he enrolled and he couldn’t do any club activities in his first year. |
| He had no choice but to join a troupe outside school to learn about theater, but when he became a 2nd year, it seems he had decided to take the initiative and start a new theater club. |
| “To do club activities, wouldn't it require a minimum of three people?” |
| “The other member is a go-home-club person that promised to lend me their name.” |
| “Is that kind of thing trustworthy?” |
| “His face is scary, but he’s not a bad guy.” |
| Gathering members and doing club activities with that reasoning, honestly that amazed me. |
| “I heard that in our class the only ones in the go-home-club are only you and me.” |
| When he reasoned that way, I understood. |
| “Alright fine. I’ll lend you just my name.” |
| Being followed around any more this is a pain, so I gave him such a reply. |
| “I don’t want you to only lend me your name, Reni.” |
| “Ha?” |
| “There’s a flower in you. If you stand on stage, surely you’ll blossom. I’ll show that you bloom in a Reni-like way.” |
| “What’s up with that…” |
| “You know, I don’t actually want to stand on stage, I want to make someone else stand on stage and bloom them.” |
| “In my own way…” |
| I heard the words of my strict father and grandfather in my mind. |
| To “kill” and reinvent myself, to hold up my body and soul, to live my life as a replacementーー The fate that was continuously inherited and imposed on me. To just… |
| “No interest?” |
| To Tachibana who mischievously laughed, I subconsciously nodded. |
| “My interest is not zero.” |
| When I think back, that was the grin of a demon. |
| I’ve let this whistling man derail the path of my life. |
| |
| Reni | It’s already been 30 years since… |
| (Knock) |
| ーー. |
| Come in. |
| Haruto | Pardon me. |
| Reni | ...You came. |
| Haruto | Yes. Is there something I can do for you? |
| Reni | Call Shifuto here. |
| Haruto | To this room…? |
| Reni | Hurry it up. |
| Haruto | Y-yes! |
| Reni | ...Hmph. |
| Haruto | … |
| (That safe… Reni-san opened it again. Inside there seems to be a notebook or some sort. I wonder what that is…) |
| |
