The rain had no sound anymore.
To most people in Kagura City, it was just background noise, a never-ending drizzle that blurred the line between night and morning. But to Ren Kurozawa, the rain was alive. Every drop whispered names.
He stood beneath the rusted roof of an old bus stop, wearing his school uniform even though he hadn't been to school in weeks.
He wasn't waiting for a bus. He was waiting for the voices to stop.
> "Ren... do you hear them again?"
The question came from behind him, an old man with a face like crumpled paper. Mr. Saitou, the junkyard owner. The only adult who hadn't given up on him.
Ren nodded faintly.
"I heard one… saying my mother's name."
Saitou sighed, lighting a cigarette that the rain immediately put out.
"You've got to let the dead sleep, boy. There's nothing good in remembering too much."
Ren said nothing. He looked at the puddles, each one reflecting not his face, but fragments of someone else's.
A girl crying.
A man running.
A door slamming shut.
They weren't visions. They were echoes.
---
That night, when Ren walked home through the alleyway maze of East Kagura, he felt it, that pull again.
Cold air thickened, the rain slowed… and the world went gray.
He'd entered a Reverie.
The walls melted into a memory, a classroom, flooded with light and laughter. A girl sat by the window, sketching raindrops on the glass. She looked peaceful… until a shadow touched her shoulder.
Ren knew what came next.
The laughter vanished. The room darkened. And the girl turned around, her eyes hollow, her body transparent. An Ethereal.
> "Why did you forget me, Ren?"
His breath caught.
He didn't know her, not that he remembered. But she knew him.
> "You said we'd go see the sky together…"
"You said… when the rain ends…"
She screamed, and the Reverie shattered. Ren stumbled back into reality, clutching his chest as his heart burned like frost.
The rain fell harder, faster, almost angry.
From the rooftop above, a figure in a white coat watched, a cross-shaped emblem glinting on her arm.
Aira Takane.
A Resonant of the Order.
She aimed her spirit-sealed weapon, a silver gun that shimmered faintly blue.
> "Target identified. Ethereal class-B, unbound. Prepare for erasure."
But she froze when she saw Ren, a boy standing there, drenched and shaking, his eyes glowing faintly violet.
> "Wait... that kid, he's resonating with it?"
---
The Ethereal lunged toward Ren, half-human, half-rain. He raised his hand instinctively, and light burst from his palm, pure, blinding white.
The world silenced.
When the glow faded, both the Ethereal and Ren collapsed.
Aira jumped down, landing beside his unconscious body.
She knelt, brushing his wet hair aside. For the first time in years, the rain around her… paused.
> "Who are you, kid?"
Ren's faint whisper escaped through trembling lips:
> "I saw tomorrow… and it was crying."
---
End of Chapter 1