1 Prologue

I, Tenjou Yuuya, am being bullied. That's not a recent development; it's been that way for a long time… ever since kindergarten. No matter how much I asked them to stop, they'd only find it funnier and escalate things, and no matter how much I told the teacher about it, they wouldn't help.

On the contrary, they'd even end up saying that I was the one in the wrong.

It would have been fine if I was only mistreated by those guys at school and the teachers…

but I had reached the point that I didn't even get any affection from my family.

Right after I was born, my parents thought I would be a cute child. After all, I was their firstborn. However, they eventually gave up on those thoughts.

My face only got uglier over time, regardless of what I did. Even though I only ate a normal amount of food, my body got fatter and fatter. I tried to exercise, but my weight continued increasing, as if my own body was ridiculing me. Even though I didn't change the amount of food I was eating. [ED: Well there's your problem]

It may be some kind of illness. By the time that thought occurred to me… the affection from my parents was completely gone. The reason was my twin brother and sister had been born.

Unlike me, both of them were beautiful, and my parents showered them with affection.

Their treatment of me completely changed then. The twins would always eat good fresh food, and I'd only get yesterday's leftovers. Really, leftovers were the best I got, and mostly it was only scraps and things that had expired or soured.

I wasn't allowed to wash my clothes together with the twins' because they said the twins' clothes would get dirty if I washed them together, and my clothes would then go unwashed because it would "only waste the water bill."

So, since elementary school, I had always washed my clothes by myself using the park drinking fountain.

Speaking of clothes, the twins could buy new ones, but I always wore only tattered clothes. From elementary school to senior high school, my bags were ratty and tattered, but the twins always had brand new stuff.

The twins were one year younger than me, and for these reasons I had to do a lot of things myself since I entered kindergarten. I envied them a lot. I didn't do anything to deserve this… or did I? No matter how much I tried to appeal to them, my parents didn't give me the time of day.

Even at times when I thought I might be sick, I wasn't allowed to see a doctor. I thought of it as a blessing that I was able to eat the bare minimum amount of food, even though the reason was they still cared about their reputation.

But there were still people who were kind to me, as well. My grandfather, who had already passed away, was one of them. He was always traveling around and would come back with peculiar souvenirs, and was rarely home. But when he came back, grandpa always loved me, the ugly kid.

That was the only way in which I got much more affection compared to the twins. Grandpa was considered a freak for flying around the world for so long and collecting only weird stuff, and my parents were prejudiced against him.

When I was in elementary school, my grandpa's house was close, so I always went out to play there when he was home. Even though my grandpa was incensed at how I was treated, and appealed to the people around me, my appearance and the way people talked about him being a freak caused that to go nowhere. Such a kind grandfather to me… had already died.

"Yuuya, never give up. Look, it's alright. Even if it's hard, if you smile, happiness will surely come. Someday, you'll be able to look back at those people who have done terrible things to you… besides, you still have a long life ahead of you. Don't be impatient, but move slowly and steadily in the right direction. It's okay, Yuuya, I know you can do it."

Those were grandpa's last words. In his will, he gave me the house where he lived and all of his property. Of course, my parents tried to take it away, but my grandpa had made thorough arrangements, so they failed. But as a result, my parents completely abandoned me.

Well, when you think about it, that result was obvious. So I left home and decided to live in my grandpa's house. He didn't have a lot of assets, by any means, and I didn't receive any money from my parents, but even so, my grandpa did have enough money for me to enter an integrated junior high school and attend senior high school.

Thanks to him, I was able to pay the entrance fee and tuition, but the other living expenses were strict, with only the money that my grandfather had left me, and I lived everyday while working part-time jobs.

And now, if I didn't go quickly, I would be late for my part-time job, but I was stopped and forcibly taken to the back of the gym. To be perfectly clear about what was going to happen──

"Know your place, you shitty fat-ass!!"

"Gah!?"

It was group bullying. I was beaten and kicked many times. I could barely breathe, and since I didn't have any money, I always skipped lunch, so the only thing that came out of my mouth was stomach juices.

After a while, maybe because he got tired of beating me, Takeshi Araki from my class, the main offender of this bullying, grabbed my hair and lifted my face as I was coughing violently.

Araki was the so-called delinquent guy with piercings and blonde hair. He was also wearing a uniform, and was a member of a delinquent group called [Red Ogre], which was active around this high school. I cried out from the way he was handling me.

"Oi, fat-ass. Aren't you forgetting your place? You're my sandbag, and I'll beat my sandbag whenever I want. That's your role… so why are you going home all of a sudden?"

A sharp knee kicked me directly in the face. Blood was streaming from my nose, and my face was in agony.

"Hey, Araki, do you think maybe you shouldn't be so hard on his face? If you hurt him there, everyone can see it, you know?"

"It's fine. No one's gonna look at this kind of trash."

"Kyahahaha! But seriously, this is fun!"

Some flashy looking girls took pictures of me with their smartphones. Araki seemed to come up with something as he watched, and a wicked grin spread across his face.

"Oh right, if you're going to take pictures, why don't you do it when he's butt-naked?"

"Oh! How nice! In that case, let's get more people over here."

"Great, just message everyone you know."

"Ugh!? S-sto…"

"Shut your fucking mouth, you piece of shit!"

Once again, a kick landed right in my face. My consciousness grew hazy, and I felt like I could pass out at any moment, but if I did that, I had no idea what might happen. However, I was still helpless to change anything, and the people Araki and the others called had already gathered around.

"Hey hey, you said if I came here, there'd be something fun…"

"I never thought I'd see the face of this garbage here."

When I managed to look at the cold voice that was suddenly thrown at me, there stood a very similar brother and sister with well-defined faces. Tenjou Youta and Tenjou Sora… in other words, my own brother and sister.

Since they were one year younger than me, whenever we came across each other in middle school, they had reached the point of looking at me with disdain. This would be my first year in high school, and they were in their third year of junior high, but maybe there would eventually be a chance for us to meet.

They normally wouldn't have any business being here, in the back of this school building, but Araki might have called them over.

"Ah? Youta, do you know him?"

"Yeah, well. I hate to admit it, but he's sort of my big brother… that's what it should be."

"Big brother!? Oi oi, seriously!?" Araki looked at me and laughed. "He looks nothing like you!"

"Well, you know, it's only a relationship on paper, so I don't care about him at all."

"I see I see… Well, that's fine. Let's just have fun today."

By then, nearly 20 people had gathered around, and Araki started stripping me naked. I resisted desperately, and begged him to stop, but after he beat me again, I was completely silenced, and was finally stripped of all my clothes.

Araki laughed triumphantly.

"Oi oi, don't try to hide it!"

"What a disgusting body!?"

Words of contempt and condescension poured in from my surroundings. With regret and embarrassment, I desperately grit my teeth and endured. Pretty soon, the sound of camera shutters echoed all around, and Araki spoke up.

"Thank you for gathering here today! Well then, time for the closing act!"

He looked at me and made a demented smile.

"Take this, you fat-ass! Hi-ya!"

I was knocked out by a powerful blow to my jaw. By the time I woke up, there was no one around, and the moon was already floating in the sky. When I checked my belongings, they had stolen what little money I had, my textbook was torn up and thrown away, and muddy water had been poured onto my clothes.

I wept bitterly on the spot, so overcome with self-pity that it was painful.

Grandpa. What should I do…?

This… was my daily life.