PROLOGUE

It was normal for Ashikaga Kenji to walk home from school by himself. His father was away at work, and his mother was often busy taking care of her terminally ill aunt, so it was up to Kenji to walk home from the station on days when Satomi had after school activities. Satomi was just like their parents: always hard at work and taking care of others. Kenji, on the other hand, had given himself the job of being there for emotional support whenever his family members needed it. 

Therefore, Kenji was not worried at all when embarking on his typical trip home from the train platform and to the district he lived in. He walked along the same sidewalk, crossed the same street, and headed for the same row of apartments. Nothing was out of the ordinary...until he reached the corner turning into his home district. 

A middle-aged man, maybe younger, was leaned up against the side of a building when Kenji rounded the corner, causing the eight-year-old to nearly run into him. Kenji stopped himself, took a step back, and paused to gawk at the man for a brief moment. There was nothing particularly striking about him, given his slick, greying hair and a pair of creases beneath his eyes, but what caught Kenji's attention was the Oni mask on the side of the man's head. Kenji had only ever seen Oni masks at festivals or on television, but to see someone wearing one made him do a double take. Still, he shook it off and stepped around the man so he could continue walking home. However, before Kenji could get far, he was grabbed by the sleeve of his jacket and pulled backward.

Startled, Kenji didn't think to scream for help, but he began to thrash once reality kicked in. a gloved hand covered his mouth to silence any pleas, and when he craned his neck to look at his captor, he found the mask covering the man's face. Beneath the intricate details of the mask, inside the pair of holes cut out under the horns, he could make out a pair of black holes in place of eyes.

Kenji then turned his head away and squeezed his eyes shut, allowing tears to roll down his cheeks while he tried to simply accept his fate. At the same time, he found it incredibly difficult to do so. Who would look out for Satomi in her weakest moments? Who would comfort her when she couldn't pretend to be strong for his sake?

The man's grip on Kenji tightened tenfold, yet the boy refused to open his eyes. Rather, he tensed his body and did no more than cling on to the possibility that maybe someone would come to his rescue. 

Oddly enough, the pressure on Kenji released all at once, and he no longer felt the warmth of the man holding on to him. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes.

The darkness of the street had been replaced with the afternoon sunshine and the cracked pavement had turned into freshly clipped grass. Kenji wasn't on the street anymore- he was standing in the middle of the school courtyard, and across from the sparse trees, he could see Satomi walking out of the building with one of the girls from her class. 

Kenji had no clue what had happened, and if it was real or not, but he pushed all of those thoughts away and ran straight for Satomi.

Never had her embrace been more comforting.