1 [Prologue] A Beginning and an End

"Kurohane, answer this question." I was snapped out of my daydream as the teacher tapped the whiteboard. "If it's possible for everyone to be equal, should they be?"

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At the time, I had answered, "yes."

But now, only a couple years later, I'm not sure if I can answer the same way.

My name is Rai. I'm a student. Currently age 17, and studying at a public highschool in America. As of a couple years ago, I live on my own, in a small apartment right next to campus.

I didn't go out much, since the sun hurts to walk in.

Two years, ago, I lost everything I cared about. Everything, everyone. Including what drove me forward in life, the thing that made me want to wake up in the morning and get moving. I'm still not over it, so I won't talk about it, least not yet. Thinking back, that might have been the reason why I was standing on that rooftop then. The pain didn't fade at all over the past couple of years, in fact, it grew day by day. As if instead of resting in peace, everyone had come back specifically to haunt me. to drag me down with them, reminding me that I was the lucky one who was thrown away.

I was supposed to be with my class, but it was my lunch break. I climbed onto the roof of the place, six stories above ground level. I had my hood on over my headphones and messy, white hair.

Below me, the lower grades ran around, playing games. I always came up to the roof to eat because it was quiet and devoid of all the drama, excitement, and life happening below.

My lunchbox was still in my locker, untouched. I went up there for a different reason this time.

I put my foot on the edge of the building. It didn't seem all that much of a fall.

"Rai, don't!" Somebody grabbed my arm. A girl. I didn't even turn to know who it was.

It was my only friend, Amy. She must have seen me go up the stairs.

"Say, Amy." I took my hood off, and my headphones fell around my neck. "What do you think happens to someone when they die?"

"I think that they'll come to realize all their regrets during their life, and anyone who cares about them would be really sad." She replied without any hesitation.

"Then, why should I not?" I hadn't realized I was crying until I felt the tears dripping down my face. "I already regret so much, I already have nobody left. Why should I stay, Amy?"

"I care, Rai!" Amy yelled. "I care, so don't make me sad!"

"You're a good liar, aren't you?"

Amy looked at me with a horrified expression.

"how could you say that?" She asked in disbelief.

I rolled up my shirt. On my pale white skin, the bruises, cuts, and scars showed quite well.

"Every two days, I've been attacked at the same spot, same time, and by the same people." I gritted my teeth. "At the graveyard in the next town over, at 5:35, and by the football team. Whether it be their fists, pocketknives, or rocks."

"What do you-"

"The only person who knows the exact time I go visit the graveyard, and which exact one." I stuck out my finger. "It's you. I even take a special detour just so nobody figures out where I'm going."

"Rai, I didn't. I swear."

"like hell you didn't!" I backhanded her across the face. They say raising his hand against a woman is the lowliest thing a man could do, but she had done something much worse. To have people come after me when I was paying my respects to the dead was the ultimate slap to the face. Also, I did not consider myself anything but just a boy. "Where's your proof, huh?"

Amy touched her cheek where I hit her.

"Rai, I-"

"Go fuck yourself." I stepped back, onto nothing.