Chapter 1

……

—Whatcha doin’?

Ng–Ngyah—Ahem, ahem! (clears his throat)

Oukawa! You always, always appear too suddenly! Please don’t scare me like that!

I mean, I wasn’t scared? I’m a boy, so I shouldn’t cry out without reason. A–and besides, I was prepared for what you would do!

Ya don’t gotta try an’ make excuses like your life depends on it. …Sure is tough bein’ a boy, huh.

Yes! It is tough! You’re a boy from the same bloodline, Oukawa, so you must know what I mean.

Ngh~ I mean, our family’s pretty unique. Within the bloodline, and in the world.

…?

Well, enough about me. What matters more right now is you.

You’ve been actin’ pretty weird lately. I heard you’re skippin’ out on your training an’ studies just to sit around all day. Ain’t your parents worried about you?

Urgh, it’s my parents who are acting weird! I know I shouldn’t be criticizing my parents, but!

Only a single month has passed since that great man, since Grandfather left this world—

And yet, everyone has restarted their lives, as if they’ve forgotten all about him.

Well, them’s the breaks. You can’t keep luggin’ around a dead guy forever.

Us livin’ folk have to keep on livin’.

‘S not like we’re monks whose job it is to pray for the souls of the dead—We gotta work to get food on the table.

Well, that’s not nothin’ to do with us brats, though. Kids’re s’posed to learn and play.

…My parents told me the same thing. That I ought to do what I need to do without thinking too much about other things.

But I can’t shake this sense of discomfort. I can’t move properly because all of these questions are creeping through my body like mud.

Well look at you, Bocchama, bein’ all poetic.

Please don’t call me Bocchama.

We’re friends, aren’t we? I’ll allow you to call me Tsukasa ♪

When did we become friends?

I was taught to be kind to my friends of the same age, and to help when they’re in need.

I dunno about that. Everyone the same age as you bein’ your friend? You must live in a pretty peaceful world.

Fufun. You should feel privileged, Oukawa. You are my very first friend.

……

I have been educated mainly by private tutors, so I haven’t had many opportunities to meet friends my age.

Hmm, I was thinkin’ all your fancy words didn’t sound like any normal kid, so you musta been in some gifted program.

Aren’t you the same, Oukawa? You speak like an adult, too.

Hm. I’m not in any position to make friends or the like, and I pretty much only talk to adults.

I see. We’re quite similar in that regard, aren’t we?

It’s like our family’s got some curse where we can’t make friends. But in place of that, we just get to grow up faster than all the rest—

Fufu. Perhaps that is the truth. If it’s our curse, then so be it.

It really isn’t often that I get to talk to children my age on equal terms, as we are now—

And my beloved Tenshouin-onii-sama may be in a similar position as I, but because he is sickly and weak, I can hardly ever visit him.

As for Tori-kun… Our families aren’t on good terms with each other. I don’t think we can get along.

Rather, he is my longstanding rival whom I will need to surpass, so we shouldn’t get too friendly. No matter how much we both wish for it.

You really are all tied up then, “Tsukasa-kun.”

Please don’t call me that so casually! You are younger than I am, and of a lower position, remember?

You’re the one who told me to call you by your name. But I guess you put the drillings the Suou clan carved into your brain over your own will—all by instinct.

What a pity, you’re just a caged bird too.

…? You have no reason to pity me, do you?

Naw, you’re exactly right. That’s why what I do from here on out is just for my own satisfaction. Nobody wants me to do it—I’m just pokin’ my nose into things.

But at least it’d be nice if someone somewhere off in the future would realize that even demons cry. If they realized that we who were thought to be inhuman beasts also had feelings.

…?