Chapter 1
As she left her piano classes, the young woman noticed a hand waving at her and immediately rushed over. The sight she was greeted with was a girl nearly identical to her. Same blonde hair with a few strands sticking out on the top of their heads resembling an antenna, and the same purple eyes. That being said, it wasn’t like she was looking in a mirror. The biggest difference being…
“Did you cut your hair?” Asked the older of the twins, Kaede, upon noticing her sister’s hair now ended just above her shoulders, whereas it previously went a good few inches past the nape of her neck much like Kaede’s own hair.
“Oh. Well… not myself. Mostly. So you know that guy I met the other day? Well, he told me that I’d look a lot better with short hair, so while you were at piano lessons, I tried to cut my hair, but I messed up and had Mom do the rest.” The younger twin, Miyuki, said. Kaede sighed.
“You’re lucky we have a hairstylist for a mom, Mi-chan. Also, which guy? I swear it’s a new one every two weeks or so.” Kaede swore it was only a matter of time before her sister got hurt in an attempt to impress her current crush. Yet, no matter how much Kaede tried to warn her, Miyuki remained convinced that she was living in a shoujo manga and she was one accidental crash into a guy away from her perfect love story.
“That’s not true! It’s been a full two months since the last guy!” Miyuki rebutted.
Kaede snickered, “I’ll make sure you get a world record.” Miyuki immediately shoved her elbow into Kaede’s side, making the latter cough for a good few seconds.
“You’re so quick to make fun of me when you’re just as obsessed with the piano as I am with finding the right guy.” Miyuki pointed out.
“Well, remind me why Hope’s Peak Academy has an Ultimate Pianist and not a-” Kaede froze. Another thing that set the sisters apart was that Kaede’s musical talent allowed her to have better hearing than most people. So while Miyuki couldn’t hear it, she could.
“Help me!”
Almost as if her body was put on autopilot, Kaede ran towards the source of the noise as fast as she could, leaving a confused Miyuki in the dust.
“Kae-chan! Home is the other way, you know!?” Miyuki yelled as she chased after her sister. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a bald man trying to force a woman into his car.
“Hey! Let go of her!” Kaede shouted.
“Get out of here, kids… this is none of your concern…” The man briefly glanced at Kaede and Miyuki to glare at them. It was pretty clear that this man was drunk, something that initially made Miyuki take a few steps back, until she noticed Kaede wasn’t backing down.
“Why you…” Kaede muttered as she began to walk forward. Beginning to panic, Miyuki quickly grabbed Kaede by the shoulders.
“Don’t act reckless, Kae-chan.” Miyuki whispered.
“But-!”
“I’ll deal with it.” Miyuki let go of Kaede and approached the man. She put a hand on his shoulder and attempted to pull the man off of the woman. When Kaede saw the man lose his balance, she instinctively ran over and pulled Miyuki out of the way of any potential harm. The two sisters and the woman who was previously in danger all flinched when the man collided with the ground. Miyuki even covered her mouth in shock when she saw that he was bleeding.
“Gr… which one of you did that!?” The man demanded. Upon hearing sirens in the distance, it was Kaede’s turn to panic.
“I-I did!” The words spilled out of Kaede’s mouth before she could even comprehend them. Miyuki looked at her twin in shock.
“Wha-?” She was cut off when Kaede gave her a glare that made her completely freeze. Not that the man would’ve noticed or cared, as he was now focused entirely on Kaede.
“Damn brat! I’ll sue!”
“..we’ll be arriving at Shibuya shortly.”
Kaede gasped as the announcer’s voice woke her up. She certainly earned a few stares as she took a few deep breaths and wiped drool off her cheek. She sighed upon coming to her senses and remembering her situation.
True to the man’s word, Kaede was sued under the claim that she had assaulted him. How anyone could believe that a high school girl could attack a grown man to the point where he would bleed (especially without a weapon) was beyond her, but apparently he had enough connections to twist the story in his favor. Regardless, to say Kaede’s life was flipped upside down would be a huge understatement. Now, having been sentenced to a year long probation, Kaede was on her way to live with someone she had yet to even meet in person.
Doing her best to shake her recent memories out of her head, Kaede took her phone out of her backpack and quickly got off the subway. As she left the station, she went to open the GPS app only to notice something… off.
“When did I install this?” Kaede asked herself upon noticing the icon in the middle of the screen. The image was of an eye in front of a red background with black swirls with the eye’s pupil being replaced by a black star. Shaking her head, Kaede figured it was best to just delete this mystery app before holding her finger down on the screen for several seconds. However, instead of being asked if she wished to delete it, the icon expanded until it took up most of the screen. Before she could express any confusion, the world itself seemed to slow down. As she looked around to try and figure out what’s going on… that’s when she saw it.
Standing amongst the frozen crowd was herself. Not Miyuki, not a doppelganger, but herself. Her other self stared at her with an emotionless stare while all Kaede could do was stare back. It was like she wanted to say or do something, but something was holding her still. Then, the other Kaede smiled widely at her counterpart before being engulfed in blue flames. Kaede watched as her silhouette began to change within the flames until she was looking at an entity with glowing eyes. Just as Kaede tried to get a closer look, the display previously before her was gone. She looked down and saw a bubble of text on her phone screen asking if she wanted to delete the mysterious app.
She selected ‘yes’, took a few moments to slap herself in the face a few times to get what happened out of her head, and entered the address provided to her into the GPS app.
"Come on…” Kaede said as she rang the doorbell for the third time. Did she have the wrong place? She looked at the piece of paper given to her by her parents and confirmed this was in fact the right address. It was then that Kaede noticed what appeared to be a delivery man.
“Um, excuse me? Is this where Sojiro Sakura lives?” Kaede asked.
“Hm? Oh, that’s right. Sakura-san is usually at his cafe around this time. It’s located in the back alley and called Leblanc.” The delivery man replied. Kaede smiled and nodded.
“I see. Thank you.” Kaede said before turning on her heel and running off.
Kaede took a deep breath as she stood in front of the building that, according to the awning above the door, was Cafe Leblanc.
“Alright, Kaede. First impressions are everything, so make it a good one!” Kaede said to herself before slapping herself in the face in an attempt of self motivation, wincing in pain immediately afterwards. After taking another few moments to compose herself after that, Kaede put on a smile and entered the cafe. There, she saw an elderly couple sitting at one of the tables and a middle aged man with his face buried in a newspaper.
“A public transit bus was driven down an opposing lane with its customers still inside!” Kaede looked at the TV on the other side of the room as the news reporter explained what was apparently the latest in a series of accidents.
“Oh yeah… those mental shutdowns people keep talking about…” Kaede thought as the elderly couple started speaking. She remembered an exchange between two of her classmates, Kokichi and Shuichi, where the former was convinced that the latter knew the cause of the shutdowns was and was keeping quiet, to which he repeatedly shut down the idea.
“Hm… Vertical is… the name of a shellfish used for farming pearls…” Kaede was snapped out of her thoughts as her attention was brought to the man with the newspaper. Assuming this was who was going to be her guardian for the next year, Kaede coughed into her sleeve in an attempt to make herself known to the man. “Oh right. They told me that was today.” He said as he put the newspaper down and stood up to face Kaede.
“We’ll be going now. Payment’s on the table.” The elderly man said as he and the elderly woman got up from their seats.
“Thanks for coming.” Said the man who, according to the information given to Kaede, was named Sojiro Sakura.
“This place is in the back alley, so there’s no worries of a car crashing in here.” The elderly man said.
“A what now?” Sojiro asked.
“There’s been a string of those rampage accidents, you know. I just hope that none happen around here.” The elderly man explained. While Kaede was terrified at the thought of getting injured as a result of one of those accidents, it was outweighed by the relief that at least Miyuki wouldn’t be in that kind of danger.
“That’s none of my concern.” Sojiro said. With that, the elderly couple left. Sojiro sighed. “Four hours for one cup of joe…” He muttered. With that, he was fully focused on Kaede.
“So… you’re Kaede?” Sojiro asked. Kaede smiled and nodded.
“Yep. I’m Kaede Akamatsu. Nice to meet you.” Kaede said, saying the line she rehearsed a bit in her head while on the way to her current location.
“...I see. Well, I’m Sojiro Sakura. You’ll be in my custody for the next year. Gotta say, when I was imagining what kind of unruly kid would show up, this might’ve been the last image to cross my mind.” Sojiro said, causing Kaede’s smile to waver a bit for a second.
“W-Well, I guess looks can be deceiving, huh?” Kaede internally slapped herself for letting herself slip, even after everything had been said and done. At the very least, she was glad at least one person acknowledged how ridiculous the whole situation was.
“Right…” Sojiro’s tone made it clear that he knew something was up, but he shook his head regardless. “Follow me. I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.” Sojiro said before going over and opening a door in the back of the restaurant. Caught off guard that this would in fact be where she was staying, Kaede quickly followed him up a flight of stairs.
Kaede didn’t know what to expect from the room where she’d be sleeping for the next year, but it certainly wasn’t to be sent into a coughing fit from all the dust as soon as she stepped inside.
“Allergies?” Sojiro asked with a chuckle.
“N-No, I just-”
“Come on, even I’m allowed to joke around now and then.” Sojiro said.
“Sorry.” Kaede looked down in embarrassment.
“Whatever. Anyways, I at least got you some sheets for your bed. You’re on your own for the rest, however.” Sojiro said. Kaede nodded.
“Okay. I’m sure that it won’t be too hard.” Kaede said. Sojiro blinked.
“Alright… also, don’t go running around causing trouble. I won’t hesitate to throw you out if you do.” Sojiro’s voice was so cold that Kaede could feel her body temperature drop.
“W-Wouldn’t dream of it.” Kaede said before noticing a box in the center of the room. She went over and opened it, and was met with her various clothes and belongings that her parents shipped off before she left. Her eyes lit up as she noticed the music sheets for various songs she would play on the piano back at home.
“That’s right, you were a pianist at your old school or something.” Sojiro said. Kaede excitedly nodded.
“Yep! I’ve been playing piano for as long as I could remember!” Kaede said as she seemed to completely forget her situation as she began giving a lengthy explanation of her history with the piano. Her excitement caught Sojiro off guard, especially since it seemed to be enough proof that her peppy and upbeat attitude was genuine and not an attempt to seem better than she actually was. Or maybe that was just him.
“Alright, alright, I didn’t ask for your life story, kid.” Sojiro cut Kaede off, making her freeze in embarrassment. “Anyways, I’ll leave cleaning this place to you. Don’t go causing too much noise, got it? I don’t want you disturbing my customers.” After receiving one last nod from Kaede, Sojiro left the room.
Kaede sighed and looked around. If she were even remotely like the Ultimate Maid, Kirumi Tojo, cleaning the room wouldn’t be a problem. But she was Kaede Akamatsu. If it wasn’t playing the piano, there was a good chance she wasn’t very good at it.
Just as she was about to contemplate just living among this mess for a year, she saw something blue out of the corner of her eye. It was a bluebird. The bird was perched on her windowsill, staring at her with unblinking eyes.
Wasn’t the window closed when she came in? Was this species of bird even native to this part of the world? Despite these questions, Kaede approached the bird, and kneeled down to get a better look at it. Adding more to how odd this sight was, the bird didn’t fly away when Kaede got close. In fact, the bird appeared to hop a bit closer as well when she approached. The bird looked at her with a look in its eyes that almost appeared to be… desperate. Like it was silently begging her for help. How such a thing could be portrayed through the eyes of a bird was beyond her. She was about to reach out a hand to touch the bird, when she heard a knock at the door.
Kaede was snapped back to reality as she turned to look at the door. When she looked back, the window was closed and the bird was gone. With this and the vision from earlier, she was thoroughly convinced she was exhausted. With that, she opened the door and was confused until she saw some cleaning supplies.
Kaede smiled. She took her headphones out of her backpack, put them on, and put on some piano music as she began cleaning.
"Phew…” Kaede wiped sweat off her forehead once she decided the attic was in a condition that was at least considered livable.
“Hm, not bad, kid.” She heard Sojiro say behind her.
“Oh! Uh, thank you! I did my best, I guess.” Kaede said.
“Don’t sweat it. Anyways, just thought you should know that I’ll be heading home for the night. We’ll be heading to Shujin tomorrow, so don’t stay up too late.” Sojiro said. Kaede nodded.
“Okay. Goodnight.” Kaede said.
“...Alright, I just have to ask. How on Earth are you being so positive?” Sojiro asked. Kaede blinked.
“Uh… would you prefer if I was sad or something?” Kaede asked.
“That’s not-I mean-” Sojiro sighed, “Look, you just got sentenced to a year long probation. What’s got you in such a good mood?” Sojiro asked.
“Well… I’m not going to get anywhere by moping, am I?” Kaede asked. Sojiro sighed.
“I guess not. Alright, I won’t bother you about it anymore. Just don’t act too recklessly. I’ll be going now.” Sojiro said before leaving Kaede to herself.
Kaede sat on the bed that she would be calling hers for the next year and turned on her phone. She frowned at her wallpaper, which was a picture of her with all of her friends back home. Sojiro’s words about the fact that they’d be going to Shujin tomorrow combined with the picture is what caused it to finally sink in that she wouldn’t be going to school with her friends anymore. She shook her head. Maybe some piano music would cheer her up. As she didn’t have an actual piano she could play, she’d have to settle for a piano app on her phone. It was then that she noticed it.
The app from before was back.
“Huh…?” Now she was concerned. Was this some kind of virus? She quickly deleted it once again, hoping it would stay deleted this time. Almost as though it were timed, her phone rang. After getting startled for a split second, she quickly picked up.
“Um… hello?”
She instantly recognized that voice.
“Saihara-kun?” Kaede asked.
“Uh, yeah. Am I calling at a bad time?” Shuichi asked.
“No, no, it’s fine. I just got done settling in, actually.” Kaede said.
“Okay… anyways, I just wanted to say… I’m sorry I didn’t come to say goodbye earlier…” Even on the phone, the shame in Shuichi’s voice was enough to make Kaede’s stomach drop.
“It’s… it’s fine. I’m not really someone you want to get caught talking to anyways.” Kaede said.
“N-No, I just… I just can’t believe it. Are you sure there’s nothing going on, Akamatsu-san? Something just doesn’t seem right…”
Kaede paused.
“Yeah. We wouldn’t be talking this way if I didn’t do anything.” Kaede said.
“Akamatsu-san… please…” Shuichi sounded like he was on the verge of begging.
“Saihara-kun… I did what I had to do, and I faced the consequences for it. I don’t know what came over me that day, but it happened.” Kaede insisted. She heard Shuichi sigh.
“Okay, Akamatsu-san… I’m still not entirely convinced, but I’ll take your word for now.” Shuichi said. Kaede sighed.
“Thank you, Saihara-kun. Oh yeah, make sure you stop by the Reserve Course and check on Mi-chan now and then.” Kaede requested.
“Wha-Oh, okay.” Shuichi said.
Kaede and Shuichi talked for a while longer, briefly allowing them to both forget the current situation. When they finally said goodbye and hung up, Kaede realized that night time had arrived. Remembering that she had to get up early the next day, Kaede changed out of her clothes into an oversized purple shirt and black shorts before climbing into bed.
After staring at the ceiling for several minutes, Kaede drifted off to sleep.
Kaede woke up in a cell.