The Cultural Festival morning started with a beautiful sunrise. Kawakami High's gates were wide open, colorful flags waved in the wind, and the smell of yakisoba and takoyaki was already coming from the food stalls in the courtyard.
Students arrived in groups, chattering excitedly about the day's events. Parents wandered through with cameras. Alumni returned to see what had changed. The energy was infectious and celebratory.
But to Akira Kanzaki, the world looked sick.
He stood by the shoe lockers, adjusting his butler vest, which was a part of the cosplay café costume that Mei had finished just yesterday, and watched the air shimmer.
It wasn't heat haze; it was a fine, pink mist, like pollen, drifting lazily through the hallways.
Most people couldn't see it. But he could. And the way it clung to people, seeping into their skin through every breath, made his stomach turn.
[WARNING: AMBIENT LUST SATURATION AT 45%]
[SOURCE: THE HOLLOW WOODS GATE (MAIN ENTRANCE)]
