The school's gates came and went, students filing into the building through the front doors as the bell sounded. Ahead of them was a boy of average height with short, flaming red hair. A dark-haired girl walked closely by his side but, while she seemed to be enthusiastically talking about something, the boy's mind was elsewhere.

The parallel between himself and Reimi caused him to listen more intently to her story, and when she began to tell him about the strange sound in her home that night he felt a twinge of something. It wasn't fear. But anger...perhaps.

Had something happened to the boy she'd been babysitting?

He was fortunate that his hands were already buried deep in his pockets. Reimi wouldn't be aware of the tight fist that he was making, or the fact that his knuckles had no doubt turned white...and he could feel skin beneath his fingernails. Something about harm coming to a child left a bitter taste in his mouth and his heart ready to scream.

"I presume you went to investigate."

Because of course she had. There was no other way for this story to continue.