I Fell In Love With A Girl Who Died Before I Was Even Born

Hina Suiren stepped into the middle of the gym, same as before.

But this time, something felt... off.

I could sense her footsteps through the gym's grimy, wooden floor.

Her movement barely registered beneath my feet, though.

I was used to sensing vibrations in the floor, footfalls, shuffles, even shifting weight, but when Hina moved, it was like she was tapping the ground instead of stepping on it.

Like someone drumming their fingers lightly on a desk.

Her presence didn't land; it hovered. Like she was already somewhere else, and that fact made her feel even more alien than ever.

Then the lights cut out, one by one, draping the gym in a curtain as dark as Hina Suiren's veiled face.

Except for the spotlight directly above her.

Hina looked up toward the crowd, then down at the ring she stood in. When she spoke, her voice carried effortlessly, as if the air rushed to get out of its way.

"Ah, my children."

Her soft, whispered voice cut through the gym's noise like a scalpel.

Everyone quit talking at once.

"I had hoped," she began, "that this could be avoided. But sometimes, no matter how we try, conflict insists on finding its way forward. And when that happens, it must be settled."

Her gaze turned toward Ken.

Then toward me.

"No exceptions can be made. Obedience to the rules of our institution is the price we pay for peace."

Various students nodded, some murmured agreement.

"This fight will resolve the matter between Kazeyama Ryu and Musashiba Ken. Once and for all."

The crowd shifted uneasily. Somewhere behind me, someone gasped.

"Should there be further conflict between the two," she continued, her voice softening only slightly, "the offending party will not be expelled from Crescent Moon Academy."

A deathly silence fell over the gym.

"They will join the Academy permanently... as one of the faceless."

I felt the breath catch in my throat. The word noppera-bō echoed silently in every mind in the room.

Hina stepped back, slow and smooth. As she moved, the faceless ones, half a dozen of them, marched into place and formed a circle in the center of the gym.

I reached out, trying to ignore the chaotic environment surrounding me.

Hina's footsteps were barely a whisper, but I could feel the heavy vibrations of the noppera-bō as they walked.

Each held a torch.

One by one, the torches were raised.

And a ring of fire bloomed around the fighting ground as Hina made her way towards the gym exit.

I wanted to see if they would carry her out again, but I couldn't pay attention.

Ken stood at one end of the ring, stripped to the waist, his muscles like slabs of carved granite.

His thick bottom teeth gleamed, and his tiny eyes never left mine.

I stood at the other.

Another noppera-bō stepped forward, raising a massive brass gong. Without ceremony, he struck it.

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The sound echoed.

The fire surged.

And the fight began.

Ken took several steps forward, closing the distance fast.

His boots hit the floor like thunderclaps, and I could feel the vibrations through my feet: deep, angry, deliberate.

But then… he stopped in the dead center of the ring of fire.

"You've gotta be the weirdest dragon to ever… what? Hatch?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.

Then I realized he was only half-joking, he was asking.

"Did you hatch from an egg, Kazeyama? That's gotta be it, right?"

But I'd had enough.

I stepped forward.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I snapped.

He spat.

It landed near my foot with a nasty, wet slap, and I felt the sick thud of it vibrate through the gym floor.

"I try to tell you about my people," he said, voice low, "and what do you do?"

I shook my head. I still didn't understand what had set him off.

"You read a book!" he roared, stomping so hard the floorboards rattled.

My shoulders dropped.

"You're mad because I tried to learn about orcs?"

His eyes flashed.

"No! I'm furious because instead of asking, instead of reaching out, instead of talking, you pulled the most pathetic, ignorant, whitest move in the whole damn world and thought you could learn about me in some book."

He threw a punch into the air, not at me, but toward nothing.

I took a step back watching Ken.

Just rage given shape.

His face twisted, contorting with fury until he looked every bit like the nightmare brute I'd read about in fantasy stories.

And I was supposed to fight him.

With my bare hands.

"What were you thinking?" he screamed.

He threw his arms up like the whole world had let him down.

"What are you, some kind of alien? What made you think you could understand my people from a book written by yours? You even know what we are?"

My brain flipped back to something I'd read, tucked between overprocessed anthropology and myth.

"Wait… you're… Neanderthal?" I stammared.

His entire body snapped still.

He looked up at me. Anger poured off him in waves.

His eyes narrowed into slits.

"Neanderthal," he repeated, like the word tasted like poison.

"That's your word for us."

He took another step forward.

His voice dropped into something ancient.

"I'm an ORC!"

He bellowed it loud enough that I felt the hot, sticky rush of his breath on my face.

Then his gaze locked onto mine.

"And you aren't even a real dragon."

That was it.

I threw my arms back.

My wings unfurled, tearing through my skin and ripping the air with a leathery snap as they stretched wide, casting the gym in their shadow.

"You want to bet?" I asked.

And with one mighty beat of my wings, I launched into the air.

The gym erupted.

Cheers, screams, applause crashing like a wave beneath me.

For once, I didn't hear any of it.

All I saw was Ken.

Wings out, hovering above the gym, seeing the students and teachers of Crescent Moon Academy cheering me on felt… incredible.

For a second, I belonged up there.

Like I was what they saw, a dragon: strong, powerful, mythic.

But Ken stood below me, arms crossed, completely unimpressed.

Then, slowly, he brought his hands up.

And began to clap, sarcastically.

"You've got wings," he said flatly. "Four hundred yen and a can of Red Bull'll do the same thing, Kazeyama. So what? Can you actually do anything?"

I kept my wings pumping, sneered down at him.

Oh yeah, I could do things.

I dove.

Straight at him, headfirst, full velocity, wind in my face and hate in my eyes. And just before impact, I pulled up, swinging my right foot like a pendulum, and slammed it into his face.

Perfect hit.

And then I screamed.

Because it felt like I broke my goddamn ankle.

Ken didn't miss a beat.

He grabbed my ankle mid-fall.

"Let's see you fly around now," he growled.

And then he flung me straight into the ring of noppera-bō.

Faceless ones scattered like bowling pins and their torches clattered across the gym floor in a rain of ash and fire.

I rolled hard, trying not to get scorched alive. Instinctively, I kicked one of the torches away, with my injured foot.

A white-hot bolt of pain shot up my leg and I howled.

I hit the floor, clutching my ankle as my wings sprawled out beneath me.

Then… a series of heavy thuds coming at me.

I could feel the vibrations through the floor.

Ken.

I folded my wings fast and rolled just as his foot came down where my head had been.

"Damn!" he grunted. "You're a slippery bastard."

I grabbed one of the dropped torches and swung it up into his knee with all the force I had.

THUD.

He went down hard.

"OOHHHph!" he grunted, collapsing onto the gym floor.

One of the noppera-bō snatched the torch from my hands and pointed wordlessly toward the center of the ring.

I gritted my teeth and tried to stand.

Ken got up first, charging and screaming in animalistic rage.

I dove sideways just as his fist cut through the air where my face had been.

And then… everything slowed.

Time crawled to nearly a standstill.

My wings beat once, and I lifted into the air again.

Weightless. Silent. Sharp.

Okay, I needed to assess everything.

I've got one leg, two fists.

Ken's got a bruised knee and a lot of rage.

This is gonna be a long fight.

I saw him point up at me, mouth wide, yelling something I couldn't make out.

And then, I remembered something Hina had said, back on my first day here.

Ki.

Inner force, and spiritual pressure.

In manga, it's energy that lives inside all of us.

And if Lana had this world built using the rules of anime and manga, then did that mean…

Can I… summon it?