Chapter 1
Tutorial
Koichi Yato stopped by the Masuda Kiyomi drugstore near the station on his way home from school.
He had been feeling odd since the day before yesterday, but thought it was just the result of the dry December wind. It was this morning when he became fully aware that he had caught a cold.
He somehow managed to eat breakfast and attempted to take some cold medicine. However, there was only one tablet left in the bottle. After he rummaged through the medicine cabinet, he saw that there was no other medicine left. He reluctantly took a single tablet before leaving the house. His busy mother was preparing to go to her part-time job, so he couldn't ask her to buy more.
Upon arriving at the store, Koichi first had to locate the cold medicine section due to the fact that he rarely ever needed to buy it. While some people might enter the store and immediately ask where the cold medicine was, that was not something he could do. After wandering through the unfamiliar store, he finally found the cold medicine section, and couldn't help but sigh in relief.
There's so many different kinds of cold medicine . . .
He searched the neither neatly nor haphazardly arranged shelves and in the middle of it, he found the cold medicine that was regularly found in his home's medicine cabinet. Just as he was about to pick it up, he felt the presence of someone watching him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man.
He appeared to be a college student. The young man, who had messy hair and wore sunglasses, seemed to be watching him from behind a nearby shelf.
Who is that guy . . . ?
It was possible that he was a so-called “shoplifting detective” that suspected he was stealing something.
However, the man looked far more suspicious based on his appearence alone. If he had been wearing a mask, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was mistaken for a criminal because of his dubious aura.
It was quite curious.
Well, never mind.
He headed to the register after grabbing the medicine he wanted.
As he lined up, he noticed that the man with the sunglasses had disappeared.
Upon arriving home, Koichi tossed his bag into his room and went downstairs to the living room.
Almost subconsciously, he turned on the TV. The dimly lit room at dusk was softly illuminated by the TV screen which showed a rerun of a period drama where a traveling samurai was brandishing his travel pass.
Stand back!