Confidential KADOKAWA / Light Novel DATE a LIVE
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Confidential KADOKAWA / Light novel DATE A LIVE Author: Koushi Tachibana / Illustrations: Tsunako ©2011 Koushi Tachibana, Tsunako Translated by Kevin Gifford - 1 - - 2 - - 3 - - 4 - - 5 - - 6 - - 7 - - 8 - - 9 - [Table of Contents] Prologue: A Chance Meeting -restart- 012 Chapter 1: The Nameless Girl 014 - 10 - - 11 - Prologue: A Chance Meeting -restart- —He gasped. The sight before him was all too surreal. The cityscape was in ruins, all but wiped out of existence. There was a massive crater, as if a meter had struck the earth. Several figures flew through the air. It was a ridiculous thing to see, the stuff of dreams or crazed visions. But Shido was taking only a vague look at this otherworldly landscape—because something even more otherworldly was unfolding before his eyes. A girl was there, standing, clothed in a weird, glowing dress. “Ah…” A voice just barely made itself known within his sigh before disappearing. Her presence was overwhelming, as if everything else around them was a mere impurity by comparison. Her dress—made of some mysterious material, not quite metal, not quite fabric—certainly drew his attention. The skirt of light that spread forth below it was beautiful enough to make any observer faint. Long, long hair, the color of darkness, - 12 - coiled itself around her shoulders and down her back. Her cold eyes, staring up into the blue sky, exuded an indescribable sort of eeriness. She wearily scowled, her face enough to make even a goddess grow envious, as she pursed her lips together. The sight of it stole his eyes, his attention, and his heart in an instant. That was just how incredibly, extraordinarily, violently beautiful she was. Shido, overcome with shock, opened his mouth, all too aware his question could be blasphemous enough to make her gouge his eyes, crush his throat. “…What’s your…?” The girl slowly turned her eyes downward. “…My name?” Her voice vibrated toward him, its tone a pleasant melody in the air. But: “…I have nothing like that,” she said, sadly. “Ah…!” And just then, when the two of them locked eyes—Shido Itsuka’s story began. - 13 - Chapter 1: The Nameless Girl “Ahhh…” He felt utterly awful as he woke up. You couldn’t blame him. If you woke up to your younger sister stamping on your stomach and chest and head, beating out a passionate samba rhythm, you probably wouldn’t like it either (unless you were one of the rare ones). Monday, April 10. Spring break ended yesterday. School starts up this morning. Shiro Itsuka rubbed his bleary eyes as he groaned to himself. “Ahh, Kotori, my beloved sister…” “Oooh?!” She must’ve noticed Shido was conscious by then. Kotori, the younger sister whose feet were currently beating upon his body, turned to face him, the skirt of her middle-school uniform flapping in the air. Her long hair, bordered by a pair of ponytails, flowed with the rest of her body, her round, acorn-like eyes sizing him up. It was worth noting that, considering the way she was just caught stomping on someone so early in the morning, nothing on her face indicated any - 14 - thought resembling “Oh, crap!” or “He spotted me!” If anything, she was honestly delighted Shido was awake. It was also worth noting that, from his position, Shido got a plain-as-day view of her panties. This was no mere flash. It was just, hey, here it is. Beyond improper. “What, my cute big brother?” she asked, not bothering to move her legs off him. (It should be stated that Shido is not cute at all.) “No, uh, get off me,” he said. “You’re heavy.” Kotori gave him an exaggerated nod and jumped off the bed, leaving Shido feeling like he’d just taken a flurry of body blows. “Gouf!” “Ah ha ha hah! ‘Gouf’? That’s the name of a ground-based Mobile Suit! Ah ha ha ha hah!” Shido silently pulled the covers back over his head. “Ahhh! Hold it! Why’re you going back to sleep?!” She began shaking him violently as she raised her voice. “Just ten more minutes…” “Uh-uhhh! Get yourself up!” Shido clamped his eyebrows down at the sensation of his freshly-awoken, still-groggy brain getting jostled to and fro. “Get… Get away from me,” he painfully blurted out. - 15 - “Huh?” - 16 - - 17 - “…I’ve been infected with the T-Virus. It’s short for the ‘Tickle My Sister to Death If I Don’t Sleep Another Ten Minutes Virus’.” “W-Whaaa?!” Kotori exclaimed, as if she just discovered a message hidden for her by extraterrestrial visitors. “Get away from me…while I can still restrain myself…” “But, but what’s gonna happen to you, Shido?!” “Forget about me… If I can just keep you safe…” “No! My brother, no!” “Gahhhh!” Leaping out from the covers, Shido roared, fingers wriggling in the air. “Aaaaaiieeee!” With an ear-splitting scream, Kotori fled the room. “Eesh…” He took a deep breath, then burrowed back into bed. The clock told him it was still before six in the morning. “Why the hell is she waking me up now,” he griped to himself. Then a passing thought brought him back to attention. As his brain sluggishly dragged itself from an unconscious state to the realm of the living, it played the memories of the previous night for him. His mother - 18 - and father were both out of the house for work, starting yesterday. That meant Shido held kitchen duty for the next little while, but since he had such difficulty walking up, he had enlisted Kotori to help him out. “Ahhhh…” He sat up, scratching his head and wondering if he could’ve handled that better. He used a hand to pat down his bed-head as he let out a yawn and toddled out of the room. Then he noticed a small mirror hanging on the wall. A man was squinting suspiciously at him in it, his bangs invading his line of sight thanks to his laziness over getting it cut. “Ugh…” He sighed at the face, which was getting a little unsightly, and his hair, which would rob him of his vision before long. Then he went downstairs to the living room. “…Huh?” Something seemed slightly off about the sight greeting him. The wooden table in the middle of the room was on its side, like a makeshift barricade. Behind it, he could see a head with two ponytails sticking out of it, quivering. “Um…” He tiptoed in from the side, not making a sound. Just as he thought, - 19 - Kotori was sitting on the floor, grasping her knees and shivering. “Boo!” “Aaah! Aaaahhhh!” When Shido grabbed her shoulders, Kotori let out a non-kidding, wholly non-romantic scream and flailed all four of her limbs. “Chill, chill. It’s the same brother you’ve always had.” “Aaaah! Aaaahhh… Ah? Oh, it’s you?” “Uh-huh.” “You, you aren’t being scary?” “Nope. Not being scary. Me, friiieeend.” “Um, oh…” The simple, broken words from Shido helped the anxiety slip away from Kotori’s face, like a certain fox-squirrel opening its heart up to a new friend. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll have breakfast ready in a sec.” Helping his sister up with his hand, Shido put the table back where it belonged and walked over to the kitchen. Their parents both worked for a large electronics firm, and they happened to be on the road for that at the same time. Shido always picked up cooking duty when that happened; he was well used to it by - 20 - now. If anything, he was handier with the kitchen equipment around here than his own mother. Just as he was taking some eggs out of the fridge, he heard the TV come to life behind him. Kotori, now that her pulse was back to normal, must have turned it on. She never missed the daily “Today’s Fortune” segments, come to think of it, offering guidance both by astrological sign and blood type. These segments, though, usually came at the end of the morning shows, leaving Kotori with nothing to do but flip the channels and stare at one news broadcast or another, plainly bored. Then: “Early this morning, in the outskirts of Tengu City—” “Hmm?” Shido’s eyebrows shot upward. The news was usually just background noise to him in the mornings, but this was different. In her clear, well-practiced voice, the announcer had just spoken the name of a city very familiar to him. “Huh, that’s pretty close to here, isn’t it? What’s up?” He leaned over the kitchen counter, straining for a better look at the screen. It showed a town in an utter state of ruin. Collapsed buildings and roads lined the landscape, forming mountains of rubble. It - 21 - was a horrible sight, like the aftermath of a meteor collision or aerial bombing. His eyebrows went back down as he spoke. “Ah…a spatial quake?” The irritation was clear in his voice as he shook his head. A spatial quake was shorthand for a phenomenon that shook the very air itself across a broad range of space. Nobody knew what caused them or when they would happen. There’d just be an explosion—no one could say how big it’d be—followed by tremors, then sheer emptiness. The term covered that entire process, and it was a cruelly unfair and punishing one. It would raze entire cities, like a passing movie monster stopping in to wreak havoc.