Prologue

A New Day

“Shido! I made something—cookies, they’re called!”

Hair as dark as night swinging down to her waist, eyes gleaming like crystals, an almost ridiculously beautiful girl thrust a container out at him.

“T-Tohka…” Shido Itsuka reeled, overwhelmed by the sheer force of her.

“Mm, what?!” Tohka Yatogami demanded, beaming at him, flowers practically blooming to life behind her.

“…Oh, uh.”

A long list of complaints came to mind, but he couldn’t say anything when he saw her blindingly white smile.

Tohka stared at him curiously before pulling the lid off the container. “Anyway, Shido. Get a load of this!”

Inside were indeed baked objects that might have been—very generously—described as cookies, complete with twisted shapes and scorched edges.

Although Shido and Tohka were in the same class, the school was experimenting with a system that split them up into smaller groups for home economics, supposedly to make sure everyone had enough to do. Today was Tohka’s turn in the kitchen.

“These are…,” he started and then trailed off.

“Mm. I did receive some instruction and help along the way, but I made them!” she said and beamed at him once more. “Try one!”

He felt an indescribable chill run up his spine. It wasn’t Tohka’s cookies; it was the fact that the envious eyes of every boy in the classroom were turned on him.

Maybe that was inevitable. After all, a girl gifting a boy with homemade cookies in any situation inspired jealousy in other boys. All the more when the girl was the Tohka Yatogami, who had jumped to the top of the most-datable-girls list immediately after she transferred to the school (according to the rumors).

Even his best friend, Hiroto Tonomachi, next to him was staring with vacant eyes and muttering, “Dammit, dammit, dammit… The only good Itsuka is a dead Itsuka.”

Tohka raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong, Shido? You’re not eating them.”

“Oh. N-no, it’s, uh,” he said, face stiffening.

Her shoulders slumped in dejection. “Mm… I guess you’re the better cook and all…”

“Th-that’s not what I meant! Th-thanks.” Steeling himself, he took a cookie from the container and slowly brought it to his mouth.

Fwk! A chrome bullet shot across his field of view. Launched from the hallway, the silver flash obliterated the cookie in his hand before plunging into the wall.

“Wh-what the…?!” He froze for a second and then followed the silver trajectory with his eyes to discover a fork twanging, tines deep in the drywall. The design was simple, and he assumed the utensil was from the home ec room.

“Hngh. Who’s there?! You could’ve hurt someone!” Tohka shouted, looking toward the hallway.

Following her lead, Shido turned his eyes in that direction to find a girl standing there silently, arm stretched out like she was participating in a javelin throw.

Hair that just grazed her shoulders, pale skin. Her face was extremely attractive but without so much as a hint of what might be called an expression on it. The girl seemed inorganic somehow, like a doll.

“…T-Tobiichi?” A line of sweat trickled down his cheek.

“Mm.” Tohka frowned.

They both stared as Origami Tobiichi slowly walked toward them.

When she arrived in front of Shido, she popped open the lid of the container she held in her left hand and offered it to him in the same way as Tohka had earlier.

“You don’t have to put Tohka Yatogami’s ‘cookies’ in your mouth. If you’re going to eat something, eat these.”

Inside the container were rows of cookies so perfectly uniform they looked like they were straight off an assembly line.

“Uh, umm.”

“Out of my way! Shido’s eating my cookies!” Tohka cried.

Shido tried to figure out exactly how he should react to this latest development.

“You’re in my way,” Origami said, not so much as flinching, her face utterly impassive. “You should leave now.”

“What did you say?! You waltz in here second, acting like you’re the star of the show!”

“It doesn’t matter who was first. You can’t make him consume your cookies.”

“Wh-what?!”

“Your handwashing was insufficient,” Origami stated flatly. “Additionally, while baking, you sneezed three times when you inhaled some flour dust. Extremely unsanitary.”

“Wh—?” Tohka’s eyes grew wide, as though she had been caught off guard.

For some reason, the boys in the classroom began to whisper at Origami’s statement, their eyes on Tohka’s cookies.

She appeared not to notice the sudden commotion. She balled her hands into fists. “Sh-Shido’s strong! That’s not enough to kill him!”

“There is not a clear cause-and-effect there,” Origami said. “Also, you got the measurements wrong. I can’t imagine your cookies turned out properly.”

“Wh—?!” Tohka frowned, glancing back and forth between the two containers of cookies. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I’m under no obligation to instruct you. At any rate, it’s clear my cookies are more likely to satisfy him.”

“Sh-shut up! As if any cookies of yours could be any good!” Tohka shouted, snatching one from Origami’s container, hand blurring for a moment as she tossed it in her own mouth.

“Pwaah…” Her cheeks flushed pink, a look of ecstasy on her face. Apparently, the cookie was pretty good. She quickly gasped and shook her head from side to side to regain her composure. “H-hmph! Nothing special! Mine are definitely better!”

“That’s not possible. You should gracefully accept your defeat.”

“What did you say to me?!”

“Hmm?”

“C-calm down, both of you.”

If Shido didn’t intervene, this was going to come to blows. He stepped in between the two girls and pushed them apart with a placating, “Now, now.”

“Mm… So then, Shido, whose cookies do you want to eat?” Tohka demanded.

“Huh?” he said, stunned.

Tohka and Origami thrust their cookies at him from either side.

“Hmm, Shido?”

“…”

Both girls had their gaze focused on him, eyes flashing with light so sharp that it threatened to cut him. He felt sweat gush from his forehead and instinctively staggered back a step.

He felt like his own death was imminent, no matter which cookie he ate.

Obeying his own survival instincts, he took a cookie from each container and shoved them into his mouth at the same time. “Y-yeah, they’re both great!”

Tohka and Origami narrowed their eyes and stared at him suspiciously.

“You ate my cookie just the teensiest bit faster!” Tohka claimed.

“Mine was point zero two seconds quicker,” Origami noted at the same moment.

“…”

“…”

And then they quietly looked at each other.

“…Umm.”

This was not the first time he’d been caught in these crosshairs. Almost resigned to his fate at this point, Shido placed himself between the two girls. Just as he’d expected, fists started to fly toward heads and stomachs only to be absorbed by the head and stomach of the poor boy who’d stepped in the middle.