Chapter 0 Above a Small Sky

I want to go to high school.

That was the wish Asahino Kuro conveyed to the family looking after him on his sixteenth birthday.

Who could have predicted that after a series of twists and turns, the result would be the black muzzle of a gun pointed straight at him?

"Like hell I can do thaaat!?"

Kicking off the floor as he sprinted, Kuro screamed at his unreasonable reality.

Chasing behind the fleeing boy were a young man and woman in black suits. Their attire gave them the air of agents from some shady organization, but they were actually acquaintances of Kuro’s.

"No, wait, Kuro! Why did you run!?"

"Y-Yeah, exactlyyy. Let's just talk this over properly, okayyy...!"

Kuro turned only his head back toward his pursuers and shouted the reason for his flight.

"Because you guys are holding handguns, that's why!?"

Right now, Kuro was fleeing through the Customs area of the Umihotaru Terminal. When he had shown his passport, he was told to wait in a separate room. A few minutes later, these two—who he saw every year at the Obon and New Year’s gatherings—appeared in black suits, carrying guns.

"Of course I'm gonna run! I'm scared shitless! What's with the handguns?! This is Japan, you know!?"

"They were issued to us after you ran away from home! It's the first time I've ever touched something like this!"

"J-Just stop for a second, pleaase. Guns are normal overseas... They aren't scary, okay?"

Objections and pleas bounced back and forth, but he wasn't about to listen to a bunch of lunatics lacking common sense who carried firearms. Determined to outrun them, he turned right at a fork in the hallway—only to hit a dead end.

"Crap."

Kuro skidded to a panic-stricken halt and turned around, just as the pair emerged from the corner.

"Fi... nally... you stopped. Making us run like that...!"

"T-That's right. Let's go home, okay? Right, Kuro-kun?"

Following the panting man, the woman, whose breathing wasn't disturbed in the slightest, urged him to surrender with a timid smile. Kuro slowly raised his hands as the muzzle of the gun she held with both hands against her chest settled on him.

"Um... isn't this turning into a way bigger deal than I thought?"

"It is. I've never seen the Master become so dead serious before."

"Whyyy?"

Hearing an answer worse than he expected, a pathetic voice leaked from Kuro's lips.

"I know I'm the one saying it, but it's just running away from home. Using guns for that is crazy."

"I-If Kuro-kun runs away, of course it becomes a huge uproar. You see, Kuro-kun... you are different from us, you know?"

At the woman's remark, he choked on his words.

Kuro was aware that he wasn't normal. Seeing him at a loss for a rebuttal, the man looked at him with pity.

"I sympathize with your circumstances, Kuro. You're at the age where you want to be free."

"Even if you sympathize... Would you put in a good word for my future plans to Grandma?"

"That's impossible."

"Y-Yeah. Because the Master is scary..."

I figured, Kuro thought, dropping his shoulders. It was the disappointment of reaffirming the reality that adults couldn't be relied upon.

Objectively speaking, the situation Kuro was in wasn't due to any major incident.

The other day, Kuro, who had turned sixteen, got into a dispute with the family caring for him regarding his future path and ran away. That was it.

If one ignored the fact that the two people in front of him were holding guns, it was a trivial event. Or rather, he was starting to get angry now at the excessive response of bringing out guns for a mere runaway attempt.

Kuro silently scanned his surroundings. The path back was blocked by the pair. The window behind him had iron bars, and this was the third floor. At a glance, there was no escape route.

But Kuro saw a way out.

"...Hey, you two. This wall here faces the outside, right?"

Knock, knock. He lightly rapped the wall with his fist.

Don't tell me, the faces of the pair seemed to say as they stiffened. Seeing their sharp reaction, Kuro grinned.

If they didn't trust him enough that they had to bring out guns, then he might as well live up to that distrust.

"That 'don't tell me' is exactly right!"

Kuro pulled his arm back to his chest and slammed it into the wall with all his might.

A low sound that resonated in the gut boomed out, and the reinforced concrete wall was blown away by Kuro's fist.

"H-Hawawawa...!"

"So this... is a natural magic user."

On Kuro's arm, which had destroyed the concrete wall, faint red lines of light were running. It was precisely this physical ability, surpassing that of ordinary humans and granted by these unnatural patterns, that caused the head of the house to issue guns to the pursuers upon hearing of Kuro's escape.

Magic.

Kuro's body naturally possessed the power of the [Other Side], something that did not originally exist on Earth.

"See ya, you two!"

Laughing with satisfaction at having outsmarted them, Kuro jumped out of the hole he had opened. It was a third-story height, but he was the owner of a body that could break reinforced concrete with bare hands. He absorbed the impact of the fall with his knees without difficulty.

However, almost simultaneously with his landing, a dry gunshot rang out.

"Ouch!?"

Kuro screamed at the pain that shot across his back.

"Eh, you actually shot me!? Shit. What do you think people are—"

Turning toward where he had jumped from at the unexpected outrage, he heard panicked voices ringing out from above.

"Wha—hey! Why did you shoot!?"

"Eh, because... being handed a gun means we should shoot rather than let him escape, right...? Besides, it won't work on Kuro-kun anyway..."

"If you know it won't work, then definitely don't shoot! This is obviously just for intimidation! Are you some kind of trigger-happy maniac with loose morals!?"

"T-That's terrible! Even though I hit every shot, calling me trigger-happy is such a dishonor—"

Some kind of internal dispute had started. Their squabbling was heating up.

"...Guess I should escape while I can."

Prioritizing escape over complaining, he started to run quietly, but pain flared in his back. When he touched the spot where he felt a throbbing dull pain, he felt bare skin.

"Ugh, there are holes. And three of them, too. This was my favorite outfit..."

Muttering complaints, the skin where the bullets had directly hit wasn't even bleeding. The sensation was merely as if he had been shot by an airsoft gun and the skin had turned red.

Kuro, having gotten off with light injuries from the gunfire, entered the Umihotaru Terminal Area connected to Customs. The Umihotaru Terminal Area, expanded over the old Tokyo Bay, was now one of the world's leading tourist spots. Being Golden Week, it was packed with people everywhere.

If he blended into this crowd, it would be difficult to find him. Kuro ran through the bustling shopping mall, dashed up the stairs, and stopped at the observation deck on the fifth floor.

The May wind blew through, cooling Kuro's body. His vision, which had narrowed from focusing on escaping, expanded, and the scenery that made the Umihotaru Terminal Area a world-class tourist destination came into view.

"...No matter how many times I see it, this place is amazing."

Placing his hands on the observatory railing, he let out a sigh of admiration.

What spread out directly beneath the Umihotaru Terminal Area where Kuro stood was not the sea. The mouth of Tokyo Bay, where many ships once came and went, had changed drastically one day seventeen years ago.

Fifteen kilometers in diameter, forty-seven kilometers in circumference.

A massive hole, so huge it was unrealistic, had pierced the bottom of Tokyo Bay, transforming the bay filled with seawater into the world's largest waterfall. How deep did the immense amount of seawater swallowed by the abyss fall? Called the [Small Sky], one could not see the bottom of the abyss where mist-like clouds trailed.

The place Kuro was aiming for, even to the point of running away from home, lay beneath that hole where the sea of clouds drifted.

"Still, I didn't think the [Watarase Family] had enough power to interfere with Customs..."

Leaning against the handrail of the observation deck, Kuro grumbled while looking at the great waterfall on the distant horizon.

He knew that the Watarase Family, who had looked after him since he was young, had connections with government ministries, but he didn't think they could bring out guns or interfere with Terminal Area personnel.

"But they're stupid, aren't they? If they wanted to catch me, they should have brought Karane instead of those two—"

"What is it, Kuro? Did you call for me just now?"

Kuro's face stiffened with a jolt. Turning around fearfully at the familiar voice, a girl with black hair reaching her waist fluttering in the breeze entered his view.

Watarase Karane.

The young lady of the main house from which Kuro had fled glared at him with upturned eyes that conveyed a strong will.

"That was a stupid way to run. You should have just let yourself be caught quietly by those two at Customs."

"No, that's... well, yes. You're right."

Trying to retort instantly, Kuro was intercepted by Karane's icy gaze and slunk back, swallowing his words.

"Actually, Karane! If you were here, you should have come from the start! Bringing out guns and stuff, I think that's crossing the line!"

If Karane had come along with those two, Kuro wouldn't have even been able to escape the interrogation room. After all, she possessed the power to completely shut down Kuro, who was born with magic.

"It was mercy."

Karane expressed the reason she hadn't taken the optimal measure in three words.

"If you had let yourself be caught quietly by those two, there would have been some leniency even after being brought back. If you came back without resisting, the judgment would be that there's room for rehabilitation."

"Huh. ...And now?"

"Do you think there is? Just because we've lived together for a long time, don't misunderstand. My role is to put a collar on you, who possesses magic, and manage you."

At Karane's curt reply, Kuro quietly averted his eyes. Leaving aside the runaway from the Watarase house, upon careful reflection, breaking the building's wall was just a regular crime, and he was starting to come to his senses.

"Do you think Grandma will forgive me if I apologize?"

"Impossible. Grandmother was truly angry."

Confident that Kuro couldn't escape as long as she was there, Karane answered with composure. In fact, even though he had been trying to use magic to enhance his physical abilities for a while now, there was no sign of red lines appearing on his skin. As proof of the misfire, only a mist so faint it was barely visible unless one strained their eyes was coming from his skin.

Kuro knew firsthand what was causing his power to be sealed.

The contents of the guitar case Karane was carrying on her back. The influence of a special Japanese sword, shining from neglected maintenance despite being old.

"Besides, you're an idiot too."

Karane, who was nullifying Kuro's magic while standing naturally, narrowed her eyes in displeasure.

"If you leave home with a passport, your destination is either the airport or Umihotaru. And considering the cause of this runaway, Umihotaru is the only choice. Do you seriously intend to escape?"

"Ugh."

It was so spot-on that he couldn't make a sound.

The places within the Tokyo area where a passport was needed were limited. Haneda Airport, Narita Airport, or the Umihotaru Terminal Area on the old Tokyo Bay where Kuro and Karane were now.

"I think you understand, but you can't run anymore."

"Yeah, I guess."

As long as Karane was there, Kuro was completely normal. Possessing natural magic meant nothing before her.

The natural enemy of all things containing [Magic] was the girl named Watarase Karane.

"Hey, Karane. How much have you heard about this time?"

"You had a dispute with Grandmother about your education, right? She said she can't let you go to that high school over there, so you should work at our place."

"...That's right."

Inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief.

If Karane had only been told that much, then it was still okay.

Kuro rested his arms on the railing installed at the edge of the observation deck and looked downward.

There were two reasons why the great hole swallowing the sea of Tokyo was called the [Small Sky].

Simply put, one was that the sight of the sea of clouds writhing below looked like the sky when viewed from above.

The other was that beneath these thick clouds, it connected to the sky of the place Kuro was aiming for.

"I understand Kuro having complaints about the Watarase Family's policy. regarding your future... even I don't think it's something to oppose to this extent."

Perhaps unable to bear watching Kuro, who showed no sign of moving with poor grace, Karane walked up next to him.

"But what Grandmother says is always for your sake, Kuro."

"That... I know."

Even Kuro, who had run away impulsively, did not doubt the good intentions of the Watarase Family.

Their policy to manage him, and the fact that they treated him like a decent human being while doing so. Bringing out guns was questionable, but it was likely for intimidation purposes. It was a grateful message saying, We are this serious, so come back quietly before it's too late.

Because Kuro was born with a singularity difficult to stop even with handguns.

That was why the Watarase Family existed. That was why Karane existed.

"But, that's like..."

"What?"

"...I don't know."

He couldn't put it into words well. Kuro buried his face in his arms resting on the railing, feeling the haze filling his chest.

—Be normal.

The Watarase Family, who had fought against magic since ancient times, said to Kuro, who was born with the abnormality of magic.

Since you live in this human society, spend your life being normal.

Their opinion was common sense and good will.

For the sake of society, for the sake of the Watarase Family, and for the sake of Kuro's life.

You who were born abnormal, make an effort to be normal.

The Watarase Family said that if he pretended to be just a human, he would be accepted by society. And so, Kuro continued to have his abnormality called magic sealed by Karane, who lived under the same roof.

The Watarase Family was right. Kuro was aware that this runaway was his own selfishness.

"Still, I thought they would listen to at least one selfish request."

On May 1st, Kuro's sixteenth birthday.

The head of the Watarase Family rejected the path Kuro hoped for without any room for consideration. That single word from the head, deciding Kuro's life, caused the gloom that had piled up in his chest to burst.

Hearing the words squeezed out of Kuro's mouth, Karane quietly lowered her eyes.

"...I will also put in a good word to Grandmother about your education again."

Quietly declaring she would take Kuro's side, Karane looked up and reached out her hand.

"So let's go home together, Kuro."

With eyes that didn't doubt that Kuro would take her hand, Karane spoke the set phrase for going home.

His chest tightened.

Even though Kuro had fled the Watarase house precisely because she, who looked cold, was helplessly kind.

"...Karane. As expected, you can't catch me."

How great was the gloom accumulated over sixteen years of life? To show it not with words but with action, Kuro placed his foot on the railing he had been leaning against.

Karane's eyes widened in shock. The surroundings buzzed at Kuro's eccentric behavior, and unrelated people kept their distance. There were already people holding up smartphones to film.

Disregarding the reaction around him, Kuro stood on the railing separating the [Small Sky] and the earth of Earth.

Only Karane could kill the singularity called "Asahino Kuro," born on Earth where magic was not supposed to exist.

Looking down at Karane from a higher vantage point, Kuro told her the reason why he wouldn't be caught here.

"Because Karane won't kill me."

After saying it with a face full of confidence, anxiety suddenly reared its head in Kuro's chest.

"...Right?"

"If you're going to get anxious, stop doing stupid things!?"

At the unnecessary comment added in a pleading tone, Karane screamed back with all her might.

Seeing the reaction of his childhood friend raised in the same house, the conviction that it was as expected lodged in Kuro's chest.

"Just get down from there quickly, Kuro! What are you going there for in the first place?! If you're going to live normally, there's no need to go to a place like that!?"

"If you ask what for, isn't that obvious?"

Wearing a smile of deep satisfaction, Kuro looked up at the clear sky and shifted his weight backward. As his back was pulled by gravity and the sensation of his soles on the railing vanished, a floating sensation wrapped his entire body.

"Wa—Kuro—"

There was, of course, no lifeline. He laughed, capturing Karane reaching out with a desperate expression in his vision.

"I'm gonna go to the Academy Archipelago and spend a youth that's far from normal!"

While falling toward the [Small Sky], Kuro announced his desired path that had been denied by the Watarase Family.

Karane, having failed to grab Kuro, leaned out over the railing. Her face, receding at the speed of freefall, was for some reason distorted in pain.

"You youth-complex-suffering, high-school-debut-desiring, wannabe-cool poser bastarddddddd!"

"Wait!? Hold on, I'm not really like that—ah, damn it. I can't see her anymore!"

Failing to rebut the fading abuse from Karane, Kuro was sucked into the pure white sea of clouds.

＊＊＊

Seventeen years ago, Tokyo Bay was pierced by fantasy.

The shocking day that redefined the meaning of the [World] overnight is sometimes expressed in such a sentence.

The beginning was a massive hole of unknown depth that generated without warning on the seabed of Tokyo Bay. A large-scale topographic change that erased the seawater at the bay's mouth and formed a circular waterfall of unprecedented scale. It was a major incident truly worthy of the word cataclysm, but the sight that spread out beyond that hole shook the world even further.

Deep in the hole, a vast space expanded, and giant islands floated there, ignoring gravity.

Unbelievably, the hole that opened in Tokyo Bay was a spatial tunnel leading to a different world across dimensions. Contact was made with humans from the [Other Side] who were investigating just like the humans on the Earth side, and using the floating archipelago situated along the spatial tunnel as a buffer zone, exchange between the two worlds began.

Seventeen years since the hole opened in the old Tokyo Bay became an entrance to another world.

In the floating archipelago, which has a total area almost equivalent to Tokyo Metropolis, unique and heretical technologies fusing the scientific technology of the Earth world and unknown materials from the world on the other side are researched, prototyped, and operated.

A floating city of youth where over a thousand magic academies stand together, and students from two worlds learn and fuse skills and knowledge, singing the praises of a heretical youth—the [Academy Archipelago].

Toward the path he desired, Asahino Kuro threw himself.

The sensation of his internal organs lifting lasted only a few seconds.

Kuro's vision as he fell was pure white. Ten seconds since he jumped. The unbroken clouds still continued.

Kuro, whose magic was currently erased by Karane, was completely normal. At this rate, he would die from the impact of the fall.

But Kuro had a conviction.

"Haha."

His heart leaped strongly. Karane had released the seal on Kuro's magic. When he tried focusing on it as a test, red lines of light appeared on his palms.

If Karane had been serious, she could have kept Kuro's magic sealed even at this distance.

As expected, Karane didn't kill Kuro. So that Kuro, who had thrown himself off, wouldn't die from the fall, she released the seal on his magic. Surrounded by a field of vision buried in pure white clouds, Kuro muttered challengingly.

"I did all this. Don't betray my expectations, Academy Archipelago."

Thirty seconds after starting the fall, holding the anxiety of what if it ends as a letdown equal to the expectation that my desire might be granted.

Beyond the [Small Sky] was a different world.

"—Whoaa."

Kuro's eyes widened at the world that spread out along with his vision.

The first thing that caught his eye was a vast, boundless earth. A transparent dome covered the flat earth and sea where the horizon did not curve even when looked down upon from above, acting as a canopy. If the Earth were flat, surely the shape of the world spreading out was how one would imagine it.

Looking up with his chin raised, a small Earth was floating in the sky above where Kuro had fallen from, instead of a moon or sun. Literally, this was a space in the gap, sandwiched between two worlds.

And so, falling through the gap between worlds, Kuro caught sight of the school destination he had yearned for.

"That is... the Academy Archipelago."

Reflected in the eyes of Kuro, who muttered softly, were numerous islands floating in the air.

Huge masses exposing earthen surfaces in their cross-sections hovered without any support. A massive main island divided roughly into five parts, and countless small remote islands surrounding it. The floating archipelago dotted in the air, completely ignoring Earth's laws of physics, was the midpoint and buffer zone with the other world connected to Earth.

The dream place where Kuro wished to go to school, the [Academy Archipelago].

"Haha, amazing! Islands really float—whoa!? What are these guys! Tiny dragons!?"

Zaaa, passing by Kuro during his fall with the sound of wings was a flock of reptiles with pigeon-sized wings. At the flock of creatures he was seeing for the first time, a frolicking voice came out of Kuro's mouth again.

"Ah, haha. It's amazing after all! A different world is... moving."

As expected, this was the place. The haze filling his chest blew away, and a sense of exhilaration fit perfectly into place.

Everything he saw and touched was a first experience. In a world that let him experience fantasy ten seconds after arriving, there must surely be a place that accepted Kuro's abnormality as just a scene from daily life.

As he fell, the Academy Archipelago rapidly approached.

Futuristic building clusters floating in the air. Western-style stone-paved streets. Huge groups of tiled towers. Ruins where collapsed buildings were swallowed by greenery. The townscapes were completely different for each of the five divided islands, and even for each subdivided district.

The place Kuro was falling toward was a block lined with modern multi-tenant buildings. While having the luxurious thought that a slightly more fantasy-like district would have been better if he had a choice, he couldn't suppress his pounding heart.

The first step to setting foot on the land of the Academy Archipelago was approaching.

He had already experienced that if he strengthened his body with magic, he wouldn't die from a freefall. As Kuro's heart danced with deep emotion and expectation for the new land, the movement of the small winged lizards changed.

The flock that had been gathered suddenly dispersed. Wondering what was wrong, he moved his head to chase them, and a black hole opening wide completely covered Kuro's field of vision.

"Huh?"

The true identity of the black hole was the inside of a giant bird's mouth. A monster bird of a size that definitely did not inhabit Earth, with eyeballs visible from the front the size of human heads, was closing in on Kuro with its mouth wide open.

A beak the size of an adult male's upper body firmly clamped and fixed Kuro's body, which had stiffened at the unexpected situation.

"Uwa!? You, stop screwing ar—"

He hurriedly tried to resist with brute force and squirmed, but it was already too late.

Before red lines could appear on his body, the giant bird threw its head back, its beak moving up and down. Chomp, chomp.

"—Agueh."

The giant monster bird paid no mind to the prey's small scream and skillfully swallowed the lunch that had fallen in front of its eyes whole in mid-air.

Approximately thirty seconds after capturing the dream world in his vision.

Vainly and fleetingly, Asahino Kuro was preyed upon by a flying monster bird.