Collision of Heaven and Hell ✅

Prologue

February 17th, 2028

"KANPAI!"

I had never seen Mama or Papa so happy in their lives. They hadn't stopped smiling since this morning, when Papa got the morning paper. When we received the news, they declared they would take me out to eat anywhere I wanted. I chose Shakudzuru, a classy traditional restaurant in the Shinjuku area. The hostess knew of course and we were led to our own private tatami room in front of the garden, despite the fact that it was just the three of us, and we were dressed in our best clothes. I chose a bright red kimono covered in cherry blossom petals as my outfit, and Mama wore a dark purple kimono. Papa was wearing a dark western suit.

Our glasses clanged together as we cheered, and Papa nearly burst into tears again as he drank his beer. "Eat up, sweetheart!" he almost shouted when he finished his gulp. "This is your celebration!"

"I want zenzai," I said, smiling back at him.

"Mai-chan, that's a dessert!" Mama laughed. "Order an entree first at least!"

"Right," Papa said. "Then you can eat all the zenzai you want!"

"Oh, all right," I huffed, pretending to pout as I looked over the menu. "Hmm...oh, they have nigiri!"

"Then we'll order every nigiri on the menu!" Papa declared, pointing his finger towards the ceiling.

"Papa, there's twenty selections of nigiri on the menu!"

"I don't care! I want them all!"

"This is incredible," Mama said, reaching into her purse. She pulled out a picture frame and I flushed upon seeing it. She framed it already?!

"What an achievement," Papa said proudly, looking over Mama's shoulder at the frame. "My Mai-chan—my perfect daughter got a perfect score on the hardest high school entrance exam in the country!"

"I was very shocked," I admitted, tipping my ice tea. "I studied so hard, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to get a perfect score!"

"Mai-chan, this article says that you're the 19th student in the history of the Suzuhara schools to have gotten a perfect score on their high school entrance exam," Mama said proudly, turning the frame around to show me. I saw the article detailing the exams results, and my own smiling photograph stared back at me. "That is a stunning achievement!"

"This is the proudest day of my life," Papa said. He suddenly burst into tears and buried his face into his hands. "To see my family name in the newspaper positively! To see my daughter achieve such greatness! I'm the proudest papa ever!"

"Papa, please don't cry," I said, waving my hands slightly.

"Yes, dear," Mama said, rubbing his back. "If you cry like this every time our daughter makes us proud, your swollen will always be swollen."

"Oh, come on guys," I laughed, but then I was startled by footsteps quickly running past our private room, following by muted excited chatter.  I looked towards the closed shoji screen doors and saw various shadows running back and forth past the room. "Eh?"

"It's certainly lively here for a Thursday night," Mama mused. "I wonder if a celebrity arrived to dine here?"

"That's nice and all, but I hope our server gets here soon," Papa said, drying his eyes with his handkerchief.

Through the screen I saw five shadows walk by and stop in front of the shoji doors. I quickly glanced at the menu one last time where there was a hard rap on the door. "Please excuse us!"