Ｋｏｔｏｎｏｈａ Ｐｒｏｊｅｃｔ

Warning

"Think before you remove your headphones."
Who did I hear this warning from, I wonder?
Tsukasa couldn't think of anyone off the top of his head.
It wasn't as if removing them would instantly cause any problems. He just had to be careful. But keeping his guard up at all times tired him out, so he didn't really like doing it.
"You have to keep to yourself and build a wall around you. You have to make sure you don't hear any words. If you don't do these things, something will happen."
What was that "something"?
Though he could be found spacing out more often than not, it wasn't as if he wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings. That was exactly why he needed his headphones at all times.
It was a bit late to care now, but Tsukasa suddenly thought to himself, "This school looks like it tried hard to be sophisticated but gave up halfway." He hadn't known until after he transferred to the school, but it was apparently quite famous.
Not that knowing this beforehand would've changed anything.
The students, all of whom looked to be wealthy and prided themselves in the purity of both their bodies and minds, walked in a crowd towards school, silent.
It was all just the same as any other day...or that was what it had supposed to be. However, the train was late today.
There were too many students still here, compared to any other day.
The bell at the top of the clock tower began to ring.
At the wave of a prefect's hand, the heavy school gates slowly shut.
Tsukasa laughed bitterly. It didn't really matter if he was late, but all these other students around him were also going to be marked late for sure. How unfortunate.
There was quite a commotion caused by these students, locked outside the gates. There, the prefect, a girl he had seen before, stepped out and spoke. "I've just been informed of the reason why everyone did not make it in time. How I still cannot open the doors. As students, we should learn how to deal with unforeseen events."
What absurd logic.
"We will now mark down everyone's names here as late. You will be allowed to pass through the side entrance afterwards."
Though a number of students booed, displeased, eventually, everyone began to form a queue.
How can they just quietly line up in a situation like this?
Was this the result of the 'training' they did, constantly following rules, every day?
Tsukasa stayed away from the queue, acting as if he hadn't heard the orders given.
"As usual, you really are...!"
The girl who came stomping towards him in anger was, once again, that prefect.
"Why aren't you lining up..."
"Mm?"
"Why! Aren't you! Lining up!!"
"I'm okay with being last."
"It's not a good habit to always leave things until the last minute. Making good use of your time shows determination."
Determination towards what?
"Everyone else is lining up, you know — don't you feel that you're being impolite?"
Impolite to who?
"Anyway, stop pretending like you can't hear me——"
The girl reached her right hand out towards Tsukasa's headphones. The right ear of my headphones. Are you aiming for that? It wasn't as if removing them would change anything. Any complaints that he didn't want to listen to could be easily ignored as long as he didn't focus on it.
Besides, these headphones fit too well against his head, and couldn't be easily removed with just the girl's thin wrist. However...
"Ah—"
Suddenly, the girl tripped, with her hand still moving in the direction of his headphones. No, actually, she was already holding onto them. His headphones slipped, and were removed from his ears.
He had been caught off guard.

"——I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do anything this violent."
Tsukasa hadn't been prepared for an accident like this to happen.
As a result, her words were a direct hit. For a while, Tsukasa blanked out, dumbfounded. His headphones were still around his neck.
"I didn't mean to, but...ahem, I'm getting off topic here. As someone who attends this school, please follow the rules."
Despite that, he could her the prefect's words as clear as day.
"...I get it, I'll line up."
At that time, it was all Tsukasa could muster the energy to say. From the sides of his line of sight, a murky haze began to swirl.
"Good. Well, um. As an apology for my act of violence, I'll overlook all your past violations of the rules for now. However, the next time I catch you doing something wrong, I will report you to the staff immediately."
"Do what you want. Anyway, I'm going to line up."
"Alright, as long as you under҉sTa͢AAa̵A ̸̕N ̷͟D͢"
The sight of the prefect walking away from Tsukasa suddenly warped.
The haze, which had now gathered in one place, cast a shadow on the ground.
This doesn't look good.
At that moment——

"mistakeresponsbilityrulesdutyprohibitionselfrestraintorderuniformrules"

— something groaned.
"Who is it?"
"——punishment", the other party responded, but clearly, it wasn't greeting Tsukasa.
Just then, what came flying towards Tsukasa were red and black chains, made up of words.
The chains were tied around a large amount of some thing that Tsukasa couldn't make out, and spread as if it was trying to bury everything beneath it.
One of chains hit him in his abdomen at an alarming speed, forcing him down on one knee.
The irritating sound of the moving chains rang in his ears.
The haze, which floated lazily in the air with the chains, caused the air to look like it was twisting and turning.
Only when Tsukasa turned back, did he realise that the school gates weren't there. They had vanished.
All the students had stopped moving. No one even opened their mouth to speak.
Everyone was looking upwards.
Tsukasa followed their gazes to see what they were looking at.
There was something standing still at the origin of the snake-like chains which were slithering around everywhere.
At first, he thought it was some sort of illusion. It almost looked like a teru teru bouzu hanging in the sky by a thread.
However, that thing had claws that looked deadly. And it was massive.
It somewhat resembled a doll, and had something that was similar to a face. He didn't know if it had eyes, but Tsukasa knew that it had seen him.
You could almost say that their eyes had met.
No, that wasn't quite right. It had found him.
Tsukasa thought hard. And then he remembered. He remembered where this monster came from.
Aah. This really is all my fault.
What shouldn't have happened as long as he was careful, like he usually was, had just taken place.
I don't remember who you are, but thanks for the warning. It seems that it's fate for me to form and get attacked by some strange monster caused by that girl's complaints.