Sweet Saviors volume 1 sample

Miyuki Meets the Crew

Miyuki had visited Shibuya exactly once after signing her publishing contract with Shudanshi. She hadn't had any time to experience the city, being shuttled straight through so they wouldn't miss the train home. After dropping her luggage off at her apartment, she took a pause in front of the station. Her train wasn't coming for another twenty minutes; at least, that was what the online schedule had said.

Just as she took her phone out to check the schedule again, she realized she'd sat down next to someone. He was giving her a very odd look.

"Oh, hello!" She bowed as well as she could while sitting. "Sorry, it's sort of weird to sit next to someone like that here at Hachiko, right? You're probably waiting for someone." She had, briefly, entertained the thought that if she spent some time in front of Hachiko, maybe she'd meet her first friend. But she also realized that not everyone was as willing to talk to a stranger as she was.

"...nah, it's fine. I'm just waiting for my train."

Miyuki tilted her head. The man probably wasn't much older than her, dressed in jeans and a button-up shirt, with black-framed glasses perched in front of his eyes. He was already giving off the vibe of someone who wasn't easily noticed.

That just made her more curious. "I'm Kobayashi Miyuki," she said as the man pulled his phone out. "What's your name?"

"Ota Yuki."

"Oh, neat!" She was doing her best to not look at his screen; plenty of her friends were sensitive about that. "How's it written?"

"...Yuki is written as 'happiness,'" he said, sounding almost unsure about that. Apparently there was something about it that he didn't like, but why wouldn't he?

"Mine, too! My parents said they wanted me to grow up happy and with everything I could ever need, since they both didn't have a lot of money growing up."

"...they sound nice." Yuki finally put his phone away and looked at Miyuki. "I should get going, though."

"Oh, um, okay!" Before Miyuki could say more, Yuki quickly headed down into the station and was lost in the crowd. She glanced at her cell phone, only to realize she needed to get on the train if she was going to make it to her publisher on time.

That was how she found herself standing there at the ticket station. She felt like the map may as well have been written in Greek for all the sense it made. Maybe she should have taken an Uber.

"Excuse me."

Miyuki stopped her frantic attempt at map interpretation to turn and look behind her. There was a woman with long, dark brown hair and dressed in a severe-looking blue skirt suit. She was already taller than Miyuki, but the heels she wore gave her another several centimeters, to the point where Miyuki had to crane her neck to look up at her.

She'd be intimidating to anyone else, but Miyuki found herself feeling at-ease. This woman was the sort of person her parents would have associated with, and who would have helped Miyuki if she found her lost in the subway station.

"I need to get to work. If you don't know where you're going, please step aside so you don't hold me up."

"U-um, I do, actually!" Miyuki looked determined, even as the woman looked a bit taken-aback at her expression. "I'm sorry to bother you, but do you know which line will get me to Shudanshi? This is my first time on the subway! I looked it up online, but now that I'm actually here, nothing really makes sense."

The woman looked amused. Miyuki maintained that determined expression, perhaps in the hope that it would cause her to break and just go with it.

Finally, after a stare-down that seemed to last forever, the woman nodded.