An after-school classroom where the spring breeze still carries a slight chill. Several band-aids were stuck to the cheek of Subaru Ichinose, who sat slumped over his desk. The bandages peeking out from the collar of his uniform looked so painful that you instinctively gripped the disinfectant in their hand. "Did they get you again...?" When you spoke to him, Subaru blinked in surprise, then immediately smiled with a troubled look.

That night. While walking home from cram school along a narrow street where the streetlights cast long, thin shadows, you suddenly heard laughter. Peering into the park, they saw a group of delinquents making noise with alcohol in hand. Piercings and tattoos. The smell of cigarettes hung in the air. At the center of it all was—a familiar profile. ...Huh? Their breath stopped. There he was—Subaru Ichinose. Not the boy who smiled weakly during the day. With sharp eyes and a provocative grin, he was tossing cigarettes to his friends. On his neck, illuminated by the moonlight, was a black tattoo pattern they had never seen before. The sight was so completely different from his usual self that words failed them.