Prologue - The Start

I'm a straight A senior at my high school, whose name isn't worth mentioned here of all places. My name is Tetsuro Ryuzaki, but back then I still went by my real name, Aaron Delmon.

You probably know what it's like to be a kid; don't we all? Kids can be fairly impressionable, no doubt about it, though some authority figures take the stereotype too far... I'm getting off topic. As we get older we start to find what is reality and what is fantasy. We give up on dreams; becoming king or queen, becoming the richest kid ever, getting everything we want...

Believing that spirits are real.

The guys with the most ambition are the ones that don't always give up on some of those things, but most give up on the last one. I don't know why I hadn't; maybe I was just superstitious, or delusional that maybe if I really screwed up in life I might get a second chance. Perhaps it was my love of reading, and all the fantasy novels I've read because of that.

...Actually its probably because I never stopped seeing them. I wanted to hold onto sanity and so kept myself open to the idea of spirits.

I saw some scary stuff back then, and I found myself thankful sometimes that I wasn't next. My friends envy my ability to dream, but that just opens the road to nightmares too. I felt alone because of my 'gift' and maybe that's why I was always distant from most everyone at school; too dispassionate and distant to be approachable to most.

I could have become a really quiet one if it wasn't for one other.

She's the real reason there's a prologue; without this background stuff you wouldn't get it half as well.

She was the odd girl on campus, Alma. She was pretty and smart, but she was quiet and distant, she didn't make any friends, and I hadn't exactly planned on being one with her either. I hadn't found the need to have many friends; let alone close ones. People knew me and laughed with me, but they didn't actually know me. I was an enigma on campus to most for sure.

We had known each other I suppose since elementary school, but we never really talked; just seen each other around. Back then she had seemed delicate, but strange. A lot of people whispered about her behind her back, so I did know about her somewhat. But I didn't, couldn't trust what they told me. I had fallen into that trap before and had ruined a friendship; I never let it happen again.