化物狩団 ~Bakemonokaridan~ Book 1

Chapter 1 - Kintarou

He had almost been late to class, thanks to his bike chain deciding to break halfway to school, but luckily, he ran into the classroom right as the last bell rang. Not seeing the teacher at the front, he slowed his pace and walked to his desk and sat down.

Kintarou pulled out his unfinished homework and stared at it. Maybe he could finish it miraculously before the teacher appeared. He got out his pen and started writing quickly. Clearly, staying up and reading all those magazines instead of doing this was a bad choice.

The teacher walked in right then. Kintarou frowned and put down his pen. Someone followed in right after the teacher. It looked like a new student.

However, this student had white-blonde hair and, in addition to carrying his bag, had a large, wrapped thing strapped across his back. It had to have been a sword, but who would actually bring a sword to school so badly hidden?

"Class," the teacher began, "we have a new student who just transferred from, ah-"

"Tokyo, sir."

"Ah, yes! Tokyo." The teacher turned around and wrote the student's name on the board. He looked at it for a minute and then turned towards the student. "Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" He seemed to be having trouble reading the student's name.

"Yes, sir!" The student took the chalk from the teacher and wrote the reading of his name next to the kanji. He turned towards the class. "My name is Ezra Souen! I come from an ancient line of noble samurai. It's a pleasure to meet you all." He bowed.

That is absolutely not what the kanji for his first name read at all. He didn't sound foreign to Kintarou, though. Also, the samurai lineage sort of explained the sword, but was that even necessary or important? He stared at the student along with the rest of his class.

"Ah, all right then. Souen, take your seat, please, and we will begin class."

The student went and sat down at an empty seat near the back.

"All right, let's just begin right away. Everyone hand in last night's homework."

Kintarou inwardly groaned as he hurriedly finished the last sentence and passed the homework forward.

The girl stared with her mouth hanging open throughout the recount of the morning. "Are you serious? He had a sword? That's what that was?"

He nodded.

She stood up quickly. "Oh wow do you think he's still here?" She asked way too fast and sounded way too excited.

"No; I think he headed home right after school ended."

She frowned and slowly sat back down.

He sighed. "I'll ask him tomorrow before class, though."

Her face lit up again. "Ah, thank you!"

He stood up. "We seem to be done for today and I have a few things to do," he cringed at the thought of his bike, "so I'm heading home now."

She stood up as well. "That's fine. I'll see you tomorrow!" She headed for the door.

"Ah, wait. You never told me your name."

"Oh!" She turned around and bowed. "I'm Chihaya Kanachi. Nice to meet you," she said, smiling. With that, she waved and went out the door.

Kintarou followed and went to collect his bike. He walked it the whole way home, staring disdainfully at his dead bike chain. He tried thinking of ways to fix it without having to buy a new one, but instead ended up stopping and buying a couple more magazines on the way home. He'd worry about the bike that weekend and just walk to school tomorrow.

He woke up earlier the next day so he could walk to school and still have some time before class. Looking at his homework (which he had actually managed to do, amazingly), he put it in his bag. He tried searching for a certain book to bring with him, but it was taking too long to find it. He'd look after school, or something.

Walking to school took significantly longer than biking. It took about an hour, and he wasn't too happy about it. He did make it before the first bell, however, which meant that he had time to find that transfer student.

Kintarou walked into class. There were a few other people there. Ezra was sitting at his desk, frowning and arms crossed, staring straight at the front of the room. His sword was gone. One of the teacher's must have taken it; it's not like it wasn't obvious what it was or anything.

Kintarou walked up to him. "Hey."

Ezra looked up at him.

"Have you joined any clubs or sports yet?"

"I have not."

He pulled the folded-up flier out of his jacket and handed it to the transfer student. Ezra opened it and looked at it. "We're meeting after school. Please come."

A slight smile appeared on Ezra's face. "I have something to attend to after school, but I'll be sure to try and arrive not too late."

Not everyone in Tokyo couldpossibly speak like that. It didn't sound like Japanese was his secondlanguage, though; it was still a bit off-putting. Kintarou tried to ignore it."All right, I'll see you then." He walked back to his seat and satdown, waiting for class to start.