Fuyuu Gakuen no Alice and Shirley:Volume1 Prologue
Crumbling Classroom Stage
The ceiling fell. It was 8:13 a.m. when the golden sunlight passed through the classroom window.
The enshrouding dust weighed heavily on Kusunoki Masaki's mouth and he opened his eyes slightly. The broken ceiling debris was scattered on the floor as well as on top of the desks and chairs.
And in the midst of it all was a strange, dancing shadow.
Card soldiers with long, thin limbs blew trumpets. The trumpets brought geese to life and from their open yellow beaks they spat out letters of the alphabet. Animals bigger than cats: hat wearing mice, ducks, parrot, crabs, laughed and sung
They were only beings that couldn't be real. It was as if they had fallen out of a fairy-tale.
It seemed like they fell when the classroom ceiling collapsed.
Masaki was the only person in the room thus luckily no one was injured. But the lined up desks and chairs were stepped and trodden on, overflowing and being crushed flat to the point that they were no longer recognisable.
In the midst of the card soldiers, hat wearing mice and other animals - those irrational, absurd and uncanny beings - was an enormous cat. It was about 6 meters long. The top of it's tofty-haired round head reached all the way to the top of the joist bay whose bottom had fallen out.
The large cat closed its almond shaped eyes, gave a complacent smile and lowered its head in what seemed to be a bow.
Between its two triangular ears––was the shape of a human.
The other person stood out in a different sense from the strange dancing beings in the middle of the rubble.
Masaki held his breath.
He forgot about what was going on around him as he was completely fascinated; "she's beautiful", he thought.
It was a girl that looked like a western doll.
Sapphire-like clear blue eyes and hair like a bundle of gold thread. Skin as white as a plaster figure.
She clung to the tufts of hair on the ears of the big cat as it moved slowly.
Although the girl was shorter that Masaki, he had to look up at her since she was at a much higher angle than him.
She took a look over her surroundings––then her eyes met with Masaki's.
She tilted to her head to one side in what seemed to be curiosity.
"...Who are you?"
Her voice sounded like clear water.
"Well, I'm Kusunoki Masaki...I moved to this school today."
"Okay. Were you a little surprised?"
"I was really surprised. I thought that it had become a little ridiculous you know - who the hell are you?"
"...I feel sorry for you."
She didn't answer my question; instead she spoke words of pity.
Masaki was puzzled so asked again.
"Me? Why?"
"You over there, are going to die."
"What?!"
Masaki heard the faint sound of slicing wind and turned around.
On the other side of the window––
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