If Her Flag Breaks Volume 1 Chapter 0
Flag 0: The Magic That Started It All[edit]
There are roads everywhere, intersections everywhere, and people waiting for traffic lights everywhere.
Amidst the crowd, a fifteen-year old girl with a unique name — Nanami Knight Bladefield — waited for the lights to change in a uniform and thick hooded coat.
Her extraordinary beauty was more than conspicuous, to the extent that she seemed to tower over everyone else. Her blonde ponytail was so beautiful it was unrealistic, not only brimming with exoticism but almost overflowing with it. Fair, slender legs extended from her short skirt.
She might have been less than 150 cm tall, but even her small stature was eye-catching. Her only feature that could be called regrettable would be her minute chest.
And her indescribable air of nobility no doubt came from her identity as the thirteenth princess of the Principality of Bladefield.
It seemed unnatural for such a person to even appear in everyday life, so it was impossible to tell whether she was just waiting for a traffic light or shooting a movie. Nanami was just this type of peerlessly beautiful girl. Obviously, there was no camera nor director, but it gave the illusion of a movie shoot. Aside from the camera creature who dances the ‘‘Weird Dance’’ to drain the audience’s MP before the movie starts,[1] only Nanami had this type of skill.
The surrounding people all unconsciously stared at Nanami, fascinated. Only the pair of office workers standing at the front of the crowd were unaware of Nanami’s existence and were chatting about private matters.
Standing slightly behind the two of them, Nanami mindlessly overheard their conversation:
“Oh right, are things going well with the receptionist lady? I think you’ve been dating for about a year?”
“Yeah… I’ve got an important business negotiation with a big client this time, so if it goes through, I’ll propose to her.”
What kind of death flag was this?! Nanami almost snorted on the spot, but she managed to stifle it, nearly choking in the process.
However, she immediately witnessed an event that would make her current state of suffocation even worse.
In front of her eyes, an oil tanker up the six-lane road and a large truck down the road simultaneously beeline straight towards the crowd waiting for the traffic light.
Seeing the two large vehicles careening over, the people in the crowd couldn’t help but scream and flee.
Because of the tight scramble, someone soon tripped, and in the blink of an eye there was a crowd collapse. The shogi effect… no, the domino effect. It clearly refers to the same thing, so why does it have to be changed? What a mystery.[2]
The oil tanker approached.
Those on the ground had difficulty standing up.
Well, everyone dies someday.
Just when everyone was already mentally prepared for disaster—
A boy behind Nanami quickly walked forward from the fallen crowd.
That inconspicuous teen, who didn’t have any distinguishing characteristics save perhaps his untamed bangs, patted the back of stunned office worker and said:
“That business negotiation would never go through in your lifetime though?”
That isn’t even a business negotiation anymore.
However, this sentence shook the office worker.
Of course, a truck wouldn’t be shaken. However, as if the two trucks are echoing the office worker’s shaking, they acted in ways impossible to achieve under either Newtonian mechanics, Lorentz transformation, or four-dimensional vectors — the two trucks turned sharply at the same time, narrowly avoiding a collision and screeching to an ear-splitting halt along the road shoulder.
The drivers who avoided the tragedy were completely dumbfounded, their expressions as if they had been tricked by a fox spirit.
The people who had fallen were miraculously unharmed. They stood up slowly, as if waking up from a scary daydream and confused to the point that the word ‘daydream’ sounded like a cute sneeze.[3]
It was only then that someone there screamed, took pictures on their phone, etc. and the area became chaotic.
Of course, nobody noticed the boy who spoke the magical words to the office worker.
Except Nanami.
“......”
Her eyes, as deep and beautiful as the waters of a lake, widened and her jaw dropped as she stared at the teenager. The boy was looking around to confirm that the confusion had subsided and smiled. When he noticed Nanami’s gaze, he was surprised.
The flustered boy fled from her sight, hurriedly traversing the still noisy intersection and leaving the scene.
Nanami paid special attention to the incomparably suspicious boy and her gaze couldn’t help but follow the image of him dragging a large suitcase behind him.
As if escaping Nanami’s sight, the boy walked into the main entrance of the school in front of the crosswalk, disappearing into the crowd.
Until the school bell rang, Nanami was still rooted in place, staring in his direction.
This was the encounter between Nanami Knight Bladefield and the mysterious boy Hatate Souta.
I originally wanted to say something amusing to commemorate this, but I really can’t think of anything, so I won’t keep talking.[4]
Translator notes and references[edit]
- ↑ This is a Dragon Quest reference alluding to some Japanese anti-piracy ads
- ↑ According to the Chinese translator, there is a Japanese game (氣棋倒し) similar to dominos that uses shogi pieces. It’s also used to describe crowd collapses, but the Japanese Shogi Federation hopes that the media would stop using this term to describe those accidents.
- ↑ The Japanese for ‘daydream’ sounds similar to ‘achoo’ according to the Chinese translator.
- ↑ Probably some kind of meta author commentary?
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