If Her Flag Breaks Volume 1 Chapter 0
Flag 0: The Magic That Started It All
Roads everywhere, intersections everywhere, people waiting for traffic lights everywhere.
The fifteen-year old girl whose name was unparalleled -- Nanami Knight Bladefield, who was wearing a uniform and a thick hooded coat, was waiting for the lights to change in the crowd of people.
With her refined, eye-catching beauty, and she stood out from the crowd to the extent that it seemed she towered over everyone else. Her blonde ponytail was so beautiful that it lacked a sense of realism, not only overflowing with exoticism but exuding a sense of uniqueness.[1] Fair, slender legs extended from her short skirt.
Despite being less than 150 cm (4’11’’) tall, her petite figure was compelling. Her only shortcoming was her flat chest.
Her indescribable noble temperament must have originated from her identity as the thirteenth princess of the Principality of Bladefield.
Such a person appearing in everyday life seemed to be unnatural, making it impossible to judge whether she is just waiting for a traffic light or making a movie. Nanami was this type of peerless beautiful girl. Obviously, there was no camera nor director, but it gave the illusion of making a film aside from the absence of ‘incredible intro dance’[2] to attract the audience. Only Nanami had this type of skill.
The surrounding people all unconsciously stared at Nanami, fascinated. Only the pair of office workers standing in the front were unaware of Nanami’s existence and were chatting about private matters.
Nanami, who was standing slightly behind the two of them, casually overheard their conversation:
“Oh, how are you doing with the receptionist lady? I remember that you have been dating for more than a year?”
“Yeah… This time, I am going to discuss an important business deal with a big client. If this deal, which is critical for the survival of the company, goes through, I will propose to her.”
What kind of death flag was this?! Nanami almost smirked right there, but she barely held her breath and nearly choked.
However, Nanami next witnessed an accident that seemed to make her current state more suffocating.
On one side of the three-lane truck road, she saw a tanker truck up the road and a trailer down the road, both heading straight towards the crowd waiting for the traffic light.
Seeing the two large vehicles loudly rushing over, everyone threatened by the two vehicles about to cause an accident could not help but scream and flee.
However, because of the panic, someone quickly tripped, and a collapse occurred in the blink of an eye. The chess effect… no, the domino effect. Why is it clearly referring to the same thing but has to be changed? This is a mystery.[3]
A truck full of gasoline approached.
Everyone was on the ground and had difficulty standing up.
Everything is okay.
Just when everyone was already mentally prepared--
A young man behind Nanami quickly walked forward from the fallen crowd.
This inconspicuous teen, who was without any distinguishing characteristics save for his messy bangs, said to the stunned office worker from behind:
“That deal will never go through in your entire career.”
That is no longer a business.
However, this sentence shook the office worker.
Of course, the truck will not be shaken. However, as if the two trucks are responding to the shaking of the office worker, they act in ways impossible to achieve under Newtonian mechanics, Lorentz transformation, or four-dimensional vectors - the two trucks turn sharply at the same time, narrowly avoiding a collision and sharply screeching to a halt vertically at the intersection.
The driver who avoided the tragedy was completely dumbfounded, his expression as if he had been tricked by a fox.
The crowd of people was miraculously unharmed. People 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.[4]
It was only then that someone there screamed, took pictures on their phone, etc. and it was really chaotic.
Of course, nobody noticed the teenager who spoke the otherworldly[5] words to the office worker.
Except for Nanami.
“......”
Her deep, beautiful, lake-like, watery eyes widened as she stared at the teenager with an open mouth. The young man was looking around to confirm that the confusion had subsided and smiled. When he noticed Nanami’s gaze, he was surprised.
He fled from her sight, hurriedly traversing the still noisy intersection and leaving the scene.
Nanami paid special attention to the suspicious teen, involuntarily following the back of him dragging the large suitcase.
As if escaping Nanami’s sight, the young man 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 in the same place, staring in his direction.
This was the encounter between Nanami Knight Bladefield and the mysterious boy Hatate Souta.
I originally wanted to talk about something interesting as a commemoration, but I can’t think of it, so I won’t continue talking.[6]
Translator notes and references
- ↑ It says 逆流, or ‘against the current’, so I interpreted it this way. Please change it if you find a better word.
- ↑ Apparently Japanese movie theaters show an anti-piracy short video of a Dragon Quest dance thing before movies or something like that.
- ↑ The original Japanese text uses 氣棋倒し, which is like knocking down chess pieces (according to the Chinese translator). The Japanese Chess Federation apparently hopes that the media would stop using this term to describe pushing accidents.
- ↑ The Japanese for ‘daydream’ sounds similar to ‘achoo’ according to the Chinese translator.
- ↑ The Chinese is 神秘, which can mean mysterious, amazing, godlike etc. If someone finds a better word, feel free to change it.
- ↑ No idea what this sentence is for, but it's not a TL note and it exists as part of the Chinese text.
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