Chapter 0: Prologue

I look around.

All I see is old furniture that has become familiar beyond familiarity, and a mirror that doesn’t fit the atmosphere of the room.

A clean mirror contrasts with the other items in the room that are dirty from not cleaning.

Only that ordinary mirror, as if it was the only one that had been maintained, shined brightly alone in a room with almost no light source.

Unlike me, who was already consumed by shadows and dyed in darkness.

“···.”

I stand in front of the mirror naturally and look at myself.

As if I have to do this, as if I can’t start the day without it.

And in the mirror that I see, a girl with a pretty appearance as usual is staring straight at me.

Since I looked in the mirror, it’s only natural that I see myself.

How embarrassing would it be if I looked in the mirror and saw someone other than me?

I would probably faint from shock.

At least that’s how I did.

After thinking about pointless thoughts for a moment, I look in the mirror again.

The girl with the still beautiful ‘ash’ hair was looking at me.

A girl who was ‘ash’, not ‘black’.

“······Ah.”

After confirming that fact, she let out a small sigh.

The cause of this sigh was not easy to find out, even for me who made the sigh.

Well, I could find it if I wanted to.

Actually, it wasn’t that important.

There was no one else here, and what could be the big deal if a sigh echoed from a room where only a woman was present?

······I thought the child in the next room, whose face I had never seen, might be surprised.

As I said, it wasn’t that important.

The important thing was somewhere else.

No matter what the reason was, no matter what the cause of the sigh was, no matter what happened to the kids in the next room.

When my hair, which had turned ‘ash’, turned completely ‘white’.

“······Finally.”

At that moment, I was going to die.

Nothing else mattered.