May 8, 2006, Entry One

My name is Akise Aru. My goal is to become a world-famous detective. While searching Sakurami City, I keep getting vibes of deja vu. Like this entire past has happened before. Speaking of which, a few days ago, I predicted some of the incidents in Sakurami City. For instance, one name kept appearing in all of those incidents. Personally, I wonder if it was a coincidence that I had been observing this person-of-interest even before the news coverage. Fate is indeed strange, but today, I will meet said person-of-interest.

-1-

Day in and day out, it all felt the same. Thinking back to yesterday and the day before that, tomorrow wouldn't be any different than the day of today, and it wasn't the boringness of the world around him that brought boy-detective Akise Aru to sit sulking in the Sakurami City Park on a bench. No, instead of the boringness, it was that feeling. That feeling that drove curiosity at one hundred miles per hour, that feeling that was feeling like something was… forgotten. Akise had been pondering just what he could have forgotten for days and days, but he never came close enough to figuring it out. This helplessness, this cluelessness, this confusion swarmed in on him, backing him up against a brick wall that he couldn't jump or escape from, and undeniably, it bothered him a lot.

But Akise Aru would never discover just why his body was behaving of its own volition. He would never understand why on the darkest nights he couldn't sleep, for fear that something would happen-not to him, but to someone. Someone important. He would never understand why he would be doing something normal, and then, he would be panged with this great sense of horror that was like a knife wound to his chest. He would never understand why his heart would just ache and wrench for no reason when he hadn't experienced anything to bring out such a reaction. He would never understand why he had forgotten this something or someone to begin with, and he would never understand why by the time he came close to solving the own mystery that was his forgetfulness, all traces would disappear.

There was white, there was red, and there was black.

-1-

"I'm telling you, there is no need for Amano Yukiteru."

"What are you talking about?! He plays a vital role within the Survival Game as the First!"

"And so he does, but think of it this way, First is First - whoever were to have his number would be as important as he was."

"Is that so?"

"Would you like to wager it?"

"Okay, what are the conditions of this little wager of yours?"

"Now, now, now, the conditions are to be more privately discussed than this. We're being intercepted."

"..."

Akise narrowed his amaranth eyes, making the mistake of turning his head and peeking in as good as he could into the opening of the door, but when he turned back, he was once again greeted by white, then red, and finally, that all-too-familiar blackness.