Dancing on the Palms of a Yandere! - Chapter 1

“Die!”, people say.

Do you understand the weight of releasing those words, I would ask? For example, what would happen if I died when I was told to die here? Wouldn’t that person be the cause of my death?

No, no. It was caused by me.

I was told to die and I was the one who took that action. Unless it was murder, all the consequences of my actions were my fault solely.

After all, the story I am about to narrate is a tragedy of which the sole cause is me.

It involved me, her, and the people around us.

It’s just a funny game.

Tamura Yaisaki.

I was the target of bullying when I was in fifth grade. The reason was that my name was girly, which still made no sense to me.

Perhaps the reason is an afterthought. I was probably an easy target for bullies. I was introverted and lanky. I was born with ashy hair, which also made me stand out.

Cold water was poured over my head.

“Gee-ha-ha!” a vile laugh is heard.

‘Sorry, Tamura. I didn’t see that you were there. I didn’t think you’d be there.”

It’s a whitewashed line. They went out of their way to spray water out of the window towards me. The cold water was particularly resounding in this winter time and made me feel cold. I had goosebumps and my wet uniform stuck to my skin.

I did not look up overhead and walked towards the school gate.

I was a victim of the occurrence known as bullying.

It is also quite physical.

Beyond the process of being ignored, it also included mornings with rubbish in the shoe box, PE uniforms and textbooks of one sort or another being thrown in the bin, ripped up and stolen, and graffiti scrawled on the desk in pencil. This is the third time I’ve had cold water poured on me. It’s downright criminal to do it in winter.

The bullying did not start now. Even though I got out of primary school, I had classmates in secondary school, and even when I entered high school, for some reason I continued to be targeted.

But I don’t think the bully is entirely responsible for the bullying.

If you don’t want to be bullied, you can act to do something about it. How much easier would it have been if I could have tried?

    If I could have done it, I would have done it. That’s what bullied people often say, but it’s an opinion they didn’t hold. Bullying has a mutual cause.

Maybe it’s the environment, maybe it’s not, maybe they want to make up excuses.

I was thinking.

Wet from cold water, I stood out on the streets.

I walked from school for twenty minutes and stopped in front of a ramshackle flat. It is a two-story building. My room is at the end of the second floor. I had started living alone when I entered high school.

My parents died in an accident when I was in secondary school. It was sudden, so it didn’t feel real at the time. Even now, there is still a gaping hole in my life.

Then I went to an orphanage. The orphanage was a world I had never known. A group of people in the same situation as me, raised by a kindly mother-to-be. It was creepy. I thought pseudo-happiness would be sweeter, warmer. No, no. No, it wasn’t. The pity and pitying glances. Their fundamentals scared me.

So I entered high school and started living on my own. Fortunately, the orphanage accepted it. Even though they were half forced to do so.

“I’m back……..”

I go inside the flat, but there is no response.

My voice sounded awful. I take off my wet uniform and hang it on a hanger. Will it dry tomorrow? Probably not, it will be damp.

My body shivered. The cold was intensified by the fact that I had taken off my uniform. I should take a shower. No, should I wipe my hair with a towel first?

Ding-dong, the doorbell rang. The doorbell in this apartment has a slightly different sound. I opened the door.

“Hello, Missa.”

A girl with long peach-colored hair emerged.

Well-formed face. Amber eyes. Stylish figure. Attractive wherever I look at, and the uniform worn by the girl emphasizes the shape.

Name of the girl, Nakano Nanahana, aka Nana.

She is an honor student at Akigaoka Academy, where I go as well. She is a beautiful girl who is said to be the most beautiful girl in the grade …… or even the most beautiful girl in the school. Naturally, she is popular in class.

Besides, she was brilliant. She was perfect in everything: studies, athletics, personality, everything.

Angel who seems to have emerged from fairytales.

In contrast, I – Tamura Yaisaki am the most hated person at school. This is not a self-proclaimed title. I am bullied at school. The reason why they don’t like me is, well, because of me, apparently.

I had a girl I grew up with.

When my parents were alive, they socialized with each other. I got on well with them too, they said. That’s what I thought. Maybe it was my first love. After I had to go to an orphanage and we were separated by a distance.

Then, by chance, we met again in high school.

I recognized the girl I grew up with easily, she was much more mature but still retained some of her past cuteness.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t think we couldn’t get along.

When I thought that, a girl I had known since childhood speaking to me. I was very happy at that time.

From this point on, I want you to hear it as a funny story.

One day I was on holiday and I was on the train to a town two streets away. I thought it was an unusual activity on my part, but it was because there was a celebrity signing at a limited-edition bookshop in that city.

After getting the signature, on the train ride home, there was an incident on the train.

It’s called molestation. My childhood friend was molested.

The molestation was apparently an attempt. The perpetrator had fled. I was confused, but I approached my childhood friend.

‘It’s ……, okay?’

I remember my childhood friend was freaked out when I spoke to her. She had just been molested. I think it was natural for her to be extremely cautious.

My childhood friend let out a breath of relief when she saw me. Probably she felt relieved that I knew her.

‘It’s really disgusting.’

I remember my childhood friend was acting stout, but her voice was trembling. I took my childhood friend home that day out of character. I thought it was only natural.

Next day. I was astonished when I arrived at school.

The molestation scandal that occurred yesterday has spread throughout the school. Not – because the victim was a girl who held a high position in the class.

I was made to be the perpetrator of the attempted molestation.

　　*****************************

I naturally countered. Even though I didn’t do it. I would never do that.

However, someone apparently saw me on the train with my childhood friend. A photograph of that time was also circulated.

Two factors have supported the theory that I = culprit here.

For one thing, my childhood friend, the victim of a molestation racket, held a high position in my class. My childhood friend’s female friends did not tolerate molestation and I was somehow identified as an enemy of women.

Another reason is that a group of menboyswere complicit. The boy who is also the actual leader of the boy’s group apparently likes my childhood friend. I was the first one to get hit when I met him. When he suddenly attacked me, I wondered what was going on.

That’s what I thought, he was a nice young man in class. He was what you might call a popular guy. I couldn’t make a good connection between him and the reason why he was beating me.

Some sided with the girl, some to defeat the evil act, some for the fun of it, some for the sake of the moment. to let the moment flow.

Rumors are a terrible thing.

By the time I realised it, I was the molester. Not only did they not listen to my opinion, but the rumours washed it all away.

The rumours further inflated my notoriety and the end the rumour spread in the wrong direction.

The result was bullying in the name of sanctions and a position as the most hated person in the school.

The school is probably aware of my current situation. On top of that, they pretend to be ignorant.

Causal, you might say.

I was truly alone.

As I was originally alone, I didn’t change that much. I didn’t even feel sad. I just take the daily bullying every day.

It’s empty, so you don’t feel anything.

Still, I knew that something inside me was disappearing.

It was then that she appeared.

An angel, I thought, not metaphorically.

“Oh, it’s wet!”

Nanaka looked at my wet clothes and said.

“Oh, this is  …….”

I can’t think of a good excuse.

Nanaka chuckled.

She takes a towel from her handbag and ruffles my hair.

Let’s have a bath.”

Nanaka-san straddles the threshold so to push me into the bathroom.

“I can take the clothes off myself.”

“Do you want me to come in?”

“Huuuuh, I’m fine??!!”

I rushed into the bathroom and took a shower. I took a deep breath.

It was about a week after the molestation incident that Nanaka appeared before me.

A neighbour moved in. On his day off, he came over to say hello. I opened the door with an element of uncertainty, wondering whether I can respond amiably to a neighbour’s greeting now.

‘Huh? Tamura-kun?’

Surprisingly, there stood Nanaka.

I knew Nanaka too.

But Nanaka would have known me in a bad way.

But Nanaka believed in my innocence. She listened to my story. I was so happy about that that I started crying.

Since then, Nanaka-san and I have been living under a mysterious connection. She often comes to my room on holidays and eats dinner with me. Outside of school, I probably spend most of my time with Nanaka.

She was an angel to me.

When I came out of the bathroom, Nanaka was in the kitchen preparing dinner. She was wearing an apron, which suited her very well.

I was fascinated by the sight of Nanaka.

It was the smell of curry that hit my sense of smell.

“Ah, Misa-kun. Are you done?” (TL/N: IDK why she calls him Misa.)

‘Yeah.’

“I think I’ll go and have a shower too.”

‘Eh!’

“Here, please.”

Nanaka-san headed off to the bathroom while handing me the curry she was in the process of cooking.

Delayed sound of the shower is heard.

A classmate, and the most beautiful girl in school at that, is taking a shower in my own house. The reality of this fact is a surprise.

I just concentrated on making the curry. I moved my hands without thinking.

“Misa-kun!”

“Hai, yes!”

Voices were heard from the bathroom.

‘I left my towel there. Can you bring it back?’

Uh-uh.

I turn off the fire and take a towel.

Through a gap in the bathroom door, Nanaka’s face, steam and stylish silhouette could be seen.

I turn my face away and hand her a towel.

“Here.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

I hand her a towel and I leave immediately.

My heart beats faster.

It is embarrassing and shameful.

Nanaka coming out of the bathroom.

Skin, wet hair, vapoury cheeks. Somehow I turned away, feeling like I’d seen something I shouldn’t have. My cheeks are hot.

‘Ah, curry, you’ve finished cooking it.’

“Uh, yeah. ……”

Dinner is served on a folding table in my room, we sit facing each other.

The curry was mostly made by Nanaka, rather than a group production ……. The curry is full of ingredients. It was delicious.

“How is it? Is it good?”

Nanaka asks.

“Yes, it’s very, very tasty. Nanaka-san’s cooking skills are amazing after all.”

‘Oh no, there’s this great roux, it’s normal!’

Nanaka said this, but inwardly she seemed happy.

“Here, ah~n.”

Nanaka’s behaviour made me freeze.

Taking her spoon, she scooped the curry and held it out to me.

“Yeah, no, I mean…”

“HMM?”

Mmm, this, this is called force majeure.

I took a mouthful of curry.

Because of my nervousness, I couldn’t really taste the food.

“Take this.”

Nana hands me a spoon.

I received it with nervousness.

With trembling hands, I scoop Nanaka’s curry and offer it to her.

“Ahn”

“Un”

Nanaka takes it in her mouth.

“Delicious, Misa-kun.” She says looking satisfied.

“…… yeah.”

I wish days like this could go on forever, he said. So much so that it seems like it, a feeling of surreality.

I put my spoon down on the table.

‘Huh? There’s still curry left though?”

‘I wonder why …… Nanaka is being so good to me.’

Nanaka was silent.

But belatedly, her expression softened with a puff.

“I don’t think I’m doing you any favours.”

‘But you were the only one who believed me that I wasn’t a molester.

‘Because you told me yourself, Misa-kun. You said you were innocent. It’s true, isn’t it?”

‘…… it’s true.’

The words did not reach the person who I really wanted to listen to , though.

‘Then you’re innocent. I don’t think I’m really doing you any favours. This is for my own good. I’m doing this because I want to, so I can’t be bothered if you’re bothered by every little thing I do. In times like this, it’s okay to be honest and be sweet.”

‘……Thank you, Nanaka.’

‘Yes, yes, yes.’

Nanaka laughed as she said this.

She looks good with a smile on her face. How much that smile has saved me.

Nanaka-san was an angel to me.

Nanaka POV:

“Nanaka, I really want to thank you for that.”

(It’s me, Misa-kun to whom you claimed innocence in the molestation case. It was drowned out by the rumours in the school.So, Misa-kun became a molester. Nevertheless, I believe in you. Of course I believe it. Isn’t it obvious? You may not believe what I truly believe. Yet, I am the only one, I am the only one on your side. Because, I’m the one who framed you for molestation. So, Misa-kun, you’re mine and mine alone.

Look only at me. Be only mine. I love you , Misa.)