VOLUME 1: STRAIGHT
Chapter 1: The Fist That Broke Reality
Dum.
Dumm… Dumm...
My heartbeat.
No, wait. That's not just my heartbeat—
It's something else.
Something pounding louder than reason.
My hands… they're wet. Sticky. Warm.
I glance down.
Blood.
And shards. Glass, maybe. Or reality.
There's a single drop of sweat tracing down my cheek.
It tickles like a warning. Like the world's whispering, You're not supposed to be here, Kintaro.
I breathe in.
I breathe out.
But the forest doesn't.
It just stands still—like it's watching.
Around me, six others shift nervously, as if we've woken up inside someone else's nightmare.
"Where the hell… are we?" someone snaps.
The voice is loud, harsh, desperate. Uyeda Amaya. Blond hair, wild eyes. The guy who punches first and never asks.
"Why the fuck are we in a forest?!"
Good question.
And I—Kurosawa Kintaro, delinquent, fighter, bastard—
I don't have the answer.
But deep down, somewhere beneath my skin and bruised knuckles, something murmurs:
This isn't our world anymore.
It all started earlier.
Cloudy skies. Classroom on the second floor.
Nothing strange, just the usual—
Me, being the piece of shit everyone expects.
I was teaching a lesson to my punching bags. Hiro, Daisuke, Arata.
Three losers stacked like dominos in the back of the room.
"Ow—!"
"Agh, please, stop—!"
Two were down.
Only Hiro still stood, bleeding but proud.
His brown bangs covered his glasses, like he didn't want to see me—but couldn't look away either.
I hated him most.
He told on me once.
To a teacher. A fucking adult.
So I made it personal.
And just when I was about to end it—
"Stop it, Kintaro."
Sayuri.
Short black hair, blacker eyes. The class president with a tongue sharp enough to cut glass.
"If you keep this up, I'll report you to the student council."
I laughed.
Showed her my middle finger like it was a royal decree.
"Mind your own damn life, you frigid b—"
The glass broke before the sentence ended.
I remember lunging. I remember aiming for Hiro.
But something about my footing—too much adrenaline, too much rage—
CRASH.
My fist didn't find Hiro.
It found the window.
Glass shattered like a scream frozen in time.
Pain bloomed, like a flower made of knives.
And then—
Silence.
No classroom.
No floor.
Just a forest.
And blood on my hands.
"I think…"
I swallowed. The words were ridiculous even as I said them.
"I think we're in another world."
"What?! That's—no! No, no, no! Somebody help us!"
That voice was unmistakable. Miyashita Emiko—the queen bee.
Long black hair, perfect skin, and a wolf cut so clean it could've killed.
She was beautiful. And terrified.
The others said nothing.
Daisuke—short black hair, big frame, eyes full of shame.
Everyone called him "Pig."
Now, he just looked like a lost child.
Arata Yushio—tiny, black-haired, glasses clinging to a face made for reading, not surviving.
He didn't speak. He just stared at the ground, like the answers might grow there.
Even Hiro was quiet.
Still bleeding. Still standing.
Sayuri was the one who finally broke the stillness.
"We need to think. Calmly. We're not going to survive if we panic."
"Shut it."
Uyeda Amaya again.
His voice was venom. His arms already flexing.
He rolled up his sleeves like this was just another schoolyard brawl.
"You think I forgot what you did yesterday, Kintaro?"
His fists twitched.
"I want a rematch."
Here we go again.
I clenched mine.
Not because I wanted to fight.
But because fighting was the only thing I knew how to do.
"Stop it!"
Sayuri's voice cracked like a whip.
"This isn't the time for your testosterone-fueled nonsense!"
And then—
it spoke.
Not a voice, really.
A presence.
It echoed from nowhere and everywhere. Like it was inside our ears. Inside our bones.
"Welcome… to this world."
"A world with one rule—move forward."
"Do not turn back. Do not stray. The path is straight. Only forward. If you wander, you will return to where you began… or vanish entirely."
"Conquer this world. Earn the prize."
No one moved.
The air felt thicker.
Like breathing through molasses.
My blood-streaked fingers clenched tighter.
No teacher. No parents. No rules.
Only this voice.
And a rule that felt like a curse.
Go straight.
But straight into what?