It was March, spring break.
This was the vacation that countless students in Japan looked forward to.
Some went on trips, some participated in club activities, some went to work, date, cram school, or stayed home and played games, becoming shut-ins for the entire vacation.
But for Kusanagi Koutarou right now, vacation meant the same thing as trouble.
Because he was not in Japan at this time, but in Italy, a place he didn't know at all!
Incredibly, the color of the sky looked different in different countries.
The sky Kusanagi Koutarou looked up at from the airport window was not the ambiguous and deep blue sky unique to Japan, but the sky under this Latin country, a sky that seemed to pierce the heavens, an astonishing azure.
Turning his gaze forward, he saw a crowd of people from different nationalities and races coming and going.
This was the airport in the southern tip of Italy, a resort island floating on the Mediterranean Sea. He wasn't here on a school trip, so there was probably only him, Kusanagi Koutarou, here among the Japanese students right now.
In the bustling terminal, Koutarou gazed into the distance, grumbling in his heart.
After twelve hours of turbulence on the plane, he finally arrived in this country. The fatigue from the long flight and the jet lag left him exhausted.
This was Sardinia, an island about the size of Shikoku.
The population was around fifteen million, and most of them lived in the island's cities.
It was surrounded by clear seawater, and the natural environment was also very beautiful.
The island's biggest industry was tourism. Every summer, tourists from all over the world would flock to the island for a European vacation.
Especially in the northeastern part of the island, the beautiful coast like a green gem was known as a resort destination for the upper class.
But this time, he wasn't here for tourism, but for something in this unfamiliar place—during his rare vacation.
“…. I'll just take a walk around this town today and take the train to Miss Lucrazia's town tomorrow.”
Kusanagi Koutarou, now standing on the street outside the airport, was considering whether to go to the hotel he had booked first.
He had to bring something back to a friend of his grandfather's.
That's why he came to Sardinia, Italy. Originally, he was planning to work during his junior high spring break.
But he decided that he couldn't let his grandfather break the promise he had made with his grandmother.
So he decided to deliver it himself. Although he didn't know Italian, he wasn't good at any other foreign languages either.
But he had been taken overseas by his grandfather several times before. Most of the places he went to were in Southeast Asia.
He had also experienced getting lost with his grandfather and then meeting again.
Every time this happened, he would spend more than half a day with no language and no money, and in serious cases, he would have to wait for days.
He had experienced this countless times, and as a result, he had become accustomed to this situation.
If he couldn't speak the language, he'd use body language, which surprisingly allowed him to communicate. Even if he couldn't express complex meanings, he could still get close to people by relying on his handsome looks and smile.
Even if he encountered foreigners speaking English on the road, other people would probably freeze, and that's when he would use the English he knew to make some fragmented conversations work.
【Heh, Koutarou, you're going to take my place… Can I really leave it to you?】
【Of course, a man's word is his bond. It's spring break now, anyway, I'm bored out of my mind.】
And so, Kusanagi Koutarou, who made this declaration, came to a foreign country, a place that was completely unfamiliar to him.
He was now standing in front of the airport, looking at the map and travel guide of Sardinia he had found online, planning his next steps.
His grandfather's "friend" lived in a town in the middle of the island, and today he planned to rest here first, giving his body time to recover from the jet lag and flight.
Kusanagi Koutarou, who made this decision, looked around. It was a little past one in the afternoon, and the Mediterranean sun was radiating a brilliant light. The blue sky was cloudless, a boundless view you couldn't see in the Eleven Districts.
It would be a shame not to take in the scenery while you're at it.
He was as excited as if he were seeing the dawn, and he decided to go for a walk, maybe ask for directions.
He could rest later at night. After all, he had come all the way here, so why not go explore?
With his luggage in hand, Kusanagi Koutarou was about to leave the airport and take a leisurely stroll through the town.
“Wow?!”
“So handsome～”
“Hey～ Should we go talk to him?”
“Such a handsome Oriental guy, could he be a celebrity?”
“……”
But just then, there was a commotion among the passengers in the airport.
Even Kusanagi Koutarou, who was standing outside the airport, couldn't help but turn to look.
Then he saw a tall figure emerging from the airport in a way that drew attention to himself.
Not to mention anything else, Kusanagi Koutarou felt like he had been struck by the other guy's handsomeness, making him feel a bit envious and self-conscious.
He saw a handsome young man in the crowd, wearing a long black coat and black trousers, a white shirt, and casual leather shoes, with flowing black short hair, his appearance and aura were extraordinary, obviously someone not ordinary.
A Celestial?
This face, this aura, could he be an idol star or something?