Chapter Text
August 15, 1944
The ticket was bent and crumbled. Then again, it didn’t have a chance of staying in mint condition. Anything in the hands of the anxious Yūichirō Hyakuya was always bound to get messed up. The 20 year old was currently standing in a silent and meager train station. He was leaving and he swore he would never come back. The mainland held too many painful memories for Yuu. The barbaric war raging on was going badly for Yuu’s home country. Japan was all alone and against multiple vicious world powers. Everyday there was news of some crushing defeat, and to be honest, it became routine to receive that bad news. Yuu gradually became numb to it.
It would be a long and tedious train ride to Oma, the city on the very tip of the mainland. When he arrived there, Yuu would ride a ferry to the Hidaka Subprefecture, where he would take another train to a different city, one much smaller than Oma. Once he was there, Yuu would have to wait for his ride to the town where his planned to spend the rest of his life in. It was a small, quiet factory town for some big company power-house, then again, Yuu really didn’t care. He just wanted to escape Higashi-Naruse. The town in which he lost everything.
After around six hours, the train gradually came to stop. Its brakes hissed and screeched and the steady chugging sound decreased. The train let out one last whistle that sounded like a forlorn call as its doors noisily slammed opened. Hearing the rush of the passengers moving around and conductors yelling, Yuu rose from the small bed and gathered his luggage. As he opened the door of his cabin, the first thing the saw was a crowd of scurrying passengers heading toward the doors to exit the train. Yuu somehow managed to push himself through the large horde and step off the train onto the platform. He took a breath of the fresh outdoor air, glad he was no longer in breathing the dank and stuffy air of the train. Now all he had to do was find his ride.
A car pulled up. It was an old beat up Toyota, the beige paint was peeling off, and the engine revved as it drove. As it stopped, the breaks squeaked and oil started to leak from the bottom. Yuu cringed, this was going to be his ride for the next two hours. The driver’s door creaked opened as a tall man with sleek silver hair came out.
The man called out, “Hello? Yūichirō Hyakuya?”
He was about six feet tall, had warm eyes that were blue as the turbulent sea and a light complexion.
He took a look around and spotted the only other person left at the train station, which was Yuu.
The man strode over to him, the positivity and energy radiating off of him.
“Hello! I’m Shinya Hiragi, the social worker and recruiter of Eki 7 wāku. You must be Yūichirō!” he beamed.
Yuu looked uncomfortable with Shinya’s sudden outgoingness.
“Nice to meet you” Yuu mumbled. He was still tired from the stodgy train ride and was in no mood to engage in conversation.
“Oh, are you shy? Well at Eki 7 wāku everyone is family! We pay great wages too, aaaaand we even have off every Saturday!” Shinya said rapidly as they walked to the car, which really could use a license plate.
The rather peculiar man spoke enthusiastically the entire time. Yuu had never seen a person so eager to talk to him.
‘I can see why he’s the social worker there’ Yuu thought to himself.
Shinya talked about many things, mostly the place which they were heading to. Yuu had gotten an idea about the factory town. It was small, with only about 500 inhabitants. Kureto Hiragi, Shinya’s brother, owned the factory and the town. A man named Guren Ichinose, who Shinya claimed was his best friend, was the overseer and day-to-day manager of the town. Saturdays were off and work days were 6:30 to 4.There was also a monthly town meeting in the cafeteria of the factory. Of course, Shinya had stretched this information to fill up two hours. Yuu, on the other hand, didn’t utter a word.
Around noon, they arrived.
“Ok, I’m going to let Guren take over now, he’ll show you around the factory and direct you to your room.” Shinya said as they stepped out of the car.
Yuu nodded in understanding. Shinya pointed him in the direction of the factory. In front of them stood a large flat stone building that had two stories. It had many pipes on the roof that had smoke coming out of them. One man stood in front of the entrance.
He was silent as Yuu approached.
“H-Hello?” Yuu called out from about twenty feet away.
The man shuttered a little but covered it up quickly. “Yūichirō Hyakuya? You’re the new arrival.” He said walking towards Yuu, hand outstretched.
“That’s me”, Yuu said, shaking the man’s hand.
“I’m Guren Ichinose, I oversee the work here.” He said. He was about as tall as Shinya, he had piercing violet eyes, medium length black hair and seemed on edge.
“I’ll show you around” he added as he turned around towards the factory.
Guren took Yuu through the large double doors which immediately opened up into a large room, it was quiet, only the clicking of textile machines and hushed conversations were to be heard. In front of Yuu was about 400 workers busy at work.
“This is our main room. You see that box with windows and stairs leading up to it?” asked Guren.
There was a small room with a spiral staircase leading up to it where there would be the second floor “Yeah” answered Yuu.
“My office is there, come to me only if you have a problem.” He said. Yuu noted that Guren wasn’t as talkative as Shinya, however, he wasn’t as pleasant as the silver-haired man either.
During the factory tour, Guren showed him the cafeteria and the first floor of the factory, which contained a couple of different workshops. Alternative to the main room, the workshops were quite noisy, however, judging from their looks, Yuu could tell that the workers had gotten used to it. They were absorbed in their work, some had drops of sweat were rolling on their cheeks. The other workshops weren’t much different.
After they went back outside, Yuu saw a small building that stood few dozen feet away from the factory. It looked like it only had one room with a red cross above the door.
Guren pointed to it “That’s the nurse’s office”
Now Yuu and his new boss were hiking on a trail. After about a half mile, they came to a clearing. A few dozen wooden cabins lined up side-to-side were in the expanse and beyond the coast. They walked through the rows between the cabins, which were all empty due to today being a work day.
“You’ll be in cabin number 6, let’s see...” Guren pulled out a crumbled up piece of paper with scrawled writing. “… You are with Yoichi Saotome and Shiho Kimizuki.” Yuu’s boss pointed to a cabin with the number six on it. It wasn’t very large. Like all the other cabins, it was a medium size. The cabin was in good condition, indicating Yuu’s new roommates took care of it. There was a doormat at the entrance and a few flower pots under the windows. It looked as if they had made their home here, which is what Yuu would attempt to do also.
Guren spoke up again, “Work tomorrow starts at 7:30. Breakfast is served at 6:30. You’ll start today.”
Yuu and Guren turned around and hiked back to the factory. When they got there, Guren showed the new worker how to use the textile machines and other equipment. It took a while for Yuu to get the hang of it, due to the machines being quite complex, and Yuu could tell that Guren was staring to lose his patience every time he messed up. However, with constant practice and effort, by the end of the day, Yuu was efficient at it.