Miracles can be purchased in this world. Yurui just can't afford one
This is a story about a girl.
Sometimes she sits on the ledge of the communal balcony outside their apartment, reached through a dark, gritty corridor.
The lights died years ago - too many residents stopped paying the bills. Hobos often lie slumped against apartment doors, passed out from God knows what. The hallway reeks of cigarettes and piss.
But at the end of it there's the balcony.
Like the light at the end of a tunnel, it shines even at night - the corridor's only source of light.
From there she watches the distant buildings of Miracle City glowing with their pretty lights.
In this world, there are people known as the Blessed. Special individuals who can partially transform into animals and use their abilities.
Originally, a person would receive their blessing either at birth or, more rarely, sometime before turning eighteen, if they were lucky enough to receive one at all.
For a long time, no one knew what blessings were or where they came from. Until, one day a brand new corporation appeared out of nowhere, claiming it had discovered the secret behind the blessing phenomenon.
Naturally, nobody believed them. Most people brushed the claim aside. But as time passed, rumors began to spread. Middle aged people with blessings started appearing all over the place, all of them saying they had bought their blessings from the new startup.
Before long, those claims were verified. It was officially confirmed that the company had discovered the secret behind blessings. After several restructurings and name changes, the company eventually became known as Miracle Inc.
Twenty years have passed since Miracle Inc was founded. No one knows what blessings really are or where they come from. But there is one thing every single person in the world knows for certain, probably better than they know the full names of their parents.
You can buy a blessing from Miracle Inc.
If you can afford one that is.
In an age where anyone can easily get their hands on ridiculous superpowers and use them without any restrictions, where technology has advanced to the point that people whisper about immortality, in a world where inequality has almost completely disappeared, there lives a girl named Yurui.
Yurui lives in the largest country in the world, Razia. It is the country where Miracle Inc originated from. Their headquarters have grown so massive that they became their own sovereign city: Miracle City.
And that city happens to be home to the worlds last remaining slum.
The people who live there spend their lives staring out their windows at the bright glimmering lights of the city. Whenever they look past their immediate surroundings, they see luxury everywhere.
Meanwhile, they remain stuck in some of the worst poverty the world has ever seen.
The buildings are in complete disrepair. Renovations have been overdue for fifty years, and now the structures are beyond saving... The buildings rot where they stand, the smell of decay clinging to the walls.
Every evening before dinner, the residents pray that their building wouldn't collapse on them as they sleep.
Why don't they move out?
Where would they go?
Every building in the slums is in exactly the same condition.
Sleep on the streets?
That is not an option either. The streets are full of crime, which was only made worse by the presence of the Blessed. For years there have been rumors of Blessed hunting down the homeless, or anyone unlucky enough to be caught walking alone in the slums during the night.
Let's just say dying peacefully in your sleep isn't the worst fate that can befall you here. Not compared to what happens to the unfortunate souls who run into trouble in the slums, especially after dark.
Yurui just happens to live in one of these slums.
Of course, she did not choose this life. She was born into it.
She can't help but think.
What if?
In a world where almost everyone lives in luxurious buildings and has everything they could ever dream of, there lives a girl named Yurui.
She has nothing.
And she dreams of nothing.
Not because she does not want to dream, but because she already knows how it would end. No matter what she does, no matter how lucky she might get, her dreams will never come true.
So she stopped dreaming altogether.
Better that way. Less pain afterward.
"Crap, crap, crap!"
I'm going to be late for school.
I run as fast as I can through the clean streets of Miracle City.
The only miracle in this place is that they let filthy plebeians like us attend their stupid schools.
Of course, the only reason kids from the slums are allowed to enter Miracle City for school is because the slums do not have a single school. By law, every underage citizen of Razia is guaranteed access to education, and that includes people from the slums.
A great law for reducing inequality, right?
Well...
That depends on who you ask.
Shit. Stupid fucking law making me come to this hellhole.
I slow down as I approach the school entrance, looking around carefully.
Great.
No one's here.
Heh. Being late has its perks. Maybe I should do it more often.
Hmm.
I keep walking down the corridor.
What should I do? If I go to the classroom right now, the teacher will call me out in front of everyone. Who knows, maybe I will get sent to detention again with those stupid pricks.
By those stupid pricks, I mean the group of girls who bully me constantly. I have no idea why they do it or what their problem is, but I strongly suspect it is because I am poor.
"Just you wait! I'll kick all of your asses today."
Heh.
Who am I kidding?
There is nothing I can do against all of them. And if I try...
It will only get worse.
I would love to tell the teacher. I have nothing against snitching. Honestly, being called a rat would be one of the nicest things anyone has said to me since I came here.
The problem is the teachers.
Or rather, THE teacher.
Our homeroom teacher, Miss Maevis.
Always smiling. Always acting nice and caring.
But deep down, I know she is a borderline psychopath.
I have been bullied constantly since I started at this school. But the petty things those girls do, as bad as they are, are only the tip of the iceberg.
"Yurui, would you please come to my office after school?"
Those words terrify me more than anything.
Sometimes I have nightmares about monsters and all kinds of messed up things.
But the thing that always makes me jolt awake is always the same.
"Yurui, would you please come to my office after school?"
Just imagining those words in my head is enough to send shivers down my spine.
Calm down, Yurui. Just play it cool. Avoid the other kids. Try to drift by unnoticed and you should be fine.
I tell myself that all the time, trying to psych myself up.
Blend in. Hope nobody notices me.
Haha.
I have basically turned into a human chameleon.
I smirk.
With all the practice I have had, I probably do not even need something stupid like blessings to have superpowers.
Yurui the Invisible.
Has a nice ring to it.
Almost as if life was trying to play a cruel prank on me, the school bell suddenly rings right as the thought crosses my mind.
"Fuck! I missed the lesson."
At the very least, I need to get out of the hallway before one of those bitches shows up.
My thought is cut short when someone suddenly grabs my shoulder and tugs at it hard.
I turn around and see them.
Sophia and her friends.
Giggling without a care in the world.
Before I can say or do anything, Yashiro smiles.
The kind of cold smile that stops me dead in my tracks.
My stomach drops.
I'm very familiar with that smile. I already know what she's going to say.
"Yurui, sit," she says emotionlessly.
For a moment I just stand there. My body refuses to move.
Then my legs give in.
Without even thinking, like a well-trained dog, I sit down on the floor.
The group of girls burst out laughing.