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9 February 1999.
He saw a girl explode at a hapless barista this afternoon; it was a fearsome sight, considering her middle school uniform.
Beneath that lovely face lies something dark and dangerous. Keicho can sense it.
Five days before Valentine’s Day.
Dammit, she’d blown her cool again. Yukako was trying, she really was. It would be so embarrassing for her to enter high school with her childish temper. And yet, with the pressure of final exams approaching, the sugar in her coffee—which she’d ordered black —had pushed her past her limit today. She’d run away from the cafe after her outburst without even getting the replacement drink she was offered, and now she sits at home, sighing over her homework.
Chin on hand, she looks at the hearts she’d unthinkingly doodled over her algebra problems.
How could she ever confess to her crush like this?
11 February 1999.
In only two days of observation, the girl has already shown immense promise. Under the delicate facade she puts up for others, Keicho can see that she carries herself with a conviction and severity that will surely awaken a Stand. And there’s no doubt that the explosive, deep-seated rage in her heart will shape it.
This girl just might be the one to kill his father.
Three days before Valentine’s Day.
Some guy’s been tailing Yukako after school for a couple of days now. It’s annoying, but honestly nothing new. He might be the type who thinks it’s cool to confess on Valentine’s Day like an American. That’s stupid, but she’s no stranger to stupid confessions.
Whatever. She’ll just turn him down whenever he gets the balls to actually approach her.
13 February 1999.
Four days of observation. More than enough to confirm that his instincts were right. She’s hardly a criminal, but a blazing temper like hers is beyond normal for someone her age. Keicho has a hotheaded brother, but this girl’s outbursts make even his worst moments look like temper tantrums.
He’s decided. Tomorrow is the day she meets the Arrow.
One day before Valentine’s Day.
She’s done it again, snapped at someone in public. Maybe she overreacted, but for God’s sake, it shouldn’t take more than three seconds to pass a stack of papers to the person sitting behind you. She always gets so irritable this time of year, envious of happy couples acting more lovey-dovey than usual. Such jealousy is unbecoming of someone her age, fifteen—but then again, aren’t her teenage years meant to be filled with passionate emotions of all kinds? Oh, Yukako Yamagishi. Won’t your heart ever know peace? Won’t you ever find love?
If there’s a day for Cupid’s arrow to find her, it’s tomorrow.
14 February, 1999.
He appears before her on her way home from school. He takes aim and fires; the Arrow strikes her chest, just right of center. She loses consciousness immediately, and he approaches.
The Arrow guides him to those of great spiritual strength, but not of any specific nature. He just chooses to prioritize the wicked and the wrathful for their greater chances of awakening a destructive power. He reflects on the potential usefulness of the new Stand before him as the girl’s hair wraps around her chest to staunch the unbleeding wound there. No, it wouldn’t serve him. Strangulation doesn’t work on his father.
He begins to retrieve the Arrow. She doesn’t wake, but draws a great, shaking gasp when it’s loose from between her ribs. He supposes it’s suspicious for a girl to be found asleep in the middle of the sidewalk, so he moves her under the shade of a tree, where someone could conceivably choose to rest. Whether it’s typical of her or not doesn’t matter to him now that her Stand’s shown itself as useless.
Today was not a success, nor strictly a failure. At least he didn’t kill anyone today.
Valentine’s Day.
That coward who’d been stalking Yukako for nearly a week finally showed himself on her way home from school and fucking shot her.
At least, that’s what she dreamed. She doesn’t know how it happened, but she woke up under a tree in someone’s lawn about an hour after school got out, and she wouldn’t be alive if she’d actually been shot in the chest with an arrow, so she must have been exhausted after a long day of manually keeping her lid screwed on and passed out. That would be the first time that’s happened, but it makes more sense than some wuss classmate shooting her with a bow… Guess he really was a coward, after all.
Dreaming of being shot through the heart with an arrow, on Valentine’s Day of all days… It’s kind of embarrassing. But she takes it as a sign to finally act on her feelings. It’ll take more than a dream, but… Yukako Yamagishi has fallen in love. And with this new courage granted by Cupid’s arrow, she’ll make Koichi Hirose fall for her.