"Heh, I can practically feel the power radiating," Keichii peeked out from behind a bench, hiding in the shadows. The 16-year old peeked out towards his friends calling his name out searching among the crowd. Smiling to himself, Keichii looked down at the swimming briefs he had only mere hours ago 'acquired' from the shop.

These are magic briefs. In order for them to work, the wearer must write his name upon them and wear them for three hours, after which the spell shall be cast. These briefs will make everyone love the person whose name is written on those briefs.

Keichii had already lost his companions a while ago and was patiently waiting out the time. Only a mere five minutes remained until the spell took effect.

"What to do? Being the most irresistible person on Earth will definitely have its merits," he spoke to himself. Imagining having his friends, who coincidentally were all female, fawning over him like there was no tomorrow. There was the 'leader' of the group, Mion Sonozaki, and her adult figure and cute girlish side that she hid under her tomboyish facade. There was the soft, demure Shion that always seemed like the more mature of the Sonozaki twins, the cute, obsessive Rena who looked good in anything that she wore. He couldn't possibly forget both Satoko nor Rika either, while both still young, they promised to be quite the attention drawers later on in years. Rika, the cuddly 'mascot' of the group and Satoko whom he felt was more like a little sister than anything else. Hmm ,what to do...

"...I repeat, can you please come to the main office Maebara Keichii-san. You have an important phone call." The loudspeakers for the pool echoed off the water and drowned out immersed by the shouts of excitement from the crowd. By this point, even if it were a trap, there was nothing that any of the girls could do to stop this spell now. Smirking to himself, he crept from cover to cover heading towards the office.

"We're...we're running out of time," Mion panted. She was quickly becoming frantic as she eyed the clock. "We need to find him and get those briefs off him." The embarrassment of saying a line like that already long outweighed by the severity of the consequences if they could not succeed.

Those are magic briefs. I misread the directions to Keichii when I gave them to him. I had him write his name on the briefs, but in actuality, the wearer will fall in love with the person whose name is written on the briefs.

Eh? But we've already been here for an hour, ojii-san.

Mion-chan, you need to got to get Keichii-kun to take those briefs off. If not, then after three hours he is going to fall in love with himself for the rest of his life.

She recalled the conversation with her uncle and shuddered at the thought of Keichii fawning over a mirror. No matter how much she may like him, if he were doomed to live the rest of his life loving only himself, he would never have love in his heart for anybody else and that was a fate that had to be avoided at all costs. "Even if he is to hate me because of it, I have to save him from that fate," she whispered to herself.

"Mii-chan!" Rena yelled over. "The announcement! Keichii-kun is heading to the pool office!" The young girl was pointing over to the building on the other side of the pool. There, in front of the building was their target running towards it.

"Tch...damn, he's way ahead of us. Let's get going! Shion. Satoko, Rika!" Mion issued orders. This was more than an emergency, there was only five minutes left till their precious Kei-chan locked his heart to all but himself.

"Kei-chan! Take off those briefs!" Mion burst through the doors of the office tears welling in her eyes, time was up. "You can't spend the rest of your life as a narcissist, there are still people waiting for you." She panted out, fighting back tears knowing it was too late regardless.

"Keichii-kun, please stop. It's not healthy for you to want to stand in front of a mirror smiling at yourself." Rena cried running in behind Mion.

"Huh? Everyone? What's up?" Keichii looked up.

"Onee, Kei-chan is..." Shion called out, her voice trembling slightly.

"Huh? Kei-chan?" In front of her, Keichii sat at a table a towel around his waist and on the table in front of him, the briefs he had until a minute ago been wearing. The name Maebara Keichii upon the label had been crossed out and in his hand, a black marker. Mion sighed with relief. "Hah, thank goodness."

Keichii-kun, you have to hurry and take off those briefs I gave you.

Huh? But the three hours is just about up.

I misread the directions to you. The person whose name is written on the tag, the wearer of the briefs will fall in love with that person for the rest of their life after three hours.

So, you're saying that if I had worn this for the full three hours...

Yes, you would end up as a narcissist and fallen in love with yourself never wanting the love or affection of anyone else.

Eh?!! Why didn't you tell me that sooner?! Wait...so if I just put a different name on here...

Yes, then that person will fall deeply in love with you. That is what is worded in the directions, however there is a curse involved with this. In exchange for a guaranteed love, the wearer will face a multitude of hardships. However, it is every mans' dream to have the one person in their life fall in love with them.

"So then, Kei-chan." Shion narrowed her eyes and smiled slyly towards the prey before her. "Since you took your name off of those, whose name were you going to write instead on those magic briefs?"

The room grew cold, as the realization of the magic briefs dawned upon everyone in the room. If Keichii didn't have his name on there, whose name was going to go there in its place?

Keichii could feel goosebumps on his arm as a cold chill inched its way up his spine. "A-hahahaa. I was just taking my name off," he laughed nervously. His instincts told him he was in danger as four sets of eyes burned into him. "So let me just put these back on and lets go have some fun at the pool."

"Kei-chan!"

"Y-Yes!" he jumped.

"You know full well that is not going to happen. You are going to write a name on those briefs or you are going to die here." Mion stepped forward, fire burning in her eyes. Keichii blanched.

"Hau, hauu~, we'll leave so you can get changed, Keichii-kun. But if you don't write a name on those briefs, ko- Rena will -ro- be very upset -su." She smiled and patted Keichii on the shoulder before leaving the room; a faint red line of blood dribbled down Keichii's chest from where Rena had just patted him.*

Satoko walked over and leaned on a chair next to Keichii. "It doesn't matter whose name you write down Keichii-san, you can still be my nii," she whispered. As she stood back up, the chair she was just leaning on collapsed on itself, broken pieces rolling away from the mess.

"Oho-hohoho," Satoko laughed. "Oh dear, someone could die from something like that. Look at the splintered wood all over that, what a mess." She put her hand on the back of the chair Keichii was sitting in and whispered, "but there will only ever by one nii-nii." The chair lurched sharply to one side as Satoko headed for the door cackling on her way out.

"Come on, onee." Shion called tugging on her sister's arm. "Don't scare Kei-chan like that. It's not like we'd actually punish him for writing the name of someone else on those magic briefs." Putting emphasis on her speech, Shion smiled to Keichii with her most sincere smile.

A clattering sound suddenly broke the silence of the room as an arc of electricity jumped and shattered a window. "Ara ara, oops...looks like I dropped my stun gun there." Picking it up Shion looked over at Keichii and smiled, electricity still sparking off dangerously from the lit taser. "If you'll excuse us, Kei-chan." Pushing her out, Shion and Mion left the room as well.

"I'm glad; nobody was affected by Oyashiro-sama's curse this year, Keichii, isn't that a good thing? That means we can spend our summer time having fun like this." Rika ignored the broken window and chair.

"Ri-ka?" Keichii's vision doubled for a second as he thought he could see a second Rika behind her.

"As shrine maiden for Oyashiro-sama," her voice darkened, "I just wanted to let you know that it's still the festival period for Watanagashi. I felt I should just let you know that, since you are still somewhat new to Hinamizawa, Keichii."

She smiled sweetly to Keichii and with her signature, "Nipaa~" she was gone, an ominous air lingered in her wake.

The room was loud, unbearably loud. There was a thumping sound in his ear, loud enough to drown out the shouts from the people outside. His hands felt clammy and sweat dripped from his hand down the length of the marker hovering precariously over the tag on the briefs. "S-Sometimes it's r-rough being so damn popular," he chuckled to himself. Closing his eyes, he slowly put the marker to the tag.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Summer of Memories - Prologue
End

*Korosu – to kill, when directed at someone "I'll kill you"