Seraph of the End 1: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen

Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen (Volume 1) is the first volume of the Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrophe at Sixteen light novel series, which includes Guren's past with Mahiru and his encounter with many characters of the manga sequel, Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign.

It makes up the first half of the first omnibus in English.

Prologue - About the Spring of this World
The prologue reflects back on Guren as he narrates how he thought everything was simple, how naive he was because of his happiness.

He was lying on the grass with Mahiru, they were holding hands. She had asked if they could get married in the future. His response was nothing until she asked if they could stay together forever. His immediate answer was no, with a reason of their titles in the world as she was the successor of the main house and he was just a child from a branch house. Mahiru told him that didn't matter it but Guren told her it did matter, which may have made her cry.

Mahiru's escorts came and found in disgust that she was with Guren, who was blamed in bringing her outside the house. It was then that Guren realized that Mahiru was indeed crying. She had told her escorted she didn't want to leave Guren, holding his hand tightly.

As Guren couldn't hear anymore, he found himself get beaten up by grownups. Mahiru tried to stop them but it was no use, they ignored her and began insulting and threatening to kill him. Guren looked at Mahiru whilst getting beaten up and thought to himself how she was the bright sun to his lowly treated life.

When Mahiru's last scream in plead to stop the beating, Guren had already fainted with the smell of blood as his last smell before his eyes closed. As Guren was unconscious, he began to think of his life. About his childhood and dreams that felt so simple to him. About how he didn't have enough power to obtain them.

At that moment, Guren came to full consciousness and looked up to see Mahiru being taken away. She was looking at him with tearful eyes and apologized to him repetitively. He extended his arm to reach out for her, seeing her as the sun and feeling guilt wash over him as he wasn't strong enough and felt at fault.

The prologue ends with the final words "And then, tens years went by."

Chapter 1 - Enrollment of a Hated One
Ten years have passed and Guren has finally been submitted into First Shibuya High School.

The chapter begins with Guren, the next head of the Ichinose house, walking to school for his first day of high school with Sayuri and Shigure, his retainers. Sayuri is chatty and talks as they walk. Guren interrupts her and tells her she is annoying. Sayuri turns to Shigure for help, but Shigure agrees with Guren and tells Sayuri that if she talks nonstop she will lower the dignity of their master and asks her to stop.

Shibuya High School is not an ordinary school but a school of sorcery run by the Hīragi House. As the next head of the the Ichinose house, Guren is being forced to attend the school to learn his place in society.

It is explained that the Hīragi House has been around for 1200 years and is much more powerful than the Ichinose house which was separated from the Hīragi House 500 years ago.

Guren wonders about his fellow students and rivals at the school. Sayuri and Shigure declare that Guren is stronger than the people who follow the Hīragi House and that three of them who follow the Ichinose house are stronger.

Guren teases the girls and reminds them to be on guard because they are the only followers of the Ichinose house in the school and that everyone else in the school is their enemy. Guren tells Sayuri and Shigure to ignore the students talking badly about them.

Guren plans not to show off his power at the school and not to show any Ichinose style magic.

Suddenly, Guren is hit on the head with an open soda bottle. Guren does not let Sayuri and Shigure stand up for him and allows the other students to laugh at him. He pretends to be weak and foolish around the laughing students.

Guren apologizes to Sayuri and Shigure and tells them that they will have to bear with being treated like this for the rest of high school but still Guren asks them to keep following him. They both say they will stay with him. Sayuri says she was born to serve Guren. Guren complains about her saying that she was born to serve him. Shigure says heads of the Ichinose house call Guren genius. Guren complains about being called a genius as well.

Shigure says she feels bad for being protected by Guren even though it is their job to protect him. Guren says it is a master’s job to protect those under them.

Guren is attacked by a student (later revealed to be Shinya). Although Guren could have dodged the attack, he lets the attack hit him on purpose. Guren is stunned by the attack. When he recovers he comforts Sayuri and Shigure and tells him they did nothing wrong and he took the attack on purpose. Guren asks them to pretend they are stronger than him and he is weak and unable to do anything without their help.

Guren pretends not to know about the attack and has Shigure pretend to explain what happened to him.

Guren asks Shigure to get him a change of clothes and find out who the student who attacked him is. Shigure leaves. Guren comforts Sayuri again. The two head into the school.

Characters
List of characters in order of appearance: