Epilogue
Seisei Girls’ Academy, an ultra-elite finishing school located somewhere in Tokyo.
This school, attended by daughters of political and business leaders from across the country, although the name was famous, most people knew very little about it—an all-girls high school shrouded in secrecy.
Two burly guards were always stationed at the school gate, their eyes ever watchful as they stood with the school at their backs.
Despite being in the city center, the grounds were vast, and there were dormitories on campus for students who came from the countryside or from overseas, so security was tight 24-hour a day.
The school sat in an upscale residential area, and the gate seemed to appear suddenly as if it were hidden.
You also had to go through several one-way streets to get there, in other words, unless you were determined to reach Seisei Girls’ Academy, you wouldn’t even find yourself standing in front of its gate.
Now, Mizuho and Marion, students at that academy, stepped out of a car in silence and walked toward the school building across the greenery-filled grounds.
Originally only Mizuho had attended the school, but Marion had been persuaded by Mizuho and admitted thanks to the Shitenji family’s influence, so she was allowed to transfer in.
Mizuho walked down the neatly maintained tree-lined path looking displeased.
She checked her cell phone—something she had been doing repeatedly over the past few days.
Marion walked silently at her side.
“Marion, have you heard from him?”
“No… not yet,”
She didn’t say who.
Mizuho’s face grew even more severe and she went fully into sulking mode.
Occasionally, she would smile politely at classmates who greeted her, but her expression soon hardened again.
Two weeks had passed since the Miramar mission.
She had already confirmed that the agency’s payment had been deposited a few days ago.
“What is he doing?! That idiot!”
Unable to hold it in any longer, Mizuho shouted.
The pampered young ladies around, unused to raised voices, were startled and all eyes turned to her.
Marion hurriedly tried to calm her down.
“Now, now, Mizuho-san. Maybe he just hasn’t bought a phone yet?”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about! I told him to buy one right away and to contact us as soon as possible!”
By the way, the person left out of that subject, Hiroto—was spending exceedingly busy days, unbeknownst to the two of them, under the onslaught of toilet cleaning, weeding, and Ichigo’s harassing “helping duties” (no right to refuse).
Of course, he was still continuing with his part-time jobs afterward.
“Has he forgotten about us…?”
“Wha—!”
Marion pinched her eyebrows into a V and put on a sad expression.
“He came back to Japan… and for Hiroto-san it’s just the same old everyday life…”
“T-That’s not true, Marion. He’s just being lazy and dithering, that’s all—he’s such a slob!”
Even as she said it, Mizuho showed the slightest hint of panic for a moment.
“Haah—”
Both of them sighed at the same time.
A surreal sight, a black-haired beauty and a blonde beauty both slumping their shoulders simultaneously.
Then Marion suddenly snapped her head up.
“N-No way… what if Hiroto-san’s being pursued by that childhood friend he mentioned in Miramar… and Hiroto-san, who’s weak to pressure—!”
“…!”
Mizuho’s face turned pale at Marion’s words.
For the record, Hiroto was being forced every day by that childhood friend to clean toilets and pull weeds “with heartfelt remorse!”—a demand he couldn’t refuse.
“T-That can’t be! I won’t allow it! Not when I’m not around!”
“Y-Yes! That’s right, Mizuho-san! We absolutely won’t allow anything when we’re not there! Exactly!”
“That’s right, Marion! If he doesn’t contact us—”
A dark aura began to waver from Mizuho’s back.
“I-If he doesn’t… what are you going to do?”
Marion swallowed hard at Mizuho’s intensity.
Ping!
At that moment, both of their phones received an email notification at the same time.
Before looking at their phones, Mizuho and Marion exchanged glances.
“…”
Reflexively, they turned their backs to one another and checked their phones at once.
{I bought a phone! Hiroto}
“What did it say?”
“I bought a phone….”
Mizuho began to tremble.
“That’s all he wrote!? That idiot! He should have written so much more!”
“That’s true. That’s… a bit cruel, just this.”
Marion agreed with an angry sigh, though her eyes glistened a little.
Giving up, the two of them smiled, and Marion lightly wiped her eyes with a slender finger.
After that, their faces visibly brightened and they walked more lightly toward their classroom.
Mizuho and Marion were in the same class.
When they entered the classroom, they immediately noticed that their usually well-behaved classmates were in a commotion, a rare sight at a school made up only of ultra-refined young ladies.
Mizuho wondered if something had happened as she set her bag on her desk at the very back of the classroom.
She glanced at Marion in the seat to her right, but Marion was tilting her head in puzzlement as well.
A classmate who had noticed the two of them, Akiko Migihozuki, came up and greeted them.[TN: Her name reads as ‘みぎほうづきあきこ” Migihozuki Akiko, but the Kanji “法月秋子” says Norizuki Akiko, I am confused on what to use?]
“Marion-san, Mizuho-san, good day.”
“Good day, Akiko-san.”
“Good day. Is something the matter? Everyone seems… rather excited, don’t they…?”
Mizuho looked out at the classroom, which still hummed with an air of merriment, and asked Akiko. Akiko was fairly close with Mizuho and Marion; they were on a first-name basis.
“Actually, it’s a rumor, but it seems a transfer student is coming today. The whole place is buzzing about it.”
“A transfer student? Oh, how unusual for this school.”
“Yes! I’m really looking forward to meeting them. I’m positively excited. Everyone’s gathered around talking about it right now.”
At last, Mizuho and Marion understood what was going on in the class. It had been like this when Marion had transferred in, too.
Marion remembered how she had been given such a grand welcome by her classmates back then, and how she’d been overwhelmed by all the unfamiliar invitations to tea parties and dinners.
“Besides, I hear they’re from a foreign country… Ah, I’m truly looking forward to it.”
All of them were well-bred young ladies with little in the way of entertainment in their lives, so even something of this scale was a thrill.
Mizuho’s family was of similar standing, but because they were a line of ability-users and thus had special circumstances, she knew more of the wider world than the other girls here. She was interested, but not about to get overly excited.
“A foreigner, huh…”
This school did have many students from overseas, so that alone wasn’t particularly rare.
Mizuho took her seat as usual.
What mattered to her now was something else entirely.
As soon as she sat down, Mizuho took out her cellphone and stared at her messages… fidgeting anxiously.
She fiddled with the phone at an angle Marion couldn’t see.
Marion was the same; both of them opened their message screens with slightly smug smiles and wore the same expression of indecision.
Over and over they pressed the reply button, then the cancel button, again and again.
Then the bell rang, and, as expected, the young ladies took their seats and waited quietly for the homeroom teacher.
In the end, neither Mizuho nor Marion had managed to send anything, and they put their phones away in their bags on silent.
A few seconds after the bell, the homeroom teacher came in.
The young woman had a clean, neat appearance, and, of course, was an alumna of Seisei Girls’ Academy.
“Stand up…”
They performed that one greeting every school shared, and the teacher looked over her students.
“Fufufu, today I’ll be introducing a new friend to all of you.”
At once the classroom erupted in delighted chatter.
Mizuho and Marion, finally curious, turned to look ahead.
“It seems the rumor’s already spread. I wonder where it always leaks from?”
The teacher tilted her head as if puzzled. She had an air of gentle absent-mindedness about her.
“Now, if you’d come this way.”
The homeroom teacher said so, and the front door of the classroom opened. A slender girl stepped in.
The students stared at her and gave admiring exclamations.
Seeing the neatly featured, Asian-looking beauty, the young ladies were eager to speak to her and fidgeted in their seats.
“P-Pretty~”
“Yes, she’s very elegant.”
“Oh my, what lovely skin. I’m envious.”
The girl, with slightly sun-kissed skin, stood beside the teacher, delicately pinched the hem of her skirt, and bowed with grace.
Mizuho and Marion were frozen like statues, stunned beyond words.
Because they knew this girl very well.
The transfer student, whose eyes met those of the frozen Mizuho and Marion, wore a soft, yet unyielding smile.
At that moment, both Mizuho and Marion felt a bad premonition.
For some reason, their girlish intuition was sounding an alarm.
“Everyone, nice to meet you. From today I will be attending Seisei Girls’ Academy. My name is Nina S. Huel. I come from a country called Miramar. I would be very happy if we could be friends. I’ve been interested in Japanese culture for some time, and it was my dream to come here. I would be grateful if you’d teach me many things.”
A cheer rose from the classroom.
“All right, everyone, please be quiet. Let’s be kind to Nina. If you have any questions, she has kindly agreed to answer them, so please raise your hand.”
The young ladies eagerly raised their hands, ready with questions for the new classmate.
Nina smiled brightly and replied politely to her classmates’ questions.
“Of all the countries in the world, is there any particular reason you chose to come to Japan?”
“Yes, actually I was supposed to study at an American university, but up until now I’ve only been taught by private tutors and never attended a school like this. So I didn’t have many friends close to my age. My father was worried about that, and he suggested that I attend a school in Japan, which is a safe and advanced country.”
Mizuho’s face twitched, and Marion froze with her smile still fixed.
Nina’s story sounded plausible enough, but there was no decisive reason given for why she should attend a Japanese high school. In other words, Mizuho and Marion couldn’t help but suspect that some lie might be mixed in.
“I was raised surrounded only by adults, so I don’t understand many ordinary things. I may cause you some trouble, but I would be grateful if you could teach me various things. I’ll be staying in the dorms here, so please feel free to call me anytime.”
When Nina bowed, the classroom erupted in cheers again.
“Oh my! Ask me anything, okay?”
“I shall show you around the school.”
“Then I shall show you the dormitories.”
“Alright, everyone, save that for break time. Now, as for Nina-san’s seat… it looks like the spot next to Shitenji-san is free. Nina-san, that one at the very back over there.”
“Yes, teacher.”
Nina straightened her back and, soaking up the stares of her classmates, sat down in the rear seat next to Mizuho.
“Now then, let’s begin homeroom.”
Nina sat beside Mizuho with an air of nonchalance, while Mizuho’s face remained contorted.
“Ni—Nina… you—”
When Mizuho spoke in a low voice, Nina winked one eye.
“Mizuho-san, from now on let’s get along as classmates. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about you and Marion-san.”
“N-No, that’s not it, why Japan? And why this school of all places?”
Nina smiled at Mizuho’s question.
“I’ll tell you about that later…”
But when break time came, a crowd quickly gathered around Nina and they couldn’t talk at leisure.
In the end, Mizuho and Marion arranged to meet Nina after school on the deserted rooftop.
After the two had waited a good while on the roof, Nina finally broke free from her classmates’ clamoring and appeared.
As soon as she appeared, Nina bowed to the two of them.
“Mizuho-san, Marion-san, I’m sorry for surprising you.”
At Nina’s sudden apology, Mizuho and Marion exchanged glances.
“Nina-san, you gave us quite a shock. You suddenly transferred to our school, after all.”
“Yes, it really surprised us.”
“I’m sorry. What I said when I greeted you this morning was true, my father had been worried about the fact that I had never attended school even once. He thought it might be good for me to experience high school with people my own age before going to university.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yes, it sounded very appealing to me, so I jumped at it right away. I’d heard about it from you, Mizuho-san, and honestly I was really envious…”
Hearing Nina’s words, Mizuho and Marion both relaxed into slight smiles. They felt embarrassed that they’d felt even a moment’s suspicion toward her earlier.
“The reason I could enroll here is that my father consulted someone in the Japanese government and they introduced this school. So coming here was half coincidence. Of course, when the offer came I immediately realized it was the school you attend…”
Nina looked back and forth between Mizuho and Marion.
“I was truly delighted! To be able to meet Mizuho-san and Marion-san again, and as classmates at that!”
Nina smiled brightly.
At that smile, Mizuho and Marion reflexively smiled back.
Knowing about Nina’s circumstances in Miramar, Mizuho and the others genuinely wanted to support her school life from now on.
“Likewise, nice to meet you! Nina-san. We’re already friends, though.”
“Hehe, pleased to meet you! Nina-san. If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask anytime.”
“Yes.”
A pleasant early-summer breeze blowing across the school rooftop brushed over the three smiling girls.
It was as if it were urging them to enjoy their three short years of high school.
To Mizuho and Marion, Nina’s present smile, shaped by her hard experiences in Miramar, seemed dazzling.
And come to think of it, it was a relief to have a classmate like Nina here who knew about their situation as people with abilities. That, too, had come from their meeting in Miramar and the bond they’d formed there.
Mizuho and Marion even felt a premonition that they’d be friends with Nina for a long time, and their hearts warmed.
“Actually… it was I who persuaded my father to come to Japan. I insisted that I absolutely wanted to go.”
“…Huh?”
“Eh?”
The air turned awkward… .
“I’ve actually been interested in Japanese culture for a while, that’s true, but when my father suggested I go to high school here… for some reason I just thought Japan was the only place it could be.”
The mood grew ominous… .
“W-Why would you think that?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But I felt like… I had to go to Japan. And… that it would happen here.”
“W-What would happen here?”
“Um… p-please don’t laugh, okay?”
Nina’s face flushed a shy crimson.
Mizuho and Marion went pale.
“An encounter with a gentleman…,”[TN: Hiroto be collecting them like Pokemons at this point]
She brought a hand to her flushed cheek, looking embarrassed, and glanced to see whether Mizuho and Marion were laughing at her. What she found there was—
Mizuho holding her head in her hands, and…
Marion collapsed to her knees…
“Mizuho-san!? Marion-san!? A-Are you all right? Was that weird after all?”
Nina’s flustered voice never reached the two of them.
At that moment, the rooftop door opened.
“Oh, Nina-san! So you were up here! We’re going to show the dorms now, would you like to come?”
Nina remembered the promise she’d made with her classmates and answered happily.
“Thank you, definitely! Ah, well Mizuho-san, Marion-san, see you later!”
When Nina left with her classmates, only Mizuho and Marion remained on the rooftop.
“Ma-ma-Marion…”
“Y-Yes, Mizuho-san…”
A strong early-summer wind blew between the two of them.
“W-W-What do we do?”
“For the time being, what to do is already decided.”
“Yes… it’s decided, isn’t it!”
“Right!”
For some reason with their faces hidden in shadow, Mizuho and Marion left the place.
Right now, Hiroto was hard at work pulling weeds at the edge of Kitsurin High School’s sports ground.
It was already July. Honestly, it was hot. The bugs that came around were annoying.
He wanted to go home, but he couldn’t until he filled the large basket behind him with the pulled weeds.
His overseer had been chosen as his classmate Mito Shizuka, but in practice that authority had shifted to Matsuri from the same kendo club as Shizuka, so there was no way any cheating would be tolerated.
“Why… is it always me who has to deal with this? But I guess it’s my fault for skipping school…”
Hiroto wiped sweat with a towel after pulling up a particularly big weed.
He grumbled to himself, but actually he was in a good mood.
He had finally bought a cell phone yesterday.
The very first one he’d ever owned.
He was so happy he couldn’t stand it and stayed up late last night exploring its functions.
At that point, the only people whose contact info he knew were Mizuho, Marion, and Kakitate Shima, secretary to the head of the World Ability Agency’s Japan branch, so he immediately registered all three in his phone’s address book.
That alone made him happy.
For some reason it made him feel grown-up.
That morning, with his heart pounding, he even sent his very first emails ever to Mizuho and Marion.
Hiroto took his phone out and checked the screen.
It was something he’d done dozens of times today already.
He knew the phone would notify him if there was anything, but he couldn’t stop checking it like this.
“There’s been no reply, but did my messages even get through to Mizuho-san and Marion-san? Or maybe you only use it if you have something to do—”
Just then his phone buzzed.
“Ah!”
Hiroto jumped.
His first-ever incoming messages.
That was enough to make him feel a warm little thrill.
He hurried to check the messages.
There were two.
“It’s from Mizuho-san and Marion-san! Wow~, my first email! I’m so happy—”
He opened the message list humming a little, smiling broadly.
“Huh? They both do not have subject~maybe that’s normal? I’m still not used to this.”
Hiroto opened Mizuho’s and Marion’s messages one after the other.
{This is a scolding!! Prepare yourself!}
{A major scolding!! Contact!}
Hiroto stared at the screen for a long moment, sweat forming at his brow even as the smile stayed on his face, then, quietly he turned off the smartphone’s display.
A dusty, hot wind from the sports ground blew at Hiroto.
“Um…”
He looked up at the piercing blue sky and the white clouds.
He inhaled, and then—
“Whyyyyyyyyyy――――――――!?!?”
His inner cry was swallowed up by the clamor of the club members at Kitsurin High School’s sports ground… .
[TN: let me grumble okay!? Why do those 2 care even, was there any romantic signal from Hiroto’s side, no! Then why do they meddle, I know they want to be prioritized, but what’s with the attitude.]
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