“…”
Silence for a moment, Koharu Miura got up from the bed and went to the desk.
By the moonlight outside the window, she carefully examined the ticket.
Sugar Starlight Anniversary Live.
The font on the admission ticket for this performance was flashy and bold, with a trendy design.
Koharu Miura gripped the ticket in her hand and let out a deep sigh.
According to the System, she should stay as far away as possible from Kiyono Arisa’s predicament.
“But if I don’t handle Kiyono Arisa’s situation well, everything that follows…”
She slowly turned her head and looked at the night sky outside the window.
The moon on the horizon was identical to the one she knew in reality.
This was the world she was in now.
— It wasn’t real, yet it was her only refuge.
Once that false facade was twisted and torn open, it would be too late for anything she wanted to do later.
She would take action.
……
In the small bedroom, lying on the bed, the girl’s originally agitated mood gradually stabilized.
Even though her thoughts were scattered, Koharu Miura knew exactly what she had to do.
On an autumn morning, the air still carried the dampness of the night.
Before leaving for school, Koharu Miura put the ticket in the outer layer of her school bag.
If there was an emergency, the ticket could still be useful; at least she wouldn’t be without options.
Koharu Miura thought as she zipped up the bag.
‘Based on Kiyono Arisa’s current state, the rumors I heard in Sakuragicho last night probably can’t be dismissed as groundless.’
Since she had no room for error — after all, the only basis for ruling out conflict between Kiyono Arisa and her members or problems with her stage activities was her so-called experience of ‘this isn’t how the plot went in the game.’
This wasn’t the original version of the game, after all. From the day she arrived in this world until now, many details differed from the original state in the game.
Therefore, she had to use her experience to help her judgment, but she couldn’t be confined to her inherent memories and ignore the existence of risks.
‘If Kiyono Arisa really is facing a crisis of leaving the group and being ostracized by the members, her current mental state must be at its breaking point.’
At a time like this, any approach with an obvious purpose would only make her curl up tighter like a startled hedgehog.
……
Passing through the main entrance of the teaching building, Koharu Miura walked toward her own classroom on the upper floor.
A complete “Best Friend Operation” to contact Kiyono Arisa was already prepared in her mind.
— The key lay in the first chance encounter.
The empty classroom where Kiyono Arisa had appeared was, statistically speaking, likely the classroom where she attended classes as a student.
If she created a few chance encounters near the classroom — making Kiyono Arisa realize that although she recognized her, they tacitly kept their distance without exposing their private meeting… she should be able to make Kiyono Arisa gradually lower her guard.
Once Kiyono Arisa discovered that this girl, who had stumbled upon her secrets several times, didn’t treat her specially because of it and just passed by like an ordinary passerby.
Then, at the very least, she could cultivate the ground for the next step.
Koharu Miura’s plan seemed smooth… however, the first step of the plan was shattered by reality.
Between the lunch break and the afternoon long break, Koharu Miura walked back and forth along the corridor of that classroom several times.
But even as she focused on observing the students entering and leaving the classroom during those intervals, Koharu Miura couldn’t find any sign of Kiyono Arisa.
‘Just bad luck today. Kiyono Arisa actually didn’t leave the classroom at all during these times.’
Thinking this, Koharu Miura decided to come back tomorrow.
However, the same scene played out the next day.
Near the same spot where Kiyono Arisa had sung in the empty classroom at school, Koharu Miura still couldn’t see Kiyono Arisa’s figure.
By the end of school, she had still achieved nothing.
After two whole days and one lunch break, Koharu Miura hadn’t even seen Kiyono Arisa’s face.
She couldn’t help but feel a flicker of anxiety.
……
‘Why?’
Koharu Miura sat on the train home, looking at the reflection of a dejected girl in the window.
If she kept failing to see Kiyono Arisa, her plan would become an impossible joke.
If they couldn’t meet, they couldn’t build a friendship;
If they couldn’t build a friendship, she couldn’t learn the truth;
If she couldn’t learn the truth…
Preparing for the worst, what those people said in the convenience store on the street near the livehouse entrance was true.
— Then the day Kiyono Arisa leaves the group during the anniversary would be when her survival plan comes to an end… Everything would follow a series of reactions after Kiyono Arisa left the group.
‘I can’t keep waiting like this.’
Koharu Miura tightly gripped her skirt, the slight pain of her nails sinking into her palm helping her calm down a bit.
It was another day of trying to meet Kiyono Arisa.
At lunchtime, that classroom was particularly noisy, filled with girls gathered together eating bentos and chatting about current fashion trends.
Koharu Miura was dressed neatly in her uniform. Her quiet and delicate appearance meant showing up at someone else’s classroom wouldn’t attract much attention.
— So she was able to walk to the classroom door undisturbed.
But that was as far as it went.
Koharu Miura stopped a female classmate who was about to leave the classroom to buy juice. The girl looked friendly and was laughing with her companions.
In contrast, Koharu Miura was incredibly nervous.
“Um… excuse me.”
The urgency of revealing some ominous truth made Koharu Miura’s fingertips tremble slightly before she even spoke.
“Hmm? What is it?” The girl stopped and looked curiously at this well-behaved girl who wore the same school uniform but seemed unfamiliar.
“May I ask…”
Koharu Miura swallowed hard, trying to make her voice sound like an ordinary, slightly worried friend.
“Is… is Kiyono Arisa here? I have some notes I want to return to her.”
The excuse was cliché, but it was the most reasonable one in a school setting.
Hearing the name “Kiyono Arisa,” the girl who had been laughing instantly stopped.
— She exchanged a strange look with the companion beside her.
That look didn’t contain worry; instead, it carried a hint of an emotion Koharu Miura was very familiar with.
It was the urge to stay away from a troublesome person.
“Kiyono…”
The girl’s tone was somewhat casual, yet it held a faint coldness. “She hasn’t been coming to school lately.”
“… Huh?”
Even though she had anticipated it, hearing the fact with her own ears made Koharu Miura let out a soft exclamation.
“She hasn’t come to school… Is she sick?”
“Who knows.”
Another short-haired girl interjected, shrugging her shoulders. “Anyway, since the start of the term, the number of times she’s shown up can be counted on one hand.”
“The teacher says it’s because she’s busy with work, but everyone is whispering that she’s run into some kind of trouble. In short, she just can’t come to school.”
“And here I thought she was a big star, yet she can’t even come to school because she’s always busy.”
“Exactly. If she’s going to keep taking leave, why doesn’t she just drop out? She registered but doesn’t show up. It feels all mysterious and creepy.”
Listening to the somewhat mean comments from these two female classmates, Koharu Miura only felt uncomfortable.
— Campus bullying or ostracization didn’t always start with physical violence.
… It started with this kind of malicious speculation during one’s absence.
In this class that was supposed to give her warmth, Kiyono Arisa had actually been cut off long ago.