The new student, Ogata Ringo, seemed to come from a very poor family.
She lived in the mountains, in a single-parent household. Her father was blind and worked so hard to support the family that he was rarely home.
She wore no accessories and never went out with her classmates. He'd heard that she'd recently been recruited into some suspicious new religious cult, believed that faith could make her divine, and was preparing to submit a withdrawal application to the school.
...At this rate, this was definitely going to end up on a crime show!
Everyone pushed Yoshino Junpei into the task of delivering the paperwork to Ogata Ringo. It took him about three hours with a map to find his new classmate's home.
...Except it wasn't quite what he'd imagined.
A private road, white and winding like a snake, stretched up from the foot of the mountain. It passed through three security checkpoints, where guards checked visitors before letting them through.
The stern men in black suits had bulges at their waists, and seemed to be carrying real guns.
The place brought to mind a traditional Japanese mansion from the Heian era. It covered at least three hectares, with sprawling fields and neatly trimmed gardens.
A maid in a brilliantly colored kimono, as vivid as a painted illustration, led him along, hiding her face behind a fan.
Her white-socked feet touched the wooden floor so lightly that Yoshino Junpei could almost believe she was flying.
In a corridor of the old mansion stood a girl in a black-and-white nun's habit. Her expression was calm as she quietly watched him.
"Um... I'm here to deliver some paperwork."
"You mean you want me to come get it myself?"
Yoshino Junpei hesitantly nodded, seeing nothing strange about it. The maid standing silently beside him, however, went pale.
The new student smiled and said, "Sure."
She walked toward him.
As she did, attendants flooded out from the mansion's corridors, the gates, and every corner, like a black tide. Looking frantic, they shouted after the girl as they chased her.
She ignored them and walked straight down the corridor.
She took the paperwork from his hands and tapped it with a curled finger.
"Thanks."
Yoshino Junpei stared blankly behind her.
The moment her white toes touched the stone steps, the attendants turned ashen and dropped to their knees without a word.
Now they were all prostrate on the ground, their black-clad backs trembling slightly, like a flock of crows startled into flight, then settling together in one place.
"Oh, right."
The girl said it as if it were nothing.
"You're probably the first person in the world who's dared to make me come get something myself."
Theme: Family matters more than anything.