“Good day to you all. My name is Nekoyama Michiru. I had something of a sheltered upbringing until this point, and as such I may be somewhat lacking in common sense. I beseech you all to treat me kindly as I adjust to this new situation, and I very much hope that we can all be good friends for the next three years.” Michiru sat down amidst a smattering of applause. Her introduction had certainly garnered a lot of attention compared to the other introductions so far, but she had expected as much. She was, after all, an outsider in many ways. And besides, money always grabbed people’s attention. The Nekoyama Group was a business conglomerate worth trillions of yen, and her father was the sole owner. Still, she sincerely hoped the looming shadow of the family fortune wouldn’t interfere too much with the fun high-school life she had always yearned for… “Number 15, Mitsuba Ayako.” The girl seated right next to Michiru stood up, and Michiru could only admire the way the girl absolutely sparkled. Literally. The school had fairly relaxed policies when it came to things like hair, makeup and accessories, and even then Ayako was clearly over the line. Her bleached blonde hair was dyed with aquamarine highlights and tips, she was wearing a huge number of rings and bangles, her long false nails were so sharp and bedazzled it was a wonder she could even hold a pen and her makeup glittered like her tanned skin was coated in tiny diamonds. To Michiru, who had never seen Gal fashion up close before, it was almost overwhelming. “’Sup! The name’s Ayako, but y’all can call me whatever. Just hit me up if you want my socials! I do makeup tutorials and vlogs and stuff, so I’d love it if you all followed me, kay?” Michiru wasn’t entirely sure what a vlog was, but she didn’t end up dwelling on it for very long. Because Ayako wore her skirt very, very short, and as she sat down Michiru quite accidentally caught a glimpse of a fashion choice that would definitely get the girl in trouble if a teacher found out. She hadn’t known that something could be so elaborate and yet cover so little. As the introductions continued, Michiru had to actively force herself to pay attention to the speakers. The moment recess started, Ayako pulled out her phone and leaned over towards Michiru. The phone case was bright pink, but it was covered in so many sparkly decorations it was almost hard to tell. “Hey, Nekoyama, you got any socials?” Michiru retrieved her phone from her bag. The sleek, black rectangle was so new it looked like a store display model, and she awkwardly navigated through the unfamiliar process of unlocking the device and brining up the home screen. “I only recently received a smartphone, so I haven’t really had time to look into the matter of social media, but I did install a messaging app that I was told was very popular.” “Oh, that one? Cool. Add me to your contacts. I’ll give you some cute stickers.” “Stickers?” “Little pictures that you can send instead of text. Like this.” The moment Michiru added Ayako to her contacts in the app, she was flooded with an absolute deluge of little pictures. Most of them were very cute, although there were a few that were just bizarre. “I see. That is very interesting. I can see I will have to learn the proper way to communicate with this app.” “Here, lemme just gift you my favourite packs.” Michiru accepted the gift that appeared on screen, and was slightly overwhelmed at the dozens of cute, sparkly little pictures presented to her. Feeling a little awkward, she replied with ‘Thank you very much.’ followed by a picture of a big, sparkling heart-shaped gemstone. She was a little taken aback when Ayako let out a high-pitched squeal. “Oh my god, you’re adorable! It’s like you’ve never used a chat app before.” Michiru blushed faintly. “I have not. You are the first person I’ve added to my contact list.” “Wait, for real? I’m your first? Man, that’s super flattering. We’re basically BFFs already.” “I’m not actually sure what that means…” “Means we’re real good friends.” “Oh…” Michiru hesitated for a moment, but then decided to just go for it. “If we are indeed friends already, could you perhaps call me by a nickname? I have always wanted to have some sort of nickname, but I haven’t really had any opportunity to receive one.” “Oh, sure. Let’s see… Michiru… Michi? Nah. Mi-chin? Michichi… Mimi! How about Mimi? Cute, right?” For the first time that day, Michiru found that she couldn’t control her facial expressions. Receiving a cute nickname was one of the things she’d been looking forward to the most. Usually she kept her smiles small and elegant, like she’d been taught, but right now she couldn’t help but break into a wide grin. “I love it! Please call me Mimi from now on. And perhaps I could call you… Yaya? If that’s all right with you?” “Sure, go ahead. I did say you could call me whatever you like.” “Then I will do exactly that, Miss Yaya.” Ayako snorted out a laugh. “Did I say something wrong, Miss Yaya? “Nah, nah. You’re good. In fact, I think that’s just perfect for you, Mimi.” They couldn’t speak for much longer after that, because class began in short order. But even in just those few minutes Michiru had already agreed to eat lunch together with Ayako out in the courtyard that day. Michiru was on her way out of the classroom when Ikeda Yuuki spoke to her. “My lady, I hope the day finds you well.” “Ah, Mr. Ikeda, how do you do.” Yuuki looked a little surprised when she simply walked past him with a small bow of the head, but she wasn’t sure why. After all, the simple exchange of polite greetings seemed perfectly mundane to her. Besides, she didn’t want to lose track of Ayako, who had supposedly ‘scoped out’ a good spot to have lunch out in the courtyard, whatever that meant. Ayako led her to a small bench beneath a large cherry tree, and Michiru had to admit it was rather picturesque, even if they had to sweep a lot of fallen petals from the bench before they could sit down. It was late in the season for cherry blossoms, but the few flowers that still clung on to the branches were quite nice to look at, and the occasional loose petal drifting on the wind made for a rather nice ambiance. With a small smile, Michiru took out her lunch box and opened the lid. “Wow. That’s real fancy, Mimi.” “Is that so? I asked our chef to prepare something suitable for a packed lunch.” “Lucky. Mine is just last night’s leftovers and some stuff I put together while preparing breakfast.” “Oh, so you do the cooking in your household, Miss Yaya?” “Just breakfast. Mama and Papa take turns making dinner, but they both go to work real early in the morning, so I make breakfast for my lil’ bro and sis and put together our lunches.” “Even that is rather impressive. What parts of this lunch did you make, then?” “I made the meatballs and the rolled omelette. It’s pretty quick to make when you know how.” “I’m frankly impressed you can cook at all with nails like that. Do they not get in the way?” Ayako clicked her long, sharp nails together with a thoughtful look on her face. “I suppose they’re a bit impractical, but you just gotta learn how to work around them, you know. Besides, they’re like, super pretty, right?” “Oh, absolutely. They caught my eye the moment I saw you. But surely they must make certain things rather difficult?” “Certain things, huh? Well, I’m pretty much exclusively the cat, so it’s fine to have nails like this.” Michiru looked at her in complete befuddlement. “The cat? I suppose cats have claws, but I’m not sure I understand how you are a cat.” “Ah, no, not like a literal cat.” “Oh, so it’s some manner of slang term?” Ayako looked around to make sure no-one was eavesdropping before leaning in and whispering in Michiru’s ear. As she explained, Michiru’s face grew redder and redder. “Oh. Oh I see. I certainly had no idea a ‘cat’ could have such a meaning. Nor had I ever particularly considered the logistics of such things, nor what position I might take in such a situation.” “Well, if you’re curious about that kind of thing, you can just ask. I know all sorts of things.” “That’s… a very kind offer, Miss Yaya. It’s certainly not an area in which I can claim any degree of expertise…” Michiru looked down at her own carefully tended nails thoughtfully. “Although perhaps I should trim them a little bit, just in case…” Ayako burst out laughing. “Man, you’re a riot, Mimi. Want me to give you some nail decoration tips? I can teach you some tricks to make even short nails almost as pretty as mine.” “I might take you up on that, Miss Yaya.” Ikeda Yuuki exchanged greetings with her once again on the way to physical education. He really did strike Michiru as a rather polite boy. But she was more focused on the upcoming class. Apparently, the girls were doing a physical evaluation, and she hoped to perform her best. The degree of enthusiasm among the girls was hugely varied, but Michiru took a small measure of pride in beating some of her previous records. The final event of the class was an endurance run, and Michiru was surprised to find herself to be the last person still running. Even Mikawa Atsuko, who had loudly professed her intentions to compete on a national level with the track club, had tapped out a full lap before Michiru. When Michiru finished her last lap, just barely slower than the set maximum time to continue, Atsuko was waiting for her at the finish line with a towel and a bottle of water. “Oh, thank you very much, Miss Mikawa.” “Just Atsuko is fine. Your running form is really good, Michiru.” “Why thank you. That means a lot coming from you, Miss Atsuko.” “I’m really more of sprinter myself. But you have great form for long distance running. If you put the effort in, you could seriously aim to compete at a high level.” “You flatter me, Miss Atsuko.” “Not at all. You’ve got a lot of potential. How about it? Want to join the track club with me?” “I’m not sure. I must admit there are a number of after school clubs that have caught my interest, and I can’t seem to decide which one I’d prefer…” “Then let’s try them out! The club trial period lasts for an entire month, so I’m sure we can check all the ones you’re interested in before the deadline to sign up.” “Is that all right? I thought you had your heart quite set on the track club already?” “Well, of course. But I can check out all the clubs you’re interested in before I join the track club. Sounds like fun.” “That does sound lovely. I must admit I was a little worried about spectating club activities all by myself. I hear some clubs can get very pushy about making newcomers join.” “Yeah, given how well you did today I’m sure the sports clubs will be all over you. But don’t worry. I’ll keep you company until you figure out what club you want to join.” “Thank you, Miss Atsuko. It’s very heartening to have such a reliable person by my side.” As she walked towards the school gates, Ikeda Yuuki once again greeted her very politely. She exchanged a few words with him, but soon excused herself. Her driver was already waiting to pick her up, after all. The moment she closed the car door behind her, confident that the tinted windows would not let anyone see inside the vehicle, she let out an enormous huff of breath as all the tension left her body. She hadn’t expected that keeping up the pretence of ignorance would be so draining. She was perfectly well aware that every single student and teacher in the school had been vetted and selected by her father’s team. The man was incredibly overprotective, after all, and there was simply no way he would ever risk the possibility of her associating with dangerous individuals. Oh, he had made a very good effort at hiding this fact from her, but she had known that this was inevitable right from the start. That was why she had started bothering her father about allowing her to go to a regular high school almost the moment she started middle school. She knew full well that her father would need a lot of time to create an acceptable facsimile of a normal high school life, after all. But even if it was a staged, curated experience, it was still the closest thing to a normal high school experience she was ever going to have. Even if all the students around her were merely players in a massive performance, these were still the sparkling days of her youth that she would one day look back on with fond nostalgia. They had better be, because she certainly wasn’t getting any other high school life. But the facade only held for as long as the other students believed she didn’t know. If they realized she knew, they would definitely start acting differently. So for the sake of the next three years of her life, she would pretend that she was completely taken in by their acting. Besides, everyone else at school had an assigned role. So the fact that she also had a role to play made her feel pleasantly included.