"I'm transferring schools."
Mayu Hinase was startled when she suddenly heard Shizuku say that.
"Transferring schools? Sister Shizuku... huh? Were you even attending school?"
Halfway through speaking, Mayu Hinase seemed to realize that although Shizuku wore a sailor uniform every day, she had almost never seen her go to school.
"Of course not."
"But you said you were transferring...?"
"Oh, it's for a job."
As she spoke, Shizuku waved the envelope in her hand at Mayu Hinase before explaining.
"I accepted a job to help them deal with some trouble, so I'll be going there as a transfer student."
"I see..."
Having heard that, Mayu Hinase finally relaxed, but her curiosity immediately surged up.
"What kind of job?"
"This one's rather troublesome... but also pretty interesting."
As she spoke, Shizuku motioned for Mayu Hinase to sit down and continued.
"There's actually a story behind it."
"A story?"
"Yeah. In Class 3-3 at that school, there was a student named MISAKI. He was very popular with his classmates, the sort of person who was basically an idol. Then, due to an accident, MISAKI died. The students in the class were deeply saddened, but perhaps they couldn't accept his death. Suddenly, one student pointed at MISAKI's desk and said he wasn't dead, that he was still there... Then the other students seemed to be infected by the idea and began thinking the same thing. After that, they continued living ordinary school lives while pretending that MISAKI hadn't died and was still one of them. Even when they graduated, they specially prepared a chair for MISAKI for the class photo."
"...That sounds like a touching story, but... since they need your help, Sister Shizuku, does that mean MISAKI really came back?"
If it had merely been a story, Mayu Hinase would have considered