After his less-than-pleasant conversation with Horikita Suzune, Kazehara Tetsu continued his aimless wandering.
He crossed the plaza and slowly made his way along a path lined with Beech Trees.
Just as he rounded a huge old Camphor Tree, a peculiar sight entered his view.
On the lawn beneath the tree's shade, a familiar figure was sprawled on the ground in an extremely inelegant pose.
Morishita Ai.
She was almost completely flat against the ground, her legs slightly spread and her rear arched upward.
The hem of her School Uniform Shirt had ridden up a little as she stretched, exposing a small patch of smooth skin.
Her arms reached forward, elbows propped on the grass. She held a magnifying glass steady in one hand and carefully pinched a tiny crumb of bread between the fingers of the other.
Her head was nearly buried in the grass. Her long blue hair swayed gently with her small movements, a few strands falling beside her cheek.
"Morishita Ai."
Kazehara Tetsu walked up behind her and called out a greeting.
"Mm... Oh, it's Kazehara Tetsu..."
Morishita Ai's reply came from within the grass.
She didn't move at all. Her gaze remained fixed on the world beneath the magnifying glass, as if what she saw there mattered ten thousand times more than the living person standing behind her.
Kazehara Tetsu walked over beside her and glanced in the direction of her magnifying glass.
Nothing special.
Just a group of black ants, marching in an orderly line as they carried crumbs back to a nearby anthill.
For any ordinary high school student, this sight would have lost its appeal after ten seconds at most.
Of course, some busybody might have stomped on them a few times or set them on fire.
Morishita Ai watched them, utterly enthralled.