By the time the meeting ended, school was already out. Miura had messaged her friends earlier and told them to go home without her.
"Senpai Miura, that new transfer student joined our class a little over a week ago."
As they walked out of school together, Ikeda briefly filled Miura in on what was happening in her class.
"At first, I thought she was just having trouble adjusting to a new school... until yesterday."
Ikeda sighed.
"Yesterday, she was completely ostracized."
The pen recording the information in Miura's notebook paused. After a moment of silence, Miura asked, "...What's the name of the girl being bullied in your class?"
"Nishimiya," Ikeda said quietly.
"Senpai, her name is Shoko Nishimiya."
After another successful meeting that ended with a signed contract, Haruno shook hands politely with the other party.
"I hope our companies will have a successful partnership."
The man across from her, in his mid-thirties, laughed. "I'd heard people in the industry talk about you, Miss Yukinoshita. Now that I've met you, I can see the rumors were true. It's a pleasure working with you."
He continued with a smile, "You're so impressive at such a young age that I'm starting to feel a little old."
What a load of nonsense.
She'd started gathering information on the person in charge of this company, as well as the head of the group above its branch company, more than half a month ago. She'd left no stone unturned, making sure she had everything prepared. Only today had she struck the decisive blow.
Haruno smiled and humbly replied, "You're too kind, Your Excellency. I'm only able to stand here with you today because of my family's legacy. As for my abilities, I'm nowhere near your level."
Liar.
I'm the best in the world. You'd better realize what a pathetic bug you are.
The man, however, was thoroughly charmed by the praise of such a stunning beauty. "Oh, Miss Yukinoshita, you're still in school, aren't you? You're young, and you have plenty of room to grow."
The person in charge of a branch company under a subsidiary group of the Shinomiya Conglomerate truly thought the Eldest Miss of the Yukinoshita Family was outstanding. Her looks were beyond reproach, her abilities beyond reproach, and she was impeccable in her conduct, social skills, intelligence, and emotional intelligence.
When they'd first met, he'd assumed she was probably a pampered, pretty airhead, putting on airs thanks to her family's influence. But in less than thirty minutes, Haruno Yukinoshita had used her expertise and charm to make him forget all about his initial condescension.
After they signed the contract and wrapped up the meeting, the two companies made plans to have dinner together that evening, as was customary.
Business dinners in Japan, a country with a strict hierarchy, were extremely, extremely, extremely dull, especially when they were held between companies.
Since this was a dinner between two companies, the usual initiation ritual of hazing the newcomers probably wouldn't happen. But the tiresome, lewd jokes would likely be unavoidable.
There was still some time before dinner, and Haruno remembered that she had other work to take care of at the company, so she had her car take her back first.
Leaning against the back seat, she let out a quiet breath and resisted the urge to stretch before taking out her phone.
As the Yukinoshita Family's heir, she couldn't let herself relax in front of others. She'd long since grown used to holding herself to such strict standards.
She checked Line, then her email. Damn Yukino hadn't sent her a single message today.
Mom, on the other hand, had sent her two short emails despite being so busy.
[The conflict between the Shinomiya Family and the Shijo Family is growing more heated by the day. The Yukinoshita Family would do well to stay out of it.]
Haruno's lips curled.
Easy for her to say.
The Shinomiya Conglomerate, whose every cough could shake all of Japan, and the Shijo Family, who'd been forced to flee overseas after splitting from the Shinomiya Family, then spent decades establishing themselves in Europe and the United States and building up their strength. Now they were powerful enough to prepare to strike back at home.
The two families had turned all of Japan into a battlefield. Their conflict had swept up not only the financial world, but also politics, industry, and even academia.
For the Yukinoshita Family to stay out of it was practically impossible.
The second email read:
[Yukino will soon be an adult. As her older sister, you should arrange more social events for young people for her.]
The secretary in the front passenger seat watched in alarm through the rearview mirror as the Eldest Miss Yukinoshita, who was always so gentle and smiling, changed expressions in an instant.
Her face had turned downright frightening.
The young heiress of a wealthy, distinguished family always wore a smile. When the secretary had first started working for her, she'd admired the famous Miss Yukinoshita.
Until one day, she'd seen Haruno Yukinoshita wear that same smiling expression as she utterly crushed a business rival.
That business owner's company had gone bankrupt afterward, and his family had been ruined. The secretary had heard he'd nearly jumped off a building.
The secretary immediately looked away, not daring to stare.
In the back seat, Haruno's fingers gripped her phone so tightly that they turned faintly white.
She stared at the screen for a long time.
The car was silent. No one said a word.
Haruno knew perfectly well what her mother meant.
The Yukinoshita Family could start choosing a marriage partner for Yukino.
Becoming a proper future wife of a wealthy family—that was what Madam Yukinoshita had always expected of her second daughter.
Haruno Yukinoshita gritted her teeth, barely managing to suppress the rage welling up in her chest.
Was she angry at her mother for being so cold and forceful toward Yukino, or at the possibility of Yukino having a future fiancé?
Haruno Yukinoshita closed her eyes, feeling as if darkness had swallowed everything before her.
In the back seat of another car, a golden-haired girl with a side ponytail, dressed in a maid outfit, silently watched Haruno Yukinoshita's car disappear from sight.
"Let's go back."
The driver answered, and the black car began to move.
The girl opened a notebook on her knees and wrote down several names. She drew lines between them, then wrote their relationships on either side of the lines.
Among the names in the notebook were Yukino Yukinoshita, Haruno Yukinoshita, Yui Yuigahama, and Yumiko Miura.
Yukino Yukinoshita's name sat in the center, with lines from the others reaching toward her. The web of relationships around her was tangled and fragmented.
The girl gave a quiet scoff and closed the notebook.
The black car soon stopped in front of a stately, luxurious manor. The blonde girl smoothed her skirt before getting out.
"Where's the Eldest Miss?"
"She's at the archery range in the back."
After asking the other maids in the manor, the girl headed straight for the backyard.
As she approached the private archery range, she heard an arrow slice through the air.
The girl stood respectfully to one side. When the Eldest Miss had finished and was changing arrows, she straightened and reported on her latest progress.
"Since three weeks ago, people around the second daughter of the Yukinoshita Family have gradually changed their opinions of her. As you predicted, the person whose attitude has changed the most is Haruno Yukinoshita."
Silence.
In the light ahead, a figure with a slender, graceful silhouette drew her bow. Even the archery uniform couldn't hide her elegant curves.
The muscles in her forearm tensed into a beautiful arc.
Whoosh—!
Even from far away, the blonde maid could hear the arrow strike dead center.
And even without looking, she could guess that the photograph pinned to the very center of the target, pierced through the heart by the arrow, belonged to the second daughter of the Yukinoshita Family.
Yukino Yukinoshita.
Miura had originally planned to keep her distance from Yukinoshita for the time being.
Junko and the others used to tease her for being like a worrywart mom, a born do-gooder. Whenever she saw someone around her caught up in worries or suffering, she couldn't help trying to lend a hand.
Even when she'd had the worst opinion of Yukinoshita, she'd never meant her any harm. Whenever they ran into each other, she'd just end up arguing with the stuck-up little grade-schooler—and losing every time.
That was also why, despite never following the school rules herself, Miura had always been highly respected at school and on the disciplinary committee.
Yui wasn't just a kind soul; she was the sort of kind soul who couldn't learn to say no or put on a cold face. Someone as obviously easy to bully as her was the kind of person most likely to be targeted and caught up in school bullying.
Miura had always known that although Sobu High School had a good school culture, the darker side of human nature could crop up anywhere. The subtle, hard-to-detect malice would only grow more normalized with each passing day.
But after Miura brought Yuigahama into her circle of friends, those tendrils of malice had almost completely disappeared.
Was the same sort of awful situation beginning to take shape in first year now?
The next day, during lunch break, Miura had been planning to ask some first-years she knew about the situation. Instead, someone she never expected stopped her outside the school building.
Carrying her notebook, Miura followed Hachiman Hikigaya to an empty classroom called the Service Club.
She'd heard about this club at school, founded by her classmate Hikigaya, but as a Social Butterfly, she'd never had any reason to ask the Service Club for help.
As she sat down, Miura couldn't help commenting, "It's hard to imagine someone like you, Hikigaya, who can't be bothered with anything, starting a Service Club."
He was incredibly noticeable and a constant topic of conversation in class, yet he acted like he wasn't interested in anything and didn't care about a thing. Honestly, Miura even suspected his life's ambition was to coast along until he died.
"Well..." Hikigaya rubbed his slightly messy hair, looking listless. "Teacher Hiratsuka forced me to fill in."
That's bullshit.
Back in their first year, Teacher Hiratsuka had suggested that Yukinoshita start the Service Club, but the golden-haired girl with her nose in the air had flat-out refused. After that, the teacher had tried to get Hikigaya to fill in, since he and Yukinoshita were both rare problem students in their year.
And Hikigaya, a problem student himself, had refused just as bluntly.
The reason he eventually accepted the troublesome role had been that he wanted to use a slightly more selfless excuse to pull that girl out of the vortex.
But it seemed he'd failed pretty spectacularly.
"So, did you specifically ask me here because there's something you want to talk to me about?"
Miura put down her notebook. "Please keep it as brief as possible, okay? I have club duties later!"
Hikigaya rested his chin in his hand. "Actually, what I have to say is related to the problem you've been worrying about lately."
Miura was taken aback.
Hikigaya said, "I happened to see you asking first-years about Shoko Nishimiya today."
Just then, there was a knock at the Service Club's door, and a pretty girl with light brown hair came in.
She wore a warm, lively smile—the sort of Social Butterfly who was clearly used to being surrounded by people.
"Senpai Hikigaya, Senpai Miura."
She bowed slightly and introduced herself with a smile. "I'm Iroha Isshiki."
Miura was puzzled, but nodded anyway. "Oh, I've heard of you."
As a member of the school's disciplinary committee, Miura knew all about the school's shining stars.
Iroha Isshiki had won everyone's affection among the first-years as soon as she started school, thanks to her pretty face and approachable manner.
"Actually, Iroha Isshiki came to the Service Club yesterday and made a request," Hachiman Hikigaya said evenly. "It was about Shoko Nishimiya."
Miura understood. Iroha Isshiki was in Class 1-D, so she and Shoko Nishimiya must be classmates.
Iroha, who'd just sat down, nodded. "Nishimiya transferred into our class quite suddenly. Most of the cliques had already formed, so it was hard for her to fit in, and..."
And she was also with someone a little "different."
Miura added the words silently.
Shoko Nishimiya had a serious hearing impairment. She needed a hearing aid just to make out a little sound, and she also relied heavily on sign language to "understand" what people were saying.
Nishimiya, who'd suddenly transferred to Sobu High School, was practically a lonely, awkward figure, shut out of every group.
And how could teenagers in their self-centered, hot-blooded years possibly have the patience to wait for someone to catch up?
Quite the opposite: her strange way of speaking and the sign language no one understood often drew quiet laughter from the people behind her.
The day before yesterday, someone in the class had lost their wallet. At the time, Shoko Nishimiya was the only one in the classroom because she'd been excused from PE.
At first, they'd only suspected her behind her back. Later, their suspicions turned into angry, direct questioning.
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