"Hmm... she's pretty cute."
"Thank you for the compliment."
Roland seemed quite pleased. If she really were a cat, her tail would probably be swishing by now.
After a while, Haihara let go.
Haihara began to think.
This little girl didn't seem very bright.
Perhaps she could make a little use of her.
Just as the thought crossed her mind, her phone suddenly rang.
Haihara had opened it casually, but when she saw the caller's name, her expression changed.
The name on the screen was—
"Ms. Suzuki."
A little while later, Takanashi and the others saw Dean Roland again.
Only, Dean Roland didn't seem as fanatical as she had before. She looked so dejected, it was as if a dark cloud hung over her.
Even the gemstone dangling from her glasses had grown dim.
"Dean... what's wrong?"
It was the first time Takanashi Shiori had seen the dean like this, and for a moment, she didn't know what to do.
Roland looked up, aggrieved.
"Who is Ms. Suzuki?"
Why had their teacher spoken so gently to that woman?
And why had their teacher tried to send her away for that woman's sake?
Wasn't she the teacher's closest student?
At the sound of that name, Takanashi and the others all froze.
Ms. Suzuki?
"She's probably... one of the teachers at our school?"
"A teacher?" Hearing that word, Roland fell into deep thought. She adjusted her monocle as an unprecedented storm of speculation stirred in her mind.
"Is that woman named Suzuki a Sage? Or has she already entered the realm of Her Majesty the Queen and Teacher Haihara... Is she wind-aligned or bird-aligned? Could she be a reclusive magical girl...?"
Roland couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"...No, no. She's just an ordinary person."
Kirishima Ai wasn't sure where to start with her objections.
"Then why would Teacher Haihara like her?"
Dean Roland couldn't accept it.
Kirishima Ai could no longer understand Ms. Roland's thought process.
Was this what the magical girls of R'lyeh were like?
"Could it be... that Teacher likes ordinary types?"
After reviewing every memory she had of her teacher, Roland suddenly reached that conclusion.
She had an epiphany, as if waking from a long dream.
Come to think of it... it did seem to fit.
Although their teacher had a chaotic private life and flirted with many magical girls, she seemed to do nothing but toy with their feelings.
What their teacher truly liked was ordinary people!
No wonder their teacher hadn't wanted to marry the Queen back then!
Roland seemed to have uncovered a huge secret...
So that was it.
Suddenly, Roland found herself dissatisfied with every inch of her appearance.
Why be a magical girl? That was far too abnormal.
That Ms. Suzuki was probably a teacher at this school, too.
And as her teacher's student, Roland had a duty to help.
The next morning, Teacher Haihara looked troubled.
The other students were still studying or chatting, completely unaware of what was about to happen.
The first class was Haihara's Japanese lesson. About five minutes before class began, Haihara walked up to the podium and clapped her hands softly.
The other students looked up curiously, wondering what Teacher Haihara was about to say.
After a long silence, Haihara spoke.
"Students, I'm sorry to say that Teacher Sato, your PE teacher, is pregnant and has gone on maternity leave. She won't be teaching you anymore."
"?"
"?"
"?"
They knew their PE teacher had been married for a long time and had been actively trying to conceive, but this was so sudden.
Haihara continued calmly.
"Now, let me introduce your new PE teacher. She's a foreign sports instructor the school hired at a high salary..."
As she spoke, Haihara began to run out of things to say.
She simply clapped her hands, and then a silver-haired girl who didn't look much older than the students walked in from outside.
Quite a few students froze when they saw the elf-like beauty.
Takanashi Shiori and Kirishima Ai were just as dumbfounded.
The silver-haired girl wore a white teacher's coat. She waved elegantly and smiled.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Roland, and starting today, I'll be your PE teacher."
Haihara's Mom
Around the age when she was in middle school—probably eleven or twelve—Kazama Kiriori first met that woman.
She was born into a wealthy family. Her parents were open-minded and raised her well, her relatives all got along, and her uncles and aunts were kind to her.
Naturally, she had a carefree childhood.
She was also very clever, often ranking first in her class. She would probably get into a good university without trouble, and if she wanted to study abroad, her parents could support her.
The only regret was that her parents often traveled for work, and sometimes she felt lonely on her own.
She should have had a smooth and happy life.
But that was just an illusion.
While staying at a relative's home, she learned that her parents had been in a car accident.
Neither of them could be saved, and they passed away soon afterward.
When she first heard the news, she thought there had been some mistake.
She was still very young then, and something like that seemed as unbelievable as a dream.
But it had happened all the same.
And with her parents gone, the life ahead of her was overturned with ease.
Her parents' funeral was held on a rainy day.
Kazama Kiriori wore a raincoat, while the adults around her were dressed in black. Their expressions were gloomy or grief-stricken. Most were relatives, along with a few people who seemed to have been her parents' friends.
She heard that some of them were her parents' coworkers, too.
She still hadn't come to terms with her parents' deaths, and she didn't know what to do next.
But she faintly heard some of her relatives talking.
"Who's going to take her in...?"
"I already have two children..."
"This isn't about the inheritance..."
The adults who had once been so warm and kind to her now seemed practical and callous. Awkwardly, but in all seriousness, they discussed who would take custody of her.
She could understand, more or less.
After all, adopting a child was a lot of trouble and brought a lot of pressure. If someone new suddenly joined a family, it would probably be a huge inconvenience.
No one wanted to take her in.
Kazama Kiriori looked up. She stopped looking at the adults and gazed at the gray sky instead. Raindrops kept falling onto her clear raincoat and trickling down.
After a while, a raindrop ran off her hood and landed on her cheek. A cold sensation spread across her face.
The coldness told her this was real.
Her parents were gone, and from now on, she would have to live on her own.
Maybe she didn't want to hear the unfamiliar adults bickering anymore. She moved away from them a little, wanting to see her mom and dad.
Not long after she arrived at the cemetery, she saw a woman in a black suit standing there. She held a black umbrella in one hand and seemed to be carrying flowers in her arms.
Kazama Kiriori glanced at the tombstone. It belonged to her parents.
She walked closer.
The woman soon turned around and noticed Kazama Kiriori.
Kazama Kiriori looked up and saw what she looked like.
The woman was tall, about as tall as her dad. She had long hair and glasses, and an aloof, gloomy air about her. Aside from that, there was nothing particularly remarkable about her.
She recognized the woman.
She seemed to be one of her mom's coworkers.
The woman looked at Kazama Kiriori for a while.
"Are you... Senior Kato's daughter?"
Kato was her mom's surname.
Kazama Kiriori nodded.
The gloomy woman touched her slightly disheveled bangs, then bent down a little and studied Kazama Kiriori carefully.
"You really do look like Senior."
She sounded somewhat wistful, though Kazama Kiriori couldn't tell what she was thinking.
Quite a few of her mom's coworkers had come to the funeral.
Her mom had been a supervisor, so lots of people from the company had come to pay their respects. But Kazama Kiriori couldn't remember most of their names, and they probably hadn't really wanted to come.
"Were you close to your mom?"
This woman seemed quite sad.
She must have been close to her mom, then.
The woman didn't answer right away. She slowly straightened up, placed the flowers she was holding in front of her mom's tombstone, and held her umbrella over the grave for a while to shield it from the rain. Then she said, rather calmly:
Before you continue