"We're here."
The black sedan stopped at the edge of Itabashi Ward. Any farther, and they would leave Tokyo.
Among Tokyo's 23 wards, this one was a nobody. It wasn't even as famous as Adachi Ward, with its chaos and poverty.
The name was generally believed to come from the wooden bridge where the Nakasendo crossed the Shakujii River. Such bridges were rare in the Heian period, a thousand years ago, so its name was adopted for the area.
If Itabashi Ward had anything special about it, it was the many factories there.
In the 1980s, it had been home to a large number of workers. But as the economy faltered, they gradually moved away, and their children left too. The factory schools built back then were gradually abandoned. The school before them, standing in the twilight, was a relic of that era.
"Miss."
A "Private Property" sign had already been put up at the school gates.
When they saw Hongo Hina get out of the car, the two bodyguards in black suits immediately stepped forward and bowed.
"I'm going in with my classmates to take a look. You two stay here."
"Yes!" x2
The two black-suited guards, clearly professionals, nodded in response, then stepped aside and stood as motionless as statues.
"Sora, and you two, this way."
Hongo Hina, leading the way, beckoned them over. The four passed through the school gates, and the first thing they saw was a school building in the style of the last century.
The square, concrete building had a huge clock face set high in the middle. It had been stopped for so long that no one knew when, frozen forever on the day the last students left.
In the playground before the school building, tufts of grass stubbornly poked through the fine