It was another sweltering day, nearing the middle of June – a month and a half was left until the summer vacation. What the break in the offing meant to those middle school students? 

“Uhh... lazing around, and doing summer homework on the very last day?” 

“I’m going on a trip to Hawaii!” 

“I usually visit my family in the countryside. There are hot springs nearby, so I guess I’m looking forward to it.” 

“Playing games all day...” 

“Beach episode!” 

Those were some responses hung on a board on the first floor. By the way, only second grade students were asked. 

There was a certain third grade student. If someone asked her about what she was going to be doing over the summer break, she would either not give any response at all or say something like “preparing for the conquest of the human realm”.  

Every single person has a hidden side to them, which they reveal only to people they deeply trust. Usually, it concerns only a few embarrassing secrets, less often a different, either callous or childish personality. 

That girl – it could be said that she was comprised only of that hidden side. What remained for the public to perceive was a seemingly empty shell –hence she was thought of as a mysterious person. She almost never took part in discussions – basically she had never done that of her own accord, but only when she was particularly pressured by a teacher. Even then, she avoided talking as much as she could, so what came out of her mouth were only a few simple sentences, spoken in a low voice. 

With long, blonde hair and an eyepatch on her left eye, she was seated at the last desk in the classroom by the window. When someone happened to catch a glimpse of her, most often she could be caught staring mindlessly at either the window or her desk. Every morning, she entered the classroom among the first – although recently a little bit later – with a dead, powerless stare carved on her face, and headphones on her head – not that it was strange in itself, she wasn’t really the only person to do that, but the overall feeling she gave off was of an entirely unconcerned person. She was also the last person to leave the classroom, but nobody bothered to check what she was doing then. 

Such behavior was likely to concern some teachers, or even some caring classmates, but against all odds, she was a really diligent student. Her grades were perfect – when she transferred, she basically caused everyone to drop one rank lower, which made some of her classmates privily hate her because she showed no effort whatsoever. In result, she formed an impression of a person that lived in her own world and couldn’t care less about the people around her. 

Usually, she strolled off to who knows where every break. That day though, in the classroom filled with loud talking and occasional laughter, that girl was politely sitting at her desk with her lunch consisting of rice balls laid out. 

That said, she had barely touched it. She seemed agitated for some reason – maybe it was because she wasn’t used to being in such a loud place. Her usual go-to places were: the rooftop, which the dazzling sun at this time of the year made unbearable; the toilet, where she played games on her phone, but for obvious reasons she couldn’t eat there; the library, where she sat down on a chair and drifted into the abyss of her imagination, less often read something; and the forest behind the club building, which she was too embarrassed to go to because of recent events. In result, she remained in the classroom in order to eat her lunch... but quite couldn’t, because everyone around her kept distracting her. 

She harshly drew her chair back, which made a sound that couldn’t be heard over the incessant chattering, subsequently heading for the rear exit. She turned right on the hallway, and walked up to the front door of the neighboring classroom of 3-B, which she knew she could find the person she called specifically “human” at. When she reached the opened door frame, she stopped in the middle of her walk without turning her head inside. Using her unconcealed eye, which also happened to be the right one, she took a peek inside without even turning her neck. This way, she appeared from faraway as though she just stopped midway, but coming closer, one could notice her eyeball in the rightmost edge of the eye in an odd and likely unsettling way. 

She didn’t want to walk inside in order to avoid being noticed by anyone there. Peeking like that, she was able to see only a part of the classroom, but luckily it was enough to confirm the presence of the person she was looking for – sitting at a desk by the window, eating his lunch in peace, alone. Seeing that, she stepped back to the wall and pulled out her phone from within her skirt. 

•

It was just another ordinary and tedious day. When lunch break began, Yamaguchi, instead of approaching me, made his way to the exit, likely to hang out with his friend in another class. To be clear, I wasn’t jealous of that, but in fact, it lightened me up because I had a chance to eat my lunch undisturbed. 

And that’s how it’d been for the first few minutes. I managed to leisurely finish a half of it, before I felt a strange, short shaking in my pocket. It was too intense to be brushed off as a caprice of my mind, so it immediately brought my attention. I remembered that what had been stored in that pocket was my phone, so I already knew what was going on. It was a vibration caused by an incoming notification, most likely a spam mail or something. I was already prepared to retract my hand reaching for the pocket, but then I called to mind that I had all kinds of notifications disabled at school, was it sound or vibration. I set the only exception for calls and messages coming from someone on my contact list. 

It meant that it’d been a message from someone I knew, so naturally it would be better to check it. Realizing that, I shoved my hand into the pocket and brought out my phone from there. 

When I turned the screen on, I saw the thing that I would have never expected – to be honest, it was the last thing I thought I would see there. No, I think there was one even less probable thing and it was a message from Yamaguchi. Anyhow, I learned that a message had been sent to me just a moment ago. The sender was... that girl, Lumiya. Incredulously, I opened it and saw its contents: Can we meet right now? 

“What...?!” in disbelief, I muttered to myself. 

Not only had she sent me a message on her own, but she asked to meet me right now in it? 

Either way, when I came to my senses, I thought that I had nothing against it so I replied her affirmatively: 

“No problem, where?” 

The moment I touched the “Send” button, not only had the “Seen” label appeared instantly, but I also received a response within less than 5 seconds. 

“Right outside your classroom.” 

When her reply reached my eyes, I spontaneously glanced at the widely open front door of the classroom, thinking that she might be standing there and upon seeing me, react to me with a wave of her hand – but as it was only to be expected, there was no one there. And so, I casually stood up from my chair, leaving my lunch on my desk and made my way there. 

As soon as I set my foot behind the doorframe, a frigid sound reached me from my left: 

“Do not turn around. We mustn’t be noticed together. Take your right, head to the uppermost floor and I shall follow shortly.” 

When I first heard the sound, I wanted to turn my head in its direction, but when she finished her first sentence, I retracted myself from doing so. I decided to play along with her intrigue, because why not, and made my way towards the staircase as inconspicuously as it was possible for me at the moment. I wanted to take a peek over my shoulder for no more than a split second, just to confirm whether she was really following me or just playing pranks as I would expect most people to, but I stopped myself since I knew that would make her flustered. I guess I knew her well enough to trust her. 

When I arrived at the top floor that I already knew very well – there was the entrance to the infamous rooftop and those storage rooms, I turned my head around and noticed her just walking up the stairs. 

“...” I only mumbled while probably tilting my head slightly when her figure reached the same level as mine. 

Why did you call me here? was something I wanted to say but somehow couldn’t. Speaking of which, she looked just as always – her hands not holding anything were weakly hung in the air, her eye was fixed at a point that was just below my face, probably because she was afraid of looking at it directly – and I could totally understand that since I had the same problem. Standing like that, she appeared to me just like a lifeless doll, because her figure was rather thin and it didn’t even twitch... or maybe more like a mannequin? When I passed by one, I felt creeps on my body because it resembled a living person so well... that wasn’t the case with dolls, which were modeled on humans, but seemed lifeless from the beginning to end, so in the end she was rather a mannequin. 

Partly covered by her long, bright blonde hair was one of her eyes, concealed under an eyepatch. Her apparent reason for that was because she believed it to have a power to suck one’s soul out, so basically end someone’s life. Come to think of it, since she despised humans that much, why hadn’t she used it on one of them? Certainly, if she really jumped in front of someone and took it off while shouting “Begone!” that would only make them laugh. But did she actually believe it? That’s making my head hurt a little, to be honest, so let’s stop thinking about that. 

“Human, I have a favor to ask of you.” 

Her surprisingly calm voice suddenly resounded through the empty area surrounded only by doors. 

“Yes...?” 

“Since all of my hideouts have been either discovered by humans or rendered unable to be used for the time being, I need your help to find a new place suitable for my base.” 

At first, her words confused me a little as always, but after a few seconds I guessed what she had been talking about. She was looking for a place in school where she could be in solitude, because all of the places she had known were uncomfortable (like the rooftop) or some other people had started using them alongside her – as expected of her, she used an odd way to put that. 

“Alright...” 

In other words, she asked me to name a place that no one came to. Off the top of my head, I could specify a few. 

“What about the library?” 

It wasn’t quite right – while not much people used the library, it wasn’t entirely empty. That said, it was definitely a place one could relax at, obviously read something or even take a short nap. 

“Tch, tch. I need a place that is completely desolated, without the danger of a human coming in. It can be either inside or outside, as long as it’s within the barriers of this confinement zone.” 

Her calling the school a confinement zone was quite bold. Did she hate studying that much? Either way, it seemed that she wanted some really unattended place, so that would mean that the school canteen, the school yard or the playing field were no-go. For example, something like the rooftop. I could think of some places that were usually empty during breaks, like the chemical lab, but she would have to snick in there every time, and was likely to have trouble in case she was caught, so I excluded those places from my recommendations. 

“Uh...” 

To be honest, I quite couldn’t think of any more ideas. I was sure that If I walked around the school, I would be able to find something, but that wasn’t within my reach at the moment. 

“I’m sorry, nothing comes to my mind currently. I’m sure that if you walked around, you could find something, though...” 

Speaking of which, why did she insist on being alone that much? While I could understand the classroom being a bit too loud, wouldn’t a bench under a tree in front of the school building be enough for her? 

“I see. I’ve got no other choice then”, the peculiar girl in front of me responded as she raised her left hand to her cast slightly down head. 

Unfortunately, I let her down again. I wondered why she had asked me that question in the first place – she wanted me to find her a place where she could be by herself, but consequently, I would be another person besides her that knew of it. Therefore, I would be technically able to come there and find her alone. Why didn’t she keep it a secret from me? Was it an oversight of hers? Perhaps she was doing it deliberately? 

“Lumiya-san... if it’s supposed to be the place of solely yours, why are you asking me that?” 

My quite forthright question prompted her to turn her back to me, making me unable to see her face. She didn’t make a step forward to run away though, but remained in silence for a few seconds before saying in a completely different from before, almost feline voice: 

“Y-you’re my servant, aren’t you... there’s no need to keep it a secret from you...” 

I felt remorseful because of accidentally making her flustered again. On the other hand, I had to admit that her reaction was kind of cute. As for her response, the fact that she didn’t have anything against being alone together with me surprised me. From what I had managed to learn so far, she had a hard time talking to me when there were people around, but so did I, although to a lesser extent. Could that mean she was actually looking for a place for us two? No, that was definitely me reading too deep into that. Get a clue, I had known her for a little bit over a month... with a month-long break. 

“S-sorry. I can walk around for you later and report back, if you want...” 

I made an offer, to which she returned to me and made a bold suggestion. 

“Human. If you have spare time later today, we can look together.” 

That said, her head was still hung down and I quite couldn’t see her expression. Instead of staring at a place somewhere below my face, she was staring at my shoes or perhaps even the floor now. Her left hand was pressing the fabric covering her left eye, which I probably could already call her flagship gesture. 

“W-what? Uh...” 

Her suggestion had taken me aback. I took me a while to realize what she had been saying even though she had used fairly regular language. She kind of asked me out after school just like that. Like one could guess, there wasn’t a reason for me to refuse. I did have lots of spare time every day, and today wasn’t different. In fact, it was a great opportunity for me to... actually what? Either way, I had nothing to lose. 

“Err... okay”, I scratched my cheek in embarrassment as I responded. 

“Perfect. Do you need additional time to prepare, or can we begin straightaway after the commoners disassemble?” 

Perhaps she was asking me if I had to head home to leave my bags and eat something for example, or was it alright to start right after the class ended. I wouldn’t mind the latter. 

“Uhh... I don’t need preparation...” 

Was any kind of preparation really necessary? I guess it wouldn’t take more than twenty minutes to walk around the school complex, it wasn’t that huge. But if we were to wait for the school to become empty enough, a few minutes after class wouldn’t be enough – there were numerous club activities ongoing. On the other hand, we wouldn’t be that suspicious in case we were spotted by a teacher because, unlike after the club activities would have ended, it would be normal for people to still be around at school. 

There were some sports clubs outdoors, but I didn’t think we would have to be wary of any other place than the club building, where the only person I wouldn’t want to notice me with her was, Yamaguchi. As for that girl, I wasn’t sure if she had some particular people to avoid. Come to think of it, the clubs that took place outdoors were mainly comprised of guys for some reason, so maybe she wasn’t that afraid of them spotting her. 

“We shall meet then... in my classroom, fifteen minutes after the bell. Is this alright?” 

“Uh, it’s okay with me.” 

After I confirmed that, she proceeded to turn her back to me and head off without saying a word. Before long, her figure grew distant and I couldn’t notice her presence anymore. It all happened so quickly – she was as peculiar as always. What surprised me was that today, it was she who had taken the lead. 

For some reason, I’d been thinking that we were going to walk around school next to each other while looking for a desolated place, but then I realized that during search like that, people usually are assigned their own area to scout out and don’t walk together. That would mean that upon meeting her, I would set off to search one part of the school complex while she was scouting the other one and then we would assembly in one place presenting results. 

Her suggestion wasn’t really that bold, it was only a misunderstanding on my part. Either way, I returned to my classroom to finish my lunch.