Prologue

PROLOGUE

Logo fading out.

“Rejected.” She responded with a single, indifferent phrase that went perfectly with her cold expression.

“I-if you reject it, it would mean that the school…”

“Your opinion does not matter. I did not ask for it. Nor did I need to. When did I even allow you to speak to me about this matter in the first place?”

“B-but… Lowering the budget by 20 percent would result in difficulties in managing the academy…”

“Didn’t you hear what I said? I don’t care for your opinions!”

“P-please wait! At least postpone the changes to the next semes—”

Half a year has passed since I became employed. Originally, I planned to get a job as a servant rather than a secretary. Up until this point, I tried to get used to only saying ”yes”, but it seems that I was naive.

In the split of a second, she prepared herself to interrupt her incompetent secretary and pushed her patience to the limit before opening her mouth one last time.

“Did you forget? I recall only allowing one type of response from you. Go on, say it.” She said, meeting her secretary with a steely gaze.

“…Y-yes…” In the moment their eyes met, she felt a cold shiver down her spine and muttered with a cracked voice.

“E-excuse me.” With movements as stiff as a rusty machine, the secretary left.

Expressionless, she watched the secretary leave and picked up one of the photos on top of her desk. In the photo, there was a small girl smiling carelessly. To her, that fact is extremely irritating. She crumpled the photo with deliberation, making an unnecessary large sound, and then stuffed it into an ashtray on the top of the table and quietly snapped her fingers. Without a single sound, the picture started burning. Until the flame went out and the picture turned into white ash, she stood there silently and watched.

Opening Movie

You know, there are times when you want a B-button. What do you mean? Basically, anytime when you want to run faster.

B-dash, yeah, B-dash.

It’s one of the basic moves, right? Even if a block is missing and there’s a hole in the road, you can just continue forward without caring. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Or perhaps the ability to curl into a ball and shoot out at supersonic speeds would also be great. My hair is short and spiky, so from a character image perspective it might be surprisingly fitting, or so I think.

“It doesn’t matter!”

If I were to shout that in a cool way while flying at supersonic speeds, it might even be cooler than a dash.

And if that wouldn’t work… That’s it! What about a machine in the shape of a horned beetle? I could move so fast that everything else would appear to be frozen in time.

Or, perhaps something a little more recent, I could push a cheetah medal onto my belt and then start hearing strange music or something like that.

Or I could just clench my teeth together and power through it… seems a bit plain though.

Ahh! I don’t care anymore! If it could make me go just the slightest bit faster, anything would do! Just as long as I can make it in time for the entrance ceremony!

That’s the state of my mind right now.

………..

Well, isn’t this a typical opening? I do feel sorry for kicking off with with such a clichéd, “you’ve probably seen this a hundred times” scene, but as someone who’s trying to keep up with genre expectations, I don’t have the freedom to worry about stuff like that.

Besides, if this was just a regular, “who cares if I’m late” type of morning, it wouldn’t matter, but this is the morning of the entrance ceremony we are talking about here. The Entrance Ceremony.

Starting the first step of your new life by being late is something that you often see in comedies. You can laugh at it when you’re just watching, but you wouldn’t want to be that person.

Or, how should I put it, a monologue with a hint of that meta-like thing, the type you’ve seen hundreds of times in games or light novels (especially visual novels!). When you’re being showed a development like this, hmm, how should I say, you start wondering if the writers ran out of ideas for the story. In the first pl- *cough*

Oh shi— going on about all those useless things, I ran out of breath.

From the bottom of the throat that had drained my breath meter to zero in an instant, a series of pathetic sounding noises like “Heee…” “Hiiii…” and  “Haaaa…” came forth as I continued running to school.

Oh right, since there’s no point in delaying it any further, I’ll make a quick self-introduction while I still can. I’m Neptune, a plain-old, ordinary, beautiful girl. My interests would be, hmm, maybe games. My special skill is transformation! From today on, I’ll enjoy my youthful school life at the Histoire Memorial Academy…. Or at least that’s what I’m planning on doing. Inside my head I’m making all sorts of fun plans, if I’m in time for the entrance ceremony that is. If I’m not, it would’ve all be for nothing.

“Did you hear? Seems like that girl was late to the entrance ceremony. Hahahaha.”

And just like that, a future of huddling in the corner of the classroom while a group of mean girls point and laugh behind my back awaits me.

That is something that I definitely don’t want to experience.

Therefore, I’m running! Aiming for the school! For the sake of my shining future!

Well, even if I try to motivate myself like that, I unfortunately only have the body of a weak, beautiful girl who neither can use B-dash nor turn into a ball and shoot forward at supersonic speeds. The only thing I can do is to clench my teeth, swing my arms, and, with my fighting spirit alone, try to increase my speed.

“There it is!” Through my misty eyes, I could finally see my goal: the Histoire Memorial Academy’s school gate. Thank goodness, it seems like they aren’t closed yet!

With one final push, I gathered the last of my strength and—

“Nep Nep! Please hurry!”

From the direction of the gate, carried by the wind, I could hear a voice calling for me. By the way, Nep Nep is my nickname. And there is only one person who I know that would use that nickname.

“Compa! Sorry to keep you waiting!” I yelled, raising my voice as well, as I headed towards that one person.

Scrubbing my eyes to make my vision clear, I see a girl waving her hands with big movements. A girl who is now clearly my friend Compa.

Compa and I are what you could call roommates. She’s my best friend and acts a bit more grown up than me. I took the entrance exam to the same school as her and made a promise to walk there together.

“On the day of the entrance ceremony, we’re going through the school gate on three. Promise, Nep-Nep?”

“Yeah! It’s a promise!”

Things like these happen quite often. Childish, but, important promises.

Compa, you waited for me, even though you would have also been late if I didn’t show up.

Aaaaah, I feel like I’m going to cry.

I finally stopped my feet in front of Compa, and while resting my arms on my knees, breathed out, “I made it, right?”

“I-I’m glad you made it! I was worried about you. Everyone was going in, but I couldn’t see Nep Nep anywhere. I was afraid that you’ve might have been abducted by evil aliens or something…”

Abducted by ali…

It seems like Compa got too worried and started imagining weird things.

Just like someone who has been reunited with her family after living apart for several years, she hugged me with teary eyes. I’m completely drenched in sweat, but she did not seem to mind at all.

Personally, I guess I am a little happy that she cares enough to get this worried over me, though, when I think about the reason why I was almost late, I start feeling just a tad bit ashamed. I would love to be able to say that a lot has happened, but…

It might have been for the best if I really had been abducted or something, I think…

No no no, that would seriously be bad; I realized, shaking my head.

“Hey Compa, stop crying. We’re going to cross the school gate together just as we promised, right?” I said while wiping Compa’s teary eyes with the sleeve of my shirt.

“It’s your fault that I’m crying. I’ll have you properly apologize later, you hear?”

Compa pulled my hand away from her face and then raised her hand over my head.

“Bad Nep!” She tapped me on the head.

After that, she once again firmly gripped my hand and said, “Come on now Nep, we’re leaving. To our Entrance Ceremony!”

And just like that, Compa and I crossed the school gate while holding each other’s hands, just as we promised.

“Congratulations on reaching your new school, Nep Nep!”

“You too, Compa!”

Congratulating each other, we hugged.

Aww, isn’t this a touching sight? When I was talking about B-dash and everything, I didn’t expect it would end up like this. Now, all that is left is to attend the entrance ceremony with a marvelous expression on my face. When it ends, this time for real, my youthful school life will begin! The plans that were about to go up in smoke just moments ago came flooding back in all their sparkling glory. I cheerfully daydreamed about them as we playfully walked down the road leading to the school building.

And then.

“Oh right, Nep Nep. Is it okay if I ask a question?” Compa asked like she had remembered something.

“Hmm? What is it?” I answered lightly, looking at her. I felt Compa’s gaze sweeping over me from tip to toe.

“Nep Nep, why aren’t you wearing your school uniform to the entrance ceremony?”

And then just like that, my good mood was completely destroyed.