"You're the new substitute teacher?"
That afternoon, Tsuzuki Chihiro had grown noticeably bolder, likely realizing that no one was paying enough attention to expose her true identity.
She had even dared to sneak into the faculty office and flip through the student roster.
Of course, in a school this big, it was impossible for not a single student to have talked about her sudden appearance. So it wasn't surprising that the teachers had heard about her by now.
The teacher in front of her now—Chihiro had looked into her beforehand.
She was the Japanese language teacher.
"Ah, Kimura-sensei, nice to meet you. I'm a friend of Nagai-sensei. She had something urgent come up these past few days, so she asked me to fill in for her."
Nagai-sensei—otherwise known as the unfortunate soul Chihiro had just tricked into quitting.
As for her full name?
Chihiro had no idea.
Her name wasn't listed on the school's official website—only a few students had ever mentioned the surname Nagai on forums.
"Is that so? But I saw Nagai-sensei at school this morning."
Chihiro didn't miss a beat, effortlessly keeping up her act.
"She came in to brief me on the handover. Once we finished discussing things, she left."
"And what exactly was so urgent? The school never informed me about a change in English teachers."
"Well…" Chihiro put on a deliberately troubled expression.
"It wasn't an official change—just a temporary favor. I'll be gone by the end of the week."
She sighed as if burdened by the whole ordeal.
"As for what's keeping her busy, I don't really know the details. If you need to speak with her, you should call her directly."
Even though Chihiro felt a bit nervous inside, she knew that even if she hadn't suggested calling Nagai, Kimura would have done it anyway.
And honestly?
A phone call wouldn't necessarily expose her.
If you call up a teacher who was already resentful toward the school for how she'd been treated and ask why she left…
Chances are, you'll just get a half-hearted, dismissive answer.
"Hello? Nagai-sensei? I heard you had to take a sudden leave for a week—is everything alright?"
Kimura really did pull out her phone and call, right in front of Chihiro.
"Oh… I see. Nothing too serious, you should be fine by next week? That's good to hear."
"Anon-sensei? Oh, yes, she's doing a great job. I've heard several students compliment her today."
"Alright, then. Take care of your personal matters first. Don't worry about the school—we've got things covered."
Even though Chihiro could only hear one side of the conversation, she already knew—
She'd successfully gotten away with it.
But merely covering her tracks wasn't enough.
Now that she had been "accepted" as a legitimate teacher, she saw no reason to waste this opportunity.
"Kimura-sensei, do you have a moment? There's something I'd like to ask you."
"Of course. I don't have class until later, so feel free to ask. I'm Class 1-A's homeroom teacher, so I know most of the students fairly well."
"That's great. I wanted to ask about two students—Nagasaki Soyo and Chihaya Anon."
"Nagasaki Soyo, huh…"
Kimura let out a sigh.
If it had been any other student, she might not have known much.
After all, the school year had only just begun, and she hadn't had many chances to talk in depth with the new first-years.
But Nagasaki Soyo was a direct-entry student from Tsukinomori's middle school.
And Kimura had taught there before.
So she actually knew quite a bit about her.
Ironically, Soyo—who had worked so hard to pry bits of information out of Chihiro earlier—would never have expected that Chihiro would turn around and effortlessly "cheat" by abusing her status as a "teacher."
"Back in middle school, Soyo had… some issues with her personality," Kimura admitted.
"She did interact with her classmates normally, but she always gave off a lonely impression."
"I even tried asking her privately if there were any problems at home, but she wouldn't say anything. Still, her expression made it pretty clear that something was wrong."
"No home visits?"
Kimura shook her head, looking somewhat resigned.
"Many Tsukinomori students come from affluent or influential families. We don't typically conduct home visits unless absolutely necessary."
"Actually, there was one case where a teacher tried to intervene too much in a student's personal affairs outside of school… and ended up getting complaints from both the student and their parents for invading their privacy."
"Since then, we've avoided house calls altogether. At most, we check in with students at school. But we usually don't go beyond that—it's just not worth the trouble."
"I see. I've just returned from the UK, so I'm not too familiar with how Japanese schools operate these days. My apologies for the naive question."
"Not at all!"
Kimura's attitude noticeably warmed at the mention of Chihiro's overseas experience.
Encouraged, she continued,
"Actually, there's one more thing about Nagasaki that stood out. Back in middle school, she was in a band with a few friends—one of them was Wakaba Mutsumi, who's in our class now, and the other was a girl named Togawa… something. She used to be a Tsukinomori student, too."
"But it seems like they stopped after graduation."
"Of course, that's not uncommon. School bands often dissolve when members move on to higher education. It's just that… usually, that happens when students graduate high school. It's a bit of a shame for a band to break up so early."
"I see… So do you think her issues might be related to that experience?"
"It's hard to say. I tried asking her once, but she wouldn't talk about it. And I didn't want to push too hard."
Kimura hesitated, then added,
"If you're interested in Soyo, Anon-sensei, why don't you talk to her yourself? You're still young—you might have more in common with her."
"That said, speaking as a teacher… I wouldn't recommend getting too involved. Even if you're just a temporary instructor, some things are better left alone."
"I understand. Thank you, Kimura-sensei."
Chihiro took a moment to reflect.
When she had casually mentioned bands during her conversation with Soyo earlier, she had noticed the girl visibly stiffen.
Now, she had an idea why.
"And what about Chihaya Anon? I didn't see her name on the class roster. Do you know anything about her?"
"Chihaya… Anon?"
Kimura frowned, deep in thought.
"No, I don't think I've ever heard that name. She's not in any of the classes I've taught."
"She was supposed to transfer in today."
"That's strange. I haven't heard anything about a new transfer student. If a first-year were transferring in, the standard procedure would be to bring them to the office first. But I was in the office all morning, and I didn't see anyone new come in."
"…I see."
Chihiro's mouth twitched slightly, but she kept her thoughts to herself.
So that rich little pink-haired brat isn't even attending Tsukinomori?
It didn't make sense.
But then, she thought of one possibility—
Nagasaki Soyo.
Chihiro had suspected for a while that Anon hadn't come back to Japan just because her family told her to.
That girl always acted tough, but in reality, Chihiro hadn't been around to support her at school in the UK.
She could imagine Anon struggling to keep up with her weak English skills.
Maybe…
She had deliberately avoided Tsukinomori because she was afraid of running into Soyo?
If Anon had really been in a band with her before, then—
Holy crap.
Did Tsukinomori's middle school seriously produce both of these two disasters at the same time?
What, had they made some kind of eternal pact to speak in the most annoyingly high-pitched voices forever?