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Section 1
## Episode 1: The Root and the Branch Reversed
1 I got off the train and came out through the ticket gates. Without the station’s air-conditioning, the summer heat struck all at once, and my mood sank with it… Summer vacation was already nearly half over. And yet summer felt as if it would go on forever. On a day with weather like this, Konata suddenly got in touch: “Kagami~~ I’ve got something I need to tell you.” So today we gathered at the family restaurant beside Kasuhibe Station, near Ryōō Academy, the school we attend. The group was me, my twin sister Tsukasa, and Tsukasa and Konata’s classmate, my committee partner Meiqian—four of us. The weather was far too hot. The sun was still pouring out a fierce heat. The family restaurant might as well have been sitting inside an oven, wrapped in scorching light. So hot— “Haah… By the time I got here, it felt like every last bit of strength had been wrung out of me~~~” Tsukasa, sitting beside me, sighed and grumbled. “I can’t take this.” At last we reached the place we’d agreed on and opened the door. The moment we stepped inside, the air conditioner’s icy breath rushed over us. It felt like coming back to life. “Haah~~” “Konata’s already here, right?” Tsukasa and I looked carefully all the way around the restaurant. Suddenly someone tugged my ribbon from behind. “Ah!” I spun around in surprise. It was Konata, both hands in my hair, grinning. “I’m not a little kid!” 2 “A collection of ghost stories?” Konata smiled a thin, eerie smile and set a die and a stack of manuscript paper on the table. Just for me? Thinking that, my hand turned to the next page. “Compa…
## Episode 2: Forever and Ever
1 “Hiyori. To thank you for your help before, let’s go get something to eat!” The season already felt completely like autumn. On a weekend afternoon, Izumi-senpai, my classmate Patricia, and I went to the fast-food place we pass on the way home from school. Izumi-senpai said, “Eat, eat—order whatever you like,” and handed us the menu. She added, “We really couldn’t have done it without you.” “N-no—if you’re happy, senpai, then we’re happy too.” The help she was thanking us for was sorting out the ghost-story collection. Unworthy as I am, I, Tamura Hiyori, was responsible for drawing some of the illustrations and the cover. It was less a collection of ghost stories than a collection of material. Patricia, who had come along with me and just happened to be treated by senpai, leaned forward beside me and said, “That ghost-story collection. It’s really interesting. The subjects are all so fun.” I ordered a coffee for a little over a hundred yen. I was overjoyed just to sit and have tea with a senpai I hadn’t seen in so long. “At this year’s summer festival, it was so hot I got a mild case of heatstroke.” “It really was hot.” After a stretch of idle talk remembering the past, senpai suddenly looked out through the shop window and up at the sky. “But autumn’s here in the blink of an eye.” White clouds drifted in the blue sky. Senpai’s face looked a little lonely. “Oh, right—the school presentation is coming up soon, isn’t it? Hiyori, what theme are you all doing?” Right. At our school, an academic presentation is held in the fall, and every class has to put forward something—a chorus, an ensemble, a play—and compete for the prizes. “We haven’t decided yet…
## Episode 3: A Hard Road Ahead
1 The seasons turned, and the streets were thick with the deep colors of autumn. Halfway through the second term, today was a fine, clear autumn day. Tsukasa and I walked from Kasuhibe Station toward the bus stop for the bus to Ryōō Academy. “Hiiragi! Little sister!” Hearing someone call to us, Tsukasa and I turned and saw Ayano running over with a smile. “Ah, Minegishi, good morning.” “Morning.” Even as I was greeting her, I sensed something behind me, and at the same time the ribbon on my head was pulled. “Ah!” “Hiiragi~~~” I looked back. It was my classmate Kusakabe Misao, grinning at her own mischief. “Let go of me!” The only people who do something this stupid are this one and one other idiot. “I see this ribbon and I just can’t help pulling it.” “Are you an elementary-school boy?! Let go.” Honestly. I don’t want to hang around with this bunch of selfish brats. During homeroom, Misao, in the seat behind me, pulled my ribbon again. “Stop messing around!” “Oh, come on, it’s fun!” I was just about to shout that it wasn’t fun at all when our homeroom teacher, Sakuraba-sensei, spoke right by my ear. She turned toward me with eyes full of tears. I fretted over how to comfort her, and before I knew it I had reached out and patted her shoulder. “Uh? Honestly. All I have to do is make up the gap on the next proficiency exam!” I skimmed the exam results once. This time the questions had suited me, and my score was as good as I’d imagined. At this level I ought to be able to reach the cutoff for my first-choice high school. I have…
## Episode 4: Without a Seam
1 “Konata, Christmas will be here before long.” One day after school, with winter break almost upon us, Kagami, Tsukasa, and I headed for the station to go shopping. Christmas decorations were everywhere along the streets. In the department-store windows, glittering Christmas trees stood in a row beside the merchandise. “Haah, Christmas already,” I murmured to myself, looking at the dazzling tree. That night. Hot cocoa in one hand, I was on the computer the way I always am. This time of year, the online world was already nothing but Christmas colors. There were all kinds of events planned, and I was really looking forward to them. “There’s a party today, right? Kuroi-sensei will be there too, won’t she?” I looked in the places where I usually run into sensei, but I couldn’t find her. Calling her got no response at all. “Huh? She’s not here?” Sensei being offline at this hour was truly rare. I tried the other servers and still didn’t see her. Feeling a little lonely, I had no heart that day for teaming up with anyone. I wandered the net with no particular aim, and before long I turned the computer off. “Hm, what’s going on with sensei?” Lying in bed, worrying about sensei, I fell asleep before I knew it. 2 The next day. The moment I got to school, I hurried off to find Kuroi-sensei. “Sensei, did something happen yesterday?” “Christmas will be here soon.” At my question, Kuroi-sensei only sighed out that one line. “Yeah, sensei! The Christmas-limited events are about to start! I can’t wait—” Today is the Emperor’s…
## Side Story: Lucky☆Channel — Singing My Own Praises
1 I opened the door the way I always do. Beyond it stretched a beautiful world, glittering with light. And that beautiful stage, the one that draws out everything I have in me… “Hey, how long are you going to stand in the doorway? Hurry up, we’re closing! Shiraishi-kun.” A shout came from the studio. The voice belonged to Akira Kogami, the famous middle-school idol. She calls me “Shiraishi-kun.” With -kun. Why am I being called -kun by a middle schooler? But if you go by time in the business, Akira really has been at it longer than I have, so there is nothing to be done about it. If I said Yoshi*, I’d overlap with Akira-nee, and a senior calling me “kun” is reasonable enough. A thousand thoughts flashed through my head. “Hey, what are you spacing out for!” That sharp voice rang in my ear again. “Ah, coming, sorry.” Under Akira’s intimidating words I bent desperately at the waist and ducked my head, exactly like a crab spotted by an elementary schooler. Akira’s attention went back to the magazine she had been reading all along. We had already been co-hosting Lucky☆el for some time, but today Akira’s mood was especially bad, so I had no choice but to… “Long time no pu-pu-pu, pu-pu-wa~~~” I tried a bit of clowning, but… “……” Akira was completely unmoved by my low-grade joke. The “pu-pu-wa” in “long time no pu-pu-pu, pu-pu-wa…” had come from the magazine Akira was reading in the first place. One glance was enough to throw me, and I said something so lacking in…