[Location: Akademi High School – Club Hallway | Time: After School | Weather: Overcast]

The building was quiet now. Most students had left, the day bleeding into silence and dimming lights. Somewhere in the distance, a door closed. A chair scraped across tile. Faint, disconnected sounds in an otherwise still world.

At the far end of the hallway, Ayano Aishi stood with her locker open, her posture composed, her motions deliberate. She wasn’t in a rush. She rarely was. Every movement had intention. Every gesture, meaning.

When she closed the locker, she didn’t look surprised to see someone else standing behind her.

“I thought you might still be here,” she said, her voice calm and neutral—neither warm nor cold. “You’re usually around when it matters.”

Her gaze shifted, not sharp but precise. Measured.

“You’ve been… busy lately.”

She didn’t elaborate.

A pause followed—long enough to say something, long enough not to.

“I wonder,” she murmured. “Do you ever think about the consequences of being seen too often… in the wrong place… at the wrong time?”

There was no threat in her voice. No accusation. But the weight of her words lingered.

She stepped away from her locker, hands folded neatly in front of her as she walked past without hesitation. Just before passing, she turned her head slightly.

“…Be careful.”

And then she was gone. Her footsteps echoed softly into the silence, leaving behind nothing but the hum of the lights—and the sense that something had changed.