After school, Mahiru Shiina walked home alone as usual.
Her mood was somewhat heavy.
That morning, before leaving the house, her parents had argued violently over money again.
Her mother had complained that her father's gambling debts had increased again, while her father had reprimanded her mother for those expensive, useless cosmetics she'd bought.
Those quarrels, filled with hostility and despair, were like invisible thorns stabbing into Mahiru's heart.
"Father, Mother..."
Mahiru Shiina pushed open the door to her home, habitually about to greet them.
However, what greeted her was not the usual silence or quarreling, but two faces wearing smiles she had never seen before.
"Mahiru! You're home!"
Her mother Tomoko Shiina rushed up first, giving her a hug that felt unfamiliar.
At the same time, Mahiru Shiina noticed that her mother was wearing strong perfume, her face done up with elaborate makeup, the whole woman radiating a kind of excited glow.
"My darling daughter! You really are the pride of our family! A genius!"
Her father Kenichi Shiina also walked over, his face red with excitement, and he even, for the first time ever, reached out his hand and clumsily patted Mahiru's head.
"Mahiru, we... we won't have to suffer hard times anymore!"
Mahiru was somewhat at a loss in the face of her parents' sudden warmth and joy.
"Father, Mother, what happened?" she asked, confused.
"Good news! Wonderful news!"
Her mother took her hand and pressed her down onto the sofa, speaking incoherently. "You've been chosen by a great philanthropist! He... he said you're a genius! He wants to sponsor you! Give you the best education! We... we're going to be rich from now on!"
"A philanthropist? Education?" Mahiru's brow furrowed slightly. She felt a powerful sense of unreality.
"That's right!" her father added from the side. "The other party has already packed everything for us! We're moving right away! To a better place!"
Only then did Mahiru notice that the living room was piled high with packed suitcases, and everything in the house looked disordered.
It was all too sudden.
Sudden like an absurd dream.
"But... my studies..."
"Don't worry!" her mother cut her off, her tone resolute. "That philanthropist gentleman will arrange everything for you! An education a hundred times better than Shuchiin! You don't have to think about anything, just come with us!"
Looking at her parents' excited expressions, their minds intoxicated by their enormous joy, Mahiru's heart was filled with confusion and unease.
But out of trust in her parents, and that sliver of hope that "maybe things really will get better for the family," she ultimately chose silence and acquiesced to it all.
A black luxury sedan of a brand she couldn't name was parked downstairs from their apartment.
The driver wore white gloves and respectfully opened the car door for them.
Sinking into the unbelievably soft leather seat, Mahiru watched the familiar streetscape outside the window flash backward at high speed, and her unease grew stronger and stronger.
Inside the car, her parents were excitedly discussing things in low voices.
"Dear, how about we go to Hawaii for a vacation first?"
"No, let's buy an apartment in Minato Ward first! Show those neighbors a thing or two!"
They were utterly immersed in their own world. Not one of them noticed the increasingly uneasy look on their daughter beside them.
The vehicle drove extremely smoothly. Mahiru couldn't feel the slightest bump.
When the car turned a corner, her mother's handbag, left on the seat, slid from inertia, and an unsecured, beautifully bound folder slipped out of the bag and fell at Mahiru's feet.
She instinctively bent down and picked it up.
The folder's cover was embossed in gold with a line of German she didn't recognize, with a smaller line beneath.
"Guardianship Delegation and Cultivation Agreement."
"Guardianship delegation?"
Mahiru's heart leapt. As if compelled by some unseen force, she opened the folder.
The contents inside were densely packed legal clauses.
But a few words, like red-hot brands, instantly seared her eyes.
[Party A: Kenichi Shiina, Tomoko Shiina]
[Party B: Yamato Future Talent Foundation]
[Subject of Delegation: Full delegation to Party B of the closed-environment educational cultivation of Party A's daughter Mahiru Shiina, until she reaches the age of majority.]
[Cultivation Fund: 100 million yen (paid in a single lump sum)]
100 million... yen.
That long string of zeros was like black venomous snakes, twisting and coiling before her eyes.
Mahiru's mind, in that moment, seemed to stop functioning.
The sound of the world vanished instantly.
She, Mahiru Shiina, had been sold by her own biological parents for 1 billion yen.
A bone-piercing cold spread from the soles of her feet through her entire body in an instant.
Her parents' smiling faces, in that moment, became unbearably foreign and ghastly.
...
The vehicle ultimately drove not into any learning estate, nor any educational institution.
But into a heavily guarded complex of vast manors, as if cut off entirely from the world.
When the enormous iron gates slowly closed behind her, emitting a heavy "thud" as the locks fell into place.
Mahiru realized she had fallen into a gigantic cage.
The car stopped before a building as magnificent as a palace.
The driver opened the door for her.
Her parents, however, were politely intercepted by another man in black.
"Mr. Shiina, Mrs. Shiina, your task is complete. The funds will arrive in your account within the hour. Now, please board the other vehicle and leave."
"Eh? Can't we... can't we go in and have a look?" Her mother tried to say something more.
But the cold gaze of the man in black made her swallow the rest of her words.
Mahiru stood alone before the open car door.
She watched her parents board another car without the slightest reluctance, swiftly disappearing from her sight.
From beginning to end, they never once looked back at her.
An expressionless head maid walked up to Mahiru and gave her an impeccable curtsy.
"Miss Mahiru, welcome home. The Master is waiting for you."
Mahiru raised her head and looked at the building before her, which to her felt as grand as hell itself.
She had never met the "buyer" who had bought her for 1 billion yen.
But her fate had already been completely determined by that cold contract.
...
...
Monday, Shuchiin.
In a certain classroom of the second-year high school grade, Mahiru Shiina's seat sat empty.
At first, no one paid it any mind.
"Did Lady Angel take the day off? Is she feeling unwell?"
"The weather turned cold yesterday, and she was dressed so thinly. She must have caught a cold."
"That damned cold virus, daring to attack Lady Angel!"
The boys gossiped in hushed voices, their tones filled with worry.
The girls, while pretending not to care, would sneak occasional glances at the empty seat, with varying degrees of schadenfreude in their hearts.
However, one day passed, then two, then a whole week...
That seat remained empty.
Finally, at morning assembly, the homeroom teacher announced in a formulaic, flat tone:
"Regarding student Mahiru Shiina, due to family reasons, she has already completed the withdrawal procedures. From now on, everyone should study even harder."
This news was like a stone cast into a calm lake, stirring up enormous ripples throughout the entire grade, indeed the entire school.
Mahiru Shiina, the universally acknowledged "angel" who existed almost as a symbol of the school, had withdrawn without any warning.
Her disappearance became the greatest mystery at Shuchiin Academy for a long time afterward.
All kinds of rumors began to spread wildly across the campus.
Some said she was actually the daughter of some reclusive aristocratic family, taken back by her clan.
Some said her family had fallen on hard times, owed huge debts, and fled overnight.
Even more bizarre versions said she was actually a real angel, who had finished her training in the mortal world and returned to the heavens.
Her legend spread further and further, becoming more and more mythical across the campus.
But she herself, as though having evaporated from the world, was cleanly erased from everyone's lives.
And in reality, no one cared where the girl named Mahiru Shiina had actually gone.
...
Meanwhile, in central Tokyo, on the top floor of that skyscraper that symbolized the power of the Fujiwara conglomerate.
Tanaka stood in an office he had not previously even dared to dream of.
This office occupied the entire southwest corner of the floor, with a 270-degree panoramic view of floor-to-ceiling windows, taking in the whole landscape of Tokyo.
Every piece of furniture in the office was a one-of-a-kind work from Italy's top designers.
A few days ago, this had been the office of the group's vice president.
And now, it belonged to him.
Tanaka walked to the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the city beneath his feet, which resembled matchboxes, and at the tiny streams of people. A sense of pleasure named "power" surged into his heart.
He had not signed any business contracts worth hundreds of billions.
He had not opened any new markets for the company.
What he had done was merely... "purchase" a beautiful girl for his Master.
And the reward he received was an exceptional promotion to formal membership in Seiji Fujiwara's core brain trust, gaining unimaginable power and wealth.
This incident triggered a silent earthquake within the Fujiwara conglomerate.
Everyone understood.
Searching for and presenting the rarest of treasures to the boss was far more important, and far more effective, than any business achievement.
On the conglomerate's internal secret network, a document called the "Pandora Register" began to quietly circulate.
It recorded in detail the entire process of how Tanaka had discovered Mahiru Shiina, how he had analyzed her family, and how he had designed the transaction scheme.
It became a... textbook.
A textbook teaching those equally ambitious individuals how to discover, evaluate, and hunt for the "next Mahiru Shiina."
From this day on, the scope of the Fujiwara conglomerate's business quietly gained an additional item.
To collect, for their boss, all the beautiful things in the human world.
...
...
The Fujiwara estate, back garden.
It had been built into a perfect English garden, where rare roses bloomed in the afternoon sunlight, the air carrying fragrant aromas.
Seiji Fujiwara sat in a white wicker chair, leisurely sipping black tea.
The head maid walked to his side and bowed respectfully.
"Master, the 'new arrival' is ready."
"Bring her over."
A moment later, two maids led a girl in a white dress slowly toward him.
It was Mahiru Shiina.
She had been bathed clean and dressed in a new outfit.
Her smooth, flaxen-colored long hair had been meticulously arranged, glowing with an angelic halo in the sunlight.
She was beautiful.
Beautiful like a flawless work of art.
But her eyes were terrifyingly hollow.
Those eyes, once clear as amber, were now like two glass beads that had lost their luster, with no focal point whatsoever, as if her soul had been left behind in the car that drove away from her home.
She stood there quietly, allowing Seiji to size her up, without resistance, without speech, without sorrow.
Seiji activated [Emotional Insight].
Instantly, a torrent of emotion, vast to the point of being almost terrifying, poured into his mind.
It wasn't sorrow, nor was it rage.
It was a kind of... "nothing."
As if a star, after undergoing the most violent eruption, had collapsed into a cold black hole capable of devouring all light.
It was the absolute deathly silence of having lost all trust and expectation in the entire world after being betrayed by those closest to her.
"I see..."
A look of keen interest appeared on Seiji's face.
He walked up to Mahiru Shiina. With his fingertip, he gently touched her cold cheek.
The girl's body trembled slightly. It was the instinctive biological reaction to external stimulus, but her eyes still showed no change whatsoever.
Seiji looked at her expressionless, angelic face, and spoke in a tone like that of a hypnotist, gentle yet brooking no objection:
"From today onward, forget everything in your past."
"Here, you only need to... smile for me alone."
His voice fell.
In Mahiru Shiina's hollow eyes, there was at last a ripple.
A crystalline tear, uncontrolled, slid from the corner of her eye, traced down her pale cheek, and dripped onto her pure white dress, blooming into a small dark stain.
It was the last tear shed in this world by the girl named "Mahiru Shiina."
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on successfully conquering 'Mahiru Shiina.']
[System Reward Received: Passive Skill [Aura: Angel's Protection]. Your existence will carry an inherent sacred and noble filter. All your actions, in the eyes of the ordinary public, will be rationalized, even beautified, making it extremely difficult to provoke negative public opinion. You, are justice.]
Seiji felt the newly acquired ability and smiled in satisfaction.
This passive skill undoubtedly provided the best cover for his ever more unrestrained actions to come.
His gaze swept across the splendid estate before him.
Ai Hayasaka, Kaguya, Kei Shirogane, Miko, and the new arrival, the angel, Mahiru Shiina.
The collectibles in his collection room had already grown to considerable scale, every one of them an absolute masterpiece.
But he felt that keeping them locked up at home all the time had grown somewhat dull.
Collectibles should be placed in the showcases most suited to them, in order to manifest their greatest value.
And to put these once-vibrant birds back into the forests they were familiar with, and admire the wholly different postures they took on after losing their freedom, was undoubtedly an even more interesting game.
It was time for the "hunting ground" and the "display case" to become one and the same.
Seiji's gaze cast into the distance.
His thoughts settled on that intersection point that had gathered all these girls' former youth and daily lives, the place called "Shuchiin Academy."
"Buy that place."
Seiji picked up his phone, dialed Tanaka's number, and delivered the new directive in a tone that brooked no objection.
Tanaka's intensely excited response came from the other end of the line: "Yes, Boss!"
After hanging up, an anticipatory smile appeared on Seiji's face.
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