At the entrance of the Sanzenin mansion, a pair of sisters stood together. The younger sister, Katsura Hinagiku, was eyeing her older sister, Katsura Yukiji, with a wary expression.
"Nee-san, don't forget we're attending a birthday party today, not showing up to casually drink yourself into a stupor."
"I knooow, I knooow."
Yukiji waved off her sister's slightly nagging reminder with a perfunctory tone.
After all, once the party had gone on long enough, Hinagiku would be too distracted to keep watching her. By then, wouldn't she be free to enjoy all the high-end wine to her heart's content?
"Still, this is the first banquet Nagi-chan's hosted since leaving Hakuo."
"Yeah."
Naturally, Hinagiku knew that Nagi often held banquets at her home. She also knew that her idiot of a sister used to attend just to eat and drink for free.
But ever since Nagi transferred schools, those kinds of events had practically vanished. This birthday party was indeed the first one in a long while—for Aizawa Sakuya and two others.
Hinagiku knew Aizawa Sakuya. She was the girl with the Kansai accent who liked to crack manzai jokes at Nagi's parties.
However, she didn't know much about her. From Maria, she learned that Sakuya was like a sister to Nagi.
As for the other two being celebrated, Hayasaka Ai and Sonoko, she knew nothing about them.
"Ever since leaving Hakuo, Nagi's really changed."
Thinking back to their time at Hakuo, Nagi had always skipped school as often as she could, rarely attending classes. She only showed up occasionally.
She had poor physical fitness and zero aptitude for sports.
Her intelligence was off the charts, but her body lagged behind terribly. The difference was so extreme, it bordered on comical.
She lacked self-discipline and had no persistence when it came to exercise.
But now, seeing the current Nagi, Hinagiku was genuinely shocked by how much she had changed.
Not only had her stamina improved, even her athletic coordination was better. Her shut-in behavior and lack of self-control seemed like things of the past.
To put it simply, the current Nagi felt like a completely different person to Hinagiku.
After school, she would even take the initiative to return to Hakuo and train in kendo under Hinagiku.
Hinagiku could clearly feel that Nagi was making daily progress—and not just slow improvement, but rapidly accelerating growth.
Yukiji didn't quite understand what her sister meant by such a dramatic change, but she did understand one thing: people naturally change when their environment changes.
"Well~ Nagi-chan transferred to another school, didn't she? Of course she'd change. If the change wasn't that drastic, she probably wouldn't have transferred to begin with."
In Yukiji's view, if Nagi hadn't undergone a significant change, the transfer would never have happened.
That transfer alone made it clear to Yukiji that something major had happened in Nagi's life.
But as a teacher, it wasn't her place to dig into her students' private matters. Besides, Yukiji firmly believed that teachers didn't need to uncover everything hidden behind their students' behavior.
It was one thing if the students chose to reveal something, but another thing entirely to pry it out.
That said, Yukiji was still quite curious about the invitation to this birthday party.
Not only could she enjoy delicious food at the start of the month, she might also learn a few things about what had been going on behind the scenes with the students. It was the perfect two-for-one deal.
"Let's go."
The two sisters passed through the gate and entered the Sanzenin mansion.
As they arrived at the annex, a long black car pulled up in front of it.
The door opened, and three people stepped out. All three wore the same type of school uniform. Hinagiku and Yukiji recognized them immediately.
Short black hair, the Hakuo Student Council's discipline committee member—Asakaze Risa.
Purple hair tied in twin ponytails, the Hakuo Student Council president—Segawa Izumi.
Light blue long hair, the vice president of the Hakuo Student Council—Hanabishi Miki.
They were commonly referred to as the Student Council Trio, or more famously, the "Three Idiots of the Student Council."
"Ah! Hinagiku, Yukiji-sensei, so you were invited too."
As soon as she got out of the car, Segawa Izumi spotted the Katsura sisters.
The two others also noticed them right away.
"Yeah. Looks like you three were invited as well."
Hinagiku was genuinely surprised to see them here. After all, this wasn't Nagi's birthday party, but Aizawa Sakuya's.
If these three were here, they must have known Aizawa Sakuya too.
Seeing Hinagiku's confusion, Segawa Izumi offered an explanation with a grin.
"Aizawa has a good relationship with Nagi, and we met her through the parties Nagi hosted."
"Plus, Aizawa has a connection to Aika. When we attended Aika's birthday party, we saw that she and Sakuya got along well."
"Eh~"
That caught Hinagiku off guard. It was the first time she'd heard of any connection between Aizawa Sakuya and Kasumi Aika.
"So those two are actually connected."
Just as she said that, another long car slowly rolled up and parked nearby.
A girl in a purple kimono stepped out.
"Aika-san."
All five of them turned at once and immediately recognized her.
They had just been talking about the connection between Aika and Aizawa, and lo and behold, the person in question arrived.
"Ah~ President, good evening."
"Good evening to you too, Aika-san. We were just talking about you."
"About me?"
Kasumi Aika tilted her head slightly. When her eyes met with Segawa Izumi's and the others', she instantly understood.
"You're talking about my relationship with Miss Sakuya, right? Well, my family has long been indebted to the Aizawa family. My name, Aika, is actually derived from 'Aizawa's love.'"
This was the first time Hinagiku had ever heard such a thing.
She was definitely learning a few things she didn't know before.
"Aika, since you're close with Miss Aizawa, how much do you know about this birthday party?"
"Hmm…"
Aika paused for a moment, then shook her head helplessly.
"To be honest, I've been waiting to hear something about Miss Sakuya's birthday party, but there was no word from the Aizawa family. I assumed she wasn't celebrating this year. I didn't expect to receive an invitation just the day before her birthday."
"In past years, Miss Sakuya always started inviting people a week in advance. This year feels unusually rushed."
(To be continued.)