My shout echoed all around the auditorium, and onstage, the chorus club president stopped singing. Everyone was surprised, but definitely not as much as me.

"Hey, first year, be quiet!"

The student guidance teacher yelled this really loudly, but it sounded like a siren and I was hearing it from the bottom of a pool. Wonder if something's wrong with my auditory processing nerve? My vision darkened. ...So I guess it's true when they say that the world before your eyes will turn black if you're in despair, I found myself thinking.

"Where is this? who am I?" In order to fully process this situation, I went over the facts in my head.

First, "Who am I?" My name is Main Iwasaki. "Main" is written in katakana.

"If you write it in kanji, it uses the characters for "shining" and "rhyme." It means the sound you hear after an echo that's even more polished." My mom, Alice, loves Japanese culture and says this rather proudly, but my dad, Sanshirou, who has no particular interest in Japanese culture, turned in my birth certificate with my name written in katakana.

You probably could guess already from how I talk, but I'm female. I'm a sparkly brand-new first-year who has been a Kouhoku Gakuen student for a mere three days. I don't consider myself unattractive. People around me say things like,

"When I look at you, Main, I think of a mochi rice cake at New Year's, and it makes me feel safe."

This is the kind of assessment I get. I don't really think there's a deeper meaning behind it.

My eyes are a light blue, and my skin is pale. I got these traits from my mother. I got my black hair from my dad. It's really long, too. According to my dad,

"Hair has power in the spiritual realm, so it's best if it's long."

This is what my dad always says. (Even though I'm not actually the main character of a certain horror manga.) It goes down to the small of my back, so when I'm taking a bath or using the bathroom, it's a pain.

My hair might be long, but I'm really short. Really, though, I'd like it if I grew as much as my hair has so far.

(Sometimes I'm even mistaken for a fourth-grader. It's a sad fact.)

Then let's continue. "Where is this?"

This is the Kouhoku Academy gymnasium, and we're currently in the middle of the assembly for the various school clubs to make presentations to the first-years and recruit them.

Representatives from each club have taken turns coming onstage. They've made three-minute speeches meant to appeal to the first-years and recruit new members. I've only half paid attention so far, because I already know what club I'm going to join.

When the chorus club president had begun to sing, I had turned to Aoi next to me and asked, "Hey, Blue, when's the lit club's turn?"

Aoi, who had been absorbed in listening to the song, gave me an annoyed glare. (By the way, Blue is Aoi's nickname.)

"Main, you got a paper with the order of presentations written on it, didn't you? Just look at that."

"I threw it away." I said with a blank face.

Aoi, who has been my friend since elementary school, knows my personality very well. She took out the paper from her pocket and gave it to me.

"The lit club isn't on here anywhere."

"Then there's no such thing as a lit club. The teacher told us from the start. All the school clubs are written on that paper."

"..."

I looked once more at the paper, this time really really carefully. If I were to concentrate this hard on my tests, I'd be the top of the class, no doubt about it - that's how carefully I examined it. Nope, no literary club.

I asked her once more, "So does that mean that there's no lit club here at school?"

"I've been saying that from the start!" Aoi said exasperatingly.

After a few seconds, when my brain had processed this, I gave out a great yell.

"That's not true, Senora!"