I do not own MSGM or any of its characters. All such honors belong to Oyuki Konno. I just like to play with them ^_^

Prologue

"You're still here?" the young man asked as he came walking in through the biscuit door. "I'd have thought you'd have moved on by now."

"No, I'm still here," the girl answered with a sigh from where she sat on the windowsill watching the world pass by outside the thin pane of glass. She turned her head to look at him and smiled sadly. "How about you? Just passing through or do you have a job here today?"

"Oh, just passing through," he grinned back, doing his best to hide his surprise at the girl's willingness to talk today. He hadn't even really expected her to answer his question. After all, she hadn't said more than a few words to him the last three times he'd stopped by. "Haven't had much call to make a pickup here in, oh, at least fifteen years or more. These high-class ojou-samas just don't need my services that often. Too afraid to break a nail if you ask me," he chuckled.

"So, you came just to see little old me?" the girl's smile widened just a touch although her eyes remained clouded. "I'm honored."

"D-don't be," he huffed with unfeigned indignation and crossed his arms over his chest before turning his head to the side. "You're not that important."

"You are so tsundere," the girl laughed lightly.

"I AM NOT," the boy burst out, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment as he turned to look at her. His next words were much softer and caring, essentially proving the girl's observation. "I just thought that maybe you'd decided it was time to move on."

The girl sighed and shook her head, any sign of past levity now gone. "You know it doesn't work like that," she said quietly. "No matter how much you or anyone else might hope," she said in a whisper, her voice and eyes losing all color and emotion – all hope – as she turned back to looking out the window, "not even you can help me, Hiroshi," she said in a voice so soft that he just barely heard her words even though he could normally hear a pin drop at a hundred meters.

He had thought that maybe, just for a moment there, when she'd laughed, that he'd actually seen her real smile. It had been so long since he'd even heard her chuckle or giggle. But then, she really didn't have all that much to smile about.

The girl, young woman really, had already been here for a long time when he'd first run across her while picking up a 'package' he'd been assigned to deliver to its proper destination. At the time she'd been sitting on the roof of this old house, watching the students making their way from their classes to the bus stop or train station to head home. Just the sight of the young woman sitting alone on the roof of the old place had intrigued him enough that he'd stopped by to chat.

She'd been a lot more talkative back in those days, probably because she finally had someone she could talk to he'd eventually realized. So he'd tried to stop by every few days after their initial meeting. As time continued to pass, however, she slowly became more taciturn, more depressed, more withdrawn, until he had difficulty getting even a few words out of her. The time between visits had lengthened until he now only stopped by to see her every few months. It was too painful to see her sitting here, day after day, year after year, watching life go by that she could take no part in.

"Um," he cleared his throat, but there was no reaction from the girl staring out the window. Not even the blinking of an eyelid. He doubted that she even remembered that he was still there. "I guess…I'll see you later than," he sighed, giving the girl one last glance before walking back through the door to continue on to his most recent assignment. Once he'd passed through the biscuit door he stopped and turned back to stare forlornly at the room, sadly wishing for the thousandth time that there was something he could do to help her. One of these days he at least wanted to see a real smile grace those lips again, but it seemed that today wasn't going to be that day.

Others started coming in and making their way up the narrow steps to the room he'd just vacated, their dark green uniforms with their perfect pleats and the white sailor collars and scarves tied just right. It was a newer version of the same uniform the girl he'd just left had been wearing. Some of the girls were smiling, other's giggling. None of them gave him a second or even a first glance as they passed him by. He briefly wondered if maybe one of them would be the one that could help the young woman where obviously he couldn't.

With another sigh he shook his head and moved on to complete his assigned mission for the day.

If the boy had waited in the room just a few minutes longer he might have seen a spark of life re-animate those deep brown eyes and a small smile pull those pink lips up at the corners as she gazed out the window.