Kanae knew that her only hope of escape was going to be the window. When she had tried to open it up, she was unsurprised to find that it had been bolted shut. Additionally, someone had covered it from the outside with a piece of blank canvas. So, she couldn't see outside of it, but Kanae was sure that if she was able to break through the window she could pull it off. She wouldn't be able to climb out because of the bars on the window, but she would have been able to cry for help. Even if nobody heard her, knowing where she was being held captive would make her feel at least a little bit better.

Kanae crawled over to the window and pressed both of her palms up against it. She threw her whole body weight into pushing up against the window, hoping that pressure alone would be enough to break through the glass. When that failed, she started pounding on the glass so hard that her hands began to hurt. The frame of the window was rumbling and she knew that it would shatter if she just hit harder.

Kanae reeled her arm back and smashed her fist through the window pane. She could feel shards of glass digging into her forearm. In spite of that, she still fiddled with the canvas, tugging at the edges in an attempt to rip it off. She was determined to get the job done, even if it meant forcing the chipped edges of the shattered windowpane deeper into the skin. It must have been nailed down, because she had to tug hard in order to get it off.

When she was finally able to tear it off, she pulled the canvas through the window pane and wrapped it around her arm like a bandage. She looked out through the unobstructed window and realized her earlier suspicions had been true. Climbing out the window definitely was not going to be an option for her. Even if it had been large enough for her to climb out of, she wouldn't have had anywhere safe to climb out to. It wasn't because she was a few floors too high to jump from. It was because the room that she was trapped in was suspended in space, floating amongst the constellations, disconnected from any sort of building.

It had to be a dream. After, all there was no gravity or air to breathe in outer space. She reached down to pinch herself, in hopes of waking herself up, only to realize that doing so would be redundant. It was only when her fingers made contact with bloody canvas that Kanae remembered that she had already injured herself. She had been so shocked by seeing where she was that she had completely forgotten about the pain she'd inflicted on herself only moments ago.

In spite of how terrifying the situation was, there was something beautiful about the night skies that surrounded her. The stars glittered like diamonds against a sky of dark, ebony velvet that almost shined violet in the moonlight. There was something hauntingly familiar about the array of cosmos. It looked identical to the images cast by the planetarium projector in the Chairman's office. Her fiancé had always loved it, but surely Kanae would've noticed if he had been building an attic in there.

Additionally, he didn't seem like the sort to do something like that. He was the type to rescue a girl from being locked in a tower, not the one to put her there in the first place. Besides, Akio would have undoubtedly come to save her when he had heard her calling if she was locked up in his office.

At least, that was what Kanae wanted to think. The more time that passed by, the more Kanae started to doubt things like that, things that she had once believed to be inarguably true. Being alone with one's thoughts in such an extraordinary situation could do that to a person.

At first, it being alone with herself hadn't been hard. Kanae had always had a miraculous talent for sitting there quietly with a smile on her face, trying her best not to think about anything. She had an outstanding talent for making it look she was listening, even when she was bored out of her mind. She had first tried doing it when listening to her parents' long dry lectures about how a young girl was supposed to act. As school got more difficult, she started to do it when her teachers droned on about bland and boring subjects. There was no need for her to struggle to get good grades when her father owned the school. She was his little princess, after all.

Eventually, she had started to use that skill with her friends as well. At first, she had tried to listen to every little problem that they had. When they came to her with trivial matters, she had usually found it interesting. When things were more serious, it was nice to know that she could lend a hand and help out her friends. But as she got older, the troubles that her friends had started to get more complicated. She couldn't help one friend without hurting another.

She stopped listening, and plastered that same radiant smile on her face that she did for the adults in her life. At first, she was worried her friends would notice and get angry with her for ignoring their problems. However, they never did. In fact, they seemed to like it more when she sat there, watching expectantly as they poured their hearts out. They seemed so much more appreciative than they ever had been when Kanae had genuinely tried to offer them advice.

So, eventually she had gotten to a point where there was nobody in her life that Kanae had wanted to listen to. It was easy, but dreadfully boring. And then she met him. Akio Ohtori. At the time, he had been using a different last name. However, had never thought it suited him. He had never seemed like a "Himemiya" to her. Akio Ohtori had such a lovely rhythm to it. Kanae had thought that ever since her father had first brought up their engagement. Or had it been her mother? Kanae couldn't remember, it felt like it had happened decades ago.

She doubted that she was going to get an answer to that question any time soon, but then she heard three knocks coming from the floorboard. With the third knock, a trap door materialized in the floorboards. Kanae started racing over towards it on her hands and knees. However, it was already open by the time that she got there.

Kanae looked down through the open door to see her own mother, standing on a ladder in the one of the familiar red carpeted hallways of the Chairman's tower.