Chapter 1: Miho's return, part 1

Darjeeling, Kay, Anchovy and Maho couldn't believe their eyes: Miho Nishizumi, officially dead by suicide about 5 months before, had reappeared at the BC Freedom Academy, where she had become vice-commander of the sensha-do team. It wasn't a ghost, nor a hallucination: it was her, alive and well.

" How is that possible? Didn't she drown in Lake Suijin?" Anzio's duce asked, clearly shocked by the sudden appearance.

The captain of the St. Gloriana answered her:

"It seems that the Kofu police were wrong..."

"That's why the body was never found... Because there was no suicide!" the Saunders captain said, still shocked, but also relieved.

For her part, Nishizumi senior was still watching the live, her mouth wide open in shock. On one hand she was shocked/happy by the sudden reappearance of her beloved younger sister, on the other hand she had a lot of questions in her head.

How did she end up at BC Freedom? Where was she hiding for the past 5 months? Why didn't she contact me?

But, at least for now, she wouldn't receive any answers. The important thing, at that moment, was that Miho was alive.

"Peppe, go and tell Gianduia!" Anzai ordered.

The dark-haired girl nodded and ran away.


At Nishizumi Mansion in Kumamoto City (Kumamoto Prefecture); Shiho Nishizumi was also watching the live broadcast on the BCF channel. She had a displeased expression on her face.

"I know you're… Shocked that I've returned. You thought I'd committed suicide. Instead, here I am."

On the screen, Miho sighed. She looked around, then said:

"I was in trouble 5 months ago… Ooarai was doomed to closure, and since I was disinherited, I had nowhere to return. So, rather than lead a squalid life as a homeless person, marked by hunger, poverty, and who knows what dangers and humiliations, I decided to kill myself."

She paused.

"When I reached the lake, I took off my uniform and dove into the water, intending to drown myself. At a certain point, as the water invaded my lungs, everything went dark, I felt nothing anymore."

Miho ran her right hand through her hair.

"But in front of you there is not a ghost… There is me, in flesh and blood. When I regained consciousness, I discovered that I had been saved by some students of the University Sensha-do Team. Among them was their captain, Alice Shimada… And when I met her, I changed my plans. I convinced her to take me to her mother Chiyo. I would have asked her for hospitality and started from scratch."

She smiled.

"Luckily for me, Shimada-sama proved to be a kind, understanding, hospitable woman… Unlike my mother. She helped me, giving me food, lodging and having me enroll in this academy, where I have lived under a false name until today."

Shiho's face darkened even further. She closed the live, thinking:

I would have preferred her to be really dead, rather than see her wagging her tail at the feet of my eternal rival…