"...Sigh. It's already been half a year since then."

I muttered to myself, feeling the May breeze through the window, just beginning to carry the scent of summer.

The clamor of the classroom felt as distant to me now as the world outside an aquarium. My heart, as ever, maintained a quiet emptiness like a calm sea.

"Hey, Mawaru, you're astral projecting again. How long are you planning to keep up this 'enlightened sage' act?"

Plunking himself down in the seat next to me was my best friend, Ryuki. Loud as always.

"...It's not an act. This is my default state."

"If it's been going on for half a year, it's a full-blown illness at this point. Look, Rui says she'll give you leftovers from her homemade lunch. Eat some tamagoyaki and cheer up."

Where Ryuki jerked his thumb, his girlfriend Rui Takimine was waving at us with a smile far too dazzling.

A social butterfly. Devoted. And head over heels for Ryuki.

Honestly, the purity of that happiness was so overwhelmingly intense to me now that it felt like my retinas were going to burn.

"Sorry, I've already got plans."

"Plans? You're the king of eating alone."

"...I have a reservation with a resident of my shadow. Today's a commemorative day, after all."

"Right, right. So you're gonna eat something sketchy with that creepy power again. Got it, I won't get in your way."

Ryuki waved lazily and headed back to Rui.

Having Ryuki and Rui's flirting shoved in my face was bad for my mental health. I hurriedly got up from my seat and left the classroom.

Lunch break, on the rooftop.

A blind spot behind the water tower. A cool patch of shade away from the direct sunlight—my reserved seat.

After confirming the silence and that no one was around, I sat down on the concrete floor.

Ever since I was born, my shadow has "eaten" objects.

My personal uncanny ability that lets me use my own shadow like a black hole, freely putting in and taking out objects—Shadow Storage.

Inside the storage, time is almost completely stopped. And I never feel the weight of the things I put in.

In other words, piping hot things stay piping hot, and ice-cold things stay ice-cold.

In this hollow world, it's the one and only sanctuary where I can keep only the things I love in perfect condition.

‘Right, then…’

Half a year since that heartbreak. As a reward to myself for enduring the emptiness and attaining enlightenment, there's something I'd prepared last night by blowing my entire part-time job paycheck.

I slid my hand into my shadow stretching across the ground, down to the wrist.

The sensation—a peculiar coolness, as if touching the surface of water.

From it, carefully, and with my pulse quickening just a little, I pulled out...

‘...Ta-dah. A non-conveyor-belt sushi shop's 'Premium Sushi Tub - Shiosai.'’

Rising up from my shadow was a genuine cedar-scented sushi tub, not plastic.

Medium-fatty tuna glistening like jewels. Exquisitely scored squid too beautiful. Sea urchin shining gold.

Because time is dead inside the shadow, fresh, glistening fat still floated on the surface of the toppings.

‘Heh heh heh... This is it. Love betrays you, but the fat on medium-fatty tuna never betrays me.’

Expressionless but enraptured, I set out a small dish for soy sauce (also pulled from my shadow).

First, this medium-fatty tuna — just as I reached out with my chopsticks, that moment came.

"...Hey. Are you out of your mind, making a raw fish smell in a place like this? Some new kind of terrorism, I swear."

I thought my heart would leap out of my throat.

The voice came from right behind me—from the shadows further past the water tower.

With movements like a rusted machine, I fearfully turned my head.

Sitting on an old pipe, languidly resting her chin on her hand, was a female student.

Glossy black hair reaching her waist. Refined features like a model's.

And most strikingly, those long, narrow, crimson eyes brimming with a freezing coldness and utter annoyance.

The unattainable flower of the school, who had crushed countless boys with her venomous tongue—Rin Himuro.

"...Uh, ah, um, er..."

"...I was sleeping quietly, and the smell of vinegared rice woke me up. The worst."

She hopped lightly off the pipe with a soft thump, then approached with a gait completely devoid of emotion.

The pressure of being looked down upon by her, at 165 centimeters, was immense.

"So? What delivery service is that from?"

"...It's... a magic trick."

"...A clumsy lie. A magician wouldn't pull raw fish out of a shadow. Are you messing with sanitation standards?"

Her gaze passed right through my face, alternating between looking down at the "shadow" at my feet and the "Premium Sushi Tub."

"No use hiding it. I saw everything while pretending to sleep. How the shadow at your feet warped and then that stupid tub just whoomped right out of it."

Her eyes narrowed sharply.

"What's the deal with that hole? ...Let me examine it."

It was over.

My peaceful Shadow Storage life.

Of all people, the one person I absolutely shouldn't get involved with—the troublesome-looking Ice Princess—had found out.

"...It's a superpower. Like a congenital bug. So, what do you plan to do? Report me to a teacher? Or sell me off to some freak show?"

When I asked, half in desperation, she let out a soft snort.

Then, in an incredibly low, flat voice, she said, "...Hmm. It's not like I can't keep it a secret. In exchange, that is."

Without caring about her skirt getting disheveled, Himuro plopped down next to me and snatched the disposable chopsticks from my hand.

And then, without a moment's hesitation, she picked up my beloved medium-fatty tuna and tossed it into her mouth.

"...Mm. Not bad."

After showing a fleeting, age-appropriate unguarded expression, she skewered me again with those downer eyes.

"That 'convenient hole' of yours. Starting today, let me use it too. There's no right of refusal."

"...Excuse me?"

Her crimson eyes were staring intently at my shadow.

Lurking in them wasn't pure curiosity, but more like a strange fixation—like she'd found some handy toy.

That was the moment my emptiness-filled everyday life, along with the medium-fatty tuna's fat, began sliding in an unexpected direction.