The story takes place at a boarding school where four students—Kanato Fuura, Hibari Watari, Akira Shikinagi, and Seraph Dazzlegarden—formed VOLTACTION, a popular VTuber unit under NIJISANJI that uses special skills to bring happiness to everyday people.
The protagonist, however, is not one of them. Sumire Takanashi, a quiet first-year high school student who tends an old greenhouse behind the school, is secretly in love with Kanato. She can never bring herself to speak to him. Her days are spen
The Unseen Heart Behind the Stage - In a corner of the greenhouse, a voice blooms.
Monday.
The lunch break chime echoed faintly in the distance.
Takanashi Sumire sat in the corner of the courtyard between the old building and the main building. She touched the grass on the ground. The scent of soil reached her fingertips. Warm. The late-April sunlight seeped gently into her back through her uniform.
This was Verde Corina Academy. A boarding school nestled halfway up a hill called Miharigaoka, on the north side of Kasumigaoka City. Ninety minutes by train from the city center. Surrounded by nothing but greenery and quiet residential streets — a place almost too still. It had originally been a private academy founded by an English missionary in the Meiji era, and the red-brick old building still stood to this day. A slightly odd school, mixing those old structures with the newer main building.
*(Ah, it's lunchtime again.)*
Her classmates' laughter drifted over from the grass in the distance. They sounded like they were having fun. She sat alone, staring at the ground. It wasn't that she was being bullied. She'd just never been good at stepping into that circle, even since long ago.
It had already been a year since she enrolled. She had exactly one friend. Shiina Tsugumi. A very bright girl in her class. Just this morning, she'd been bouncing with excitement at the shoe lockers.
—"Sumire! Listen, listen!"
That morning's conversation floated back into her head.
Tsugumi, her bangs shimmering, thrust her phone screen right up to Sumire's nose.
"What is it, Tsugumi?"
"Kazaraku Kanato's new song! The premiere was last night! Oh my god, it's insane!"
Ah. Yeah. I see. She'd nodded along, giving half-hearted replies.
Kazaraku Kanato. The leader of VOLTACTION, or something like that. Affiliated with NIJISANJI, attending this academy while singing, dancing, and streaming — an incredible person. He was in a classroom on the second floor of the same school, yet he felt impossibly far away. Tsugumi was a hardcore fan, and she even acted as a kind of coordinator for the in-school fan club.
"The key change in the chorus is literally divine! And Kanato in that sailor-style outfit — the destructive power is unreal!"
"Wow. That's amazing."
"Sumire, you should watch a live stream with me sometime! You'll definitely get hooked!"
"...Yeah. Sometime."
*Sometime.* Even as she said it, she was thinking something completely different inside.
*(I'm already hooked. Ever since the entrance ceremony.)*
She couldn't say it. There was no way she could. Because she'd fallen for the person Tsugumi loved most.
She still remembered the day of the entrance ceremony vividly.
April. The cherry blossoms along the Kasumigawa riverbank were in full bloom, petals drifting softly in the wind. Standing on the pedestrian bridge, she thought she heard someone singing. On a whim, she stopped and looked down at the riverbank below. There were two male students there.
One had flaxen, curly hair and a brilliant smile.
The other one — was him.
Kazaraku Kanato. His hair was a brown so dark it was nearly black. He wasn't very tall. But the moment he opened his mouth, the air itself seemed to shift, soft and weightless. He was singing. Casually, as if just messing around with a friend.
That voice seized her heart.
She'd thought: *he goes to the same school as me.* But that was all. Nothing more came of it, and she spent her days with only the greenhouse flowers for company.
...
Five minutes before lunch break ended, she stood up and took a key from her apron pocket. An old key made of brass. This was the only thing she possessed at this school.
After school.
She entered the path through the wooded grove behind the main building. The unpaved earth was soft, sinking gently beneath the soles of her shoes. Sawtooth oaks and Japanese oaks hid the still-bright sky, creating a shaded path. Small birds were singing. This path always felt a little cool. The smell of plants. The smell of soil. The rustle of leaves brushing against each other.
*(It smells nice.*
*This is my favorite time of day.)*
With every step, her heart seemed to grow quieter. The suffocating feeling she had in the classroom slowly melted away.
She paused for a moment in front of a moss-covered stone bench along the path. She didn't sit today. She kept walking straight ahead.
When she emerged from the tunnel of trees, the old greenhouse came into view.
Victorian style, built of steel frames and glass. Several panes were broken, so from a distance the light filtering through looked mottled, like moonlight. A building a hundred and twenty-four years old. The academy didn't have the money to tear it down, so instead, students who wished to could manage it themselves. Right now, she was the only one.
She inserted the key into the lock.
A dry *clack*. When she opened the door, the thick smell of earth and greenery leaked out just a little.
*(Let's do my best today, too.)*
This was, probably, her only source of self-respect.
The greenhouse interior was divided into three sections. The first section held pansies and larkspur. The second section held rosemary, thyme, and lemongrass. All of them were thriving. She touched the leaves. Yes, they seemed to have enough water today.
Carrying the watering can, she walked toward the back.
The third section. This one was supposed to be empty.
"...Huh?"
She stopped.
In the center of the soil, a flower was blooming.
Just one.
She couldn't quite tell what color it was. It looked pale purple, and also silver. When the light hit it, the surface gleamed smooth and translucent, like melted sugar candy. The leaves were no different from ordinary grass. But the petals alone were strangely, strikingly beautiful.
*(What is this?)*
She crouched down. Set the watering can aside. Reached out her hand.
Was she scared? No, not really. She'd just never seen anything like it. She'd never planted a bulb in this soil. Never scattered seeds. And yet, it had suddenly bloomed.
Her fingertip touched the petal.
—*Do you want to see him up close?*
A voice echoed inside her head.
It sounded like a woman's voice, and also like a man's. It even resembled her own. Muffled, as if heard underwater, unclear. But the words reached her heart with perfect clarity.
*Do you want to see him up close?*
"—!"
She yanked her hand back. Lost her balance and fell on her rear. Dirt clung to the underside of her skirt. Her heart was pounding, her ears burning.
What did it just say?
*("Him"... who?*
*Why would it ask something like that?)*
A lie. She knew the truth. "Him" meant Kanato. Because he was the only thing she thought about every single day. Herself, watching Kanato from afar. Wanting to see him up close. Wanting to be beside him. Wanting to talk to him.
She'd never said any of that out loud.
The flower had spoken.
"...No way."
She muttered under her breath and stood up. She tossed the watering can aside and fled the greenhouse. She didn't close the door. She pushed it behind her and ran through the wooded path.
A branch caught on her sleeve. She heard fabric tear. Still she ran. In her mind, that voice repeated itself.
*(Do you want to see him up close?)*
There was no way that was the voice of a flower. It was an auditory hallucination. She was tired. That's right — surely that was it.
But she felt as though the deepest, most hidden part of her heart had been struck.
Evening.
The Estella dormitory for girls. A three-story beige building. Room 108 had become her single room due to under-enrollment. She was grateful. If she had to share a room with someone, her heart would never rest.
Outside, the sky was beginning to turn orange.
"...Hah."
She arrived at her door and felt the tension drain from her shoulders. She looked at her palm. Dirt on her fingertips, and a small scratch at the base of her left thumb. The kind she got from handling flower seedlings. She had many of them.
Just as she reached for the doorknob—
"Ah. Takanashi-san."
A voice from behind.
"Eep!"
A strange sound escaped her. She turned around.
Standing there was Watarai Hibari.
Flaxen, curly hair. His bangs were uneven, as if not on purpose, slightly shorter just above his right ear. Large brown eyes. Their color was bright, and they always seemed to be gazing at something with a mischievous glint. Over his school-issued shirt, he wore a black leather wristband. That was the one all the VOLTACTION members wore, she was pretty sure.
She'd seen him from a distance a few times. They were in different classes, and she'd never spoken to him.
Hibari's lips curved into a relaxed smile.
"Hey, do you have a minute?"
"Y-yes?"
"You're interesting."
Huh.
She didn't understand what he meant.
Hibari took one step closer. He didn't come any nearer than that. The distance was about two meters.
"Ah, sorry. Did that sound weird out of nowhere? But it's true. The color of your heart — it's really faint, like it's covered in haze."
"...The color of my heart?"
Hibari tilted his head.
"Yeah. Most people's are more clearly visible — red or blue, things like that. But yours is really whitish. Almost like it's about to disappear."
It was a strange joke. She thought so, and yet when their eyes met, something stirred uneasily along her spine.
*What is this person talking about?*
"Hey, has anything weird happened to you lately? Anything come to mind?"
"Nothing in particular."
Her voice cracked.
*(Nothing at all. A flower just talked to me. There's nothing for you to find out.)*
Hibari watched her steadily. He was smiling. But his eyes didn't seem to be smiling at all.
"Hmm. I see. Well, don't worry about it. I'm just good at sensing the presence of people's hearts. When you do streaming, it helps you read the audience's mood."
*Just good at it.* He said it lightly.
But this surely wasn't an ordinary kind of "good at it." It was something more like a constitution — that kind of thing.
She couldn't respond properly. For a while, she stood frozen, still gripping the doorknob.
"Um... is there something strange about me?"
She gathered her courage and asked.
"You're not strange. You just caught my attention, that's all. Let's talk again sometime, Takanashi-san."
With that, Hibari waved his hand lightly and walked down the corridor.
His footsteps grew fainter, then vanished.
Only the sound of her heartbeat remained, strangely loud in the silence.
*(Watarai Hibari.*
*That was the first time we'd ever spoken.)*
She'd never even seen him this close before. He was bright, with a beautiful face — but there was something frightening about him. Not hostility, but something that reminded her of the sharpness of a kitchen knife.
She went into her room and locked the door. Collapsed onto the bed.
She stared up at the ceiling.
"...A flower's voice. Hibari's 'color of the heart.' I don't get any of this."
The reaction set in, and tears threatened to well up. No — actually, a few did escape.
*(Should I tell Tsugumi?)*
She picked up her phone. Opened her messaging app and searched for Tsugumi's name.
But her fingers stopped.
Tsugumi had been talking about Kanato that morning, looking so happy. She'd just seen that smile.
"...I can't. I can't talk about this."
Carrying secrets she couldn't tell anyone, she watched the sun go down.
Night.
Before turning off the lights in her room, she went to close the curtains.
The moon was shining brilliantly.
At that moment—
From the direction of the greenhouse outside her window, she thought she saw a flash of light intensify for just an instant. A pale blue light, like a petal.
"...Huh?"
She strained her eyes.
But it had already returned to ordinary moonlight.
It was her imagination. Definitely her imagination.
She closed the curtains. The room went pitch black.
She pulled the covers over herself. Closed her eyes.
Near her chest, there was a strange sensation, like a tiny thorn lodged there. It ached, and itched. When she touched it with her fingertips, there was n
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