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 - The Morning of Awakening, the Truth Reflected in Flowers
Saturday, before dawn.
Outside the dormitory window, it was still dark.
The rain had stopped. The clouds had broken, and an eerily clear moon cast a pale blue light over the direction of the greenhouse.
Takanashi Sumire opened her eyes on her bed.
She couldn't sleep.
She hadn't slept a wink.
Her body felt heavy as lead. The back of her head throbbed dully. The corners of her eyes were swollen from crying, stinging raw.
Even so, her body moved.
She slowly peeled back the futon.
Cold air touched her bare feet.
*(I have to go.)*
Deep in her heart, someone whispered.
*(I have to go. I have to get Tsugumi back.)*
Sumire pulled out a yellow ribbon from under her pillow.
Shiina Tsugumi's ribbon.
The ribbon that had fallen on the greenhouse floor.
Sumire gripped the ribbon with both hands.
Her fingertips trembled.
The ribbon was cold.
*(I'll bring this with me.)*
*(This is proof of my resolve.)*
Sumire threw a cardigan over her nightclothes.
She didn't have the energy to change into her uniform.
No—she didn't care about her uniform anymore.
Sumire opened her room door without making a sound.
The hallway of the Estella girls' dormitory wing was dead silent.
Only the green light of the emergency exit sign faintly illuminated the corridor.
She looked at the clock on the wall.
4:12 AM.
*(No one's awake.)*
*(If I go now, no one will see me.)*
Sumire slipped out of the dormitory entrance, still barefoot.
The outside air smelled of fresh rain.
Wet soil, grass, and somewhere far away, exhaust fumes.
The cool air felt pleasant against her flushed cheeks.
Sumire headed toward the path through the wooded thicket.
An unpaved trail leading from behind the main building to the greenhouse.
Sawtooth oaks and konara oaks grew thick on both sides, making it dim even in daylight.
Now, before dawn, it was even darker.
Only moonlight slipped through the gaps between the trees, making the wet fallen leaves gleam silver.
Her footsteps echoed unnervingly loud.
She could almost hear her own heartbeat.
*(I'm scared.)*
Sumire murmured in her heart.
*(But I have to go.)*
*(If I don't go, Tsugumi won't come back.)*
Her grip on the ribbon tightened.
Her nails dug into her palm.
It hurt.
But that pain was what kept Sumire tethered to reality right now.
When she emerged from the path, she saw the greenhouse.
Built 124 years ago, a Victorian-style structure of steel and glass.
The aging glass walls reflected the moonlight, looming pale and ghostly.
*(That flower is waiting.)*
Sumire stood before the greenhouse.
She took out the key.
An old-fashioned brass key.
The key that only Sumire, as the greenhouse's caretaker, possessed.
Her hands trembled so much she couldn't fit it into the keyhole.
*Click. Click.* The sound of metal scraping echoed through the quiet night.
*(Calm down.)*
*(It's fine.)*
*(I made this decision myself.)*
Sumire took a deep breath.
Cold air filled her lungs to the depths.
Then, she turned the key.
*Clunk.*
A heavy sound, and the door opened.
Inside the greenhouse, it was slightly warmer than outside.
The smell of soil, the smell of grass, the smell of leaf mold.
And then—the smell of that flower.
A sickly sweet, nauseatingly thick floral fragrance.
Sumire stepped inside.
The third section of the greenhouse.
Soil where nothing should have been planted.
There, that flower was blooming.
Bathed in moonlight, it glowed faintly.
The petals were red as blood.
No—dark red, almost black.
As if dried blood had taken the shape of a flower.
The flower slowly swayed its petals, as if it had been waiting for Sumire to arrive.
*—So you've come.*
A voice echoed directly in her head.
A sweet, grating voice.
Sumire stood before the flower.
She raised the hand clutching the ribbon to her chest.
"I have a request."
Her voice trembled.
Her throat constricted, and the words wouldn't come out properly.
Even so, Sumire continued.
"I'll give you all of my memories of being loved."
The flower laughed.
The petals rippled with a sickening undulation.
*—Oh?*
*—So you've finally made up your mind.*
"So please. Give Tsugumi back."
Sumire bowed her head deeply.
Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
*—Very well.*
The flower's voice reverberated in her head.
*—Surrender all of your memories to me.*
*—Then that girl will return.*
"...Yes."
Sumire closed her eyes.
*(This is fine.)*
*(If this brings Tsugumi back.)*
*(My memories are a small price to pay.)*
That was the moment.
A sensation of something being pulled out from the back of her head.
Memories, flowing out.
Like water spilling through the gaps between fingers.
She couldn't stop it.
It wouldn't stop.
*(Ah, so this is what it means to lose your memories.)*
Sumire thought vaguely.
At that moment, there was one memory that began to fade first.
Middle school.
Herself, crying in the corner of the classroom, being bullied.
And Tsugumi, rushing over to her.
"You're not alone!"
Tsugumi's bright voice.
"You're not alone, okay!"
Tsugumi's smile.
"Sumire, let's walk home together!"
Tsugumi's warm hand.
The smile Tsugumi gave her that day.
The warmth of Tsugumi's embrace that day.
The words "you're not alone" that Tsugumi gave her that day.
That memory was fading.
The colors were disappearing.
The sounds were disappearing.
The warmth was disappearing.
Tsugumi's smile was disappearing.
*—Stop.*
Sumire thought.
*—Stop.*
*—Not that one.*
*—Please don't erase that one.*
Her chest burned with pain.
Her heart ached as if being crushed.
She couldn't breathe.
*(No.)*
*(I don't want to forget Tsugumi's smile.)*
*(I don't want to lose the memory of Tsugumi holding me.)*
"Stop...!"
Sumire screamed.
"Stop! Not that one! Don't erase that one!"
Sumire clutched her head and collapsed to the ground.
The tears wouldn't stop.
Snot ran down her face.
She didn't care about any of that.
"Please... just Tsugumi's smile... it's my treasure..."
Sumire wailed.
*—Oh?*
*—Then the deal is off.*
The flower's voice rang cold.
*—But it's already too late.*
*—Even if you refuse now, the memories that have begun to flow cannot be stopped.*
At that moment, the greenhouse was filled with light.
The flower blazed with intense luminescence.
A dark red light.
No—a more complex light, of many different colors.
The light reflected off the greenhouse's glass walls, scattering in every direction.
And then, a membrane of light rose into the air.
It was a vision.
A vision of memories.
Tsugumi's memories were flooding out into the greenhouse.
Sumire raised her face.
Through her tear-blurred vision, she could see the images.
Monday, early morning.
The dim greenhouse, still before dawn.
There, Tsugumi stood.
A small girl with chestnut-brown hair.
Sumire's one and only friend.
Tsugumi was standing before that flower.
And she was crying.
Suppressing her voice, shoulders shaking, crying.
"Please..."
The Tsugumi in the vision spoke in a trembling voice.
"God... please..."
Tsugumi gently pressed her hands together before the flower.
"Please let Sumire's love come true."
Sumire gasped.
*(What?)*
*(What is this?)*
*(Tsugumi was... praying for my love?)*
The Tsugumi in the vision wiped her tears and continued.
"That girl, she's always liked Kanato-kun..."
"That girl, she has no confidence in herself, she's always looking down..."
"But her smile is so cute..."
Tsugumi gazed at the flower with an expression caught between tears and laughter.
"So please. I don't care if it costs my memories—please support her love."
"I'll give you all of my memories related to Kanato-kun."
"So please, make Sumire's love come true."
Tsugumi bowed her head deeply.
At that moment, the flower glowed, as if drawing something out of Tsugumi's body.
Tsugumi's body swayed.
And then, Tsugumi's figure began to fade.
"Sumire... do your best..."
Tsugumi's final voice.
And then, the vision vanished.
Sumire collapsed to her knees on the floor.
The strength drained from her body.
*(Tsugumi...)*
*(Tsugumi, for the sake of my love...)*
*(Offered up her own memories.)*
*(To support my love.)*
*(She let that flower devour her memories.)*
*(That's why she disappeared.)*
*(It's my fault.)*
*(It really was my fault.)*
Sumire pressed her hands against the floor and screamed through her tears.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Tears fell to the floor in heavy drops.
She screamed until her throat felt like it would tear.
"It's my fault! Because of my love, Tsugumi—!"
Sumire pounded the floor with her fists.
It hurt.
But the pain didn't matter.
"Tsugumi! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
Sumire clutched the ribbon and continued to weep.
That was when it happened.
A voice came from outside the greenhouse.
"Takanashi-san!"
Sumire raised her face.
At the greenhouse entrance stood Watarai Hibari.
His flaxen, wavy hair clung to his forehead with sweat.
His large brown eyes stared straight at Sumire.
Hibari was out of breath.
"Thank goodness... you're still..."
Hibari looked at Sumire's face and stopped mid-sentence.
Sumire's face was a mess of tears and snot.
Hibari pressed his fingers to his temple, as if using his mind-reading ability.
"...I can see it."
Hibari murmured in surprise.
"Your emotions—for the first time, I can see them clearly as colors."
Hibari was looking straight at the colors of Sumire's heart.
"Takanashi-san. Your emotions are a terribly painful color. But... there's a warm color mixed in too."
Hibari glared at the flower.
"This is your doing, isn't it."
The flower rustled its leaves.
*—Watarai Hibari.*
*—You've come again.*
"Yeah, I came. Though I never wanted to come back."
Hibari stepped in front of Sumire.
"You took the memories Shiina Tsugumi offered, rewrote them however you pleased, and distorted our emotions, didn't you."
The flower fell silent.
"The affection we felt toward Takanashi-san—all of it was fake, manufactured by you using Tsugumi's memories as bait."
Hibari's voice was shaking.
Shaking with anger.
"Using someone's memories as bait without permission, deceiving people... you're the lowest."
The flower flew into a rage.
*—Silence!*
The flower's voice exploded in their heads.
*—What could someone like you possibly understand!*
*—I'll drown you in false emotions too!*
The flower unleashed another torrent of fabricated feelings toward Hibari.
A dark red light surged at Hibari.
"Ngh...!"
Hibari clutched his head and crumpled.
That was when it happened.
"Stop it!"
Sumire shouted.
Sumire raised her tear-streaked face and glared at the flower.
"Don't hurt anyone else!"
The flower looked at Sumire.
*—You dare say that?*
*—Your love is the root of all of this.*
Sumire bit her lip.
She tasted blood.
"...You're right. My love hurt Tsugumi."
"But you—you used Tsugumi's memories without permission and distorted everyone's feelings."
"You're far worse."
Sumire's voice trembled.
But she didn't look away.
The flower trembled with fury.
*—You insolent girl!*
The flower tried to unleash its curse upon Sumire.
At that moment, the greenhouse door burst open.
"That's enough."
A low, powerful voice.
Sumire turned around.
At the greenhouse entrance stood Kazaraku Kanato.
His soft black hair swayed in the night breeze.
His gentle brown eyes held a serious light.
Kanato had been in the old building, preparing for his early morning stream.
He had sensed something wrong and run all the way here.
Kanato took in the bizarre scene inside the greenhouse.
Sumire collapsed in tears.
Hibari crouched, clutching his head.
And the flower, radiating a dark red light.
Kanato understood the situation immediately.
"Takanashi-san, Watarai. Get back."
Kanato stepped in front of the two of them.
Then he took a deep breath.
"————!!"
Kanato raised his voice.
The Resonant Voice.
Kanato's ability, which instills trust in people.
That voice shattered the false memory-visions filling
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