Mariko set back along the long and winding road to Yamaku, mentally conducting a timetable for all her trains of thought. The big new arrival via the ten fifteen bullet train was the girl she'd met. Short, but not dwarfish proportioned, short asian nose, fishbowl haircut. Had there been a ribbon in it? Mariko couldn't tell. The face had been plain, everyday. Like almost every secondary protagonist in every anime ever. She didn't speak, but she handed her a notebook she hadn't intended to use with words written in tiny letters. The dress, like a six year old's nightmare in lace. Too perky to be Gothic Lolita, but distinctive, yes. And she'd run off like all the demons of hell were after her. Like she, Matsushita Mariko, was bad news. She grinned.

So there was something somebody was hiding. And that secret had been revealed. The masquerade had been undone, and what was under the mask?

The big iron gates of Yamaku lay open, and Mariko passed through them without a second thought. She kept her gaze lowered, as if each of her black plastic shoes had the secret of life carved into them. Her bags cut into her hands but she didn't mind too much. She dragged them all around the corner and up into the girl's dorms. The smell her up first, a powerful aroma of meat and onions. Had someone been cooking? Not important right now. Two flights of stairs and a locked door later, Mariko entered into her room and dropped the bags on the floor, before scurrying to her desk and looking for paper, and a pencil. She sat down, took in a deep breath, and began writing.

Once she'd finished writing down what had happened, Mariko looked outside. The sun was high in the sky, still. She could still go out. Homework could still wait for sunday. But then again, it wasn't like she had a particularly active social life in any case. The Frill conspiracy was still a pretty interesting mystery even after she'd spent the whole walk back thinking about it hard. She'd need to ask around. Who could she ask? A teacher would get suspicious of her, and might ask awkward questions. Her contact in the student council? She doubted it. Student council was nothing like the bureaucratic centre for the school it once was. Who else was a reputable fountain of information? She thought about it while clearing up the room. The first year and the Princess were both too new in school to know who was who, and Yamauchi and Coral were too unfamiliar to her. They'd barely even talked during the whole half hour they'd been together. Who did that leave? Two dudes in her class?

After a while, she walked out of her room, shutting the door behind her. Her school getup was gone, replaced with a orange tie-dye shirt under a dark green jacket, a modest navy blue skirt and black socks. Maybe a bit too vibrant, but whatever. She drifted back around to the common room, pausing at the door to murmur a "Hey" to the four of five people inside. She pulled the door back and stepped out into the warm summer Saturday.