The hallway, just after the fourth-period lecture ended, was still slightly warm with the voices of students. Outside the window, the wind is howling. At that sound, one person stopped in their tracks.

It was a voice too quiet to be a monologue, yet lacking an audience to be a reply. Adjusting his glasses with long fingertips, the man—Yuji Ashihara—gazes at the weeds in the courtyard for a while.