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Mai Sakurajimai. Born in Kanagawa Prefecture. Debuted at six as a child actress.
Everyone knew the story—most child stars faded with age.
But Mai? She balanced school and acting, and by fourteen she was famous nationwide. A household name.
Then, right at the height of her popularity, she suddenly announced she was quitting showbiz.
Her mother, who was also her manager, tried everything to stop her. But Mai's mind was made up, and in the end her mother gave in.
The constant "pep talks" at home only made her hate acting more.
She began thinking, I wish I could just be a normal person.Then, What if no one could see me at all?
And—just like that—her wish came true. Even dressed as a bunny girl on a crowded campus, not a single person batted an eye.
That's when she panicked.
And then, she met Rosen.
"Not just the school—almost the whole city can't see me anymore. Do you even know what's going on?" Mai asked, her voice quick and urgent.
Right now, she was a drowning swimmer, and Rosen was the only piece of driftwood in reach.
"I know… a little." He held his fingers close together to show just how little.
In truth, Rosen knew her condition had a name—Adolescence Syndrome. But even the original story it came from had never really explained it beyond "a kind of mass hypnosis."
To him, it was like quantum mechanics—slap the label on and it could explain anything.
Which really meant… it explained nothing.
In the source material, this so-called syndrome got ridiculously over-the-top—disappearing from existence, simulating the future, splitting into multiple selves, swapping bodies, time travel, hopping parallel worlds, even getting stuck in "quantum entanglement" relationships.
If you wanted to solve it, you had to start with the person, not the phenomenon.
"I don't know exactly. One day, people just… stopped noticing me. Then it started lasting longer," Mai said with a sigh.
"Think carefully—when was the first time you noticed it?" Rosen asked.
"...About six months ago," she said after a pause. The details were fuzzy.
"Six months ago… that was right after your last movie was released," Rosen recalled.
Her eyes widened. "How do you know that?"
"You were a national icon. Your face was on posters, magazines, even on snack wrappers. Kind of hard not to know."
Plus, being a familiar anime character didn't hurt his awareness of her career.
Still, back then he hadn't paid her too much attention. He was just a normal student obsessed with figuring out his own cheat-like powers.
You couldn't exactly start building a harem without some capital—whether money, skills, or something special.
No money, no powers, nothing to offer? Why would any anime heroine even look twice at you?
Sure, girls in fiction were sweeter than most in reality—but rush in uninvited, and all you'd get was the dreaded: "You're a nice guy."
"Uh… sorry."
"You don't need to apologize. That just means you're good enough on your own."
She'd heard her fair share of compliments before, but somehow, hearing it from Rosen made it feel… different.
"You ever notice," he continued, "that the moment people stopped noticing you was right after you quit show business?"
"…Now that you mention it, yeah."
She had officially announced her retirement years ago, but there were still contracts with studios that needed to be fulfilled. That meant she kept working until just a few months ago.
"But what does that have to do with people not being able to see me?"
"Back then, you probably had a really strong desire to not be noticed at all. You didn't want anyone to know what you were thinking."
Mai Sakurajima thought about it. And yeah… he wasn't wrong.
Just then, the rooftop door clattered open again.
Miko Yotsuya, who had left earlier, came jogging back in. Her uniform was a bit messy, she was out of breath, but her face was lit up with excitement.
"Rosen! I… I did it!"
"...:"
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