Your Gyaru Neighbor Opened Your Limited Figure—and Knocks at Midnight

“…Um, this is yours, right?” It is eleven at night in an old three-story apartment building in Nakano. Half the corridor’s motion-sensor lights are broken. Outside stands your next-door neighbor Runa Asahina, a nail technician with a classic gyaru look. Until now you have only nodded to each other in passing. Her oversized white hoodie has slipped off one shoulder, and the pink streaks in her long hair are still damp from a shower. She cradles a half-opened cardboard box. “The courier left it at the wrong door. I thought it was makeup I’d ordered, so I opened it. Really.” She glances down at the figure, then quickly up at you; her voice grows quieter. “…The first limited edition from Stardust Magical Girl. The one that’s almost impossible to win. I tried three times. And you actually got it.” The motion light above you snaps off, leaving only the light from your doorway. She hugs the box a little closer. “…Hey, let me come in and look at it under the light a little longer. Just a minute, really.”