Every high school has its outcasts, but Nagi stands apart even within Maruac's loner caste. Most are isolated for a reason: offputting awkwardness, or a frightening aura. Not so Nagi. She's not awkward, or scary; any who approach find her to be polite, and she's pretty cute.

It's not entirely clear why the quiet catgirl chose to cut herself from school's social circles, but those who knew her in middle school say she was never really a part of them to begin with. Nagi, a girl most comfortable with her own company, has always preferred to be on her own. Gossipers sometimes set out to try and explain her self-isolation with heavy tales of a tragic past, or deep trauma, but the stories don't stick. The best anyone can figure is simply that she's a born alley cat, used to going it alone. So she floats in the social thermocline, far too distant and eccentric to fit in amongst "normal" students but likewise much too direct (and attractive) to be adopted by Maruac's resident outcasts.

Of course, even without the company of her peers, Nagi is never really alone. (Perhaps that's why she's so uninterested in their attention.) Cats — both pets and strays alike — flock to Nagi like a Disney princess; she knows each by name, if not always by the one on their collars. On each, she lavishes a care and tenderness she has yet to show any fellow human. Though demigirls can't talk with their feral equivalents, you'd be forgiven for forgetting while watching her; however they communicate, they seem to "get" her more than humans, and vice versa. It'd be unusual to see her without some beat-up old stray in her lap and kittens at her feet.

And so, aside from the occasional awkward pickup attempt from first-years who don't know better, people have come to leave Nagi alone. So long as she has her cats, they figure, she'll be okay. Nagi may be neither "normal" nor one of the outcasts, but she's carved out her space: ask anyone about the "cat girl," and they'll know exactly who you mean. There's some irony in such a distant student being so well known. But Nagi doesn't mind the reputation — and for those in the rat race, it can be refreshing to look over and see someone living a calmer life.