Date a Live:Date Under The Moon Chapter 122 122: The Twelve Suspects

Ti went back to before Mikoto and Origami entered the cake shop.

"Shido."

For so reason, Kotori suddenly fixed Shido with a serious gaze.

"What is it?"

He asked.

"Here. This is for you."

Kotori handed him an envelope. It was white, with no information or stamp on it. It must have been dropped directly into the Itsuka family's mailbox.

"Is this a letter?"

Shido weighed it in his hand. It was not exactly heavy, but there was a certain thickness to it.

"Mm. A love letter from Natsumi. I'd originally planned to wait until Mikoto ca back so we could discuss it together. But from the looks of things, she probably won't be back for a while."

Kotori said. Judging by the ti, if Mikoto still had not returned, she was probably eating sothing, taking a break, and then starting round two of her shopping trip.

Hearing Kotori's words, Shido's eyes widened. On the front of the envelope were the words "To Mr. Itsuka." He turned the envelope over. Beneath the wax seal closing it, Natsumi's na was written.

"This was in the mailbox this morning."

Kotori said.

"So what Kotori wanted to talk to Yakumo-senpai about earlier was…"

Shido more or less understood what Kotori had wanted to discuss with Mikoto before.

Although this was a fairly major issue, he also understood why Kotori had let Mikoto go shopping instead of pulling her into this discussion. After all, Ratatoskr's principle was the happiness of Spirits.

As the commander, Kotori did not want to ruin Mikoto's plans because of this matter.

"Anyway, open it and take a look. The letter has already been taken up to Fraxinus and checked. There's no danger."

Kotori said. Earlier, because she had been worried that the envelope might contain sothing corrosive or explosive, they had specifically inspected it.

After opening the envelope, the two of them found a stack of photos inside, along with a card.

"This is… ?"

Kotori frowned. She found that her photo was also among them.

"Let see…"

Shido laid the photos one by one on the table. The people in them were:

Tohka, Mikoto, Yoshino, Kotori, Kaguya, Yuzuru.

Miku, Ai, Mai, Mii, Tama-chan-sensei, Tonomachi.

All of them were candid shots taken without the people themselves noticing.

"And this card…"

After looking through the photos, Shido still had no idea what Natsumi was trying to do. He picked up the card from the envelope. A few lines were written on it.

[I am among them. Can you guess which one is ? Before everyone disappears from this world--Natsumi]

"What does this an?"

Shido asked uneasily.

"Taking it literally, it ans Natsumi has disguised herself as one of these twelve people, right?"

Kotori bit down on her Chupa Chups unhappily. A few days ago, they had already witnessed Natsumi's ability to disguise herself. If she truly had disguised herself as one of them, it was not a laughing matter. Especially…

"Before everyone disappears…"

Those words were far too unsettling. Shido thought for a mont, then took out his phone and dialed Mikoto's number. If Natsumi really intended to make the people in the photos "disappear," then Mikoto's deductive ability would be necessary. Not to ntion that Mikoto herself was one of the targets.

"Wait!"

However, at that mont, Kotori quickly snatched Shido's phone away and pressed the hang-up button.

"W-what's wrong?"

"What do you an, what's wrong? Shido, you were about to ask Mikoto for help, weren't you?"

Kotori said in exasperation.

"Mm."

Shido nodded. Although neither he nor Kotori had any leads right now, Shido believed that if it was the sharp and careful Mikoto, she would definitely notice sothing.

"Is your brain full of woodlice? Mikoto is also one of the twelve. If the person Natsumi is pretending to be is Mikoto, then Shido is going to be completely led around by the nose from this point on, isn't he?"

Kotori said helplessly. The most delicate part of the current situation was that every person in the photos was both one of Natsumi's targets and one of the biggest suspects.

Yes. Even…

"In that case, Kotori, you too…"

Understanding Kotori's thinking, Shido used "I dialed the wrong number" as an excuse when Mikoto called back. But if they followed Kotori's logic…

"Although I said all that, I might be Natsumi too."

Kotori sighed and took out her phone.

"Hello, Reine? Yes, it's . Please co over for a bit."

———————

October 22nd, Sunday.

The day after Shido received Natsumi's letter.

Yesterday, Kotori had called Reine over, and after the three of them discussed it, they roughly decided on a plan going forward.

Until Natsumi was found, Kotori could not board Fraxinus. The reason was the sa as before. If the current Kotori was Natsumi in disguise, then letting her board the aerial ship that could be considered their vital core would have disastrous consequences.

Similarly, they could not seek help from Mikoto in this matter. Once Natsumi disguised herself as Mikoto, everyone's train of thought would be led straight into a ditch.

On top of that, the Fraxinus crew would search for the hostage kidnapped by Natsumi. Since Natsumi had transford into one of them, then one person must have already been kidnapped.

Reine would also use Spirit power observation equipnt to check the Spirit power values of these twelve people. If they could observe Natsumi's Spirit power, that would be the best evidence.

As for Shido, his task was…

"Shido!"

Looking at Tohka as she ran over from the Spirit apartnt, Shido sighed helplessly. This morning, he was going on a date with Tohka.

That was right. Shido's task was to go on dates with each of the twelve people one by one, and through those dates, determine whether there was anything suspicious about them in order to find Natsumi's trail.

And so, the first date partner was Tohka.

During the date, there was nothing strange about her. Tohka was still Tohka. Even when Shido deliberately asked her about things that had happened before they t Natsumi, she answered fluently.

The only thing that made him break out in a cold sweat was when he took Tohka into a buffet restaurant, and she only ate a tiny bit of food before stopping.

At the ti, he had almost thought this was evidence that Natsumi was disguised as Tohka. In the end, however, he found out that it was only because Tohka had seen sothing on television yesterday along the lines of, "Girls who eat even more than boys are really unbearable."

After Shido assured Tohka that he liked girls who ate lots of food with full energy, Tohka returned to her usual appetite.

In short, Tohka—Clear.

At 3:15 in the afternoon, the doorbell rang. Shido opened the door, and at the sa ti, a strange shadow slipped in through the gap.

"Uwah!"

He was startled, and the phone in his hand slipped out, sliding toward that strange shadow.

"Honestly, Shido-kun, that was dangerous just now."

The shadow dodged the incoming phone, crossed its two small hands together, and said angrily.

Looking closely, it was Yoshinon, the rabbit puppet, dressed like Frankenstein.

"So that's it. The second date partner is Yoshino?"

Opening the door, Shido saw Yoshino dressed as a Halloween witch.

And standing behind Yoshino was Mikoto, holding a cake box.