"Ugh…"
After hesitating for a mont, Shido still walked over and obediently lay down on Mikoto's lap. An embarrassing lap pillow was still better than an angry rabbit.
Lying on the girl's thighs, the warm and soft sensation made Shido, who had already been exhausted after three straight days of dates, slowly relax.
"As expected… Shido is really tired."
Looking at Shido, who had started dozing off as soon as he lay down, Mikoto gently stroked the boy's forehead with her palm.
"You… you noticed?"
Shido said, embarrassed.
"Of course. There's no way you could hide whether you're doing well or not from ."
Mikoto smiled.
"Sorry. It's supposed to be a rare date, but…"
Shido scratched his cheek awkwardly. Mikoto had clearly dressed up carefully for today, yet he was completely exhausted.
"It's okay. I'm happy just being with Shido."
Under the night sky, the moonlight illuminated the girl's sweet smile. She looked so cute that Shido could not help blushing.
"Hey, Shido…"
While stroking Shido's forehead and the ends of his hair, Mikoto spoke.
"Mm?"
"There's sothing worrying you these past two days, isn't there?"
Although Shido had been busy these past few days and they had not had a chance to talk properly, Mikoto had still instinctively noticed that Shido seed anxious about sothing.
"Ugh…"
Shido tried to say sothing to cover it up. However…
"Can you really not tell ? In Shido's eyes, am I really not a senpai you can rely on?"
Seeing the girl's pitiful gaze, Shido felt that lying to her again would be far too cruel.
"Sorry, senpai. Once this is over, I'll definitely tell you."
He said seriously.
"Ugh… Shido is so unfair. I even told Shido my most embarrassing, most awkward secret."
The girl pouted unhappily.
"Sorry, sorry."
Shido apologized with a wry smile. Of course he understood that the "most embarrassing, most awkward secret" Mikoto ntioned was the matter of her genderbent.
[Wait…]
At that mont, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind. That was right. The fact that Mikoto was a transford girl was sothing only the two of them knew. It could be called a secret that Natsumi had no way of knowing.
Unless Natsumi could even obtain the mories of the person she transford into.
[No, impossible. If that were the case, when she turned into , she would have known that I actually didn't see anything.]
However, Shido quickly rejected that idea himself. In other words, Shido could confirm that the girl before his eyes was absolutely Mikoto herself.
"Yakumo-senpai… actually…"
After confirming that, Shido no longer hid anything and told her about everything that had happened over the past few days.
______________
Half an hour later, at the Itsuka house…
"So you told Mikoto?"
Kotori asked. She knew Shido and Mikoto had a little secret that belonged only to the two of them. Since Mikoto knew about that matter, then naturally, she was real.
"Yeah, that's right."
Shido nodded.
"Well… fine. With Mikoto's help, our chances of catching Natsumi should increase quite a bit."
Kotori nodded, accepting Shido's explanation.
"So Natsumi disguised herself as one of twelve people… No wonder Shido didn't want to tell ."
On the other side, Mikoto also finished reading the ssage Natsumi had left behind.
[After the ga starts, one person disappears every night. If we guess wrong, then including the wrongly nad person, two people disappear in total…]
Mikoto closed her eyes, thinking through the rules of Natsumi's ga in her mind.
"Shido, are you sure Natsumi will follow these rules?"
Mikoto asked.
"Yeah. There's no proof, but I don't think Natsumi is lying."
Shido nodded.
"Then the first thing we need to confirm is whether soone who has already disappeared can be nad. Otherwise, if Yuzuru, who has already disappeared, is Natsumi, this ga would be impossible to play."
Mikoto thought for a mont, then said.
"Ah…"
Shido froze. That was right. Yuzuru had already disappeared because of Natsumi's power. If a disappeared person could not be nad, Natsumi would be in an unbeatable position.
"No, I don't think Natsumi would use that kind of loophole in the rules."
He shook his head. Although they had not yet nad soone who had already disappeared, he sohow felt that Natsumi would not create an unsolvable rule like that.
"In that case, there's a problem—this ga is extrely disadvantageous for Natsumi."
Mikoto said.
"Think about it. Yuzuru disappeared on the first day, so Shido only needs to na Yuzuru. Even if he guesses wrong, because the nad person, Yuzuru, has already disappeared, according to Natsumi's rules, only one more person can disappear. For example… Yoshino. Then on the second day, Shido nas the already disappeared Yoshino…"
Mikoto slowly explained her idea.
"Ah…"
And then Shido understood. According to Mikoto's thod of naming people, he could na one person each day, and one person would disappear each day. In other words, even if he still had not found Natsumi by the ti he nad the eleventh person, the ga would end only then.
Eleven chances out of twelve. Unless his luck was on the level of a gacha player, no matter how one looked at it, the odds of guessing right were far too high.
"Even if Natsumi forces two people to disappear when we na soone who has already vanished, Shido would still have five or six chances to na soone. Six chances out of twelve. Even if he guessed randomly, the probability of choosing Natsumi can't be called low."
Mikoto shook her head. Everything she had just described was based on mindlessly naming the people who had already disappeared. That was not even taking into account that Shido could also rely on his own observations to find Natsumi's slip-ups.
"So that ans Natsumi was never among these twelve from the very beginning? Shido, let see Natsumi's letter again."
After hearing Mikoto's explanation, Kotori also understood. Natsumi must have been playing so kind of word ga and misleading them.
"I am among them… among… now that you ntion it, why didn't Natsumi directly say she had beco one of the twelve? Why use the vague word 'among'?"
Kotori said.
"Could it be the photos? 'I am among them'… aning she transford into one of the photos, or even the card with the writing itself?"
Mikoto said.
"In that case, let's tear up all these photos and the card. Fraxinus has backups anyway."
Kotori said, picking up one of the photos and tearing it. Since she had already said she would tear them, if Natsumi was hiding among them, she would have no choice but to turn back.
However, even after all the photos and the card were torn apart, Natsumi still did not appear.
"We guessed wrong."
Mikoto said in disappointnt.
"Don't tell she turned into the clothes or sothing worn by the people in the photos."
Kotori frowned.
"If that's the case, then it becos unsolvable again. If she turned into a button or a loose thread, Shido wouldn't have any chance no matter what."
Mikoto shook her head.
"Mm. I don't think Natsumi would use an unsolvable thod like that. If we think carefully, there must still be sothing we've missed."
Shido nodded. The three of them gathered around the table, thinking hard.
Several minutes later…
"Ah!" x2
Suddenly, Shido and Mikoto looked at each other, both thinking of sothing at the sa ti and crying out.
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