"Why isn't Yutsuki out of class yet?"
After school, standing at the school gate. Watching the students trickling out of the gate, but not seeing the girl arrive, made Shido sowhat concerned.
Shido knew that the girl was always very punctual for their eting tis. She might arrive a few minutes early, but she would never be late.
"Could sothing have happened?"
A slight uneasiness sprouted in Shido's heart. Just as he was about to run to Yutsuki's class to check the situation. His phone suddenly rang. Shido opened it and saw a text ssage from Yutsuki.
[Sorry, Princess Bamboo seed to have a sudden family matter and left early. She asked to do her cleaning duty for her. Shido, wait for a bit, I'll head over after I finish cleaning.]
"What, so she's just doing cleaning duty for soone."
Seeing Yutsuki's text, Shido let out a sigh of relief.
"Seriously, after Yutsuki's ergency crisis training, I seem to be a bit overly vigilant."
Shido rubbed his nose sowhat awkwardly, feeling speechless at his own overreacting attitude.
In the computer world before, the crisis scenarios Yutsuki simulated for Shido were basically sudden events with no warning signs on the surface. This resulted in Shido being unable to completely relax his tense nerves after the training ended, making him sowhat jumpy.
(Well... it's not like the real world can be filled with traps everywhere like Yutsuki arranged.)
Shido thought casually.
Leaning against the wall of the school gate, to pass the waiting ti, Shido began to think about the incident five years ago.
(Speaking of which, besides the fire scene, Kurumi and an unknown Spirit were actually there.)
There wasn't just one Spirit at the fire scene five years ago. When Shido pointed this out to Origami, he only knew that an unidentifiable Phantom was also present.
If it weren't for Yutsuki, he never would have imagined that there were actually that many Spirits at the scene back then.
Obviously, to find out the truth behind the death of Origami's parents, these two people were crucial breakthrough points.
According to Yutsuki, the unregistered Spirit only appeared once during that fire, and there had been no record of her descending to the human world ever since. They only knew of her existence through spirit wave data; they knew nothing about her abilities or appearance. In a sense, she was even more mysterious than Phantom.
Then, to find out the truth of the incident, the only way was to find the other party involved, the existence known as the most evil Spirit—Tokisaki Kurumi.
Since she asked to investigate together after school, Yutsuki had clearly noticed this as well.
"And then we have to find Origami and convey our thoughts to her... Hm?"
While pondering that Yutsuki should be arriving soon, Shido glanced back into the school, and then, his gaze unconsciously locked onto a certain direction.
The reason was simple. Under a tree in the distance, a girl was standing there.
Short pale hair reaching her shoulders, snow-white skin, and an expressionless face like a doll.
"...Origami."
Shido unconsciously rubbed his eyes. After observing carefully, he confird he wasn't mistaken. That was Tobiichi Origami, who had been missing for the past few days.
(Didn't Origami already transfer schools and join DEM? Why is she here?)
Although he really wanted to run over and call out to Origami right now, a sense of incongruity in his heart made Shido hide his figure and observe secretly.
(What is she doing?)
He saw Origami seemingly installing sothing in the bushes of the greenbelt. Then, she seed to feel Shido's gaze and glanced towards the school gate.
Shido hurriedly pulled his head back. Seeing that Origami didn't seem to have noticed him and continued her work, he quietly sighed in relief.
(Anyway, I should tell Yutsuki that I found Origami first.)
Thinking this, Shido quietly took out his phone to text Yutsuki.
[Failed to send. Please try again.]
"A malfunction now of all tis... As expected, I should go buy a new phone."
Shido scratched his head in distress. During the Natsumi incident, his phone was destroyed by Ellen, who suddenly broke into his house. Over the past few days, he hadn't been in the mood to buy a new phone because of the Origami situation, so he just started using his old phone. He didn't expect it to drop the ball at a ti like this.
(Then I'll just use the earpiece to contact Kotori or Reine-san directly.)
However, after turning on the earpiece's communication, all he heard was intermittent static noise in his ear.
Bad signal? At a ti like this?
Just as Shido realized sothing was wrong, Origami, on the other side, leaped over the school wall and left.
(This is bad, I'll lose her at this rate.)
Reason told Shido that he shouldn't follow her here. But since he decided to help Origami find the real culprit, communication with Origami was essential. And if he missed this chance, he didn't know when he would see Origami again.
After hesitating for a mont, Shido gritted his teeth and followed her.
____________
"That's done. Honestly, Princess Bamboo, suddenly asking the teacher to have do her cleaning duty. I'll have to apologize to Shido later."
After locking the classroom door, she checked the ti on her phone. It was already ti for students with club activities to go ho. Yutsuki sighed helplessly.
She usually lectured Shido about being punctual for eting tis. She didn't expect to be late herself, which made Yutsuki feel sowhat ashad.
"Hm?"
Stepping out of the school building, Yutsuki suddenly frowned.
"This feeling... a signal jamr?"
Relying on her sensitivity to electromagnetic signals, Yutsuki quickly found a signal jamr in the greenbelt on campus.
"Hidden quite well. For soone to purposely install this kind of thing in school... Hm?"
Suddenly, Yutsuki noticed that besides the signal jamr, there was sothing else concealed by the greenbelt and trees.
"Holy crap, Princess Bamboo, why are you here?"
Lifting the camouflage-patterned cloth, Yutsuki was surprised to find that her class representative, Saoto Natsutake, was lying there, unconscious.
"Phew... thank goodness, she just fainted."
Confirming the other person had no injuries, Yutsuki breathed a sigh of relief and pressed her philtrum (the acupressure point under the nose).
"Mhm... Ryougi-san, why am I here?"
Saoto Natsutake slowly woke up. As if not fully awake yet, she rubbed her eyes and spoke groggily.
"That's what I want to ask you, Princess Bamboo. Didn't you suddenly have a family matter and asked the teacher to have do your cleaning duty?"
The other girl tilted her head in confusion.
"Did that happen?... I only rember that while I was cleaning, I suddenly saw a girl from our school walk in, and then... I don't know anymore. Also, I am the class rep."
Hearing Saoto Natsutake's description, Yutsuki couldn't stop her mouth from twitching.
A female student at this school possessing the knowledge to install a signal jamr, and the strength to instantly subdue a class rep who had learned Tantui (a Chinese martial art)... Yutsuki actually knew one.
"That girl, was she the white-haired stalker from the next class who always argued with another girl over Itsuka Shido?"
Hearing Yutsuki's description, Saoto Natsutake thought for a mont, then nodded.
"Tobiichi-san? Now that you ntion it, it really did look like her."
"As expected..."
Afterward, Yutsuki took Natsutake to the infirmary. She brushed it off with the excuse that she suddenly fainted from anemia and Origami left her in Yutsuki's care. Then she opened her phone.
"Hello, Tohka?"
[Yutsuki, do you need sothing?]
"Tohka, what are you doing right now?"
[Watching TV at ho. The story of the afternoon drama Yoshinon recomnded is really deep. Oh, right. Shido and you are going to buy ingredients for dinner later, right. The TV said Hinai Jidori (a type of high-quality chicken) is really delicious, can we have that today?]
"One of Japan's top three free-range chickens... you sure know how to pick."
The corner of Yutsuki's mouth twitched slightly.
Then, Yutsuki sequentially called Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku, Natsumi, Yoshino, Kotori, and the others. It seed nothing special had happened.
"She didn't target the Spirits first... Does that an..."
Standing at the school gate, after looking left and right and not finding Shido, Yutsuki called Shido's phone with a bad premonition.
[—Hello, the number you dialed is turned off. Please try again later—]
Yutsuki couldn't help but hold her head, feeling a headache coming on.
"Ah... idiot Shido. Once this problem is solved, just watch how hard I train you when we get back..."
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