The Wild Goose Chase (II)

Meanwhile, behind a warehouse of a bookstore in downtown Kamakura.

It was already evening by the time the two girls arrived at the location Noa previously designated as a possible escape route back when she was planning for her assault (of course, she had discarded it due to deciding after the fact that she wouldn’t use it as she did not expect to survive). The two girls proceeded to stow away into the back of a pickup truck with drapes covering its bed. After confirming that no one had seen them, they waited for the owner of the vehicle to come and ten minutes later, they were off. Luckily for them, the truck had an itinerary that brought it to Tokyo which was coincidentally where Noa had planned her escape to. Once the truck got onto the freeway, Noa finally relaxed. “Alright, we’re finally on the highway… We should be safe for now.” She then reached into her pocket where she pulled out another envelope—a brown one on this occasion. Opening it, she counted the bills inside, coming out to a total of a hefty sum of 500,000 yen composed entirely of 50 10,000 yen notes. “We should be able to last for two weeks if we’re very frugal with our use of it.”

“So you stashed away some money…” Suzuran muttered.

“Yeah, it was with the other envelope back at Yasaka Daijin Shrine. You could say that they are battle funds that my mother entrusted to me.”

“I see…” Suzuran leaned a bit closer when Noa pulled out another object from her pocket. “Ooh, wait, this is an analog spectrum meter, isn’t it!? This is one hell of an antique!”

“It’s also a gift from my mother,” Noa replied. “She left it to me after she had retired from being a [Toji].”

“Ooh, this brings back memories!” Suzuran rambled, staring at the sloshing substance inside. “The [yousai] is as oozy as I remember from when I used these in class!”

“Yeah, this was the mainstay item back when the government hadn’t yet enforced its laws in regards to [yousai] retrieval.”

“I used to have my own too but I ruined it on one of my deployments back in my second year…”

“You’re surprisingly clumsy.”

“Hey, that’s rude! I didn’t break it on purpose!”

“I thought that was par for the course for you.”

“Ugh, stop badmouthing me! Anyway! Moving on! You said that this belonged to your [Toji] mother? That’s really cool! My own mother was a [Toji] as well and I was told that she was insanely powerful.”

Noa closed her eyes. “What is your name?”

“Huh? My mother’s name?”

Noa opened her eyes and averted her gaze, her cheeks flushing very slightly, “No, your name.”

“Wait, what!? You never knew my name this whole time!? Didn’t they announce my name when we faced each other in the finals match!? That’s seriously mean, Noa-san!” Noa further averted her eyes as she wordlessly admitted to the crime. She moaned, “It’s Suzuran! Suzuran Arisugawa!”

Noa, however, quickly put her hand to her mouth. “You’re too loud!” She heightened her senses, praying that the driver does not notice the commotion in the back of their truck.

———————————

A few hours prior, inside the grounds of the Origami family's mansion.

It has been roughly three hours since the incident.

Despite the tournament being called off, none of the students have gone home yet.

—To be more accurate, they weren’t allowed to leave.

Amidst the chaos of students from the five different schools, there were two girls—who upon closer inspection—wore expressions not of fear or confusion but that of total indifference; they were simply far too calm for the suddenness of the complicated situation. These two girls were the two named representatives of Minoseki Academy: Manaka Ichinose and Alice Sakayanagi. Seemingly without a care in the world, Alice commented, “It seems like they still haven’t managed to catch those two girls.”

Manaka—being a whole head shorter than Alice and standing on the step below the bleachers that Alice was standing on—was used as a literal headrest for Alice’s impressive chest. This on top of her irritation of being cooped up resulted in her scowling, “Exactly how long do they plan to confine us in here?”

“Kyuu…” A cute purr resounded as a small animal not unlike a large friendly rat popped out in between the space between Manaka’s head and Alice’s bust. Of course, it is friendly as they were Manaka’s pet. It was nuzzling the head of its master, comforting her.

As the sound of the chopping of a helicopter’s propellers slashed through the air overhead, the inherently lazy Manaka mumbled, while petting her beloved friend, “… I just wanna go home, take a bath, and go to sleep. Is that too much to ask?”

The helicopter that the two girls had heard flying above them was actually the very vehicle carrying the president of Osafune Girls’ Academy, who had taken the Shinkansen to nearby Shin-Yokohama Station before being transported by helicopter the rest of the way. When she stepped off the helicopter, she was greeted by her colleague. “It’s been a while since we last saw each other in person, Chi-chan.”

“Not again, Madoka-senpai,” Chikage replied, sighing exasperatedly. “Please refrain from calling me that when other people can hear it.”

“Oh but you reverted to calling me ‘senpai’ too.”

“Shut it.”

Two girls then arrived and bowed to them. Maya Shidou said, “Thank you for coming at such short notice.”

“Oh my, Maya-chan, you sure have grown into a fine swordswoman fit to wear that elite guard uniform.”

Maya brushed aside the compliment (although she was quite happy on the inside at being recognized by her former principal) and added, “As you already know, Nanae-sama has called for you. Please, follow me.” Maya and her colleague turned on their heels and began walking away. The two principals looked at each other, shrugged, and proceeded to follow the two girls as instructed.

———————————

Early evening in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward.

A parking lot on the grounds of Yoyogi Park.

Their driver had made a pit stop to take a break and the two girls snuck off the truck, silently thanking the driver for unknowingly allowing them to hitchhike. Together, they disappeared into the Shibuya evening, stowing away through the park. Suzuran kept stopping to try appreciating the sights but was continually forced to keep going by Noa who repeatedly scolded her that they were on a time limit. Noa kept moving her feet, running toward the nearest large mall whilst holding her sword close to her chest in an attempt to hide it from view; they had long since folded away the cape that would identify them and stripped their uniforms of any details that would also give away their identities. Suzuran—on the other hand—simply kept wearing it at her waist, hidden by her folded cape.

After around fifteen minutes of continuous running, Noa stopped by a department store that sells music goods. Walking inside, she made for the guitar section and picked up a plain black case which she planned to use to conceal her sword. While initially confused, Suzuran worked it out herself and she too picked out a similar black case. The two girls then purchased them and went on to the next department store for clothing as while they removed any potential identifiers, it still wouldn’t do for them to continue being a runaway if they kept wearing them. To save as much of their limited amount of money as possible, however, Noa insisted that they simply buy an oversize hooded jacket so that the bottom third of it would be long enough to cover their skirts.

They then left the mall to search for a nearby hotel. Upon finding a reasonably looking one, they entered the hotel with the intention of booking a room. They did, however, make a fatal oversight as no matter what, their uniforms still indicated that they were students. As such, the kindly receptionist asked, “A room for two? Are you two students?”

Both Suzuran and Noa froze with Noa clamming up entirely while Suzuran tried to patch it over. However, she could only manage to grunt, “Ah… Um…”

The receptionist narrowed her eyes as her suspicions continued to rise before she clapped her hands together. “Ah, I see! You two are here for some sort of concert, right?”

“Yes, that’s right!” Suzuran quickly replied, patting her guitar case. “We’re on a service job sponsored by our school’s music club to do a small live event in Yoyogi Park tomorrow so we just needed a place to stay for the night.”

Noa nodded, pleased with the fib. [Nice job.]

“Is that so? You two sure are good students!” The receptionist proceeded to finish all of the procedures and Noa paid for a one-night stay. The two then thanked the receptionist before heading toward the stairs and ascending it to reach their designated room on the second floor. Noa had specifically requested for a room that had a window toward an alleyway, citing that she found it easier to mentally prepare herself to play her music when there weren’t too many distractions; thankfully, the kind receptionist bought off the lie again, praising the two girls some more for their dedication to their craft.

Of course, the receptionist would never know the true purpose—that is, to secure an easily accessible escape route that would allow them to disappear quickly should it be required. Suzuran understood this as well and upon settling into the room, she sighed, “Okay, so we now have our ‘base.’ What next?”

“We’re going to Kanazawa after this.”

“Ishikawa Prefecture, huh? I see. True, that prefecture has relatively weak connections to the Special Sword Administration Bureau. It works perfectly as a location to effectively ‘disappear.’”