Downtown Battle at Early Twilight (II)
At the same time.
Nanae Origami’s office.
“It seems we’ve managed to get on the trail of the two girls,” Nanae declared. “As such, we will move forward with the plan to capture Noa Hiiragi and Suzuran Arisugawa. You two will stay here and assist in this plan.”
“Consider your order received,” Chikage replied.
“Understood, ma’am,” Madoka echoed.
The two principals got up from their seats and exited the room, ambling down the hallway toward the elevator lobby. Chikage pressed the button before waiting in silence for the car to come; upon arrival, they quietly entered the elevator and did not speak a word until they had reached the main lobby of the building with the building across the street being their destination. As they walked through the main lobby and toward the automatic sliding glass doors, Madoka quipped, “I wish she could’ve at least said that they wouldn’t be rough with the girls.”
“I doubt that’s possible now as I’ve heard that Renpu has offered to assist with the search.”
“Oh, dear… Things always get messy when Azusa-chan gets involved…” Madoka sighed.
A voice called out to them just as the glass doors slid shut behind them, “Principal!”
“…Mitsumine-san?” Chikage started. “Shouldn’t you be—?”
“Principal, I have a request to make!” Honami began, bowing her head. “Please allow me to search for Arisugawa-san!”
———————————
Concurrently.
The designated traditional inn where the students of Osafune Girls’ Academy are staying at.
“…I can’t believe that they’re not even allowing us to go home,” Reina Nekoyanagi mumbled. She, alongside the other remaining representative of Osafune Girls’ Academy, Kaguya Nakamura, were currently acting as the leaders of the Osafune students who had traveled to the tournament grounds to watch. None of the students raised any objections as they were the remaining two representatives; this goes double when one considers that Reina was the Head of the Disciplinary Committee at Osafune Girls’ Academy, her power among the student body being second only to that of the student council president.
Kaguya added, “They even called in Principal Serizawa… What does Nanae-sama want with her?”
“I mean, she’s the principal of the school the criminal goes to…”
“Hey, don’t call Suzuran-oneesama a criminal!” Kaguya yelped.
“What else could she be right now!?” Reina cried. "Besides, even Honami-neesama hasn’t returned yet… What is she doing…?”
“Honami-ojousama, we have successfully managed to pinpoint the location of the vocal data you sent us. It came from a payphone in Shibuya Ward.”
“Shibuya Ward? Alright, thank you.” Honami hung up, having finished getting the information she needed from her old butler. While the other students were wondering where she is, she was performing her own independent investigation and upon obtaining the details she wanted, she charged the taxi driver, “Please take me to Shibuya Ward.” The driver silently nodded and started the car.
———————————
In their hotel room.
Both Suzuran and Noa had tucked themselves into the two beds in their room, having turned in earlier than normal to recover the energy they had lost that day. Suzuran closed her eyes, drifting off to the land of dreams, when Noa suddenly said, “You really are a weird person.”
“Wha—?”
“Why don’t you ask?”
“Ask what?”
“I don't know. Perhaps the reason why I want to take the head of Nanae Origami?”
“…Does this relate to the thing you told me you had to do this afternoon at Yasaka Daijin Shrine? You must kill the head of the family no matter what?”
“Yes.”
“I see… The only reason why I’m not asking is that that's something you should tell me on your own terms. I am not the type of person to pry.”
“You really are weird.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
The two girls then proceeded to drift off to sleep.
「Noa dreamt.
She dreamt of the days when she was young.
When she was still able to talk to her mother who was now deceased.
When she kneeled down by her mother's side when she was ailing from a life full of regret.
When she felt the warmth leave her mother's hand as she passed away in her sleep.」
Suddenly, she shot up in her bed.
It was already the morning of the next day.
———————————
The 26th Day of October.
Outside of the Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu.
Honami had waited until the following day to begin looking for her best friend. After all, it was already around eleven-thirty by the time she arrived in Shibuya Ward; as such, she paid the taxi driver extra to remain in Shibuya with her as she slept in his taxi. Upon waking up (not so) refreshed, she steeled herself and marched into the hotel and marched straight for the receptionist. Fortunately and unknowingly for her, the receptionist she was talking to happened to be the same receptionist that helped Suzuran and Noa the previous evening. “Excuse me, miss.”
“Ye-Yes?” she asked, her voice taking on a confused tone at Honami’s demeanor.
“Would you happen to have two [Toji] staying in this hotel?” Honami inquired, holding up the identification card of herself that was given to her by the Special Sword Administration Bureau.
The receptionist was now more confused. “[To-Toji-san]? Um… I don’t have a clue.”
“I see… Then what about two junior high-age schoolgirls?”
“Ah, then I’ve met them,” she replied. “They should be on the second floor…”
“Thank you very much, ma’am.” Honami bowed and left, with the group of men that had come with her all moving as one to the second floor. Arriving there, they inspected the room in question with Honami throwing the door open. “Suzu!”
However, she was too late for the room was empty. The window was open and the bed was a mess.
———————————
Meanwhile.
Inside the halls of Shibuya Station.
Suzuran and Noa were walking through the crowded corridors, their guitar cases holding their blades on their shoulders with a simple suitcase in their free hand containing their spoils from the previous day of shopping. They had both successfully escaped from the hotel before anyone had found them. Suzuran silently apologized to the hotel staff for leaving their room in such a mess and not checking out with them the normal way but they had no choice. Noa grumbled, “How…? How were they able to find us so quickly?”
“…I’m sorry,” Suzuran apologized. “I’m really sorry. This must have been my fault.”
“What do you mean?” Noa asked.
“…I called my friend from a payphone to give her a status update,” she replied. “I didn’t think she’d go so far as to trace the call…!”
“The quicker we’re out of here, the safer we are,” Noa urged. “We should go to a place where there’s a lot of people so that we could hide in plain sight.”
“…I never once said that we could use this time to sightsee!”
Currently, the two girls were in Harajuku District, hiding in plain sight amongst the mobs of locals and tourists (although mostly tourists). They were in disguise so they could proudly show off their appearances, although their countenances were slightly marred by the guitar cases on their backs on suitcases in their hands. They both were wearing the same outfit they wore the previous evening as they only wore it for a good four hours or so and as such, were still clean.
“You told me to take us to a place where there’s a lot of people and this was the first place to come to mind! Besides, there’s a lot of locals and tourists wearing casual dress like us so it’d be far harder to locate us, no?”
Noa had to begrudgingly agree. “Today seems especially busy considering that it’s Friday.”
“Hey, hey, quit standing around! We’re in THE Harajuku! We’d stand out if all we do is do nothing!”
Suzuran grabbed Noa’s arm and practically dragged her along as they spent the entire day browsing through the district—playing arcades, drinking tea, visiting animal cafes and this one weird incident with Noa acting completely out of character upon seeing mint-flavored chocolate-chip-sprinkled ice cream. Suzuran was quite surprised at how hard Noa defended her love for that ice cream flavor.
The two girls occasionally discussed where they thought their pursuers were with Suzuran in particular feeling apologetic, much to Noa’s annoyance. (Incidentally, Honami at this moment was standing guard outside Shibuya Station; Suzuran and Noa were near Meiji Jingu-mae and Harajuku Station which was quite a ways north.)
By the time Noa suggested that they search for a new place to stay the night, it was already later afternoon; Suzuran confirmed this by glancing at the clock displayed on Omotesando Station, Suzuran noting that it was sixteen-thirty. While the two girls wondered where they should hide out next, a screeching sound that can only be heard by [Toji] pierced through the air. Noa immediately reached into her pocket and pulled out her analog Spectrum Meter. “This…!?”