Chapter 346: Yada! Kanna Kamui!

"Did you just mention Rei Ao-kun?!"

Yuigahama Yui rushed forward in a single step, stopping in front of Isshiki Iroha.

"Hey!"

Her abrupt reaction frightened Isshiki quite a bit.

Yukino was also startled, but quickly came to her senses and reached out to pull Yui back a few steps.

Worried, she asked, "Yui, you've been distracted and spacing out for a while now. Is something wrong?"

She had been observing carefully.

Ever since Yui came back from looking for her phone, her energy had vanished. Even while picking up tennis balls, she would space out from time to time, not taking any action unless prompted. Add to that her sudden outburst of emotion just now, and all these signs pointed to something being off with her.

Yui ignored Yukino and, lips pressed tight in a grim line, focused her gaze on Isshiki Iroha again:

"I didn't catch what you said just now. Could you repeat it?"

"Um… o-okay."

Even Isshiki Iroha—nicknamed "Gogogo," with a bit of a "little devil" personality—cautiously shrank back under Yui's obviously unusual vibe. She repeated:

"I want to pursue Rei Ao-senpai, so I was hoping the Service Club could help me create an opportunity for contact and a chance to confess."

Essentially, she was asking them to set her up.

But that wasn't what Yui fixated on.

"You want to confess to Rei Ao-kun?"

She couldn't understand how everything had changed after she left and came back—whether it was Yumiko, or this first-year suddenly announcing she wanted to confess to Rei Ao for who-knows-what reason.

Isshiki nodded, affecting a look of deep sentiment: "Yes. I admire Rei Ao-senpai a lot and want him to know how I feel."

"…"

Yuigahama Yui stood there in a daze, a new image forming in her mind:

Rei Ao, with Yumiko on one side and Isshiki on the other, cuddling up to both of them.

While she…was outside the door.

Rei Ao gave her a faint smile and said, "Sorry, Yui, you picked the worst time to show up."

Boom!

That imagined line struck her heart with brute force. Her fists clenched reflexively.

Something like that… That sort of thing was impossible!

"Yada!"

Blurting out a statement that puzzled the other two, Yui turned and ran off.

"This…"

Isshiki Iroha looked to Yukino in confusion, hoping she could explain what on earth had just happened.

"…"

Yukino gazed intently at Yui's retreating figure. In the end, she didn't explain. She only offered:

"Your request is reasonable. The Service Club will accept it. We'll discuss the details later."

With that, she picked up her racquet and water bottle and left the tennis court as well.

"They're both so strange," Isshiki murmured.

But as long as they were willing to help, they were good senpai in her book!

…

Dragon World

"Just a bit more, and the barrier between the two worlds will be fully reinforced."

Lucoa felt some anticipation for the "vacation" she'd get after completing the barrier reinforcement.

She planned to head over to the human world for a visit.

She was quite curious about this human named Rei Ao.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, she glanced in one direction. She sensed that, at a spot in the barrier she hadn't reinforced yet, a life form had slipped through.

In the distance…

"You have been banished!"

A white dragon, exiled by her tribe, was flying sorrowfully.

Her name was Kanna Kamui.

She'd been banished for playing pranks, and she had no idea where to go now.

"Tohru…"

Kanna murmured the name of her friend. She'd come here, following Tohru's scent, trying to find her. Tohru's scent had disappeared somewhere around this area—but Kanna hadn't actually seen Tohru anywhere.

She circled around in the sky, flapping her dragon wings, when she suddenly collided with a weak spot in the void. In one headlong crash, she tumbled right through.

Before long, Lucoa arrived at that same spot.

"Oh, it's her."

She was quite familiar with Kanna. And she could still catch Tohru's scent there. It looked like Tohru had also passed through here into the human world.

Sunlight flickered.

Lucoa did not bring Kanna back. She merely reinforced that spot in the barrier before departing.

…

Inside a corridor with mechanical structures,

a pink-haired girl was running.

Her loosely tied twin-tails swung back and forth at her shoulders.

Her expressionless face gave no clue to her emotions.

"Beep, beep, beep! Warning! Warning! An intruder has appeared in Sector B!"

Flashing red lights filled the corridor as a robotic announcement blared repeatedly.

The intruder was none other than her—Inori.

According to calculations and the layout provided by Tsugumi and the others, she had hacked the surveillance in the weakest area, slipped perfectly past the patrol in that section, and successfully infiltrated this GHQ base. Using the detailed map, she took the quickest route to her target…

With inside-outside coordination, Inori finally acquired her mission objective: the "Void Genome."

She was clutching a transparent container with a violet, DNA-like spiral inside, swirling about.

The Void Genome was a genetic code discovered by analyzing the "Apocalypse Virus."

Those who received it would develop the "King's Mark" on their bodies. Only three samples of this peak genetic technology existed in total; Inori had taken one of them—exactly what Gai had been hoping to obtain.

The gene-based drug created from the Void Genome could grant a person the "Power of Kings"—the ability to read and manifest the genetic information of another's body as a "void."

The theft of such a crucial item naturally triggered an alarm.

"There's the intruder! Catch her, dead or alive! Recover that top-priority object she stole!"

GHQ soldiers quickly closed in on her, aiming their black gun barrels straight at Inori.

"Open fire!"

Rat-a-tat-tat!

Gunfire whizzed past Yuzuriha Inori, but her agile body allowed her to dodge the bullets. To the average onlooker, she seemed almost superhuman.

Inori tossed a smoke grenade to obscure their line of sight, then slipped away via the escape route she had planned from the start, fleeing the GHQ base.

But GHQ clearly had no intention of letting her get away, sending more troops to chase her down. Even after leaving the GHQ base by about 2.7 kilometers, she couldn't shake them off. Inori wasn't actually superhuman, and there were limits to the human body—especially under such dense gunfire.

"Ugh!!!"

She let out a pained gasp as a stray bullet struck her left shoulder.

"Nngh!"

The sudden pain nearly made Inori stumble. She glanced ahead: a cliff, with the ocean below.

"Splash!!!"

Without hesitation, Inori jumped into the water.

The soldiers rushed to the edge of the cliff and looked down. All they could see was a bit of blood dispersing in the waves—no sign of Inori at all.

"Damn it! Deploy the underwater search team immediately!"

The squad leader shouted in anger. Soon, several armored troops dived into the water to look for any trace of her.

~~~

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