Chapter 428: Urban Legend

At present, the situation was in Hayasaka's favor.

Originally, after Rinji and Karura became a couple, she had basically no chance left. But on the final afternoon of the Hoshin Festival, for some reason, Rinji had an emotional outburst.

Taking advantage of a tip from Atenbo Yume, Hayasaka gathered her courage, kissed Rinji under the fireworks, and confessed her feelings.

She had only been hoping for a last-ditch shot…

And somehow, she succeeded.

Even she hadn't expected that.

But once she succeeded, there was much more to do. The key now was how to further expand her advantage.

In relationships, the confession is just the beginner level; the real challenge is what comes after.

That is, how to maintain and deepen the relationship.

Though overjoyed, she hadn't let the happiness cloud her mind. After calmly thinking things over the night before, Hayasaka came up with many ideas.

The most straightforward, of course, would be going all the way.

But Hayasaka knew that wasn't possible right now. After all, even Karura hadn't succeeded yet—her own chances were slim at best.

So for now, her goal was to stay by Rinji's side as much as possible and ideally let something romantic or flirty happen naturally.

In any case, Hayasaka would be staying over at Rinji's house every weekend from Friday to Monday, so there would be plenty of opportunities.

"By the way, Ai, now that you're… well, my girlfriend, maybe you should stop wearing the maid outfit when you come over."

"Mm… fair point."

Hayasaka nodded thoughtfully.

"But it still feels like something's missing if I don't wear something like that."

"No, I really don't think maid outfits are inherently romantic."

"You're right. Next time, I'll wear a maid café-style one then," Hayasaka said. "The kind with exposed armpits and a super short skirt."

"Normal clothes are fine."

Rinji wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt Hayasaka had changed a little from her usual self.

In a word—she'd gotten cheekier.

After placing her bag on a chair, Hayasaka headed into the bathroom.

"Well then, I'm going to take a shower."

"Okay."

"I don't usually lock the door when I bathe," she said, peeking through the door crack. "So don't peek, okay?"

"Rest assured, I'm not the type to sneak around…"

"Given we're dating now, if you do want to peek, just do it openly. Or better yet, come join me."

"I'll pass. The bathtub's too small for two."

After saying that, Rinji opened Hayasaka's duffel bag and pulled out her change of clothes, handing them to her through the door.

"Take these now. If I have to bring them in later, I might see something I shouldn't."

"...That's no fun at all."

…

While water ran in the bathroom, Rinji sat in the living room flipping through the magazine Hayasaka had brought.

The cover featured speculative content about weather weapons, trying to link Tokyo's current abnormal climate to military technology—clearly bait for a younger audience.

He turned to the page in question. Sure enough, it was an article about recent extreme weather.

The writing was full of sensationalism. Rather than news reporting, it read more like an urban legend-based light novel.

Still, one term caught Rinji's eye: "Hare-onna" (晴女 / Sunshine Girl).

According to the author, they'd interviewed various shrine priests and eyewitnesses. After collecting the data, they submitted it to the magazine.

While the article was filled with fantasy and chuuni nonsense, some details overlapped with what Rinji had heard from Atenbo.

It mentioned gods that control weather, priestesses who can cure it, and other ramblings—not much that could be used as actual reference.

"This kind of stuff still gets published? Guess they're really scraping the barrel for content these days."

Click.

Just then, the bathroom door opened. Hayasaka stepped out with a towel over her wet hair and walked behind Rinji.

"See anything interesting?"

"Not really. Just one article caught my attention."

"Oh?"

Hayasaka took the magazine from him and flipped to the page.

"I see. So it's about the 'Sunshine Girl'—that urban legend is pretty popular lately."

"You've heard of it?"

"Yeah, some of my friends were talking about it the other day. There are even some short videos online. But we all just think it's a joke."

Hayasaka's friend group was made up of standard Japanese JKs, so gossip and trends like this were right up their alley. Urban legends were a favorite topic among high school girls.

She flipped back a few pages and suddenly pointed something out.

"Huh? There's a follow-up article about that meteorite that fell in Hida City."

"You mean the one that crashed into a small town?" Rinji said with a smile. "That was years ago. IW even collected fragments for research, but I've no idea what they found."

Rinji remembered it vaguely. He hadn't been in Japan at the time, so it hadn't involved him directly.

Supposedly, IW almost got into a fight with the US military stationed in Japan over those meteorite fragments. Sousuke, despite being cautious ever since becoming director, hadn't hesitated to take bold action for the organization's interests.

"Why are you suddenly interested in the Sunshine Girl? Don't tell me you believe in that stuff?"

"There's some truth to this urban legend. It has to do with something I'm currently working on."

Rinji took the magazine back and studied the names of shrines and eyewitnesses listed in the article.

He figured he might get useful leads from these people.

Because of Hina's situation, he knew he'd need to deal with some rather unconventional phenomena. And if he wanted to protect her, he had to learn to face those challenges.

Snap.

He closed the magazine and placed it on the dining table, a smile forming at the corner of his lips.

"No big deal. I'll just investigate it myself tomorrow."

"Sounds like you're getting wrapped up in something serious," Hayasaka remarked.

"I'm not being dragged into it—I'm stepping in willingly," Rinji smiled. "Could turn out to be pretty interesting."

"I think you should start with school tomorrow," Hayasaka said.

"Judging from how Kaguya-sama was acting today, President Shirogane must be in a rough spot."

"…What did Shinomiya pull this time?"