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Ritsujirou began his search based on the information he obtained from the infirmary nurse.
However, his search proved fruitless even up until noon.
He didn’t receive a single message from Shinkou, either.
He didn’t even meet Shinkou a single time during his search… was that guy really working? Or did he really go do something that he shouldn’t have? Ritsujirou was somewhat concerned.
He decided to call Shinkou’s cell phone and arrange a lunch together to discuss the search.
When he called Shinkou’s number, the call wouldn’t connect.
‘What’s going on?’
He tried calling Shinkou again a few minutes later, but the call still wouldn’t connect.
When he called numerous times but none of the calls would connect, Ritsujirou began furrowing his eyebrows.
‘Something’s wrong…’
He had an ominous premonition. He stood still where he was for quite a while, something flashing in his eyes.
Then, he made yet another phone call.
“Sorry to be a bother, Lady Yoruhana… I’d like to ask, do you know where Sentani-san is?”
“Why are you asking me?” the voice in his phone replied calmly. “Weren’t the two of you together?”
“We acted separately, and I haven’t seen him since this morning. Now, I can’t reach him by phone…” Ritsujirou explained the situation.
“I don’t know what happened to him, nor am I interested. Why don’t you go search for him by yourself?” She expressed an obviously cold attitude.
Ritsujirou felt that things were probably bad when he heard this.
“Lady Yoruhana, please assist…”
“I’m very busy and don’t have any free time.”
She hung up just like that.
Ritsujirou slowly put down his cell phone, his expression becoming somewhat complex.
“This is troublesome…” he muttered to himself.
It wouldn’t be as big of a deal if Shinkou Sentani was just secretly slacking off somewhere, but that was unlikely.
Although Shinkou was indeed known to have a terrible personality, he was still someone who had racked up plenty of accomplishments. That meant that he was a Spiritual Ability user who would carry out his tasks properly, so he wouldn’t disappear just like that while in the middle of a task.
Ritsujirou wanted to believe that this annoying fellow was just playing around somewhere, or that Shinkou’s cell phone was broken. However, Ritsujirou’s sense of logic and reason told him that there was a far more likely scenario: that Shinkou Sentani had been dealt with!
After Shinkou split up from him, he went to “go have some fun” first, which angered Natsuya Yoruhana, and he was killed off.
The evidence was her attitude just now.
When she learned that Shinkou was missing, she acted completely unconcerned and wasn’t worried at all about what he could have been doing. She didn’t worry about whether or not he would ignore her warning and do something to ordinary teachers and students. This proved that she knew that Shinkou didn’t do such things… as he was no longer capable of doing such things!
What a terrible situation… Although it was all only his inference, Ritsujirou felt that this was likely to be the truth.
What should he do?
Should he try searching inside the school for Shinkou out of a sliver of hope that Shinkou was fine? Or should he report this to the Yoruhana main family immediately?
After standing still for quite a while, Ritsujirou chose to call the Yoruhana main family.
Natsuya received a call from her family. More accurately speaking, the phone call was from the second young master of the Yoruhana Family, the younger of her two older brothers—Aoran Yoruhana.
She had already mentally prepared herself for a call from her family. She accepted the call readily.
“Natsuya, how about eating lunch together?” a magnetic-sounding male voice spoke up from her cell phone.
“Sorry, I ate already.”
“I figured as much. In that case, I shall have to enjoy this mega sushi buffet that I pre-ordered half a year in advance all by myself.” Aoran’s tone was filled with obvious bragging. “First, I’ll start from the tuna rolls…”
“Enjoy your lunch. Good bye.” Natsuya decisively hung up the phone.
Her cell phone immediately rang again.
“Don’t be so cold, Sister,” Aoran spoke again after she took the call.
“I’m not interested in hearing you talk about food, Aoran.”
“The joy of sharing wonderful food with others is something blissful, you know.”
“You’re the only one who’s in bliss. I apologize that I don’t have the free time to accompany you. Goodbye.”
“Wait, wait! Don’t hang up on me again.”
“I wasn’t intending on only hanging up. I was going to turn off my cell phone.”
“Don’t be like that! I’ll stop talking about food.” Aoran coughed. “Let’s get serious… Natsuya, where’s Shinkou Sentani?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t pretend to be such an obvious fool. Of course you know where he is.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Why is it that I have to know where he is?” Natsuya responded calmly. “He’s not my subordinate, and he obviously looks down upon me. I don’t have the free time to care about such a person’s fate.”
Aoran fell silent for a moment before speaking again. “It looks like you’re really angry this time…”
“Angry? How perplexing. All I am right now is confused.”
“Stop acting. I can understand how you feel, but you went overboard when you killed him…” Aoran sighed.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying!” Natsuya placed extra emphasis on her words this time. “I killed someone? Whom would I kill? Shinkou Sentani? Don’t just slander me like that, Aoran! Even if you’re my older brother, there’s some things that can’t be said!”
Her calm-sounding words contained deep emotions.
The second young master of the Yoruhana Family was feeling a headache right now.
He didn’t expect that his younger sister would react so fiercely… it was his miscalculation.
Originally, he figured that Shinkou would at most receive a beating, which would be a suitable punishment for Shinkou as his lecherous tendencies had gotten a bit out of hand recently. It would also give Natsuya a way to vent her emotions, as well as make Aoran’s next move more convenient.
He didn’t think that there was anything off with his plan. With Natsuya’s personality, even if she disliked or hated Shinkou’s type, she wouldn’t go too overboard. However…
‘Shinkou, you bastard, just what did you do? Did you just happen to try doing something to one of Natsuya’s close friends? Or did you try to challenge her authority directly to her face?’
Shinkou was a fairly skilled subordinate of his, except for the fact that Shinkou’s brain was filled with thoughts of women too much. Aoran had wanted to give Shinkou a lesson through this, but didn’t expect that he would die.
Natsuya denied doing such a thing… well, of course, that was only natural. If Aoran was in the situation, he would naturally deny it as well.
He didn’t know when specifically Shinkou was killed off, and it was likely that his corpse had been taken care of already.
He had two choices: to investigate Shinkou’s death or to ignore it.
Logically, he should investigate it. After all, that was an accomplished subordinate of his.
But, without mentioning if he would even be able to find any evidence, if Natsuya’s pent-up emotions were already at the point of killing someone, investigating Shinkou’s death would likely end up in…
Aoran didn’t want things to reach that point, and he was certain that his older brother and father wouldn’t want things to end up like that as well.
“I’m your second brother, and I’m on your side, Sister.” He sighed after some contemplation. “But, Shinkou’s disappearance is something rather serious. Even if you forcefully claim that you didn’t do it, it won’t possibly fool anyone or be accepted so easily. I think that you should understand as well.”
Natsuya fell silent for a moment.
“I didn’t intend to fool anyone,” she stated lightly. “After all, I didn’t kill anyone to begin with.”
Hmm?
Aoran blinked in surprise.
She didn’t kill anyone… could Shinkou still be alive?
His eyes lit up when he came to this realization.
‘It seems that I misunderstood… Natsuya is still Natsuya, and she wouldn’t go to the extent of killing someone.’
‘But, she’s probably close to the brink, and if I don’t take care of things well, Shinkou might still be killed off.’
After speedily considering his options, Aoran Yoruhana came to a decision. “Since you say so, maybe it really doesn’t have anything to do with you. I’ll have Ritsujirou Rokuhou look for Shinkou around the area one more time. Perhaps he’ll be able to find Shinkou. If he finds him, no matter what, I’ll apologize to you.”
What he really meant with his words were: “As long as you let Shinkou go, then no matter how much he was beaten up, I won’t do anything about it.”
Something flashed in Natsuya’s eyes as she understood his intention.
“Allowing Shinkou Sentani… and Ritsujirou Rokuhou into the school is something I’m very displeased with. In their eyes, this is a hunting ground, and the students are their prey. Normal hunting grounds have rules and regulations, and the hunters can’t go too overboard. However, there’s no limits on them at all… If you’re truly apologetic, Brother Aoran… please place some limits on them.”