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Yukinoshita Yukino stared unblinkingly at her sister, who met her gaze with a fake smile.
After a while, Yukinoshita Yukino finally said to Yuigahama Yui, "Sorry, I can't go to dinner with you all today."
"Um…"
Hearing this, Yuigahama Yui mustered her courage and asked Yukinoshita Haruno, "Excuse me, are you Yukino's…"
"Her sister."
Yukinoshita Haruno glanced at Asakura, cupped her cheek with one hand, and feigned sadness, saying, "Didn't Asakura tell you? We had such a pleasant conversation before."
Both Yukinoshita Yukino and Yuigahama Yui's gazes fell on Asakura.
"It was just a brief encounter in the Student Council due to the play's sponsorship, that's all."
Asakura said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Miss Haruno."
Yukino's expression became a bit unpleasant. However, Yuigahama Yui, hearing this, said to the other party, "Miss Haruno, Yukino is just going to dinner with us… Um, if you're still worried, you can come with us!"
"I remember you're Yuigahama-chan, right? Thank you for being friends with Yukino, but it's getting late, so it's better to go home early."
Yukinoshita Haruno said without yielding, "I'm sure your parents would be anxious if you weren't home so late. If you don't mind, I can help contact them."
"Eh? No, no need!"
Yuigahama Yui quickly refused. She had decided to go to dinner with everyone at the last minute and hadn't had time to coordinate with her mother.
"Since that's the case, we won't disturb you either. Yukino, let's go home."
Haruno continued to gaze at her sister with a smile on her face.
Yukino hesitated for a moment, then got into the car without a word.
Haruno waved her hand, made a goodbye gesture to Asakura and the others, and then also got into the car. The car then quickly started and swiftly disappeared at the end of the slope in the three people's sight.
"I just feel like something's off…"
Yuigahama Yui mumbled, "Yukino's expression looked a bit lonely."
"There is indeed something amiss."
Asakura mused, "It's already past normal school dismissal time. Usually, if someone were looking for her at this hour, they would have checked the school once, confirmed she wasn't there, and then looked elsewhere. But why did we just happen to run into Miss Haruno as soon as we came out?"
"Just good luck, maybe? Maybe she searched everywhere else and couldn't find Yukino, so she came back to the school to try her luck or something."
Yuigahama Yui guessed.
"While what you said isn't entirely impossible, compared to such a coincidence, I'm more inclined to believe that Miss Haruno, due to her excessive… well, emphasis on her sister, put something on Yukinoshita."
Asakura recalled the eavesdropping device she had secretly stuck on him after they met before, and couldn't help but make this judgment.
"Huh? No way? That's too scary…"
A chill ran down Yuigahama Yui's spine, and she couldn't help but shiver, rubbing her arms as if she were in a refrigerator.
"I also think Miss Haruno put a tracker on Yukinoshita."
Asagumo Chihaya, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly said, "Because of the Clubroom's characteristics, when someone with a tracker enters it, the person on the other end will get a strange situation where the person's exact location suddenly disappears into the wall, but the signal remains at the school. It's probably because of this that Miss Haruno was only able to get the information that Yukinoshita was still at school once the signal reappeared and started moving, allowing her to catch up from the school's vicinity."
"That makes a lot of sense—"
Asakura nodded, then asked thoughtfully, "But Chihaya, why are you so knowledgeable about how trackers behave inside the Clubroom?"
"…Just a general theory, okay?"
Asagumo Chihaya was silent for a moment, then said without changing her expression.
"Huh, is that something a normal person would know?"
Yuigahama Yui mumbled suspiciously, but was scared into swallowing the rest of her words by Asagumo Chihaya's rather powerful smile.
"Anyway, even though Yukinoshita isn't here, she will always remain in our hearts. When we go to Wagnaria later, everyone must eat her share too!"
Asagumo Chihaya said with a smile.
"Order four servings of food? But I remember Wagnaria's portions are quite generous. It would be a waste if we can't finish it—"
Yuigahama Yui said softly, "How about we invite others to eat with us?"
"Is that necessary?"
Asakura asked curiously.
Although Wagnaria's portions were indeed quite substantial, he was a teenage boy after all, and splitting one and a half servings of food was no problem. The remaining half a serving should be fine for two girls to share.
"It would also help me relieve some pressure."
Yuigahama Yui said, then mumbled in a voice so low even Asakura could barely hear, "Especially mentally…"
As she spoke, she took out her phone and started calling people.
"At this time, most people would have already had dinner."
Asagumo Chihaya subtly advised, seemingly not wanting to add more glowing objects.
"If it's that person, it's fine. In her words, family restaurant dinner goes into a different stomach!"
Yuigahama Yui was full of confidence.
"Don't talk about family restaurant food as if it's a dessert that doesn't take up space."
Asagumo Chihaya complained, "There's no one with such a strange body structure…"
"No, Chihaya, you should know the person Yuigahama is talking about."
Asakura, who already knew who the reinforcement Yuigahama was calling was from her brief words, said.
"Eh?"
The girl was stunned for a moment, "Is there such a monster among the people I know?"
About twenty minutes later, inside the family restaurant Wagnaria.
"Heaven is calling, Earth is calling, people are calling, calling me to eat the hamburger steak! I am the Ally of Flavor—Yanami Anna!"
The girl, who heard there was free family restaurant food, appeared before Asakura and the others at an astonishing speed.
"Shouldn't it usually be 'Ally of Justice' at a time like this?"
Asakura complained.
"Justice, it…"
The girl asked seriously in return, "How many sugars?"
"If it's more than three, are you going to eat justice too?!"
"It depends on the situation. If it's tasty, I can eat it even without sugar!"
"Then wouldn't there only be evil left in the world…?"
"Evil, it…"
The girl's eyes lit up. "How much sugar!"
"Don't eat it—!"
Meanwhile, Asagumo Chihaya, watching Anna raise the menu excitedly, rubbed her temples helplessly and said, "So you were calling Yanami… Then it's fine."
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