A little time had passed since the group’s discussion.
Aiko Noro was sitting in a cafe. It was the same cafe that had been hit by a truck earlier, but they seemed to be using it for a lot lately. Currently, Aiko was at the table next to the window. Across from her sat a middle school aged girl who appeared rather mature for her years, Yoriko Sakaki.
Yoriko was the one who called Aiko here.
“So, Yoriko, what is this about?” Aiko began. “You asked on the phone if I was with Sakaki...”
“That’s right,” Yoriko said. “My brother has gone missing, so I’m looking for him.”
“How long has he been missing?” Aiko asked, worried that something serious had happened. The last time she’d met Yuichi had been yesterday — Saturday, around noon. Had he not been home since then?
“Since this morning.”
“This morning?” Aiko repeated. “You don’t think he just went off somewhere... or does he always tell you before he goes anywhere?”
“Of course he doesn’t.” Yoriko sounded exasperated, but if that was the case, Aiko couldn’t see why she didn’t just assume he was running an errand or something.
“Um... in that case, why are you so anxious to know where he is today?”
“Because today is different! I assumed he’d gone out for morning training, but he stopped by the house, then went out somewhere else! He’s never done that before! I was hoping he’d go shopping with me today!”
Aiko couldn’t see what the problem was at all, so she just interpreted it as Yoriko really wanting to go shopping and feeling neglected. It didn’t sound like he’d promised her anything, so it was a bit odd that she was so upset about it. Still, Aiko could also sympathize a bit.
“Um, so today’s Sunday. How does Sakaki usually spend his Sundays?”
“What’s that? Are you trying to pry into my brother’s private life?” Yoriko glared at her.
“That’s not what I meant,” Aiko said. “I just thought it might offer a hint as to where he’s gone... and why did you call me, anyway?”
“Well... I thought that you might be hiding him, and that if I met you in person, I could get you to pony him up...” Yoriko said, hesitantly. It was hard to tell if that was how she really felt or not.
“Um, I really don’t know where he is, though,” Aiko said.
“Yes, that much is clear. I know you’re not capable of lying, Noro.”
Aiko didn’t feel like that was meant as a compliment at all.
“Now, you asked about how my brother spends his Sundays. As I said before, he has training in the morning. In the afternoon he reads, or plays games, or goes to meet with friends.”
“That sounds pretty normal... I thought he might do something more impressive.”
“Like what? You thought he went off to fight evil organizations?”
“A little, yeah.”
“It’s been this way since he entered high school. Back in middle school, he went around purging all the various factions around here — though I wouldn’t exactly call them evil organizations — on our big sister’s orders.”
“Wow, so he really did do that...” Aiko murmured.
“That’s why there hadn’t been many yakuza in the area until that recent incident,” said Yoriko. “Groups like the one that tried to cause trouble for me are effectively trying to fill the vacuum he created.”
“I was curious, but I guess that doesn’t give us any clues as to where he is,” Aiko said.
“If that was all it took to figure it out, I wouldn’t need to ask you.”
Aiko bristled a bit at her condescension, but decided to attack the conversation from another angle. “Hmm, Sakaki’s helping Monika out now, so maybe it’s something to do with that? Which means he could be with Monika, or with Dannoura...”
Yuichi had recently gotten involved with the Divine Vessels War. Monika was the central figure of that, and Chiharu Dannoura had a Divine Vessel.
“I see,” Yoriko mused. “He’s still doing that... very well. Then, Noro, please come shopping with me.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because that’s what I wanted to do?”
“Well, okay,” Aiko said. “I don’t have anything else to do, anyway... Hey, isn’t that Sakaki there?”
While wondering why she had to go shopping with Yoriko, Aiko had glanced out the window, only to notice Yuichi was passing in front of the cafe.
“That woman! The one from the beach!” Yoriko said in a barely-repressed scream.
Walking next to Yuichi was Yuri Konishi, the girl they had met her during their summer trip to the ocean. She had been their enemy at that time, so Yoriko likely didn’t think very highly of her.
“What’s going on here, Noro?!” Yoriko yelled.
“Um, how should I know? But Konishi did ask Sakaki out, and she wanted him to learn more about her...”
“What? What do you mean, she asked him out? No one mentioned this to me!”
“Well, Sakaki beat that anthromorph god thing, which meant all the anthromorph women fell for him, and then Konishi asked him out—”
“And what did he say?!” Yoriko shouted, forgetting herself. She was the kind of girl who stood out to begin with, and her behavior would only attract more attention.
“Yoriko, you should probably keep your voice down.”
“I’m sorry,” Yoriko said, a trifle quieter. “So, what did he say?”
“Sakaki turned her down, but Konishi basically said she hadn’t given up yet.”
“I see. This might be quite bad. Look at how close they’re walking! That’s within the boundaries of personal space. And what’s with my brother?! How can he let an enemy get that close?”
“Well, I don’t think she’s an enemy... wait, actually, is she?” Aiko couldn’t say for sure, given recent events, whether or not she really would count as an enemy.
Yuri was walking next to Yuichi. Aiko also thought they were a bit too close, and she felt a bit sour about it.
“I didn’t know my brother was so vulnerable to a hard sell... if this keeps up, they’ll slide right into dating,” Yoriko muttered.
“Y-You think?” Aiko didn’t want to believe that was the case, but she felt a little nervous, not knowing how Yuichi would respond to a come-on from a girl.
“Noro, would you work with me?” Yoriko asked. “She’s dangerous! We can’t just ignore this!”
“Work with you? How?”
“If he’s vulnerable to a hard sell, then you need to throw yourself at him, too! Our first task is to halt her monopoly!”
“Um, you’re sure you’re all right with me doing that?”
“Yes,” Yoriko said. “Tying you to my brother to avert a worst case scenario was within the scope of my plans from the start.”
“It’s a little scary to hear that you have plans, but that aside, what should we do? Go after him?”
“No. As I said before, I won’t get in the way of someone going after my brother. Putting in reactionary effort is a waste. So first we need to think of a way to get him together with you.”
“Um, are you really sure it’s okay?”
“You don’t like the idea?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it...”
“Don’t worry,” Yoriko assured her. “Someone as innocent and gullible as you can be easily dealt with later.”
“R-Really?” Aiko was indeed as innocent as Yoriko suggested, and therefore could not imagine what she was secretly planning.
At any rate, she decided to work with her.