Together, we entered the office lobby, with Kaburagi-san all smiles from playing make-believe at being a rich young lady from a Japanese family and me maintaining 3 steps behind her as if I was a butler. Upon stepping in, we found the company president himself waiting restlessly to greet her in person. He was a gentle-looking handsome man wearing a suit with fluffy short hair done up in a playful style. The fact that he had graduated from the same alma mater as Kaburagi-san meant that he was also a Tokyo University alumni. Equipped with brains, money, and looks, he was a high specced specimen of a man through and through.
“Hey there, Shiori-san. Welcome, welcome. You look absolutely lovely today too. Although this pales in your presence, but would you do me the honor of accepting this humble offering?”
“Good morning, Kaneyama-san. Thank you.” Kaburagi-san only smiled faintly as a response to the lavish bouquet of flowers—what is this supposed to be, a proposal bouquet?— and those lines that would set anyone’s teeth on edge. However, even that tiny smile was enough to send the company president blushing like mad while bringing a hand up to fiddle with his ear. He really likes Kaburagi-san, doesn’t he. I think Kaburagi-san once told me that they’ve known each other since high school, right?
And this was something that I learned only afterward, but he was the one with whom Kaburagi-san’s parents had arranged for her to have the marriage interview with the other day. What’s more, apparently he had been the one who laid all the groundwork to make it happen. Talk about being passionate. But is it only cus I’m a guy that that sounds a bit creepy to me?
“Sago-san, welcome.”
“Thank you. Nice meeting you again.”
That was a complete 180 in terms of reception. His greeting toward me was very light, and of course, I got no presents. What, are you insinuating that I should just enjoy the fragrance of the flowers in the air? Though to be fair, I would find it troubling in a different way if he had prepared a present for me too, I suppose.
I had introduced myself as Kaburagi-san’s agent for when she couldn’t come in person, so his treatment of me was a bit offhand. But then again, this seems about right when you compare a mere peon to a duchess. A man capable of treating a yamato nadeshiko—the personification of the ideal Japanese lady—with the same amount of respect as he would a commonplace man the equal of which can be found just by throwing a rope into a random crowd is either a suuuuper good person or just outright gay.
“............”
“......What is it?”
“......No, it’s nothing. Please pardon me. Shiori-san, I’ve managed to get my hands on some of those tea leaves that we talked about last time.”
That pause where he silently looked at Kaburagi-san and me in turn made me a bit nervous, but then he looked away and returned to his “I <3 Kaburagi-san” mode. When I tried to figure out what it was that had set him off, I realized that I had forgotten to put on a tie. Why didn’t you remind me, Kaburagi-san...... no wonder I thought it felt a bit breezy around my neck.
Having realized it made me feel a bit self-conscious, so I used telekinesis to pick up a necktie from Ama-no-Iwato, then started bringing it over through the underground sewage system so as to avoid the public eye. After having planned so many World Shadow fights to date, somewhere along the way I had almost completely memorized the whole thing’s entire layout.
After passing the bouquet of flowers to me, Kaburagi-san gently but firmly turned down President Kaneyama’s passionate invitation to tea, instead prompting him to get to the purpose of our visit today. He looked slightly crestfallen, but then quickly took it upon himself to lead us to his reception office.
“Your hand, my lady?”
“Thank you. But I’m good.”
By the stairs, President Kaneyama gracefully proffered his hand, but Kaburagi-san refused him yet again, in no uncertain terms. It was the objective truth that Kaburagi-san’s beauty was such that she would turn the head of every single man she walked past. If she thoughtlessly did anything that could be construed as a hint or invitation toward anyone that she had no interest in, then it might lead to a rain of blood. Therefore, she apparently took extra care to not be coy with people’s goodwill or do anything that could get someone’s hopes up. So in case it wasn’t clear, it meant that President Kaneyama also numbered among those that she “had no interest in.” Though it seemed to me that he was aware of it even while making his moves......
After stepping into the reception office and while waiting for the middle-aged admin woman to bring over cups of black tea and refreshments, I stepped over to the window and opened it a crack. Then the necktie that had just passed through the sewage system, had kept pace while zipping from underneath one car to the next, and had seemingly been “blown up by the wind” finally reached its destination in my hand. I had to suppress the part of myself that was about to question the necessity of having made the necktie go through a great big adventure while tying it around my neck. What a sophisticated yet completely unnecessary use of telekinesis. I mean sure, it’s always been a dream of mine back when I was in elementary school to be able to fetch something that I had forgotten with telekinesis, but when I actually do it...... wow, it feels this hollow, huh.
When the woman finished setting the table, she exited the room, leaving the three of us sitting in sofas and facing each other over a tea table. After a short while of enjoying the fragrant aroma of the tea, we finally got down to business. Without touching the A4-sized manila envelope conspicuously left on the table, President Kaneyama started the conversation with a grave look on his face.
“Thing is, once every week we checked in on the packages that were left in our care. There had been no issues so far, at least until our inspection last week, when we noticed that one of them had signs of having been opened and resealed. Thinking it strange, we took the liberty of opening the package for confirmations’ sake, and found only stones inside. Shiori-san, was it stones that you had been keeping with us?”
“......No, it was not.” Kaburagi-san shared a brief moment of eye contact with me before shaking her head. We had kept the contents of the packages a secret from the president, but it was supposed to be PSI drives—and definitely not stones—inside all of the packages.
The loss and swapping out of PSI drives. Wait, I’ve heard this story before. What is this, the same plot twist again? However, we had made no plans whatsoever to swap out the PSI drives stored at Kaneyama Tech with stones. The look of bewilderment on Kaburagi-san’s face was real. I started getting a bad feeling. A chill ran down my back, as if someone had just dropped an ice cube down the collar of my shirt. Wait, are you saying that a real swap had occurred?
The president nodded in response to Kaburagi-san’s reply, then continued, “That’s what we thought, so we proceeded to dig a little further. On the package, we found fingerprints from only myself, Shiori-san, and Sago-san. No one else. We then checked the security cameras while hoping that we had caught the culprit on tape, but unfortunately the camera installed at the entrance to the storeroom had actually broken down previously and was in the middle of getting fixed, which meant there was no way to confirm the traffic through that door. However, when you entrusted us with your packages, we had installed a key card reader as part of our effort to strengthen our security measures. Discounting the possibility of superpowers, the only way to get inside is through presenting a key card. And the only people who possess a key card are the three of us currently inside this room.”