Indeed, the man was a self-proclaimed International Trader and Kyouhei’s father, Shuuhei.
“Kyouhei, Hoshino-san’s not bad. You shouldn’t talk like that about them.”
“Who’s that?!”
“A board member of Hobby Japan.”
“They’re about as far apart as models and armadillos! It’s 100 percent your fault!” Kyouhei protested.
“Hmph, and your dad here brought such a wonderful item for you.”
“Besides, you... Wait, item?”
“Yup!” he chirped with a nod, taking something from the shadows next to him. “Dah dah dada! A disguise set!”
“What are you supposed to be, some robotic cat from the future? ...You were so over the top I thought it’d be some amazing machine, but a disguise set?” Kyouhei said, narrowing his eyes and looking at the box Shuuhei was holding. “Like, glasses, a hat, and a wig?”
“Hahaha, nothing so gauche. It’s a quality product from the Bergmann Kingdom’s Science and Technology Agency, using the latest fake skin made possible through high polymer chemistry! It’s truly multi-purpose; it can even grow hair and sweat!” Kyouhei watched him warily. “It’ll never be seen through under normal circumstances. For example...”
With a rustling, he took a mask out of the box and put it on.
Then...
“Kyouhei-kun, you should listen to what your father says,” he said with the Corvette owner’s face, Kaoruko. It was indeed an amazing technology.
They weren’t even two meters apart, and Kyouhei couldn’t tell that it was a mask. The face looked just like Kaoruko’s, smiling nonchalantly at him. And that was for someone he was familiar with... If it were someone he didn’t know well, then they’d look like the real one.
“Shuuhei-san’s so amazing and clever... Whoa?!” exclaimed Kaoruko—no, Shuuhei—as he bent again to avoid the second projectile. “What are you doing?!”
“It’s creepy hearing your voice out of her face, so quit it,” Kyouhei said with a glare.
The face was certainly Kaoruko’s, but from the neck down he was still Shuuhei, so it was as unsettling as seeing a horse’s head attached to a cow’s body.
“Anyway,” Shuuhei said, lightly tugging the mask off, “if you go out with this, you can look like someone else and have the media chasing after you less...”
“...Is that why you have them?” asked Sanae while blinking.
Shuuhei laughed proudly. “Well, Kyouhei and Pamil aside, you must be getting pretty stressed.”
“Father...” Sanae murmured, overcome with emotion.
“At any rate,” Pamil said with a nod, “we can use these to tail Mizuhito.”
“...Are we seriously doing this?” Kyouhei asked in annoyance.
“Kyouhei, are you not interested?” Pamil asked seriously. Kyouhei had no answer for her. He was interested, in several ways. “You are, I’m sure,” she said, as if seeing through him. “What kind of fantas— person, is having snu-snu with Mizuhito?!”
“You’ve been a lot more illicit since you got your memories back, haven’t you?”
“Hmm?” Pamil tilted her head in confusion.
Well, that aside...
“...I suppose I am interested...” he admitted, knowing it was in bad taste.
● ● ●
Mizuhito Hibiki.
He dedicated his life to standing out. That was no metaphor or the like; he’d not even hesitate to rush into a fire covered in gasoline if it would help him stand out. Incidentally, the reason he hadn’t done so was that, if he died, he would have only stood out once in his whole life. In essence, he was the kind of man who would never feel at ease unless he was being watched.
However, there had been no rumors about him having a girlfriend. If he had one, then it would be fairly normal for her to be shame—to become common knowledge.
It was because of this that it was all so unnatural. This was why Kyouhei had used the suspicious disguise kit to witness Mizuhito and his girlfriend, because he was curious about the unnaturalness of the issue.
He wondered whether he was being taken advantage of.
That was it.
“I figured he’d be going straight to his girlfriend with how he was going on,” Kyouhei said.
It was a Sunday. Kyouhei, Pamil, and Sanae were all watching the Hibiki house whilst wearing their disguise masks. Kyouhei had phoned Mizuhito’s younger brother—whom he’d met on several occasions—and he had said that Mizuhito was going out that evening, and had told the family that he didn’t need any dinner.
It was already past noon, so it wasn’t abnormal for him to have already left if he was going on a date... but they still hadn’t seen him.
“Maybe he left through a tunnel?” Pamil suggested.
Indeed, she was the one who said it, but at a glance, no one would have thought that she was that Northern-European fairy. While there wasn’t much change in her features, her skin was now tanned, and her hair was in dreadlocks. Even her eyes were now dark.
“What kind of family other than a royal one has an escape tunnel?” Kyouhei demanded.
“The Nanbu house has one, though.”
“...Well, we’re not exactly normal either,” he answered.
Kyouhei, on the other hand, still had the same skin color, but also long hair and a strong-jawed face.
“But what if they have a back door or something and...” Sanae added.
She too had essentially the same features, but with longer hair. The mask also had ultra-thin and transparent lenses inside, so she wasn’t wearing her characteristic glasses.
“I’ve been to their house loads, so I know where that door is—it’s in the garage. Even if he used it, he’d still have to go past the front entrance,” Kyouhei told her.
Being Mizuhito’s friend, he’d visited to hang out on many occasions. Actually, that’s where Kyouhei learned a lot of his Japanese common sense.
You might think that because Mizuhito was as he was, his whole family would have a screw loose, but his parents and siblings were all normal people.
“Hmm...” murmured Pamil in thought. “Right, let’s use the Royal Searcher Eye to find him.”
Kyouhei wanted to protest that she should have done that from the start if she could... But he was always telling her to limit the usage of her absurd abilities, so he didn’t really have any right to complain.
“Then, I’ll do a divination...” Sanae added.
“Sanae-chan, that’s alright, leave the fire altar,” Kyouhei interjected, interrupting Sanae as she started to assemble a portable fire altar set she’d taken out of nowhere.
“Hm... Kyouhei, Mizuhito’s out,” Pamil said.
Kyouhei turned to look, and indeed, Mizuhito had appeared from the entrance.
But...
He frowned.
That was certainly Mizuhito. Seeing someone’s face wasn’t the only way to recognize them. The way they stood and moved was unique to a person. You could often recognize a close friend or relative from behind that way. Therefore, Kyouhei knew that this was Mizuhito.
However...
“What’s he playing at?”
He was sneaking out of the house and creeping along the shadows to avoid people’s gazes. Not only that—he lacked his usual fake tattoo, his red hair was hidden by a beanie, and he didn’t have his guitar.
Impossible.
Even though Kyouhei knew that it was indeed him, he could see that Mizuhito was completely missing his usual characteristic features.
Which meant... Mizuhito was abandoning his creed, his way of life, and avoiding people’s gazes.
“...So,” Kyouhei muttered, “it’s not that we haven’t noticed—he’s hiding it.”
Hiding his girlfriend, that is.
But if he was going that far to hide her...
“Maybe,” Sanae suggested with a serious expression, “she’s someone he can’t talk about to people...”
“Someone he can’t talk about?” Kyouhei repeated.
“Like, maybe he has one of those relationships... The easiest ones to understand are student and teacher, brother and sister, father and daughter—” Sanae said fearfully before Kyouhei interrupted her.
“Well, there’s no way it’s father and daughter...” he mused. Mizuhito did have a younger sister, but besides them not being like that, there’d be no need for him to leave the house like this. “Student and teacher... Well, it’s possible at least.”
“Maybe she’s a married woman...!” Sanae said, but apparently the phrase ‘married woman’ had bones in it that made her try to shake it off. Apparently, she was well aware that she would be a married woman before long.
“Well, he might hesitate to get attention with someone that wouldn’t be ethically excusable,” he muttered.
But that would make things all the more complicated. An imaginary girlfriend was one thing—you could just give the person some advice and correct them—but if they were sneaking around like this, then often advice was rather unwelcomed. However ethically or morally dubious, people had their reasons and circumstances.
And...
Besides, I’m engaged to my legal sister, and declared that I’d be committing what Japanese law would call bigamy, he thought to himself. He didn’t really have the right to critique other people’s decisions.
Though that said...
“We should check it out.”
Being in a relationship with someone morally or ethically dubious often started involving others for the worse. Kyouhei didn’t want that for Mizuhito either, but particularly wanted to avoid his family getting hurt, so that was his decision, even knowing it would be unwelcomed.
“Right,” said Pamil with a deep nod. “It could be useful to see some extremes.”
“...Well, sure,” he said, just letting her slightly-skewed opinion pass for now as they followed him.
● ● ●
Mizuhito was walking around the town like a normal high school student. And about five meters behind him trailed the group.
Finally...
“Ah, welcooome.”
The three stared in surprise.
As should be expected, Mizuhito had just entered the Corvette.