Chapter 18: Preparing to Enter the Factory

What should I do?

Should she tell her sister the truth? No, she couldn't involve her sister.

Then, should she lie to get through this? What lie could fool her sister? But lying was wrong, and one lie would need countless others to cover it up.

Yukinoshita Yukino had never lied to anyone before. The most she had done was to hide part of the truth. She couldn't lie, and she didn't have the confidence to fool the sharp woman in front of her with a half-baked lie.

So, the girl chose to stay silent, like a little hedgehog facing an enemy, raising her spikes to defend herself, hoping to make the predator in front of her give up:

"...This has nothing to do with you, sister."

"Eh~ that hurts my feelings, Yuki-chan. I'm just worried about you."

Yukinoshita Haruno's lips curved slightly as she looked at her sister, who was tightly pressing her lips together and turning her head away to avoid eye contact.

She didn't expect Yukino to tell the truth; she just wanted to see her cute stubborn face.

But that didn't mean she would let Yukino off the hook. Running to the family company's construction site after school was one thing, but there was another matter that caught Haruno's attention.

Hikigaya Hachiman, who was squatting nearby counting ants crawling from the corner, suddenly felt a chill down his spine as a sweet voice called out behind him:

"Hey, you over there!"

Hikigaya Hachiman shivered, stood up, and forced a smile:

"...What is it?"

"I'm Yuki-chan's sister, Yukinoshita Haruno~ What's your name?"

Yukinoshita Haruno asked with a smile as she came between the two.

"Hikigaya, Hikigaya Hachiman."

Hikigaya's dead-fish eyes met Haruno's probing gaze for a moment before quickly looking away, appearing shifty-eyed.

"Ah, Hikigaya..."

After a moment of unclear contemplation, Yukinoshita Haruno's beautiful face once again showed a perfect smile.

"Nice to meet you!"

"Ha..."

The dead-fish-eyed boy let out a short, awkward laugh and took a step back.

Noticing in his little gesture, a flash of surprise flashed in Yukinoshita Haruno's eyes before she turned her head and stalked her sister again, taking Yukino's shoulder in one hand and poking her cheek with the other finger as she teased, "When did Yuki-chan get a boyfriend? And you didn't tell your sister!"

"Can you stop joking sis?" Yukinoshita Yukino rolled her eyes and slapped away the hand that was messing with her face in a bad mood.

Instead of a boyfriend, she had found a parasite-kun who would forcefully take over her body from time to time!

'Do you think your sister would still be able to hold the smile on her face if I were to take her finger in my mouth?'

'How dare you! Nope! You mustn't mess around! You can't get your sister involved again!]'

While trying to stop Hayashizaki's sudden bold ideas in her mind, Yukinoshita Yukino was barely coping with her sister's teasing.

"You're walking together after school, and you still say he's not your boyfriend, Yuki-chan?"

Haruno hummed twice and then turned to Hikigaya Hachiman.

"Just a clubmate."

He quickly raised his hands in a French salute.

"We're here because of a request to find a cat, that's all."

"Oh, it's the club Yuki-chan started."

Yukinoshita Haruno was naturally aware of her sister Yukino starting the Service Club, as she had Shizuka Hiratsuka as her informant at school and often asked her about Yukino's school life.

"Let's just pretend that."

Yukinoshita Haruno smiled.

"But there are no cats in the construction site, so don't go in there casually. These are very old buildings and can be quite dangerous."

It seems that Hikigaya Hachiman's casual lie had temporarily fooled her, or maybe she really didn't have the time to continue teasing them. Yukinoshita Haruno waved goodbye to them,

"Well, I have to go back to the company now. Yuki-chan, don't stay out too late, bye~"

Watching Haruno's departing figure, Yukinoshita Yukino let out a heavy sigh of relief only after seeing her get into a black luxury car and drive out of sight.

"Finally she is gone."

Hikigaya Hachiman was still staring in the direction the car had disappeared, feeling like he had seen that car somewhere before.

"Alright, all unrelated people are gone, we should go in now."

With no one around, Hayashizaki appeared directly on Yukinoshita Yukino's face, controlling her to raise a hand and use curse power to destroy the surrounding cameras.

Even though Hikigaya Hachiman had seen this form of Yukinoshita Yukino several times, he still found the appearance of an extra mouth and eye on her face quite strange, but after looking at it for a while, it started to feel oddly harmonious.

"Um, the gate we can enter seems to be locked."

Hikigaya Hachiman pointed to the locked iron gate.

"Climb over it, idiot."

Hayashizaki scolded,

"If you dare say you can't jump over it, I'll throw you over myself."

I knew it would be like this. Still holding onto a glimmer of hope at this point, I really am an idiot.

The boy with dead fish eyes sighed silently in his heart,

"No, I can do it myself"

After looking around to make sure there were no passersby, Hikigaya Hachiman carefully climbed over the iron gate and entered the construction site. He looked around the quiet and empty surroundings, then turned back and called out,

"No abnormalities, Yukinoshita, you can come over too."

The next second, he saw Yukinoshita Yukino take two steps back, then sprint forward like a professional high jumper, directly leaping over the more than two-meter-high iron gate, even doing a flip in mid-air before landing gracefully.

"Seriously..."

Hikigaya Hachiman's eyes widened, and he murmured in disbelief with his mouth agape.

"This body can easily do such impossible things now."

Yukinoshita Yukino brushed her hair back, her expression also a bit surprised.

She had a vague feeling that she should be able to jump over easily, so she tried it, and not only was it easy, but she even had extra energy.

"Stop being amazed by such trivial things, okay?"

Hayashizaki said, looking at the two of them with disappointment.

He could cut the office building in front of them in half with one slash, yet his host and her cheap student were proud of easily jumping over an iron gate. Does that make sense?

"Hurry up! Stop dawdling!"

Urged by Hayashizaki, they arrived in front of the abandoned office building. Looking at the locked glass door, Hayashizaki controlled Yukinoshita Yukino to precisely cut the lock.

Behind the glass door was a dark passage, like a giant beast opening its mouth, waiting for prey to walk right in.

The two of them exchanged a glance, then pushed open the door together and stepped into the office building.

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