The Infinite Phase Jin’i (III)

Lunchtime in the Nagamine household was a quiet affair.

Well, it would have been quiet if Suzuran was able to keep her mouth shut.

“Whoa, Noa-san, you can really cook, huh?”

“Yes, I used to cook a lot for my mother. I unfortunately don’t have the chance to do it anymore these days, however.”

“Your… mother?”

“Like yours, my mother was also a former Toji,” she replied, “but she had passed away last year from a progressive illness.”

Suzuran blinked before looking away. “…I see. How odd, our mothers are the same. They’re both gone from our lives.”

The two girls proceeded to cook in silence after that as they prepared lunch for themselves and whipped up dinner for their kind adult host.

For that host, however, Azusa Hachimiya had already managed to pinpoint her location.

Having spent the entire day poring through hours of security camera footage and other footages that may have caught and reflected the Toji in question, she managed to zero in on them. The footages that were being focused on were three shots: an image taken from a security camera in Platform 2 of Harujuku Station, an image taken from the ticketing gate of Shinjuku Station, and an image taken from an underground parking lot not far from Tachikawa Station. “They may be disguised well but those are definitely our targets,” she declared. “Track that vehicle down.”

As for everyone else in the room, they were still rather skeptical as the images showed two girls wearing black hoodies and casualwear of various designs with a guitar case slung over their backs. If anything, they simply looked like two schoolgirls meeting with their music teacher. However, none of them could deny the chance that this was their target and as such, no one raised any objections to the principal’s order.

Well, all except for Maya Shidou who thought internally, That Noa Hiiragi… She definitely wouldn’t be careless enough to leave video evidence… Or is it that these cameras weren’t within her range of intuition…?

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1947

“I'm home~!” That cheery voice announced the return of the apartment’s owner, Kyouko Nagamine. Upon removing her shoes and placing them in the cloister near the door, she looked at her apartment and let out a long whistle. “Dang, it’s as if I went back in time to when I just moved in!”

Suzuran peeked out from the kitchen and replied, “Well, it’s our thanks for letting us stay here! Noa-san and I cleaned it up for you.”

“Aw, why, thanks! You girls are so sweet!” Kyouko declared, as she ran over to hug them. Breaking away, she noticed that they were wearing kitchen aprons and finally registered the smell of food. “Oh, I smell something good!”

“Yes,” Noa stated. “We also cooked dinner for you.”

She proceeded to set up the table and laid out the food that they had made. It was a simple dinner consisting of a bowl of rice, a flank of baked salmon, and a bowl of beef soup. Kyouko only managed a sigh of approval as Suzuran boasted, “Fufu, Noa-san cooked it!”

“Hoho? Is that so?” Kyouko then began to partake of the food before adding, “Oof, this is delicious! Wowie, I didn’t think Noa-chan would have such high-level femininity.”

“I-It’s nothing much!” Noa stammered, looking away as her face reddened somewhat, “My mother taught me how to cook so that I could become a virtuous bride…”

““Hohoho?”” both Kyouko and Suzuran snickered at the same time. ““Do tell us more.””

“Ju-Just hurry up and eat!”

“My, oh my, Noa-chan is surprisingly shy too~!” Kyouko laughed. “That aside, I do have something I want to show you girls.”

This attitude too was reflected by Renpu’s principal who triumphantly declared the following. “We’ve located the apartment the traitors are taking refuge in. The owner of it is a one Kyouko Nagamine, a former Toji and an alumnus of Osafune Girls’ Academy. She had returned her okatana ten years ago and is currently employed by Yahata Electronics.”

This one fact sent shivers throughout the room as Maya stated, “That company is…!”

Suzuka completed her thought: “One of the companies engaged in the development of S-Equipment.”

Azusa smirked to herself, relishing in the pale countenances of her ‘subordinates,’ as she gave the order into her headpiece, “Sayuki, deploy.”

On the other end of that headpiece was a young girl who went by the name of Sayuki Asahina—who was currently seated in a car on standby in a parking lot near to the apartment complex where Kyouko Nagamine is a resident in. Without so much as breaking her expression, she replied, “Understood, ma’am. I have your clearance to begin the mission.” Grasping her okatana, she opened the car door and stepped outside, eyeing the apartment complex in the distance.

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Kyouko led the two girls into a back room of her apartment that held nothing but a desktop computer. To be more exact, it was a computer with one main monitor and four substitute monitors surrounding the main one. The girls quietly marveled at the technological majesty as Kyouko booted up the device. Silently ordering Noa with her eyes to take a seat in front of it, she maneuvered the mouse to open a single program.

This program had a similar vibe to a messaging platform as a message showed up on the screen. Suzuran looked over at Kyouko before reading the message aloud: “‘Greetings, friends of Gladdy! We welcome you with open arms.’” Tilting her head in confusion, Suzuran peered into Kyouko’s expression. “Gladdy?”

She pointed to herself, smiling, then said, “Alright, reply with whatever you want, Noa-chan.”

Of course, the first response that came to mind was, “Who are you?” which was replied with both the Japanese and English word for ‘ally.’ Suzuran could only mumble in confusion while Noa repeated the reply to herself aloud. The other party, who’s username read GreenMan, proceeded to add two more replies, “You two are the only two rebels. You do have the ‘letter,’ correct?” Noa noticeably flinched, a sharp change in expression that did not miss the detection of the two women at her side as GreenMan followed up with, “Are you ready to face this?” The fourth message was a simple “yes / no.”

Noa did not hesitate in her reply as she sent an adamant “Yes.” GreenMan was satisfied as he then sent two messages, “This was just completed today! / Go to this location.” As GreenMan was shown typing again, Noa patiently waited for the address until she sensed danger. Her face whipping to her right, she drew her okatana, activated utsushi, and blocked another okatana—which had been aimed squarely at Kyouko’s unprotected neck—in one smooth movement.