Family heirloom, then turned into a demon girl

Chapter 97 Mission: 03-2 The Disappearance of Toyokawa Shoko

"Why...why would she think so?"

Hearing Shuangshi ask this, Nero, who was hiding beside the counter and listening, thought that it was a good question, because she also wanted to know the answer to this question.

“As expected, it’s because of the sacrifice of a friend, right?” Aine flipped open the notebook: “Although it may be a bit rude to Xiao Deng, the contents of this notebook…”

Li Xi interrupted her: "What are you talking about?"

After Aine looked up at her with dissatisfaction, Shuangshi tried to smooth things over: "Indeed, Aine, I find what you said strange too. Because—none of us, whether it's me, Riki, or Xiaodeng, have never seen a friend sacrificed, right?"

"Huh?" Aiyin's surprise was visibly revealed as she asked, "Then who is this person named Xiaoxiang in this notebook?"

Xiao Xiang? Toyokawa Xiangzi? Nero confirmed once again that she was indeed the so-called Exorcist Girl. However, before she could finish this thought, Shuangshi's next words shocked her.

Shuangshi frowned slightly, took the notes, and asked, "Xiaoxiang? Lixi, do you know this person?"

Li Xi also shook his head decisively: "I haven't heard of it."

"Really?" Aiyin hadn't expected this development at all. She stood up and reached across the table to flip through the pages, allowing Shuangshi to see one of the notes. "Look, here... it says 'I killed Xiaoxiang', all over the page... and there are a bunch of creepy insect patterns."

Since this matter concerned Takamatsu Deng, Li Xi perked up and looked at the notes. After careful recollection, he shook his head and said, "I don't know the person written in the notes. At least she shouldn't be an Exorcist Girl like us."

Shuangshi put down his notes and rested his chin on the back of his hand again. He said while thinking, "I have always wondered why Deng suddenly left us. It turns out that something else happened to her."

Toyokawa Shoko isn't a D-Girl? Isn't she one of Tomo and Soyo's companions? Nero instinctively feels something's amiss, but he can't quite articulate why. As members of the anime band CRYCHIC, Tomo, Soyo, Riki, and Mutsu are all D-Girls, but Shoko isn't... While this might seem strange, to say something's definitely wrong would be a mistake of empirical reasoning.

Li Xi then unceremoniously snatched the notebook away and continued to flip through the rest of the text. "But why does she think she was the one who killed that person? Shuangshi, do you have any idea?"

"That's not the point, is it?" Aine retorted. "If you just feel like you killed one friend, then at most you'd feel guilty and sad. But Deng said you'd kill all your friends, right?"

"That means there's some greater force forcing you to do this... but Deng says it's all his own fault?"

Riki was distractedly answering Aine's questions while looking at his notes, and then his eyes suddenly focused, realizing something was wrong: "Strange?"

She flipped through a few more pages and confirmed her thoughts: "Who is Xiaoxiang?" Deng actually doesn't know this person named Xiaoxiang.

“Eh?!” Aine widened her eyes and leaned forward to take a look, but was rejected by Riki who held up his notes.

The three people, including Shuangshi, were deeply surprised, but Nero just felt that "yes, this is right", which was in line with her intuition. The fact is not that Xiangzi did not become an exorcist girl, but that no one remembered her existence - because this is her ability as a demon.

She recalled the three demon companions that Xiangzi had already demonstrated his abilities to, and confirmed her thoughts.

Mortis, Timoris, and Amoris—these names all come from Latin, the same words used to name the Moon Lake. Specifically, they represent death, fear, and love. For demons, "their true name is their essence." Thus, Mortis, representing "death," can manipulate inorganic puppets, Timoris, representing "fear," can command darkness and shadows, and Amoris, representing "love," can compel living creatures to obey their commands.

As for Toyokawa Shoko—if Nero's guess was correct, her current name should be 'Oblivionis', meaning oblivion or annihilation. Her power, of course, was to control the memories of others.

"Looks like I have to investigate." Nero took a deep breath and walked into the back room of the coffee shop. She was going to find the store manager, Yuze.

In order to uncover the mystery surrounding Toyokawa Shoko, Nero planned to visit her family. However, since it was a behemoth that controlled an entire consortium, Nero couldn't just knock on the door and go in without any etiquette.

She needed to make some preparations, and the store manager might be able to help.

Aine and the others, unaware of Nero's departure, continued their discussion, reaching no conclusion. It was unavoidable; the three of them were just ordinary high school girls, unaware of Latin, unfamiliar with demonology, and unable to guess Shoko's real name. To them, Toyokawa Shoko was just a friend of Tomo's whose existence she didn't know existed.

Although Shuangshi recalled a strange little incident that happened before and was a little concerned, she still knew nothing about the truth at this moment.

And just then, an uninvited guest arrived.

"At this."

The person who spoke these incoherent and confusing words was a girl with short white hair and blue and yellow eyes. She casually wore a black off-the-shoulder T-shirt, a white suspender skirt underneath, and a pair of high-top lace-up boots. She lazily walked with her slender legs and sat across from Li Xi with a familiar air.

The three of them were stunned.

After a moment of silence, Shuangshi clasped his hands together and broke the silence with a smile: "Um... is this person a friend of any of you?"

The cold sweat on her forehead revealed her inner feelings at the moment, and Li Xi asked more directly: "Who are you?"

Hearing the doorbell, Nero managed to emerge from the inner room gracefully, walked to the table, and asked, "Sir, what can I do for you?"

"Matcha coffee." The white-haired girl answered briefly. Then she looked at the three people around her and tilted her head: "I want Lenna."

This is her name, and also her answer to Li Xi's question "Who are you?"

After finishing the order, Nero returned to the inner room. Li Xi, a little irritable and somewhat helpless, asked, "That's not what I meant... Forget it, who asked you to come?"

She realized that the girl in front of her only answered questions without considering the underlying meaning. To communicate with her, she had to be simple and direct.

"Little Ace."

So Shuangshi and Lixi immediately understood that this was their new partner.

　Okay, now it’s time for something big…it’s about two days away.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)