Miss Heir wasn't very kind to me.

Chapter 43 10. "Kobe: I took in a runaway girl with no problems"

As I stepped into the coffee shop, the disturbing sound of rain suddenly seemed far away.

Jazz music is no longer played.

Masumi, Rinne, Asami and Kuon Mirai were all present, looking at each other, and the air fell into a deep silence.

"Xiao Linyin, I didn't expect your daughter to be this big already."

It was Mami's teasing tone that broke the silence.

"Stop joking, Mami-san. This girl's accent is clearly the Kansai dialect."

Rinyin retorted seriously.

Is the problem here?

Masumi looked at the girl sitting on the chair.

The wet hair had been dried with a towel, and after smoothing out the tangled flaxen hair, a fair and delicate face was revealed from behind.

Her blue eyes, with disproportionately large pupils and a hollow look, gave the impression of a beautiful doll without self-awareness.

"What a pretty girl! She has such a small face and fair skin, just like a doll." Mami's eyes sparkled as she sized up the girl in front of her. "She looks very young. I wonder if she's an adult yet."

After hearing what Asami said, the girl said, "I'm an adult now."

"...What's your name?" Kuon Mirai approached her with a friendly smile and asked softly, "Can you tell us?"

"Kurage."
Three clearly enunciated words uttered from her lips.

"Jellyfish?"

Asami frowned.

(Note: Jellyfish is pronounced as Kurage)
Her long flaxen hair shook slightly.

The girl took out her cell phone from the pocket of her tracksuit—it turned out she had a cell phone—and tapped the screen a few times with her slender fingers, then turned it over and pointed it at the few people.

On the white memo interface, the two Chinese characters "Hai Yue" were written.

"Oh~ So it's written as '海月' and pronounced as 'Kurage'."

Asami nodded slightly.

"That's a great name."

Haiyue, the moon in the sea, is also another way to write jellyfish.

It's a very romantic style.

"What's your last name?" Masumi asked.

The girl used the input method to type the kana in front of the name and selected the Chinese characters.

"…Hanekawa."

Hanekawa Uzuki.

The name of the girl in front of me.

"Haiyue...right?" Mami smiled, and the affectionate name came out naturally. "Excuse me, why did you call Xiao Linyin "Mom" just now?"

The corners of Linyin's lips twisted slightly, and the others also fixed their curious gazes on the girl. Meeting their gazes, she gently opened her lips and uttered a soft and gentle voice.

“…This person feels like a mother.”

"I miss my mom a little..."

Hanekawa Kaizuki said expressionlessly.

The blue eyes looked a little moist. Was it because they had been getting wet in the rain outside?
"Could it be that your mother..." Masumi hesitated to speak.

As if anticipating his question, the girl shook her head and said, "No... My mother... is back home..."

"Oh."

Masumi replaced the moisture that was about to gather in his eyes with sweat on his forehead.

It seems that although this girl named "Hekawa Kaizuki" behaves a little strangely, she does not lack common sense and communication skills.

"In that case, go home quickly. Your family will be worried."

Hanekawa Kaizuki was silent for a while, then murmured softly, "...We can't go back now."

"why?"

She closed her lips again, refusing to speak, like a jellyfish refusing to communicate.

Masumi suddenly felt a headache and didn't know what to do. He heard Kamishiro Rin's somewhat anxious sigh in the air.

"Let her take a bath first. She's soaking wet."

◇

Rinone took Hanekawa Kaizuki to the bathroom to take a shower, while Asami, Kuon Mirai, and Masumi sat around the table. "Running away from home?" Kuon Mirai guessed.

Masumi had a darker thought: "God-waited girl?"

"No way." Mami thought about it and refuted this idea. "Would a girl who is favored by God carry these with her?"

The three of them looked at the items on the table: pepper spray, stun gun, folding knife, and high-decibel alarm.

The capacity of sportswear is really amazing, it can hold so many things.

When Masumi saw this, he suddenly remembered the girl's hand that she had clenched tightly in his arms when they were alone together. He was belatedly terrified.

Did he just almost get a one-way ticket to Shimane Prefecture?

"And now, the God-like girls have developed to the point where they communicate directly online. Shaving, going out, and then picking up a high school girl, this kind of outrageous thing only appears in light novels."

So that's how it is. In the information age, everything is progressing.

Masumi nodded, "That's true, then he must have run away from home."

"It's just that she won't reveal anything about her family, which is really frustrating."

While the three were discussing, Linyin's shout came from the distant stairs.

"——Ms. Mami, come here for a moment."

"Eh? What's up?" Asami said lazily, "I'm reasoning with Mirai and Masumi-kun."

"Come over here first and talk."

Asami was called away by Rinne. Masumi and Kuon Mirai chatted for a few minutes, but couldn't come up with any meaningful information or solutions, so they waited in silence for the three girls.

"Awaited!"

Asami called back their attention with a loud greeting.

Masumi looked away from the phone screen and then focused his gaze on Hanekawa Kaizuki who had just come out of the shower.

After being dried with a hair dryer, her flaxen long hair fell softly on her shoulders, and her fair cheeks were slightly flushed because of the warmth.

She was wearing a loose chiffon shirt that fell past her hips and down to her knees. She looked simple and casual, with her fingers sticking out from the sleeves.

Boyfriend shirt?

"What? It turns out that Rin'in's clothes don't fit her size, so she wants to borrow mine." Asami teased Rin with a hearty smile.

Linyin's face was calm: "It's okay if you don't say this."

"I haven't worn this shirt much since I bought it, but Haiyue looks very cute in it." Mami smiled with her eyes narrowed.

Doesn't fit? Masumi's eyes subconsciously glanced at the three girls' breasts.

The order is Kamishiro Rinne, Hanekawa Kaizuki, Seno Asami.

coffee shop.

Starbucks cup.

Medium, large, extra large.

I seemed to hear a faint sigh in my ears.

Who is sighing?

The three girls all looked calm and there was no sign of any flaws. Masumi turned her head slightly and looked to the side.

Oh, and found a standard cup that Starbucks doesn't have.

"Thank you for letting me take a shower here."

Hanekawa Kaizuki nodded to express his gratitude to the people from Fanxing.

"It's ok."

Several people accepted her thanks frankly.

"As a token of my gratitude... please allow me to stay here..."

"Hmm?" Masumi frowned oddly.

In the surprised eyes of everyone, Hanekawa Kaiyue said lightly: "I have money..."

As she spoke, she walked to the coat she had taken off and rummaged through it. Her light pink nails reminded her of cherry-colored shells. There was a compartment on each side of the inside of the coat, both of which were stuffed bulging with money. She counted out the bills from inside.

Kamishiro Rinone stared at the girl, while Asami stared at the stack of bills. "One, two, three... Four hundred thousand!? Forty Fukuzawa Yukichis!?"

"Rent, gift money, and deposit."

Hanekawa Kaizuki was very frugal with his words. He held the sorted money in both hands and handed it to Masumi, who was closest to him.

The snow-white skin was exposed, extending along the neck and collarbone all the way to the neckline.
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「Note 1」: The Yellow Springs of the island nation is believed to be located in the ancient Izumo Province, which is now Shimane Prefecture.

(End of this chapter)