Even if you're a corrupted magical girl, you still have to try to redeem yourself.

This must be fake.

“What’s there to worry about? Is Yuuki Yuki going to be kidnapped?” Helica retorted directly, revealing what was on her mind.

She was still very anxious, unsure if what she was doing was impulsive, and whether it would upset others.

She could have said a few more words.

But Herika saw the unashamed look in Baki's eyes.

His uprightness and clarity made Herika feel somewhat uneasy.

That look seemed to say, "Don't you know what I'm worried about?"

"Oh dear, don't worry about that. I've already bought everyone's food. Let's have breakfast and head out. We all need to have fun on the school trip the next day, right?"

As if sensing the awkward atmosphere between the two, Yuuki Yui tried to smooth things over, seemingly eager to quickly change the subject.

This attitude makes it seem like nothing really happened last night.

Although Helica was impulsive, she wasn't stupid.

Yuuki Yukina left last night because she was angry after confessing her feelings, and then Inuyama Tomoe chased after her.

Inuyama Tomoe knew that she had confessed her feelings to Yuuki Yuuki.

Baqi looked at herself. Today, Yuuki deliberately changed the subject, saying that she planned for everyone to complete the school trip peacefully.

Knowing what happened and understanding Yuuki Yukino's personality is like having the answer to a riddle laid out on its surface.

There is no doubt that Baqi chased after Yuki Yuki last night to soothe her emotions.

Yuuki Yukino went out this morning, separated from Baqi, and then met up again. They chatted outside for a long time... In the end, she made up a lame lie about food she found on the way.

They were discussing how to calm themselves down.

If she's worried about damaging her relationship with herself and wants to make amends, wanting to restore the school trip team and the Nijisanji relationship as before, then Yuuki Yuki would do just that.

That was all Helica could think.

Yuuki Yukino knew that Helica would think the same way.

"Alright, let's pack up and get ready to go."

Herlica's willingness to back down let Yuuki know that she had guessed correctly once again.

The most relaxed time is often the most dangerous time.

"Okay, let's pack up and get ready to go."

Yuuki Yukino put down her phone and started packing her luggage.

On the phone screen, the location services, which were still enabled, clearly showed my route this morning.

Chapter 85 Surveillance

“I’ve already reviewed the surveillance footage from last night. This morning, I suggested that Azusa Niijima check if any students had sneaked out during the night, and she agreed, so it went very smoothly.”

"This hotel has been booked by Yuehai Middle School for the past two days. I heard that the student council president wanted to check for disciplinary violations, so the hotel did not stop them. But they only provided video recordings of the rest time, which is enough. That's what we need."

"Unfortunately, we can only find surveillance footage of the front and back doors; there are no cameras in the corridors."

"Because some guests at hot spring hotels always go back to their rooms wrapped in towels after soaking in the hot spring, installing surveillance cameras might infringe on their privacy, so it's impossible to see what's going on in every room."

"Thunder, thunder, are you listening?"

In a corner of the hotel courtyard, Mizuno Yu raised her voice, drawing Helica's attention back from her reverie.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm listening, but I can't see the control cage in the corridor (you mean the cage? I know).

Herika then snapped out of her daze and blankly repeated what Mizuno Yu had just said.

Just before Helica was about to leave, Mizuno Yu called her out with a text message saying he had something important to say.

It's obvious that Mizuno Yu is going to talk about the aftermath of her encounter with the pink devil last night.

Even though Yuuki Yu could guess that Mizuno Yu and Herika might be secretly investigating her appearance in Nijiba City after her transformation, she had to pretend that she didn't care at all.

But Yuuki Yui believed that as long as she acted carefully, they wouldn't find any useful information.

At that time, Yuuki Yukino was unaware that the Sword of Damocles was already hanging over her head.

Mizuno Yuu wanted to meet Helica, and no one could stop her, nor did anyone have any reason to stop her.

Because Mizuno Yu suspected that the Pink Devil was from Tsukimi Middle School, she suggested checking the surveillance footage, but she had already taken care of it herself the next morning.

This made Helica admire Mizuno Yu's ability to act.

"Yes, there are no surveillance cameras in the corridor, and although these cameras have night vision, the resolution certainly won't be as clear as a photograph, so it might be a bit difficult to identify who it is."

Mizuno Yu didn't say much, letting the topic get back on track.

"Hmm," Helica replied perfunctorily, indicating that she had heard her.

After leaving Herjusqunlika, she seemed somewhat absent-minded.

Just as Yuuki was packing her travel belongings, Herika inadvertently saw on Yuuki's phone screen that she hadn't turned off location sharing.

The lines marking the route above prove that Yuuki Eri went a long way that morning.

You don't need to go that far to buy breakfast.

You can buy breakfast at any convenience store, or even in the hotel cafeteria, you can find more nutritious and delicious portable lunch boxes than those from convenience stores.

Moreover, Yuuki Eri's breakfast was just a facade.

If you and Baqi had arranged to meet at a certain place and then started discussing how to comfort yourself, there was absolutely no need to turn on location sharing.

Similarly, if it's just about personal matters, there's even less need to go that far. Just find a place to sit down, or even stand on the roadside to talk if you don't care about the environment.

This is unusual, but it coincides with the situation that Mizuno Yu said should lead to suspicion about Yuuki Eri.

After leaving Yuki Yui in the morning, Helica also inquired about what happened last night from Mizuno Yui.

On one hand, she was worried about Yuuki Yui, and on the other hand, she was following Mizuno Yui's advice to find out Yuuki Yui's schedule last night in order to rule out her suspicion.

She also naturally heard that Yuuki Yuuki had gone out last night because she was in a bad mood, and then came back after having a late-night snack.

Yuuki and the others returned not much earlier than him—which was reasonable if they were returning from the same location.

When Helica tries to prove Yuuki Yuki's innocence with various pieces of information, that information actually leads the possibilities to another extreme.

All the things that had happened in the past began to point to another situation that Helica did not want to believe.

The first time I protected Yuuki Yuuki from her house was also the first time the Pink Demon appeared.

On the night I stayed at Yuuki Yuuki's house, I also saw the musket girl running over excitedly.

What happened next, and then what happened after that, seemed to confirm Helica's suspicions.

Including the fact that Yuuki Yuki wasn't there on the day of the festival...

All magical girls are more or less connected to Yuuki Yuuki; Miya Miya and Tsukimi Rie are, as is the unknown blonde vampire girl, and even the nuns-leading Sei-on.

Yes, the silver-haired girl in military uniform also had connections with Yuuki Yuuki. She kidnapped Yuuki Yuuki and then abandoned her unharmed in the forest.

However, the pink devil was the only one missing.

"Are you alright? You've been acting strange since last night."

Seeing Helica lose focus once again, Mizuno Yu raised his hand to touch her body, but stopped in front of her. In the end, he just moved his mouth and waved his hand in front of Helica.

“It’s okay, please continue.” Helica didn’t seem to be okay at all.

Mizuno Yu looked at Helica in silence. In her opinion, Helica seemed even more abnormal than she had been the night before.

Mizuno Yu was very curious, but Herika's condition certainly wouldn't allow her to learn the whole story as she wished.

After weighing the pros and cons, Mizuno Yu continued, saying that blindly caring for Helica wouldn't help her.

"The hotel staff said that due to privacy issues, the surveillance footage we saw was not allowed to be copied, and it was already an exception that they allowed us to see it."

As Mizuno Yu was speaking, she took out a stack of printed documents from her handbag.

"But the hotel didn't stop us from taking screenshots, so we wrote down all the suspicious people, borrowed the hotel's printer to print them out, and everyone is here. It was done with the help of the hotel staff, and I watched the whole process. There were no problems."

Helica reached out her hand, but stopped before touching the stack of things that Mizuno Yu was handing her.

Helica hesitated to take the stack of printed documents, fearing that what she saw on them would further fuel her suspicions.

When a terrible thought comes to mind, Helica always finds herself uncontrollably contemplating the worst-case scenario.

Fortunately, the stack of printed documents in Mizuno Yu's hand was much thicker than Helica had expected.

Ultimately, it's just a guess.

Helica still touched the stack of papers and quickly flipped through them.

There were indeed more people who secretly ran away than she had imagined; the rules of the school trip couldn't restrain this group of girls whose hearts had long since flown to the ends of the earth.

If there are that many people, it's hard to say who the pink devil is.

Thinking this way, Helica felt much more relaxed.

"There's a time watermark in the bottom left corner of the picture, which you can use as a reference. Time was a bit tight, so I didn't have time to remove some people whose entry and exit times conflicted with the appearance time of the pink demon. You can take this and look at it first. If you lose it, come to me for it."

Mizuno Yu's words made Helica's relaxed nerves tense up again.

"What should I do?" Helica no longer wanted to think.

From the very beginning, he refused to consider what he should do if Yuuki Yuki was the person he was looking for.

"Keep an eye on Yuuki," Mizuno Yuu replied.

"Why?! Do you really doubt her? Can't you tell that what I said last night was just said in anger?" Helica exploded like a powder keg that had been lit.

She could tolerate being in Yuuki Yuki's group, but what worried her was that she might upset other people in Yuuki Yuki's group.

But there's no need to do that in front of Mizuno Yu.

It wasn't that she was bullying Mizuno Yu; rather, Mizuno Yu understood her too well, so she could filter out Helica's trash talk and only extract the key points Helica wanted to express.

After letting out the shout, Helica truly felt a great weight lifted from her chest.

Mizuno frowned and stared at Herika for a long time. Herika felt uncomfortable with his gaze, as if he were questioning her about what she was hiding.

"What are you looking at?" Helica asked, her voice lacking confidence because she felt guilty.

“The students on the school trip aren’t just from our two classes; the two of us alone can’t recognize everyone,” Mizuno Yu explained calmly to Helica.