This is not the date I wanted.

Shidou nodded in understanding.

"Well. The actual reason is that you definitely can't beat Origami in a real fight."

"Hello..."

Hearing Mengyue's half-joking criticism, Shidao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

"Well, after school, let's go together to investigate the truth behind the fire five years ago. Do your best, Shidou."

"Well, let's work hard together, Mengyue."

After they reached out and bumped each other's fists, they smiled at each other.

03 Origami Action

==============================

"Why hasn't Mengyue finished class yet?"

After school, standing at the school gate, watching the students coming out of the school gate one after another, but not seeing the girl's arrival, Shidao was somewhat concerned.

Shidao knew that the girl was always very punctual for the agreed meeting time. She might arrive a few minutes early, but she would never be late.

"Did something happen?"

A little uneasiness sprouted in Shidao's heart, and just when he was about to run to Mengyue's class to check the situation, his cell phone suddenly rang, and Shidao opened it and saw that it was a text message from Mengyue.

[Sorry, Bamboo Princess seems to have left suddenly because of something at home, so please let me take over her duty. Shidou, please wait for a moment, I will come over after I finish cleaning. ]

"What? I'm just filling in for duty."

Seeing the text message from Meng Yue, Shidao breathed a sigh of relief.

"Really? After the training for emergency situations in Mengyue, I seem to be a little too alert."

Shidou touched his nose awkwardly, speechless about his own fuss-making attitude.

In the previous computer world, the crisis scenarios that Mengyue simulated for Shidao were basically sudden events that appeared to have no signs. This resulted in Shidao not being able to fully adjust his tense nerves after the training, and he seemed to be a little nervous.

(Well... in real life, there can't be traps everywhere like Meng Yue arranged.)

Shidou thought casually.

Leaning against the wall of the school gate, in order to pass the time while waiting, Shidou began to think about the events of five years ago.

(Come to think of it, outside the fire scene at that time, there were actually Kurumi and some unknown elves.)

There wasn't just one spirit at the fire scene five years ago. When Shidou pointed this out to Origami, he only knew that there was an unidentifiable phantom.

If it weren’t for Meng Yue, he would never have imagined that there were so many elves at the scene.

Obviously, these two people are important breakthrough points if one wants to find out the truth about Origami's parents' death.

According to Meng Yue, the unregistered spirit only appeared once during the fire, and there has been no record of it coming to the world since then. The only thing we know about its existence is its spiritual wave data, and we know nothing about its abilities or appearance. In a sense, it can be said to be more mysterious than a phantom.

So, if you want to find out the truth of the incident, you have to look for the other party involved, the one known as the most evil elf - Tokisaki Kurumi.

Since they were asked to investigate together after school, Mengyue should have noticed this.

"Then we found Origami and expressed our ideas to her... huh?"

Thinking that Mengyue should be arriving soon, Shidao turned his head and glanced towards the school, and then his eyes unconsciously fixed in one direction.

The reason was simple. Under a tree far away from him, a young girl was standing there.

Short light hair that reaches the shoulders, snow-white skin, and an expressionless face like a doll.

“…Origami.”

Shidou rubbed his eyes unconsciously, and after observing carefully, he was sure that he had not recognized the wrong person. The other person was Tobiichi Origami who had been missing for the past few days.

(Hasn't Origami transferred to DEM? Why is she here?)

Although he really wanted to run and call out to Origami, a slight sense of disobedience in his heart made Shidou hide himself and observe secretly.

(What are you doing?)

Origami seemed to be installing something in the bushes of the green belt. Then, as if she sensed Shidou's gaze, she glanced towards the school gate.

Shidou quickly retracted his head, and watched as Origami continued to be busy without seeming to notice, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

(Anyway, let’s tell Meng Yue about discovering origami first.)

Thinking this way, Shidou quietly picked up his phone and sent a text message to Mengyue.

【Sending failed. Please try again.】

"It's broken... I really should buy a new phone."

Shidou scratched his head with a headache. During the Seven Sins incident, his phone was destroyed by Allen who suddenly broke in. Since then, he was not in the mood to buy a new phone because of the origami incident, so he just used his old phone. He didn't expect it to fail suddenly at this time.

(Then, just use the earphones to contact Kotori or Reine-san directly.)

However, after turning on the communication in the headset, what I heard was intermittent noise.

Bad signal? At this time?

Just when Shidou felt that something was wrong, Origami leapt over the school wall and left.

(Not good. We’ll lose him.)

Reason told Shidao that he couldn't follow here. But since he decided to help Origami find the real murderer, communication with Origami was necessary. If he missed this opportunity, he didn't know when he would see Origami again.

After hesitating for a moment, Shidou gritted his teeth and followed.

——————————————————————————————-I am the dividing line for shifting perspective————————————————————————————————————

"That's the end. It's really shameless of you, Takeko-chan, to suddenly ask the teacher to let me take her place on duty. I'll have to apologize to Shidou later."

After locking the classroom door, Meng Yue checked the time on her phone. It was already time for the students who were participating in club activities to go home. She sighed helplessly.

Meng Yue always taught Shidao to be punctual for agreed times, but she never expected that she would be late, which made her feel a little ashamed.

"Ok?"

Walking out of the teaching building, Mengyue suddenly frowned.

"Is this feeling... a signal jammer?"

Relying on her sensitivity to electromagnetic signals, Mengyue quickly found the signal jammer in the green belt on campus.

"It's quite secretive. Someone deliberately installed this kind of thing in the school... huh?"

Suddenly, Mengyue noticed that in addition to the signal jammer, there was something else covered by the green belts and trees.

"Oh my god, Princess Bamboo, why are you here?"

Lifting the camouflage cloth, Meng Yue was surprised to find that her class monitor, Zao Dao Xia Zhu, was lying there, seemingly unconscious.

"Huh... Fortunately, he is just unconscious."

After confirming that the other person was not injured, Meng Yue breathed a sigh of relief and pressed the other person's philtrum.

"Um... Ryougi-san, why am I here?"

I saw Zaodao Xiazhu slowly waking up, as if he was not awake yet. He rubbed his eyes and spoke in a daze.

"That's what I wanted to ask your Bamboo Princess. Didn't you suddenly have something to do at home and asked the teacher to take your duty?"

The other person tilted his head in confusion.

"Is that true? I just remember that when I was cleaning, I suddenly saw a girl from our school walk in, and then... I'm not sure. Also, I'm the class monitor."

Hearing Zaodao Xiazhu's description, Mengyue couldn't help but twitch the corners of her mouth.

The students in this school have the knowledge to install signal jammers, and there is a girl who is able to subdue the class monitor who has learned the Tan Leg technique in an instant... Mengyue actually knows one of them.

"Is that girl the white-haired girl from the class next door who always quarreled with another black-haired girl because of Gokawa Shido?"

After hearing Mengyue's description, Zaodao Xiazhu thought for a moment and nodded.

"Tobiichi-san? If you put it that way, they do look alike."

"Knew it……"

Afterwards, Meng Yue sent Zao Dao Xia Zhu to the infirmary. She lied to him that she had suddenly fainted due to anemia and that Origami had entrusted her to her care. Then she turned on her cell phone.

"Hello, Tohka?"

[Mengyue, what's the matter? ]

"Tohka, what are you doing now?"

[I'm watching TV at home. The story of the noontime theater recommended by Yoshina is really profound. By the way, Shidou and you are going to buy ingredients for dinner together later. The TV said that Hinaiko chicken is delicious. Can we eat this today? ]

"The three best free-range chickens in Japan... you really know how to choose."

The corners of Mengyue's mouth twitched slightly.

Afterwards, Mengyue called Yakuya, Yui, Miku, Nanashi, Yoshino, Kotori and others one after another, but it seemed that there was nothing special.

"You didn't aim at the spirit first... In other words..."

Standing at the school gate, after looking around and not finding Shidao, Mengyue called Shidao with a bad premonition.

[——Hello, the number you dialed is turned off. Please call again later——]

Meng Yue couldn't help but hold her head with her hands because of a headache.

"Ah... Stupid Shidou, if the problem is solved, I will train you to death later..."

04 The Evil Man Who Can't Communicate

==============================

“…Um…”

Shidao opened his eyes dazedly, shook his head, and gradually regained consciousness.

"I was planning to chase Origami..."

The memories in his mind gradually became clear. Shidao vaguely remembered that after he witnessed Origami's appearance in the school, he went to follow Origami alone because he could not contact Yumezuki and Kotori.

Then, after following for a few streets, Origami suddenly disappeared from his sight, and the next moment, Shidou lost consciousness as someone covered his mouth and nose with medicine from behind.

(In other words, it was discovered from the beginning.)

Shidou couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart. Although he had vaguely felt that this might be a trap for him when he started tracking, he never expected that he would be subdued so easily.

"So, what should we do next..."

Shidao looked around. The walls and ceiling were full of cracks. The steel bars and cement inside could be seen. Most of the paint had fallen off. It seemed that this should be a building in the abandoned area of ​​Tiangong City that had been abandoned for a long time.

At this moment, he was sitting on a chair with his limbs tied up. In addition to the hemp ropes that bound him, his hands and feet were also handcuffed, and the four legs of the chair were firmly fixed to the ground with rivets. It can be seen that the other party had no intention and determination to let Shidao escape.

Shidou exhaled slowly. To be honest, he was not particularly panicked about the situation at hand. Although being knocked unconscious and kidnapped so easily did make him panic, at the same time, his goal was achieved.

"No need to hide Origami, just stay around here."

In the silent space without any sound, Shidou spoke calmly.

"..."

Then, the rusty door was opened with a harsh friction sound, and then Shidou saw Tobiichi Origami walking towards him without saying a word.

"Long time no see, Origami."

"Well, long time no see."

Origami nodded slowly in response to Shidou's greeting.

Then, he started taking off his coat.

"Wait wait wait wait!!!!!!!!! What are you doing?!"

Shidou was caught off guard by Origami's unusual reaction and shouted in panic.

Hearing Shidou's question, Origami tilted her head, and her hands that were unbuttoning her skirt showed no sign of stopping. She just spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Because we haven't seen each other for a long time. As Shidao's girlfriend, I will help you deal with your accumulated desires."

"I haven't thought of this development at all!?"

"Isn't it always like this?"