Chapter 247: The Initial Meeting Place
"Lost track already."
"Yeah, that's right."
"It's all your fault!" Shinomiya Kaguya immediately started shifting the blame.
Kaguya: (੭ •̀Д•́ )੭*⁾⁾
Sakurai: ∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?
"Wait a minute, what does this have to do with me?" Sakurai Saki retorted at once.
Kaguya-san, could you stop with that unreasonable blame-shifting? As a human being, you should know how to reflect on yourself, right?
Don't be like those people who lose in a game and then blame their teammates, okay?
Getting picked off and then blaming the jungler for not ganking, while you yourself didn't even bother to ward. And in the end, after losing, you just drop a line: "Fucking brainless idiot."
Sakurai Saki had hated that kind of unreasonable teammate all his life.
"Hayasaka absolutely didn't go to the restroom!" Shinomiya Kaguya said angrily, just as she stepped out of the restroom.
...
A small alleyway.
Hayasaka Ai looked at the figure in sunglasses before her, feeling somewhat familiar.
"As long as you obediently listen, follow me back, and spill all the information, Un'yo-sama won't do anything to you."
"You're the lapdog of that scum, huh?"
Hayasaka Ai bent down, rummaged through her backpack for a few seconds, then pulled out the GPS tracker. She threw it straight onto the ground and crushed it with her heel.
"Hmph." The male bodyguard narrowed his eyes, his gaze turning vicious.
Hayasaka Ai could only let out a sigh.
Lately, bodyguards were getting worse and worse—couldn't even threaten people properly. How were they supposed to scare people into surrendering like this?
Luckily, she couldn't care less.
Moreover, Hayasaka Ai knew her own fighting skills weren't bad at all. Dealing with some ordinary male bodyguard was nothing.
If not for the central city area being under a firearm ban, and the hassle of cleaning up the aftermath of a shooting, she wouldn't even bother to lay a hand on him, since it felt dirtying her hands.
...
Meanwhile, Shinomiya Kaguya and Sakurai Saki, after losing track, had no choice but to find an open spot nearby to wait.
After a few minutes, Hayasaka Ai didn't appear. Instead, the one who came was her mother—Hayasaka Nao.
The woman whom Sakurai had met once before.
"Kaguya-sama, today my daughter entrusted me with your safety." Hayasaka Nao spoke softly, fully understanding her daughter's intention.
Because, in the past, she herself had once had the same thought.
Unfortunately, after Shinomiya Un'yo learned of her betrayal, he fired her. The fact that she hadn't been retaliated against afterward was already a great fortune for Hayasaka Nao.
'This time, it's probably something similar.'
Even though they had lived together since childhood, the bond between the two might not be able to withstand such storms. Moreover, Shinomiya Kaguya had received the same kind of education as Shinomiya Un'yo—both valued keeping their word, rich in contractual spirit. For people like that, the thing they hated most was betrayal.
Shinomiya Kaguya was skilled at wrapping up her own weakness and timidity, then putting on a cold, combative shell. She was a hedgehog.
Last time, when Hayasaka Nao attended the three-party meeting, she felt Shinomiya Kaguya had become a little gentler, but she wasn't sure what had happened.
"Where is Hayasaka?"
"Mm~ Kaguya-sama, here I have a map, perhaps from it you'll find the answer." Hayasaka Nao said while pulling out the map her daughter had left in the hotel, which she had just retrieved.
This map had been arranged beforehand by Hayasaka Ai, so that Kaguya could receive it.
"If you can find the place marked on the map, my daughter will surely tell you the truth about her resignation."
"Hide-and-seek, is it?" Shinomiya Kaguya sighed, then unfolded the map.
"Wait for me at that place, the place where our relationship began… Hayasaka really does love to cause trouble." Shinomiya Kaguya said that aloud, but her hands never stopped.
"Nao-san, let's depart." Then she paused a moment: "Wait, where exactly is [that place]?"
Hayasaka and her cryptic talk! Who could even understand this?
At the crucial moment, she just cuts it off!!!
Kaguya: (˶˃⤙˂˶) hmph!
Hayasaka Nao smiled: "I don't know either."
"…" Shinomiya Kaguya folded the map, "Fine, let's get in the car and continue talking."
"Sakurai-san, where are you planning to go?"
Hearing her say that, Sakurai Saki abandoned the thought of going to find Ai-chan on his own.
...
In the car.
"Speaking of the place where I first met Hayasaka, it has to be that place!" Shinomiya Kaguya asserted with certainty.
That was on the 6th death anniversary of her mother. In class, a few classmates mocked Kaguya for being the daughter of a concubine, throwing harsh, bitter words at her.
She had only told a few close friends, even reminding them not to reveal it to anyone else, but in the end it had still been spread by someone with ill intent.
That day, Shinomiya Kaguya told Hayasaka that she didn't want to be friends with people who couldn't keep secrets.
Hayasaka Ai had replied: [That's how it should be, people who can't keep secrets are unforgivable.]
'It has to be that place!'
Half an hour later.
Shinomiya Kaguya and Sakurai Saki stood by the roadside.
"This isn't the place." Sakurai Saki said, trying hard to hold back a laugh.
Sakurai inside: (๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)
Kaguya: (¬`‸´¬)
Expressionless, Shinomiya Kaguya said: "This isn't the place."
The two returned to the car again.
"Don't worry, I've got another idea." Shinomiya Kaguya recalled: "It was a day when Hayasaka Ai ran away from home. It was raining then, I saw Hayasaka crying as she left right at the front door. In the end, I found her at that place and brought her back home."
"It was then that I realized, inside Hayasaka was also fragile, with very small, vulnerable parts."
Over ten minutes later.
Looking at the vacant lot before them with a sign stuck in the ground [For Sale].
Shinomiya Kaguya sat down clutching her head, "Why!? Why is this place also wrong!?"
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
"Hayasaka, where on earth are you!?"
Sakurai Saki stood beside her, barely able to endure it anymore.
"The place we first met isn't right… it's the place where our relationship began."
Suddenly, Shinomiya Kaguya thought of a place.
It was a piece of land privately owned by the Shinomiya family.
...
Inside a mountain belonging solely to the Shinomiya family.
By a vast lake, Hayasaka Ai stood there, letting the wind from the water blow past, waiting for Shinomiya Kaguya to arrive.
Behind her came the sound of footsteps.
She slowly turned her head. When she saw who it was, Hayasaka Ai didn't show the slightest sign of surprise.
"Un'yo-sama, good afternoon." Hayasaka Ai slightly bowed.
"Drop those fake masks, you filthy rat." Shinomiya Un'yo, with a cold face, spoke mockingly: "Both you and your mother are traitors, and to keep up this disgusting act here, it's truly nauseating."
He laughed as he said: "Never thought Kaguya would see you as a confidant, seems my little sister really is both naïve and adorable."
"What? Trying to find an excuse, planning to use Kaguya-sama to pressure me?" Hayasaka Ai also shed her disguise.
Next to Shinomiya Un'yo, several burly men stepped forward a few paces.
"Don't make a move. I really am trash, but I've never casually resorted to violence."
He looked toward Hayasaka: "Speak the information you have. I can choose not to tell Kaguya about your betrayal."
Hayasaka Ai: "I absolutely don't have any information at all."
"Lying to others is fine, but don't lie to yourself. Lying to me, I can take it as you telling me a joke, I laugh and let it go. But saying words even you don't believe—aren't you just treating me like an idiot?" Shinomiya Un'yo pulled out a cigar, lit it, and took a puff.
His eyes were cold, almost nine-tenths the same as Kaguya's, staring intently at Hayasaka Ai.
"Don't force me to say those things to Kaguya."
Right after those words.
A voice came from behind——
"Looks like I made it in time." Shinomiya Kaguya stepped out from the forest.
With her were Sakurai Saki and Shinomiya Nao.
"You came at the right time." Shinomiya Un'yo looked at Hayasaka Ai with an amused gaze: "My adorable little sister, let you see the appearance of this filthy rat standing under the sunlight. Truly ugly, isn't it?"
At this moment, Hayasaka Ai also lowered her head, not daring to look at Kaguya.
She had imagined countless times the scene of meeting Kaguya again, but never once thought it would be under these circumstances.
"She betrayed you, reporting every single one of your actions to our elder brother every day." Shinomiya Un'yo finished speaking, then looked toward Shinomiya Kaguya, only to find her expression frighteningly cold.
"You can't accept a traitor either, right? Since she's already planning to quit, why not let her work for me instead?"
Inside, Shinomiya Kaguya's feelings were extremely complicated.
She could not accept a traitor, yet her bond with Hayasaka Ai made it impossible for her to agree to her brother's proposal.
The atmosphere instantly turned cold.
"Hm? And who are you?" Shinomiya Un'yo looked toward Sakurai Saki.
"Hayasaka Ai's boyfriend." Sakurai Saki walked straight toward Ai-chan.
"Hayasaka Ai's boyfriend…"
Just as he was about to say something, Hayasaka Nao quickly interrupted: "Un'yo-sama, please mind your words."
Hearing that, Shinomiya Un'yo only drew a puff of his cigar, saying nothing further.
He wasn't a fool.
Though in his eyes, Hayasaka Nao was nothing good, her words would never be baseless.
That boy with glasses and such a striking face—likely not an ordinary person.
'Kaguya hesitating?' Shinomiya Un'yo muttered to himself inwardly.
In his view, upon learning she had been betrayed, Shinomiya Kaguya would definitely lose her reason, and immediately cast Hayasaka Ai away.
But… what was this?
Who on earth was that person? Since when had Shinomiya Kaguya become this foolish?
A person who refused to understand others yet demanded too much, wrapping her weaknesses in a shell of hostility—that was the real Shinomiya Kaguya.
"Let's go over there to talk." Shinomiya Kaguya spoke softly, looking toward Hayasaka Ai, who was crying in Sakurai Saki's arms.
"…Okay."
...
A few minutes later, Shinomiya Un'yo departed.
All of his actions depended on the permission of Shinomiya Kaguya, and with her hesitation, his entire plan could not continue.
Sakurai Saki and Hayasaka Nao stood together, gazing toward the two mistress and servant sitting by the lakeside in the distance.
"Sakurai-sama, Lady Duckweed's plan is expected to end tonight."
"She told you to say that to me?"
Sakurai Saki could already guess some of it.
"That's right. The matter of Shuchiin changing the schedule of the school trip was also related to Lady Duckweed."
The Shinomiya family held authority in Shuchiin; altering the schedule of a school trip was nothing difficult.
Perhaps even that vote back then had the unseen hand of some intervention.
Everything was to draw him to Kyoto.
"Sakurai-sama, tonight, please go to the Inari shrine."
"Got it."
With that topic closed, silence settled over them for a brief moment.
Then Hayasaka Nao asked: "Between my daughter and Kaguya-sama, which one do you like more? Or is it both?"
"I only like Hayasaka Ai." Sakurai Saki realized Ai-chan's mother was not an ordinary person either.
Knowing he wasn't ordinary, and yet she still dared tease him—her courage was indeed considerable.
But since this was Hayasaka Ai's mother, Sakurai Saki couldn't do anything to her.
...
(Note: At first I was going to use Lady Algae, but I googled and found this in the yokai wiki, Lady Duckweed is another name/title (english translating name/title) for Tamamo-no-mae.)