"This is which country's language? Can you understand it?"
Sui's expression was stiff. She pulled her gaze away from Hayasaka Ai and looked to the other three for help.
Alicia and Frieren did not disappoint Sui either; both of them had completely blank expressions.
Only then did Mabel speak up tentatively.
"You... hello."
"Ah, hello!" Hayasaka Ai covered her mouth in some surprise and quickly replied, "Miss Mabel, can you understand Japanese?"
"Eh? Mabel, you can understand the language here?!"
Seeing Mabel communicating with Hayasaka Ai, Sui grabbed her shoulders and shook her excitedly. Recalling the stories of the Ice Clan in her mind, she said full of hope, "That's right, Mabel's ancestors..."
"That's right. Our Ice Clan ancestors were travelers from another world's Japan, Bahamar." Mabel placed her index finger and thumb in front of her eyes, making a fingertip universe gesture, and explained, "So I understand a little bit of Japanese. When I heard this maid miss's words just now, they sounded a bit familiar, so I tried saying something. I didn't expect this place to really be another world's Japan, Bahamar."
"Mabel!" Alicia clasped her hands together, full of admiration.
Frieren let out a long sigh of relief and said with some relief, "Thank goodness. It looks like we won't be thrown in jail for trespassing just because of a language barrier."
Then, under everyone's expectant gazes, Mabel and Hayasaka Ai began communicating.
"Hello, thank you, sushi, seppuku, goodbye." Mabel said all the Japanese she had learned in her life.
"?"
Hayasaka Ai felt a headache coming on and slowly covered her head.
"Hmm hmm, I see..." Mabel chuckled twice, turned back to look at everyone, and raised her hands in surrender. "Sorry, I can't speak it anymore."
Seeing this, Alicia realized she might have admired too early.
After all, Mabel never disappointed when it came to being disappointing. As a perpetual shut-in who didn't even have a job, she was completely unreliable when it came to studying properly.
Just as the atmosphere grew awkward.
Hayasaka Ai made her move. She loudly shouted Diego's name, including his nickname: "Dio! Diego Brando!"
Yes, names!
When anyone introduces their own name, they should use the pronunciation from their hometown!
They should be able to understand!
!!!
On the other side, upon hearing Diego's name, the four of them were all stunned for a moment. They looked at each other and saw disbelief in each other's eyes.
This maid miss knows Dio!
Sui stepped in front of Hayasaka Ai and kept gesturing with her hands: "Yes, we're here to find Dio. Do you know where he is?"
Just as I thought! They understood!
Although Hayasaka Ai could only understand the word "Dio" and barely understood what Sui was gesturing, it didn't stop her from grasping Sui's meaning.
They want me to take them to find Dio!
"Follow me. I'll take you to change into some clothes first. Wearing otherworldly clothes out in the open would be too conspicuous and cause some trouble."
Hayasaka Ai nodded and forcibly pulled the four of them toward the Shinomiya residence.
...
Shinomiya residence, inside Shinomiya Kaguya's bedroom...
Shinomiya Kaguya stared at the four people who had already changed clothes and slowly asked:
"Hayasaka, are you saying that the president's companions from the other world have also crossed over, and even appeared in our family's courtyard?"
"That's right." Hayasaka Ai stood to the side.
"But when the president first arrived, he could communicate with us in language, while they can't understand our language here." Shinomiya Kaguya leaned close to Hayasaka Ai's ear and said in a low voice, "Doesn't this mean they're not from the same world as the president?"
"That blue-haired girl, Miss Mabel, did say a bit of Japanese. What if it was something Dio taught her?" Hayasaka Ai analyzed. "Besides, they reacted when they heard Dio's name."
"In that case, let's contact the president and have him come over."
"I was thinking the same thing, but Dio hasn't been answering his phone at all. I don't know what he's doing..."
Seeing the maid miss who brought them here and a person who seemed to have proper etiquette whispering to each other the whole time.
Alicia tugged at her skirt hem and said in a low voice, "As expected, this is a noble's territory. We haven't seen Dio at all, and they even made us wear these strange clothes."
"Well, it looks like the journey ended before it even began. I wonder how long they'll lock us up for." Mabel clapped her hands, her tone carrying a faint sense of death.
"...Let's prepare to break out." Sui said in a low voice. A small spatial rift appeared behind her, and she drew the hilt of the ancient magical tool from it.
Frieren pressed down on Sui's hand and shook her head. "Wait a moment."
"Do you have another way, Frieren?" Sui struggled a bit but chose to trust Frieren and pushed the ancient magical tool back. "Right now we can't communicate at all. Even the meaning of sign language seems different. If we get sentenced to three hundred years in prison, by the time we get out, Dio might already be dead."
Mabel asked, "Is there some translation magic that lets you understand what the other person wants to say without communicating?"
"There's no such convenient magic. We still need to escape." Frieren said in a heavy voice. "It's just that just now, I finally remembered the magic Serie taught me."
Smack!
Frieren summoned her staff and began condensing magical power.
『Magic that can find people who disappeared for no reason!』
The magical power escaped outward and manifested as a small light point in the southeast direction.
"Found it. It's very close. With flight magic at full speed, it'll only take half an hour to get there."
Frieren's spirits lifted.
"Which means..." Alicia hesitated.
"Prepare to run away, Alicia!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the four of them fled the Shinomiya residence at the fastest speed of their lives.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind blew past. In the confused gazes of Hayasaka Ai and Shinomiya Kaguya, the group of Mabel and the others who had just been standing in front of them vanished.
"W-Where did they go?!"
...
At the same time, in Shimokitazawa...
Diego not answering his phone naturally had a reason.
He was busy trying to get back his hard-earned money.
Early in the morning, he had come to Yamada Ryo's doorstep with a rope, but this trip wasn't to tie up that deadbeat Ryo and give her a good thrashing.
Instead, it was a debt collection method he came up with by thinking in Goto Hitori's way of thinking—Bocchi-chan's method, for short.
"Hmm hmm hmm~~"
Diego hummed a tune as he hung one end of the rope on the roof. Then, three meters above the ground, he tied the other end into a dead knot loop.
After that, he knocked on the door.
Knock knock knock...
"Who is it?"
Ryo's voice came from inside, and footsteps grew closer.
Diego timed it perfectly and leaped up, "hanging himself" at Yamada Ryo's doorstep.
He tilted his head, closed his eyes, stuck out his tongue, and let his arms and legs hang naturally, not moving at all.
"Ugh... I'm dead..."
Click...
Yamada Ryo pushed open the door and immediately saw Diego hanging in front of her house. She froze.
Just as Diego was secretly laughing in his heart, he suddenly felt a familiar flow of air.
Right as he was about to break free and check the situation, Yamada Ryo moved first.
"Dio, don't swing on a swing at my doorstep!"
Ryo flew up with a kick and struck Diego in the chest, sending him flying off the rope.
Boom!
"Bugah——!!!"
Diego was sent flying backward.
The above was what Sui and the others, who had just arrived on the scene, saw.