Date A Mysterious Being

Chapter 31 - Disappearance

The time was five o'clock. Shidou changed into his uniform and headed to the school, where classes were already over. He was going to meet his next target- Tama.

"...As with the others, we've already made contact with Ms. Okamine. She should be waiting for you in the counseling office."

"Roger. I'll go there now," Shidou replied, briefly, and walked through the deserted school.
On his way, a small worry abruptly popped up in his head.

"That reminds me. What reason did you give her for asking her to meet?" he timidly asked his earpiece. Tama was someone Shidou had never asked out before. He was concerned about exactly what kind of message Reine had sent.

"...Oh. I basically told her you wanted to talk about your options after graduation."

"Makes sense. That's pretty natural." He let out a sigh of relief and headed for the designated location.
Before too long, he had arrived at the counseling office. He knocked on the door and soon heard Tama's cute voice from inside. "Come in!"

"Excuse me." He opened the door and went in. He saw Tama sitting on the sofa with what appeared to be student worksheets spread out on the table in front of her. It seemed that she had been grading papers while she waited for him.

"Oh! Itsuka. I haven't seen you in a while," Tama said, smiling, as she pulled the worksheets together into a pile and pushed the graduation-related books on the edge of the table to the side.
Shidou did feel something slightly off at her greeting, but it was nothing serious. He had been absent from school that day and the day before in order to search for Natsumi.

"Well, please sit down."

"Thanks." He sat on the sofa opposite her.

"Let's see." With a meek look on her face, Tama pushed the bridge of her glasses up. "I heard from Ms. Murasame that you wanted to talk about your options after graduation."

"Yes." Shidou nodded. "Would you mind discussing them a bit?"

"I don't mind at all." Tama got a slightly complicated look on her face. "But why me and not the guidance counselor?"

"Huh? Oh, umm," Shidou stammered.

Now that she mentioned it, that was true. There was a guidance counselor at the high school for exactly this sort of thing. If he had questions about anything, normally that was who he would talk to. But if he reacted honestly, there was a chance that she might hand him off to the guidance counselor.

He clenched his fists and spoke. "Oh, it's just, well, it has to be you, Ms. Okamine!"

"What?!" For some reason, Tama's face was flush with surprise. She looked like her heart had leaped in her chest, but in a happy way. "The guidance counselor...has to be me?"

"Yes. There's no meaning in it without you," Shidou said forcefully, and Tama suddenly appeared overexcited.

"Uh! Uh? S-so then, you mean, ma-"

"Huh?"

"N-no! It's nothing!" Tama hurriedly shook her head.

Bewildered, Shidou cocked his head to the side.
At any rate, it was just the two of them now. He should check sooner rather than later whether or not this was the real Tama. Shidou made this decision and sent his mind racing- he decided he would try asking about when she had become Shidou's homeroom teacher, to start.

"Umm, Ms. Okamine. I just wanted to check something. Do you remember what happened in April?"

"April... Oh!" Her eyes flew open, and she nodded so vigorously that he worried her head might fall off. "I do remember! I remember! Have you finally...made up your mind, Itsuka?"