The high-school student lay on her side, her face in awe, staring out the roller door. She had lost her sense of time, as she finally stopped crying. She was not okay. How could she with all the losses and all the burdens on her shoulders? She had fooled herself.
I just want a normal life. I want to be left alone and take care of my sister. Is that too much to ask?
Distressed, she stared in front of herself, as her cell phone began to ring. She sniffled and reached into her pocket. Nisha called. The blue-haired girl rubbed her eye, sniffled again, and then sat up to answer the phone.
"Yes?"
"Hey, Yuna-chan. What are you doing now?"
"Nothing special. Looking at things from our old house," Yuna said in a shaky voice.
"Oh. Hikari had mentioned something. Do you want to have a chocolate at Me's?"
"Hikari? What happened to Wada-san?"
The cat girl giggled. "Yeah. We decided to call each other by our first names, if we're going to be friends. Cool, right?"
A faint smile appeared on the blue-haired's mouth. "Yes. I'm almost done here. I think it would be good to spend some time with you."
"Um... actually I wanted to do something with you and Hikari. I'll meet her in the city afterwards."
"Hm..." Wait a minute. Had Hikari sent their mutual friend to check out the situation? "Okay. I'll come as soon as I'm done here."
"Exciting. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with my girls," laughed Nisha.
"You didn't really say that."
The gray-haired girl fell silent. "Too much?"
Although she didn't feel like laughing, Yuna had to grin. "It's just unusual."
"I try to be a little less stuck-up."
"I'll see you later, Nisha-chan."
"Okay. I'm really looking forward, Yuna-chan," the class president said goodbye, before she ended the call.
With a sigh, the blue-haired girl shoved her phone back in her bag. She wanted to leave anyway. She had not realized, how much she had become dependent on her power. The fact, that she could feel positive emotions and only the negatives were kept away, at least told her, that she already had much more control over her power, which was at least a small step forward.
She got on her feet, wandered out the roller door and locked the warehouse. Then she walked with crunching footsteps over the gravel field, staring at the main building and wondering what to do next. She couldn't possibly clear the warehouse. Where should she go with all the weapons?
Yoshiro had recommended, that she should consult with her allies. Maybe she could talk to Me-san in private. Otherwise, she would have to turn to Narusegawa-san for good or bad.
From afar, the high-school student was watched, as she left the grounds.
On her way to the city, Yuna made a stopover at the pension. She was surprised to find that Yui's shoes were not here. Where had Midori gone with her? She shook her head and stormed up the stairs, after she had left her shoes at the entry. As she passed, she noticed Ayumi, sitting at her table with the flowers and resting her chin on her hands. She hurried on to her own room and took her headphones from her school backpack.
Or I'm going nuts.
She looked at the closet, where she kept her clothes. After a moment's hesitation, she went over and opened it. She stretched to reach the top shelf and pulled out a shoe box. She put it on the floor, knelt in front of it and lifted the lid off. Below was a Beretta with two magazines, a box of bullets, and the two combat knives. She had left her small arsenal outside Yui's reach, but if the younger Masuda girl kept snooping around, she would have to think of something else. Or tell her about it.
The high-school student frowned. Could she at least entrust this secret to Yui? Her sister knew about the weapons in the warehouse and helped her keep that secret. Maybe she should put more confidence into the middle-school student. An ally more in her team. She just had to come up with a plausible story - without any oni.
She took out her father's combat knife, put it in her shoulder bag, closed the box, and put it back in its place in the closet.
Then she went back down the hall and looked again at her roommate, who sat unchanged at the table. Yuna stopped and leaned through the door frame.
"Hey, Ayumi-san. Are you all right?"
The redhead winced and glanced over her shoulder. "Um... yeah, sure. Why do you ask?"
"You look thoughtful," confessed the girl.
"Hm." Refocusing her gaze on the flowers, the woman shrugged. "Kind of."
"Are you all right?"
Ayumi turned her chair around to see the blue-haired girl. "Yeah yeah. It's just girls stuff."
Grinning, Yuna replied, "I am a girl."
"Well..." The hostess seemed to remember something as she blinked a few times. "Hey, do you have a minute?"
"Sure."
"Come on in and close the door."
Defensive, the high-school student raised her hands. "If you want to put make-up on me or change my clothes, I'm going to hurt you."
The young woman laughed with amusement. "Nothing like that. I want to talk to you."
"That sounds serious," sighed Yuna.
"It is serious." The redhead nodded affirmatively.
The younger one entered the room, closed the door and sat down on the edge of the bed. Worried, she looked at the other woman. "What's up?"
Ayumi stroked her hair. "I'm not going to talk around the bush, okay?"
"If you want to give me another lecture about my relationship with Wataru..."
"I don't want to." Relieved, the girl breathed. "I want to know, why you're hunting again."
Dappled, the blue-haired girl twitched and looked down. "How do you know that?"
"From Yui. She came to me with it. I've played dumb, and she took it without questioning."
"I'm sorry," confessed Yuna.
"I thought, you wanted to stop and live a normal life? Why are you hunting then?" Ayumi asked.
"I have to." The younger tapped her chest. "The oni in me needs soul energy to survive. Without fresh souls he becomes weaker and that weakens me too."
"Shit... I guess you didn't know that before, did you?" A head shake sufficed as an answer. "Okay."
Slightly helpless, Yuna looked at the redhead. "Okay?"
"Yes. I mean, that's just how it is. One more reason to protect Yui from this fate, right?"
Quickly, the high-school student nodded. "Definitely. She must not be transformed by any means."
"Then I have to confess to you, unfortunately." Ayumi looked again at the flowers.
"What?"
"Kenji was here yesterday morning. In my room," the hostess said.
"Please spare me!" Disgusted the girl grimaced. "Then you're together, or what?"
"No! No." The redhead stroked her hair. "Actually, I like someone else, but we had a bad fight. And then Kenji was there looking after me. One thing led to the other... and..."
"Spare me!" Yuna snorted. "You know, no oni near Yui."
"Yes. I'm sorry. I don't want to see him again anyway. We also had a fight yesterday morning before he left."
"Are the flowers from him?" the blue-haired wondered.
"I'm not sure. Both guys could have sent them." Embarrassed grinned the older one.
"What are you always doing?" Yuna laughed.
"Yeah yeah."
For a moment, they sat silently together, following their thoughts. "Anything else, Ayumi-san?"
"No. I clear up my men problems. Don't worry."
"If I should beat someone up for you, all you have to do is say so," Yuna offered.
"Oh my God. No. I'll stay away from idiots like Haruto in the future." The hostess looked thoughtfully to the ground. "The one I like is actually a great man. Well situated, educated, polite. But we have our differences."
Nodding, the blue-haired girl said, "I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Maybe we can still turn it around."
"So are the flowers from him?" asked the high-school student.
"I hope so. Wouldn't be Kenji's style. I should call Kyo."
Yuna raised an eyebrow. "Kyo? Watanabe?"
Ayumi's cheeks blushed. "Um... yes."
"There's something about him I don't like."
"Yuna-chan..."
The blue-haired girl raised her hands reassuringly. "I don't mean that. But the way he talks to Haruka Narusegawa. I think there is something going on. After all, he knows she's an oni."
"That's true." Ayumi once turned her chair in a circle. "I can ask him."
"Just take care of yourself, okay?"
The immaculate smile of the hostess appeared. "Don't worry. He won't hurt me."
"I'm thinking about the oni. They are very keen on their privacy." Yuna got up from the bed. "Then can I go? I've got a date."
"With Wata?"
"No. Girls stuff," laughed the younger one.
"Okay. See you, Blue."
"Yes. Don't let yourself be pulled down by men, Ayumi-san." Afterwards, the high-school student left her roommate's room and headed for the stairs.
As she descended, she heard Morino-san and another man talking. "You really should replace the unit, Morino-san. That thing has been fixed so many times, that it's only a matter of time before it's going to break again."
"A new unit?! Do you know what that costs? I'm not swimming in money, you know?" the landlord snapped. The girl passed the open office door.
"I'm just warning you. If the thing has a cable fire and causes a fire, then the insurance will pay nothing for such an old device. I can prepare a cost estimate for a new air conditioning unit, if you want."
"And what is that supposed to cost?"
The mechanic kneaded his chin briefly. "Oh well. So far you have a split air conditioner. A new one costs about 230'000 yen. Or you could upgrade to a heat pump with variable circuit. That would be more expensive, but you can also use it for heating in the winter. And it could be installed to ventilate the entire building."
The landlord critically pinched his eyes. "Price?" Yuna put on her shoes.
"Phew. Difficult. I estimate at least 1.5 million yen."
"1.5 million?! Are you completely out of your mind?!" Morino-san rumbled.
The blue-haired grunted. According to her estimate, more than that amount was in the box in the warehouse. Morino-san was such a miser. She left the pension and made her way to the city to meet with her friends.
For a moment, she thought about writing to her sister and asking how she was feeling, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to do it. She would be able to talk to the blonde again soon enough, she was sure.
Until then, she had to come up with a plausible story for the weapons storage. And then look for a way to keep their guardian permanently away from the warehouses.