Chapter 2.6 (2/2)

“Exactly right. Miss Yui ”

“Eh!? What’s going on?”

Kujou took a deep breath and spoke out with exceptionally serious eyes.

“Yumiko, you wanted to escape. To escape from the reality that no one would help you or care about you. So then you made up that everything was done by youkai. You said that everything was youkai’s faults. And at last, you made up the chain of uproar, pretending your mother had experienced kamikakus.h.i.+.”

Trembling while breathing, she chose the path of escaping from Kujou’s words unconsciously.

“… Please listen to me… Please listen to me… Kamikakus.h.i.+… Actually happened… Youkai… Actually existed… Please listen to me.”

She murmured with her vacant eyes, and she was heard by the three silently.

“Excuse me.”

A lively and clear voice came from the entrance.

The color of consciousness returned to the eyes of Yumiko, who repeated the process of self-justification vacantly.

“Oh! She was here.”

While speaking, Akira walked to the entrance hall and came to the reception office with a middle-aged woman after a while.

Her age was around forty. Her semi-long, well-trimmed hair was glossy, and the cleanliness of her makeup and jacket left people with the impression of a woman who can work at their first glance.

“… Wh, why are you… Here.”

Seeing the woman coming into the room, Yumiko stood up and a voice mixing of astonishment and wrath leaked out.

“Yumiko!!”

Contrary to Yumiko’s voice, the woman who had a box in her hands that read “Sucre Ciel in Hatsudai, the Cookie Sandwich Specialty Shop” spoke with a happy voice.

“I apologize for not introducing myself at first. I work at Hakoniwa Detective Agency and my name is Kous.h.i.+rou Kujou. Are you Mrs. Harue Kinos.h.i.+ta, the mother of Yumiko Kinos.h.i.+ta?”

“Y… Yes. Correct.”

Unable to understand the circ.u.mstance, Harue replied with confusion. In order to hear about the case, she was prompted by Kujou to sit by Yumiko.

Kujou slowly sat onto the sofa.

Four people, including Yui and Akira, were looking at Kujou.

A piece of firewood crackled in the fireplace, which warmed up the atmosphere of winter.

After a moment of silence, Kujou spoke to Yumiko.

“I brought your mother, who had experienced kamikakus.h.i.+, here.”

“Eh…” Harue reacted with a faint voice that was so quiet that you might miss it without paying close attention.

“When Kujou sent me the message, I was really surprised. ‘Find a missing person instead of the witnesses regarding youkai! And keep it secret.’”

“However, it was unexpectedly easy to find her, right?”

“Yeah. I investigated detailedly as the second email instructed, and I found her immediately. But I’ve never thought about the person lining up in front of us at the cookie sandwich store was actually her.”

This armchair detective3 was looking at Yumiko, who did not speak one word, as if he had already known everything from the very beginning.

“You said that you love cookie sandwiches to the extent that you wanted to eat it every day. When I hear that I realized that your mother must visit the store very frequently, especially within this month.”

Akira did not understand Kujou’s way of speaking. Although he acted like there was a question mark above his head, Kujou ignored him and faced Yumiko with a smile.

“Mrs. Harue hadn’t experienced kamikakus.h.i.+. I think she goes to work every day as usual. From her outfit, she seemed to come here from the middle of her work. Probably she came here during her lunch break in order to meet with Akira and Yui.”

“Eh? Wait a second. Then the missing person the police talked about wasn’t Mrs. Harue!? ”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

Staring at her, who remained silent and hadn’t spoken a word for a while, Kujou said.

“Yumiko, you were the missing person.”

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