120 Come Hug Me! (1/2)

‘Hey, hey, what’s with this sudden character assassination!?’

But… it even seemed reasonable on the surface. Seiji found it difficult to counter Hitaka’s statement.

Being so affectionate with a beautiful girl who he was still unfamiliar with… This indeed seemed like…

‘No, I’m not!’ he denied vehemently. ‘Perverts… have dirty minds! Mine is pure!!’

Hitaka regarded him coolly.

Seiji looked back at her, his expression calm.

Inwardly, however, Seiji was having a mental collapse.

”I still don’t quite understand.” If this was a manga, there would surely be a series of question marks above the red-haired girl’s head.

”Then please don’t follow this line of thought anymore, and ignore it,” Seiji begged sincerely.

”Alright.”

”Thank you.”

After a puzzling silence.

”What should we do now?” Seiji asked seriously, forcing himself to forget the little awkward episode.

Somehow, taking Shika Kagura to a hospital and returning home didn’t seem like a good idea.

”We’ll take her back to Milady,” Hitaka stated.

Seiji nodded in agreement. This seemed like a reasonable development.

Seiji seemed to think of something else, as he looked at the cracked ground from Shika’s landing dubiously.

”Don’t worry; the ‘Cleaners’ will take care of it,” Hitaka said.

‘Cleaners?’ Seiji raised his eyebrows in surprise.

This definitely didn’t sound like a janitor or anything like that…

‘Forget it; since Hitaka said it wasn’t necessary to worry, I shouldn’t think too much about it.’

…

A seemingly ordinary three-story building was located in the eastern part of Genhana High School’s grounds.

More accurately speaking, this was their temporary residence due to the current situation.

Seiji looked outside the window as he slowly sipped from the cup of hot tea in his hand.

The warm tea slid down his throat, giving him a soothing feeling.

A short while after they’d left the park together, Seiji, Hitaka, and Shika were picked up by a black luxury car, the latter being carried in Seiji’s arms.

The driver was a brown-haired woman who wore dark grey professional clothing.

After getting on the car, the driver took them to this residence.

As Seiji lifted Shika out the car, he saw Natsuya awaiting their arrival outside the door of the building…

Footsteps sounded from behind him, interrupting Seiji’s musings.

Seiji turned around and saw President Yoruhana.

”How… is she?”

”Her injuries aren’t too serious. I’ve had them treated already,” Natsuya stated in a light voice as she walked to the table, took a teacup, and poured herself a cup of hot tea from the kettle.

”At the same time, I also sealed her powers as a Spirit-branded Retainer.”

After her red lips blew twice on the hot tea, she took a sip.

”After she wakes up, I have some questions to ask her…”

”Information gathering… Of course.” Seiji put down his cup as he finished the tea. ”But I doubt that she’ll have any useful information.”

Natsuya remained silent for a few moments, before sighing.

”You’re probably right, Haruta-kun.” Judging from the part she played in the enemy’s plot, as well as… the battle clothes she was wearing, it can be deduced that she was nothing more than a chess piece to be used and discarded by the enemy.”

Seiji raised his eyebrows.

”Her… battle clothes?”

”The formal name for these clothes is ‘Standard Retainer Combat Equipment…’ As you saw for yourself, Hitaka was also wearing a similar type, but the specific… details were different,” Natsuya explained.

”Their clothes did seem quite similar, just with different colors.” Seiji thought back to what both of them had been wearing.

”This is the standard form, and most of them will greatly resemble each other. The differences come from… each Spirit-branded Retainer’s individual differences, so they normally have appropriate customizations.” Natsuya paused for a moment. ”I inspected Shika Kagura’s battle clothes closely and found no customizations whatsoever. Apart from the fact that she was wearing the correct size, it was just the standard basic model with absolutely no modifications.”

”Not only that, it was also of rather low quality.”

Seiji mulled over Natsuya’s words in silence.