Chapter 127: I and Me / Aura (2/2)

She wasn’t going on a date, but it was true that she was going to meet with a man. And if that area was pecked at then things would become abnormally complicated with their conversation, so Youran attempted to avoid that by steering the conversation to Leticia’s business with her.

『It’s about tomorrow’s plan. Ya were going to come with me to go to various facilities and give ‘em our condolences, right? I came to discuss that with ya.』

「Condolences?」

『What’s up with that tone. You haven’t heard?』

「……Yeah, cause I left all the scheduling to Michiyo.」

Youran frowned. She had indeed left the scheduling to Michiyo and had heard nothing at all.

She had heard that the schedule tuning was finished, but if she knew that then she would have desisted form doing this.

Leticia was visiting Japan as a state guest, and any schedule that involved accompanying her was to be prioritized.

Michiyo had said that it would be alright.

「Twenty-four hours at most……」

『Haah? Ya say somethin’?』

「No, nothing.」

Youran shook her head. It seemed like her muttering had transmitted to the other side via the electromagnetic waves.

「……Seems like I’ll return by tomorrow, but if by any chance I’m not there, go ahead and attend with the body double. That should be fine.」

『Your head messed up?』

「Eh? What do you mean?」

Youran was taken aback. It was a last resort, but there shouldn’t have been a reason to have her be spoken about so disparagingly.

『No way this lass could substitute for ya.』

「Why not? Up until now she’s always――」

『This lass doesn’t have the aura.』

「Aura……」

Youran smiled wryly, wondering what she was getting on about.

『Ya might wanna get to know yerself a bit more. It’s all well and good if ya do things across the tv screen or wave yer hands from far away, but the thing tomorrow is a bit stretchin’ it for an actor. When giving condolences, you’ll be doing things like takin’ people’s hands and saying a thing or two.』

「That’s true, but……is it really that bad?」

『’Course it is. Your brain tissue lower than miso soup?』

Having said that strongly, Leticia let a small sigh escape.

『So ya can’t come back right now.』

She asked to clarify.

Youran felt a slight pang of guilt in response to her close friend’s softened attitude.

「Yeah, sorry. I don’t know if I’ll make it in time for tomorrow morning. But I’ll try my best to make it in time――」

『Don’t make promises that ya can’t keep.』

Leticia bluntly cut her off.

『I get it. At worst I’ll just say that you had a sudden illness.』

「……Sorry.」

『S’fine. More importantly, ya’d best prepare yerself, cause I’m gonna ask ya a lotta questions.』

Saying those last words, Leticia ended the call.

Remembering the word “aura” that she had used, Youran giggled, but that smile soon disappeared.

「Michiyo……What are you doing?」

She felt slight dissatisfaction with her retainer about the schedule.

Until now throughout all that had happened, she had trusted Michiyo and entrusted her with all the responsibility. But she didn’t so much as even tell her about the plans with the state guest.

The one to ultimately decided on that was herself, but she couldn’t even make judgements if there wasn’t any materials to judge.

At the very least, she would likely have drawn back tonight if she had known.

But there was no point in saying that by this time.

Youran organized the objective and the circumstances in her head.

The plan was for tomorrow morning, which meant…

「Hurry up and go, and hurry up and come back is all I need to do.」

She thought, once again walking in the direction of the destination building.

She walked comparatively faster than before the phone call. That was natural, as there were not at most 24 hours but rather only a few hours.

She advanced through the night streets along the route stored in her head.

Before long, she reached the place of destination that Michiyo notified her about.

The six floor multi-tenant building on the outskirts of town had its lights on.

Looking up at it, she did not immediately enter, instead taking out her compact mirror for some reason.

Using it, she checked her appearance. After confirming that there was nothing off about her reflection in the mirror, she took a deep breath and stepped into the building.

And the minute she went through the entrance, the shutters behind her fell with a crash.