Erika was monitoring Leo's hospital room under the pretext of nursing him while skipping school. She knew Tatsuya understood her true intentions, but she figured her other friends likely viewed it as mere fodder for teasing.
"My, Chiba-san."
"…Saegusa-senpai."
It was entirely unexpected for Erika to see the former Student Council President and the former Club Management Group Head visiting the room she was watching. Leo belonged to neither the Council nor the Group; for the two of them to visit together seemed bizarre to her. It would have been far more natural for the current heads of those organizations to visit.
Katsuto glanced at Erika for a split second, then, seemingly losing interest, showed no further reaction. Mayumi offered a greeting and a slight nod—accompanied by a masterfully crafted social smile—before fixing her gaze on the door, ignoring Erika entirely thereafter.
Erika did not stop Mayumi from knocking on the door. She was merely keeping watch for "uninvited guests," and she had no grounds to stop two such prominent seniors from visiting.
Without a word to her seniors, Erika slipped past them and headed down the hall. Her destination was one of the hospital's administrative offices. Inside, she found her brother and his trusted subordinate.
As Erika entered without knocking, Toshikazu looked away awkwardly, his gaze shifting subtly. Seeing his cheek, which was slightly swollen—or rather, almost entirely healed—Erika regretted not hitting him harder. After all, opportunities to punch this "idiot brother" of hers while he remained passive were rare.
"Umm, young miss. You aren't thinking anything violent, are you?"
When Erika shot a sharp glare at Inagaki, he flinched and his eyes began to swim. Though Erika was treated coldly by her father, she had many sympathizers among the dojo students.
Moreover, it was said that currently, the only swordsmen capable of matching Erika—who had combined her natural talent with a rapid increase in skill over the last six months—were the Head of the family and her two older brothers. If Inagaki were designated as her training partner, the only outcome would be him getting thoroughly thrashed.
"Brother, the direct descendants of the Saegusa and Juumonji clans just went into his room."
"Apparently, the girl rescued alongside Saijou-kun last night was a retainer of the Saegusa family."
"Is that all?"
"Orders from above. We are not to pry any further."
Toshikazu shrugged, palms facing up in a theatrical gesture. Irritated by his attitude, Erika almost struck out but managed to restrain herself, letting out a clicked tongue instead.
"Leaving Kasumigaseki aside, surely Sakuradamon is our turf, isn't it?"
"We belong to Kasumigaseki, remember?"
"Useless."
At Erika's bitterly muttered insult, both Toshikazu and Inagaki looked equally uncomfortable. However, Erika retained enough rationality not to take her frustrations out on them any further.
"What about the bugs?"
"Destroyed the moment they entered the room. I didn't expect the Elven Princess's 'Multiscope' to be this high-performance."
"Even more useless… What about the ones planted outside the room?"
"Those were neutralized by sound isolation. It's Juumonji's barrier magic."
Exasperated by Toshikazu's answer and Inagaki's clinical report, Erika didn't even bother saying "useless" again.
"Fine, a conjecture will do. You have an idea, don't you?"
Glared at by Erika and questioned in a tone far removed from what a girl should use, Toshikazu shrugged once more.
"It really is just a guess, alright? It seems the Saegusa are trying to conceal the victim."
"…Concealing a body? You mean this 'Vampire' incident involves magicians?"
"Probably. Though I don't know if they are the victim or the perpetrator."
"The victim? If it were a crime committed by a magician, I could understand them wanting to handle it secretly without the police. But if a magician is the victim, is there any need to hide it from the authorities?"
"Well, that's the point. That's why I get the feeling this case isn't going to be straightforward."
In response to his sister's combative tone, Toshikazu answered with a grin.
After school, Tatsuya arrived at the Nakano Police Hospital to visit Leo, towing the usual group members along with him. After asking for the room number at the reception desk and heading toward the elevators, his name was called from the side just before they reached the lift.
"Tatsuya-kun, everyone. You came."
"Erika, you're still here?"
"I haven't been here the whole time, you know. I went home once and came back about an hour ago. I figured you guys would show up."
Erika answered Tatsuya's question as they all piled into the elevator. She took a spot next to Tatsuya under the guise of answering him. Miyuki and Honoka watched this with slightly displeased expressions, though Tatsuya was the only one who noticed.
However, everyone except Erika realized that her voice and expression were so overly natural that they actually felt fake.
"Still, putting Tatsuya-kun aside, I thought Mizuki and Miki would skip school to come."
"I really wanted to, but I didn't have a valid excuse like you did, Erika-chan."
"Well, half the reason he got attacked is my idiot brother's fault, after all."
"Leo was helping with the investigation, right? It must be a really difficult case."
The fact that Leo was assisting Toshikazu had been exposed due to this incident. It was a small mercy that since it wasn't a formal cooperation, only those close to him knew about it.
"Come to think of it, Saegusa-senpai and Juumonji-senpai visited, didn't they? What business did they have?"
"Tatsuya-kun, how did you know?"
"Their names were in the reception log."
In this day and age, one had to record their name and relationship to the patient even for a visit. Tatsuya had keenly spotted the two names while signing in.
"As expected of you, Tatsuya-kun… But I don't know why they visited. It's not like I was in the room with them."
"…I see."
The bugs were disabled. Erika conveyed this to Tatsuya without words, and Tatsuya received the message accurately.
"So, Erika-chan, is Leo-kun okay?"
"I told you in the email, didn't I? For now, he's fine."
As she said this, Erika stood before the door to Leo's room and smiled to reassure everyone. Only Tatsuya and Miyuki realized that her smile was a mask, worn to spare them from unnecessary worry.
(Author's Note: There are probably plenty of people who would want to be punched by Erika... though I would personally decline...)
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