join p atreon.com/KeyofStars for advance chapters | Every 100 powerstones = 1 extra chapter | Every 500 powerstones = free membership | Report issues @discord.com/GVBdncd9Wr
The after-effects of Truth Vision were still throbbing, so it seemed he wouldn't be able to use it today.
However, even if he could use it, it clearly didn't have such a thoughtful feature as automatic navigation.
"How then can we find the so-called mastermind?"
Yukino asked curiously.
"Yukinoshita-san... Oh, Miss Second, have you ever played a treasure hunt?"
Asakura answered irrelevantly.
"Treasure hunt? That childish game where you find hidden things based on a treasure map?"
The girl said haughtily, "I'm not interested."
Asakura gazed at her gently with an understanding look.
It seems no one wants to play with her.
"Don't look at me like that; it's giving me goosebumps."
Yukino scrunched up her small face in disgust and leaned back slightly.
"Can't you feel my abundant paternal love!"
Asakura said earnestly.
"Humans cannot perceive things that do not exist."
The girl's eyes grew even colder.
"Fallacy. Don't simps feel the 'love' of the one they simp for?"
"That's just the delusion of a dog eating chocolate before it dies."
"Don't mobile game players often feel that 'I've already spent sixty pulls, I hold the future in my hands, blue-green modifier, activate!' kind of hope?"
"Please do not defame the word 'hope'; that is merely a carefully designed consumer trap by merchants."
"Then when doing reading comprehension, don't you often perceive emotions or metaphors that the original author didn't even write!"
"...It's all the fault of the antiquated education system."
Yukino mumbled.
To say something so nearly childishly stubborn, in a sense, was already tantamount to implicitly admitting defeat.
"Very good, let's talk about the treasure hunt again."
Asakura nodded with satisfaction.
"Was that the topic we were just discussing...?"
"There's a type of treasure hunt where you mark points on a map based on clues, and then connect those points with lines..." Asakura ignored the girl's retort and continued, "And when two or more lines converge at the same place, that convergence point is the 'One Piece' you're looking for."
Yukino showed a thoughtful expression.
To weave such a massive network of malice, the opponent themselves cannot be perfectly hidden. So Asakura planned to find a few more patients also infected with Human-Faced Sore and meticulously search along the direction of the malice emanating from those Human-Faced Sore. Although it might take some time, he would eventually find clues.
"So, that means we need to find other Human-Faced Sore... or rather, patients with 'Acute Atypical Connective Tissue System Necrosis'?"
Yukinoshita Miss Second stared at Asakura and asked.
"Roughly."
Asakura nodded, "Theoretically, the more you see, the more precise the final positioning will be."
As he spoke, he unconsciously rubbed his still throbbing eye: "However, seeing one a day is probably enough. Too many and I might not be able to handle it..."
Yukino looked at Asakura's eyes and noticed that his right eye was, at some point, already bloodshot, and some protective tears had formed in his eye socket, making him look a bit comical.
But the girl had no intention of mocking Asakura at all; instead, her expression softened considerably.
"Leave the task of finding those patients to me."
Yukino said, "My resources should make it easier to find them than yours."
"Then, is everything okay with your Service Club?"
Asakura asked curiously.
"Togawa's matter... Honestly, I don't think time is that pressing, and originally, solving her problem would require a long-term plan..." The girl replied unhurriedly, "Problems based on material issues cannot be solved simply by opening one's heart and saying a few words."
"I see... Then I'll leave it to you."
Since she was willing to set aside the Service Club's matters to help, Asakura naturally had no intention of refusing.
Just as she said, as the second daughter of the Yukinoshita family, it would definitely be much easier for her to find other Human-Faced Sore patients than for him to run from hospital to hospital—after all, even if he were willing to visit every hospital, those hospitals would likely not tell Asakura which people were patients with Acute Atypical Connective Tissue System Necrosis, due to patient privacy.
"And it just so happens that I also need to prepare a bit for that mastermind."
Asakura continued.
"Calling the police directly... I guess that won't work."
Yukino said hesitantly.
Since the other party could manipulate an anomaly like Human-Faced Sore, ordinary police officers probably wouldn't be a match.
In fact, if she thought about it carefully, this kind of supernatural power didn't even have fundamental evidence, so calling the police would be meaningless. The police wouldn't just arrest someone based on a single statement.
"Don't worry..." Asakura didn't seem to care much: "The opponent is by no means my match. The reason I need to prepare is only to prevent them from jumping the gun. After all, if that guy simply unleashed the Human-Faced Sore' restrictions at the end, letting that thing become a real 'contagious disease,' then it would be a bit troublesome to deal with."
He couldn't possibly burn the entire Chiba or even Tokyo with a single fire like he did with Mount Kumotori before. One must know that the after-effects from back then haven't fully healed even now; most of his hair is still white.
"Mm."
Yukino nodded obediently. She still trusted Asakura considerably in these matters.
"Then I'll take my leave first."
Asakura stood up and said, after all, Gotō Hitori was still being neglected by him, and he was still a bit uneasy with only a humanoid cat accompanying her.
It was only before leaving the ward that Asakura seemed to remember something, suddenly turning around and gently tapping Yukino's forehead with his joined index and middle fingers.
"Uh…"
The girl was momentarily stunned.
"Sorry, this is the last time."
Asakura, leaning close to the young girl, whispered in a low, magnetic voice.
Yukino felt that this guy was probably having another episode, and could only sigh helplessly. However, she herself didn't realize that her round earlobes had already turned bright red at this moment.
After burning away the Human-Faced Sore lurking within Yukino, Asakura smiled and left the ward.
The girl watched his back disappear at the door. Just as she was about to check on her sister's condition, she saw Haruno, who had woken up at some point, nestled in the covers, looking at her with sparkling eyes.
"Well, although I told Yukino not to be sad about my illness, isn't it a bit too much to flirt with a boy in my ward?"
Yukinoshita Haruno looked on the verge of tears, but the curiosity and gossip in her expression far outweighed the sadness: "Your big sister, I'm really, really sad~"
"No, that's not it at all!"
"I wonder if, in my remaining short life, I'll be able to see Yukino in a white wedding kimono…"
"Sister—!"
In the hallway outside, Asakura heard Yukinoshita Yukino let out such a loud burst for the first time.
"How youthful."
He looked at the clear sky outside the window and exclaimed calmly.
join p atreon.com/KeyofStars for advance chapters | Every 100 powerstones = 1 extra chapter | Every 500 powerstones = free membership | Report issues @discord.com/GVBdncd9Wr