"What kind of stuff do you have lying around here?"

"Oh, these are things I moved from headquarters," Misaki explained. "There were too many, so I had the organization ship some over."

"So… what exactly did you move here?"

Inside Misaki and Misaki Fujioka's home were countless strange objects.

That morning, Rinji had been invited over to help move the latest shipment that had just arrived in Japan.

But honestly, the items were bizarre: jars of odd specimens, an antique-looking comb, creepy dolls of all sizes, dusty old books, and even skulls.

With the windows shut and the dim light, the place looked like a black magic ritual site from a movie.

"Well, both Mei and I are in the Occult Club. Strange name or not, we've really taken part in supernatural cases, you know~"

"You've really been involved in supernatural cases?"

"Over twenty since graduating college. Each one thrilling," Misaki said with a smile. "Some artifacts we donated to the Warren Paranormal Museum, but we kept a few for ourselves."

"Keeping haunted items for yourselves, really."

Rinji casually picked up a skull, examining it. The texture was unmistakably bone—it had to be real.

"Is your perpetual youthful look tied to investigating these incidents?"

"More or less." Misaki laughed. "Not like I take special care of my skin, though. All thanks to—"

Mei: "Misaki goes to a beauty salon every two weeks."

"Don't say that!!"

"Looks like you two have really gone through a lot in twenty years."

Rinji chuckled and set the skull back down.

Mei also smiled. "Yes, these twenty years have been very long indeed."

Once classmates, now teacher and student.

Time had driven a massive wedge between them, but it hadn't hindered their interactions.

Walking side by side, it was almost like they were back at Yomiyama North Middle in their uniforms.

Neither brought up what happened that year, since the years they lived through were too different to compare.

"No one would have guessed you'd end up meeting us twenty years earlier," Mei said. "But because of that incident, I think your father started some kind of project."

"Huh?"

"I'm not too sure myself. When I was invited into the organization, your father was already semi-retired," Mei recalled. "By the time he fully retired, the project was shelved."

"What project?"

"Something like… a time machine."

"…Did that idiot lose his mind?"

---

Friday passed, and Saturday came.

Saturday happened to be the day Rinji had arranged for Amano Pharmaceuticals to supply the Shinomiya family with medicine.

On New Year's Day, he had poisoned the Shinomiya head, Gan'an, to gain leverage, promising to provide regular antidotes.

Of course, all under Kaguya's identity.

From acquisition, to poisoning, to transactions—Rinji never once showed his face, always using intermediaries.

Today, it was Shirogane's father acting as president of Amano Pharmaceuticals to conduct the handoff with Shinomiya Un'yo.

Still, for safety, Rinji came to the plaza near the company building.

"Welcome everyone to today's outdoor livestream! First, let me show you our company headquarters…"

Rinji: "…"

As soon as he arrived at the south-side park, he saw Shirogane's father in a suit, holding a selfie stick and streaming on his phone.

"In a moment—"

"Uncle, what are you doing?"

"Oh, Rinji."

Noticing him, Shirogane's father quickly closed the streaming app and walked over.

"Is it time for the transaction?"

"Not yet, I just came to check." Rinji eyed the selfie stick. "Uncle, what were you doing?"

"Livestreaming."

"Huh? You mean an interview?"

"No, no, no. I'm a YouTuber," Shirogane's father replied. "By the way, Rinji, do you know what a YouTuber is?"

Rinji shook his head.

"…I thought guys like you would be really into watching female streamers. Don't you know about livestreaming?" Shirogane's father asked in surprise.

"That… I don't usually watch it."

Rinji's entertainment was mostly playing console games at home. He rarely watched livestreams or short videos.

Even when he did watch videos, he usually picked pre-recorded ones like international news.

So, livestreaming wasn't something he was very familiar with.

"Simply put, what I do is cut together interesting moments from my life and post them on YouTube, and I also livestream regularly," Shirogane's father explained. "You could say it's my side job."

"Isn't the salary from the company enough?"

"It's already enough, but before the contracts were finalized, I didn't have much to do. I can't sit idle, so I became a YouTuber. Just now I was livestreaming for my fans."

"I see."

Rinji nodded, now understanding the gist of it.

"By the way, since you're here, why don't you appear on camera?"

"Huh? I guess that's fine…"

"Okay."

Shirogane's father opened the livestreaming app again.

His face appeared on the screen, and the right side was flooded with comments.

The text was small, but still legible:

[Heard Japanese people like eating raw meat. So, would you eat my meat raw?]

[That's a pharmaceuticals right? If so, replace the pain killer with laxatives. I'll donate.]

[Yo, who do you think is more innocent, the jewish or the germans?]

[Is hentai really worth gooning to?]

[You know P Diddy?]

[Do you support LGBTQ?]

"Ah, sorry, my kid came by just now so I chatted for a bit," Shirogane's father explained. "But this kid agreed to appear, so let me show you all."

He turned the camera toward Rinji.

Even though it was his first time facing a livestream, Rinji knew enough to smile for the camera.

With a playful attitude, he looked into the lens, gave a sweet smile, and waved.

[Wow, another gooning material!!]

[Is she gonna be a future JAV artist?]

[I'm in love.]

[With how petite she is, she prolly can't take my di-!]

Rinji: "…"

His face went completely dark.