However, after walking just a few steps, Xiao Chun Miura realized the problem.
Although the street was not exactly crowded, there were still gazes directed her way.
‘Is this really a bit too obvious?’
Xiao Chun Miura quickly stood up straight, pretending that she was just out for a normal walk.
“Whew…”
“Need to stay calm.”
If she got caught, the whole point would be lost. If everyone on this street was staring at…
She looked at the girl walking alone on Sakuragicho Street a short distance ahead.
‘If she just paid a little attention, she would notice the passersby staring at the person behind her.’
She could not leave a bad impression before even making contact.
Although she would only be able to ask straightforward questions after catching up, she at least did not want to be discovered as a stalker before she could even reach her.
It would be all over if she scared the person away.
She should try to act more harmless.
She silently set a new acting strategy for herself in her heart.
Following behind Mayumi through the alley next to the livehouse, the two reached a place where the light was dim. The faint glow from the neon lights of the skyscrapers in the shopping street reflected on the clouds, casting some thin outlines here.
Seeing that there was no one around, Xiao Chun Miura figured the time was about right.
“Excuse me… please wait!”
Xiao Chun Miura stopped five or six meters behind the other girl, her voice trembling slightly, sounding exceptionally clear in the empty alley.
Mayumi stopped abruptly like a frightened deer, her beautiful hair shaking dramatically.
She looked back, and when she saw it was Xiao Chun Miura, the eyes revealed outside her mask were full of doubt and unease.
“…Are you the one from before… the one who came by?”
Mayumi’s voice was very thin, carrying a clear sense of defense.
She looked quite vigilant.
‘…She has become much more timid than the last time I saw her, right?’
Xiao Chun Miura frowned.
When she met Mayumi in the rest room last time, Mayumi was quite cheerful and generous—she remembered clearly that she even complained about Arisa Kiyono without reservation.
Of those few people, only Maki was a bit more calm. If anything, Yuu, whom she saw first at the rest room door, was actually the type who left the impression of being the most timid of the three.
What was going on?
…Could it be?
A bad premonition welled up in Xiao Chun Miura’s heart for no reason.
“…Do you have something to ask me? What’s the matter?”
Just as she was thinking, Mayumi’s voice brought Xiao Chun Miura back to reality.
“Ah, I’m sorry, did I scare you?”
Xiao Chun Miura cleared her thoughts and took two steps forward, stopping at a safe distance from the other party.
She wore an apologetic smile, and her submissive posture made Mayumi’s defensive state relax slightly.
“What… what are you trying to do by following me?” Mayumi gripped her instrument case tightly. Although her voice was still trembling, she did not run away immediately.
“I want to ask about ALISA…”
“…I have nothing to say. Everyone already said what needed to be said about ALISA in the rest room just now.”
Who would have thought that the moment Arisa Kiyono was mentioned, Mayumi’s body shuddered, and she immediately interrupted Xiao Chun Miura.
“They didn’t tell the whole story.”
Xiao Chun Miura lifted her head, her eyes looking exceptionally bright and sincere in the dim light. “You know about yesterday’s incident, right?”
Mayumi froze. She opened her mouth but did not speak.
“Just now in the rest room, you kept looking at me. I noticed.”
Xiao Chun Miura narrowed the distance a little more. “You kept sneaking peeks at me, but when I looked back, you pretended nothing happened and turned away.”
Xiao Chun Miura could feel that with every word she said, Mayumi was trembling.
“I… I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Mayumi shook her head, trying to step back. “I am just a normal member. I don’t know anything about ALISA.”
…As expected, it is not that easy to get her to open up.
Xiao Chun Miura watched Mayumi, who was backing away with her head down, without changing her expression.
Although there was no change in her facial expression, Xiao Chun Miura felt a bit of anxiety in her heart.
If she could not make Mayumi talk, the only clue she might be able to grasp would be broken.
It would be even more difficult for her to find any breakthrough through the idols.
Stay calm, Xiao Chun Miura took a deep breath.
“—You know.”
Xiao Chun Miura decided to guide her step by step.
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
“Yesterday afternoon, before ALISA was late and returned… you were around here, and you saw her with someone you didn’t know, or you saw something happen to her, didn’t you?”
Mayumi’s eyes widened, and she stood frozen in place.
This reaction…
There was nothing more to say.
Xiao Chun Miura looked at Mayumi.
Even if she made excuses, it would be ineffective. Mayumi must know what happened to Arisa Kiyono yesterday.
…Now she could only hope she was willing to tell her.
If she was unwilling, she would—
“…Yes.”
Xiao Chun Miura was still thinking of a strategy in her mind, but Mayumi’s answer had already come.
After a long silence, the evening wind whistled through the alley, sweeping up a few withered, fallen leaves.
Mayumi’s shoulders slumped as if she had completely collapsed. She leaned powerlessly against the brick wall nearby and spoke with a frown.
“I… I did see it.”
—That answer finally made Xiao Chun Miura get her wish.
“…So that is how it is.”
A few minutes later, the conversation between the two, still lingering in the shadows of the building alley, came to an end. Xiao Chun Miura nodded thoughtfully.
According to Mayumi, many of them went to a restaurant on Sakuragicho Street to eat yesterday… then Mayumi’s throat felt uncomfortable because she had a cold, so she wanted to go to a nearby pharmacy to buy some cold medicine.
—Then she saw… ALISA walking on the street with a girl she did not recognize.
The atmosphere between the two was very strange. Although they were walking side by side, they were not talking, and ALISA’s expression was terrible.
That was why Mayumi suspected that something had happened between ALISA and that girl.
A girl she had seen… huh?
Xiao Chun Miura pondered.
Who could it be if even the idols who spent every day with Arisa Kiyono had never seen her?
She knew that with the way Arisa Kiyono had been hiding from people lately, there were not many people she would interact with.
Plus, given that she had to know she was an idol at this livehouse, if no one had mentioned such a person, Xiao Chun Miura would have thought she was the only one in the world who met the criteria.
As it turned out, there was actually such a girl.
Xiao Chun Miura had an intuition that this girl was the key to the situation.
Someone Arisa Kiyono was willing to meet at this stage, someone who knew she was an idol at a livehouse, and someone the other idols did not know.
Such a person, even if not the mastermind behind Arisa Kiyono’s current situation, must be a key figure with a complicated identity.
And, considering that Arisa Kiyono became distraught after meeting her yesterday and messaged her saying, “It is best not to come today”…
The girl frowned slightly and made a judgment.
—It was highly likely that the other party was detrimental to Arisa Kiyono.