Ken's (very sudden) departure left the men in the room super speechless. They, especially Hirano, realize that there is something indecent forgotten by them. The mood immediately changed.
Before the door completely closed after Ken's departure, a man dressed all in black entered with a pale look on his face. When he entered the room, the four men in the room became increasingly pale in the face.
"Sakurai-san?" Hirano was the first to speak up. "Is there anything going on that we don't know about?"
The man named Sakurai seemed to swallow his own saliva. Without needing to hear the answer to his question, Hirano could already read the expression of his interlocutor. And that wasn't something he wanted to hear.
"That boy ...." Sakurai said, looking at Ken's back as he ran down the aisle to the lift. "His sister was involved in the Hanomote Road accident."
Hirano immediately stood up from his seat. He approached Sakurai. His right hand gripped the door hinge while the other hand held Sakurai's shoulder.
"Sakurai-san and Go―I mean, Yamashita-san, please come with me upstairs," Hirano said in a low voice, lowering his head and staring at his shoe. "Aoki-san and Sasaki-kun, please take care of our new members and let them go home in ten minutes from now on."
***
Ken sighed irritably and was frustrated that his call had not been picked up. While looking here and there, he finally saw the back of someone familiar, even though it was not the person he was looking for. Without thinking, Ken walked over to him.
"Morita-san, where's Suzume?!"
Morita Shou suddenly looked back when his shoulder was gripped, plus the sound that appeared was enough to make his ears hurt. The two young men stared at each other for a moment until Ken turned his gaze toward the front, toward someone he was looking for, was standing in a fit condition without any lack of anything.
"Eh?" Ken looked confused, but the worry in his eyes instantly disappeared. "You okay?"
Suzume nodded. She moved her hand as if to say that Ken could see it for himself. "As you can see."
Still with a puzzled expression, Ken walked over to his sister, watching her from head to toe closely. "Are you sure? You're not lying, are you?"
"No," Suzume insisted.
"Then, why did someone call me with your phone and say you had an accident?"
"Huh?"
"Ah ... that," Interrupted Morita, making the Imai sibling turn to him. "That's the person who called the ambulance, Senpai. Looks like you dropped your phone and that guy thought it was the ramen delivery boy's."
"Oh, that's right. No wonder my phone wasn't there and it was at the ramen delivery boy's nursery."
"Is that really what happened?" Ken spoke haltingly.
Suzume chuckled, while patting his back to calm and reassure her brother. "Indeed. Someone pushed me in the middle of the street while we were waiting for a traffic light. I could hold my balance and not fall into the street, but Shou-kun was shocked and panicked. The ramen delivery boy who was passing by was hit by Shou-kun's Stone Gate and that's why we were responsible for bringing him here."
Ken was speechless after hearing Suzume's explanation. At least, he was relieved that his sister was really okay. Even so, Ken knew that this could not be considered finished just like that.
"Where was the scene?" Ken inquires once more. "Did you see the man who pushed you?"
Morita responded. "On Hanomote Road, not far from Jikai's. And unfortunately, I didn't get to see that person because we were already surrounded by a lot of people."
Suzume nodded. The corners of her lips lifted, while she slowly glanced at Ken. "Now that you're here, you can be relieved and not worry about me anymore, Ken."
Ken was silent, not intending to respond to his sister's words, not even with a murmur or a smile. Instead, he glanced at the young man sitting next to Suzume. The two of them looked at each other for less than a minute as if they were exchanging ideas until Morita finally woke up and said, "I'm going out for a while. I'm thirsty."
Ken followed Morita for the same reason. They both looked like strangers who had never met each other when viewed from the outside, but the blank looks they showed on each other's faces seemed to indicate that they were involved in and burdened with the same matter. And the truth is that they are indeed dealing with the same issue.
"They're already after Suzume," Ken said breaking the silence between them. The two of them sat on a bench next to the vending machine while looking back and forth at the passing hospital patients. "How do I explain this to her?"
Morita sipped the canned drink in his hand while observing Ken's movements who looked frustrated but couldn't do anything. Suddenly, he sees in Ken how helpless he was two years ago when the same thing happened to him.
"You want to keep it a secret from her?" Morita asked. Ken was silent. "Are you sure she'll believe whatever your plan is?"
Ken took a deep breath. He leaned his back against the wall while raising his head, looking at the ceiling. Both corners of his lips were raised. "I know right? Even if she said she believed me and didn't protest anything, she would secretly find out for herself in her own way. Absolutely."
Morita snorted, his mouth forming a grin. "I thought she was an esper."
They both shook their heads compactly.
Suddenly there was the ringing sound of a smartphone, but Ken was sure that it was not his. Beside him, Morita had already put his phone to his ear as he murmured quietly, "Moshi-moshi."
As curious as Ken was, he still knew the limits of other people's privacy so he tried hard not to eavesdrop on Morita's conversation. But at the end of their call, it was he who deliberately revealed the contents of the conversation with the other person on the phone by shouting, "What girlfriend?!" then cut off the call unilaterally. Ken looked in a direction other than Morita to reduce the intensity of the awkwardness.
"Gotta go," Morita said as he stood up and threw away his empty can. Ken just glanced at his movements while nodding softly.
Still observing Morita's back, which was starting to fall short of his sight, Ken gave a snort. "What the hell? Pft ... interesting."
...
"Hirano-kun, it's bad. Something's not right here."
Hirano rushed to Sakurai who was still sitting in front of four computer screens, each showing a different look. Sakurai pointed his finger towards one of the screens in front of his face, telling Hirano to carefully observe the direction he was pointing.
"This code ... it's Jikai's, right?" Sakurai had no doubt, but was still confused. "Or am I probably wrong?"
Hirano stared at the screen with a look not much different from Sakurai's. A few moments later, he retracted his face from the screen while diverting his mind by staring at the other three screens.
"How about this, Masayuki-kun?" Yamashita Gorou came up to the two of them while staring at the computer screens in front of Sakurai. He put both his hands in his pockets. "Judging from what we found, it's possible that Jikai was indeed interfering with Imai-kun. But it's also not impossible that this is just a trap from Kage since this is the first time another group has to deal with the problems involved with the Chosen Elementor. So ... which one should we believe?"
"A trap from the Kage, huh? Hmm...." Hirano muttered as he stroked his chin. "Okay, let's just say so. That's mean, besides investigating the Kage, we must also remain vigilant with Jikai."
"Are you sure?" Sakurai asked, still with distrust lodged in his mind.
Hirano only smiled faintly. "After all, we're dealing with a Kage, Sakurai-san. Don't underestimate them, according to my instincts. Well, it doesn't mean we should blow up Jikai's base right now if I say we should be wary of them. Do you remember that Ken-kun's sister and mother were part of Jikai?"
Sakurai and Gorou looked at each other for a moment, but didn't say anything in refutation.
Meanwhile, Hirano walked out of the room while holding his phone to his ear.