Koori and Shirley were in front of Café de Mancio. Koori hurriedly stopped Shirley who was about to enter from the front.
“Hold on a minute, what are you thinking!?”
“Huh? Aren’t we investigating this shop?”
“Are you saying that we should enter the shop from the front!? Are you going to ask if they have anything to do with the trance events!?”
“They won’t tell us?”
How serious is this girl––Koori started to get a headache.
“Let’s go in from the other side.”
“Sure.”
They went through the gap between the buildings and into the back alley.
In most cities, buildings were close together without any s.p.a.ce in between; but in Canaan, there were many gaps between them. And since garbage was collected and transported underground, there wasn’t any outside.
There was likely a side entrance for employees. And an entrance for bringing in goods.
They went to the rear of Café de Mancio. It was completely different from the brickwork front; the back was modern unrefined concrete and had no connection to the cla.s.sical atmosphere. To Koori, it felt ominous like a magician’s tower.
The side entrance was firmly shut and they couldn’t find the entrance for bringing in goods. It was possible it was the type that was underground.
“Hmm…as I thought, it might be impossible for just us…”
“We might be able to get in from there.”
“Huh?”
Shirley pointed at a ventilation duct on the second floor. The wire mesh was about to come off.
If it was them, it might just be big enough for them to barely enter it. However, it was close to six meters above the ground.
“How will we get there? You should think about it a little more before you speak…”
“I’ll launch you up.”
“What?”
“Yuuka!”
Shirley grabbed Koori’s flank. She was lifted up like a child.
“What, what are you doing!?”
“Let’s goooo! Now––!!”
She was thrown.
“Hey––!?”
She steadily approached the ventilation duct. She reflexively stretched out her hands. She caught hold of the wire netting.
As soon as it took her weight, the bolt that was barely managing to hold the wire netting over the outlet popped off. Her field of vision shook.
“Hii!?”
––I’m going to fall!?
“Nice, Yuuka.”
Her wrist was caught. It was firmly held.
The falling wire netting collided with the ground making a painful sound.
“Ah, u…Sh…Shirley…?”
“You removed the wire netting nicely.”
She had her right hand on the ventilation duct, and her stretched out left hand grasped Koori’s wrist.
It felt as though they were completely untouched by the effects of gravity. Her body seemed to completely fill the s.p.a.ce between the ground and the wall.
“How, how did you do that? You threw me…how did you get up…?”
She had heard that Sakurazaka Shirley’s Dialect was a flash of light. Was there more to it? No, each person had one type of Dialect.
“It was easy. I threw Yuuka, and after that, I jumped.”
“Am I a basketball or something?”
“You’re heavier than that, right?”
“I-I’m not heavy! I did a successful diet last month!”
“Ah, yeah?”
She was unintentionally distracted. She collected herself.
“…This isn’t the time to say things like that…let’s go quickly.”
“O~kay.”
She raised her voice. Koori was impressed by her strength.
Since it was a newly built building, the ventilation ducts fortunately weren’t too dirty. Koori was a little relieved that they managed to get there without staining her uniform with dirt and filth.
She now got nervous about the fact that they were breaking in like burglars even though it was for the sake of the investigation.
“There are a lot of branches.”
Shirley had gone first and now pointed ahead. The duct didn’t just branch left and right, it also branched up.
“I think the building’s air conditioning gathers here.”
“Hmm.”
She said in as low voice as possible since the sound would reverberate.
“Since we’re investigating we should consider the layout. If I remember the design of the store correctly, the first floor is the shop and the second, third and top floors are the café…what’s on the fourth to ninth floors?”
“Then, we go up.”
“What are you going to do?”
“We should go up, right?”
Shirley spread her left and right limbs out on the vertical ventilation duct and clawed her way up.
Even though Koori was a Level 1, she was part of the Supporters. To that extent, she was confident about her physical strength.
“Even I…”
The tips of bolts were sticking out from the area where she had placed her hands. It was risky. The joints of the ducts were sections of iron plating and had sharp edges. She needed to advance carefully.
When she looked up, she caught sight of Shirley’s b.u.t.t. They were in the middle of the dark duct where there was no lighting…so she could barely see. But it was still embarra.s.sing, even despite being the same gender.
Mutually.
Like that, Koori and Shirley ascended to the upper floor of the building.
They shouldn’t overdo it. They had discussed the plan at the start. If their rushing in turned out to be in vain, they would have to bow their heads and apologize.
Koori was profoundly regretful.