Haruno turned off the engine and got out of the car. She turned to look inside, where Utaha and her sister Yukino followed suit and stepped out. Meanwhile, Masuzu, facing her, raised her hand and said with an honest attitude:
"I'll stay in the car to watch over him. I'll leave informing Sora-chan to you all."
Hearing this, Yukino's steps toward Haruno halted. She turned firmly and returned to a more comfortable position to monitor Yuu.
"I'll stay here too. Too many people might make Sora-chan uncomfortable."
This wasn't a lie, but besides that, she had another intention.
Masuzu knew that Yukino's reason for staying was mostly to keep an eye on her, but she just shrugged without caring much.
Just kidding, was she the type of person who would attack the man she liked while he was unconscious?
...Even if she was, this cramped van didn't allow it. Not to mention people passing by on the street at any time. Her courage wasn't that great yet. At most, she would just kiss him a few times.
So Yukino's vigilance was completely correct; she had accurately captured her small intention.
Masuzu clicked her tongue inwardly in regret—although she seemed weaker after losing her memories, the second daughter of the Yukinoshita family remained clever and hard to fool.
"In that case, I'll leave him to you!"
Not worried that these two would team up to do something to the helpless Yuu, Haruno waved her hand casually, stood in front of the Tenkuji house, and gently pressed the doorbell.
Suddenly remembering something, she asked Utaha, who was following behind her with low spirits: "Utaha-chan... this way of addressing me shouldn't be a problem, right? After all, I'm two years ahead of you."
"I don't mind, Haruno-senpai. Even though this is our first meeting, I've unilaterally known a lot about you already."
With a similarly casual attitude, Utaha tucked her beautiful hair from the side of her temple behind her ear.
She glanced at Yukino returning to the car, suddenly letting out a helpless sigh, and smiled at Haruno with a hint of apology: "Sorry about earlier. Saying so many unpleasant things to your sister. I hope you don't take it to heart."
"Of course not? In fact, I should thank you. You've been indulging her all this time before finally scolding her until she came to her senses. It must have been exhausting for you to endure her stubborn attitude."
The other party apologized insincerely, so Haruno naturally responded with a fake smile.
Although there was no hostility, there wasn't much goodwill either. Utaha's movements and words showed a sense of alienation, as if saying 'I don't want to get too involved with you all'.
Haruno could understand why the other party thought that way, but she felt that things wouldn't go as she wished.
The 'God' choosing her to hold the notebook containing that fate was clearly no coincidence or accident... Perhaps Utaha was Yuu's next mission target.
Looking at the long straight black-haired girl in front of her, who was no less than her in appearance or figure, Haruno smiled on her face, but inwardly shook her head.
Just like herself, and the other 'girlfriends', once some relationships were entangled, they would only become more tangled like knotted headphone cords, and increasingly difficult to untangle.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Haruno steered the conversation back on track.
"I'll handle things here myself, you go back to the car and wait for me."
"You're planning to explain the reason for his fainting to his sister, right? Besides, in this situation, any lie would be futile. It's better to be honest from the start."
The black notebook was lightly rested against her white and beautiful chin. Utaha narrowed her eyes lazily, her lips as soft as sakura petals curving slightly: "Even though I have to repeat the same method to convince you all like earlier, I have to be present in person to avoid wasting too much time."
"You're right, the persuasive power of physical evidence is always better than empty words." Haruno nodded in agreement, but quickly amended her sentence, "However, his sister also retains memories from the previous mission, so it shouldn't be hard for her to accept an even more unreasonable situation—as long as you say this is related to the 'girlfriend' issue, your notebook might not even be needed."
"Better that way... Wait, wouldn't the way you talk make her misunderstand? Better to speak based on facts."
Utaha frowned slightly, her tone full of displeasure. She tried to phrase her words as gently as possible: "Sorry, I don't mean to belittle you all—but honestly, I don't want to be seen as one of you."
Forgetting others, being abandoned by others, and then getting hurt on the path to reclaim him—reading it in a novel might be nice, but any sane girl would stay as far away as possible from this overly rich emotional experience.
"Pffft! Hahaha, what outrageous words!"
Haruno covered her lips, laughing suppressedly, and slightly turned her face away, not letting Utaha see her eyes, which held no smile at all, gleaming with cold light.
"Goodness, it seems that notebook really writes everything that happened between us and him."
"Just the outlines. You can think of it as plot synopsis notes or something." Utaha shrugged. Her fingers, as white as scallions, flipped through the inner pages like counting bills, "And it only records important things or those clearly key plot points. Trivial daily life things, your intimate scenes, all of that isn't written here. Don't worry."
"Oh, that's a relief."
Haruno replied indifferently without emotion. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps descending stairs from inside the door was heard. She pursed her lips, her face gradually becoming gloomy and serious.
It seemed someone was peeking through the peephole. After pausing briefly in front of the door, the Tenkuji house door slowly opened with the sound of a chain being unlatched.
"What's up? Yuu's out looking for other girls."
Sora's head peeked halfway from the door crack. She stared warily at the two busty women in front of the door, looking like a cute small animal whose territory was invaded by predators, as if ready to slam the door in their faces at any moment.
Haruno couldn't help but give a bitter smile: "I know, he already told me. Thanks for the warning, Sora-chan..."
However, her words were interrupted by Utaha flipping the notebook behind her.
"The notebook says he talked to Asuna first, then went to the apartment to look for those two. Did he tell you this too?"
Sora tilted her head in confusion: "Notebook? Who are you?"
"..."
Haruno paused for a moment, then slowly turned and looked at her with a wide smile.
"Utaha-chan, don't interrupt when senpai is speaking. Didn't anyone teach you that? If not, I'd be happy to do it now."
"S-Sorry."
From those deep and cold eyes, Utaha read that the other party wasn't joking. The dangerous aura emanating from her made her shiver and feel afraid, as if Haruno would pull a knife from under her skirt to slit her throat.
Utaha unconsciously stepped back while hugging the notebook. She felt truly intimidated by Haruno's gentle and cheerful aura, even her response sounded obedient and submissive.
Haruno turned back satisfied, facing Sora again. The warning smile was replaced by a serious expression.
"Sora, you know, right? Unscientific things often happen around Yuu-chan?"
"Hah? What are you talking about?"
Sora opened her small mouth in confusion. Her large, bright, and clear eyes blinked, full of bewilderment.
"Alternately dating you all and trying to start a harem in modern society—isn't that already the most unscientific thing? Are you just realizing it now?"
Haruno: "..."
She was too cautious. She should have just told her directly that her older brother had fallen into a deep sleep due to some kind of exam given by God, and didn't know when he would wake up.
Haruno massaged her brows, silent for a moment, then recomposed herself and spoke to Sora again:
"Sora-chan, what I'm about to say next, don't be afraid and don't panic... Although it's not good news, it's also not too bad for now, really not too bad."
Sora frowned: "Can't you just get to the point? I don't like riddle-makers."
"The point?" Haruno raised her eyebrow.
"Your older brother suddenly fell into an un-wakeable sleep on the street, and now he's lying like a vegetative patient in my car. I brought him home. The culprit might be that God again, and there's no way to cure him. His vital signs are good, he doesn't look injured, but according to my information, he needs to complete some kind of exam to wake up. If he fails, he might keep sleeping."
This barrage of words without pause exploded like a bomb, sweeping the air around the silver-haired girl.
"..."
Seeing Sora's expression slowly furrow, turning into a blank and disbelieving stare.
Haruno shrugged, saying helplessly: "Speaking in riddles is also an art of speaking. That was for your own good, but since you don't like it, I can't do anything about it."