"Wake up. It's time for us to leave."
Miura Yumiko, who had been locked in an intense battle with Shirai Mio in her dreams, suddenly heard Shirai Mio's voice.
She slowly opened her eyes. Looking at Shirai Mio, who was already dressed and ready, the still-groggy Miura Yumiko mumbled, "Aren't we still on vacation today? Why are we getting up so early?"
"We are still on vacation, but you should at least look at where we are."
Only after Shirai Mio said that did Miura Yumiko realize this was not her room.
It took her quite a while before she finally remembered where they were.
She stretched lazily and asked, "Mio, what time is it?"
"Nine in the morning."
"We slept that long?"
"Not me. You."
Shirai Mio had woken early that morning thanks to her biological clock. When she woke up, she discovered that Miura Yumiko had her tightly wrapped in an embrace.
Fortunately, Miura Yumiko slept deeply enough that she did not notice even when Mio wriggled free.
After washing up, Miura Yumiko changed into her clothes and left the love hotel together with Shirai Mio.
Since it was her first time coming to a place like this, she cautiously checked the surroundings before stepping outside, as though terrified of running into someone she knew.
Once the two of them had put some distance between themselves and the love hotel, Miura Yumiko finally asked, "Mio, where are you going next?"
"Home, of course. Why?"
"Nothing. I just wanted to ask whether you wanted to come sit at my place for a while."
"Not this time. I have something to do today."
Shirai Mio was not making up an excuse just to brush Miura Yumiko off. Her editor had contacted her the night before, saying she wanted to meet.
Shirai Mio had agreed.
They had arranged to meet at two in the afternoon at the café near the school.
For the two of them, it was an old familiar place.
"Come on. Let's head back."
Since they did not live in the same direction, Miura Yumiko parted ways with Shirai Mio at an intersection.
It only took her a little over ten minutes to get home.
"I'm home," Miura Yumiko called into the house as she took off her shoes.
"Wel...come home?"
Hearing her older sister's voice, Miura Yumiko turned to look at her and said, "Why do you sound so weird?"
"Can you blame me? You went out, spent the night somewhere, and came back wearing a completely different outfit. I thought some stranger had broken into the house."
Her sister's words made Miura Yumiko freeze. She instinctively looked down and realized that the clothes she was wearing seemed to belong to Shirai Mio.
And it was not only the clothes. Even her bra and panties were Shirai Mio's.
It was not really her fault. When she woke up that morning, there had only been one set of clothes left, so she had put them on without thinking.
She had not noticed at all at the time and had simply put them on.
Feeling her older sister's gossip-hungry gaze, Miura Yumiko said calmly, "I stayed over at a friend's place and borrowed a set of clothes. There shouldn't be anything strange about that, right?"
"I haven't even said anything yet. Why are you explaining yourself so fast? Don't tell me you have a guilty conscience."
"Instead of standing there wondering whether I feel guilty, why don't you hurry up and figure out how to get yourself a girlfriend?"
"If I could find one, would I still be standing here dying of jealousy?"
After muttering that little complaint, Yumiko's older sister was just about to keep digging for gossip when she realized her younger sister had already disappeared from in front of her.
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"Mio, are you going out again?"
Shiina Mashiro watched Shirai Mio, who had come home to change clothes and was now preparing to head out once more, and could not help asking.
"Mm. I'm meeting my editor this afternoon, but I should be back tonight." Shirai Mio gently patted Shiina Mashiro on the head.
Then she walked straight to the entryway to change her shoes.
Just before leaving, she seemed to remember something and shouted toward the kitchen, "Rita, make sure you wash those dishes properly! If I come back and check and they're still dirty, you're dead."
Rita Ainsworth, who was washing plates in the kitchen, could not help pouting when she heard Shirai Mio's words.
She had reason to suspect Shirai Mio was doing this on purpose.
After leaving the apartment, Shirai Mio headed straight for the café near the school.
Once inside, she carefully looked around.
She quickly spotted her editor.
Shirai Mio walked over and greeted her. "Ms. Tanaka, we meet again. Did you miss me?"
Faced with Shirai Mio's rapid-fire greeting, Ms. Tanaka looked a little flustered. "Shiro-ke-sensei, please don't suddenly speak up like that. You'll scare me."
"Sorry, sorry."
Shirai Mio sat down across from her editor, then asked, "So, my dear editor, what did you want to see me about this time?"
"Well, I've finished reading the content for Volume 2 that you sent me."
"Is there a problem with Volume 2?" Only then did Shirai Mio notice that her editor's eyes seemed a little swollen, almost as though she had been crying.
"I don't have any problems with it personally, but Volume 1 spent so much time building up the teacher-student bond between the protagonist and Himeko. Is it really okay to write Himeko out so suddenly in Volume 2?"
"I think it's fine. The deeper the bond, the more devastating the Final Lesson is... Ahem, I mean, the more profound it is."
"If Shiro-ke-sensei thinks there's no problem, then I won't say anything more. But there's one last question I'd like to ask you in private. Is that okay?"
"What is it?"
"Is Himeko really dead?"
She had reread the final passage of Volume 2 several times. It only said that Himeko had gone missing; it never directly described her death.
Generally speaking, a character who had received that much attention should not simply leave the story like that. Perhaps she would return in the future.
Hearing her editor's question, Shirai Mio narrowed her eyes and said with a serious expression, "Do you really want to know? If you genuinely want to know, it's not like I can't tell you."
"Forget it. I think I'd rather wait for Shiro-ke-sensei to reveal the answer. If I knew ahead of time, it would probably take away a lot of the fun." Ms. Tanaka gave an awkward smile.
After that, the editor discussed several other matters with Shirai Mio. Their conversation did not end until five in the afternoon.
"Then I'll head back first. Please keep up the good work, sensei. I'll be looking forward to seeing where the next volume goes."
"Don't worry. I won't disappoint you. Heh heh heh heh heh."
"???"
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