July 6th, Saturday.
Hongo Campus, University of Tokyo.
After the black sedan drove past the Akamon, its speed quickly slowed down.
Satsuki sat in the back row, looking at the campus outside through the car window.
Early July in Tokyo was already starting to feel like midsummer.
The leaves on both sides of the road grew densely, and the sunlight fell through the branches and leaves, leaving constantly swaying spots of light on the road surface.
The campus on Saturday was a bit quieter than usual, but it was far from empty.
A few bicycles rode past from the roadside, and the people on them curiously turned back to look at this motorcade that was out of place with the campus environment.
There were also students walking out of the teaching building carrying books that were about to overflow, and unsurprisingly, they scattered all over the ground after walking only a few steps.
Several people were sitting under the shade of a tree in the distance, probably discussing something, with a few sheets of paper with unclear contents spread out on the ground.
Satsuki just leaned against the car window like this, watching quietly.
She had not looked at the University of Tokyo so carefully in a long time.
To be precise, she had been here many times.
But most of the time there were very clear matters.
Either coming to find Emi, or going to see the researchers.
Or bringing in certain things that Saionji was willing to provide, and by the way, confirming where the money was actually spent.
Really like now, rushing nothing, just sitting slowly in the car and watching the campus pass outside the window, was instead very rare.
"Eldest Miss."
Chizuru, sitting diagonally opposite, reminded her.
"We have arrived."
Satsuki withdrew her gaze.
The car had already stopped near the research building.
Compared to those few public trips after June 27th, today's motorcade had shrunk a lot, but it was only "compared to" that.
The security vehicles in front and behind were still there.
Dojima Gen had newly adjusted her daily travel standards.
Unless it was at the main residence, the hospital, or Saionji facilities that had already completed closed-off alert, it probably would not return to that previous level in a short time.
Satsuki raised both hands in agreement with these arrangements.
If it were not for the fact that the current bulletproof vests were still too heavy, she would have wanted to wear one every time she went out.
The car door opened.
The heat outside immediately surged in.
After Satsuki got out of the car, she instinctively raised her hand to block the sunlight.
The conspicuous dressing originally on her right cheek had been removed, leaving only two very thin strips of medical tape near her cheekbones.
Most of the surrounding wounds scratched by glass had already scabbed and fallen off, and the color was slightly darker than normal skin.
What truly had not fully recovered, on the contrary, were her chest, shoulders, and back.
As long as her movements were slightly larger, the impacted locations would still ache faintly.
The doctor reminded her once again during yesterday's re-examination that she should not engage in any strenuous activities for at least another week.
Satsuki promised very well.
Anyway, she had not planned to come to the University of Tokyo for a run in the first place.
"Does Emi know I am coming?"
"She does not know."
Chizuru followed beside her, holding up an umbrella.
"According to your request, Miss Suzuki was not notified in advance."
Satsuki nodded with satisfaction.
"That is good."
She actually did not have many formal itineraries today.
In the morning, she only handled a few documents that required personal confirmation, and after lunch, she listened to a progress report on the June 27th investigation.
The remaining time had originally been very bluntly marked as "Rest" by the doctor.
When Satsuki saw it, her first reaction was to cross out those two words.
Then she wrote University of Tokyo instead.
Strictly speaking, it also counted as rest.
After all, this time was not to discuss any university cooperation projects.
She and Emi had actually seen each other these past few days.
On the night of June 27th, Emi was stopped outside the special treatment zone, and was finally allowed to enter only after it was confirmed that Satsuki had woken up.
At that time, Emi could not say a single word.
She just stood by the bed and looked at her for a long time.
Until Satsuki took the initiative to reach out to her, the little girl suddenly pounced over, only to abruptly stop when she was about to touch her, for fear of pressing on the injuries on her body.
In the end, she only dared to lie on the edge of the hospital bed, holding her hand that was not receiving an IV and crying.
Then instead, Satsuki coaxed her for a long time.
The next day she almost did not chase her away.
However, the joint research project here at the University of Tokyo had unexpectedly entered the most critical round of continuous testing.
This project was a high-speed wide-area network research further promoted by Saionji after continuously funding the WIDE system over the past two years.
To put it simply, it was to allow computer networks that were originally independent of each other to be stably connected through different communication lines and gateways.
If a line failed, where did the problem actually occur; if a node suddenly became congested, was it equipment failure, line anomaly, or excessive forward traffic; which path should data between different networks be forwarded through, and could alternative routes be found faster after a failure occurred — these were all problems currently being solved.
If it could be successfully done in the end, in the future, Saionji's computing centers, banks, logistics, communications companies, and office systems spread across Tokyo and even all over Japan would no longer have to rely on technicians to find faults node by node.
The entire network itself would begin to possess the most rudimentary "judgment" and "management" capabilities.
And what Emi was responsible for was precisely the most important gateway equipment, path judgment, and anomaly localization parts among them.
Several recent sets of new equipment had just completed modifications, and several different lines were truly connected together for the first time.
Many problems would only be exposed after letting the entire system run continuously for a few days, and the research team had prepared for this round of testing for a long time.
Therefore, after confirming that Satsuki was truly out of danger, no matter how unwilling Emi was, she could only be driven back to the University of Tokyo by her.
At a time like this, the entire research group could not possibly stop all the connected lines and equipment right there and wait for her just because she wanted to continue guarding the hospital.
Then the two of them were busy with their own things until now.
When Satsuki walked in front of the research building, the first sound she heard was the rotation of fans.
This building was obviously quite old, its exterior walls bleached white by the summer sunlight, and several south-facing windows were wide open.
Satsuki stood under the shade of the tree and looked up.
She had originally been wondering whether to let Chizuru go in first to find out which floor Emi was on, and then quietly appear from behind herself.
After all, it was rare not to tell her in advance.
If she could see that girl's startled look, this trip today would not be in vain.
Just as this thought popped up, a window on the third floor suddenly opened.
A head poked out from the edge of the window frame.
Round-rimmed glasses, short hair, with that blank expression on her face that only appeared after sitting in front of a screen for too long and suddenly being stimulated by the sunlight.
Her eyes wandered around unfocused, and then — locked eyes with Satsuki downstairs.
The two of them stared at each other across a floor for about three seconds.
"Uh... uh... Wow! Satsuki-chan?!"
Emi suddenly widened her eyes, leaning her entire upper body out of the window.
"Y-You, why are you here! Wait a minute! Do not move! I will be right down!"
Before her voice even fell, the windowsill was already empty.
Faint sounds of a chair being pushed away and hitting a table leg came from the window, a burst of footsteps ran toward the stairs, sandwiched with a short exclamation of not knowing whether she tripped over something or stepped on her own shoelace.
Satsuki was stunned for a moment, and did not even have time to say "Good afternoon" that was right at the tip of her tongue.
Before long, the footsteps in the stairwell sounded again.
In less than a minute, the main door of the research building was pushed open from the inside.
Emi practically ran all the way out.
Her hair, which was just a bit messy earlier, now had a few strands completely scattered down. She did not even have time to take off her lab coat, and just casually rolled up her sleeves while running downstairs.
After seeing Satsuki from afar, her pace became a bit faster.
Just as Satsuki was about to remind her not to fall, she found that Emi suddenly slowed down when she was still a few meters away from her.
Those eyes that were originally full of surprise landed on her right cheek.
The smile also paused along with it.
The wounds on Satsuki's face had recovered very well.
The dressing that originally covered most of her side face had long been removed, with only two very thin strips of medical tape remaining near her cheekbones, but several shallow scars could still be seen under the sunlight.
What is more, Emi knew that what truly had not fully recovered was not just her face.
The momentum with which she had run all the way down just now suddenly disappeared.
Those last few steps even walked a bit carefully.
"Satsuki-chan..."
Satsuki looked at her like this, originally wanting to tease her a couple of times, but swallowed the words back down.
"What is wrong?"
"Why did you suddenly come?"
Emi had already walked up in front of her, but her gaze was still looking back and forth at her face.
"Did not you say yesterday that you were going to rest at home today?"
"Are not I resting right now?"
Satsuki replied with a straight face.
"Taking a car from Setagaya to Hongo without even having to walk the road yourself, how relaxing."
Emi obviously did not accept this explanation.
She leaned forward a bit more, as if wanting to take a closer look at those scars, yet afraid that getting too close would make Satsuki uncomfortable.
"Did the doctor really let you out?"
"Yes."
"You are not lying to me?"
"Suzuki Emi."
Satsuki raised her eyebrows.
"When did you become my doctor?"
Emi pursed her lips, lowering her head slightly.
That day, after finally being allowed to enter the special treatment zone, the Satsuki she saw was pale, connected to monitoring equipment, and her face was covered with a large area of dressing.
Even after later confirming there was no danger to her life, that image was very hard to forget.
She was really so afraid... so afraid of losing what was most precious to her...
Seeing that she still did not speak, Satsuki could only sigh.
"It is really a lot better."
She raised her hand and touched the medical tape on the side of her face.
"This can also be removed in a few days."
"What about your chest?"
"It still hurts a little occasionally."
Emi's brows immediately furrowed, as expected.
Satsuki quickly added:
"The doctor says it is normal."
"So you do not have to make that kind of expression."
Emi looked at her, then looked down at Satsuki's shoulders and arms.
After a long while, she asked in a low voice:
"Then... can I hug you?"
Satsuki suddenly smiled.
She had originally been wondering why this girl was being so well-behaved today.
"You can."
Emi's eyes lit up a little bit again.
"Really?"
"However, if you are planning to pounce over like before, I will take it back right now."
"I will not."
Emi replied very quickly.
She took a small step forward, her movements so light they were almost constrained. When her hands wrapped around behind Satsuki, she did not dare to use any force at all, carefully gathering the small body before her into her embrace.
Satsuki did not know whether to laugh or cry at this precious, fragile-item-like treatment from her.
"If you are any lighter, I will not even be able to feel it."
"You have injuries on your chest."
"It is almost healed."
"Almost healed is still not healed."
Emi leaned against her shoulder, refusing to use a bit more force no matter what.
Satsuki could only let her hold her.
After a while, she raised her hand and patted Emi on the back.
"Alright."
"This is the University of Tokyo."
"If you keep hugging, tomorrow someone might spread rumors that the main researcher of the WIDE project is holding the investor's daughter downstairs and refusing to let go, suspected of sexual harassment."
Emi only then remembered there were other people around, and quickly let go of her hands to glance toward the research building.
Sure enough, someone at the entrance had stopped to look over here. Obviously, that shout of "Satsuki-chan" just now was simply too loud, and it was already too late to pretend nothing had happened.
The roots of her ears turned somewhat red.
Satsuki did not care at all. If anyone really dared to spread such news, she could have the president talk to this student the next day.
She looked Emi up and down, her attention quickly shifting from that lab coat she had not had time to take off to her obviously somewhat messy hair.
"Have you been like this these past few days?"
Emi touched her hair following her gaze.
"Like what?"
"Like you just crawled out of a machine," Satsuki said with a smile, "Did you crawl inside to act as a spare part for them?"
"It is not that exaggerated."
Emi retorted verbally, but her hands had already started tidying those few strands of messy hair.
Satsuki watched her fuss for a while, her gaze falling back onto the half-drunk can of beverage in her hand.
"What about lunch?"
Emi's motion of tidying her hair paused for a second.
Satsuki knew there was a problem at a glance.
"Did you eat?"
"I ate."
The answer came quickly enough.
"What did you eat?"
This time Emi was quiet for two seconds, her gaze also slowly drifting to the side.
"A piece of bread."
The smile on Satsuki's face faded away.
Emi immediately added: "And milk."
"At what time?"
"Past eleven..."
Satsuki raised her wrist and checked the time; it was almost four o'clock. She looked at Emi again, her gaze sweeping over the beverage can.
"So you have been relying on this to get by from eleven until now?"
"I originally wanted to wait until this round of testing was over before eating."
"When will it end?"
Emi hesitated for a moment.
"Maybe six o'clock."
Satsuki did not speak.
Emi endured under her gaze for two seconds, and could only change it back herself.
"Five-thirty is also possible..."
"Very good."
Satsuki nodded.
"It is over now."
Emi was stunned for a moment.
"Huh?"
"I came here today specifically to catch you."
Satsuki said as she reached out to grab her wrist, pulling her a little closer to her side.
"Go upstairs, take off the lab coat, put your things away, and then accompany me for a walk."
Emi instinctively looked back upstairs.
"But there is another set of data later."
"Does it have to be you watching there?"
"Not necessarily..."
"That is fine then."
Satsuki let go of her and lifted her chin toward the research building.
"Five minutes. I will give you five minutes."
Emi stood in place and looked at her for a while. Her gaze, which had been somewhat evasive due to the lunch issue earlier, quickly lit up again.
"Did Satsuki-chan come specifically to find me?"
"No."
Satsuki purposely averted her gaze.
"I just happened to pass by the University of Tokyo."
Emi smiled happily immediately.
"Happened to pass by Hongo from Setagaya?"
"Tokyo is very small."
"Then wait for me."
She turned around and ran two steps into the building, then suddenly stopped, turning back to confirm:
"Only five minutes? Can you give me a few more minutes?"
Satsuki waved her hand at her.
"If you do not go now, there will only be four minutes left."
Emi then hurriedly ran into the research building.
Satsuki stood in place, watching her figure disappear behind the door, the smile on her face never dispersing.
Relaxing like this occasionally felt pretty good.