"Okay.

I'll send two of our subordinates to the clinic."

"I don't think she'll do it...

but you'll never know what's going to happen."

"Can we capture her by force if she does?"

"...Honestly, I don't want to do that...

What do you think we should do?"

"We made an agreement with the cops that we're going to give Rena Ryuugu to them right after we find her.

So even if we use force to capture her, we won't get in trouble."

"I'm not worried about losing face. I just feel sorry for Rena!

I really want to settle this calmly, if possible..."

"Well, she's still young.

So as long as she didn't kill someone or something, all she has to do is to apologize, and everything will be fine."

"Ah ha ha ha haa.

...Well then, she might be out of our hands, ah ha ha."

"Oh, I mean, you know... As long as they don't find out about it, she'll be safe.

She'll definitely be safe.

...Nobody really cares about the disappearance of those two anyway.

People think that they ran away somewhere because they did something wrong.

Those things happen all the time.

So, she's fine. Don't worry about it."

"She's out, she's safe, what? Are we playing baseball now?

Wa ha ha.

Anyways, please just be careful."

"Will do.

...So, it's ok to capture her by force, right?"

"...Don't make any mistakes. You have to get her!

Please don't make it like a chase scene or anything like that."

I couldn't help but have a silly chat with Kasai-san.

When I put the phone down, I sensed Chie-sensei was looking at me.

...No wonder, as she had been able to hear the conversation clearly in this tiny room.

Chie-sensei put her spoon down, and with a sad look on her face, she asked the following:

"...Were you talking about Ryuugu-san?"

"Ah... yes."

"Sonozaki-san... do you know why Ryuugu-san ran away from home?

...You're close, aren't you?"

It was hard for anyone to understand Rena's situation, except for me and Kei-chan.

So, most of them thought that Rena just ran away from home.

But after she did, the cops made too much of a fuss over it.

...Ooishi stupidly believed that the scrapbooks were a big scoop, and he overreacted in trying to find Rena.

He had patrol cars running around everywhere in the village. He even used the town council's phone directory to find her.

So, people in the village thought Rena did something wrong and was trying to run from the cops.

What was going to be difficult for me, more than finding her, was to make up a story to retrieve Rena's honor after they detain her.

...Hmm, what about this: Rena went for a walk, fell down and hit her head on the edge of some tofu, and lost her memory.

Ooishi misunderstood something big time, and he thought she was a criminal...

...It was too easy.

Anyway, we did make it clear that Ooishi was the one who misunderstood everything at the meeting the other day.

I had to make the best use of his name while he was feeling down for once.

What I'd have to do was to not make a big deal about this situation...

and to create an environment that allowed Rena to forget everything that happened, in order to get her life back together as soon as possible.

"Everything is going to be fine, Chie-sensei.

...Rena is a little sick right now. That's all.

A fat cop somehow made a lovely mistake and got things twisted around.

You don't believe that Rena did something wrong and that she's trying to run from the police, do you?"

"...Of course not...

But... making her family worry by running away from home isn't a good thing to do, either."

...She had a fight with her father, and she ran away from home for a little while.

...She acted childish, and that's all. Maybe that'd be the best story to go with.

"I wonder if she had some problems she couldn't talk to anyone about.

...I must be a bad teacher, because I never realized it...

I wish I could have sat down and talked with Ryuugu-san before all this happened..."

"Ahahahaha. Chie-sensei, you're taking it too seriously.

You need to relax...

It's normal for young kids nowadays to run away from home for a while!"

"Oh, nooooo. What am I going to do if Ryuugu-san becomes one of those bad kids and starts doing really bad things?!

Au au auuuu!"

Ryuugu-san becomes a bad kid.

↓\nShe does something bad and gets arrested by the police.

↓\nIt's her teacher's responsibility.

↓\nI'll be dishonorably discharged.

↓\nI can't eat curry anymore.

↓\nI'm dead.

"Oh, no. Oh, noooooo..."

...Chie-sensei seemed comically upset by her own imagination.

It looked funny, so I decided to leave her alone.

I made to leave the teacher's office to go back to the classroom, but...

Right then, the phone rang.

"Hello.

This is the Hinamizawa branch school."

Chie-sensei had to answer the phone all day today because the principal was on a business trip.

I exited to the hallway.

...Then, I heard the tone of her voice change.

"What?!

...Wh-Where are you right now?!"

What?! I yelled and looked back at her.

It was probably Rena.

She called the school!

I tried to go back inside the teacher's office, but Chie-sensei gestured at me not to come in.

...Chie-sensei acknowledged what Rena was saying several times, and then, she looked up at the clock.

"Okay.

I'll be there.

...I'm your teacher. You promise me, alright?"

She said only that, put the phone down, and got her purse out of her locker.

"Class president,

I have an emergency to take care of.

I'm going out for a while, so please have everybody study by themselves while I'm gone."

She took her car key out from her purse.

...It was obvious that she was going to see Rena somewhere.

"Chie-sensei, was it Rena?!"

"That's all.

You're in charge of the class, okay?"

Chie-sensei completely ignored me and she ran out into the hallway.

She ran to the schoolyard... and got into her car.

The moment her car left through the gate, I ran out to the schoolyard myself.

I headed for the black car parked near the gate and knocked on the window.

"How are you doing, milady?

Everything is quiet so far."

"I know!

But I need you to follow that car that just left!!

I think she's going to meet Rena!"

"Understood!!!"

"Rena is very paranoid, so you need to be careful.

Bring her to my house right after you catch her. After that, follow Kasai's orders!

She's my friend!

You better not get her hurt!"

...Rena must've told Chie-sensei that she wanted to talk to her alone.

I could tell that easily from the way she ignored my question.

I did feel a little bad for ruining their promise...

...But it was very important that we caught her before she did something wrong.

We could still make up an excuse that she was just wandering around because she had a fight with her father and ran away from home.

...But if she set fire to the clinic or something, there would be nothing I could do.

The car made a rough u-turn on the gravel road, and it chased after Chie-sensei's car at full speed.

...I watched the car until it was gone.

...All I could do now was to pray that this would be settled calmly.

"Hey, pay attention, everyone!!

Well, we need to study by ourselves for the rest of the class today!

So get back to your desks and study quietly!"

"...Self-studying?"

Mion ran up to me and spoke quietly.

"...Rena just called."

"What?

Really...?"

"Yeah, she just called the teacher's office.

I think Chie-sensei went to meet with Rena."

"...Rena... I wonder what she's going to do."

"I have no idea.

Anyway, I told my bodyguards to follow Chie-sensei's car.

...I feel bad for Rena, but we're going to capture her there by force!"

"I hope it works..."

"They're used to doing this kind of stuff.

I'm sure they'll do fine."

"So, if they catch her, is everything going to be over?"

"Yeah.

We'll send her to a hospital.

If a doctor sees her, I'm sure he'll find a typical kind of disease or something.

It'll be like obsessive-psychosomatic disorder or whatever."

"............"

While we were spending our afternoon studying peacefully,

the members of the Sonozaki family would capture Rena, who was waiting for Chie-sensei somewhere. The problem would be solved.

...It wasn't going to be easy after that, but I was sure Mion would take good care of her.

And in the end, everybody would understand that Rena just ran away from home because of a silly fight with her father... A happy ending.

"..............."

"Problem solved, right?"

Mion winked at me. She looked like she already thought everything was over.

...But that just didn't sound right to me.

...I couldn't see any connection between Rena and Chie-sensei.

...It was hard to explain... but there was something wrong.

I wasn't saying that they didn't get along.

Rena was a good student, so Chie-sensei had a good relationship with her.

...But I just didn't understand what Rena wanted from Chie-sensei.

While I was thinking about it, the door opened, and one of our classmates came back from the bathroom.

With Rena.

"R-Rena...!!"