-Spiritual Kinship- 2nd half

Chapter 12 - Comico

After around an hour passed, the car carrying Syouji and Kotori stopped right before a cafe as she shook his body to wake him up.

"—ji. It's here. Wake up."

"Hmm?"

"We're here, come on. Reine is already talking to that person."

".....Aah."

Syouji and Kotori got out of the car and entered the cafe. Inside, they heard someone calling out for Syouji while raising her hand a little.

".....Hi, Reine-san." Syouji said with a tired voice.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

".......Aah, you've arrived, Shun, Kotori." Reine said that with her usual sleepy tone.

She was similar to Syouji who was also sleep-deprived due to last night. Then, she introduced them to the person who she was sitting with.

"...Let me introduce you. She's a manga artist. Her name is Takajou Hiroki."

"....Ah. Takajou-san" Syouji said in a monotone voice and bowed to her.

He knew that plenty of female manga artists who use masculine names as their pen name, just like her.

"...Let me introduce myself. My name is Itsuka Syouji."

"I am Kotori. Thank you very much for coming here today."

"Ooh, thank you for your politeness."

In response to Syouji and Kotori's greetings, Takajou placed her hands on the table as she bowed in return to them.

And then, she looked up to see both Syouji and Kotori.

"......Well then, today you wanted to ask something about Honjou-sensei right?"

"Ah yes, that's right. Can you please tell us everything you know?"

When Syouji asked that, Takajou corrected the position of her glasses and her lens started shining.

"Although I don't mind it...what kind of relationship do you have with Honjou-sensei?"

"Nng?"

"No, pardon me, but our careers are at the peak of our popularity. I won't leak any information to some unrelated person."

"I see..." Syouji cleared his throat and prepared to make up a lie on the spot.

Taking a deep breath, he took off his glasses to wipe the tear oozing out from his eyes and at the same time, slyly showing his eyebags.

"....She is our distant relative. We have been trying to search for Nia-Onee-chan for several years now. I haven't been able to sleep with worry, you see. We've been asking around to find out what her circumstances were."

"Fumu, I see." Takajou groaned a little before nodding.

Certainly, Takajou believed Syouji because she just used her real name, Nia, which had never been released to the public before.

"I understand your circumstances. I've also been worried about Honjou-sensei, so I'll cooperate with you as long as it's within my abilities."

"Is that true? Thank you very much...!" Kotori exclaimed as Syouji placed his glasses back on top of his nose bridge and bowed to hide his smug expression.

However, Takajou scratched her cheeks a little.

"Although...I don't know how helpful I can be."