Cardfight!! Vanguard: Generations Volume 3 [Alice Secret]

- Part 3

Sunday, 21st June.

It was the day we were going to find out who Shinomiya's stalker was once and for all.

In the morning, we met up in Shinomiya's apartment and prepared to head into the Drachma forest. We each took a transceiver, for communication purposes, and a flashlight, for visibility, as well as a body cam to record everything that was happening.

We also took some spare batteries and a small GPS tracker that would share our location with everyone else via a remote device, since we quickly found out on our test run that there was no signal to use our phones in the forest.

Afterwards, we got into our positions and began the operation. We were spread out in a circular formation, with me near the entrance, Asukai and Miura flanking my sides, and Sanou and Masaoka guarding the rear end.

Since we were the physically strongest members in the group, the five of us were tasked with actually catching the stalker. The other two, Nibiiro and Jouji, had roles that were a bit different.

To ensure Shinomiya's safety, and because he was a physical liability, Nibiiro would be accompanying her today to make it look like she was spending time with her friends like usual.

It'd be suspicious if she was alone all day and hadn't met up with anybody since she was quite a social person. If we changed her behaviour, it might tip the stalker that something was off, making them less likely to follow her today.

Conversely, the stalker might not want to follow her if she's with someone, so if they weren't biting, Nibiiro could split from Shinomiya, leaving her on her own. That way, it'd lure the stalker out.

While it may sound risky to make Shinomiya alone and defenceless, it'd be fine because Jouji would be there, moving alongside her silently in the shadows. His role was to "stalk the stalker", keeping an eye out for their presence and reporting it to us.

Also, to make things look less suspicious, Shinomiya didn't have a transceiver on her. Instead, she had an ear piece that let her listen in to everything that we were saying, as a crucial part of our plan was for her to move into the forest once Jouji confirmed the stalker's appearance.

This plan would require a lot of patience and a little bit of luck, since there was no guarantee that the stalker would show up today. However, we felt confident that they were already here, just waiting somewhere in Drachma Red.

Despite the fact the post office was closed on Sunday, we all received another round of death threats in our letterboxes today. The only way this could've happened is if the stalker hand delivered them to us.

If that was the case, then the stalker must've arrived this morning. This would give them a chance to blend in with everyone else too, as no one would be awake that early to notice an A Class student step foot into Drachma Red territory.

They could even start stalking Shinomiya right away, as she lived in an apartment rather than the dorms. Their only roadblock would be Nibiiro, who lived with her, but Shinomiya was the quite independent woman and didn't hang around him all the time.

There were plenty of opportunities to spy on her while she was alone, since a lot of her schedule revolved around activities that she did by herself, such as going to the gym. It was only recently that she started hanging out with others for her own safety.

This stalker really chose a good target to stalk, huh...?

I was starting to get concerned as nearly two and a half hours had passed, but we'd still yet to hear anything from Jouji.