Under the Rain [Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS]

S2-44✩ Faith in His Heart Restored

The last bell finally rang, ending another peaceful school day at Den City High School and also bringing it one day closer to its planned school festival. Knowing that, most of the students stayed longer at school to continue their own preparation, wanting to perfect their class decorations and deliver the best performance they could present at the main stage. During this busy time, the Student Council would naturally be the busiest among them all, but thankfully for Mirai, Igarashi let her leave early after she told him she had to go somewhere and meet someone. She actually wanted to return to school after that to help, but he completely dismissed her, telling her to take it easy for today.

And so, Mirai walked by herself towards the meeting place: a small café that she had visited once when she went on her weekly cycling trip. It was secluded and quite far from her school, so the person who asked to meet her there must be thinking that it wouldn't be good for her image in school if she was seen slacking off instead of helping with the festival preparation. Or maybe they just didn't want to be seen by anyone they knew hanging out with her? Whatever the case, those reasons had nothing to do with the nervousness she was feeling because she was more concerned about the person who asked to meet her out of the blue. Why did that person want to meet her? As far as she knew, they hated her...

Mirai continued walking and was so preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn't realize she was being secretly watched over by her two male senpais who were supposed to be at school, working on Student Council tasks right now. Of course, Igarashi and Mizuno knew that as the Student Council president and vice president they had to set a good example for their students and what they were doing now contradicted with that, but who the heck cared about some reputation when their dear kouhai was alone and at a risk of being exposed to danger, anyway?

"Even so, we're basically stalking her. You know this, don't you, Igarashi?" Mizuno asked as he gave his friend a side-eye glance, then sighed when he saw him still keeping his intense gaze at Mirai. "She's just going to meet someone. You're overreacting, sheesh."

"Says the guy who can't stop looking around us for any suspicious-looking person." Igarashi nonchalantly replied. Like he said, Mizuno had been glaring at some passersby whenever they got too close to Mirai, scaring them all away. It was their unspoken agreement that with the two of them being there, another kidnapping wouldn't happen to her.

When Igarashi saw Mirai entering the café, he stood up from his kneeling position and motioned for Mizuno to follow him. Together, they sneaked a peek inside through the café's window and saw the slouching person that she was meeting, who sat upright as soon as she sat down in front of him. He was Takeru, the transfer student. Seeing him with her made Mizuno curl his eyebrows. 'Hm? Isn't that Homura-kun? I thought she'd be meeting with...'

"It's Homura-kun, huh," Igarashi blankly commented, catching his attention, "Why am I not surprised he's not helping his classmates prepare for the festival?"

"Well, Tsubaki-chan did say she has some important things to discuss with the person she's meeting. I think that's enough reason to be here," Mizuno reminded him, unaffected by his condescending comment. Unlike Igarashi, he wasn't quick to judge others based on their one action, but he was still careful nonetheless. He stared at Takeru's face and noted, "Do you see his eyes? Those are the eyes of a sincere person."

Igarashi heard him, but he didn't respond and instead kept silently watching the interaction between those two. After observing them for a while, his glare gradually softened and without any change of expression he turned around and said to Mizuno, "Let's return to school. It's just like what you said, we were overreacting..."

But Mizuno noticed he was stopping in the middle of his sentence and letting his jaw hang slightly at someone who just entered his vision. Curious, Mizuno turned his head to follow after his gaze and found Yusaku standing close behind him, with curiosity also plastered across his face. He and Igarashi had exchanged quite a long gaze, but it was Mizuno who broke the silence between them by his quick chirping, "Oh, if it isn't Fujiki-kun! Long time no see!"