Whose youth romance story begins with a witch's trial?!

Tono Hannah couldn't bear to look at Hasumi Ryoa. She looked at Chang Rong, closed her eyes, shrank back, gritted her teeth, and mustered up her courage to pull out a strand of hair.

"Ouch, that hurts...! Anyway—I'm floating!"

Hannah Tono resisted the urge to drop the small pearl, while the strands of hair in her hand floated against gravity.

"Wow, as expected of the young lady! So the gold thread on that kite is actually...?"

"Hmm, it was sewn with my hair so that after Ling used magic, she could drag the kite up to the sky. But because of your interference, I was distracted and lost the match... However, the feeling of the kite string breaking at that time felt very strange, didn't it?" Tono Hannah muttered to herself, thinking of something.

"Strange? Yes, very strange. My kite should be invincible! Why, why is this happening—"

“Leah-sama, you’re making such a nonsensical comedy. I’m going to apply to leave the group.”

"Yes, I'm so sorry, Lin Changrong! Don't look away, I'll become that handsome, charming, stern, and kind Lord Lei Siya again...!" (The rest of the text appears to be a fragment and doesn't form a coherent sentence.)

—I think it's hard to say.

"Time is limited, so Saeki and I will continue our investigation."

"Don't go! Oh, right, I actually found a super crucial clue that could turn the whole case around!"

Seeing that Chang Rong was about to throw herself down and push other idols, Ryoya Hayami immediately started to ramble on.

"What? Xiaoya has a clue?!" Saeki Miria, who was standing to the side, suddenly perked up.

"Ah, well... if you're going to call it a clue, it's kind of a clue—cough cough, I found that there was a missing spool of kite string in the storage room, that's it."

Hasumi Ryouya pointed to a cabinet in the storage room and said.

"I guess that gorilla woman just crushed it into that 'neutron star' shape, kite and all—hmm, if I hadn't overslept this morning, and if I could have sewed a few more 'threads,' I definitely could have surpassed that gorilla woman!"

"Hehe, how naive, Hannah. That Tachibana Shirley's achievement is at the [Stratosphere] level, you know? I'm afraid the only one who can truly compete with her is my [Complex Limb-Extending Kite Pampered Ding-Ding Version]. It's just a pity that due to time constraints, I could only remove [The Dark Archmage's Left Leg] and [Shang Yang's Body], and..."

Chang Rong led Saeki Miria away from the storage room. If they stayed any longer, it felt like the evidence vault would be completely contaminated by Hasumi Ryoya alone.

Just as the two left the storage room, a familiar voice came from outside the main gate of the courtyard directly opposite them.

"Ughhhhhhh!?"

"—Coco-chan?"

It sounded even more tense and anxious than the usual Spiky Back mode, which prompted Chang Rong to immediately push open the door and enter the courtyard.

"Quick, pull me up, you super strong woman!?" "That's why I told you to slow down—"

Sawatari Coco and Tachibana Sherry's voices came from the balcony of the recreation room above. Sawatari Coco was seen clinging to the edge of the balcony, kicking her legs wildly. The surrounding railings had already broken and fallen down.

"Coco—hey! What are you doing?!"

Chang Rong was startled. Falling from that height wouldn't necessarily kill him, but even with good luck, he would probably have to stay in the infirmary for at least a few days.

"Chang Changrong...!? Help!"

"Tsk—I've come to pick you up!"

Chang Rong quickly looked around, but there were no tools he could use to help. He could only grit his teeth and walk to the foot of Ze Du Ke Ke, raising his arm to catch her as she jumped.

"You...you can do it?! Ugh!?"

Zedu Coco's hands finally gave way, and in the instant she fell—

"Here we go! Heave-ho!"

"Whoa!?"

Sherry Tachibana peered out from above, grabbed Coco Sawatari's wrist, and dragged her back to the recreation room like a chick.

"..."

Only Chang Rong was left below, striking a strange pose.

—Hmm, in this awkward situation, it's probably better for both of us to pretend we didn't see anything... huh?

Saeki Miria pretended to be just an ordinary passerby, but before leaving, she noticed something 'strange' about one of the broken railings among the rusty railings lying on the ground.

As always, Saeki Miria put the evidence directly into her pocket.

You have obtained the [Rusty Balcony Railing with Strange Marks]!

After Shirley Tachibana pulled Coco Sawatari upstairs, Chang Rong and Milia followed her to the recreation room on the second floor.

"Hmph~ Such a bizarre case deserves a thorough investigation!"

"Uncle, I don't have anything to search, do I...?"

"That's hard to say. Who knows what strange things you might do to Watson—"

Shirley held the magnifying glass and circled around Miria, while Miria, because she hadn't turned off the automatic wine and had accidentally touched Chang Rongsi, blushed with embarrassment and didn't have the confidence to refute.

And on the other side-

"Is your keycap self-destructing because there's no national highway or Universiade here to do street dance, so you'd rather bungee jump off your balcony than not engage in self-destruction?!"

"Eeeeeee, what did you say? Waaaaah, baby—"

Zedu Keke was grabbed by the shoulder and shaken wildly by Chang Rong, just like every Hakimi that runs wild and gets caught by its owner and deserves to suffer.

"But I should say it's fortunate that this lousy railing wasn't broken yesterday, otherwise I might not have been able to pull you up with my arm strength..."

Chang Rong looked at the balcony, now devoid of railings, with lingering fear.

Standing on the balcony of the recreation room, one can barely see the narrow window connecting one's bedroom to the courtyard, and also barely see the patch of grass near the prison entrance where Noah was about to paint.

"Sigh... I'm starting to regret it. If I had flown a kite here, would my score have gone up another 3 or 4 meters, Watson?"

"...If you do this, President, I reckon that thing called Rhea-sama is really going to win the championship."

"Ok?"

Shirley Tachibana tilted her head. Because she hadn't received any testimony about Hannah's golden thread flight magic, she couldn't deduce why her action of going up to the second-floor recreation room would ultimately lead to Rhea achieving first place with a score of -0.7m.

———Infirmary, 5:41 PM———

"Have you been getting closer and closer to that guy lately?"

"Chang Rong-jun? Is it 'wrong' in Hiro-chan's eyes to be a little intimate with friends?"

"...That's not relevant to that. What I want to say is, although I don't know what you're really planning, it's definitely not going to be that easy for you to succeed!"

"...Hmm, I actually really like the way Hiro-chan says things so seriously, you know? It looks so cool."

"Come on... Sakura Emma, ​​I won't fall for this trick again."

"Alright then... Hiro-chan, actually, actually... I've already succeeded, you know? And I'm on the path to 'success within success,' hehe...!"

"ha--?"

Inside the infirmary, Emma and Hiro's argument never stopped; they were basically just breathing on each other the whole time.

Outside the infirmary, Chang Rong and Milia looked at each other.

Get out of here quickly, run away! It'll be a disaster if we get caught.

The two reached a consensus: one person was empathizing with the individual involved, while the other was empathizing with the kind of ordinary bystander who, because they accidentally offended two big shots in a power struggle, was casually thrown into Tokyo Bay.

———The Underground Cell, 5:52 PM———

I've returned to this place once again (it feels so quiet), but this time, I'll never miss the sound of a pen rubbing against something.

"Huh? That thing is still there."

When Chang Rong checked Natsume An'an's room, she found that the bottle containing the transparent liquid, [Potion B], was still under Natsume An'an's bed.

...Since we're already here, why not just take it?

Chang Rong hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to follow her heart and gritted her teeth to put the bottle of medicine into her pocket.

This bottle looks similar to the empty glass bottle with residual blue liquid that we just found in Hannah's room. I wonder if the manufacturing process is the same.

When Chang Rong was examining the evidence, he glanced at Saeki Miria, only to find that the blonde bombshell was looking at him with a mixture of doting affection and pride.

"Now, Xiao Rong, you've met the basic requirements to become a qualified lawyer! If you want to improve further, there will be various training courses: how to bang on the table, how to appease the evidence, how to flatter the warden to extend the trial, and how to withstand whippings!"

"Honestly, I can't imagine which of these projects is related to lawyers at all..."

Chang Rong complained helplessly, and then fell into a brief, eerie silence with Milia.

"Hey, Xiao Rong—did you specifically invite me, your uncle, to be your search partner?"

Saeki Miria broke the silence first.

"I wouldn't say it was intentional, but I did notice that you were acting a bit strange today, Saeki-kun."

"Strange... Hmm, it would be a lie to say it's not strange. After all—Xiao An just disappeared like that."

Saeki Miria looked at the bed beside her. Although the furniture was still there, and the scraps of paper and drafts were still there, the person who truly owned these things would never come back.

"Although Xiao An is willful, stubborn, childish, and prone to tantrums... I really like Xiao An."

Zuo Yinbolin Milizaki Aba's face still wore the usual social smile, but this time her expression looked particularly tired.

—So, Saeki-kun has always been 'lonely', hasn't she?

The way of dealing with people and things that you can get along with anyone is, in other words, "nobody is a true friend."

Saeki Miria strictly adheres to the principle of equivalent exchange in her interpersonal relationships; she reciprocates whatever others give her.

Perhaps the only 'variable' for her was Natsume An'an. An'an's willfulness, arrogance, and her one-sided 'demanding' made it impossible for Milia to exchange with her in kind.

This 'unbalanced' relationship of giving and receiving is precisely why Milia and Anan became companions.

Unlike An-an, Milia had never received any excessive demands from others. Because of this, even though she was saddened by An-an's death, no one had ever asked her to listen to her complaints. Therefore, Milia didn't even know who to express her sadness to, and just like a typical office worker, she let herself digest and swallow her pain.

But things are different now—

"It was indeed my fault for getting Saeki-san into this troublesome investigation, and almost getting involved with some strange guy—so, even if Saeki-san wants to complain to me about something, I'll listen to it obediently, okay?"

The white-haired boy patted his chest, indicating that he could be an excellent listener.

"This is really... really a novel way to strike up a conversation, Xiao Rong."

Saeki Miria smiled and sat down next to the white-haired boy.

"Xiao An always says that life here is much happier than in her original society. If possible, she hopes to live here for the rest of her life. She even asked me if I felt the same way."

"Although I agreed to Xiao An's request that I stay here with her, I'm not really sure which side I'd rather stay here, even though this is a prison where witches are imprisoned."

"The search just now made me realize that I... really prefer the feeling of finding the truth little by little and pursuing justice in my own way."