Joint Investigation (I Spent So Long Playing Games Today That I Forgot to Write an Update)

"Miss Kasugano?"

"Hello, Mr. Nueno."

Shizuku smiled and greeted Nueno Nuesuke, who scratched his head somewhat awkwardly.

"Hello. It's been a while, Miss Kasugano..."

"Hey, Naru, who's this pretty big sister?"

As Nueno Nuesuke and Shizuku were greeting each other, two elementary school students suddenly popped out from behind him. The leader was a rather lively-looking boy, while beside him stood a girl with twin ponytails. Shizuku did not need to ask to know that they were Tatsuno Hiroshi and Inaba Kyoko from Nueno Nuesuke's class.

The two of them were practically protagonists in the manga too, and despite being fifth graders, they were already all lovey-dovey... Well, in China, they would have been smacked for puppy love long ago. Japan clearly did not care much about that sort of thing, though. In fact, Japan's legal marriage age of sixteen had a practical basis. Getting married after graduating high school was nothing unusual in Japan—though, considering Japan's declining birthrate later on, clearly not everyone liked doing that. Still, at the very least, Japan's cultural atmosphere was nowhere near as harsh as China's when it came to puppy love, treating it as something to be strictly guarded against and heavily criticized.

"Don't tell me you're secretly dating another beauty behind Snow Woman's back?"

As she spoke, Tatsuno Hiroshi grinned and poked Nueno Nuesuke, while Inaba Kyoko shook her head.

"Impossible. A pretty big sister like her could never fall for Naru."

"Hey! You two!"

Hearing his students badmouth him, Nueno Nuesuke mercilessly gave each of them a knock on the head before introducing her.

"This is Miss Shizuku Kasugano. She's Shiragiku's older sister."

"Ah, Shiragiku's older sister?"

The two looked at Shizuku in surprise, and she nodded with a smile.

"Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm Shiragiku's older sister, Shizuku Kasugano.