The next day, the Haronin Festival was held as scheduled, bringing the liveliest day of the year to Kageno Island.
Perhaps to make up for all the damage caused yesterday, the Artificial Island Management Corporation had gone to great lengths to make this year's Haronin Festival far more lavish and grand than in previous years. They hoped visitors and citizens would gradually forget yesterday's incident and, swept up in the atmosphere, throw themselves into the day's festivities.
Under these circumstances, however, none of Luo Zhen's group were at home.
Nagisa, Aurora, and Shion seemed to have gone to the hospital with Kojo to visit the seriously injured Sendougi Yuma. Afterward, they planned to go about their own business according to the plans they had made before the festival.
Astarde had accompanied Natsuki to the Artificial Island Management Corporation, though no one knew what they had gone there to discuss.
As for Luo Zhen, he had received calls from Asagi and Kishiki early that morning and been subjected to their complaints.
"Because of yesterday's spatial anomaly, I was directly summoned by the Artificial Island Management Corporation. I spent the entire day dealing with the disrupted transportation and communications systems, and I have to keep working today to revise the port disaster-response procedures. You guys go have fun on your own."
Asagi spoke with deep reluctance in her voice, along with the resentful feeling of someone who was gnashing her teeth. Given how hard she had worked, Asagi would surely extort a hefty sum from the Artificial Island Management Corporation, making them bleed badly, right?
As for Kishiki...
"Something that serious naturally affected my family too, so I need to deal with some family matters. You don't need to wait for me."
Kishiki kept sighing from the other end of the phone.