"Your puppet..."
Yoshino's eyes widened slightly. She wanted to move closer, but she was also a little afraid.
But the next moment, the girl shot out her hand like lightning, snatching the puppet from Chu Chen's hand before immediately putting her rabbit puppet back onto her left hand.
Then, the rabbit puppet in Yoshino's hand seemed to come alive, its mouth opening and closing as though it were speaking.
"Hi! Thank you for helping us, mister! You really helped Yoshino out a lot..."
Kurumi's clone behind Chu Chen watched the scene with considerable curiosity. Was this ventriloquism?
"It looked like you were all right... It was good that you weren't hurt..."
After glancing at Yoshino, Chu Chen seemed to let out a sigh of relief as he spoke gratefully.
"My, is big brother worried about Yoshino?" Yoshino's puppet tilted its head and asked.
"Of course. Such a cute little girl—if she got hurt right in front of me, I'd be worried..."
As he spoke, Chu Chen did not forget to introduce himself.
"My name is Chu Chen. And you? Could you tell me your name?"
"Hehe... Is this big brother trying to hit on Yoshino?"
Yoshino's puppet covered its mouth with both hands, looking utterly shocked.
"You can think of it that way... Both you and your friend are adorable children. So, may I have the honor of knowing both your names?"
"Eh..." Yoshino's puppet froze slightly, as though it had not expected Chu Chen to say that.
To outsiders, Yoshino's puppet and Yoshino were actually the same person, merely playing at ventriloquism.
But Chu Chen treated the two of them as separate individuals. To Yoshino's puppet, that was rather unbelievable.
"Big brother really is interesting. Since you put it that way, I'll tell you. My name is Yoshino's puppet,