"Where are Ai and Miki? Did they go to the restroom?"
"Huh?"
Ichinose Honami looked back, searching around before counting everyone again, a trace of bewilderment crossing her face. "That's strange. They were following us just a moment ago."
"I didn't notice either."
Sakayanagi Arisu frowned slightly. "Both of them are missing?"
The girls around them all stopped.
Two perfectly ordinary people had somehow vanished right under everyone's noses.
"Um... I might know what they went off to do."
Himeno Yuki timidly raised her hand. "Ai said something earlier about taking Miki to carry out Plan B and grasp the secrets of the forest and the earth. I was going to keep an eye on her, but apparently I didn't manage it."
"So where did they go to grasp those secrets?" Horikita Suzune asked.
"I didn't ask."
Himeno Yuki replied, "I can only understand about half of what Ai usually says, and even that takes a lot of effort."
That was indeed the truth. The half she understood was usually just the half she wanted to hear.
As for those earth-shattering pearls of ancient wisdom, she simply couldn't keep up.
Hoshinomiya Chie propped up her chin, looking over each of them in turn, then suddenly raised a hand to adjust a nonexistent pair of glasses.
"I see. I've figured it out."
She turned and pointed toward the bamboo grove ahead, her expression certain. "The forest and the earth—those are the key clues Morishita left us. Combined with the direction they went, there can only be one truth!"
Chabashira Sae glanced at her. "You saw which way they went?"
"No."
"Then what exactly did you combine them with?"
Hoshinomiya Chie casually lowered her hand. "Anyway, they probably went ahead to the Bamboo Grove Path? It's just up ahead."
"All right, there's