!
How were rumors born?
When Toshiro Hijikata heard the members reporting, "Vice Commander, the captain and that young lady have gone berserk! They're in the old weapons depot, looking for weapons! If they find any, they'll wipe us all out..."
"Phew..." Toshiro Hijikata merely took a drag from his cigarette. He could believe that Sogo had gone berserk, but Miss Umaru? Hijikata felt these members must have misunderstood something. Leaving everything else aside, Sogo himself had ordered that abandoned weapons depot replaced—
Even if that guy Sogo wanted weapons, he would never look in there! As the bodyguard who had once been responsible for protecting Umaru, Hijikata knew what lay hidden beneath her dango-like exterior. With a slight turn of thought, he guessed what was going on in that depot. But to help her conceal certain things, Hijikata could only try to smooth it over.
"Umaru wouldn't do something like that for no reason—"
"No, it wasn't for no reason..." Before he could finish, the members said mournfully, "That young lady looks like a proper lady, but after hearing what the Vice Commander and Captain said, we already knew she..." They paused. "In short, that young lady probably thinks we know her secret, so she wants to silence us permanently..."
"What secret?" Toshiro Hijikata blurted out before they could finish.
"Vice Commander, don't pretend at a time like this. We know that young lady is extremely ruthless, but this is just too ruthless! And the captain isn't stopping her—no, maybe even the captain can't stop her..."
"..." This wonderful misunderstanding left Toshiro Hijikata speechless. After a long while, he said faintly, "I'll explain things to Miss Umaru. Just be more careful from now on." Compared to what Umaru was hiding, perhaps it was better for people to mistake her