After cleaning up the mess and enduring a terrifying Worm attack, Hiyori decided to close early. She was still shaken, and the manager, Yumiko Takatori, happened to be away that day.
Outside the restaurant, the earnest Kagami Arata carefully put away those weighty documents. After saying goodbye to everyone, he left first, his mind heavy with worries.
Under the dim yellow streetlight, Hiyori held her slightly worn sketchbook and turned toward the dark-haired young man standing beside the street, asking softly:
"Lin Xiao... where are you planning to go next?"
"Me?"
With his hands in his pockets, Lin Xiao smiled into the cool evening breeze. "I don't really have anywhere to stay in this world.
"And since I'm here, I thought I'd take a longer stroll through the streets and feel the pulse of this planet's earth."
But to Hiyori, those words meant something entirely different.
"Nowhere to stay... walking the streets all alone?"
Hiyori blinked her large eyes as she looked at the boy who had just saved her, warmth radiating from him. Concern and sympathy all but overflowed from her eyes.
A homeless savior who had nowhere to go but the streets, even late at night...
Hiyori pressed her lips together and lowered her head slightly, tightening her small hands around her sketchbook. She seemed to be debating whether to summon the courage to invite him to rest at her place.
Standing beside them and silently keeping watch, Tendou Souji's finely tuned sister-protection radar instantly sounded a level-ten red alert!
Seeing the sympathy written all over Hiyori's face, along with the faint signs of a dangerous inclination, Tendou felt the hairs on his back stand on end!
"..."
No!
*I absolutely cannot let this guy keep wandering around outside! If Hiyori gets carried away and actually takes him