The startling discovery left Yui rooted to the spot. "This... shouldn't be here!"
She remembered searching thoroughly before going upstairs. There couldn't possibly have been another Jade Box. Had she overlooked it back then? Or had it appeared out of thin air?
She crouched down and gently brushed away the remaining wood chips with her slender fingers, revealing an intact Jade Box.
She rubbed her eyes. She wasn't seeing things.
"Yui, everything is clear on my side. If you're finished searching, we can go..." Nai Hyuga trailed off. Having finished her search and confirmed that nothing had been missed, she finally turned toward Yui.
But Yui was crouching on the floor, apparently having made another discovery.
Puzzled, she approached and asked, "Yui, did you find something else?"
Yui took a deep breath, rose with the Jade Box cradled in both hands, and turned to face Nai Hyuga.
Nai Hyuga froze for a moment, watching Yui's movements with a peculiar look. At first glance, the Jade Box puzzled her. Why was Yui holding the Jade Box she had given her now? Had she discovered something new about it?
But when she took a closer look, the box in Yui's hands didn't seem to be the one she had given her. It was another one, fundamentally different from hers.
It was several sizes larger, and its surface bore elaborate patterns in uneven relief.
"Yui, is this..." Nai Hyuga hesitated, hardly able to believe it. She couldn't believe something else had appeared on the second floor.
Yui nodded gravely. "I found this Jade Box among the wreckage of these wooden crates."
Nai Hyuga went rigid at those words. "That's impossible! It shouldn't be here..."
She vaguely recalled searching carefully when she had destroyed those wooden crates earlier. There had definitely been nothing here