Sunday
Early in the morning, Celty couldn't wait to drag Kyousuke to the house of one of his subordinates, Tsukasa Kouji.
Using a spare key, they opened the apartnt where Celty's head was hidden.
"Why is it gone?" Celty typed furiously, using her black mist to grab everything in the room, searching for any sign of her head.
Nothing here.
Not here either.
No sign of it anywhere.
Even the tenant's belongings were gone.
"Strange, he ca back yesterday..." Tsukasa Kouji scratched his head, confused.
"It looks like he's already left. Do you have any information about him?" Kyousuke asked.
Renting a place required registering identification, which might be the reason why Celty, despite having money from her various jobs, still lived at Shinra's house.
"I do. His na is Yagiri Seiji. He's a middle schooler, and he should be the son of Yagiri Pharmaceutical's family."
"That matches. Celty, stay calm. The clues aren't gone just yet," Kyousuke said, looking at the frustrated Celty.
He understood how it felt to have hope suddenly dashed.
"Hojou, what should I do?" Celty typed, her words reflecting how helpless and pitiful she felt.
"Tsukasa, do you have any available rental apartnts?" Kyousuke asked.
"We do."
"Then, rent one using my information, right now."
———————————————————————
At the New Apartnt
This was the new place that Kyousuke had arranged for Celty.
"As long as Yagiri Pharmaceutical still has a presence in Ikebukuro, Yagiri Seiji won't leave."
"Stay here, and I'll have my subordinates help you look for more clues."
If it were possible, Kyousuke would have preferred to rent a place closer to his own, as it would have been easier to build a relationship with Celty.
However, considering Celty had lived in Ikebukuro for so many years, moving her suddenly might leave her feeling disoriented.
Plus, this area gave her more chances of finding her head.
"This is the closest I've been to my head," Celty said, still feeling down.
'Just one more step!'
'I'm so foolish, getting lost in Hojou's kindness and forgetting about my head...'
'How stupid of .'
"Sorry, Celty. If I had co with you last night..." Kyousuke regretted his decision.
"It's not your fault. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even have found a clue about my head, and I'd still be deceived by Shinra."
Though still disappointed, Celty quickly typed her response, trying to reassure him.
"Celty, you're really kind," Kyousuke smiled, watching her cheer up, despite her earlier disappointnt.
She was comforting him instead.
"I'm just telling the truth!"
"While we still have ti, let's try to figure out how you can speak."
As he spoke, Kyousuke pulled out a small speaker he had bought at a store earlier.
"Can you mimic this? The structure inside, too?"
Instead of having Celty start with vibrations, Kyousuke chose to go with the Chinese thod of imitation.
Even without advanced technology or knowledge, with enough effort, he could hamr out sothing identical.
"I can do it," Celty typed, then imdiately summoned black mist to form an identical speaker.
Kyousuke disassembled the speaker, pointing to the diaphragm. "A speaker works by converting electrical signals into motion in the diaphragm, creating sound."
"The vibrations of the diaphragm change as the electrical signals vary."
"I know you use your black mist to sense the environnt, so now, I'm going to play the fifty sounds on this speaker."
"Focus on how the diaphragm moves and rember how each sound corresponds to the changes."
"Got it, I'll rember." It turned out, the end of theology is science.
Celty quickly learned to make sounds, and after practicing, she no longer needed to mimic the speaker to produce sound.
"I'm so happy! I don't even rember the last ti I spoke!" Celty excitedly spoke, adjusting her voice to match her original tone from mory.
Just as I thought, it's a mature, refined voice, Kyousuke thought as he listened to Celty.
Celty, now able to speak, was thrilled, as if she had a thousand things to say.
She spoke about her ti as a Dullahan in Scandinavia and her experiences as a courier in Ikebukuro.
If there was enough ti, Kyousuke would gladly spend the next three days and nights listening to her, but not now.
"Sorry, Celty. My mother ssaged this morning. I have sothing to take care of today."
He glanced at the ti—it was already nearly 5 p.m.
"Ah, it's already this late. If you have sothing to do, go ahead. I'm about to get back to work," Celty realized.
"Then, see you later," Kyousuke smiled as he waved goodbye at the door.
"See you," Celty almost called out to stop him, but she restrained herself, watching him leave.
———————————————————————
At the Restaurant
After hopping onto the motorcycle that Tsukasa Kouji had brought him, Kyousuke opened the ssage from his mother:
"Since you never eat properly, I found a place for you to eat."
"It's a restaurant run by your aunt in Tokyo. Starting today, you must have dinner there every day! The manager will report your attendance to !"
The ssage included a foreign restaurant na and address.
Kyousuke entered the address into the GPS, and the app helpfully translated the restaurant's na: The Garden of Words.
He raced to the restaurant located near Shinjuku Gyoen's North Gate. Parking his bike, he stood outside and observed.
It seed to be an Italian restaurant.
Kyousuke quickly recognized the similarities to another Italian restaurant where Kisaki Tetta had taken him before.
One thing stood out—the head waiter was stunning, and... a "celebrity"?
[Your Na: Okudera Miki (Supporting Character)]
Wait, why is she walking toward ?
It was the busiest ti at the restaurant, and Okudera Miki had just arrived from school, already overwheld with work.
"Wasn't there supposed to be a new server today? Why haven't they shown up?" Okudera Miki glanced outside, looking for the newcor.
And then she saw Kyousuke, standing by the door and looking around.
"That must be him, right? Is he too shy to co inside?"
Thinking this, Okudera Miki quickly handed over her work to a colleague, then opened the door and walked toward Kyousuke.
"Are you the new person starting today?"
"Yes, that's ."
Kyousuke answered, wondering if this was the person his mother had assigned to keep an eye on his eating habits.
Would it be too much to ask to eat lunch here too?
She looked like she wasn't much older than him.
Was she a student working part-ti? Her na tag read "Okudera."
As she spoke, Kyousuke couldn't help but notice her full lips, the curve of her bust stretching her white shirt, and the smooth outline of her black pencil skirt—he realized he had found sothing else to appreciate during his al.
"Then why are you still standing out here? Don't you know this is the busiest ti for the restaurant?" Okudera Miki suddenly beca more stern and grabbed his arm, pulling him inside.
As she touched him, a scent of cigars wafted into his nose.
A woman smoking cigars?
Kyousuke was puzzled but quickly realized it wasn't a real scent—it was the unique "sll" he sensed from people.
The woman in front of him had a subtle scent of cigars, mixed with fruity sweetness and a hint of bitterness.
It was the first ti he had encountered this in a woman.
Of course, Celty was a special case.
"Tanaka, take him to the changing room to get his uniform," Okudera Miki said, handing him over to another waiter.
"Okudera-senpai, is this the new server?" Tanaka asked.
"Yes, really! He shows up and just stands there, looking around. Hurry up, get him changed, and have him help out!" Okudera Miki instructed before turning to greet the custors entering the restaurant.
"Co on, kid, follow ," Tanaka waved at Kyousuke.
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