Mash-up Anime World: Creating the SCP Foundation to Contain Anomalies Chapter 182 - 180: A Nonexistent Person? Summer Vacation Beg

"I originally heard that you ca back, so I specially ca over. But now it seems like I've ruined your fun, huh?"

Mai angrily pinched the soft flesh on Haruto's waist.

Haruto felt puzzled.

Why did he feel guilty?

He hadn't even made a move on Mai yet, had he?

Well... whatever. Just go with the flow and see how things unfold.

After venting her small frustration, Mai didn't continue making things difficult for Haruto and instead brought up the main topic.

"Go recruit so new mbers for the Division! gumi and I can barely handle everything!"

Mai complained.

To this day, the Division still only had two mbers, Sakurajima Mai and Kato gumi.

And because of their unique traits, the anomalies they dealt with were exclusively -related or anti- in nature.

As a result, the Division was almost completely forgotten by the Foundation.

Even the other two current O5 council mbers, who had the most advanced cognitive protection protocols in the Foundation, would sotis overlook the existence of the Division.

Poor treatnt, slow equipnt approvals—

If not for Haruto, Mai would have quit long ago.

Haruto quickly nodded in agreent.

"I'll make sure to recruit new personnel for the Division as soon as possible. As for your division's benefits and equipnt requests... I'll just grant you both special Level 4 clearance."

Hearing this, so of the resentnt in Mai's expression finally faded. anwhile, gumi chuckled from the sidelines.

Haruto gave her a look of mock resentnt and poked her cheek.

"gumi, you've changed! You weren't like this before!"

Hearing this, gumi blushed slightly but quickly turned her head away, acting as if she didn't care.

Haruto clutched his chest, feeling waves of heartache.

Betrayal! Betrayal! The once-loyal gumi-chan has turned against !

Watching Haruto's exaggerated performance, gumi couldn't help but cover her face and laugh. Mai also smiled but quickly rembered sothing and looked at Haruto suspiciously.

"By the way, over at Umbrella, four girls suddenly showed up forming a band. Every day, they look terrified while wandering around the company. Is this your doing?"

Hearing this, Haruto averted his gaze.

"Huh? Is that so? I don't know about that. Maybe Miyako scouted so promising newcors? Mai, you should take care of them."

Mai squinted at him in suspicion.

Those four girls at the company seed to have been tricked into coming. Before arriving, they had no idea they would be performing alongside Hoshino Ai.

And...

To this day, no one had told them that their final stage would be at the legendary Tokyo Do.

So far, they had only done a few small- and mid-sized performances.

It seed like they were being eased into it to overco their fear of large stages.

It had worked sowhat, but...

Mai just couldn't imagine those four confidently performing on the Tokyo Do stage. This kind of scheming didn't seem like sothing their manager, Miyako, would do.

That woman was at least a responsible and ethical professional.

Both her conscience and professionalism wouldn't allow her to pull four girls from an underground band straight onto the Tokyo Do stage.

Shooting a glare at Haruto, Mai didn't press the issue further.

It was obviously one of his little amusents.

On the other side, gumi raised her hand.

"gumi, are you a grade-schooler? Just say what's on your mind."

Haruto chuckled.

gumi nodded, organized her thoughts, and then said,

"During our last containnt mission, I think I encountered a... nonexistent person."

Hearing this, Haruto furrowed his brows.

A nonexistent person?

gumi continued,

"After identifying the anomaly, Mai and I rushed over. The containnt process itself went smoothly. But just as it was about to end, I suddenly heard the sound of high heels clicking and faint breathing."

"I looked around carefully, but I couldn't find anyone who matched the sounds, nor did I find their source. Later, I reviewed all the surveillance footage from the mission, but there was no sign of any unusual figures."

"Even more strangely, in the recorded audio, I couldn't hear the high heels at all. But at the ti, they were very clear."

"It was as if soone who doesn't exist was present at the containnt site."

After gumi finished speaking, Haruto frowned slightly.

Because of her anti- traits, gumi naturally had resistance to cognitive interference.

Moreover, she had been consistently taking W-Class mory enhancers, further strengthening her resistance.

Within the entire Foundation, even the O5 council mbers equipped with the highest-level cognitive protection protocols, couldn't match gumi's level of perceptual accuracy.

So, Haruto didn't believe this was simply a mistake in perception.

At that mont, Mai also seed deep in thought before nodding.

"Now that gumi ntions it, I think I also heard the sound of high heels clicking at the scene. But later tests on the anomaly showed that it had no such traits and wouldn't produce sounds like that."

Haruto nodded.

"Do you rember the mission's containnt record number?"

gumi promptly recited a long string of numbers.

Haruto pulled out his Foundation-issued phone, entered the number, and quickly retrieved the containnt report.

After reviewing the records, Haruto raised an eyebrow.

"There's nothing there. Looks like this is an anomaly that can't be observed or recorded by caras. I'll visit the containnt site myself later. If I don't find anything, we'll just draft a preliminary file for now."

"If the phenonon appears again, I'll check it out in person."

Haruto laid out his plan.

Both gumi and Sakurajima Mai nodded in agreent.

Just then, the school bell rang.

As a third-year senior, Mai had to leave for her own classroom. anwhile, Hiratsuka Shizuka entered the classroom but didn't start teaching.

With final exams over, today was just for assigning sumr howork and distributing announcents. After handing out the vacation notices, Hiratsuka Shizuka cleared her throat, suppressing the restless atmosphere in the class.

"The first sester is officially over. Stay safe during sumr break, and don't go near restricted river areas. If you're going on trips, be mindful of your safety and don't fall for sweet talk so easily."

(T/N: Yeah don't do that. One second its calm as fuck, then next mont it'll be raging current.

Dont be stupid if you don't know how to swim.)

She didn't just read from the notice but added her own warnings.

Haruto twitched the corner of his mouth.

He had the feeling Hiratsuka Shizuka was glancing in his direction. Speaking of which, his desk compartnt was stuffed full again.

Confession letters, invitations to go out over sumr vacation—

No wonder Hiratsuka Shizuka was glaring at him.

If he accepted every invitation, even with daily outings, the whole sumr wouldn't be enough.

And since they were all from girls, yeah... safety precautions were indeed necessary...

Cough.

Anyway, the restless sumr vacation of high school life had begun.

After class, Haruto sorted through the confession and invitation letters, planning to respond to each one.

He likely wouldn't accept any of them, but...

The trauma from gumi still lingered.

Just the thought that, among the mountain of letters he had previously discarded, there might have been one from gumi...

It made his heart ache.

So, even though it's a bit troubleso, I'll reply one by one.

"I didn't expect you to be such a soft-hearted person."

His seatmate sent over a sarcastic remark.

Haruto glanced at Yukino but naturally didn't bother explaining his thought process.

"Speaking of which, now that you've transferred to Shuchiin, don't you feel like you have too much free ti? Have you thought about starting a club?"

Now that he thought about it, Yukino's Service Club still hadn't been established.

When Sobu High first started the sester, there was the whole Hanged King tragedy, followed by the school festival.

After that, due to Haruto's influence, Yukino applied for the transfer program and went to Shuchiin Academy.

The Service Club had essentially sunk into oblivion.

Yukino was montarily stunned by the question, then asked with so surprise,

"How do you know I wanted to start a club?"

Haruto rely shrugged nonchalantly, offering no response.

Yukino stared at him for a mont before suddenly asking,

"I want to establish the Service Club, using my own strength to help those in need. Will you join?"

From her perspective, the Foundation also utilized its power to protect the weak. Moreover, the boy in front of her had brought up the topic of forming a club on his own.

So... he should definitely agree, right?

However...

"No thanks, I'm not that free."

Haruto rejected her outright.

Yukino almost lost her composure and had the urge to throw him over her shoulder with an Aikido move.

Damn it, if you weren't going to join, then why did you even bring it up?!

Just as she was silently fuming, soone unexpectedly leaned in.

"Eh? Yukino, you're starting a club? What kind of club is it? Can I join?"

Haruto and Yukino both looked up at the newcor.

As expected, it was Yui.

"Yui, Yukino is forming the Service Club. From the na alone, you should be able to tell what kind of club it is, right?"

Haruto casually stabbed Yukino in the back.