The walk to the school turned out to be far more pleasant than Mochi had expected. Miyu was an endless source of conversation, and to both their surprise, they discovered they shared more interests than they had imagined. As they walked, Miyu twirled her wagasa between her fingers with effortless skill, making the floral patterns on the red paper blur into a spinning circle.
The breeze was gentle, and the sky remained clear.
Soon, the school walls rose before them.
"Let's hurry, Senpai!" Miyu exclaimed, gently pulling her companion's arm. "If we finish the paperwork quickly, I'll treat you to a café. Dessert as a thank-you for saving my life!"
"I accept the deal. Let's get this over with."
As they entered the building, Miyu stopped in front of the umbrella stand at the entrance. The metal rack, which on rainy days would be a chaotic mix of colors, was completely empty today.
"I'll leave it here," Miyu decided confidently, placing her elegant red umbrella into the first available slot.
Mochi frowned, eyeing the weapon left in such an ordinary school fixture.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Don't worry, Mochi. It's Saturday—no one's around. Nothing will happen if I leave it here for a few minutes," Miyu replied with a smile that left no room for argument.
But those "few minutes" stretched on far longer than expected. The administrative process turned into an obstacle course: endless forms, conversations with two on-duty teachers, and a mandatory visit to the administrative office that seemed to go on forever.
When they were finally free, more than an hour later, they returned to the entrance with light steps, already dreaming of dessert. But when they reached the stand… the metal gleamed under the sunlight, empty.
"Huh…? Where is it?!"
Panic instantly filled their eyes. They checked the rack, looked behind the swinging doors, and searched every corner of the hallway, but the wagasa had vanished as if it had never been there.
"S-Senpai… what do we do?" Miyu's voice trembled violently, her eyes filling with tears that threatened to spill over.
"Calm down. Breathe," Mochi said, trying to stay level-headed despite the knot tightening in her own stomach. "First, let's inform headquarters. They'll know how to track the weapon's Ether."
"We can't do that! They'll kill me!" Miyu grabbed her head, messing up her hair in panic. "When they gave it to me, they made me repeat ten times that I had to protect it with my life… and I lose it the very next day?!"
Mochi felt a pang of sympathy and placed a firm hand on her friend's shoulder, grounding her.
"It's okay, stay calm. I'll help you find it. It can't have gone far—someone must have taken it by mistake or moved it somewhere."
"Thank you, Senpai!" Miyu threw herself at her in a sudden, powerful hug that knocked the air out of Mochi's lungs.
She was squeezing her with inhuman strength, but Mochi chose to endure it in silence; this wasn't the time to complain. When Miyu finally let go, Mochi scanned the surroundings for any witnesses, but the school remained a concrete desert. There were no students, no staff, not a trace of life.
Who the hell would take an umbrella from an empty school? Mochi wondered.
"Let's go back to the staff room," Mochi suggested, trying to inject some logic into her partner's storm of nerves. "Maybe someone saw such a flashy red umbrella and thought it would be safer to hand it to a teacher."
Miyu nodded vigorously, and the two retraced their steps through the silent hallways. After knocking on the door and explaining the situation as naturally as possible, they asked about the wagasa. However, luck wasn't on their side—no one had seen any traditional umbrella.
But the visit wasn't useless. The teacher on duty, a man who looked like he had run out of patience decades ago, informed them that a small group of students with terrible grades had attended remedial classes that morning. He didn't hold back his complaints, describing them as "delinquents" who had only shown up to waste his Saturday.
That word sparked something in Mochi's mind.
"Sensei, who exactly were those students?" Mochi asked, her politeness masking a growing suspicion.
"Who else would it be? Honda and his group. Always the same ones," the teacher snorted in annoyance. "They spent the whole morning causing trouble, not taking anything seriously…"
While the teacher continued venting his frustration at the walls, Mochi leaned toward Miyu and whispered softly in her ear:
"I know them. They have a terrible reputation at school. But I think I know exactly where they go when they don't want to be found."
"Then let's go! That umbrella is coming back to us no matter what!"
After quickly saying goodbye before the teacher could start asking uncomfortable questions, the two girls hurried out of the building.
"So, where do we go now, Senpai?"
"Honda and his group are known for getting into trouble. A while ago, Haruka specifically warned me about them. She told me to avoid the old abandoned skate area near the new construction site at all costs. According to rumors, that's their headquarters. So… that's where we're heading."
The sun was beginning to set, bathing the buildings in golden tones and casting long shadows that made the atmosphere feel heavier, almost electric. As they crossed half-empty streets, Miyu voiced the question hanging in the air.
"If it turns out they have my umbrella… how are we going to make them give it back?"
Mochi paused for a moment, weighing their options.
"Well… first we'll try to be civilized. We'll talk to them and ask them to return it nicely."
"And if they refuse?"
Mochi clenched her fists.
"Then… we'll have to use force."
Some time ago, the mere idea of running into Honda would have made Mochi tremble. The delinquent group had always been synonymous with aggression and trouble. But now, after surviving encounters with anomalies, facing a bunch of high school thugs didn't seem like much of a challenge anymore.
"Miyu, we're almost there. This is the construction zone," Mochi said, pointing at the concrete skeleton rising in front of them. "The skate park is just around the corner."
Around them, the urban landscape grew hostile. Half-built structures stood like forgotten giants under the evening sky; rusted scaffolding, bent metal fences, and heavy machinery slept beneath dusty tarps. Mochi remembered the stories that circulated about the place: fatal accidents, unpaid compensation, and a legal limbo that had kept construction suspended indefinitely. It was the perfect refuge for troubled students… or for things far worse hiding in the dust.
As they moved forward, they spotted a boy a few meters ahead. He stood near the sidewalk, scanning his surroundings nervously. He was tall and well-built, his school uniform messy, sweat stains darkening his shirt. Mochi recognized him immediately.
"Miyu," she whispered, nodding subtly toward him, "that's Kuroda. He's always hanging around Honda. Let's go."
They approached with steady steps, without hesitation. As they closed the distance, Mochi noticed how uneasy Kuroda looked; his eyes darted from one shadow to another, as if expecting something to leap out at any moment.
"We're looking for Miyu's umbrella," Mochi said bluntly, stopping right in front of him. "We know you were at school when it disappeared. We want it back. Now."
Kuroda flinched, almost stumbling over his own feet at the abruptness of her words.
"W-who are you? What do you want from me?" he stammered, taking a step back.
"I already told you," Mochi repeated, her gaze hardening. "We want the red umbrella. Honda has it, right?"
Kuroda pressed his lips together, torn between loyalty to his leader and the urge to run away. That was when Miyu stepped in, taking a gentle step forward with a softness that broke through the boy's defenses.
"That umbrella is very important to me," Miyu said, her words accompanied by a sincere, conciliatory smile. "We don't want any trouble, really. We just want it back."
The change in tone had an immediate effect. Kuroda's shoulders relaxed, and the fear in his face shifted into genuine concern. After a moment of hesitation, he gestured for them to follow him into the shadow of an abandoned building. There, speaking in a low, unsteady voice, he began his story.
That morning, the group had been in a terrible mood. Forced to attend remedial classes on a Saturday, the three of them walked like storm clouds—but Honda was by far the most volatile. He was like a pressure cooker ready to explode. It was in that state of anger that they saw the umbrella in the rack at the entrance.
"It was strange," Kuroda admitted, rubbing his hands nervously. "Honda thought it looked expensive… so he took it."
"Why would he want a woman's umbrella?" Mochi asked, frowning.
"To break it," Kuroda replied, shrugging with resignation. "He said he needed to blow off some steam, and that smashing something that pretty would make him feel better."
At first, the three delinquents thought destroying it would be easy. But when Honda came across a metal dumpster by the sidewalk, things took an inexplicable turn. The group's leader lifted the umbrella with both hands and, with a growl full of rage, slammed it against the metal with all his strength.
But instead of the expected crack of paper and wood—
"The dumpster dented like it had been crushed by a steamroller," Kuroda recounted, swallowing hard, "but the umbrella… not a scratch. Not even a wrinkle in the paper. Nothing."
Beside Mochi, Miyu went pale, clenching her fists.
"Honda got excited," the boy continued, and a glint of retrospective fear flickered in his eyes. "He started laughing like a maniac. Said it was the best thing he'd ever touched. Then he started looking for more things to destroy—he smashed a park bench, then a vending machine… and every time he hit something, the umbrella stayed perfect. Untouched."
Mochi and Miyu listened in silence. The nervousness had vanished from Kuroda's face, replaced by something deeper.
"But the worst part was how he started acting," the boy whispered, lowering his voice. "He got… strange. Way more aggressive than usual. He started talking to himself, like he was hearing voices we couldn't. He kept saying that with that umbrella, no one could ever stop him. That he'd make everyone in the city kneel before him."
Mochi turned to Miyu, her expression deadly serious, and spoke in a low warning:
"The weapons we use are made from fragments of Anomalies. Haruka warned me when she gave me my knuckles—if someone who isn't prepared tries to use them, their mind gets corrupted."
What Haruka had explained as a technical theory, Mochi was now seeing unfold in reality.
"When he started laughing to himself, hitting lampposts, and shouting that he was invincible… I got scared," Kuroda admitted. "Shōma tried to calm him down, but Honda shoved him to the ground. That's when I took my chance to get away. I didn't want to be around when he decided to test his 'new toy' on me."
"Where is he now?"
"At the old skate park, on the other side of the construction zone. He was still with Shōma when I left, but I don't know if he's still there… I didn't dare look back."
Miyu looked at Mochi with clear concern, searching her "senpai" for direction.
"We have to go," Miyu said firmly. "If he keeps using that umbrella, he's going to end up hurting someone. Or something even worse will happen to him."
Mochi nodded with cold determination. This was no longer about retrieving a lost item—it had become a containment mission.
"Lead the way, Kuroda," Mochi ordered. "We're getting your umbrella back, Miyu."
Kuroda hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing toward the shadowy construction site. But in the end, with a firm nod, he started walking.
"Alright. I'll show you the way."