The next day, noon.
Following the address Touko had left for him, Naoki and Gray headed towards her workshop—Garan no Dou.
"It should be here." Naoki said, looking at the dilapidated building in front of him.
Although called a dilapidated building, it was more accurately described as ruins. The building itself had begun construction a few years ago when the economy was good, but afterwards there was a sudden economic downturn, and the half-finished building's construction was halted, becoming an abandoned semi-finished product. Although the exterior appearance and basic structure were completed, the interior was completely undecorated, the walls and floors still bare cement.
In addition, the initial design was supposed to be a six-story building, but now there were only four stories, with the fifth floor directly serving as the roof.
And not long ago, Touko bought this place to have a residence in Mifune City, and established the Garan no Dou Office—even so, apart from herself as the president, there wasn't a single employee in the office.
Going up to the fourth floor, pushing the door open and entering the office, Naoki's first glance fell on Touko who was sitting working in front of her desk.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Touko adjusted her glasses and looked towards them, then smiled, "Yo, you've arrived, my disciple. Truly punctual."
"Didn't Master herself say to come in the afternoon?"
While saying this, Naoki observed the interior of the office.
"It looks a bit messy, and whether it's just my feeling or not, a lot of useless things are placed everywhere. Is Master the type of person who likes to leave things lying around?"
"It can't really be said that, I tidy up occasionally, it's just that I've been busy with the doll exhibition lately."
"Just like Brother." Gray said with a smile.
"Brother is often like that too, he says he'll tidy up later, but a few days later, not only hasn't it been tidied up, it's even messier."
"Can't argue with that." Naoki chuckled dryly.
As his little housekeeper, Gray knew the condition of his room better than he did himself, even knowing exactly where Naoki liked to put what. Sometimes Naoki himself couldn't remember where he put something, and Gray could find it for him directly.
In a sense, this was also very frightening.
"Alright."
Taking off her glasses, lighting a cigarette and taking a puff, Touko took out a piece of parchment from a drawer and said, "Let's sign the contract. I've already prepared it, once you sign your name, we'll officially be teacher and disciple."
Receiving the contract, Naoki read it carefully, and just as he saw the middle part, staring at the line of text in the center, Naoki unconsciously asked, "Master, this line [Obligated to serve as an employee of Garan no Dou]..."
"Oh, that means you work for me without pay." Touko said with a smile. "Magus accept disciples not only to teach knowledge and expand factions, but also to find assistants. But I currently don't have any ongoing research, so you just need to work for me."
"Work without pay?"
"You could say that, if there must be a reward, it's the puppet techniques I'll teach you. Why? Is there a problem?"
"No problem... it's just that I thought you would take the one-on-one private tutoring method."
If it was like this, learning would just be like attending school.
Touko chuckled softly, "Well, there are various teaching methods, I prefer the type that lets students practice directly. Are you not good at practice?"
"No, my old teacher was the same as you, so I should be quite good."
Even so, because every practical task was always disturbed by Merlin, Naoki always failed once before, so it was hard to say whether he was really good or not.
After reading the entire contract and making sure there were no problems, Naoki signed his name.
"With this, the contract is in effect."
After putting away the contract, Touko smiled while putting on her glasses.
"Then let's not delay, as your first task as my disciple—go buy me lunch."
"Huh?"
"Quickly, the convenience store across the street, a tonkatsu bento. I've been sitting here all morning and I'm starving."
Exchanging glances with Gray, Naoki unconsciously smiled bitterly, "Alright alright alright, I'll buy it for you, Master."
"Oh! That title is good!"
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
A few minutes later.
"A car accident last March?"
Touko, who was eating her bento, was surprised to hear the question Naoki asked, "Why? Suddenly asking about this?"
"There are a few things I want to confirm."
"Hmm, let me think... last March... I don't remember if there was a car accident or not, but there was a murder case that I remember very clearly."
"A murder case?"
"Hmm, because I happened to be a friend of the victim, so the police asked me to give a statement." Touko said while taking a bite of her food, "Honestly, I didn't expect that person to die at all, at least not expect them to die in that way, I was really shocked at the time."
He?
Naoki's heart pounded, a faint idea emerging in his mind.
"If I'm not mistaken, the location of the incident was in front of a bamboo forest, the first person to discover it was a driver. He passed by there and saw a corpse lying in the middle of the road, then he reported it to the police."
"A bamboo forest... is that the Ryougi family?"
"Oh, you know—please pour me some water."
Receiving the water Naoki poured, and after drinking it, Touko continued, "The Ryougi family has also had a lot of trouble in the past two years. Although it's just rumors I've heard, but... there was a corpse in front of the house, family members disappeared without a trace, and also the occasional tragic murder cases in the alleys over the past two years, every incident has kept the Ryougi family very busy."
March 1996, a corpse in front of the Ryougi family's house, Ryougi family members who disappeared without a trace, murder cases in the alleys.
Plus, the person he met last night should have been Ryougi Shiki.
Naoki could roughly imagine what had happened in Mifune City over the past two years.
But there was one more question, if it was indeed as he thought, then...
"Master, can you answer one more question for me?"
"What else do you want to ask?"
"The name of your deceased friend."
"..."
After a moment of silence, Touko let out a small sigh, "Araya."
"Araya Souren."