"On the contrary, wouldn't it be a problem if I wasn't enjoying the view?" Mori Shinra clearly didn't think he was in the wrong.
Who wouldn't be captivated by the sight of Mai-senpai in a bunny girl outfit?
"I couldn't even sleep well that night!"
He wasn't lying about this either. At the time, his mind was completely occupied by her bizarre Wish Request. In a sense, that was even more alluring than her in a bunny girl outfit.
"Hey, you! You didn't happen to be imagining something strange with me as the subject, did you?"
His deliberate words had clearly made her misunderstand something.
However, she didn't seem to react as he had expected—with a look of contempt and disdain, accompanied by sharp, sarcastic words. Instead, her face turned red, and she looked very flustered.
Even so, she seemed to be forcing herself to hold his gaze through her shyness, saying with feigned magnanimity, "I-I don't mind being the object of a younger boy's sexual fantasies. It's a trivial matter."
"Being this stubborn can already be considered a cute quirk, can't it?"
"Only a little boy would see this as being stubborn."
"A Senpai who likes to emphasize 'little boy' is actually more like a little girl," Shinra said, then pulled the topic back.
"Based on the available information, I have the following two speculations regarding your Puberty Syndrome, Senpai."
"Two?"
"First, the matter of 'not being noticed by your surroundings' has a limited range."
"A limited range... you mean I can only be unseen in specific places?"
"On the contrary, it's that you can only be seen in specific places."
"Your reasoning?"
A thoughtful expression appeared on her face.
Shinra held up a finger. "The basis for this judgment is what you said before. You weren't noticed by anyone in the aquarium or the coffee shop, but you were noticed again after returning to the station."
"Perhaps it's time-limited?"
"Then has this ever happened to you at school?"
"..."
She thought for a moment and was surprised to find that it seemed it hadn't. But she had another question. "But when I was buying bread at the station entrance today, no one could see me either, right?"
"Correction, no one except me saw you. As for the problem you mentioned, that brings me to my second guess."
Shinra made a circle in the air with his hand, then slowly made it smaller.
"That is, the range in which you can be observed is constantly shrinking over time. The station used to be your safe zone, but now the outermost parts of the station have already fallen."
"In a little while, you might become a person that only I can see. Huh, isn't this the 'girlfriend only I can see' series?"
Shinra discovered a blind spot. Sakurajima Mai crisply extinguished his unrealistic fantasy. "I'm not your girlfriend. Besides, everything you've said is just speculation, isn't it?"
"Whether the speculation is true or not, we can just go to the station and verify it, can't we?" he said.
The two paid the bill and quickly arrived at the station. However, even after reaching the waiting area on the platform, she still went unnoticed...
"Looks like you guessed wrong."
"Yeah. I was so confident before. A bit embarrassing."
"It's fine, really. Only I know, anyway."
Mai looked at the flow of people coming and going, a trace of confusion inevitably appearing on her exquisite face.
No matter how mature she pretended to be, in the end, she was still just a high school girl only a year older than him.
"Is there some information I'm missing?" Shinra muttered, deep in thought.
"It's getting late, Shinra-chan," she said.
He invited, "Then do you want to come over to my place? Or I could go to yours."
She refused without a second thought. "Overly clingy little boys are not popular."
He didn't insist. Instead, he said, "Alright. Can I ask one last question?"
"Go ahead."
Perhaps because he had diligently spent the 'unnoticed' time with her, she agreed to his request almost without thinking.
"Senpai, what is the thing you want to do most right now?"
"..."
"Can't answer?"
"You're asking so suddenly. It's hard for me to answer on the spot."
He said in a joking tone, "Isn't it very simple?"
"Simple?"
"Return to the entertainment industry."
Her eyebrows twitched slightly, unnoticeable if one wasn't looking closely. Then, she quickly sighed, a look of disinterest on her face. "When did I ever say that?"
"If you didn't have that thought, why have you been constantly honing your acting skills?"
"I've been honing my acting skills?"
"Compared to your last film before you stopped your acting career, your skills now can be said to have improved by leaps and bounds. If it weren't for long-term study and practice, it would be impossible to be so natural."
"I'm exceptionally talented."
"Then who was it that was staring intently at the movie advertisement at the station just now?" he threw out another piece of evidence.
"You're not suited to be a detective, Shinra-chan," she said seriously, as if trying to convince herself, and also him.
"You were wrong just now, and you're wrong this time too."
He retorted without showing any weakness, "My deductions might be wrong, but emotions don't lie."
"..."
She wanted to remain composed but found that she couldn't. Then, as if throwing a tantrum, she turned her head away and said, "I'm not going back."
"Why? If you want to do something, just do it. You have the skill and the track record. And your manager is waiting for your return, right? Your fan groups are still being maintained."
"...It has nothing to do with that person!"
Her voice suddenly rose. Then, feeling her reaction was a bit excessive, she tucked her hair behind her ear and looked back at... no, it should be said, glared at him.
"Don't say unnecessary things."
It seems it's related to her manager.
Shinra, having stepped on a landmine, did not feel alarmed or afraid. But he also didn't continue to press the issue. Instead, he simply apologized. "Sorry."
"..."
Mai raised her wrist to check the time. "I'm going home."
"I'll see you off."
"No need."
At the station entrance, she suddenly turned around and said in a warning tone, "I'm very satisfied with my current situation, so let's just end this here."
She paused, her anger subsiding a little, and then said, "Also, thank you for accompanying me today. But after this, let's just pretend we've never met."
With that, she turned and blended into the crowd, quickly disappearing from sight.
Mori Shinra stood in place, already thinking in his mind about what form their next 'accidental encounter' would take.