Chapter 10: Sukiyaki Scheme Pt. 1

Nagisa pushed herself up from Shizuma's chest to look at her. "What tube are you talking about?"

Shizuma smiled. "Remember? I went to the clinic and picked it up."

For a moment, Nagisa remained baffled. Then, a look of realization slowly spread across her face.

"EHHHHHH? You mean—"

"Hai. The doctor said I should bring it along," Shizuma explained.

"But—you didn't tell me about it. So I'm—that thing you were using—"

Shizuma nodded. "The reason I didn't tell you is because I was afraid it would make you feel nervous and pressured. I wanted to surprise you."

Nagisa's face turned white. "But, Shizuma, you really should have told me—" Just then, Nagisa rolled over on something hard and it was jabbing into her back. She looked underneath herself and found a pair of dice. "Dice?!" Her eyes widened, "Did you steal these from the Yakuza game?!"

Shizuma blushed and looked away. Damn, I thought I left those in my jeans, she thought, but Nagisa was in such a hurry to get my pants off, the dice must have—

"SHIZUMA!"

Shizuma, Nagisa, and Nagisa's dad returned to Shizuma's villa. Unfortunately, Nagisa's dad lost his apartment because he couldn't pay the rent anymore, so Shizuma invited him to come live with them at the villa. In the meantime, Shizuma and Nagisa spent most of their time feeling anxious, wondering whether or not Nagisa was pregnant. But, three weeks later, Shizuma's doctor confirmed that Nagisa was definitely pregnant. Although this created a new kind of anxiety for Nagisa, she was relieved to know the answer for sure. Shizuma was full of excitement, and Nagisa was happy, too, but mostly felt weird adjusting to the reality that she was going to have a baby. What would Tamao-chan say? What would Miyuki say? But she had promised Shizuma that they would keep the pregnancy a secret until it was impossible.

The warm sun came in through the window and shined on Nagisa's face. She was lying in bed next to Shizuma, and she was still very sleepy because their late night activities kept them up until 2 in the morning. Since Nagisa had become pregnant, it seemed that their urge to make love only increased. It was at 2 in the morning that Miyuki banged on their door and told them to "go to sleep, already!"

Nagisa finally rolled over and pushed herself out of bed. Putting on her robe and slippers, she made her way downstairs. When she reached the bottom floor, she was greeted by the site of Chikaru. Chikaru was sitting on the floor and scratching her head with her foot. She had serious flexibility.

"Uh-good morning, Chikaru," Nagisa said.

Chikaru pulled off the headset she was wearing and closed her laptop. She jumped up and bowed low to the ground. "Good morning, Nagisa-san!"

Nagisa had for the most part gotten used to Chikaru's odd behavior. She really liked Chikaru and considered her one of her best friends. Besides, Miyuki enjoyed having her around, which was amazing because Miyuki never enjoyed having anyone around.

Nagisa rubbed her eyes sleepily then put her hands in her yellow robe pockets. "So, what are you doing?"

"Top secret," Chikaru replied. "Want some breakfast?"

Nagisa shook her head vehemently. "No, Chikaru. That's so sweet, but I just want a bowl of cereal."

Last time Chikaru cooked, it turned out very strange: curry rice with green beans, cheese, and nacho chips mixed together. It seemed that Nagisa was the only one in the household capable of cooking something that tasted good, which was a little dangerous because she was so clumsy in the kitchen. Nonetheless, she was the only one who had grown up without a maid in her house to do all the cooking. She learned to cook by herself at a very young age.

Shizuma came downstairs shortly after Nagisa, wearing her blue robe. Her silver hair was in cute disarray. She wrapped her arms around Nagisa's waist and kissed her on the neck, blowing lightly on her skin. "That tickles, Shizuma…"

Shizuma grinned behind her. "I enjoyed tickling you last night, too." Nagisa blushed, reached around and pinched her. "Shh!"

"What are you doing, Chikaru?" Shizuma asked, looking over Nagisa's shoulder.

"Etoile, I had this idea, how we can find out what Momomi and Kaname are up to."

"Chikaru, I told you, I'm not Etoile anymore, and, anyway, it doesn't make sense to call me 'Etoile' without the honorific…"

" 'Etoile-sama' is too many syllables..." Chikaru complained.

"Like I said, you can just call me Shizuma…"

Chikaru scoffed. "That would be disrespectful."

"Wait a minute!" Nagisa stopped them. "Chikaru, when I asked you what you were doing, you told me it was top secret."

Chikaru looked away, "That's because when you asked what I was doing, I was looking at hentai and cosplay online so it was embarrassing."

"Th—that's. I see," Nagisa replied. She rubbed the back of her head nervously. But Shizuma appeared unfazed. "Let's just keep going, Chikaru. What is it?"

"Maybe we could just enter their computers through remote access," Chikaru suggested.

Shizuma looked at her. "Like hacking?"

"I don't like to call it 'hacking'. I just mean we'll set up an intermediary disguise that will appear as a harmless program on Momomi and Kaname's computers, so that we can track their activities. Otherwise, Kaname will definitely detect us. She has a small amount of both data analysis and computer programing skills."

Shizuma wondered if it was a good idea. "But Momomi is already in jail anyway."

Miyuki, fully dressed for the day, came from around the corner with a tray of coffee. "Good morning, everyone," she said stiffly, "Shizuma, I see you and Nagisa are still in pajamas. Shouldn't you be dressed by now? "

"Pfft," Shizuma replied, "You gotta relax, Miyuki." Miyuki rolled her eyes and sat down the tray of coffee on the table. Shizuma took two cups from the tray and handed one to Nagisa.

Miyuki sipped from her own cup. "—And Momomi's parents paid for her to get out of jail. Chikaru has the hypothesis that Momomi may be the woman in the noh mask."

"What?!" Nagisa and Shizuma asked simultaneously.

"I want to eat sukiyaki," Chikaru whined, her stomach growling.