Sakura rose out of bed with a smile. She hopped out of bed, got dressed, and ran down to the office, paying no mind to the girl sitting on the ground smoking nor the one stuck on top of the bookshelf. She threw open the door to find Koutarou sitting behind his desk stoically.

"Koutarou-san, I'm going to meet Okoba-san!"

He stood up. "Okay. I'll watch from a distance."

"E-eh?"

"Talking to him was incredibly dangerous, but not meeting up the day after would be extremely suspicious. I'll watch from a distance to make sure you're okay, but other from that, he needs to think that nothing about your situation has changed."

She put her hand to her chin. "I guess that makes sense…"

He walked around the desk. "Get ready. You'll have to come off the same as you did yesterday."

She nodded. She turned and walked out to the back patio. She noticed Lily sitting to her left facing away from her. She started to talk, but realized it was probably a bad idea based on how things went the night before. She walked past her and pulled her disguise out of the bush. It was damp from the humidity. Gross… She walked back onto the porch to find Lily staring at her over her shoulder. "Lily-chan…" she started.

"Go away," she grumbled.

She stared for another second before walking back inside. She put the clothes on over her outfit and met Koutarou by the front door.

He stared at her and smiled. "Hey, Sakura, where did you get those clothes?" he asked in a joking tone.

"H-huh? Well, I, um, got them… from your… closet?" she answered nervously with a guilty smile.

"I KNOW YOU DID, YOU STUPID ZOMBIE!" His face went stoic again. "Once we're done, I'm buying you your own disguise." He turned towards the genkan and motioned for her to put on her shoes. He was already wearing his.

"O-oh, wait, there's something I gotta grab first!" She turned and ran for the kitchen. She opened the fridge door and reached for the arm she had tossed in days before. "H-huh?" She pulled back and looked in the fridge to find nothing. Huh.

A scream erupted from within the house. Lily jumped. She peeked in the door to see a shocked Sakura sprinting from room to room.

"Where is it?! Where is it?! Where is it?!" She ran from room to room, yelling to herself.

She crawled back to where she was sitting and hid the arm she had been experimenting with inside her pajama jacket just in time for Sakura to burst through the porch door. She looked behind her nonchalantly.

"Lily-chan, have you seen an arm?"

"An arm?" She played dumb. "What are you talking about?"

"I-it's like, well, an arm… you know, this part!" She held up her own arm and pointed to her forearm.

She shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.

She sprinted back into the house.

Lily sighed and pulled the arm back out. "Good thing I know how to act, huh?" she smiled for a moment. She held the arm up close to her face. "I bet you're having more fun, Saki-chan," she whispered.

Sakura burst into the main sleeping room and immediately dove for her own bed. She tore it apart, frantically looking through every crevice of every sheet.

"My, Sakura, what seems to be the matter?" Yuugiri asked.

She looked up. "Have you seen an arm?"

"An arm?" She paused and looked away. "Whatever do you mean?"

"An arm!" She pointed to her own arm again angrily. "Like this!"

She hesitated for a second then took another puff from her pipe. "I can't say I have. My apologies."

Sakura exhaled strongly and ran out of the room. She hurled herself back downstairs and rushed to the genkan. "Koutarou-san, have you seen Saki-chan's arm?"

"Her arm? No."

She moaned. "What am I gonna do? I told Okoba-san I would bring it…"

"You lost it?"

She looked at him. "Huh? Well, I guess so, yeah…"

"Tell him you lost it. He'll be disappointed, but he'll understand."

Sakura looked to the side and sighed. "I couldn't do that… that wouldn't work. There's no way."

He crossed his arms. "So you're going to bail like those three?"

"Huh?"

"You're going to give up because you think it won't work? That's the thinking of a bridge girl, you stupid zombie."

Sakura was caught off-guard by his comments. "N-no! I'm going to find them! I'll do whatever it takes!"

"Then put your shoes on."

Sakura stood under the shrine with her hands in her pockets just as she had the day before. She kept shooting nervous looks at Koutarou, who sat pretending to read a newspaper on a bench down the street. She paced back and forth nervously. What if he catches on? She shook her head. Doesn't matter. We have to see what he's uncovered.

After a few minutes, Shinta appeared from around the corner. He nodded at her and hurried his way over to where she was standing. "Do you have it?" he asked once he arrived.

"W-well, I lost it…"

He squinted. "You lost it? How do you lose something as important as that?"

"Well, I put it in the fridge a few days ago, and when I went to get it today, it wasn't there…"

He looked left and right. He noticed Koutarou looking in their general direction. "Let's go back into the alley again." He crossed the street.

Sakura looked to where he was and motioned with her hands that she was following him. He nodded in response. She ran across the street after him and followed him into the alley.

He turned around. "Is it possible that someone else in that house has the arm?"

"Huh?" She put her hand to her chin. "Well, Lily-chan and Yuugiri-chan said they hadn't seen it, and I don't think Tae-chan knows how to open doors."

"Not them. This Koutarou character."

"Huh?"

"He's the only one who actually needs to eat, right? He's the only one who would reasonably go to that fridge quite often."

"Hmm, you have a point…"

"Besides, I wouldn't trust him so much if I were you."

"Huh? Why?"

He leaned in really close. "I'm pretty sure Koutarou Tatsumi is a fake name."

"H-huh?" She blinked.

"The only Koutarou Tatsumi I was able to find is a member of the House of Councillors. It's also the name of a character from a 2014 anime called 'The Irregular at Magic High School'. I couldn't find a single Koutarou Tatsumi in this area."

"Well, maybe he's not from this area?"

He put his hands on her shoulders. "Listen to me. You shouldn't trust him. He's not who he seems." He straightened back up. "Anyway. That's one of the things I've found out over the last day. Most of what you told me seems to be correct."

"Most of it?" She cocked her head.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Here. You should read this." He handed it to her.

"What's this?" She unfolded it slowly. It was multiple pages long. She finally produced a standard-size online news article. Written at the top was the headline 'Saga Teen Dies in Car Crash Outside Home', dated April 8, 2008.