Girls School Days (5)

"Natsumi-san, wanna have lunch together?"

At noon, a few girls' voices sounded from the classroom.

Natsumi raised her head, and if she remembered correctly, it should be the trio.

"Sorry, but I made an appointment to eat with Yoshino and the others at noon." Natsumi said.

"Ah, that's too bad." Megumi said disappointedly.

"It's okay, let's eat together." Yoshino walked to Natsumi and smiled.

"Yoshino." Natsumi looked at her idol tenderly, "As expected of a goddess, she is so gentle to everyone."

So at noon, ten people, including Yoshino, Natsumi, Mukuro, Kotori, Mana, Karin, Otuki, Ame, Megumi, and Magi sat together at a large table for lunch.

Everyone opened their lunch boxes.

"Hey, Kotori-chan, the bentos of the five of you are exactly the same." Otuki looked at the bentos of the five and asked in surprise.

"We bought the bento from the same store."

"Nushi-sama made it for Muku."

Kotori and Mukuro's voices sounded at the same time.

…

Everyone fell silent for a while in an embarrassing manner.

"Well, 'Nushi-sama' is what Mukuro-chan called the store manager, right?" Yoshinon said as she blinked at Mukuro, like it was a hint.

Mukuro realized her slip of the tongue, and immediately caught on, "Mun, that store manager's cuisine skills are amazing, and the food he made is extremely scrumptious."

"So that's the case, which store did you buy it from?" Karin asked.

"A newly opened store, I can take you there next time." Natsumi said.

Kotori rolled her eyes at Natsumi, thinking that she just told a blatant lie, and she wondered how she would smooth things over next time.

Natsumi returned the same look to Kotori.

Kotori instantly understood what she meant: Do it yourself!

"Itadakimasu." Kotori broke the silence, so everyone clapped their hands together, saying the same words and started eating lunch.

Suddenly, Kotori's cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID on the phone, and her heart tensed up.

"Well, I'm sorry everyone, I gotta take this." Kotori stood up and walked out of the classroom with her phone.

"Looks like something big has happened." Yoshinon said.

"What?" The trio asked.

"It's nothing, let's continue to eat." Yoshinon waved her little hands dramatically. "But it's a pity that Yoshinon's mouth is not used for eating, I wanna taste some good food too."

"By the way, Karin said that you often go to school together, do you live close?" Megumi asked.

"That's right, we all live in the same apartment building." Mana said.

"So that's how it is," Megumi continued, "From everyone's introduction, it seems that your parents are not around... Well, I'm sorry to bring this up again..."

"It's okay, Megumi-chan." Yoshino said, "Yoshino and everyone now live in a separate room, and we often get together, which is very convenient."

"And my nee-sama will often take care of us." Mana added.

"Nush... Mana's big brother also often takes care of Muku."

"He...he is a very gentle guy."

For some reason, both Mukuro and Yoshino's faces were red.

"He's just a guy who likes to meddle in other people's business." Natsumi faltered.

"Well, forgive me for probing, but may I ask: What is the relationship between that man, Shido Itsuka, and you, Yoshino-chan, Natsumi-chan, and Mukuro-chan?" Megumi asked.

Natsumi and the others suddenly realized that they had said too much, but there was no turning back whatsoever.

"He is always out there to look out for us."

"He will help us when we are in trouble."

"He is our family."

"Oh, so he's a guardian to you." Kana nodded.

"Ya, what is a guardian, Karin-chan?" Yoshinon asked, puzzled.

"Guardians are those who specialize in taking care of children. They are similar to parents, or elder brothers."

"Yoshino has no parents now, so Shido-kun is Yoshino's guardian." Yoshinon said.

"He is also Muku's guardian."

"Well, guardian doesn't sound too nice of a word." Natsumi said with a frown.

"As expected of nee-sama, he sure has a heavy responsibility."

"Hey, are they talking about the Shido Itsuka we heard about?" Megumi whispered to her friends.

"He seems to be different from the impression."

"Or maybe those girls were deceived by him, thinking that guy is a good person."

"I heard that he usually acted gentle and deceived many innocent girls."

"Could it be that Yoshino-chan and the others were kept in the dark and listened to that guy's sugar-coated words?"

"Poor girls~ It seems that we have to actually investigate."

"Well," Megumi raised her voice, "Yoshino-chan, you are a really innocent girl."

"Yeah, Yoshino is very pure." Yoshinon said.

"The three of us are very happy to be friends with you'all." Ame said.

"Muku is also very happy to have made so many friends."

"We would like to visit your home this Saturday." Megumi suddenly asked. "Is it okay with you?"

"It's ok... everyone is welcome to come to my house." Yoshino said.

"As expected of Yoshino," Natsumi muttered, "she agreed with their request so quickly, without giving any second thoughts at all, what a gentle goddess."

"Muku also welcomes everyone."

"Well, we are all friends, I will make sure nee-sama shows you great hospitality."

"At this point, it would seem petty of me not to agree."

"Hey, you guys, what are you talking about!" At this moment, Kotori returned to the crowd.

The girls looked at Kotori, and for some reason, felt a different expression on her face than usual.

"Come to the physics preparation room after eating." Kotori whispered to Yoshino and the others.

Looking at Kotori's serious expression, Natsumi realized that something was unusual.

The physics preparation room was the classroom Mr. Reine Murasame used to be in charge of. Every time there was an event related to Spirits, Shido and others would come here to discuss tactics. Speaking of the name Reine Murasame, the girls were no strangers to it. She was the analyst of Ratatosk, at the same time she had another identity, the Spirit of Origin, who endowed them with spiritual crystals and turned them into Spirits — Mio Takamiya.

But now, Reine has disappeared, and the girls couldn't help but feel a lot of emotions upon recalling the past events with her. Currently, Ellen was the one in charge of the physical preparation room, so there was no need to worry about unrelated personnel coming here to disturb them.

"Kotori-chan, here's your bento, it's getting cold." Karin reminded the twin-tailed girl when she saw her sitting down.

"OK."

Kotori and the girls chatted and laughed while eating. Compared with the taste of the food, the smiles of the girls seemed to be sweeter.

A.N:

The new trio will visit the girls in the later chapters, what trouble will they bring upon Shido and the Spirits?