CH 9

Cheating site paparazzi strategy (First half)

TL: FurbyED: DannY

Yesterday’s night, I contacted Karen, while Touko-senpai contacted Kamokura. And in doing so, we determined that the chances of the two of them meeting today was high.

By messaging each other, we decided that I would tail Kamokura-senpai and Touko-senpai would tail Karen.

That said, for the time being, we were only standing guard at the station closest to the university.

Touko-senpai and I, as well as Kamokura and Karen, always used the Nakano Station when commuting to university.

Hence, there was nothing strange about us being at the station.

As such, the moment the fourth period ended, I chose to keep watch from the entrance to the Science and Engineering Department’s building.

I had already verified the curriculum for the juniors of Computer Science.

Since it wasn’t a practical course, Kamokura-senpai should come out any moment now.

As I was watching the Science and Engineering Department’s building’s main entrance, Kamokura came out relatively fast.

In that same way, he continued walking towards the station.

Karen too should have lessons until the fourth period only.

The building of the Department of Economics was on the opposite side of the Science and Engineering one’s, which meant that, though I couldn’t keep watch over it, the distance to the station was about the same.

I kept behind a group of other students as I followed Kamokura.

Kamokura didn’t seem to be very mindful of his surroundings.

However, when he took out his phone to do some things with it, he gave a quick glance behind him.

Nonetheless, he didn’t appear to have noticed me.

… Is that a message from Karen?…

I had that thought cross my mind, but it was impossible for me to verify it from here.

By the time we arrived near the school gates, we found the students who had finished their fourth period classes leaving all together at once.

With this big of a throng, even if he saw me here, it wouldn’t be so strange a thing.

It was the same over at the station. The boarding area was crowded with students.

Kamokura was operating with his smartphone here too.

I looked around me every now and then.

Kamokura hadn’t noticed me yet, but it could be that Karen was in the vicinity.

If she happened to see me, Karen would obviously contact Kamokura and both of them would be more on guard.

However, as far as I could see, Karen was not here.

Karen wore many clothes with brilliant pastel colors, which made it almost impossible to miss her.

Soon after, a train from the Soubu line heading towards Chiba arrived and he boarded it. I got on the same train, on the contiguous passenger car.

If I’m not mistaken, Kamokura’s apartment was in Kinshichou.

And there are many love hotels in Kinshichou.

That’s where they’re meeting?

But, according to Touko-senpai’s deduction, he wouldn’t be using places near the station to his home for his trysts…

When we got to the vicinity of Yotsuya, the train suddenly got incredibly packed.

There were times I could catch sight of Kamokura and others where I couldn’t.

I thought of moving over to his car, but figuring that would instead only attract unwanted attention, I gave up on the idea.

I observed Kamokura from the contiguous passenger car, amidst the many human figures in between.

It happened when we arrived at Akihabara Station.

I could no longer see Kamokura.

In the place where he had been until a moment ago, there were now no traces of Kamokura.

Just when I thought that, I happened to catch a glimpse of Kamokura walking in the middle of the masses of people in the boarding area.

“Excuse me! I’m getting off!”

I pushed my way through the people on the train and hurried to get off the train.

However, by the time I had arrived at the boarding area, Kamokura was nowhere in sight.

Based on what I saw, Kamokura must have headed for the boarding area of the Yamanote Line.

Now, where did he go? Was it towards Toukyou, or was it towards Ueno?

I ran towards the boarding platform for Ueno.

The reason was that Karen’s commuting route for university was in the direction of Ueno.

However, while I was going down the stairs for the boarding area, I heard the bell of departure for the Yamanote Line.

I tried dashing as fast as I could, but I still didn’t make it in time!

The moment I arrived at the boarding area, the doors closed without mercy.

I stared at the Yamanote Line train that was beginning to leave the station.

I was searching to see if Kamokura was inside of it.

And then… I saw him! It was Kamokura Tetsuya!

So he really did take the train bound for Ueno from Akihabara.

I took out my phone and sent a message to Touko-senpai.

> (Yuu) Pursuit of T failed. Managed to confirm that they changed lines at Akiba to the Yamanote Line and headed towards Ueno.

‘T’ refers to Kamokura Tetsuya.

It may not be of much use, but we decided to only write their initials on the off chance that someone read our messages.

After a short moment, Touko-senpai’s response came.

> (Touko) Understood. Haven’t been able to locate K. Will soon arrive at Akihabara. Let’s talk for a bit there.

> (Yuu) Understood. Will look for a shop in the meantime. Will contact you once decided.

Having sent my reply, I went further down the stairs and headed for the Electric Town’s entrance.

“I’m sorry to have made you wait.”

Touko-senpai appeared together with those words.

Today, she wore a light long cardigan with a light brown one-piece dress.

That outfit, which was stylish while remaining simple, combined well with her gorgeous looks and gathered the attention of all the people around us.

“No, I did not wait so long, so there is no problem at all.”

I responded to her.

This was a coffee shop that was located in an office building near the Akihabara Station.

On top of having a relaxed atmosphere, the separation between tables was ample, making it a comfortable place to be at.

It was a convenient place to have a conversation you didn’t want other people to hear.

Touko-senpai took her seat and ordered a cappuccino from the waitress.

“Firstly, let me apologize to you. I couldn’t find Karen-san at all on my side, so I have no results to show for it. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s okay. We knew from the start that your mission of following Karen was the most difficult of the two, Touko-senpai. By the way, what did you mean when you said you wanted to talk?” “Yeah. Thanks to your message, I believe we can finally determine the place where the two of them are likely headed to. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”