Mob Heroine - Chapter 56

Chapter 56 - “Main Heroine”

I had let my guard down.

I felt like I'd been blindsided in the one second I relaxed my attention, and it left me feeling a little rattled.

“Hey. Where did Mogami-san go?”

“I told you already, didn’t I?”

It happened right after we finished our parfaits. Wannai-san suddenly complained that her stomach hurt, so she headed to the restroom.

But for some reason, she didn't go alone. She dragged Mogami-san along as an escort... and then, they didn't come back for about thirty minutes.

I got worried and tried contacting Mogami-san a few times, but I couldn't get through. I was afraid we'd miss each other if I went looking, so I waited right there. Finally, Wannai-san came back... and this is how she explained it.

“We got separated. Tee-hee♪”

There wasn’t even a hint of guilt. She stuck out her tongue playfully, acting like it was a silly joke.

“Since we were already out, I figured we'd check out some other shops after the restroom. You know how this place has lots of brand shops, right? I just got a little too absorbed looking at clothes, and before I knew it, we were separated~”

After giving a frivolous little laugh, she sat back down with that same haughty attitude. The bill was already paid. The parfait glasses and my empty iced coffee cup had been cleared away. The only thing left on the table now was my glass of water.

I wanted to stand up that very moment and go look for Mogami-san… yet Wannai-san didn’t even pretend to be concerned.

She crossed her legs, picked up my half-finished water without asking, and started gulping it down as though it were hers.

As usual, she was treating me like I was a nobody. I wasn't angry about that part.

But her attitude... for someone who had just gotten separated from Mogami-san, she was acting way too flippant. That was what had me irritated. I rarely ever feel this kind of annoyance toward a child.

This girl really did have a talent for getting under people’s skin.

…Being around her threw my rhythm off.

So, I decided to leave her behind. Without a word, I stood up and tried to walk away.

But—as if she'd predicted I'd do exactly that, Wannai-san grabbed my arm tight.

“And where are you going?”

“To look for her.”

“She’s not a lost kid, lol. Fuko is a high schooler, remember? Don't you think she can handle herself?”

“She hasn't contacted me. Knowing her, she would have reached out to me the second you got separated.”

“That’s impossible. Because… Fuko’s phone is with me.”

...What? 

I turned back to look at Wannai-san again, and sure enough, she was clutching Mogami-san's smartphone.

“Why?”

“I held onto it while she was trying on clothes. She wanted to contact you, so I told her I'd do it for her... and I just kept holding onto it. Fuko really is too nice, it's actually shocking. She trusted me completely and just let me keep her phone.”

Her tone told me everything. She hadn’t kept the phone out of carelessness. She had done it intentionally.

“But I never got a message.”

“Well, obviously. That's because I didn't send one.”

“And the reason?”

“Because you’re in the way.”

She didn’t even show a flicker of remorse. With innocent eyes, she denied my existence.

No wonder she'd been treating me with such utter contempt from start to finish. Even if she was friendly toward Mogami-san... to her, I must have been the 'enemy' from the very beginning.

“If you're by her side, Fuko won't falter, right? She relies on you, she follows your words, she believes in you... and that lets her stand tall. And that's why she doesn't feel any attraction to Saiga.”

…So this was it. Even if defeat seemed inevitable for her, Wannai-san was still one of the main heroines.

And all her motivations led back to a single person. All of this girl's baffling behavior was all for him.

“It’d be a waste to let someone like you have a girl that wonderful. Fuko truly has what it takes to make Saiga happy. That’s why I support her… because I want her to make Saiga happy.”

Saying that, she gently touched the choker on her neck. The smile she wore then was so incredibly pure—

—and utterly hideous.

“If that happens... then maybe I can be his second girl, right?”

That was Wannai-san's goal. The reason she had set her sights on Mogami-san.

“With someone as weak-willed as Fuko, she’d totally let Saiga have a mistress if he wanted, don’t you think?♪”

If it meant receiving Sanada Saiga’s affection... creatures called ‘main heroines’ were capable of becoming endlessly twisted.

“Saiga’s on the first floor right now.”

The moment I heard those words, I bolted out of the food court. We were on the third floor. The building had an open atrium, so I could see all the way down to the first floor. I leaned over the railing, scanning the crowd for Mogami-san... and there she was.

“...!”

Standing beside her… was him.

I see. So this was Wannai-san’s plan.

Separate us, and force her to run into Sanada. By doing that, it seems she's forcibly triggering an 'event' between the two of them—.