Chapter 57 Tsubaki’s Dilemma (Edited)

Tsubaki started panicking and about to make a call to the Sitri Clan and Sona’s big sister, but she managed to calm herself and check things on her own before making any drastic measures.

She immediately made her way towards Kisuke’s place to check whether the President is there or not. If Kisuke has something to do with the President’s disappearance, then she would have to make her move to secure all the information she needed.

Tsubaki didn’t have to find the Urahara household as she already knows where it is when Sona first instructed her to help Akeno in investigating Kisuke. She reached the gates of the house and rang the doorbell. After a few seconds of waiting, the one who opened the door is Koneko. Koneko is wearing casual clothes when she opened the door. She already expected this but still shocked nevertheless, ‘She really lives here, huh. To think that she of all people would get close to a human.’

Tsubaki bowed first for the greeting and formality and said, “Good morning, Toujou-san. I’m sorry for visiting early in the morning, but I would like to ask if you have any news about the Kaichou. It seems that she didn’t go home yesterday. Do you happen to know where she might be?”

Koneko stared at her for a few moments before saying, “Good morning, Shinra-FukuKaichou (Vice-President). If you’re looking for Kaichou, she’s still upstairs. Please enter as you may have to wait for a while.” Koneko invited her in. She doesn’t know Sona’s habit of waking up early even if she put an all-nighter the previous day, but she knew that Kisuke and Sona slept very late, so she thought that the both of them would need more sleep. Today is a day-off anyway so they can sleep as long as they want.

‘She really stayed the night here? And still upstairs? What is she doing that I have to still wait for a while?’ Tsubaki is, of course, shock as she didn’t expect what she was thinking was true. She decided to accept her offer to come inside and see what’s going on. However, she didn’t enter without inspecting the whole house for a trace of magic and readied herself to fight if she needed to. She didn’t think that Koneko, a fellow devil and a peerage member of Rias Gremory would lie and prepare a trap, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful, for all she knows, the Koneko in front of her might not be the real one.

As she entered the house, she kept examining everything she passes through until they reached the living room. In there, she saw another two figures. It was Sakura and Aika who are having breakfast.

“Good morning. I’m sorry for interrupting your breakfast and intruding here.” Tsubaki greeted them first.

“You are?” This is the first time Sakura saw Tsubaki so she asked.

“That’s the Vice-President of the Student Council.” Aika is the one who answered Sakura’s question.

“Ah, Sitri Princess’ Queen.”

When Tsubaki heard this, she immediately overreacted by jumping back taking out a naginata. A naginata consists of a wooden or metal pole with a curved single-edged blade on the end; it is similar to the Chinese guan dao or the European glaive. Similar to the katana, naginata often have a round handguard between the blade and shaft, when mounted in a koshirae. The 30 cm to 60 cm long naginata blade is forged in the same manner as traditional Japanese swords. The blade has a long tang that is inserted in the shaft. She also started contacting the Sitri Clan for reinforcement.

Tsubaki is already in a state of alert after Sona’s apparent disappearance, so when a supposed normal human from her prior investigation referred Sona as a Sitri and identified her position, she assumed the worst and readied for combat. But she has still enough patience to ask, “Who are you? And where is the President!?”

But after she uttered those words heavy killing intent that almost made her blank out engulfed her instantly and disappeared just as fast, ‘What was that!? Am I too paranoid!?’ Tsubaki looked around but didn’t notice anything different.

Upstairs, Kisuke and Yoruichi slightly opened their eyes, but closed it again, continuing their sleep.

Aika jumped back due to the pressure the Devil is emitting but her thoughts are different, ‘Seriously, Everybody can learn that 4D pocket? I should ask Kisuke to teach it to me later. It looks really convenient.’

“C-calm down! I understand your concerns, but the Sitri heiress is safe. She’s currently sleeping upstairs.” Sakura hurriedly shouted at her before she can hurt somebody.

“FukuKaichou, Kaichou is fine. I can lead you to her.” Koneko followed up and reassured her.

Tsubaki stopped her hostile behavior but she didn’t keep her weapon and calmly said, “I’m sorry. The Kaichou always tells me her schedule and this unannounced outing is new to me. Please forgive, but I would have to be rude to you until I can confirm her safety.” But Tsubaki’s mind is anything but calm, ‘Sona’s still sleeping at this hour? That’s almost impossible as her body clock would wake her up regardless of her condition unless something unforeseen happened.’

Sakura, Aika, and Koneko all sighed in relief. Koneko gestured Tsubaki to come and follow her while the two remained seated and watch the two of them went upstairs. Sakura wishes that she won’t attack Kisuke when she saw her master sleeping in the same room as him, albeit not in one place. She can only give her trust to Koneko if such a thing were to happen.

Koneko and Tsubaki reached Kisuke’s room on the second floor, but before Koneko opened the door, she gestured to Tsubaki who is behind her to keep quiet. She nodded but her grip on her naginata strengthened.

Koneko opened the door and let Tsubaki peeked through the door and she couldn’t believe what she saw. There are two people sleeping in the room, one on the bed and one on the floor with a futon mattress. Tsubaki immediately ignored the person sleeping on the bed and focused her attention on Sona, who is happily snuggling on her blanket with a small smile on her face. Tsubaki thought that she looked like a very normal girl right now, free of any worries.

She tried to confirm if she was seeing an illusion but failed. She then looked at Kisuke who is also sleeping with a black cat on his side, ‘Why would Sona sleep with a guy like him? Even if they were separated, It’s still a boy’s room!”

Tsubaki looked back at Sona and thought that it’s nice to see Sona like this as she accumulating quite a lot of fatigue. Tsubaki wanted to ask Koneko what happened and refrained herself in fear of waking Sona up from her long-awaited good sleep. She closed the door silently and gestured to Koneko to come down. She already kept the naginata in her hand and canceled the call for the reinforcement.