The Chinese raws are here, as usual.
Mugi reflects over last night's confession while cooking in the kitchen, unable to believe what just happened. She randomly starts singing out of excitement when Iori shows up. He says that it's great that things worked out with Kazuya, and also adds while leaning closer, "I originally planned that if things didn't work out between you two, I'd steal you away myself..."
Just then Kazuya appears, arms crossed. "Iori," he says, and Iori backs off. Mugi tries to explain that nothing happened, but all Kazuya says is, "I know."
Mugi is just thinking how calm Kazuya seems, asking him what he's doing here, when Kazuya looks around before kissing her straight on the mouth. (Can I hear you say, kyaaa~?!)
Kazuya: I'm not calm at all. (Lol, so now he can suddenly read her thoughts? XD) I actually came here to check whether you're really mine or not.
(And I love how that fringe so cleverly disguises his blush, hahaha~)
Cue Sei saying, "Hey, what are you guys doing?" The two break apart hastily as Sei starts acting like a kid, circling around them asking the same thing over and over. Finally, he tells them that since they were so lost in their own little world, they didn't notice there was a phone call waiting for them. Turns out to be RBM (the journalist from before).
Apparently, Drug Guy is looking for a tape that Andou brought with him when he ran away. (How old is this manga?) He didn't know the contents of the tape, only that he was supposed to find it. The only thing they know for sure is that Andou's and Mugi's sister's disappearance is a key clue to this predicament.
I don't really get the next part to 100%, but apparently RBM can think of two more clues within the school. (I'm not sure if he's talking about clues or culprits, but it's key people regardless.) One, there are Andou's former friends in his gang (?), and secondly, there's his (high-class?) ex-girlfriend. Even though they know their way of communication, they can't reach them by phone (okay, this manga is old), and because they [the enemies] don't trust RBM, he can't get more information from them either. Because they don't know the enemy's power/strategy, they can't try to spy on their phone calls, because if they're find out, they'll surely be gotten rid of.
Mugi thinks back about her own death threat and thinks, "That's right... that's the kind of people our enemies are."
RBM wants them to cooperate so they can split up the work. He's going to do research on the ex-girlfriend and asks Mugi to take care of the board. Mugi seems surprised (what did she expect? @_@) but RBM tells her that since things are already like this, they need to hurry up and take action. Mugi starts getting nervous thinking about how much the enemies can have already accomplished when Kazuya takes her hand. "I'm coming too, so don't worry."
Mugi calms down at this, and Asaki, sitting some distance away looking at them, starts smiling. Just then Sei uses some weird cannon-like toy to shoot a mini toy soldier at Asaki's head, resulting in a playful fight. (Aww, I'm a sucker for bromance!)
Kazuya says they are to leave straight away. He has already gotten the tickets and that whatever they may need, they can buy there. He smiles/smirks at Mugi, "I already told you, regardless of what it is, I'll always help you. Who do you think I am [to you]?"
Mugi gets all shy and wants to say "my boyfriend", but ends up saying, "--You're Kazuya-kun."
Kazuya and Mugi arrive someplace which, according to whatever research Kazuya did, fits the description/map/whatever. Mugi mentions how it doesn't look like it'd be a building a gang would own. It's apparently a convenience store/video rental. The building used to be the gang's (I'm rather confused is they mean 'gang' or 'club', as this word is usually used for 'club', but it doesn't fit into the context, but we can also presume it can be referring to whatever Andou used to be in charge of). They're now looking for the landlord as it should presumably be the same person.
They talk with some random worker who used to know Andou. He didn't know the hardships Andou had been put through, as they rarely talked before, but now have lost contact completely. However, a year ago, Andou suddenly sent a video tape to him telling him "Please take care of this". He put the video tape in the storage room, but other workers have messed it up with other video tapes put there ever since, so it's now one huge mess. He knows for sure the tape is there though, as they never throw tapes away. All Kazuya and Mugi can do is start searching themselves.
Mugi gets all riled up about searching through the unlabeled video tapes and trips over herself, resulting in Kazuya calling her an idiot. At the end of the day, they have about 30 tapes they want to take home. Kazuya also wants to borrow some machine (assuming here they mean a VCR, but don't they have that already? ^^;). The night falls as they sleep over at a nearby inn, but have to share a room. Mugi freaks out as Kazuya tells her to go take a bath (also adding, "And properly wash your feet, too!", lol)
As she comes out of the bath, Kazuya tells her to give him her foot. Mugi starts blushing and freaking out (just how is "give me your foot" erotic, I ask you xD), but it turns out all Kazuya wanted to do was put a band-aid over the bruise she got from falling over in the video rental earlier. So he bends down to her foot with a soft (well, as soft as you can get from Kazuya, anyway) facial expression.
Kazuya: This inn's hot spring water is known for being soothing [to injuries]. Didn't you hear me say to wash your foot properly earlier?
Mugi: Ah... (becomes red in the face) Ahahahaha!
Kazuya: You probably thought of something weird, right? Idiot-- (flicks her forehead) Don't worry.
After that cute moment, they proceed to watch the movies for the rest of the night. Cue some really funny panels where Mugi cries to one movie and tries to imitate a boxer's pose to another. They're at the ninth movie when Kazuya says he wants to go to bed. That's when they suddenly see a tape of what looks like a man at an auction showing an audience a violin in its case. "Galnerius...?!" Mugi says. (It's the violin from earlier chapters that Sei pointed out was a fake, in case you don't remember.)
Kazuya points out you can clearly see the face of the seller, who turns out to be Sakuragi-sensei. He adds that Andou's disappearance would have meant they quieted down this occurence. The biggest possibility is that those guys from earlier [referring to Drug Guy etc] were the school board's own hired thugs. He calls RBM to share the news, leaving Mugi to ponder this on her own.
Mugi's thoughts: "These things... the auction of the lost Galnerius, Andou's and onee-chan's disappearance, and also, Shoukei High's connections...
The unknown (?) murders... the death cases... don't tell me... it was because of this that even mom and dad...?
And now I'm going against the same opponent..."
Kazuya glances at her tense poise over the shoulder, as Mugi thinks to herself: "But I have to do this..."
Kazuya suddenly turns off the lights and hugs Mugi from behind. He tells her to stop worrying and not to be afraid. He's here, so he'll protect her. Once again, Mugi calms down. She asks him when he started liking her.
Kazuya: "...I probably already started liking you from the very first beginning.
Meeting you, and getting to know you, only made my interest in you grow. And living with you resulted in me liking you more and more.
I always watched you [as in taking notice of her], regardless if you were laughing or crying.
I wanted to help you, hoping you'd lean on me, because I really [the last part is blurred T.T].
When you were sad, I was very happy to be the one by your side..."
Mugi thinks about how she's so happy that she can cry, and that this probably is what it means to really love someone. She can finally understand the feelings of her sister, the smile she had on the photo with Andou... what it means to not only be by yourself anymore...
"I... --Kazuya-kun, I like you," she says again, and they kiss as she thinks about how happy she is that she fell in love with Kazuya.
Cut to morning when they leave. Kazuya calls her name and Mugi answers, "Yeah." She thinks how she doesn't need to be afraid anymore and how Shoukei High holds the key [to this mystery].
- CHAPTER 24 END -
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