Editing BlazBlue:Bloodedge Experience Part 1 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 4===

It was a cloudy day. After school, with the sky obscured by thin, grayish clouds, Naoto staked out a bench beside the special classroom building and sipped on a packet of coffee milk he'd bought from the school store for eighty yen.

Today, Naoto and Raquel had spent the entire day walking around the school, gathering information about a person named "Kana Kirishima." Though the "information" mostly involved catching people who had some degree of interaction with her and asking them various questions. The conclusions drawn from this were as follows:

“A strict but kind woman,” “a true young lady,” “wealthy,” “beautiful,” and “Her breasts are bigger than you would expect from her clothes”- Except for that last item, Naoto had only spoken to her once.

Even Naoto knew that, and he had already guessed that even from looking at her clothes, Kana's breasts were above average. While the idea that they were even larger than that was intriguing, it was definitely unrelated to the current situation. In other words... 

“No luck.” 

The investigation was a complete waste of time.

“Haruka said that she doesn't show her private side much at school. Is that the case for everyone?” Raquel said, not seeming too disheartened, leaning beside Naoto and drinking a strawberry milk from the same eighty-yen pack series. She must be used to dealing with cases where there are no clues. Or perhaps half her mind was on the contents of the paper pack she was gently holding in both hands.

“Nah. Not everything can be completely open, but it's rare to meet someone who's so completely guarded, isn't it?” Even if someone tries to hide it, a little bit of their personality or private life can slip out. But Kana Kirishima doesn't have that. Naoto thought maybe she was so perfect that she was consciously trying to hide everything perfectly.

Naoto leaned back against the bench and looked up at the sky. The weather wasn't clear. It didn't seem like it would rain, but would it clear up a little at night? Thinking about that, he suddenly looked at Raquel next to him and remembered.

“Hey... are you... wearing them today?” 

“What?” Her pure, innocent expression and voice indicated that she genuinely didn't understand what he was referring to. Naoto understood just from that.

(She's not wearing them...)

His eyes went to Raquel's bare knees. And then he caught himself imagining what was under her skirt, and scolded himself for doing so, shaking his head vigorously. Before him, the tip of a black loafer advanced.

“Hello, Kurogane Naoto-kun.” He looked up at the voice. There, standing before him, was Kana Kirishima.

“H-hello.” His heart raced. Had word gotten around about him asking questions about her? But Kana didn't seem to be offended at all. Instead, she gave a faint smile.

"We ran into each other around here yesterday, didn't we? Do you come here often?"

"Uh, not really, it's just a coincidence... What about you, senpai?"

"I just finished some business over there." She said, and looked at the special classroom building behind Naoto. Many clubs use the special classrooms as clubrooms. Looking away into the distance, Naoto furrowed his brow for a moment.

"9006"—the number above Kana's head. It was low. Not as low as Isa's was the other day, but she must be tired. Now that he thought about it, the number he had seen yesterday was also much lower than average. 

“Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no.” He realized that she had caught him staring. Naoto quickly shifted his gaze from her number back to her face. He didn't want to give the impression of being a man who only stared at people's heads.

"I just thought you were beautiful, senpai."

Kana laughed it off coolly. "If you keep saying things like that, Haruka might get jealous, you know?"

"She's not like that." As he dodged the question, Naoto felt a bitterness in his throat. Haruka again. He felt like Kana was strangely concerned about Haruka. If she was originally the kind of person who cared about others like this, he thought he would have gotten a slightly different impression from the information he gathered.

Just as he was thinking that, Raquel, who had been observing Kana with a wary aura, stood up.

“Kana Kirishima. Do you know a man named Spinner Superior?” She threw out her usual straightforward question without hesitation. A mysterious blonde beauty and a black-haired girl exuding an air of mystery—together, they were quite a sight. But now was not the time to think about such things.

(What the hell is she talking about all of a sudden?)

Naoto's eyes darted back and forth, flustered and not knowing how to stop her, while Kana simply tilted her head in confusion. He could hear the sound of her long hair slipping smoothly past his shoulder.

"Spinner... what?" It was clear she had never heard that name before. Probably because she was being stared at, Raquel's body tensed visibly, and she looked away as if to escape. She opened her mouth again.

"Spinner Superior." Her voice lacked any conviction, almost as if it was a pity to hear her say it. She had only recently become able to endure being in the same space as Haruka. And with someone like Kana, who she was meeting for only the second time, the damage would be even greater.

Mistaking Raquel's lowered gaze for shyness, Kana leaned in with an expression as if she were looking at something adorable. She bent slightly, searching for Raquel's small gaze. They locked eyes. Raquel flinched slightly.

"I'm sorry. I don't know. Is he a foreign actor?"

"I-I see... If you don't know, that's fine..." Facing Kana's relaxed demeanor, Raquel no longer had the strength to argue back.

"You're Raquel Alucard, right? I heard you're staying at Haruka's house." Kana straightened her previously hunched posture and directed her question at Naoto. Her flawless smile was as if…

It was as if she wanted to say, "It's sad to tease her any further."

(Raquel... she's completely outmatched.)

Naoto chuckled inwardly, seeing how severe Raquel's dislike of other girls was. He turned to Kana.

"Do you know her?"

"I'm the vice president of the student council, after all. And she's already quite famous throughout the school. They say there's a very beautiful foreign exchange student. The boys in my class were all excited about it." 

"Really? I didn't know that." 

It's not a surprising story, though. If Naoto were an outsider, he would have been surprised by Raquel's transfer too, and he probably would have turned around if he passed her in the hallway. If he didn't know her foolish nature behind her arrogant facade, he might have imagined her to be a noble and perfect person.

A sudden chime rang out, interrupting their conversation. Naoto remembered his homeroom teacher saying it was a signal for students without any after-school activities to go home early.

"Oh no, it's already this late..." Startled by the chime, Kana checked her watch and her expression clouded over. The relaxed demeanor she had earlier vanished, replaced by a sudden look of urgency. 

"Do you have somewhere to be?"

"Yes... I'm so sorry. I have to go, Kurogane-kun, Alucard-san." She really seemed to be in a hurry. With a forced smile on her lips, her expression not exactly bright as if she had an unpleasant task ahead, Kana turned on her heel and quickly headed back to the main school building. Watching her retreating figure, Naoto let out a deep sigh of exasperation.

"Hey, Raquel... if you're going to dig for information, you could at least ask in a better way. What if Kirishima-senpai really is connected to Spinner...?" As he droned on with his scolding, he suddenly noticed Raquel completely frozen in place, her chin lowered and eyes wide open, not moving at all.

(Oh, this is bad.)

Instantly realizing what had happened, Naoto grabbed Raquel's stiff shoulder and shook her vigorously.

"Hey, snap out of it! Breathe, breathe!!"

"Ugh!" Raquel's consciousness returned with the force of a popped balloon. How long had she forgotten to breathe? Her thin chest rose and fell rapidly, her face pale as if she had just experienced something horrifying.

"To... to put pressure on me like this... Kirishima Kana, she's no ordinary person." 

"It's your fault!" While quickly retorting, Naoto couldn't help but think, '''So even vampires can have trouble breathing.'''

"Anyway, from the way you reacted just now, it seems like you don’t know anything about Spinner." Naoto took another sip of his coffee milk before continuing. If Kana had been a skilled actress, he would have been stumped, but her immediate reaction…

It was definitely not the kind of name that an ordinary person would recognize. Raquel nodded in agreement.

"But today, I can feel a slightly stronger remnant of the Azure than yesterday," she said. 

"Is it related to Spinner?"

"Yes." Raquel stated firmly. She must be able to perceive it that clearly. Raquel looked up at Naoto and said strongly, "I'm going to follow her. She might contact someone related to Spinner today."

Or maybe even Spinner himself. Either way, it's certain that Kana is an important clue to getting closer to Spinner. Naoto didn’t want Kana to be wandering near such a dangerous person. He wasn't personally close to her, but knowing the risks and doing nothing would sit uncomfortably with him. But Naoto grimaced bitterly and sucked down the rest of his coffee milk. He inhaled some air along with the remaining liquid, making an awkward sound in the pack.

"But, I promised to go shopping with Haruka today..." Crushing the empty paper pack carefully, Naoto sighed in resignation. Although it was a promise, he couldn't put Kana off. While thinking about how to decline, he stood up to head towards the trash can a little further away.

He saw Haruka running from the school building. He was about to wave and call out to her, but then stopped. As they passed each other, Haruka was being called by Kana. It seemed like Kana was apologizing for something, and Haruka was hurriedly agreeing. Although that's what it looked like from Naoto's position, he couldn't hear their conversation. 
The conversation seemed to end quickly, and Kana left with a brief greeting, walking towards the school building. Haruka bowed several times to see her off, then turned to Naoto and Raquel and perked up.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Nao-kun!" she said, breathless, clasping her hands in front of her face as she approached. Naoto stared back blankly, still clutching the discarded paper pack in his hand.

"Huh? What's up all of a sudden?" 

"I can't go shopping with you today like we promised. The cultural festival is coming up soon, and there's something I have to do today that can't be put off."

"Oh, is it student council stuff?"

"Yeah. I was supposed to get help from Kirishima-senpai, but she just told me she has something important she can't miss..." Haruka glanced over her shoulder, referring to the brief encounter they just had moments before. Her brows furrowed in apology. "So, I'm really sorry, Nao-kun, Raquel-chan. Please head home without me. I think I'll be late. And if you get hungry before dinner, go ahead and eat something.” 

“Alright, got it. Don’t stay too late either.” 

“Okay, see you later!” With a cheerful wave to both Naoto and Raquel, Haruka hurried back to the school building. She was a hard worker, always running around doing club activities at school and helping out with chores at home. Thinking to himself, “I could never do that,” Naoto tossed the empty paper pack into the nearby trash can.

"Looks like we have some free time now," he said, glancing back at Raquel. She had also finished her pink drink and dropped the empty carton into the trash can.

“Perfect. Let’s go. I hate doing things twice. I don’t want to lose sight of her.”

"Fair enough, but... I can't believe you're the same person who was nearly fainting just a moment ago," Naoto replied.

With Kana and Haruka gone, Raquel regained her usual confident demeanor, brushing her bangs aside with her fingers. Now that Kana and Haruka were gone, Raquel regained her usual assertive and arrogant attitude, brushing her bangs aside with her fingers. Following Raquel as she walked ahead, Naoto gathered his courage inwardly, though he didn’t say anything. If Kana was in contact with Spinner, it meant that following her might bring them much closer to Spinner.

Even if he could obtain the Azure, it was undoubtedly more dangerous than Naoto had anticipated. He needed to prepare himself. He wasn’t sure what kind of resolve he needed to make, but he couldn’t help but wear a serious expression.