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Time passed as the sunlight streaming through the classroom window shifted from an eastern angle to directly overhead. After sitting at her easel for two full hours, the blonde girl finally let out a gentle sigh of relief.

"OK~ That should about do it."

Hmm?

Like being jolted from a full period of daydreaming by the class bell, Bokue Keikain automatically stretched at Asagi's words, then pushed off with both hands to hop down from the desk.

"Done already?"

As they'd agreed, his job today was modeling for her life drawing assignment. So for the past two hours, Bokue had sat motionless on a desk facing the easel, dressed in his yukata with the haori draped over his shoulders, even holding a model katana to complete the samurai look.

Because of this angle, all Bokue could see was the massive easel's back completely blocking Asagi's upper body, with only her lower legs occasionally shifting beneath it.

When Bokue walked around the easel to stand beside Asagi, he saw his likeness completely captured on the paper.

Though not a hundred percent accurate, it was pretty close—seventy or eighty percent there.

For someone who rarely drew, managing this in two hours showed considerable natural talent.

The only odd thing was that the lines around the figure's head seemed somewhat blurred, as if they'd been revised several times.

"Well, I could've been faster, but I made some changes midway."

Seeming quite confident in her work, Asagi rubbed her nose with a hint of pride.

"The reason being that you kept turning your head to look out the window while I was drawing."

"Huh? Did I?"

Bokue paused slightly.

He hadn't really paid attention to his posture. After all, with two hours and nothing to do, he'd basically just sat there letting his mind wander.

"Sorry about that."

"No worries at all~"

Asagi waved it off, pulling out her phone to show him her photo gallery.

"Actually, it didn't matter if you moved your head or not, since I'd already taken reference photos. Having you sit there was mostly just for reference. But then I noticed you looked better gazing out the window—your profile was more attractive than a straight-on portrait. So I changed it halfway through."

So that was it...

Come to think of it, Akeno had mentioned his profile looked good too.

Bokue mused to himself.

But Asagi had already packed up her things and risen from the easel, using her phone to photograph her assignment and submit it to the class group chat. Then she turned to the youth beside her.

"Speaking of which, why were you staring out the window so much, Bokue? Were you thinking about someone else?"

The blonde girl narrowed her eyes at the last part, hands on hips as she leaned forward slightly—her tone definitely had that loaded question quality.

"...Just something that caught my attention."

Bokue paused, then explained how he'd seen Nagisa and Yukina meeting up with what seemed to be a classmate below the art room.

Asagi blinked after hearing this.

"Oh, those two girls you know from before. But what were they doing here? They're... not old enough for high school yet, right?"

"That's exactly why I found it strange."

"Hmm... where did you last see them heading?"

"That way."

Bokue gestured in the general direction the three girls had gone.

Asagi followed his gaze and thought for a moment.

"There's nothing much in that direction from school... though there is an abandoned chapel."

"Chapel?"

At that location name, Bokue's expression instantly turned peculiar.

A vampire True Ancestor going to play at a chapel—how strange did that sound?

"If you're really worried, why not go check?" Asagi suggested.

"...Let's go look."

After thinking it over, Bokue nodded in agreement.

"Mm, let's go then. We're done here anyway~"

Thinking about how the youth had diligently modeled for her all morning, the cheerful Asagi didn't mind that they were going to find those two little girls. She decisively stood up, linked arms with her boyfriend, and headed for the art room door.

But after two seconds, she turned back.

"Oh right, can't forget to return the drama club's costumes..."

Soon the art room door closed completely, returning the classroom to its proper summer vacation silence.

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

Scene shift—

The dilapidated chapel on the school's back mountain.

"Aww~ This one's so cute too! Let big sister hold you, mmmm~"

"Nagisa..."

Under the blazing noon sun, the Sword Shaman stood in the shade provided by the chapel's dome, watching Nagisa in the flower-filled area nearby, intimately cuddling a fluffy creature. She let out her thirty-seventh helpless attempt to remind her that it was getting late.

This might be hard to understand, but to summarize in one sentence... Nagisa was currently in a state of being completely absorbed in petting cats.

Yes, cats—and lots of them.

According to Kanase, whom they'd just met this morning, these cats were all ones she kept here.

Since the school didn't allow pets and her home wasn't convenient for them either, she'd simply housed them in this church chapel where she'd spent time since childhood.

But as everyone knows, stray cats wander. Kanon had originally just wanted to find adopters for these cats before stopping, but she hadn't expected that once the cats discovered they could get fed here, they'd brought friends. The cat population kept growing, turning this old chapel into a massive cat haven—practically guaranteed to find a cat within three steps waiting for pets.

So at this rate, when would they ever get back? And Sayaka...

"Oh, so you really were here."

A familiar voice came from the chapel entrance behind her, interrupting the girl's thoughts.

Yukina and the still-crouching, cat-petting Nagisa turned almost simultaneously to see Bokue Keikain entering from the rear entrance, with Asagi Aiba following behind.

Nagisa let out an "ah," releasing the cat in her arms as she stood up with a delighted smile.

"What a coincidence! How come you're here too, Big Brother? And... Asagi's here as well."

"It's not that he wanted to come. We saw you heading this way from the art room and came to check," Asagi explained indifferently, twirling a strand of golden hair around her finger while looking away.

"Art room?"

Nagisa tilted her little head cutely.

"Why would Asagi and Big Brother be in the art room during summer vacation?"

"Because high schoolers have summer homework too, obviously."

Asagi paused here.

"Oh right, we took a photo. Want to see~?"

As if suddenly inspired, she pulled out her phone to show the three girls the couple's photo they'd taken in the art room.

"That's Bokue-senpai..."

"And Asagi..."

"...in a couple's photo?!"

Looking at the youth and girl leaning together in the phone's photo, both Yukina and Kanon showed varying degrees of surprise.

Especially a certain white-haired girl, who covered her mouth with unmistakable envy in her eyes.

Only Nagisa narrowed her eyes slightly.

Hmph, a couple's photo, is it?

Later, Nagisa would take an even more outrageous one~

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