[Sunnivale]

(Higurashi OST - Egao)

Yumiko was great that she was back at Hylia Grace. Following her ordeal at Silent Hill, she was looking to get back to focusing on her education, as well as meeting with her old friends again after being gone for awhile. As Yumiko walked through the quiet afternoon halls of Hylia Grace, she saw the door to the detective club open and two people coming out of it.

It was her friend, Goro Akechi, who was talking to his partner Tachibana Ayumi about a recent case that they solved. "Well that was another boring case, having to find the teacher's stolen money. At least we did manage to solve it." Ayumi was relieved, although she wished her and Akechi could take on more serious cases like back in their own worlds.

"Even if cases are minor right now, the teacher still thanked us and we helped make his day a little better then before and it's good to help making Hylia Grace a more safer place for faculty and students alike."

"I guess you're right. Anyway, I'm going to start heading home, see you later Akechi-kun!" Heh, she called him Akechi-kun. It warmed Akechi's heart whenever more personal honorfics were used for him. It barely happens to him these days since Ayumi and Yumiko were his only friends so far.

Of course, Ren was now on Li too... But it was complicated for him.

"Hey, Akechi-san!" Yumiko ran up to Akechi, who was surprised to see Yumiko again after not seeing her for so long.

"Shirasagi-san, I'm happy to see you around the premises again. Did something happen that caused you to leave school for awhile?"

"Well, sort of. I had a problem and got stuck somewhere, until I was recently rescued."

"Ah, I apologise, if I didn't get the memo. If I did, then I would of went to where you were and rescued you." Akechi felt bad for not knowing about Yumiko's ordeal about Silent Hill, but he was glad to see that she was alright now.

"I would of repaid you, since you rescued me from my palace, hmm." Yumiko noticed how troubled Akechi looked when he mentioned his palace.

"Hey, are you alright?" She reached her hand over towards his shoulder, but upon noticing that, he turned away from Yumiko.

"I'I--I'm fine." He realised he was stuttering again, which he never does unless he was close to having someone find out about, his previous life about Li, such as Ren, or whenever he's near Ren himself.

"I just think about that day sometimes, and what people found out about it."

"Oh, I see. Would you like to talk about it?" Yumiko watched as Akechi's face turned red and he laughed, a little awkwardly.

"Wh-What, no, I'm fine, I'm fine about it." His voice turned quiet, and soft and Yumiko understood that he wasn't in the mood to talk about the palace.

"I'm just glad that you're back Shirasagi-chan. Why don't we grab something to eat? I'll buy." Akechi offered, which surprised Yumiko, since, nobody ever brought her out to eat before, except for Akemi.

He's likely going to do so again once she manages to make it back to her world. After everything that they been through, so why waste such an opportunity to eat with Akechi?

"Oh, really? Sure, why not." The two laughed as they began to walk away from the detective's club, unaware of someone watching them.

Chiaki Hayasaka, who was standing by a corner at the end of the hall, watching as Yumiko and Akechi walked down the other side until they were out of her view.

(Umineko OST - At Death's Door)

"Hm, I knew from his palace that he would be perfect for my plans, but Yumiko, he seems to be more closer to her then with Tachibana-san and she seems like she's going to put a foot in my plans if I don't stop her. I have to separate them somehow, and judging from his palace, there's some weak demons that he's trying to hide through that strong facade that he has.

I want him to break easily.

And as for Yumiko, I have to make sure that she's not around when I set my plan into motion, either dead or alive." And the best way for Chiaki to start looking, was at the Black Market to help her find some dirt on Akechi.

And to kill Yumiko.