Everyone quietly left the room, tiptoeing to the doorway, looking at the pendant in Wakasa Yuri's hand.
It looked like an old piece, but because it was well-maintained, there were no signs of rust.
However, people nowadays generally don't use such pendants anymore, and since this type of pendant is used to hold photos, placing a photo inside usually signifies mourning someone.
To understand Inaba Tsukiyo better, Wakasa Yuri opened the pendant and, as expected, found a photo inside—a photo of Inaba Tsukiyo and a girl who looked like a doll.
"So beautiful, she must be a foreigner. But… why would Tsukiyo-chan take a photo with her?"
In the photo, Inaba Tsukiyo and this girl were very close, holding hands and smiling as they leaned against each other.
Inaba Tsukiyo's smile in the photo was one they had never seen before. Even just looking at the photo, they could feel the emotion called happiness.
"Perhaps she is the Little Vi that Tsukiyo-chan mentioned, but this item is at least several decades old. Is it a family heirloom?"
Sakura Megumi wasn't very knowledgeable about jewelry, but this pendant was clearly not a modern product.
"Sister Megumi… would you carry a family heirloom with you? It's not a ring; this thing breaks easily."
It was a mystery how this pendant had survived so many battles. Even if it was well-maintained, if it broke, no one would be able to fix it.
However… even with this photo, the information they could glean was still too little. What was the relationship between this doll-like girl and Inaba Tsukiyo? They still didn't know.
"Hey… Yuri, does this thing also have some secret?"
Sakura Megumi took out the white pipe. She had found it and initially thought Inaba Tsukiyo had a bad habit of smoking, but the pipe had never been used.
She had planned to ask Inaba Tsukiyo when she woke up, but after seeing the pendant, she wondered if this pipe also hid something.
"Hiding something in a pipe? It's not like she's a spy. How could such a small thing hide anything?"
Kurumi took the pipe and kept turning it over, her flashlight constantly checking every part of the pipe.
Kurumi had seen some spy movies before, where many seemingly small objects could actually hide a lot of things.
The mouthpiece of this pipe was larger than those of modern pipes. The lighting in the basement was a bit dim, so Kurumi squinted, trying to see if this small pipe had any place to hide something.
"Um… be careful, Kurumi. This should be something very important. If you accidentally break it, Tsukiyo-chan might get angry."
"It's fine, it's fine. As long as I don't break it, it'll be okay. I'll be careful, so don't worry."
As she spoke, Kurumi rotated the pipe in her hand, and soon she discovered a very suspicious spot on the side of the pipe.
This was a ceramic pipe with beautiful patterns, looking like a work of art. But if one looked closely, they could find a very inconspicuous seam on the side of the pipe.
This was a great discovery. Kurumi happily found some tools and opened the gap without damaging the pipe. Finally, she found something hidden inside.
"This is... a letter? But this kind of paper is too small. How much can be written on it? And how long has this paper been here?"
The paper was already a little yellowed. It was obvious that it hadn't been put in recently, but very likely a long time ago.
The group opened the yellowed envelope, which was filled with densely packed English, causing Kurumi, Takenouchi Yuki, and the others to step back with a headache.
As academically challenged students, the only language they could master was their mother tongue. What was English? Would they ever use it in the future?
Although Wakasa Yuri and Naoki Miki were good students, they still found it very difficult to read a letter full of English.
Fortunately, besides these students, there was also Sakura Megumi, a teacher, here.
Although she couldn't be said to be proficient, she could still understand what was written here.
"Um... [If someone finds the letter I hid in the pipe, then you should have a good relationship with Tsukiyo. It seems she has made friends according to what I said.]"
It was a bit of a confusing statement, but the content of the letter wasn't over yet. Sakura Megumi continued translating.
"[I don't know if you found this letter unintentionally or intentionally. But if you have a good relationship with Tsukiyo, then please take care of her. She has lived alone for so long, it must have been painful. She can't have too close a relationship with others. Even if they can fully accept her existence, they will eventually leave her because of time.]"
"[Tsukiyo is special. Although I left her what I had while I was still alive, I know these things won't make her happy. I'm a liar. I clearly promised to live well until Tsukiyo died, but I left before her.]"
As Sakura Megumi translated, everyone's mood was shrouded in shock.
If this letter wasn't a joke, then it meant that Inaba Tsukiyo had lived for at least over a hundred years, and had even witnessed the First World War?
"Impossible, Tsukiyo-chan, she..."
"It's not impossible, but this can explain why Inaba Tsukiyo sometimes acts so mature."
The age of the paper couldn't be faked. Although there was no conclusive evidence, the person who left this letter was taking advantage of the fact that Inaba Tsukiyo couldn't see things to secretly leave it behind.
As ordinary people, they couldn't understand what immortality was all about, but they could understand the loneliness of not being able to get along with others and having to live alone.
What Kurumi cared about most was a sentence in her heart. The person in her heart said she was a liar, clearly promising Inaba Tsukiyo not to die before her, but she broke her promise.
No wonder Inaba Tsukiyo was so desperately protecting them just because they were friends. Was that the reason?
Everyone fell silent. They realized that understanding more about Inaba Tsukiyo only made things heavier.
Everyone tactfully refrained from further conversation. After putting the letter back into the pipe, they buried the matter in their hearts.
A lot had happened today. Everyone decided to rest well first, and when they woke up, they would go out and see if the zombies had left the teaching building.
When everyone was asleep, a figure groped and sat up, trying not to make any noise, and came to Inaba Tsukiyo's side.
Just as she was about to sit down, someone suddenly patted her shoulder, scaring her so much that she almost screamed. Fortunately, the other person seemed to know that Kurumi couldn't help but scream, and covered her mouth in advance, which prevented the scream from waking everyone up.
"You... you scared me to death! Sister Ri. Please don't do that?"
"Hehe ~ I just saw someone not sleeping at night and sneaking around, so I was curious and came to take a look. I didn't expect you weren't asleep, Kurumi."
These two sneaky figures were Wakasa Yuri and Kurumi.
They were both preparing to come over when the others were asleep, but they didn't expect that someone else had the same idea.
"Mm..."
Inaba Tsukiyo made a slight sound, scaring Kurumi and Wakasa Yuri into holding their breath, thinking that their movements had woken Inaba Tsukiyo up.
Under their gazes, Inaba Tsukiyo just turned over and continued sleeping, showing no signs of being awakened.
Wakasa Yuri and Kurumi breathed a sigh of relief. After exchanging a glance, they quietly lay down beside Inaba Tsukiyo, sandwiching Inaba Tsukiyo in the middle.
"Just like Yuki said, Tsukiyo-chan's body is very soft. I really don't know how she trains."
As a member of the sports club, Kurumi knew very well that excessive training would make the muscles on her body hard.
In order not to become a muscle woman, Kurumi would massage her muscles every time after training to avoid those exaggerated muscles.
Even a girl like Kurumi was worried that she would have eight pack abs on her stomach.
If that kind of thing really happened, Kurumi would probably not dare to go swimming, after all, eight pack abs on a girl's body, except for a bodybuilder, probably no one would like it.
"Yeah, Tsukiyo-chan feels like an ordinary girl when she's sleeping. I really don't know how Tsukiyo-chan endures always maintaining this petite appearance."
"Maybe it's a habit, and being petite isn't a bad thing. If she was like Sister Ri and Sister Megumi, it would probably be very troublesome."
After all, small bras and such, if no one helped, it was hard to imagine how Inaba Tsukiyo would rely on her own ability to put them on.
Moreover, if Inaba Tsukiyo's swordsman attributes were added to huge breasts, it would be easy to confuse her with a certain upperclassman in the current apocalyptic environment.
"Hey... Sister Ri. If we all survive, will Tsukiyo-chan disappear from our lives?"
"... Maybe, according to Tsukiyo-chan's personality, now that she has protected us well, then her mission has been completed. For her, leaving silently is the best choice."
Just like what was written in the letter, in order to prevent Inaba Tsukiyo's secret of immortality from being exposed, every few years, they had to go to other places and absolutely couldn't stay in one place for too long.
In order to prevent herself from being discovered by the country and then being caught for dissection, Inaba Tsukiyo would definitely hide.
"I... don't want that, Tsukiyo-chan is our hero. And... we're already friends, aren't we?"
"Yeah, we're all friends. Not only us, but everyone also regards Tsukiyo-chan as their best friend. And, I don't want Tsukiyo-chan to leave either."
Girls are all emotional. Those hero saves beauty scenes in stories are not impossible to happen in the real world.
So what if she's a girl? Even if Inaba Tsukiyo didn't have this idea when she was doing this, Wakasa Yuri's heart had already begun to change.
Not only her, but the others in the School Living Club had also begun to change, but they themselves hadn't noticed it yet.
"I... won't die before you, Tsukiyo-chan."