<...>

<I guess Yuki isn't coming today either...>

<It seems that way...>

<However, she's been sending us her lyrics, and we've been able to meet her at the diner on occasion...>

<But it's been two weeks now since she last worked with us on Nightcord...>

<Do you think her mom's still spying on her...?>

<I have to think so...>

(Two weeks...)

(It's already been that long since then...)

Mafuyu's mom and I parted ways once we exited the hotel...

Geez...

No room in her life for music. How can she say that...?

Seriously, what's wrong with her...?

She's just completely ignoring how Mafuyu actually feels...!

...

(I got a bad feeling when I overheard Mafuyu speak with her on voice chat that one time...)

(But Kanade's story confirmed my suspicions. Mafuyu's mom... She...)

(She doesn't care at all how Mafuyu feels...)

Um, Kanade...?

Are you sure you don't want to tell Mafuyu about this...?

Once she knows how her mom really thinks, she might...

I've already gone over that in my head.
Unfortunately...

Even if we were to tell Mafuyu, I'm not sure she'd be able to process this information... At least, not right now...

What...?

When KAITO arrived...

I have a feeling that Mafuyu continues to believe that her mother genuinely cares about her, and would never do anything to cause her pain...

She's still clinging to that somehow...

...

I got that feeling too...

And I think she's doing it subconsciously...

I agree...

So, even if we did tell her what her mother said, there's a high likelihood that she wouldn't immediately accept it...

If anything, it could just make things worse and cause her more pain...

Yeah, I get that! But...!

I mean, what are we supposed to do...?

I understand how you feel, but we simply don't have a solution right now.

But I'm confident that there is a way out there to help her.

So, let's try to figure that out.

Right...

Sitting back and watching while Mafuyu suffers just doesn't seem right.

Yeah!

Let's brainstorm and see what we can do!

(We spent a lot of time thinking after that, but...)

<Hey, wanna meet in SEKAI for a bit...?>

<What? Now?>

<For, you know...? A little change of scenery! Seriously, my shoulders are starting to ache after sitting in this chair for so long...>

<Also, I wanna tell Miku and the others about Yuki's current situation!>

<Yes, I agree with you on that...>

<Then, let's take a quick break in SEKAI.>

<Woohoo!>

<Meet you there in five! And bring snacks!>