Tsk. If the next plot matches the one in my head, you lousy System better wash your neck in that private space and wait for me to take you apart.

System: "..." — terrified, limited edition.jpg.

"Um... excuse me, miss, do you need something?"

Nana Toki stepped from the corner, ready to storm the café and pull a wayward girl out of the flames, when a timid voice fluttered by her ear.

She jolted like a cat under sudden thunder, then snapped back, her reflexes a coiled spring. She took the speaker down before the woman could blink.

"Stay still." Nana dragged the struggling body into the shrubs beside the café, shadows rustling like low water. She scanned for trouble, then fixed her gaze on the woman.

The girl looked seventeen or eighteen, a touch older than Nana’s current body. She wore a plain server’s uniform, the kind you see on any high street.

Put her behind a counter and Nana would peg her as just another waitress, a cup and smile routine.

But here, in a run-down café with a funereal façade, that neat uniform felt wrong. In a place this off, anyone out of tune rings like a false note.

The woman drew breath to cry out. Nana’s calm eyes caught hers—winter-black, still water swallowing light. The world dimmed; only those quiet, cold pupils remained.

"Talk. Who are you?" Nana slid a blade from her pocket, the night’s splinter pressing against the woman’s waist.

"I... I’m just an ordinary waitress..." Her mind was flooded white. Nana asked, she answered, like a reed in the wind.

"Ordinary waitresses work in places this weird?" This storefront looked like a ruin painted with darkness, not a normal business.

"But I really am a server here." The girl stared at the blade kissing her side, tears beading like rain on glass. She’d seen a silhouette wobble outside and came out, thinking a regular was late.

Of all the luck, she ran into Nana Toki, goddess of chaos.

"Got proof?" Nana eyed the little tremor running through her, suspicion like frost. The girl’s eyes were lovely, but panic pooled there, bright and raw.

Did I grab the wrong person? The fear tasted genuine, not stage paint.

"My... my apron pocket has my student ID. If you don’t believe me, check it..."

Nana slipped a hand at the right beat, clean as a swoop of a hawk, and pulled the plastic card from the apron.

"XX University... Zhao Sitian..."

Well, damn. A real student. The card’s weight felt honest, like cold pond ice. Nana blinked, surprised.

So this shabby café is actually a legitimate workplace?

"So, Ms. Robber, if you’re done with questions, could you move that thing... a little?" Clothes buffered the blade, but steel still spoke. Zhao Sitian’s nerves were thorns.

Nana Toki: "?" Hey, Comrade Zhao Sitian, we’re in the middle of a kidnapping. Could you act serious? You’re making me feel invisible here.

"Then one more question. Why does this café look like that?" A face like decay. Who walks into that?

"Ah... that. The manager declared a Dark Theme Week, so we decorated inside and out like this—torn edges and shadows."

Nana Toki: "..." A Dark Theme Week? Your boss is out of his mind. Piling flowers on a coffin for kicks?

"I heard it’s a personal hobby?"

"......." Why does that sound like a question?

"And business doesn’t suffer. Honestly, it makes us money." Zhao Sitian caught the curse blooming in Nana’s face. "Every special theme week, fans who love the mood book the whole place."

"......" Fine. You win.

I’ve been shadow-boxing the air.

System: "This is a Campus Plane. You think it’s a mafia world where people brawl over a sneeze?"

"Anyway. Since you’re staff here, you know someone named Wenquan, right?" Nana cut to the chase. She’d seen Wenquan head into this café.

"Wenquan... emmm, sure, I know her..." Zhao Sitian started, then remembered she was talking to a knife-holding maniac. Words stopped at her throat and sank.

"Uh, not really close, actually."

Is she underestimating me?

"Heh. You’ve got three minutes to tell me everything you know. Or I strip you bare and parade you down the street like a banner in the wind."

Nana smiled without warmth. The look made Zhao’s heart scuttle like a crab.

......

Zhao Sitian caved. Simple reason: Nana truly meant to rip her clothes off and toss her out.

"Uu-uu... Who knew robbers are this violent now." Not after money, not after bodies—just after answers.

She tugged at her rumpled outfit, tears hanging on like dew. Bit by bit, she told Nana everything about Wenquan.

They only knew each other through shifts. No private ties. Nana’s questions went past trivial scraps: "I want to know why Wenquan works here alone."

"Eh? Why she works here?" Zhao frowned, thoughts slow as syrup. After a pause, she squeezed out a few words: "Uh, not sure."

Isn’t it because the pay here is twenty percent higher than other part-time gigs?

"......" This one...

"Ah... but the manager did mention Wenquan’s family situation isn’t great."

"Family situation isn’t great?" That felt useful. Nana nodded, a small pulse of satisfaction.

"But, Ms. Robber, if you care this much, why not go ask Wenquan yourself?"

"Because I don’t want her to know I’m looking into her." Nana eased the blade away, eyes flicking up like a raven’s wing. "Are you dense?"

Zhao Sitian: "......"

"Also, one more thing. I’m not Ms. Robber. I have a name. Lu Qiqi. Same high school as Wenquan, same class. You’re two years older than me, so drop the honorifics."

"Eh?" Zhao couldn’t catch up. "You... you said you’re in high school?"

"Yeah." Nana went for the headshot. "Can’t you tell? I’m wearing a JK schoolgirl uniform."

She gave her body a little shameless sway, showing off the pleats like ripples on a lake.

"......"

Your sister... Who could tell?

Kidnap at hello, fruit knife at the waist, triple threat—and you claim you’re a schoolgirl? Who buys that?

You’d be more convincing as a psycho in a school uniform, prowling and stabbing. That, I could accept.

"Believe it or not, doesn’t matter. But keep today’s mess to yourself." Nana dusted off her skirt and turned toward the commercial street’s river of people. "I’ll be visiting you again soon. Don’t stir trouble. Or your life might feel the wind shift."

"......" That’s a threat. A bare, iron threat. What dangerous species are schoolgirls now?

"Then, see you?" Nana offered what she considered a friendly smile, spring sunlight over a blade.

Zhao Sitian didn’t dare say more. She drooped her head and watched silently as Nana’s shadow slid away.

"See... see you..."