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Miyori did get home, eventually. 

She put Noa's bag away downstairs and ate dinner with her family. If someone had asked about her day, or about Noa, she might have told them what happened…but no one did. 

She sat in Noa's room after dinner. She marked the warehouse they'd found on the map and then stared blankly through their notes, trying to figure out something, anything she could do. 

In the end, she left the front door unlocked in case Noa made it home, and went up to bed to stare at her dark ceiling. 

She wasn't sure, in the morning, if she'd managed to sleep or not, but she still had to go to school. 

Briefly, as she ate breakfast without tasting it, she considered asking her parents to call her in sick. But she wasn't sure what good it would do. 

If Noa had been arrested, then he would either be released or he wouldn't. If he was able to send word, he knew her address. If he wasn't with the police, or not allowed to contact anyone…then she had no idea where to start looking for him. 

So she waited. 

She went to class. 

She chatted as lightly with Shizuka as she could at lunch, though she found herself returning to the same questions she'd asked on Saturday on the way home—what had they taught her, what did she think, was there anything strange. 

Shizuka didn't have any new answers for her, and seemed a little confused that Miyori was so stuck on the subject. But she was still excited about the program, still hopeful it would lead to good things. Eventually, Miyori had to let it go, the guilt of keeping secrets curdling alongside the worry in her stomach. 

She begged off student council duties after school—something she didn't want to make a habit of, but the circumstances called for it—and made her way back home to stare at their notes again.

Everything was untouched. Noa hadn't returned—of course he hadn't—and there was no word from him, either.

Miyori sat through dinner again, smiling wanly when her parents asked why she was so quiet. She told them she was just tired. 

She wouldn't be able to keep Noa's disappearance a secret forever—and she wasn't sure she should. It would be easy to say he'd just moved away, but since he'd been detained, or possibly kidnapped…

Who could she tell about that? Who would believe her? Noa didn't have an address anyone would check, wasn't attending school, didn't have family who would declare him missing. 

If she didn't think of something, she might very well never find out what had happened to him. 

Back in what she'd been thinking of as Noa's room, Miyori pressed her forehead to the table where she'd laid out their notes, her eyes prickling with exhaustion and despair. 

She was badly out of her depth, and Noa had always been the one with the ideas. 

If she were the one missing, she wondered, what would Noa do? 

When his mother had vanished, Noa had simply run—but then, his mother had betrayed him first. 

If Miyori were to go missing, though, there were people who would look for her—people who would raise a fuss, people Noa could enlist to help him.

So then...if Miyori got herself captured, too, would that raise the alarm in a way Noa's disappearance didn't? 

But Noa had said public attention might not be enough—that if there was an easy way to bring the Iseki Conglomerate to justice, someone would have done it already. If Miyori were to go missing, her family would worry, but perhaps nothing more than that would happen. 

No, if it were her that had gone missing…Noa would probably have turned to the fae sooner or later. Especially since he was gathering information for them already. 

Miyori had the information they'd gathered so far, and news that they weren't above kidnapping. And she knew from Noa—though he'd sworn her to secrecy—that it was her cousin, Kenshin, who'd introduced him to a fae family, the Kusumotos.

He'd also said that so far, they'd treated him fairly. 

Miyori ran her fingers through her hair, realizing she'd already made her decision. 

Then she pulled out Noa's notes again, looking for something a little different this time.

If Noa wasn't around to make shady deals to save himself, then she'd have to do it for him. 

***

"Kenshin-nii! Can I talk to you for a minute?" 

Kenshin, like Miyori, was old enough to have his own room, though like hers it wasn't very large. It was also, she saw as he opened the door, something of a pigsty. 

"Miyori-chan?" He blinked at her. "It's late. What do you want?" 

"I need to talk to you," she said. "Can I come in?" 

He gave her a skeptical look—they weren't particularly close, despite her nickname for him—but let her in anyway. "What's this about?" 

"Okay, so." Miyori crossed her arms, nervous, but gave him her best pleading look. "Don't be mad, but I know your secret, and I need a favor." 

Kenshin was, understandably, very unhappy when she told him that she knew about his fae dealings. But when he started flailing, caught between defending himself and throwing her out entirely, she stopped him. 

"I don't know the details," she said. "I don't need to know why you're doing it. But I found fae contact information in Noa-kun's bag, and I just need you to come with me and introduce me. For his sake." 

"Why?" he asked. "He can handle himself, and his work isn't any of your business—or mine. I already know more about what he was up to than I'd like to. You shouldn't—" 

"He's missing," Miyori said. Her voice threatened to break, but she wouldn't let it. "The people he was investigating…they took him. I need to convince them to help me get him back." 

Kenshin stared at her, then ran his hands through his hair. "They took…? You're sure? He's not just locked up for breaking and entering, or something?" 

"I don't think so," Miyori said. "But if he is, then I bet the Kusumotos have ways of finding that out, too. It could be weeks before he shows up otherwise, even if he's been arrested legitimately." 

"Great," Kenshin said. "Wonderful. …You know, you're supposed to be the golden child, Miyori-chan. The one who's even more squeaky-clean than the rest of us. Do you know what your dad will do if he finds out I brought you to meet the fae?" 

"I can keep a secret," Miyori promised. "And I know you can, too. Mom and dad never have to find out. Besides, you're not bringing me—I'm going either way. But they don't know me, so I was hoping you could help smooth things along."

"Sure," Kenshin groaned. "Right. Of course you'd do it anyway. Why would I expect otherwise?" 

And so they arranged a time after school and a meeting point. 

It wasn't really enough to let Miyori sleep easy that night, but it  helped to have the beginnings of a plan.