Robertina was in Cafe CxC, having tea by herself when the door chimes rang, and three young ladies entered.
They looked around and saw Robertina in the corner and immediately made their way over to her. "Tina-chan, we're here nya~!" The girl with long black hair and golden eyes waved and greeted her.
The girl with long white hair in a ponytail and also golden eyes behind her looked around a bit more before asking, "Where's Ex?"
Robertina gestured at the waitress and asked her to bring more cups of tea. "He couldn't hold himself back and has been going there every day for the last week."
The last girl, with silver hair tied in a single long braid and aquamarine eyes, sat down beside Robertina with a skeptical expression. "Is it safe?"
Robertina sighed. "He has been coming back home tired since then, but it seems like he has been enjoying himself, so I haven't been able to stop him."
"Tired? I heard that it's wide and sturdy enough for him to let loose, but is he that stressed, nya?" The black-haired young lady, called Kurobara, asked Robertina.
"I'm not sure. Every time I ask him about the time he spent there, he'll clumsily avoid the topic." Robertina sighed. "I wanted to go with him, but he refused, and I didn't really insist since I'm busy investigating their backgrounds." At the same time, she placed down her phone in the middle of the table, allowing her to present them a holographic screen that contained various information.
The three ladies carefully went through them, and the first one to say something was the white-haired girl called Shirayuki. "A concerning past... But aside from the years he and his sister disappeared, there's nothing weird. What about Tiamat Hayes? There's nothing on her."
Robertina shook her head. "With the short amount of time I have, I couldn't find anything about her aside from the name they provided. The clues I gathered, however, point to the time when Evies invaded."
"One of the missing people?" The silver-haired girl, named Helmwige, muttered softly.
"Probably. There are tens of thousands of them, so there's a good chance." Robertina replied solemnly. While she didn't experience that invasion, she still shuddered every time she studied that timeline from the remaining public records. 'Now that I'm reminded, it's also because of that invasion that the Sitri House became closed off. I heard that our families were quite close back then, but after the sealing of the former Demon King Leviathan, the deaths of Sona Sitri's Queen, Knight, and Rook, and the sleep disease that struck their head, they slowly cut off their contact from the outside. Though it seems that Sona Sitri still helps with the decision-making within Auros Academy from time to time.'
When her mind started to wander off, her shoulder was tapped, and she immediately regained her presence of mind. "Are you alright?" Helmwige asked her with concern.
"It's nothing. I just thought of something. In any case, this is all the data I could gather within a week. I could do more with the help of our families, but I don't want to break Urahara Kisuke's stipulations for now."
Of course, they all had the same opinion about Kisuke, which was highly suspicious, but a hidden space like that was also highly desirable for them for various reasons.
"I still can't believe it, though. Are you sure you sent me the right specs of that space? It looks like you're off by several digits."
Robertina switched the contents of the screen to show the details of the underground space, and Helmwige saw that it's the same as she had. "I still can't believe it... How is something like this possible?"
"That's why I want Helm nee-san to come in and inspect it." Robertina sighed. "I also wanted Kurenai nii-san and Airi nii-san to join us, but they are busy chasing after a group of dangerous people."
"I heard they're looking for three people, nya." Kurobara swiped back to the investigation that Robertina had done. "Wouldn't it be funny if they are the same three people?"
"No," all three of them answered her joke.
.
.
.
The four young ladies arrived at the Urahara Shop, and the two of them were obviously excited—not for the investigation they needed to perform, but for the merchandise displayed in front of them.
"How can the shop owner gather all of this?" Shirayuki loudly muttered. "These are all collectible items! On top of that, they appear to be all still edible!"
"Take a closer look, Shirayuki, nya~" Kurobara tugged at her sister's clothes. "All of these are originals, but they are newly manufactured if we go by their best-before dates." She then turned around to the light blue-haired person watching the shop. "Could these be bootlegs?"
Tiamat remained calm at their sudden accusation and answered slowly, "We purchased the recipes and commercial rights for all of our products. Since almost all of them stopped their production, we made them in-house to keep the stock up. If you wish to see the documents, we'll be happy to provide a redacted version."
Shirayuki and Kurobara stared at Tiamat for a few seconds before looking at each other. Without any words, they split and started grabbing various items.
Upon seeing this, Tiamat immediately reminded them, "Only three of the same kind and 15 items maximum. Store policy to keep the enthusiasts in check."
The black and white "enthusiasts" instantly slowed down.
After Tiamat confirmed their identities and made sure that they were indeed Robertina's siblings, she provided them with instructions to reach the underground space.
Robertina and Helmwige had to drag the other two, who had now revealed their Nekomata features, because they couldn't seem to choose the 15 items among the thousand choices.
"The shop owner is also somewhat weird for choosing this method of entrance." Robertina muttered to herself while touching the part that needed a Magic Power injection.
Helmwige, Shirayuki, and Kurobara were fully expecting the room they were in now to turn into an elevator or, if more fancy, for a teleportation method to be used.
So when the floor beneath them suddenly disappeared, all three of them had a mini heart attack and instantly went into a fight-or-flight response.
But after figuring out what was going on, they were able to immediately calm down as they saw the light beyond the vertical tunnel.
As soon as the scenery was revealed to them, they spread their Dragon Wings out to fully marvel at the sight. All of them had differing reactions, but the most exaggerated one was that of Helmwige. "What the hell is this!!!???"
Her scream almost burst the eardrums of her sisters beside her, and Robertina immediately asked, "What's wrong, Helm nee-san!?"
Helmwige was speechless for some time and was only barely able to regain her ability to speak when she attempted to reply, "T-t-this is..." She carefully assessed what she was seeing first to confirm her initial observation, but no matter what counterargument she had in mind, her observation was only further confirmed.
"Something is wrong... This barrier is on par with the Isolation Field Barrier... In fact, it has some degree of similarity?"