Mana absently rang up the pack of gum, her eyes still quite drawn to the young man's dilapidated downgrade of an appearance. A few button presses, a 'kaching' of the register, and she cupped some change for him with curled fingers, dropping it into his hands as he continued to speak. She hummed intrigued by his situation. She knew Hanami had a tendency to just drop Kouta each and every fight they had, but always came back. It [i]was[/i] unusual to hear about her being missing for this long, and with a total lack of contact to seemingly anyone.

"A-!" Mana stopped, feeling Asahi's hand. She blinked, and moved aside, silently ushering Kouta out of the way of the confined convenience store. "Are you sure she didn't... book it out of town or something? Maybe her parents spirited her away, y'know? How'd they feel about you? Did you check her house?" Mana questioned Kouta in a hushed voice. Her hand slid into a hoodie pocket beneath her apron, touching at the pack of cigarettes resting half-empty inside.

"I know it's not ideal but... I mean you could report it to the cops, right? Surely it's not completely pointless, 'specially if you're that worried." Mana tried her best to comfort Kouta with a reassuring tone. She'd dealt with missing acquaintances before, but they almost always turned up, or turned out to have simply moved out of Tenoroshi. Sometimes the panhandling wasn't enough, and they had to ingratiate themselves before a relative for shelter outside the city. Other times their families simply took them with them. It didn't seem all that likely Hanami would have left Kouta without a word, unless the perfect storm of circumstances prevented her from doing so. Mana began to worry herself, by then, but kept up appearances.

"I'll help you look for her, if you can give me some suggestions where to start. I might know some folks who're familiar with her too."