School Life Comedies Can Be Deadly?!

One Sunday morning, Harissa and I were cleaning out the storehouse out back behind the house. It wasn’t a particularly big unit. My dad had gotten a loan to build our house, and when he did that, he’d brought the storehouse—foundation and all—in from the country. It was filled with various random things my ancestors had picked up over the years as members of the Namidare family. It was also where I put the Hero’s Sword I’d brought back from Harissa’s world.

“...What’s this thing, though?”

I held up a strangely spiky stick and looked at it scrutinizingly. Any magical girl who used something like that to transform was probably a big fan of physical attacks rather than magical ones...

“Ugh...”

Thinking about magical girls still made me a shudder a little after my own “transformation.”

“I guess I can just leave it here for now.”

I wiped the dust off the stick and set it back on the tarp I’d laid out in the yard.

“Rekka, I’ve finished cleaning the inside of the storehouse.”

Harissa came out of the storehouse carrying a dusting brush and a rag in either hand.

“Oh, thanks. I’ll finish dusting the rest of the stuff inside, so you dust off what I brought out here.”

“You got it!”

“I’ll take care of the heavy things myself later, so just skip that stuff.”

“Okay.”

“Also, you don’t have to touch anything that looks dangerous. Or anything you don’t understand.”

“Okay...?”

What was up with my family that I had to give her instructions like that just to clean up our storehouse? Never mind. I already knew. I just wished my dad and my ancestors hadn’t put such weird stuff in here.

“W-Well, just be careful.”

I took off my gloves and patted Harissa on the shoulder before going into the storehouse myself. Harissa had already dusted the place, so now all I had to do was wipe it all down with a wet rag.

“All right, let me see if I can get this done before noon.”

“Please do. Even better, try getting it done before the morning variety shows start.”

Of course, R, who didn’t (couldn’t) help with the cleaning, was reclining in mid-air and telling me what to do. She’d gotten really into watching TV, and lately she even wanted to spend a lot of time at the rental shop. At this rate, I figured I might end up having to buy her a portable DVD player.

“Hey, you’re just standing there. Get to work! Do you ever want to finish this?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I soaked a rag in a bucket of water and rung it out, then started cleaning from top to bottom. My mom usually did this stuff, so it was the first time I’d done it on my own in a long while.

“There’s an awful lot of dust in here considering how well the place was sealed up,” I said. “Where does it all come from?”

“It seems like it’s falling from the ceiling, actually.”

“Is this what they call house dust?”

“Don’t worry. As far as I can tell, none of it is poisonous or dangerous.”

“You can tell that?”

“I may be small, but I’m multifunctional. I just don’t use most of my functions.”

Isn’t that kind of a waste? But I guess if she couldn’t touch anybody but me or be seen by anybody but me, there wasn’t all that much she could do with those functions, anyway.

“Look, you stopped moving again.”

“Right...”

Did she want to see those variety programs that badly? Actually, when I said I’d try to finish the cleaning before noon, I knew I was being overly ambitious. With just me and Harissa, it was probably going to take a half a day. It certainly would have gone faster with my mom and dad around. Maybe I could take a break around lunchtime...

“Kyah!”

“Harissa?!”

I dropped what I was doing and rushed outside the second I heard Harissa scream.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, Sir Rekka!”

Harissa turned towards me. She was holding a rag, and sitting in front of her was some kind of urn.

“I heard you shout. What’s up?”

“It felt like this urn moved on its own...”

“The urn moved on its own?”

Was there a rat inside or something? Hmm, no, that couldn’t be it. It had a lid on it.

“Um, I accidentally broke the piece of paper that was sealing it when I was cleaning. And then...”

“A piece of paper?”

I looked, and sure enough there was a long strip of paper running over the lid of the urn and onto the body, basically taping it shut. It was so black that I thought at first it was just a charcoal stain or something.

“Hmm...”

What a weird piece of paper. It was rectangular and a little bigger than my palm. Of course, the lid of the urn was much bigger. If you really wanted to use that piece of paper to seal the urn shut, you would’ve had to cut it up into three or four pieces. But the paper, as it was, was only on one side.

And actually, the lid was seated quite securely in the urn itself. There didn’t seem to be a need to seal it at all. If someone was worried about something inside getting out though, they certainly should have sealed it with more than a single piece of paper. But... Harissa said it had moved on its own. Did that mean there was something weird inside?

“Harissa, get back. And let me have that duster.”

“Okay.”

I took the duster from Harissa and motioned for her to step back. I lifted up the lid of the pot, but only a little, and then slid the end of the duster underneath it. Then I stepped back as far as I could and used the duster to flip the lid up like a lever. I tensed up, ready for anything to come out, but after waiting one second, then two... and then ten, nothing happened. Hesitantly, I looked inside the pot, but there was nothing there.

“This stupid thing really scared me for a second there.”

“Is everything okay?” Harissa asked as she walked back over to me.

“Yeah, it’s empty. Maybe you just imagined it moving?”

“Yeah... I guess so.” Harissa nodded, a little relieved.

“...Huh?”

As I went to put the lid back on, I noticed there was something written on the inside of the urn. Was it Chinese? Or maybe just really old Japanese? I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“Is something wrong, Sir Rekka?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I figured there was nothing to really be worried about and put the lid back on the urn.

▽

The next day. 10:20 A.M.

Like every Monday, I’d gone to school and was sitting in my seat in class. It was second period break, and I was killing time waiting for the next class to start.

“So, Rekka, what’s up with this light literature club you joined?”

“It’s a long story. Right, Satsuki?”

“Don’t talk to me about it... It’s not something I care to remember.”

I was trying to have a nice chat with Satsuki and the other girls, but I suddenly heard something unusual from out in the hallway.

“What’s going on?”

“Sir Rekka!”

Much to my surprise, Harissa entered the classroom. She stood out since she wasn’t wearing a school uniform, but she was also shouting loudly and waving around her wooden staff that she used to cast spells. It was enough to startle the other students, who all cautiously stepped back. The tiny sorcerer then made her way over to me, anxiously tapping the end of her staff against the floor.

“Come, Sir Rekka! Let’s return to Aburaamu!”

“A-Aburaamu?”

That was the name of Harissa’s homeland, wasn’t it?

“Did you find a way to travel back there?”

“No! Not yet! But since we don’t know how, let’s go figure it out!”

“Um...”

What was going on here? Did she suddenly get homesick? Is that why she was so determined to go home? This was just so unlike her...

“Hey, Harissa! You’re not taking Rekka anywhere!”

“Th-That’s right, Harissa. What’s gotten into you?”

“What’s going on here? It’s awfully brazen to show up out of nowhere and then start making such a fuss.”

Iris seemed angry, Satsuki sounded worried, and Rosalind was clearly annoyed. But despite their different reactions, each one of them was curious about the sudden change in Harissa’s behavior.

“Harissa, really, what’s going on here?”

“It doesn’t matter! Just come with me!”

Harissa cut me off and, with strength I couldn’t believe she had in her little body, yanked me out of my chair and dragged me out of the classroom.

“Wha... What?”

I was so confused that I just went along with her.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

“Harissa, wait!”

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Rekka? Why are you letting her take you... No! Don’t tell me you like little girls!”

“Don’t yell something like that! Also, that’s not true!”

“You prefer girls with larger breasts, don’t you? Actually, if you were into lolicon, that would make Rosalind happy, wouldn’t it?”

R, if I had a rag or something, I would stuff it in your mouth!

That aside, our escape (?) would probably be brought to an end pretty quickly. We were trying to run from Iris, an alien, and Rosalind, a vampire. Both of them were insanely strong. And Harissa had even less stamina than an average girl her age, so they would catch up to us before long. Or so I thought.

“Ealim Nekram!” Harissa chanted.

I knew that spell. It was her invisibility magic. Nobody could see us now. I was familiar with it because she’d used it to save us several times before. Of course, Iris and Rosalind knew exactly what was going on, too.

“Rosalind! Do that bat thing and find them!”

“I’d love to, but I can’t use my powers in front of all these people! I won’t be able to go to school with Rekka anymore after revealing myself like that!”

But as it turned out, they had no way of finding us if Rosalind wouldn’t turn into bats. That being said, if I did something as simple as call out to them, they’d immediately know where we were.

“...”

But with the way Harissa was staring at me, I couldn’t do something like that. For starters, I hadn’t gotten to the bottom of what was going on with her. I had no idea why she was suddenly so insistent on going home. And in hopes of finding out, I let her pull me along, away from Iris and Rosalind.

▽

Harissa took me into a second-year student classroom. The bell had already rung by then, but there was nobody there. Maybe they were out on a field trip or something? Either way, if a teacher found us, we’d be in trouble. But... I guess I didn’t need to worry about that with Harissa’s invisibility magic.

“So, Harissa, what’s going on, exactly?” I asked, more worried about her than anything else.

I’d told her before that she wasn’t allowed to come into the school without permission. Moreover, she would normally just wait until I got home if there was something she needed to talk to me about. But not only had she barged into the school, she’d shown up in my classroom talking about weird stuff and then dragged me off in front of all my classmates. It was pretty out of character. Had something happened that made all of this so urgent?

“If something’s happened, then I’ll help you. You can tell me anything.”

“Okay...” Harissa gripped her staff tightly and looked up at me. She almost looked like she was going to cry. “Um, I...”

“Yeah?”

“Um...”

Harissa kept mumbling and stammering like she was having trouble getting the words out, but...

“I can’t hold it in anymore.”

Then she started to say something weird.

“...What?” I tilted my head, confused. “I’m sorry... Can you break that down for me some?”

“My heart can’t take any more.”

“I... I still don’t understand what that means. Also, Harissa, you’re a little too close for comfort.”

Each time she managed a few words, Harissa moved a little closer. The next thing I knew, she’d backed me up against the window to the room.

“Harissa?”

“Sir Rekka, am I really that unattractive?”

Unattractive? Huh? Was she asking if she was cute?

“No, I think there’s a lot to like about you.”

“That makes me so happy, Sir Rekka!”

“Uwah!”

Thud!

Harissa suddenly grabbed on to me with such force that I lost my balance and fell backwards onto the floor.

“Sir Rekka!” She was on top of me, speaking in a soft voice. “I’m so happy I get to live in the same house with you.”

“Y-You are? That’s good. By the way, if you could get off me, I’d appreciate it...”

“But sometimes it’s frustrating,” Harissa continued, ignoring my request.

Frustrating...? Did this have something to do with what she was going on about?

“Sir Rekka, we’re old enough to get married, right? But even though we live under the same roof, we sleep in different rooms and don’t do anything! Isn’t that strange?” Harissa asked impatiently while running her finger along my collarbone.

“No, that’s just in the world you’re from, right? In Japan, you’re not old enough to get married yet...”

“Hmph! That’s why I want to go back to Aburaamu! Then we can get married!” Harissa yelled as she started to pound her hands against my chest. “And who cares what the law says?! Sir Rekka, what do you really think about me? If you really like me, then why won’t you sleep in the same room as me? I want you to take responsibility for all the frustration I feel every night!”

“H-Harissa! Calm down!”

Harissa started to pull at my hair and clothes. She was still on top of me, so if anybody saw us like this, it would look really bad...

“Rekka! Where are you?!”

“There’s no use in hiding! Come on out!”

“Both of you, be quiet! It’s the middle of the school day!”

I could hear three voices I recognized coming from the hallway. Wait, crap! It would’ve been bad enough if Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind had found me before, but if they found me now... My blood ran cold just thinking about it.

“H-Harissa! Please just stay quiet!”

“Mmmfmmfh...”

I put my hand over Harissa’s mouth—it looked like I was committing a crime, but I didn’t have much of a choice—and hid in the corner of the room. I’d just wait for them to pass by...

“Hmm... Seems like they’re in this classroom.”

I’d forgotten about the Magic of Omniscience! The three of them opened the door and waltzed into the classroom. Fortunately (...or unfortunately?), even if they knew we were in here, they didn’t seem to know exactly where we were or what we were doing.

Still, this was bad. I needed to get out of here without them finding me. I put both my arms around Harissa and focused exclusively on staying quiet as I crawled along the floor, headed for the door opposite the one the other girls had come in from. But...

“Where do you think they are? I suppose I can find them for us.”

Rosalind was going to turn into bats now?!

“Yeah, try that.”

Satsuki, stop it! Even if there’s nobody here, that’s gotta be a bad idea!

As I thought about trying to plead with them, I looked up and saw how genuinely terrifying each of them looked. They were all so calm. And just when I thought I’d be a dead man for sure...

“You three, what are you doing in an upperclassmen’s classroom?” a new, fourth voice asked.

When I took a peek, I saw a girl with her hair tied up. Most notably, however, she was wearing an eyepatch over her right eye. It was, without a doubt, the student council president of our school, Mitsuhashi High. Her entrance had stymied the other girls, but now my exit was blocked. I stayed put, basically stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Mmmhmmm mhmmm!”

Harissa, please stay quiet!

I’d crawled with her in my arms across half the classroom, so both of us—clothes, hair, and all—looked even more disheveled than before. I wouldn’t even have a chance to make excuses if anyone caught us like this. They’d probably go straight to calling the cops on me.

“Um, well, you see...”

Satsuki must’ve come back to her senses. She politely tried to stammer out an excuse for her upperclassman.

“We’re looking for someone. Don’t bother us.”

Rosalind, however, didn’t seem to care at all. She was as flippant as ever, and more than willing to simply boot the student council president out of the room in order to get back to business. Iris didn’t say anything, but she seemed like she was ready to side with Rosalind.

“Looking for someone, huh? I don’t know the details, but is it really important enough that you have to skip class?”

“Of course it is.”

“I see. You’re not even going to pretend like you know you should be in class then...” The president crossed her arms. “But you know, I’m supposed to be a role model for other students, especially my juniors. I can’t just let you skip.”

“Hmph. You’re quite arrogant. In that case, I have a question for you... Why aren’t you in class yourself?”

Actually, that was a good question. What was she doing here? The president was a second-year, so it’s possible that she was just walking down a hallway in this part of the school building when she’d heard voices. But Rosalind still had a point. Since we were in the middle of class time now, shouldn’t she have gone to get a teacher to handle something like other students skipping? It seemed odd she’d try and handle it herself.

“You’ve got me there, but this is an emergency. At least, it’s not something I’m at liberty to talk about.”

“Then we won’t tell anybody we saw you if you don’t tell anybody you saw us,” Rosalind said.

“You think this is a negotiation? That’s too bad. Unfortunately, what I’m doing is only going to take a minute.”

The student council president took what looked like a talisman out of her pocket, then lifted the eyepatch over her right eye up just a little. She turned her now exposed right eye towards me and Harissa. Wait... Why was she looking our way? She shouldn’t be able to see us.

“There, huh?”

But nonetheless, she walked straight over to where we were on the floor and held the talisman up to Harissa.

“Hwah?!”

Suddenly Harissa started to spasm in my arms. For a moment, I swore I saw something floating up out of her body.

“...Huh? What am I doing here?”

“Harissa? Are you okay?”

“Huh? Sir Rekka?”

I was surprised by the way she’d started to twitch, but it looked like she was okay. She looked up at me in shock... but then she began to tremble again before she froze like a stone.

“Harissa?”

Did something else weird happen...?

“Rekka!” I heard Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind all shout at once.

For some reason I didn’t want to look up. I really, really didn’t. If I had to, I was ready to spend the rest of my life here on the floor just looking at the ground.

Except... when I looked down, I was freshly reminded that Harissa’s clothes were a mess. Several of the buttons on my shirt were undone, too. And we were on the floor like this in each other’s arms...

“...What are you doing?” the student council president asked in shock.

Yup, there was no doubting it. The invisibility spell had been broken. In other words, I was exposed in front of everyone, looking like a criminal...

Basically, it was time to beg for my life.

▽

“Gyaaah! Please! Forgive me!”

“Oh, you’re awake?”

“...Huh?”

What happened? And where was I? I felt like I’d woken up from a nightmare... One so terrifying that I couldn’t even remember it. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing here, but looking around, I seemed to be in the nurse’s office. The nurse was sitting at her desk like usual, sucking on a candy cigarette.

“I found you lying just outside the door. I don’t know why somebody would bring you here and dump you, though, or who did it, for that matter.”

“I don’t know, myself.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on. Well, I patched you up, so don’t worry. Your life isn’t in danger.”

“Wait... Are you implying that it might’ve been?”

“I can’t answer that. Liability and all that.”

Wasn’t that basically the same as admitting it? Well, whatever... I went to get out of bed, but I put my hand down on something incredibly soft.

“...Oh.”

“T-T-Tokiwa!”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention Tokiwa was in the same bed.”

“Why?!”

I was so surprised that I froze stock still. In my hand was Tokiwa’s breast... Well, not exactly in my hand. It was too big to fit.

“I didn’t think there was anybody who wouldn’t realize a girl was sleeping next to him, then somehow end up grabbing one of her breasts,” the nurse said.

“Rekka will grab any breasts he sees. That’s just who he is,” R responded.

So now I was getting double-teamed?

“......no......”

Tokiwa woke up, grabbed my wrist, and moved my hand off her breast. W-Was she going to get mad at me? I bet she was...

I waited for her to start yelling... but instead she grabbed on to me! Her breasts were pushing up against me again! This time they were up against my chest!

“Good morning, Rekka.”

“G-G-G-Good morning, Tokiwa!”

“Mmm...”

Maybe she was still sleepy, because she began to stretch and rub herself against me. Please stop!

“It’s the middle of the school day! Shouldn’t Tokiwa be in class with everyone else?!”

“What are you talking about? School ended a long time ago.”

“Huh?!”

Just how long was I out?

“Rekka, let’s go to the clubroom.”

“Um, okay.”

“Oh, wait. I had a message for you,” the nurse said, pulling the candy cigarette out of her mouth like she’d just remembered it.

“A message?” I asked.

“From the student council president. She wanted you to come to the student council room after school.”

What did she want with me...? Either way, since I now had somewhere to be, I turned Tokiwa down and left the nurse’s office.

▽

Hmm... I’d arrived at the student council room, but for some weird reason, I was scared to go in. I took a deep breath and knocked.

“Excuse me!” I said, perhaps a little too loudly, as I opened the door. “I’m Rekka Namidare. I was told the student council president wanted to talk to me.”

“Oh, you’re here?”

I looked around the room and saw that the student council president was the only one inside.

“Well, come on in,” she said.

She still had her eyepatch on her right eye, so she was pretty easy to recognize. Um, her name was... Momone Kibi, right? She motioned for me to come inside.

“O-Okay.”

I stepped in and closed the door. Now I was alone in the room with her. It felt like I’d stuck my head in a tiger’s mouth. It was weirdly intense.

“Now, Rekka Namidare, do you know why I called you here?”

“Um... No.”

“You really don’t? There are two reasons.”

“Huh?”

There were two?

“First, you brought a girl who wasn’t a student into the school and tried to strip her clothes off in an empty classroom.”

“What?! When?!”

“You don’t remember?”

“No, I really don’t...”

“...Well, you did get hit pretty hard.”

She looked away for some reason. Because of her eyepatch, it was impossible to read her expression once she turned to the side.

What exactly happened during the hours I couldn’t remember?

“Well, I’ll let you off the hook for that.”

“Th-Thank you?”

“You’ve already been punished enough. It would be cruel to do any more.”

Seriously, what happened to me? I wanted to ask her, but she wasn’t done talking.

“But it does have something to do with the other matter. You said you don’t remember... but what’s your relationship with that girl named Harissa?”

“Harissa...? Um, she’s a girl who stays at my house.”

“That makes things even more difficult,” she sighed. “You’re every bit the problem child the rumors say you are, Rekka Namidare.”

“I just want to point out that plenty of rumors have no basis in actual fact.”

“From the way I saw your female friends behave, I think there’s plenty of truth to this one.”

Great. Now not only the teachers, but the student council thought of me that way, too? That was kind of depressing.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Let’s stay on topic here. We can have a long talk about your relationship with the opposite sex later. The problem right now is Harissa.”

“What’s wrong with Harissa?”

“It would appear that she was possessed by an evil spirit.”

“An... evil spirit?”

I blinked a few times in surprise. I wasn’t honestly sure I’d heard her right.

“You may not believe it, but it’s true. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but my family runs a shrine. I know a little more about this kind of thing than the average person.”

It felt like she was playing it up a little, but this was probably how she had to sell it to people who didn’t believe in spirits.

“Don’t worry. I believe in that stuff,” I said, hoping it would make things a little easier.

After all, I’d just been caught up in a ghost scare... even if it had all turned out to be a big misunderstanding.

“That’s helpful.”

“Um, so where is Harissa now? Is she okay?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. I got rid of the spirit and sent her home. Although... I didn’t realize that that meant your house.”

“A-Anyway, is she okay, then?”

“She is, but there’s one problem. I got the spirit out of her, but let it escape,” she sighed. “That’s why I called you. I wanted to see if you had any idea where it might’ve come from. For better or worse, she lives with you, right? So, do you have any idea what might’ve caused that spirit to possess her?”

“Hmm...”

Nothing came to mind immediately, so I had to think about it for a second.

“Um, what did that evil spirit do, anyway?”

“I just told you. When I found you, the both of you were half-naked and grabbing at each other on the floor.”

“Bwuh?!”

I was doing WHAT with Harissa?! And the president saw us?! That sounded like the kind of thing that could put my school life in serious jeopardy (although, as I’ve said before, I don’t remember any of it), but I had to put it aside for the time being because I needed to focus on Harissa. That’s right, Harissa... What had we been doing recently?

“Oh.”

Come to think of it, yesterday...

“We were cleaning out the storehouse.”

“A storehouse? That’s an odd thing for a normal house to have.”

“My family’s always collected weird stuff... I mean, a lot of it is really weird, so maybe that had something to do with it.”

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of the stuff in there was haunted.

“I see.” She nodded and stood up. “Then show me the way to your house.”

“You’re coming over now, president?!”

“The sooner, the better. And stop calling me by my title. I have a name. Momone Kibi.”

“Um... President Kibi then.”

“President Momone.”

“Fine, President Momone.”

“Good. I do love hearing the sound of my own name. Especially when it’s coming from a younger boy.”

She was definitely a bit of a narcissist...

“But I guess it only sounds half as good coming from our school’s number one playboy and problem child. You’ve essentially negated half my charm. I’ll have to bring that up at the next school assembly.”

“Let’s get going to my house! Let’s go right now! And let’s solve the problem! I’ll help you all I can, so please don’t!”

“Idiot. It was a joke.”

I was a little unconvinced. I was starting to see why they called her things like “the Samurai Student Council President” and “the One-Eyed Student Council President.” She was like Date Masamune. And just as I was contemplating that...

Bam!

The door to the room suddenly flew open.

“Rekka!”

“T-Tsumiki?!”

Why was she so pale? And what was that in her hand...?

“I made something new! Try it!”

“Mggh! Mggwaaah!”

More dark matter?!

And a new kind? It was surprisingly crunchy. My limbs began to go numb... It was taking effect fast this time!

“Hmph! You’ve got guts to show yourself in front of me, evil spirit!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see President Momone readying a talisman. Did that mean the evil spirit had moved to Tsumiki? It was doing something really different than what it had with Harissa, though.

“Just give up and pass on!”

Just as the president was about to place the talisman on her...

“You’re in the way.”

I heard a voice that wasn’t mine, Tsumiki’s, or President Momone’s. President Momone then dropped her talisman and clutched at her stomach.

“Ugh...! What did you do?”

“......”

The strange voice fell silent.

“Hey, problem child,” President Momone said in a strained voice, cold sweat dripping from her forehead. “Don’t die for a while.”

She then dashed out of the room like the wind, leaving me behind... with Tsumiki on top of me, fully armed with more dark matter.

“Come on, there’s a lot more left. My cooking is filled with love, so eat a whole bunch!”

Turns out this was just the beginning of the nightmare.

▽

“...Bwargh!”

The terrible dream I had this time was something about poisonous mushrooms swallowing up the whole world. I was their first victim...

“Mmph...”

“Tokiwa?!”

Was I lying in a bed? Was I back in the nurse’s office? More importantly, why was Tokiwa sleeping right next to me again?!

“She’s wrapping herself around you again, huh?”

“Why don’t you ever put us in separate beds?!”

I yelled as loud as I could, but the nurse just ignored me and yawned.

“It wouldn’t matter if I did. Tokiwa would just crawl into yours. She said something about staying up all night to work on a draft, so she’s especially sleepy today. She wanted a body pillow to hug, I guess.”

“I’m a body pillow now?”

“Sure, why not? I’m jealous. You look comfy. I’m getting tired, too. Hahh...”

This nurse was beyond saving!

“Wait, why am I in the nurse’s office this time?”

“What, you forgot again? The student council president brought you here.”

“The student council president did?”

She was pretty unmistakable, so I guess even the nurse recognized her.

“You got called to the student council room... and you ended up right back here less than 30 minutes later. I’ve never seen a student have to be carried to the nurse’s office twice in one day.”

Then the door opened. It was the student council president—the girl we’d just been talking about.

“Hey, problem child. What do you think you’re doing?”

“Huh? Uwah!”

That’s right! Tokiwa was still clinging to me! Tokiwa slowly turned towards the student council president.

“Good morning, Momo...”

“Huh?”

“Stop calling me that, Midori.”

“Huh?”

Did they know each other?

“President, you can hear Tokiwa when she talks?”

“My hearing is really good. And I told you to call me President Momone.”

Were we really close enough for me to start calling her by her first name? I was pretty sure the answer was no. My head was pretty fuzzy, but I didn’t think anything had happened that would have warranted that. But putting that aside...

“Are you two friends?”

“Yup.”

“Well, we’ve known each other for a long time.”

Both Tokiwa and President Momone nodded. Apparently they were childhood friends. But then...

“Then why did you try to shut down the light literature club?”

“I didn’t try to shut it down specifically. I just wanted to get rid of the clubs that weren’t actually doing anything, and save money on club expenses,” she answered. “Our school doesn’t really have anything special going for it. I’d like to do something unique, but I need more budget funds to do it.”

So she wanted to cut down on club expenses in order to use that money for the student council?

“But isn’t Tokiwa...”

“We’ve known each other for a long time, but that’s got nothing to do with this. I have things I want to do, and Midori has things she wants to do. Sacrificing what you want for someone else doesn’t really make you friends.”

“Momo’s always been really serious about her job.”

So even though that part of President Momone rubbed some people the wrong way, Tokiwa didn’t mind it.

“Besides, if she didn’t want her club shut down, she could just fight back. She could try to destroy the student council instead, for instance. I’d be more than willing to accept her challenge. But she cleverly kept the club running by seducing you so you’d join. After all, if she was the kind of girl who threw a fit instead of fighting, I wouldn’t be her friend. If you want something, you have to fight for it. Anyway...” she said, crossing her arms and glaring at me. “Can you stand, problem child? If you can, we need to get going.”

“Um... Sorry, where are we going?”

“Hm? You still don’t remember? Well... I guess you were flopping around on the floor for quite a while.”

What the heck happened to me...?

“Some first-year—I think her name was Tsumiki Nozomuno—jammed some weird black thing down your throat.”

Oh, yeah. That actually explained a lot.

“After that, I was able to banish the evil spirit within her. But it escaped again, so we need to go to your house and figure out exactly what we’re dealing with here.”

“Hmm... Yeah...”

That sounded a little familiar. Things were faintly starting to come back to me. I thought I could remember going to see the student council president, and her saying something or another about an evil spirit. We were supposed to go back to my place to see if we could find out more about it.

“I remember most of it now,” I said.

“Good. Then let’s go.”

She uncrossed her arms and started walking.

▽

I was walking home the way I usually did, but without my usual group of friends.

“What? Is there something stuck to my face?”

“No, that’s not it... I was just curious as to why you’re doing all this for me.”

“Because I’m the student council president, of course.”

It sounded like a reasonable answer, but I wasn’t sure...

“The student council president is the elected representative of all the students, and since the school belongs to the students, that means the school belongs to me. If someone’s snuck in, I need to find them and make them pay for it.”

“Pay for it...?”

There was something really weird about her.

“Well, I suppose my right eye is another reason.”

“Your right eye? The one under the eyepatch?”

“Do I have any other right eyes?”

Momone moved her eyepatch to the side so that I could see her eye. Compared to her left one, it was a little... What exactly was it? The color was more saturated? No, the color was different? I tried to take a closer look, and then I realized that her eye seemed to be flashing and constantly changing colors.

“...It’s very mysterious,” I said.

“That’s a nice way of putting it. But I appreciate that.” She put her eyepatch back. “Since the day I was born, I’ve had the ability to see spirits with this. Spirit sight, I guess you could call it. Sometimes people in my family are born with eyes like this, but mine is especially powerful. I had a pretty tough time of it when I was little.”

So, having a hard childhood was what made her into the bold person she was today? I felt like I could understand that.

“Then it’s because of your eye that you were able to see the evil spirit that possessed Harissa and Tsumiki?”

“That’s right. It was quite a shock, though. At first I thought it was just a stray spirit that had wandered into the school, but when I banished it, I found a half-naked girl lying on the floor. Was it the spirit’s power that turned the girl invisible? If so, that’s a big problem. But the spirit itself couldn’t disappear, so I’m not sure what the point was...”

Momone’s voice faded into mumbling as she started pondering the evil spirit’s abilities. Was the evil spirit able to use the powers of anyone it possessed, like Harissa’s invisibility magic? That made it sound like the spirit could control people, and if that was the case, then there were some things that didn’t make sense to me.

“Harissa tried to um... crawl all over me... and Tsumiki tried to feed me her cooking, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“I’m pretty sure the spirit’s target is me, but then what does it want? Harissa and Tsumiki acted totally different while they were possessed.”

“Hmm...”

I couldn’t figure out what the evil spirit was trying to accomplish by controlling them. President Momone had spirit sight, so if she said that they were both possessed, I believed her. But I still didn’t understand the details. Was the spirit really in complete control of them?

“That’s a pretty clever observation. I guess you’re not just a problem child.”

Was it safe to take that as a compliment...?

“Brother Rekka!”

As I was walking down the shopping street talking with the student council president, I suddenly heard someone call my name from behind me. I turned around and saw Rain and Fam waving as they approached. They were both wearing the uniform of the local junior high school, Hoshikawa Middle School.

“What are you two doing here?”

“I was buying ingredients for dinner with Fam.”

“We’re on our way home now!”

After they answered, both Rain and Fam turned to look at President Momone.

“Who’s this?” Rain asked.

“She’s the student council president at our school.”

“Momone Kibi. And you’re...?”

“My name is Rain Waterchild.”

“And I’m Fam!”

After everyone introduced themselves, Rain and President Momone bowed to each other, but Fam ran up to me and jumped on me.

“Um, Rekka...” Rain walked over to me and whispered in my ear, “Is she... caught up in something, as well?”

“Hmm... I guess so.”

Rain was probably asking if Momone was another heroine. We were certainly caught up in a weird situation, but this evil spirit thing didn’t strike me as a typical “story.” The Namidare bloodline always got me involved with stories that were in dire peril—ones that were going to end horribly if I didn’t save them. This didn’t seem like it was on that level.

Granted... that meant that I’d gotten to the point where I was getting caught up in other people’s trouble without the help of my bloodline. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about that, but I decided to worry about the implications later.

“There’s nothing really dangerous going on here like what happened on planet Berano, though. So don’t worry.”

“I see. I’m glad to hear that.”

Rain sighed in relief, and then I suddenly felt someone tugging on my ear from the other side of me.

“Hey, problem child.”

“Um, do you think you could call me by my real name? That’s starting to really hurt—”

“Shut up.” President Momone cut me off and glared daggers at me. “Don’t tell me you’re not satisfied with the girls at our school so you’re going after middle schoolers now...”

“Of course not!”

“But that Harissa girl didn’t seem to be any older than...”

“For the last time, I am not into lolicon!” I was so frustrated that I actually raised my voice.

“I see...” the president said, reluctantly dropping the subject.

I was glad to set the record straight, but the next thing I knew, it looked like the world was spinning.

“Oww!”

Ouch... The back of my head really hurt. I must’ve hit it on the ground when I fell backward. At least the sky was a pretty blue today. But as for the person who’d literally just swept me off my feet...

“Fam! What was that for?”

“Brother Rekka...”

Fam was kneeling over on top of me and staring down at my face. Wait... Were those hearts in her eyes?!

Smooch!

“Aaah!”

I was surprised, but it was Rain that screamed as Fam continued to kiss me all over my face.

“Wh-What’s going on?!”

I managed to keep her from touching my lips, for both of our sakes, but I was so caught off guard that I couldn’t do much else.

“F-Fam! This is the second time you’ve done something like this...!”

The shopping bags she was carrying fell out of Rain’s hands. She began to clench and unclench her fists, and I could see her brow furrowing. I could tell she was angry, but she wasn’t the one I was concerned about.

“I knew it! You WERE going after middle schoolers!”

The president swung back her leg like she was going to kick me right in the head.

“No, wait! You’re gonna kill me! If you kick me like that, I’m literally going to die!”

“Then die already!”

But just before she was about to punt my head like a soccer ball...

“...Gah!”

She suddenly doubled over in pain.

“Tch! You...!”

“President Momone?”

She started moaning in pain.

“Y-You...! Don’t think that trick will work on me twice!”

The president clenched her jaw, and I could see sweat pouring from her forehead. She took out a talisman and smacked it onto the back of Fam’s head. If she was using a talisman, did that mean that Fam was possessed, too? I was wondering why she’d suddenly started acting so weird on a public street...

“...Hmm? Brother Rekka, what are you doing?”

Fam started to blink in confusion. She must’ve come back to her senses.

“That’s what I want to know...” I relaxed.

“Ugh...”

“Oww...”

Fam was normal again, but President Momone seemed to be in pain. When I looked over, Rain was grimacing, too.

“Rekka... Fam... I’m going home ahead of you!”

She then suddenly took off, leaving her shopping bags on the ground. I didn’t know that a girl who’d lived in a palace her whole life could run that fast. She seemed really flustered for some reason, but I had no idea why.

“That stupid evil spirit! It got away again!”

President Momone was grinding her teeth and cursing. She looked mad, but it also looked like she was holding something in... What did you hold in when you clutched your stomach like that?

“President Momone, don’t tell me...”

“One more word and you’re passing on to the afterlife before that spirit does.”

That didn’t sound like a joke. President Momone turned and walked away.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going home alone.”

“Home?”

“Next time, I’m going to catch that thing... but first I have to prepare. I want you to find anything in the storehouse that could be related and leave it out front. I’ll know it when I see it.”

“O-Okay...”

“...That bitch is going to pay for this!”

With a roar like a wounded tiger—or maybe one with a bad stomachache—Momone headed off in the direction of Kibi Shrine, her home.

“‘That bitch’?”

I shrugged, then did as I was told and headed home to search the storehouse.

▽

I went home and changed out of my school clothes first. Then I had Harissa help me drag anything that looked suspicious out of the storehouse, which, to be fair, was a lot of stuff.

“Sir Rekka, we just cleaned this. Why are we taking things out again?”

“Well, it’s complicated.”

Harissa looked at me with a puzzled expression.

I only knew because the student council president told me, but Harissa had been possessed. Thankfully, her memories of what happened during that time were fuzzy. If I’d actually done what President Momone said I did... I wouldn’t even be able to look at Harissa. I can’t imagine how awkward she’d feel, either.

“You’re having a lot more fun than usual this time, aren’t you, Rekka?”

R, who’d been watching us bring things out of the storehouse, was sitting on my head and kicking her feet. She weighed absolutely nothing, but it was still annoying.

“All the heroines are so aggressive now. All it’s done so far is get you knocked out, but since my mission is to hook you up with one of them, I’m happy it looks like we’re starting to make some progress.”

“They were only doing weird things because they were possessed,” I said quietly so Harissa wouldn’t hear me. “Besides, I don’t even really remember what happened myself...”

“You don’t? But Momone told you what happened with Tsumiki and Harissa, right? And you were conscious the whole time for what happened with Fam.”

“Tch... But they don’t remember it, either, and they didn’t even do it of their own free will, so it doesn’t count.”

“Maybe not. I would’ve preferred that they remembered myself, but I guess I can’t ask for everything. Anything that gets you a little closer to overcoming your dead-fish attitude towards the heroines is a win for me.”

Dead-fish attitude?

“Your legs are in the way. Get off me!”

“Yeah, yeah.” R jumped off my head and did a barrel roll in the air.

And just then...

“Hey, lust demon.”

Someone marched into my yard and called me by a very hurtful name.

“I’m not... a lust demon...”

“What?”

My voice trailed off when I saw that President Momone had let her hair down and was now wearing a miko outfit. She even had her eyepatch off, so she almost appeared like a completely different person. It was the look on her face, confident smile and all, that gave her away as the student council president I knew.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

“Form is very important in ritual. If you want to get rid of a bratty little ghost, you need a pure miko like me.”

“A ‘pure’ miko...?”

“You got a problem with that?”

“No, not at all!”

For a moment I thought I saw the silhouette of a tiger behind President Momone. It was scary... Wait, don’t tell me she walked across town dressed like that.

“It looks like there’s something else you want to say. Well, whatever. Let me give you this first,” she said as she handed me a talisman.

“What’s this...? ‘Demon sight’?”

On the part of the talisman where something like “safe commute” or “good grades” was usually written, it said “demon sight.”

“The ‘demon’ in this case is a spirit. As long as you’re carrying that, you can see supernatural beings. That bitch has been getting away, so we’re better off if you can get a good look at her.”

“You’re saying... the ghost is a girl?”

“At least from what I’m seeing. Just don’t let go of it, okay?”

I put the talisman in my pocket like she told me to.

“Now then... it’s that urn, isn’t it?”

President Momone scanned the things I had set out in the yard, and she immediately walked over to the urn and knelt down in front of it.

“Hmm...” She flipped open the lid and frowned.

“Did you learn anything?”

“You idiot!”

“Ow!”

She whacked me with the edge of the lid! It really hurt!

“The inside of the lid tells you exactly what this evil spirit is! And look at this broken talisman! It’s for sealing evil spirits! Why did you break it?!”

“Because I don’t know the first thing about evil spirits! You can’t even read what’s on the inside of it unless you open it anyway!”

Not to mention that even though the text inside was Japanese after all, it was so old that I couldn’t even read it.

“Hmm... It seems the name of the spirit is ‘Princess Sakuya, the Spirit of Dying Love.’”

“Of dying... what?”

“Just remember the name Sakuya.”

“Okay.”

“It’s a spirit born from the combined unfulfilled desires of maidens who failed in love. It possesses young girls and tries to get what it couldn’t have in life.”

Unlike me, the student council president actually studied. She could read what was on the inside of the lid with no trouble.

“Unfulfilled desires?”

“Well, their unfulfilled desires in love, obviously.”

“No, I get that, but... why target me?”

I couldn’t remember doing anything that would make any spirits named Sakuya want to come after me.

“That’s a good question. Why is she coming after you? Hmm... Who opened the urn?”

“It was me.”

“Then maybe it’s because you broke the seal.”

“Huh? No, that can’t be it. Harissa was actually the one who broke—Ow!”

President Momone cut me off with a hard chop to the forehead.

“Harissa’s a girl! And actually, it might not even matter who she falls in love with.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sakuya is made up of the desires of a lot of different girls. And since she’s a byproduct of other people’s feelings, she doesn’t really have any feelings of her own. The only thing driving her is the desire to make love come true.”

So it was a ghost who’d never fallen in love, but longed for love more than anything else?

“This is just a guess, but maybe Sakuya picked you as the object of her romantic desires, and now she’s just possessing all the girls around you to make that love a reality.”

“Hmm... But then that means Sakuya was in control of them, right? So why did Harissa, Tsumiki, and Fam all behave so differently?”

If they’d all been possessed by the same spirit, it sounded to me like they should have been acting the same way while under the spirit’s control.

“Good question. My guess is that Sakuya doesn’t have the power to fully control a person. It’s more like she synchronizes her own mind with the mind of the person she’s possessing and tries to fill them with fake feelings of love.”

“Fake feelings of love? I see...” I nodded, convinced by President Momone’s explanation.

“Rekka, do you really understand what Momone just said?”

“Of course I do. Sakuya filled their heads with a strong desire for love, so that’s why they were acting so weird,” I whispered back to R.

“You’ve got to be kidding me...” she sighed.

Why did her face look like somebody who’d just been hit in the head with a sea cucumber? Whatever. I figured it was safe to ignore R for now since I had more important things to think about.

One thing in particular was bugging me. Why did one of my ancestors put the urn with Sakuya in it in the storehouse? If they were able to seal her away, couldn’t they have just...

“Time for the next step, problem child.”

“R-Right.”

Momone’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts before I could get any deeper into them.

“Now we know that evil spirit’s name and her true nature. We can use that to lure her out and capture her. Help me with this.”

“But we’ve already driven her off three times, right? Won’t she be too cautious now?” I asked.

President Momone snorted.

“It’s simple. We just need to use bait she won’t be able to resist.”

“Bait?”

“Yup. She’s made from the desires of countless maidens who failed in love...” The president’s lips curled up into a grin. “Which means that she has to be incredibly jealous.”

▽

Not long after, I found myself sitting on a bench in the park near my house as part of President Momone’s plan.

“I don’t like this at all...”

“Why not? It’s a chance to set that almost criminally dense head of yours straight.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about half the time, R, but for some reason, it’s always really hurtful.”

I sighed and looked around me. It was an older park, and all the benches and playground equipment were rusted. It wasn’t very popular, so no one was around. Well, besides me and the student council president who was hiding behind some bushes, that is. But then...

“Rekka.”

“Hi, Satsuki.”

I waved to my childhood friend as she appeared at the entrance to the park.

“What’s wrong? You asked me to come out here all of a sudden... and there’s nobody else around...”

“Oh, well... Sit down, I guess.”

“S-Sure.” Satsuki seemed surprised, but she sat down next to me. “So... what’s up?”

“I’m in love with you.”

R, would you please SHUT UP?

“Um... This is kind of hard to talk about, but...”

“I’m listening.”

I started mumbling some to try and buy a little time, but Satsuki must’ve sensed my nervousness because she started to tense up, too.

“I don’t know how to say this...” I said, trying my best to think of something to talk about.

“Rekka!” Iris shouted as she bounded over the park fence and greeted me cheerfully.

“Huh? Satsuki?”

“What? Iris?”

Iris and Satsuki were looking at each other, confused.

“Rekka... didn’t you want to talk to me?”

“That’s my line! What’s going on here, Rekka?”

“Wh-What? I said I’d called everybody...”

“You did not!”

“You did nothing of the sort!”

“Yeah, you totally didn’t.”

Great, now even R was chiming in to back them up. Wait, if R realized I’d walked into a trap, why didn’t she tell me sooner? And then...

“Rekka!”

“Rekka!”

“Sir Rekka!”

“Rekka!”

“Rekka!”

Tetra, Rosalind, Suzuran, Rain, and Shirley—all the girls I knew who could come quickly if I called them up—arrived at the park, as well. I’d brought them all here to make Sakuya jealous. President Momone had already bested Sakuya three times, so I didn’t think it would be easy to get her to show herself again. But since Sakuya was a jealous spirit, she wouldn’t be able to resist it when she saw me surrounded by so many girls. She would be sure to show up in one form or another... at least, that’s what President Momone had said.

“Rekka! What’s going on here?” Rosalind yelled angrily.

“That’s right. I’d like an explanation for this, but I’d also like to hear your reason for kissing Fam this afternoon,” Shirley said with a look in her eyes that was cold as ice.

“You were WHAT?!” several of the other girls screamed in unison.

Luring out Sakuya was supposed to be the challenge here, but now I had to try and calm down the girls somehow.

“Um, I don’t know the best way to explain that...” I broke out in a cold sweat as I tried my best to dodge the hail of questions that came down upon me.

Sakuya’s goal was to vicariously experience love, so President Momone said there was a good chance she’d choose one of the girls around me. But even carrying the talisman she’d given me, I couldn’t see anything unusual about any of the girls. Did that mean that she was possessing someone who wasn’t here? She’d already tried Harissa, Tsumiki, and Fam, so it was probably safe to rule them out. Hibiki lived several stations down, and Chelsea wasn’t even in the country. That only left one person...

“Rekka!”

And that was when Lea appeared... dressed in her Linda Lovers uniform.

“Why are you wearing your work uniform?!”

“I’m on my break! I ran here to meet you!”

“You ran through the city wearing that?!”

“I didn’t have a choice! I wanted to see you as soon as I possibly could!”

Ugh! She sounded so serious, but it was embarrassing! She was yelling and everything! It was so unlike her... Wait, was this because she was possessed? If so, then where was Sakuya?

I clenched my fist around the talisman in my pocket and focused. When I did, I saw something hazy floating behind Lea. Sakuya took the form of a young girl with a pretty face and freckles. She also had golden eyes and hair. I’d been expecting something more horrifying, so I was a little caught off guard by the sight of her.

“Lea, are you trying to seduce my Rekka in that indecent outfit?!”

“Since when was Rekka yours?! But I do agree that that uniform is playing dirty!”

Rosalind and Iris were pointing at Lea’s maid café uniform and yelling, their faces bright red. They both looked like they were ready to pounce on her, but...

“You’re in the way,” Sakuya sneered.

Suddenly Rosalind and Iris turned pale.

“Wh-What...?”

“Owowow!”

But it wasn’t just them. After they started groaning, the other girls all started clutching their stomachs, too.

“Wh-What is this...?”

“Ugh... I can’t take it anymore!”

One of them took off and the others all followed in a mad dash for one of the park’s facilities. Which one, I won’t say. Sakuya had the power to cause terrible stomachaches. At first I thought it was stupid, but maybe it was actually really powerful.

“Rekka...” Lea said, blushing as she walked towards me.

Her eyes were dewy and her cheeks flush. Add that to the sexy uniform, and it made for one hell of a combination. To be honest, even knowing that Sakuya was behind this, part of me still wanted to jump into her chest... No! What was I thinking? I was having dirty thoughts. I needed to get a hold of myself.

“Rekka, come with me.”

“Wh-Why? What are you going to do with me?”

“Remember how I said that if I wanted to stop being a pure maiden, I’d choose you?”

“Y-Yeah, but what is that supposed to mean?”

Hibiki had told me to look it up, but I’d never bothered.

“Heehee, you’re really going to make me say it, huh?”

Seriously, what was she planning?!

Ack! I moved back to get away from her, only to catch my foot on the bench behind me. I fell backwards, slamming my back into the bench. Now I was practically trapped.

“Rekka, there’s nowhere to run now.”

“You’re right...”

I turned my gaze from Lea to Sakuya. She looked confused to find me staring straight at her. But that’s just what I wanted!

“Take this!”

I quickly leaned over and shoved my hands under the bench to pull out what I had hidden there—the urn. When she saw it, Sakuya’s eyes, which had been half-closed like she was sleepy, suddenly opened wide in shock. She tried to get away from Lea, but...

“Too slow, fool!”

President Momone jumped out from behind the bushes. With a wave of the long sleeves on her miko robes, she began to draw a strange figure in the air. A second later, there was a loud snapping sound as if some kind of power had activated. The next thing I knew, a cylindrical barrier formed around the bench. Now there was no way for Sakuya to escape.

“Wh-What is this?! Please don’t get in my way!”

Sakuya began to scream, but President Momone just ignored her.

“Back in the urn with you!”

“What did I ever do to make you hate me?”

President Momone drew another figure in the air. Sakuya was torn away from Lea’s body and began to spin around the cylinder like a leaf in a whirlwind before at last settling into the urn I was holding. My eyes met hers the moment she landed inside.

“Problem child! The lid!”

“Right!”

I took out the lid that I’d hidden next to the urn and quickly put it on top. Then I took the talisman President Momone had given me and used it to seal the lid.

“...Hmm? What’s going on? Why aren’t I at work?” Lea asked.

Based on her astonishment at her current situation, it seemed she’d gone back to normal.

“Lea, if you don’t get back to the restaurant soon, your break’s going to end.”

“Rekka? What am I doing here? Wait, break’s almost over? Where did the time go? I don’t know what happened, but it looks like I need to get back. Thank you, Rekka.”

“You’re welcome.”

I sighed loudly as I watched Lea run off again in her Linda Lovers uniform. If Linda scolded her later, I’d do my best to have her back. I sat down on the bench and stretched. President Momone came up and snatched the urn containing Sakuya out of my lap.

“It’s time for her to pay.”

“What are you going to do... to Sakuya?”

“She’s made a mockery of my maidenly pride. I’m going to crucify her, burn her at the stake, and then have her tied to a horse and dragged through the city! Rather... that’s what I’d like to do. But she’s an evil spirit in the end. I’m going to have my grandfather exorcise her for good.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means sending her to the next world so she can never come back.”

Wait, what?

“I’m off to go see my grandfather, so you can go home now,” she said.

She turned to go, but I grabbed her hand.

“Hang on.”

“What?”

“That urn... It was in my family’s storehouse. Please give it back to me.”

“Hmm?” President Momone’s eyes narrowed as if she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. “Sure, once the exorcism is done. But that evil spirit is still inside right now, you know?”

“I’d like it back anyway.”

“Wait, are you kidding me?”

Her eyes narrowed even further. She looked like she was ready to break my jaw if she didn’t like the next thing I said.

“My family’s got a history of getting caught up in weird things, you see...”

She still didn’t look happy.

“I think it was probably one of my ancestors who sealed Sakuya away. But isn’t that kind of strange?”

“Strange how?”

“I mean, he was able to seal her, right? So why keep the urn instead of giving it to a specialist like your grandfather to be exorcised?”

I had no way of knowing what kind of story my ancestor had been caught up in that ended with him sealing Sakuya away. But ever since I’d learned that there was an evil spirit sealed in the urn in the storehouse, I’d thought that something was wrong.

“I don’t know what your family’s like, but... maybe he just didn’t know anyone right for the job. Maybe that’s how it ended up in the storehouse.”

“Maybe. But maybe not...”

“Oh?”

Suddenly her tone changed. She sounded almost interested. She looked at me with one eyebrow raised, as if testing me.

“All right, let’s hear it. If it’s ‘maybe not,’ then what was the reason?”

“I think... my ancestor wanted one of his descendants to save her.”

Now she looked even more interested.

“That sounds like optimism and wishful thinking to me. Do you have any evidence?”

“The lid.”

I pointed to the urn she was holding under her arm.

“What about it?” she asked.

“You said it’s got her name on it as well as a bunch of information about her, right?”

“Yeah, it does,” she said with a nod.

“But why did my ancestor put all of that information on the inside of the lid? If he sealed her away because he couldn’t find anybody to get rid of her, why didn’t he just write ‘there’s a dangerous evil spirit inside’ on the front?”

“Hmm...” President Momone pensively raised a hand to her chin.

My point was that if you had to open the urn to read the writing, it didn’t seem like it was meant to be a deterrent. Surely if Sakuya was actually dangerous, there would have been a more obvious warning.

“I think my ancestor put all that stuff on the bottom side of the lid because he wanted one of his descendants to deal with her in a different way than he did.”

“I’m afraid I wouldn’t know anything about your ancestors, but...”

President Momone suddenly tossed me the urn.

“Uwah!”

Whew, I almost dropped it! I had to fumble for it and ended up falling on my butt.

“It seems like you know more about how they feel than I do.” She laughed and looked down at me. “Problem child. No... Rekka Namidare. After all you went through, why would you want to help her?”

“Well, part if it is that I’m lucky enough not to remember most of that stuff, but...” I smiled as best I could. “If she’s made from unfulfilled desires, then I think it might be better to make those desires come true.”

“You’re an idiot, but at least you’re an entertaining one,” she said as she turned around. “I like you. Come back to the student council sometime. I’ll give you a warm welcome.”

She waved without looking back, and then disappeared from the park. She really was quite the character...

“I’d say that’s a very promising start to a relationship.”

“Hmm? R, what was that?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

I had a feeling R had said something weird again, but whatever. At least everything was over now. This was pretty rough, considering there was no story or heroine involved. Wait... Why was I suddenly feeling chills down my spine? I turned around slowly to see seven wrathful spirits.

“Since when are you friends with the student council president? And why was she wearing miko robes?”

Satsuki was looking down at me with an expression I’d never seen before.

“I heard something about sealing evil spirits. Did you call me here to use me for that?”

Rosalind was in full vampire mode, with both of her arms transformed into red and black wolves.

“You’ve brought shame to me not just once, but twice now...”

Rain was probably talking about what had happened at the shopping street. But wait, that wasn’t my fault. And it certainly wasn’t deliberate...

“Oh, Rekka...”

I heard a click as Shirley loaded her medical gun with a strange looking drug. In the face of all these terrifying women, all I could do was curl up like a pill bug to try and make myself as small as possible.

...Who was it who said nobody’s life was in danger this time? This was the worst danger I’d been in since the day I turned 16!

But after that, my memory goes black again. I still don’t remember what happened.