Mitou Shoukan://Blood-Sign

Volume 10, Ending X-01: Who Sits in the Queen’s Throne?

“Hi.”

“The second term, huh? Give me a break. Why can’t summer vacation last forever?”

(Ending X-01 Open 09/01 07:30)

Who Sits in the Queen’s Throne?

A monotone beeping repeated within a dimly-lit cruiser.

A phone’s alarm was going off.

But before sleepy Kyousuke could reach from the double bed to the bedside table, another small hand touched the 5-inch LCD screen. One fingertip stopped the alarm and then the arm flopped back down.

…It had come from below Kyousuke’s blanket. Someone else was lying across his body so they drew a cross together.

“What are you doing?”

He yawned and pulled up the blanket.

A small girl who looked about 10 was lying face down across his stomach.

“Nii-sama,” said the girl while ignoring the long hair covering her face.

This was a physical voice, not one that rang directly in his mind.

Her body was not translucent.

She tossed and turned a lot more than he remembered. She had rolled all over the bed throughout the night, so a few buttons of her baggy dress shirt had come undone, her slender shoulders were sticking out, and her hair must have gotten caught between her head and the bed because it was a mess.

“I should really buy you some proper pajamas.”

“No. I like yours, Nii-sama. A high school shirt has a grownup smell.”

He initially placed a hand on her small head, but patting her head was not going to fix that hair. Instead, he got up from the bed, held his sister to his chest, and combed from the top of her head to the back of her head and on down her back to fix it.

“That tickles, Nii-sama.”

“Stay still. Please just stay like that a while longer.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

She smiled and buried her face in his chest.

Her body had definite weight and heat to it, so this was not an illusion. When he held her close, he could feel the breathing and heartbeat of a living person.

His sister had really only been around 4 when she was killed, but being built into the Colorless Little Girl must have had a lasting effect. The apparent age of her physical body had grown a little bit.

“Don’t you have school today too?”

“Yeah. It’s my first day of elementary school!”

She looked up from her brother’s chest with a big smile on her face.

That was a look he had never seen in that small house, but it seemed like the look she was meant to have.

She had grown too much to fit in at preschool or kindergarten and she was enough of a genius to survive Doctor S’s education.

So what was the best way to help her live like a normal person?

After some discussion with his mother, they had decided to go with the age she looked. Of course, test scores were not the only purpose of school, so Kyousuke and his mother would have to do some work outside school to make sure she developed her social skills and made friends appropriately.

(I guess that’s something I have to work on too.)

Since he had only needed to live in the world of the Summoning Ceremony, he had previously decided friendships and other relationships were not really necessary. He had had the power to fight, so he had used that as an excuse to face society on those terms. But that path was no longer available to him.

That age had ended.

With all his Awards removed, he would no longer vanish from normal people’s memories and awareness.

He could no longer take the easy way out.

He walked from the cabin to the kitchen and heard the sizzling of oil in a heated frying pan.

An older woman with her chestnut hair tied back behind her head was wearing an apron and cooking enough food for everyone.

“A boat’s stove is just not powerful enough. Plus, it’s cramped and it rocks in the waves! Look at this, Kyousuke. I was trying to make a half-boiled omelet, but it ended up as scrambled eggs! I haven’t screwed up this badly since elementary school cooking class!!”

“Elementary school!!”

His sister’s face lit up as she approached the table in that baggy dress shirt.

Their mother childishly pouted her lips.

“Honestly, you’re happy with anything as long as it’s drenched in ketchup. I’m not sure how to feel about that…”

The small girl did not seem to mind, though.

Kyousuke started to sit at the same table, but she slapped a chair and spoke to him.

“No, Nii-sama. Sit here.”

“I thought that was your chair.”

“I’ll sit in your lap and eat. That’s my special seat! But if you ask nicely, I might lend it to you sometimes, mother.”

There was no talking her out of it once she set her mind to it, so obeying her was the best option in the mornings when they had somewhere to be. Kyousuke placed his small sister on his lap, but then he frowned.

“Hold on. What happened to your underwear?”

“It’s uncomfortable and keeps me awake.”

In that case, he might find it balled up under the covers somewhere.

Natsuginu looked all the more exasperated.

“Hey, Kyousuke? I won’t insist on anything as fancy as Aika-san’s high-rise apartment, but how about we rent a proper room? I can work part-time as a cashier if need be.”

“What’s wrong with the cruiser?”

“It’s too small for four people.”

That reminded him that one person was missing.

He still looked sleepy, so his mother continued with a finger on her own cheek.

“There must have been some formalities she has to deal with because she already left. And she was not happy that kissing you here did not wake you. I recommend having a small gift ready to make sure you don’t get struck by lightning when you see her again. It’s a little late to make a full bento, so maybe some iced tea in a water bottle.”

“…”

She did that? thought Kyousuke while briefly falling silent, but the sister on his lap leaned back against him. She kicked her legs below the table while speaking to him.

“Nii-sama, I like your boat, but the bath is too small. Even though you said it was a custom bath.”

“Not to mention the kitchen. I would really prefer something better.”

“Is it really that bad?”

Kyousuke was fine with taking showers and eating milk and cereal, but the woman in charge of the housework pointed at the egg dish she had made.

“If you want actual food to eat, yes. Honestly, what kind of kitchen trips the breaker when you use the microwave and toaster at the same time!? And what about home visits from your teachers? I don’t want to borrow Aika-san’s apartment for that. It would feel like I was deceiving them.”

At any rate, the sister eating the freshly-made breakfast had hit on the truth. It was September 1, so they could not continue acting like it was summer break. It would be best to wait until after school to discuss all this.

Even in this short time, he had discovered that his mother did not like it when he used his phone while eating. It seemed unfair that having the TV on was somehow okay. The news was showing a commotion on the level of a new global OS or smartphone going on sale.

“Quad Motors, the defense company known for its Repliglass development, has just made several announcements to the press. First of all, the internal conflicts over management of the company have come to an end and Miss Azalea, a girl of only 14, has taken the position of CEO.”

The photo displayed on the TV screen carried great meaning.

She had not been forgotten by the people around her.

“14? America is an incredible place,” said his mother. “Now I feel silly worrying about whether to send this girl to preschool or elementary school.”

“Eh? Skipping ahead is a waste. After watching Nii-sama for so long, I just know staying in school forever would be fun!”

Natsuginu confiscated her daughter’s toast before the girl could add butter, jam, and chocolate paste to it. Before handing it back, she made it clear that toast was only allowed two toppings in this household.

Kyousuke slowly ate his own breakfast. With his sister in his lap, he had to eat carefully so none of the crumbs got on her head.

“Hm, not as good as cereal.”

“Kyousuke.”

He heard a low voice from the person who had made the food, so he wisely chose to say nothing more.

“Quad Motors has also announced several new projects along with their new CEO,” continued the news. “The largest of the projects they plan to begin alongside their Repliglass development has only been described with the mysterious phrase ‘the non-physical service industry’. With only that and the curious tagline ‘from summoning to awakening’, it is unclear what this will entail, but Miss Azalea left the following comment on social media: ‘If big data is to trigger a new revolution in the physical industries such as Repliglass, we must turn to the spiritual industries.’ This has led some to speculate that the technology-focused company will be branching out into the fields of spiritualism and alternative medicine, so people are voicing their hopes and worries both inside and outside the United States.”

“Kyousuke.”

His mother called his name to draw his attention away from the TV.

“I will be going to her school to complete the official process there. Is that okay with you?”

“It’s a whole lot better than having my mom show up at my high school. I’m a little worried that she went on ahead of me, but she was a Machiavellian specialist back when she was out of control, so she can probably adlib her way out of any trouble.”

Kyousuke waved a hand dismissively, but his sister started trembling.

“H-high school. What a scary holy ground…”

“Pretty sure you’re overthinking that.”

At any rate, once they finished breakfast, it was time for school.

Kyousuke’s sister started hopping in excitement when she saw him in his ordinary summer uniform of a short-sleeved dress shirt and pants, so he had to pull her away from him before leaving the cruiser. And she could no longer wear that one-piece swimsuit or leotard covered in weapons like she had as an inhuman monster. After changing into a comfortable short-sleeved blouse and a knee-length skirt, she put on a backpack with a security buzzer on the belt.

“Nii-sama, help me with the final check. How is the security buzzer?”

“Yes, yes. Its battery is fully charged.”

“My skirt isn’t caught behind my backpack?”

“You’re fine. I can’t see your butt.”

She was probably more interested in showing off her school outfit than actually performing a check. She spun around in front of him and he sighed while playing along.

“But are you sure you wanted a red backpack? You can choose them in any color you want these days.”

“Yeah, I like this color best. It’s your color, Nii-sama!”

It sounded like something rhythmically slicing through the air.

However, this was not the sound of a propeller. The vibration of the thin roof simply made it sound a lot like that.

The schools and hospitals in rural Houbi Village did not have heliports, so the Hornet Repliglass VTOL transport plane had to land on the green grass.

It was September 1.

Meinokawa Aoi, the silver-haired shrine maiden who had been collecting morning exercise stamps along with the neighborhood kids up through yesterday, brushed back her hair with a hand.

“Mwoh, what is with all this noise so early in the morning? You’re disturbing the neighborhood.”

“My apologies, lonely woman who lost track of time and went to the public square despite September having arrived.”

“Shut up!!” she tearfully shouted, but the girl she was responding to did not seem to care.

That girl wore a customized blue tight skirt suit as she stepped out of the side cargo door. She was Azalea Magentarain. The ends of her reddish blonde hair were curled in a classy sort of way.

“Fractal.”

“Yes, milady.”

It was early morning, but the sun was already high overhead as if to declare war on everyone who wanted to stay cool, but the old butler next to Azalea still wore a black suit. He pulled out and opened a silver attaché case to reveal the old text within. Instead of parchment, it was Japanese paper bound with thick strings.

The cover was written in a stylistic way that your average modern Japanese person would be unable to read.

That was the Joruri Text.

“I would like to return this since we no longer need it.”

“So you absorbed all of its knowledge?”

“Yes, although Shiroyama Kyousuke did most of it himself. Quad Motors simply calculated out the cost of adopting his plans.”

The Joruri Text was centuries old and Quad Motors’ Repliglass had to have just as long a history behind it.

Yet they had both been outdone so easily.

He had shaken things up at a more fundamental level than a simple artificial vessel.

He could look at the exact same texts or manuals and see something entirely different, like it was a piece of trick art.

“Astounding, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it really is. It is apparently meant to invite in that which cannot be summoned by a series of letters, but I call it the monstrous result of necessity being the mother of invention. He is the type of creator that finds a solution in mere seconds when he feels something is lacking.”

Time seemed to flow slower in Houbi Village, but the radio used for morning exercises still received the daily news. The adults often told the children to read the newspaper and watch the news, but Aoi wished they would divide the news up between that which you could show the kids and that which you could not. Far too many of the stories were too depressing.

And.

Two schoolgirls rode up on a high-tech motor-assisted bicycle with boxy backpacks on and they thoughtlessly spoke up.

“What are they doing there?”

“S-Sayuri, let’s not get involved in Government business.”

“That category no longer exists. Let’s hurry up and deliver this breakfast and have her special-sized pay with her phone. We can earn lots of money while completing our summer break hands-on learning project. Vroom☆”

Aoi had been the one to order the food.

The appearance of the unexpected intruder delayed the delivery process. She was sick of the usual breakfast of white rice and miso soup, so she had wanted the Greek yogurt & granola set from a popular nearby restaurant as a fashionable change of pace. However…

“Ehhhh!? You didn’t put them in separate containers, so now it’s all soggy!”

“I think you were super-sized mistaken to think that would survive the long trip over the mountain on a bicycle.”

“Okay, hold out your phone. Cha-ching, all done. …Let’s get going, Sayuri. This hands-on learning project is a valuable chance to earn some money while in middle school. Don’t look that dangerous woman in the eye!”

“W-w-wait! You expect me to eat this? Nwohhhhh, what kind of service is this!?”

For the modified China dress beauty named Lu Niang Lan, the morning made her sleepy, but she had walked to the outskirts of Toy Dream 35 anyway because she had business there.

Government Award 1000.

When she arrived on the hill where Elvast Toydream slept, she found someone already there.

“This is a problem, you know? How long is an Illegal assassin going to remain so attached to the leader of Government?”

There was a squeaking of a moving wheelchair.

The person seated in it looked like an ordinary baseball boy. The name Irigaru Tarou was of course fake. The girl holding the wheelchair’s grips behind him was wearing a bunny suit that did not fit her nervous behavior. But Lu Niang Lan’s senses told her the girl’s reluctance was feigned and she actually enjoyed this.

The boy was wearing sunglasses as straight as a ruler, but they meant something different now.

In the Summoning Ceremony, the Incense Grenade would have no effect if you could not visually designate a target. A certain rabbit had taken advantage of that by crushing his eyes and shoulders to take the entire Blood-Sign system away from him.

But even if he could no longer fight directly, he was still the top of Illegal which controlled all the world’s criminal organizations. And Lu Niang Lan knew all too well that in the underground world, the power of groups was to be feared much more than the power of individuals.

However.

Despite all that, the modified China dress beauty breathed a sigh of exasperation and lightly tapped her shoulder with the bouquet she held.

“Now that everyone’s Awards have been taken away, no one cares about those old categories like Government and Illegal. Those are a thing of the past, like the baby boom generation or the bubble era. Or like some old guy whose comedian name doesn’t even ring a bell.”

“True enough.”

Boy A laughed.

They no longer disappeared from ordinary people’s memories and awareness, but that was not always a good thing. It would now be a lot harder for the outlaws to avoid the police. A single hair left at the crime scene could be a fatal mistake now.

“What are you gonna do now? Do you really think this perfect happy ending applies to people like us?”

“You seem to be mistaken about something. I was not working a second job as an assassin because I wanted to. I came to Illegal to avoid pursuit from Government and I helped out because I needed some way to pay my rent. Now that that isn’t necessary, it’s over. I can work as a legal used tool shop and that is how I prefer it.”

“…”

“If you were hoping for some wonderful advice given out of a strange sense of camaraderie, then I apologize for not being a villain to the core.”

With that said, the modified China dress beauty kneeled down and placed the bouquet on the modest grave that most people would entirely overlook. And she turned her back on Illegal’s leader to do so. That showed just how little respect she had for Boy A, Irigaru Tarou.

“Hey,” said the wheelchair boy quietly.

But who was he talking to?

Lu Niang Lan, his rival sleeping below the dirt, or the childhood friend girl supporting his wheelchair?

“I hear there’s a sport you can play even when you’re blind. You can follow the sound of the bell to find the ball. Do you think I could do that?”

“If that is what you want to do.”

“Ugh.”

Aika, the girl in a green and white striped bikini, groaned quietly. The morning sun may have been more of an enemy for this shut-in girl than for the mysterious young woman who had worked as an assassin.

She was on the top floor of her Toy Dream 35 high-rise apartment.

She would normally still be asleep while leaning against the white liger she used as a sofa, but that was not an option today.

“Liger, we need to take a shower together.”

The 5m beast sprang up as if to say “Eh!? Let’s not get hasty!”, but there was no avoiding it now. Their Awards had been taken, but her bond with the animal remained unchanged. The white liger was more comfortable than a beanbag or balance ball, but the oily fur of a feline carnivore was a flaw. It had reached the point that a towel was not enough to get it off.

And so the two of them were soaking wet.

After much one-handed fighting with the hairdryer in the changing room, naked Aika reached for her change of clothes.

And it was not just the usual swimsuit.

It was a boy’s hoodie she could wear over that.

“…”

This was the same as leaving behind a handkerchief or piece of clothing that smelled like you to keep your pet a little less worried when you were gone on a trip. Aika held that “going out” clothing for a while and stared at it until she finally put it on.

A lot of time had apparently passed while she stood there.

When she returned to the living room with the white liger who shook the excess moisture from her giant body, the phone on the glass table was vibrating. Aika grabbed it before it fell off the table and answered the call.

“I am in front of your room. Where should I wait?”

It was a short question.

That would sound like a horrific stalker if this was from some unknown person, but it was not a problem when she knew who it was.

“If a direct meeting would be too difficult, we can do it online. With modern technology, that works just as well as meeting face-to-face.”

“No, Sekurtiti. I have to make a physical appearance for this. As the family member who gave grandpa his final notice.”

A few dozen pages of A4 printer paper were sitting on the glass table.

They were a new project idea for Toy Dream.

They concept was as follows:

The Story of the World’s Happiest Girl.

The full story will be retroactively recreated based on the many documents discovered in the Founder’s Gallery!

It was like a curse.

And if she did not break free of it, she would never escape the cage she had made for herself.

That was how it felt to her.

With her Awards gone, she would no longer vanish from ordinary people’s memories and awareness. That left her with no more excuses to continue being a shut in. In fact, if she failed to open her door now, she would end up staying in her room forever.

But.

Even so.

It was not just Tomb Priestess Sekurtiti. If Toy Dream began producing a movie, it would involve hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Now was the time to change. No matter how much it scared her and no matter how worried she was, there would never be a better chance than this.

The white liger gently rubbed against her.

She patted the animal’s large head.

“Let’s go, liger. We can make up for the time we lost. Even if it has to be little by little.”

And.

The door clicked open.

Shiroyama Kyousuke, his sister, and Shiroyama Natsuginu. The three of them took the same route part of the way.

Toy Dream 35 was in a festive mood yet again. They had been running a “Bye Bye Summer Break” event through the day before, but it was now a “Hello Second Term” fair. Perhaps the city could not relax without having something going on year-round.

A female Oni with long hair, two horns, and a combination of a kimono left open and a one-piece swimsuit was walking through all that.

A snake girl with the upper body of a lovely girl and the lower body of a sinister serpent was seated on a giant made from scepters and sunbathing while gathering attention in the central square.

A girl dozing off in a bizarre cradle apparently did not care which world she was in as long as she could play in her own world of dreams.

“Wow!”

His sister ran around with the contents of her backpack rattling and she reacted like they were costumed mascots.

“They’ve already ‘awakened’ the Unexplored-class? They were still stuck at the Divine-class yesterday.”

“I heard they summoned Athena and Minerva simultaneously as a test case to make sure it could handle this. Once Azalea took over, the Unexplored-class projects they had been working on in secret were released.”

Shiroyama Kyousuke had created the ignition at the core of it all, but he had needed Quad Motors’s help to act as a booster and have it spread across the world like an amoeba. He was not involved in every little project. It was similar to how those monsters had incredible influence on social media and video sites, but the giant data infrastructure was needed for that influence to spread.

Gods were no longer a rarity.

No one had to wield a Blood-Sign and rely on letters and they were not restricted to 10 minutes.

It had all begun with Azalea and Quad Motors. She had hoped to combine her company’s technology with the data in the Joruri Text she had acquired in Houbi Village, but Kyousuke brought a great change to that.

He had suggested it might no longer be necessary to create a doll as a vessel.

He had wanted to check all those documents and reconsider the overall rules of the Summoning Ceremony. And this was from the perspective of the person who had created the Colorless Little Girl from scratch and embedded her in the other world.

As a result, supernatural beings were no longer summoned into humanoid vessels. He had hoped to instead create a new technique of calling the gods of legend to a location separate from any human.

This was not the Fifth Summoning Ceremony.

He was fine with bringing an end to the age of the dinosaurs.

That was the kind of impact he wanted.

To reiterate, Azalea had planned to combine her company’s technology with the Joruri Text acquired in Houbi Village, but being able to compare those two things had meant a lot. That had helped him understand in more general terms what exactly it meant to call in gods and demons from another world.

Simply put, this was a summoning method that did not use human or artificial vessels.

No, it was an awakening technique.

And what had happened as a result?

All Materials, from the Regulation, Divine, and Unexplored-classes, could freely visit this world without needing someone to support them.

Summoners were no longer needed as guides who controlled their movements.

Doctor S had created the Age of Summoning, but his son Kyousuke had wiped the slate clean with the Age of Awakening.

There was nothing left of the old age.

“…”

Shiroyama Natsuginu held her daughter’s small hand and viewed it all with a somewhat sad look to her eyes.

She may have been reminded of the man who had been her husband.

The times had changed.

At the very least, it had completely left the expectations of that man who assumed the Blood-Sign system gave him everything he wanted and believed nothing more would ever be needed.

The Third and even the Fourth were a thing of the past. The miracle of 1999 was as forgotten as the beeper. It had all begun when Kyousuke assisted Azalea who had been imprisoned on Devil’s Island just like him. He may have been writhing around behind those thick walls right now.

And.

“Hrahh! Good morning, Onii-chan!!”

The sound of rattling backpacks doubled.

It was a girl with her long blonde hair worn in two braids. She was still dressed in that bizarre outfit based on a school swimsuit, but when Kyousuke recalled the night before when his sister had been too excited to sleep and had him help her make sure she had everything she needed for school, he remembered that there were still pool classes in early September. Everyone in this girl’s class would probably see her as just a little overeager to swim.

She was Olivia Highland, First Princess of the Flanguild Permanently Neutral Kingdom.

Once the Awards were removed, no one vaguely thought of them as Eastern Europe’s Kingdom F anymore. Thanks to that, Queen Sinceria had apparently made a stir at an international conference as an unbelievably beautiful politician.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke’s sister cautiously clung to his hip.

“Nii-sama is mine. Do not call him ‘Onii-chan’.”

“I can call him that if I want to. When I get back to my home kingdom, I’m enacting an Onii-chan Law to legalize polygamy and NTR.”

…It sounded like he had a budding tyrant on his hands here, but what was her mother doing???

“I need to start by calming down the one who will actually listen.”

“What is it, Nii-sama?”

“Try to get along with Olivia, okay?”

“If you say so…”

Kyousuke patted his sister’s head to cool her down.

They were in different years, but they would probably be attending the same elementary school. Kyousuke could not look after them throughout the day, so he could only hope she really would get along with Olivia.

“Why does that sound so unlikely? Anyway, Olivia, I take it you really are attending school here.”

“I am. Mwa ha ha. When I get back, I can brag about how I studied abroad!!”

Kyousuke found it oddly interesting that foreigners also found the idea of studying abroad so appealing. He had always assumed the appeal was mostly fueled by the Japanese obsession with Western culture.

Meanwhile, Shiroyama Natsuginu and Sinceria were chatting a short distance away.

“Oh, does this make us friends brought together by our children?”

“I suppose it does. The people of this country of beaches and swimsuits must have a natural resistance to the sun. How can you walk around without a parasol?”

“Um, to be extremely blunt, that parasol probably does not accomplish much since the UV rays are reflected off of the ground. If you don’t at least use some UV-blocking sunscreen, you are going to have an awful time in the bath tonight.”

“Hm, do we need to determine a leader to know how to interact?”

“Oh, are you picking a fight with me? Ho ho ho. How about we compare our children’s grades next time?”

The combination of two mothers had a way of ending up with sparks flying between two smiling faces.

This was a different sort of battle.

The boys and girls could not keep up with the world where two single mothers would let their frustrations get the better of them and start fighting in the middle of the afternoon. This was too much even for Shiroyama Kyousuke.

The students’ valuable morning was frittered away on these pointless things. They were approaching the borderline of tardiness, so they could not afford to waste any more time. In fact, some other students were passing them by.

“What the hell? Those high-grade girls are scary.”

“Hayato, you’re more interested in the girls than the gods and demons? You really are a boy.”

A giant squid-like kraken crawled along the side of a skyscraper. Was that Apollo and Amaterasu flying through the sky along with the shine of the sun?

The gods did not seem to have a care in the world.

All the fighting to the death may have been the result of the human ego.

“Okay. We have to go this way!”

“See you after school.”

“Nii-sama, will you come meet me at my school then? If not, I’ll go meet you at your school!”

“That’s fine if you want. You were interested in seeing a high school, weren’t you?”

He ignored his mother’s comment of “but you wouldn’t let me visit you”. The woman looked quite young, but she still did not understand the sensitive heart of a teenager.

After saying goodbye to his family and the royal family, he continued on to his high school.

As he followed his usual route there, he saw more summer uniforms like his own.

His classmate Rendou Akiya called out to him.

“Sup.”

“Hi.”

“The second term, huh? Give me a break. Why can’t summer vacation last forever? I feel like we’d learn a lot more about life that way.”

The giant Hr?svelgr bird seemed to cover the entire sky as it passed by overhead. Rendou held down his hair and skirt half on autopilot in response to the surprise gust of wind.

“Dammit, what is with all this lately!? Have they systemized some kind of panty shot demon!?”

“That’s apparently a test run for the upcoming autumn pollen. Once pollen season is here, they plan to manipulate the air currents to keep it out of the city center.”

“So it’s a god, then? Keep up the good work, I guess.”

While the two of them walked along, the topic of discussion was not the clash between the strongests.

They could talk about smaller things.

“By the way, I hear we’ve got a transfer student coming. A boy or a girl is fine with me as long as they’re fun.”

“Oh? You don’t limit yourself to cute girls?”

“Shiroyama-chan. There’s one problem I didn’t manage to solve over the short summer. Now is not the time to ignore it. Directly facing the path ahead is the one and only way of completing that tightrope walk!!”

“Let me tell you, this person has a lot of flaws… They’ll probably never really change, but they’re definitely too curious for their own good.”

“Wait, you know who it is, Kyousuke-kun? I seriously hope not, but it isn’t like your ex-boyfriend or something, is it!?”

Rendou Akiya apparently still had not gotten over the Rainy Girl thing. But based on what he was saying, this did not sound like a conversation Kyousuke wanted to have. He felt like casually sidestepping it all would be much easier.

Once they arrived at the school entrance, Kyousuke encountered a familiar face.

It was a woman with a long black ponytail, a tight skirt suit, and a lab coat.

“Eh? Are you the transfer student???”

“Why would I be? I am the school doctor, where you can find all your hopes and dreams. My name is Himekawa Mika. Nice to meet you.”

“Whoa, this one’s way more immature!”

“Whoa, this one’s way more immature!”

Making an entrance based on an old comedy program was apparently not well received by kids these days. The normal students treated Shigara Masami like a ghost. Everyone in the world had lost their Awards, but after moving to the other world, Shigara Masami had apparently permanently become a god.

Rendou Akiya had no idea what was happening, so he tilted his head like normal.

“So what’s this? Are you twins?”

“Wait, did you put down ‘god’ as your last job on your resume?”

After leaving the two teachers(?), Kyousuke and Rendou walked to their classroom.

His friend did not forget about those two even after they were out of sight.

And that was true of Kyousuke himself as well.

When they entered the classroom, Librarian-chan was glaring at him for some reason.

He assumed something Rendou Akiya had done had made her mad at him too, but the glasses girl walked over with braid swaying and whispered into his ear.

“(My sister told me to tell you ‘good job’, but what did you do over the summer? Why does my sister have to be so secretive!?)”

Come to think of it, he had not known how to explain everything to them, so he had not used Librarian or the Student Council President in the final battle even though they had talent as vessels. But where had the Rainy Girl been watching it all from?

The scary part was how plausible it seemed that she had even seen what happened in the other world.

…In a way, she was a being who had manifested herself without using the Blood-Sign system or getting Azalea’s assistance.

(So can mom do all those same things after Wisdom resurrected her from the dead? Oh, god. The world is as full of miracles and mysticism as ever, isn’t it? I just hope she doesn’t start flying through the night sky on a broom or something.)

Morning homeroom began before long.

The information from Rendou Akiya proved accurate. Their homeroom teacher announced the transfer student before making the normal announcements.

They heard a footstep out in the hall.

It was not a loud thing, but that one sound grabbed everyone’s attention.

“It is a pleasure to meet all of you.”

Silver twintails swayed.

She looked a little uncomfortable since the school uniform could not be made all in white, but she still stood behind the teacher’s desk with a smile on her face.

“My name is Mary Ann Shiroyama. I hope we can all get along.”

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