It was the Monday morning after that extremely eventful Sunday.
Mutsuko hadn’t been at the breakfast table.
That in itself was not unusual — Mutsuko often went missing for long stretches of time — so while Yuichi was worried that his getting her angry yesterday was the cause, he also went to school convinced that she’d be back soon enough.
“White Collar Worker” no longer hung over the head of the man next door, and there were no “Middle School Student” or “High School Student” labels in sight. A completely ordinary walk to school unfurled before Yuichi’s eyes.
The next thing he knew, Aiko was walking beside him. “Hey, you seem pretty happy. What happened?”
Yuichi squinted at her, but there was definitely no label over her head. “Huh? Oh, I guess I am. I must be pretty over the moon... I didn’t even notice you come up.” She’d always been someone he could let his guard down around, anyway; if someone malicious had approached him, he surely would have noticed them, no matter how pleased with himself he was. “The truth is, Soul Reader’s gone!”
Yuichi explained to Aiko everything that had happened yesterday.
“I see,” she said. “That’s pretty great, though I feel a little sad about it. I mean, Soul Reader was the reason you saved me, after all.”
Yuichi may have only gotten mixed up in all these strange incidents because of Soul Reader, and the start of it all had been Hiromichi Rokuhara’s attack on Aiko. It was true that it had been useful in a few situations, but Yuichi wasn’t about to say he wanted it back because of just that.
“Anyway, it’s fine if you don’t want to take part in the war, but what will we do about Monika?” she went on.
“That’s a good question,” Yuichi said. “I’m still looking into that. It’s taking place at another school, after all. It would usually be Sis’s field, but...”
Apparently, twelve psychopaths were fighting over Monika’s friend. Right now they were keeping each other in check, so she wasn’t in any immediate danger, but there was no telling how long that peace would last.
“Did something happen between you and your sister?” Aiko asked.
“I said I wasn’t going to get Soul Reader back, and she got pretty mad and ran off somewhere. She hasn’t been home since yesterday.”
“Huh? Are you sure she’s okay? Um, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but a girl in high school can’t just spend a night out without permission...” Aiko asked seriously, as if genuinely worried about something.
“She’s been gone days without coming home before, so I’m not worried about that part. Besides, I don’t think talking to her right now would do either of us any good anyway.”
“Monika’s friend attends Nagizawa Academy, right?” Aiko asked. “I have a friend who goes there. Should I talk to her?”
“That’s a good idea. It would be helpful to get some perspective on the situation. Hey, are you walking closer to me than usual?”
Aiko had nearly been pressed up against Yuichi’s side for a while now.
“A-Am I? I think this is how we usually do it...” Aiko said with feigned obliviousness.
Yuichi decided it wasn’t worth worrying about.
Yuichi arrived in the classroom, and once again, there were no labels in sight.
No witches or zombies here, just a perfectly ordinary high school classroom.
I wonder if it’ll be like I never had any interaction with them at all, or whether the fact that I saw them once will mean I’m connected to them for good...
The ex-“Witch,” An Katagiri, was glaring at Yuichi as always.
Well, whether she’s a witch or not, she’s always been that way. Yuichi forced himself not to worry.
They’d already had a bit of an interaction, so that wasn’t going to go away. At the very least, this would mean fewer chances to get drawn into bizarre incidents.
As Yuichi sat down, the boy in front of him, Shota Saeki, spoke up. “You’re looking pleased with yourself.”
Naturally, the “Ace Striker” label no longer hung above his head. But surely, just because he didn’t have the label didn’t change that he was still on the soccer team.
“Guess I am,” Yuichi said. “You could say I found a cure for my headaches. I’d been really worried about it, so it’s pretty great.”
“Wow, the migraines?” Shota asked. “Can you cure those? They really bother my mom on rainy days...”
“I’m not sure. It might be a case-by-case thing. There are specialist outpatient facilities for that stuff, so maybe she could visit one of those about it?”
Yuichi worked up a fairly innocuous cover story, and just then, the teacher arrived.
“Hello, everyone! Your beloved teacher, Hanako Nodayama, is back!”
The class burst into whispers.
Early in the second term, Hanako had taken time off for poor health. Yuichi had heard that she would be coming back sooner or later, but most people had assumed she would wait until the start of third term to make the transition smoother.
As usual, she didn’t look like she belonged in the suit she was wearing, but her hair was now black and short. A change in her state of mind, perhaps.
I wonder if Shikitani did something for her...
Hanako’s condition had seemed to be primarily psychological; the cause of it had been a betrayal by her fiancé, which had in turn been caused by the Outer Makina Shikitani. But afterwards, Makina had said that she would find a way to make things right.
“Hey, it’s a little cruel to ignore your teacher when she’s back after so long,” Hanako complained. “I mean, I know it’s bad timing and all...”
The students weren’t actually looking at Hanako; they were looking at the boy in the high-collared uniform beside her.
“You may have already guessed this, but we have a transfer student today. Transfer students in high school are a thing you mainly see in dramas and manga, so this is quite the rarity! It feels like the sort of first-page-of-my-youth development you all love!”
The transfer student had blond hair and blue eyes, and there was something foreign about his features, which seemed to have piqued the girls’ interest a bit more than the boys’.
The transfer student had been casting glances at Yuichi for a while. Yuichi did recognize him, but he found himself getting more and more irritated.
“Hey-low. My nay-um is Kyow-shee-row Ee-buh-rah-kee. It is su-wuch a play-jore to meet yoo aw-ull!”
What was getting on Yuichi’s nerves was the stupid accent the guy was using.
Around lunchtime, Ibaraki came over to Yuichi’s seat. “Hey!”