“Hey, can I come to watch your match?”
“I’m not sure. They might not let outsiders watch...”
“In that case, could you put me on the team, even if it’s just as a reserve player?” Yuichi asked. “It’s not that I doubt you, I’m just curious.”
“Well, it’s not a regulation match, so there are no particular requirements on who can play. I’ll check.” With that, Shota left.
If yokai and gods existed, maybe it wasn’t that strange that aliens might exist, too, Yuichi thought.
As he was returning to his classroom, he was approached by a pale-looking Tomomi Hamasaki. “Terrible news! They’re holding the Fakes Grand Prix, and the prize is—”
“Nope, still don’t want to hear your story.”
“Hey! What do you mean? This time it’s serious! I need your help!”
“I’ll hear you out some other time.”
“You’d better! Come by my restaurant later!” Tomomi’s expression was more serious than he’d ever seen it. Yuichi made up his mind to stop by Nihao the China on the way home, then returned to his seat.
Just as he did, An Katagiri approached him. She must have been waiting for him to return.
“What is it, Katagiri?” he asked.
“May I have a moment?”
Not waiting for a response, An took Yuichi’s hand and dragged him against his will to the roof.
“What is it?” Yuichi asked once they were up there. “You don’t usually try to talk to me.”
“I can’t find Takuro! Do you have any idea where he might be?” He’d never seen An so flustered before.
Takuro Oda was Yuichi’s friend from middle school. He’d started dating An in high school, which had given them fewer chances to talk, but Yuichi still thought of him as a friend.
“Dunno. How long’s he been missing?” The guy hadn’t come to school today, but Yuichi hadn’t been terribly worried. He’d assumed he was just in bed with a cold or something.
“I haven’t been able to get in touch with him since last night,” An said. “More precisely, since 7:00 PM.”
“How do you know that?”
“I call him every hour on the hour. He answered the 6:00 call, but...”
“That’s a little scary, you know.”
“Have you heard from him?”
“No. Actually, you do magic, don’t you? Can’t you use that to find him? Spells for finding people and things are pretty typical, I thought.”
“You don’t think I’ve tried?”
“So you tried it, huh? Let’s see, then... Maybe he got sick of you and went to another witch for help? There’re these things called barriers that—”
“I’ll kill you.”
Tangible malice swelled in the air around him.
The “malice” that Yuichi felt was an expression of an opponent’s urge to kill. It was usually something he could read subtly from how someone was acting, but this was on a whole other level.
This was a pure, unequivocal desire for blood. Yuichi had no idea where it was coming from.
Man, she really is scary...
He didn’t think he’d lose if he had to fight her, but in a fight against vaguely defined magical abilities, he’d have to do a lot of fumbling around.
“But thank you, anyway,” An said, turning to leave. “I never considered that he might have found a way to escape my magic. I guess it’s a sign of how panicked I was.”
“Hey!” Yuichi called out to her.
“What?” she asked, turning around.
“If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”
“I thought you hated me.”
“Yeah, but this is about Takuro,” he said. “It’s different. Besides, I have a feeling that if I leave you to your own devices, a whole lot of people are going to die.”
“I see. I’ll think about it.” With that, An left.
Yuichi descended the stairs to return to his classroom, but as he got into the hallway, he was stopped by Yurika Maruyama.
“What is it, Maruyama?”
“Hey, wanna join my hero club?” Yurika asked abruptly.
“Huh? I thought you lost your Divine Vessel.” Yuichi had assumed she wouldn’t have any more power without it.
“Oh, my being a Hero has nothing to do with Divine Vessels,” she said. “Apparently it’s just a thing I was born with. I lost my Monk and my Goof-Off, so I’m down to a Hero and a Warrior. So I’m recruiting more party members!”
“Um, what does the ‘hero club’ do at school?” he hedged.
“We dungeon-dive and increase our levels!”
“Please ask someone else.” It sounded like a huge pain in the ass.
After class, he met up with Aiko and Natsuki to head for the club room. When they entered, they found Kanako Orihara slumped at the table. She seemed to be agonizing over something again.
“Is club off again today?” Yuichi asked trepidaciously.
“Oh, yes. It is. Your sister did come to school today, but she said she had something to take care of and went home early...”
“I see. Orihara, are you thinking up material for your novel?”
If she was, he didn’t want to get in her way. He was just about to turn and go when Kanako shook her head.
“Not today. There’s something else on my mind... can I tell you about it?”
“Sure, though I’m not sure we can be of any use,” Yuichi said.
“Um, my mother came home...”
He’d heard that Kanako got along very poorly with her mother, who had divorced her father and left home. Her mother was actually the reason she’d tried to kill herself a long time ago.
“Oh, it’s about your mother... what did she have to say? I thought she divorced your dad and left home a long time ago?”
This was sounding like it was going to be a really heavy conversation. The thought of it made Yuichi want to bolt.
“Actually... she told me she comes from an isekai!”
“...Uh?” Yuichi said in shock. This development was completely unexpected.
“I was really surprised!” Kanako cried.
“Yeah, I’m pretty surprised myself...”
“So am I,” added Aiko.
“Same,” Natsuki chimed in.
“Apparently she’s royalty, and people tried to kill her when she was very little, so she fled to this world!”
“And so she wanted to get it off her chest?” Aiko asked.
Yuichi was wondering the same thing.