I got to school after wasting the entire morning on a meeting about how to deal with Natsumi.
"It’s already lunchtime...?"
Since I hadn’t eaten breakfast, my stomach was screaming for food, but I still had to show up first, so I opened the classroom door and went in.
Then I felt all kinds of eyes lock onto me.
Most of those looks were full of disgust and contempt.
"Hm?"
Wondering why everyone was staring at me, I tilted my head, and Ai came stomping over.
"You sure have the nerve to come back, Higakieta Hai!"
Right after her, Mai and Mii approached too.
"Do you even know what you did!?"
"You’re seriously disgusting...!"
Well, judging by their reactions, something had definitely happened.
And since they were aiming it at me, it seemed like it was something related to me.
But what on earth had I done to make them this hostile?
"What are you talking about?"
"Don’t play dumb, you bastard!"
"You got all clingy with an innocent girl, and then humiliated Mai and Mii!"
"And then you went and committed a vile crime against Mayuri too!"
"Seriously disgusting!"
"Huh...?"
I honestly could not make sense of any of that.
I hadn’t even been at school this morning, so how could I have done all that?
Did that even make sense?
For that to be possible, I’d need two bodies, or at least the ability to use a clone jutsu.
"I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. I literally just got to school..."
"And you won’t even admit it gracefully!"
When I looked at Mayuri with pleading eyes, asking her to believe me, she sighed and stood up.
"M-Mayuri...?"
"Hai. Let’s just admit what needs admitting."
"No, seriously, it wasn’t me!?"
"It’s okay. I’m always prepared. Still, I’d like you to think a little more about the other girls’ feelings."
"I’m telling you, it really wasn’t me!"
Reasoning with them was impossible.
I hadn’t done anything, but they seemed completely convinced I had.
I kept trying to explain the truth, feeling wronged to my core, but nothing got through.
Bang!
"So you were here, Hai! I’ll at least praise your guts for not running away yet!"
"Warning. You’ll have to pay dearly for this."
This time, Kaguya and Yuzuru appeared at the front door and pointed at me.
According to them, something wearing my face had apparently played a prank on the two of them too.
"No way, what did I do to you two...?"
"Trying to deny it, are you!? Enough, hand over the panties you just stole from this body!"
"Outrage! Who was it that dumped water on Yuzuru while saying, ‘I have a fetish for seeing bras through wet clothes’!?"
"Whaaat!?"
Whoever the hell had been using my face to pull that kind of crap had completely destroyed my reputation.
But they were overlooking one crucial fact.
"No, everyone. Do I really look like the kind of person who’d do that!? You all know I’m weak to girls!"
I’m weak to girls.
No, even if I were strong, there was no way I’d do something like that.
As I passionately explained that I had no reason to do any of it, the contempt in their eyes eased a little.
Just a little.
Still, I was grateful there was at least some room for conversation when disaster struck.
"But you do always seem to be hanging around girls..."
That one boy’s betrayal made the contempt that had eased even slightly come roaring back.
"Hieta-kun, now I can never get married! You’ll have to take responsibility!"
"Even Tamae-sensei!?"
And then, to make things worse, another huge victim appeared: Tamae-sensei.
"Hieta, that just now... was that serious...?"
Correction.
The worst one was Tonomachi-kun.
Judging from what he said, whatever was wearing my face had apparently done something that looked a lot like a confession to him.
...Was it insane?
"What the hell is going on!?"
I immediately left the classroom and hid myself.
The victims started running in the direction I’d gone.
Luckily, they didn’t catch me.
I’d only pretended to leave, then slipped right back in through the front door.
I carefully opened the door and looked around.
Fortunately, everyone else had gone after the direction I’d fled, and there was no one nearby.
‘Thank goodness.’
Just as I was relaxing at that thought and stepping outside, I saw another me.
More precisely, I saw the thing wearing my face that I suspected was the root of all this.
"Hmph."
It sneered at me, then started walking off somewhere else at a leisurely pace.
"That bastard...?"
Following it, I ended up on the rooftop.
When I opened the rooftop door and went in, it was still wearing that arrogant smile and looking at me.
"Yo. You got here faster than I expected."
"You... bastard..."
"I had a lot of fun while you were gone."
"Natsumi..."
"You knew?"
As I followed it, I’d been thinking.
What exactly was that thing?
Who was the bastard trying to socially bury me?
And then I realized that the only person who currently held hostility toward me was Natsumi, and the only one with transformation-related powers was also Natsumi.
So naturally, that left only Natsumi as the one who could pull off something like this.
"Correct. So you can probably guess why I became Hai-kun, right?"
"You’re trying to socially bury me so I can’t stay here?"
"Too bad. That’s a 20-point answer."
"Then why did you do this?"
"Hai-kun."
Natsumi stepped closer and spoke.
"Wouldn’t it be weird if there were two of the same human? If we don’t cut it down to one, everyone else would be in trouble, right?"
She came right up beside me and whispered in my ear.
"From today on, I’ll be Hai-kun. My observational eye is perfect, you know? I’m done with childish games like the one from earlier. Even if you disappear, no one will suspect a thing."
"Heh."
Natsumi’s words made me laugh.
"Did you lose your mind?"
"As if."
I just found it funny.
Her declaration was so absurdly arrogant.
The way she said she could imitate me so easily was just too ridiculous.
Perfect observational eye?
What, did she think she was some kind of fortune-teller?
Even if it were perfect, you still couldn’t copy everything about a person.
Because unless you were that person yourself, there would always be limits.
"You want to imitate me...? Go ahead. If you can."
Natsumi doesn’t have the power to seal spirits.
Natsumi doesn’t have the power of Dark Souls.
In other words, she can never truly become me.
So I smiled brightly at her and said,
"You can’t be me. You’re just a fake who wants to be someone else."
Maybe that got under Natsumi’s skin.
Her expression crumpled completely.
"You..."
Just as Natsumi was about to say something to me, the rooftop door flew open and Mayuri and the Fire Keeper appeared.
They must have run all the way here, because they were both gasping for breath as they looked back and forth between me and Natsumi.
"C-come with us...!"
Judging from Itsuka-kun’s voice behind them, he’d come along with the two of them too.
"The chosen one..."
"Two...?"
"There are two Hietas?"
The three of them looked at me and Natsumi with confused expressions.
Natsumi immediately tried to rally them.
"Guys! This one’s the fake! It’s this one who’s been disguising herself as me and playing disgusting pranks on everyone!"
Watching Natsumi point at me while claiming she was the real one, I responded with a single word.
"Bullshit."
Just one word.
That was enough.
Because by then, two of the three already had looks on their faces that said they understood everything.
"The fake..."
"is you."
The one they pointed at was, of course, Natsumi.
"W-what are you talking about!?"
"What difference is there...?"
Ignoring Itsuka-kun’s confused muttering from behind them, the two of them calmly explained why they’d judged Natsumi to be the fake.
"Your appearance is certainly the same as the chosen one’s. However, you don’t have a soul."
"If it were only you, maybe you could have fooled us. But since Hai is here too, I can tell. You don’t have the connection that Hai gives off."
"I-is that so...?"
Ignoring Itsuka-kun, who couldn’t sense souls,
I watched Natsumi’s reaction.
She sank to the ground and clutched her head.
"Ugh...! Impossible! That’s impossible!"
Natsumi stood up and manifested her angel.
At the same time, her transformation broke, returning her to her original form, and she pointed her angel at me.
"I’ll never forgive you...! Not only did you see through my secret, you even saw through my perfect disguise...!"
"No, when did I see through it? And I’m telling you, I didn’t really see anything—"
"I’m not letting this slide so easily!"
Without even listening to me, she rode her angel straight into the sky, and for a moment I seriously considered firing a [Decision Spear].
"Man, I really want to use a [Decision Spear]..."
"Chosen one. That could kill her."
"Exactly why I’m not using it."
If she kept this up, maybe I’d just smash her angel with a [Decision Spear] after all.
That was what I was thinking.
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