After sealing Natsumi’s spirit power, it suddenly felt like I was coming to school for the first time in ages.
"Am I getting old?"
I was still in my prime twenties, and I was already feeling like this.
I got a little depressed, but there was something even more on my mind than that.
"Was Tobiichi always this late?"
Like one of the other students had said, Tobiichi still hadn’t shown up.
Normally, as a top student, she’d already be in her seat at this hour, but for some reason she was still absent right up until homeroom.
She didn’t even have her bag with her, so she definitely hadn’t come to school.
There was a strange sense of déjà vu from the atmosphere around Tobiichi when we dealt with the falling bomb last time. Was this related?
The CR-Unit Tobiichi had been wearing then belonged to DEM. Could she have sided with DEM?
My head was getting tangled up with questions when the front door of the classroom opened and Tamae-sensei walked in.
"Stand. Bow. Sit."
At the class rep’s command, everyone took their seats, and Tamae-sensei opened her mouth with a slightly sad expression.
"Before I take attendance, I have some sad news to share with you all."
"Huh? What happened, Tama-chan?"
"Did someone stand her up on a blind date? No way, a marriage scam!?"
"That’s such a turnoff!"
"Ahem!"
Tamae-sensei cleared her throat once under the trio’s explosive firepower.
I had no idea what those three thought of Tamae-sensei on a daily basis, if they could throw out comments like that the moment they heard there was sad news.
It was truly incomprehensible.
"Th-the thing is... Tobiichi Origami has had to transfer schools due to sudden circumstances."
"Transfer!?"
"Huh?"
At the news that Tobiichi was transferring, Itsuka-kun sprang to his feet in shock.
I was just as surprised as Itsuka-kun, but I didn’t stand up.
I just kept turning over what I’d heard in my head.
"Tobiichi transferred?"
This was something impossible happening.
Judging from her usual behavior, she followed Itsuka-kun around, secretly filmed him, and when he disguised himself as Shiori, she boldly filmed all over his body without even trying to hide it.
For Tobiichi, who liked Itsuka-kun that much, to transfer to another school—this would have been a shock to everyone except me and Itsuka-kun.
"Trans... fer?"
"It means she’s going to another school."
While Rinne explained the meaning to Tohka, who didn’t understand the word transfer, with a troubled expression, Itsuka-kun remained standing and asked Tamae-sensei,
"Please wait a moment! Origami? What on earth happened!?"
"I don’t know the details, so I can’t give you an exact answer. But I got a call from Tobiichi-sensei all of a sudden, and all she said was, ‘I’m transferring. I’ll send the necessary documents later.’"
Tamae-sensei didn’t seem to know the details either.
Maybe to figure out exactly what was going on, Itsuka-kun asked the teacher which school Tobiichi was headed to.
"What school is Origami going to!?"
"Eh?"
His intensity and the force in his voice were enough to startle the teacher. Itsuka-kun looked incredibly anxious right now.
"Well, she only said it was a school in England..."
"England? No way..."
The moment he heard the word England, Itsuka-kun’s expression turned deadly serious.
England, transfer, Tobiichi wearing DEM’s CR-Unit.
Putting all of that together, I figured Itsuka-kun had probably reached the same conclusion as me.
"Tobiichi is going to England with DEM."
DEM’s headquarters are in England, and their goal is the extermination and experimentation of spirits.
For some reason, they needed Tobiichi, and they must have used her hatred of spirits to lure her in and bring her over to their side.
It would make sense, since Tobiichi’s resentment toward spirits was even stronger than Itsuka-kun’s.
All the pieces fit together in my head, and that was the conclusion I reached: Tobiichi had gone to England with DEM.
"Itsuka-kun?"
Seeing Itsuka-kun acting differently than usual, Tamae-sensei called his name in a worried tone.
"Ah, um... m-my stomach! I need to use the bathroom...!"
"Shido?"
"Tohka, you don’t need to follow me!"
His clumsy acting as he left the classroom was obviously weird even to me.
I mean, Tobiichi was his girlfriend.
Even if Tobiichi wasn’t really his girlfriend, Itsuka-kun knew very well what DEM was like, and given his personality, it would be incredibly upsetting for someone close to him to go to DEM.
"Haah...."
What a mess, seriously.
******
While Hieta and the others were at school, Natsumi was sprawled face-down on the bed in her assigned room, kicking her feet in frustration.
"Aaaah! Why am I always like this!? I finally woke up early, and this is what I do!?"
As she recalled what had happened that morning, Natsumi’s feet stopped moving.
"I didn’t mean to wake him up like that..."
Originally, Natsumi’s goal had simply been to wake Hai up from beside him.
But then the self-loathing that always lurked inside her had raised its head at the worst possible moment, and her thoughts had veered off in a strange direction.
"Should someone like me really be waking Hai up? What if he hates it?"
Negative thoughts piled on top of each other until Natsumi’s mental state became unstable, and part of the spirit power sealed inside Hai was returned to Natsumi.
So Natsumi unconsciously transformed into the appearance of a seductive woman, and that led to the commotion that morning.
"Haaah..."
She felt so pathetic for causing Hai trouble and for still not being able to shake off her self-loathing even after he’d said that, that sighs kept pouring out of her.
Knock knock
"Hm?"
As Natsumi lay there on the bed, sighing, someone knocked on her door.
"N-Natsumi-san..."
"Yoshino?"
The one who had knocked was Yoshino.
Natsumi wondered why she’d suddenly come to her room, but since she wanted to get closer to her, she opened the door and welcomed Yoshino in.
"Yoshino? What’s up?"
"W-well..."
"Could you come to the living room for now?"
When Yoshino hesitated to speak, Yoshinon said the purpose for her instead.
As if to confirm that, Yoshino nodded too.
"The living room...?"
"Y-yes..."
"...Ugh!"
When Yoshino looked up at Natsumi with those bright, pleading eyes, Natsumi couldn’t resist and ended up going out to the living room.
The first thing Natsumi did when she got there was serve tea. She wanted to get along with them, so she figured she should at least make a good impression.
"Thanks for the black tea, Natsumi-chan!"
"S-so... what did you need me for...?"
"Um, well..."
As Yoshino hesitated, Natsumi’s imagination ran wild.
"What is this kid doing in my room? What does she want... no way! Did she come to get revenge for what I did!?"
If Yoshino had heard that, she would have been shocked and immediately denied it, but since that was only Natsumi’s private suspicion, it never reached Yoshino.
"W-well, Natsumi-san... you only just started living here, so I thought you might not know this town very well..."
"Right, exactly! When I transformed to trick Hai, I was actually this girl’s precious friend!"
Yoshino was definitely speaking, but Natsumi, whose suspicion had flared up, couldn’t really hear her.
"A-and even so! I don’t know it that well either, so I’m not sure how much help I can be..."
"She’s trying to get revenge while Hai and the others are gone...!?"
In a situation that was completely off the mark, what finally extinguished Natsumi’s suspicion was Yoshino’s gentle suggestion.
"If you don’t mind, would it be okay if I showed you around town?"
"Huh?"
While Natsumi was stunned by the completely unexpected offer, Yoshino continued.
"I-I thought it would be nice if I could talk to Natsumi-san a lot once you came here... and besides, w-we’re friends...!"
"Whoa! What is this girl? Marry me!!!"
That was Natsumi’s honest impression of how adorable Yoshino’s words were.
"Y-you mean you’ll show me around town?"
Actually, Natsumi had gone out with Yoshino before, when she ate the rolled omelet Mana had made.
But that had only been to buy clothes, so she hadn’t gotten a proper tour of the town.
"Then let’s go! Let’s go now! Right now!"
So Natsumi’s excitement wasn’t strange at all.
And there was one more person joining them.
"Rio wants to go too! Rio wants to come too!"
"Huh? Rio?"
"Rio-chan! At this hour, shouldn’t you be on [Fraxinus]?"
"Everyone said it was okay!"
As Rio said, when she told [Fraxinus] that she wanted to go with Natsumi, Yoshino, and Yoshinon, Kannazuki gave his permission easily.
Everyone was surprised by his decision, but after Rio was sent to the spirit mansion and secretly had people stationed around the area to keep watch, the crew felt relieved.
"Rio can’t go too?"
"...Ugh! O-okay! Let’s go together!"
"Yay!"
And so their outing was decided.
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