As Itsuka-kun was being lectured by Rinne, he suddenly said, "Ah! Right!" like something had just occurred to him, then took something out of his bag.
"Does this belong to anyone?"
The thing he pulled from his bag was a box decorated with a snake-shaped ornament.
The box was very unusual, and somehow gave off an ominous feeling. It was small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, and according to Itsuka-kun, it had been sitting by his pillow when he woke up.
"It’s not mine, for one."
"Could Kotori have left it there?"
"Kotori says it’s not hers either."
"It’s not mine either..."
Everyone was saying it wasn’t theirs.
Honestly, the fact that one of them might have a taste for something like that was questionable enough.
And more importantly, was there even anyone who would leave something like this behind?
"Hmm... First of all, does it even have an owner? Who here would even be able to sneak into Itsuka-kun’s room...?"
I couldn’t finish my sentence and turned to look at one person.
The one who knew Itsuka-kun’s private life better than anyone here, who always kept track of his every move, and who had the strongest stalker tendencies of all.
Tobiichi Origami, who was still staring expressionlessly at the box.
If it was Origami, she was the kind of stalker who might even install a tiny camera in Itsuka-kun’s room.
It was possible she had sneaked into Itsuka-kun’s room in secret, dropped the box, or even left it by his pillow on purpose before leaving.
But I quickly shook my head.
'There’s no need to do that.'
If it were Origami, rather than secretly leaving it in his room, she would have chosen to hand it directly to Itsuka-kun at a time like this.
As the mystery of the owner grew deeper and deeper, Mayuri offered one hypothesis.
"Shido, did you buy it during a chuunibyou phase and then forget about it?"
"Oh, that might actually be possible."
Right now, Mayuri’s theory was the most likely one.
Based on the things Itsuka-kun used to do back then, his tastes probably would have included something as weird as a box with a strange ornament like that.
After all, that was back when he created the amazing technique called [Pure Flash Grand Explosion].
"Hieta. Your eyes look suspicious... And I don’t remember buying this, either...?"
"Then why don’t we just open it?"
Its owner still hadn’t been identified, but since it had been left in Itsuka-kun’s room, whoever left it probably wanted him to open it.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason to secretly leave it there while he was asleep.
"Would that really be okay...?"
"Well, opening it won’t wear anything inside down or anything. And since it was left in Itsuka-kun’s room, the only person who can open it is Itsuka-kun."
I was really curious about what was inside that box, so I gently coaxed Itsuka-kun into it.
It might be rude to the owner, but if that was the case, then sneaking into Itsuka-kun’s room in the first place was a crime, so it all evens out.
"Hmm... All right, I’ll open it."
After thinking for a moment, Itsuka-kun finally decided to open the box.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Itsuka-kun gripped the lid, swallowed, and slowly began to open it.
When the lid finally swung wide open and the inside was revealed, something with an incredible aura burst out.
"Ugh...!"
"Kgh!"
It wasn’t just me who felt it; Itsuka-kun also clutched his forehead.
"What in the world was that just now...?"
"Huh? It’s completely empty inside."
While I was trying to figure out what that familiar yet unfamiliar surge of power had been, Tohka’s voice made me check the box. Sure enough, the inside was empty, as if nothing had ever been there to begin with.
Then could that thing we just felt have been the contents of the box?
With that question in mind, Itsuka-kun and I examined the box from every angle, but of course we found no hidden mechanism or anything like that.
"There’s no mechanism or anything. What even is this?"
"Maybe someone’s prank."
"It’s already past Halloween, though..."
While everyone was making guesses about the box, I quietly said to Itsuka-kun,
"Itsuka-kun. You felt it too, right?"
"...Yeah. I felt something strange."
He nodded and said he had felt exactly what I had.
It was hard to dismiss that as a coincidence, since the moment the box was opened, Itsuka-kun and I had felt the exact same thing. It was more likely that the box contained something hidden.
But there was no way to find out right now, so we decided to look into it again later.
"Good morning, everyone~."
Just then, Teacher Tamae came in, and we started homeroom with nothing but questions left about the box.
After all the classes were over, I was now at the shrine with Itsuka-kun.
The reason we came here was that Itsuka-kun said he had heard a voice here after school yesterday, so I came with him.
He said he brought me along because he didn’t know what might happen if he came alone.
When I asked why me when there were other people too, he said it was because I was the only male friend he had.
There was Tonomachi-kun too, but he was completely useless, so that didn’t count.
For reference, after Maria and Marina analyzed the box, it turned out to be a completely ordinary box.
"So, Itsuka-kun. Is it around here?"
"Yeah. I heard the sound somewhere around here."
The place Itsuka-kun said he heard the voice was the worship area.
A hallucinated voice in a place like this? Had he heard the voice of a god or something?
As I was thinking that pointless thought and went inside the grounds to find the source of the sound, there was already a guest there.
"Huh? There’s someone here already?"
"Really? There wasn’t anyone here yesterday."
The visitor was a girl.
More specifically, a girl in rather unusual clothing.
She wore a dark purple outfit that looked a bit like a clown’s, had bandages wrapped all over her body, and even wore restraints, giving her an eerie air.
Her eyes were also covered with bandages, so it was questionable whether she could even see properly.
Who exactly was this girl...?
"Ugh!"
The moment I wondered about her identity, a small headache hit me along with an indescribable sense of wrongness.
This intense wrongness, this baffling sense of alienness, this unmistakable feeling of déjà vu.
"...Len."
The name that slipped out of both my mouth and Itsuka-kun’s at the same time was Len.
Yeah, for some reason, a strange intuition told me with certainty that this girl’s name was Len.
"Huh?"
"Just now, what...?"
The two of us stared at each other in surprise at the name we had blurted out without thinking.
Somehow, both of us had said the same name.
"Itsuka-kun, just now..."
"Len, you said..."
I had never heard the name Len before, so why did both Itsuka-kun and I know it, and why were we so certain it was this girl’s name?
While our heads struggled to keep up with the incomprehensible situation and we were both left confused, the girl who had been there first tilted her head slightly toward us and spoke.
"Oh? Nice to meet you... or so I’d think, but have we met somewhere before?"
The girl greeted us, and just as Itsuka-kun was about to respond, my hand moved on its own and blocked him.
"Hieta...?"
"Ah, s-sorry."
I was startled by my own action and quickly pulled my hand back.
I didn’t know why I had just stopped Itsuka-kun from greeting the girl, but it seemed to be because I could sense something intense coming from her.
"Could it be... I’m imagining things?"
"N-no. I was thinking the same thing, but I can’t remember where I met you. Your name is Len... right?"
"That’s right, I’m Len. And you two are?"
"Ah... I’m Itsuka Shido."
"...I’m Higakieta Hai."
"Shido and Hai, huh..."
After hearing our names, Len murmured them as if recalling something.
"What’s wrong...?"
"No, it’s just that I feel like I’ve heard your name somewhere before too. Maybe we really have met somewhere. I’m not sure about Higakieta, though."
"I-is that so?"
"..."
I fell into thought at Len’s words.
I knew her name, but she didn’t know mine.
Not only that, but the fact that she said Itsuka-kun’s name sounded familiar suggested there was some connection between the two of them that I didn’t know about.
Had they really met somewhere before?
Then how did I know her name?
Since there was no way to find out, I shook my head and brushed off the questions.
At least in my memory, this really was our first meeting.
Still, I could feel something coming from the girl in front of me, so I decided not to let my guard down completely.
"More importantly, since you came to a shrine, do you have some wish you want to pray for? If so, is it a love problem?"
"I don’t know about Itsuka-kun, but not me."
"Me neither!? What are you saying in front of someone you just met!?"
"The way you both said that makes it sound like you’ve got girl trouble, though. Like you’re cursed with women or something."
"..."
"..."
At Len’s words, which were far too accurate, the two of us were left speechless.
In reality, there were a lot of girls around me and Itsuka-kun, so we couldn’t exactly argue.
"So it is true, then?"
"Ahem. Setting that aside, can you even see in that outfit?"
"A person isn’t just a face, you know. There are a lot of things I use to sense you two as human beings."
From the way she said it, it sounded like she was some kind of blind character from a game or anime, using her other senses to perceive the world around her.
Kind of cool, actually.
"I-is that how it works?"
"Of course. Well, the cursed-with-women part was a joke."
"So that was a joke...?"
"Haha, sorry. I was here yesterday too, and I just heard you say you wanted to make everyone happy."
"What, did I say my wish out loud...?"
"Itsuka-kun heard it, so how did I...?"
"That was intuition."
"Huh."
This person had an incredible sense for things.
I really hadn’t expected her to get it right just from intuition alone.
"P-please don’t tell the others."
"Why not? Wishing for other people’s happiness is a wonderful thing."
"That may be true, but it’s a little embarrassing, and besides, wishes are the kind of thing that seem more likely to come true if you don’t say them out loud."
"There’s a reason people say that if you make a wish on a shooting star, it won’t come true if you say it out loud."
"Exactly. So please don’t say it."
When Itsuka-kun made his request politely, Len smiled and said,
"Don’t worry."
"Huh?"
"Wishes are for making come true. If you truly wish for something, it will definitely come true. That’s what I believe."
"..."
At those words, Itsuka-kun made a complicated expression.
I wasn’t any different.
I had experienced despair myself, and the wish I made back then never came true at all.
"Oops, have I talked too long? Then I’ll be taking my leave. If we get the chance, let’s meet again."
When we stayed silent, Len said that, then trotted off between the two of us.
"...She was kind of a weird one."
"Yeah."
And just like that, our strange first meeting with Len came to an end.
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