"...You could say they were noisy, or maybe just completely unreserved spirits."
Once the three of them had left, Miss Len shook her head as if letting out the complaint she’d been holding in.
"Well, yeah, that’s true."
Honestly, there was no denying it. Miss Kaguya and Miss Yuzuru were already a little lively, and once Miku got added to the mix, it was bound to become a cauldron of chaos.
On top of that, I’d just exposed a truly embarrassing side of myself in front of Miss Len, whom I was meeting for the first time. To be honest, I’d briefly considered just ending my life on the spot.
"Though dying wouldn’t actually let me die."
At times like this, I really did resent the fact that I’d become immortal.
I can’t even die comfortably. What a pain.
"Ahaha... I-I’m glad you all got along?"
Itsuka-kun also seemed unable to deny it, and scratched his cheek awkwardly.
At that, Miss Len stared at him and said, "If that’s what you saw, then I guess your eyes are just decorations, Shido."
"That’s harsh..."
I almost laughed at the tone, which reminded me of some red-haired brat.
"Still, I got to see something good, so it’s fine."
"...Please forget it."
Miss Len was looking at me when she said she’d seen something good, and it was obvious she meant the moment I turned into Miyuki because of Miku.
I’d gone out of my way to turn into a girl because I thought I should help since it seemed like an awkward situation, and then she called it something good to see. That was a little hard to take.
"Looks like you managed to talk with the others without any problems."
"Kotori!"
"Oh, Commander."
While I was still taking damage from Miss Len’s teasing, the Commander arrived.
"Yeah, thanks for calling me, Shido. Is that the spirit you mentioned before?"
"Yeah... that’s right."
Apparently the Commander had already heard about Miss Len from Itsuka-kun before, so she didn’t react all that strangely.
Then again, Miku and Miss Kaguya had been the ones reacting in a truly bizarre way.
"Hmm... I see. She definitely looks like a spirit with a bit of a temper."
As the Commander slowly sized up Miss Len and gave her that assessment, I briefly wondered what she was doing.
And it wasn’t exactly a positive-sounding assessment either, so Miss Len was definitely going to be annoyed by it.
"Oh? That’s quite the grand greeting for a first meeting."
Sure enough, the person being judged on the spot didn’t smile at all, which told me exactly how Miss Len felt.
If it were me, I’d have reacted the same way to being evaluated the moment we met.
But the Commander, as if it really were nothing, spoke in her usual tone, as though she had no intention of criticizing her at all.
"It’s a compliment. After all, there hasn’t been a single spirit so far who didn’t have a bit of a temper."
"How is that a compliment...?"
She probably meant it as one, but from the listener’s perspective, it was hard to call it a compliment.
Still, I knew the Commander in her black-ribbon mode had a rough way of speaking and a lot of issues with word choice, but I hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
That said, there was some truth to what she said. Tohka had tried to kill me the first time we met because she thought I’d attacked Itsuka-kun, and Yoshino’s case was more of a defense mechanism, but she still froze the surroundings with Zadkiel.
After that, the young lady tried to take both my life and Itsuka-kun’s, and the Commander had been foul-tempered from the start.
Rinne killed me the moment she learned the secret, and Miss Kaguya and Miss Yuzuru had swept through the area in the name of a duel.
What about Miku? Her circumstances were tragic, sure, but she was using brainwashing to enchant people and treating them like tools.
Miss Mayuri was a little jealous, and Maria and Marina, who were the most well-behaved of the bunch, had a relationship somewhat similar to Miss Kaguya and Miss Yuzuru.
Rio was too young to count, and Natsumi had tried to socially kill me.
Tobiichi had also caused a pretty huge mess several times, both before and after changing history.
"Now that I think about it, there are kind of a lot of problems, huh?"
Listing off everything I’d gone through in all the routes so far, there really were a lot of problems.
At this point, it almost felt like Rio was the only spirit who’d ever been calm.
Whether by choice or not, every one of them had caused some major incident.
Maybe the Commander’s words weren’t just partly true, but completely true.
"Well, the most temperamental one of all is the Commander, though."
That one was 100 percent sincere.
"Hiki, shut up."
See? The moment I told the truth, her true nature came out.
The Commander was like this all the time, so I just shrugged, and she made a look of contempt before turning back to Miss Len.
"Ahem. Sorry for the late introduction. I’m Itsuka Kotori, Commander of [Ratatoskr], an organization that protects spirits. If you ever have any trouble, tell me anything."
"I’m Len. Right now, what’s troublesome is Kaguya and Miku trying to touch my body without any hesitation."
"R-right... I’ll tell them. Maybe it won’t help, though."
At Miss Len’s blunt revelation, the Commander gave an awkward laugh and said she’d pass the message along.
But would Miku and Miss Kaguya actually listen to the Commander?
If you asked me, I’d say no.
Miss Kaguya might listen a little, but Miku absolutely wouldn’t.
It would be a miracle if she didn’t just hug the Commander the moment they met and call her cute. There was no way she’d actually heed a warning.
"Well... it looks like Miku already has a solution, at least."
Miss Len said that and glanced at me.
Even if I had turned into a girl to keep Miku off me, calling that a solution felt a little off.
I don’t want to be touched either!
"...Why are you looking at Hiki?"
"Hm? Ah, well, I just happened to see Miyuki..."
"...."
After learning that I’d turned into a girl in front of Miss Len, the Commander looked at me not with contempt, but with the pitying eyes one might reserve for a poor animal.
The Commander knew very well how clingy Miku got and how much she tried to touch me all over whenever I became Miyuki.
Miku already liked clinging to other girls too, but she was especially bad when I was a girl.
According to her, "Darling is perfect except for not being a girl, but if darling becomes a girl, then she’s completely perfect, right?"... I would probably never understand Miku’s thought process.
"W-well, spirits are all a little unusual..."
Itsuka-kun said that, but unusual was putting it kindly. If you said it badly, it just meant they were weird.
"Seems that way. Still, I think the most unusual person here is you."
"Huh? Me?"
"Yes. You said you’d grant any wish, and then you made a wish like this. I can’t understand it."
With a serious expression, Miss Len asked Itsuka-kun, "Is this really a wish better than infinite wealth or eternal life?"
As she wondered, a wish to simply introduce her to his friends really couldn’t be said to be better than wealth or immortality.
At least, not for a normal person.
"Yes. Absolutely. At least, that’s what I think."
Itsuka-kun answered with unwavering, almost radiant eyes.
Seeing his answer, given without a shred of hesitation or doubt, Miss Len frowned as if she couldn’t understand him, then soon smiled as though she found him amusing.
"You really are an unusual person."
"Well, I won’t deny that."
"That’s definitely true."
"Why are you two answering for me...? And Hieta, it’s kind of weird coming from you."
Itsuka-kun shook his head at the absurd answers from me and the Commander.
Like he said, I wasn’t qualified to call anyone "unusual."
If anything, I was probably the weirdest one here.
But that didn’t mean Itsuka-kun wasn’t unusual, so I didn’t deny it.
What kind of high school student would risk his life to save other people?
"People who are weird don’t think they’re weird, do they? And Hiki, you’re worse than Shido."
"...I-I think I’m pretty normal, though."
Itsuka-kun tried to insist that he was normal, but...
"Being able to seal spirit power is not normal, Itsuka-kun."
"...Ghk."
"And having so many girls around you is also pretty far from normal."
"...Ugh!"
Once the Commander and I forced him to face reality, he crumbled fast.
"M-more importantly! How was it, Len? Do you think you can get along with the other spirits?"
"Changing the subject."
"He changed the subject."
In the end, Itsuka-kun switched topics and asked Miss Len a question.
Miss Len, receiving that question, shrugged and answered, "Who knows? I said it before, didn’t I? I’m just following Shido’s wish. Don’t expect anything beyond that from me."
She said she was only going as far as the wish required, and had no intention of going any further.
At that answer, Itsuka-kun looked a little disappointed and said, "I see... Still, Len, you looked like you were having fun."
"...If that’s what it looked like, then keep thinking that. I won’t deny your impression."
Not denying Itsuka-kun’s impression meant she was, to some extent, admitting it was true.
From what I could see, Miss Len had smiled a few times too.
"More importantly, does this mean the spirits are all gathered now? If so, that means your first wish has been fulfilled."
Miss Len seemed to be hoping everyone had been met, but unfortunately, there were still plenty of spirits left.
We still hadn’t met Rinne, Rio, Miss Mayuri, or Maria and Marina.
"No, there are still some left—"
Just as Itsuka-kun was about to deny her question...
"My, my, it seems everyone is gathered here."
A familiar voice rang out.
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