The next morning.
Before heading to school, Itsuka Shido stopped by the shrine where he had met Ren again.
The reason was simple enough: Ren hadn’t appeared in his dream last night.
Ren had clearly told Shido, "Let’s meet again," and he still had two wishes left.
So the fact that she hadn’t shown up in his dream last night left Shido a little rattled.
That was why, just in case, he had come back to the shrine where he’d first met Ren.
Even though he had no way to contact her, and no guarantee she would even appear at the shrine.
"...Huh, you’re pretty early today."
Ren appeared before Shido, who had pinned his hopes on that tiny chance.
"Ren!"
"My, my, you’re full of energy. Something good happen?"
"N-no... I just figured you’d definitely show up in my dream again."
"Ah, that. Sorry about that. If people knew I existed in the real world, I figured this would all be over pretty quickly."
"Huh?"
For a moment, Shido frowned at Ren’s incomprehensible words.
What did she mean, this would be over quickly?
But Ren simply brushed off his reaction with, "That’s my business," and moved on.
"More importantly, you came here because you decided on your second wish, right?"
"Yeah...."
In fact, after talking with the others about Ren last night, Shido had spent a long time thinking about what wish he should make.
If he’d had someone else’s help, it might have been easy, but Ren wanted a wish that Shido had thought of and reached on his own, so he’d agonized over it alone all night.
He’d come up with a few possibilities, and before saying one of them, Shido decided to ask the thing he’d been curious about.
"...Hey, Ren. What do you do when you’re not meeting us?"
The other spirits Shido knew all had their own hobbies and ways of spending time, but he had no idea what Ren did, so he asked.
If she had hobbies, maybe they could even talk about them.
But the answer he got was a little underwhelming.
"Huh? What kind of question is that? I’m not really doing anything."
"Really? If it were me, I’d get so bored I’d fall asleep."
At Shido’s words, Ren laughed as if amused.
"Haha, not wrong. If you put it in human terms, it’s pretty close to being asleep. I just keep waiting blankly for the moment I appear in this world."
Spirits, by default, exist in another world until a spacequake occurs, unless their spirit powers are sealed.
Shido didn’t know what spirits did in that world, but at least from Ren’s words, he learned that for her, it was basically no different from sleeping.
Once he understood that, another question came to mind.
Since Kotori hadn’t said anything, Ren must be one of those cases like Tohka, where she appeared without a spacequake.
That meant she should be able to live in this world without any trouble, so Shido was curious what Ren did here.
"You don’t, like... go around and do stuff in this world?"
"Not interested. My only reason for existing right now is to grant Shido’s wishes. So, come on. Tell me your wish."
Shido was a little disappointed by Ren’s answer, but after talking for a while, he had decided on his second wish and told her.
"...All right. My wish is—"
*
I’d accidentally overslept that morning.
If I had to explain why, I guess I played games a little too much last night.
A new game had come out, and I’d only meant to try it for a bit, but when I came to my senses, it was already dawn.
[See? You should’ve listened when I told you to stop.]
[We kept telling you to quit, but you didn’t. That’s your karma, Hae.]
"I know, okay...."
As I ran toward school while getting scolded by Maria and Marina through my earphones, I spotted a familiar back view.
A boy with blue hair and a girl with violet hair.
I knew one of them well, but the other felt familiar and strange at the same time.
"Tohka... would be the obvious guess, but her hair’s a little lighter."
She looked a bit like Tohka, just with a slightly paler color, and I was still wondering about it when I got closer.
"School is pretty chaotic. Is it always like this every morning?"
"Not really, but... well, if you oversleep, there are times when you have to hurry."
That was definitely Ren’s voice.
For some reason, Ren was wearing the Raizen High School uniform.
"Yes, just like me."
As I cut into their conversation and stopped beside Itsuka-kun, the two of them looked at me in surprise.
"Hieta!?"
"Whoa, you’re acting way too shocked. Yep, it’s me."
"Weren’t you already ahead of us?"
"Like I just said, I overslept."
"So we meet again."
"Good morning, Ren."
After exchanging greetings with the two of them, I was just about to ask Itsuka-kun why Ren was wearing our school uniform when Tonomachi-kun suddenly showed up.
"Yo, Itsuka, Hieta, and Toka-chan...?"
Mid-sentence, Tonomachi-kun made a puzzled face, then widened his eyes and said, "Huh? A makeover... but that’s way too much change.... Then you’re not Toka-chan!?"
"Geh. Tonomachi, huh."
Itsuka-kun seemed annoyed that Tonomachi-kun had shown up, but I was honestly impressed by his observation skills.
Given how he usually acted, it wouldn’t have been weird for him to confuse Ren with Tohka.
Besides, the two of them really did look oddly alike from behind, enough that even I’d been confused for a moment.
"Geh? What do you mean, ‘geh’? You’re hurting my feelings! I’m a sensitive teenage high school boy, you know!?"
"Sorry, sorry. I just couldn’t help speaking my mind when I suddenly saw your face, Tonomachi."
"You’re digging the knife in deeper!"
"Itsuka-kun, but he is your friend, isn’t he?"
"Well...."
Poor Tonomachi-kun. Itsuka-kun didn’t seem to think of him as a friend at all.
Well, if you looked at the image Tonomachi-kun usually projected, I could see why you wouldn’t want to call him a friend.
He really didn’t act like a normal person, so Itsuka-kun’s reaction wasn’t strange.
"That’s harsh, but whatever. More importantly, who’s that girl? Introduce me. I almost mistook her for Toka-chan because she’s so cute."
And that’s exactly why you can’t call him a friend.
I stayed quiet, curious how Ren would react to Tonomachi-kun’s words.
"...My name is Ren. Nice to meet you, Tonomachi."
Most people would probably be annoyed if someone they’d never met started acting all loud and familiar, but Ren greeted him with complete calm, like it was nothing.
I thought, ‘Yeah, unless it’s Miku-level nonsense, she probably doesn’t get flustered.’
Just as I was thinking that,
"Ren... Ren... Ah, could you be the classmate Ren-chan who’s been absent from school lately?"
Tonomachi-kun said something weird.
Absent from school lately. Classmate.
The way he said it, as if he’d always known Ren and she’d been attending school all along, made Itsuka-kun and me look at each other.
'No way....'
He didn’t say it out loud, but Itsuka-kun seemed to read my mind and nodded.
We should’ve realized it when we saw Ren in a school uniform, but apparently she was being treated as someone who had always attended this school because of Itsuka-kun’s wish.
Just like with Rinne.
[What? How did we understand each other without saying anything?]
[Marina, they say men can understand each other without words.]
[Really?]
Marina believed Maria’s words purely and simply, even though that wasn’t really a thing.
Their chatter drowned out Tonomachi-kun’s envious muttering about Itsuka-kun, but I could still tell from his expression.
He even looked ecstatic that he’d been greeted just now, and for a second I almost made a face of pure disgust.
"If you want, I can show you to the classroom. I’ve actually been attending this school for over a year, so I know my way around."
Unfortunately, Itsuka-kun was the same way.
"I appreciate the offer, but I’m fine with Itsuka Shido. I promised I’d go with him today."
"Guh-kun!"
As expected, Ren turned down Tonomachi-kun’s offer and said she’d go with Itsuka-kun.
At that, Tonomachi-kun was visibly devastated.
I’d never seen someone make a sound effect out loud like "guh-kun!" when they were shocked before, but I guess that was only possible because it was Tonomachi-kun.
"B-but, there are stories and stuff about when Ren-chan was out sick, right? Let me hear them—"
"Hey now, Tonomachi-kun. Let it go."
I grabbed the back of Tonomachi-kun’s neck and stopped him before he could keep clinging to Ren.
There’s a limit to how much you should push it.
I didn’t want to give Ren a bad impression of school, so I was just about to drag Tonomachi-kun away when—
"Aaah! It’s you again, Hieta! You same-as-Itsuka harem bastard!"
Tonomachi-kun went berserk.
"What do you mean, ‘harem bastard’!?"
I didn’t choose this, and yet he was calling me some weird nickname.
"You can say whatever you want, but just look around! Let go of me! I have a duty to show Ren-chan around school!"
"What duty are you talking about.... Itsuka-kun, I’ll take Tonomachi-kun with me, so you can take your time coming with Ren."
With one hand, I lifted Tonomachi-kun, who was invoking some nonexistent duty, and said that to Itsuka-kun.
"Huh? Uh...."
"I said let go of me—!!!"
While Tonomachi-kun struggled to avoid being dragged away, I tightened my grip on the back of his neck and headed for the classroom ahead of Itsuka-kun.
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