Chapter Select

MagicalExplorer

0. Cover
0. Insert
0. Title Page
0. Copyright
0. Characters
0. Chapter 1
0. Prologue
0. Chapter 2
0. Nanako Takioto Bursts onto the Scene
0. Chapter 3
0. Good Day, Amaterasu Girls’ Academy
0. Chapter 4
0. Getting Used to the Girls’ Academy
0. Chapter 5
0. Unexpected Bounty
0. Chapter 6
0. A Secret Exposed, a Situation Set into Motion
0. Chapter 7
0. The Worst Reality
0. Chapter 8
0. Origami Bugashira
0. Chapter 9
0. Stealth Dungeon
0. Chapter 10
0. Super Sister
0. Afterword
0. Yen Newsletter

Illustration: Noboru Kannatuki

Graphic Design: Kai Sugiyama (Tsuyoshi Kusano Design Co., Ltd.)

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

—Monica’s Perspective—

“You’re right.”

Principal Marino Hanamura sighed with a frown.

Across from her, the principal and the student council president of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy both nodded meekly in their seats.

“Normally, our academy would resolve something like this on our own, but…,” murmured Hana Kujou, the student council president of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy.

“Of course I’d like to assist you, Hana, but it’s a bit tricky, isn’t it?”

Hana nodded at my words.

“Still, it seems like we’re going to need help from a man to solve this.”

“Please, is there any way we could enlist such help from you?” the principal of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy asked, looking concerned.

If they could somehow enroll a man in the Girls’ Academy, the situation would change. However…

“…I have a good idea. We could have them handle it. What do you think, Marino?” Rue Sakura chimed in after listening to the conversation. Marino nodded, appearing to have an inkling about who she was referring to. A name also came to my mind when I thought about a man who might be able to do something about the situation.

“I agree that those two should be able to handle it, but how exactly?”

“Actually, there is a secret angel art that will probably do the trick… If we can get Nanami to cooperate, she should be able to use it on them.”

Rue Sakura laid out a plan that was groundbreaking and revolutionary, yet also very high risk. It would allow us to meet all the requirements. That being said…

“Can you really do something like that?” I asked in spite of myself. The angel had suggested something that would normally be impossible.

“The magic’s difficult to work with. Even among us angels, only a chosen few can wield it, and it requires a strong degree of trust in the target. But I believe that Nanami has what it takes to pull it off,” Sakura said.

“Nanami does seem like she’d be capable,” the principal replied. I was of the same opinion, and anyone else with a degree of familiarity with Nanami would have agreed, too.

“And these boys you’re talking about are trustworthy?”

“Absolutely. Why, one of them is like a son to me.”

The principal of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy nodded.

“Ah, so it’s the boy I’ve heard so much about. Very well. Let us place Amaterasu’s future in his…in Kousuke Takioto’s hands.”

Kousuke Takioto had yet to learn that he had been tasked with a heavy responsibility, one that could greatly influence his life.

—Takioto’s Perspective—

“Acchooo!”

“Blegh, gross. Can you not blow spit on me?”

Yuika glared at me, arching her brows disparagingly.

“My bad. But hey, at least I made sure to cover my mouth.”

“Miss Yuika, please look at this from a different angle. Even Master’s maid would relish being sprayed with his spittle.”

“Uhhh, excuse me? Sounds to me like it’d be time to hand in your two weeks’ notice and slap him across the face.”

If it was coming from a beautiful mistress of the house, there were probably guys who’d actually see it as a special reward. If fact, they might even make a tiny mistake on purpose, just to make them angry. Nah, actually, probably not.

Anyway, putting that aside.

“I sure have been sneezing a lot lately. It’s not allergies or anything, either.”

“If it’s not allergies, then perhaps someone is talking about you somewhere,” Ludie said before taking a sip of her tea.

“Haah, haah—if gossiping about someone really made them sneeze, then Takioto—haah, haah—would be sneezing nonstop twenty-four seven.”

Yukine’s voice drifted in from elsewhere. She had a point. After everything I had gotten myself into, people had plenty of stories to tell about me.

Since Yukine’s breathing was ragged, she must have been using the treadmill. Oh, there goes the end goal music.

Nice job. Keep it up, you got this! Your stats have increased.

Yukine had chosen me as her Maid Traveler, so I heard my own voice say those lines from the other room. Y’know, it was always embarrassing to hear my own voice like that. Though, that being said…

“I’ve never heard that jingle play before. Did the treadmill always have that feature?”

I had used it several times by now, but this was my first time hearing it play a fanfare.

I’d noticed a change in Ludie and Yuika’s demeanor when I asked about this.

“That song plays when you get an SSR rare photo,” Nanami replied nonchalantly.

“Oh, an SSR rare photo, sure… Wait, what do you mean, ‘rare photo’?”

Pretty sure this was the first I’d heard about this. Had Nanami updated it? More importantly, just what type of photos were they?

“Ignorance is bliss, you know.”

Hearing this from Yuika filled me with a terrible feeling. I headed over to the exercise machine right away, and Nanami passed me something with a weird button on it.

“Now, this would be the Quiz Nanami Academy.”

That sounded a lot like a game you’d find in an arcade somewhere. Whatever, that didn’t matter.

I took a good look at what she’d handed me. It looked like one of those buzzers that people used on a quiz show, the kind that would play a sound and reveal an answer when you pressed on it. Except inexplicably, there was a chibi illustration of me on it.

“Please don’t spring some weird stuff on me. What the heck is this thing?”

Nanami nodded at my question.

“This project is designed to teach Master all about his maid Nanami.”

“Teach me about you?”

“Indeed, the idea is to strengthen your bond with me, Master, so we can work better together in the future. Think about how important synchronization rates are in mech anime and the like.”

Well, I did agree that strengthening our bond would make it easier for us to use combination attacks, sure.

“I’m not going to pilot you, though.”

“It’s more than possible that you could end up piloting me, Master.”

“When the hell would I have to do that?!”

“While you currently know absolutely everything about my body, from the strands of my hair down to the tips of my toenails—”

“Uh, no I don’t.”

“—I thought to go one step further by teaching you about my mind as well. Hence the buzzer. Here is yours, Miss Yuika.”

“You really aren’t listening to me, are you?” I remarked.

“And why exactly am I supposed to be getting in on this, too? I thought this was just between you and Takioto,” Yuika grumbled.

Nanami passed her another quiz buzzer. Including my own, there were one, two, three, four of them in total. Why were there that many?

“I guess I have nothing better to do anyway…,” Yuika said before pressing her button. The answer sign flipped up energetically, and the buzzer played a voice clip of Yuika saying, “I know!”

On closer inspection, I saw that there was a chibi illustration of Yuika drawn on the device, with her hand acting as the answer sign.

I examined the buzzer I’d been given… Oh, yup, mine also had a picture of me on it.

It was really well-designed for how simple it was, but why exactly had Nanami made them anyway?

“The person with the highest number of correct answers will be gifted a complete set of five key chains from the popular ramen spot, The Four Elements.”

As she spoke, Nanami produced several key chains that you could get for a few bucks from a capsule toy machine.

To no one’s surprise, Ludie put down the magazine she had been reading and came up right next to me. She was so raring to go I thought she might just steal my buzzer right out of my hands.

“…Um, so I’m guessing you want to win those, Ludie?”

“Of course I do. Those are the legendary key chains that were only available from capsule toy machines in the Four Elements when it first opened, you know. After a short while, they removed the machines and started selling the key chains directly for a limited time, but at some point, they sold out completely. They’re really valuable, and super hard to get ahold of these days!”

“In other words, the key chains weren’t all that popular, so the restaurant got rid of the machines, right?” Yuika whispered to me. That was definitely what had happened. They must have handed out the unsold key chains to kids getting ramen.

“I never would have imagined I’d get to see them like this. Nanami, can I take a closer look at them?”

“Of course. Ah, but the one I showed just now is a sample. These are the ones that will be given out.”

“Why, look, they’re in a bag! How could I ever bring myself to open it?!”

“Ludie really plays dumb pretty a lot, doesn’t she?”

“No, that’s not it. She isn’t playing dumb, she’s just naturally that way.”

Despite having always felt so embarrassed about it, Ludie had stopped trying to hide her ramen mania outside of school lately. All the LL diehards knew that she loved ramen, and they even had this code to ensure that their knowledge of this never got revealed to her. What were they, parents watching their child grow up or something?

“Kousuke, look at this reproduction of the pork back fat. The minuteness of the spicy onions. These key chains are perfect replicas of The Four Elements’ ramen.”

“O-oh, yeah, sure. Really…makes you want them, huh…”

“Indeed, I would kill for them. There’s no way I’m losing this time.”

While we spoke, Sis came into the room. She picked up one of the buzzers without any hesitation at all and stood next to Ludie.

“Mm-hmm.”

Had she heard what we were talking about, or…? I wanted to believe she had, but these days, I got the feeling Sis could readily get involved in things without having a clue about what was going on. She glanced at me and pressed a button on one of the buzzers.

“Mm-hmm.”

A clip of her voice played, and a thumbs-up sign (meaning yes) lifted up. Very attentive to detail.

“Well then, now that all the contestants are here, I have prepared a special event space for us,” Nanami said, looking into the garden. There stood the set of a quiz show.

“Why the heck is that thing there?” I muttered as I looked out into the garden. It wasn’t Nanami who answered me, but Sis.

“I wanted it a while back, so I bought everything for it. But I gave up ’cause it felt empty doing it by myself.”

It seemed I’d opened some emotional wounds.

Once we went outside and took our seats, the quiz began right away.

“Well then, let’s get right into it. One of Nanami’s signature dishes is called a ____ Special. What word goes in the blank?”

I didn’t even have to think about the answer to this one. However, I glanced to the side, wondering if I should press the buzzer so readily.

Yuika seemed to know the answer, too, but it also looked like she was debating whether to press the button or not. The same went for Ludie. Sis was tilting her head in contemplation. Only one of us appeared not to know the solution.

Well, if no one else was going to do it, then I figured that I might as well go for it. I pressed the button. Then, my voice came out just like when Yuika had pressed the button on her device.

“Nhn, ahhh ♡!”

The hell?

“Hold up, why is there a weird voice coming out of mine?!”

“Bzzzt. That is incorrect, Master. The answer is not the ‘Hold up, why the hell is there a weird voice coming out of mine’ special.”

No, no, I didn’t want to answer Nanami’s stupid question. I wanted to ask about why the buzzer had just played a clip of “me” moaning. Nobody wanted to hear that!

After watching this all play out, Ludie pressed the button on her device without a moment’s delay. This time, it played a voice clip saying, “Coming!”

“The answer is ‘Nanami’!”

“Brilliant, Miss Ludie! That’s absolutely right!”

“Hooray!”

“Who cares about the stupid answer. Why the hell did my buzzer groan in pleasure?!”

“I thought if we were going to do this, I would program the buzzer to have a one in two hundred fifty-six chance of playing a sensual moan instead.”

I pressed the buzzer again. Once more, I heard myself moaning, “Nhn, ahhh ♡!” There was no way something with those odds would come out twice in a row, was there?

“Forgive me. I simply wanted to show my favor for you, Master… So I adjusted your buzzer to make the special voice that has a one in two hundred fifty-six chance of coming out play a hundred percent of the time.”

“Like hell that’s showing me favor!”

If anything, it feels like you’re showing me contempt here!

“Huh? W-wait just a second. That doesn’t mean that our buzzers have a one in two hundred fifty-six chance of playing a moan, too, does it?”

“Now then, for the second question. Ba-bam!”

Yuika looked ready to blow her top, Ludie was wearing a deadly serious expression, and whatever was on Sis’s mind was a complete mystery. What was going on here?

Nevertheless, Nanami pressed forward without another word.

“Who is rumored to use power—”

“Mm-hmm.”

A voice played from my side. I looked over and saw that Sis’s buzzer sign was raised in the air. She appeared to have pressed the button on purpose, but it was way too early for her to figure out the answer, right?

“Kousuke.”

“That’s correct! The answer is Master Kousuke. The full question was, ‘Who is rumored to use power and authority to force his maid to obey him, has been using his authority lately to surround himself with other girls in his class, is totally fine with breasts big or small, and is also Nanami’s master?’”

“I object to that question!”

“Uh, Takioto? I hate to say it, but I’ve heard the first half of that rumor before. Thoooough, it’s not completely off the mark, is it?”

“I’m not making anyone obey me!”

However, I had to admit that the last part of that question was right on the money.

“Next, for question three—”

“We’re still doing this?!”

The quiz continued for another twenty-odd minutes, and Ludie ended up winning.

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

“Haah…”

“What’s the sighing all about?”

Ludie cocked her head after I quietly exhaled as we stepped into the spatial magic circle.

“I just have a bad feeling about this.”

“Why?”

“I mean, think about it. Marino calling us to see her in the principal’s office?”

“Hmm, I supposed she could just send you a message in your case, Kousuke,” Iori chimed in. He was right.

“But,” Ludie said, continuing the conversation, “if we’re the ones being called there, this probably concerns the Three Committees, right?”

Me, Ludie, Iori. Sure, we all did belong to the Three Committees.

“In that case, why didn’t Yuika get called with us? Could say the same for Gabby, too.”

“True it would make sense for them to come with us if she needed to speak with us about something that concerned the Three Committees. Rina, too.”

Iori nodded.

That reminded me, Katorina had gotten an official recommendation to join the Morals Committee, right? Apparently, the Saint approved her immediately, too. Though there was no telling whether Katorina was going to accept the invitation or not.

“By the way, where’s Nanami? She wasn’t with you when we met up, either, was she?”

“She’s been real busy with something lately.”

Nanami hadn’t even been at the house, even during the evenings. What was she doing?

Knowing her, she might have gotten ahold of some information about what was coming up ahead. Either way, she wasn’t around to explain herself, so thinking about it wasn’t going to get us anywhere. We could simply ask Marino why she had called us when we arrived.

We discussed it on our way to the principal’s office. Thanks to the spatial magic circle, our destination was just a stone’s throw away.

“Excuse us,” I said, pushing open the door to discover that Marino wasn’t the only person inside. Behind her stood Nanami, along with Ms. Sakura. In addition, the presidents of the Three Committees were all standing against the wall.

Lastly, there was also someone sitting on the sofa across from Marino—a girl dressed in another school’s uniform. As soon as I laid eyes on her familiar face and uniform, everything came together.

This had to be the start of that event. After all, she and Ms. Sakura were here, too.

“Good day.”

The new girl looked over and greeted us. It appeared that Ludie knew who she was.

“Oh, why, good day,” the elven girl replied with a smile. Picking up from there, Iori and I returned her greeting.

“Good day.”

“G-good…day?”

Iori stuttered a bit, perhaps because he didn’t use the phrase very often.

“There you three are. Come over and take a seat. Now, let’s get right to business—but first, I suppose introductions are in order, aren’t they? Ludie aside… Do you know who my guest is by any chance, Kou?” Marino asked, turning to me.

“I’ve heard about her at least. You’re Hana Kujou, the student council president of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy, right? They say you’re strong enough to stand toe-to-toe against President Monica. My name’s Kousuke Takioto. Nice to meet you,” I said before glancing at Iori. He was staring absentmindedly at Kujou, so I lightly poked him with my elbow.

“Oh, nice to meet you, too. I’m Iori Hijiri.”

“Forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. I’m Hana Kujou. It is a pleasure, Mr. Takioto, Mr. Hijiri. It’s good to see you again, Princess Ludivine.”

Kujou bowed.

“I believe we haven’t been in each other’s company since the Tréfle ceremony, correct? How have you and your family been, Miss Kujou?”

“We are all doing just fine, thank you.”

As the two of them conversed, we all sat down on a sofa. Marino got up from her spot and headed over to her office chair.

Once she was situated, Nanami brewed some black tea and served it to us. Then, she presented Kujou with a fresh cup of her own.

Hold on. What exactly had Nanami been so busy with this morning? She almost never did any work for Marino.

“Oh my, thank you very much, Miss Nanami. It’s quite delicious.”

“I am delighted to hear that. Also, as I mentioned earlier, you do not need to address me so formally.”

I inferred from the word “earlier” that Nanami had already talked with Kujou. I didn’t understand what her reason was for getting involved with Kujou, but, well, I could always ask her later.

Kujou replied to Nanami with a pleasant smile and took a sip of tea. I had a hunch that Kujou would continue being formal with her.

When you were speaking with nobility above a certain level, even their most unassuming gesture made it feel like they lived in an entirely different world. Sometimes that thought would even cross my mind when I was looking at Ludie, though it hadn’t happened lately.

“Now that introductions are out of the way, why don’t we jump right into the topic at hand?”

“Certainly. To put it in simple terms, Amaterasu Girls’ Academy is facing a problem right now.”

“A problem at Amaterasu? The Amaterasu Girls’ Academy?” Ludie asked, prompting Kujou to nod.

“Indeed. Teachers and students alike are suddenly growing unwell. According to the people who’ve experienced this phenomenon, they say it’s as though their mana is being sucked out of them.”

“Apparently, the mana levels of everyone who’s been effected have dwindled, too,” Marino added to Kujou’s explanation.

“Many of our students merely assumed they had used too much magic and rested in their rooms to recover. As such, it had not proven to be much of a problem until recently.”

“Up until recently?”

“Yes. It just came to light that a far greater number of students have experienced this phenomenon than we had imagined.”

“That means it’s pretty widespread, then. Why did it go undetected for so long?”

Iori must have found this suspicious. However, there was a reasonable explanation for this.

“Using too much magic can often make you feel under the weather, so we imagine no one paid it any thought. Students at magic academies will sometimes overextend themselves,” I said.

If someone with migraines noticed that their head was hurting a bit, they probably wouldn’t think it was worth bringing up.

Which was why Amaterasu hadn’t been able to detect that the phenomenon was affecting so many of their students.

“Mr. Takioto is correct. In truth, many students didn’t think their symptoms were unusual. On top of this, the source of their symptoms is still a mystery.”

“I see.”

“We’ve been searching for a cause, but we haven’t turned up any answers. While we haven’t publicly announced this to the students, the principal and I are also considering the possibility of magic terrorism.”

“Magic terrorism…!” Iori murmured with surprise.

“Yes, we believe someone is either stealing our power to cast a large-scale magic spell of some kind, or that this person has already cast this spell, and it’s causing the health of Amaterasu’s staff and students to deteriorate.”

“Is that even possible at a place full of magic specialists like Amaterasu Girls’ Academy?”

“Assuming it is, then first and foremost, there has to be a mole working with the person behind the spell. With that in mind, everyone besides myself and the principal are being tasked with a public-facing investigation while we secretly request for help from those we can trust.”

“And so, they came here to talk to me first,” Marino continued.

“You can’t look at this and tell what’s going on, Marino?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t actually do any investigating myself, either. I just couldn’t dismiss the possibility of magic terrorism being involved and decided to help out.”

Interesting.

“Also, we found a note,” Kujou said before looking at Marino, who operated something with her hand to make a hologram appear before us.

“What’s this…?”

“This symbol you see here was written on it.”

“And just what is it, exactly?”

“It may just be someone’s doodle. However, it might also mean something, and we can’t say for certain it’s not the mark of some criminal organization.”

“I see, so this is what brought you here to Tsukuyomi Magic Academy. But then why were we called here?” Ludie asked.

I mean, yeah, it was a reasonable question. I knew why, but I couldn’t reveal this, of course. From Ludie and Iori’s perspective, things were probably going to veer off in a completely unexpected direction.

Pfft—whoa now, that was close.

I’d almost giggled when I thought about what was going to happen from here. This was a pretty serious topic, so I really couldn’t afford to crack up right now.

“As it stands, there are a few things we have learned from our investigation into this matter.”

“The victims of this incident are largely female. Previously, when multiple people fell ill simultaneously at the same location, the male guest lecturer at the time didn’t complain of feeling sick at all, even though every woman in the same location did.”

There’s a scene like that in the game, too. The male guest lecturer gets investigated afterward, but this doesn’t turn anything up.

“We did some digging and discovered that none of the men working on campus have been affected by the phenomenon.”

“Could that mean men don’t succumb to it as easily?” Iori asked, and Kujou nodded.

“We have considered that possibility. Per academy policy, there aren’t many men on campus, but not even one of them has fallen ill. Meanwhile, the female teachers are getting sick left and right. We floated the idea of bringing men to campus…however, that would be impossible.”

“I talked with their principal, and she doesn’t want to turn this into a big ordeal at this point. I get it, really. That school values its image, and their alumnae are really outspoken.”

Any sort of scandal would devastate a school that sold itself as being noble and virtuous. If Amaterasu tried bringing in men for the investigation, the alumnae would probably start an uproar. “Allowing men into the sacred halls of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy?!” they’d cry.

Even back in Japan, there were places with obnoxious and vocal alumni. There was this prestigious high school I knew of where the alumni said it was unbecoming for the students to go on a field trip to Galactic Studios…and insisted they all go to shrines instead, resulting in temple- and shrine-hopping being the main focus of the trip.

I liked shrines myself, so I wouldn’t have cared, but I really felt for the poor kids.

“Sounds stressful enough to give yourself an ulcer.”

“Quite. Setting my own difficulties aside, the principal has been at her wit’s end. Still, if she forces through the investigation, or lets men into the school, and ends up with nothing to show for it, that will cause its own set of problems…”

The whole thing was a huge mess.

“However, the principal believes that people’s lives come first and foremost, so she has begun considering the possibility of temporarily locking down the campus or requesting the aid of magic knights.”

Marino nodded.

“When the principal of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy came to visit earlier, she told me that she wanted to try investigating and resolving the problem before doing something so drastic. Secretly if possible, and with a man who wouldn’t cause much trouble…”

Normally, that would be considered a tall order. But boy, do they make it work in the game.

“So she asked if I had any good ideas. Then Ms. Sakura came up with a great plan.”

When Marino said this, Ms. Sakura beamed beside Iori. Kujou watched on with a pained expression on her face.

Shit, I can barely contain my laughter.

Sorry, sorry, this wasn’t the time for chuckles. I knew I couldn’t let myself laugh, but the times when you need to be serious are always when it feels hardest to hold back. The Saint had to be chortling her ass off inside her mind right now.

“What exactly did Ms. Sakura suggest?”

“I’m glad you asked, Ludie. We just need to have Iori here become a girl for us. Simple, isn’t it?”

“Oh sure, if I become a girl, then sneaking in and investigat………? Uhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

Iori’s look of understanding quickly changed to one of shock.

“N-n-no w-way, impossible! Th-that’s not simple at all!”

Don’t laugh. Hold it in. Keep it together. Why the hell are Iori’s reactions so comically perfect?! He’s going to solve this whole problem, isn’t he?

“I’m a boy, first of all, and um, well, I’ve got one of those, too.”

“My, my, your face is beet red. Rest assured, you won’t need to worry about that ♫!”

“Pffft. Pweh, heehee, hah hah hah hah hah!” Dammit, I couldn’t let myself laugh here, but stopping myself was impossible.

“Nuh-uh, nope, nope, nope! If I gotta cross-dress or something, everyone’ll figure out it’s me right away!

Iori was so flustered that his typically polite style of speaking had vanished. C’mon, man, just calm down a sec.

“Mr. Iori, I understand your concerns completely. Please allow me to prepare your bra and panties for you.”

Why did Nanami always make these absurd remarks? At this point, I should just come up with a word for it—“absur-Nami” works, right? Gotta register that in my personal dictionary.

Stop looking at me, while you’re at it. There’s no way I have anything like that (massive lie)!

“No, no, that’s not what I’m worried about here! Th-that thing is what I’m concerned about!”

“Don’t worry, we have a very good spell to take care of it. Don’t we, Ms. Sakura?” said Nanami.

“Indeed, it’s a secret angel art that I am only able to use on you, Iori.”

“That you can only use on me?” asked Iori.

“That’s right. By using this secret art, I can give you the body of a girl.”

“Ohhh, if I turn into a girl, then it won’t matter if I’m cross-dres—W-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”

It sure had been a while since I’d heard a shriek that long.

“P-pfft. Y-you can really do that?”

I finally giggled a bit, and my voice cracked slightly. But, c’mon, it was impossible to bear.

“Apparently, she can.”

Iori’s jaw dropped. It looked like his soul had left his body.

Pfffft, s-sorry, pfft, I can’t, bwahaha, stop laughing, pffft.

“Well, Iori…y’know…pfft, you got this buddy.”

“Hey, Kousuke?! You’re cracking up because this isn’t your problem, aren’t you?!”

Iori was practically clinging to my clothes, on the verge of tears.

“No, no, I’m not laughing, promise.”

“Liar, liar, liar! This is ethically crazy, isn’t it?!”

“Ethically, yeah, I get what you’re saying. But if people’s lives are on the line, then there’s not much you can do about it, right?”

Iori went quiet when I said “people’s lives.”

“I’d really like you to do this for us, Iori.”

“B-b-but I’m nervous. There’s no way I’d last in an all-girls school. I’ll slip up right away and blow everything, I just know it.”

“You don’t need to worry, Iori. We’ve prepared plenty of backup for you.”

“Ludie will be one of them. She has the education and etiquette to immediately fit in at Amaterasu Girls’ Academy. Plus, with her status, the transfer process will be a breeze.”

“Wait, do I really have to go?” Iori asked, unable to conceal his displeasure as he listened to everyone talk about the proposal like it was set in stone.

Sorry to say it, buddy, but there’s no way you’re getting out of this!

“Iori, I get why you’re so confused here. But, between ethics and people’s lives, I would choose people’s lives.”

“T-Takioto…”

“Now, now, Iori. Just try to calm down and really think for a moment. There’s another angel here right now, isn’t there?” Marino said, glancing at Nanami. True, she was an angel.

Huh?

The angel secret art required an angel and human to have an emotional bond and a trusting relationship? What?

I happened to look around. Marino, Ludie, the Three Committee presidents—everyone was staring me. As was Kujou, for that matter, looking very apologetic. Their eyes were all on me.

Just then, a thought crossed my mind. Why the heck was I here sitting across from Kujou anyway?

If Iori was going, they didn’t need me, right? So why was I here? And for that matter, why had they intentionally sat me down right across from Kujou? I was just an onlooker, so shouldn’t I have been okay to stand against the wall with the leaders of the Three Committees?

Uh? Ahh…huh………?

“Awuh?”

I didn’t want to put two and two together. Nope, nope, no understanding for me!

“I’m so glad you’re going to be there with Iori, Kou! You definitely have a trusting relationship, too.”

Yet the conversation continued to move forward.

“I take pride in being of one heart and mind with Master. That, and um, you did witness the moment of my birth…♫ So, um, we’re already past that point anyway… Blushies!”

Blushies my ass! I didn’t remember seeing what she looked like—no wait, I did. Yeah, I definitely did. Okay, so I’d seen the moment of her birth, but she certainly hadn’t been naked!

“You were wearing your maid outfit straight from the get-go! Please, I’m begging you, don’t say things that will give people the wrong idea, okay?!”

“Well, we have formed a contract. I am set to be your maid for life.”

“Could you revise that statement to not sound as sketchy as you’re making it out to be?!”

I wasn’t keeping her in my thrall or anything. She was totally free!

Hold on just a minute. I was letting Nanami set the pace here. There had to be a way I could get out of this.

O-oh, I know.

“W-wait a second. Is this angel secret art really that easy to use?! Nanami hasn’t even been alive for a year!”

In the game, people talk about the skill like it’s very difficult to pull off, and I’m pretty sure only Ms. Sakura is able to use it. Even her peers in the Angel Village shouldn’t have been able to use it!

“Wielding this secret art is a very strenuous feat, yes.”

See, what did I just say? Ms. Sakura was frowning. Phew, this was it. I could use this. This was my ticket outta here.

“But, when we brought it up to Nanami, she trained for us to learn the technique, even forgoing sleep to do so… And while it’s still a bit imperfect, she’s developed it enough that I don’t think there will be any problems.”

“It was a long, harsh battle,” Nanami said.

But why, though?!

“Nanami, why do you have a faraway look in your eyes? Why have you been working so hard on this? There’s a lot of better places to dedicate those efforts, right?” I asked.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already thought up a name. Let us combine our names and go with Takioto Nanako.”

“There you go with more absur-Nami! There isn’t a single element of my name in… Oh wait, no, there is!”

Right, right, Nanami + Kousuke = Nanako! See, usually she didn’t incorporate me into her gags. So why the hell had she roped me in this time?

Quit screwing around and tripping me up here.

“Well, who cares about that. C’mon, Iori, you gotta say something,” I insisted.

“Ohhh, phew. If you’re going with me, Kousuke…then I guess it’s fine…,” he said.

“What are you so relieved about?! Now’s not the time, buddy. You’re gonna be suffering the same fate as me here!”

“Th-that’s fair, yeah.”

“Don’t give me that! This is a really important moment. A vital, critical junction.”

This was a major point in our lives. We were about to lose something we absolutely couldn’t afford to lose.

As I was making my impassioned speech to Iori, Ludie shot me an apologetic glance.

“Um, Kousuke…I hate to say this, but I sort of have the feeling you’ve already lost a lot at this point. Personally, it might not be that much different for you.”

Don’t make me face reality while looking like that! Give me a break!

I got what Ludie was saying here, sure. But that didn’t mean I could afford to give up.

“But, still, don’t you think it’s a bit ethically dubious to have a dude infiltrate an all-girls school like this?”

“Oh, but didn’t you just say something about that, Kou? About how people’s lives are more important than ethics?”

I had dug my own grave. All of the stuff I said to convince Iori earlier was coming back to haunt me.

“Thank you very much for your help. “

Kujou bowed, a worried look on her face. I could only nod along.

We jumped right into trying out the secret art. I could understand this line of thinking. I could also understand that though Kujou wished to be presented, she had business of her own to attend to, and had left with Marino. However…

“Why is this dangerous weirdo here, too?”

This dangerous weirdo in question, Anemone aka Sexy Scientist, placed her hand on my shoulder, not concealing her displeasure in the slightest.

“Oh, come now, Takioto. Why are you treating me like I’m a threat?”

On a list of people who should have been barred from watching what was about to happen, anyone would clearly put Anemone at the top. She was the obvious winner and would even beat out Orange with a huge lead.

“I’m pretty sure everyone else would share my opinion if you asked them.”

Even I had fallen victim to her before. I needed to destroy that horrible horned mana-measuring machine as soon as possible.

“Sorry, Takioto. The truth is, Anemone just happened to overhear us talking about everything among ourselves. We couldn’t stop her.”

“You don’t need to apologize for anything, Vice President Fran… Um, actually, why are you here as well?”

Vice President Fran didn’t answer my naïve question, just apologized profusely over and over again. Ah, so you were just as interested in this yourself!

“…Fine, I guess I’m okay with you here,” I said.

“Wait, really?”

Vice President Fran must have noticed the resignation in my eyes. She gazed at me with a strained smile.

“Hold on now, then why am I not allowed to be here?” Anemone asked.

“Try putting your hand to your heart and really think about the things you’ve made.”

Anemone put her hand to her chest like I’d said. Then she nodded with a smile.

“Yes, of course, I’m sure you’re delighted with them, Takioto.”

“Y’know, I can’t help but hear malice in the word ‘delighted’ there.”

“By the way, Takioto, don’t you find that the words ‘undercover’ and ‘investigate’ have this poorly concealed eroticism to them?”

“It’s still not too late to make you leave!”

Anemone was touching on what was, depending on the work, a real spicy genre, even in the world of erotic entertainment. Was her mind composed entirely of porn magazines and eroge?

Despite pleading with Ms. Sakura, President Monica was the one to answer me.

“Hold on, Takioto. Anemone’s knowledge is top of the class among the third-years, so she’ll help out if anything happens. Think of it that way.”

“President Monica… Do you really need to be here, too? Aren’t you pretty busy?”

And hey, Stef and Minister Benito were also present! The only people who needed to be here were Ludie, Iori, me, Nanami, and Ms. Sakura.

“After coming this far, I have a duty to see things out to the end,” said Stef.

Hey, Saint, you weren’t supposed to say that with a shit-eating grin on your face! I wanted to laugh earlier, too, but I had been able to hold it in. Kind of.

“Now, now, why don’t we get started, okay? We’ll start with me and Iori,” Ms. Sakura said to try calming things down. Welp, it looked like it was time for him to pay the piper. Not that he’d done anything wrong.

“Okay…”

Iori seemed despondent, perhaps because he was anxious. Ms. Sakura came up beside him.

Then she materialized her wings and wrapped them around Iori. When she did, they gave off a blinding white light. We all covered our eyes with our arms and hands, waiting for the glow to subside. Once the light had dissipated, we found ourselves staring at Iori—but not the Iori we knew.

First, his clothing had changed. His pants had been swapped out for a skirt, and from them extended two pale, uncovered legs that I would’ve loved to rub my face against.

His entire body had gotten softer and plumper, and his hair seemed to have lengthened slightly.

But what really stood out about the new Iori was his chest.

He—or rather, she—had boobs.

“I-is that you, Iori?”

“What’s wrong, Takioto?”

I borrowed the mirror President Monica was holding and handed it out to Iori.

“…Is that me?!” femme Iori yelped, his voice unchanged. His voice had been pretty high-pitched to begin with, so it didn’t really sound that out of place.

“Wonderful, truly wonderful, Iori! Look at how cute you’ve gotten! Oh, how mysterious. That’s the secrets of the angels for you. Now how about you entrust your body to me?” Anemone said, giving a standing ovation. The vice president then dragged her off into a corner of the room.

Iori suddenly startled and touched his chest. Then he bolted out of the room, flustered.

“What was that about, I wonder?”

Ludie cocked her head and went to go after him, but I stopped her.

I sympathized. He wanted to double-check to see if that was still there.

After a short while, Iori returned with crimson cheeks. He looked slightly exhausted. Yup, it was gone, all right.

As Iori hung his head, the leaders of the Three Committees told Iori that he shouldn’t worry, and that he was very cute. He appeared to be in a pretty complicated mental state. Hell, I was just as conflicted.

Then, after making sure his body was okay, Iori undid the secret art. He was bathed in the same blinding light as before, and he and Ms. Sakura unfused. With that, she was back to he.

Ms. Sakura checked Iori over once again, then looked at me and Nanami and nodded.

“Master, it’s our turn next! My, how long it has been since we were one!”

“Nope, this will be the first time, thank you very much! Don’t slip in a lie like that!”

“Please calm yourself and relax your body. Ten percent of me is made from pure gentleness, after all.”

“At least say fifty percent, c’mon!”

“This will only hurt a second. Then it’ll start to feel good.”

Was I getting drugged with something here?

I’m gonna become an addict!

From there, Nanami closed her eyes and chanted something. When she did, wings appeared from her back just like Ms. Sakura.

Her wings looked different than Ms. Sakura’s, but they were unquestionably those of an angel. Nanami really is an angel! I reaffirmed to myself, as her wings enveloped my body.

Nanami wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight, pressing into me with her chest. As I was filled with a sensation of immense happiness, a light too bright for me to look at slowly spilled out from Nanami’s body. Then it enveloped me, just as it had Iori.

“Ah, something’s going inside me…?!”

An instant later, a strange phenomenon took hold of my body.

At first, it sort of felt like my abdomen was warming up, until my body started to get all ticklish, like someone was gently caressing me. Then I started to feel totally invigorated and—Nhmmm?! Wait, not there…! You can’t touch there…?!

That was when I lost consciousness.

When I came to, I found myself standing in the same place where I’d just blacked out. Iori was peering into my eyes with worry.

“Are you okay, Kousuke?”

“Y-yeah. I’m fine. Wait, I’ve got Nanami’s voice now?” I asked.

Ms. Sakura soothed me, telling me to remain calm.

“I said earlier that Nanami’s technique was imperfect, didn’t I? This is one of the consequences. Your and Nanami’s consciousnesses have mixed with each other.”

I turned Ms. Sakura’s words over in my mind. Our consciousnesses had intermingled, huh? Intermingled consciousnesses, sure.

Huh? Intermingled consciousnesses?! I’d told everyone I was fine out of reflex, but was I really going to be okay? Wait, it wasn’t just my mind that was different, either. It felt a bit like something was off… Everything seemed a little higher than usual, and my body felt a bit heavy.

“Hey, Iori, what happened?”

Iori passed me the mirror with bashful, upturned eyes. What the heck was that reaction about?

Huh, wait, there was a super pretty, older girl in the mirror. Silver hair. An exotic woman, the type you’d want to curse you out. She had an amazing rack on her, too, but just who was she? Who was this girl?

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

Many works about sneaking into a prim and proper girls’ school involve convenient plot devices and go to the extreme looking for laughs.

The game version of MagicalExplorer is a school adventure fantasy at its core, and perhaps because the event I would be going through this time was more of a side story, there are a lot of humorous gags and points to riff on. Better yet, it was wholly dedicated to being humorous.

If you don’t need to see all the events on Ludie’s route, then you can also ignore the Amaterasu shenanigans entirely. Personally, however, I thought that it featured the most compelling scenes in the game, comedy-wise. Iori gives it his all, which makes it really funny.

The enemies in this event aren’t strong to begin with, and Kujou also shows up to help you fight them. At his current level, Iori would be able to defeat them with ease. If Ludie joined the fray, it would be a question of when, not if, the enemies went down.

That was why there had been a period of time when I’d assumed that Iori and Ludie would finish the event really easily and be back in no time.

I never thought I’d end up going with them, too. Rather—

“Is it just me, or is everyone staring at us?”

“They’re definitely staring, particularly at Miss Ludie and yourself, Master. Though, for you, it might be unavoidable.”

“I can sorta get what you mean.”

Why were we getting so much attention?

I figured it was the out-of-place vibe we gave off, like eels simmered in soy sauce showing up at a French restaurant.

Incidentally, Iori didn’t stand out whatsoever, just like in the game.

However, people do notice him all of a sudden as the event starts to get underway. He’s a little plain, but extremely charming and cute.

In his case, it was an example of when “plainness” shifted from being a negative to a positive.

“Good day.”

The students greeted me, and I responded in kind with Ludie and Iori. That being said…

“I can’t believe I’m hearing Nanami’s voice come out of my own mouth.”

I didn’t think I’d ever get used to the feeling. It was like my whole body had been taken over…though I guess that was the exact situation I was in. I had fused with Nanami to become a woman and everything.

“I know exactly what you’re thinking, Master. You wish to record what it sounds like to do lewd things with your ‘Nanami voice’ for future reference, yes?”

Was she a genius or what?

“Future reference for what exactly?! Huh?!”

“You don’t need to go that far. I would be more than happy to say them and repeat it all for you as much as you desire.”

“All right, enough nonsense, let’s get a move on. We still have to go greet the student council.”

The Amaterasu Girls’ Academy student council. It was fair to call it the first hurdle we’d have to overcome.

Here was what would happen: With Ludie leading the way, we would stop by the student council to introduce ourselves. Apart from the student council president, the school principal, and Kujou, no one else knew that Iori and I had transformed into women to infiltrate Amaterasu Girls’ Academy.

The student council would be helping us in several different ways as we conducted our mission, so we didn’t want them to have a weird impression of us. Though, well…

“I guess it’s just a good thing we have the Super Sister on our side here…,” I murmured, prompting Iori to cock his head, a question mark practically written on his face.

“It’s not something you’d normally hear about, so I get why you wouldn’t know. But you’re aware of it, right, Ludie?”

Amaterasu Girls’ Academy was a bit of a unique school, and the Super Sister system exemplified its peculiarity.

“But of course. Many notable figures in many different fields were once Super Sisters at Amaterasu Girls’ Academy.”

True to Ludie’s word, their ranks were filled with incredible names throughout history.

But it was still a bit hard to explain what exactly a Super Sister was, given the uniqueness of the position. The gist of it was…

“Basically, the Super Sister is a sort of ‘ideal older sister’ figure chosen by popular vote, who is separate from the student council.”

The concept closely resembled the “elder sister system” in a certain game where some maidens might be falling in love. The person who wrote the narrative for this subevent had to be a fan of that work.

There were probably more people than you could count who’d had their brains twisted by that game—myself among them.

Putting that aside, I needed to finish explaining things to Iori.

“Once elected, the Super Sister becomes a model for all students to follow. In exchange, their voice becomes even more influential than the Student Council president’s.”

“Apparently, she holds more sway than even the principal in certain areas,” Ludie said.

“Amaterasu really emphasizes its students’ autonomy. Though I guess you could say the same about our skill.”

It was like the Three Committees.

“Even with all that in mind, there’s another important point—the Super Sister actually doesn’t have any final decision-making authority. Ultimately, that power still lies with the student council. So that makes the Super Sister more like an adviser with influence and popularity.”

“The school set it up like that to prevent authority from being concentrated in a single place. That said, President Kujou really is quite remarkable for making history like she has,” Ludie said with a sigh.

“President Kujou made history?” Iori asked.

“That’s right. In this academy’s long and storied history, President Kujou is the only student to have been appointed both student council president and Super Sister at the same time.”

“Huh.”

Iori sighed in admiration.

“Is that really all right? Does that not defeat the point?” Nanami thought, finding this questionable.

What Nanami was trying to say was, wouldn’t someone occupying the positions of Super Sister and president simultaneously run the risk of concentrating the authority in a single place?

“That actually became a problem here at the Academy, but a bunch of stuff happened, and it was decided that Kujou was one exception who could manage it. Everyone said she’d be just as put out if she made a mistake, too, so they’d cope with this by implementing a student voting system for important matters, and other stuff like that. But, more than anything, really—”

“That’s simply just how incredibly charismatic President Kujou is.”

“Some people even call her the ‘Perfect Sister,’ after all. They say that Tsukuyomi has Monica von Mobius, but Amaterasu has Hana Kujou.”

Incidentally, Susano had their Beast King, a strong guy on par with Monica and Kujou, but that was beside the point.

“And that same President Kujou is cooperating with us—it’s reassuring, right?”

“That being said, you are quite knowledgeable on the subject, Master… Don’t tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“That in truth, you were considering infiltrating this school without me?!”

“Of course I wasn’t!”

Although I immediately put my hands over my mouth, Ludie and Iori both turned to stare at me.

“Listen, we get what’s going on, Kousuke, but you’re going to come off as a weirdo who talks to herself if you do that in front of other people, okay?” Ludie said.

I mean, she didn’t need to tell me that.

“I get it…”

“Ha-ha… Try your best, Nanako. Also, it looks like we’ve arrived.”

Iori was gazing at a magnificent door that screamed There are important people in here.

And so, we stepped into the student council room.

Five girls appeared before us. One among them we had already met before—Student Council President and Super Sister, Hana Kujou.

“Good day. It is a pleasure to see you again, Princess Ludivine, Miss Hijiri, Miss Takioto. Thank you for coming.”

After she greeted us, the other students followed her lead.

“Good day, Miss Kujou, everyone,” Ludie replied with a smile. Then Iori and I greeted them, too.

“First, introductions,” Ludie said before introducing the two of us, with Kujou then introducing the other students to us.

When I saw who Kujou was going to introduce first, I spoke up to Nanami inside my mind.

“Nanami, remember this girl. She’s a second-year, so she’s the one we’re going to interact with the most from here on out.”

“I’m Christine von Gauss, the vice president. Welcome to Amaterasu Girls’ Academy. We’re happy to have you.”

She was Christine von Gauss, said to be Kujou’s successor. Even in the game, she has a pretty important role.

“It’s nice to meet you, Gauss.”

“Likewise, Takioto. And you can just call me Chris. We’re both second-years, after all.”

My first encounter with Christine, who was going to end up like that in the future, was a greeting with a smile.

“Just Nanako is fine with me, too.”

“Then I’ll do just that.”

“Nothing really happened, huh. Went smoother than expected.”

“True.”

I had attempted to make painstaking preparations for this moment, mapping out every way this conversation could have gone. But in the end, we’d only touched on conventional topics, and everything ended without incident.

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

“Mhn…mhnnn.”

I awoke with a yawn to find Nanami working on something at the desk.

“Good morning, Master.”

“Morning, Nanami. You sleep all right?”

Stretching out my arms, I twisted my waist to loosen my stiff body.

“Well, I… Honestly, Master… How could you ask me something like that when you know full well yourself?”

“Stop being so suggestive.”

When I got up to use the bathroom, she’d been asleep just fine. In my bed. Why? Hadn’t there been a mattress on the floor for her?

“What will you do this morning?”

I assumed that this question was regarding my usual routine of running and practice swings.

“Whenever I take a day off, my body starts to tremble, and I really can’t focus on anything for the rest of the day.”

“Someone could easily think you’re talking about drugs. Oh, no, but I don’t mean to imply…”

“Didn’t I tell you to stop being so suggestive? But seriously, where exactly can I do that stuff?”

This wasn’t Tsukuyomi Magic Academy, after all. My best bet would be somewhere I could use freely, without anyone getting mad at me for it.

“For now, I guess I’ll find some quiet section of the school building to do my practice swings. I can ask Kujou later if she has any spots she’d recommend.”

“That seems for the best. Then, let us fuse and head out.”

For an instant, I wondered why we needed to fuse, but then it clicked.

I really didn’t want to remember, but this was an all-girls school. Perhaps it wasn’t that I had forgotten, but rather that some self-defense mechanism in my mind had tried to alter my memories. Why was I in a place like this?

Though, complaining about it in my head wasn’t going to do anything, was it?

I quickly fused with Nanami and exited my room, walking down the empty hallway.

“Next struggle is class, huh… Am I gonna be all right?” I asked Nanami in my mind. It had been nothing but anxieties and worries since I had arrived here.

“That will be yet another tall hurdle to overcome, I imagine.”

“Sure will.”

After getting through my meeting with the student council and the dormitory, the next mountain to climb was my first class. Was I supposed to be traveling across the Japanese Alps here or something?

“I will be sure to provide backup whenever necessary, so please don’t worry.”

Nanami was a perfect maid, so when it came to the home ec type of classes, yeah, sure, I could relax.

“That’s definitely reassuring, but still, not having Ludie around is tough.”

Ludie had full knowledge of my true identity, so it was decided she would go with Iori to the first-year class. That way, no one with full knowledge of my circumstances would be with me while I infiltrated the second-year classes. Though, I’m sure if I was with the third-years, Kujou would back me up.

“Class itself shouldn’t be an issue—the more pressing matter will be socializing. The first thing you’ll need to do is open up and fit in with your classmates,” Nanami said.

“That’s true. What am I supposed to talk to the other students about? Should I hand them some money after we’re done chatting?”

I seriously doubted that an older guy had anything in common with the students of a prim and proper ladies’ school.

“You are not trying to be their sugar daddy, so money will not be necessary. If anything, they’re the ones who will have the privilege of speaking with you, Master, so it should be them paying. Otherwise, it just wouldn’t be fair.”

“Just what sort of celebrity are you mistaking me for here…?”

“If you are still worried about this, how about you shock them to the bone with a party trick? Perhaps a tuna-filleting performance?”

“How is a literal shock to the bone going to help? The fish’s poor bones are gonna end up just as shocked here.”

“Or rather, how about you act as the tuna, Master?”

“Then I’d be the one getting gutted, dammit!”

My bones would definitely get a shock, that’s for sure!

“Putting the jokes aside for a moment, you can leave all of this to me. I am confident that my party tricks are better than the goddess’s herself.”

“That’s definitely still a joke, isn’t it?”

We continued through the halls, conversing between ourselves.

After walking a little further ahead and finding a space free of people, I readied my wooden training sword and began doing practice swings.

“Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t have expected to find somewhere I could run.”

There were areas where it seemed doable, but I just didn’t know if it was okay for me to run there or not. Maybe I should have brought the treadmill with me and set it up in my room. Would that have reverberated down to the floor below me?

“Well then, I will keep quiet for now.”

“Oh, sorry about this. Sorta forcing you to come along with me, aren’t I?”

I apologized to Nanami. Personally, I felt downright awful when I used up another person’s time like this.

“Nothing makes me happier than being able to assist you, Master.”

“You’ve always been helping me out, though…”

“Quite. That’s why I am the happiest person in the world.”

All of a sudden I started to feel a bit embarrassed.

B-back to practice swings.

Out of all the students in uniforms, only one was wearing a massive red stole along with it—me.

And because of that, I could tell I was the target of many inquisitive stares. However, in quite a surprising turn, the young ladies who were to become my classmates didn’t grill me or ask questions about me or my bright-red scarf.

They only asked me the usual questions. The girl across from me, Milena, was no different.

“Miss Takioto, what will you do about dungeon practice?” asked the girl, who had gently curled brown hair.

“I will be joining you all, without a doubt.”

One thing I learned from my time pretending to be a girl in online games was that when you were using a female character, the basic thing to do was talk politely and formally. With refined speech and the feminine looks to match, the other person would assume you were a woman all on their own. Why had they always been so quick to give me money and items without me ever asking?

In any case, the experience was coming in handy here, so I guess I could say it was probably worth it.

“Will you be challenging it right away, then?”

“Hmm, let’s see. I’d love to give it a go sooner rather than later.”

My trip to Amaterasu Girls’ Academy wasn’t all bad.

This event would let me snag some exclusive items and give me the right to challenge the Amaterasu Dungeon.

The Amaterasu Dungeon was on the grounds of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy, and only the institution’s students and staff could enter the place. It would feature heavily in our current investigation.

As for the inside, it was more or less similar to the Tsukuyomi Magic Academy Dungeon. The monsters started out weak on the lower levels, and their levels increased the deeper you went. The dungeon had a variety of different floor types as well, and fully clearing it required overcoming a multitude of different elemental terrains, from caves and ruins to snowy mountains and volcanos.

There was a layer that was useful for grinding levels as well. With Nanami, Ludie, and Iori around, it wouldn’t take long to eradicate all the enemies, and their repop (the appearance rate of monsters) wasn’t too bad.

If I ended up with spare time, I would love to hole away in there for a little while.

Amaterasu also had a fair amount of facilities for magic users, though they weren’t as extensive as Tsukuyomi Magic Academy’s.

My highest priority was solving the current problem on campus, of course, but if I could do that while taking my own self-improvement into account, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

“If you’re lacking party members to accompany you into the dungeon, would you like to join us?” Milena asked.

I was inwardly surprised.

“I wouldn’t expect you to invite me after witnessing all of that earlier.”

It happened in class just now. Everyone saw that I was almost completely incapable of managing discharge-type magic. The teacher had personally tried to instruct me how to use it, but it was still all for naught. This constitution of mine showed no signs of getting any better.

“Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Some people are inept at long-range magic yet superb with body enchantment magic, for example. We have someone like that in our class, and the Beast King of Susano Martial Academy himself is that way, are they not?”

Milena was right that the Beast King was the undisputed champ when it came to body enhancement magic and their base stats. Though if you took the Seed of Possibility into account, base stats were ultimately meaningless by the end of the game.

“However, you can’t say for certain that I am as skilled with body enhancement as the Beast King, can you?”

Milena chuckled when I said this.

“Oh, you jest. I have come across many different people. With your bearing and poise, I am sure you are adept at that type of magic. I imagine that the whole class, not just myself, has realized it as well.”

That must have been why no one said anything to me even when I was totally hopeless with discharge magic.

“Well then, what do you say? Would you like to come with us to the Amaterasu Dungeon?”

Milena extended her invitation once again. I would have loved to take her up on her offer, but I had one already.

“I am overjoyed that you would invite me to join you. However, Chris has already reached out to me, and I have asked her for her company.”

While Chris showed us around the dorm, she had invited us all to take on the dungeon together. I was sure her true intention was to gauge the abilities of Tsukuyomi Magic Academy students.

I bet she would be amazed by how powerful we were. That could end up guiding her down the route that makes her the most troubled and stressed. That said, that route also encourages her to grow the most, too.

“Miss Gauss has? That is too bad. Though, it’s a relief to hear she’ll be with you.”

“Why is that?”

In truth, I knew what she meant by “relief,” but I asked Milena anyway.

“Well, Miss Gauss may be a bit harsh with her words, but she always looks out for others. Plus, she is one of the strongest second-years.”

“Oh, really?”

“Quite so. In fact, we once made a foray into the dungeon together, and she helped me out very much. I am sure I’m not the only one who’s indebted to her, either.”

In the game, Chris’s abilities are about on par with the vice president and Shion’s. However, Shion and the vice president had clearly achieved a great amount of growth by this point, so I imagined that Chris was behind them both.

“I didn’t know that.”

As we conversed, a student came over and called out to us.

“Hey there, Nanako Takioto, was it? How’s this place treating you?”

She had short hair and blue earrings. The boyish girl took a seat on top of a nearby desk and rested one of her legs in a chair. She wasn’t very prim and proper, a rare sight to see at this academy.

Nanami got a brief glimpse at her underwear and reacted in my mind.

“Blue panties? A slightly mature design, wouldn’t you say? And those strings… They’re quite daring for a regular student…”

“You don’t have to update me on the details of everyone’s panties, thanks.”

“Miss Takioto?”

The brown-haired young lady stared at me quizzically, cocking her head. My frustration with Nanami must have shown on my face.

“It’s nothing. Pardon me, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Oh, feel free to just call me Satton. Is it cool if I call you Nana?”

“This here would be Satomi. By the way, I have never once seen anyone call her Satton before,” Milena said.

Satomi let out an exasperated sigh.

“Haah, you’re way too stiff, for real. Almost eeeeverybody in this Academy’s like this, okay? Ain’t it a drag? Don’t worry, you can act however you want when the teachers aren’t looking. Heck, you can even scratch your ass, no problem. Want me to get it for you?”

“Oh, um, no thank you…”

I would have absolutely loved to take her up on her offer. Actually, I would have been fine if she let me scratch hers instead.

But a representative from another school couldn’t be going around scratching butts.

Milena jumped in for me, unable to watch me flounder for an answer.

“I’m sorry about Satomi here. Despite how she comes across, she’s not a bad person, I assure you.”

“‘How I come across?’ What the heck’s that supposed to mean? When have I ever done anything to warrant that?”

“There are so many occasions that come to mind, I don’t know where to start… For now, how about I begin with those indecent butt and legs of yours,” Milena said before lightly lifting up Satomi’s skirt. She was probably trying to tell Satomi off for sitting on a desk like this. I suddenly wished I could be turned into a string.

“You really only look like a prim and proper lady, huh,” Satomi said, this time flipping up Milena’s skirt. She had on a black thong, of all things…

The two of them were able to flip up each other’s skirts without any embarrassment whatsoever, because I looked like a girl right now. I was terrified of how they would react when they learned I was a man.

“Well, you see, I am quite different from you, Satomi.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re even worse than me, but… What are you grinning like that for?”

It appeared that my thoughts were showing on my face. Nanami hummed in acknowledgement.

“Grinning from ear to ear after glimpsing another girl’s panties, are we, Master? I am relieved to see you are the same as always.”

“Stop making me sound like I’m normally a huge pervert.”

I stopped talking in my head and responded to Satomi’s question. “Oh no, I was just thinking that you’re both so easy to talk to. Now I feel like I’ll be able to get through my time here at Amaterasu just fine.”

At my reply, Milena smiled as she pinched Satomi’s cheeks.

“I’m so very happy to hear that.”

“Hwo yeah, how dwid it gwo? You iwite her?” Satomi asked, prompting Milena to shake her head.

“Miss Gauss got the jump on us, unfortunately.”

Despite Satomi’s muffled speech, Milena picked up on what she’d said without issue.

“Ah well, she’s really on top of all that stuff. Nothing we can do about that. But let’s all delve into the dungeon together if we get the chance.”

“I would love to,” I replied, before Satomi heaved a heavy sigh. She then leered at me, looking me over from head to toe.

“Siiiigh.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no, well… It might’ve just been my own bias that made me feel this way, but I sort of thought that you might come on strong and be real assertive. Just going off your looks, anyway.”

Nanami affirmed Satomi’s words in my head.

“She is very perceptive, isn’t she? Master does indeed come on strong. Particularly at night…”

“My drowsiness comes on strong, maybe, is that what you mean? I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

I didn’t think I was that aggressive, really.

As I quipped back at Nanami, Milena remembered something and changed the subject.

“That reminds me, are you good at cooking and the like as well?”

“I whip up a meal from time to time, but that’s about it.”

“If you can cook, then Life Fundamentals should be fine,” Satomi said.

“Life Fundamentals?”

Milena nodded, appearing to understand my confusion.

“Ah, right, of course. You might not have such classes at a normal school.”

“Life Fundamentals are…well, they’re like home ec classes. Tomorrow’s cooking—no wait, it’s sewing, isn’t it?”

“I see,” I nodded. They had those types of classes here, huh… Tomorrow? I might be in trouble. “I’m not sure I’ll be any good at sewing.”

Though in my case…

“You can leave that to me.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem with such a reliable maid at my back, right?”

“Oh, don’t worry, you’ll be fine. They’re not really asking you to be super skilled or anything. Magic classes are the main thing here. Besides, you’re a Tsukuyomi Magic Academy student and all, so it’s not gonna affect your credits or anything if you can’t sew, and no one’s gonna care.”

“That’s a bit of a relief.”

“More important than that, though, tee-hee,” Satomi said before running her eyes slowly up and down my body. “So, I heard that tomorrow, we’re gonna have a mock battle. I’m sorta looking forward to that.”

“Oh, do we now?” Milena replied offhandedly.

“I overheard the teacher mentioning it just now. So Nana, what do you say? Wanna do it?”

Since I hadn’t commented on how Satomi should refer to me, it appeared that Nana had stuck.

I guess it didn’t really matter who my opponent was for the mock battle.

“I hope you will go easy on me, then.”

However, I was here as a representative of Tsukuyomi Magic Academy. I couldn’t go out there and disgrace myself in the ring, now, could I?

“Hm, a message?”

Just then, I got a message on the second phone that Marino had bought me. I glanced at it.

“Oh, it’s from Kujou.”

“From Sister Kujou herself?! So the two of you have already exchanged contact information. I’m quite jealous, honestly.”

Milena glanced at me with envy in her eyes.

“Oh wow, what’s it say?”

Satomi seemed to be very curious herself, peering over to look at my phone.

There was a non-zero-percent chance that the message touched on things that other people shouldn’t see, so I turned around to check its contents.

“I wonder why?” Nanami murmured, looking at the message. The text itself didn’t touch on anything important, so I showed the screen to Satomi as she doggedly tried to get a peek.

It was a single sentence: If you are available, please come to the student council room.

There were several people in the student council room beside Kujou. Among them was Chris, who amicably spoke up when she spotted me.

“Good day, Nanako. How were your first classes?”

“Things are a bit different than at Tsukuyomi Magic Academy. There was a lot for me to learn.”

I went ahead and lied. After all, I had never really sat in on a class at Tsukuyomi anyway. Especially the magic classes—I had no idea what they were like, so I couldn’t even compare the two.

“Oh? Well, take in as much as you can, then.”

“I didn’t see much of you today, Chris. Were you busy with something else?”

“Yeah, some student council stuff. I’ll be able to join you for class tomorrow.”

Possibly out of consideration from Kujou, I had been put in the same class as Chris, who was also a member of the student council. But this school had a lot of electives, so unless we were taking the same courses, we wouldn’t have that many chances to speak to each other.

“So, what brought you here today?”

“Kujou called for me,” I said, and Chris glanced at the room in the back, signaling where Kujou was.

I thanked her, then knocked on the door to Kujou’s room and entered.

“Good day, Miss Takioto. How are you adjusting to school life here?”

She was as beautiful and elegant as always.

“To be perfectly honest, there’s a whole bunch of things that have me nervous.”

Kujou gave a strained smile at my response.

“Most of the student council is here. I’m sure there are some things you may find difficult to discuss, so would you accompany me for a short while?”

I nodded. After I exited the room with Kujou, she led me to a campus garden.

President Monica’s popularity on campus was nowhere near the level of Kujou’s.

Indeed, she was unbelievably popular. Part of it was also because there were three different fan clubs at Tsukuyomi Academy, splitting up the public’s favor among them.

If all of the favor was focused on President Monica, then maybe she would’ve been as popular as Kujou.

“Good day, Sister Kujou.”

“Good day, be sure to maintain your composure.”

Almost every single person we passed greeted Kujou. Some of the girls were so moved by this encounter that they got tears in their eyes, too. It felt like Kujou’s popularity was bursting beyond its limits.

Meanwhile, I was being subjected to some strange looks, as though people were saying, Who the hell is this girl? Some students even went so far as to ask who I was. Though when I told them I was a student from Tsukuyomi Magic Academy, they seemed satisfied with the answer and left.

“Seems like you’re extremely popular.”

I couldn’t help but say this as I walked along with Kujou, feeling envious eyes glaring at our backs.

“It is a blessing, to be sure. However, it does put me under a bit of pressure,” she said, glancing at me. Next, she looked over at the bench in front of the garden.

I laid out my handkerchief atop the bench, then urged Kujou to sit on top of it.

“Thank you. If you’ll excuse me…” With these words, she lowered herself down on the bench and smiled.

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

“This is an unexpected bounty.”

“Indeed.”

After testing out several things last night with Nanami, I discovered that I was able to easily master the skills and defensive techniques that she had already learned for herself.

We believed this was because having Nanami directly move my body made it easier for me to understand how I needed to move to do the same.

Unsurprisingly, however, my poor long-range ability remained unchanged. Even when Nanami tried to cast a fireball while we were fused, she wasn’t able to generate it exactly as she wanted to and sent it flying off in the wrong direction. That convinced us that it was impossible for me to learn long-range spells.

It was most likely just as impossible to learn any other skills I wasn’t compatible with. Though we didn’t test things out for very long, so I didn’t know for sure.

But even so…

“I never expected I’d pull off a manga plot device like this myself…”

If I was going to get mana-like powers, then the ability to split myself up into a bunch of clones like the main character from that ninja manga would’ve been amazing. Being able to farm experience points with all my different clones would make me way too overpowered!

Though I guess I was already sort of cheating here anyway.

“It’s unfortunate that there doesn’t seem to be much of a benefit for you, Nanami.”

Although she said that it felt easier for her to use enchant magic and sword-drawing techniques, the change wasn’t as big as it was for me. Perhaps it was due to my body acting as the base for everything. If I was able to move with Nanami’s body instead, that might have changed things.

“Sorry about that.”

It was like I was stealing another person’s time away, and it made me feel guilty. Nanami shook her head at my apology.

“…Master, do you remember what happened at the Karakuri Trick Castle?”

“What do you mean?”

“If I recall correctly, you decided to go to that dungeon in order to level up your own abilities. Now I wonder if that is indeed true?”

“Uh, yup, that really was why.”

“No, I happen to believe that your first and foremost goal there was to help myself, Miss Yukine, and Miss Yuika grow stronger instead. I was probably the one who benefited from it the most.”

I mean, I had figured it would be a really good dungeon for Nanami. Though, I was able to grow stronger myself, so I really only ever saw the excursion as killing two birds with one stone.

“You’ve introduced me to all sorts of things, Master. Now I’m the one who should be returning the favor. In other words, it is Nanami’s time to duel.”

“What the hell do you mean, ‘time to duel’?”

“For now, I estimate that dividing up the work to obtain skills between us going forward will prove beneficial for you.”

“That’s fair. I’m happy that I get to learn the skill you picked up in the Karakuri Trick Castle.”

I was also able to get a skill that I had vaguely thought would be necessary at some point. Now then…

“I wonder what skill I should have you teach me next.”

“Party tricks would be my recommendation.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

I set up a schedule with Nanami about how I was going to train these skills going forward, then went ahead with my morning run and practice swings. After washing all my sweat off in the shower, I met up with Iori and Ludie.

“Ludie got a message from Gauss. It looks like she has something to talk about regarding this case,” Iori explained over breakfast.

“Ohh, that, right. When I spoke with Kujou yesterday, she told me that Chris would have a report for us later.”

“Ah, about that,” Ludie said before bringing her teacup up to her lips. Very elegant.

Every now and again I forgot that she was nobility, like when I saw her lounging around the Hanamura house, for example.

Thinking about nobility reminded me of something.

“I learned something pretty intriguing from Kujou yesterday.”

“And what was that?”

“Hmm, to make a long story short, it was about the Hanamura family and the Kujou family.”

Ludie seemed to understand what I was getting at.

“Ah, right. It’s thanks to the Hanamuras that the Kujous are where they are right now, after all.”

Apparently they had a deeper relationship than I thought they did. Well, I supposed I could ask Marino about it after. Actually, there was a chance Ludie knew even more about the Hanamura family than I did…

“Oh really…? Sounds complicated… Oh wow, this salmon’s delicious.”

“I’ll agree with you there.”

It earned a lot of points for the beautiful grill marks on its skin.

“But right now, the focus is on the case, not people’s families. We need to start collecting information on our ends, too, after all.”

“That’s true, but why don’t we talk with Chris first. What time did she say to meet up?”

“She asked me if we could grab lunch together in the school cafeteria while we chatted.”

Ludie showed me Chris’s message.

“Should we tell her that sounds good? None of us are busy, right?”

“Nope, I’m good to go!”

Y’know, it had been on my mind for a while, but Iori’s looks and way of speaking were pretty tomboyish. They were just as cute as any other girl’s, really. I couldn’t explain it, but it fit him to a tee. Iori was trying to sound more girly at Amaterasu, but for a long-time fan like me, that boyish aspect of him was the Iori I knew and loved. The only problem with this was if he continued talking that way, he would have had a higher chance of slipping up.

“Okay, I’ll reply to her, then.”

Ludie’s voice brought me back to reality. I had flown into the world of the tomboy. Still, though…

“Lunch? I’m actually gonna see Chris before that, though.”

We were in the same class, after all.

Once morning courses were over, Chris and I left class together and headed for the school cafeteria. There, we met up with Ludie and Iori, who were waiting for us. Chris had reserved a private room for us, so we wouldn’t have to search the cafeteria for somewhere to sit together.

What followed was a discussion over lunch about the details of the case, just as Hana had told me to expect.

“A growing number of students are inexplicably falling ill, and it’s all during a busy season for the Student Council, of course,” Chris said with venom.

“Is that what’s going on?” Ludie said, feigning ignorance. All of us knew the whole story!

“If anything happens, we’ll totally…er, we would certainly love to help.”

“That’s okay, the student council is working to shed light on what’s going on, so I only ask if you could report anything you know to us. Besides, we can’t endanger students from another school.”

It was the natural response.

“However, Sister Kujou told me that it may not be a bad idea to turn to you three, since you might have knowledge that we don’t. So I might have to ask for your assistance.

“The classes at Tsukuyomi Magic Academy and Amaterasu are different, after all.”

“Yes, so I hope you’ll cooperate should the need arise.”

Hearing Gauss say this, Nanami whispered in my head.

“Despite what she says, I doubt she actually wants to ask us for help—given we’re an imperial princess and her two servants right now.”

“That’s true. I wouldn’t want to rely on help like us if I was her.”

She was probably mentioning this all out of politeness and etiquette. After all, she couldn’t risk putting a well-to-do girl from another school potentially in harm’s way. As an imperial princess, Ludie was far too distinguished to request aid in the first place. If anything, she should be stepping back to keep herself safe.

While Nanami and I conversed with each other, Chris, Iori, and Ludie continued talking with one another.

“You mentioned that the student council was busy right now. Is there anything coming up?”

Chris nodded at Ludie’s question.

“Yes, the student council elections and the Super Sister vote are coming up.”

“I see… Wait, but there’s still a lot of the year left, isn’t there? Why do you swap everyone out at this time of year?” Iori asked, cocking his head.

“We vote now because it’s so early. From here on out, the Super Sister is sure to be busy with entrance exams and the like.”

“That does make sense,” Iori nodded.

“How do you hold the vote?” Ludie asked, prompting Chris to open her hand wide.

“The old-fashioned way. Everyone gets a piece of paper the size of my palm here, writes a name on it, and places it in a box. All the students come together the day of to vote.”

“So, does that mean there’s, like, candidates for the position?” Iori asked.

“Nope, no candidates. Or I suppose you could say everyone is a candidate.”

“Huh?”

Both Ludie and Iori were surprised.

“If we had people declaring themselves as candidates, then everyone’s votes would be focused on them, right? That’s basically just an artificial Super Sister.”

“An artificial Super Sister?” Iori asked.

“Say, for example, there was one person running to be Super Sister. In that case, things would be decided without a vote if one person ran, or it would come down to a vote of confidence on whether the candidate in question was the right fit. But can you really call that being ‘popular’?”

“Nanako’s absolutely right. Exactly. The Super Sister is who she is because she is chosen by the will of the student body, instead of being picked out from a selection of people others respect or wish to follow. That’s what makes her the Super Sister.”

Iori’s eyes sparkled.

“That’s incredible!”

“But things have been a bit different recently…”

“What do you mean?”

“Some students had made it clear that they’re trying to become the Super Sister and are going around making a case about what they’ve done to deserve it, like a political campaign. It’s utterly ridiculous.”

“You’re not forbidden from doing that sort of thing?”

“If I had to say one way or another, then yes, it is allowed. Unfortunately,” Chris continued, a bitter look on her face.

“Personally, I believe there shouldn’t be any kind of campaigning to be Super Sister.”

“None at all?”

“Indeed. I said something similar a moment ago, but the Super Sister gains their title by naturally being themselves. Someone who earns everyone’s respect just by being who they are, without trying to purposefully market themselves, deserves the title,” Chris emphatically declared.

“That’s a good point… By the way, about how many votes does it take to become Super Sister?” Iori asked.

“You can become Super Sister if you get votes from eighty percent or more of the student body.”

“Eighty percent?! Is it really possible to earn that many?!”

Ludie was shocked by the number. Chris nodded, as though this was obvious.

“Eighty percent, exactly as I said. Generally, the votes are scattered. But, after the election’s over, the people who’ve been voted for can transfer their ballots over to someone they respect, so they actually reach that percentage a lot.”

“Uhhh?”

Seeing that Iori was confused, I jumped in to offer an explanation.

“Let’s say Chris and I both collect fifty votes each. However, I really respect Chris, so I transfer all the votes for myself over to her. Since that’s allowed, it would mean that Chris earned one hundred votes for herself.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Chris added after I finished my overview.

“Then what happens if there’s no vote transfers and no one gets eighty percent of the votes?” Iori asked. Chris nodded.

“A year without a Super Sister. Happens all the time, really. Personally, if it’s going to be nothing but people campaigning for themselves, then I think they should just ditch the Super Sister system altogether.”

I nodded along as I expanded on what Chris was saying.

“What’s really amazing about Kujou is that she got almost all the votes without anyone transferring theirs to her.”

After I said this, I addressed Nanami in my head.

“Normally, you’d think that’d be totally impossible, right? Since they’re not choosing from a pool of candidates, but simply writing down the name of the person they want to hold the position.”

“Realistically, without another fairly large achievement of some kind, it would be quite difficult to do. More pressingly, Master, Chris is looking at us very curiously.”

I turned to Chris and saw that Nanami was right.

“Is something the matter?”

“No, I was just thinking that you’re really well-informed.”

“Oh, right. I looked into the Super Sister system once I knew I would be coming here. Kujou is famous as well.”

Chris gave an understanding nod, seemingly convinced by my explanation.

It was then that a thought came to Nanami’s mind.

“Master. Why do you not tell her the truth? That you were planning on transferring here.”

“Because I wasn’t thinking that at all.” As I said this, Chris looked at me like I was being strange.

“Is something wrong, Nanako?”

Had I accidentally said all of that out loud?

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Sheesh, Nanako…you’re letting it show on your face, you know.”

Ludie quietly whispered the second part into my ear. Sorry, sorry, I’ll be more careful.

“A-actually, why did Kujou almost get all of the votes anyway?”

Iori tactfully brought up a different subject.

“The events at the inter-academy exhibition game from two years ago are a big part of that. That’s for sure. Before it happened, everyone was speculating that Miss Monica from Tsukuyomi Magic Academy would win with an overwhelming display of strength. However, our Sister not only defeated the Beast King, but also drove Miss Monica right to the brink of defeat!”

Chris was very talkative when the subject came up.

“Since I’m the most proficient with fire magic, too, I could really tell. I can’t compare with Miss Monica in any aspect—her technique, her sheer power, her mana, nothing. If she was standing in front of me, I might just surrender immediately. But when our Sister faced off against her, she drove Miss Monica against the wall.”

“Giving President Monica a run for her money really is incredible… I can’t even imagine,” Iori murmured. Given his close position to President Monica as a vice president, he probably had a good understanding of how incredible it really was.

“Sister was already seen as very strong, and together with her position on the student council, she was very well-known among the other students in her year. The battle with Miss Monica then spread her name across the rest of Amaterasu Girls’ Academy, taking her popularity to even further heights,” Chris explained. I agreed that this must have made Hana’s popularity take off.

“Even without that, though, Kujou has just a wonderful personality, so it seems like she’d get more and more popular the more people got to know her anyway,” I said, prompting Chris to then squeeze my hand.

“You’re absolutely right, Nanako. Exactly! Our Sister’s a fantastic person, too. More and more people grew to adore her, and in the end, she accomplished the hitherto unprecedented achievement of holding the position of student council president and Super Sister at once.”

Iori nodded in admiration.

“Are you aiming to become Super Sister yourself, Chris?”

“I’m not sure if the word ‘aiming’ is really in line with the definition of the Super Sister, but I want to become the type of upstanding person to earn votes, and I’ve always acted to someday make that come true.”

In other words, she wanted to become the Super Sister. And with how confidently she spoke, she believed she could earn the title, too.

“Kujou must be a big influence on you, then, right?” Ludie asked, prompting Chris to nod.

“The biggest, probably.”

In the game, Chris is able to become Super Sister if you progress through the event normally. She’s able to, but…

“Well, I hope it works out that way,” I said, and she nodded.

“It will. And then, I’ll become just like our Sister.”

If you make the wrong choices, she is unable to become Super Sister. In the worst-case scenario, she ends up leaving the academy all together.

If you were battling as a magic user, the general consensus was that you needed a baseline level of physical stamina.

It was the same at Tsukuyomi Magic Academy, and this idea had been adopted here at Amaterasu Girls’ Academy as well. Consequently, almost every student here took a basic physical education course.

Furthermore, it was held jointly with the other classes in our school year, and it was one of the periods that Chris and I both shared together. The focus of today’s class was running, and the students of Amaterasu were sprinting around a track.

I’d finished up ahead of everyone and was watching Chris and Melina run laps. Just then, Nanami whispered something to me.

“A feast for the eyes, isn’t it?”

“It sure is… Wait, what the hell’re you making me say here?”

I’d unconsciously agreed with Nanami’s comment. Though really, how could I not? I mean, I didn’t even know where I was supposed to keep my eyes.

“Nanami, I’ve got a question. Why are our gym clothes so revealing?”

“Surely it must be because they’re easy to run in.”

Well, I could admit that they made it easier. But did they really need to show off so much thigh? They were basically booty shorts—booty shorts! Do you know what booty shorts are like? Why the hell were they booty shorts?! I was starting to lose it.

I mean, assuming that I could barely accept that explanation for why our gym outfits included booty shorts, why exactly did it seem like everyone had chosen a pair one size too small for their butt? Chris, why was that squishy-squishy poking out so jiggly-jiggly all while it was scrunchy-scrunchy up tighty-tight?

And while we were at it, why had the school given everyone shirts that were easy to see through on top of that? Were they total idiots or something? Milena and the bombshells on her chest were less jiggly-jiggly and more badonga-badonga, and she was haaah, haaah-ing while sweat drip-dripped off her body. How I would’ve loved to sniff, sniff—

“Please calm yourself, Master. I can feel your restlessness right now.”

Yikes. The sight was so stimulating, I’d ended up expressing my every thought in sound effects.

Sniff, sniff?

“Sorry. I’ll relax a bit.”

“Make sure you do not let your disarray show on your face. Miss Milena and Miss Chris are coming over.”

The two girls approached us as they wiped off their sweat. Milena was curvier than her usual outfit suggested, and Chris had an ass that was as outstanding as her athletic abilities. I fished drinks out of my item bag for them.

“Impressive, Miss Takioto. You’re hardly out of breath.”

Milena thanked me after I handed her a drink.

“Oh no, I still have plenty of room to improve. There are still others who have more stamina than I do.”

My upperclassman, Yukine Mizumori, of course. I didn’t think I’d ever have her beat when it came to basic physical stamina.

Chris began to talk as she accepted her beverage.

“But you’re enchanting your stole, right? And then using physical enhancements on top of that. Forgive me for sounding rude, but it doesn’t seem like you’re even human like us.”

It appeared Chris had caught on to Kousuke Takioto’s abnormality.

“It’s got me a little curious,” Chris said, looking at me. So close. Such a lovely smell. I could almost catch a glimpse.

“Have you already chosen your opponent for the mock battle, by any chance?”

“Satomi invited me to be her opponent,” I said.

“Satomiiii,” Chris shouted, and Satomi approached us while wiping herself down. She was built like a sports model. Her suntan earned her high marks, too.

“Chris? Did you just call for me?”

“I heard you reserved a mock battle with Nanako, yes?” Chris said, and Satomi nodded.

“Sounds fun, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed, I am quite jealous. Any chance you’ll let me fight her instead? That’s fine, right?”

“Sorry I can’t give up the chance, even if you’re the one asking. Truth is, I’ve been really looking forward to it.”

“That’s too bad… Oh well, then I guess there’s no other choice—Nanako, why don’t we have a mock battle right now, before you fight Satomi?” Chris suggested, flashing me a smile.

“Whoa, whoa, you’re going into the dungeon together, yeah? Then what’s the big deal with letting me fight her? C’mon.”

Personally, I was okay with battling however much they wanted.

“I suppose you’re right. But I’ll still be coming to watch your mock battle before our dungeon trip. I better see just what Tsukuyomi Magic Academy is capable of.”

Chris grinned broadly. I replied with a smile of my own.

“I’m sure you’ll be surprised.”

She’d be shocked, all right. Not only with me, but I imagined Ludie and Iori’s strength would surprise her, too. I mean, we were all pretty strong.

Satomi put a hand on Chris’s shoulder.

“That reminds me, are you free after class? I got invited by one of the third-years, so you want to do some training together?”

“Oh, sorry. I have student council today.”

Right as Chris said this, a teacher called her by her name.

“Awfully cold of her,” Satomi murmured as she watched Chris depart. Milena tried to soothe her.

“Now, now, Miss Gauss must be busy, don’t you think? And the Super Sister election’s coming up as well.”

Satomi must have understood that for herself.

“Yeah, right. But, like, it’s kinda funny that she’s doing all this stuff to prepare when she’s clearly the top candidate to become Super Sister, isn’t it?”

It looked like Chris was just as popular with her classmates as she had been in the game.

“It was the same for Big Sister Kujou. She became Super Sister from the student council.”

As we idly chatted, our conversation drifted in another direction—about the case that had brought me to Amaterasu Girls’ Academy in the first place.

“That reminds me, Chris said that one of the girls in the class next door fell sick. Is that true?”

Milena nodded.

“That’s right. There have been a lot of people falling ill lately, haven’t there? I wonder if it’s due to the drastic air temperature fluctuations?”

True, fluctuations in the weather made the autonomic nerves go out of whack and all. Still, that wasn’t the cause of this latest affair.

“There’s still an awful lotta them for that. Maybe someone’s put a curse on them or something behind their backs? I’m not even really joking,” Satomi said with a serious look. While it may not have been a curse, it had a pretty similar effect, I supposed.

“…I heard that this happened to a whole group before. Is that true?” I asked.

Satomi nodded. “One of the girls who fell ill came from a group of my favorite cute underclassmen, too.”

Milena winced the moment Satomi said “favorite cute underclassmen.” I sort of understood what she was getting at, but that wasn’t important right now, so I saved that topic for later.

“What did she say?”

“That it didn’t feel like she had used up too much magic, but more like she had gotten her mana sucked out of her.”

In MagicalExplorer, there’s a battle with some Amaterasu Girls’ Academy background characters. As a part of class, too.

The person you fight changes depending on the route you take through the event, but my opponent, Satomi, didn’t correspond to any of the potential options. I had seen her use several elements in class already, but I had no clue which she was the most skilled with.

In other words, I didn’t have a good idea of how she was going to fight.

“You ready, Nana?” Satomi said as she turned around. She was wielding a gauntlet, just like Yuika. Considering that she wasn’t carrying any other weapons on her, I predicted that she was another caster who excelled in close-quarters combat.

Her gauntlet was uniquely shaped. Typically, gauntlets were slightly curved, but Satomi’s were quite angular and jagged. It looked like there were a few holes in it, too. Perhaps she would fire something out of them.

“Yes, I’m fine. Though, I feel a little embarrassed,” I replied, and she agreed.

“Believe me, I’ve never been the focus of so much attention before, either,” she said before throwing back a laugh.

Part of it probably stemmed from the fact that a Tsukuyomi Magic Academy student was going up against one of Amaterasu’s own. And it wasn’t just the students who were watching—so were the teachers. Wait, was that the principal standing over there?

“Ha-ha, if you’re ready to go, should we get started?” Satomi said.

She looked at the referee, nodding, then readied her fists. Nanami said she would remain silent during the match, which was probably to keep this a simple one-on-one fight.

As I looked at the flow of Satomi’s mana, I lowered my hips and readied my fists. Then, I circulated mana throughout my body.

“Begin!”

Satomi was the first one to make a move. She kicked off the ground, vigorously rushing toward me.

My conjecture about Satomi focusing on melee combat was on the mark, as she thrust her fist out at me.

Her blow had less speed and less power behind it than Yuika’s. Familiar with such attacks from my regular spars with Yuika, I readily parried Satomi’s strike with my stole.

She thrust her opposite arm at me next, and I parried that, too. A moment later, she sent her leg at my stomach.

“?!”

I immediately guarded with my Third Hand. However, she quickly steadied herself on the leg I had blocked, then spun while launching a kick with her opposite leg up at my head.

Nevertheless, I blocked this with my Fourth Hand. The impact sent a shudder through my whole body. But that was all. I was unharmed.

Okay, now it was my turn. Her bold, dynamic kick had left her wide open. I attempted to drive my fist into her gut when—

A powerful gust of wind burst out of the hole in her gauntlet like a cannon.

It was a strong gale, but I immediately blocked it with my Third Hand to avoid taking damage. Still, it pushed her perfectly out of my range.

“I see, so that’s how you open up space for yourself.”

Powerful body attacks left you open. There was always some kind of trade-off for increasing the power behind a strike, whether that was breaking your stance or consuming a lot of mana. A few people could pull off moves like this without endangering themselves, like the Big Three, but that was usually how it worked.

But Satomi had closed the hole in her defenses by using her weapon’s special feature.

“I was pretty confident about my surprise attack. That stole of yours caught me off guard.”

“The material’s wonderful, isn’t it? If I put an ice enchantment on it during the summer, it can even become a personal AC unit.”

“Hah, trying to fool me? You weren’t using it like that at all. That piece of fabric felt like arms of steel. I can’t believe you were hiding something like that.”

“You were hiding something yourself, weren’t you? That breeze of yours was lovely.”

I made sure to provoke her.

“It looks like I might have to get serious,” Satomi said.

She slammed her hands together. Then a magic circle appeared before her. I could’ve immediately tried to attack her. However, there was a bit of space between us for one, and I was also curious about what kind of magic she would use, so I decided to perfect my defenses by placing my hand on the hilt of my sword, ready to react as necessary.

Satomi cast an earth spell.

Deep-brown gemstones covered her gauntlet, and the weapon grew to twice its usual size. Then three razor-sharp stone claws sprouted at the tip of her gauntlet; they looked keen enough to tear my body to shreds with a direct hit.

“Those look almost like a beastfolk’s claws.”

“Nana, I’m going all out from here, got it?”

Satomi gradually closed in on me, jumping left to right as she went.

She was likely trying to confuse me by moving out of my line of sight. A normal person would have to twist their neck back and forth just to keep track of her.

Watching her carefully, I tightened my grip on my sword. Satomi was already close enough that she could easily come into my range at any moment.

“?!”

It happened in a single second. She disappeared from sight, and I sensed her jumping in diagonally behind me. I opened my stole to meet her.

The clang of steel crashing against steel echoed through the area. She attacked me with not just one, but a flurry of strikes.

However, I had acquired a skill to address the low visibility through my stole. A skill that I had needed Yukine to help me obtain.

As I parried her attacks, I waited for the right moment, then raised my stole upward.

This was to repel her claws. As I expected, her right shoulder side was wide open. I took a step toward her and sent a punch into her gut much like Yuika would.

There was a thud. However, the punch didn’t end up delivering a critical blow.

Even in her present situation, Satomi stepped back and put space between us.

“Hrk. P’too.”

It looked like she’d been injured, and she spit blood from her mouth. And then…

“Ahaha, hahahaha, hahahahaha!”

Satomi burst into laughter. She really seemed to be enjoying herself.

As I stayed on guard, a visible transformation began to come over her. What looked like cat ears sprouted from the top of her head.

“A bestial transformation? No, a half-transformation…”

Her head wasn’t the only thing that changed. Her eyes did as well. They took on an amber hue and angled slightly, like a feline’s.

The fact that she could use this ability meant she must have had some beastfolk in her family.

“Nanako, I’m coming at you with everything I’ve got, okay?” Satomi said, immediately leaping toward me.

I marveled at how fast she’d gotten.

She was rocketing toward me with speed wholly unlike anything she had shown before. The contrast was so stark that it was like I was fighting someone else entirely.

Her attack power had definitely gone up, too. I decided that I would layer my stole together to block her attack.

After she jumped toward me with enough power to carve deep holes in the earth, Satomi brandished her stone claws and swung them down.

An even louder noise than before echoed through the area. The power behind it was tremendous and it pushed me back around three feet from where I had dug my feet in.

Despite her slender appearance, the attack was like an excavator. She unleashed strength that was totally beyond what someone of her bodyweight could accomplish.

Nevertheless, it was an attack I was able to endure.

“You’re still able to hold out?” Satomi said, putting space between us with a back step. It looked like she was having the time of her life.

She didn’t know the half of it.

I could admit, she was fast, and strong. However, there were way more powerful people living in the Hanamura house.

This time, while moving her feet with a boxer’s footwork, she attacked me with a one-two punch. However, I was able to parry each quick, light attack with one side of my stole while waiting for an opening to deliver a punch of my own.

Just when I thought she had suddenly disappeared, I saw her leg close in on my stomach.

It was the shrimp kick. She’d turned her back to me, going down into a crouching running start position, and released a kick behind her. I quickly brought up my Third Hand, changing my stand. Her kick grazed me slightly.

“Is that sword just for decoration?” Satomi asked, sending out another blow to keep me on the back foot.

“This might be a practice sword, but I’d still end up cutting you in two, so…,” I replied while guarding against her strike with my Fourth Hand.

“Haha, that’s funny.”

In the past, I would’ve shared her sentiment, but honestly, I wasn’t so sure if that was a joke these days.

After exchanging several blows, I realized something. Satomi’s attacks weren’t the meat-headed blows that beastfolk often employed, which prioritized power over everything. Instead, they were the polished and refined strikes of a martial artist.

The shrimp kick from earlier was one example. A lot of her blows had been surprise attacks, coming from areas that were hard to see.

“You’re a real fortress, huh?” she said, jumping far back and building mana in her stone claw. But instead of releasing it at me, she shot it at the ground.

“!”

The earth exploded, whipping up sediment high into the air.

If I were to describe it, it was like a bunch of sand had been placed over a sheet of plastic, which was then snapped inward. Satomi had created a smokescreen.

I could sense her presence move from in front of me to my left-hand side. Then she pounced at me.

I knew she was brandishing her claws high. It was the same attack I’d just seen. She was trying to take me by surprise and unleash this big, powerful move to finish me off.

But it would be fruitless against me. I could see exactly how she was moving thanks to my Mind’s Eye skill.

“Hnraaaah!”

She must have built up a lot of power in the attack, because she shouted as she swung her arms at me. But it was a mistake to use the same move I’d just stopped before. It was all too easy for me to divert it away in the direction I wanted.

I perfectly timed my stole to hit her downward swipe. Her claws were swept away from my body, cutting harmlessly through the air.

Then I stepped right into her wide-open stance, placing the hilt of my sword against her stomach.

“Will you admit defeat?”

There was a moment of silence. As it dawned on her that she couldn’t win, Satomi grinned and said:

“Make it quick.”

I unleashed the mana stored in my sheath. Then I sent her flying, not with the blade of my sword, but the hilt.

The attack was nearly silent, but the shockwave was tremendous. Blowing away the sand and dirt around us, I slammed Satomi into the wall.

I returned my sword to its sheath and immediately headed over to her.

From the perspectives of the onlookers, it must have seen like Satomi had abruptly smashed into the wall, blowing up a bunch of dust in the process.

The audience was silent, unable to make sense of the situation due to the low visibility. The healer, who was there in case anything went wrong, was slow to react as well.

The healer and teachers came over to us when I took Satomi in my arms.

“Ngh…”

“Satomi? Are you all right?”

Fortunately, she was quick to regain consciousness. With her bestial transformation undone, a dry smile came to her face.

“Hey, Nanako, do you have eyes in the back of your head?”

“Just imagine I have three-hundred and sixty of them. That should give you an idea.”

“Ha-ha-ha,” Satomi feebly chuckled. “What the heck, so you’re basically a monster?”

The healer used their magic to patch her up.

The truth was, I didn’t really know much about this school.

Apparently, Satomi was famous here for being tough and skilled, and she was popular for being boyish and cool.

Perhaps that was why word that Satomi had been utterly trounced spread throughout the school in the blink of an eye.

Once class was over, I returned to the dorm, and went over the current state situation. This latest Amaterasu Girls’ Academy event was, according to what I heard from everyone else, in between the first and second progression stages.

Ms. Sakura’s event had been the same way, but all the events in-game progressed in real time. Amaterasu Girls’ Academy was no different, and when it progressed to stage four, Super Sister Kujou would jump into action and essentially resolve things herself. In that instance, there would be all sorts of damage and injuries to the Academy, so I had been planning on sending Iori here before that could happen.

However, I didn’t understand what use there was in sending me along with him.

Speaking of events, over at Tsukuyomi Magic Academy I figured it was about time for her and the others to betray the Three Committees; I wondered how things were going on that front.

“How do you think things are going back at Tsukuyomi Magic Academy?”

“I assume everyone is going about their daily lives… That reminds me, Master. What happened to the items you received as parting gifts?”

“Ah. So President Monica and Minister Benito gave me sigiled stones. Always happy to get those.”

I was going to end up using a ton of them in a bunch of different places.

The Saint had gifted me a book of exercises for making your boobs bigger. What exactly was she telling me to do here?

From Yukine, I received a custom-made practice sword that would grow heavier and stiffer if I filled it with mana. I would get plenty of regular use out of this. I should have opened it up earlier.

Sis had given me a ticket for a free shoulder rub. Written out in crayon, too. Why?

The real problem, though, was Anemone’s gift.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

I took it out. In a vial the size of a nail polish bottle was a pink liquid. A scrap of paper featuring a sloppily scribbled note was affixed to it with masking tape.

If I were to believe what it said…

“It’s apparently an aphrodisiac.”

“So it is. How about you try drinking it? Don’t fret. You were already an aphrodisiac-like person to begin with, so I’m sure it’ll be awesome!”

“No way am I drinking that! And just who the hell do you take me for?”

Just tacking on “awesome” at the end of something didn’t make it automatically okay, either.

“That said, it is rather frightening to see there is not any sort of explanation accompanying it.”

She had a point. I mean, think about it. The word aphrodisiac alone written on a scrap of notebook paper? Downright terrifying.

This was Sexy Scientist we were dealing with here, too. I knew from the game that she made weird drugs, and there was a chance this was actually the real deal. She comes up with an item for hypnosis during that other person’s route, too. I was extreeeeeeeemely in her debt for all that, yessiree!

“Well, for now, keep that in your pocket. There will come a day when it will be necessary, I am sure.”

“Why the heck would I keep this in my pocket? That’s way too dangerous!”

“All right, then let’s settle this with rock-paper-scissors. If I win, you keep it in your pocket. If Master should win, then you keep it in your breast pocket—that should suffice, yes?”

“Suffice, my ass! It’s still in my damn pocket either way!”

The results of our rock-paper-scissors meant it was left in my pocket. Unacceptable.

“Anyway, what should we do for dinner?”

Right, right, dinner. I heard that Iori and Ludie were invited by a classmate and were going to eat with them. Off campus, at that.

I’d also been invited, but I figured it wouldn’t be great for their classmates to have a random unknown upperclassman along for the ride, so I declined. I wanted them to get along well and start to feel at home at Amaterasu.

Which left the question of what I was going to do for dinner.

“I mean, I’m fine with some instant ramen, honestly.”

I had always been fond of it, anyway, but after the whole thing with Ludie, we had a giant mountain of the stuff.

“No, no, you should have a proper meal. We could either go to the dorm cafeteria…or should I make you something myself?”

“This room doesn’t even have a burner for you to make anything, though. We’d have to go to the shared kitchen.”

I definitely couldn’t imagine it was okay to use a portable stove in here, either. Not only that, but it would be time-consuming to have Nanami make something.

“Yeah, why don’t we go out to eat? Might as well be off campus, too. Stopping by the bathhouse wouldn’t be bad, either. I wanna take a nice, long soak.”

There was a hot spring on this very campus, and I couldn’t use it. This felt like being told to stay still with a treat dangling in front of me.

“With Miss Ludie and the others gone right now, you can head into the outside world without issue. The curfew here is surprisingly late, too.”

“Right. Let’s go out to eat somewhere. Also, if we’re off campus, then you and I will be able to eat together out in the open just fine.”

“While I do enjoy receiving my calories from your body, I do occasionally wish to get them from my mouth, too.”

“Stop, stop, don’t make it sound weird. Say you want my mana next time.”

Angels didn’t need to eat and could go without food as they received mana. Hearing that remined me of that F*te servant. She sure ate a lot, didn’t she?

With everything settled, we fused and left my room.

I left my room in high spirits, excited to go out into town and enjoy some delicious food. However, I was unable to head off campus.

Because right when I exited my room, I discovered a student leaning up against the wall, an agonized look on her face.

I immediately cleared away any thoughts of hunger and sent them in a different direction.

Two other students were there, worrying over the girl. They tried to lend the suffering girl their shoulders, but she lost her balance and looked close to collapsing.

“Whoa, are you all right?!”

“Ah, Miss Takioto! Y-Yes… I-I’m fine. Just dizzy from the bath.”

She knew my name? Wait, that didn’t even matter here.

Was this really just dizziness from too much time in the bath? It definitely didn’t look that way.

While I was considering the situation, I heard Nanami’s voice in my head.

“She appears to be in the early stages of mana deficiency. Also, Master, be careful how you talk.”

My way of speaking had gotten a bit too masculine after I’d panicked.

I listened to the other two girls while I began to use Donate Mana on the dizzy girl.

They told me they had just happened to be nearby when they’d called out to her out of concern, just like me.

“Nhn ♡! Gnn, ahhhhn…♡”

Why did everyone let out really lewd sounds when I donated mana to them? Ah, forget it, that wasn’t important right now.

“How’s that? Have you calmed down a bit?”

“Haanh♡. Ahn. Ummm, I feel a bit, better…♡”

The girl’s slightly pallid face was growing pink. I sorta got the feeling there was something else affecting her here, but I didn’t worry about it for now.

“Can you stand…? Wait, no, I can’t let you push yourself too hard,” I said.

I used my stole and one of my arms to carry her bridal-style while typing a message to Kujou with my free hand.

After bringing the girl to the nurse’s office and leaving her there, I met up with Kujou.

Once Kujou checked on the student’s condition and understood she was safe, she immediately asked me:

“What do you think caused this?”

“The hot spring, most likely,” I immediately replied.

In the game, this case is set up so that after managing several smaller, trivial events over and over again, you gather enough information to go to the place where it all originated. These smaller, one-off incidents happen in the school building and the gymnasium, among other locations. But this latest instance of a student falling ill leads the player to what is, in a certain sense, the most dangerous location of all.

“From what little I heard from the student, she ate dinner after classes were over and went to the hot spring. She said she was hit with a sudden bout of exhaustion after soaking in the water.”

But it wasn’t the hot spring that was causing the illness.

“I believe it would be best to head there immediately to check.”

“The grand bath, then. Let’s go,” she said, walking off. I followed her.

“Ummm, what should I do?” I asked, and a smile of recognition floated to her face.

“Ah, yes, good point. Please help me turn people away outside the entrance. I shall seal it up temporarily.”

“Umm, is it okay to openly seal it up like that?”

The strange phenomenon occurring at the school still hadn’t been officially announced.

“I’ll say there is something wrong with the water and put up a cleaning sign on the door. I feel sorry for those currently enjoying their bath, but I will need them to get out. No one is allowed in until we resolve the situation. Just tell everyone that it’s currently under investigation.”

Hearing this, Nanami whispered:

“I see, that should be enough to convince the students as well. Since the Super Sister is the one telling them, after all.”

I thought that was a good way of looking at it.

“You’re right. Everyone’ll be satisfied with that since Kujou is telling them,” I replied as we headed for the grand bath.

After taking less than thirty minutes to finish investigating the grand bath, we went to Kujou’s room to discuss everything.

“I’m sorry for not cleaning up a bit before you came.”

Put charitably, Kujou’s room was quite minimalistic. Put critically, there basically wasn’t anything in it. She didn’t have a TV or video games to speak of, and there weren’t any books to read for pleasure on her tiny shelf.

On top of her table was basically the bare minimum amount of makeup and face cream, along with an electric kettle, cups, and nothing more.

“Not at all, it’s very clean. I need to take a page out of your book,” I replied as she cleaned up the makeup she had left out. Then—

“Would you mind undoing your fusion?”

“I’ll turn back into a guy, is that okay?”

“It’s fine. No one’s coming here,” Kujou said as she got up to go over to the cupboard. She returned with two teacups.

“I’d love to hear what Nanami has to say as well.”

At this, we undid our fusion.

“Forgive me, Nanami. I have nothing to offer you as a host,” she said before placing tea bags in the cups, filled with what looked like expensive tea leaves, and poured water from the electric kettle.

“Not at all. If anything, I should be the one preparing refreshments, but my Master whined so much about leaving me that—”

“Nope, there wasn’t a single peep from me, actually. Please don’t say things that’ll give people the wrong idea here.”

Kujou giggled while watching Nanami and I exchanged quips with each other.

“Please think of this just like your own room and unwind,” she said while passing the tea to myself and Nanami.

“Thank you.”

“You are much too kind. I see your room is the same as everyone else’s, Miss Kujou,” Nanami said, looking over the space.

“I need to serve as the example for everyone else, so I mustn’t allow myself an extravagant room. Or at least, that’s what I say. The truth is that I really can’t relax in a big spacious room.”

Something appeared to cross Nanami’s mind for a moment, but she didn’t say anything.

I thought it was best to get to the topic at hand and began to speak.

“…Now then, about the grand bath.”

“Right. First, let me thank you, Kousuke.”

Kujou bowed.

“Oh no, I didn’t really do anything. Please, raise your head.”

“Your prompt action helped nip the situation in the bud. The girl you saved got through with mild symptoms, too. Thank you, truly.”

“I’ll accept your gratitude, so please, don’t feel the need to bow,” I said. Kujou raised her head at last.

“Now then… About the offending object,” Kujou said before producing what appeared to be a fist-sized rock.

“There’s ancient script written on it. So this thing was sucking up the mana,” Nanami said, looking at it.

At first glance, it looked like a normal rock, and it perfectly blended in with the small garden inside the grand bath. I bet no one had given it a second thought.

“Having you both here was a huge help. Thanks to you, we were immediately able to find what was draining the students of their mana.”

The item Kujou had taken out was the root source of the mana deficiency syndrome.

After Kujou had sent all the students out of the hot spring, I went inside to investigate, and Nanami immediately picked out the stone for us.

“However, I must apologize for my inadequacy, as I do not know very much about it. Forgive me.”

Despite Nanami’s statement, from my perspective, she’d done more than enough work. If she hadn’t discovered it for us, I would’ve had to conspicuously comment, Wait, this is sorta weird, don’t you think? and point it out myself.

“Not at all, Nanami. Why, I had no idea what was causing it all. Besides, if Ms. Sakura was here as an angel, she could know more about it, right?”

That thing was seriously indistinguishable from any other stone. It certainly didn’t look like a valuable item.

“I cannot say for sure,” Nanami began. Ms. Sakura’s own investigation would uncover a bunch of stuff anyway, and I knew the broad strokes already, too. I just couldn’t go off blabbing about them right now.

“But that being said…,” remarked Kujou with a concerned frown.

“That being said?”

She sighed slightly at my question.

“I can only assume that someone placed this rock there on purpose.”

Kujou was right. And this time, the person helping out the demons was—

“Either a student, or a staff member…”

Kujou continued my line of thinking.

“That has to be who’s behind the incident. I really didn’t want to consider such a possibility.”

Silence fell. After a short moment, Kujou heaved a sigh.

“I am very glad I entreated help from Tsukuyomi Magic Academy and the two of you. I certainly wouldn’t have uncovered this myself. Thank you for today. We can continue the investigation tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

It was already late. Iori would need to discuss things with Ms. Sakura, too, so he was going to have to put in some extra work.

“Actually, have you eaten dinner yet?”

I shook my head at Kujou’s question.

“No, actually I was thinking that I’d go out, grab some food…and then soak in the bath while I was at it.”

Though I guess I had technically already gone into a bath today.

“Oh? Going out to eat I understand, but going out to take a bath? Why, you don’t need to do that when we have the grand bath right here in the dorms for you. “

“Please, you know I couldn’t possibly do that,” I said with a laugh. If I could, believe me, I’d be sprinting there at this very moment! Okay, that was a lie. I’d end up crushed by my conscience.

“Why, if you went in as Nanako, there wouldn’t be a problem, right? You could even use a bath towel to cover up, if that would make it less embarrassing for you.”

What the heck was she saying with that saintly smile on her face? The sentiment must have come across on my contorted expression, prompting Kujou to laugh.

“Tee-hee. I’m sorry, about ten percent of that was a joke.”

“Ten percent? Then, what exactly about that was a joke?” I asked, but it was Nanami who replied.

“I know. The part about the towel.”

Of course, that couldn’t—

“That’s right, the towel part. You’re not allowed to bring it in with you.”

—possibly not be the joke! She really wasn’t serious about the towel bit!

“Uh, there’s definitely another part of that that’s supposed to be a joke, right?!”

“Tee-hee, forgive me. Let me explain it to you properly. The fact is, the grand bath is only open until one a.m. From there, it’s supposed to be cleaned, but the truth is the cleaning doesn’t happen until early morning.”

“Wait, so then…”

“There is an open slot where no one else is in the bath. Not only that, but only a select few people know about this time block, too. You wouldn’t encounter anyone else.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll give you my permission to go. If I put up the ‘cleaning’ tag on the door, you’ll be even safer.”

Was Kujou sure about this? I mean, I definitely would have loved to soak in the hot spring, don’t get me wrong… As I thought this over, Nanami appeared to have caught on to something besides me.

“You seem quite familiar with all this… Does this mean you normally take advantage of this time?”

Now everything made sense. This was why she knew no one else would come in.

“Shhh, no telling, okay?” she said while putting a finger up to her lips and winking. “I use it quite often when I want take a bath alone.”

“How does the water feel, Master?” Nanami asked me inside my head.

“Absolutely perfect.”

Deciding to immediately head over and jump in the water had been the correct call. The smell of the sulfur shrouding the area. The cloudy hot water. The small garden, resembling an outdoor hot spring bath.

It was pure bliss.

I was actually soaking inside Amaterasu Girls’ Academy’s hot spring… I never would have thought this possible.

“I’m exhausted after everything that happened today, so that’s probably making it feel even better,” I said, to which Nanami agreed.

“Indeed. We in ran into trouble right here, yes?”

“Right… Though this really does feel amazing, I wonder if I could come here again?”

“I imagine you would be safe to do so with Miss Kujou’s permission.”

“I might have to try asking her, then.”

As we conversed, I gazed out over the large, empty bath.

All that said—

“Even knowing it’s okay, I’m still worried…,” I murmured inside my head.

“I understand what is bothering you Master. The bra bags you will need for the laundry, right? Rest easy, I made sure to borrow them from Miss Yukine.”

“Right, right, you need those things to make sure the cups in the bra don’t lose their shape. Really, handwashing’s the best, but—hold on, that’s obviously not what I’m talking about!”

Why had Yukine lent them to her? Was she an accomplice here?

“That’s not it. I’m talking about if it’s really okay to have a guy take a bath in here.”

This place was a walled flower garden for girls. Closed to men. And here I was in the worst possible place for a guy to be—the communal bath.

“Then allow me to set up a bit of foreshadowing for you: ‘Nhh, nhhh! Well now, once I safely get out from my bath without incident, I’ll gulp down a bottle of milk fully naked. Just watch!’”

“Don’t imitate my voice. Also, don’t prognosticate like that. Seriously, if anything happened… Hm?”

I heard something just now, didn’t I?

The sound of the door opening?

Footsteps?

Uhh?

“Hey, Nanami? Did you hear something just now?”

“Funny you should say that, Master. I might have heard something. No, not just might—I definitely heard something.”

Huh? There was no way, right? So you’re telling me I was hearing something, and it wasn’t some auditory hallucination, either?! I could hear people’s voices, too!

C’mon, I mean, there was no way, right?

“Actually, Sister Kujou often comes here at this time of night.”

This voice belonged to…Chris?! But why? It was definitely past 1:00 a.m. at this point, so why was she here?!

“Oh, I had no idea.”

And worse still, she wasn’t alooooooooooooone! Whoa, whoa, hold up, wait a minute, that was Ludie’s voice just now! This can’t be happening!

“Please, calm yourself, Master! Suck in a big gulp of air or bathwater; either will do. Then let it out and calm yourself.”

“Sucking up bathwater would make it all worse, dammit!”

“You seem to have gotten your bearings enough to play off my jokes. Master, you have two options.”

“What are they?”

“Hide within the cloudy bathwater, or shrug this all off as an accident.”

Diving in the water to conceal myself was a possibility, true, but it seemed like the damage would be huge if I was found out. And while I might have been able to get away with Chris seeing me if I tried shrugging it off, Ludie knew who I really was!

But, even if I dove under the water, I didn’t know if I would be able to remain under there while they soaked in the bath. Plus, there was only one entrance if I wanted to try to escape. Okay, seriously, what the hell was I going to do here?

“You’re not covering yourself up, Princess Ludie?”

“No, in the Tréfle Empire, we don’t cover up our fronts in a hot spring. Nor do we use towels. I believe the custom is the same here in Wakoku, yes?”

Elves didn’t cover up their fronts—that was one hell of a factoid to get ahold of. No wonder Ludie was on full display in her CG.

Hold up, that made this so much worse, right?! She was totally defenseless!

“Well, I suppose I’ll be just as bold today myself.”

Wait, don’t just rush long into all this! Chris, you need to scold Ludie, not join in with her!

We were in Wakoku, though. Actually, wait, Wakoku was another country where they didn’t allow you to bring a towel into the hot springs! They couldn’t hide anything! No, but the water was cloudy, so once they got in, I wouldn’t be able to see anything!

“…It looks like we have lost our chance to hide.”

Nanami’s comment made me realize something. Erotic girls’ most erotic areas were so erotic in the faintly erotic steam… At this point, it was too late. Everything seemed erotic to me.

Dammit, my only choice was to grit my teeth and shrug it all off.

“Hm! Who’s there?!” Chris shouted when she saw me.

“I-It’s me. Nanako.”

Chris sighed with relief.

“Oh, it’s you, Nanako. You surprised me there. Phew, I’m glad it really was just you.”

Ludie let out a sigh of relief, too. Then…

“Oh, Nanako, it’s just you…”

Hold on, Ludie was looking relieved here without covering herself up at all. Maybe there was a chance I could push my way through th—

“Thank goodness it was you, Nanako. There was actually an incident before where a boy masquerading as a girl tried to sneak into the school. I was worried you might have been a pervert or something,” Chris explained. Ludie nodded along as she listened.

“You’re absolutely right, dressing up as a girl and sneaking into the hot spring, that’s awful… Hm? Nanako? Masquerading as a girl? Hm?!”

There was a moment where I foolishly thought, hey, I could push right through this.

Ludie looked at me again like she couldn’t believe what was in front of her. Then her eyes widened like saucers.

“Huh?!”

The instant she gasped, her entire face went beet-red, like she was being boiled.

“K-K-K-K-Kous…”

Uh-oh, she was trying to call out my name. If she called out my name here, that was going to be the end of me.

“Princess Ludiviiiiiiiiine! I’m N-A-N-A-K-O! Nanako! Nanako at your service!!”

I averted my eyes and shouted in the center of the bath.

Even selling my soul to the Malevolent Lord wouldn’t erase the grand view from my memory.

I could say with one-hundred-percent certainty that if I ever got amnesia, the memory of this beautiful form would be the very first one I’d get back. This was Eden.

Ludie immediately picked up on what I meant. That said…

“K-K-K-Kous…course! Of cooooourse! I forgot to put on my perfume! S-silly me, what a mistake…”

Her excuse was way too much of a stretch. C’mon, Ludie. Didn’t you have anything else to go with? First of all, it would be a cold day in hell before anyone believed you put on perfume before getting into the bath—

“Oh, you put on perfume for going into the bath? Well, I suppose some people can’t handle the sulfur smell.”

A miracle had transpired right before my very eyes! I still couldn’t really believe it, but Ludie’s excuse worked!

“That said, spraying perfume everywhere would be a nuisance for the other students… What’s wrong? Why are you hiding yourself like that?”

Apparently, Chris caught Ludie covering up her private areas with her hands, and found it suspicious. I mean, who wouldn’t cover their body up in this situation, right?

“I-I figured that, for a proper lady like myself, it would be best to show some modesty…”

“But didn’t you just mention something about not covering up back in the Tréfle Empire?”

Chris had everything on display while saying all this, too. Honestly, since I could see it all, I couldn’t really look at her. What was I supposed to do here? At this point, I didn’t have a clue.

“O-Of course, I was joking. You’re absolutely right, fully open in body and mind.”

Uh-oh, this was bad. Now she was saying some really weird stuff. Ludie was reaching her limit. I had to throw out a lifeline for her.

So, I looked around the area. Yet, the only thing here was the hot spring itself. Wait no, that was it!

“Princess Ludivine, please, please hop into the hot spring!”

The cloudy waters would definitely stop me from seeing anything. Hurry on in and soak in the water. I was at my limit here. My head was about to boil over!

Ludie’s eyes sparkled when she looked at the color of the water.

“G-good idea.”

Readily going along with my brilliant idea, Ludie went to dip into the hot spring. However, it was not to be.

“Wait, Princess Ludie. You still haven’t washed yourself off.”

C’mon on now, you imbecile, what were you trying to pull here? Maybe I should have just split that wash bucket in half, how about that? I was doing everything I could to keep myself mentally stable right now. What was she going to do if I started to go wild?! Manners or chastity, pick one!

“O-oh yes, you’re right.”

As I listened to the sound of splashing water, I incanted the Namu Amida Butsu mantra to purge my worldly desires.

However, despite my effort to empty my head, the girls’ backs, their butts, their napes, their thighs, their butts, their upper arms, and their butts…were all calling to me.

Curse those well-shaped, elegant, and obscene buttocks! Tempt me not!

“It’s about time for me to finish up.”

As I heard the girls both enter the water, I immediately stood up. Shoot, I had spent too much time in the water and gotten vertigo. Combined with the slimy bottom of the hot springs, I lost my footing.

“Are you okay there, Nanako?” Ludie asked, reaching out a hand to support me. I tried to grab her hand, but I was unable to latch onto it.

I did, however, manage to grab onto something else.

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

Now then, my encounter with Ludie in the grand bath was not intentional, but an accident.

The cause of this was several unfortunate turns of events all compounding on each other.

The first bit of bad luck was that neither Iori nor Ludie had been with me when I found the most recent victim in the hall. As a result, they were unaware that Kujou and I had gone to the grand bath.

The second was that Ludie’s shower had broken. Once she had returned to the dorm she took part in her daily meditation, magic training, and midnight ramen snack. Before she realized, it was late, and the grand bath had been closed for the night.

With even one of these strokes of bad luck, she likely would have made it in time to take a bath.

However, she must have wanted to avoid skimping out on her daily training, and it was difficult to fight against the urge for her own personal narcotic, her late-night ramen snack.

The third stroke of misfortune was that she had come across Chris, who was very familiar with how this dorm operated, in front of the grand bath after it had closed for the night, with the cleaning sign hung out front. She knew the grand bath’s particulars just like Kujou did. Really, they were the only students here who did.

In other words, a miracle (bad luck) summoned a miracle, and I witnessed a miracle (full-frontal) and squeezed a miracle (boob). That was the miracle (outline of events) of the night.

“Saying all that doesn’t really mean anything, though, does it?” I grumbled to Nanami, who agreed.

“You are absolutely right.”

Well, after I’d groped her and seen her naked body, yeah, I could understand why Ludie was standoffish with me.

“The other problem here is that there’s not really anyone else I can talk to about this.”

Just to be safe, I immediately sent a message to Kujou. If Chris went to Kujou and told her all about what happened, it could possibly turn into an even bigger problem.

Thus, getting everyone on the same page fast was vital. I had simply wanted to soak in the hot spring. I was innocent, and happened to be there when they were.

I immediately got a reply. She must have been sleepy, as there was a typo, but it had been an apology.

She also asked me to come to the student council room before classes started because there was something she wanted to say to me about this recent matter.

“You think we’re too early?”

“She might not have arrived yet.”

With my early-morning training finished, I came to the campus straightaway. Part of that stemmed from the fact that it would be difficult to face Ludie. How was I going to explain this to Iori? I needed to say something to him at least, or it might cause a headache later down the line.

Still, though.

“Kujou must be exhausted from dealing with all sorts of issues, and here I am putting this weird responsibility on her.”

I felt bad for her. She had done something for me out of the goodness of her heart, and I had turned it into a huge problem. All while she was already wearing herself out dealing with this unsolved mystery, too.

“I do not believe this is cause for too much concern, Master. This is Miss Ludie, after all. She will certainly understand your circumstances. I believe resolving this will just be a matter of time.”

“I certainly hope so…”

While we were conversing, I arrived at the student council room. I entered the password just as Kujou had instructed me and undid the lock. As I started walking over to where Kujou had asked me to wait, I realized something.

“Nanami, I sense someone’s here.”

“The door was still locked, yes?”

There was a hissing sound in one direction. It wasn’t the location Kujou had designated to me. There was also a mysterious smell, like paint thinner, enveloping the student council room. I brought my stole up to my mouth.

Alert and wondering what the smell was, I advanced forward.

Was there a chance some demons had appeared? No, this scenario shouldn’t have progressed that far yet, and even if it had, I had never seen an event involving demons occur in the student council room.

“We should be careful.”

“Yeah.”

Hiding my presence, I headed toward the stench.

“Hee-hee, hee-hee-hee-hee.”

I could hear a familiar voice. Someone was definitely here. Growing more cautious, I slowly and steadily moved toward the sound…

And stumbled upon Chris.

She was barefoot. She was sitting in a chair, her feet raised up high enough to reveal her panties beneath her skirt. For some reason, her feet were right up in front of her mouth.

On the desk in front of her was a bottle of mysterious purple liquid, a bundle of suspicious brown paper, and a spray bottle with superpowered and a big skull mark on it.

Unless my eyes were deceiving me, she had a look of rapture on her face.

I knew what this was! It was the only explanation!

This was way too big a problem for me to handle myself. I decided to leave this in Iori’s hands and went to leave the room, when…

I accidentally kicked a bottle of anti-perspirant spray that had fallen on the ground.

“Huh?!”

Chris yelped and looked at me. Then she froze in place.

She sat there with her mouth agape and her eyes wide open, flashing me her red panties.

The sharp, determined look that was usually on Chris’s face was nowhere to be found. Her dumbfounded expression made it seem like the muscles in her face were asleep at the wheel. Incredibly, she was still as beautiful as ever.

She seemed like she was having trouble processing the situation. In a panic, she tried to hide the cologne in her hands. Uh, that wasn’t really what she was supposed to be hiding here. She needed to conceal those passion-colored panties of hers first.

Chris quickly realized how nonsensical her behavior was and put her foot down.

Then she suddenly stood up, but her eyes started spinning, and she let out a quiet groan. She finally sat back down and let her head droop, her face beet-red. And then…

Chris addressed me in a feeble voice, on the verge of tears.

“Sniff…did you see?”

“Sorry, I did.”

“Heh-heh, heh-heh-heh… The mistake………of a lifetime.”

Chris gazed up at the sky. She probably thought it was all over. I thought it was, too.

She didn’t move a muscle. Unsure of what to do, I could only stare at the middle of the room and Chris.

It seemed like Chris had been drained of spirit and become a husk. Her expression reminded me of someone who had lost spectacularly after wagering everything they owned.

At a loss, I asked Nanami for help.

“Nanami, what am I supposed to do here?”

“I am sorry, Master. I was taking a break until just a moment ago to use up my paid vacation.”

“Why now of all times? There are clearly more appropriate moments for that, right?!”

“You were managing the situation without me, things seem rather hairy, and it looked like it would be amusing, so I thought it better to quietly watch on the sidelines.”

“Hey, you’re saying the quiet part out loud!”

“Well then, please do what you can, Master. Over and out.”

“Hey, wait, get back here! C’moooon!”

As I conversed with Nanami like this, Chris broke her silence with a big sigh. Right as I shifted my focus back toward her, she began to speak.

“I have smelly feet.”

She seemed to almost spit out the explanation.

In actuality, I’d known that this was bothering her. In the game, she tells this to Iori once he becomes friendly with her. But the thing was, there definitely isn’t a scene where he just happens to walk in on her like this.

That was why I didn’t know how I was supposed to handle this situation.

“If you want to laugh, go ahead, laugh. Just say it, I don’t care—‘Oh my, what a truly hideous stench. Why, I do believe I have smelled vomit more fragrant than those feet of yours.’”

Could I actually laugh, though? Would I actually be capable of giggling at her while she said this not with a self-deprecating chuckle, but while looking like she wanted to disappear?

Incidentally, the nasty-yet-prim-lady tone Chris had used just now was something that a certain young lady from the game actually says to her. We eroge players were familiar with it due to how weird and jarring it was to read.

“Oh no, um… It’s not really something you can do much about it, is it?”

In the game, Iori actually says that Chris’s feet have “a unique smell” that he “doesn’t really understand, but feels a weird attraction to,” making him want to “sniff them over and over again.” However, Yuika had mentioned Iori’s sensibilities were a bit different from other people’s, and there were times he would perceive tastes and smells in a very bizarre way. I could agree that his sweet tooth was sending him straight toward one lifestyle disease or another.

“Oh enough, just be honest, okay? They reek.”

“They don’t stink at all! Really!”

“Heh-heh, yes, people have been kind enough to say that before. But I know full well. I’ve understood this from as early as five years old, okay?”

She lowered her face slightly and spoke as if bringing up some memory of hers.

“If I sat with my feet out, the person next to me would get sick. There was even one who said they didn’t stink at all while chatting with me up close, only to start foaming at the mouth and lose consciousness.”

Were these feet or biological weapons we were talking about? Foaming at the mouth and collapsing was a pretty damning reaction, but y’know, I sort of wondered if that kid hadn’t already been sick with something else. If Chris’s smelly feet really had been the cause of it all, I wouldn’t be surprised if the military tried to do research on their lethality.

“But, deodorant, with deodorant, then…it can counterac—”

“Ngh! If that was all it took, I wouldn’t need the Magic Knight Corps’ help!”

So it was a military-grade problem. So uh, Chris, you’re saying some absolutely wild stuff, are you a bit confused? I understood what she was feeling, but we both needed to calm down. Also, don’t point your feet at me.

“I mean, you can smell it, too, can’t you? This rotten stench.”

“I-I can’t smell a thing! Nothing at all. Besides, Chris, you don’t smell anything rotten, either, do you? Just a moment ago, you were smelling your feet with a rapturous look on your face.”

“No, no, you don’t understand! I just, well, how can I put it… I get that way when I smell my feet.”

“Huh? Get what way, exactly?”

Chris must have realized what her outrageous comment sounded like and rephrased it in a fluster.

“No, no, I don’t mean like that! When I imagine what it would be like to cure my smelly feet with deodorant, it just makes me get like that! That’s all!”

“Like I said, get like what?!”

“You know, like my own smelly feet are getting a bit better… Arrghh, nnnngh—it just makes me feel amazing, okay?!”

Uh-oh, things were starting to feel a bit dangerous after all. She looked at me with a twinge of anger.

“What?! I don’t want to hear it!”

“Uh, wait, I didn’t say anything. I haven’t said a word.”

I hadn’t, right? Not a peep, I was sure of it!

“You haven’t said anything, but that face of yours won’t shut up!”

“What the heck am I supposed to do, then?!”

“Just smell them! Go ahead, give them a whiff. You want to smell them, don’t you?! Get down on your hands and knees and inhale!”

I didn’t want to smell them at all! Why was she making me do this? Why did I have to get on all fours to do this, anyway?! Was this some sort of BDSM thing?! Seriously, don’t make someone sniff something that’s strong enough to knock people out!

“J-just calm down for a moment, Chris. You’re really confused here, so—”

“Get down on your hands and knees!”

“Yeeees, ma’am!”

What was with this uncomfortable chill in my heart? I was being ordered around, but for some reason, it didn’t feel all that bad. I even felt like there was some door inside of me that was about to be opened up for the first time.

And that wasn’t all. It was strangely satisfying knowing that Nanami was witnessing everything right now, and this pushed me into an even more extreme state.

When I got on all fours, Chris approached and stretched her foot out at me while giving me a flash of her panties.

Sweat dripped down my brow.

When was the last time I had felt this nervous before? This unique sense of tension, like a swirling mixture of uneasiness and despair, along with a slight hint of anticipation and hope, was in the air around us.

I loudly gulped down my spit. Then I brought my face close to her foot. Holding my breath the whole time and moving sluggishly, painstakingly so, as if in slow motion.

With only a few inches left to go, a devilish voice whispered in my ear, telling me I could just get up and run away. That I could still turn back. That I needed to flee, before this new door opened.

And that depending on what happened, there was the possibility of both me and Chris getting hurt.

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

—Chris’s Perspective—

I couldn’t get my mind off her lately.

Nanako Takioto.

Part of it was because I’d ended up making her smell my feet. There had definitely been something off with me back then. I’d always agonized over that stench.

After witnessing someone laugh my worries off, insisting that I was exaggerating, only to sniff them and collapse, foaming at the mouth, anyone would change how they thought about the subject.

Nanako Takioto had told me that my feet didn’t smell, but that couldn’t possibly be true.

I tried very hard to forget everything that happened, but with how famous Nanako Takioto had gotten, it was futile.

I’d hear her name whether I wanted to or not. Every time I did, I couldn’t help thinking over all sorts of things.

As for why she had gotten so famous, I could point to a few different reasons.

The biggest was the fact that she had beaten Satomi, who was one of the five strongest second-years. And Nanako hadn’t just beaten Satomi—she had trounced Satomi even after she had gone all out and used her bestial transformation.

Nanako had said that Satomi was the person she was most compatible with. However, Satomi had flipped this compatibility on its head with her beast form. She excelled the most at fighting in close quarters.

Even I would have very little hope of defeating her if she used her bestial transformation to close the distance. Getting right into melee range with her was basically suicide.

However, Nanako had defeated Satomi without even showing the blade of the sword on her waist, using nothing but the stole on her person.

It was no wonder, then, that everyone who witnessed this had given her the nickname of Otohime.

Otohime was a beautiful woman who served the Water Dragon and was said to have lived in the Dragon Palace. She wore a flowing celestial raiment around her neck and performed beautiful dances. She was believed to be very powerful, possessing the ability to change the weather itself and manipulate water like an arm.

Nanako Takioto and Otohime were similar women.

One of the sources of Nanako’s nickname was her stole. She wore it around her body almost like the robes of a god, giving her a strong resemblance to Otohime and her unrivaled beauty.

People also compared Nanako’s fighting style to Otohime’s. It looked almost like she was dancing when she fought, the way she fluidly controlled her stole and repelled her opponents’ attacks with only the slightest movements. Otohime was renowned for her dances, so I could understand why they had nicknamed Nanako after her.

Nanako’s appearance was another cause for the comparison. No one could deny she was beautiful. Her height, great figure, and fine features—plus her signature red stole—had caused a tiny stir the moment she set foot in the academy. She was so beautiful that she didn’t even seem out of place standing next to Princess Ludivine, crown jewel of the elves.

The humble figure she cut as she served Princess Ludivine with respect and reverence also resembled Otohime’s service to the Water Dragon.

Nanako’s nickname was a perfect fit.

This was in part why everyone began to take notice of her behavior. A great number of students had also witnessed her bridal-carry an ailing girl to treatment. I myself had seen students whispering about how dashing she was, or how they longed to be carried off by her, too.

It was widely known that she was on good terms with Sister Kujou. Many other students had witnessed them laughing together. There were even some who’d witnessed them conversing together and recounted the two goddesses’ moment of respite.

Otohime was now popular. No, she was too popular. To the point that it had become a fad to add the color red to one’s belongings in adoration of her.

Hair clips, ornamental hairpins, hair ties, and other accessories had all gotten redder lately. I had never seen such a phenomenon occur except with Sister Kujou.

Why wasn’t this happening to me?

Was I too plain? Was my strength not outstanding enough? But I had always tried to work for the betterment of everyone else. Or had I really?

At first, I’d idolized Sister Kujou, and I began learning magic for a rather impure reason, so maybe this was all being conveyed to everyone else, too.

I suddenly thought back to the past.

The reason I worked so hard to learn magic was because I hated the idea of an arranged marriage. The nobility thought it was normal for parents to force their child into marriage, and I had seen such people before myself.

My younger self at the time may not have insisted on waiting for her prince charming on a white steed, but I still wanted to marry a wonderful man. That, and I absolutely refused to have my parents decide my future partner via marriage interviews.

I thought that if I could achieve things as a magic user, I would be able to delay when my marriage interviews would start, giving me the freedom to do what I wanted. But the truth was that my family had a hands-off way of thinking about it; they didn’t care who I married, as long as I tied the knot eventually.

But I hadn’t known that at the time. I remember bringing a magic book to my mother and having her teach me, hoping it would let me get out of marriage interviews.

I ended up falling in love with magic, forgetting all about my original motive for learning it.

The first spell I cast was Fire. It took me quite a long time to merely produce a ball of flame the size of my fist.

The moment after my efforts finally paid off, something stirred inside me.

I remember saying “amazing” over and over again.

It was a tiny flame, barely bigger than a candle and easily blown out with a puff, but it still moved me.

That instant, my goals changed—I wanted to learn to use more magic.

I practiced almost every day because I had a knack for it, particularly fire magic. I had so much fun, and it filled me with happiness.

I wanted to grow strong, I wanted to learn how to use even more amazing magic. If things went well, I wanted to win a tournament. It was when these thoughts grew strong inside my mind that I first heard her name.

Monica Mercedes von Mobius.

A fire battlemage who boasted incredible strength. The student council president of Tsukuyomi Magic Academy, and unrivaled among her classmates. A woman powerful enough to be crowned strongest of all.

I was captivated by her strength and went to see her in a tournament. It was back when Sister Kujou and Miss Monica were first-years, and I had yet to enroll in school.

That was the first time I learned of Sister Kujou. She defeated the reigning Beast King of Susano Martial Academy, said to be the strongest contender to win the tournament after Monica.

The moment Kujou defeated the Beast King, there was a shocked silence followed by a thunderous roar of applause. No one there had thought she would win. Then, riding that moment, she fought Miss Monica.

Things played out according to people’s predictions, and President Monica’s strength was the real deal. However, Sister Kujou was also the only girl who had been able to fight her on equal terms. I can still remember how moved and emotional I was that day.

If I hadn’t watched Sister Kujou and Miss Monica’s bout, then I probably would have enrolled at Tsukuyomi Magic Academy.

That was how strong my feelings for Sister Kujou were. My own specialization in fire magic made me understand all the better how incredible Miss Monica was. However, I think I was able to comprehend better than anyone how amazing Sister Kujou had been for seriously standing up against her.

Though both of them were incredible, their demeanors were slightly different. So, I agonized over the choice. Which school would I apply to?

If Miss Monica’s presence was like a red rose, drawing in the attention of those around her, then Sister Kujou was beautiful and gallant like a white lily, more unassuming than the rose, yet still possessing a beauty that drew the eyes of others.

After I went back and forth over and over again, I chose Sister Kujou. I still don’t believe I made the wrong choice. The better I got to know her, the more I idolized her.

She possessed magnificent ideas, worthy of respect. She had true strength. Then, seeing her look just like a regular noble, troubled by her parents pushing marriage interviews on her, like myself in the past, made me feel an even stronger affinity with her.

She was superb in every respect.

I entered the student council wishing to grow even the slightest bit closer to her. I worked for Sister Kujou’s sake, and for the sake of the students. When the vote for Super Sister came around, needless to say, I supported her.

When she achieved the hitherto unheard-of feat of holding the titles of Super Sister and student council simultaneously, I was as overjoyed as if it was my own accomplishment, and I began to desire the title of Super Sister myself.

First, I believed that I needed to hone my skills and strength. From there, I hid the smell of my feet and spent my days trying to serve as a model for the students to follow, aiming to become a woman of impeccable conduct, beloved by all.

I trained every day and obtained the strength to vie for the top place in my class. It had required a tremendous amount of hard work, but I was able to do so because of Sister Kujou.

Then, little by ever so little, some girls began to show me reverence. That made me so happy.

Yet in less than a week, Nanako Takioto had managed to achieve what it had taken me a year to build up.

I could only let out a self-deprecating laugh. It was far more frustrating than I could have imagined. There had been a night when the distress brought me close to tears.

It was the first time I had ever resented my lack of strength.

Part of me then felt that everything would have gone smoothly if Nanako Takioto wasn’t here. I felt repulsed by my own awful thoughts, and my own spinelessness threatened to crush me.

I was sure that today would be another day plagued by this same self-disgust.

As I thought all of this, there was a knock on the door to my room. “Come in,” I said, and Vestris stepped inside the place as if it was her own.

“Good day, Gauss.”

“Good day.”

The very last person I wanted to see right now had shown up. I regretted letting her in.

“I see your dwelling is as dismal as ever.”

“Oh, and here I was thinking how much easier it is to live in compared to that gaudy room of yours.”

Being surrounded on all sides by furniture purely meant to look pretty, adorned with golden ornaments, was tiring on the eyes. I preferred simple rooms, like Sister Kujou’s.

“Aw, how sad. You don’t seem to understand luxury, do you?”

“You and I are never going to get along. What are you here for then?” I said, with the sentiment that if she didn’t have any business, she should get out.

However, Vestris brushed off my words like they were nothing, putting her hand up to her forehead and looking distraught.

“You see, I am incensed.”

“Oh, what a coincidence. So am I.”

Both at her and myself.

“Incensed at that girl everyone is praising, with an Otohime this and an Otohime that. You too, I assume?”

I fought back the urge to point out that Nanako was at least taller and stronger than her.

“Not particularly…”

“Oh, that’s a lie, I’m sure you can’t help but have her on your mind. Especially for you, with your eyes set on being Super Sister, after all.”

When I grew silent, she nodded with a grin.

“People like us who aspire to be Super Sister can’t have the votes going to an outsider, can we?”

“Not that I’m campaigning to be Super Sister as overtly as you are.”

I absolutely hated Vestris’s stance on it.

I hated how she publicly announced she was aiming to become Super Sister, treated the children of families unable to go against her own like retainers, and gathered votes by behaving like she was campaigning for the honor.

I also loathed how she used her family as a shield to threaten anyone she didn’t get along with.

I truly thought that she was the type of person I would never be able to be cordial with.

“Isn’t she intolerable?”

“Not really? We’re not strong enough, that’s all.”

If I wasn’t going to be recognized for what I’d done, then I didn’t need to become Super Sister.

That’s how I was supposed to have thought about it.

Yet the fact remained that after working so hard and coming so far, my sentiment was wavering.

It seriously irritated me. Not Nanako Takioto. I was irritated at myself for thinking like this.

“I understand how you feel. I can’t stand you, but I’ve always liked that haughtiness of yours.”

I was a little annoyed to have her talk to me about having high pride. You wear your pride so clearly on your sleeve that it’s higher than anyone can hope to reach.

Feeling like this was all ridiculous, I looked away without saying a word. However, she put her arm around my shoulder and spoke to me.

“I have seen how hard you’ve worked. You may be a rival, but I’ve always been watching, you know. All the more reason, honestly… If Nanako Takioto is going to steal it away from me anyway, I would much rather have the title go to you instead.”

“You really say some nasty things, you know that?”

I couldn’t help letting the jab slip out. She may have been aware of it herself, as she didn’t react at all.

“That’s not all, either. We cannot let our prestigious academy, or its customs, be interfered with by a student of another school.”

I also questioned having a student from another school getting Super Sister votes. However, Sister Kujou didn’t seem concerned about it at all, and such a rule hadn’t necessarily been laid out anywhere, either.

“Above all, I cannot stand to have a girl who’s not from a noble family even be in the running at all.”

She bit her nails, grinding her teeth.

Looking at her, I suddenly thought that it was such a waste. Vestris definitely had a talent for magic, but the power and money of her family had deluded her. Perhaps it was that she was resting on her laurels. If she just trained as much as everyone else and grew stronger, her popularity and vocal support would grow with it, but since I’d known her, the only thing that had grown was her misplaced pride.

“Nanako Takioto herself doesn’t have any desire to be Super Sister, so why don’t we both eliminate her votes together?”

“That’s impossible.”

“It absolutely is possible. I have a plan.”

“There’s no way you could do something like that.”

“But I can. With my magic, and this plan of mine. You just have to lure her somewhere. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“But…”

“I’m sure you’ll regret it forever.”

I knew that her words were the devil whispering on my shoulder.

“So, you want to give up on being Super Sister, then? You’re fine with this girl popping up out of nowhere to make a mockery of the prestigious Super Sister institution, is that it?”

I didn’t. I wanted to become Super Sister. To become a Super Sister like Sister Kujou. I had always worked hard for it.

All my actions, all my thoughts up until now began flowing through my mind like a muddy stream. It was the first time I’d felt this way.

“Work with me.”

Vestris extended her hand, bearing a ring inlaid with a black magic stone, seeking my handshake.

I couldn’t let myself take it. No matter what turbid waters swallowed me up, I absolutely couldn’t shake her hand. I needed to desperately keep breathing, and search for the shore to keep myself from going under. Yet, there was nothing around me, and with no path to save me, in the end, I reached out my hand, too.

I took hers in mine.

“Here it is. All the students pray here before heading for the dungeon,” I said as I brought Nanako Takioto, Princess Ludivine, and Iori Hijiri there.

Vestris’s instructions were simple—just take Nanako Takioto to a shrine the size of a small house located on the first floor of the Amaterasu Dungeon.

It was a spot many of the students visited before progressing through the dungeon. I’d been there several times myself.

Here my fellow classmates and underclassmen would pray to get through the dungeon safely, before heading farther inside.

“Looks like an actual shrine, doesn’t it?” Nanako Takioto commented, staring at the structure. She was a native of Wakoku, so she was likely used to seeing such locations.

In my own country, these types of structures had been a rarity, so I remembered being fascinated when I first saw it.

“What’s wrong? You seem a bit off today,” Nanako said, looking at me.

“Nothing, I’m just excited to go through the dungeon,” I said, dodging the question. Then, I tightly gripped the stone in my pocket.

Vestris asked me to hand this stone over to a girl working under her. A girl who seemed to be the one she mentioned was praying at the shrine with several of her friends.

She would do everything, I had been told.

A thought crossed my mind as the other three approached the shrine.

What was I doing? Did I really want to become Super Sister enough to do something like this? What exactly was the Super Sister title that I had idolized and longed for?

There appeared to be several other students praying here today as well, and there was quite a large number of people in the area. We lined up in the small queue that had formed, and before long it was finally our time to offer our prayers.

The instant I touched the rope hanging from the bell in front of the shrine, it happened.

“What?”

Suddenly, a flame lit up on the candlestick-looking object beside me.

Then the door to the shrine abruptly opened, and the inside was laid bare.

“What is this? A mirror?”

Up ahead, beyond the open door, there was a mirror within the inner shrine. It had a large crack along it, with a black light leaking out from the gap.

It was so hot!

Suddenly, I felt heat at my side, and I took out what was causing it from my pocket. It was the stone Vestris had given me.

The stone shined with a black light, and the crack in the mirror began growing even larger, until it finally shattered.

Then a magic circle appeared below the broken mirror. The shards of glass and the mirror stand disappeared, and in their places, several monsters jumped out. They looked like beasts made of paper. The creatures ran toward the nearby students and began attacking them with their claws and horns.

I quickly retreated far back while watching it all dumbfounded, when I then heard the voice of the noble girl Vestris kept as a lackey.

“Miss Christine just summoned monsters!”

“Huh?”

I was confused. I hadn’t done anything of the sort. Yet, she began running around saying I was summoning monsters. She raised her voice and ran around.

Hearing this, several of the nearby students started staring at me. The instant I met their gazes, it hit me.

I had been set up.

Vestris hadn’t been trying to go after Nanako Takioto; she had been trying to trick me from the very start.

“Nanako, Iori, here they come.”

Princess Ludivine’s composed voice brought me back to my senses.

First and foremost, I needed to protect her. She was a student from another school, and the treasure of the Tréfle Empire. This thought made me understand the situation even more. Of course Vestris had wanted to make it look like I was attacking Princess Ludivine. If a key figure from another country was attacked, it had the chance of turning into an international incident.

Vestris had even taken this into consideration.

When I tried to go to Ludie’s side, Vestris’s lackey was staring at me. I was sure she would say something else when I got close, too.

At that moment, there was a creature resembling a paper butterfly closing in, so I hit it with a fireball. This butterfly seemed to be attacking the students as well.

Princess Ludivine’s group and several other students were fighting, but the monsters kept appearing one after another.

They were still coming out.

I thought it was poetic justice. I was trying to set Nanako up, but in the end, I’d gotten taken advantage of instead. All of a sudden, Vestris’s words—“I’m sure you’ll regret it forever”—flickered in the back of my mind.

I had regretted taking her hand, and I still felt guilty now.

I would probably regret it from here on out, too. Not only had I ruined everything I had built up until now, but I had actually made things worse for myself by tossing aside my own pride and the things I believed in.

This was truly awful.

Yet even so, I wanted to make sure my final moments before my fall were beautiful. Though my reputation might drop down into the dirt, I didn’t want to cause any damage to the school or harm to the students.

Even if I had to give my life to do so.

That was why I jumped into the teleportation magic circle inside the shrine where the monsters were appearing from.

“Chris!”

I thought that I heard Nanako and the others shouting.

“Stop right there, Chris! Chris!”

I must have been hallucinating, but I thought I could hear Sister Kujou’s voice as well. She couldn’t have possibly been there because she’d told me she had work to do. Besides, no matter who called out to me, I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going.

When I finished teleporting, I searched for the source from which the monsters appeared. Before me was a path resembling a wide mining tunnel. It appeared this area had been turned into a dungeon, so I decided to continue down the path. Forgetting myself, I recklessly barreled forward.

Burning away the paper beasts that attacked me, I continued ever onward. I progressed through without any break, paying no heed to my remaining mana, and using all the items I had.

How many floors had I gone through? How much time had passed? Consuming over half of my mana, I finally arrived at what appeared to be the deepest section of the dungeon.

I saw what looked like a single human standing there. However, on closer inspection, it wasn’t a person at all.

“Paper?”

It was made of paper. Paper folded into the shape of a person, one resembling a soldier. The creature was moving similarly to the other enemies that had appeared in the dungeon.

There was also a magic circle at the paper soldier’s feet, and numerous pieces of paper were floating up from it. All of them folded automatically in midair without the soldier touching them, taking the shapes of beasts, butterflies, and more. The whole process only took a few seconds.

The paper creatures that were created flew straight toward the teleportation circle as if truly alive.

Most likely, this human-shaped paper was the source of it all.

If I could defeat it, then I’d be able suppress the monster summoning. That should do the trick. I readied my wand and strengthened my mana.

When I did, the paper soldier appeared to notice me, and turned my way. Then he directed a paper arm toward me.

At the same moment, the paper butterflies changed their direction and flew my way in a scattered formation. There were far more than I could count.

However, I had my magic.

“If they’re made of our paper, then I just have to burn them all up!”

I cast my spell and created a huge wall of flames.

Similar monsters made of paper had appeared while I was clearing the dungeon, but I managed to easily defeat most of them by burning them up. Even these strange butterflies were still paper, after all, so I just had to burn them to a crisp.

But this was the wrong move.

Several of the butterflies thrust through my wall of fire.

My flames definitely had some effect. Some of the butterflies were fully reduced to ash, but others didn’t burn.

Their numbers were overwhelming. There were so many that before the flames could spread, the butterflies charged through, and unbelievably, destroyed the wall.

“There’s just too many…”

Several of the butterflies, after piercing through the fire wall, flew at me even as they burned. My own attack had actually enhanced my opponent’s.

Still, their numbers had decreased, and I acted the moment the wall was broken through, so I had plenty of time to dodge.

Nevertheless, while I was evading their attacks, several pieces of paper floated up around the paper soldier. The sheets of paper folded simultaneously in midair.

“What is it this time? Dice?”

They were forming what appeared to be a square box. The boxes floated all around the paper soldier. Their movements were slightly different from the butterflies of before. Several were then scattered to various different locations.

One of them flew in close to me, and when it did, this box-like creation puffed up with air until it looked ready to burst.

“?!”

Sensing the danger, I dodged. The cube exploded.

“Wait, those are bombs?!”

That wasn’t all. The paper soldier had already finished folding something else and fired it toward me. His barrage flew straight at me, and at quite a high speed, too.

I immediately launched a fireball and hit the flat objects heading toward me. Unfortunately, they cut through my spell and flew right down at my feet.

I dodged desperately, but one of the paper creations scraped my foot. It was shaped into a star.

But by attempting to evade, I’d put myself in greater danger. One of the square boxes was right in range of me.

It was going to explode.

Seeing this box swell up, I instantly twisted my body and covered my face with my enhanced arms and hands in an attempt to prevent as much damage as possible.

A shockwave so powerful it forced my eyes closed and a concussive sound passed through my body.

I had blundered. I should have realized those boxes were mines the moment the paper soldier scattered them around. I should have examined my surroundings more carefully. If I had known how they functioned sooner, things never would have ended up like this.

“This is bad. My feet won’t move.”

I had managed to cover my face, but I hadn’t been able to protect my legs. Would my healing magic be fast enough? Would my recovery items make it in time?

The paper soldier stared vacantly at me, unable to move.

I had somewhat figured out that the longer that paper of theirs took to fold, the more powerful it was.

The stars, taking longer to make than the butterflies, were strong, and the exploding dice had taken an even longer time to fold.

Now, it was making something else.

“Impressive, you can even fold something like that?”

Around the soldier, more than ten large pieces of paper began folding all at once. They had all been shaped into small lightning bolts. Once they had all taken their lightning-bolt shape, they began to combine with the other pieces of paper to form a different shape. I could do nothing but sit there and watch it happen.

In the end, the several dozen pieces of paper had transformed into a box resembling a chunk of rock candy.

“After making something so complicated with such big pieces of paper, I wonder just how strong it is.”

I couldn’t dodge it, and I didn’t think I would be able to defend against it.

A strange sensation hit me as I stared at the rock candy creation. I was clearly on the brink of death, yet my mind was filled with meaningless thoughts.

“…Amazing. You can even fold paper into a shape like that?”

Now that I thought about it, Sister Kujou was a native of Wakoku. If I recalled correctly, there was a tradition in Wakoku culture called “origami.” Was this a type of origami, then?

The paper soldier had crafted a mysterious object, like a jagged sphere. It seemed to be constructed from a very rigidly calculated design. It would have probably looked very pretty as a decoration in my room.

The paper soldier threw this rock candy creation toward me. It flew straight at me. A direct hit would probably kill me. But I couldn’t dodge it. My feet wouldn’t move. It didn’t seem like a simple spell would be able to stop it, and I couldn’t quickly prepare the magic necessary to guard against it.

As the rock candy creation approached, a thought crossed my mind.

“I wonder if Sister Kujou would be able to fold a shape like that?”

If she could, I would have liked to see how it all came together. I was talking about Sister Kujou, after all; she could probably fold something like it with ease.

So just like always, I would have Sister Kujou teach me how. She would probably slowly and deliberately show me how to fold it with those pretty hands of hers, all with a gentle smile on her face.

Sister Kujou was good at taking care of others, so she was bound to teach me very attentively until I managed to do it myself. Once I completed it, I would display it in the student council room as a memento of ours.

Then, we’d look at it together, and if the other student council members asked us what it was, I could jokingly answer that it was a secret between me and Sister Kujou.

Oh, right of course. I wasn’t going to be able to see her again. Sheesh, I really was stupid, letting my mind run away like that.

Death was already closing in right in front of me. My remains might not be left behind in one clean piece. I would have preferred Sister Kujou and the others not see me like that. But I was sure the rumors had already spread about me summoning monsters, so they’d probably handle my body however they saw fit, and that would be the end of it. Depending on the circumstances, they might not find my corpse and become convinced that I had fled.

There was less than thirty feet between me and the rock candy creation now. It flew closer, right toward me… Just when it had nearly closed in on me…

I saw a red stole shoot out in front of me.

The person wearing it drew their sword. Or more accurately, by the time I made sense of things, they had already drawn their sword. Before I knew it, the person had finished slashing, and the rock candy mass split cleanly in two, each half flying to the left and right. I hadn’t been able to see them draw their sword.

“Sorry for not getting here sooner, Chris.”

I thought it was her.

But it wasn’t the person I knew.

Their hair color was different, and their physique, too. However, they were wearing the same celestial raiment around them, along with the katana they usually carried. Even then, it wasn’t her.

“Nana…ko?”

It was him. He was a man.

An earsplitting explosion and a hot gust of air enveloped our surroundings. The rock candy he split in two had exploded.

It was a massive blast, unlike anything I had seen before.

However, the strong wave of heat, enough to sear the skin, never came.

Because his celestial raiment had protected me.

He turned his head to me and grinned.

“Leave the rest to us.”

MagicalExplorer

Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim

—Kousuke’s Perspective—

As I watched her stare at me in confusion, I was filled with relief.

I had managed to make it in time, just barely.

Her uniform was a mess, her face was covered in dirt, and she was bleeding. She had been cut with something sharp, and her legs had gotten the worst of it.

The wounds weren’t lethal, but they were close to it. She would have been in dire straits had I not gotten here in time to stop the bomb from hitting her.

“Leave the rest to us.”

Saying this, I recalled the events of the past few days.

We returned the item in question back to the grand bath, letting the culprit act freely in order to catch them.

I could count on one hand the number of days it had taken, after the discovery in the grand bath, to discover the culprit and where they were sending all the mana.

Since I knew who the culprit was, I thought about trying to steer things a little bit, but that hadn’t been necessary. That was because they were so careless. Boldly collecting the stone left in the grand bath the way they did was so utterly foolish, I never would have even considered it.

The perpetrator was the dark magic expert Vestris. As for the location, that was the shrine on the first floor of the Amaterasu Dungeon.

Though, everyone besides myself likely believed that Vestris was a follower of the Church of the Malevolent Lord.

In reality, she only knew as much as the average person about the Malevolent Lord. Her aim was to become Super Sister, and merely to drag Chris, currently the most popular candidate, down and out of the race.

Due to the influence of her family, an esteemed noble house, Vestris had grown up very spoiled and selfish. She would get angry when things didn’t go exactly as she wanted, so she would try to force things to go her way, by any means necessary.

Indeed, Vestris was not scrupulous about how she achieved her goals. There had been no low she didn’t stoop to once she decided to become Super Sister. Even if the person she was asking for help was a demon, or a member of the Church of the Malevolent Lord.

The game doesn’t go into great detail about the series of events that led to Vestris working with the Church of the Malevolent Lord, but the scenario writer remarked that there was a problem with Vestris’s family itself. Personally, I surmised that this meant that her family was involved with crime. They didn’t mention anything beyond that, though, so I could only guess.

Looking at Vestris, Ms. Sakura asserted, “This girl may be rather strong, but she couldn’t possibly obtain this stone and modify it for her own uses.” Her observation was correct.

This was why Ms. Sakura had decided to leave Vestris to her own devices for even longer.

Rather than capture Vestris immediately, we concluded it would be better to lure out the person she was in league with. As long as we didn’t take care of whoever had enabled her, it was possible the same thing could happen again. Furthermore, while it would be great if capturing Vestris was enough to make the organization backing her give up, we couldn’t risk the chance that it might spur them to take even stronger measures and harm the students.

So the plan was to gather information while the damage was still negligible.

This went relatively smoothly, too. While we managed to quickly guess the location where the mana was being sent, we didn’t know anything about the mastermind behind it all.

That was probably unavoidable. The mastermind wasn’t on campus, and the person monitoring things had hidden themselves among the lower ranks while they made their moves.

Of course, I knew most of this information already, but I purposefully kept quiet out of consideration for how things would go in the future.

While Ms. Sakura and the others continued to let Vestris move freely, this latest incident cropped up.

It must have been a big shock for everyone else. After all, they all figured Vestris would be the one to make something happen at the shrine where all the mana was being sent. Yet it had been Chris.

Still, we all kept our guard up when we approached the shrine. I had made sure to ask Kujou to be as close to the shrine as possible ahead of time, so she immediately rushed in to help.

Unfortunately, Chris dove straight into the teleportation circle inside the shrine without any hesitation. She didn’t even stop when Kujou called after her.

We couldn’t afford to stand there with our mouths agape. There was a boss on the other end of the circle. I immediately cut through the nearby paper monsters and eliminated them. Then, after defeating the paper butterflies attacking some nearby students, I jumped into the teleportation circle.

“I’m leaving this to you and going on ahead!”

On the other side was a floor encased in rock, with wood frames set up to reinforce the walls and ceiling, like in a coal mine. As I ran through the corridor, I swore under my breath.

Most things had gone exactly as they had in-game, but I hadn’t expected Chris to jump in here on her own. Normally, Chris is supposed to challenge the dungeon together with Hana.

When I thought about why things had played out this way, I figured it was because I had become a potential candidate for Super Sister, a role originally meant for Iori.

In the game, Chris tries to set Iori up after he becomes a popular student on campus.

It was inevitable, really. Iori was cute, kind, a very strong fighter, loved sweet things, sort of came off like an adorable little animal, and even though he made you feel like you wanted to protect him, he was strong enough to protect you instead. Who could blame the other students for considering him for Super Sister?

But in the real world, I had ended up as a potential Super Sister candidate for some reason. People had taken to calling me Otohime, and apparently, I even had a fan club called the Otohime Sisterhood. It didn’t make any sense.

I was surprised to learn this from Satomi and the others; I guess it was my mistake to have brushed off the implications of becoming a potential Super Sister candidate.

I’d figured it would just mean that I would be targeted instead of Iori. That’s all.

But since this never happens in the game, Chris ended up behaving in a way that was contradictory to the game scenario, too.

“We could be in real trouble here.”

Nanami reacted to my comment.

“Let us hurry. Or better yet, shall we undo our fusion?”

Originally, I was supposed to defeat the monsters that showed up and head into the dungeon together with super-strong Kujou and Chris, who could strike the boss’s weakness. There are some cases where the player’s decisions in the game result in Chris not tagging along, but that wasn’t really important.

This event should be relatively easy because you clear it together with Kujou, who’s quite powerful. But it would be practically impossible for Chris to get through it all by herself.

While I could probably defeat the boss on my own if it came down to that, if I wanted to cover all my bases…

“Let’s undo the fusion and just accept that the whole school could find out the truth in the worst-case scenario.”

…I needed to undo my fusion with Nanami. Saving Chris was our top priority.

Even as we both continued forward at a good clip, we couldn’t catch up to Chris. Nanami suggested that she might have stormed through before all the monsters in the dungeon had finished appearing. There was a chance that she could already be on the boss floor.

I had merely mentioned that possibility that I least wanted to consider, but it appeared that I had hit the mark.

Nevertheless, we had made it in time.

“Nanami, take care of Chris.”