Classmate wa Isekai de Yuusha ni Natta kedo, Ore dake Gendai Nihon ni Okizari ni Narimashita - Chapter 105

Chapter 105: Preparations for the Cultural Festival Have Begun — Part 8

“I can’t eat another bite. I think I ordered too much…”

“I’m full too. I might skip dinner today…”

We had thought that between the two of us, we could handle a large-sized half-and-half pizza—teriyaki chicken with mayo and Neapolitan mix—along with fried chicken and a salad. Clearly, we had overestimated ourselves.

Nearly half of the food remained untouched on the table.

I figured we could toss the leftovers in the fridge or freezer and eat them for dinner or breakfast tomorrow.

“Um, are you sure about this? You paid for everything…”

As I was thinking that, Kyouri gave me a slightly guilty look.

“I owe you a lot today, Kyouri. Let me at least do this much.”

“If you insist…”

Our study session had progressed faster than expected, and this seemed like a natural stopping point. If I was going to bring up the issue with Ikoma-senpai, this was the moment.

“…Kyouri, can we talk about something serious for a second? It concerns your safety.”

“My safety…? I understand. Please go on.”

“…Your club president, Ikoma-senpai—she might be an Awakened.”

“…What?”

Kyouri looked genuinely confused by what I said.

Considering she's been in the same club as Ikoma-senpai far longer than I’ve known her, her reaction suggested she wasn’t aware of this.

“You’re telling me this because you have some kind of proof, right? Please explain.”

Still, Kyouri quickly regained her composure and asked calmly.

“Remember the first day we went to school together? Ikoma-senpai was surrounded by delinquents, and I stepped in. But no one—not even the nearby cop—reacted to it. It was like it never happened.”

“That happened that day? I’m sorry, I should’ve been closer to you—”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Kyouri. And considering Ikoma-senpai’s potential ability, you might not have been able to intervene anyway.”

“Her ability…?”

I took a deep breath and explained the effect of what seemed like a totally absurd supernatural power—one straight out of a comic book.

“She can turn her imagination into reality. That’s what I believe her ability does.”

“…Do you have any solid evidence of that?”

“You remember when I got your message after school and went to the clubroom building? That day, Ikoma-senpai confided in me directly. She said that since summer break, this power had started manifesting… and she couldn’t control it.”

“She can’t control it… Meaning it could go out of control at any time.”

“There's also a chance someone else is triggering the power on her behalf. Either way, the situation’s dangerous.”

I took a sip of the oolong tea that came with the pizza, wetting my throat before continuing.

“I’ve done what I can to prepare, but during the festival prep and the festival itself, I’m honestly not confident I’ll be able to respond in time. I'm an outsider—I can’t be in the clubroom building during prep, and on the day of the festival, there’ll be a flood of people from outside the school. It’ll be even harder to manage.”

“Then maybe you could… Oh, but right. No new members allowed during prep season.”

“Exactly. So I can’t think of any way to prevent a power outburst during that time.”

“Hmm… And Ikoma-senpai was bullied in elementary school, right? I heard that’s why she struggles with men. If you stuck close to her, it might stress her out more and increase the risk.”

Bullied by boys… Now that I thought about it, she did seem very tense when we spoke in the clubroom.

But then, why did she come to me—a guy—for help with her problems? Unless she knew I was Awakened too, it would’ve made more sense for her to talk to a friend.

But I could think more about that later. The more pressing issue was how to respond if her powers go out of control.

“One thing I haven’t asked—will she definitely be attending the cultural festival?”

“All club leaders and association heads are required to attend, from what I’ve heard.”

“In that case… the only solution is to have someone close to her at all times. Someone who won’t stress her out, but who also won’t raise suspicion. But finding a person that convenient is—wait…”

Just as I was about to give up and look skyward in exasperation, my gaze fell on our mailbox.

I remembered the female shikigami in black kimono sent by the Kuon family to deliver the invitation. And the others back at the mansion, who did chores and moved as naturally as people.

Could it work?

“Something wrong, Shu-kun?”

“Hey, the chores at your family estate—those are done mostly by shikigami, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Why?”

“What if… we repurposed one of those shikigami to pass as a female student in our school, a member of the literature club? Have it stay by Ikoma-senpai’s side constantly. I know it’d mean deceiving her, and I hate that, but it might reduce the number of people harmed if her powers explode.”

“A shikigami…?”

Kyouri fell silent for a moment, considering my proposal.

“You think it’s not feasible?”

“No, I think it’s a reasonable approach. The problem is that it’s impossible to prepare a shikigami that can convincingly mimic a high school girl from scratch at this point.”

…Mimic?

As I tried to wrap my head around that, Kyouri pulled a talisman from her sleeve. She channeled her power into it, and in a blink, it transformed into an adorable fox-shaped shikigami.

It let out a yawn and moved onto her lap like a real animal before curling up and falling asleep.

“Shikigami only work because we use special tools to record the movements and behaviors of particularly skilled people or animals. That gets translated into a foundational spell. Like this fox—it mimics the real behavior of an actual fox because of the recorded data. Then we layer more spells on top of the base—appearance, subjugation, special abilities. That’s how it’s completed.”

Record behavior with magical tools, then replay it like motion capture…

“So if we wanted a shikigami to pass as a student, we’d need a real student to act as the model and record their behavior, right?”

“Exactly. And it takes at least six months to complete a full recording. We wouldn’t be done in time.”

“It takes that much work to make one shikigami… Kuon family must’ve been incredible to make so many for your mansion.”

“There aren’t many families that can do that. But it’s not as difficult as you might think.”

“Oh?”

“Let me show you—it’s faster than explaining.”

Kyouri returned the fox shikigami to its paper form and placed it on the table. She tore a piece of paper from her notebook and placed it beside it.

Tracing the characters on the talisman, she summoned several five-pointed stars inscribed with complex symbols, floating in the air.

She grabbed the lowest star and pressed it against the scrap of notebook paper. Then she traced over it, causing the paper to glow faintly as the same emblem appeared.

With another burst of power, the scrap paper transformed—into a perfect copy of the fox shikigami.

Just like before, it moved with the natural grace of a real animal.

“Once the base spell is made, you can duplicate it endlessly like this.”

“So the ones doing chores at your estate were just duplicates too?”

“Exactly. We just change their appearance and voice to avoid uncanny repetition.”

“Huh, that’s handy…”

“This fox’s base spell was made centuries ago. So there’s no degradation over time, either.”

“Wow… that’s really convenient.”

“Most exorcists learn duplication and subjugation spells first for this very reason.”

Shikigami were even more versatile than I thought.

…Too bad we couldn’t use them this time.

No point dwelling on it now. Might as well get back to studying.

“Sorry for the detour. Shall we get back to studying?”

“Not at all. Thank you for the warning. I’ll try to come up with something too.”

But first, we had to clean the table.

“Kyouri, could you bring me the plate with the leftover fried chicken?”

“Of course.”

As she handed me the plate, the new fox shikigami playfully lunged at her arm.

She quickly sealed it back into its talisman, but it had already scratched her a little.

I cast a healing spell and rushed to her side.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s just a scratch. Don’t worry… And I’m sorry for the trouble.”

She bowed her head slightly, still looking a bit guilty.

“Don’t worry about it. But I didn’t expect a shikigami to act up like that.”

“That one only had the base spell. Without the subjugation spell, it just mimics behavior.”

Ah, that subjugation spell again.

“You mentioned that earlier—what exactly is that?”

“It’s a spell that makes the shikigami recognize the caster as its master and obey commands.”

A puppet, she said. For a moment, something stirred in my memory, but it vanished just as quickly.

“…Something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing. Hey, could I have that duplicate shikigami? I’d like to study it.”

“Of course. I’ll add a subjugation spell just in case.”

“Thanks.”

She pulled out another talisman and performed the same process as before, sealing the copy again.

(Ugh… I feel like I’m so close to figuring something out…)

Watching her, I felt like I had a fish bone stuck in my throat—an idea almost there, but not quite.

Just a little more, and I could reach it…

“All done, Shu-kun.”

“Thanks. Alright, let’s get back to studying.”

“Yes!”

And so we cleared the table and returned to our study session.

---

◇◇◇

“Thanks again for walking me all the way to the station.”

“Can’t have anything happen to someone so important to me. It’s the least I can do.”

It was now 5:50 p.m.

With my sister due back from the dojo, I ended our session and walked Kyouri to the station.

There was no telling when or where another ability outburst might happen—better safe than sorry.

“See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. See you.”

I watched her enter the station, then turned to head home.

Just then, a commercial featuring a trending impressionist caught my eye on a screen outside a building.

Normally, I wouldn’t even register something like that.

But that day—at that moment—it stuck with me.

(Impersonation… mimicry… duplication… and puppet… Wait!)

The words Kyouri said earlier—“puppet”—connected with “mimicry” from the commercial.

Everything clicked into place.

(This might actually work!)

I couldn’t waste another second.

Feeling the rush of having found the last puzzle piece, I ducked into a side alley and cast spatial teleportation magic—eager to put my idea to the test.

---

← Previous Chapter | Next Chapter →

---