The car sped off, showing no sign of slowing down.
"Th-thank you!"
The girls, still a little shaken, quickly turned to Sato with gratitude.
"Hm? Haven't we met before?"
One of them, a girl with orange medium-length hair tied in a side ponytail, looked at him hesitantly.
Sato shook the water off his umbrella. Thankfully, all three girls were quite petite, so the umbrella had managed to shield them well. A few stray droplets were no big deal.
He nodded with a smile. "We met briefly in Homura, remember?" (TL/N: Chapter 7)
"Ah! I remember now!"
Just as realization dawned on the orange-haired girl, another girl with long, straight black hair stepped forward and bowed deeply.
"Thank you so much for your help!"
"Arigatou!"
The other two echoed her thanks.
"It was nothing. Well then, I'll be off~"
Sato nodded to them politely. As his eyes briefly met the gaze of a flaxen-haired girl who quickly looked away, he raised his umbrella again and headed toward Aoyama Apartments.
…
"Heh! Heheheh!"
Before even reaching the building, Sato could already hear strange, excited laughter.
Takanashi?
His expression froze and his brow twitched slightly.
At the base of the apartment building, he spotted Takanashi Rikka.
She stood in the corner near the right wall, back to him, staring intently into a cluster of bushes.
"So, you've tracked me down even here…"
"I should've known, the most powerful hound of the Holy Regulator!"
This again? Another Chuunibyou episode…
Thanks to the system-generated character profiles, Sato was certain Takanashi Rikka wasn't some real esper or supernatural being.
Her threat rating was a mere F.
Just your typical, painfully ordinary human being.
Compared to some of the others in the building, though… they were the real nightmares. Particularly that bald guy and the one who seemed like a fallen angel, now those were hidden monsters.
"To think you could follow me through the Ethereal Horizon… You're more impressive than I expected."
"But! I'll never bow to your kind!"
Whoosh!
Rikka swung her frilly parasol dramatically. Alongside her faux-grave voice came the distinct sound of it cutting through the air.
"Don't forget… I am the wielder of the Tyrant's eye!" (Jaō Shingan)
"Reality Be Bent! Synapse Break! Banishment this world!"
She clutched the eye covered by her eyepatch as if it brimmed with uncontrollable power. The deep, theatrical chant spilled from her lips as she removed the eyepatch.
Her uncovered eye, unlike the turquoise hue of the other, was a dazzling gold.
Staring down the bush before her, the air suddenly thickened with tension.
Then, with a loud "HRAH!" she began furiously stabbing the shrub with her parasol.
Swish!
Swish!
Swish!
Her parasol, like a cursed weapon in disguise, roared through the air. To her, it must've felt like she was fending off a charging army...
Takanashi Rikka vs. the world.
Sato: "..."
He couldn't help but cover his face with one hand.
This girl's too far gone… there's no saving her. Might as well bury her and save the effort.
Just as he was about to head inside, he suddenly heard a cry of distress.
He turned to see Rikka clutching her eye. And, was she… about to cry?
Sniff sniff…
Sato rushed over and crouched beside her. "What happened?"
"Something… something got in my eye… ugh…"
Sato glanced at the parasol, then at the bush and the scattered debris on the ground. He instantly understood.
"You're an idiot, aren't you?"
He looked at her, deadpan.
"Eh?!"
Rikka, still covering one eye, lifted her head slightly with a hurt expression.
"Don't move. Take your hand away so I can see. And don't rub it."
Rubbing would only worsen things, possibly scratch the cornea. Foreign objects in the eye are rarely clean, and mishandling them can lead to inflammation.
Slowly, Rikka removed her hand. Her eye was squinting, fluttering, blinking reflexively in discomfort.
That was just the body's natural self-protection.
Sato leaned in and carefully opened her eyelid. The eye in question? Her so-called "Tyrant's eye," that fake golden iris.
"A fake lens?"
"Don't put this junk in your eyes. It's dangerous, it can damage your vision."
"No! This is the Tyrant's eye!"
Still stubborn, Rikka insisted with solemn gravity, "You have to be careful. The Eye holds immense magic. If it's activated, the entire world could be plunged into crisis."
"Sure, sure. Let me use my Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan to help examine your Tyrant's eye."
Sato replied without a beat. Clearly, there was no hope left. Her delusions were terminal.
After gently pulling back her eyelid, he spotted the culprit: a small black speck lodged near the corner of her eye. Not deep. He could probably remove it by hand.
"Don't move, and try not to blink."
Rikka, still watching him intently, asked, "Mangekyo Sharingan?"
While carefully extracting the speck, Sato answered casually, "Yeah. The Mangekyo Sharingan."
"Sugoi!"
For some reason, her eye suddenly sparkled with excitement.
"What can it do?"
"What can it do? Uh… better vision, mostly. But the more you use it, the worse your eyesight gets. Pretty contradictory, right?"
"Anything else?"
"Well… it lets you copy other people's abilities. You can see energy flows, too. Enhanced perception."
"Oh, and it can unlock other powers."
"Oooh…"
Rikka's eyes gleamed like stars.
"Then… how do you fix the drawbacks?"
"Just evolve it into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan."
As he spoke, Sato finally removed the speck. A small bit of bark. Probably from when she'd attacked the bush with her parasol.
In any case… she really was kind of a fool.
"There. It's out."
He let out a relieved sigh and stood up.
Rikka blinked a few times. The irritation was gone. Her face lit up.
And then… her smile turned twisted.
"Hehehe! That's my Servant for you! The Holy Regulator's schemes shall be crushed!"
Servant, my ass!
Sato shot her a side-eye and suddenly asked, "You and your sister… are you not getting along?"
Rikka's expression froze.
Her smile stiffened… and then faded entirely. She looked at him for a long moment before turning wordlessly and walking toward the apartment.
Watching her back, Sato fell into quiet thought.
It was clear now, something deeper lay beneath all this.
Secrets not yet revealed…