A new day brought us to the Newspaper Club room smelling of fresh ink and paper, a combination that had become as familiar as the scent of my own shadow. However, aside from the ink and paper, there was also a particular smell of magic drifting in the room along with the sweet scents of the girls working hard for the latest Gazette edition that was set to release next week.
With the addition of Yukari, I could say from the bottom of my heart that this little witch had become an invaluable asset to me. Why even bother with getting yourself a copier or struggle writing on those old typewriters that I could not pinpoint their era, probably World War Two relics, from a time when journalism meant ink‑stained fingers and the clatter of keys.
No, my precious little witch was everything that I required in building a proper Gazette and Newspaper Club. She could use her magic to write at a speed that was linked with her thoughts, and the MVP of her arsenal was, without a doubt, her duplication spell. Hundreds of pages copied in minutes, no fuss, no noise, just the soft glow of her wand and the smell of fresh ink.
Her wand glowed faintly as she added the final touches to the weather section, a small chart that tracked the Academy's artificial climate patterns. The numbers shifted under her guidance, temperatures and precipitation forecasts for the pocket dimension's peculiar sky.
"There," Yukari said, setting down her wand with a satisfied sigh. "The forecast for next week is done. Mostly sunny, with a chance of dramatic monologues in the theater district."
Kurumu snorted from her seat by the window. "You are having too much fun with this."
"I am having exactly the right amount of fun." Yukari straightened her hat, which had slipped sideways during her work. "Tsukune‑san gave me a section, and I intend to make it the best weather section in the history of the Newspaper Club."
"We are the only Newspaper Club," Outer Moka said gently, looking up from her notebook. "By default, it is already the best."
"That does not count." Yukari pouted, crossing her arms. "I want to be the best by quality, not by default."
I leaned back in the president's chair, watching the three of them bicker. It was comfortable watching them, and pleasing to see the girls work so hard. The club had become a small island of sanity in the chaos of the Academy, and I found myself looking forward to these moments more than I cared to admit.
"Tsukune‑san." Yukari turned to me, her eyes bright. "Have you decided on the next installment of your novel? The last chapter ended on such a cliffhanger. I need to know if the protagonist survives."
I shrugged, a small smile tugging at my lips. "You will have to wait for the next issue like everyone else."
"That is cruel." Yukari gave me a judging look, her lower lip jutting out in a pout. "You cannot just leave me hanging like that. I stayed up late thinking about what would happen next."
"Tsk, tsk." I wagged a finger at her. "You learned nothing. Clickbaiting and cliffhangers are key tools in writing. Marketing in itself is what leads to our growth. If I told you everything, you would not buy the next issue."
"I would buy it anyway to support you."
"That is sweet, but not the point."
Kurumu stretched, her tail swishing beneath her skirt. "Speaking of the next issue, we should probably decide on a lead article. The Gin piece is old news now. The girls have mostly forgiven him, or at least stopped trying to kill him. We need something fresh."
From his corner, Gin let out a quiet, pitiful yelp. He had been listening, his head resting on his folded arms, his eyes hollow.
Kurumu's eye twitched. She stood up, walked over to his desk, and slammed her palm down on the surface. "Shut your mouth, dog. You do not get to have opinions on what we do. If it were up to me, you would be cleaning the toilets with your tongue for the rest of the year. So shut up and be grateful that you are still breathing."
Gin flinched, pressing himself back into his chair, his mouth opened, then closed. He looked at Outer Moka with pleading eyes, searching for a savior.
Outer Moka sighed, setting down her pen. "Kurumu, please. He is not wrong to be afraid after he got left in the infirmary again."
"The Inter‑Academy Yokai Sports Festival next semester is coming up," Outer Moka continued, steering the conversation back on track. "We could do a preview. Interviews with the clubs, highlights of the events, that sort of thing."
"Good idea," I said. "But we also need something to diversify our range of articles. The Disciplinary Committee has been showing signs of getting more reckless and unchecked. If we are going to go after them, we need to do it right."
Kurumu's ears perked up. "You want to take on the Committee?"
"Not yet. But we should start gathering information. Building a file. When the time is right, we will release it all at once. Instead of going with a series of jabs that would just enrage a giant, we can take it down with a powerful knockout punch."
Yukari frowned, her small hands gripping the edge of her desk. "Is that not dangerous? The Committee has a lot of power. They could shut us down."
"They could try." I met her gaze, letting her see the certainty in my eyes. "But we have something they do not. The truth. And the truth, printed in enough copies, becomes very hard to ignore."
Gin lifted his head again, his eyes wide as he remembered the fear and desperation of last year's clash with the Disciplinary Committee, while his voice trembled at the edges. "Tsukune‑kun, please. Listen to me. You do not understand what Kuyo is capable of. He is not like the other bullies in the Academy. He has connections, resources, and he will not hesitate to use them. The Disciplinary Committee is not just a club, no it is his own private army."
He swallowed, his throat bobbing. "You do not have a fighting chance against them. Not right now. Not yet."
The room fell silent. He made a valid point but he misread my intent.
I let the weight of his words settle, then spoke. "Haven't you heard me? I said I do not plan to release any dirt on the Disciplinary Committee as of now. The reason is obvious: I need to be certain that I can face Kuyo's wrath and shield all of you from any repercussions."
I stood up from my chair, my voice steady. "I am not going to charge in blindly. I am not going to start a war I cannot win. But I am also not going to cower in fear, hoping that the monsters leave us alone. That is not how this world works. You of all people should know that, Gin."
Gin did not respond. He just stared at me, his eyes hollow.
Kurumu, on the other hand, was beaming. Her tail wagged beneath her skirt, and her cheeks were flushed with something that looked dangerously close to infatuation. "Tsukune‑kun," she said, her voice breathy, "that was so cool. You are so cool. I will follow you anywhere. Just say the word."
"I do not need you to follow me into battle. I need you to get better at taking interviews and writing articles."
"Same thing."
"It is really not."
Yukari, emboldened by my words, straightened her hat and nodded firmly. "I trust Tsukune‑san. If he says we are not ready, then we are not ready. But when the time comes, I give it my all to help the Club. I can write exposés, gather evidence, maybe even set up some magical wards to protect the club room."
I smiled at her. "That is the spirit."
Outer Moka looked troubled but did not argue. Her fingers traced the edge of her notebook, and I could see the gears turning behind her green eyes. She was worried, but she trusted me. That was enough.
I checked the clock on the wall and got up from my seat. The hands were creeping toward the late morning, and the library would be emptying out soon as students headed to their next classes. That was the perfect time to slip in without drawing attention.
"I need to run an errand," I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder. "I will be back before the bell."
"Where are you going?" Yukari asked, tilting her head.
"Library. I need to research something, and now is the quietest moment for it."
She tilted her head further, her hat brim dipping. "Could it be for the novel?"
"Amongst other few things."
I grabbed my bag and gave Gin a cold stare as I left him alone with the girls. Regardless, if he even tried something funny, I would know it in an instant. For all his utility, if he crossed me this time, I would not mind making myself a fur coat using Rachnera‑senpai's tailoring skills. The thought was dark, but it was also true.
Gin shuddered under my gaze and looked away.
The hallway was empty, my footsteps echoing off the walls as I made my way toward the library. The Academy had settled into its midday lull, students either already in their club rooms or lingering in the cafeteria. A few stragglers passed me, but none paid me any attention. I was just another face in the crowd.
The library was quiet at this hour. Most students had either left the Academy, were doing club activities, or were lingering in the cafeteria. The air smelled of old paper and dust, a comforting scent that reminded me of my first life, of the hours I had spent in university libraries, cramming for exams I had barely cared about.
Back then, the silence had been oppressive, constantly reminding me of looming failures, yet, now, it was soothing, a rare moment of peace in a world that rarely offered any.
I wandered through the stacks, not looking for anything in particular. My conversation with Shizuka‑sensei had stuck with me, and subconsciously I was drifting toward the Yokai Codex, an encyclopedia‑like grimoire that contained general information about most Yokai.
The book was massive, bound in dark leather that had cracked with age, its pages yellowed and fragile. I had skimmed it once before, but never with any real purpose.
My fingers traced the spine, and I pulled it from the shelf. The weight of it was reassuring, solid in my hands. I carried it to a nearby table and began flipping through the pages, my eyes scanning the entries until they settled onto the Yuki‑onna category.
Yuki‑onna. Snow women. Elemental yokai known for their beauty, their isolation, and their ability to manipulate ice and cold. Folklore paints them as dangerous, but modern scholars suggest that their aggression is a defense mechanism, a response to fear and persecution.
They are a Yokai race that is classified at a higher rating of power, with the weakest of them being C‑class and the strongest capable of reaching SS‑class.
I read on, absorbing the details. Their powers were tied to their emotions. When they were calm, so was the cold. When they were distressed, the temperature around them could drop dangerously. They were solitary by nature, but not by choice. They craved connection, but their abilities made it difficult.
They were also a women dominated race, no, their race was only made out of women, and for reproduction they required a different race partner, but not diverging too far from a humanoid. This is why, most folklore liked to pair those reclused women with unfortunate human males who got lost in snowy mountains.
Social anxiety is common among Yuki‑onna, particularly those raised outside of traditional clans. Without proper guidance, they often withdraw from society, believing themselves to be monsters.
I closed the book and leaned back in my chair.
'Sigh. How should I even deal with Mizore? I cannot just walk up to her and start a conversation like she is a normal student. She has been hiding for weeks, avoiding everyone. If I approach her too directly, she might retreat further.'
'But if I do nothing, she will just continue wasting away in isolation.'
'Shizuka‑sensei said she was a special case, but the more I read, the more I realized she was not special at all. She was just another stray, another lonely soul in an Academy full of them.'
I stood, returning the Codex to its shelf. My feet carried me deeper into the library, past rows of towering shelves and dusty reading nooks. I was not looking for anything in particular, just walking, thinking. The silence was comfortable, broken only by the soft hum of the fluorescent lights and the distant rustle of pages.
Apart from what I remembered from the anime and manga, I had never met Mizore. I had no idea what she looked like in real life. But my senses told me that I would not be disappointed. Moka had not been. Kurumu had not been. Even Yukari‑chan, despite her age, had a certain charm that could be the apple of my eye when she grew older.
I turned a corner and stopped.
The temperature dropped. Not dramatically, not enough to see my breath, but enough to feel. A cool draft that should not have been there, not in the middle of the library. The air was still, the windows sealed, but the cold was unmistakable, a subtle shift that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
Frost had formed on the window at the end of the aisle. Delicate patterns, like the ones you would see in winter, spreading across the glass in slow, intricate spirals. The frost seemed to pulse, growing thicker as I watched, as if responding to something.
'The heck? Did they install AC in the library?'
'No way. Did Shizuka‑sensei get the wheels moving this quickly and feed that girl a tasty candy to get her ass out of her dorm room?'
I walked toward the window, my footsteps echoing on the polished floor. The frost seemed to pulse, growing thicker as I approached, as if responding to my presence. The glass was covered now, a thin layer of ice that distorted the light from outside.
Then I saw her.
She was sitting in the corner, tucked between two bookshelves, her knees drawn up to her chest. A book rested in her lap, its pages open to a chapter I could not read from this distance.
[Name: Mizore Shirayuki]
[Threat Level: A (Yuki‑onna)]
[Status: Curious / Guarded – Low hostility, high social anxiety]
She was beautiful in the way that winter was beautiful, all pale skin and delicate features and a stillness that seemed almost unnatural. Her long light purple hair cascaded over her shoulders like frozen water, and I knew from memory that she would eventually cut it to shoulder length as a symbol of shedding her burdens.
Her eyes were the color of a winter sky, pale blue with a hint of purple at the top. They were fixed on me with an deer caught in headlights that it made my chest tighten.
She was not wearing the Academy uniform. Instead, she wore a light brown pleated checkered skirt and a white sweatshirt with long dark blue sleeves, a black singlet visible underneath. A yellow pendant rested against her collarbone, catching the faint light. Long dark and light purple striped stockings covered her legs, and white shoes peeked out from beneath the hem of her skirt. A belt was tied around her left leg, its purpose unclear, and the front pouch of her sweatshirt bulged slightly with unknown contents.
And in her mouth, there was that lollipop. The white stick protruded from between her lips, and I could see the faint glimmer of the candy, a pale blue orb that matched her eyes.
Her figure was slender but not frail, the kind of build that suggested grace rather than strength. The sweatshirt was loose, but it could not entirely hide the gentle curve of her hips or the swell of her chest. She was beautiful, undeniably so, and the cold that radiated from her only added to her allure.
'Just looking at that lollipop and if I let my mind wander into the dirty direction, I might get curious about how her blowjobs could be… Fuck, stop it! We have to be serious this time.'
'Focus, Tsukune. You are not here to ogle her. You are here to help.'