Inside the Student Council Office.
Tachibana Akane pressed the official seal onto the document, then lifted her head to look at Ichinose Honami and Yotsuya Miko standing before her desk, unable to keep her brows from knitting together slightly.
"A dispatch in the name of the Student Council really is the proper, official procedure for leaving campus."
"I can issue this certificate for you. But the problem is…" Tachibana Akane cautioned in a soft voice:
"Once you're outside, whether you'll be penalized for triggering some Black Sphere rule — that's a complete unknown."
"The risk is too great, and there's no real way to guarantee anything. Are you two… really set on leaving school at a time like this?"
Hearing this, Yotsuya Miko's body stiffened ever so slightly.
After a brief hesitation, the girl wrung the fingers she'd tucked behind her side, but in the end she still nodded:
"Even knowing the consequences…"
"I still want to give it a try."
Seeing this, Ichinose Honami stepped forward too, and gently rested a hand on Miko's somewhat frail-looking shoulder.
She gave a small nod and chimed in:
"Please don't worry, Tachibana-senpai."
"We're only going to confirm a few things — we'll be back soon."
Watching the two of them looking so thoroughly resolved, Tachibana Akane let out a helpless sigh.
She turned her head toward Chris, who hadn't said a word the whole time:
"And what about you? Are you going to go off and join in this craziness with them too?"
Chris rubbed his chin and answered calmly:
"I want to go see exactly how far the Black Sphere's control over this school reaches."
"That said… since Ichinose has so bravely volunteered to scout the way ahead—"
He glanced at the resolute-faced Ichinose, then chuckled, "I'll wait until you've all safely made it outside and confirmed it's fine, then I'll follow after."
Tachibana Akane couldn't help giving a light cough.
Clearly she hadn't expected Chris to be so shameless about it.
Ichinose Honami, for her part, puffed out her pink cheeks slightly.
She fixed Chris with a displeased stare and drew out the end of her words: "Senpai…!"
Chris was just about to speak when Tachibana Akane, having already rubbed her somewhat throbbing temple, handed over the document she'd just prepared.
"All right, all right, Ichinose, there's not much more help I can give you."
Tachibana Akane returned to her businesslike tone:
"But since you intend to head out in the name of the Student Council… just to be safe, you'd better fill out a Student Council membership application first."
"That way, applying for leave under the pretext of going out to buy supplies while preparing for the cultural festival will seem a lot more natural."
Chris reached out and took the document.
He found that Ichinose Honami had already, quite practiced, started filling in her personal information together with Yotsuya Miko.
Taking advantage of the lull.
Chris, while idly scrawling his own name onto the application form, reminded Tachibana Akane: "By the way, senpai."
"If you're planning to go take the test, you'd best discuss it with Vice President Nagumo first, and have him arrange a few veterans with enough real strength to lead the team."
"Otherwise, something could very well go wrong."
The hand Tachibana Akane was using to take the document paused slightly.
She lowered her eyes and gave a soft "Mm." "I know that…"
"I'll go talk it over with Nagumo." She paused, her gaze sweeping over the three of them. "And when you go out this time, you absolutely must be careful too."
With that, Tachibana Akane took a pre-prepared list out of the drawer.
"This is the list of items we'll need to purchase for the cultural festival later."
"Since your reason is shopping, once you're out there, hit up several places, compare prices and quality before you buy. Hold on to the receipts, and just bring them back to school and come find me for reimbursement."
Ichinose Honami took the list in both hands, carefully folded it, and tucked it into her pocket.
She bowed earnestly:
"Senpai, you too." "This kind of test, set in a world that isn't our own — once you die inside it, you won't be teleported back to school… so please, please be careful!"
Tachibana Akane pressed her lips together.
She recalled the brief joy of learning in the Black Sphere Space that the Student Council President was still alive, along with the cruel reality she'd had to face right afterward.
She let out a small, somewhat relieved laugh:
"Of course I'll be careful."
"Say what you will, I'm your senpai, and the Student Council's secretary! I can't go being the kind of unreliable person who just hides in the back. Don't you worry!"
The girl patted her not-exactly-ample chest and promised:
"I still have to stay alive to settle the accounts and reimburse you all when you get back."
Hearing these words, Yotsuya Miko, who'd been on edge the whole time, suddenly raised her hand timidly and muttered a small complaint:
"Um… senpai."
"At a moment of parting, it's probably better not to say things like that…"
"It just feels a little ominous, somehow."
Chris nodded in deep agreement and picked up the thread:
"True. Raising a death flag really isn't a good idea."
"Easy way to pop the champagne at halftime."
Still, even as Chris said this.
The thought of this currently righteous, full-of-confidence Tachibana Akane ending up pale-faced and teary-eyed in the afternoon's test…
That kind of contrast seemed pretty nice too?
Tachibana Akane, naturally, had no idea about the little drama playing out in this junior's head.
She simply took it that her juniors were worried about her, and nodded with a smile:
"Then… see you tomorrow!"
Ichinose waved with a smile too: "Mm, see you tomorrow!"
Ten minutes later.
At the main gate of Advanced Nurturing High School.
Chris and the other two handed the leave permit stamped with the Student Council's official seal to the gate security behind the glass window.
The middle-aged guard pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, ran his gaze over the three of their faces, and checked it over carefully once more.
"A Student Council dispatch shopping assignment?"
The guard muttered, showing no intention of obstructing them.
"Off you go. Stay safe, and remember to return on time."
As the heavy iron gate slowly slid open to both sides.
The three of them drew a deep breath and stepped forward.
But they didn't actually go very far.
Having walked slowly for about ten-some meters.
After waiting a short moment and confirming there was no Black Sphere alert tone in hand, and no forced-teleportation beam appearing beneath their feet.
Looking at the sunlight spilling unobstructed over the street ahead, with the rumble of a distant train rolling along.
Ichinose Honami's tense shoulders finally relaxed. "Phew… we're fine." She turned to Chris and said with feeling:
"Looks like, apart from preventing us from leaking information just like the school does, the Black Sphere is actually pretty lax about managing the other ordinary physical boundaries?"
Chris thought about it, then said:
"It's actually understandable." "After all, what the Black Sphere told us was that it'll 'nurture us until we're able to protect our own world.'"
"It's only responsible for nurturing us during the exams. There's no need for it to babysit us and control everything. If it really drove us all insane, that wouldn't do it any good either."
Chris glanced back at the school's main gate, his eyes flickering:
"Even its original choice of Advanced Nurturing as an experimental base."
"I suspect that's all because the students here were already cut off from social ties to begin with — a better fit for its needs."
Hearing this, Ichinose couldn't help giving a wry laugh:
"Then our school's luck really isn't anything to write home about…"
"First we get tricked into coming here, then we take part in the Black Sphere exams, and now we've leapt straight up to the magical-tier level of 'saving a parallel world.'"
Chris gave a noncommittal shrug.
In a certain sense, his intervention had, on the contrary, helped Advanced Nurturing return to its original, essential purpose.
If it had stayed at the small-scale squabbling level of the original story…
Could someone like Karuizawa Kei have achieved the growth and transformation she had now?
Still, it wasn't only Chris who thought this way.
In Yotsuya Miko's eyes beside him, even though she herself was an innocent intruder picked at random.
Being able to enter a school like Advanced Nurturing…
was, to her, without a doubt the single best thing she'd ever encountered in her whole life! After all, here.
She didn't have to live like before, walking the streets every day in dread, liable at any moment to run into those evil spirits with their bizarre, grotesque forms who loved getting right up in your face.
Nor did she have to painfully fake a numb "I can't see anything at all" expression every single day just to stay alive.
Honestly, in Yotsuya Miko's eyes, not only could she now stay in a safe campus with no evil spirits, she even had channels to acquire extraordinary power to strengthen herself and resist monsters.
This was quite literally something she used to yearn for even in her dreams!
If… she could just ignore the fact that this wasn't her original world, ignore the fact that she'd been forced to part from her mother…
Thinking of this.
Yotsuya Miko's once-light steps gradually slowed.
She lowered her head, her mood sinking uncontrollably.
Ichinose Honami keenly noticed this.
The girl paused her steps slightly, wanting to turn and comfort her, yet at a bit of a loss for where to even begin.
Ichinose Honami herself was also the type who placed enormous importance on family.
Otherwise, back in middle school, she wouldn't have, over a single hairclip for her little sister, left behind that dark history that nearly ruined her entire life.
She could deeply empathize with the "no hope of going home" feeling Yotsuya Miko had right now.
But precisely because she could empathize, Ichinose grew all the more worried.
She feared that this visit might truly confirm that Yotsuya Miko's family didn't exist in this world.
And that the comfort she offered now might end up backfiring instead.
Ichinose leaned her body forward slightly, drawing half a small step closer to Miko.
She wanted to reach out and pat the other girl's shoulder, but with her hand raised halfway into the air, it just hovered there emptily, not daring to actually come down.
In the end.
A thousand words dissolved into nothing more than a single helpless sigh at the girl's lips.
Yotsuya Miko naturally sensed Ichinose's hesitant, wanting-to-speak-yet-stopping concern.
Not wanting her private matters to dampen everyone's mood.
She sniffled, and quickly pressed the bitterness in her heart back down.
She lifted her head and forced out a smile toward Ichinose:
"Don't worry about me, Ichinose-san…"
"Actually, come to think of it, aren't you all unable to truly see your families until you graduate either?"
"In a sense, our situations right now are the same. And besides…"
Miko gave a self-deprecating little laugh:
"Being able to no longer be harassed by those terrifying evil spirits, to peacefully get a good night's sleep every night…"
"That's already the kind of happiness I used to yearn for even in my dreams."
"Where there's gain, there's loss. Maybe in this world, there was never any such thing as perfection to begin with."
Hearing Yotsuya Miko console herself in a way so maturely understanding it was heartbreaking.
Chris thought it over and, at just the right moment, tossed out a bit of bait from the side:
"Actually, there's no need to be so pessimistic."
"Every time we pass a Black Sphere exam now, the S Points we can earn are actually pretty considerable."
"At this rate, if someone could save up a hundred S Points before the end of term…"
Chris looked at the two of them: "Maybe someone really will turn up who can exchange for a 'leave-of-school slot,' or even a 'cross-world' privilege."
Hearing this, Ichinose Honami fell silent for a while.
Although she knew this was no less than a pipe dream.
She still nodded along with Chris's words: "I hope so…"
"If someone really pulled it off, even just one person… it'd at least leave everyone a hope they could actually look forward to."
Chris didn't keep going down this heavy topic.
He fished around in his pocket and pulled out two dull, lightless capsules, spreading them across his palm.
"Speaking of which, there's one more thing."
Chris looked at the capsules in his palm, his tone flat:
"It seems like, even outside of school, the Black Sphere's restrictions are still in effect."
"Apart from equipment worn directly on the body, like the Combat Suit, and abilities solidified within the body, like Ripple Breathing… you can't use any other supernatural powers."
Ichinose Honami, for her part, didn't find it surprising.
She picked up the thread and analyzed:
"That's only to be expected."
"The essence of the Black Sphere granting us power is to give us the ability to protect ourselves on the exam grounds. Not so we can run outside and do evil."
"I think this is actually a good thing."
Chris nodded.
"Mm. Better to give the group a heads-up first, so no one else runs into a wall later."
With that, Chris pulled out his phone.
The moment the message went out.
Horikita Suzune, Karuizawa Kei, and the others all popped up one after another to express concern.
Pressing him on where exactly he'd gone, whether he needed help, and so on.
Just as Chris lowered his head to type, getting ready to give a brief explanation.
Ichinose Honami suddenly stopped in her tracks and pointed at a bus coming up the road junction ahead.
"Miko, this bus is headed in the Shinjuku–Shimokitazawa direction, isn't it?"
She turned to Yotsuya Miko and suggested:
"Let's take this one over and have a look first. Whether or not the home in your memory is over there, we have to go check before we can put our minds at ease."
Yotsuya Miko was stunned for a moment.
Then she remembered — this was the setup she'd previously described to Ichinose in order to play along with Shiranami Chihiro's request, based on the address Shiranami had given her.
She tilted her chin up slightly, pressing down the trace of guilt born from the deception in her heart.
She nodded firmly:
"Mm, Ichinose-san."
"Whether it's there or not, let's go take a look first."
As the high-rises and ceaseless flow of traffic outside the window swept past their vision.
After roughly half an hour, the three of them got off at Shimokitazawa Station to the sound of the stop announcement.
Yotsuya Miko walked at the very front.
Following the route information she'd forced herself to memorize from the map app the night before, she pretended to navigate the streets with practiced ease, leading Ichinose and Chris toward the residence that ostensibly belonged to her, but actually belonged to Shiranami Chihiro.
The whole way, Miko's palms kept sweating cold.
Not only did she have to constantly mind not to drop her act, she also had to repeatedly rehearse in her head how to carry out that invisible communication once she met Shiranami Chihiro shortly.
Finally.
At a fork-in-the-road corner not far from the target, Yotsuya Miko came to a stop.
She didn't keep walking forward; instead she drew a deep breath and pulled out her phone.
Looking at the image on the screen, then lifting her head to look at the completely unfamiliar street buildings before her. "This is wrong…" "Whether it's my memory, or the images I saved… none of it matches up."
Ichinose Honami looked at Miko.
Her heart ached too.
She walked up and gently rested a hand on Miko's back, sighing softly: "Miko, don't be sad."
"As long as we're still alive, there's bound to be hope."
"Let's work hard together in the exams from now on. Not just to protect ourselves, but to save up enough points as soon as possible and see our families."
Yotsuya Miko nodded, the rims of her eyes faintly red:
"Mm, I know, Ichinose-san."
Although this emotion was genuine.
But in reality.
Yotsuya Miko had just looked at her phone actually to secretly dial Shiranami Chihiro's home number, using it as a signal.
The moment the call connected, she pressed the hang-up button.
And then came the performance just now.
Honestly, watching Ichinose comfort her with such genuine, heartfelt feeling.
Yotsuya Miko felt a bit guilty inside, like she'd really gone a little too far.
Maybe being honest with Ichinose-san about Shiranami from the very start would have been the better choice?
Miko silently reproached herself in her heart.
Given Ichinose-san's personality, she definitely wouldn't have minded — on the contrary, she'd have gone all out to help Shiranami.
Unfortunately, things had already come this far; an arrow loosed has no way of turning back.
So Yotsuya Miko could only see the mistake through to the end.
After pretending to compose herself on the spot for roughly two or three minutes.
Yotsuya Miko lifted her head, and out of the corner of her eye she happened to catch Shiranami Chihiro walking over from a corner not far ahead.
Just as she'd thought, everyone they passed along the way, including Chris and Ichinose right beside her, seemed to treat this living, breathing person as utterly invisible.
'So it really is because of the Black Sphere that Chris and Ichinose could see her during the exam, huh…'
Miko sighed inwardly, then pursed her lips slightly and gave a secret signal in Shiranami Chihiro's direction.
Right after, she turned her head, looked at Ichinose and Chris, and continued her performance: "Ichinose-san, Chris-san…"
"Since we can't find it here, let's not waste any more time in this spot."
"Let's go check out the malls around here and see if there's anything we need to buy, shall we? Otherwise, if we get back late, it'll be hard to account for ourselves to Tachibana-senpai."
Ichinose Honami and Chris exchanged a glance.
Both tacitly said nothing more.
In Ichinose's eyes, Miko was clearly trying to use this to mask the dejection in her heart.
So she very considerately slowed her pace, going along with Miko's rhythm and quietly keeping her company.
And during the shopping time that followed.
The three of them wove through the various malls and little shops of Shimokitazawa.
All the while, Shiranami Chihiro silently followed along at Yotsuya Miko's side.
After purchasing every single item the school would need for the cultural festival, and leaving the address, asking the merchants to deliver everything directly to the door when the time came.
Seeing that she was no longer being forcibly sent back home like before.
Shiranami Chihiro's taut nerves finally relaxed, and along with that, Yotsuya Miko's mood noticeably improved as well.
Although Chris knew Miko was happy because she was helping her ghost friend.
But in the eyes of the clueless Ichinose, this was simply the girl finally managing to ease her homesickness through shopping.
By the time they walked out of the mall, the sky had gradually darkened.
The neon lights along the street began to flicker, draping the city in a gorgeous nighttime gown.
Ichinose Honami looked at a huge amusement-park poster hanging at a road junction not far off, her gaze flickering.
Her eyes lit up, and she suggested to Yotsuya Miko beside her:
"Miko, since we get to stay outside this long today, and everything's already taken care of."
"How about… we go play at the amusement park together?"
Yotsuya Miko nodded slightly.
She wasn't a dull or slow-witted person; naturally she knew what Ichinose was thinking.
But the more so, the guiltier Yotsuya Miko felt inside.
'Ichinose-san really is far too gentle a person…'
Fortunately, this surge of guilt didn't stay with her for too long.
When the three of them arrived at the amusement park and immersed themselves in that fairytale world full of laughter and dazzling lights, the girl's natural disposition quickly gained the upper hand.
After buying all-access passes at the ticket booth.
Ichinose led Chris and Miko straight to a roller coaster facility with an enormous loop-the-loop track.
Listening to the thrilling screams that came down from above every so often.
Ichinose turned to look at the two of them:
"Let's try this one first, shall we?!"
Chris looked at that track plunging in an almost ninety-degree vertical drop.
He was silent for a while, then spoke up a little oddly: "Ichinose." "At a time like this… are you sure riding a roller coaster is really a good idea?"
Ichinose scratched her cheek a bit sheepishly and explained:
"Ahaha… actually, I read in a book that when people go through thrilling activities, the brain secretes endorphins, which make you temporarily forget those bad emotions."
"I figured, if we scream out loud up there, maybe all that fear bottled up in our hearts could get blown away by the wind along with it."
Beside them, Yotsuya Miko looked at the train roaring past and swallowed hard.
Forcing herself to stay composed, she went along with Ichinose's words:
"I… I've never had the chance to try this kind of thrilling ride before either."
"So then… let's give it a try?"
"If Ichinose-san is here with me, then I think… giving it a try would be okay."
Seeing Miko agree, Ichinose Honami nodded with a smile:
"Then I'll go line up and get our tickets checked!"
"This roller coaster happens to seat three across in a row. I'll sit in the middle, and you two sit beside me and protect me, okay~"
With that, Ichinose trotted off lightly toward the ticket gate.
Watching Ichinose head off into the distance.
Yotsuya Miko quickly seized the moment while Chris's attention was also drawn to Ichinose and he hadn't noticed the lull on this side.
She imperceptibly raised her phone and held out the message she'd prepared during the trip in front of Shiranami:
[Shiranami-san, are you… are you scared of roller coasters? If you feel like you can't do it, I'll just come up with some excuse like motion sickness or being scared, and return the tickets.]
[After all, you're in an Earthbound Spirit state right now. If the roller coaster goes too fast and flings you too far from me… and you get forcibly teleported back, that wouldn't be good.]
Shiranami Chihiro looked at the text on the phone screen, but shook her head.
"It's fine, Miko."
"Getting to come out like this must've been really hard for you, right? This is a rare chance to relax, so don't mind me — just go and enjoy yourself!"
"Anyway, I'm a ghost now; no one can see me. Worst case, once we get up there, I'll just find some empty seat with no one in it in the row behind you and sit there."
Shiranami Chihiro patted her chest, brimming with confidence:
"Besides, whoever heard of a ghost being scared by a roller coaster? Just set your mind at ease!"
Seeing Shiranami Chihiro put it that way, Yotsuya Miko stopped insisting.
Just then, Ichinose was already standing at the entrance, waving to them excitedly:
"Senpai! Miko! Hurry over here! It's our turn!"
Seeing this, Yotsuya Miko's lips had just curved into an anticipatory smile, and she was about to step forward and follow.
When she suddenly felt the ground go empty beneath her feet.
That feedback sensation of stepping on concrete had vanished. "Huh?"
Under Ichinose's gaze up ahead, gradually shifting from excitement to horror.
Miko stiffly lowered her head. She saw that her own two feet had, at some unknown point, already been enveloped by a beam of ghostly blue teleportation light!
And it was spreading upward at a visible speed!
"Black Sphere teleportation?!"
Yotsuya Miko's mind went blank.
Instinctively, she wanted to turn to Chris standing beside her for help.
Only to discover, in shock, that Chris's state right now was exactly the same as hers.
"This…" Miko opened her mouth, but no sound came out. And Shiranami Chihiro, too, was so frightened by this sudden turn of events that she clapped a hand over her mouth.
Chris's expression darkened slightly.
He glanced at Ichinose Honami, who was anxiously trying to rush over.
He reached out a hand toward the panicked Yotsuya Miko beside him:
"Grab my hand."
"Looks like the Black Sphere has no intention of letting us enjoy this weekend." "We've been selected."
Yotsuya Miko fought hard to keep the tears from falling.
She stretched out her trembling hands, as if grasping the last lifesaving straw. "I'm sorry, Chris-san."
Miko's voice was numb, choked with sobs:
"I should have seen it coming… I've had terrible luck since I was little, always running into rotten strokes of misfortune."
"This time, you must've gotten dragged down because of me… I'm sorry."
But Chris gripped her hand tightly and shook his head, cutting her off without a care:
"Take it easy, Yotsuya."
"There are way too many inexplicable coincidences in this world. There's absolutely no need for you to pin all the blame on yourself."
"Besides…"
Chris paused, "this isn't even our grade's exam." "Since we've been dragged in, just go find somewhere safe to hide. Just think of it as… a ticket-free vacation in another world."
Yotsuya Miko: "…Really?"
I'm young — don't go lying to me.
Whose idea of a vacation is going to look for thrills in a pile of monsters?!
In the second before she was completely swallowed by the blue light.
Yotsuya Miko shut her eyes in despair.
'O God above… if I make it back alive this time.'
'I swear, I will never ride any roller coaster again for the rest of my life!'
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: COTE: Counterattack System
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!