"The reason you grew the 'tail' anomaly is because magical corruption has accumulated too much in your body... It's like a car that's been driven for a long time; carbon buildup occurs inside the engine, requiring regular cleaning. I happen to be able to help purify it."
Sora earnestly explained the reason.
This was a setting from the idle mobile game. Since the Black Cat in front of him was identified as a 'catchable wild Witch', the tail could naturally be explained using the game's lore.
Gokou Ruri: "..."
It was confirmed.
It was actually one of her 'kind', both fellow Daoists suffering from chunibyo.
Even if they were fellow chunibyos, he shouldn't use it as an excuse to keep holding someone's hand and not let go, right?
It was clearly just their first meeting...
Although Ruri was both chunibyo and sharp-tongued, deep down, she was actually a pure-hearted maiden. Earlier, her heart was full of panic, but now she was slowly relaxing. Feeling her small hand tightly wrapped by the boy's, and the heat transferring from the palm of the youth in front of her, her pretty face uncontrollably and rapidly blushed crimson.
"If I let go now, the purification process will be interrupted, and all previous efforts will be wasted. If you want to purify it again, we'd have to start over from the beginning." Sora continued to explain. Glancing at the purification progress bar in his mind, he fed the Black Cat a reassuring pill. "There are three minutes left. When the tail disappears, Gokou-san will naturally believe my words."
"You... aren't lying to me?"
Ruri couldn't help but look up, her eyes both nervous and expectant.
Even though she was deeply entrenched in chunibyo, she hadn't confused reality with fantasy. She knew very well how much trouble growing a tail on her back would cause to her life.
If she had a choice, she naturally hoped the tail would disappear.
"Also... aside from holding hands, you won't make any other demands, right?" Ruri's voice was tense.
"Don't worry." Sora's expression was calm. "Just holding hands, you don't need to do anything else."
"That's good..."
Ruri, blushing, gently bit her lower lip and agreed.
Since they were already holding hands, letting him hold it for another three minutes would be fine, right?
She hoped the tail could really disappear, otherwise she could only hide at home for the rest of her life...
The air quietly fell silent.
A subtle atmosphere silently spread between the two.
Since they were strangers meeting for the first time, fast-forwarding directly to the hand-holding stage was indeed going to be very awkward.
"Mortal... what is your name?"
Ruri spoke up to break the silence, feeling that if she didn't say something, her entire body would feel uncomfortable.
"Izumi Sora, a first-year freshman, just in the class next to yours," Sora introduced himself.
"So you're a boy from the class next door..."
Ruri secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If it were an upperclassman, she felt there would be a lot of pressure.
"When did Gokou-san grow the tail?" Sora asked curiously.
"It's not a tail, it's just a cosplay prop...!"
Ruri subconsciously looked away, guiltily denying it once, then lightly bit her lower lip with her pearly teeth, her tone carrying a hint of distress:
"Just now, while I was changing in the locker room, my back suddenly felt itchy, and the tail suddenly appeared... I've definitely been cursed!"
"It's magical corruption," Sora corrected her terminology, then asked again, "The tail is just a side effect. Have you gained any special abilities?"
"Um..." Ruri hesitated for two seconds, deciding to tell the truth. After all, her most important secret had already been seen. "Yesterday, I suddenly realized I could talk to cats."
Sora raised an eyebrow lightly: "Communicate with animals?"
"Exactly." Ruri pursed her moist, pink lips, speaking softly. "Yesterday morning, I woke up, and like usual, I went out to go to school. Suddenly, I heard the neighbor's cat crying for help."
Sora looked over curiously:
"The cat was crying for help?"
Ruri's gaze shifted, the flush on her pretty face deepening slightly. However, thinking about the current situation, she decided to tell the truth anyway:
"That cat is a male. He cried for help to me, wanting me to take him away, saying he didn't want his owner to carry him away and cut, cut..."
Understood.
A neutering surgery, huh.
It seemed that as long as it was a male animal, none could escape the terror of being snip-snipped!
"I didn't help..." Ruri bit her lower lip, nervously looking up. "Could that be the reason, so I was cursed by that cat?"
"Probably not," Sora complained. "If that cat were powerful enough to curse a human, it wouldn't have been caught to be neutered."
Gokou Ruri: "..."
That surprisingly made a lot of sense, there was completely no way to refute it.
"I thought at the time that I had read manga too late the night before and was hallucinating." Ruri pursed her pink lips, continuing to speak quietly. "But later I realized I could understand everything all cats were saying. This morning, I even helped a lost cat that snuck out find its way home."
"..."
During their casual chat, three minutes flew by in a flash.
"The tail should have disappeared." Sora released the girl's soft hand and took half a step back. "Check for yourself, Gokou."
"Eh?"
Ruri steadied her feet, her face red, and hurriedly reached around to her back. A pleasantly surprised expression immediately appeared on her small face:
"It really disappeared?!"
She originally thought her life had plunged into a dark abyss, but she never expected to suddenly return to heaven in an instant.
"You're celebrating too early."
Sora's faint voice sounded beside her.
"Your Witch constitution has already awakened. Next, even if Ruri does nothing, impurities will still accumulate in your body. And once you use the ability to communicate with animals, the speed of impurity generation will drastically increase, ultimately leading to mutations."
The smile on Ruri's face quietly froze, and she felt terrible all over:
"So after a while, I'll grow a weird tail again?"
"Not necessarily." Sora gently shook his head, then plunged the girl into an even deeper abyss. "You might also grow cat ears, or even break away from your human form and turn completely into a cat."
Gokou Ruri: "..."
Whether it's cat ears or a cat tail, I completely don't want either of them ahhhhh!
"You don't need to worry too much," Sora's voice was calm. "If you need help anywhere, feel free to tell me."
"Thank you..."
Ruri subconsciously expressed her thanks, unable to resist looking up:
"Why are you helping me, Izumi-kun?"
They weren't relatives or friends, there was no need to help her to this extent, right?
Sora had a look of righteous integrity as he told the truth:
"My special ability is that I grow stronger by helping others."
The wild Witch was successfully purified, and 100 experience points rolled in. That was fully equivalent to a week of hard grinding. No matter how you looked at it, it was a massive profit!
Therefore, he had to establish a long-term connection. From now on, whenever the Black Cat was in trouble, he would be there on call, and then they would achieve a win-win together!
"Eh?"
Hearing this, Ruri blinked, her voice full of surprise:
"So to say... Izumi-kun is actually a Magical Boy?"
Izumi Sora: "..."