During lunch break.
Chiaki shot him a condescending look. "How did it feel to sleep together with a tender and sweet loli?"
"I knew that you would ask this question..." Seiji sighed before changing his expression to a serious one. "Of course it was amazing!" He flashed them a big thumbs-up as he praised the experience.
*Slap!* *Slap!*
He was slapped on both his left and right cheek.
"Eh? My hand involuntarily moved by itself."
"Same for me. I only noticed that I had slapped after I already finished."
Chiaki and Mika both acted as if what they had done was inconceivable. Seiji was rendered speechless.
"I already expected to be slapped when I said that, at least by Mika. Chiaki, you don"t have the right to lecture me, I"d think?"
"Haven"t you "tasted" many tender and sweet lolis yourself?" He looked at her with that query in his eyes.
"I"ve never slept together with any elementary school boys," the tomboy replied.
Seiji was unable to find any comebacks to this. After all, what they did was indeed different.
"I really didn"t do anything," Seiji said, sighing. "Of course I wouldn"t have done anything either. We merely slept together. If I did anything on top of that, s.h.i.+kchan would probably be the first to kill me."
"You"re right about that. Kagursan had such a serious expression in her eyes." Chiaki took a bite of her lunch. "With her keeping a tight guard on you, I suppose I can relax."
"You should trust in my moral character more."
"Your moral character was placed into doubt right from the moment you agreed to sleep together with an elementary school girl."
*Schtick!* Seiji took a direct arrow shot to his forehead.
"She"s only a child, and besides, she"ll probably want to sleep by herself after a while," Seiji said, sighing once again. "And in the end, she won"t live with me forever."
"That"s what you say..." Chiaki gave him a meaningful look. "But even if she"s only a child, she"s still a "girl.""
"...And what does that mean?"
"Nothing in particular." Chiaki continued eating her lunch.
A moment of silence fell between them.
"Um... How"s Amami-sensei doing now?" Mika asked.
"Pretty good," Seiji answered. "After her terrifying memories were sealed, she stopped having nightmares. Her androphobia has greatly improved as well, and it seems likely that she"ll be completely cured soon."
"That"s wonderful. Sensei suffered so much… I hope that she gets well soon."
"Yep. We still don"t know how to dispel the mysterious power that caused all this, but... when there"s a will, there"s a way!" Seiji said resolutely.
"That mysterious power... just what could it be?"
"I don"t know. Since we don"t know, we just call it the mysterious power. But the President did mention something—" Seiji looked towards Mika—"she said that it resembled your mysterious Spiritual Creature."
"Eh?" Mika was surprised to hear this. "Like... Mas.h.i.+ro-chan?" she asked with a dazed expression.
Seiji nodded. "Yep, the President said that they feel similar... in the way they work. Of course, it"s obviously not the same thing as Mas.h.i.+ro-chan.
"But since the President intuits that they"re similar, then could Mas.h.i.+ro-chan actually have some sort of secret connection to this mysterious power? And if there is a connection, then Sakursan who gave Mika Mas.h.i.+ro-chan might know something about it. Also, having Mas.h.i.+ro-chan come into contact with Sensei or Reo-chan might cause something to occur if that"s the case."
Mika didn"t respond to this.
"I"m not asking for you to take Mas.h.i.+ro-chan out for an experiment. You just need to pay attention to the fact that this could be possible," Seiji told her. "It"s best if we could meet Sakursan and ask her about this, but she hasn"t been showing up recently. If she does appear before you, remember to ask her about it, Mika."
The pigtailed girl nodded.
"The President infers that the mysterious power is activated or affected by the holder"s strong emotions or willpower. I agree with her inference."
"Another way of putting it is that as long as Sensei and Reo-chan remain calm during their daily lives, they"ll be able to live just like normal without any problems."
"Sensei is a mature adult with a strong resolution. She shouldn"t have any problems because she can consciously control herself."
"As for Reo-chan... She"s still just a child and might not be able to control herself as well. If another accident occurs, s.h.i.+kchan and I should be able to suppress her. After some time pa.s.ses and her condition stabilizes, everything should be fine."
Another moment of silence fell between them.
"I"m pretty curious about how you guys spent so long in the soul realm," Chiaki said abruptly. "Can I ask what it felt like?"
"Now that I think back on it, everything"s rather hazy. It"s just like how you wake up after a dream. I can only remember the most important things and moments." Seiji rubbed his chin. "As for what I felt at the time... it was just like daily life, except for the fact that I knew it was all fake. It was a rather subtle feeling."
"Oh..." Chiaki thought about something that caused an ambiguous smile to pop up on her face. "Then, some good things must have happened while you were cohabiting with Amami-sensei?"
"I wasn"t cohabiting with her; I was simply living together!"
"Don"t mind the small details~ Hey now, something must have happened, so share it with us~"
"It"s absolutely crucial to use the right word! Even if it"s only a dream!" Seiji continued to act serious about the correct word to use.
"Fine then, let"s just call it living together. Share your benefits with us, handsome~ Don"t you say that nothing actually happened." Chiaki acted as if she were a perverted male.
"I did enjoy some benefits, since Sensei"s figure was actually even better than it appeared on the outside, such as..."
*Slap!* *Slap!*
"My hand moved again, but this time it was intentional." Mika swept over them with cold eyes. "Please don"t discuss such a topic during lunch."
"Yes ma"am..." Chiaki rubbed her head. "In that case, Seigo, let"s discuss this topic in more detail later over the phone."
"It"s not alright to discuss it later either!"
Lunch pa.s.sed by with fun times for all just like this. Only when they returned to the cla.s.sroom did Seiji recall to ask Chiaki about Hiros.h.i.+ Fuuma.
"Fuumsan? I haven"t seen him come to the study group in the two days that you were gone. Nor did I hear anything about him." Chiaki blinked in surprise. "Why are you suddenly asking about him? Is something the matter?"
"Not much, just that..." Seiji told her about how Hiros.h.i.+ was almost hit by a car and that he saved Hiros.h.i.+ and took him home. He decided to keep the incident involving Airi private for the time being. "...I feel like something"s off about his condition, which is why I"m a bit concerned."
"Oh... do you need me to ask about him for you?"
"You don"t need to make such an effort. It"s fine as long as you haven"t heard any rumors."
"It"ll be fine if there are no rumors; there"s no need to worry too much." That was what Seiji believed.
More final exams were waiting for them in the afternoon. The sounds of sighing were even louder after the exams concluded compared to this morning.
"It"s all over." Mika, who had collapsed on her desk again, now had an even higher-level expression as if her whole life had been a waste.
Seiji could almost see the manglike scene of her soul escaping from her mouth...
"It did feel a bit more difficult than this morning," Chiaki said. "I think I might have difficulty getting eighty points…"
"Yes, it was a bit more difficult," Seiji agreed. The questions were certainly trickier.
Well, he still didn"t feel like they were anything much, but it was evident from everyone else"s reactions that perhaps they didn"t do as well.
"It seems that you"re going to have makeup exams, Mika." Chiaki had a sympathetic expression.
"I don"t want to..." the pigtailed girl muttered.
"Before the test results are out, there"s still no saying," Seiji told her. "Getting depressed now won"t be useful at all. Be spirited, and don"t think too much into it. Do your best on the remaining subjects. If you really must think about it, you should at least think instead about what you want to do after the tests during winter vacation."