Kira Yoshikage remembered that her name was Gotou Hitori.
"Goto-san, is something wrong?"
"I, I, um..."
Gotou Hitori was so nervous that she was completely flustered, stammering and unable to get out a complete sentence.
Kira Yoshikage did not rush to interrupt her. He merely watched her in silence, waiting for her to finish.
But this only made Gotou Hitori even more nervous. After a long while, she finally mustered her courage:
"...Tainaka, the club president... told... me to go to... the Light Music..."
Her voice was so soft that she had practically made no sound at all. Even Kira Yoshikage could hear only a few scattered, unintelligible words.
Kira Yoshikage gathered his thoughts.
"Do you mean that you joined the Light Music Club, and Tainaka Ritsu learned that you were in the same class as me, so she asked you to tell me to stop by the Light Music Club?"
Gotou Hitori had been feeling despair over her own performance, but when she heard Kira Yoshikage's words, light returned to her eyes. She nodded in delight:
"Mm-hmm!"
Kira Yoshikage did not look at the delighted pink-haired cutie. Instead, he seemed lost in thought:
"Since they managed to gather six people, the club wasn't disbanded?"
He had originally thought they would fail to gather enough members.
Perhaps it was only because of Gotou Hitori's joining that they had barely made up the numbers.
But given her personality, it was unlikely that she had joined of her own accord—
Most likely, Tainaka Ritsu had seen her walking down the street with a guitar on her back and then forcibly sold her on the Light Music Club.
"Um, Kira-kun."
Perhaps because of the gentle attitude Kira Yoshikage had shown her, Gotou Hitori gathered her courage and asked in a quiet voice:
"Do you remember my name?"
"Is it strange to know the name of a classmate?"
"It is strange..."
Gotou Hitori muttered softly. The others could not remember her at all—not even that she existed.
And yet, although this was their first conversation, Kira Yoshikage had called her by name accurately. This gave the girl the illusion that she was being valued—yes, an illusion.
In reality, the reason Kira Yoshikage was willing to talk to her was that she was sufficiently antisocial.
Because they were both sufficiently antisocial, the two of them together would not become the focus of anyone else's attention.
They would not even be noticed.
But if he had been dealing with someone else, such as Nakano Mayu or Miura Yumiko, he would have immediately become the center of attention.
Nakano Mayu, sitting behind him, asked in a low voice:
"Um, Kira-kun, what are those people?"
Kira Yoshikage looked toward the corridor. A group of people were crowded into one corner, peering through the glass at the students inside the classroom.
There was a construction worker wearing a yellow hard hat, an ordinary-looking middle-aged housewife in an apron, and even a gaudily dressed punk...
They looked utterly ordinary, like passersby who could be seen anywhere, and hardly worth noticing.
The problem was that this was Shuchiin Academy. How had they gotten in?
Besides, rather than looking at the classroom, they seemed to be watching the girl surrounded as though she were the center of attention—
A girl dressed in a bunny costume.
She looked enviously at the students inside the classroom, who were surrounded by laughter and cheer. Her eyes showed fear as she desperately tried not to turn her head and look at the "people" surrounding her.
Kira Yoshikage withdrew his gaze and met the nervous eyes of the girl in front of him:
"There's nothing there."
"Huh? Nothing? But..."
Nakano Mayu instinctively looked through the open doorway toward the corridor. More than a dozen "people" had completely blocked the classroom entrance.
How could there be nothing there?
Just as this thought arose in the girl's mind, she saw Hiratsuka Shizuka walk into the classroom—
She passed straight through the construction person wearing the yellow hard hat and entered the classroom.
"..."
Nakano Mayu clamped both hands over her mouth, as if she had finally realized something. Her body tensed.
But it was really hard to keep it together!
Why were strange things clinging to her outside, and why were there things like this at school too?
And unlike that obviously abnormal Slender Ghost, there was no way to tell from these Evil Spirits' appearances that they were any different from ordinary people! If she failed to recognize them as Evil Spirits and accidentally greeted them, they would definitely eat her, right?
Chapter 49: You Call This a God?
At the podium, Hiratsuka Shizuka was lecturing seriously.
At the classroom entrance, Evil Spirits were packed tightly together, "auditing" the class.
Most people simply could not "see" them. But precisely because they could not see them, they were not in danger.
Yet in this classroom, there were at least three people who could see them.
And Psionic Users who possessed Spiritual Sight were the Evil Spirits' favorite food.
Finally.
Perhaps because too many Evil Spirits had gathered around Sakurajima Mai, the ones unable to squeeze into the inner circle shifted their attention toward the classroom.
The Construction Ghost wearing a yellow hard hat, standing closest to the entrance, was the first to walk inside.
Its gaze fell on the student closest to the door, and its voice was filled with the weariness of age:
"Can you see me?"
The student could not see it and did not respond, staring intently at the podium.
The Evil Spirit quickly gave up and walked toward the second student.
Kira Yoshikage saw everything, but he made no attempt to stop it.
There was no other reason. He could not reach it.
Killer Queen's range was only D, not even as far as Star Platinum.
But if the opponent entered Killer Queen's range of its own accord—
Boom!
"Yare yare~"
Kira Yoshikage lowered his gaze instead of looking at the Construction Evil Spirit that had already exploded.
It had spent its life mixing concrete, and even in death it could not rest, ending up blown to dust.
Perhaps that was the fate of construction workers!
Still, it would not have been strange for an Evil Spirit like this to appear at a construction site or in an abandoned building.
But now it had appeared at Shuchiin Academy. That was clearly abnormal.
In fact, until today, Kira Yoshikage had never seen a second Evil Spirit at Shuchiin Academy—
The only one had been at the bottom of the Swamp within the school. After being worshiped for many years, it had become a "god."
And perhaps precisely because that "god" existed, Shuchiin Academy had become a forbidden zone for Evil Spirits.
Just like beasts, Evil Spirits also possessed an intense awareness of territory.
A weak Evil Spirit that entered the territory of a powerful Evil Spirit had only one fate—being eaten by the stronger Evil Spirit.
And the "god" worshiped at Shuchiin Academy was absolutely among the strongest of Evil Spirits.
After all, judging from the intensity of the golden light radiating from it and the number of victims who had died unjustly at the bottom of the lake, it had already received more than three hundred years of worship. Many shrines in Japan had not even existed for three hundred years, which showed how formidable it was.
The only imperfection was that this Evil Spirit did not have a shrine of its own. It was not orthodox enough and could only be considered an unorthodox deity.
That was why its worship ritual was the most savage and inefficient kind: a blood sacrifice.
Of course, taken as a whole, its existence still had a positive significance.
At the very least, because it existed, wandering Evil Spirits did not dare casually set foot in Shuchiin Academy—and those Evil Spirits that did enter Shuchiin Academy had all become offerings to the "god" beneath the Swamp.
But all of that was in the past.
When the tiger was gone, the monkeys became king.
With the "god" at the bottom of the lake dead, the Evil Spirits that had once wandered outside could now enter the school openly.
Boom!
Another Evil Spirit entered its range and was blasted into dust by Killer Queen.
Kira Yoshikage's gaze remained calm. Although these Evil Spirits could not threaten him, their numbers were still troublesome.
Especially if someone died at their hands, the school would certainly be suspended temporarily. Kira Yoshikage's unchanging peaceful life would then be disturbed, and that was something he could not accept!
He did not regret killing the Evil Spirit at the bottom of the lake. The deaths of Pure Academy students would have been even worse than the current situation, but he did not want to see things like this either.
The Evil Spirits had appeared at Shuchiin Academy not only because they had been attracted by Sakurajima Mai, but also because spiritual energy attracted other spiritual energy.
Psionic Users could see Evil Spirits, and Evil Spirits could vaguely sense the presence of Psionic Users.
Even Evil Spirits without intelligence would instinctively gather around Psionic Users.
And as it happened, the proportion of Psionic Users at Shuchiin Academy was absurdly high!
If this situation could not be stopped, the Evil Spirits at Shuchiin Academy would only grow more numerous.
There were only two ways to stop the Evil Spirits from entering Shuchiin Academy:
Either kill all the Psionic Users. As long as there were no Psionic Users, the Evil Spirits would not enter the school.
Or return Shuchiin Academy to the state it had been in a month ago—
As long as there was one powerful Evil Spirit within Shuchiin Academy, it could intimidate the others and make them afraid to enter the school.
Without a doubt, neither method was difficult for Kira Yoshikage.
But the first would cause too much commotion. The disappearance of so many students would undoubtedly alert the school authorities.
As for the second...
Kira Yoshikage turned his head toward the window. It was already May, and the cherry blossoms had long since withered.
The trees were covered in lush green leaves. They were not ugly, but they ultimately lacked the beauty of cherry blossoms in full bloom.
"Before the dream arrives
Yesterday can only tremble and wait
Tomorrow I will climb the mountain ridge
And head beneath the giant dragon's feet
Shouting, 'Let's depart!'
Riding upon the silver dragon's back
Flying to the desert of life..."
On the branch of one of the trees, a girl with long purplish-black hair and a Hime cut softly hummed this classic old song. Her slender calves, wrapped in black stockings, swung gently in the air.
Boom!
The branch before the girl exploded without a sound.
But the billowing gray mist still startled her. She nervously looked toward the classroom where Kira Yoshikage was.
After hesitating for quite some time, the girl drifted toward Kira Yoshikage's classroom.
Although windows and walls stood in her way, the girl passed through them with ease.