Chapter 264
The voice of a teenage girl.
Like the snow and wind today, the weather was sunny yet somewhat chilly and fragmented.
If you're going to sing, you might sound really good, or you might be the type whose voice cracks.
Haihara turned her head and saw a girl looking up at her with a clear expression of concern.
Naturally, the familiar yet unfamiliar voice belonged to Kirishima Ai. This child, who should have been in gym class, was now standing next to her, looking at her with concern.
What's with that look in his eyes?
Because this gaze was directed at the Problem Child's cute yet annoying face, there was a strange sense of incongruity, Haihara even felt a little awkward.
She lowered her head:
"We're still in PE class right now, so don't wander around outside the sports field."
"But teacher, you must be very tired doing all this by yourself here, right?"
Compared to her previous reserve and awkwardness, Kirishima Ai suddenly became more outspoken.
While Haihara was still wondering what was going on, she reached out and gently took Haihara's hand, which was stiff from the cold.
The girl's hands had an incredible warmth.
Then, Kirishima Ai lowered her head, rubbing Haihara's hands together with her own while breathing warm air onto them.
Haihara was momentarily confused when she was treated this way.
"..."
She remembered that this was something those immature middle school students liked to do with their girlfriends, right?
For a moment, Haihara, like the other Magic girls, began to wonder what had gotten into Kirishima Ai.
However, there is one thing that Haihara has to admit.
That is---
"Teacher Haihara, let me help you shovel the snow! No, I can do all of this!"
Kirishima Ai looks like an angel now.
In the principal's office, Haihara Ryo was organizing materials related to the recent first-grade teaching plan.
As the principal of a high school that prepares students for higher education, the job is certainly not easy.
However, the headmistress always manages to handle everything quickly and beautifully, leaving plenty of time to do what she enjoys.
After finishing organizing, she turned to another very important item that she was interested in.
That's the attendance record sheet for the first-year high school teachers.
It contains detailed records of student absences and leave requests for each class.
At the beginning of last semester and before winter of this semester, she would always mark various marks on the record sheet of Year Four, Class Four, Grade 1, to remind herself when she should "remind" the homeroom teacher of Class Four, Teacher Haihara.
However, recently, the records on this attendance sheet have started to make Ryo feel dissatisfied.
Why?
Why hasn't anyone skipped class in this class recently?
She was completely baffled.
According to reports, Magic Girl Fate Kite attends classes every day, but Kirishima Ai has not had any absences recently.
That's so strange.
Could it be that Lily is helping those girls lie about their records?
This won't do!
Liang began to seriously consider what exactly was going on.
Moreover, lately, she's basically getting no response when she calls Lily over...
She was very familiar with this feeling.
Hmm, I hope she won't be disliked.
After a while, she raised her head and looked out the window at the snowy sky.
The feeling of wind and snow blowing through the buildings is very pleasant and blissful, and then you feel a little sleepy.
However, she quickly rubbed her eyes again, then picked up the coffee on the table, took a sip, and tried to perk herself up. Alone in the office, she rested her chin and cheek on her long, slender fingers, deep in thought.
Should I take a nap?
Starting a few years ago, Ryo and Lily would occasionally live together like sisters, and outside of school, they would often go out to eat Lily as a family gathering.
Tonight, she's going to have dinner with Lily again, something she hasn't done in a long time.
Therefore, she couldn't appear sleepy; she had to project a mature image.
After taking a short nap with her eyes closed, she opened them several times, occasionally dealing with the materials and documents sent by the Student Council or other school officials, and then continued to maintain her energy in this manner.
Before we knew it, it was already evening.
With the onset of winter, the nights have been falling earlier lately. It was already dark before the last class started, and the office lights were already on.
She glanced at the time on her watch; it seemed to be almost time.
Meanwhile, on the other side...
Most of the corridor lights were off, except for the light in front of Year Four, Class Four, which still illuminated a woman's tall, slender figure.
The lights and the darkness outside the window, the distant city and the relentless snowstorm, divided the inside and outside of the building into two worlds.
The light illuminated the students leaving the campus, casting long shadows of their departing figures, as if one could hear the hustle and bustle within the silence.
After confirming that all the students had left, Haihara remained at the classroom door with her bag.
She glanced at her reflection in the window, brushing away the condensation with her fingers, wondering if she should put on some makeup.
But soon, she heard the sound of high heels clicking on the floor in the hallway.
Haihara turned her head and saw a woman dressed in a suit and long skirt, with a melancholy yet beautiful air. Her figure was no less than Haihara's, but she possessed a more mature and elegant charm.
This woman, who looks like a model or a big star, is the principal of this school.
At this moment, the woman saw her, smiled, and then shook the car keys in her hand:
Let's go.
Haihara nodded silently.
Next, the two women walked side by side on the snow-covered school streets in the deserted campus.
And so, they slowly walked to the school parking lot.
As if taking care of a child or a girlfriend, Ms. Ryo opened the car door and let Haihara, then she sat in the driver's seat and slowly started the car.
The sounds of snow, wind, and car horns.
Under the gray-black night sky, there's a feeling that the day is about to end, but there's still a long way to go.
The sisters' evening dinner was about to begin.
Chapter Sixty-Six: The Episode That Most Needs a Detective
Night falls, snow-covered streets, and Kirishima Ai rides her bicycle home, humming the battle theme from the latest installment of Magical Card Girl Gotchard.
By the way, Magical Card Girl Gotchard is about an ordinary high school girl, Ichinose Homiko against an evil Alchemist while collecting Magic cards.
She walks this street every night.
At times like this, she was all alone on the street, which could feel a little eerie at times. However, it felt different on a snowy day, with the entire street covered in white snow, Kirishima Ai found quite interesting.
Because it is silvery-white.
The streetlights cast an orange glow, illuminating the white snow and revealing footprints. After Kirishima Ai passed by, a long line was left by the wheels of a car.
It takes about ten minutes to get home from school.
However, she doesn't always spend just a short time getting home; she stops frequently on the way.
For example, sit on a chair in the neighborhood for a while.
Or perhaps they'd check out the cats and dogs on the street, or maybe they'd buy some necessities at a convenience store.
Since no one was waiting for her to come home, she didn't have to worry about getting home too late.
As she slowly rode her bicycle, someone was following her.
However, she didn't notice.
Those were her two classmates, her respected Senpai Kazama, and their reliable little dog.
To be precise, it was three Magic girls and a dog.
It all started just a few minutes earlier, when Kirishima Ai had just ridden her bicycle away from school.
As they watched Kirishima Ai ride away on her bicycle, the girls devised a plan to follow Kirishima Ai that night and investigate the strange occurrences surrounding Kirishima Ai. However, they realized something was wrong the moment Kirishima Ai rode away.
Kirishima Ai rode a bicycle.
They don't have such transportation; they either run too fast and are very conspicuous, or they can't keep up.
So, a group of high school girls made a decision.
"--Since things have come to this, I have no choice but to attack in my Magic girl form."
Then, in a deserted corner near the school gate, extremely noisy sound effects rang out one after another, and the shockwave from the burst of Magic Power almost shook the snow off the nearby trees.
When the Magic Power light faded, Star Flower, Phantom Wind, and Thousand Sins reappeared in the same spot.
As Magic girls, catching up with the bicycle was of course no problem for them.
With her superhumanly perfect physique and Magic power, she could naturally conceal her tracks perfectly while moving, avoiding detection by Kirishima Ai and arousing suspicion from passersby.
And so, the four of them continued to follow behind Kirishima Ai.
Even now.
The snow in early winter always seems to last a long time.
As they followed Kirishima Ai, snowflakes fell all over the heads of the Magic girls.
At this moment, Kirishima Ai is clearing snow from the benches in the residential area, seemingly planning to sit down later.
The Magic girls were crouching in a snow-covered corner not far away.
Magic Girl Phantom Wind brushed the snow off her head, stared intently at Kirishima Ai, after pondering for a while, said:
"From the time we started following Kirishima until now, there's still no evidence to explain her Kirishima situation, but it's certain that she's completely different from usual."
Indeed, Kirishima Ai is now giving off a different vibe from usual in every way.
Of all these people, Kazama Kiriori spent the least time with Kirishima Ai, since they weren't even in the same grade.
However, in their limited interactions, Kazama Kiriori also knew very well that Kirishima Ai was a rather introverted person who was used to being silent and calm.
--Except during combat.
From today onwards, all of Kirishima Ai's behaviors indicate that this child is becoming abnormal.
Not only did she chat and laugh with her classmates as they leisurely strolled home, but she also actively participated in group activities and even enthusiastically answered the teacher's questions in class.
It was as if she had been possessed by some kind of horned female ghost.
However, that alone is not enough.
They need more evidence to figure out what's going on with Kirishima Ai.
--Just then, the sound of a puppy shivering suddenly came from among the Magic girls.
The other Magic girls, look over here.
"Quiet down."
Thousand Sins's eyes shone with an incredibly terrifying red light, and he gently gripped the little dog Luna's neck with one hand while whispering instructions.