Had something happened afterward yesterday?
Come to think of it, Doctor seemed to have a fiancée.
Adult matters seemed complicated. It was probably best not to ask about them.
"Big Sis, will there be a lot of people there?"
Hina tugged gently at Kirishima Ai's sleeve.
Sitting beside Kirishima Ai was a slender, pale girl around middle-school age. She was even smaller than most girls her age, with smooth, obedient black hair and an endearing air about her.
"Mm. There'll be lots of people, including Big Sis's classmates and teachers. They're all very nice."
Kirishima Ai stroked Hina's head and smiled.
"Will any of your friends be there, too?"
"..."
For a moment, Kirishima Ai felt awkward.
How was she supposed to explain to her little sister that she was a loner at school, had no friends at all, and barely knew anyone?
But Hina was considerate, and soon changed the subject.
"Um... What are your teachers like, then?"
She hadn't heard much from her big sister about school. All she knew was that her sister always did well in her studies and excelled at everything. She was a big sister Hina was proud of.
That was why she'd always been curious about what her sister's school life was like.
Did she usually eat with friends? Did she join any clubs? Did she have a handsome boyfriend or anything like that?
Someone like her big sister must be popular...
"The teachers... How should I put it?"
Teacher Haihara also knew about her little sister.
In fact, Hina would be riding the same bus as the first-year high school students today, and it seemed Teacher Haihara would be the teacher in charge of that bus.
Before, Ai's impression of Teacher Haihara had been that she was cold and a little irresponsible, as if nothing could motivate her. It had been a rather poor impression.
But later...
She'd come to think Teacher Haihara was gentle and dependable. And when she thought of the night they'd slept together, Kirishima Ai still felt emotions well up inside her that she couldn't quite put into words.
By then, she was left with almost nothing but good impressions.
The difference between before and after was a little extreme.
She knew it was immature to feel that way, but there wasn't much she could do about it.
"At first, she might seem a little cold and scary, but she's actually very gentle and kind."
That was all she could say in the end.
Hina looked curious at her answer.
The two of them chatted quietly until the bus pulled up in front of the school gates.
"You can get off now," Kougami Kage reminded them.
Kirishima Ai got off first, then went to the trunk to take out the wheelchair. It was a little too heavy for her.
Doctor, on the other hand, lifted it out with ease.
"I can only take you this far. Be careful from here on," Kougami Kage said with a smile.
Kirishima Ai lowered her head. "Thank you, Doctor."
"No problem." Doctor glanced at the school gates, apparently searching for someone, but her eyesight wasn't very good, and she couldn't make out much of anything.
"Come to think of it... My love teaches here, too."
"Your fiancée, Doctor?"
Kirishima Ai was a little surprised.
So she was a teacher at their school?
She wondered what kind of person Doctor's fiancée was, though she probably had nothing to do with their class. Aside from Teacher Suzuki and Teacher Haihara, everyone else in their class was already married.
At the school gates, several classes were lined up separately and slowly filing onto the buses. Besides the students, there were a few other little incidents, too.
Along with the high school and middle school students, a few members of the student council were joining the trip, including the president and vice president.
"President Kazama, why are you so determined to ride on Class Four's bus? I really don't understand."
The students of Class Four saw two girls confronting each other nearby. Both were smiling, but an indescribable tension hung in the air between them.
One of the girls was tall and slender, with black hair and eyes. Her manner was elegant and gentle, and she was flawless in every way: Kazama Kiriori, the perfect goddess of Kaedehara High School.
Kazama Kiriori smiled warmly.
"Teacher Haihara was my homeroom teacher in my first year of high school. Isn't it perfectly normal that I'd want to ride on the same bus as her?"
The other girl had white hair and blue eyes. Her manner was graceful and her air noble, giving her the feel of a young lady from a wealthy family. She was rather short, though, which made her presence a little less imposing.
She managed to keep smiling.
"Couldn't you say the same about me? Teacher Haihara was my homeroom teacher, too. I also want to ride on the same bus as her."
The air grew tense for a moment.
They were classmates and fellow student council members, with one of them serving as president, but their relationship didn't seem very good.
Meanwhile, Teacher Haihara, the cause of the whole dispute, hadn't even noticed them.
"How about this? Let's ask Teacher Haihara and see which of us she wants to ride with."
Kazama Kiriori puffed out her proud chest and looked down at Qingchuan Lan.
Qingchuan Lan felt a burst of shame at being looked down on.
Just as she was about to say something else, two students arrived.
They seemed to be sisters.
The older sister was pushing the younger one in a wheelchair toward Class Four's line.
When Qingchuan Lan noticed the girl in the wheelchair, her expression changed, but she quickly resumed her earlier graceful, refined look.
Kazama Kiriori also turned to look at the two sisters.
If she wasn't mistaken, the girl in the wheelchair was Kirishima Hina, the child who had been caught up in a Monster incident and lost the ability to walk.
The school had specifically instructed the two of them to take good care of Kirishima Hina.
Before long, the bus slowly got underway, left the city, and rolled onto a road in the suburbs.
Once it started moving, the bus grew noisy. The students all seemed excited, chatting about one thing or another. Most were students from Class Four, while some were middle-schoolers. A few even seemed to be striking up conversations with their high school seniors.
The teacher in charge of this bus was the young Teacher Haihara.
She was looking down at her phone with her usual blank expression. After staring at it for a while, though, she started to feel dizzy, so she looked up to rest her eyes and saw what was going on inside the bus.
Beside her was Roland, the assistant homeroom teacher, clinging to her arm and refusing to let go.
This bus could carry fewer than forty people.
Among those forty or so passengers were Kirishima Ai, Sakaki Chika, and Takanashi Shiori—the three magical girls. They were sitting together, but hardly had anything to say to one another.
There was also her exceptionally filial daughter, as well as Qingchuan Lan, whom she had taught before.
And there was a little girl she couldn't help noticing, sitting beside Kirishima Ai. She stayed quiet, only occasionally glancing around with curiosity and caution, as if she wasn't quite used to this sort of situation.
She was the little sister Kirishima Ai had brought along this time.
For some reason, something about it just didn't feel right.
This camping trip...
Nothing would go wrong, would it?
So Weird
The bus ride from Kaedehara High School to the campsite would take more than half an hour. For the students, it was a novel experience, so it wasn't exactly boring.
But for the Demon King possessing Kirishima Hina, it was a different story.
Her expression was dark as the noisy chatter of the humans around her filled her ears. They all seemed to be having a great time, which made her, a mass of negative emotions, feel unbearably irritated.
Why were these humans so happy?
And it was hot as hell...
Although there was something called "air conditioning" inside the bus, she hated the feeling of being hot. The human presence churning through the bus made her want to rip apart every open mouth in sight.
"Are you feeling unwell?"
Just then, the human named Kirishima Ai spoke to her again.
The Demon King really didn't want to talk to a magical girl, especially one who carried the scent of that woman.
"No... I'm just not used to it."
For the moment, she answered the way her host would.
Besides, there seemed to be more than one magical girl on this bus.
The woman with silver hair and a monocle especially seemed familiar.
If she'd been at full strength, that wouldn't have been a threat, of course.
But for now, it was better to be cautious.
"You don't look well. If you feel sick, tell your big sister."
"I understand..."
To be honest, the scene before her was still a little novel to the Demon King.
Ever since she'd gained memories of being the Demon King, she'd always been surrounded by all kinds of members of the Black Death Cult, as well as the fear of humans or magical girls who opposed her.
Sometimes she was surrounded by followers; other times, she was attacked by a mob.
Even after possessing Kirishima Hina, she'd spent almost all her time confined to a hospital bed, sleeping inside that frail body. She'd never seen so many lively humans before.
If this had been in the past, those humans would have been terrified.
Only fear could bring her joy.
As a nonhuman monster, she had no sense of taste or smell. Her vision was almost entirely gray, and she couldn't see anything colorful.
All she could feel was pain or some even deeper stimulation.
Just as she was thinking this, the woman named Haihara suddenly spoke up inside the bus.
"Oh, right. I bought a box of ice pops. They should still be frozen in the ice. Anyone who's hot can go grab one."
Her voice wasn't loud, so quite a few students didn't hear her.
But the woman didn't seem interested in repeating herself. She went back to looking at her phone.
This woman seemed to be Kirishima Ai's homeroom teacher.
Sullen, cold, and lazy.
For some reason, the Demon King felt that this woman looked familiar, as if she'd seen her somewhere before.
Without realizing it, the Demon King found herself paying attention to the woman.
She couldn't say why.
Hmm... She was fairly attractive, enough to fit her tastes, but the Demon King didn't know what she'd smell like.
The air was full of cold air from the air conditioner, making it hard to tell.
Just then, Kirishima Hina suddenly regained control of her body and murmured something only she could hear.
"What's wrong with Big Sis's teacher?"
Before you continue