Seeing that Ando Meiko had already gone far ahead, Yuya snapped back to his senses and hurried after her. "Meizi, hey, wait for me!"
No matter what kind of event it was, the leaders' speeches before the opening ceremony were always the most boring part.
No matter how long the principal and teachers droned on up there, it was basically all about carrying forward the school's fine traditions and how their school was full of good students. In short, there was only one word for it: bragging.
The speech had only gone on for five minutes, but to the students waiting beneath the stage, it felt like five centuries had passed.
That was enough time for Ando Meiko to get through several routes in a dating sim.
If she hadn't known what her homeroom teacher, Ms. Ci, was capable of, and if she weren't currently playing the role of a good girl, she definitely would have skipped the school festival assembly and stayed home until it was almost over before coming back.
[Ruby, do you have any way to help me kill time? It's so boring here.]
[Yes! I have a hundred-thousand-word love confession. How about I read it to you, Master? That way, you can truly feel my endless love, surging like waves.]
[Forget it. I'll listen to the speech.]
What if she couldn't hold back during the assembly and did something violent, like smashing her necklace?
After suffering through half an hour, the endless speech finally came to an end... but that was nothing to Ando Meiko, because the person she liked was standing right beside her.
At the pep rally before the school festival officially began, the students who had drawn the three-legged race gathered on the track under the teachers' guidance to prepare.
"Meizi, I'm tying us together now."
"Please." She lined up her foot with Rei's and let Rei bind them together with a rope.
After moving around a little and jogging forward a few steps as practice and a warm-up, she said, "All right, I've completely got the feel for it now."
"That was way too fast."
"Because we don't have much time left. Come on, our goal is to bring back first place."
Rei really was too optimistic.
Ando Meiko didn't remember ever setting that goal with her.
But since Rei had said so, she would aim for first place. After all, half her body was no longer human. Once she got used to it, sports should be no problem.
The starting pistol fired, and the race began.
To gain an advantage at the start, Ando Meiko wanted to widen the gap as much as possible early on. The only problem was that she had forgotten to discuss it with Rei beforehand.
Rei, who was moving steadily to match her pace, and Ando Meiko, who was taking bigger strides to gain an edge, clashed the instant they started.
Their bodies lost balance because of each other's movements, and they fell before even taking a single step from the starting line.
"All right, with the sound of the starting pistol, every contestant is off—oh? The two contestants in lane three actually made a mistake right at the start!"
"I'm sorry..."
"It's okay, Meizi. That was only the start. We still have a chance!"
"That's... true." Encouraged by Rei, she quickly got up, coordinated with Rei's movements, and began accelerating.
"One, two, one, two, one, two..."
Remembering yesterday's practice, their rhythm grew better and better. Their increasingly rapid movements had even surpassed the speed of a single person jogging.
"The contestants in lane three have pulled themselves together, and they're so fast! They've already overtaken the students in lanes one and four! They haven't stopped—they're still accelerating! At this rate, is this dark horse going to come from behind and win?"
Everyone watched the two girls who had stumbled at the beginning, then started tearing through the competition after adjusting themselves.
But the two of them had put nearly all their attention into matching each other's rhythm. They were so focused that they didn't even hear the cheers around them.
On the short two-hundred-meter track, Ando Meiko and Rei sped past one competitor after another.
"Go! Go!"
"Go, you two big sisters who fell down!"
Amid the waves of cheering, they crossed the finish line... but unfortunately, they came in second by a narrow margin.
"I'm sorry." Since her mistake had kept them from getting the placement Rei had wanted, Ando Meiko apologized again for losing her composure.
If Ando Meiko had communicated with Rei beforehand, they would not have stumbled right out of the gate... and with their performance, they could have easily taken first even without rushing for an early lead.
"You don't need to apologize. We already did our best. We were just a little unlucky."
It was around ten o'clock when the pep rally came to a perfect close.
The members of each class dispersed and returned to their assigned posts, marking the true start of the school festival.
Rei had activities to handle in her class, so after they dismissed, she greeted Ando Meiko and left the field with her classmates.
Ando Meiko herself had nothing scheduled, so she planned to wander around for a while before heading back.
"Found~ you~ Meizi!"
The hug from behind felt incredibly familiar. Just from that soft touch alone, she knew who had sneak-attacked her.
"Fuko?"
"Surprised? Didn't expect me, did you? I came all this way just to see you."
"Meizi, Meizi! There are so many people here! This is so fun!"
"Nanako came too?" This was the first time the little Evil God had been brought somewhere with so many people. It was far livelier than the amusement park during the workday last time.
Nanako's curious, sparkling-eyed expression made Ando Meiko rub her forehead in distress.
It looked like she would not be getting through this school festival easily.
What happened recently had left Ando Meiko with so many worries that she could barely think straight. She had even forgotten that the school festival was open to the public.
If she had simply told Fuko and arranged to meet at school, she would not have been startled like this.
"Meizi, who was that person just now?"
"You mean the girl who was talking to me? Her name is Nakajima Rei. I guess you could say she's my friend."
"Huh? A friend? It looked like you two were pretty close."
"Our relationship is... okay, I guess."
Fuko's puffed-up expression was cute, but Ando Meiko had no idea what she had done to make her so angry.
Did she get upset because I forgot to invite her?
"But why do I feel like the way you look at her is kind of... unusual?"
She was the only person who knew Ando Meiko's secret. When she noticed that her childhood friend seemed to care so much about that girl, she became a little jealous.
"Is it?" Ando Meiko had not noticed anything unusual about her gaze. She felt like she looked at everyone about the same.
Maybe it was just Fuko's imagination.
"Forget it. Since we're all here, do you want to take a look around together?"
"Sure. I wasn't planning to go help out in class anyway."
Yesterday's rare free time had been ruined by what happened at the park, so Ando Meiko decided to use this chance to make it up to the two of them.
As she looked around the field, the little booths set up nearby were not large individually, but together they had practically everything.
At a glance, nearly all of them were related to food. There was okonomiyaki, tamagoyaki, takoyaki, and even fried noodles and bubble tea.
Could they really have gotten all of this, including the equipment, completely prepared in a day and a half?
Then again, the school must have provided considerable financial and manpower support.
"Delicious! This is delicious!" Before they had even reached the school building, the snack stalls had already left Fuko and Nanako unable to stop eating.
Fuko might have had an airheaded personality, but unlike Nanako, who ate practically anything, she would never compromise when it came to food.
And no matter how much she ate, the fat would gather exactly where it was supposed to.
Not only had this given her an impressive figure back in elementary school, it had once made the older girls who played with them endlessly envious.
"Meizi, say ah~"
"Ah... mm..." Ando Meiko was fed by Fuko.
As she chewed the takoyaki that had been blown cool, she shifted her gaze away from Fuko's proud peaks before Fuko noticed.
But her embarrassed, averted gaze caught sight of a familiar figure.
A girl was waving at her while walking this way, trying to get her attention. It was the child from next door, Sawamura Rin.
"Meizi, I knew you'd be here."
Rin was cheerful and helpful, making her well-liked by her classmates and extremely busy in class.
Honestly, Ando Meiko did not understand why she would be here during the busiest period just before noon.
"Meizi, I'm back. It's the school festival, so let's relax and have fun." From another direction, Nakajima Rei, who had finished handling her class's work, walked toward Ando Meiko at the same time.
"Huh?" Ando Meiko's heart skipped a beat.
C-could this be the legendary Shura field?
[Master... you're on your own.]
Seeing the situation, Ruby proactively declared that she was giving up.
"Meizi... just how many have you gotten involved with outside?" The jealousy beside her was practically slapping her in the face.
At this point, no matter how dense Ando Meiko was, she could guess what Fuko meant.
Three women made a play, but with Ando Meiko included, there seemed to be four girls... no, if they counted the little girl who only cared about eating, that made five. Forget a play—they could easily form a whole team.
While everyone introduced themselves, Ando Meiko tried several times to slip away, but Fuko glared her back each time with eyes fierce enough to kill.
"My name is Sakura Fuko, and I live with Ando Meiko." As the last person to introduce herself, Fuko emphasized the final few words as though she were afraid the other three would not hear them. Her intentions were obvious at once.
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
As if they had just learned some explosive news, two disbelieving voices came from Rei and Rin respectively.
Not only their voices, but even the way they looked at Ando Meiko, then turned to look at Fuko, was strangely identical.
You were telling the truth, but that was still private, wasn't it? Fuko, was it really okay to say that out loud?
In less than five minutes, Ando Meiko could already smell the intense competition in the air.
What exactly had happened to make the three of them act like this? Was it my fault? Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could a Shura field that only harem protagonists experienced possibly happen to me?
"Since everyone's here, let's all walk around together. But Rei and Rin, is your time really okay?"
"It's fine. I'm not needed in class right now." Rei immediately made her position clear.
"Me too."
Rin was in much the same situation as Rei. Although they had both been responsible for many things, most of it had been preparation before the festival. Once the festival began, they had plenty of free time.
Besides those two, Fuko had not yet received permission to attend school, Ando Meiko as a new student had not been assigned any work, and then there was Nanako, the little girl who only cared about eating...
All five girls were surprisingly free.
Still, interacting with girls as a girl was genuinely difficult for Ando Meiko.
If it were boys meeting up, the conversation would probably be about what anime they had watched today, what fun games had come out recently, or how things were going with the girl they liked.
But Ando Meiko knew nothing about conversations between girls. Of course, she had never had the chance to learn before, either.
Compared with how anime and games dominated boys' conversations, food and clothes were far more popular topics among girls.
Especially when they discussed how delicious some restaurant was. Fuko casually mentioned the flavor and texture, and the topic immediately took off.
It was good news for Ando Meiko that the three of them had found common ground and were chatting so happily, but she was not interested in any of it, while Nanako only cared about what they would eat next.
After Ando Meiko became a magical girl, her Half-Aether Body could not absorb too much magic power on its own, forcing her to replenish the magic power she needed by eating a great deal.
She used to deliberately control how much she ate to maintain her figure, but now, even though her appetite had grown significantly, she was not worried in the slightest.
The important thing was that the energy would be used up in the right places, and after becoming a Half-Aether Body, her weight had been fixed at that of Ando Meiko's girl's body.
Being able to eat whatever she wanted without gaining weight was something countless people dreamed of. If she did not eat more now, when would she ever make back the energy wasted fighting monsters?
The only thing that could make Ando Meiko hesitate was whether she could afford it.
Before you continue