Changing clothes

At first, Huo Lin had thought Amano had pica.

For instance, there were often news reports about people who liked eating hair, dirt, or even glass.

The scientific explanation was a deficiency in certain trace elements.

But Amano Touko was different. She was a book-eating monster!

The fragrance of cake, the sweetness of fruit, rich chocolate and coffee-Amano could taste all of these in words. Literary works containing beautiful poetry and stories were feasts to her.

She would tear off a sheet of paper and literally stuff it into her mouth and eat it.

Conversely, the actual foods ordinary people ate tasted like cardboard to her, and forcing herself to eat them would only upset her stomach and make her ill.

It wasn't paper she ate. Blank paper meant nothing to her. What she ate was the beautiful prose given form by the words on the paper.

But aside from that, she was no different from any normal girl. She was still an ordinary human.

This book-eating monster often called herself a "literature girl."

"I've told you so many times already! The books in the literature club were bought with club funds everyone worked hard to earn. You can't eat them!"

That was true. The literature club didn't have much funding. Those hard-earned funds came from prize money generations of older students had won in essay competitions and the like, which they had then used to buy books and fill the shelves.

As for the row of manga on the shelf, those had been brought from home by Sugisaki Ken, a new member who had joined that year.

"I didn't! You're falsely accusing me, Huo Lin! I bought this book at a bookstore before school today. It's my lunch."

Huo Lin glanced at the cover and realized she might really have accused her upperclassman unfairly.

That book wasn't in the literature club's collection catalog.

"But why come to the literature club to eat it? And it isn't lunchtime yet, is it?"

"But I'm hungry. And if someone sees me eating books anywhere else, they'll think I'm a monster," Amano said plaintively.

At lunchtime, she couldn't eat food like everyone else, and she always ate her books alone, in secret.

Even in the literature club, no one knew she ate books apart from the former president, who had already graduated, and the current president, Yagami.

"Are you here to change, President?" Amano noticed the gym uniform in Huo Lin's hands. "Go ahead. I won't peek."

As she spoke, Amano tore out another page and stuffed it into her mouth, then covered her eyes with her hands.

She did cover them, but there were clearly enormous gaps between her fingers!

"Amano! Tou! Ko!"

"What? You're the suspicious one, President. Why can't you change in the classroom?" She felt certain the president had a secret. The president had discovered her book-eating secret, so if she could find out the president's secret, she could even the score.

"Ah! I've got it! You must have knife scars and yakuza tattoos! You're the literature club president by day and a yakuza boss by night!"

The fifth-grade literature girl was at an age when she was both innocent and prone to wild flights of fancy.

Huo Lin ignored her and made a show of undoing the first button of her school uniform. Only then did Amano, who had still been pretending she would peek, hurriedly close her book. Saying, "You're really going to strip?" and "I'm full now!" she scrambled to climb out the window.

"The door's open now. Use the door!"

"Oh."

Watching Amano leave, Huo Lin confirmed through her magical feedback that she had indeed left the old school building. She checked the time. There were only five minutes left before class.

Hayate had originally only come along to keep her company, intending to go to the girls' changing room afterward, but now there probably wasn't time for that either.

Seeing Huo Lin change, Hayate began undoing her own buttons.

"Hey, Hayate, are you sure this is okay?"

"It's fine. There's no one else here. You're harmless, Huo Lin. Besides, don't we look exactly alike?"

That was true. Whatever the case with anyone else, she certainly had no such thoughts about Hayate. It was like looking in a mirror.

Never mind simply changing their outer tops and trousers-even if Hayate were completely naked, it would be no different from seeing herself in the mirror while bathing.

But changing clothes this way really was a hassle. She was a magical girl, after all. Wasn't there a more convenient way?

The thought came to Huo Lin as she changed.

Magical girls in cartoons, for example, could change outfits with a wave of a wand and a few magic words.

That would be much more convenient, and she wouldn't have to keep searching for empty classrooms.

It was possible.

From the records in the Book of the Night Sky, Huo Lin already knew that a magical girl's transformation could indeed include a change of clothes.

The only reason she couldn't do it was that she didn't have a magical device. If the Book of the Night Sky hadn't gone out of control, and if it truly recognized her as its master, she could have used it to conjure up a magical girl's outfit.

"Conjure up" wasn't quite the right description. Those outfits actually existed, made in advance and sealed inside a magical device. When needed, they could be instantly swapped with the clothes the master was currently wearing, creating the effect of a "transformation."

Shoes were important too. Making height-boosting shoes was still rather inconvenient at present. She could try using magic to make a pair that could automatically rise, adjusting her height as needed.

Huo Lin's current knowledge of magic was nowhere near enough to make a magical device. But if all she needed was the ability to change clothes, making a simple, single-function version of a "magical device" was somewhat feasible.

The most important thing was still the magical materials.

Many scientific achievements were constrained by materials science. The same held true for magic.

Even if she knew some of the theory, or worked out a method of making one, without the corresponding materials, there was no way to proceed.

For example, to make a magical device, mithril and magical energy crystals were essential, whatever else it might require. The former was an excellent conductor of magical power, while the latter formed the core that stored and converted it.

They would probably be difficult to find on Earth.

"Huo Lin, aren't you done yet? I'm going ahead."

"Okay, just a moment."

After changing and putting her school uniform into her bag, Huo Lin was still thinking about how to draft a feasibility report.

She would consider the magic she needed to learn to make it work, the materials required to build it, and so on. Funding mattered too, of course. Only then would she make a final assessment.

She was used to planning things out rather than acting on a whim.

Once again, Huo Lin lamented the fact that the Book of the Night Sky was an out-of-control magical device. Having a ready-made magical device would make things so much simpler.

Of course, if it hadn't gone out of control and had chosen Hayate from the start, Huo Lin couldn't have taken it from her. It belonged to Hayate.

"Good thing there aren't swimming classes in fourth grade yet. But what will you do in fifth grade?"

Hayate said this as they walked away from the old school building.

Though they occasionally had swimming lessons, they wouldn't actually have to get into the pool during PE until fifth grade.

It was obvious that merely disguising her face wouldn't be enough to get through a class like that. Hayate couldn't imagine Huo Lin wearing boys' swimming trunks with her upper body bare.

What would she do then?

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Huo Lin said irresponsibly.

She really hadn't figured it out yet.

"Huo Lin, if you're having trouble with anything, you have to tell me. Don't keep it bottled up. After all, you ended up like this because of me."

"I didn't end up like this because of you." That was the one thing Huo Lin would never agree with. "I wanted to gain the power of magic myself. Being an ordinary person was too boring. Becoming a magical girl was the price I paid because I wanted supernatural power. It has nothing to do with you. Besides, Hayate, aren't you a magical girl yourself?"