Magic Disguise

"Sorry, was this still too difficult for you, Class President?"

Huo Lin knew it was only because she had been reborn. In her previous life, she had spent more than a dozen Christmases and New Years as a first-year university student, reading practically every book that interested her in the University of Tokyo library.

The class president, however, was a genuine elementary schooler. Naturally, she couldn't compare with Huo Lin.

"Once you grow up, Class President, you'll be able to understand these books."

Huo Lin had no idea that those words dealt Sakurano a devastating blow.

Grow up... grow up... Those words lingered like an echo in a valley.

So she was still a little kid?

Huo Lin glanced through the bookstore's glass doors and spotted Hayate returning from the restroom.

Hayate saw her too. She was just about to speak when Huo Lin gestured for her to keep quiet.

"What is it?" Still reeling from the blow, Sakurano looked at Huo Lin's gesture in confusion. She turned around, but there was nothing there.

Hayate had already hidden behind a pillar.

"Class President, I'm going to pay now. The movie's about to start. Good day."

"Oh, um, good day."

So Hayate had come to see a movie. Was it Alice's Candy House? Sakurano had bought a ticket too, but hers was for an afternoon showing.

Watching "Hayate" leave, Sakurano felt that she seemed a little different. Was this what being grown-up felt like? She was so envious.

No matter how she tried to imitate it, she never quite managed, and people kept calling her a "cute little kindergartner."

Originally, Hayate and Huo Lin had planned to do some shopping or get something to eat after the movie. But after running into the class president, Huo Lin realized that, since they had chosen a shopping center close enough to school to reach on foot without taking a train, it was also somewhere their classmates would spend time.

It would be fine if either Hayate or Huo Lin ran into a classmate alone, but if anyone caught them together, there would be no way to explain it. They had no choice but to cut their outing short.

Huo Lin was actually rather glad. She had a mountain of things to do.

That evening, after dinner, Huo Lin locked herself in her bedroom again. Time to hole up and work! No coming out until I get results!

"Huo Lin, I've finished washing. Aren't you taking a bath?"

It was a little past seven when Hayate knocked on her door.

Huo Lin's answer was a curt, "No."

Whose kid is this? So filthy. But with the bedroom door locked, there was nothing Hayate could do.

Still, Hayate had misjudged Huo Lin.

The next day, Monday morning.

When Hayate got up to wash, she found the bathroom already occupied, with the sound of the shower coming from inside.

Since it was their bathroom at home, the door wasn't locked. In other words, if Hayate pushed down the handle, she could open it right away.

If she and Huo Lin had been sisters from the start, there would have been nothing awkward about one of them washing up while the other showered.

But now, even if Hayate herself didn't mind, Huo Lin might feel awkward.

So she could only wait outside for a little while.

More than ten minutes later, the bathroom door opened.

"Good morning, Hayate. Do you need the toilet?"

"Yeah, I need to brush my teeth..."

At first, Hayate didn't notice anything wrong. Although something did feel off, it was as if her mind had frozen and hadn't caught up yet.

Only after a few seconds did she realize what was wrong.

That was Huo Lin!

Not yesterday's Huo Lin, but Huo Lin from a few months ago!

"Huo Lin, you-you changed back?"

"Heh-heh. What do you think? Can you spot any flaws?"

Huo Lin, now sporting a male appearance, turned in a circle. She was wearing the school's boys' uniform, and her face looked the way it used to.

Flaws? So she hadn't actually changed back.

"How did you do it?"

"Magic, of course," Huo Lin said proudly. She had altered the paths of light to create a different appearance.

A static mask would have been simple, of course, but to make the disguise convincing, even her microexpressions had to change along with her face. That required a complex system of functions. Fortunately, after spending over a week on it, she had finally finished last night.

Professor Agasa deserved a great deal of credit. This was based on the theory in that old manuscript of his.

However, the professor's manuscript contained only theories and ideas, which the science of the time couldn't realize, whether in terms of materials or computing hardware. Huo Lin had made them a reality with magic.

The magic circle was engraved on a four-leaf clover hair clip.

"But what about your voice?"

"The voice was even easier."

Huo Lin gestured at the bow tie around her neck. Although it had been bought for her female appearance, it was actually suitable for either gender at nine years old. It wouldn't look out of place on a boy.

"A voice changer. I engraved a magic circle on it. The principle is pretty much the same-one changes light waves, and the other changes sound waves."

It could do more than reproduce the voice of the male Huo Lin. By adjusting the frequency, she could imitate anyone's voice.

Huo Lin took off the bow tie, and sure enough, her voice returned to a girl's voice very similar to Hayate's.

"So it only changes your face and voice? What about your height?"

Hayate was 132 centimeters tall, while Huo Lin had originally been 140. Now she had shrunk by eight centimeters and was the same height as Hayate.

"Height-increasing shoes, of course."

Huo Lin had modified a pair of shoes herself, raising the soles by a full five centimeters. There wasn't much difference between 137 and 140 centimeters, and no one would scrutinize her height.

Compared with making the voice-changing bow tie, the height-increasing shoes had been much simpler. They hadn't needed any magic at all.

Hayate circled Huo Lin. Although only her face and voice had changed, the disguise really was convincing. Even after living together for so many years, Hayate couldn't spot any flaws.

Magic was amazing!

"Can I use this too?" Hayate suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Huo Lin didn't understand at first.

"If I put on this hair clip and bow tie, will I turn into 'Huo Lin'?"

Theoretically, it would work, but that idea was a little dangerous.

"Why do you want to look like me?"

"But you pretend to be me too. When you were talking to the class president earlier, didn't Class President Sakurano mistake you for me?"

"That... doesn't count."

That was simply her own appearance. She hadn't disguised herself, and she naturally looked just like Hayate. They were twins, after all.

Of course, Hayate was only curious. Huo Lin indulged her, taking off the hair clip and bow tie and handing them over.

A moment later, looking at the "Huo Lin" standing in the mirror, Hayate found it strange and fascinating. Stranger still was the "Hayate" standing beside her in a boys' uniform.

"Hey, don't make faces with my face," Huo Lin complained. She would never make such stupid expressions herself.

"Haha."

Magic really was fun.

Of course, there was one thing that could definitively distinguish the two of them.

The Book of the Night Sky.

Whoever had the book was Huo Lin, and whoever didn't was Hayate.

She still couldn't let the book leave her side. Fortunately, Huo Lin had tested it, and her suppression of magical power remained effective within one meter. She had created a magical exclusion zone extending one meter around her.

So she only needed to put the book in her schoolbag. She wouldn't have to keep carrying it in her arms like some weirdo.

If magical power were compared to atmospheric pressure, Earth's environment had normal atmospheric pressure, while the area within one meter of Huo Lin had the water pressure of the sea at a depth of ten thousand meters.

This wasn't Huo Lin's limit, but it already exceeded that of the Book of the Night Sky. As a result, all its functions as a magical device had been paralyzed, leaving it seemingly no different from an ordinary notebook.

She confined her magical power within that single meter. Thus, the Time-Space Administration Bureau had detected the Book of the Night Sky's loss of control for only an instant, and had noticed no further abnormalities afterward.