Just as Chiba Yeyou was thinking about apologizing to Miyuki Shiba, the dismissal bell rang.
School was over already?
That fast?
Looks like my timing really was perfect!
Chiba Yeyou could not help admiring his own precise control over things.
Forget it, I'll wait at the school gate. I wanted to just leave, but that doesn't seem quite right.
With that thought, Chiba Yeyou headed toward the school gate.
"Huh?"
Erika Chiba spotted Chiba Yeyou. This guy had actually come out so quickly.
"Hey!"
"Wait for us!"
Erika Chiba waved at Chiba Yeyou and called out.
"Oh, it's you guys!"
Chiba Yeyou glanced over. Sure enough, there were Erika Chiba, Tatsuya Shiba, and Mizuki Shibata. The other person following them was probably Leonhard Saijo.
He had yellow skin, short, tousled black hair, and brown eyes. Still, he was not nearly as unkempt as Erika Chiba made him out to be. On the contrary, his tousled short hair gave him a somewhat rakish air. Erika Chiba's assessment was nothing more than the two of them taking jabs at each other.
"Hello, I'm Chiba Yeyou!"
"Hello, I'm Leonhard Saijo. Nice to meet you!"
Leonhard Saijo seemed rather forthright.
"Hey, is it really okay for a Course 1 student like you to come out this early?"
"You're in more of a hurry to leave than a Course 2 student like me?"
Erika Chiba started grumbling. Not being among the first to leave the school building was bad enough, but a Course 1 student had even beaten her to it!
"It's simple. I didn't come out through the door!"
"So of course I was faster than you!"
Chiba Yeyou sighed over what had happened to him.
"Hmm?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Erika Chiba was a little confused. If he had not come out through the door, had he come out through a window?
"His little sister knocked me out of the building!"
Chiba Yeyou glanced at Tatsuya Shiba.
"???"
Tatsuya Shiba was full of questions. How had Miyuki gotten dragged into this?
"What happened?"
Tatsuya Shiba looked at Chiba Yeyou and asked.
Chiba Yeyou did not hide anything and recounted what had just happened. Tatsuya Shiba's mouth twitched, but he said nothing afterward. After all, it was a misunderstanding.
So the teacher had finally lost patience with him sleeping and gotten angry. Miyuki had kindly tried to alert him, only to get herself caught up in it.
*?*
Why did that last part sound a little off?
Forget it. As long as Miyuki was all right.
Tatsuya Shiba thought to himself.
Of course, by all right, Tatsuya Shiba meant that she had not been hurt.
"Brother..."
Before long, Miyuki Shiba ran out of the school building, waving as she hurried toward her brother. Then she saw the person she did not want to see.
"What are you doing here!"
Miyuki Shiba hugged her brother's arm and spoke irritably.
"Miyuki!"
Tatsuya Shiba stroked Miyuki Shiba's head.
"I'm sorry. That was rude of me!"
Miyuki Shiba immediately let go of her brother and bowed to Chiba Yeyou in apology.
"I came to apologize to you, but we've each been rude once now, so we're even!"
"I was rude earlier too. Sorry!"
Then Chiba Yeyou apologized to Miyuki Shiba as well.
"Hmph!"
Miyuki Shiba gave a cold snort, accepting his apology.
How were those the same?
Miyuki Shiba could not help recalling the earlier scene. He was the first unfamiliar man she had ever been that close to in her entire life.
Her little face flushed slightly, and she turned away rather than look at Chiba Yeyou.
"Ah!"
"Finally back in my little nest!"
Chiba Yeyou flopped onto his bed and looked up at the ceiling, his eyes half-closed, his thoughts unknown.
Chiba Yeyou suddenly sat up, pondering something. Then he got up, walked into an inner room, and pressed his palm against a bare wall.
About three seconds later, a white light suddenly shone from the wall, and its entire surface began to crystallize.
'Identity verification initiated!' 'Quantum Domain deployed!' 'Domain authentication initiated!'
"Quantum Domain, deploy!"
As Chiba Yeyou's words fell, the previously chaotic psions within a certain radius around him began to settle into an orderly pattern, slowly revolving around him.
'Verifying...' 'Authentication complete!'
Whoosh!
The entire wall sank into the ground, revealing a vast, spacious area before Chiba Yeyou.
"It's about time I made it!"
Chiba Yeyou murmured and walked inside.
Early the next morning, Chiba Yeyou was the first to arrive in the classroom. Then he put his head down.
When Miyuki Shiba came in, she saw Chiba Yeyou sleeping there. He remained that way even after the teacher arrived.
Perhaps yesterday's incident had spread throughout the school, because no one bothered him anymore.
"Magic is a great miracle, but if you want to master it, you need more than theory. You need more hands-on practice and experimentation. All right, that concludes this morning's lesson. Class dismissed!"
Then the teacher left.
"Yaaawn..."
"Time for lunch, right?"
Chiba Yeyou rubbed his eyes and muttered to himself.
"Pfft!"
Miyuki Shiba burst out laughing.
"How do you manage to sleep through class with such perfect timing?"
Miyuki Shiba kept looking Chiba Yeyou over.
"Little girl, that's called precise control. There are plenty more things for you to be curious about!"
"Keep at it, young lady!"
Chiba Yeyou waved a hand and headed out of the classroom to get lunch.
"Hmph!"
"Who cares!"
Miyuki Shiba turned and went out to find her brother.
Why did this girl seem to be getting more and more tsundere?
How strange!
Whatever. What the hell did it have to do with me?
Just a hopeless brocon.
First High School's cafeteria was quite large and offered all sorts of delicious food. Still, Chiba Yeyou preferred ordinary meals and disliked anything overly fancy.
He got a serving of chicken, a serving of greens, and a serving of white rice, then leisurely walked to an empty seat and began savoring his food.
Just as Chiba Yeyou was marveling at what a truly wonderful day it was, with no one disturbing his leisurely life, a voice suddenly reached his ears.
"Hello, may I sit here?"
A girl with long hair walked over and asked Chiba Yeyou.
"Sit."
Chiba Yeyou could not be bothered with unnecessary talk. Nor did he ask why she insisted on sitting with him when there were so many other seats nearby. He simply answered with one word.
Anyone who was not an idiot would know she had come for him. He would deal with whatever she threw at him. If she pushed him too far, taking her apart was an option too.
With Chiba Yeyou's permission, the girl placed her tray on the table, smoothed her skirt with both hands, and sat opposite him.
"You're Chiba Yeyou, correct?"
Seeing that Chiba Yeyou had no intention of paying her any attention, the girl could only find a topic herself.
"I'm so famous, and you still don't know?"
"What backwater did you crawl out of?"
Chiba Yeyou showed no restraint. If he genuinely failed to realize that this girl knew who he was, there would have to be something wrong with his brain.
The girl opposite him was stunned by his retort.
Did he always talk to people like this?
Had this guy forgotten that she had appeared on-screen while he was chatting with Mayumi Saegusa?
You think I don't recognize you, huh?
Then I'll play along!
For a moment, the girl did not know what to say. She merely kept poking at her steak with her knife and fork.
"If you're not enthusiastic about eating, there's something wrong with your brain!"
Chiba Yeyou gave Suzune Ichihara an odd look, as though there really were something wrong with her brain.
That was right. This girl was Suzune Ichihara, though he had no idea why she had come looking for Chiba Yeyou.
Strange. With her personality, she shouldn't be coming to see me!
This girl wasn't someone who liked joining in on every bit of excitement.
Wait, had she just happened to run into me?
That would be quite a coincidence!
Hearing Chiba Yeyou's words, Suzune Ichihara silently began eating the steak on her tray.
"Sorry, I was just joking. Don't take it to heart."
Seeing Suzune Ichihara looking as though he had bullied her, Chiba Yeyou could not quite take it.
The problem was that he really did seem to have bullied her a little.
"Uh, it's fine."
Suzune Ichihara was somewhat surprised by Chiba Yeyou's apology.
"By the way, Suzune Ichihara, did you forget? When I was chatting with Mayumi Saegusa, you and Azusa Nakajo appeared on-screen too!"
Chiba Yeyou looked at Suzune Ichihara with a grin.
"Ah!"
"I really did forget!"
"You were actually having fun at my expense!"
Only then did Suzune Ichihara realize.
"By the way, don't you student council members eat together?"
It had to be said that Suzune Ichihara was rather taciturn and did not seem to like talking much. Her long, straight blue hair reached all the way to her waist, but her bearing was not cold like Miyuki Shiba's. On the contrary, she was very quiet and gentle.
"Of course not."
"The student council has a food preparation machine, but it broke down today, so I came out to eat and bring some food back for them."
"So that's it!"
Only after hearing Suzune Ichihara's explanation did Chiba Yeyou understand.
"When are you, Mayumi Saegusa's secretary, coming to the student council room to help?"
"You have no idea. With you new students enrolling, our student council room is full of documents. There are all sorts of things to handle. We're swamped!"
Perhaps she had become a little more familiar with Chiba Yeyou after exchanging a few words, because Suzune Ichihara began pouring out her woes to him, hoping he would come help sooner.
"Is it really that bad?"
Chiba Yeyou asked in puzzlement.
How busy could a student council possibly get?
"Heh. Right now, the school administration, including the teachers, basically takes a hands-off approach to the students. To a certain extent, you could say they've delegated authority to the student council. The student council handles plenty of things. You tell me whether we're busy."
Suzune Ichihara glanced at Chiba Yeyou and added, "So come help us soon!"
Any later, and we'll have finished everything!
Suzune Ichihara added that last part inwardly.
"Hahaha, well..."
Before Chiba Yeyou could finish, another voice rang out.
"What did you say?"