19. magicless reincarnation

I stayed at the entrance. Roonie only asked if I wanted to go in once, thankfully. She didn’t scream or press a panic button when I shook my head, so maybe my hood-over-face disguise worked better than anticipated. I still knew better than to lower my guard.

The other risk factor was Hisui, but she simply crawled into the burrow. How did they carry the chest after that? No clue.

“Oh, shit.”

I should’ve told them to bring food…

:—<> —:

“...new student… Ishida Seishin… please say hi.”

New day new school new Ishida.

Kidding.

I walked into the class, saw sixty eyes on me, nodded, then scurried off to some seat next to the window. It wasn’t the one at the back, sadly.

Back then, I was eight centimeters shorter and hadn’t dyed my hair; it hid my face even more than now. I hadn’t pierced my ears yet. I spent the entire day hyperventilating, then school ended, and I realized the bitter, pathetic truth: new day new school old Ishida.

The next morning, the girl in front of me tried to talk. She asked where I came from, and I said Tokyo. She said that it was cool, and that she wanted to visit it sometime. I said that she should because it was nice. She asked if I liked Sapporo so far, and I said yes, and we shut up after that.

My second interaction began with a swarm of guys surrounding my seat during lunch break. They asked what kinds of things I was into. I said movies and games. They asked which, and I replied, obviating the more deranged stuff. One of them said that my backpack looked expensive, which it did, but I’d won it in a raffle, which I said, but he said that he didn’t believe me. Life was good and I was being a social butterfly until he told me to hang out with him after school.

Everyone shut up after that.

Not good.

I said that I would anyway.

Predictably, hanging out with him meant being herded towards a trio of delinquents that very humbly requested charity. They didn’t look too dangerous. Two out of three were noodly, and the only one with significant muscle mass looked as though he were melting. I gave them my lunch money for tomorrow, then left.

I was on probation. I shouldn’t get into fights. After all, I’d transferred to this place to get away from them.

The problem was when the same kid asked me to hang out with him again. I shook my head, but he insisted, and insisted, and insisted. He said that I was too quiet and would push everyone away, and I apologized, though I wanted to tell him that I knew exactly what he was trying to do and that I used to break people like him as a hobby before I realized the error of my ways.

By my second week, I’d gone from wallflower to that rich Tokyo kid who thinks he’s above everyone else. The girl in front no longer talked to me, nor did I get swarmed again. However, that shitty little kid would relentlessly ask me to hang out with him. Needless to say, he was the one behind this.

I had to resist, though. No more violence. Bad.

By the third week, I’d begun to fantasize. I’d meet that quartet of losers in a back alley somewhere. They’d try to mug me. I’d beat the shit out of them. They’d show up with an even bigger group the next time, and I’d also beat everyone up. Realistically, this wouldn’t be the case—as anyone who has fought more than one person at a time can attest—but it was nice to imagine anyway.

By the fourth week, I had no money left…

…fine…

I may or may not have been enabling their vice. When I did, they allowed me to hang out with them. It was like a subscription service, kind of, including pushback after trying to cancel it. Literally—I got shoved the day I finally said no.

They wanted my sneakers. I said no again. We often… hung up… at the edge of the school, surrounded by foliage and similarly shady students. No one would help if I screamed. I couldn’t actually hit them, though. It was one thing to fantasize about it and another one to actually fight four men at once while I was significantly below average size and hadn’t practiced in weeks.

When one of them grabbed me from behind, and the other one asked him to keep me still, raising a fist, I thought about how weak his posture was. How loosely the mook behind held me. How the other two were so unworried, snickering.

A second before the first mook attacked, I dropped my weight. The one behind me sagged, startled, then grunted as the punch whacked him instead. Given I’d been obediently following orders until then, he hadn’t even considered that I’d move at the last second. The issue then became that they got mad and… well… it was four against one. I called my parents to tell them that I was staying at a friend’s house so they wouldn’t see the end result and freak out, then stayed at a hotel rotten enough to take a high school student using the money I got from the mooks.

The next morning, I was called to the student council, which I thought was strange. The person greeting me wasn’t the principal, but a… student? He introduced himself as Hoshimiya Tatsumi, school council president, then invited me to take a seat, asking if it—meaning the side of my face that looked like an eggplant—hurt. I said no. He said that I should get it checked, and I agreed.

From the start, Hoshimiya seemed like the kind of guy one would find in a shoujo manga: he had that height and that build and that haircut. When pleasantries failed to work, he said, “It’s hard to hide two students showing up like this from authorities. It’ll be the first and last time I do this favor, Ishida. I can tell what happened, even if Date refuses to admit it. One of his classmates is missing, as is one of yours. Hospitalized, probably.”

“That’s not—” They weren’t anywhere near hurt enough to go to the hospital. Come on now. “They’re… even if they got hurt, they’re taking people’s money. Not just mine.”

Hoshimiya raised his eyebrows. “Do you have any proof?”

“Um. No, but I can… get some?”

“How? By recording them? I’d avoid breaking school rules again if I were you.”

“Who cares about that? Isn’t stopping this more important?”

“It is,” Hoshimiya replied. “I’ll be looking into this issue, too, of course. Just… be careful.”

I should’ve heeded his warning, but I was stupid at the time, bordering on delusional. I really thought I’d be able to make a difference. To be good again. To belong.

:—<> —:

I woke up to someone trying to pull my hood up. I pulled it back instantly. “Oh, he’s awake.”

I didn’t recognize the voice, so I didn’t move.

“Hey… dude? Are you alright?”

I nodded.

“Are you lost?”

I shook my head.

“Do you have a group?”

I nodded.

“That’s… fine, I guess. Just be careful. Someone got killed.”

I swallowed. “Thank you for, um. For telling me.”

As the guy left, one of his teammates asked, “What’s the point of doing something like that? Do they think it’s funny?”

“I dunno. Some people have no empathy.”

“It’s beyond messed up, though,” someone else said. “He’s the same delinquent that broke Sen’s jaw and almost killed his sister. Also, it was two people, the mentor and one of the dark fairies. He also disabled the team leader. I’m just so—can’t they just send him back? Seriously?”

“Yeah… I really don’t feel safe having someone like that around…”

I hadn’t broken Sen’s jaw because he wouldn’t have been able to speak otherwise. Other than her tongue, Tissu seemed fine. Crystal had tried to kill me first. The dark fairy was already dead when I got there. Chaoswhateverthefuck would’ve attacked had I not done that. After the failed attempt to talk to the student council, I’d tried to keep my head low, but Hoshimiya’s cronies kept asking for increasingly larger amounts of money, until I couldn’t keep up even with a part-time job, so I had to…

Why was I always the bad thing?

“Hiii!” Said Roonie as she opened the door to the tunnel. “More finishers! Yay! It’s a little bit narrow, so be careful. Everyone else is enjoying a feast.”

They left, and I was alone again.

It was hard to tell what time it was. The sky was perpetually cloudy. It’d gotten dark yesterday, though, which alluded to night cycles existing. The white grass dancing to nothing felt silky. When I tried ripping some out, it recoiled, so I left it alone.

Two other groups walked in before I heard a familiar voice—Aoko. Aoko and her party of good things. They were talking about some manga series she kept trying to impose upon the club. I’d read some of it. It was very… sparkly.

Someone from the group tried to lift my hood. Again. “Asshole,” someone else told them. “He’s probably asleep.”

“In this place?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Thank you for everything,” Aoko said. “It was fun. I’ll… I guess I’ll wait for my party here.”

The guy who’d said a no no word told her, “Are you sure you don’t want to join? I know Ishida sucks, but the rest of us ranked pretty high, too. We have a light fairy too. Just… think about it.”

My fight or flight response went off for a moment, but I figured that they referred to an Ishida in their team. Common name, I supposed.

Roonie emerged. Roonie greeted them. They left, except for Aoko. She leaned against the other side of the post, waiting for a party that’d long since arrived. Against my best interest, I said, “They’re already there.”

“Oh!” She jumped. “Ishi… Sei…”

Ishiseishin, yeah. “Ronnie will answer if you knock.”

“Can I ask why you’re…” She trailed off when I shook my head. “...okay. So I just have to knock, right? But I’m assuming that it’ll take some time for her to guide the others through the tunnel, then come back. I’ll just wait a few minutes.”

Oh, no.

“Don’t worry. I know it bothers you when I walk.”

That wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all. I just hated how talking to her felt like strangling a puppy sometimes. I just hated that I couldn’t speak without sounding like a malfunctioning robot.

One.

Two.

Three.

“H-how was… how did you do?”

“Sorry?” Aoko asked.

“The… um. Never mind.”

“How did I do what?”

“No, I mean. The. Thing? I don’t know what you, um, what you. The. Never mind.”

“Oh.”

Easy peasy.

“Wait… I think I get it. You mean the quest?”

I nodded.

“Hmm… it…” She sighed. “I don’t know. I like playing games, not living them. Someone died in front of me. He’ll respawn and everything, but he still died, you know? He still screamed, and there was blood everywhere.”

I found myself picking on my cape.

“But I got to see a prion, I guess. It didn’t scream or bleed when it died, just turned into ash. But I wonder if it would’ve, had it been able to.”

“Ah.” Translation: That sucks. I’m sorry you went through that. What do prions look like if they don’t bleed or scream? Was it real or another trial to desensitize children into killing? Don’t worry, they’ll probably respawn. No need to feel guilty. It’ll be fine. Go enjoy the feast with everyone else.

“Yeah… I’ll try knocking now,” Aoko said, then did just that. Within seconds, Roonie was out.

“Hiii! Ready! Are your comrades here yet?”

“They’re already inside, apparently, except…”

I didn’t have to see them to know that they were looking at me. “That one refuses to go in,” Roonie said. “I’m not gonna force anyone to do something they don’t want to. Come on in! Everyone else is having a feast right now! Yayyy!”

Though she hesitated, Aoko left, too. I remembered, too late, to ask her to bring food. That feast was our dinner, wasn’t it? I’d have to wait until tomorrow to eat.

By the time the first group emerged from the burrow, I’d thankfully dozed off again, though my hands were still gripping the hood, so I supposed that no one had tried—or succeeded—to pull it up again. I’d dreamed I was part of the feast, consuming industrial amounts of omurice.

“He’s still there. Damn.”

Yeah.

“We’ll be facing a prion tomorrow. I can’t wait!”

Yeah.

“Man, that was so good. It almost tasted like real sushi.”

Yeah… sushi…

Group after group walked out, talking about how cool and amazing everything was. Yayyy! Once I heard Hisui’s voice, I stood up, turning around to hide my eyes.

“...so yeah, if you see Crystalmoon44 around, do NOT interact. Do NOT apologize. If you do, you’ll be a traitor.” That was Yukimura.

“I won’t,” replied Aoko. “I don’t think they’d talk to me, anyway…”

“Hey, look who’s there. Ishida, give paw.”

They even smelled like sushi godammit. I ignored Yukimura, but walked behind them as we headed back… to the inn? To the tent? Who knew. As if on cue, Hisui said, “We’ll be sleeping in the tent tonight.”

“Together,” Aoko mumbled.

“Yup!”

Yukimura said, “I wish my group had real women…”

I thought it was a joke, but no.

We reached the tent.

Connie was nowhere to be seen. Tissu was nowhere to be seen. Inside, however, were four cots—three stacked together, one behind them.