Chapter Thirty-Eight: Safety Word
The roaring flames illuminated the night.
Buildings collapsed in the firelight, emitting a pungent burnt smell.
The screams of companions echoed in the night sky.
The sticky feeling of blood on her hands made her feel nauseous.
But her gaze remained fixed on the man before her, who was barely hanging on to life.
He wore a faint smile on his face and weakly raised his hand.
Gently touching her cheek, his voice was weak yet firm:
“It’s okay.”
“You did the right thing—”
Night, Special Circumstances SEMA Division.
Alice suddenly woke up from a nightmare.
She gasped for breath.
The heightened emotions stirred the magic within her, causing her right eye, hidden behind her colored contact lens, to faintly glow in the darkness.
It had been a week since she transferred to Starlight High School.
During this time, Alice became friends with one of her targets, “Hoshimiya Nagi.”
Over the past few days, Alice realized that the girl named Nagi was a very kind-hearted child, optimistic and cheerful, gentle and considerate, always happy to help others, and also…
Stop, stop.
Nagi was an extremely cute girl.
Typically, children who stand out from a young age develop some arrogance or become self-important, making them hard to get along with, but Alice felt none of that from Nagi.
Alice had to admit that Nagi was a well-mannered, humble, and genuine beauty.
Thanks to her enthusiastic and outgoing nature, which was completely devoid of guard against others, Alice was able to become her friend during this time.
As for the other target, “Tsukimi Kanade.”
Although Alice could clearly sense that he was deliberately avoiding her, she still intuited that he was a gentle and kind-hearted child.
In this week’s time, Maki had completed her investigation into Hoshimiya Nagi, and the results were the same as with Amamiya Chika.
From a “procedural” perspective, her innocence was clear.
Yet Alice still felt uneasy about her.
She certainly did not want to suspect her first friend after transferring to Starlight High.
However, Kanade’s unusual behavior made Nagi, as his closest childhood friend, appear somewhat suspicious.
—This is the mission.
Alice silently vowed in her heart.
Immediately, she resolved that no matter what, she would go and talk to Nagi tomorrow—
“It’s okay. I won’t make the same mistake again…”
……
……
At the same time.
Tsukimi Family.
“This time it held up well; it lasted about three minutes.”
“Hah—didn’t expect it to be this tiring, hah~”
Kanade was, as usual, training with his contract monster, “DD-chan,” doing special power training.
The ability gained from DD-chan required training to utilize effectively.
At first, Kanade could only manage less than 30 seconds of switching to DD-chan’s vision.
After this period of training, tonight he finally reached that small goal of three minutes.
DD-chan, in its spirit form, floated in mid-air.
It could ignore physical collisions and even act in ways invisible to the naked eye, providing sight, hearing, and touch.
When Kanade first switched to its senses, he felt as if he was soaring through the sky, experiencing the refreshing feeling of a god’s perspective.
Then he began to feel uncomfortable, like motion sickness.
But now Kanade had adapted well to that dizziness.
Though it seemed like a weak ability, it was the only anchor for Kanade at the moment.
Feeling such a direct sense of progress in using his power made Kanade very excited, making him feel like a protagonist from a comic book.
However, DD-chan had been absent-minded tonight.
All of this was because, during the afternoon after school, Nagi had privately instructed DD-chan about some matters.
“You need to remember what I’m about to tell you carefully.”
Nagi’s expression was serious and grave, making DD-chan feel tense.
“This is a safety word that might be used tomorrow—‘bunny’.”
“I hope you won’t have to use it, but just in case…”
“Only if you judge that Kanade is in a life-threatening emergency can you shout this safety word.”
After Nagi said this and received DD-chan’s nod, she left.
She had no intention of revealing what would happen tomorrow.
From DD-chan’s perspective, the past few days had been extremely peaceful for Kanade and the others.
Even that blonde twin-tailed beauty from the “Special Circumstances SEMA” had not come to cause trouble.
Even the initially wary Kanade had recently begun to lose his sense of crisis.
DD-chan noticed everything.
“What exactly does that suspicious carbon-based life form want…”
…..
…..
The next morning.
Nagi rang the doorbell of the Tsukimi family as usual.
Since then, Nagi had been coming to pick Kanade up for school.
After the unexpected incident on the first day, Kanade concluded that “having Nagi come close to his sleeping self was really bad for his heart.”
So now he got up early every day.
He made sure to dress before Nagi arrived.
But today, when he opened the door to let Nagi in while wearing his uniform shirt and jacket, he was momentarily stunned.
Nagi, who usually looked noble and graceful in her uniform jacket, had changed into the summer uniform.
Her upper body was adorned with a pure white shirt, tied at the collar with a bright ribbon.
Her lower body sported a lightweight, breathable pleated skirt.
Although her long, shapely legs were still wrapped in black stockings, the sheen and texture reflected from them revealed they were thinner than usual.
This made Nagi appear more lively and energetic, perfectly matching her usual sunny disposition.
“Good morning, Kanade!” Nagi greeted him with a bright and adorable smile, full of vitality.
However, upon seeing Kanade, she tilted her little head.
“Kanade, didn’t you forget? Starting today, we’re supposed to wear the summer uniform!”
With her white shirt halfway lifted, Nagi seemed to want to show off her summer uniform, twisting her slender waist as she turned her upper body.
Witnessing this scene, Kanade’s face involuntarily flushed, struggling to look away.
The summer uniform’s shirt had short sleeves and loose cuffs.
So from Kanade’s perspective, Nagi’s natural movements allowed him to catch a glimpse of her smooth armpit and her cute lace-trimmed white underwear.
Moreover, it wasn’t just that.
—Had Nagi maybe grown a little, a little bigger again?
The curves that used to barely show on her chest now quite noticeably formed hills under her thin summer uniform…
“How is it? Cute?”
Nagi leaned forward with her hands behind her back, her silky long hair flowing like a black waterfall from her delicate shoulders.
Her sparkling star-like bright eyes looked up at Kanade from a perfect angle.
The faint scent wafting from her lightweight and breathable summer uniform made Kanade’s heart race.
“Um… it really suits you, Nagi…”
Kanade took a subtle step back due to Nagi’s overly cute appearance, scratching his cheek to mask the fluster in his heart.
“Thank you~”
Nagi, with a bashful smile, made Kanade hurriedly turn around.
“I-I’ll go change clothes first; Nagi, you wait for me in the living room for a bit—”
Kanade returned to his room.
After changing into the summer uniform he pulled out from his closet, he finally managed to calm his racing heart that had almost leaped out earlier.
Because of this little incident this morning, Kanade and Nagi arrived at school slightly later than usual.
There were already few students at the shoe cabinet in front of the teaching building.
Thanks to this, Kanade was able to notice Nagi, who had opened the shoe cabinet, suddenly let out a surprised exclamation.
This made Kanade curiously peek his head out to look in Nagi’s direction.
What he saw was—
Nagi, holding a folded, rectangular white letter, looking astonished.
