“I saw him eating crepes at the crepe stand with that red-haired lady earlier.”
“Damn, that bastard came to another school just to show off, huh?!”
“I think I’ve heard about him from some friends at Mitsuhashi before.”
Conversations like that were breaking out all around us. It seemed rumors about me were starting to take hold even at Juumonji...
“You okay, Hibiki?” Chelsea asked out of consideration.
“I think I have a headache...” I replied, rubbing my forehead between my brows to try and suppress the pain.
“W-Wait up, Sis...”
Just then, a panting Sophie belatedly arrived at the classroom, several minutes after her sister had already left.
“Hey, Sophie.”
“Oh... Hello, Hibiki.”
“Are you okay?”
Even Zeta seemed worried. She kindly led Sophie by the hand over to her seat and had her sit down.
“Here, you can have my ice cream. It’s a little melted now, but it’s still good.”
“Th-Thank you very much.”
Sophie took a bite of the ice cream and let out a sigh. She’d apparently been chasing her sister all over campus, but she was at her limit and just couldn’t keep up anymore. At this rate, the only way she was going to see the festival was on a wild goose chase. I felt sorry for her.
“Do you want to walk around with us after this?” I offered.
“C-Could I?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“But, um, my sister...”
“We’re looking for Rekka as well. I’m sure if we find him, your sister won’t be far behind.”
“And it’s really all right if I go with you?”
“Sure.”
And so we collected Sophie and continued our walk around the school.
“Hibiki, what’s that?”
“Oh, that’s...”
Sophie was filled with childlike curiosity, tugging on my sleeve every time something interesting caught her eye. Chelsea and I made sure to let her try out everything she wanted to.
“Heh, having Sophie around almost makes me feel like I’ve got my own little sister.”
“We have our hands full just babysitting Kiri, though.”
“Hey, Director Zeta! What’s that supposed to mean?!”
We continued touring the school like so. We heard tales of Hibiki and the others here and there, but we just managed to miss them every time. And so the afternoon passed without us ever making contact, until...
“Hibiki!”
“Hm?”
Someone suddenly called to me, stopping us in our tracks. I turned around to see a familiar looking girl, but I couldn’t quite place her. She was apparently a friend of Hibiki’s or something, but where had I seen her before...?
“Erm... L-Long time no see?”
“What? We saw each other this morning. Did you hit your head or something?” the girl asked with a dubious look.
Yeah, but it’s way more complicated than that... is what I wanted to say.
“Haha, yeah. I must have... It’s funny. I can’t seem to remember a thing. What’s your name again...?”
“Are you serious right now? It’s me, Kanae!”
“Ah, yeah, that’s right. I remember now.”
She was the girl we’d run into during the Couples Afro Incident. If I recalled correctly, she was one of Hibiki’s close friends. I’d heard she was sickly, but it seemed like she was participating in the school festival.
Kanae then sighed and said, “You’re going to break my heart if you keep this up. But for now, we gotta go.”
“Go where?”
“Did you forget that too? It’s almost time for our shift. We have to hurry to the classroom. Are these your friends? My apologies, but I’ll be borrowing Hibiki for a little while.”
“Er, ah, wai—”
Kanae grabbed me by the hand and started to walk off. She was surprisingly forceful.
But a shift, huh? It must be something for their class event. Hibiki’s a student here, after all. I should have expected something like this. I guess I’d been taking things a little too easy... I reflected on that as I watched my footing down the stairs, Kanae still dragging me by the hand.
I wanted to ask what event Hibiki’s class was doing, but I held back so Kanae wouldn’t start to think I was acting too weird. My biggest fear was still affecting Hibiki’s reputation. Whatever it was, I’d figure it out when we got to the classroom anyway. Little did I know...
“Welcome!”
We were greeted brightly by some of their classmates in very unique outfits.
“Oh, it’s just you, Kanae. I’m glad you caught Hibiki,” said a girl dressed as a caped vampire.
Behind her was a magician, some girl in a uniform that looked like it was from an anime, and more. Their classmates waiting on tables were all dressed up in some fashion or another.
“...A cosplay cafe?”
“Of course. Or did you forget that too?” Kanae said with a sigh at what I’d let slip.
“Good grief! Ditching your shift to go flirt with boys from other schools is inexcusable. Now hurry up and go get changed,” the vampire girl said with a wry smile.
She then handed Kanae a white nurse’s uniform. And me... a butler’s outfit? Well, it seemed like it would suit Hibiki just fine, and I didn’t have any particular qualms about wearing it myself...
“Wait, get changed?!”
“What are you acting so surprised for, Hibiki?”
What I’d reflexively shouted earned me a weird look from Kanae, but that wasn’t what I was worried about most right now. The butler outfit aside... Changing? Me? While still in Hibiki’s body? No, no, no! No way, no how! I can’t do that!
“Ooh! This is the event boys say they want to try most when they become girls! On the public ranking list, that is. I don’t know if you’re mature enough for the private version yet, Rekka.”
Public or private, both are awful!
While I was internally screaming at R, Kanae once more took my hand and dragged me out of the classroom. Our destination was... the girls’ changing room.
“Wait! Hold on a sec! This is the one place I can’t go!”
“Where else are you going to go change? Did you want to do it outside?”
Considering the situation, anything would be better than... Wait, where?! With everyone thinking I was Hibiki, it would be perfectly natural for me to use the girls’ changing room. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to get arrested.
Back in the girls’ bathroom, I’d kept my eyes shut the entire time while Chelsea basically did everything for me, so there wasn’t much to fuss over. (There wasn’t much of anything at all, if you know what I mean.) But I didn’t have Chelsea this time, and unlike in the bathroom, there weren’t private stalls in the changing room. Even if Chelsea were here, I couldn’t have her help me change in front of Kanae. It’d be too weird. I couldn’t risk people spreading rumors about Hibiki because of me.
So... I guess I had no choice but to run. I started to steel myself to flee, but Kanae suddenly cracked a grin.
“Aha!” she said, peering up at me with a sly look on her face. “Hibiki, did you want to wear something different today because Rekka’s coming?”
“Huh?”
I reflexively let out a dumb, confused noise upon hearing my own name come up so unexpectedly.
“Though the butler outfit suits you, it is a bit lacking in feminine charm. I can understand why you’d prefer something else to wear for your lovely suitor.”
“Um, I’m sorry... My lovely what?”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but Kanae simply giggled in reply.
“It’s fine, you know. You don’t have to hide it. I can tell just by your face after listening to you talk about him day in and day out.”
Tha-thump.
Wh-What? Was I on the verge of hearing something totally outrageous under outrageous circumstances in th
e most outrageous way possible?
Tha-thump. Tha-thump.
My heart was pounding surprisingly loudly. Without knowing any better, Kanae continued...
“Hibiki, I know that you lo—”
My body froze completely stiff in anticipation of what she was about to say next.
“HOLD IT RIGHT THEEEEERE!”
But just then, “I” came running over with a desperate look on “my” face. And I mean really running.
“Oh?”
“Bwah!”
Kanae quickly stepped to the side, but I was still standing there practically frozen in place. And so Hibiki, who was still booking it at a dead sprint, crashed right into me.
THUNK!
Our foreheads collided and bounced off of each other. Limbs tangled, we went tumbling forward through a door or something, sliding along the floor.
“Ow, ow, ow...”
I sat up with a hand pressed to my forehead. This was the second time today I’d smacked my head on something...
“A-Are you okay, Hibiki?”
“Yeah, somehow...”
Wait, that was my voice... Did I have it back?
“?!”
Hibiki and I looked at each other in shock. I looked down at Hibiki’s face as she looked up at me... meaning we were back to normal!
“We’re back! We’re back, right, Hibiki?!”
“Yeah! There’s no mistaking it!”
We shared a celebratory laugh. A second collision was really all it had taken to get things back to normal... How simple! But I was okay with that. Simple is best, after all.
“I-Incidentally, Rekka...”
“Hm?”
“D-Did you hear the rest of what Kanae was trying to say?”
What she’d said there at the end?
“Hibiki, I know that you lo—”
“Nope. I didn’t hear all of it.”
“I see.”
With a sigh of relief, Hibiki’s expression relaxed.
“Well, shall we?”
“Yes, let’s.”
I lent Hibiki a hand to stand up, then looked around me... and immediately froze in place again.
“...”
I was surrounded by girls, girls, girls... All of which were in various states of undress, and all of which were glaring at me. When Hibiki realized it too, even she flinched.
“Right...” she muttered. “This is the girls’ changing room.”
Yeah, that door we’d tumbled through earlier? Turns out that led straight to the changing room. By the time we noticed, it was too late. And Hibiki acknowledging it was like a starting pistol. I heard all the girls in the room inhale together, and then...
“KYAAAAAH!”
They all screamed.
“I’m s-s-sorry!”
“DIE, PERVERT!”
Words of abuse and various thrown objects all came flying at me. Knowing I was completely in the wrong here, I took the punishment until they were satisfied. After that, with Hibiki and Kanae’s testimonials, I at least managed to avoid getting the cops called on me. But that didn’t stop word from spreading that I’d barged in on the girls’ changing room. First to Chelsea and the other students of Juumonji, then to everyone at my school, L, and eventually...
“So you’ve finally started to cause trouble for other schools too, have you? I hope you’re prepared, problem child.”
President Momone, who had dispatched me to Juumonji High School in the first place. I would eventually receive a punishment so severe that putting it into words wouldn’t do it justice, but that’s a story for after we return to Mitsuhashi High School.
▽
Jumping back a little to just before we left Juumonji High for the day...
“Wow, even I thought you were dead for real this time, Rekka. Not physically, but socially.”
“...”
Listening to R’s unfunny jokes, I tried to walk as casually as possible down the path to the school gate. I wished I was invisible. Who wouldn’t after what I’d just done? If possible, I’d like to just disappear. Needless to say I left Juumonji as quickly as I could. I let out a sigh once I made it past the school gates unnoticed.
“Found you.”
Just as I passed someone, I thought I heard them say something to me.
“?!”
Was I being arrested after all?! I spun around in serious surprise to see...
“...”
Nobody there.
“Huh?”
“What’s the matter, Rekka?” R asked, turning back from where she was floating a few feet ahead of me.
“It’s nothing...”
I turned back around feeling a little strange. I’d heard that voice way too clearly for it to have just been in my head... A lingering, unpleasant doubt took hold in the back of my mind.
Ever since the bomb threat yesterday, weird things had been happening one after the other without any real explanation. Nothing really bad had happened yet, so I couldn’t say it was a genuine problem, but...
“It just doesn’t sit well with me.”
After muttering to myself out loud, I continued on down the road towards my house.
Chapter 4: The Limits of Endless Possibilities
At long last, we reached the third and final day of the school festival. Normally the festival only ran for two days, so this was kind of like a bonus extension, but it left me wondering what strings they’d had to pull to get that in this day and age where some parents were opposed to the very idea of school festivals in the first place. I asked President Momone out of curiosity, but the only answer she gave me was a sly grin. It was an answer that told me that I had better not ask too many questions or it wouldn’t happen again next year. It made me realize just how in over my head I was with her. But anyway...
“It’s almost time, I think.”
I was currently waiting for someone in front of the Mitsuhashi High school gates. And not just anyone, mind you—a VIP guest whose appearance was supposed to be the grand finale of the Mitsuhashi-Juumonji school festival. It would be no exaggeration to say that arranging for her appearance had been the most important thing I’d done for the festival committee. Actually, honestly, I think that might have been the entire reason President Momone forced me to help the festival committee in the first place. There were way more responsible, diligent, and useful people she could’ve recruited other than me.
“R, go take a look from overhead.”
“You know you don’t have to be so impatient, right? She’s way busier than an average high school student like you, so can’t you just chill a little and wait for her without the ants in your pants?”
“I don’t have ants in my pants; I’m just worried. I mean, she’s so famous... What if someone’s harassing her on the way here?”
“Wouldn’t be our problem.”
“Oh, okay. I see what’s really going on here. You’re just lazy.”
As R and I continued to bicker, I caught a glimpse of a girl running our way out of the corner of my eye.
“S-Sorry for the wait!”
“No problem. You didn’t have to run. Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine...”
There, our special guest for the day—Mio Kotozuka—took several deep breaths. She was wearing a hat and glasses to keep people from recognizing her as her idol persona MIO.
“No one spotted you on your way here, right?”
“Right. I’m not wearing my wig right now, and no one’s ever recognized me with my glasses on,” she said with a confident nod.
She insisted, so I had to believe her. But today, it would be my mission to protect her. If her identity was revealed, there would be a screaming rush of fans all over campus... And President Momone would yell at me again for sure. The plan was to keep Mio a secret until her surprise performance at the end of the festival.
“Thanks again for coming today, Mio. I know you’re always busy.”
“Don’t mention it, Rekka. I’d be happy
to help you out with anything,” she said with a bright smile.
Mio really was a sweet girl. I could totally see why her fans on the internet extolled her as the angel of pop.
“The concert won’t be until this evening, so feel free to enjoy the festival until then.”
“Sure. What about you, Rekka? What are you up to?”
“I’ll be sticking with you today. I’ve got orders from the student council president to guard you with my life if it comes to that.”
“You don’t have to listen to orders like that...” Mio said with a furrowed brow.
My bad. I may have phrased that poorly.
“Haha, don’t worry. She was mostly just kidding, anyway.”
“Really? If you say so... But I don’t want you feeling like my bodyguard or anything, Rekka.”
Ah, of course... I guess Mio actually had real bodyguards and stuff. I’d seen idols on TV before surrounded by men in black suits to protect them from rabid swarms of fans. She probably didn’t think I was kidding when I said something about protecting her with my life.
“Like I said, don’t worry. If it gets that bad, we’ll run together.”
“Yeah.”
There, Mio and I exchanged smiles.
“Well,” I said after a moment, “is there anything you want to see?”
“I’d like to just walk around a bit first. Oh, but I would like to see Tsumiki.”
“You got it.”
With that plan in mind, I turned to walk off with her, but...
“Um...” she called out to stop me.
“What is it?”
“Would you... hold my hand?” she practically mumbled.
“Yeah... sure.”
It was a little embarrassing, but I agreed and extended my hand, which she took happily. It was a little awkward, but I was more worried about getting separated and losing her than anything else. This was the lesser of two evils. Just as I convinced myself of that, we entered the school. I changed into my indoor shoes while Mio changed into slippers.
“Now, where shall we go first?” I asked.
Our school had two major buildings. First was the building that housed all the regular classrooms, which was where most of the class events and stuff were taking place. But then there was also the auxiliary building that contained special classrooms like the science lab and whatnot. There were some exhibits there too, so we had our choice of things to check out.
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 13 Page 10