No, I didn’t do it.

While I did say that I’ve steeled myself, never once did the words “I’ll do it” come from my mouth.

Because I’m a rational human being.

I would never do such a horrible thing.

Although Dekomori, the person who tried to instigate me to be her accomplice, went wild, yelling “Deko Deko!”, I somehow managed to calm her down. I then frantically tried to wake Kumin-senpai up.

However, when she woke up, the first thing that come from Kumin-senpai’s mouth was, “I wouldn’t have minded it, since I’ve grown used to it! In fact, come on, go for it.”

Not only did it seem that she really could hear everything while asleep, it seemed that she had become used to being pranked.

In fact, come on, go for it, huh.

Just how many times had you been pranked until now – while I was curious, I was too scared of the answer to ask.

Anyhow, waking Kumin-senpai went without a hitch – was something I couldn’t say, as I ended up coming to class five minutes late (it might have been because it was the second time, but Nibutani gave me a hard time. She said all sorts of things to me, like “At any rate, you were making out with Takanashi-san, right? Eh? I’ll kill you.” It was terrible). Which now brings us to the present.

It was the end of the third period – break time.

There had been no contact from Shichimiya yet.

Although I did say that I was leaving it to her, for me to just leave everything to her was, as expected, something that I just could not do.

With my anxiety reaching its peak (my “prone to worrying” disease), I headed over to Rikka’s classroom – to class 2-2’s classroom. In the small (or more accurately, minuscule) chance that the unexpected happens and that her powers had randomly started to return, there may have been something that I could do.

As her next class didn’t require her to change rooms (I’ve already memorised Rikka’s entire timetable), Rikka should be in her classroom.

Rikka’s seat was at the very front, next to the corridor, so –

“Ah, Yuuta. Is something up?”

Before I was able to enter class 2-2’s classroom, Rikka called out to me.

It appeared that Rikka was by herself this break, earnestly preparing her materials for her next class inside the noisy classroom.

Usually, Kazari-chan or Shichimiya would be with her, but those two were presently nowhere to be seen.

If I were to enter the classroom and look around – ah.

There sitting at the very back of the classroom was Kazari-chan. The moment we saw each other, our eyes meet. Kazari-chan smiled and waved at me; I returned her greetings with a small nod.

How rare. It seemed that today, she was handing Rikka over to me.

If it were like usual, she would have quarrelled with me as soon as I arrived, saying something like “Heeeey, Rikka-chan’s mine! No hogging!”

I mean hey, if she’s not going to raise a fuss, that’s fine with me.

“…How about it? Your powers, have they come back?”

“Nope. Not at all.”

As she said that, Rikka shook her head cutely many times.

Ah, I’m being healed… I wonder I got worn out by last break something – after all, I had no time to refresh myself.

Oh, speaking of which.

I wonder what Hideri-senpai did last break?

“Yuuta Yuuta, listen. A short while ago, Arc-san was here. I’m not sure from when she knew, but it appeared that she had sensed what had happened to me, as she seemed to have come over for the purpose of telling me, ‘You’ve become strange, haven’t you! You’re the same as us!’”

“…Really? In many different ways: that’s very Hideri-senpai-like.”

I feigned ignorance.

While it’s true that what had happened with Rikka would have gotten leaked sooner or later, I still found it a little difficult to confess to Rikka that said leak came from me.

“But when I told her, ‘Please don’t say I’m the same as you,’ Arc-san looked a little shocked and left immediately …”

How unusual: it seems that Rikka had refuted Hideri-senpai.

Though, I could understand why she’d want to refute Hideri-senpai.

I wouldn’t want to be thought of as being the same as that person either.

“Ah, but in case she took my words to mean something bad, I quickly sent her a text which said, ‘Meaning, Arc-san is a one-of-a-kind existence in this world.’”

“…Did you get a reply?”

“Yep!”

And with that “Yep!”, Rikka showed me the screen of her smartphone (at last, Rikka had got with the times! As for me, even until the end of mankind, I refuse to get swept up by this trend!).

The only thing on her screen was “”.

“… I see.”

Before I saw that, I had imagined that Hideri-senpai had given Rikka a proper reply, but it seems that she had given vague reply instead.

I mean, what does that even mean, !

It was a big mystery to me. Did it mean that she was happy? That she was sad? Or that she had understood? Well, even if I kept thinking about it, I probably wouldn’t figure it out, so I guess I had no choice but to ask my rainbow-haired upperclassman about it the next time I see her.

“So, Yuuta – is something up? Did you need me for anything? Did you forget your textbooks for something?”

“Eh? Ah…”

Although I came here without thinking because I was worried about her, if I were to be frank and tell her that, it would probably cause Rikka to grow worried as well. Given that I didn’t want to worry Rikka, there was no way I could tell her the truth.

I needed to change the topic to something different – ah.

“Hey, um, have you ever been told something along the lines of ‘I prefer girls who don’t have things like abilities’?”

When I asked her that, Rikka looked at me blankly.

“? By who? You, Yuuta?”

“No, I’d never say something like that. To anyone. Ever.”

I’m embarrassed of my jealousy.

I couldn’t help but be bothered by that possibility.

No, but, I mean, the possibility of that being the case was not zero.

After all, there are people who imitate their favourite artists out of admiration, right? Furthermore, it could very well be said that being easily influenced by others is a one of the many symptoms of chuunibyou. Since it was a possibility, I had to confirm it – was the excuse I gave myself.

“Hmm, I don’t think I’ve ever been told something like that?”

“I see. If that’s the case, then it’s fine. I was just a little worried that there might have been someone who had said such a something terrible thing to you.”

“Nope, there’s been nothing like that. Thank you for worrying, Yuuta.”

…Since I didn’t have the purest of motives when I asked her that, her thanking me made me feel a little guilty.

Nonetheless, I guess it could be said that asking Rikka about that possibility had resulted in me being able to reject one of the potential causes.

Anything that could have been the cause, I wanted to go through one by one.

The other thing that comes to mind is – hmm.

Actually, to tell the truth, I had spent the entire class just now thinking about it.

What Shichimiya had said earlier – that it was “just something that happens from time to time” – I kept mulling over it during class.

Certainly, it is true that there are times where I too feel a little under the weather.

It’s impossible for anyone to stay exactly the same at all times. Whenever Kumin-senpai’s excited and talking about baseball, she would often say something along the lines of “Right now, they’re only doing poorly because they’re not feeling well. Sooner or later, their performance will improve.”

So, in other words, what did Rikka need for her condition to improve – what did the Devilish Truth Stare need?

Power, magic… ah.

And so I remembered.

The other day, Rikka asked for me to replenish her magic.

That request – maybe that was an omen of things to come.

It’s not like I particularly wanted to replenish magic or anything like that, okay!

“Rikka. I, I was just thinking – could it be that the Devilish Truth Stare disappeared because you felt like you didn’t have enough magic…?”

“Hm? Perhaps? Maybe I am out of magic?”

“W-well then. I’ll replenish your magic with mine…? Look, the other day –”

“Wha–!? Huh!?”

Rikka’s face reddened rapidly.

It was rare for Rikka to be both red in the face and flustered at the same time. How precious. I’ll save this image of her deep within my brain.

“R-right! Thank you for offering! But, now’s no good!”

Rikka pushed both her hands out towards me, rejecting my offer.

What a shock!!

“Ah, ah, that’s right! I, there’s a little something I needed to do with Kazari! Sorry! I’ll talk to you later!”

And with that, Rikka flew over to Kazari-chan’s side in a flash.

Hmm.

I was at a loss as to why she had disappeared on me like this.

Maybe it wasn’t the proper time nor place for me to have said something like that.

Still, I felt a small ray of hope from her response.

Up until now, whenever I had asked her about the cause, she consistently responded with “I’m not sure”. This time, however, her response was a little different.

Looks like it may be magic related after all.

Was this a small step forward, I wonder?

And so, while thinking about what could be done next, I returned to my classroom ahead of time to ensure that I wouldn’t be late for my next class.