Epilogue - Part 1

“—Oh, so your family’s company is connected to Tojo’s father’s…”

After Konomin stopped crying, the conversation turned to why she had obeyed Tojo and called me out despite clearly acting like she hated him.

Once we heard the circumstances, apparently Konomin was the daughter of the president of a company heavily influenced by Tojo’s father—who, it seemed, had been a fairly powerful prefectural assemblyman—so she had been in a position where she simply couldn’t openly oppose Tojo.

“Then you don’t have anything to worry about anymore.”

“Huh? Why?”

“…Rinne, don’t you watch the news?”

“Nope, not really. It’s always stuff about which celebrity is dating, getting married, getting divorced, or whatever, turning the private lives of people who aren’t even public officials into entertainment. I don’t really like watching that kind of thing.”

In my case, part of that was because Mom was exactly the sort of person those reports targeted.

I had seen stories edited and framed as though things had actually happened when they hadn’t, and even as a child, I had developed this image of the media as people who said awful things about Mom.

“Ah, I kind of get that.”

“No, Rinne, Yuika, I get what you mean, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Tojo’s father was all over the news for apparently being involved in crimes. Didn’t you know? They were saying he didn’t just resign—he was expelled from his party too.”

“Oh.”

So that was what happened.

Ah, maybe that was why people had been talking about movers earlier.

He had probably ended up in a position where he couldn’t exactly show his face in public anymore.

I had put the brainwashing and curse on Tojo too.

The brainwashing effect was basically: “Confess every secret you can’t tell anyone.”

Naturally, that included embarrassing secrets that weren’t crimes too, like things about his sexu—ahem, unusual personal tastes and the like.

Well, if he was normal, it probably wasn’t anything too serious.

Probably.

I didn’t know.

Anyway, because of that brainwashing, maybe he had confessed that his father helped cover up all the bad things he had done, or maybe Tojo knew about his father’s crimes and told the police everything.

“…So, Rinne? Anything you’d like to say?”

“Maybe his conscience finally got the better of him.”

“…Sigh. Fine, fine. So that’s what we’re going with.”

“What? What do you mean, Tomo?”

“Nothing~”

…Yeah, Tomo had pretty much figured it out by now.

Maybe not the magical power part specifically, but at least that there was something unusual about me—that I possessed abilities no ordinary human should have.

As long as she wasn’t scared of me or planning to turn it into some big spectacle, I didn’t really mind if she knew.

I wouldn’t mind telling Yuika either, but I had no intention of suddenly going, “Actually, I can use magic.”

They’d probably just think I had chuunibyou.

Incidentally, Konomin had apparently become embarrassed now that she realized how hard she had been crying, because she was sitting beside us curled up on a chair with her knees hugged to her chest, face buried against them and ears bright red so we couldn’t see her.

Tiny and cute.

“Hey, Konomin.”

“…What? And why are you calling me by a nickname too…?”

“Why not? Call me Tomo too. Anyway, Konomin, we’re friends now, okay?”

“…Huh?”

“Hey, Tomo, no fair. Call me Yuika too. ‘Aizawa-san’ sounds way too formal. So I’m calling you Konomin from now on.”

“…Huh, ah, um… W-Why…?”

Konomin finally lifted her head after Tomo declared them friends, her face going red as she flustered helplessly.

She might have sounded harsh sometimes, but she really didn’t seem like a bad person.

She had a bit of a tsundere vibe, but she wasn’t the annoying kind where the “tsun” side involved constant insults or violence.

Her sharper side wasn’t overbearing, and more importantly, her genuinely good nature showed through surprisingly easily, which made her cute.

Excellent. Keep doting on her and making her flustered, you two social-skills monsters.

“Konomin, people have obviously been keeping their distance from you ever since Tojo disappeared, right? Then just hang out with us.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’ll definitely be better.”

“…I-Is that really okay…?”

“Bring it on. Konomin’s cute.”

“Mm-hmm, Konomin’s cute. …And tsundere really does work best on little girls.”

Yuika, you muttered that, but I heard you perfectly clearly.

Apparently she was surprisingly knowledgeable about otaku culture too.

I hadn’t known that.

“Rinne doesn’t have a problem with it either, right?”

“No problem. Everything’s fine.”

“Pfft!? Cough, cough…!”

“Whoa, Yuika?”

“A-Are you okay…?”

Oh, Yuika understood that reference perfectly.

Tomo and Konomin were startled when Yuika suddenly burst out laughing and started asking what was wrong, but yeah, they could probably just leave her alone.

She looked toward me with tears in her eyes from coughing, so I gave her a small nod.

It was the moment we recognized each other as kindred spirits.

“Oh, right. I’m starting spring break tomorrow because I’ve got things to do. What about you three?”

“I hit my attendance quota today, so I might take off too.”

“I was only coming because I was keeping Tomo company. I already finished my quota.”

“Thank you kindlyyy~”

“You may do as you please.”

“What are you two even doing…? Um, I only came because I wanted to apologize, so I can take time off too.”

“I see. Then all of us start spring break tomorrow.”

“Though for us, long breaks mean nonstop lessons, so honestly school days can actually be more relaxing…”

“Pretty much…”

Tomo and Yuika were basically idol trainees, so that made sense.

I had plenty of things I needed to get done over spring break too, so I could relate.

“What about you, Konomin?”

“Pretty similar. I’ll have to go out to various places with Papa and Mama too.”

“I see. Then the next time we meet will be after we become second-years.”

“Hope we’re all in the same class again~”

“Huh?”

“Huh? What?”

“…Yuika, did you submit a class-change request?”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“…Aizawa-san… no, Yuika. At this school, unless you submit a class-change request, you stay in the same class.”

“Huh? Seriously?”

“And your homeroom teacher doesn’t change either.”

“What!? Seriously!?”

Like I had said before, our school was attended by children from wealthy families and people involved in the entertainment industry.

If they reshuffled classes every year, students who already missed school frequently because of work would only become more isolated, and having to explain their circumstances to a new homeroom teacher every time would just create extra hassle.

For that reason, unless you submitted a request because you didn’t fit the atmosphere of your class or couldn’t settle in, you stayed with the same class for all three years.

…Apparently Yuika hadn’t known that.

“…Ahhh!?”

“Huh? What?”

“I-I’m going to the faculty room! I submitted a class-change request the other day because I didn’t feel comfortable! I’m going to ask them to cancel it!”

“Oh dear. Then we’ll come with you.”

“Yeah. It may have gotten warmer now that spring’s coming, but it’s still a little chilly.”

“Yeah, true.”

Well, I wasn’t cold.

I had magical power, after all.

But I wasn’t going to say that.

Since entering high school, passing into the new year, and beginning my Vtuber activities—

Up until I regained my memories, I had spent my first year of high school trying to disappear quietly into the corner.

But after recovering those memories this year, everything had somehow become strangely turbulent—or rather, my days had become incredibly busy.

And before I knew it, I had made people I could genuinely call friends for the first time: Tomo, Yuika, and now Konomin too.

It was the end of my first year of high school, far livelier than the me from one year ago could ever have imagined.

It was a little exhausting, and sometimes troublesome…

But when I thought about becoming a second-year student and having more noisy days like these waiting for me…

Yeah.

————It wasn’t bad at all.