ANIMT - Episodes 30-32

ANIMT - Chapter 30. Someone’s Diary

It’s been three days since that incident. As it turned out, Yamadori-kun was not the culprit I was looking for. As a result of my continued investigation, I found out that while he had obtained permission to use magic on the day I was pushed down the stairs, he had remembered he had something to do and retired early to the dormitory.

Surprisingly, Umetaro-san informed me that in addition to being a member of the class committee, Yamadori-kun was also the first-year head of the boys’ dormitory. On that day, there was a dorm leader’s meeting where the respective heads of the girls’ and boys’ dormitories met in Umetaro’s room after school to discuss dorm related matters.

In other words, his alibi was perfect. The only thing I could do was bow my head again and again and say “I’m sorry for doubting you” to Yamadori-kun, who had been performing his duties diligently.

This cleared him of all suspicion, confirming that he invited me to the sakura survival event without an ulterior motive. I’ve put my reply to his invitation on hold for now, securely storing the sakura badge I received in the desk drawer in my room.

As much as I would like to think about the upcoming festival, I think it’s best to address situations in the order they present themselves. Hey, I’m only putting it off a bit! That confession of sorts is still a secret from everyone else, so there’s no reason to take the badge out. I have it safely hidden away in the far back of the drawer, nicely tucked under some paper and behind some classwork supplies. This is definitely not an excuse to… Stop looking at me like that! Every time I see that badge I remember what happened and can’t stop blushing. Do you have any idea how hard it is to deal with that?

The next day in class, I saw Yamadori-kun. Despite everything that happened, he seemed the same as always. On that note, I haven’t seen Kitora since then, but I think that when we do eventually meet again, we’ll be able to talk like we usually do. I’m sure he was in the wrong headspace at the time. We all have days like that, don’t we? We’re only human after all.

So, let’s put those problems aside for now.

What I need to focus on are the three remaining suspects. The only reason I haven’t been able to sound them out until now is because they are all second-grade students.

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With less than four months left to live, I don’t have the luxury of relaxing. At least, not until summer vacation rolls around. So, you would think this investigation should be my top priority, but…

“Well, here’s where I turn the Shiratama doll around and say, ‘Now, it’s time to slay the Demon Lord, brave sir!’ That’s the line… I wonder if I can add a flourish here.”

… I was currently in the training building after school, alone with a script at hand, practicing the operation of the Shiratama doll.

In the end, it was decided that our class would perform a play, a full-fledged fantasy play that would incorporate magic into the production. The content of this play would be the classic story of a brave hero who defeats a demon king and saves a princess. However, Morido-san, who was in charge of the script, added a lot of twists and turns to the story. If we manage to pull this off, I think it will make quite the interesting spectacle.

I’m going to take on a rather important role in the play: the hero’s support mascot! To be precise, I’ll just be operating the Shiratama puppet in the shadows, and the lines will be voiced by Uminari-san, a member of the drama club.

I was asked to do this important role by Morido-kun, who seemed impressed by my Shiratama puppet’s movements during the magic mock battles.

Even though I will not step onto the stage, I had a big responsibility.

The full-scale rehearsal with Uminari-san would start next week, so I wanted to be able to move the Shiratama doll according to the script as much as possible before that. With that in mind, I borrowed a copy of the script and have been practicing by myself whenever I can spare the time.

It’s not that I want to take a break from looking for the culprit, but I want to do my best to make the last cultural festival of my high school life a success, if possible.

“So, in this part, I’ll be riding on the shoulders of the brave… ”

I moved the Shiratama doll with my fingertips as I mumbled through the script. It was a little bit lonely out here, but I couldn’t ask Kokomi, who I had to remind myself was in a rival class, to accompany me.

By the way, I heard that her class had decided on hosting a magical girl themed cafe. Kokomi dressed as a magical girl will be absolutely adorable, so I’m sure she’ll make for a very strong rival.

This was how I spent my time with my Shiratama doll in solitude.

The door burst open with a bang.

“Not again… ”

But I had long grown cold to such happenings. I immediately guessed who had arrived from the distinctly aggressive sound of the door opening, and the subdued whine of its hinges as the door closed slowly behind them.

“Wafu!”

What happens twice, happens three times.

The individual who had shown up was, to no one’s surprise, Pochitaro, who had escaped from the teacher’s back room.

“You’d better be careful, or I’ll tell the teacher.”

“Wafu?”

He tried to give me an innocent look, but I didn’t buy it. I put my script on the floor and made my way over to Potitaro, who had no choice but to squat down and accept my headpats.

Because his hair color was the same as mine, I felt weird touching something so similar to my own head.

And almost as if promised, this guy had something in his mouth again. It was much larger than the previous offering of Kitora’s earring. It looked like a thin notebook the size of a paperback book.

“Where did you get this thing from this time? If it’s a lost item, the owner must be troubled… ”

I pulled out the brown notebook from Pochitaro’s maw and looked at the cover and the first page to see if there was a name written somewhere. There didn’t seem to be any personal information recorded in any of the usual places, so as I wondered what to do, Potitaro suddenly jumped at me and barked urgently, “Wafu, wafu!”

“Hey, hey!”

I tried to catch him, but the notebook slipped out of my hand. It fell to the floor, opening to a random spot in the book, and I rushed to pick it up while clutching Pochitaro to my chest.

This dog is really something. He’s become such a prankster, and it’s all because Kusaka-sensei spoiled him rotten. “I’ll definitely have to teach you some manners later,” I said as I reached for this notebook.

However, as I leaned down to pick the book up, I happened to glance at some of what was written on the open pages.

“What’s this… ?”

Even though I knew it was a bad idea, I couldn’t take my eyes off the words before me. This wasn’t a notebook, it looked more like a diary.

These were simple white pages, each adorned with thin lines to aid in writing against, and the words themselves were written messily, as if scribbled in a hurry.

[I heard the voice again.]

[I was so scared it was unbearable. I was certain my heart was going to burst.]

[This time, it only lasted for a moment, but I’m certain I must have lost consciousness again.]

[I’m becoming less and less like my old self. I don’t have much time left.]

It was short, but the passage was brimming with meaning. Each time my eyes traced over the words, a sharp chill arched up my back and down my arms. Was this someone’s genuine dying message? I could feel their earnest desperation in these few words.

My eyes soon came to a stop on the date written in the upper corner of the page.

The month was July. As I recall, that date was…

“The day of the opening ceremony of the magic mock battles… ?”

Again, chills ran up and down my body. I couldn’t help recalling that searing glare and the chills that ravaged my body during the opening ceremony.

I closed the diary vigorously, filled with an unfathomable fear. My heart palpitated and the goosebumps wouldn’t go away.

Shaking slightly, I unintentionally hugged Pochitaro tighter, and he licked my cheek with his rough tongue, perhaps trying to reassure me.

“Haha, thanks, Pochitaro… ”

I laughed at the ticklish sensation, and the creepy feeling that had been clinging to me seemed to fade a little.

“Still, something is very wrong. I need to make sure I don’t let my guard down.”

Ironically enough, I had done just that and completely lost track of Pochitaro’s actions.

“Wafu! Wa-fu-fu!”

“Eh! Wait a minute, don’t you dare… !”

He didn’t listen to my urging. Just like the other day, my body was enveloped in a blue light along with Pochitaro.

Within moments it felt like I was floating, and my vision distorted unpleasantly.

I was once again caught up in Pochitaro’s signature teleportation.

In my hand, I still clutched the diary from earlier.

And the place I arrived at… was not the chemistry room I had expected, but an unfamiliar bedroom.

----

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ANIMT - Chapter 31. List of Magical Power Donors

“Where… are we?”

I crouched down with Pochitaro in my arms and looked around the dimly lit room fearfully. Even though this was a strange room, it wasn’t totally alien. I could make out the general structure of it.

There was a small bed by the window and a wooden study desk in the corner opposite it. A small wardrobe stood by the door, and the wallpaper was bland, an all-too-familiar cream color.

These features I described were the standard features of all the non-shared rooms I had seen in the girls’ dormitories.

Our school was rich, so the dormitories had separate living rooms and bedrooms. Especially when it came to these non-shared rooms. Living in one felt no different to living alone in a nice apartment.

In other words, this was someone’s dorm room. And it was probably the room of a special student like Kokomi, or another student with excellent grades.

For each rule, there is an exception though. I live in a non-shared room as a result of my late enrollment.

That was besides the point though. I didn’t care what kind of person’s room this was at this point. That wasn’t the priority right now.

The problem that needed to be solved first was the fact that I was currently trespassing in a stranger’s room through the use of magic, even though it was Pochitaro who used it.

“Hey, hey, Potchitaro, why did you take me here? Hurry up and bring us back. If we’re caught, we won’t just have to worry about getting in trouble with the school; this is a bonafide magical crime!”

I kept my voice down as much as possible and spoke to the fluffy troublemaker in my arms.

The door to this room was closed, and it was unclear if the owner of this room was somewhere inside. Given the time of day, I could only hope that they were out, as I’m sure those who had club activities or were part of a committee were still at school.

When I felt Pochitaro teleporting me, I was certain I was going to appear in the science lab again.

Was this a teleportation magic failure, or was it intentional?

I have a feeling it’s the latter, but either way, if anyone finds me like this, I’m sure I’ll be declared a criminal. I’d also forever be branded a stalker or thief. No matter what, I had to retreat before the owner found me.

“Wafu!”

“Hey, knock it off!”

However, this doggy was unfazed by my impatience. As soon as he slipped out of my arms, he pushed off my body and dove under the bed.

“You’re not supposed to do what you want in someone else’s room… !”

In order to muffle the sound as much as possible, I crawled after him on the floor and went to the side of the bed. As I did so, I glanced at the room again, but there was really nothing conspicuous in this room at all. Perhaps that was conspicuous in itself, seeing as every stick of furniture and decoration was provided by the school, and they seemingly had no personal belongings of their own. In my room, I had several pictures of Kae and some clothes on display that I had put off storing away. In Kokomi’s room, there was a poster of her favorite book on the wall.

But in this bedroom, I couldn’t find any of the things that would make it unique to the person who lived there. There were several books marked with various bookmarks on the desk, so I guess it wasn’t a completely empty room. Nevertheless, it was terribly plain, and the fact that there was no trace of the person who supposedly lived here made it a little bit eerie to me.

“Wafu, wafu.”

While I pondered over this oddity, Pochitaro came out from behind the bed, pushing a brown trunk case with his tiny body.

I gawked at it before peeling my eyes away.

He continued to push it towards me though, wagging his tail as if to say, “Open it, open it quickly.”

There were many other things under the bed, including pornographic books and old, black history books.

Looking under a bed could be likened to looking through a window into someone’s secrets. This was a common hiding spot for things someone attempts to conceal from public view, friends, and even family.

As Pochitaru’s actions had confirmed, this applied to others and not just myself.

“Oh, I won’t open it! I don’t know why you pulled this stuff out, but go put it back!”

Even though I scolded him in a whisper, Pochitaro wouldn’t give up and pushed the trunk towards me again.

“If you don’t have time to do this, why don’t you just teleport us back to where we came from? This trunk is locked in the first place, you know. It won’t be so easy to open… ”

“Wafu!”

“What do you mean, what are you doing!?”

I shouted before hurriedly clamping my mouth closed with my hands. Silencing my breath as much as possible, I waited for a few moments, but there was no sign of anyone hurrying this way. Breathing deeply in relief, I relaxed slightly.

What I needed to think about immediately was the seriousness of what Pochitaro had done. Somehow, he had destroyed the padlock attached to the trunk.

This was the first time I had ever seen such an application of magic.

“Hey, what the hell… ?”

Pochitaro looked satisfied as my shoulders dropped in defeat, unable to take back what he had done and the path he had forced me down.

The lock was broken and he wagged his tail even harder, cajoling me to take the final step off the path of righteousness.

Seeing Pochitaro like this, my mind was drawn back to the time he had taken me to the science lab. I’m pretty sure he pushed me into the prep room that day and tried to show me the contents of the room. The only thing inside was the teacher’s Pochitaro collection… but was that really all he wanted to show me?

I’m sure there was something deeper and more meaningful that he really wanted to show me.

For example… he might have wanted me to know that I was suspected of being a user of the magic power awakening drug.

I’m sure that teacher kept everything related to the laboratory in his preparation room rather than in his own room. He was also a researcher, so he was bound to have a few materials recording his experimentation. In the end, I heard all about the drug from his own mouth.

Pochitaro was a magical dog that used to live in the laboratory, so he is someone that can’t be underestimated. And then there was the bad premonition that came to mind when I saw the teacher’s attempt at reconciliation.

Putting all these things together, Pochitaro being in the center of all of them, the contents of this trunk may have a deep connection to me.

“Oh my god. Fine!”

And I was gutted. The lock was broken anyway, and I was already in too deep, and more importantly, if I didn’t open this, Pochitaro probably wouldn’t willingly return me to the training building I came from.

I put my hand on the handle and opened it at once.

Inside, as I somewhat expected, there were several documents clipped together in a bundle. The title of the document sitting on the top of the pile jumped out at me.

“Procedure to produce magic power awakening potion.”

Half expecting something like this, but still shocked by how prescient my intuition was, I lifted the document with trembling hands. The printed text itself was too fine to read, but the margins of every page were squashed by detailed writing, making it difficult to decipher at a glance.

What I was more interested in was the handwriting itself though.

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Recalling seeing these letters somewhere before, I remembered the diary I had dropped on arrival. Retrieving it and opening to the appropriate page, before spreading it on the floor beside me to compare against the document in hand, I made an immediate conclusion.

The unflattering handwriting showed that the owner of this diary and the documents were one and the same.

Who the hell is the owner of this room?

“Wafu, wafu, wafu.”

As I frantically racked my brains, Pochitaro riffled through the trunk and offered me another document. I accepted it without hesitation, and saw “Magic Power Donor List” on the cover page.

Without further prompt, I opened the page and gasped.

“What is this… ?”

On the first page were several names, all lined up in a row. Starting on the second page was a brief profile of each name that included their family structure, age, and so on, topped off with a photo. Some of the photos were proper mug shots, while others were obviously from hidden cameras.

As I flicked through them, I stopped on one of the pages. For some reason, I saw my own profile. The page had a sticky note marker off the side.

“Why am I on… ? And this picture is… ”

I endured the unidentified fear and chills that were gradually overwhelming me and stared at the photo of me.

This color photo was probably taken sometime in middle school. I still had my long black hair, so it must have been from before my magical aptitude manifested. There was a shadow of someone who looked like Kae-chan beside me, and I smiled happily, my head turned toward her. This was clearly a spy photo, taken without my consent.

“Why, oh why, am I on this magic power donor list?”

My brain was about to reach its limit. The disgusting sweat and the queasiness running through my body would only increase rather than subside. I was about to reach for the other materials in the trunk with gusto when the sound I least wanted to hear rang out.

“... !”

It was a thin, clanking sound of a door lock opening. This bedroom was just to the right of the front door, and finally, the owner of this room had returned.

“Po-Pochitaro… ”

“Wafu… ”

If I listened carefully, I could hear a noise just beyond the door. I hugged Pochitaro tightly to my chest, hoping to kill the sound of my thumping heart. As I expected, he could read the mood and quietly hid his breath too.

The sound of footsteps approached. If he opened the door to this room now… we were finished.

“… ”

The time I spent silently enduring the oncoming horror felt like minutes and perhaps even hours, even though it was a mere few seconds.

----But in an unusual stroke of luck, God seemed to be on my side today.

The creaking footsteps swept past this room with aplomb.

“Did you… ?”

After the sound had completely disappeared, I let out a mutter in a scratchy voice, and Pochitaro nodded in affirmation.

I was so relieved that I almost lost my strength, but there was no time for weakness.

Moving quicker than I ever had in my life, I put all the materials back in the trunk, placed the broken lock back on, and asked Pochitaro to return it under the bed. It was hard to keep the noise down, but with the help of the nimble Pochitaro, the room was quickly restored to its original state.

----Finally, with Pochitaro activating his teleportation spell, I managed to escape the room safely.

Back in the training building, I looked out the window and saw that the sunset had begun to fade to darkness and the deep purple of the night sky was about to emerge.

Sitting on the cold floor, I buried my face in Pochitaro’s warm body and let out a deep breath. My heart beat wildly, and my whole body shook with no sign of stopping any time soon. In my mind, the contents of the documents I had seen in that room ran through my head.

As I listened to the ominous cawing of a raven in the distance, I couldn’t move. I didn’t move a muscle until the sun had completely set.

----

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ANIMT - Chapter 32. Teacher’s Words

I found suspicious materials while trespassing in someone’s room on Friday. Pochitaro and I safely escaped, leaving me to waste away my Saturday and Sunday seriously contemplating about the mystery partially revealed by that document.

What was the magic power donor list?

Why was my name and photo in it?

If I was unknowingly involved with the research institute and their magic power awakening potion, what was their motive or purpose in targeting me?

----And did the person who pushed me down the stairs have anything to do with this?

For all the effort I put into finding any answers, I’m embarrassed to say that I have nothing to show for it. I didn’t even manage to formulate a hypothesis based on what I skimmed through, since it exceeded my expertise by far. It might as well have been written in Greek. I’m not a great detective, so I’m well and truly out of my depth.

What if everything was connected and the owner of that room was the culprit who took my life?

I’m not sure if I’m somehow involved in a deep conspiracy related to the magic institute, but that might have been the reason I had to be disposed of.

However, this is all just supposition. As things stand, I have no proof that these two seemingly unrelated incidents are, indeed, connected. At this point, pinning my death on the owner of that room is almost certainly a stretch.

If the owner of that room happened to be one of my three remaining suspects though, all bets would be off the table. But this was putting the cart behind the horse. I need to finish my preliminary investigation into the remaining suspects.

For now, I have three priorities: investigate the three remaining people, solve the mystery of those documents, and prepare for the cultural festival.

You may ask why that last task is a priority. It goes without saying, since this is the most important priority for me, that I want to find the culprit behind my death. I have the right to know why they pushed me down the stairs, and I want them to admit to their crime and atone for it in the proper way.

But even if the culprit admits their guilt and apologizes to me, it won’t change the fact that…

I only have about three months left to live.

Finding the culprit is at the top of my list, but I can’t let it cloud my vision. After all, the most important thing has to be living the remainder of my life to its fullest so I leave behind no regrets.

The cultural festival is an important youth event. If I don’t enjoy it, I would definitely regret it.

That’s why my goal for the time being is to look for the culprit while enjoying my youth. You may think I frittered away two whole days mulling over this triviality… but it took me a long time to recover from that unfathomable feeling of fear and regain my positivity. I hope you’ll forgive my self-indulgence.

Monday came all too soon. I had to prepare for the cultural festival after school, so I went to see someone during my lunch break.

In order to solve the mystery behind that document, of which I saw no way of continuing on my own with, I am currently in the Chemistry Preparation Room.

“No way is that… ?”

When it came to people that had knowledge of working in laboratories, as well as a solid understanding of the magical fundamentals for lab research work, there was only one man that came to mind.

If you don’t know something, ask someone who might know! With this simple thought process, I showed up without an appointment, and though Kusaka-sensei was surprised, he welcomed me with open arms.

My teacher, whose attitude had changed remarkably since the magic mock battles, patiently listened to my recount of events before sinking into a silent reverie. I sipped on the cocoa that was served to me while I watched him scurry about.

“Wafuafu!”

“Hey boy, don’t interrupt the teacher. If you have a question you’re supposed to raise your hand.”

As I huffed to cool the unexpectedly hot cocoa, I noticed Pochitaro at the teacher’s feet, playing with the hem of his lab coat with his mouth. He had apparently been in the middle of a nap until now, but for some reason had come running out of the preparation room with great vigor in the middle of our conversation. While fully recounting the incident to Kusaka-sensei, out of necessity, I got caught up in the flow of the conversation and made mention of Potitaro’s role in the event. To leave him out completely would have left giant holes in my story otherwise. Pochitaro must have sensed me ratting him out though, as he tried his best to distract the teacher.

Unphased though, Kusaka-sensei seemed to have confirmed his suspicions though as he muttered, “So that’s where you’ve been… ” His discipline was still far too lenient, seeing as Pochitaro continued to wander around freely without suffering any consequence.

After we clear up the mystery surrounding these documents, I would definitely like to discuss Pochitaro’s education policy.

“… Hmm, I see. This situation sure has gotten complicated.”

As I simmered over Pochitaro’s well-being, the teacher seemed to have finally gathered his thoughts and looked up to meet my eyes. But his expression still remained unreadable.

“Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, we don’t have enough for me to personally take action. The only thing I can be certain of is that you are involved in something related to the magic institute, and that there are other people at this school who are involved with them too. On top of that, it appears that whoever owned that room you visited outranked me. They have a far superior clearance with access to more information than I ever did. But still, to think they might be a student… Is there anything else that you can remember from those documents?”

“Anything else… ?”

I hummed and hawed while twisting the grey matter in my head in an attempt to wring out any other detail I could recall from that room.

I guess I could have stolen one of the documents. The trunk was dusty, and it didn’t look like it was opened that often. Even though we forced our way into that trunk, we might not be discovered for a while. I felt like a criminal as those thoughts crossed my mind.

The sole, large, mistake I made during the escape was placing the diary inside the trunk along with the documents. Looking back, that diary was the most promising clue that could have held the keys to everything.

“Wahoo!”

“Whoa! Hey, that’s dangerous!”

Pochitaro, who seemed to have gotten tired of playing with Kusaka-sensei’s white coat, suddenly dove onto my lap. I almost spilled my cocoa everywhere!

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This was getting complicated. I couldn’t help envying this dog. He remains so carefree, even though I’m desperately wracking my brain to resolve this problem that continues to increase in scope and magnitude.

I quickly recanted that thought. Pochitaro was a laboratory animal, smuggled out of the institute’s headquarters before living this carefree life with the teacher. I could not begin to imagine the cruel treatment he was subjected to there. The fact that this guy had a strange knack for finding things related to the institute may not be a coincidence.

Considering his circumstances, the teacher’s lenient attitude wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

No, what am I saying? Whether he was treated poorly in the past or not, you still need to lay down ground rules!

Nevertheless, I placed the cup down on the lab desk and stroked the fluffy thing on my lap with a naturally gentle hand. As I watched Pochitaro looking so content, I suddenly remembered something.

“Come to think of it, in the document titled ‘magic power awakening medicine, production procedure,’ there might have been a phrase that bothered me a bit.”

“Like what?”

“Um, well, I’m pretty sure it was something like forbidden magic.”

I’m pretty sure that phrase appeared repeatedly amongst that messy handwriting.

“Forbidden Magic… !”

The teacher’s eyes widened behind his glasses and he suddenly shouted loudly.

I couldn’t help but jump slightly at his excessive reaction.

“W-What is it? It sounds bad, but is that a real type of magic?”

“Oh, yeah, I see. We’ve never covered itin class have we? Sorry, that caught me off guard.”

With that, the teacher quickly fixed his glasses and explained forbidden magic. It seemed to be a generic term for magic that forcibly interfered with areas that humans were forbidden from meddling with, as the name implied.

There were various types of forbidden magic, and all of them were dangerous and forbidden by the laws that governed magic usage.

There were only a few people who tried to use forbidden magic, but the number of people who could use them properly was even smaller than that. There were a lot of conditions that had to be met in order for the magic to be successful.

The price for using said magic depends on the type used, but in all cases, it’s certainly not a light one.

“I’ve heard of magic that can instantly heal severe injuries and illnesses that normal healing magic could never cure, and magic that can interfere with a person’s mind. In the past, forbidden magic was only lightly explained in class, but it seems to have been completely erased from current curriculum. There was a time when there was a lot of research into this field, but that was a long time ago. I had no idea that the magic institute was still dabbling in this kind of stuff.”

“But, but if the magic police or something like that found out, they’d get caught, right?”

“That institute is probably a much bigger organization than Nobana-san thinks. There’s even a rumor that some of the key figures in the magic police are researchers from there. Maybe that’s why they’re continuing to research awakening drugs in secret.”

As if he were spitting at me, his tone turned into one of sheer contempt. He seemed to have forgotten where he was, as if he were talking to an abomination. Kusaka-sensei really must hate the magic institute.

But I’ve gotten involved with such a powerful dark organization…

Suddenly, Kusaka-sensei reached out with a large hand. I was worried he might reprimand me, like he used to, but instead he rested it on top of my head and gently patted my hair.

“Don’t worry, Nobana-san. I’ll look into those documents you found and figure out what forbidden magic the institute is working on. I still have some secret connections remaining within the institute. I’ll seek their cooperation.”

“What? Y-You don’t have to do something like that for me… ”

I was dismayed at this unexpected offer. Did I really look that worried?

I was sure Kusaka-sensei didn’t want anything to do with the institute anymore, and yet he was willing to go out of his way to help me. Besides, what about Pochitaro? If he did something rash, and they found out, wouldn’t both he and Pochitaro be put in serious danger?

I was about to refuse his overly kind offer, but Kusaka-sensei seemed to have read my mind and patted me on the head again, as if to preemptively refuse my refusal.

“Well, students shouldn’t worry about their teachers. Besides, I made a promise, and I’m a man of my word. If anything happened to you, I swore I would spare no effort in helping you. I want you to let me make amends for the way I treated you. I’m really sorry for what I did. Please… let me help you.”

“Sensei… ”

What the hell? You’ve suddenly become too cool for your own good.

He was such a disgusting teacher and I hated him. Was such a kind and genuine man really hiding behind a single misunderstanding?

If we hadn’t cleared that up before I graduated, I probably wouldn’t have spared any time on thinking back on him. I felt a warm feeling pervade deep in my heart, knowing that it was worth the effort I put into clearing his doubts through the magic mock battles.

There was one niggling concern that remained though. I’m a little troubled that the way he strokes my head is the same way he strokes Pochitaro’s. I’m not a dog, even if my hair color is the same.

I bowed deeply to him, using the opportunity to hide my itchy eyes.

“Well, then, thank you Sensei. Please look into the institute.”

“Consider it done.”

The teacher laughed beautifully, and at the same time, Pochitaro squealed, “Wafu!” as if to say, “Don’t worry!” I was amused and smiled as well.

I have many many problems to deal with… but I will solve them one step at a time until I find the culprit.

I left the chemistry room with newfound resolve.

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