SCIAW: Chapter 177/178

Chapter 177: Best Friend

"Hiss~"

After taking a sip of hot water, the warmth spread through her cold body, bringing her back to life.

Nagi let out a deep breath, feeling like she had been resurrected.

"Nagi, how did your first battle feel?"

"...You're not even concerned about whether I was scared? Instead, you're asking how I felt?"

Hearing the question, Nagi rolled her eyes at the idiot who asked it.

But Sakuya didn't care in the slightest.

"No matter how ruthless Shinomiya is, do you really think she'd kill you on the spot?"

"Even if she was agitated, in the end, all she did was restrain you."

The final scene had been a bit intense, but it wasn't enough to cause any real trouble.

Left with no retort, Nagi simply adjusted her grip on the cup and gave a small nod.

"It was... thrilling."

"Using power is completely different from playing a game."

But after the excitement, reality hit her.

"Controlling elemental power is way harder than I thought."

"After that last attack, I barely had any elemental energy left—I couldn't even keep myself airborne."

"Speaking of battle experience... well, as expected, Shinomiya's ability is just too broken."

Nagi couldn't help but complain about Kaguya's power.

"Yeah, just eating a Devil Fruit gave her an absurd amount of power. The imbalance between effort and reward is just ridiculous."

Even Isumi couldn't help but comment.

"Elementalization… No wonder Amamiya-san called it the strongest among Logia Fruits."

Maria now truly understood the weight of the word strongest.

Elementalization was simply too overwhelming.

If an opponent didn't have a way to counter it, they were essentially powerless against it. It was easily one of the strongest abilities.

"To deal with someone like that, we'd have to use non-physical attacks… ah."

Nagi suddenly paused, her gaze shifting toward Ran.

"...Actually, we do have someone who fits that description."

Someone who wasn't afraid of elementalization at all and could neutralize any unnatural power.

"Ah."

Isumi covered her mouth involuntarily.

"I see."

Maria let out a small sigh, shaking her head.

"No wonder we only had morning exercises today. It looks like Amamiya-san is setting us up to face Miss Mouri next."

"The first time, we experienced despair. Next time, it'll be Shinomiya who feels despair."

"No… maybe it'll be even worse than that."

Nagi's expression turned grim.

"Mouri's physical strength is absurd, but her abilities don't rely on magic power."

"If she grabs me and punches me…"

Just imagining Ran's fist, about the size of a sandbag, slamming into her stomach made Sanzenin Nagi's scalp tingle.

The worst part was that elementalization wouldn't work against her. It would be completely nullified.

"Despair in an entirely different sense..."

Isumi sighed helplessly.

Ever since she and Nagi had entered this circle, their abilities seemed weaker and weaker in comparison.

Only Nagi and Maria were still relatively close in power, while everyone else felt like they had literal cheat codes.

"By the way, where's Amamiya-san?"

Now that she thought about it, they hadn't seen Ren for a while.

Isumi looked around but found no trace of him.

"Oh, him? He went to talk to Shinomiya, apparently."

Sakuya's words made the three of them freeze for a moment before realization dawned on them.

"...He figured it out."


---

Meanwhile, in another room, Kaguya had already calmed down.

But what was frustrating her now was the annoying person beside her who kept trying to comfort her.

Even worse, this annoying person didn't realize that they were the cause of her emotional instability and yet they kept muttering words of reassurance.

"Well, about Nagi-chan… Kaguya, I'll go with you to apologize."

"Nagi-chan isn't unreasonable. I doubt she'll hold a grudge."

"After all, this was Kaguya's first real battle against something supernatural, right? Mistakes are bound to happen."

Although the words were meant to be kind, they only gave Kaguya a headache.

Because the person who caused her mistake… was this woman.

The real problem was, this woman was her best friend—and she was still standing there, trying to comfort her.

What was she supposed to do?

"..."

Watching Kaguya's helpless expression, Hayasaka Ai simply stood silently by her side.

Knock, knock, knock!

Hearing the knock at the door, Hayasaka turned back to check with the two ladies. After receiving a nod of confirmation, she opened the door.

As expected, the person responsible for Miss Kaguya's emotional turmoil stood before her.

"Hayasaka-san..."

"Please come in. Miss Kaguya is waiting for you."

Before Ren could even finish speaking, Hayasaka stepped aside to let him in, lying without hesitation.

The two people in the room froze for a moment.

Then, they watched as a visibly stiff Ren stepped inside.

Chika immediately left Kaguya's side, abandoning her attempts to comfort her and rushed to Ren.

This made Kaguya, who had just been sitting with a dignified posture, freeze completely.

"Amamiya, Kaguya's mistake earlier was probably just because it was her first real fight, right?"

"...I think so."

Under normal circumstances, Ren would have agreed without hesitation.

But now, knowing the truth, he hesitated.

Especially when he noticed Shinomiya glaring at Fujiwara with terrifying intensity.

That only confirmed his earlier suspicions.

"Fujiwara, I need to talk to Shinomiya."

"We need to have a proper conversation with Kaguya."

Chika nodded decisively.

She didn't really understand supernatural things, so it made sense to let Amamiya handle it.

With that, Chika literally shoved Ren toward Kaguya.

Then, she grabbed Hayasaka who was still processing everything and pulled her out of the room, leaving behind one last sentence:

"Amamiya, make sure to properly talk to Kaguya."

"It was just a mistake, don't overthink it!"

At that moment, Kaguya, who had just been glaring at Chika with intense hostility, suddenly snapped back to reality.

Her expression softened. The hostility in her eyes vanished entirely.

Even in the face of this abrupt change, a hint of surprise flickered across Kaguya's face.

At this moment, Kaguya reaffirmed one undeniable truth.

She and Fujiwara really were best friends.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 178: The Past

The two of them sat in silence for a long time.

Ren took the initiative to break the ice.

"Shinomiya-san… do you like me?"

The abrupt question completely crashed Kaguya's brain.

"...Amamiya, why would you suddenly think that?"

Even without looking in a mirror, she knew her expression must be incredibly stiff right now.

"Well… I just thought of it."

Ren observed Kaguya's reaction, and his suspicion grew stronger.

"Before today's club activity, you weren't emotionally affected by anything."

"Based on what I know about you, you wouldn't get overly excited in your first battle."

"You have an unbelievable talent and all the necessary conditions to test your abilities."

"You might not know your upper limit, but you can control your lower limit."

Having spent enough time with Kaguya, Ren was confident in his assessment.

"If you couldn't control your maximum output, you would have at least kept it within a manageable range."

"But in the end, you still lost control."

"That's not like you—so someone must have influenced you."

And that led him back to his initial conclusion.

Ren watched as Kaguya averted her gaze, clearly guilty.

"The only possibilities are me… or Fujiwara."

"But I know it wasn't Fujiwara!"

This gave Kaguya a chance to speak.

"Amamiya-san, why are you so sure it wasn't Fujiwara?"

Ren looked at her even more strangely.

"Because I know exactly what your relationship with Fujiwara is like."

"Sure, Fujiwara affects your mentality a lot, and she does make your brain crash often, but that's always in combination with another person. It's never just her alone that gets to you."

"In the original story, that 'other person' was Shirogane."

"But now… that person is me."

"And you're being affected just the same."

"To be honest, I wanted to play dumb about it, but I'm terrible at acting."

...Forget it.

Kaguya's mind went completely blank.

She wasn't sure how she had acted in the original story, but she had never reacted this way in front of President Shirogane before.

Yet somehow, she had done exactly that in front of Ren.

No wonder he caught on so quickly.

"I…"

Right now, Kaguya was completely frozen, like a typewriter stuck on a single key, unable to type anything else.

Seeing her like this, Ren sighed.

Although he had no idea what he had done to crack Kaguya's icy exterior, the current situation spoke for itself.

He stepped closer.

"Shinomiya, let's talk about this."

Faced with Ren's serious tone, Kaguya finally responded—even in her dazed state.

"...Yeah."

The two of them found seats and sat across from each other.

Another silence settled between them.

"Shinomiya… how did you start liking me?"

"Eh?!"

The temperature on Kaguya's face, which had just returned to normal, immediately started rising again.

"Calm down. I'm just curious."

Ren reassured her before shifting the conversation slightly.

"I don't have a very high opinion of myself. Maybe that's because of the sixteen years I lived in my previous life… and the years I've spent in this one."

He first made sure Kaguya had regained some composure before continuing.

"In my previous life, I was just an ordinary person. My looks and height were probably average at best."

"My mom used to say I was cute as a kid. She even dressed me up for a wedding photo shoot when I was little but I never really saw what was so cute about me."

"In middle school, high school, and college, I was the kind of person who was easy to push around. I learned quickly not to make trouble, because if I did, I was the one who'd get bullied."

"After graduating college and entering society, I didn't have any particularly outstanding skills. I wasn't good at studying, I lacked ability, and I didn't talk much."

"And back then, society didn't have much of a place for introverts like me."

"So I stayed at home."

"But while I was in school, I had picked up an interest in writing—notably, writing certain types of novels."

"I started seriously considering writing as a career."

"And that's the path I took."

Ren couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic about his old self.

Kaguya listened attentively, this was the first time Amamiya had ever talked about his past life.

"I was really happy when I got paid for my writing for the first time."

"But since I mostly wrote about things I liked, I never attracted a large audience."

"And because I spent all my time writing, I had even less interaction with the outside world."

"I don't remember exactly when I died in my previous life."

"Maybe it's because the dead don't always realize when they've died."

"But I do remember knowing, very clearly, that I was alive before it happened."

"When I opened my eyes again, I already had self-awareness."

"I could feel the cold around me."

"I even realized—I was a baby."

It was an indescribably surreal feeling, even now. Looking back, Ren found it both fascinating and helplessly absurd.

"Panic and helplessness hit me immediately. No matter what sound I made, all I could do was cry."

"And when I couldn't cry anymore, I just had to accept it—I was a newborn."

"I grew up in an orphanage, and I remember everything from that time."

"When the orphanage shut down when I was ten, I started looking for work, both legal and less legal—at age eleven, hoping to find someone willing to hire a kid."

"In hindsight, I'd say I was pretty lucky. People were kinder in the countryside."

"After I started making a little money, I rented a place in the countryside, balancing work and school."

"I was never a great student, but I still had some leftover knowledge from my past life, so I managed."

"I lived that way until I turned fifteen."

"That was the year I got the diary."

"And for the first time, an ordinary person like me came into contact with the extraordinary world."

(To be continued.)