Chapter 76

I passed the time in my room. Hours passed as I managed to complete a painting and decided to read a book for a change of pace. I exchanged a few messages with Kuroko and Saten, mostly to inquiry about how they're fitting in with the rest of their dormmates.

Saten got along with hers fairly well, having already set up a system with helping each other in their projects. All of them are excited to be allowed there school laboratories and workshops and are already allowed to set up their stations by the grace of their homeroom teacher but are not allowed to create anything just yet. So instead, they have been passing the time bouncing ideas and theoreticals with each other, having already formed a sense of camaraderie with having very similar interests in creation even if it wasn't in the same field. She even said that some of them are already planning on collaborative projects, herself included.

Kuroko, as she told me, has already befriended the girls of her class, largely in part of two of her particularly energetic classmates being able to pull together the others.

She also told me about the class icebreaker, in which they held a small contest on who had the best room. There were some that flat-out refused but most people surprisingly went along with it. Kuroko described some interesting rooms, to those that were plain or eccentric, to those that were somewhat baffling. Like this one room with at least two dozen pairs of prescription glasses, a dark gothic room with a fog machine, even one room with a literal mini library of porn.

Suffice to say that the girls immediately wrote off the owner of that room as a pervert and had the choice of mind to stay away from him.

At the end of it all, she told me that the person who one the contest was someone who baked a cake. The contest having done what it was intended to do and help kickstart the connections between the people of her class.

Although I admit that having a room showcase like that seemed like plenty of fun to do the same, but realistically speaking, I would have been one of the people who declined.

"So, be honest..." Kuroko began over the call. "Did you make any new friends? You didn't antagonise anyone by accident, did you?"

"Of course not." I definitely am not pouting. Anyone who said otherwise is a liar. "And I did make new friends."

"Truly?" Joy. I can hear the unhidden skepticism in her voice. "You made new friends and not them befriending you?"

"..." I look back on what happened so far.

"You know your silence only raises more doubt."

"Probably?... But the point still stands that I have new friends now. Or at least, new acquaintances."

"I suppose so... Although, do take care not to start any fights, even if some of your classmates turn out to be out the crass delinquent sort."

"Of course." I agreed. Even if the chances are abysmal, it still isn't zero. "But it sounds like you speak from experience?"

She chuckled mirthfully. "Quite. There are certainly plenty of... Colorful... Characters, in my immediate vicinity. Truth be told, one makes me wonder how they managed to get accepted, the other makes me wonder whether they've missed their medication."

"Sounds like a handful, those two." I'm guessing that one of them was that canon character, boom-boom boy, as I recall. "Thankfully, the people on my side seemed like the normal sort... So far. I'll withhold my final judgment until after I've get to know them all."

"How envious~ any chances of swapping students?" She asked with growing mischievousness. "Imagine all the fun we can do in class~"

Wasn't blushing. "...You're lucky you're cute."

"Oh please, you know you love me~"

"I do. And I'm not ashamed to admit that." I glanced at the clock. "It's time for lunch so I'll call you back."

"Tonight? Or do you prefer I sneak in your room?~♡ We can-" A barrage of teasing came from the other side of the call. I hung up before she got too descriptive but I can still hear the faint echoes of her giggling into my ears. It took a moment calm myself down. I should've know better than to wear a skirt when calling her and now I have to settle it down because pitching a tent with a skirt would look prominent.

Eventually, after I got myself under control again, I got up and went down the main lobby.

Entering the kitchen, I was no longer surprised to see someone else cooking. In fact, it seemed like they've just finished shortly before I arrived.

Other than the two who were behind the counter, there were also two other acquaintances by the kitchen island. It was Kendo and Tokage who were both setting up the plates, with the former calling out to me with a cheeky grin as if she just won something.

"Looks like we beat you to it." She said as she offered me a seat.

"Guess so. However, I wasn't aware that there was a competition." I replied sarcastically.

"Nope! But I'm glad to announce that we finalised the allocation of responsibilities." She waved with a small laugh. "The notice and the schedule is in the living room but keep in mind that it's still a work-in-progress."

Is that so?"

"Yeah. Cause everyone doesn't really know much about anyone just yet so we're still in the wait-and-see phase." Added Tokage. "You're fine though, we can guess that much with your actions so far but we can't really say the same for the others. Well, mostly. I can vouch for a friend of mine but he really isn't bright most of the time."

"Oi! I take offense to that!" Exclaimed a voice coming from behind me. "Really, Set? Not even the first day and you're already talking smack about me."

"You're only mad 'cause it's the truth!" She grinned before doing some sort of weird handshake thing with the guy. "Besides, you're pretty shiny anyway so it evens out!"

The only other guy in the room turned to me. "Sup! I dunno what else she said about me but I'm Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu!"

I stared at him for a good few seconds. "...Do your parents hate you or something?"

He faltered. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up."

Tokage did, in fact, laugh it up. Even Kendo was suppressing the smile that was forming on her lips. Same goes for the faint laughter coming out from the behind the counter.

"I hope you guys like mushrooms, because that's the theme for today, shroom."

Then out came the two other girls who cooked today's lunch. The one who spoke first was the shorter one, about my height, while the other girl was carrying the bigger plates with her vine-hair.

"Please remember to say your grace before the meal." She said as I mulled over her words.

I won't deny that I was wary of her, but I won't immediately assume she's from a violent sector of a church, either. I mean, it is true that Christians in Japan are a minority because of some old law passed by a shogun or something during the pre-modern times but that doesn't mean that she's an exorcist.

For all I know she could just be a regular believer or something. It doesn't necessarily mean that she'll try and kill me in my sleep.

Even when I cautiously expanded my senses, she didn't have a single shred of ill will. Rather, she felt... Clean.

Pure.

Almost as if she's a saint.

"I thank thee for thy grace today, that of which we shall partake. The-" Is literally no one else gonna talk about that? A golden light literally came from nowhere and shined on her and no one is reacting.

...Unless they couldn't react because they couldn't perceive it?

During the meal, I paid particular attention for anything about her and learned that her name Shiozaki Ibara and that she came from a conservative, religious family. She had applied for the Hero course because she wanted to help and protect the 'lost sheep' personally rather than just passively doing it. She and her family does have ties to the local church but it was only to the extent of any other family attending mass.

She didn't really seem much of a threat, outside of her already versatile-looking quirk.

The others also shared a little bit about themselves, something I had to pay attention to as well to avoid making my eavesdropping obvious and eliciting misunderstandings about my intentions or something.

Like Kendo being a regional champion in two different kinds of martial arts, Tetsutetsu being childhood friends with Tokage along with whatever shenanigans she dragged him into, even the fact that today's lunch was made from the ingredients harvested straight from the mushroom farms of Komori's parents. Likewise, due to the chain of events, I also told them a tidbit about me. Specifically, I told them about me being a provisional healer.

That seems to get a reaction from them as they have apparently heard rumors about what I did during the entrance exams. They didn't see me personally at that time as they weren't too injured --Mostly just bruises or scrapes-- but that didn't stop them from overhearing things.

The lot of them are excited for the notion of having their own class healer, about not having to worry to much about getting hurt during practice as medical help was close by, with the most vocal about it being Kendo and Tetsutetsu. I chided them lightly for it and reminded them that as a licenced professional, I have the authority to force them to rest if they go overboard.

A bit hypocritical of me since I'm also an overworked but I degress.

Regardless, lunch was a simple affair today.

After the meal, I debated on whether or not to stay and get to know these people better. Then I remembered that Shiozaki is going to be a classmate and that I'm not the only supernatural here.

I waited for the opportunity to leave naturally without rousing suspicion and waved everyone else a good day. I then went up the stairs and discreetly made my way to Manga's room, scanning to make sure he's alone, and knocked on his door.

"(⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠) Sup man! What bring you here today?" The bubble head said as he opened the door.

I pushed him back inside, accidentally knocking a few things over and locked the door behind us. And just as he was about to make a comedic comment about the situation, I cut him off. "There's a Christian in class."

He paused for a bit as he processed what I just told him. "(⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠)O-kay? And what of it?"

"She has the potential to be a saint."

"Wut?"

"She isn't actually one but she has the right essence to be a saint. I'm giving you a heads up to ignore any unusual situations that may rise from that. Just a moment ago, golden light literally fell from nowhere when she was saying grace for lunch." I explained. It's was kinda of hard to gauge his reactions when he schools his head bubble to not show anything.

"...Lunch is ready?"

I felt my eye twitch in irrigation. He definitely saw it, too, as he raised his hands and waved them. "Waitwaitwait, I was just messing with you, man! I get the message, no need to get angry."

"I wasn't angry." I sighed. "Just... Watch out." Actually, now that I'm here again, I noticed his room is a bit cramped. It's filled with tall stacks of paper and the smell of ink was particularly strong. Then I noticed the mess I inadvertently made. "Sorry, let me get that real quick."

"It's fine, dude. No harm no foul." He said trivially.

Despite him making flight of it, I understood that altering a familiar workspace can be disorientating so I still tried to organise the things that I've knocked over. As best as I could, anyway, considering that I don't know how he organises his area so I just asked him where to put them.

Whilst I was doing that, I noticed something from the corner of my eye. On the small table at the center of the room, is an unfinished manga page.

"Is that?..."

"⁠(⁠￣⁠︶⁠￣⁠) My own work! Impressive isn't it?"

On the page depicted a familiar train station. One of an old model, seemingly too old to run but still operated smoothly.

It was Kisaragi Station.

"(⁠ ⁠◜▿◝⁠ ⁠) My goal was to change modern entertainment so I figured a good way to start is by writing a horror story that'll keep people awake! It's gonna be like spicy food, or natto! You might not like it the first time but it'll grown on ya eventually!"

"Is that even allowed? What about the unspoken truce about keeping our side a secret?"

"Don't worry, dude!" He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "I know what I'm doing. I'll only write about the stuff that's already an urban legend and say that I was inspired by them."

"Uh-huh. And what if you accidentally create someone new for real?"

"Then isn't it fine? New people to befriend. Relax, man."

"I feel like there should be more thought about creating new life." I rubbed the bridge of my nose and move towards the door. "But frankly? I could care less about the what-ifs right now. Guess you could cross that bridge when you get there, just don't say I didn't warn you."

"Have a good one!"

I bid him goodbye with a wave and went back to my room.