The sun was setting.
Soubu High School's campus was bathed in a brilliant golden glow by the setting sun, softening the rigid lines of the teaching building.
The light pierced through the tree canopy outside the windows, leaving only filtered orange-red light spots inside the school building, and for a moment, the once vibrant teaching building of daytime began to be enveloped in a mysterious atmosphere.
Fortunately, on the sports field behind the teaching building, the shouts of various sports club members exercising were incessant, preventing the empty teaching building from becoming as eerie and terrifying as it would be at night.
"That's pretty much it."
At the corner of the stairs, Asakura bought a box of 300% concentrated peach juice from the vending machine and handed it to Chihaya Anon, saying, "The only places left that we haven't visited are some nooks and crannies that even I haven't been to much."
"Thank you… but I should be the one treating Asakura-kun to a drink, after all, I'm the one receiving help."
Chihaya Anon took the boxed juice, saying somewhat apologetically.
"Then you can treat me next time; there's no need to be so particular about such small matters."
Asakura said casually, while observing the girl's actions.
Sure enough, after the girl inserted the straw into the juice box and took a sip, she immediately started coughing.
"Cough, cough… What is this?"
"One of Soubu High School's two major specialties."
Asakura said contentedly, "The other is the rainbow jam that the school's convenience store occasionally restocks."
"The product line manager for this drink must have a grudge against the boss, right?"
The girl, who had almost sprayed the juice out of her nose, said indignantly.
"But it says 'fruit juice' on it, so it feels quite healthy, and the price isn't much more expensive than cola. From a cost-performance perspective, it's not bad, right?"
"Nonsense! That's like saying drinking coffee is too inefficient, so you should just chew coffee beans directly!"
"Speaking of which, I once bought a can of civet coffee."
Asakura said abruptly.
"…What are you expecting?"
The girl looked at him warily.
Asakura showed a harmless smile.
The girl's gaze grew even more suspicious.
The two walked in silence down the hallway for a long while.
"Um, anyway, thank you for showing me around Soubu High School—" Chihaya Anon, finally unable to contain herself, held the juice and frankly said to Asakura, "Is Asakura-kun going back to that… odd-jobs agency now?"
"Let me state again, I am not a member of the Service Club—" Asakura turned to look at the girl and declared seriously, "It's just that the Magic Club happens to have half the usage rights of the Service Club's activity room, so I occasionally stay there."
"I see…"
Chihaya Anon tilted her head, seemingly understanding yet not, and asked, "So, aren't you going?"
"Everyone else has things to do today, so I don't have anything to do at the activity room either."
Asakura said, spreading his hands.
Realizing that Asakura had missed the Service Club activity because he was showing her around, the girl immediately lowered her face slightly: "I'm sorry…"
"Don't worry about it. On the contrary, it's nice to openly slack off today and have a day off."
Asakura comforted her with half-truths.
Chihaya Anon nodded, half-believing, half-doubting.
Immediately after, the girl felt that there was something wrong with her vision.
Dark ink began to spread across the normal windowpanes along the hallway, and in just a moment, the hallway, which was already dim due to the approaching dusk, was instantly plunged into an early night.
The shadows of tree branches or other things outside the windows on the walls seemed to come alive, dancing wildly in joy.
Oh no, are my hallucinations starting again? And at this particular moment…
The girl rubbed her eyes hard, wanting these hallucinations to fade away quickly.
However, just then, she heard Asakura's voice from in front of her.
"How arrogant."
His voice was very soft, easy to miss, and his tone was completely different from the relaxed, or even slightly frivolous, tone he used when chatting with her.
At this moment, the boy's voice was cold and indifferent, with a hint of displeasure.
Chihaya Anon looked up in surprise, and then she saw a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life.
The boy walking in front of her had a faint look of impatience on his face. With a very casual gesture, he extended his finger and pointed at the terrifying shadows on the wall that were dancing like ghosts. The shadow immediately froze, and almost instantly, the black shadow disintegrated like a blooming flower, and many small Snake shadows popped out from within.
And those small Snake shadows, like greedy Snakes, began to hunt and chase strange shadows all over the wall.
Although shadows have no sound, from the way the ghost shadows, which had been spread across the wall like a parade of a hundred demons, scattered and fled, Chihaya Anon inexplicably had the illusion of hearing those shadows scream.
In just a moment, the hallway, which had looked as terrifying as a haunted house in a horror movie, became much stranger in style, and the chilling and eerie feeling instantly disappeared.
But the girl did not feel happy because of this; she was completely stunned, feeling terribly stiff.
The reason she was so sure that everything strange she saw before was a hallucination was because she had once pointed out strange sights she saw in the Mirror to her parents, but neither her parents nor anyone else, not even doctors in the hospital, could see what the girl saw.
It was clear that only she could see those things, so they must be her own delusions and hallucinations.
However, at this moment, Asakura's actions completely shattered the girl's composure.
Although he didn't explicitly say so, from his actions just now, Chihaya Anon could clearly understand that Asakura could also see those eerie black shadows extending from the windowpanes.
So, what exactly were those things I saw and considered hallucinations…?
"Asa, Asakura-kun, you can see them?!"
She asked tremblingly.
"What? Are you talking about those oddities?"
Asakura turned to look at the suddenly agitated girl.
"Oddities?"
The girl repeated Asakura's words like a broken record.
"Just think of them as supernatural monsters from an anime; they're nothing troublesome."
Asakura said calmly.
"Mon, monsters…"
Chihaya Anon first mumbled blankly, then her face instantly turned pale, her knuckles clutching the juice box turned white, and the juice box itself crumpled quite a bit under the girl's grip.
Had she been with such things for so long? she thought with lingering fear.
"Don't worry—" At this moment, Asakura's comforting voice sounded at the right time: "Didn't I tell you? I'm the Magic Club president; this level of stuff is nothing to worry about…"