In the Light Music Club.
Seeing all eyes on her, Nodoka Manabe shook her head slightly and said,
"Sorry, I don't have any plans to join a club at the moment."
"Aww, okay then."
Seeing Nodoka Manabe's refusal, Yui Hirasawa couldn't help but look disappointed.
Ritsu Tainaka saw this and said with a smile, "It's alright. We always welcome you to visit the Light Music Club, Manabe-san."
Besides, with Lin joining, the Light Music Club now had five members.
They no longer had to worry about being disbanded.
So she wasn't too disappointed.
Otherwise, she definitely would have tried to be more persuasive.
"Okay, thank you."
Nodoka Manabe nodded upon hearing this.
Just then, Lin smiled and said, "I didn't bring a club application form. I'll bring it when I come by tomorrow."
"No problem."
Ritsu Tainaka nodded with a smile.
Lin looked at them and asked, "Have you formed a band?"
"Not yet."
Ritsu Tainaka shook her head, returning to her seat. She said with a smile,
"We didn't have enough members before, but we've always wanted to form one. Now we can."
"I'm the drummer."
"Mio is the bassist."
"Mugi is on keyboard."
"As for Yui, she's the guitarist."
"What instrument do you play, President?"
As she finished speaking, the others all looked at Lin.
"Just call me Lin."
Lin said, then gave a mysterious smile. "Why don't you guess?"
Ritsu Tainaka: "Guitar?"
Lin: "Nope."
Tsumugi Kotobuki: "A keyboard instrument?"
Lin: "Not that either."
Mio Akiyama: "Drums?"
Lin: "Wrong guess."
Yui Hirasawa: "Could it be bass?"
Lin: "All wrong."
"Huh? Then what is it?"
Hearing this, the girls frowned slightly, their eyes filled with confusion and curiosity.
Lin's lips curved into a slight smile. "I don't know how to play any instruments right now."
"What!!!"
The girls were completely dumbfounded.
He doesn't know how to play any instruments? This...
Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, and Tsumugi Kotobuki couldn't help but look at Yui Hirasawa.
Yui Hirasawa snapped out of her daze, her eyes instantly lit up, and she grabbed the hand of Lin who was beside her.
"A comrade!"
"I don't know how to do anything either."
After confirming Lin was her comrade,
her gaze towards him became even friendlier.
Ritsu Tainaka teased, "Didn't you say you could play the harmonica, Yui?"
"Umm..."
Yui Hirasawa's face turned red.
A look of embarrassment appeared on her face.
When she joined the club last week, she had lied about being able to play the harmonica, only for Ritsu Tainaka to immediately produce one.
She could only offer a hasty apology.
Just then, Mio Akiyama looked at Lin and said with a slight blush, "It's okay if you don't know an instrument. You can learn slowly."
"You can learn with Yui."
"That's right, you can just learn as you go."
Tsumugi Kotobuki also chimed in with a prim and gentle smile.
Lin smiled faintly. "Then I'll start by learning guitar. I'm actually interested in all of these instruments."
He couldn't help it; his interests were simply that diverse.
Time passed as they chatted.
At 4:50 PM,
the group of six—Lin, Nodoka Manabe, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, and Tsumugi Kotobuki—left the school to head home.
Along the way, they gradually went their separate ways.
Lin walked along the road at a leisurely pace.
With a thought, he opened the Codex of All Things.
He had lit up two entries today.
Nickname: Tainaka Ritsu
Level: White
Description: The Bright-Foreheaded President
Acquired: Harmonica Mastery
...
Nickname: Hirasawa Yui
Level: White
Description: Single-Core Processor
Acquired: Learning Focus
...
He claimed the rewards from the two entries.
Harmonica Mastery was self-explanatory.
What surprised Lin was the Learning Focus from Yui Hirasawa's entry.
It was a passive ability.
When he focused on learning a piece of knowledge or a skill, his learning efficiency would increase by 100%, effectively doubling.
This ability was derived from Yui Hirasawa's 'Single-Core Processor' trait.
Of course, the ability's effect had limitations.
Only when learning knowledge and skills that ordinary humans could master would he receive the full one-hundred-percent boost.
If he were learning supernatural knowledge and skills, the efficiency boost would drop to as low as ten percent, which was better than nothing.
He closed the Codex of All Things.
As Lin neared the station, a being suddenly flying across the sky caught his attention.
He locked onto it with his spiritual senses.
About ten minutes later,
Lin followed the special being to Koishikawa Kōrakuen.
A famous attraction in Bunkyo Ward.
Although it was already closed for the day, that obviously wasn't a problem for him.
He enveloped himself in a concealment barrier.
Lin entered Kōrakuen directly.
His intangible spiritual senses spread out.
In addition to the special being he had been tracking, he discovered another one inside Kōrakuen.
So, he approached them.
After eavesdropping silently for a while,
he used his psychokinesis to pull them in front of him.
They were two palm-sized birds.
One was a wagtail, the other a white-eye.
They were not just ordinary little birds.
"Help! Help! We're dead birds! Help!"
Caught by the invisible hand of psychokinesis, the two small birds squeezed their eyes shut and let out sounds like human children.
One male voice, one female voice.
Clearly, they were actually yokai.
"Shut up. If you keep making noise, I'll roast you both."
Hearing the two little bird yokai chirping away, Lin put on a fierce act.
"..."
The two bird yokai instantly fell silent.
Then, they slowly opened their lively eyes and looked at Lin.
"A human?"
After seeing Lin, the two bird yokai blinked, somewhat surprised.
Lin released an extremely faint trace of his aura's pressure, instantly making the two bird yokai tremble and nearly wet themselves in fear.
Retracting his aura, he looked at them.
"Now, I ask, you answer."
"If you dare to lie, I'll barbecue one of you and make soup with the other. Understand?"
"Understood, understood."
The two bird yokai frantically nodded their little heads.
He who understands the times is a wise man.
Their will to live was overflowing.
Lin: "You just said you wanted to leave this place. Where are you going?"
He thought of the many yokai he had discovered on his last trip to Yamanashi Prefecture.
Could they be heading there?
The white-eye yokai hurriedly said, "We're going to Nagano Prefecture. We heard there's a great deity of the yokai there."
"Yokai in trouble can seek help from that great deity."
"It's too dangerous here. There are some terrifying black monsters at night. It's too scary for us birds, boo-hoo ┭┮﹏┭┮."
The wagtail yokai chimed in, "Yes, yes! It's super scary for us birds!"
A few nights ago, they had almost been eaten by one of the black monsters.
Thankfully, they ran fast.
Oh no, they flew fast.
After hearing the bird yokai's story, Lin couldn't help but narrow his eyes, looking thoughtful. "A deity of the yokai, black monsters..."
A deity of the yokai... interesting.
As for the terrifying black monsters that scared the birds, could they be referring to evil spirits?
After a moment of thought, Lin asked,
"Do you know the specific location of this yokai deity?"
The white-eye yokai thought for a moment. "I think it's called Makurazaka. To be honest, we're not sure either. We were just planning to head over there first."
"Makurazaka..."
Lin's eyes flickered, and he asked again,
"Are there any other yokai like you nearby?"
________________________________________
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