Tale of Discovery

Chapter 248: Located ; Time

"Shido!" a voice calls out to me as soon as we enter the classroom.

Looking over at the source of the voice, I find Tohka, who seems to have been conversing with three girls, looking my way with a relieved expression.

One of the three girls glimpses at my arm which is being held by Kurumi and remarks, "I guess they really did know each other before."

"That's right," another one adds, "How else would she know his name on her first day here?"

"Gross," the third one says in a monotone.

Ignoring them, I gaze at Tohka and say, "Class is going to start soon, so let's get back to our seats."

Nodding her head once, Tohka turns to face the trio of girls and says something before walking over to me and holding my arm.

"What are you doing?" I say as more than a dozen pairs of eyes lock onto us.

"It's not fair for her to do it but not me," Tohka responds with a pout.

"Ara~ Are you feeling jealous and threatened, Tohka (Tohka-san)?" Kurumi says while grinning.

The displeasure on Tohka's face grows as she responds, "That's not true."

Letting out a small sigh, I instigate the two to walk in the direction of our seats at the back of the class.

Soon after, the lesson begins as Reine enters the classroom. For some reason, she had been casting glances at me ever since she stepped into the room.

Oh, right! That damned earbud.

Reaching into my pocket, I grab the earbud and put it on after making sure that no one is looking.

"Kotori?" I mutter.

"Finally, you idiot brother!"

"Hey now-"

"This isn't the time for that! Listen, that girl you were with at the rooftop is a spirit."

"I'm aware of that."

So, she actually was identified as such despite being a Binary Factor.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the girl you speak of introduced herself as such. Why do you think I was with her at the rooftop?"

"Oh, now that you mentioned it"

"Whatever. Do you have anything important to say?" I ask, a little irritated.

"Of course! This spirit I have a bad feeling about her," Kotori responds in a solemn tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know, but just be careful. Of course, try to arrange a date if possible, but remain cautious."

"Easy for you to say"

Having had enough of this, I take a look around before taking the earbud off and placing it back in my pocket.

Now then, Kotori said that she had a bad feeling in regard to Kurumi. Currently, the only plausible thing I can think of would be Kurumi hiding her true self.

After all, that's how it usually turns out

Nevertheless, I should really punish her soon for running her mouth off when conversing with me.

---3rd POV---

"It's him, I'm sure of it," a white-haired man with seemingly soulless black eyes says while gazing at a giant screen displaying a somewhat blurry image of a high schooler sitting on a bench at a school's rooftop beside a black-haired girl. Included in the image is an odd phenomenon of two trays floating in the air along with an imperceptible dome-like barrier blocking rain on top of the bench.

"But, we did a complete analysis of him, and he turned out to be nothing more than human prior to the recent abnormal events," a woman with pale blonde hair and purple eyes states impassively.

"That's right," the man responds with a cold smile, "Back then, she said that he would appear in this world one day. Ever since then, I had been wondering how, but not it has become clear.

"First, there is the report by AST, claiming that a flying human was protecting a B-class spirit. Now, there is this. It's clear that he is nothing short of abnormal."

"Sir, what about the S-class spirit, Nightmare? Why would she be in contact with him?" the woman asks with furrowed brows.

"Does that even matter compared to the aforementioned?! Just assign the task to the girl that arrived a few days ago. Mana Takamiya, was it?" the white-haired man vigorously exclaims, attracting the attention of everyone who was staring at computer screens.

"Anyway, our top priority right now is to hunt him down as soon as possible. Contact the national agencies and ask for support. Round up our best team."

"Understood," the woman says before bowing and heading toward a door leading out of the room.

"Hey, Isaac," a voice resounds within the room as a blonde man that seems to be in his fifties gets up from his seat, "What are you planning to do?"

"What else other than finally achieving my dream?" Isaac directly responds.

"You don't even know what he is capable of. This is an extremely dangerous approach to take, don't you think?"

"Elliot," Isaac responds in a firm tone while squinting his eyes, "This is what we've been waiting for, ever since Mio Takamiya's disappearance!"

Seemingly not knowing how to respond to him, Elliot lets out a deep sigh before sitting back down and focusing on his computer screen.

Seeing this, Isaac beams a smile before shifting his back to the gigantic computer screen as a strange glint flashes through his eyes.

---1st POV---

"Tohka," I say once the final school bell has rung, "You go on ahead. I will be with you in a short while."

"I understand," she replies before casting a glance at Kurumi who is already standing beside my desk.

And so, Tohka leaves the class along with the female trio from before.

"My, my, Shido. Do you perhaps seek to spend some free time with me?"

Hearing her words, an idea clicks in my mind as I beam a smile and say, "That's correct. For that reason, I would like to invite you out on a date the day after tomorrow."

"That sounds wonderful," Kurumi responds, "But Why the day after tomorrow?"

"Because there will be no school on that day, granting us quite a bit of time spend together."

"Very well. That sounds fine by me," she says while smiling.

At this moment, I catch the sight of something rather interesting - Kurumi's left eye.

Unexpectedly, its color is yellow, but what's even more surprising is that it looks like a clock with Roman numerals.

Going by this No, way It can't be that her powers are related to time, right? The possibility of that is high now that I've seen such a 'unique' feature, after all, what other reason would there be for it?

Curious about this matter, I use Clairvoyance to 'sneakily' observe the eye, only to find out that it's moving like an actual clock.

Checking the time out, I notice that it's 'wrong'.

"Shido, it's rude to stare at a maiden for too long," Kurumi's voice suddenly reaches my ears, causing me to shift my sight back to my eyes.

"I apologize, but I found myself in a trance as a response to your beauty."

"Ara~ What a glib tongue," she remarks before chuckling with her fingers in front of her lips.

"I believe that we should leave now," I say once she is done chuckling.

"I agree," she responds before taking a step back.

Nodding my head, I grab my school bag and get up from my seat.

--

"We're home!" Tohka exclaims upon stepping inside the house.

Taking off my shoes, I set the wet umbrella in my hand against the wall and follow after her as she makes her way to the living room.

Back at school, Kurumi just said one sentence before disappearing into the rain, which was, "Don't forget our date."

Following that, I was about to teleport Tohka and myself back home, but before I could do that, a golden-haired girl who is one of Tohka's friends offered us an umbrella.

As such, I walked back home with Tohka's body pressing against mine as she held onto my arm while speaking of her day at school.

Shaking my head, I focus back on reality as I step into the living room, only to be met with the sight of Yoshino sitting on the sofa and watching TV. Beside her, Kotori has an excited look on her face as she stares at the screen.

Tohka seems to have frozen in place as she stares at the TV as well.

Looking over at the TV, I see that there is currently a 'magical girl' type of show being aired.

Letting out a sigh, I move forth and wrap my arm around Tohka's waist, startling her, before guiding her to a sofa and sitting down on it with her.

I take this moment to observe Kotori, only to notice that something feels off.

She has an oddly bubbly aura and is gleaming with excitement as she watches the show.

Letting out a small sigh, I sit back against the sofa and gaze at the ceiling as I begin to think of today's encounter.