Chapter 13: The Library Fairy (Part 2) (Patreon)

Chapter 13: The Library Fairy (Part 2)

...

Startled as she was by the Anjouin Style, Ai Morishita thought she'd spotted a flaw in his logic, and pointed an accusing finger at him.

"If the Anjouin Style is so powerful, why do you even need to study other martial arts, Satoru Anjouin?!"

Faced with the cute girl's challenge, Anjouin gave a faint smile.

"The Anjouin Style is strong precisely because it's never been a fixed set of moves. It keeps evolving with the times, absorbing the strengths of other ancient martial arts..."

"Modern martial arts and combat sports are naturally next on the list for the Anjouin Style to absorb. Only by constantly taking in the strengths of every era's martial arts can it stay at the very top among countless schools."

(ÒωÓ׮)——!!!

Ai Morishita felt like Anjouin's words made perfect sense.

"...D-defeated! Utterly defeated!"

By comparison, it seemed like the Little Blue Style didn't have much to brag about.

"Fierce Blue weeps!"

Struck by the blow, Ai Morishita's eyes went a little dead.

Of course, she wasn't actually crying.

Watching Morishita look like a sulking kitten, Anjouin reached out and ruffled her hair.

"This is a library — keep it down. The Little Blue Style can start absorbing other martial arts' strengths too, starting now, and get stronger."

"Oh."

Scolded, Ai Morishita settled down a bit, though she had no real intention of strengthening the Little Blue Style.

After all, being the fully certified heir of the Little Blue Style was just one of her many identities.

"Satoru Anjouin..."

"Just call me Anjouin, or Satoru. No need for the full name."

Hearing Morishita use his full name, Anjouin quietly reminded her.

"Mm-mm, did you come to the library to look for a fairy?"

"No." Not expecting that question from Morishita, Anjouin didn't quite know whether to laugh or sigh.

"Actually, when I first came to the library, I was hoping to get lucky."

"Get lucky?" Morishita looked puzzled.

"Didn't Sakayanagi's earlier intel mention that Advanced Nurturing High School had gained an extra old school building?"

"I thought the library might have changed too... maybe there'd be some old jujutsu texts hidden away somewhere. But once I saw how big this place is, I gave up on that idea."

Whatever the case, given the sheer size of this library, even the whole of Class A searching together couldn't cover it in a short time.

Even though he really had been hoping for a lucky break, faced with the reality of the place, he had no choice but to drop the idea.

So he'd shifted his goal and started looking for combat guides instead.

Ai Morishita looked around the library and decided Anjouin had a point — searching for a hidden old text in a library this size would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

"But that's the thinking of a loser."

Morishita pointed at Anjouin, scolding him with an oddly superior air.

And an equally odd swagger.

Anjouin's mouth curved into a smile as he honestly admitted it.

"Yes, yes, I know — the thinking of a loser."

His gentle tone sounded like he was humoring a silly little sister.

Morishita didn't seem to mind at all — she just flashed a bright, victorious grin.

Right then, an intense gaze fell on the two of them.

Sensing the gaze, Anjouin turned his head at once, and Morishita beside him looked over too.

But in the next instant, Morishita froze up like a broken radio skipping a track.

"B-b-book... the book's..."

"Morishita?"

"It's Lady Book Fairy!"

As she said it, Morishita went pale, looking like she was about to drop to her knees in front of the silver-haired girl.

Fortunately, Anjouin's reflexes were quick — he grabbed the back of her collar just in time, sparing her from kneeling to a classmate on the very first day of school.

Though he could understand Morishita's shock, at least a little.

The silver-haired girl who'd appeared out of nowhere lifted her delicate, unblemished face. Her pale violet eyes were like a pool of clear water, and something about her carried an otherworldly, dreamlike air.

Cradling a book in her arms, she really did fit the title "Book Fairy."

Still, one glance at her dark red blazer and white pleated skirt made it clear she was a student at Advanced Nurturing High School too.

"Morishita, calm down."

Anjouin gave the girl a couple of shakes first.

"Nyaa!" Morishita let out an adorable sound, her eyes practically spinning in circles.

"Hehe~"

The silver-haired girl seemed amused by the scene.

She watched the two of them quietly for a few seconds, then spoke in a soft, fairy-like voice.

"Class 1-C, Hiyori Shiina."

"Class 1-A, Satoru Anjouin. This is my classmate, Ai Morishita."

Anjouin answered while still steadying the still-wobbly-legged Morishita.

"You're... you're not Lady Book Fairy?"

"Nope~" Hiyori Shiina laughed lightly.

"Sorry for the disturbance. I'll head out with Morishita in a moment."

Even though Anjouin had kept his voice down while teasing Morishita, they'd still been messing around in a library, and it was bound to disturb someone.

He even worried whether their behavior might be breaking some code of conduct.

'Guess I got careless, too caught up in teasing Morishita.'

Still, today wasn't officially the first day of classes yet, so Anjouin figured the odds of losing points right now were low — though he made a mental note to be more careful anyway.

"Oh, no, you're not disturbing me. I was just curious about how you two get along."

Hiyori Shiina quickly waved her hands, admitting she'd been drawn in by the cheerful atmosphere.

"Are you two siblings?"

"No, just classmates," Anjouin said.

Though the answer only left Hiyori Shiina more confused, even as she understood it was probably the correct one.

"So you already knew each other before?"

Hiyori Shiina seemed to have thought of another possibility.

"We only met today."

But Anjouin's answer still fell outside the range of Hiyori Shiina's guesses.

This dealt a small blow to Hiyori Shiina, who'd had some confidence in her own perceptiveness, and it only made her more curious as she studied the sense of distance between the two of them.

Generally speaking, interpersonal distance falls into four zones, and the range of zero to forty-five centimeters counts as intimate distance — the distance reserved for lovers and family.

The distance between Anjouin and Morishita was around twenty centimeters.

Hiyori Shiina studied the two of them even more closely. In truth, she badly wanted to make friends who shared her interests, but since she wasn't good at socializing, she usually ended up alone.

"I see. Seems the two of you are quite fated to be together."

"Ugh, what a cursed bond this is."

Having more or less accepted that Hiyori Shiina wasn't a fairy, Morishita stopped being cowed. Instead she crossed her arms over her chest with an arrogant flourish and let out a meaningful sigh.

Except her long sigh didn't actually mean anything at all, and had no deeper implication whatsoever — she just felt like sighing.

"...Why are you the one saying that line?"

Anjouin reached out and rubbed her head.

He was clearly the one who'd been latched onto.

Somehow he'd picked up a little tail trailing after him.

Even now, he still couldn't figure out how it had happened.

Having successfully beaten Anjouin to the punchline, Morishita's expression grew even more smug.

"Hesitate and you lose."

"Yes, yes, where do you even come up with lines like that?"

He found Morishita endlessly quotable, and a knowing smile crossed his face.

"Seems like I'm the one interrupting you two~"

Hiyori Shiina said softly, "As an apology, if there's a book you're looking for, I can help you find it."

"No need. I just suddenly got interested in combat and wanted to look up some material here."

Anjouin took a quick look over the few guides he'd found.

He set Muay Thai — which used elbows, knees, and every other part of the body to strike — as his first target, followed by Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for ground fighting, since even many experienced fighters had no experience fighting on the ground. Then there was Krav Maga, for lethal counters against things like eye gouges and groin kicks...

He planned to recommend the latter to the girls in his class.

It might be useless against cursed spirits, but a jujutsu sorcerer's enemies were never limited to cursed spirits alone.

On top of that, he was also considering trying his hand at weapon combat.

Fighting with cursed tools was a discipline every jujutsu sorcerer had to master.

Take that one insanely athletic kid, for instance — when he first started carrying out missions, Satoru Gojo had shoved a cursed tool knife into his hands too.

"I think I'll go check out the gym."

"I see..." Hiyori Shiina looked disappointed, her pale violet eyes dimming.

"Then I won't keep you two any longer."

Seeing the Book Fairy look so abandoned, the two of them suddenly felt a pang of guilt, and Morishita was the first to crack.

"I-I'm not in that much of a hurry. I can keep Lady Book Fairy company while she reads."

"..."

She'd already said her piece — what else was there for him to say?

Watching Morishita dash to Hiyori Shiina's side in an instant, Anjouin was at a loss for words.

Still, faced with the two girls' hopeful looks, all he could do was nod and agree.

"Just this once."

"By evening, though — we still need to go buy daily supplies at the store..."

A bright smile bloomed across Hiyori Shiina's face at once.

It wasn't that she liked Morishita, or liked Anjouin — she simply loved the atmosphere the two of them created together.

And then, in the blink of an eye, evening arrived.

"The time just vanished, all at once."

Morishita's expression turned serious.

"Seems like Lady Book Fairy is actually a Gluttony Fairy who devours time."

"How is there another Gluttony Fairy now?"

Talking with Hiyori Shiina had been fun — she'd even recommended plenty of interesting books to the two of them.

Still, the time really had flown by.

"Sakayanagi's not even a C-cup, so she's the Little Gluttony Fairy — and Hiyori's the Big Gluttony Fairy."

Having said her piece, Morishita glanced over at Anjouin again.

Her expression turned serious again as she rose on her toes and pressed both hands onto his shoulders.

From somewhere, an unmistakably rustic melody began to play.

Keeping time with the tune, she said, dead serious:

"Satoru Anjouin, the two of us are about to be devoured by the Big Gluttony Fairy."

"Oh."

Anjouin didn't mind playing along with Morishita a bit longer.

There wasn't enough time left to check out the gym anyway, so he figured he'd wait for tomorrow's five o'clock club orientation meeting and ask the athletic clubs then.

"So what do we do?" Anjouin said, with a touch of sorrow. "Guess there's nothing left but to leave you behind?"

"Huh?"

Morishita froze.

"Morishita, I'll remember your sacrifice."

"No, wait, Satoru Anjouin—!"

Watching Anjouin spin around and bolt, Morishita felt her whole world crumble.

She reached out a hand, but couldn't hold back his retreating figure — as if her own companion had shoved her straight into the Gluttony Fairy's mouth.

She stood there grieving for quite a while.

Even the rustic little melody turned mournful.

Still, Morishita hadn't forgotten she needed to stop by the convenience store, and she couldn't squeeze out any real tears anyway, so she simply got up, brushed off her skirt, and hurried to catch up with Anjouin, who was waiting for her at the intersection.