Hmm... Commence Invasion?
Monday, April 6th
“Haaahh...”
Koutarou let out an audible yawn.
“You look sleepy, Satomi-kun.”
“I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“That’s awfully rare for you, Kou.”
Koutarou, Kenji, and Shizuka were walking to school together. They were all wearing their brand new uniforms and carrying brand new bags. Soon enough, they would be attending Kisshouharukaze High School’s entrance ceremony.
“Yeah, just some stuff, you know?”
“Did something happen, Satomi-kun?”
Shizuka was asking, not as a landlord, but as a concerned friend. The day before yesterday, her tone had changed with Koutarou when she went from calling him Satomi-san to Satomi-kun. Koutarou, who wasn’t good with formal speech, welcomed this development.
“Actually, Landlord-san, the you-know-what appeared.”
“What?! You don’t mean...?!”
“The ghost?!” Kenji clamored.
“Yes. I couldn’t believe it at first either, but that was definitely a ghost.”
Shizuka and Kenji were shocked by Koutarou’s answer.
“So that’s why it was a bit noisy yesterday...”
“Are... Are you okay, Kou?!”
“Calm down, Mackenzie. It’s not that big of a deal. A ghost appeared and some weird paranormal stuff happened. That’s all.”
“O-Okay... If you say so.”
Kenji was relieved to see that Koutarou was his usual self. The truth was that he didn’t do well with scary stories.
“But are you okay, Satomi-kun? Do you think you’ll be able to keep living there?”
Being the landlord of Corona House, Shizuka shared Kenji’s worries and then some. If Koutarou moved out now, Corona House’s reputation would sink even further.
“It’s okay, Landlord-san. Like I said, it’s not a big deal. I’ll settle things tonight.”
“I see. You’re so dependable, Satomi-kun.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll take care of it.”
As Koutarou pounded his chest and boasted, Shizuka flashed a smile. She looked both relieved and happy, which reaffirmed Koutarou’s decision not to back down.
“But to think there really was a ghost...”
“I was surpri— Huh?”
As Koutarou smiled wryly at Kenji, he noticed the shadow of someone peeping at them from a nearby utility pole.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look. Over there. There’s a girl, and she’s staring right at us.”
“You’re right. What’s with that outfit? It’s really flashy...”
“It might be rude to say, but... How is she not embarrassed to walk around in that?”
The girl peeping at the three friends appeared to be about their age. Most of her body was concealed by the utility pole, but they could tell how ostentatious her outfit was just from the parts sticking out from behind the pole. She was wearing a colorful, frilly dress that looked like it came straight out of an anime.
“Ah...”
Although they couldn’t hear her voice, the way her mouth moved made it obvious what she had said. Immediately after that, she turned tail and ran, vanishing around a nearby corner.
“What was that?”
“Who knows...?”
As Koutarou and Kenji looked on in confusion, they could hear the sound of a collision coming from around the same corner the girl had just turned.
“Kyaaah!”
“You idiot! Don’t just jump in front of a bike like that!”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! It wasn’t on purpose!”
“And what’s with that outfit? If you’re gonna play, do it somewhere else!”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m not playing! This is part of my job!”
The next thing they heard was a quarrel breaking out.
“What was that?”
“Who knows...?”
“I wonder if it was that girl.”
The three classmates kept walking, approaching the nearby corner.
“Sheesh, who knows what kids are thinking nowadays...?”
However, by the time they peeked around the corner, all they could see was a middle-aged man picking his bike back up. The girl from before was nowhere to be seen.
“It had to have been that girl that jumped out and got hit by the bike,” Kenji concluded as they walked past.
“I see! As expected from Mackenzie! ...I wonder if she’s all right though.”
Koutarou took a glance back at the corner they had passed.
“I’m sure she’s fine, Satomi-kun. If not, she would have probably still been lying on the ground.”
“You have a point there.”
Koutarou had been worried, but smiled at Shizuka’s reassurance.
“But still, that girl sure was strange...”
“It’s spring, you know?”
“Now that you mention it, the strange ones do seem to come out in droves this time of year, don’t they?”
And so they continued to school as if nothing had happened.
After getting through the entrance ceremony and their first homeroom class, Koutarou dragged his feet to his part-time job. He then worked roughly a seven hour shift into the evening. After that, both Koutarou and Kenji were exhausted by the time they reached Corona House.
“I’m just going to jump into bed for today.”
“I wish I could do the same.”
Koutarou sighed as Kenji got on his bike.
“Make sure you get some sleep. You fell asleep in the middle of the entrance ceremony after all.”
“Yeah, I will. See you, Mackenzie.”
“Later.”
Koutarou and Kenji waved at each other before they both departed. Koutarou was headed for his own room, and Kenji was headed to the station.
“...Well then, it’s time to get down to business.”
Koutarou glanced over his shoulder at Kenji and slapped his cheeks to pump himself up.
“What the—?!”
As Koutarou opened the door, he found his belongings piled up by the front door. Most of the furniture he’d put in the inner room had been moved to the door too.
“It’s to prepare you for moving out, and to serve as a barricade to protect from intruders.”
Sanae grinned as she poked her head through the pile of luggage.
“Yeah, sure. Just move, will ya?”
“Oh come on!”
But as Koutarou brandished his bag, Sanae disappeared into the inner room. His bag was still stuffed with the charms and the maneki neko.
“Jeez, what a childish thing to do... Oh, right, you are a child.”
Koutarou removed his shoes and climbed over the pile while complaining. Fortunately, he’d only moved in with enough stuff for the small apartment, so there wasn’t all that much, and getting over it wasn’t particularly difficult.
“If you don’t want to put up with childish antics, then just hurry up and get out! Waiting around is boring! Besides, you said you were just attending the entrance ceremony, so why are you so late?!”
“My bad. I had work after the entrance ceremony. Unlike you, I have to earn my keep. I don’t want to cause too much trouble for my old man.”
Koutarou picked up the TV and followed after Sanae into the inner room.
“Hmm, so you’re doing your best too...”
“That’s why I refuse to walk away from a cheap room like this.”
“But I’m going to make you leave.”
As the inner room was completely empty now, Koutarou sighed and carried the TV over to the antenna outlet.
“All right, next is...”
After setting down the TV, Koutarou walked past Sanae and headed back to the front door to get the next piece of furniture.
“Hey, you can just do that later, right? What about our discussion? Besides, you might have to leave soon anyways!”
“Listen, ghost, if you want to talk, help me put my stuff back. I’m not talking about anything until this room is back in order.”
“Jeez, fine...”
Sanae reluctantly followed after Koutarou.
She can be quite obedient from time to time...
Watching Sanae reluctantly helping him, Koutarou realized that she might not be all that bad.
“Is there anything else?”
“No, this is the last of it.”
Sanae shook her head and answered Koutarou’s question as she levitated a cardboard box through the air.
“I see.”
Hearing that, Koutarou stopped moving towards the entrance.
“All right, hand over that box, Sanae.”
“‘Sanae’...?” she stammered.
Koutarou reached out to take the box from Sanae, but for some reason, she was staring at Koutarou in amazement with tears starting to form in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Koutarou asked as he noticed, but Sanae quickly wiped her eyes.
“It’s nothing! I just got some dirt in my eyes!”
“I see.”
Being a ghost, there was no way she could actually get dirt in her eyes, but Koutarou didn’t give it so much as a second thought.
“Come on, give it over, Sanae.”
“O-Okay.”
Sanae floated the cardboard box over to Koutarou, which he then carried over to the still open wardrobe.
“He called me Sanae...” Sanae muttered sheepishly as she watched Koutarou walk away.
Nobody had called Sanae by her name ever since she had become a ghost several years ago. The sentiment alone kept her from attacking Koutarou, despite how defenseless he was with both hands full, and with the charms and the maneki neko so far away. She simply gazed at his back with a mysterious emotion welling up in her heart.
“That should do it.”
Closing the wardrobe, Koutarou turned back to Sanae.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
Koutarou realized she hadn’t moved.
“I-It’s nothing! Th-That’s right, we need to settle things!”
“Oh, yeah, right.”
Koutarou had been so focused on reorganizing the room that he’d almost forgotten.
“I have no intention of leaving this—”
As Koutarou was about to make his declaration, he was abruptly interrupted by his window breaking.
“Kyaah!”
“What?!”
Surprised, both Koutarou and Sanae looked at the window as something shot through it and flew into the room.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!”
That “something” fell flat on its face and rolled across the floor while screaming before finally coming to a stop as it crashed into the opposite wall face first.
“Wh-What just happened?!”
“I don’t even...”
Koutarou and Sanae stared at each other briefly before looking at what had flown into the room.
“Well, for starters, it’s a human.”
“Yeah.”
Lying there was a lone girl who looked to be about the same age as Koutarou. While she was pretty, her encounter with the wall had left a rather large bump on her forehead, making her appearance quite comical.
“But what’s with this crazy outfit...?”
“Isn’t she embarrassed to go out like that? You can almost see her breasts from here.”
Koutarou and Sanae found the girl’s outfit odd. It was a colorful design with a lot of pink and primary colors. It was also quite revealing. Like Sanae said, the girl’s well-shaped breasts looked like they were about to spill out of her top. Moreover, the abundance of frills made her outfit look like a dress. But the strangest thing of all was the broom that she was straddling. While there was no doubt it was a broom, it certainly didn’t look like it was meant for cleaning. Just like the girl, it was brightly colored and ostentatiously decorated. It seemed to value design over function.
“She looks like she’s from some kind of fairy tale, like the old witch with the poisoned apple... She’s just a lot younger.”
“She does have a witchy feel to her. But doesn’t that outfit look more like something an anime heroine would wear?”
“So it’s cosplay?”
“Gotta be.”
And that was the agreement they came to. Surely this had to be an elaborate costume.
“But why would a cosplayer come through the window?”
“Who knows? Maybe because it’s spring?”
“Spring... Oh yeah!” Courtesy of what Sanae said, Koutarou recalled the morning’s events. “Now that I think about it, she’s the girl I saw this morning!”
“This morning?”
“I saw her on the way to school. She was hiding behind a utility pole, so I can’t say for sure, but it’d be even weirder if there were multiple people walking around dressed like that. It’s gotta be her!”
“So she’s been wearing that outfit all day?”
“Definitely an oddball...”
“Yeah...”
The two looked at each other, completely amazed by the flamboyant girl before them.
“So what do we do about this?”
Sanae poked the girl lying unconscious by her feet, but she showed no response whatsoever. The lump on her forehead and her mouth hanging wide open made her look pretty miserable.
“Well, we can’t just leave her like this. I’ll get out the futon. You go get some water.”
“Yeah, sure.”
And so Koutarou and Sanae put aside their differences to begin nursing the unconscious girl.
The girl in question came to as Koutarou changed the cool washcloth on her forehead for the fourth time. Over three hours had passed, and it was now past 11 PM.
“Mm, mmmm...”
“Hey, it looks like she woke up.”
“Really?”
As Sanae called to him, Koutarou rushed back over to find the girl lying in his futon repeatedly blinking her eyes.
“H-Huh...?”
As her vision regained its focus, she was able to see Koutarou and Sanae standing there.
“Yo.”
“Good morning.”
As Koutarou and Sanae greeted her, the girl blinked again.
“Eh? Um... Huh?”
She was unable to comprehend the situation.
“Listen, you just flew through my window, hit the wall, and passed out a few hours ago,” Koutarou said, pointing at the window—which was now covered over with newspaper—and then at the wall.
“We took care of you and cleaned up the shattered glass.”
With Sanae’s addition to the explanation, the girl finally seemed to get her head around what was going on.
“Auuugh! I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” She hurriedly stood up and bowed repeatedly. “I didn’t mean tooooo!”
Seeing her behavior, Koutarou was quite sure that this was the same girl from that morning. She had apologized the same way when she ran into the guy on the bike.
“We would have thrown you out straight away if it had been on purpose... Whatever. But you’re paying for the repairs, okay?”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I don’t have any money!”
“Then come through the door! Why would you break through the window to get in?!”
“I’m sorry! I was in a hurry!”
Perhaps it was because she was being verbally assaulted by Sanae immediately after waking up, but the girl was on the verge of tears. Seeing that, and feeling badly for her, Koutarou decided to step in.
“Don’t nag on her too hard, Sanae. There might have been a reason.”
“But she broke my window!”
“You can get angry later. Let’s start by hearing her out.”
“But you never bothered to do that for me.”
Sanae looked ready to erupt.
“Ugh... A-Anyways... Let’s just listen to what she has to say.”
“Fine, but don’t think this is over...”
Sanae finally backed down after being dissuaded, and they both turned to the girl.
“So what did you come to this apartment for? Or was it an accident or something?”
“Uh, um...”
The girl flinched as Koutarou and Sanae stared her down.
“Isn’t this just part of her hobby?”
“You just be quiet, Sanae.”
“Hmph.”
As Sanae turned away from Koutarou, the girl started slapping her cheeks.
“Fight, Yurika! Fight!”
After pumping herself up, her expression turned serious.
“Actually, this room is in danger.”
Her tone of voice and the look on her face were far more self-possessed than they had been before—a sign of how resolute she now was.
“Danger? What danger?”
“Explain already!”
“There are people trying to steal this room for themselves.”
“Steal it for themselves?”
“Do you mean—”
Koutarou and Sanae pointed at each other simultaneously.
“Sanae?”
“Koutarou?”
“No, not me! This is my room after all!”
“How rude! This is where I live!”
The girl shook her head at the two who were now starting to argue.
“No, I’m not talking about you two.”
“Huh? You’re not?”
“Waaait, you don’t mean Koutarou?”
“That’s right. It’s a completely different group,” the girl clearly declared and nodded.
“Who are they? Are they after this cheap room too?!”
“O-Or are they just after this beautiful ghost?”
“...Like that would ever happen.”
“What do you know?! You are so rude!”
“It’s neither one. These people are after the abnormal amounts of power concentrated in this room. So please hurry and escape! It’s dangerous here! They’ll surely be here in a few days!”
“Power? Danger?”
“What’s all that supposed to mean?”
The girl’s alleged explanation left Sanae and Koutarou astonished. To them, it was nothing but nonsense.
“Explain it in more detail. Even if you tell me to leave, I won’t agree to it just because you said so.”
“Yeah. For starters, what’s this power you’re talking about?”
“I want to know too.”
As they demanded answers, the girl broke eye contact and tried to look elsewhere.
“U-Um, you could call it naturally occurring power, or, um, a supernatural power...”
The girl’s voice lost all sense of determination, and she began to stumble over her words. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and she forced herself to smile nervously.
“Aha, ha, ahahahaha...”
What? Should I not have asked?
That was the impression the girl’s fake laugh left on Koutarou.
“That kind of explanation doesn’t help at all. Don’t use vague words like ‘power.’ Explain yourself properly!”
“D-Do I have to?”
“Yes. It might be hard to say, but I’m ready to accept just about anything after today.”
“But you wouldn’t listen to me!” Sanae cried.
“It’s because I believe you now that I want to hear what she has to say.”
“D-Don’t think I’m crazy or that I’m kidding, okay?”
The girl’s uneasy gaze shifted back and forth between Koutarou and Sanae.
“Don’t worry.”
“Fine, I promise.”
“O-Okay. Then I’ll tell you.”
The girl nodded and gulped. After looking at Koutarou and Sanae once more, she finally opened her mouth again.
“Actually, the power in this room is...” The girl began her explanation, but her voice quickly grew smaller and smaller so that the essential part couldn’t be heard.
“The power is what?”
“We can’t hear you.”
“L-Like I said, the power filling this room is ma...”
She looked like she really didn’t want to say it. As she fell silent again, she blushed and looked down.
“Don’t worry. We won’t laugh at you, so just tell us.”
“Yeah. Nothing will happen until you do.”
As Koutarou and Sanae encouraged the girl, she finally made up her mind.
“Yurika, fight! Yurika, fight!”
The girl gave herself another pep talk and raised her head, cheeks still blushing. She stared straight at Koutarou and Sanae, and with large and exaggerated gestures, she began her explanation over.
“Please listen! Actually, there is a vast amount of magical power concentrated in this room!”
“Huh?”
“M-Magic?!”
“If the mana here continues to increase, it will definitely catch the attention of magical girls who would use it for evil! If that happens, this room will become a battlefield! So please run away! If possible, right now!”
The girl swung her broom around in her hand and loudly declared, “I’m the princess of love and courage, Magical Girl Rainbow Yurika! I will protect the peace of this town!”
Koutarou and Sanae both spaced out for a moment as they beheld the girl’s oddly perfect pose and beautiful voice.
“Well, what can you say...? Right, Sanae?”
“I know exactly what you want to say. This must be the worst possible development we could have imagined.”
“It is spring after all.”
“Yeah, that must be it.”
Having recovered from their stupor, the first thing Koutarou and Sanae did was look at each other and sigh.
“H-Huh? What? What are you talking about?!”
“No, it’s nothing. Nothing at all. We were just saying how much warmer it’s gotten now that it’s spring.”
“That’s right.”
As he said that, Koutarou grabbed ahold of Yurika, the girl in a flashy outfit.
“What? Why are you grabbing me?!”
“No reason. No reason at all.”
Koutarou smiled at Yurika, then promptly lifted her up and headed straight for the front door.
“That’s right. No reason at all.”
Sanae smiled as well, using her Poltergeist power to carry Yurika’s broom.
“Huh? Wait, where are we going?”
“That’s for you to decide!”
Reaching the entrance, Koutarou opened the door and threw Yurika out.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Yurika fell flat on her face and tumbled all the way to the concrete wall around the Corona House grounds before finally stopping.
“Here! You forgot this.”
Sanae followed up by throwing the broom at Yurika.
“Kyah!”
Unfortunately, the broom hit Yurika in the head, but Koutarou and Sanae acted as if they hadn’t seen anything.
“Phew...”
“Good grief.”
Quickly shutting the door, both Koutarou and Sanae sighed.
“It’s spring after all.”
“Is it because this winter was so cold?”
“Yeah. It did get warm all of a sudden and everything...”
At this point, Koutarou and Sanae were convinced that Yurika was just a cosplayer with a good imagination. Courtesy of Sanae, they were both perfectly understanding of paranormal phenomena, but magic and magical girls were in a different league entirely. Koutarou and Sanae both had at least a minimum amount of common sense.
“Excuse me, please open the door! Please listen to what I have to say! And why did you throw me outside all of a sudden?!”
Vigorous protest and intense banging could be heard from the other side of the door. Yurika hadn’t left like Koutarou and Sanae had hoped she would.
“Keep it down, cosplay woman! If you want to hold a cosplay party, do it somewhere else!”
“You heard him! It’s because of people like you who are so inconsiderate of other people and their surroundings that all cosplayers get a bad rap! Why don’t you think about what you’ve done here?”
With a final, weak knock, Yurika quieted down. But she was far from silent. Instead, she began speaking in a low, sobbing voice.
“Waah... You don’t have to put it like that! You’re the ones who wanted me to tell you! You said you’d believe me, so I told you even though I didn’t want to! Please believe me! Waaaugh!”
“Who would believe you when you’re running around in that kind of outfit and talking about magic?”
“I... I already know that! I don’t like it either! Whenever I transform into this outfit, all the men stare at me! My chest and butt aren’t even fully covered!”
Instead of a knock, there was something more like a scratching sound coming from the door now.
“But the magical kingdom told me to wear this and act with confidence. Reception with civilians has been poor lately, so I have no choice!”
As she got worked up, her voice gradually grew louder.
“I already know that I’m not suited for this job and that nobody will believe me! But I’m not crazy! Waaah!”
Her voice was now louder than it had ever been before as she started bawling.
“Uwaaaaah! This is too cruel! Uwaah haaaaa! Open the door! It’s not fair! You have to believe meeeeeeee!”
Despite the door between them, she was wailing so loudly that it sounded like she was right in the room with them.
“Hahh...”
Koutarou let out an exasperated sigh and put his hand on the doorknob. He was going to let Yurika back in.
“Koutarou, do you really believe that idiot’s story?”
“It doesn’t matter if I believe her or not. At this rate, it’ll bother the neighbors.”
If Koutarou and Sanae could hear the crying this clearly, the other tenants probably could as well. Besides, it was already midnight. If this kept up, Koutarou would be the one getting thrown out.
“I don’t agree to this at all.”
“We don’t have much of a choice.”
Koutarou let out one final sigh as he opened the door.
“I-I’m not lying. I really am a magical girl. Waaah!”
“I get it, so stop crying, okay?”
“That’s right, Yurika. Your conviction is incredible. Not a lot of people can stay in character like that.”
Even after returning to the inner room, Yurika was still crying. Koutarou and Sanae tried to comfort her, but it wasn’t going well.
“So... So you believe me? That this place is in danger, and that magic is real?”
“Th-That’s a little...”
“I knew you didn’t believe me! You’re all talk! Uwaaaaah! You think I’m just some weirdo!”
“Sanae, you idiot! It’s times like this that you should say you believe her, even if it’s a lie!”
“Now hold on a minute! She’s talking about magic! No matter how far you stray from reality, magic isn’t real!”
“Uwaaaaah! You’re telling her to lie to me! You really don’t believe me either! You’re just trying to trick me!”
“Look! This is all because of your unnecessary remark!” Sanae shouted.
“It’s not just my fault!”
Yurika was crying her eyes out in the middle of the room while Koutarou and Sanae were getting flustered. The situation was getting more confusing by the minute.
“Here, Yurika. Wipe your tears away with this, okay?”
Sanae used her Poltergeist powers to float a nearby towel over to the crying Yurika. Seeing the towel right in front of her, however, Yurika suddenly stopped crying and her eyes opened wide.
“M-Magic?! You can use magic too?!”
“Huh? Me?”
“Yes! This is magic, isn’t it?! Why don’t you believe me when you can use it too?!”
Yurika’s expression brightened in an instant. She was thrilled to have found an unexpected comrade.
“Oh, this? That’s because it isn’t magic.”
However, Sanae bluntly denied it.
“It’s not... magic?”
Yurika repeatedly blinked in a surprised fashion. And as she did, the tears that had formed in her eyes started streaming down again.
“This is just a supernatural phenomenon.”
“A supernatural phenomenon?”
“Yeah. I’m a ghost after all. Look.”
Sanae stretched out the towel in mid-air and flew harmlessly through it.
“Whaaaaat?!”
Seeing that, Yurika was dumbstruck.
“You’re r-really a gh-gh-ghost?!”
“Yup. Just watch. Here, towel.”
Sanae landed in front of Yurika, who watched on as the towel then passed through Sanae and floated right in front of her face.
“...”
“What?”
Sanae stared at Yurika. She was holding stock still, but her eyes were open wide.
“Ah, aah, auuugh...”
Yurika blinked twice.
“Hey, are you okay?”
As Koutarou approached her with a worried look, Yurika suddenly began moving again.
“Kyaaaaaaaah! Noooooooo! A gh-ghost! I can’t handle ghooooosts!”
Yurika abruptly sprang up, grabbed ahold of her broom, and took a quick look around the room before making a mad dash for the wardrobe.
“Wh-What?!”
“H-Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Please don’t possess me! I’m scared of ghosts! Possess him instead, pleeeeease!”
Yurika jumped straight into the wardrobe and slammed the sliding door shut.
“Don’t come near me! Don’t possess me! Nothing good will come from killing me! So please suck the life force out of that energetic boy over there instead!”
The pitiful pleas continued from the wardrobe.
“What’s up with that...?”
“Wh-Who knows? She’s probably just scared of you.”
Koutarou and Sanae just stood there staring at the wardrobe.
“R-Right. That’s how people normally react when they meet a ghost. I had forgotten about that because of you.”
“The previous tenants were like that too?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Sanae looked at Koutarou and nodded.
“But is it really okay for the magical girl of love and courage to run away like that? She even tried to sacrifice you instead.”
“Well, she is just a cosplayer after all. We can’t expect too much from her.”
“Fair enough.”
The two continued coldly staring at the wardrobe.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! You don’t have to believe in magic anymore! Please just don’t possess meeeee!”
Unaware of how Koutarou and Sanae felt, Yurika desperately pleaded for her life.
“What are we going to do about it?”
“What else? We’ll just have to get her to come out.”
“...Yeah.”
Koutarou and Sanae both looked at each other and sighed heavily.
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