Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 11 - Chapter 5

Higashihongan Sanae the New Student

Monday, April 5th

A girl named Higashihongan Sanae was originally registered in class 1-A along with Koutarou and the others. But before she could attend the entrance ceremony, her condition took a turn for the worse and it became clear that she would be unable to attend Kisshouharukaze High School. As a result, her name was removed from the class roster, and only the teachers knew about her.

But lately things had improved and she was up to attending school normally again. She was given a placement test, and it was determined that she had learned enough through self-study to be considered on par with her peers. Thanks to that, she was able to transfer into the same class as Koutarou and the others instead of repeating a year.

“...And so Sanae-san was able to safely return to our class. I expect you all to get along.”

The classroom was a whirlpool of excitement after the teacher in charge finished her explanation.

“All riiiiight! Another cute girl in class! Yeah!”

The excitement was mostly from to the boys. Because the girl known as Higashihongan Sanae had spent a long time in the hospital, she was thin, pale, and gave off a fragile impression. There weren’t any other girls like that in glass, so the boys were particularly excited.

“U-Um, I’m Higashihongan Sanae. It’s nice to meet you all.”

Although bewildered by the boys’ reaction, Sanae politely bowed her head to the class. The Higashihongans were a distinguished family that had been protecting a shrine since the days of old. As such, Sanae had been taught proper etiquette growing up, and that included exceptional manners.

“S-So cute!”

“She’s totally different from the other girls!”

“This is just getting better and better!”

Sanae’s modest and calm personality only further incited the boys. The other girls in class were all shooting daggers their way.

“How rude!”

“Honestly! It’s always like this whenever a new student comes in.”

“They’re happy as long as it’s a girl. This is just like the Maki-chan fever from a little while ago.”

Sanae’s appearance only seemed to deepen the divide between the male and female students in class.

“Okay, okay, everyone calm down!”

After letting Sanae introduce herself, the female teacher in charge clapped her hands together in an attempt to get the class’ attention. Once her students’ eyes were back on her, she continued explaining things.

“Like I said, Sanae-san just got out of the hospital. She’s not used to the school yet, and she may have some physical trouble here and there. That’s why I’d like one boy and one girl as her support team. You’ll be in charge of helping her out.”

Having been hospitalized all this time, Sanae didn’t know a thing about Kisshouharukaze High School. Since she’d basically skipped her freshman year, she’d missed all the orientations and other activities designed to adjust students to high school life. She didn’t even know her way around the school yet.

And having spent so much time bedridden, her stamina was another concern. Since she’d only just been released from the hospital, her strength hadn’t fully recovered yet. She would get winded just from climbing the stairs. Between all that, the teacher thought it would be a good idea to have assigned helpers to support her in her day-to-day school life until she got a handle on things.

“Let’s see... Who to choose?”

The teacher scanned the room and looked at her students. As she did, a few of the boys began begging for their chance.

“Me, me, me! I’ll be the male supporter!”

“You idiot, I’ll be the one helping Sanae-chan!”

“I will do everything from helping her change to going to the bathroom!”

But the teacher easily ignored their desperate pleas.

“Let’s see... Okay, Satomi-kun, could you do it?”

“Me?”

Koutarou’s eyes went wide with surprise when the teacher called on him. She nodded with a smile in return.

“Yes. I can tell from here that out of the stronger boys, you’re the most settled down. Or would you rather not?”

While the rest of the class was in a fluster, Koutarou appeared to be the same as ever. The teacher thought that was a great asset, so she’d chosen him for the job.

“No way!”

“Well, if it isn’t Koutarou the traitor!”

“Can’t you give us a chance for once?!"

Of course, the boys were rather unhappy with this development.

“Mr. ‘Leave It to Me’ Blue Knight, huh?”

“Hmm, well, I guess it’ll be okay if it’s Satomi-kun.”

“Even if he’s an idiot, he’s a hundred times better than those other boys.”

The girls, however, seemed to respond positively to the teacher’s choice. And Koutarou himself had no real objections to supporting Sanae.

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

He nodded and accepted the teacher’s request.

“Thank you, Satomi-kun.”

Seeing Koutarou agree, the teacher smiled and began looking over the class once more.

“All right then, as for the girl... Aika-san, can I leave it you?”

The female teacher’s eyes stopped on Aika Maki.

“Aika-san, you were a transfer student yourself, so you probably have a good idea of what Sanae-san is going through. Could you do it?”

Her decision wasn’t just because Maki was a transfer student, but also because she got along well with Koutarou. The teacher believed that the supporters’ teamwork would play a big part in ensuring things went smoothly for Sanae.

“I don’t mind. I probably would have ended up helping anyway.”

Maki smiled and agreed. Like the female teacher suspected, Maki was fairly close with Koutarou. Even if she hadn’t asked, Maki probably would have offered to help him out. But she wasn’t entirely motivated by goodwill.

All right... With this, I might be able to understand what’s going on with Satomi-kun a little bit better...

Maki had noticed that something had changed in room 106. And the ghost that had always been together with Koutarou had now appeared inside of a living body. It was a curious situation that a leader of Darkness Rainbow who sought to steal the power of room 106 couldn’t afford to overlook.

“Thanks. You’re a big help, Aika-san.”

Koutarou took Maki’s help at face value without suspecting a thing. He thought she was just being nice. He also found it reassuring to have Maki, a transfer student herself, helping Sanae out.

“My help will cost you, Satomi-kun.”

“Even though I wasn’t the one who asked?”

“Heehee, I’ll put it on your tab this time.”

Maki answered him with a smile. The truth was that she had already pushed the convenience of Darkness Rainbow into a corner of her mind. Right now, Darkness Rainbow was just an excuse for her. Maki simply didn’t want to accept that her motive was 100 percent goodwill. The owner of that little twisted personality was the girl known as Aika Maki.

“Okay, could you take your seat, Sanae-san? Your seat will be between those two.”

Now that she’d chosen a support team to help Sanae, the teacher was going to leave the rest of it to the students.

“Of course.”

Sanae nodded and started walking towards Koutarou and Maki.

Sanae...

The way Sanae had nodded was just the way Koutarou remembered, and he felt nostalgic seeing it. But the Sanae approaching him wasn’t the Sanae he used to know.

“Um, it’s nice to meet you. Satomi-san, Aika-san. Thank you for helping me.”

Sanae’s memory hadn’t returned.

Roughly two weeks had passed since the two Sanaes were reunited. During that time, Koutarou and the girls had patiently waited for her to return to room 106, but they didn’t get to see her again until the new school term started.

According to the ghost hunters who had been tasked with investigating, after Sanae woke up, she appeared to be her normal self and had no recollection of being a ghost. The residents of room 106 knew in advance that Sanae would lose her memories, but they had all held on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, she would still remember them. They were hoping to catch a glimpse of the old Sanae in the new one.

Yet in the end, they were all disappointed. The new Sanae appeared before them as a normal girl, and as a total stranger.

Between classes, Maki showed Sanae where the girl’s bathroom was.

“This is the girl’s restroom. It’s in the same location on all floors, so it’s easy to find.”

“Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

In order for Sanae to lead a normal school life, one of the first things she needed to learn was where the bathroom was. She could take her time looking for anything else she might need, but not the bathroom. Maki knew that personally as a transfer student, so she made sure to show Sanae first thing.

But there was another reason she wanted to show her here first. Koutarou wasn’t around right now. At their age, it would have been awkward for all of them if he’d tagged along on this part of the tour, so Maki made sure to take care of it while he wasn’t there.

After that, Maki showed Sanae where the drinking fountains, special facilities, and other classrooms were. Since they didn’t have a very long break, she decided to leave it at that for now.

“Hey, I’ve got them.”

When they were done with their tour for the time being, Koutarou approached the two girls in the hallway while carrying a cardboard box in both hands. He’d spotted them after hitting the top of the stairs, and came running right for them with a smile.

“Thanks for your hard work, Satomi-kun.”

“Thank you, Satomi-san.”

Maki and Sanae both welcomed Koutarou with smiles of their own. They were grateful because Koutarou had gone to get course material for Sanae in her stead. Since Sanae had skipped her first year, she didn’t have all of the reference material and other odds and ends the rest of the students had accumulated during that time, such as a map of the world and musical instruments. Since it was a whole year’s worth of material, Koutarou knew it would be a lot to carry and had offered to go get it for her.

“What were the two of you up to?”

“I was giving her a quick tour.”

“I still don’t know left from right yet, after all.”

“Of course, it’s for free because it’s the first time.”

“Hey, keep things free for Sanae-san.”

“Sure thing. I’ll just charge you instead, Satomi-kun.”

“As if!”

“Like I said, I’ll put it on your tab.”

While discussing with Koutarou whether she would charge him or not, Maki pulled a badminton racket and a dictionary out from the box in his arms. The racket was sticking out and blocking Koutarou’s sight, and the dictionary was so precariously balanced that it looked like it was about to fall out.

“You greedy little...”

“Heehee, bonds by money are never severed. That’s why they’re the best!”

“...Are you two going out, by any chance?”

Both Koutarou and Maki’s eyes shot wide open at Sanae’s unexpected question, and they both quickly denied it.

“Me?! And Aika-san?! No way, that would never happen!”

“Me?! And Satomi-kun?! No way, that would never happen.”

Short of using each other’s names, they spoke in harmony.

“Is that... so?”

Sanae tilted her head in confusion. Watching how they interacted, Sanae found it hard to believe they weren’t dating. Though they were saying snide things to each other, they were being incredibly considerate of each other. And they were in perfect synch. They certainly seemed like they were more than just classmates. But Sanae had another reason for suspecting they were dating, and that was the mysterious power she had recently developed.

That’s strange. Normally people like this are a couple...

About half a month ago, Sanae had suddenly recovered from an unknown disease that had plagued her for many years. After that, she began seeing strange things like a white hazy glow around people.

At first, Sanae had assumed that it was a side effect of her disease. When she consulted a doctor, she was told that kind of thing sometimes happened, and she was told to watch its progress for a while. Since the doctor didn’t seem to think much of it, she didn’t either, but after a few days, she realized that she could control whether she saw the haze or not.

After discovering that, Sanae had used her power to observe people. People watching was the perfect hobby for a sickly girl like her who was still weak and couldn’t do much else, but the more people she looked at with her power, the more she began to learn about it.

She ended up figuring out that the glow had something to do with a person’s life energy and their soul. The haze was thicker around young people and grew weaker as they aged. It also grew thicker the more intense the emotion and vice versa. She also noticed that the haze had a tendency to gather around anything a person was concentrating on. That was particularly noticeable in sports and martial arts. She could see where people were going to strike or kick a ball by paying attention to what they were focusing on through the haze.

Sanae also learned a great deal about human relationships by watching the haze. For instance, when it came to couples or parents with their children, people seemed to project their haze onto the people they loved. And since that’s what Maki and Koutarou were doing, Sanae had simply assumed that they were dating.

I still don’t know all that much about this hazy glow, so maybe something is different...

Sanae didn’t think much more about it. The ability to see this haze was an odd power to begin with, and it was still largely a mystery to her. For example, she would sometimes see the haze gather where no one was standing. She didn’t understand it well enough to draw any real conclusions from it. And right now, there was something that worried her more than her power.

“Having Aika-san as my girlfriend would cost me an arm and a leg.”

“There’s no girl that doesn’t cost money, jeez...”

“I’ll just take my time to find one.”

“Satomi-kun could just say that he’ll earn a ton of money in the future... I keep telling him he can put it on his tab... jeez...”

“Hmm? Did you say something?”

“Nope, nothing at all!”

Koutarou and Maki walked side by side as they continued to joke around with each other. While staring at them from behind, Sanae found herself unable to take her eyes off Koutarou’s back.

What is this feeling...?

And as she stared at his back, she was overcome with an urge to embrace him. It was strong enough that she was worried she might unconsciously do it if she didn’t actively tell herself not to.

I’ve never heard of love at first glance at someone’s back...

Koutarou had just said he wasn’t going out with Maki. Maybe she could become his girlfriend instead then. Entertaining that thought, Sanae’s heart began throbbing as she imagined herself hugging Koutarou’s back.