Part 2
"What happened in the morning! What exactly is going on! Hurry up and explain clearly, Harutora!"
In the classroom during lunchtime.
The Onmyou Academy didn't change up classes when the first-years advanced into second-years, and hence even if they had changed their classroom, the students in the class were still familiar faces, and they spoke with no apprehension at all about the other party's feelings.
From the morning up until when class ended, Harutora had either cleverly shifted the topic or directly escaped from the classroom, successfully avoiding disaster. Unfortunately, when the bell for lunchtime rang, he wasn't in time to escape the classroom before his classmates blocked his path. That scene was like a celebrity whose scandal had been exposed being chased by reporters, but that actually wasn't so far from the situation, it was just that the celebrity wasn't Harutora, but rather the 'other party'.
"To think you stole the 'Child Prodigy' Dairenji Suzuka's first kiss! I remember that you studied at an ordinary high school near your home before you entered the Onmyou Academy, right? Exactly where and why did that kind of thing happen!"
"C, Calm down a bit, Kyouko! Things...... Things aren't like that!"
"What are you joking about! I couldn't even concentrate on the lecture this morning because of this matter! Never mind if it were Natsume, the next heir of the Tsuchimikado family - Ah, no, fortunately it wasn't Natsume-san - But why exactly would you do such a thing?"
"Yeah! Hurry up and answer, Harutora!"
"It's really complicated......!"
"Hurry up and say it clearly, Tsucchi!"
The classmates' eyes gleamed sharply as they questioned Harutora. The foremost among them was his friend Kurahashi Kyouko. Her beautiful appearance was no worse than a young female idol's, and she was the oldest daughter of the famous Kurahashi family - the granddaughter of Principal Kurahashi who had just spoken a greeting on the podium.
Kyouko seized Harutora's chest, short of breath.
"Listen up, Harutora, the 'Child Prodigy' Dairenji Suzuka is an extraordinarily famous Onmyouji that even ordinary people know - the Onmyou Agency made her into a spokesperson, you could say that she's an industry idol!"
"......I, It seems like that way......."
"And she isn't just an idol with a cute outer appearance. She's the youngest person in history with First-Class Onmyou qualifications, a true National First-Class Onmyouji! She's the object that the Onmyou Academy students all look up to! She's a star!"
"......I, I see......"
"Why is such an incredible person k-k-kissing a student like you whose lineage barely passes and whose grades are terrible! Isn't that too strange? That's really incomprehensible! What kind of relationship do you have?"
Kyouko raved excitedly, swinging around her head of tied-up brown hair as her questioning gradually became sharper.
Most of the students in the class weren't particularly mad, they were just purely driven by curiosity.
The class all recognized the after-school tutoring regular whose grades were behind, and no one in the Onmyou Academy didn't know the famous Twelve Divine Generals. That kind of combination wasn't just strange, it was so shocking that it wouldn't be strange for one's eyeballs to pop out. Even his usually mild-mannered friend inevitably had a similar reaction.
"You're acting too unfamiliar, Harutora-kun! Since she spoke so energetically, you should just truthfully announce whatever's between you two." Momoe Tenma opened his mouth to speak from next to Kyouko. He had a doll-like face, and his small external appearance looked gentle. The eyes underneath his glasses gleamed as he naively asked Harutora.
Though Kyouko was tough, it wasn't easy to deal with Tenma who brought up the question so matter-of-factly, especially because the person who wanted to figure out Suzuka's true intentions was none other than Harutora.
"Alright, hurry up and answer! Could it be that you can't answer? What kind of unspeakable things did you do?"
"Just say it, Harutora-kun. What kind of relationship do you two have? Could you be boyfriend and girlfriend?"
"Yeah! Hurry up and say it clearly, Harutora!"
"Did you really only kiss? Or............"
"You'd better say it now!"
"H, Hold on, you guys......!"
The class's mood gradually swelled with Harutora as the center, making the expressions of the people questioning Harutora become rigid, with nothing he could do about it.
...I, I'm......done for.
If the positions were reversed, he would most likely also try questioning to get to the bottom of things. However, as for Suzuka and the incident that happened last summer, the Mystical Investigators who had been responsible for dealing with the aftermath were under strict gag orders, and if he explained his experience meeting Suzuka, he was inevitably bound to mention that incident.
Just as he was in distress...
"......Stop right there!"
A young girl's angry voice suddenly sounded, and a fist-sized ball of flame appeared above Harutora and the others' heads.
The ball of fire whirled, sparks flying. Kyouko, Tenma, and the other students hastily moved back from Harutora, and a small girl wearing imperial clothing and a hakama immediately appeared.
The girl looked to be in first or second grade at the most, and her appearance was proper like a Japanese doll, but her eyes were bright blue, a pair of pointed ears grew on her head, and a leaf-shaped tail grew out behind her.
She was Harutora's servant shikigami - Kon.
"Impolite heathens! I dared not speak while silently staying by Harutora-sama's side as he ordered, but I did not expect you to be this rash. Back, back!"
In contrast with her outer appearance, her language was archaic and she brandished a wakizashi in her hand, her beloved blade Kachiwari. Kyouko, Tenma, and the others were familiar with Kon's temper, hurriedly keeping a distance from Kon.
"Wah, Kon! Calm down a bit."
"I-I-I-If I dare say, I am always deeply calm! Even among enemies, I will definitely not allow enemies to approach Harutora-sama by half a step......!"
Her ears and tail shot up abruptly, a towering rage showing on her immature face as she intimidated the students.
Kon was a defensive shikigami. Basically, she was always on standby around Harutora, and she was normally always hiding herself, not taking form before others. Her outer appearance looked like a youthful little girl, but she wouldn't hesitate to brave fire and water or take heavy wounds if it was to protect her master. She was a somewhat insubordinate and easily excited shikigami.
However, the students in the class had already gotten used to Kon's overly faithful loyalty over half a year.
"Oh my, Kon-chan, we're actually admiring Harutora, we're not blaming him." Kyouko smiled reassuringly like she was placating a child.
"I won't be deceived, you showed killing intent!"
"Because we're very interested - Kon-chan, what about you? Don't you want to know?"
"O, Of course! I am responsible for protecting Harutora-sama--!"
"Then you should be even more interested, isn't the other party a Divine General? If you don't first figure out the relationship between them, how can you focus on guarding?"
"That......!"
"Also, didn't she say she and Harutora kissed? Do you know what a kiss is? It means mouth to mouth, smooch......!"
"Ki......mou......smooch!"
"That's right. Though you're a shikigami - No, because you're a shikigami, you should be even more interested! After all, this incident involves your important master, right, Kon-chan?"
"That......!"
Kon's tail trembled, her ears squirming and turning in random directions. With Kyouko's every word, she seemed even more tense and anxious. Actually, this matter had long since troubled her even without Kyouko especially pointing it out.
She held Kachiwari in a backhand grip, still not releasing her attacking stance. But, "............" She looked back over her shoulder towards the master that she protected, her face flushed red and her blue eyes moist, as if tears would leak out at any time. Harutora couldn't help but sigh lightly.
"Ah, right. Touji-kun, did you know something had happened? Weren't you and Harutora in the same high school before transferring here? You should know a lot about him before he came to the Onmyou Academy, right?"
When Tenma asked that question, the students encircling Harutora - and Kon as well - immediately turned their attention towards Touji. Touji, who was watching from slightly farther away, smiled, his expression a bit surprised.
"That's true. What about it, Touji? Do you know something?"
Kyouko asked her heartfelt suspicion on behalf of the other students. Behind Kyouko and the others, Harutora desperately shook his head left and right. Touji leisurely shrugged his shoulders while enduring everyone's enthusiastic gazes.
"......Let me think. This is the first time I've heard about a kiss, but..." Ohhh, the students exploded into a clamor, and Harutora shook his head again for dear life. Touji looked at the audience, grinning. "If it's true, it probably happened on 'that festival evening' ......So that's what it was, that's why the next day he and Hokuto......"
He spoke quieter and quieter, and the last part of it was almost inaudible, but the first half of his words already held sufficient destructive power. In particular, once they heard the meaningful keyword 'that festival evening', almost all of the girls in the class made enthusiastic cheers, but Harutora screamed on the inside.
"Tenma was right, you're acting too unfamiliar, Harutora. With our relationship, is there any need to hide that kind of thing?"
"Sh, Shut up, Touji! Right now isn't the time to make that sort of joke!"
"Nonsense! Is there anything more important right now?"
"Don't take this opportunity to make a fuss, Kyouko! Anyway, it's a long story!"
"Hearing you say it's a long story...... Harutora-kun, could it be that you don't have any interest in Dairenji-san, yet you stole her first kiss?"
"I didn't! That's not true! Don't say things that are so easily misunderstood, Tenma!"
"............"
"To think even Kon is like this! Please, don't look at me with a tearful face!"
Harutora desperately denied it, but the excited emotions of the people around him wouldn't let up. As Kon gradually slackened her attacking stance, the students approached Harutora again. Just then, a pounding sound rang out and the classroom momentarily fell silent. After a second, the students turned around in confusion, looking one by one at the source of the noise, only then noticing that Natsume had been the one who made the sound. She was standing up from her seat, keeping the posture with which she had forcefully smashed her textbook onto the table, her head slightly lowered and not moving a muscle. Her bangs covered the expression on her face, but even without seeing it clearly, the students still instinctively held their breath.
It looked like there wouldn't be time to eat lunch. Harutora prepared himself, following behind the silent Natsume.
...I wouldn't have appetite anyway......
Maybe noticing the tense atmosphere between the two, Kon had already dematerialized, hiding her whereabouts even though she was still with him. Right now, Harutora wanted her to stay with him, but he didn't have the courage to order her to appear in front of Natsume.
Among the students who walked through the corridor, there were several who noticed Harutora. They had a hard time concealing their shocked expressions, perhaps remembering the scene from the opening ceremony. In the end, having the entire student body of the Onmyou Academy all gathered in the same place and having all their curiosity-filled gazes focused on him made Harutora want to dig a hole in the ground to escape. Things would truly be troublesome.
...Damn, that bastard......
In any case, the current priority was explaining clearly to Natsume. Harutora gritted his teeth, gazing at the back of his childhood friend who hadn't opened her mouth to say a single word after walking out of the classroom.
Natsume brought Harutora to the emergency stairwell near the outer wall of the academy. Harutora and the others would always come here when they spoke privately.
How should he explain this. Harutora had been troubled the whole way, and once they went through the door to the emergency stairwell, his mouth moved of his own accord, and he spoke more and more anxiously. "Natsume, listen to me. That's not the truth...... No, that person and I truly - Dairenji Suzuka and I truly did kiss in the incident last summer...... But, it wasn't truly like that." His cheeks burned, his manner strange, unable to control himself.
"Natsume, y-you also remember, right? Wasn't that person's shikigami in my stomach back then? She kissed me to set a trap...... A, Also, the situation of the kiss was completely different from what those guys in class imagine. I was being held by that person's shikigami, I couldn't move at all, and that girl was incredibly mad...... Because my lie that I was Natsume got exposed...... A, Also, do you remember the shikigami Hokuto I mentioned before? She was right there, and Suzuka ended up mistaking Hokuto as my girlfriend and deliberately messed with us to retaliate for me tricking her, so in front of Hokuto, she deliberately......"
Natsume walked into the stairwell, still not turning back to look at Harutora.
Harutora desperately explained the situation back then, but he couldn't explain it clearly no matter what he said. Conversely, his emotions got more and more fretful and he couldn't help but think of escaping.
"A, Anyway, we did kiss, but it's not like that at all. Of course, neither that person nor I have any interest...... We even became enemies because of that incident...... She definitely said that just now to deliberately trouble me, it's really stupid. What kind of person is that, does she even have a heart? Right?"
Harutora was even adding gestures to his explanation before he noticed. He even felt unable to understand why he was this agitated.
...What's wrong with me, why am I explaining so anxiously......
One reason was definitely because he feared Natsume getting angry, but it seemed that this wasn't it, his feelings of wanting to resolve this misunderstanding were so intense that he was unable to keep calm.
Then, "......You don't need to say any more." Natsume finally opened her mouth, her voice sounding like she was forcefully holding back her agitated emotions. Upon hearing her speak like this, Harutora conversely became more fretful.
"Please listen to my explanation, I really--"
"Didn't I say you didn't need to keep talking!"
Natsume shouted again with a different tone from when she normally acted as a male, letting out her 'original' voice - a girl's clear and high-pitched voice. She cried out with a trembling body.
"I already knew those things, you don't have to explain things one by one, I understand them!"
"What?"
"E, Even if I understand...... I can't help it!"
Natsume's face reddened as she spoke, her expression complex. It didn't really seem like her cheeks were flushed from anger, and he couldn't tell whether it was anger, sadness, or regret. Even if he didn't listen to Natsume's voice or words, the current her didn't look like a male student.
Natsume's reaction stunned Harutora for a while.
"C, Can't help it...... What does that mean?"
"Well - None of your business!"
"How can you say that...... But Natsume, you really know what happened?"
"Of course! How many times are you going to ask?"
"W, Why? Did I mention that incident before?"
He couldn't help but raise the question. Natsume was visibly confused once she heard this, not knowing what to do.
"D, Didn't you just explain it! I understood what happened after hearing your explanation."
"Huh? But you said 'you don't need to explain things one by one'......"
"What are you saying? That kind of trivial detail isn't important at all! Wh, When the shikigami inside you charged out, I pretty much knew what was going on!"
Harutora didn't get why Natsume was so flustered and angry. Thinking carefully, the shikigami planted in his body might have been related with the kiss, though such speculation was rather far-fetched. However, right now he didn't have the energy or courage to dispute. Anyway, since the message that the kiss with Suzuka was different from a normal kiss had been conveyed, it would just be looking for trouble to enrage her further.
...Great......probably.
Harutora convinced himself.
"I, It's good that you understand. Th, Thanks."
"......You don't need to thank me for this kind of thing."
"Y, You're right, but still thanks"
"............"
Natsume glared at Harutora with reddened eyes, and after a while, "......Bakatora." She murmured lightly, sighing deeply. Though that reaction was hard to understand, at the least it looked like she had calmed down a bit.
"Anyway......never mind k, ki......never mind that kind of thing for now, there's a serious problem at the moment."
"Wh, What problem?"
Natsume's tone was solemn, and Harutora's heart jumped again.
"......Did you forget? Last summer, she and I met directly and she saw me." Natsume continued speaking.
"Of course I remember, how could I forget it, but that's--"
"How was I dressed back then, do you still remember?"
Natsume stared intently at Harutora. Harutora was confused and tried to recall the situation from back then again.
In the stormy night last summer, Harutora had become Natsume's shikigami in the main family household in order to stop Suzuka from holding the Taizan Fukun Ritual. The two of them had headed to the Imperial Hill and had confronted Suzuka who had been preparing to hold the rite at the altar on the peak of the Imperial Hill.
At that time, the rain had stopped, the moon was hazy, and the two of them had ridden the horse-shaped shikigami Yukikaze that served the Tsuchimikado family. Harutora had a bamboo trunk on his back, and Natsume was responsible of holding Yukikaze's reins, glowing heroically--
"......Ah."
Harutora finally noticed the problem and suddenly went speechless. Natsume nodded her head.
"......You finally noticed it, I was...... wearing miko clothing at the time. When I was riding on Yukikaze's back...... I talked with her from the horse, and it's very possible that she saw me clearly, saw me dressed as a miko, and knows that I'm actually a girl."
Harutora's face paled. Natsume was right, Suzuka had indeed seen Natsume dressed as a miko appear before her. That meant that she knew that Natsume, who was dressed as a male and interacted with the outside world as a male due to family tradition, was actually a girl.
But... "H, Hold on! Suzuka didn't know what Tsuchimikado Natsume looked like back then, so that's why she mistook me as Natsume. Also...... I don't remember very clearly, but when she saw you dressed as a miko, she might not have realized that you were Natsume."
"Back then, she certainly said to me: 'are you also a Tsuchimikado', so in other words, after she saw me, she still didn't notice that I was Tsuchimikado Natsume. She definitely judged that Tsuchimikado Natsume is a male from her investigation beforehand, but......" Natsume's voice sank. "She saw my face."
Harutora couldn't say anything else.
Right, even if she didn't know the other party's identity, Suzuka had indeed seen the appearance of the 'girl dressed as a miko', and if she saw Natsume right now, maybe she would see that 'Tsuchimikado Natsume' and the 'girl dressed as a miko' looked exactly the same.
Harutora's heart leaped as he panicked.
"Oh no! In the entrance ceremony just now--"
"Don't worry, I quickly used stealth magic to hide my presence when she noticed you. Our gazes didn't cross either, so it's reasonably certain that she didn't notice me, so at least she doesn't know yet."
"B, But......"
"......Right, the problem is what to do now......"
Natsume spoke vaguely, lightly chewing her lip. Harutora didn't know what to say for a while.
Though she wasn't as famous as Suzuka, Natsume was a celebrity in the Onmyou Academy. Natsume was the Tsuchimikado family's next heir, had a reputation for being a genius, and was very famous. No one in the academy didn't know her, and she could be called a focus of attention.
In particular, the 'Child Prodigy' Dairenji Suzuka was a specialist in researching magic related to Yakou and believed that Natsume was Yakou's reincarnation. Moreover, she had tried to approach Natsume in order to hold the Taizan Fukun Ritual, so she should have been quite interested in the existence of 'Tsuchimikado Natsume' since the beginning.
Now, since Suzuka had transferred into the Onmyou Academy, she had to feel interested in Natsume. In the near future, she would definitely want to try to come in contact with her.
If Suzuka saw Natsume's appearance, how would the situation change?
The chance that Natsume was exposed as a girl pretending to be male was quite high, and even if that didn't happen, it was very difficult to say that Natsume's male disguise was successful.
...What should we do......
Harutora worried silently and Natsume did the same. The two of them didn't say a word, looking at each other, but neither of their faces held the answer. They could only hear the faint sounds of the lunchtime clamor from inside the academy.
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