Chapter 44…
For Someone Who Cannot Fight
If You Don’t Have a Reason
It had been about a week since Shirō was chosen as Leo.
The calendar had turned to June, and the sunlight was growing harsher by the day.
Under that blazing sun, I sat leaning against the wall of the school’s sports club building.
It was after school, during a break in the sports festival practice. The school grounds were filled with the cheerful voices of students.
Honestly, I found it a pain, but if I didn’t participate, I knew people—mainly Yui—would say things.
So, reluctantly, I was participating… about half seriously.
And in that week, no Fallen Stars had appeared.
Thanks to that, Shirō had at least become capable enough to fight as a Zodiac Knight.
I truly felt grateful that we had a spare Repligear.
Well, since I gave that one to Shirō, I’ll have to make another one later.
Also, Yui seemed rather displeased that Shirō was able to generate his star armor so quickly.
But from my perspective, Yui’s growth speed was already ridiculously fast.
It took me about two years from the time I started using my Gear to when I could finally generate star armor.
Still, I hadn’t paid much attention to Yui’s words back then, but… yeah, things have gotten busy.
Yui and Shirō’s special training, my karate practice with Yui,
and on top of that, improving my own magic techniques.
Then add in schoolwork and after-school festival practice.
I probably haven’t been sleeping much these past few days. In fact, I feel a little sleepy right now.
To conserve and recover my stamina, I closed my eyes and cleared my mind.
…Partly because I just wanted to get away from the noisy classroom atmosphere.
But then, I sensed someone approaching me.
Almost at the same time, I heard a familiar voice:
“Masato-kun… are you asleep?”
“I’m not,” I replied, opening my eyes.
As expected, standing there was Mayu Nagasawa.
…Honestly, I wanted to be left alone.
Still, I asked, “What do you want?”
“Nothing really~? I don’t have any particular reason.”
“Then don’t talk to me.”
Suppressing a sigh, I turned my gaze away from her.
It wasn’t just that I didn’t want to deal with people unnecessarily—it was that I wasn’t in the mood for idle talk.
“Hey~? Can’t I talk to a friend if I don’t have a reason?”
She stepped right back into my line of sight, even though I’d just looked away.
This girl… seriously, what’s her deal?
She’d approached me like this a few times before, during breaks and such.
…Maybe it’s time to make things clear.
“What’s your goal?”
“My goal? I just want to chat with you, Masato-kun.
…Oh wait, don’t tell me you don’t like me?”
“…Who knows.”
To be honest, she’s just a hassle.
I didn’t come back to this town to live a normal student life.
Just meeting Yui and Hiyori again was already enough of an irregular event—and then Yui and Shirō becoming Divine Inheritance holders?
I didn’t need more complications.
But outright rejecting everyone tends to cause problems too.
So I’d tried to respond in a way that wouldn’t stir things up… unfortunately, it seemed to have rubbed her the wrong way.
Maybe out of spite, Mayu Nagasawa sat down next to me and started chatting away.
But I still wasn’t in the mood to talk.
So I just gave her half-hearted responses.
Then another voice joined in:
“Ma-kun… and Mayu-chan? What are you two talking about?”
…Great. Another one.
“Oh, Yui-chan! I’m just borrowing Masato-kun for a bit~
Though honestly, it’s a pretty empty conversation—and he’s ignoring me most of the time anyway~”
Mayu laughed as she answered Yui’s question.
…So she wasn’t angry—just messing with me for fun, huh?
“Sorry, Mayu-chan~
Ma-kun’s been super busy lately, so he’s like, twice as grumpy as usual~”
“I see… sounds rough.”
After Yui’s mysterious attempt to smooth things over, she and Mayu started chatting about random stuff.
There was no point in listening anymore, so I stopped paying attention—actually, I just closed my eyes and stopped thinking altogether.
Apparently, I was more exhausted than I realized.
I don’t know how much time passed after that,
but after a while, Yui tapped my shoulder.
I figured the break must be over and opened my eyes.
Another familiar face had joined us.
“Chiharu Hanayama? What’s up?”
“I need to talk to you for a bit.”
“Then I’ll go hang out with Yōko-chan~”
With that, Mayu Nagasawa left.
I could never tell if she was completely oblivious or actually considerate.
Anyway, that left just Yui, Chiharu, and me.
“So, what is it?”
“The same kind of monster as last time. This time it’s rampaging near the station.”
Just as I’d expected—but the location was bad.
“What—!? That’s really bad!”
“Yeah. Yui, let’s go.”
I thanked Hanayama with a quick “You helped us out,”
and then Yui and I rushed toward the shoe lockers where we’d left our bags.
But Yui suddenly stopped mid-run.
“Wait, Ma-kun! We need to call Shirō too!”
“Ah… right. Where is he now?”
After that exchange, we changed direction—
and ran off to find Shirō first.
