As expected, after I laid my heart bare to Mimori, the card immediately gave feedback.
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Conversion Authority: [Mind Transmission]
Description: The holder may consume focus to sense the thoughts of others.
Source: Mizuha Mimori
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Damn it, Mimori, and you still said you could not read minds!?
After reading the description of the newly acquired authority, I was overjoyed.
If I could read other people's thoughts, then paired with my already outstanding personal qualities, no matter which girl I set my sights on, success would be guaranteed.
The only question was how effective it actually was.
With that thought, I immediately selected Mimori as the test target and activated the authority.
Heh! Mimori, the days where you casually peek into my inner thoughts whenever you like are over. Now let me see what you are thinking!
However, the moment I used [Mind Transmission], I felt the world spin. My consciousness scattered, I could not focus at all, and I even temporarily lost control of my body.
Right after that, I involuntarily fell backward. In my daze, I seemed to hear a girl cry out in alarm.
When I came back to my senses, the first thing I felt was an inexplicable sweetness.
Next came a smooth, soft, warm sensation from the back of my head. Only then did I gradually grasp the situation.
I slowly opened my eyes, and what greeted me was Mimori's flustered yet concerned expression beneath the clear blue sky. And what I was resting on were Mimori's thighs.
Clearly, I had fainted. The time was neither particularly long nor particularly short.
…This authority has drawbacks, doesn't it!?
I sat up, shook my head that still felt heavy deep inside, and asked Mimori, "How long has it been?"
"Almost a minute already."
Nearly a full minute. And it was supposed to sense thoughts, yet all I could feel were vague emotions.
No, it was probably because my base attributes were insufficient. With the greatly increased focus cap after divine name release, I might not directly faint.
But the effect would not get stronger, right? Even if it did, the consumption would definitely increase along with it.
Thinking that, my already faintly swollen head felt even worse.
Seeing that I had woken up, Mimori Pinally relaxed a little and still asked worriedly, "Sensei, are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
Compared to the authority's strength, the fact that the capture had succeeded was far more important.
After all, with my looks and character, sooner or later there would surely be a three-digit number of students who fell for me. Expecting every authority to be useful was simply unrealistic.
Besides, what if it came in handy one day? Who can say what the future holds?
After comforting myself, I was about to lie back down when a gentle yet irresistible force firmly supported my back.
"Hehe. Come to think of it, we've also kept them waiting for quite a while now," Mimori said with a bright smile. "Since you're fine now, let's hurry back."
As she spoke, the Yamato nadeshiko helped me up from the ground and then walked forward on her own.
I inwardly cried out that this was bad and hurried to catch up, saying nice things in my heart, trying to placate Mimori.
However, even someone as gentle as Mimori could have a bit of a temper.
I thought she still needed some time to adapt, but the moment that thought arose, Mimori's smile became even gentler, and her pace quickened slightly.
But these thoughts were all popping up on their own. It was not like I could control them. In any case, I felt the fault was not with me.
After returning at a slightly staggered time from Mimori, I set off with the girls on the journey back to their school.
On the train that went straight to the Hyakkiyako autonomous district, I was resting with my eyes closed when another possibility suddenly came to mind.
Could it be that [Mind Transmission] only had such severe side effects when used on Mimori, who was proficient in mind reading?
Feeling that my mental state had improved quite a bit, I decisively aimed at Kaede, whose thoughts were the simplest, and used the authority again.
This time, I was shaken awake.
I opened my bleary eyes and saw the little fox sitting beside me.
Then, I noticed an emotion that did not belong to me, somewhat bored yet somewhat excited.
At the same time, I felt my head muddled, something cushioning the back of my head, my body heavy, and a piece of cloth draped over me. Those should have been provided by Tsubaki and Izuna respectively.
"Lord," Izuna said carefully, "we're almost at the station. Even if you're really sleepy, please continue sleeping after we get off, okay?"
In other words… this time nearly half an hour had passed?
Granted, there was the reason that the interval was too short and I had not fully recovered, but this was still… hard to evaluate.
I resolved that unless absolutely necessary, I would never use this authority again.
But I thought there probably would not be such a time.
After resting briefly, I comforted the worried Izuna and explained to the others that I had fallen asleep from exhaustion. This instead neatly confirmed the matter of my "insomnia," which could be said to be the only accidental gain.
After getting off the train, Pina rushed back to Momoyo Hall to work, Mimori pulled Kaede back to their club for practice, and Izuna, after once again declaring that she would become a ninja capable of truly helping me, reluctantly said her goodbye.
In the blink of an eye, only Tsubaki and I were left in front of the station.
"Umm," Tsubaki murmured in her usual soft tone, "for my first training session with Sensei, it really should start from the basics."
Those words seemed fine on the surface, but once I thought about how Tsubaki's so-called training was sleeping, my imagination inevitably began to wander.
Suppressing those various thoughts, I asked curiously, "By basics, you mean?"
"Training tools."
Hearing that, I inexplicably thought of the gun holsters stuffed into my bedside drawer.
But the next moment, Tsubaki took out a soft pillow from inside her shield, the very one I had borrowed while unconscious earlier, and said to me seriously, "The fact that Sensei can fall asleep sitting on the train is not a sign of deep training. If anything, it is the opposite. You definitely did not sleep well at night, right? Because of working overtime every night, I think Sensei's sleep must be very light."
Recalling how I had worked so hard and so tirelessly last night, only to be woken up by biting before I had slept enough, I nodded in strong agreement.
Tsubaki continued, "As the saying goes, to do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. Before entering real training with Sensei, choosing suitable training tools is also very important. So next, shall we first go take a look and see if there are tools more suitable for your training?"
"Sure, no problem." Carrying the intention of capturing Tsubaki heart, I naturally went along with it and agreed without hesitation.
And so, Tsubaki and I went to a large shopping mall called "PONPOKO" and began browsing the bedding section.