Chapter 38: Don't Worry About Her
"Hey, can you still stand up?"
Kazama crouched in front of her and waved a hand before her eyes.
"Ah! Yes! I'm fine!"
Seeing Kazama standing before her, Yui straightened her back like she'd been electrocuted, her voice cracking slightly.
"You're not hurt?"
Kazama's voice pulled her scattered thoughts back to reality.
"Ah! No! Not at all! Completely fine!"
Yui shook her head like a rattle drum, her hands unconsciously gesturing wildly in front of her.
"Really, I'm fine! Just... my legs are a bit weak... Um... that thing just now was... that... um..."
She gestured incoherently, pointing at the charred crater one moment, then at the moon the next, completely unable to organize her thoughts to describe what she'd witnessed.
"Good that you're fine."
Kazama rubbed his temples, cutting off her rambling.
"By the way, heads up—you lost your dog."
"Huh?"
Yui froze, then instinctively looked down at the empty leash in her hand.
"AAAH! Sabre! Sabre, where did you go? I'm dead, I'm so dead! If I lose him, Mom's going to kill me!"
The girl finally snapped out of her dreamlike filter and released a wail, spinning in circles searching for the dachshund that had long since fled to god-knows-which dimension.
Watching the girl clumsily scramble up from the ground, shouting the dog's name while preparing to dive into the forest, Kazama sighed helplessly.
In a certain sense, the thick nerves of this single-celled organism were an enviable talent.
But after only three seconds, Yui returned to Kazama's side like nothing had happened.
"Wait... wait! It's okay to look for him later! Sabre's really smart anyway! He's definitely still somewhere in the park!"
"Um, um! Kazama-kun! That was... that was so amazing! That black thing just whoosh and swallowed the lightning! And then that huge monster turned into a card! Are you a legendary magic user, Kazama-kun? Or maybe the heir to some hidden family?"
"..."
Faced with this rapid-fire barrage of questions, Kazama felt his brain throbbing. He rubbed his temples.
He suddenly realized that compared to dealing with that violent thunder beast, handling this natural airhead motor-mouth high school girl might drain even more energy.
"Hey, Kazama."
Just then, Kerberos—who'd been floating in midair playing dead—finally couldn't take it anymore.
It flapped its little wings and landed silently on Kazama's shoulder, speaking in an urgent voice only the two of them could hear.
"What are you doing?! Why are you still talking to this human! She saw it! She saw everything!"
"If ordinary people learn about the Clow Cards, it's a huge taboo. According to magic world rules, at times like this, shouldn't you..."
The outwardly harmless stuffed lion made a throat-slitting gesture.
"Are you an idiot? Reign in those mafia thoughts rattling around in your brain."
Kazama Chiba rolled his eyes without mercy and grabbed Kerberos's cheeks, stretching them outward until its chubby face became a ridiculous pancake shape.
"This is Kamimizu City, not Gotham City. When we were racing on the elevated highway earlier, did you think all those passing drivers were blind? There were at least two dozen witnesses. Should I commit genocide over this trivial matter?"
"Uh..."
Kerberos broke free from the demonic grip and complained while covering its face.
"Then... then what should we do?!"
"If humans learn about the Clow Cards' existence, it'll cause huge chaos! You know how greedy humans are—once they know wish-granting cards like this exist, they'll definitely try to obtain them in secret! But the problem is, only you can use the Sealing Staff. If other people touch those cards, it's pure suicide! What happens when the world gets destroyed?!"
"You're overthinking it."
Kazama cut off its persecution complex.
"Setting aside whether that Kaguya woman would tolerate something like this happening—do you think if she wants to hold a Final Judgment, she'd allow a bunch of worthless nobodies to ruin her stage?"
He understood this type of superior's mentality all too well.
Kazama didn't believe a perfectionist psycho like Kaguya would allow her game to be destroyed by a bunch of irrelevant background characters.
The secret getting out?
Most likely, once tonight was over, everyone except direct participants like himself and Kerberos would have their memories of the thunder beast revised into rational explanations like localized thunderstorms or exploding park transformers.
"But..."
Kerberos wanted to say more, but Kazama was already too lazy to deal with it.
He turned his head toward the expectant-looking Yuigahama Yui.
"Listen carefully, Yuigahama."
"Yes!" Yui immediately stood at attention.
"Can you keep what happened tonight a secret for me? You saw it yourself—this stuff is pretty dangerous. I don't want to get captured by the police or weird research facilities for dissection."
Kazama didn't use any threatening tone. Instead, he spoke casually.
Yui froze for a moment, then seemed to understand something and nodded vigorously.
"Yeah! I get it!"
She raised three fingers with a completely serious expression, making a vow.
"Kazama-kun saved me—this is repaying a debt of gratitude! A request from my lifesaver! I absolutely, absolutely won't tell anyone! Even if Yukino asks, I won't say anything! This is a secret between just the two of us!"
When she said "secret between just the two of us," her cheeks visibly flushed red. She quickly lowered her head and kicked at a pebble by her feet.
Kazama nodded, accepting this vow full of logical holes.
"Good. Now go find your dog quickly. Any later and it'll probably have run to the next district."
"Then... then I'll go look for Sabre first... Um, Kazama-kun, see you tomorrow..."
With that, like a startled fawn, she clutched the leash and turned to run into the night. After running a few steps, she seemed to remember something, turned back, flashed Kazama a brilliant, silly smile, waved her hand, and then disappeared into the darkness.
"You... you're just letting her go?"
Kerberos flew back, still looking thoroughly displeased.
"Kazama! That's way too careless! What if she gossips at school? Sure, she looks like an airhead, but girls' gossip abilities are terrifying! What if tomorrow the whole school knows you're a magical girl... no, magical boy?"
"Try using that nonexistent brain of yours."
Kazama pulled out a piece of candy from his pocket and stuffed it in Kerberos's mouth, blocking its incessant chatter.
"What am I supposed to do, kill her? There are surveillance cameras everywhere."
"Besides."
"Even if she really took a megaphone and broadcast it, who would believe her?"
"Yuigahama Yui. A girl in class who always agrees with others and has zero personal opinions—a 'read-the-room machine.' A pushover who doesn't even dare raise her voice normally."
"Tell me—if she tells people that the gloomy, friendless Kazama Chiba is actually a superhero who saves the world... will everyone believe her, or will they think both her brain and eyes need to make an appointment at the psychiatric department?"
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