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Chapter 45: Who Am I?
The next day, the first class at school was Hiratsuka Shizuka's.
Her classical literature class was famous throughout Sakigawa High for being mind-numbingly boring and for her pinpoint chalk-throwing accuracy.
Kazama sat ramrod straight, eyes focused intently on the blackboard in front of him. He even nodded along with the teacher's cadence from time to time, the very picture of a respectful, studious student.
If you ignored the hands hidden under his desk frantically swiping across his phone screen.
"Kamimizu City urban legends section... paranormal incidents..."
His fingers flew rapidly across the screen.
Hard work paid off—he finally found an important clue on a paranormal board.
[Kamimizu Paranormal Forum >> General Board >> Hot Topics]
[OP: Night Witch]: Help! I bought a supposedly out-of-print manga at a convention in Tomoe District, and it disappeared the moment I turned around. Is it haunted?!
[Floor 1]: OP's desperate for attention, huh?
[Floor 2]: Recommend seeing an eye doctor.
[Floor 3]: Wait... I've experienced something similar. My wallet also grew legs...
This kind of illogical object movement—even through a screen, he could smell that distinctive Clow Card mischief.
Besides that troublesome card with the awful personality that loved to scurry around everywhere—The Move—it couldn't be anything else.
"Looks like I'll need to make a trip to Tomoe District after school... Tch, I have to wait until school's out?"
Kazama glanced at Hiratsuka Shizuka passionately lecturing about The Tale of Genji on the podium, then at the beautiful autumn sunlight outside the window.
Sitting here listening to a leftover woman explain centuries-old romantic gossip at a time like this was practically blasphemy against life itself.
Just as he was mentally constructing old but reliable excuses like "house fire" or "grandmother critically ill," Kerberos—who had been quietly lurking deep in his desk disguised as a backpack charm—suddenly moved.
That fluffy little paw scratched frantically at Kazama's thigh twice, then a round little head poked out through the gap. Those eyes that usually looked like black beans were now wide open, staring fixedly at something outside the window.
"Hey! Kazama! We've got a situation!"
"Quiet. I'm trying to figure out how to skip class." Kazama replied in a low voice, pushing its head back down.
"This isn't some boring thing—it's a card! A Clow Card's aura!"
Kerberos struggled violently inside the desk, its voice as urgent as an air raid siren.
"It's nearby! The magical energy is so strong I'm about to sneeze! Definitely a Clow Card! And one of the really troublesome ones!"
"Huh?"
Kazama's fingers paused.
You search everywhere to no avail, then find it without effort?
He immediately activated radar mode, sensing in the direction Kerberos was looking.
Sure enough, an extremely active magical source full of restless energy was moving at high speed near the sports field.
The thing's speed was absurdly fast, like a headless fly on nitrous oxide, rampaging through campus.
"Since it's delivering itself to my doorstep, I won't be polite."
Kazama instantly made his decision.
The next second, the previously upright boy suddenly turned deathly pale (though it was an act). One hand clutched his stomach desperately while the other trembled as it raised up. His whole body collapsed onto his desk as he let out a pained groan.
"Te... teacher..."
Hiratsuka Shizuka's lecture came to an abrupt halt.
She pushed up her glasses and looked at the student who had been energetic just moments ago but now seemed ready to kick the bucket any second. Her eyebrow twitched twice.
"Kazama? What's wrong? If you're trying to skip class, your acting is a bit too exaggerated."
"I think the milk this morning was expired... or last night's cookies were poisoned. Requesting emergency evacuation to the nurse's office."
Hiratsuka Shizuka pushed up her glasses. Although her instincts told her this kid was probably acting, as a responsible adult, she didn't dare gamble with a student's health.
Urushihara Michiyo sitting in the front row shot up even faster, that pretty face written all over with worry.
"Oh no! This is serious! Kazama-kun looks like he really can't make it! Teacher, I'll take him to the nurse's office! I know a bit about first aid too!"
Before Hiratsuka Shizuka could nod, the girl had already rushed to Kazama's side. While saying "leave it to me," she used those seemingly delicate but incredibly strong hands to lift Kazama from his seat.
Hiratsuka Shizuka sighed and waved her hand like she was shooing flies.
"Fine, fine, go ahead. Urushihara, you're responsible for getting him to the nurse's office. If I catch you two sneaking off to buy snacks, there will be consequences."
"Got it! Leave it to me!"
---
Out of the classroom, they hadn't even turned two corners.
The moment they left Hiratsuka Shizuka's line of sight, Kazama's back stopped aching and his legs stopped hurting.
As he passed the stairwell corner, he suddenly stopped and held a card between his fingers.
"Illusion."
The air twisted slightly.
In that instant, Michiyo walking ahead felt her vision blur for a moment—she seemed to see Kazama still clutching his stomach and walking forward.
The real Kazama had already ducked into an empty classroom beside them.
Having shaken off that enthusiastic troublemaker, Kazama immediately applied The Windy card to himself. His whole body became a blur as he rushed toward the sports field.
"Where is it?"
"Three o'clock! Behind that flowerbed!"
Kerberos popped out of his pocket, acting as real-time navigation.
"Wait, that thing's running! It sensed you!"
Following Kerberos's guidance, Kazama's gaze locked onto a black shadow weaving through the grass.
It was a slender, lizard-like creature covered in some kind of reflective scales.
Its speed was astonishing—it even left afterimages in the air.
"What the hell is that? A mutant gecko?"
Kerberos poked its head out of the pocket, equally confused.
"Don't recognize it... Is there something like that among the Clow Cards? Doesn't look like a simple animal-type."
"Doesn't matter what it is. Catch it first, ask questions later."
Kazama pushed open a window and jumped out directly, landing nimbly like a cat after stepping on an air conditioning unit.
"Thunder!"
Although using offensive magic near the school building was taboo, he couldn't worry about that now.
As long as he controlled the power, it probably... maybe wouldn't blow up the school.
Blue electrical arcs shot out like an obedient venomous snake, precisely predicting the lizard's escape route and cutting off its path.
The startled little creature could only squeak and change direction, diving headfirst into the narrow corridor connecting the main building to the lab building.
"Perfect opportunity!"
Kazama's eyes lit up as he immediately gave chase.
That was the only route to the faculty offices—a long, narrow space with walls on both sides. A natural dead end.
As long as he cornered the thing in the hallway, no matter how fast it ran, it would have to surrender.
However, Murphy's Law tells us that if something can go wrong, no matter how small the possibility, it will definitely happen.
Just as Kazama rounded that right-angle turn at sprint speed, preparing to "catch a turtle in a jar"—
An unexpected figure appeared in his visual blind spot.
Yukinoshita Yukino was carrying a stack of reference books taller than her slender frame, head down as she emerged from the faculty office nearby.
She walked quickly, seemingly in a hurry too, completely unaware that a high-speed magical boy was charging toward her.
Kazama tried to brake, but inertia was a law of physics—magic didn't govern it.
"Get out of the way!"
He only managed to shout those words.
Yukino looked up in shock, those cool eyes reflecting a figure growing larger and larger.
"CRASH!!!"
The two collided solidly.
Assignment books scattered everywhere like a white blizzard.
Just as their foreheads touched—
The lizard that had been chased into a corner happened to scurry past their feet.
Perhaps startled by this sudden collision, the unstable magical fluctuation on its body suddenly erupted.
Time seemed to freeze for a frame.
The world turned upside down.
Colors twisted.
Consciousness felt like it had been violently spun in a washing machine, then roughly stuffed into another container.
---
"Hiss... that hurts..."
An indescribable dizziness swept over him, like his soul had been grabbed by the ankle and violently thrown into a washing machine.
Kazama shook his head. The dizziness made him feel like he'd just ridden ten roller coasters in a row.
His vision spun, his senses dislocated, and even his body's weight changed strangely.
At this moment, the culprit lizard took advantage of the brief chaos. It had already nimbly bypassed the two people on the ground and was preparing to escape.
"Think you can run?!"
Kazama hadn't noticed anything wrong at all. His thoughts were still stuck in the excitement of capturing prey. His body reacted faster than his brain—he got up and gave chase.
---
Meanwhile, in the original spot.
Yukinoshita Yukino, still in a duck-sitting position on the ground, sat there with a completely blank expression.
The dizziness hadn't completely faded—it felt like just waking from a hangover.
She shook her now-heavy head. Her vision had never been this clear before—she could even see dust on the floor several meters away with perfect clarity.
Yukino instinctively raised her hand to tuck the long hair hanging by her face behind her ear, but found nothing.
There was only short, stiff hair that made her palm itch.
"What's... going on?"
Yukino looked down at the slightly loose boys' uniform she was wearing, and at those hands that were clearly a size too large.
Those weren't her hands.
They were more like a boy's hands—defined knuckles, palms with a few calluses.
Then she raised her head.
Just in time to see "herself" running away down the corridor.
"That's... me?"
Yukino's brain completely crashed.
What was this? Soul separation? Or a hallucination from too much stress lately?
Just then—
"Hey! Kazama! What are you doing?!"
A voice full of anxiety and disappointment exploded in her ear.
Immediately after, a yellow something fell from the sky and crashed directly into her nose.
It was a stuffed lion toy with wings?
"That lizard got away! Why aren't you chasing it?! And what was up with that girl just now? How did she suddenly run faster than a rabbit? Did she take stimulants?!"
Kerberos waved those pitifully short paws, frantically berating the "master" in front of it who still had a dazed expression.
"Stop spacing out! Take out the Sealing Staff! If that card escapes the school, it'll be trouble!"
Yukino stared blankly at this existence that completely violated biological common sense.
At those black bean eyes full of intelligence. At that fabric mouth opening and closing, speaking perfect Japanese (with a Kansai accent).
For eighteen years, the elite education she'd received in the Yukinoshita household, the perfect logic she'd built at school, the laws of physics she'd learned from books...
In this moment, they shattered like a glass house run over by a bulldozer—not even fragments remained.
Right now, she could only rely on instinct to ask the biggest question swirling through her mind:
"Who... are you?"
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