The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

Chapter 300: Cat Pago (13) - The Terrifying Transfer Student Now it might be hard for everyone to believe, but Popuri is a loner. She's awkward with people, and the type whose energy gets completely drained just from being around energetic, talkative companions. She does have a tendency to be a bit reckless, even with people, when things get urgent, but this is more like the state of a victim at a fire scene. If you smash a perfectly fine house window normally, you're crazy, but if you smash it to escape from a fire scene, 'almost' no one would criticize you for it. Well, sometimes there are people who would... Situations involving supernatural anomalies are the same. Since it's a situation where lives will be lost - whether Popuri's own or someone else's - if Popuri doesn't accomplish something immediately, even someone gentle, sensible, and who dislikes fighting like her has no choice but to resort to extreme measures. She's absolutely not someone whose true nature is violent and who likes violence but is just pretending to be a loner. Probably. Conversely speaking. In situations that are 'not urgent enough that someone's life will be lost if not resolved immediately' and 'where society won't overlook the collateral damage needed to resolve it,' Popuri becomes extremely powerless. For instance, a situation like right now. "Now, everyone quiet! A transfer student has come to our class today." At the homeroom teacher's energetic voice, the classroom that had been full of boredom instantly began to buzz with excitement. And that buzzing reached its peak with the transfer student's appearance. "Wowww...!" "Amazing, she's really pretty..." The male students' eyes all sparkled in unison, and even the female students showed admiration rather than jealousy. Hinosaka from the next seat whispered to Popuri. "She's really like a doll. Look how white her skin is. Huh? Hanamori, what's wrong? You don't look well." "Oh, no. It's nothing. Yes." Popuri's lips trembled slightly. She couldn't help it. Because the 'transfer student' that everyone else was making a fuss over as being pretty appeared completely differently to her eyes. "Wow, her face is really small." To Popuri's eyes, she saw a head that was swollen all over as if gas had filled up inside. "Look at that skin tone! How can it be so white?" To Popuri's eyes, she saw blood vessels that were beyond white and completely bluish. "There's some kind of nice scent?" To Popuri's nose, it smelled like a basement that had been left with stagnant water for a long time. That's right. Without a doubt, it was a supernatural anomaly. 'No, no no no.' Popuri unconsciously gripped the desk tightly with her hands. Hanamori Popuri is a Two-Eyed. She sees what others cannot see, hears what they cannot hear, and feels and perceives what they cannot feel. No matter how well those supernatural beings imitate humans and wear convincing disguises on the surface, it means Popuri can see through them immediately. That 'transfer student' over there greeting the students - she could immediately see through its essence and beat it up. Especially since the frequency of getting involved with supernatural anomalies has increased recently, so she even put a duralumin bat in her bag. However. "Hello? I'm called Kisaragi Mizuki. Please treat me well." The supernatural anomaly opened its mouth. Its lips were rotting and falling apart, and every time it spoke, rotten water gushed out from inside its mouth, but to the class kids it seemed to sound like 'a pure beautiful girl's shy greeting.' "Her voice is pretty too!" "Wow, look how transparent her skin is. Really mysterious." While letting the surrounding reactions that were starting to enter the realm of fawning go in one ear and out the other, Popuri ran a brief mental simulation. If right now, Popuri were to smash that beautiful transfer student's head with a baseball bat? Immediately, Popuri's class would change from 'timid gentle loner high school girl' to 'mentally disturbed high school girl who attacked a beautiful transfer student with a blunt weapon out of jealousy.' It would even be recorded as a red line change that couldn't be erased later. This society doesn't acknowledge the existence of supernatural anomalies, and no matter how much Two-Eyed Popuri claims 'That's actually a supernatural anomaly!', the One-Eyed won't acknowledge it. They'll just think she's crazy. "Hanamori-san, the seat next to you is empty, right? Kisaragi, sit over there." The homeroom teacher pointed with her finger to the seat next to Popuri, specifically the left seat, not the right where Hinosaka was sitting. The transfer student reeking of rotten fishy smell approached Popuri. Black footprints were left on the floor with every step, but the kids cheered that it was a 'model-like gait.' The transfer student, Kisaragi, sat in the seat next to Popuri and turned her head sharply. A fishy smell full of moisture wafted over. "Please treat me well from now on. Hanamori-san." Instead of answering, Popuri only nodded slightly. In a situation where the teacher and classmates were all looking at once, that was the maximum rebellion she could manage. *** Meow. At Popuri's house. Pago, who had let out a light cry, opened his mouth. "You've gotten yourself into quite a troublesome situation. If it were the type that openly kidnapped you to another world, you could run wild there without worrying about other people's eyes." "This isn't the time to talk about it like it's someone else's business. This is an extremely serious situation right now, you know?" "How much more serious can you get than someone lying on the sofa eating snacks?" Popuri lightly brushed off Pago's complaint. Sweet, crispy, and salty things are a girl's energy source. This was part of nutritional resupply for future operations. She was also craving sweet things because of stress. "Anyway, well, the fact that you're lamenting your fate like this instead of immediately grabbing a baseball bat means at least your classmates aren't in a life-or-death situation right now, I suppose?" "For now, yes. Everyone's going 'kyaa kyaa' about how pretty she is, even saying impressions that make you wonder if they really need to voice them out loud, but other than that, it's just a pretty transfer student and friends excited about her." "No other harm?" "Apart from my sight, hearing, and smell suffering throughout class, there isn't any yet." Others reacted as if the transfer student's body scent was very refreshing, talking about what perfume or shampoo she used, but Popuri felt like her nose would rot just from sitting next to her. Since it was a spiritual smell rather than a physical one, the fact that her sense of smell wouldn't even go numb was particularly horrifying. "Didn't you think about trying to subdue her away from others' eyes?" "No matter where you go on campus, there are people swarming around, so I can't see any opening at all. Even if I tried to target after school, a driver always comes to pick her up with a car, so there's no angle." "A ghost playing the role of a rich family's daughter type transfer student. What a well-crafted setup." Pago spoke as if he was amazed. Popuri was of the same opinion. Both 'that child' she saw in childhood and these ghosts - when they imitate humans, do they want to choose places with as good an environment as possible? "Well, fine. I'll look into methods on my own too." "...Please do." After watching the white cat's retreating figure as it left wagging its tail, Popuri slapped both her cheeks with her hands. She had to stay sharp from now on. *** The mysterious 'transfer student' began to reveal her true demonic nature about a week later. "Hide and seek alone? Isn't that really common?" "Right, right. I tried it before too, but nothing really happened." Whether it applies to all high school students or whether the school Popuri attends is particularly like this, the students here love ghost story discussions. Even Popuri's few friends, starting with the school's idol Hinosaka, have hobbies in that direction. And the transfer student Kisaragi, who had a somewhat mysterious atmosphere, was a person who perfectly matched such students' tastes. Even now, gathering people around like this and sharing occult knowledge to this extent. "That's because the ritual that circulates as rumors has left out the important parts. Should I tell you the proper ritual? However, it might be dangerous." In this case, 'it might be dangerous' is closer to 'are you scared?' rather than 'don't do it because it's dangerous.' Sure enough, the students urged Kisaragi to hurry up and tell them, saying it was fine. "First, for the doll, you shouldn't use teddy bears or character merchandise, but something that resembles a person as much as possible. What you put inside the doll should be flesh rather than fingernails or hair, preferably flesh soaked in blood. When naming the doll, it's more effective if you use the same name as your own. Oh, and when you start the hide-and-seek, stabbing the doll more times makes it more effective too." Popuri, who was listening to the story while leaning on her desk from the next seat, almost choked without thinking. Though she's been restraining herself since coming to high school, during middle school she had absorbed all kinds of occult knowledge indiscriminately. She could immediately recognize that the method Kisaragi was teaching was violating every single taboo there was. "Um, excuse me. Isn't that too dangerous? Using flesh soaked in blood as a medium would make the ghost's power too strong, and naming the doll the same as your own name is also an ominous action. Not to mention stabbing the doll many times. That just means the opponent's anger and retaliation will grow accordingly." For Popuri, this was her best effort at an argument. In the first place, acts like hide-and-seek alone are extremely dangerous in this world overflowing with ghost stories and supernatural anomalies, but this was going beyond even the framework of play and was more like offering yourself to be devoured. However, what came back wasn't a serious response but laughter. "Hahaha! Hanamori, why are you so serious! It's just a game anyway!" "Anyway, it means it's more effective, right? If the doll really starts moving around and stuff, wouldn't it be a huge hit if we filmed and uploaded it?" "Oh, that's right. There are people who make a lot of money with that kind of content!" Game or whatever, you idiots are going to die!! Popuri wanted to scream at them. Somehow, people in this world are sacrificed to all kinds of supernatural anomalies and ghost stories constantly, yet their vigilance and preparation against such things is excessively lax. Until now she had thought it was naturally like that, but recently while talking with Pago, she sometimes had this thought. That maybe there's 'something' that deliberately makes it that way, because there shouldn't be no sacrificial victims, because everyone shouldn't properly prepare. The transfer student, Kisaragi, smiled softly. To Popuri's eyes, it looked like a predator's smile with prey right in front of it. "That's right, Hanamori. In the end, it's just a plausible 'game.' You just need to enjoy the thrill. This is all part of memories too." Voices agreeing, saying "yeah, yeah." Just when Popuri felt helpless. "But hide-and-seek alone and things like that ultimately require everyone to act separately, right? We'd just report results to each other later, and that's kind of disappointing." With Hinosaka's words, who had appeared at some point, the atmosphere that Kisaragi had been leading became twisted. "If we're going to play, I prefer playing together! I heard a new parfait shop opened nearby, is anyone interested in going together? Oh, Kisaragi-san, how about coming along? Since you're a transfer student, there must be many shops you don't know about. I'll show you all the good places in the area!" While Kisaragi was a dark horse with the mysterious transfer student buff, Hinosaka was an orthodox powerhouse who had been wielding influence among students for a long time. When Hinosaka turned the topic that way, the students immediately jumped on Hinosaka's proposal, making their previous enthusiasm for ghost stories seem pointless. While expressing gratitude for Hinosaka's wink that seemed to say 'this should work, right?', Popuri checked Kisaragi's gaze. The face that had been wearing a relaxed smile until just now was, at some point, glaring venomously at Hinosaka who was at the center of the children.