Nothing unusual happened at school that day.

We attended class as usual, ate lunch as usual, and went through the afternoon lessons as usual.

Since we had P.E. today, I thought I might encounter a monster and stayed on guard, but nothing happened. It wasn’t uncommon, though—about once a month during P.E., a monster would appear, clinging to the school gate and watching us.

But today, there was nothing at all.

It was a perfectly peaceful day.

Normally, after school, I’d stick around to practice magic or visit Nina-chan’s house, but today we headed straight home.

After all, Nina-chan was staying over at my place, so there was no need to hang out at school—we could just play at home.

As we walked home together, Nina-chan suddenly struck up a conversation.

“Hey, Itsuki.”

“Hm? What’s up?”

“How often do you run into monsters?”

“Probably about once a week, on average.”

That was my best guess. Some weeks, I encountered them frequently, while other times, not at all.

When I answered, Nina-chan’s expression twisted a little.

“Isn’t that a lot? I hardly ever see them.”

“Really?”

I couldn’t help but ask her back.

Thinking about it, though, monsters tend to be drawn to magic. Even though I used Kaijutsu to suppress any magical leakage, I couldn’t completely block it.

So, it wasn’t surprising that monsters were drawn to me.

Still, if increasing my magic and physical strength to avoid death only ended up attracting monsters, it felt a bit contradictory.

But if I hadn’t trained myself, I might not have survived many of those encounters.

So, maybe it was worth it after all.

As we walked on, the sunlight dipped behind a building, casting us in shadow.

“The days are getting shorter lately.”

“Well, it’s almost November.”

“True. Still, the days here are longer than back home.”

By “back home,” I knew she meant England.

It had been nearly two years since Nina-chan came to Japan, and I wondered if she ever wanted to return. Should I ask?

“Hey, Nina-chan.”

“Yes?”

“Do you ever feel like going back to England?”

“Hmm…”

She moved her gaze thoughtfully for a moment before answering.

“Not anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because my mom is here. And you’re here too, Itsuki.”

“Me?”

Why me, I wondered. Was it because we were friends? I was feeling a little proud of myself when Nina-chan added with a playful smile:

“I still haven’t taught you all the fairy magic, have I?”

Her words made me feel warm inside. But part of me selfishly wished she had simply said it was because we were friends.

I tucked that selfish thought away, only to feel a sense of unease the moment I looked ahead.

Something felt off.

Buildings, traffic lights, people, cars—everything seemed normal, yet there was a strange inconsistency I couldn’t place.

“What’s wrong, Itsuki?”

“I’m not sure… Something feels weird…”

It was a familiar scene—I passed by this area almost every day on the way home. But something was out of place.

I scanned the area, trying to identify the source of my discomfort. That’s when I noticed it.

Posters plastered on every streetlight.

Each pole, evenly spaced, was covered with identical posters.

“Looking for someone.”

The text was written in large, eye-catching red letters.

As my eyes drifted down, I saw a familiar photograph.

It was a photo of an elementary school student—me.

The picture must have been taken during a school day, showing me crossing the street with a backpack on my shoulders.

“I-Itsuki, this is…”

Nina-chan’s eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the poster.

“This is… you, right?”

“Yeah… Looks like it.”

It was unmistakably me in the photo.

Then, from the posters, I heard a raspy, trembling voice filled with excitement.

“It’s… It’s really you!”

Suddenly, human heads began to sprout from every poster, and the papers peeled off the streetlights, swirling through the air like leaves in the wind.

“Y-you’re Seventh Rank, aren’t you? The real deal—Seventh Rank!”

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Startled by the voices and the hands reaching out from the posters, Nina-chan grabbed my arm and took a step back.

“It’s okay,” I reassured her calmly.

I had already begun casting my magic.

“You’ve shown up in person…?! Amazing! Agh! Ouch, ouch—my body!”

As the posters detached from the poles, the small white fairies I had summoned fluttered invisibly through the air, stealing the bodies of the monsters emerging from the paper.

Where the stolen monster parts went, I didn’t know.

This was the trick of fairy mischief, a type of fairy magic that Nina-chan and Irena-san often used.

Before long, the area was blanketed in black mist, but a gust of wind soon swept it all away.

“…Hey, Itsuki.”

“Yeah?”

“We’ve run into monsters twice today already…”

I shrugged at her observation.

“That happens sometimes.”

“R-really?”

“It’s rare, though.”

Monsters tend to target children. I had no idea why that thing had turned me into a poster, but trying to understand the behavior of monsters was usually pointless.

It wasn’t worth dwelling on.

Just as I was about to continue home, a voice called out from the roadside.

“Wait! Please, wait!”

“…Huh?”

I turned to see an elderly man sitting in a car parked by the side of the road. His wrinkled face peered out from the window, filled with awe and confusion, as if he had just witnessed something completely beyond his understanding.

“Was… was that you just now?”

“What do you mean?”

“The posters,” he said in a shaky voice. “They started moving… turned into black mist… They were after you. Did… did you make them disappear?”

Hearing his words, I reluctantly nodded.

Why reluctantly?

Because it was obvious from his tone that this man wasn’t an exorcist. If he were, he would have immediately recognized the posters as monsters and figured out that I had used magic to eliminate them.

That meant he was an ordinary person—one of the rare few who could see monsters.

Sometimes, people with this kind of sensitivity are said to have spiritual sight. It’s uncommon, but not unheard of.

I’d encountered people like this before—people who, through no fault of their own, had become targets for monsters.

And revealing the existence of magic to ordinary people was considered… inadvisable. Hence, my hesitation in nodding.

Unaware of my internal struggle, the old man hurriedly stepped out of his car and bowed deeply before me.

“I know this is an outrageous request, but… I have a favor to ask of you.”

He said it earnestly, his voice filled with desperation.

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