“Wh-what happened? Itsuki-kun, Shirayuki-san, are you both okay…?”

Aya-chan, looking worried, sent a concerned gaze toward the two of us, still looking dazed.

Shirayuki-sensei was standing still, still holding Aya-chan’s thin hand. I was in a similar state, staring at Shirayuki-sensei.

We had just been at the shrine, but somehow, we found ourselves back in the library.

And we hadn’t done anything to get here.

It’s no wonder we were both so confused.

I looked at Sensei and asked, “…Sensei, what was that just now?”

“…”

Shirayuki-sensei remained silent, her face more serious than I had ever seen it. After a long moment, she finally spoke.

“To put it simply, Aya-san rejected us.”

“…Rejected?” I asked, puzzled.

Shirayuki-sensei nodded.

“When I connected the pass using Silveit with Aya-san, she initially accepted it, but then she rejected it midway through. To put it in simple terms, it’s like making a phone call—she picked up the phone, but then hung up before the conversation was over.”

That’s… actually a really clear explanation.

I could now understand what had happened. However, Aya-chan, who had been listening to Shirayuki-sensei, widened her eyes and shook her head.

“I-I didn’t do anything though…”

“I believe you,” Shirayuki-sensei said gently, as if trying to comfort her.

“I think it’s very likely that you really didn’t do anything. There’s probably ‘something’ inside of you that’s preventing the connection.”

“Wait, does that mean Aya-chan is possessed?” I asked, thinking back to all the cases I had seen so far. But Shirayuki-sensei shook her head firmly.

“No, it’s not possession. If it were, I would have sensed it during the Resonance. Up to the point where Aya-san cut the connection, everything seemed normal, so it’s definitely not possession.”

I let out a breath of relief at Shirayuki-sensei’s words. I wasn’t sure if “good” was the right word, but at the very least, Aya-chan wasn’t possessed, which was a huge relief.

Still, if it wasn’t possession, then what on earth was going on with Aya-chan?

Shirayuki-sensei gently let go of Aya-chan’s hand and reassured her.

“Don’t worry, we’ll try again.”

“O-okay. I understand.”

“Excuse me.”

With that, Shirayuki-sensei connected more Silveit threads to Aya-chan, weaving them together like vines wrapping around both of their arms. The rainbow light that emitted from the threads was even stronger this time.

But nothing happened.

“Huh?” Aya-chan tilted her head in confusion, while Shirayuki-sensei’s face only grew more serious.

“…We’ve been completely rejected.”

“So, you can’t Resonate with her?” I asked.

Shirayuki-sensei nodded, continuing, “…Exactly. Whatever is inside Aya-san is blocking us. If we use the phone analogy again, it’s like she’s blocked our number.”

“I see…”

The analogy made it even easier to understand, but now wasn’t the time to be impressed by that.

“Sensei, is Aya-chan going to be okay?”

“Well…” Shirayuki-sensei frowned slightly, deep in thought, before she spoke slowly.

“For now… I can’t say anything for sure. Fortunately, she hasn’t been taken over or possessed…”

Shirayuki-sensei seemed to be working through the possibilities in her mind as she spoke.

“It’s strange. Even though there’s ‘something’ inside her, it’s not touching her magic. In fact, it seems to be suppressing it, almost like it’s preventing the magic from leaking.”

Sensei continued to work through the possibilities in her mind, trying to eliminate them one by one.

So, Aya-chan isn’t possessed, her magic isn’t being consumed, but she can’t use it, and there’s ‘something’ inside of her.

…What on earth is happening?

Shirayuki-sensei suddenly lifted her head and turned to Aya-chan with a question.

“Aya-san, when you lost the ability to use magic a month ago, you were on a job with Renji-san, right? Was it in a rural area?”

“…It was in the countryside, but it wasn’t a shrine,” Aya-chan replied.

“Can you tell us where you went?”

“It was like… a village,” Aya-chan said.

A village?

Before I could ask any questions, Aya-chan continued explaining.

“There were mostly old people there, living like they did a long time ago… Lots of grandpas and grandmas.”

“Just older people?” Shirayuki-sensei asked.

“No. There were kids my age too. I made friends with one of them. We said we’d play again sometime.”

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Aya-chan’s explanation didn’t seem like a lie. It probably really happened.

So, maybe the shrine from earlier wasn’t connected after all. But then, what was that scene we saw?

As I mulled it over, Shirayuki-sensei turned to face Aya-chan with a serious expression.

“Aya-san, since you’ve been rejecting the Resonance, there are only three options left for us to try.”

“Th-three?” Aya-chan asked, sounding a bit surprised.

Honestly, I was just as surprised. I thought we might be out of options by now.

“The first option is to wait. Just like with a blocked number on a phone, people’s bodies aren’t machines. If we wait long enough, we might be able to Resonate again.”

“How long should we wait?” I asked.

Shirayuki-sensei answered softly, “Normally, at least a day.”

A whole day? I checked the time, quietly sighing.

It felt like a long time. I mean, I knew that nothing serious had happened in the past month, so a day shouldn’t be a big deal, but after seeing what we just did, it was hard to just sit around for another day.

Sensing my impatience, Shirayuki-sensei continued with the second option.

“The second option is to increase the depth of the Resonance.”

“…Depth?” I asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“Yes. You’ve learned the basics of Resonance, so you know that things with similar properties Resonate more easily. By taking advantage of this, there’s a way to strengthen the Resonance.”

I had no idea how that worked, but before asking, I thought it best to hear the third option first.

“What’s the third option, Sensei?”

“We combine the first and second methods.”

Her answer wasn’t something I had anticipated.

“We can wait while deepening the Resonance gradually. This method would be the most effective. But to do this, we’ll need your help, Itsuki-kun.”

“Me?” I repeated, surprised that I was suddenly being asked to help.

“Yes. Will you cooperate with us?”

Without hesitation, I nodded vigorously.

“Of course! But… what do I need to do?”

“Yes. I need you and Aya-san to… become close friends.”

…Friends?

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