Yukinoshita Yukino’s head swayed, but her gaze stayed locked on Natsuyū’s face, analytical despite itself:
“I can’t look away.
Is this redirected attention, or mild mental influence?”
Ema kept staring at his face, cheeks warm, and managed a small embarrassed voice:
“Kikyo-san, could you end the spell?
It feels a little rude…”
“Oh — sorry.”
Kushida released the ability.
She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
“I feel slightly drained.
Like I just sprinted fifty metres.”
Natsuyū immediately clocked the key detail: “So none of you can use your abilities without limit.
Every activation costs something — stamina, maybe something else too.”
Like the energy his Soul stat represented — perhaps something akin to spirit energy.
His own panel had not only Physique but also Soul, a stat with effects still unknown.
It likely influenced ability use.
The moment Kushida’s ability ended, Yukino and Ema both looked away — one visibly, one subtly — and each quietly exhaled.
Yukino collected herself and analysed aloud: “Energy is conserved.
Using an ability requires consuming some form of resource — a reasonable assumption.”
Natsuyū nodded in agreement, though his mind was elsewhere:
So they don’t have attribute panels.
They each just woke up with one standalone power.
A single ability with no panel probably has a lower ceiling than the Minecraft system — but it’s still not bad at all.
Yukino could act as a scout.
Kushida was a powerful support.
Both would contribute to survival.
Natsuyū himself, on the other hand, hadn’t even unlocked a wooden sword yet.
He was probably still going to lose in a straight fight to Yukino-as-a-cat.
Once he had a full iron set, though — then he could beat her with a hundred percent certainty.
He started planning ahead.
Once he heard everyone’s abilities, he’d push hard on achievements — stone sword first, at minimum.
Speaking of which…
Could Yukino partially transform?
Cat ears and a tail?
Cat-girl Yukino.
So want to see that.
He glanced at Yukino.
She hadn’t noticed.
He looked away — and met Kiana’s eyes.
Kiana had never stopped looking at him.
Caught, she simply nodded, direct as anything: “You’re pretty handsome, you know.”
You shameless white-haired menace.
Decent taste, though. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Natsuyū returned the nod and said: “Who’s next?”
“Me.”
Ema raised her hand.
Nobody raced her this time.
She shyly avoided Natsuyū’s gaze and smiled:
“I’m Sakuraba Ema.
Like everyone else, I’m a student — and like Kikyo-san, I’d love to make new friends…”
“As for my ability — it seems to be a kind of magic that can drain energy from living things.”
“Trying it out might hurt someone, so I won’t be demonstrating.”
Drain… energy?
Kushida and Kiana stared, faces going slightly pink.
That’s a very suspicious ability.
Who knew that beneath all that pure, sweet appearance, Sakuraba Ema was hiding something this unsettling…
Ema, completely unaware of the implications her phrasing had conjured, looked a little wistful at not being able to test her magic.
Then she smiled:
“The voice in my head also tempted me with making friends.
Is everyone the same?”
“Not me,” Natsuyū said.
He looked at Ema.
Her ability should be the magic known as [Witch Killer] — capable of killing every human carrying the Witch Factor.
The first route’s ending was Ema’s descent into darkness and the end of the world.
But that was an ability targeted specifically at people from her own world.
It would have no effect on those without the Witch Factor.
None of them had the Witch Factor — so Ema’s original magic couldn’t activate, and it had become a watered-down version that could only drain energy.
Wait.
Was Ema actually from a different world from the rest of them?
He couldn’t be as certain as he was with the Honkai world.
Which meant the Witch Factor might or might not be present in anyone here — possibly even in him.
“Not me either,” Kiana said.
Yukino crossed her arms.
“Why would I ever be swayed by something so transparent.”
“Not… anyone?” Ema looked quietly crestfallen — then rallied, bright smile returning: “It’s okay.
I’ll make friends with everyone here anyway!”
Kushida looked at her.
She’s doing my whole thing.
Word for word.
Annoying.
We’re clearly the same type.
Which means she needs to know her place — second to me.
Kushida had always understood that everyone needed their own lane.
Growing up, she’d been decent across the board — studies, athletics — but other people were always better at something.
They could replace her.
What no one could replace was being everyone’s friend.
She became the idol of her class, the centre of everyone’s world.
The Kikyo Empire.
Every classmate called her a friend.
They confided in her, came to her with problems.
She loved feeling indispensable — and hated what it cost her.
Suppressing her real self, drowning in other people’s petty drama, stress piling up until she had to vent somewhere.
She made a secret account to anonymously tear apart the idiots.
Then the account got found.
Her mask shattered.
The backlash was immediate.
She exploded back — aired every dirty secret she had on everyone — and brought a whole class down with her.
After that: withdrawal from school, locked doors, no contact.
Now she was somewhere new.
A clean slate.
Time to get back to work.
Sakuraba Ema — if you’re going down this road too, then stay in your lane.
Be second.
Be beneath me.
I will be first in everyone’s heart — yours included.
Kushida made her decision: she needed to undercut Ema.
Now.
“So, Ema-san.”
She pressed her hands together at her chest in that perfectly calculated gesture, blinking with big innocent eyes:
“I want to make friends with everyone because I genuinely love it — and because without everyone here, I feel lonely.”
“What about you?
Why do you want to make friends?”
Ema looked at her with a warmth of shared understanding.
“You feel lonely too, Kikyo-san… me too.
Middle school was so lonely, and my only friend… we had a falling out.
That’s why I want friends.”
She smiled — certain she and Kushida were going to be close.
“Ema’s lying.”
Kushida kept her satisfaction internal.
On the outside she put on a look of gentle confusion:
“But you’re so sweet and pretty — how could you not have any friends?
Why would Ema be lying?
Are you a bad girl?”
Perfect.
Plant the seed.
Everyone will trust me more than Ema now.
Ema’s eyes went wide.
“Kikyo?!”
To be continued…