“Kuwajima Taeko. First-year undergraduate. Originally from Kumamoto. Same as us — a freshman who enrolled this year. Her absurdly striking looks made her a brief topic of conversation around campus at first, but the attention faded away just as quickly thanks to her eccentric chuuni-style behavior. According to my investigation, her chuunibyou symptoms first manifested around sixth grade, and she’s apparently stayed committed to the bit ever since. I mean, sure, everyone goes through a phase where they admire that kind of thing, but in the end, people are just ordinary humans, y’know?”
“…You’re saying that while dressed as a kunoichi…?”
Well, setting aside the fact that I was merely a completely ordinary college student who occasionally happened to see hallucinations.
My “childhood friend,” Meiko, was a kunoichi.
My “best friend,” Taketsuru, had returned from another world.
If I weren’t such an open-minded person, I would’ve already classified the both of them as “not normal human beings.”
“Putting me aside, though, chuunibyou and occult stuff are just fantasies that don’t actually exist in this world. Totally fictional.”
“Even though interdimensional summoning turned out to be real?”
“To live a normal life, you also need the courage to accept exceptions when they show up.”
My surroundings were nothing but exceptions.
Well, whatever.
At some point, things like this became less about logic and more about mindset.
One day had passed since we witnessed that pickup attempt yesterday, and now, during a break between lectures, I was sitting with Meiko in the university courtyard listening to the results of her investigation.
As expected, when it came to gathering information, Meiko was unmatched.
Hallucinations only ever showed me what they wanted to show me, when they wanted to show it. As an information source, they ranked somewhere below second-rate.
Really, weren’t they completely useless?
Still, that was beside the point.
Meiko herself seemed to be in a rather poor mood regarding this whole matter.
Apparently, she still disliked the fact that I had ignored her warning and was preparing to pull what she called a “completely ordinary protagonist move” by helping a troubled girl.
“Well… it’s not like I have any right to interfere with whoever you choose to get involved with, Gouto-kun…”
Meiko muttered that with a lonely look in her eyes, and so I once again stated a truth that should’ve already been obvious.
“Meiko, don’t worry. No matter what happens, you are my ‘childhood friend.’ I intend for you to remain by my side. That fact will never change. Rest easy.”
“…It’s not like I’m especially obsessed with the childhood friend position or anything.”
She grumbled those words in a tiny voice under her breath.
Hm?
In a tiny voice…?
Wait.
This was a scenario I had seen in textbook light novels before!
A surprise test!
And the correct ordinary response to that situation was—
“Eh? What was that?”
“You don’t have to deliberately ask me to repeat myself. I said it loud enough for you to hear properly. Besides, I keep telling you that you don’t need to do those kinds of things with me.”
“Yes.”
That should have been the correct answer, but apparently it hadn’t been a test in the first place.
Meiko let out a long sigh, as though all the venom had drained out of her.
“Well, I get the situation now. Basically, Kuwajima-san’s under some kind of curse that’ll kill her if nothing changes, and ignoring that would cross the line from ‘normal’ into outright monstrous. That’s what you’re saying, right?”
“That would be correct. Ignoring your advice pains me, Meiko, but overlooking someone’s death would go beyond abnormal.”
“Yeah, I agree with that part. That’s just not the issue.”
After a brief pause, Meiko narrowed her eyes halfway and spoke again.
“Can you say the name of this so-called curse one more time?”
“It’s called the ‘Curse of Chuunibyou.’”
“…You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”
“It can’t be helped if that’s simply the truth.”
One reason Meiko seemed reluctant to involve herself in this matter was probably because of how utterly ridiculous the curse’s name sounded.
Honestly, I understood how she felt.
What even was a “Curse of Chuunibyou”?
“Okay, giving this the absolute most charitable interpretation possible… Kuwajima-san’s cursed in a way that makes her unable to stop acting chuuni, even though she secretly wants to quit already. Is that basically it? Like, an actual curse? Not just her being unable to back out after committing too hard?”
“Before that, Meiko, there’s something I wish to ask.”
“What?”
“I have actually been wondering this for quite some time… What exactly is chuunibyou?”
“…………We’re starting from there?”
Meiko stared at me with the same expression one might use toward an adult who somehow reached maturity without completing compulsory education.
But it wasn’t my fault.
The phrase “Curse of Chuunibyou” had appeared, yes, but I fundamentally lacked an understanding of what “chuuni” itself meant.
Was chuunibyou truly such common knowledge?
Was it genuinely strange not to know?
“Gouto-kun. To become a completely ordinary college student, you read all those light novels I recommended, right?”
“Indeed. They’re practically the only textbooks in this world that properly document the behavior patterns of completely ordinary human beings.”
“Well, chuunibyou is kinda like… when ordinary people admire the ‘not normal beings’ from those novels and games so much that they start imitating them. Like a weird pseudo-mental-condition thing.”
“Hm.”
I thought back to the protagonists and characters from the countless light novels Meiko had forced upon me.
I see.
Now that she mentioned it, there had been characters like Kuwajima — people who constantly acted mysterious for no real reason and spoke in unnecessarily dramatic ways.
At the time, however, I had been far too busy studying the behavioral patterns of the “completely ordinary protagonist” to pay much attention to those side characters.
“But does that not seem strange, Meiko? Wanting to imitate someone you admire is hardly unusual enough to be considered a disease. The admired figure being fictional may be uncommon, but the act itself is something most humans do consciously or unconsciously all the time.”
“Ah… well… uhhh… I mean, when you put it like that, it is normal in a way, but… with Kuwajima-san specifically, how do I explain this…?”
Meiko groaned and struggled for a while, wrinkling her brow in deep thought.
Then suddenly, her face lit up like a novelist who had just discovered the perfect phrase.
“Right. That’s exactly it — it is normal. Just like the word chuunibyou says, those kinds of behaviors are normal around middle-school second-year age. But when someone’s still doing it after becoming a university student, people start looking at them like, ‘Shouldn’t you graduate from imitation already and start becoming your own original self?’ That’s the issue.”
“I see.”
At last, I understood.
So Kuwajima wished to “graduate from chuunibyou,” yet remained unable to do so because of the curse.
That made sense.
After all, there was the principle of shu-ha-ri — imitation, destruction, transcendence.
To first imitate, then break away, then forge one’s own path.
Surely she, too, wished to move beyond imitation and become her true original self.
“In that case, once Kuwajima’s curse is lifted, I should congratulate her by saying something like, ‘Congratulations on your graduation. From now on, show us the evolved and original Kuwajima.’”
“That would literally become her cause of death, so absolutely don’t say that.”
“Why?”
Apparently, despite believing I understood, I had actually misunderstood everything.
Perhaps I had once again interpreted Meiko’s explanation incorrectly.
“The cause of death would be shame-induced ‘death by embarrassment,’ okay? So the correct answer is to avoid bringing any of that up at all. Got it?”
“If you say so, Meiko, then I shall obey.”
“You always sound obedient, but somehow you never actually listen to me…”
Strange.
I was fairly certain I followed Meiko’s advice more faithfully than anyone else in existence.
“Well, now that you at least understand the concept, the next step is just hearing Kuwajima-san’s side of the story. I’m still skeptical that this curse is real, but for now I’ll trust the appraisal.”
A perfectly reasonable approach.
If Kuwajima truly was cursed, then there had to be some cause behind it.
And if we intended to do something about the curse, then naturally we first needed to hear her circumstances.
“The problem is how we’re supposed to approach her. With Taketsuru-kun, you were already ‘best friends’ from the beginning, so talking to him and giving advice was easy. But Kuwajima-san’s basically a complete stranger.”
“Well, it isn’t as though she has ‘three days left to live’ this time. We can proceed at a relaxed pace, can we not?”
“True enough. For now I’ll try making some moves on my end first, so Gouto-kun, you don’t need to do anything. Just focus on living normally.”
“Understood.”
Though honestly, I was perfectly normal even without trying.
However, that relaxed attitude lasted only briefly.
“Ah.”
“Hm.”
After finishing our strategy meeting, Meiko and I began heading from the courtyard toward the classroom for our next lecture.
And there, by sheer luck—or perhaps misfortune—we ran into the very person in question: Kuwajima Taeko.
Well, “ran into” might be overstating it.
We merely happened to spot her and ended up walking side by side for a short distance by coincidence.
Our next lecture was a general education course shared between multiple departments, which likely explained the overlap.
Just as Meiko had said earlier, the infamous Kuwajima walked alone, separated from everyone else with a solitary dignity that seemed almost deliberate.
Today as well, she wore heavy dark-colored clothing from head to toe.
Black layers draped around her like shadows clinging to her body.
“Well… maybe this is actually good timing. Since we’ve got the chance, I’ll go talk to her.”
Though the encounter had been unexpected, Meiko boldly stepped forward toward Kuwajima without hesitation.
Right in front of me, she abandoned her usual underling-style persona and instead switched into the role of an energetic ponytailed girl before calling out to her.
“Kuwajima-san, right? Hey, hey — do you maybe have a minute to talk?”
“…………”
But Kuwajima gave no response whatsoever.
She merely stared silently at Meiko, her gaze sharp and guarded.
It reminded me a little of yesterday’s pickup scene.
And just as that thought crossed my mind—
My hallucination abruptly popped into existence as though it had suddenly remembered its job.
──────
“Kuwajima Taeko”
Inner Thoughts:
“Another extrovert coming to mock me, huh…? No matter what I say, they’ll just laugh anyway. Hmph. If you really want to talk to me, then try reading even one of my thoughts first. If you can manage that, maybe I’ll speak to you. Come on then! Save me already!”
──────
“If you want help, then say so honestly, Kuwajima. Why are you saying it through your inner thoughts?”
“!?”
“!?”
It made sense for Meiko to look shocked.
But why was Kuwajima shocked too when I had merely followed the instructions in her inner thoughts?
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