Prepare myself?
What kind of resolve?
It sounded like signing a consent form for dangerous surgery at a hospital.
Hikigaya couldn’t understand.
“Is this seal dangerous? The life-threatening kind?”
“No, no, no. Please don’t insult my abilities. How could I possibly create that kind of sealing art? If it were truly that dangerous, how would I even get by?”
“That statement makes you sound like a researcher experimenting with suspicious drugs.”
“I already told you—I am a genius of sealing arts!”
“Then what exactly is this ‘resolve’?”
Haruno Yukinoshita let go of Hachiman Hikigaya, clasped her hands together in front of her chest, and suddenly revealed a rather ambiguous smile.
“The resolve,” she said, “to carry a girl for her entire life.”
In an instant, words like soul intertwining and intimacy flashed through Hachiman Hikigaya’s mind.
He was very clever.
With just a slight hint, he thought of countless possibilities—none of which were good.
“People whose souls are intertwined will feel a natural closeness to each other,” Haruno explained, “just like Yuzuru and Kaguya. The degree of intimacy from soul intertwining is beyond your imagination. Far exceeding friends. Or family. Or even spouses.”
“What is this?” Hikigaya’s eye twitched.
“This kind of side effect is completely indecent. Can’t you, this genius master of sealing arts, think of a way around it?”
“Eh? Shouldn’t an ordinary male high school student be happy? Being intimately close with a pair of super cute twin beauties? If your souls are that intimate, isn’t it possible that all the scenarios in a male high school student’s fantasies could come true?”
“Please tell me the way to resolve this side effect,” Hikigaya said flatly, “instead of making ambiguous hints that tarnish the pure friendship between me and them.”
“Pfft.”
Haruno Yukinoshita suddenly burst out laughing.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to. It’s just… you look like a loner with no friends, and seeing you talk about ‘pure friendship’ with such a straight face is honestly a little funny.”
This woman was super malicious.
Extremely infuriating!
“Sorry,” she said, catching her breath.
“Actually, I was lying to you. How could there be such a side effect? Wouldn’t that make me a master hypnotist?”
“Please don’t tell such tasteless lies next time.”
“Sorry. Because you’re really interesting, I couldn’t help but want to tease you.” Her smile lingered for a moment.
“Though you claim to be an ordinary male high school student, you don’t have a single thing in common with one.”
Her expression became serious.
“The side effect of soul intertwining does exist. It’s just not as exaggerated as I made it sound.”
“Soul intertwining does make people feel closer. It makes it easier to develop affection. Similar to… just making you like that type of girl more.”
“But it doesn’t have a hypnotic effect. It can be completely overcome with reason.” She tilted her head.
“Yuzuru and Kaguya haven’t become sisters who are into yuri, have they?”
Thank goodness for small mercies.
“So the resolve you need to make,” Haruno continued, “is simply to use reason to control the instincts generated by your soul. Of course, it’s like quitting smoking or drinking—easy to say, but in reality, it requires a lot of willpower.”
“That’s fine.” Hikigaya nodded.
“I should have enough confidence for that level of willpower. Let me go back and think about it.”
If something as manageable as quitting small habits could save the Yamai Sisters, there was no reason not to agree.
“Actually, there are other methods,” Haruno said, her smile returning.
“For example, how about pursuing both of them to be your girlfriends? You don’t look bad. And those two kids don’t dislike you. If you manage to date them, you won’t even need to endure anything. Wouldn’t that be even happier?”
It sounded tempting.
But Hikigaya felt that someone like him could never be liked by girls.
Even if he relied on the advantage of soul intertwining to pursue the Yamai Sisters, it would be nothing but a fake imitation.
And besides…
“I think the phrase ‘pursuing both of them as lovers’ is already absurd in itself,” he said flatly.
“Under normal circumstances, a person should only have one lover.”
He wanted to pry open Haruno’s brain to see what was growing in there.
This woman clearly wasn’t quite normal.
“Although Japanese law stipulates a monogamous system,” Haruno replied breezily, “special circumstances are a different matter. After all, you aren’t human either. And in a sense, Yuzuru and Kaguya can only be counted as one spirit. Human laws seem somewhat unreliable when applied to all of you.”
“Thank you. I offer to help out of kindness, and you still call me not human.”
“Eh? Was I found out?”
“You can call Yuzuru and Kaguya spirits. So you can call me a vampire, right? Why do you have to use the phrasing ‘not human’?”
“Hehe.” Haruno’s smile widened.
“Anyway, the sealing technique has been prepared for you. I’ll speak to Shizuka about it. If you have truly prepared yourself…”
Haruno Yukinoshita paused slightly at this point and gave Hachiman Hikigaya a long, meaningful look.
“I understand. Thank you, Lady Yukima Miko.”
“Then goodbye, fellow student Kaleid Blood.”
With that, Haruno Yukinoshita—still dressed in her shrine maiden outfit—turned and walked away briskly, her figure slowly swallowed by the pitch-black night.
Hikigaya stood there, holding the ice-blue patterned mask, somewhat distracted.
Being suddenly told that his friends were in life-threatening danger was actually quite a shock to Hachiman Hikigaya.
After all, not long ago, he had still been just an ordinary high school student.
Even though he had suddenly become the Fourth Progenitor, he had always lived a fairly peaceful daily life.
His youth was a shade of gray, yes—but it was definitely not the kind of strange, dramatic style where people died wherever he went, or where friends were suddenly in mortal peril.
Although Hikigaya’s mind worked fast enough to accept the situation, he still felt a strange sense of loss.
He had the nagging feeling that the peaceful life he’d always yearned for was steadily drifting away from him.
Hachiman Hikigaya picked up his Max Coffee, stuffed it into his pocket, and started walking home.
Himeragi should be leaving soon, so he could go back.
It was really thanks to Komachi.
Otherwise, being watched by Himeragi all the time would have been quite troublesome.
Goddess Komachi truly was the best little sister in the world.
The night was beautiful.
A gentle breeze blew—like the softest greeting from a bright moon in a starry sky.
But the light of the moon itself was a lie.
Hachiman Hikigaya did not yet know that what Haruno Yukinoshita had told him was the truth.
But it was also a lie.
The most brilliant lie is the one that tells no falsehood.
The Separation and Reunion of Two was real.
The Separation and Union Parasitic Sealing Art was real.
The side effect of soul fusion was also real.
But combined, they concealed a small lie.
Soul fusion was indeed a side effect of the Separation and Reunion of Two.
However, Haruno Yukinoshita had never said it was a side effect of the Separation and Union Parasitic Sealing Art.
On the contrary—right from the beginning, she had already asked Hikigaya her most sincere question.
“Hachiman Hikigaya—are you prepared to shoulder a girl’s entire life?”