This is bad...
I'll have to whittle it with a knife before I can keep using it...
Standing before a wall covered in all sorts of crooked, scrawled characters, Miko stared at the pencil in her hand—the one that simply wouldn't write no matter how she tried—and thought this with no small amount of helplessness.
Because the two of them could currently only communicate by means of this single pencil, they had taken turns writing—you write a line, I write a line—chatting about all manner of things under the sun, writing on and on until the lead inside this pencil had been worn completely flat.
If they wanted to keep writing, the only way was to whittle it down with a knife.
But right now, never mind that the two of them had no knife—even if they did, in their current state they wouldn't be able to use it. Being able to scrawl out crooked characters at all was already their limit.
Looks like the lead sticking out has been written down to nothing...
Suddenly noticing that Miko had been staring blankly at that pencil the whole time, Lumine took a look and discovered that the lead poking out of the pencil had indeed been used up by the two of them.
Sigh...
I wonder when Kaito will come help us take this thing off...
Or he could at least come keep us company...
Starting to idly look over the various exchanges she'd just written together with Miko, Lumine found herself wondering when on earth Kaito would let her and Miko return to normal.
Although she did feel this current state was a little bit thrilling, bored was bored—they couldn't even talk.
If Kaito were right here beside them, then maybe they wouldn't be so bored.
"Lady Guuji, what are you doing here? Did you just get back?" Right at this moment, the two of them suddenly heard a girl's voice coming from above.
Miko: "???"
The instant she heard those words, Miko's heart raced—she thought someone had come in and seen her in her current state.
But very quickly, Miko realized that in this current state of hers, nobody besides Kaito had any idea she was that respected Lady Guuji.
And more importantly, she really hadn't seen anyone else inside this basement.
What's going on?
Aren't I right here?
Where did this Lady Guuji come from?
I'm the one who's Lady Guuji!
Rising up from the bed, Miko—who had already confirmed that there was no one else in this basement besides her and Lumine—now lifted her head to look upward.
"That's right, I just got back." Soon enough, a voice spoke again from above.
Miko: "???"
Isn't that...
my voice???
Someone's impersonating me???
Listening to that voice coming from above—completely and utterly identical to her own—Miko was thoroughly stunned.
And at this point Lumine, too, stood up from the bed; she had also heard that voice just now, identical to Miko's.
Honestly, Lumine even began to doubt whether this fox beside her right now was actually Miko at all.
From start to finish, all she had seen was a fox that was pitch-black all over and reflected the surrounding light—she'd never once seen what the person inside this fox actually looked like.
Of course, right now she herself was in this same state.
I don't know what's going on...
Could it be that the one beside me isn't Miko at all...
But Kaito wouldn't lie to me...
How strange...
Because neither of them could speak right now, Lumine could only mull over the various possibilities on her own.
Could it be that someone, seeing me gone for so long, has started impersonating me?
Damn it...
Kaito, you jerk, hurry up and show yourself...
Someone's already impersonating me!!!
Since she herself had been out and not come back for quite some time now, Miko felt this possibility was very high.
But if Kaito didn't come right now, there was nothing at all she could do.
But even so, Miko once again began trying to pull the thing off of her head.
As long as she took that thing off, she could speak and let people know that she was the one who was Miko.
However, no matter how hard she pulled, that thing was as though it had grown onto her head—it simply wouldn't come off.
Damn it...
If I'd known, I never would have agreed to Kaito putting this thing on me...
At this point Miko was practically sick with regret.
But aside from this regret, Miko also had a very peculiar feeling.
It was much like what she'd just been fantasizing about—no one knew that she was the true Miko; the genuine article that she was could only be trapped beneath this fox-puppet head, unable even to confront the other party.
Even if she appeared directly before that impostor right now, there was no way anyone would believe she was the real Miko—no one would even let their thoughts drift in that direction—after all, she couldn't even speak right now.
All she could manage was to scrawl out a few crooked characters on the ground with her claws, but there was no way anyone would believe that.
No, no!
Now's not the time to be thinking about that sort of thing...
Realizing that things might have gotten serious, Miko hurriedly shook her head so as to stop herself from sinking any further into that strange feeling.
"So what is Lady Guuji doing in here? This room hasn't been used in a very long time—no one even knows what it used to be for."
"It's precisely for that reason that I came to take a look."
"So even Lady Guuji doesn't know what this room used to be used for?"
At this point the conversation between the impostor and the shrine maiden continued from above.
Tap-tap-tap—
Immediately after, a flurry of footsteps came over—it seemed someone had arrived.
"? Miko, what are you..."
"What, I came out? Hmph! I'm very strong, you know. Anyway, you may go on down first."
"Yes, Lady Guuji."
Kaito's voice?
This guy actually didn't recognize that as the impostor?!
____
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