"What!?"
The moment she heard that voice, Aoko Aozaki instinctively leaned to the right and twisted her head around.
And then, she saw him.
At the far end of the midnight forest, a shadow stood by the stream upstream.
He was a boy who looked only twelve or thirteen, slender and straight-backed, his features still carrying a trace of childishness.
In his hand was a bow.
It had clearly been sized down to suit its young user, yet the elegant curve of the bow, with its near-futuristic design, still gave off an astonishing presence.
Bathed in the Mana drifting through the air around him, the boy's hair burned a vivid red like flame.
Beneath the bangs swaying in the wind were a pair of deep amber eyes that called twilight to mind.
The instant Aoko's gaze met his, the boy curled his lips into a smile.
"!?"
Then his fingers released the bowstring, and an arrow flew.
Aoko had already used Mana enhancement to sharpen her dynamic vision enough to track the Slit-Mouthed Man's high-speed movements. And yet, at this moment, she could not see at all the instant the arrow left the string.
"————"
A pitch-black arrow tore through the entire forest, the gale it kicked up violently shaking the surrounding trees.
The explosive roar and the white shockwave ripping through the air were proof that the arrow had broken the sound barrier.
The arrow fired by the red-haired boy passed only centimeters from the girl's face, pierced straight through the Slit-Mouthed Man's grotesque head, and blasted him away from Aoko in an instant.
"!!!"
The Slit-Mouthed Man let out a scream of agony, so shrill it sounded as though it had come from the abyss itself.
Even so, it did not die.
Because it had never been an ordinary living thing to begin with.
After crashing to the ground, the Slit-Mouthed Man scrambled back up and turned to flee.
With its head skewered by an arrow like an apple, it looked absurd, but it did not care.
If it could not kill its opponent, then it would at least record tonight's battle. That became the new mission it gave itself.
With spring-like clawed feet, the Slit-Mouthed Man leapt into the air. And just as it rejoiced in having escaped.
"BOOM—!!!"
Its head exploded.
A violent burst of fire swallowed everything, even lighting up the night sky.
Until the very end, the Slit-Mouthed Man never understood why it had died.
It should have been invincible. In a backwater like this, how could there be something so powerful? Who was it, who...
What had attacked it was not some person, nor some kind of Magecraft, but a situation, a phenomenon.
Faced with a phenomenon beyond comprehension, whether strange or monstrous, all one could do was wait and accept it.
And so the Slit-Mouthed Man felt a strange sense of release.
It understood that its death had been decided from the very beginning.
"..."
Watching that beautiful burst of fiery destruction before her, Aoko suddenly understood.
Ah... so that's how it was...
It was not that the Slit-Mouthed Man had survived even after having its head pierced by the arrow.
It was that the boy who attacked had not wanted the damage to reach her standing beside it, so he had simply delayed its release...
"Aoko!"
Her roommate's voice cut through the girl's thoughts.
Aoko turned back and saw the boy with the bow already retreating, while Alice was chasing after him.
Don't let him get away.
That was the look Alice gave her, and Aoko immediately understood. She set off after them as well.
...
For the time being, Shirou had followed the information given by "future Aoko" and saved "past Aoko" at the designated location.
Though "saved" was not really the right word.
Because even if Shirou had not appeared, Aoko probably still could have defeated the enemy in that situation.
At most, her arm would have been injured by the backlash from her own Magic Bullet, leaving her wounded.
Since the plan was "save the beauty and win her trust," then this was the point where he was supposed to step in.
Chief director Aoko had made the decision. Lead actor Shirou had no say in it.
Of course, timing mattered too.
Tonight's battle in the forest was Aoko's first battle, and also the fight in which she would truly awaken as a Magus.
If Shirou made his move too early, then "past Aoko" would not be able to awaken properly.
So Shirou had stepped in at the very last moment, fired a single arrow to resolve the crisis, and still preserved the fact that he had "saved the beauty."
"What a pain..."
Now the boy was fleeing through the forest.
That too had been a demand from "future Aoko."
"Listen carefully, Shirou... after you save me, don't stay there. Run immediately."
"Why?"
"Shirou, you really don't understand a girl's heart at all."
"Then please enlighten me, sensei."
Recently, Shirou had realized that most of the girls he had met so far were not "human."
Witches, Fairies, Dragonkind, Homunculi, Succubi, Tigers...
Now that I think about it, there's not a single normal human around me!
Sakura... you really are special! I'm touched!
With that in mind, Shirou decided this was a good chance to learn how to get along with women from proper human history.
Aoko began her explanation with great seriousness.
"If you want girls to like you, just being kind isn't enough, you know? Though I'm actually pretty weak to that myself..."
"What?"
"...Never mind. Anyway, if you want girls to like you, one very important thing is mystery!
You need to give off an elusive, hard-to-read air of mystery, and keep that unpredictable, hot-and-cold sense of distance."
"I see... human women really are hard to understand. I guess being popular is probably beyond me."
Shirou took the Magician's words firmly to heart.
He decided that in this past timeline, he would build himself a mysterious, aloof image.
After all, he was someone from the future. It was a rare chance.
To be honest, Shirou was starting to feel a little motivated too.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
In the winding forest, Shirou ran on Mana-enhanced legs at over eighty kilometers per hour, and quickly left Alice and Aoko far behind.
After slipping into the shadows and observing for a while, Shirou confirmed that Alice and Aoko had given up the chase.
If they had been the two twenty-five-year-olds, he probably would not have escaped so easily. But unfortunately for them, right now they were both just seventeen-year-old girls.
That said, Aoko's chest was already that big when she was seventeen, huh.
No, no, no, that is not the point!
Aoko-nee-san in her high school days was really cool too...
Even though it was her first real battle, she had still managed to counterattack in a situation like that. The resolve to sacrifice her arm was honestly incredible, and Shirou was deeply moved.
If only he had not already known about Aoko's habit of casually throwing her underwear around her room...
Sigh. Sometimes knowing too much really is not a good thing.
As for Alice-san, she had barely changed from eight years later. She was still just as delicate and lovely... hmm.
Thinking about all sorts of nonsense, the boy left the forest.
The "first mission" assigned by the Magician had now been completed.
Even so, Shirou still had his doubts. Will this really earn "past Aoko's" trust? No matter how you look at it, I was incredibly suspicious tonight, wasn't I?
But he did not have time to think too hard about that now.
He needed to find a place to stay as soon as possible, or he would be sleeping on the street.
As for that part of Shirou's living experience, Aoko had brushed it aside quite casually.
...
...
Alice and Aoko did not stop until they had chased him all the way out of the forest.
"Hah... hah... he's fast... Is that really the kind of speed a human can have?"
Aoko bent over with both hands on her knees.
As the girl struggled to catch her breath, her ample chest rose and fell violently.
Alice, meanwhile, stood quietly off to the side, looking nothing like Aoko, who was panting hard.
In truth, Alice's athletic ability was about as poor as her talent for Magecraft was exceptional.
She could not ride a bicycle, could only barely manage a simple dog paddle when swimming, could not do even a single pull-up, and in gym class she was basically just a spectator.
Of course a delicate witch like Alice was never going to chase someone down on her own two legs. She had pursued him riding a Ploy Kickshaw, and even then she had failed to catch up.
...It really was astonishing speed for running away.
Alice had never gotten a clear look at the other party's face, but from the silhouette, he seemed to be a fairly young boy.
"That boy... is he one of the Slit-Mouthed Man's accomplices, or its master? Was he trying to silence it back then?"
Alice stared at the city lights in the distance, a dark shadow settling over her cold and composed face.
"...This just made things even more troublesome."
...
What had happened in the forest the night before kept Alice tense all through the next day, to the point that she did not even go to school.
A witch's intuition told her that boy was extremely dangerous, and that he meant no good.
A disturbance came from the entryway. Aoko was back from school.
"...How is the investigation going?" asked the chestnut-haired girl.
Her voice carried no urgency or sense of crisis, but her jet-black eyes, like polished glass, reminded Alice how important this matter was.
Aoko took off her dull-colored coat, hung it up, and sat back down on the sofa.
Alice sat across from her at the table.
"What about your side?"
"Not great. Only seven were available to send out for reconnaissance, and that's already everything we can use. There wasn't any time left for advance prep either."
Alice's gaze flicked quickly across Aoko, then returned to the box resting on the table.
"That night, were there none watching the streets? Their street surveillance should be flawless, shouldn't it?"
"That only applies during the day. Flying around at night is too dangerous."
They cannot even handle support work properly, Aoko thought with a helpless sigh.
That morning, Alice had sent out a reconnaissance-type fairy-tale monster, Six Singing Chocolates: Song of the 6 Pences, Jack in the Box.
It was made up of twenty-four gray starlings refined from cocoa liquor, cocoa powder, and bone meal, and normally took the form of chocolates stored inside an exquisite box.
It had zero combat ability. Its main role was monitoring the city and searching for enemies.
In actual operation, around ten of them crashed into utility poles and died every day, so nighttime activity really was impossible for them.
Alice frowned unhappily.
"...And what about you? You were acting awfully impressive this morning."
"Hm? Oh, I'm proceeding according to plan. I should be able to find that boy by tomorrow.
Misaki Town is tiny, and there are not that many boys around twelve or thirteen. As long as he shows up on the street, there'll be sightings."
"Can you really do it that easily?"
"I can. Don't underestimate the manpower the student council can mobilize, okay? All that volunteer work we usually do isn't for nothing."
"Is that so. As capable as ever."
A trace of surprise showed in Alice's eyes.
They had been living together for almost two years now.
Once Aoko Aozaki decided on something, she would throw everything she had into it. Alice had experienced that many times herself.
"Well, I did not expect being student council president would be this useful. I guess this is what they mean by being prepared."
Alice felt that something was off.
Aoko was usually somewhat carefree and easygoing, but today's flippancy had reached a record-breaking level.
So Alice asked, "Leaving that aside, what do you think was the reason that boy showed himself in front of us last night...?"
"What kind of question is that? Obviously he showed up to save me."
Aoko answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Alice's cool gaze turned sharp.
"Why do you think that?"
Aoko blinked in confusion.
"Why...? Wouldn't anyone think that after what happened last night?"
Alice let out a disappointed sigh.
"You are too naive. Sweet as chocolate."
"Huh?"
Tension spread through the living room.
After two years of living together, both of them knew exactly what this meant. It was the prelude to an argument.
Sensing the hostility from her housemate, Aoko shot back without backing down.
"What exactly are you trying to say, Alice?"
In a completely flat voice, the witch declared,
"...That boy is the enemy.
If he were not the enemy, then how do you explain the way he fled in a panic?"
"Well... maybe he's just a shy kid?"
Alice replied coldly, "Don't be ridiculous. That boy showed up last night to silence someone."
Aoko retorted, "At that point the Slit-Mouthed Man was already about to kill me. Why would he need to silence his own side?"
"No. If things had continued, the one who would have won was you, and...he was probably planning to kill both you and the Slit-Mouthed Man."
"That's not true."
Aoko said, "Before he fired that arrow, he warned me."
"Wasn't that just your imagination? You sensed the enemy's killing intent and turned around, and then he attacked."
"That's not it! I definitely heard him! He told me to dodge to the right!"
Alice fell silent for a moment.
"Tell me... how did he know in advance that there would be a battle in the forest? Did he just happen to stroll into a place like that after dinner?"
Aoko had no answer, and Alice pressed on.
"Even my Barrier failed to detect the hidden third enemy, yet he reacted to it."
Alice glanced at the video recorder in the room.
"This is not a Hollywood movie. There is no such thing as a perfectly timed rescue like that by sheer coincidence.
It was almost as if... he already knew the hidden third enemy would attack Aoko.
There is only one possibility. He was the one who sent the enemy there in the first place."
"..."
Aoko could not refute her.
If there really were someone who could do something like that, then it would have to be someone from the future.
And besides, as Alice said, saving someone and then immediately running away really was suspicious.
Even though her housemate had thoroughly dismantled all of her arguments, Aoko still did not accept Alice's conclusion.
The night ended in an unpleasant atmosphere, and after that Aoko and Alice did not exchange another word.
Aoko had no intention of backing down on this matter.
She did not even know the reason herself.
But deep down, she was convinced of one thing.
That boy could not possibly be a bad person.