Fukuna found their conversation to be quite intriguing. All that talk about other worlds and magic. She always viewed Amasa to be a bit weird, but she was certain this girl wasn’t just playing along with that boy’s isekai fantasy. And since they seemed to be trying to keep it on the down low, then it must’ve been true.

But that was crazy. Someone from some other world somehow getting to this specific place and knowing that girl personally? It was too wild to believe, but she was too curious to not dig deeper into it further. In order to be able to gather more info, she was going to have to find a way to separate them.

“So we should get back to class.” She tucked herself away in the corner as they walked by, unaware of her presence. At least, that’s what it seemed, but Tahiko stopped for a second and peered towards her direction, causing the girl to dread that she might’ve been found out. “What’s wrong?” Amasa asked.

“I just thought I sensed something off.” He said, but without anything to see, the boy just brushed it off. Fukuna breathed a major sigh of relief as they left her view. Even if she wasn’t entirely certain about what they were scheming, it was possible they might do bad things to her if they knew she knew. Still, that wasn’t going to stop her from confronting him on that information when she has the chance.

Said opportunity would come after school. It was a long wait, but the girl was more than willing to be patient so that she could see him and get the upper hand once more. It was easy to get the way to stay away from each other. She did have friends after all who’d be willing to make Amasa stay in class for a good few minutes for her to get him.

“Just go ahead, I’ll deal with this.” Those two were unaware of her devious plan, so they didn’t think much of being separated in this manner. Tahiko headed towards his locker to change into his casual schools. The boy didn’t understand what it was done in this fashion, but that wasn’t a big enough of a deal for him to ask any questions about it. As he put away his school shoes and closed his locker, there she appeared from what was originally obstructed in view from the door.

“Ahh!” He was caught off guard from her sudden appearance.

“Don’t worry, I don’t bite.” She played up her innocent tone that most people were used to hearing. “Nothing scary about a high school girl like me, right?”

“I don’t fear you, but Amasa told me not to talk to you.” He stepped around her and quickly made his way to the exit.

“You’re a big boy, aren’t you?” She stuck with him like a thorn in his side. “And she’s not here right now, so it’s not like you’ll get in trouble.” That didn’t do anything to stop his pace as he made his way outside. Once off school grounds, Tahiko figured he could pull off an escape in similar fashion as he had done over the course of the past few years.

“I need to go home now.” He said, trying to come up with an excuse to leave.

“I just wanted to know how you’re doing on your first day here.” She said, ignoring his obvious problems with talking to her. “Isn’t the school just so magical?”

“It…” He paused upon processing what she just said. That was an oddly specific word to use to describe the school she went to. Fukuna took note of his hesitation, only serving to confirm her suspicions. “It’s nice, I’ve quite enjoyed my day.”

“And that’s good to hear.” She responded. “An honorable person such as yourself deserves it.” It seemed her plan to making him more uncomfortable with her was working. He eyed her, thinking that she might know something, but the boy tried to hold back in revealing too much.

“Thank you.” He replied. “It’s an honor to receive praise from someone in your position.” This time, he went along with what she was saying, even though there was something off about it that he noticed. Though the boy felt he might’ve just been paranoid given the lessons Amasa gave him about avoiding his way of speaking.

“It’s no problem.” She simply had a plain smile on her face. Her trap was now set. “You’re such a nice guy, maybe I’ll drop by your house to give you a proper welcome.”

“You don’t really have to…” He stopped speaking as the boy felt the hairs on his neck stand. That normally only happened when he was in the sights of those who wished to do him harm. Tahiko looked around to see what imminent danger was around, but the only people there were other students. Though it seemed that some of the boys were looking at him with disdain now.

“Anyway, I’ll see you later.” Before he was able to respond to her offer, the girl was already running off back into the building to see her friends. Now things had gotten from bad to worse for him.

“There you are.” Right on cue, Amasa came to him in time to see the girl running off past her. “Don’t tell me she talked to you again.”

“Um… Is it so bad that she’s coming to our house later today?”

“What!?”

***

“What does she want with you?” Amasa asked aloud as they sat in the living room after school. It had only been one day since he made his presence known in public, they couldn’t have possibly already have given up the secret so soon. She was hoping that if she was ever in this situation, she’d do a better job than that.

“Perhaps she’s actually kind and sees I’m a respectful individual.” He offered what she viewed to be an idiotic take.

“She probably wants something from you because you’re the new kid.” She responded. Amasa also thought it was possible it was to mess with her since those two weren’t on the best of terms. But if that were the case, it still wouldn’t explain what she wanted with him. “Maybe she’s just tricking us to make us waste time waiting for her to not come here.” Plus, if she did actually come along, then they could just not answer the door.

“Well, I believe we should face our foes head on.” His honor as a knight believed they should never run away from adversity. He had never done so before and had no plans of doing it in this new world.

“Agree to disagree.” She replied, not wanting to play any part of it. Though it was unlikely she’d get what she wanted given her relationship to this situation. “By the way, when was the last time you took a bath?” There was another thing annoying her about talking to him right now. That would be the smell.

“Hmm, I haven’t taken one since coming here.” He answered, which really was just a couple days at this point. “Adding that to before I got here… Probably two weeks going on now.”

“Two weeks!?” She was in utter shock that he was going around so dirty. How the heck did no one mention it when he was at school? Or did they not want to sound rude? “Why haven’t you taken a shower yet?”

“I only take baths once a month.” There were multiple reasons for that and it had nothing to do with his old world having a lack of water. For starters, his main element was water, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t just collect water to wash himself. It was mainly due to the fact that being a knight meant he would spend long periods out in the wild where getting washed would simply mean being clean for two minutes until the dirt and sweat got to him.

The second was due to not understanding his new circumstances. “I’m a guest here, so I didn’t want to waste your water.”

“It’s not a problem.” Thanks to modern amenities, there was no concern from the family about him using their bathroom. “Just go get washed up, my parents bought you some new clothes that should be in the dresser.”

“Well, as long as it’s no problem...”

“It’s really not.” She then started to push him into the bathroom and threw the boy a towel to give him a head start. “And maybe from now on, take a shower everyday.”