Vol 2 Chapter 7 (1/2)

Bookstore, Forbidden Books, and the Original Blockhead

“Hrng~~ Mnn~~~ Ahh~~~” It was the end of cla.s.s. Satsuki stretched herself in front of me. Looking at her curvaceous figure, I couldn’t help but marvel to myself: Satsuki has a really fantastic body.

“Hey, stupid Lin Xiang, why the heck are you gawking at me with such a lecherous stare? Are you planning to do something that goes beyond our sisterly relations.h.i.+p?

“Aren’t you overthinking this?” It appeared that Satsuki saw through me when I stole that quick glance at her body.

“Really? Then…”

“Hey, what? What the heck are you doing?”

All of a sudden, in the middle of our conversation, Satsuki wrapped her arms around my neck and drew her face closer and closer…

“Your face is all red. You are overthinking this, right? It’s just us sisters, what are you being all shy about?”

“Uhh….” s.h.i.+t! She got me.

“Hehe… I love seeing you looking all embarra.s.sed like that. Come on, let’s go get those books. Tomorrow’s Spirit Summoning Day.” Satsuki picked up her book bag and hit me with it.

“I say…. What kind of spirits do you think you’ll be able to summon?”

“I don’t know. How about you?”

“He~~” I gave a confident laugh. Who am I? I’d be what you would call a dragonkin; be it superior spirit or a special spirit, wouldn’t they all come running?

‘Don’t get too c.o.c.ky, the summoner’s spiritual strength determines the kind of spirits they can summon.’ Just when I was getting excited, Freed had to come out and rain on my parade.

‘You’re not trying to tell me, that I wouldn’t be able to summon any, are you?’

‘Well, that….’

‘Oi, even though I can’t see your expression, could you please refrain from sounding like you’re being put in a difficult spot and can’t really answer my question?’

‘Alright, according to my prediction, based on your spiritual strength, you should, perhaps, maybe, possibly, can manage to summon a spirit of the lowest rank? Meh~~~ Just believe in yourself.’

‘Hey, wait a minute, what is the meaning of your mult.i.tudes of “maybes”?’ Percentage multiplied by percentage? (Like 90% x 90% = 81%?)

If that really was the case, then wouldn’t my chance of summoning any spirits be very low? Never mind them being the lowest ranked spirits.

‘Ugh, kid, didn’t you know, that it was like a one in a million chance for you, a Trainee Magician, with strength only at the level of a junior high student, to make it into high school? Who isn’t at least a Junior Magician in high school already? Besides, you all are still only freshmen. There are still plenty of room to grow. Oh, when I said “you all”, that doesn’t include you, by the way.’

‘Dammit. You can just say it to my face directly that my spiritual strength is so low that I won’t be able to summon any spirits. Why the heck do you have to make fun of me in such a roundabout way? Saying that my strength is only that of a junior high student….’

‘Oh? Making fun of you? So do you know any special killer moves? You weren’t thinking of saying that since you had the dragons’ power, it would be equivalent to having amazing spiritual power, and could do a lot of powerful magic? It would get out of control, and people, whoever they might be, will get hurt. What kind of magical power is that then? On top of that, while I’ll admit that your sword skills are pretty good, can you manage to summon spirits with your sword skill?’

‘That, I cannot.’ Freed wasn’t pulling any punches.

‘Well, kid, don’t be so depressed; if you really want to have a powerful spirit then you can convert your dragons’ power into spiritual power. I believe that if you can do that, it won’t matter whether they are spirit kings or what not, they will all heed your summon and come running.’

‘All…will answer my summon? Then, wouldn’t the school get so crowded that it might explode?’ Do know that the spirit population isn’t any less than the human population.

‘So, either you be someone who can’t summon any of the spirits, or be someone who can summon all of them. Your choice. Besides, if you really were to summon other spirits, and form a contract with them, wouldn’t that make the ones who came here first, the water spirit and the lowest ranked earth spirit unhappy? ‘

‘Why?’

‘Forget it, forget that I said anything. I’ve already explained it so clearly, and you still don’t understand, you really are brain dead.’

‘But…’

‘Hey, brain dead, don’t keep talking to me. The human girl Satsuki, is about to get scared half to death by you. A minute ago, you were just giving her a charming smile, then all of a sudden, you stopped talking and got all depressed and looked like you were about to cry.’

‘Oh?’

When I snapped myself back to reality, I noticed that Satsuki was standing there, spinning her wheels, and looking really anxious. When she saw that I had finally recovered, she quickly said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Lin Xiang. It’s just spirits, no need to dwell on it.”

“Nah, I was thinking about something else just now. I wasn’t worrying about whether I could summon spirits.” In truth, I was worrying about it.

“But…”

“Okay, let’s head to the bookstore.” I picked up my book bag, patted Satsuki on her head, and led us out of the cla.s.sroom.

———————— Kamiki Bookstore

Kamiki Bookstore is an enormous organization that sells all sorts of books. It is an understatement to call it a bookstore as its size rivals that of most libraries.

“Excuse me, could you tell me where I could find reference books on spirits?” Satsuki asked the young woman at the Information Desk right when we walked into the bookstore. After all, the place was simply too large.

“Good day. All reference books on spirits are located in Section D. Please feel free to peruse the area for the books that you may like.”

“Thank you.” After Satsuki uttered a polite reply to the young woman, she dragged me over to Section D.

……

“Oh… There are so many of them here.” When she saw the many different varieties of books that filled the enormous bookshelves, Satsuki was a bit stumped.

“Aren’t they all the same? Just randomly pick one, and let’s be on our way.”

“They aren’t all the same, alright? Each professor on spirits has their own theory on the subject; so, their books aren’t all the same.”