If only Ijichi Nijika were going, it would be perfectly normal for the others not to go. According to the information, Ijichi Nijika has the closest relationship with Mr. Hachiman. Not only does she sit right in front of Mr. Hachiman, she is also a member of the Service Club. It is just that she is busy with the band and does not go to the Service Club often, occasionally inviting Mr. Hachiman to help out.
But both Gotou Hitori and Yamada Ryou were going. For the entire band, only Kita Ikuyo not going was very strange.
Judging from the relationship between Ijichi Nijika, Yamada Ryou, and Kita Ikuyo, it did not look like they were excluding Kita Ikuyo at all. If anyone were to be excluded, it should be Gotou Hitori, who liked to hide in corners.
"This..."
Hearing Inoue Takina and Nishikigi Chisato ask so innocently, Kita Ikuyo moved her lips as if she wanted to explain. In the end, she still did not answer, only lowering her head, her cheeks flushed bright red.
Although it looked like she was being excluded by Nijika and the others, isolated by everyone... In reality, that was not the case at all. Some things were not things that the whole band had to do together.
What was more, the first time Nijika and the others went, they went with so many people. She was honestly quite shocked. She had heard that many girls at school had close relationships with Hachiman-kun, far more than just Nijika and the others.
Was she too out of touch? Was this what rock bands were like these days? Or was this just how female high school students were now?
"Let's not talk about Kita for now. Takina, Chisato, you really don't know what the Service Club is?", Seeing Kita Ikuyo getting awkward again, Ijichi Nijika hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over for her.
She had finally pulled Kita back into the band. She could not let Kita run away again because she could not fit in with them.
"I don't know. We only found out just now."
Nishikigi Chisato shook her head, tilting it as she looked at Ijichi Nijika in confusion.
"It's like something suddenly appeared in our minds. Once we touch it, we can leave here and go to a place called the Service Club."
"What exactly is the Service Club? What are you going there to do tonight?", Just like Inoue Takina, she had also gained permission to enter the Service Club.
But faced with this mysterious Service Club that had suddenly appeared in her mind, she really was a bit lost. If Nijika and the others had not mentioned it, she probably would not even have known it was a reward from Mr. Hachiman.
"What we're going to do there... cough cough. To put it simply, it's a place where you become a magical girl?"
Ijichi Nijika realized that Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina truly knew nothing about it and explained quietly, feeling rather awkward.
Hachiman definitely had his own reasons for giving this to Chisato and Takina. She could not say too much and could only explain it vaguely.
"Become a magical girl? Is Mr. Hachiman really that amazing?"
Hearing Ijichi Nijika say that, Nishikigi Chisato immediately exclaimed.
She knew Hachiman was amazing. Not only did he have very good relationships with the elf princess and the others and was an extremely important special target they had to protect, his own strength was also incredible. He could fight off large numbers of violent armed forces on his own.
But she had never imagined that Hachiman also held the key to transcendent power, that he could actually turn people into magical girls?
"It can't be that simple, right? If it really is a place to become a magical girl, why isn't Kita going too? Does she not want to become a magical girl?", Inoue Takina was also somewhat surprised by the reward Hachiman was offering them for their work, but she was still able to view it calmly.
The acquisition of transcendent power was never easy. Either the price was extremely high, or the side effects were severe. If something looked like it had no problems at all, then one had to be careful about whether there were serious aftereffects hidden beneath it.
Magical aptitude was rare and precious precisely because it allowed a person to grow step by step within a magical level system from another world without side effects or backlash.
As for powers that easily turned people into monsters or caused them to lose their sanity, those were actually not difficult for Lycoris, an agency that cooperated with the government and possessed various independent law enforcement authorities, to obtain. But those things were exactly the kind of unstable existences they needed to eliminate.
"It really isn't simple... becoming a magical girl requires paying a price..."
"This price is a bit special. Kita is a little conflicted about it, so she didn't come with us... The first one or two times are just awakening magical girl aptitude. If you want to improve your strength later, you have to keep paying this price regularly..."
Both Kita Ikuyo and Ijichi Nijika felt embarrassed explaining the Service Club and magical girls to Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina.
Although they had not personally participated in the Magical Girl Development Conference, they both knew that Hachiman could teach them magic through special means. Ijichi Nijika had even learned from Kitagawa Marin that real magical girls did appear in the Service Club.
Today, Rurikawa Tsubaki had already notified Ijichi Nijika, so she also had some understanding of the magical girl development meeting that would happen tonight.
Ijichi Nijika and the others already had deep ties with Hachiman. The first time, the three of them went together.
Now that they knew that casting aside shyness and embarrassment and continuing to undergo Hachiman's development training could awaken magical girl aptitude and allow them to transform into magical girls, there was no way they would miss it.
Even if there were exams tomorrow, there was no need to worry about staying up all night. Once dawn came, Hachiman would let them rest first. By the time they went to school, they would have mostly recovered. In fact, after training all night, they would be even more energetic and in better condition than usual.
But Kita Ikuyo was in a very awkward position, setting aside her own wishes.
She had hesitated and refused to join before. Now, after learning about magical girls, she suddenly joined right away. It would be hard to explain what she was really thinking, whether she was simply after this power.
If most of the members in the Service Club had yielded to Hachiman because of this, that would not be a problem. But the issue was that the vast majority of Service Club members were students at Sobu High. They threw themselves at Hachiman simply because they wanted to eat... to eat meat. The power of magical girls and things like that were just extra perks.
"This special price... you're not talking about that kind of thing, are you?"
Looking at Ijichi Nijika and Kita Ikuyo, whose expressions were strange and whose speech was hesitant, Nishikigi Chisato could not help but cry out again.
"That kind of thing?"
Inoue Takina was confused by the way they seemed to be speaking in code.
"..."
Faced with Nishikigi Chisato's shocked gaze and Inoue Takina's puzzled one, Ijichi Nijika lowered her head, her face burning red. Kita Ikuyo also turned her head away in extreme embarrassment, not daring to meet their eyes.
"Wait, wait. Everyone except Kita is going to the Service Club. That means you all and Mr. Hachiman..."
Seeing their reactions, Nishikigi Chisato thought of many not-so-good things. Both she and Takina had obtained permission to enter the Service Club. Didn't that mean Mr. Hachiman also wanted them to pay the price to become magical girls?
"Takina! This is a major crisis! Let's not go to the Service Club at all!"
"Huh? What exactly is it? If you don't want to go, I'll go by myself."
Inoue Takina could not understand why Nishikigi Chisato was making such a fuss, and she even wanted to stop her from going to the Service Club.
She did not know what the price of becoming a magical girl actually was. Everyone was being vague and evasive, and Chisato clearly did not want to explain it to her either.
But since Nijika and the others could pay the price with Mr. Hachiman and become magical girls, and even Kita Ikuyo was only not going because she did not want to pay the special price, not because she lacked the qualifications, then she definitely could as well.
She wanted to become stronger, strong enough to be immediately called back to Kanto headquarters to carry out missions that were difficult for her other companions to handle.
If the price was something she could accept, then no matter what, she would go to the Service Club and ask Mr. Hachiman to grant her this power.
"Takina, you're going there by yourself?"
Hearing that Inoue Takina planned to go to the Service Club alone, Nishikigi Chisato's heart skipped a beat. She stared blankly at Inoue Takina, whose expression was as cold as ever.
'Oh no! I forgot that Takina has always wanted to return to headquarters!'
After coming here, Takina had been thinking every day about completing missions and earning permission to return to headquarters.
As vengeful spirits, yokai, demi-humans, and other supernatural beings appeared more and more frequently, the stabilizing role of Lycoris, who were all ordinary humans, was becoming smaller and smaller.
Previously, headquarters had all Lycoris test their magical aptitude, but those with magical aptitude were far too rare. Headquarters had no way to form a special force within DA dedicated to transcendent powers.
If Takina obtained the power of a magical girl and reported it to headquarters, and headquarters learned that Mr. Hachiman actually possessed such an incredible and powerful ability, then at that point...
It would not just be Takina alone paying the special price to become a magical girl. Other Lycoris, and even other special forces outside of Lycoris, might all want to pay this special price to become magical girls?
'This is bad! Bad! Bad!'
It was not that Nishikigi Chisato did not understand. For Lycoris who worked on the front lines executing various missions, being able to greatly increase their own strength in exchange for a so-called special price would absolutely be the desire of countless Lycoris.
If paying that kind of price really could grant magical girl power, then in the future, Lycoris selection and training might need to start considering outstanding looks and figures.
It might even reach the point where headquarters would send people over in full team units to Mr. Hachiman, to conveniently synchronize the combat strength of an entire squad.
Thinking about this, Nishikigi Chisato's mood became rather complicated, feeling like the aesthetic of a cold, ruthless killing force had suddenly changed.
Yamada Ryou glanced at Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina, who had suddenly gone quiet, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts, then pulled Kita Ikuyo aside to talk.
"Kita, are you really not going tonight?"
Looking at Kita Ikuyo, whose blush had not yet faded, Yamada Ryou asked calmly.
"This is a chance to become a magical girl. If you don't seize the opportunity now, once there are more magical girls later, it'll be hard to join even if you regret it."
She had heard that the ritual to become a magical girl was not complicated. You just had to endure and keep enduring. The longer you endured, the higher your aptitude and the better your future training results. But no one could endure more than half an hour at most. In one night, many magical girl aptitudes could be developed and awakened.
However, magical girls who had already awakened their magical aptitude still had to continue accepting Hachiman's training in order to keep improving their strength.
Hachiman's time was limited. If he had to take care of more and more experienced magical girls, then the standards for new magical girl recruits would definitely rise in the future, and the slots would become fewer and fewer.
"If you have feelings for Hachiman but are too embarrassed to take the initiative, I can help you," Yamada Ryou continued.
"Tonight, you come with us. I'll tie you up and sell you to Hachiman for money. You pretend you know nothing. That way, afterward, you can even get a compensation fee and naturally join us."
"I can even give you one-tenth of the money I make selling you."
"Th-this... isn't that a bit... not very good?"
Faced with Yamada Ryou's shamelessness, even the optimistic and easygoing Kita Ikuyo could not help breaking out in a cold sweat.
'Selling myself? Th-this-this... isn't that a bit ridiculous?'
'And why will I only get one-tenth after selling myself?'
"What's not good about it? When the time comes, you just need to refuse while holding onto Hachiman tightly and not letting go. I'll handle everything else. I guarantee Hachiman will only blame me."
Yamada Ryou patted her chest forcefully, taking full responsibility for all follow-up services and making Kita Ikuyo understand just how good her service was.
"Can you let me think about it a bit more? My feelings for Hachiman-kun aren't actually that strong...", Kita Ikuyo swallowed and looked carefully at Yamada Ryou, who was sparing no effort to sell her.
'Yes, Hachiman-kun is very handsome, capable, powerful, gentle, and considerate, and he gives me a strong sense of security.'
'But liking Hachiman-kun does not mean I have to do those kinds of things with him, especially since Hachiman-kun is not only surrounded by this band, but also many other girls with special identities.'
Thinking about the last time she stayed over at Hachiman's place, and the scene of a whole group eating breakfast together in the morning, she felt a little panicked.
'With so many girls, one bite each should have been enough to eat Hachiman-kun clean, right? How is Hachiman-kun so strong and outrageous that it ended up the other way around?'
"Kita, that's not the point. The point is that we're companions! Don't you want to be friends with us for a lifetime and form a band for a lifetime?"
Looking at the stubborn Kita Ikuyo, Yamada Ryou placed both hands on her shoulders and stared straight into her eyes.
"A lifetime?"
Kita Ikuyo stared wide-eyed at Yamada Ryou, whose expression had turned serious.
'S-so heavy! How did it suddenly get so serious?'
Although she had never thought of being friends with Nijika, Bocchi, and Ryou for just a few years, hearing this so suddenly still made her heart sink.
"High school girl beauties on the surface, rock band members after school, and in reality, magical girls who save the world."
Seeing Kita Ikuyo overwhelmed by her presence, Yamada Ryou immediately took the opportunity to entice her.
"Doesn't that kind of life—OW!"
"Ryou, you're scamming people again!"
Ijichi Nijika appeared behind Yamada Ryou and angrily pulled her hand back.
"Didn't you just get some allowance from Hachiman not long ago? How are you out of money again?"
She knew Ryou's personality all too well. She was usually scummy, but scummy enough to trick a companion into selling herself to Hachiman was something she would only do if she was extremely broke.
And yet, Hachiman had just given Ryou some allowance recently, hadn't he?
Although Nijika felt that her relationship with Hachiman was not a money transaction and that she should not take that money, Ryou had not hesitated at all. Without giving her a chance to refuse, she had taken it directly.
"I'm out of money. After buying Kita's multi-string bass, I don't even have money to eat."
Yamada Ryou spread her hands, pulled out her completely empty wallet, and tearfully sneaked a glance at Kita Ikuyo.
"Huh? No money to eat?", Kita Ikuyo froze, suddenly understanding why she would only get one-tenth even though she was the one being sold.
Her current guitar was newly bought, but in fact, she had bought a guitar before and bought the wrong one, ending up with a multi-string bass.
Ryou had bought her multi-string bass, which was why she had extra money to buy a new guitar. She just had not expected that Ryou had spent all her money buying the bass and now did not even have money to eat.
"Kita, don't believe this guy. Hachiman gave you so much allowance. How could you spend it that fast? You must have wasted it again. You probably bought another bass," However, Ijichi Nijika, who knew Yamada Ryou extremely well, immediately exposed Ryou's lie and scolded her without mercy.
"Look at Bocchi-chan. She carefully saved the allowance Hachiman gave her in her piggy bank, and you can't even afford to eat."
"Mm-hm."
[T/N: Character Illustration chapter has been updated and it's very very very long. So, I can't update all the Illustrations alone so I request you all to fill them up. Thank you, have a great day~]
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