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The doll twitched twice.
Then, suddenly, like a large Southern cockroach, it scuttled rapidly towards Gokou Ruri on all fours.
It was so much like a cockroach that Asakura felt a shiver down his spine for a moment, and his past experience of a flying cockroach landing on his face made him unable to react for a while.
But unexpectedly, Gokou Ruri casually grabbed a nearby book, rolled it up with practiced ease, and then flattened the doll with a single whack.
The doll lay quietly on the table, as if it had lost its life again.
Asakura then smacked his lips and said, "You're quite skilled at reacting…"
"My house is quite old, and there are often insects, especially during the summer rainy season."
The girl said expressionlessly, "Compared to mice, insects that crawl around are easier to deal with."
Asakura was speechless.
Considering her old uniform, it seemed the girl's family finances were indeed quite… that.
Speaking of which, Yanami Anna also gave off a rather shabby impression.
Could it be that all the girls around him had poor financial conditions, and there were no rich ladies?
"So the Magic failed, right?" Seeing Asakura suddenly stop talking, the girl asked nonchalantly, though the hint of disappointment in her violet eyes was quite obvious to Asakura.
"No, theoretically, it should be considered a success." Asakura picked up the doll and examined it, and sure enough, he absorbed a trace of Magic from it.
"Although it wasn't quite what I expected, the 'imbuing of life' part was indeed achieved."
"Huh?" The girl looked puzzled.
"Although Magic varies greatly in effect, making a standard difficult, taking my Snake as an example: 'commanding Snakes,' 'transforming based on Snakes,' 'cursing living creatures into Snakes,' and 'cursing inanimate objects into snakes'—the difficulty of these four increases in steps."
Asakura meticulously explained his insights (gained from the Nameless Magic Book) to the girl: "I originally intended to see if you could simply manipulate the cat doll, but in reality, you directly skipped the first three steps and proceeded to imbue life into an inorganic object.
Not only that, although the final result was a bit strange, you were fundamentally 'successful'."
"I see…"
If he had said this to an ordinary girl, she would probably have been confused by Asakura's chuunibyou terminology.
But Gokou Ruri happened to be a chuunibyou girl, so not only did she not resist Asakura's somewhat obscure explanation, but she completely understood it.
She silently clenched her fists, as if cheering herself on: "I will work hard."
"No, no, no, what I mean is, it's best if you start from the first step and progress gradually."
But Asakura shook his head: "Magic that can imbue life needs to be handled with caution, otherwise, one careless mistake could create an unimaginable monster.
As far as I know (from the records of the Nameless Magic Book), there was once a magician who, due to insufficient mastery of Magic, created a fierce and cruel five-legged monster when summoning a wild bull."
The girl blinked her eyes, not refuting Asakura's statement.
So she began to try casting Magic on the doll again and again.
Whenever the spell failed, Asakura would immediately grab the doll, which was about to mutate, absorb the remaining Magic, and restore it to a normal doll.
After several attempts, regardless of the girl's mastery of Magic, Asakura felt that his ability to catch cockroaches with his bare hands seemed to have improved significantly.
Of course, he had no intention of actually testing that out.
Fortunately, the girl seemed very interested in practicing Magic and did not get tired despite the many mistakes.
After a long period of practice, the cat doll was finally able to walk slowly on the table under her control, with a shaky gait like an elderly person.
"It's a bit difficult to control it to walk…" The girl said softly, still excited, "It feels a bit light and hard to balance."
Asakura clapped his hands.
"This is good enough; the rest is just about proficiency.
In fact, I honestly didn't expect you to progress to this extent in just one day…"
This was the truth.
Although Asakura himself learned Magic directly through the Nameless Magic Book, making him instantly proficient, he could still feel the difficulty of learning Magic.
Even the simple first step, in his opinion, was no less difficult than directly learning to ride a unicycle while standing on one's head.
So, although it was a bumpy ride, the girl's ability to ride a unicycle while standing on her head in one day surprised him greatly, and also made him a little worried.
If this child mastered Magic in ten days to half a month, what excuse would he have to keep her in the Association?
Fortunately, he was naturally more optimistic (laid-back), so he would think about things he couldn't figure out tomorrow, with no need to frown.
"It's because Mr. Mage taught me well." The girl showed a cute expression, shy yet with a hint of pride.
"Still calling me Mr. Mage? Haven't you already learned my name?" Asakura teased.
"Then… Takuma."
'She's calling me by my given name right away, even though I don't mind.' Asakura thought to himself.
In Japan, it seemed only people with close relationships would call each other by their given names, but Asakura, who was Chinese in his previous life, didn't pay any mind to such things.
"Anyway, that's enough for today.
It's getting late, and Gokou, you still need to pick up your sister, right?" He took out his phone, checked the time, and said.
Seeing that Asakura didn't object to her way of addressing him, the girl's eyes seemed to brighten even more.
"Um, Takuma, you can just call me Ruri." The girl said, also taking out her phone.
"Also, to make it easier to contact each other daily, let's exchange emails and Line IDs."
"That's no problem, but Ruri, aren't you a bit too excited?" Asakura was slightly embarrassed by her enthusiastic attitude.
"Because I don't want to see Yanami senpai showing off your Line ID the next time we meet."
"You're overthinking it; my Line has nothing to show off about…" Asakura muttered speechlessly, but still exchanged contact information with the girl.
"Well then, Takuma, see you tomorrow." Gokou Ruri said softly.
"Wait a moment." Asakura called out to the girl.
The girl showed a questioning expression on her face.
"Take this." Asakura handed the cat doll phone charm to the girl.
"I bought it for you anyway.
Consider it my admission gift to you."
"Thank you, Takuma." The girl held the doll to her chest as if it were a treasure, her violet eyes gazing at Asakura: "I will cherish it for my entire life."
This made Asakura a bit embarrassed.
He scratched his face: "No, it's not that valuable…"
He wished he had chosen a more expensive and exquisite gift.
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