Sasaki and Peeps - Volume 8 - Chapter 3.3

<The Neighbor’s POV>

After school is over for the day, I visit a classmate’s house with Robot Girl. The other students are holding a welcome party for us.

Thinking back, they suggested the same thing right after I transferred here. I remember turning them down. Ever since, I’ve been putting it off every time I’m asked, so now this welcome party is for me, too.

The venue is in a neighborhood close to school—a single-family home with a pretty large floor plan. An expensive imported car is parked in the driveway.

The parents run a small company, and the family is a little better off than most of our classmates’ families are. There’s always at least one kid like that in every grade. We go inside and set up in the living room.

Our group has about ten boys and girls in all—the same students always surrounding me at school.

There’s a pair of sofas already there, and we work together to bring in extra chairs from the dining room to create an area for ourselves. Sweets and juices line the low table in the middle of the room. The student who lives here called ahead of time and had his parents, who happened to be at home, prepare it all.

“Your hair is so pretty, Twelve.”

“Yeah! It’s hard to believe you’re really human.”

“Would it be okay if I combed it a little?”

“Don’t you think she’d look cute in pigtails?”

“Oh, for sure! I wanna see!”

“You may all do as you wish.”

Robot Girl allows the other students to do whatever they want.

Her behavior seems no different from usual to me. But judging by the way her shoulders twitch from time to time, she must be in ecstasy on the inside. Hands reach for her hair from the left and right, and she does nothing to stop them.

“Twelve, do you have a boyfriend?”

“If you do, I guess it’s a long-distance relationship now.”

“Or did he come with you to Karuizawa?”

“If he did, he’d have transferred to our school with her, silly.”

“Yeah, but what if he’s older?”

“Like an adult? No way!”

“I have no specified partner. However, the idea piques my interest.”

Robot Girl handles the conversation with our classmates flawlessly.

“You’re really pretty, Twelve. I bet a bunch of boys will want to ask you out.”

“I can tell a couple of them are starting to get ideas already.”

“But don’t let any weirdos catch you!”

“Yeah, that’s super important.”

“Like lolicon teachers who are just after your body. They’re around, you know.”

Incidentally, most of the ones surrounding her at the moment are girls. I thought she was more interested in talking with boys, but apparently girls are fine, too. As long as people are fawning over her, gender is probably trivial.

Unfortunately, that means the boys, left without anything to do, come over to me.

“I guess you’re not the new girl anymore, huh, Kurosu?”

“Don’t worry! You’re still my number one.”

“Hey, don’t try to get a jump on the rest of us. I’m on her side, too.”

“Are you and Twelve friends?”

“I’m curious about Mr. Sasaki, too.”

“Our families are friends because of our parents’ jobs. Like she said in homeroom this morning, we both moved here for similar reasons. That’s why her transfer was so close to mine.”

I give them the backstory we decided on in advance. None of it is a lie.

Apparently, mechanical life-forms can’t tell lies. If my story had any falsehoods mixed in, and one of these students discussed what I’d told them with Robot Girl, she could completely flub the conversation. So the whole fake family came together to establish a cover story.

On paper, I have a foster father, but for all intents and purposes, Futarishizuka is my guardian. My neighbor is playing Robot Girl’s father. It’s true that they’re in a business relationship, and no one can deny that we all spend time together within the framework of our fake family.

This alien is such a pain.

“Popular with the boys as usual, huh?” Abaddon chimes in with his usual banter. Conveniently for him, I can’t argue, so he can say whatever he wants. “This is called a why-choose romance, right? I know all about that stuff.”

Where on Earth did he learn something like that? I wonder.

But he’s right—that’s exactly what you’d call my current situation.

This welcome party’s attendees are the most popular boys and girls in class. Naturally, that means they’re all fairly attractive. If I were anyone else, I might have seen this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Personally, though, I’m not excited in the least.

“Can we trade contact info, Kurosu?”

“Oh, me too!”

“She exchanged info with the girls but not with the boys.”

“I’ve been waiting for a chance! Pleaaase!”

Just as Abaddon implied earlier, the boys seem even more fervent than usual. Is it because we’re outside of school?

No, it must be my imagination. And if I say something like that out loud, Abaddon will just tease me again.

“All right. You can scan this QR code here,” I say, holding out the phone Futarishizuka lent me.

A moment later, evidently overhearing my conversation with the boys, Robot Girl begins trading contact information with the girls, too. Like me, she’s using a phone she received from Futarishizuka. That woman is always so well prepared.

The welcome party continues for some time after that, without any notable issues cropping up.

The day after the staff welcome party, this new teacher headed to work bright and early.

I’d gone to sleep before I normally did, so waking up was no problem. Ms. Futarishizuka brought out her car for the commute. Peeps and Lady Elsa saw us off, and we departed from the villa, arriving at school in just fifteen minutes.

In the faculty room, I saw Ms. Mochizuki at her desk, cradling her head in her hands. It looked like she had a nasty hangover. Her expression was grim. Had she continued to drink by herself after she got home? If so, she’d still made it to work early. Impressive.

After that came morning homeroom. I stood in front of the blackboard and introduced the second transfer student in two days.

“Everyone, this is Ivy Gonzales. She’ll be joining our class starting today.”

“I’m Ivy! Hello, people of Japan!”

I’d heard this name and energetic greeting before.

Yes—it was Magical Blue.

As soon as I entered the faculty room this morning, the principal called me into his office, where Captain Mason explained that the magical girl would be joining my class and told me to look after her.

However it happened, it seemed the most effective means of placating Type Twelve was with the kind hearts of children like Miss Hoshizaki and my neighbor. Even to a layman like me, it was clear that Captain Mason’s group was now copying us, trying to wedge Magical Blue into this group.

Incidentally, she was wearing extremely normal clothing today. In her own words, she’d switched off her transformation.

Out of her magical girl form, she looked like any other European or American child. Her bright blue hair was now a calmer light brown, and she’d shed her magical girl outfit for the school-designated uniform, so she fit in perfectly with the other students.

Once they saw the cute new transfer student, everyone erupted into chatter.

“Huh? Is ‘Gonzales’ your name?”

“‘Ivy’ is a girl’s name. ‘Gonzales’ must be her last name.”

“I read on the internet once that ‘Gonzales’ is a pretty common last name in Spanish-speaking countries.”

“Gon is pretty cute, isn’t she?”

“Yeah! Gon, you’re so cute!”

“We have a similar last name in Japan, right? Goroumaru.”

“Huh? Wait, that sounds really cool.”

At first, I’d been worried whether a girl Magical Pink’s age would be able to keep up with middle-school classes. But Ivy had Captain Mason’s seal of approval, and he’d assured me it wouldn’t be an issue. Apparently, she was taught by a private tutor.

Because she was often working with the military, she wasn’t able to attend school normally. For that reason, they’d set aside time at work for her to continue her education. It was a rather bland way of doing things but more or less what I expected from their country.

According to Captain Mason, Ivy’s talent and hard work meant she already had the academic abilities of a middle-school graduate. This was a first-year class, so I doubted she’d have any trouble with international subjects like math and physics.

What I was concerned about was her language skills. After all, she couldn’t speak Japanese. Her introduction, too, had been in English.

“Miss Gonzales lived overseas until last month. She’s not very used to Japanese yet, so I want you all to help her out as much as you can. If anything important comes up, please contact me right away.”

Despite all this, Captain Mason had stuck her right into normal classes. What a monster. It just proved how eager he and his people were to get their hands on Type Twelve.

“Ivy, you’re really cute!”

“Your eyes are so pretty.”

“Two transfer students in a row? Isn’t this a little weird?”

“Who cares? The more cute girls, the better.”

“Doesn’t she seem a little short for a foreigner?”

“Good thing that lolicon teacher got arrested before she arrived.”

The class seemed to have a generally friendly disposition toward her—with one exception.

“This is bad,” muttered Type Twelve ominously. “The advantage granted me by my transfer student attribute has been diminished by the stationing of additional unforeseen personnel. If nothing is done, it is possible that I will not be able to acquire the expected soothing effect.”

“Twelve, I’d like to ask you for a favor,” I said. We couldn’t have her getting into a fight with Magical Blue. That would be catastrophic. I decided to act first and attempt to establish a more cordial relationship. “I know you just transferred in, but since you can speak English, would you look after Miss Gonzales? I hope you two transfer students can support each other. I’d like the rest of you to get along with her as well, of course.”

This was another request from Captain Mason—to help their people interact with the mechanical life-form. He was simply obeying orders from his home country, so considering my position as a bureau employee, I couldn’t exactly refuse.

From his experiences on the UFO, the captain knew that Type Twelve could speak many languages. He must have considered that when picking Magical Blue for this job.

“I see. It is possible to keep my advantage by acting alongside the target. This is not a bad idea. Father, the youngest daughter believes that instruction to be wonderful. I will act on it immediately.”

“I don’t really understand, but as long as you agree.”

Type Twelve seemed to have contemplated the matter and reached her own conclusion.

Thus, Class 1-A now contained an alien, a magical girl, a demon, and a demon’s Disciple—all taught by an otherworld magician. And scattered about the school were psychics and other members of armed organizations watching from the shadows.

This school is terrifying…