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The Founders' Festival was a more official event, so unlike a school festival, not all students participated in the preparations. It was quite late now, and apart from a few club members and Student Council members, there were almost no students left in the school.
Relying on the small snakes hidden throughout the school to relay information, Asakura skillfully avoided the security guards and teachers with Gotō Hitori and arrived at the entrance of the Clubroom.
"Th-this is a secret base?"
Gotō Hitori looked at the Clubroom, which was openly embedded in the wall and seemed out of place with the other classrooms in the school, feeling that it was beyond her comprehension.
However, she had received so many things beyond her previous understanding recently that she had gotten used to it. In comparison, a small cabin embedded in the school wall was not as difficult to accept as those previous things, so Gotō Hitori was not too surprised, her eyes showing more curiosity than fear: "Also, isn't there a strange smell..."
"That must be the 'fantasy' scent, where the extraordinary is mixed into the ordinary."
Asakura said seriously.
"I-is that so?"
Gotō Hitori, who originally wanted to say it smelled a bit like rotten vegetable leaves, was bluffed by him.
"That's right, that's exactly it."
Asakura opened the door and led the girl into the Clubroom.
Actually, after two days of ventilation, most of the smell in the cabin had dissipated, and even staying inside wouldn't cause any problems. One would even quickly get used to the smell, and clothes wouldn't pick up too much of the strange odor.
It's worth mentioning that there were no windows in the cabin, and without the lights on, it would become quite dark. Coupled with it being evening, it appeared even dimmer.
"Oh, oh, this is my home..."
The girl suddenly felt a certain resonance with this not-so-spacious cabin and let out a sound of emotion.
"No, it's the Clubroom."
Asakura retorted.
However, after arriving at the cabin, he also relaxed quite a bit. With a gentle snap of his fingers, the cabin lit up.
Ignoring Gotō Hitori, who was covering her eyes and shouting 'I-I'm going to turn to ash!' from being blinded by the light, Asakura took out the Hoshino Ai poster he had taken from the car and pasted it on the wall—as the highest authority holder of the cabin, he didn't even need double-sided tape or thumbtacks; the cabin wall would automatically stick to the poster, and when he wanted to take it down later, he only needed a thought to make the poster lose its stickiness.
"Alright, get up quickly, you're not a vampire."
After doing all that, Asakura found the girl still rolling on the ground and couldn't help but retort.
"Oh, oh..."
The girl carefully lowered her hands, observing the furnishings in the cabin like a wary ferret, but because most of the items had been moved back home by Asakura, it looked a bit empty.
Only that rather dirty and old-looking cauldron had a somewhat magical feel to it...
"Eh, Miss Hoshino on this poster..."
Gotō Hitori's gaze finally fell on the Hoshino Ai poster Asakura had pasted on the wall.
When Asakura took out the poster earlier, the girl had also glanced at it. In her memory, the stage costume Hoshino Ai wore in the poster should have been a white-based type, but now Hoshino Ai in the poster was wearing a pink-based outfit.
Moreover, this outfit also made Gotō Hitori feel familiar: the stage costume of Hoshino Ai who had left her photograph earlier was pink.
"That's right, she's the Hoshino Ai from the previous photo."
Asakura revealed to the girl: "If processed directly with developing fluid, the same person in different paintings would also be 'different' existences, but I mixed some Hoshino Ai ashes? Residue? Forget it, anyway, it's that kind of stuff into the developing fluid, you just need to grasp the essence. So, the 'Hoshino Ai' in the photos processed with developing fluid will use this as a medium to attract and fuse with each other, assimilating into one person."
As he spoke, Asakura even picked out a daifuku from the packed box in Gotō Hitori's hand and placed it on the table in front of the poster, making an offering gesture.
"Is this an offering for Miss Hoshino?"
The girl asked curiously.
"No, it's mainly to make her crave it."
Asakura shook his head and said righteously.
"Eh? Eh? Eh?"
Gotō Hitori looked surprised.
"Too much?!"
Hoshino Ai in the poster shouted indignantly, "I protest this tyrannical behavior! Please draw a table of sweets next to the stage!"
"Where would an idol live stage have sweets drawn next to it? Give up."
Asakura flatly refused.
"Then at least a plate of fruit!"
Hoshino Ai in the painting pleaded, already wishing she could press her face to the very front of the image.
"So which idol sings and dances while eating fruit?! Be serious about the realism of the picture, otherwise the developing fluid might lose its effect."
Asakura still shook his head and refused, looking unyielding.
But it was all a lie.
How could developing fluid be so inconvenient? Let alone just drawing a plate of fruit, even drawing a giant monster might bring it to life, but Asakura didn't want Hoshino Ai to be too unrestrained and difficult to control, so he deliberately said that.
Besides that, there was also the matter of offering food to make Hoshino Ai retain a new obsession with this world, to prevent her from inexplicably vanishing into thin air due to having no attachments.
"Mi-Miss Hoshino, please listen to Asakura-kun... I-I don't want Miss Hoshino to just disappear like that either."
Gotō Hitori suddenly gathered her courage and said to Hoshino Ai.
"Well, since Bocchi-chan said so..."
Hoshino Ai could only pinch her nose and reluctantly agreed in the end.
"Hitori, stay here, I'll go borrow a guitar for you and see how your practice is coming along."
After confirming that Hitori and Hoshino Ai in the poster could communicate normally without problems, Asakura temporarily left the Clubroom.
The Light Music Club had already finished its activities by this time, so there was naturally no way to borrow from there. However, the Student Council's storage room actually had idle guitars, probably spare items prepared for some events. As Amakusa Shino's default helper, Asakura could naturally enter and exit the Student Council's storage room.
Although borrowing items from there required registration according to regulations, he was not borrowing them long-term and would return them immediately after use, totaling no more than an hour, so he didn't linger.
On the way back to the Clubroom with the guitar, Asakura suddenly remembered that he had been so busy he hadn't checked what the new system was.
So he pulled up the system page, and the text content on it had indeed been completely refreshed.
[Task: Create or contain a magic item.]
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