Asakura took a breath.
He looked with some perplexity at the girl before him, whose face was flushed crimson and who could no longer meet his eyes—even though she had the courage to do something so bold just a moment ago, she now looked like a shy little girl.
Should one say that love makes people impulsive, or are girls simply such natural actors?
For a moment, Asakura, whose mind was a bit of a mess, couldn't be sure.
However, what was certain was that if they continued like this, there was a risk of things "misfiring" before they even found the lost supernatural item.
"Takuma-kun?" The girl seemed to realize something and looked at Asakura with some doubt.
"Sorry, let's stop here for today..." Asakura said decisively.
Despite usually looking like a harmless little white rabbit—while the representative animal on his side ought to be a snake—Asakura now felt like he was the prey being watched, as if he might be eaten like a spicy snack strip at any moment...
"Did I cause you trouble?" Asagumo Chihaya asked, looking a bit dejected.
"Not at all; in fact, you've been a huge help."
Asakura answered seriously.
This wasn't a lie told just to make a girl happy, but the truth.
If anyone else from the Magic Club had been with Asakura today, they wouldn't have been able to pull off that "freeloading" behavior just now. After all, so far, the only curse that touched upon the concept of "time" was the "Unidentified" on Asagumo Chihaya.
Some people might find it strange; wasn't it said that Asagumo Chihaya still owed a massive amount of mana? Theoretically, even if Asakura injected his own mana through mucosal contact, he shouldn't be able to force the activation of her curse.
And that was indeed the case. If Asakura were to provide mana replenishment to the girl in a conventional way, that mana would be unilaterally snatched by the curse inside her body to "pay off her credit."
However, there was one exception, or rather, one type of "mana": the mana Asakura drew from the "Limited Infinity" portion. For unknown reasons, he had confirmed long ago that this part of his mana couldn't be used to pay off the girl's credit; otherwise, that small debt would have been cleared long ago.
Of course, under the circumstances where the girl herself couldn't control the curse, even if Asakura injected mana she couldn't digest, it theoretically shouldn't be able to drive the curse either.
But when the mana in a witch's body accumulates to a certain point, a natural physiological phenomenon occurs—"Curse Rampage".
It isn't by the witch's will, nor does it matter if she can master the curse; it is simply a natural phenomenon that happens when two conditions are met.
However, a curse rampage is not something that can be controlled.
For example, if Asakura's curse [Snake] were to rampage, its manifestation might simply turn Asakura himself into a giant Serpent King, or it might cause people around him to undergo indiscriminate snake-ification, or more likely, like Gokou Ruri back then, it might command all snakes within a large area to gather near him...
In short, even for the same curse, the manifestation after a rampage is not exactly the same.
Asakura's attempt to make Asagumo Chihaya's curse follow his design—to forcibly skip a period of time so his "Eye of Truth" could reach a usable state—was actually quite a gamble on luck.
Fortunately, he could use exhaustive trials. Once he found the direction of the curse rampage in the girl's body differed from what he wanted, he would immediately use his own constitution to absorb her mana and stop the rampage, then replenish her again, repeating the cycle.
Regrettably, the mana absorbed this way was also returned to the "Limited Infinity" and would not remain in Asakura's body. Otherwise, by exploiting this bug, he felt he could have accumulated a massive amount of mana...
"Anyway, it's better if we split up for the next part..." Asakura added.
"Alright..." Asagumo Chihaya's expression looked a bit regretful. "So, what do you want me to do?"
"According to what the 'Eye of Truth' saw within the 'Future Sight', the one who picked up the supernatural item is a fellow named Takamatsu Tomori."
Unfortunately, Asakura's Future Sight only showed him shouting that name at that moment; he was completely in the dark regarding the specific details of that person.
But Asakura was quite satisfied.
After all, it was a free answer. Compared to the Future Sight where he shed tears of blood from forcibly activating the Eye of Truth and Asagumo Chihaya looked deathly pale from the curse rampage, having the answer now by paying only a tiny bit of mana was already a total victory.
"Takamatsu Tomori..."
Asagumo Chihaya's expression looked slightly surprised.
"You know them?"
Noticing this, Asakura hurried to ask.
"It's not a matter of knowing them or not... that child is a student here at Sobu High."
Asagumo Chihaya shook her head and said, "But her grades don't seem very good; she's part of the 'Internal Branch'."
"Internal Branch?"
"It refers to students who promoted directly from Municipal Sobu Junior High. Because the required score is much lower than for those entering from outside, they are called the 'Internal Branch'."
Asagumo Chihaya explained to Asakura: "As far as I know, that Takamatsu-san's personality is... well, she seems rather reclusive."
"..."
"Takuma-kun, why are you looking at me with that expression?"
"How should I put it..." Asakura scratched his head. "I feel like you, Chihaya, have a subtle Yukinoshita dejà vu... that girl once proudly told me she had memorized the names of every student at Sobu High."
"I don't think I've reached Yukinoshita-san's level yet."
Asagumo Chihaya shook her head with a smile. For some reason, Asakura felt the pressure behind her smile was unexpectedly strong, making him break into a cold sweat. "Besides, the reason I know about Takamatsu-san is just an accident."
"An accident?"
"You probably know about Anon and her search for a band, right, Takuma-kun?" Asagumo Chihaya asked him.
"Yeah, she wanted to join Kessoku Band before, but she gave up after being discouraged by Hitori's skill level." Asakura replied with some surprise: "I thought she had lost interest in forming a band and had completely settled down..."
"She's actually still looking, but she's given up on forming a professional band. It seems she plans to play in a band with a more relaxed attitude, and the invited members are down to ordinary classmates and friends."
Asagumo Chihaya shook her head: "And Takamatsu Tomori used to be in a band, plus she happens to be in the same class as her, so Anon went to invite her."
"The result... well, I guess I don't even need to ask."
After all, if Chihaya Anon had truly formed a band, she wouldn't always be hanging around the clubroom looking so listless.
The awkward smile on Asagumo Chihaya's face confirmed Asakura's suspicion.
Speaking of which, it feels like Anon hasn't been successful in anything she does; instead, she often experiences grand failures.
One can only say, what a tragic pink-haired girl...