"..."
Futaba Rio thought seriously for a while and found that there really weren't any topics about Sakurajima Mai on campus.
Most people's understanding of Sakurajima Mai only stayed at the level of "Ah, that celebrity". As for who she was close to or what she had done recently, there really weren't any rumors at all.
Sakurajima Mai's existence was like an urban legend—everyone knew the name, but no one saw the person.
In an environment where someone in the next class breaking up and getting together with someone else could make it to the campus trending topics, this situation was truly abnormal.
"Perhaps it's just that I don't know?" Futaba Rio answered cautiously.
Her social relationships on campus were almost zero. Among her classmates, there wasn't anyone she could sit down and gossip with; they were basically just nodding acquaintances.
If a comparison had to be made, her campus relationships were just slightly better than Hikigaya's, at least no one in the class held negative views about her.
With such limited channels for obtaining campus information, it was normal to miss some hot topics.
After all, Futaba Rio wasn't the type who liked to gossip.
"Why bring this up all of a sudden?" Mai asked, puzzled.
Mai knew Shinra well. She knew he wasn't the type to make conversation just for the sake of it. He definitely had a purpose for bringing up this topic.
"Then I'll be direct. Futaba-san, do you know about Adolescence Syndrome?"
"Adolescence Syndrome?"
Hearing this term, Futaba Rio was stunned and replied, "If I remember correctly... isn't that an urban legend popular on the internet?"
"Maybe it's not a legend," Shinra looked at Mai beside him. "Would the person involved like to give a firsthand account?"
Mai frowned and stared at Shinra for a long while before sighing slowly. As if she couldn't do anything about Shinra, she said to Futaba Rio, "It's not an urban legend."
"Not an urban legend? May I ask what the basis is?" Futaba Rio didn't deny it immediately or think Shinra was joking. Instead, she seriously asked for the basis of this judgment.
Combined with the term 'person involved' that Shinra mentioned just now, could Futaba Rio understand that the so-called 'Adolescence Syndrome' had actually happened to Sakurajima Mai?
"The basis is my personal experience some time ago."
Although she didn't understand why Shinra brought this up with Futaba Rio, out of trust in Shinra, Sakurajima Mai briefly summarized her encounter from some time ago to Futaba Rio.
After listening to Sakurajima Mai's description, Futaba Rio fell into a rather long contemplation. Then she raised her head and said, "It sounds incredible. Mai-senpai, are you sure you're not cooperating with your boyfriend to play a joke on me?"
"I wouldn't joke about something like this." Mai shook her head.
"That's true." Futaba Rio nodded. From their interaction during this time, Mai gave her the impression of being a quite mature woman, not the type who liked to joke about her own experiences.
Since it wasn't a joke, it meant the experience described just now had credibility, and not a low one at that.
"However, this doesn't prove that Adolescence Syndrome actually exists."
It wasn't that Futaba Rio didn't trust Sakurajima Mai, but without experiencing it herself, it was hard for her to give a definitive judgment.
After all, this was just Sakurajima Mai's one-sided statement. It was an isolated piece of evidence, which in logic is considered a weak proposition. Moreover, the term Adolescence Syndrome inherently lacked scientific basis.
Shinra didn't argue with Futaba Rio on this issue. He just typed a line on his phone and placed it in front of Sakurajima Mai.
——Please use a colored pen to write the character 'Zheng' (正) on Futaba-san's hand.
"?"
A big question mark appeared above Sakurajima Mai's head. She didn't understand the significance of Shinra asking her to do this.
Moreover, Futaba Rio was her guest; doing so would be too rude.
Just as Sakurajima Mai was about to refuse, she heard Futaba Rio in front of her suddenly ask Shinra, "Did my coming here today disturb your alone time with Mai-senpai?"
Futaba's thought wasn't baseless. She could see how busy Sakurajima Mai was since her comeback. Now that there was finally a rare day off, an outsider like herself was in the house. How could it not be considered a disturbance?
"How could that be? I was the one who invited you." Sakurajima Mai felt Futaba Rio was overthinking. She was invited over, not coming uninvited, so how could it be called a disturbance?
However, Futaba Rio seemed not to have heard Mai's words, still keeping her gaze firmly locked on Shinra, waiting for his answer.
"Um... Futaba?" Sakurajima Mai felt this scene was somewhat familiar. She tentatively waved her hand at Futaba Rio, trying to attract her attention this way.
However, facing Sakurajima Mai's waving, Futaba Rio still had no reaction. Even when Mai used her hand to block Futaba's line of sight to Shinra, the other party didn't mean to look around her hand, still maintaining the original posture, as if her hand was just a mass of air, serving no obstruction purpose.
Sakurajima Mai: !!!
This isn't right, is it?
Sakurajima Mai's heart suddenly leaped into her throat.
Subconsciously, Sakurajima Mai cast her gaze at her boyfriend. After finding him blinking at her, her suspended heart settled down.
He can still see me.
Then Mai saw Shinra point to the phone screen again, meaning for her to do as he said.
"What... are you doing?" Futaba Rio saw Shinra not answering her for a long time, but instead constantly fiddling with his phone, which confused her greatly.
Is this the latest way to express dissatisfaction?
Shinra waited until Sakurajima Mai went back to the room to get a pen before putting away his phone and saying to Futaba Rio, "Just doing an experiment."
"Experiment?" Futaba Rio was even more confused, her beautiful eyes under the glasses full of doubt.
Experiment? What experiment? Why do an experiment out of nowhere?
"You'll know in a bit." Shinra kept her in suspense.
Mai moved quickly. After realizing something was wrong, she immediately followed Shinra's instructions and wrote a 'Zheng' character on Futaba's palm. Futaba had no reaction to this throughout the whole process.
"Now look at your palm again?" Shinra snapped his fingers.
"Palm..." Futaba Rio subconsciously did as told, finding that at some point, a 'Zheng' character written in black ink had suddenly appeared on her palm.
"Then look beside you again?" Shinra continued.
Futaba did so, and then saw Sakurajima Mai sitting beside her, holding a black pen in her hand.
Clearly, the 'Zheng' character on her hand was written by her just now.
Futaba Rio: ...
She felt she might have become a toy for this couple, but she had no evidence.
But before Futaba Rio could say anything, Mai asked first, "What are you doing?"
Mai was certain that everything that just happened had something to do with Shinra.
"Just proving to Futaba-san that what you said, Mai, is not false."
"I know, but what I want to ask is how did you do it?" Mai could understand Shinra's motive, but didn't understand how he achieved it.
Mai knew Shinra was unusual; he had previously demonstrated the ability of Emotion Perception to her. But what happened just now?
If Sakurajima Mai wasn't mistaken, the ability displayed just now was exactly the same as the Adolescence Syndrome she encountered before, right?
It was just that the former was controllable, while the latter was uncontrollable.
"Allow me to explain that later." Shinra kept her in suspense and turned to the still confused Futaba Rio.
"Now you should believe in the existence of Adolescence Syndrome, right?"
"...Although I can't quite understand it, there is indeed no better explanation at the moment."
Faced with the supernatural event that just happened, Futaba Rio had to admit that Adolescence Syndrome might really exist.
After all, having words written on her hand without noticing it couldn't be explained by just being distracted.
Moreover, Futaba Rio was certain she wasn't distracted just now; she had been talking to Shinra very seriously.
So Futaba Rio decided not to beat around the bush and directly asked the most critical question.
"So after doing all this, what exactly are you trying to say?"
"What I want to say is that Adolescence Syndrome is not an isolated case. Although it's hard to explain the principle to you, based on my observation, perhaps you will also develop related symptoms soon."
"I will also get Adolescence Syndrome?"
Futaba Rio was stunned, obviously not expecting Shinra to say this.
Mai on the side was also a bit confused by Shinra's statement. She looked at Shinra and asked seriously, "You're not joking, are you?"
"Mai, you know me. Like you, I wouldn't joke about such things." Shinra first answered Mai, then continued to say to Futaba Rio:
"Consider it a preventive shot. If something really happens later, you can come to find me. As of now, no one should understand Adolescence Syndrome better than me."
To dispel Futaba Rio's doubts, Shinra added again, "In fact, I'm not helping you for no reason. Firstly, because you are Mai's friend. Secondly, after helping you solve Adolescence Syndrome, I also have a probability of obtaining related abilities... Mm, you can understand it as my unique Adolescence Syndrome."
"I understand." Futaba Rio quickly understood what Shinra wanted to express. "If something I can't understand really happens, I will come to find you."
"Then it's settled."
Seeing the goal achieved, a smile appeared on Shinra's face, and he switched to other topics.
Perhaps worried about disturbing Shinra and Sakurajima Mai's alone time, Futaba Rio soon bid farewell. Because of what Shinra had just shown, Sakurajima Mai's mood was a bit complicated, so she didn't try to keep her much longer. After sending her downstairs and agreeing to meet next time, the girl immediately returned home.
"What exactly is going on?" Sakurajima Mai didn't beat around the bush with Shinra but directly cornered him on the sofa and asked.
"As you saw, after completely resolving your Adolescence Syndrome, I gained a similar ability. I call it 'A Leaf Obscures the Eye'." Shinra spread his hands.
"Is it dangerous?" Mai didn't care if Shinra had superpowers; she cared more about whether it was dangerous for him.
Through Emotion Perception, seeing the concern emanating from Mai that was almost tangible made Shinra feel warm inside.
Meeting the girl's concerned gaze, Shinra shook his head and said, "No."
"Really?"
"Really!"
"That's good."
After confirming Shinra wasn't lying, Sakurajima Mai let out a long breath, then looked at Shinra with suspicion. "In that case, you haven't used this ability to do anything bad, have you?"
This ability to eliminate one's presence, isn't it equivalent to 'invisibility'?
Judging from the performance just now, this ability was even more powerful than invisibility.
After all, being able to write on a palm without being discovered meant that writing on other parts probably wouldn't be discovered either.
And this was very likely not the limit of this ability. If it went a step further...
Scenes from classic Japanese adult videos that she hadn't watched but had heard of floated into Mai's mind.
"Probably... not?" Shinra answered uncertainly. Using this ability during the test of courage shouldn't count as doing something bad, right?
Acting bravely for a just cause? Not really. Shinra felt that time was more about satisfying his own thoughts.
Without superpowers, he might not have had a better way. But with superpowers, if he didn't do something, wouldn't it be a waste?
Mai narrowed her beautiful eyes. "Why use a question mark?"
Suspicion rose in her heart. Did this guy really do something bad?
Then she subconsciously tightened her legs. Did this guy do something to me... without me knowing?
No, that's not right. The internet says the first time hurts a lot. She recalled no such feeling recently. And given Shinra's character, he probably wouldn't do such a thing.
If he really wanted her, there was absolutely no need to use such means.
"Did you secretly kiss me?" Mai felt that if Shinra really used this ability to do something bad, this would be the extent of it.
Shinra widened his eyes, putting on an expression of disbelief. "How can you stain a person's innocence out of thin air?"
If he really wanted to kiss, why would he need to do it secretly? Not to mention kissing, if the other party didn't cooperate, kissing alone would be quite boring, no different from kissing pork.
Besides, if he really had that idea, it probably wouldn't be just a secret kiss.
Don't underestimate his lustful courage!
...