Aura: Koga Maryuin’s Final Battle

I got home at six.
When I reached my room and sunk into the bed, I felt like I might pass out again.
“… Harsh.”
Ryouko spared no time to drag me around school on a search. It was a hellish time.
This was too large to call a blind spot, but even after school, there were plenty of students in the middle of club activities. The sight of me being dragged around by an open cosplayer was witnessed by plenty of students. Far too quickly, I was cursing my own decision.
Of course, we didn’t find that dragon terminal thing of hers, making for nothing but embarrassment for me, the innocent dragged in. There was definitely something wrong with the world. Would we even find the dragon terminal anytime soon? I felt anxious. If we didn’t find it, it seemed likely I’d be on the road of shame a while longer.
“Ichirou, phone,” a call from downstairs.
“Phone?”
Scrambling down, I took the receiver from my mother. I’d only just begun carrying a cell phone so only Kawai and Kobayashi knew my number on it. Neither of them my friends, evidently. Crap, I’m friendless.
“Hello?”
‘Hey it’s me, it’s me, I need you to deposit an exorbitant sum into my bank account.’
I only knew one person who’d say that.
“I’m hanging up, Shimizu.”
‘Joking, joking. That’s no good, Ichirou-kun, didn’t I teach you not to snap in normal conversation?’
“… Hah? When did I do that? You’ve just got terrible timing today.”
In the darkness of my middle school era, if I were to name a single friend, it would have to be Shimizu. He was a student in another class, and the sole person who properly spoke with me even upon knowing I was being bullied. Albeit, he never went as far as to publicly help me (hey what do you think’s going to happen if I help? we wouldn’t want two bullied students on our hands, he boldly declared), but hidden at it was, he properly associated with me.
That alone was cause for celebration.
Without that sufficiency, perhaps I’d never even considered a high school debut. It wasn’t enough to say he had a large influence.
‘Are you busy?’
“No, just lying in the mud on the verge of death, contemplating my life choices.”
‘That sounds fun. How about you tell me about it.’
Shimizu’s voice bounced. He was enjoying this. He was the sort of hedonist who used the misfortune of others as fuel. I gave him a sum up. Once he’d heard it all, Shimizu sounded satisfied.
‘… Well now, that’s quite the crazy you’ve got on your hands.’
“Her aura’s amazing. She’s got to be nen user.”
‘They do say nen’s the only way to counteract nen, pff.’
He laughed at his own gag. The bastard.
“I’m not even in a pinch, it’s already over. My classmates all think I’m one of those.”
‘It’s too early in the year. The dubious equilibrium is easy to collapse.’
“I must be facing retribution for trying to join the vanguard without learning my place.”
“Well, don’t be so down. Aight, how about some advice from the great and powerful me?”
Shimizu’s advice admittedly helped me quite a bit in middle school.
“No, I’m pretty sure even you couldn’t work your way out of this one.”
‘Well say what you want. How about you start by telling me how your class is made up?’
Perhaps talking would be enough to take a load off my mind. Sitting right on the floor of the hall with the telephone, I picked out my words.
“Well first, there’s one group of nobles and…”