She remembered now. That night, she had been secretly practicing her ability at school when she ran into the Urban Legend Club arriving and had to choose to leave. Then, on her way home, she encountered three Reincarnators. The first Reincarnator among them had even extorted her [Updraft].
Thinking about that matter, Inoue Keiko felt incredibly wronged.
“Which one of you was the person who took my [Updraft] Ability Card?” Inoue Keiko asked.
“What?”
Hearing this, both Izumi Shirayuki and Mizuhashi Yuzuki looked like they had no idea what she was talking about.
Seeing this, Inoue Keiko recounted her encounter from that night, causing Izumi Shirayuki and Mizuhashi Yuzuki to look at each other in dismay.
“You ran into three Reincarnators that night? It seems Yuzuki and I were the latter two. Meaning there was another Reincarnator? Who could this Reincarnator be?” Izumi Shirayuki’s curiosity surged forth.
“Ruri?” Mizuhashi Yuzuki voiced her guess.
Given the current situation, Tsukiyomi Ruri was indeed the most suspicious.
Tsukiyomi Ruri, who was observing secretly, couldn’t help but feel helpless at this situation. Was she going to be exposed?
She really didn’t want to be exposed. After all, she couldn’t use the Reincarnation Space’s related functions.
For instance, what if one day Izumi Shirayuki said to her, “Ruri, there’s an item I’ve got my eye on in the Reincarnation Space, but I’m 100 Reincarnation Points short for the exchange. It’s just 100 points, can you lend them to me?”
How could Tsukiyomi Ruri handle such a problem? She couldn’t produce even a single Reincarnation Point.
There would be many similar situations. In any case, it was inconvenient for Tsukiyomi Ruri to let people know about her circumstances.
Except for a certain Ghost who already knew part of the situation.
“It might not necessarily be Ruri. Perhaps another Reincarnator happened to be passing by? So don’t easily mention Reincarnator matters to Ruri. It would be terrible if the Reincarnation Space erased her for it,” Izumi Shirayuki quickly warned.
Mizuhashi Yuzuki and Inoue Keiko nodded repeatedly.
“However, Ruri-san’s situation does need to be probed,” Izumi Shirayuki said thoughtfully. “We can think of a way to test her, to see if she’s a Reincarnator.”
“Is there a way?” Mizuhashi Yuzuki quickly asked.
“I don’t have any good ideas right now. Do you have a way to test her?” Izumi Shirayuki shook her head and asked.
Mizuhashi Yuzuki and Inoue Keiko immediately began to think.
“I might have a method here.” Not long after, Inoue Keiko raised her hand.
Izumi Shirayuki and Mizuhashi Yuzuki immediately looked at Inoue Keiko.
Suddenly being stared at by two people, Inoue Keiko couldn’t help but feel nervous and subconsciously lowered her head.
Now she also knew that these two people before her were Reincarnators even more powerful than herself. Facing the two made her even more nervous, to the point where she started stammering as soon as she opened her mouth: “I-I… have here… a… that…”
Izumi Shirayuki and Mizuhashi Yuzuki: “…”
Izumi Shirayuki patted Inoue Keiko’s shoulder and said, “Don’t panic, don’t be flustered. Have you forgotten those books I gave you to read? You need to have a bit more confidence in yourself. Confident girls are the prettiest, you know.”
Inoue Keiko took a deep breath and said, “I have an Ability Card called [Demon Head Burst]. It can coalesce a Demon head invisible to normal people. Reincarnators also need to channel energy to their eyes to see this Demon head, just like a Ghost.”
Mizuhashi Yuzuki mused, “You want to coalesce a Demon head and make it appear in front of Ruri? But would that be useful? Even Reincarnators don’t constantly channel energy to their eyes. Energy continuously being used is continuous depletion.”
When Tsukiyomi Ruri was with Leona, she always kept her eyes channeled with energy. That state’s consumption was nearly zero for her; natural recovery kept her at full capacity. But being able to do that was only because she was herself. Other Reincarnators couldn’t easily achieve that.
“I think it can definitely serve the purpose of probing her,” Izumi Shirayuki’s eyes lit up as she said.
“Why is that?” Mizuhashi Yuzuki asked, puzzled.
Izumi Shirayuki answered on Inoue Keiko’s behalf: “I’ve heard of this ability of Keiko’s before. It’s an attack ability. Even when it’s rendered invisible, because it is a means of attack, when it gets close to someone, it will naturally generate a sense of crisis in the person, leading them to detect the situation and exhibit some unusual behavior.”
“How is this ability normally used?” Mizuhashi Yuzuki asked curiously.
Inoue Keiko replied, “This ability coalesces an invisible Demon head, which then explodes when it gets close to someone to hurt them. But as Senpai said, the effect isn’t that good, because Reincarnators will basically always feel a sense of crisis.”
[Demon Head Burst] was ultimately just an N-Grade Ability Card. It easily caused people to feel a sense of crisis and thus discover it. Otherwise, an ability that relied on invisibility to get close before exploding, if it could easily ambush people, wouldn’t be just an N-Grade Ability Card.
Mizuhashi Yuzuki understood. “I see. So, if we make the Demon head approach Ruri, if Ruri is a Reincarnator, she will definitely sense something is wrong.”
Inoue Keiko nodded.
“I estimate Ruri will be coming back from the restroom soon. Let’s start right away. Keiko, it’s up to you,” Izumi Shirayuki said to Inoue Keiko.
Inoue Keiko nodded again, then began to use her ability.
Izumi Shirayuki and Mizuhashi Yuzuki immediately channeled energy to their eyes and saw a Demon head coalesce in front of Inoue Keiko. The Demon head was, of course, just a head. Its skin was pitch-black, with a single horn on its forehead, and its features were very ferocious.
Tsukiyomi Ruri, who was secretly watching this scene, breathed a sigh of relief.
‘With just this kind of method, it’s fundamentally impossible to expose me.’
Tsukiyomi Ruri did not recall The Faceless. As for her real body, she started making her way back from the direction of the restroom.
In the silent corridor, only Tsukiyomi Ruri’s solitary figure stood out.
After walking for a while, she perceived a strange sensation around her. It couldn’t be considered a sense of crisis; after all, an ability cast by a Low-Level Reincarnator using an N-Grade Ability Card couldn’t possibly harm her. But her body instinctively alerted her that something was beside her.
Tsukiyomi Ruri knew what it was. She acted as if she noticed nothing, pretending to be completely unaware, and returned to the room with a blank expression.
Inside the room, the gazes of Izumi Shirayuki and the other two fell upon Tsukiyomi Ruri, who had returned.
‘She didn’t show any abnormal reaction. It seems she’s an ordinary person. With another Reincarnator in this hospital now, I must protect Ruri and not let anyone hurt her.’
Mizuhashi Yuzuki thought to herself.
‘She seems to be an ordinary person. Meaning the person who took my [Updraft] wasn’t her. I indeed ran into an unfamiliar Reincarnator that night. With so many Reincarnators around now, I absolutely must protect an ordinary person like her.’
Inoue Keiko thought to herself.
‘Ruri is just an ordinary person, yet she’s in our club full of Reincarnators. I wonder if this is a good thing. But no matter what, the delicate Ruri will be protected by me from now on.’
Izumi Shirayuki secretly resolved.
Even without mind-reading abilities, Tsukiyomi Ruri could feel that the three people opposite her, all far weaker than herself, were secretly thinking about how they must protect her. Her feelings about this were somewhat complicated.
She, the former Demon Emperor, must surely seem very frail in the eyes of others right now.
