"Unnngh..." Louise moaned as she blinked her eyes open. The warm feeling of the sun on her cheeks told her that it was morning. "What...?"

Louise suddenly bolted up and looked around the room as the memories of the events of the night before returned to her. The letter opener. The blood. Her familiar.

Her familiar...?

Wait, why was Kumagawa sleeping peacefully on a pillow formed from a pile of her panties? And why was he wearing one on his head like a hat? No, Louise shook her head, forget that for a moment. More importantly, why was he still alive?

Louise climbed out of bed and stood up, noticing that she was still dressed in her Academy uniform, and that her arm, which should have been thickly coated with blood, was completely clean. Quietly, she walked over to Kumagawa's sleeping form and looked down at him.

He was definitely alive. But how? She had definitely seen him forcibly cause her to inflict a fatal injury to himself. She had felt with her own hand his brain getting pierced deeply. A fatal wound. There was no way he should still be alive.

Gulping down her fear, Louise silently knelt down beside Kumagawa and reached over to his closed right eye. But before she could open his eyelids to check, he woke up and opened them both on his own.

"[Good morning, Louise,]" he greeted her with a smile.

Louise looked into Kumagawa's eyes in bewilderment. They were there. They were both there. For a minute, the two simply stared at each other in silence.

"How are you still alive?" Louise finally said.

"[Eh? What do you mean?]" Kumagawa said quizzically. "[Of course I'm alive. Why wouldn't I be alive?]"

"B-but last night," Louise said, bewildered. "You stabbed yourself in the eye! All the way to your brain! You should be dead right now!"

Kumagawa chuckled and shook his head. "[It sounds like you just had a bad dream. After you summoned me, we returned here and you were so upset at having summoned a weakling like me that you fell right asleep. That's all that happened. Really.]"

Louise stumbled backwards unconsciously as she brought a hand to her temple in concentration.

Is that really what happened? Louise wondered. It would explain how he's still alive, and I do remember that I did felt very upset at having summoned a commoner. It's possible... Yes, there's no other way he would still be alive. That must be it for sure.

With that settled in her mind, Louise cleared her throat and once more regained her composure.

"And why are you wearing my panties on your head and using them as pillows, you dog?" Louise said authoritatively.

"[Because panties are wonderful!]" Kumagawa declared proudly. "[They are what makes the world go round. As a man, how could I not take the chance to use a panty pillow and to wear one on my head?]"

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Louise cried out. Then she sighed. "It seems you need to be punished, you dog. I'll beat that sick behavior out of you."

"[Go right ahead,]" Kumagawa smiled cheerfully.

"We'll see how long that attitude lasts," Louise growled as she went over to her desk to take out her horsewhip.

Then she froze with her arm reaching halfway out towards her desk drawer.

Wait a minute. Hadn't she had this exact same conversation before? In fact, hadn't she had it just last night? But... No. That was a dream. It was definitely just a dream. There was no way it wasn't a dream.

"[Is something wrong?]" Kumagawa asked. "[Why'd you freeze up?]"

"It's nothing," Louise whispered hoarsely. Upon noticing that she had whispered instead of speaking properly, she cleared her throat and repeated herself more loudly and clearly. "It's nothing."

Shaking the distracting thoughts out of her head, Louise finished the motion of opening the drawer and prepared to reach inside to take out her horsewhip. But when she opened the drawer, Louise's eyes went wide and she sharply sucked in a breath as she unconsciously took a fearful step backward.

There, where there should have been her horsewhip, was instead the very same letter opener from the night before, but clean and bloodless.

Louise immediately slammed the drawer shut and whirled around to face Kumagawa, who had stood up and was facing her with his hands harmlessly at his side and with his head tilted slightly downward so that the shadow of his hair covered the details of his facial features, except for his broad, eerie grin, causing it to stand out in the absence of other details.

"[What's wrong?]" Kumagawa asked. "[Weren't you going to punish me? Why aren't you taking that thing in the drawer and punishing me with it? Come on. Hurry up. Punish me, Louse.]"

"I... I changed my mind," Louise stammered. She swallowed and forced herself to remain calm. "Come on. We're leaving. You will be accompanying me to breakfast and classes. And take off my panties from your head."

-SCENE BREAK-

"[This place is pretty big,]" Kumagawa said as he let his eyes wander around the dining hall as the two of them took their seats; Louise sitting at the dining table and Kumagawa on the ground beside her.

"Yes, it is," Louise agreed, carefully making sure that her voice remained level. "This place is, after all, the prestigious Tristain Academy of Magic. No expense was spared in constructing this place."

"[Magic, huh? I wonder if that's enough to beat Anshin'in?]" Kumagawa mused, his smile, for the first time since his summoning, vanished and was replaced by a serious, thoughtful frown.

"Anshin'in? Who's that?" Louise asked, genuinely curious as to who this "Anshin'in" was. Surely he or she must be important to Kumagawa in some way if the mere thought was enough to erase his never faltering smile.

"[It's more of 'whoever' than 'who.']" Kumagawa shook his head. "[Well, don't worry about it. Anyway, magic sounds like it'd be fun to use. Can I learn too?]"

Though she did not know exactly why, Louise had a very bad feeling about laughing at Kumagawa's words right now. Thus, she instead stifled the laughter threatening to bubble out of her, and instead replied with a calm, almost emotionless tone. "No, you can't. Only nobles have the ability to use magic. And actually, magic is what determines nobility."

"[Aw, dammit,]" Kumagawa sighed disappointingly. "[I thought it would be cool to cast a few spells, but I guess nothing ever really goes my way.]"

Louise made a noncommittal shrug and began eating her breakfast. And as she ate, she began thinking. There was something very, very strange about this familiar. Even ignoring the night's events, no, the dream, Kumagawa had genuinely thought that he could learn magic. Was there any commoner in the world who actually believed that?

"Ara? Why, if it isn't Louise Valliere."

Louise turned around and upon seeing the one standing behind her, she narrowed her eyes. "Kirche," Louise spat. "What do you want?"

"My, my," Kirche smirked. "So belligerent, Louise. Can't a friend just drop by to say hello? Or is your temper control also zero?"

"Shut up," Louise snarled. "We are not friends."

"Oh, really?" Kirche said with mock disappointment. She glanced furtively at Kumagawa. "By the way, where's your familiar? I've been dying to see. You did say that you were going to summon something amazing, like a dragon or a griffin, right?"

So. That was why she was here. Louise ground her teeth together in anger. She should have expected that.

"Well?" Kirche said with a broad smirk on her face. "Where's your familiar? Or did you just not summon anything at all?"

Silently, Louise stiffly pointed at Kumagawa, who had been taking advantage of his low position and angle to peek up Kirche's skirt during their conversation.

"[Black silk lace panties,]" Kumagawa nodded approvingly. "[Nice!]"

"Pfft! That's your familiar, Louise? It doesn't look like a dragon or a griffin to me. But at least your familiar has good taste," Kirche chuckled, not even bothering to try and stop Kumagawa from peeking. She bent over slightly and reached out with her hand, palm facing upward and said with amusement, "Here, shake," as if she were talking to a dog.

With a smile, Kumagawa began reaching up to shake her hand, but in the instant before their hands made contact, Kirche suddenly withdrew her hand so fast that it moved like a blur as she simultaneously jumped back and away from Kumagawa. Furthermore, Kirche's eyes had gone wide and she was breathing rapidly as she clutched the hand she had held out with her other hand, as if to ensure that it was still there.

Louise watched Kirche with keen eyes. Did the Germanian sense something from Kumagawa?

"[Something wrong?]" Kumagawa asked, hand still reached out.

"N-no..." Kirche stammered. She glanced at Louise. "Louise. Come with me for a moment. I need to speak with you. Privately."

Normally, Louise would have ignored Kirche's request for a private conversation, but she had clearly sensed something from Kumagawa, and Louise simply had to know what it was.

"Alright," Louise said as she stood up. "Wait here, familiar."

"[Okay,]" Kumagawa said as he waved at the two departing noble girls.

Once the two of them had left the dining room to stand in the hallway, Kirche turned to Louise and immediately demanded, "Alright, Louise. Just what in name of Brimir himself did you summon?"

"What are you talking about, Kirche?" Louise said suspiciously. "Can't you see he's just a commoner?"

"I'm serious, Louise," Kirche said urgently. "When we were about to shake hands, it felt as if I was reaching into... I don't know... into a pit of darkness and despair. I would rather have chopped off my own hand than shake that thing's hand. Look, I know we don't get along, but I have good instincts, and my instincts are screaming at me that that thing you summoned is dangerous. Louise, has it done anything to you?"

Louise bit her lips as she considered telling Kirche about what happened last night. But... No. That was just a dream. Just. A. Dream.

"Great Brimir," Kirche breathed as she watched Louise internally debate with herself. "It did do something, didn't it?"

"I... I'm not sure," Louise admitted. "It was probably just a dream. There's no way it wasn't."

"Tell me," Kirche said.

Louise hesitated, but then nodded and told Kirche about what had happened, or at least what she thought had happened.

"You mean to tell me he makes you stab him through the eye and all the way to the brain, causing you to faint. And then the next day, he's not only alive, but it's as if the entire thing never even happened?" Kirche said disbelievingly.

"I know, I know," Louise sighed. "It's unbelievable. That's why I said it was probably just a dream."

"Do you think it's a dream?" Kirche asked bluntly.

"... No," Louise admitted. "Everything felt too real to be just a dream. But if it's not a dream, what else could it be? It's impossible for him to be alright otherwise."

"That would only be true if it was human," Kirche said darkly. "In any case, Louise. Be careful around that thing and watch it carefully. Okay?"

"Why are you even worried about me?" Louise asked her long-time foe curiously and without rancor. "We hate each other."

"Yeah," Kirche agreed, "but it's like how no true human could just stand by and watch another fellow human to get eaten by a demon or something. That's the kind of feeling I get from your familiar. A demon."

"[Well, that's kind of mean calling me a demon, Miss Black Lace Panties.]"

Louise and Kirche both whirled around to see Kumagawa leaning against the wall behind them. In his hand was a half-eaten loaf of bread. Despite having been insulted, he did not look the least bit angry, judging by that smile on his face. Then again, perhaps that eerie smile was a mask used to hide his emotions?

"What are you doing here?" Louise said carefully. "I told you to wait inside."

"[I got bored,]" Kumagawa shrugged and bit into the bread. "[And there's something I wanted to talk with Miss Black Lace Panties about.]"

"And what's that?" Kirche asked cautiously.

"[While black silk lace panties are nice,]" Kumagawa said seriously, "[I was thinking that you should try using black garters as well. Oh, but stay away from white. I think black is the best color for you.]"

"... I'll keep that in mind," Kirche said. "I'll see you later, Louise."

With that, Kirche quickly departed. Instead of running, however, she simply walked quickly, taking long, confident strides. Louise was reminded of the advice she had once heard from her mother long ago about dealing with powerful wild, carnivorous beasts: Do not run, because that shows weakness to a predator. Instead, walk calmly, deliberately, and in that manner, escape as quickly as possible.

Once Kirche vanished around a corner in the distance, Louise glanced obliquely at Kumagawa. "Come on," Louise said. "Class will be starting soon."

-SCENE BREAK-

A part of Louise couldn't help but feel impressed at the lengths the normally lazy students of the Academy would go to to make fun of her. Typically, Louise came to class half an hour early, if possible, so that she could grab a front row seat. In fact, she was almost always the first person in the classroom.

Today, however, the class was at least half-full, and the reason why was evident the moment Louise stepped into the classroom, for they immediately began roaring with laughter.

"It's true! The Zero summoned a commoner!" one of the students, a blond girl with ringlets named Montmorency called out.

"Oh, man, there's a limit to how much even a Zero like you can fail, Louise!" a fat boy, Malicorne, shouted.

Louise stoically bore the insults, though she visibly shook with rage and humiliation. This much was to be expected, she knew. At the very least, only half of the class had shown up, instead of the entirety of it. As she began to move down the aisles to find her own seat, she felt herself be stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Louise glanced up to look at the hand's owner, Kumagawa.

"[Hey, Louise,]" Kumagawa said without a smile. "[Why are they making fun of you?]"

"Because I summoned you, instead of a proper familiar like them," Louise said bitterly. She pointed at a group of familiars resting in the back of the room. Among them were giant snakes, cats, owls, a giant mole, and others. "Those are proper familiars."

"[Oh, really?]" Kumagawa mused. "[But that's still not very nice of them.]"

"It doesn't matter," Louise said. "Come on. I need to take a seat."

Louise led Kumagawa down the aisle, but even as they walked, her fellow peers continued throwing out insults at her, and though she tried her best to block them out, it was impossible. With every insult, she could feel another tiny piece of her chip and break away.

"You know, I wonder if Louise even actually summoned a familiar? I mean, whoever heard of a commoner being summoned?"

"Good point. Hey, Louise! Are you sure you didn't just hire a commoner to play as your familiar?"

That was the final straw. Louise stood up and whirled around and shouted at the entire class. "Shut up! Just shut up, all of you! I did do a summoning properly, but he's the only thing that came out!"

This only set them off into an even more raucous, mocking laughter, and they continued to rain down jeers upon her.

"[Louise, Louise, Louise,]" Kumagawa sighed and shook his head as he put a hand on her shoulder. "[You're doing this all wrong.]"

"What are you talking about?" Louise said bitterly.

"[If you're mad that they summoned better familiars, if they're making fun of you for summoning a bad familiar,]" Kumagawa said just loudly enough for the entire class to listen, "[the solution is simple. You just need to bring them down to your level. Yeah... For starters, how about making all of them lose their familiars?]"

That immediately silenced the entire class. All thought and feelings of anger and humiliation were suddenly forgotten for Louise. Instead, she once more remembered the night before, no, the dream, Louise corrected herself.

"And what do you mean by that?" Louise said hesitantly.

Kumagawa grinned widely, evilly, as he raised one hand into the air. "[This is what I mean.]"

The instant he snapped his fingers, all of the other familiars immediately began making loud noises. They roared, squealed, hissed, croaked, and made all manner of panicked or angry noises.

"[Hahaha! Run free my familiar brethren!]" Kumagawa shouted gleefully, as if this were one big joke to him.

The nobles in the classroom frantically tried to calm their frantic familiars, but it was no use. All of them squirmed their way free of the nobles' clutches and escaped out of the windows or into the halls, stampeding their way to freedom. And yet, despite the fact that their cherished familiars had just run away, none of the nobles had run to chase after them. Instead, they were all still in the room, staring darkly at Kumagawa.

"[And now, Louise,]" Kumagawa said, "[no one can make fun of you, because unlike them, at least you have a familiar.]"

"I..." Louise began to say, but was suddenly cut off by the angry uproar of the class.

"Zero! What the hell did your familiar just do!?" the loudest of them, a blonde boy, shouted. "He made my Verdandi run away!"

"[Ah, it's very simple. I just made the magic contracts binding those animals as familiars into nothing,]" Kumagawa answered the boy. "[Or in other words, I freed them.]"

"Freed them?" the boy spluttered angrily. "You stole our familiars away from us!"

Shouts of agreement sprung up from the rest of the students.

"[Trust me,]" Kumagawa said casually, "[if your familiar actually liked you, it would have stayed with you even after I erased the contract. The only thing you were doing was keeping your familiar as a slave. You know, when I think about it that way, your entire summoning and familiar system is kind of evil, you know that?]"

"How dare you... How dare you!" the blonde boy snarled. He was so angry, it seemed that he had become incoherent.

But none of that concerned Louise. What was concerning her was that Kumagawa had just erased the contract between mage and familiar. That was impossible to do! A familiar's contract only ends when it dies, and yet, Kumagawa had done just that. How is it that nobody else seemed to recognize the gravity of that fact? Were they too swallowed up in their anger at Kumagawa to notice or care?

"Fight me in a duel, you bastard," the boy demanded. "I, Guiche de Gramont, shall punish you for your actions!"

"[Eh. I don't wanna,]" Kumagawa said as he sat down on Louise's desk. "[Why should I duel you? None of this would have happened if you guys didn't make fun of Louise for summoning me. So it's not my fault. It's your guys' fault.]"

Every student there, save for Louise, suddenly took out their wand and pointed it directly at Kumagawa.

"Either you fight in a duel or else we'll kill you here and now," Guiche said in deadly earnest.

Kumagawa glanced around at the class and the forest of wands with a smile on his face. Then he sighed. "[Fine. I'll fight you. Let's go.]"

-SCENE BREAK-

Louise shifted uncomfortably from where she stood in the sidelines of the crowd. After Kumagawa accepted the duel, the entire class had moved to the Vestri Courtyard, an isolated place with no decorations at all, making it the perfect place for a duel. Facing each other in the courtyard was Kumagawa and Guiche.

Louise bit her lower lips and wrung her hands in front of her. On one hand, she wanted to stop this duel, but she also knew that that was impossible now. The nobles were all too angry at Kumagawa for what he did to their familiars. On the other hand, she also wanted this duel to go on because she found herself morbidly curious about whether or not the dream was truly reality. But on the third hand, even though Guiche was just a dot class earth mage, that was still far more than a normal commoner could defeat.

But the key word there was "normal." She had a feeling that Kumagawa was anything but normal.

Guiche waved his wand, which was modified to look like an artificial rose, causing a single petal to fall to the ground. When it touched the earth, a bronze golem in the shape of a female warrior of myth, complete with sword and armor, rose up.

"My name is Guiche the Bronze," Guiche declared, more out of formality than anything else. "As such, this bronze Valkyrie shall be your opponent!"

"[I'm Kumagawa the, um... Kumagawa!]" Kumagawa said in a bad attempt to match Guiche's theatrical self-introduction. "[Anyway, in manga, I should be the one to make the first move, right? So here it goes!]"

Kumagawa charged forth towards Guiche in a brave, but stupid charge. Predictably, the Valkyrie stepped in the way and intercepted Kumagawa with a powerful bronze fist slammed into his ribcage. Even from where Louise stood, she could hear the sickening crunch of breaking bones, and Kumagawa coughed up blood piteously as he fell.

"[I think you broke four or five ribs just now,]" Kumagawa commented not with anger or fear or calmness, but rather with joy. "[Let's try this again.]"

Once more, Kumagawa charged forward blindly. Once more, he was sent flying back by the Valkyrie's punch. This time, however, he had managed to raise an arm in time to guard himself. But as a result, that arm had been snapped in two, and was bending at a hideous angle, as if it were a broken twig hanging on by a mere strand.

"[Oh. Well, there goes my right arm,]" Kumagawa said as he looked at his broken limb. "[Well, like they say. Third time's the charm, right?]"

Again and again, Kumagawa charged forward to close the distance gap between him and Guiche, but each time he was sent flying back by the Valkyrie guardian, breaking another part of Kumagawa's body in the process. Yet, despite the fact that this kind of scene was exactly what those watching wanted to see, no one was excited. Instead, a sickening atmosphere was slowly taking hold in the air, and its source was clearly Kumagawa. The way he stood back up should have been almost inspiring or at the very least commendable for its bravery and stupidity. Yet it wasn't anything like that. It was simply wrong. Even Guiche was looking unnerved.

It was exactly like watching a bad dream unfold.

"[I think my collarbone is broken now. It must have pierced my lungs now,]" Kumagawa said as he stood up in a completely unnatural way. From where he was lying on the ground, he bent his legs to put his feet beneath him, and then slowly stood up, legs first. When his legs were nearly perpendicular with the ground, his back was bent backwards as if his spine was snapped, almost parallel to the ground, and his arms were moving as if they had a mind of their own. "[This will cause aftereffects for the rest of my life, I think.]"

Kumagawa wobbled his way over to Guiche, one hand reaching out to him lethargically. It was surprising that Kumagawa was even capable of walking, Louise noted in some detached corner of her mind. He had taken so much damage, it wouldn't have been surprising if he had died with just half the amount of injuries he suffered.

Perhaps it was because of that seemingly undying nature that Guiche took a hesitant step backwards.

"[Hey, where are you going?]" Kumagawa called out upon seeing Guiche retreat a step. "[Come back and play with me.]"

"U-uwaaah!" Guiche suddenly screamed and whipped his wand at Kumagawa's direction.

In response, Guiche's Valkyrie suddenly lunged forward and went on the offensive for the first time.

"Stop it!" Louise screamed even as the Valkyrie pierced through Kumagawa's heart with its sword.

"[Oh,]" Kumagawa said in surprise as he fell backwards and died.

-SCENE BREAK-

"Hello, Kumagawa. How did you die this time?"

Kumagawa blinked slowly from where he sat; a desk commonly seen in the classrooms of Japanese middle schools. Considering that the room he was in was modeled after just that, a classroom, it wasn't unusual in the least. After a moment, Kumagawa looked up. At the head of the classroom, sitting on the teacher's desk, was a very beautiful girl. She wore a sailor uniform of the sort used in many Japanese schools, but with a sleeveless white blouse with red trimmings and scarf, and a short red skirt that came down to her mid-thighs. Her legs were covered by a pair of stockings and her unusually long, voluminous hair was tied behind her by a ribbon. Written in marker on her soft slippers was the name "Anshin'in."

When Kumagawa did not respond, Anshin'in simply continued speaking.

"I have to say, Kumagawa," Anshin'in said. "Even I never expected something like this to happen to you. This place... Halkeginia. Who would have thought that a world like this could have existed?"

"[Anshin'in,]" Kumagawa simply said. There was no smile on his face. Only an expressionless gaze aimed at the one who lived within his heart, sealed away from reality by him personally. "[Please don't lie to me. It's obvious that you already knew about this world.]"

In response, Anshin'in simply smiled and shook her head. "Nope! I mean it when I say that not even I was aware that this world existed. That's because it exists in a reality completely different from our own. After all, you can't expect a character from one manga to know about the characters and events of another manga. Even in official crossovers, those are just onetime events and none of the characters remember anything about it in their own continuity."

"[Is that so?]" Kumagawa said.

"But using one of my 12 quadrillion skills, Past Recall, I already know everything about this world's history," Anshin'in said. "It's some pretty interesting stuff, you know."

"[Actually, I don't know,]" Kumagawa said bluntly. "[Because I'm not omniscient.]"

"No, no," Anshin'in laughed. "Not even I'm omniscient. All I know is what anyone else could learn, if they had enough time and resources. But anyways, don't you think you were going a little too easy on that Guiche kid? If it's you, you could have beaten him easily. Why didn't you?"

Instead of replying, Kumagawa simply stood up and began walking over to the door.

"Don't want to answer?" Anshin'in shrugged. "Well, that's fine. I think I have a pretty good idea what you were thinking. You wanted to see if magic would be good enough to beat me. Even in another world, you just don't give up trying to find someone who can defeat me, do you?"

Kumagawa paused by the door and turned his head to the side to stare at Anshin'in obliquely.

"So? What did you think about their magic?" Anshin'in said.

"[... Disappointing.]"

"Oh, really?" Anshin'in smiled. "Ah, before you go, I have one more thing to tell you. Hey, wait!"

However, instead of listening, Kumagawa simply opened the door and walked out, leaving Anshin'in alone once more in the classroom of his heart.

-SCENE BREAK-

"You killed him!" Louise screamed at Guiche. "You killed my familiar!"

"It was his fault!" Guiche yelled back, so his face was pale. "He released all of our familiars!"

"Hey, speaking of which," someone from the crowd murmured, "how did he do that? Isn't that supposed to be impossible?"

Louise felt like palming her face in frustration. Now they notice how unusual that was?

"Even so, you didn't need to kill him!" Louise argued.

"[Oi, oi, who's dead?]"

Everyone whirled around in shock. Standing there, where he should have been lying on the ground, bleeding and dead, was Kumagawa. His broken bones and bloody wounds were all healed without exception. No, that wasn't right. They weren't healed. They were simply gone, as if they never happened. Even his clothes were in the exact same condition as before the fight.

"What in Brimir's name?" Guiche breathed. "You're alive? Impossible!"

"[Alive?]" Kumagawa cocked his head and smiled. "[Of course I'm alive. I never died.]"

"You died! You definitely died!" Guiche said, his pale face becoming paler. "My Valkyrie killed you!"

Louise found herself unconsciously taking very small, shallow breaths as the blood ran cold in her body. It was happening again, just like in the dream... No. Now she knew for certain that it was not a dream. She wasn't sure how he was doing it, but she knew for certain that there never had been a dream.

"[Oh, really?]" Kumagawa said as if this was all news to him. "[But all you did was stab me in the heart. If you want to try and kill me, at least do this much.]"

Out of nowhere, a giant metal screw suddenly appeared in Kumagawa's hands. And with it, he stabbed it directly into the side of his head until its point came out on the other side. Students all around screamed in horror at Kumagawa's suicidal action, while some of the weaker stomached ones vomited in disgust.

"[This much,]" Kumagawa said as blood, bits of skull, and oozing grey matter poured down the sides of his head. "[You have to do at least this much.]"

"Founder Brimir," Guiche swore. "What are you!?"

Louise took an unconscious step backward. It was happening again. Just like last night, it was happening again.

"[I'm Kumagawa Misogi,]" Kumagawa said as the screw in his head vanished and his skull was completely restored to normal in an instant. "[A Minus.]"

"A Minus?" Guiche said. "What the he-"

But before Guiche could say anymore, Kumagawa had closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, as if the speed of his previous attempts were just a lie. When he stopped moving, it was when he was standing a few feet past Guiche, who was lying on the ground, impaled by a giant screw straight through his heart. With the blank expression of the dead, Guiche was dribbling blood out of his mouth and where the screw had impaled him.

For a moment, everyone stared in complete disbelief. Then they started screaming in panicked uproar.

"He killed Guiche!" Montmorency screamed. "Louise! Your familiar killed Guiche!"

"I... I..." Louise's eyes were wide with horror as she stared at the corpse of Guiche.

"[Killed?]" Kumagawa turned to look at Montmorency and smiled. "[What are you talking about?]"

"You killed- Eek!" Montmorency screamed again as Guiche slowly stood back up, completely unharmed.

"W-what's going on? I... I'm alive?" Guiche said in wonder as he stared at his own hands and flexed them, as if to ensure himself that he was indeed still alive. "How?"

Louise was wondering the same thing too. Coming back from the dead? Bringing someone else back? Both should be impossible. Suddenly, Louise was reminded of what Kirche had told her. Of what she thought about Kumagawa.

Demon.

Swallowing down her fear, Louise spoke. "Kumagawa, what are you?"

"[That's a strange question,]" Kumagawa smiled. "[I'm human, of course.]"

"Okay, then how did you do, well, all of that?" Louise asked. "How did you free the familiars and come back from the dead and bring Guiche back as well? Those are all impossible."

"[Hm... Should I tell you?]" Kumagawa crossed his arms and contemplated it for a moment. Then he nodded. "[Okay, I'll tell you. All I did was make the reality that you guys summoned a familiar, the reality that I was killed, and the reality that blondie there died, become nothing. Making reality become nothing. That is my Minus, All-Fiction.]"

"Impossible!" Guiche said immediately, with several other students voicing their agreement. "You cannot simply undo reality!"

Louise, on the other hand, understood that, yes, Kumagawa could. She didn't know how, but he had shown more than enough proof that he could do exactly what he said. And if not, at least do something so similar that it made telling a difference at this point all but impossible.

"[Shall I prove it?]" Kumagawa grinned wickedly. "[I could even make your ability to use magic into nothing, you know.]"

At that, Guiche, along with every other student, suddenly blanched. Whether or not Kumagawa could do as he said, none of them were willing to test it and find out. So instead, Guiche and the others immediately bolted, screaming as they ran as fast as they could out of the courtyard, leaving Kumagawa and Louise all alone.

"Can you really do that?" Louise asked once she was certain that everyone else was out of earshot range. "Take away their ability to use magic, I mean."

"[Of course,]" Kumagawa said cheerfully. "[Why? Do you want me to?]"

Louise immediately shook her head violently. "No! No! Don't take away their magic!"

"[Don't worry,]" Kumagawa smiled. "[I never intended to, of course.]"

"Really?"

"[Who knows?]" Kumagawa shrugged. "[Maybe. Maybe not.]"

"Kumagawa!" Louise said, aghast. "You mustn't do that!"

"[Why not?]" Kumagawa asked curiously. "[Why do you care? Weren't they making fun of you for being a failure? But if they can't use magic, then they can't make fun of you and everyone would be equal.]"

"No! That's wrong!" Louise shook her head, stomping her foot for emphasis. "If they're better than me, I need to work harder to catch up to them! Not bring them down to my level!"

"[... That's disappointing,]" Kumagawa sighed. "[I thought you could be a Minus, but I guess you're not.]"

"You said that term before. Minus," Louise said, deciding to change the topic to something hopefully less dangerous. "What is that?"

"[We, Minus, are the losers, the downtrodden, the weaklings, the insulted,]" Kumagawa said. "[We are the ones who experienced the worst, which allows us to do the worst. And through it all, we, Minuses, are the ones who always smile.]"

"And... you're happy with that?" Louise asked.

"[Of course!]" Kumagawa smiled.

"I see... Then, in any case, let's go back," Louise said.

As they walked back into the Academy, Louise thought again about what Kirche had said. About the true nature of Kumagawa. And she shuddered slightly, as she realized that what she had summoned might be even worse than a demon.