Chapter 24 • The Wow Day

As Yuto Amakawa settled into his chair, a classmate approached excitedly.

"Yuto, did you see the game last night?" asked the classmate, his eyes shining with the fervor of the memory. "It was incredible, a comeback in the last few minutes!"

Yuto looked at him, a little surprised by the intensity of the question, and replied with a single word: "Wow!"

The teacher, with a patient smile, intervened, trying to bring attention back to the lesson. "Yuto, could you tell us what the next step is in the equation we're solving?"

Taken aback, Yuto shook his head, still processing the change of subject, and automatically replied, "Wow!"

During the break, a friend came running up, barely containing his excitement. "Bro, you won't believe it. I got tickets to the concert of that band we like!"

Yuto, genuinely impressed, let out a heartfelt "Wow!"

Himari, observing Yuto's standard reaction to the news of the day, approached with a worried look on her face. "Yuto, you seem distant today. Is everything all right?" she asked.

Distractedly, Yuto turned to her, his expression a little confused, and said, "Wow!"

Later, during the school assembly, the principal pompously announced: "And to celebrate our centenary, we're going to have a whole week of special events!"

Yuto, listening from the back of the room, let out a muttered "Wow!"

At lunch, while he was contemplating his plate, a companion sat down next to him, showing off the new dish served in the canteen. "Looks good, huh?"

Without looking away from his own lunch, Yuto nodded and expressed his standard agreement: "Wow!"

In a church, Yuto, dressed in a suit, was waiting for the bride. Then he saw a woman in white wearing a wedding dress enter and he muttered aloud: "Wow!"

"Nooo!!!"

With a loud cry, Yuto woke up.

"Young master, keep it down, keep it down..."

Himari, standing next to him, signaled for silence.

Yuto, disoriented and still thinking about what had just happened, could only say "Wow!"

"Yuto-kun, be quiet!" said the teacher in a commanding tone.

Some of the students looked at him, laughing.

But Yuto didn't care about that at the moment.

The experience of his dream was so realistic that he didn't even know what to say, except to think: "W..."

Thinking he was going mad because he couldn't get the word "Wow!" out of his head, Yuto shook his head vigorously and almost thought again: "W..."

"Teacher, the young master isn't feeling well. I'll take him to the infirmary," Himari announced loudly.

Looking at Himari, Yuto could only think of...

"Ahhh," he let out a low moan.

"Okay," replied the teacher understandingly.

Himari bowed in thanks to the teacher and then pulled Yuto by the hand out of the classroom.

Outside, Himari looked from one to the other. Then she quickly reached out and grabbed the back of Yuto's head.

Suddenly, something jumped out of Yuto's neck before Himari could even grab it.

"Don't run away!" Himari exclaimed in surprise. "I didn't expect a 'Wow' Ayakashi to be bold enough to try to possess the young master's body..."

Come to think of it, it really was strange; she knew it shouldn't be possible. After all, even if Yuto couldn't control his power yet, that didn't change the fact that he possessed the 'Light Ferry', which should prevent an Ayakashi from influencing Yuto's mind.

However, she didn't have time to think about it. Himari ran after the Ayakashi, who was as small as a flea. She was only able to see him because of her good eyesight. Just then, she spotted Ayakashi 'Wow' trying to escape through the window.

"Damn..."

She was a step behind, but then, suddenly, a flash of light appeared.

Almost instinctively, Himari looked around for Yuto, but when she saw that he was still in the same place as before, also lost without knowing what was happening, she let out a resigned sigh.

Meanwhile, the light dimmed and a silhouette appeared in front of the window through which Ayakashi was trying to escape. A hand that seemed to be made of light reached out and soon captured Ayakashi's 'Wow' between its fingers, which soon changed color from gold to a more vivid, human tone.

"Light-sempai?!" Himari exclaimed, genuinely surprised.

"Oh, Himari-chan." Light looked in her direction.

Suddenly, a "Puff!" sound echoed as, between Light's fingers, poor Ayakashi was crushed.

"Sorry, I accidentally killed it." Light apologized. Light apologized. "Did you need this weak little Ayakashi for anything?"

"No, no, you did well, Light-senpai." Himari said. "About what you've done now, that is..."

"Mm, my power, I can control light, but don't tell anyone, okay?" Light said quietly.

Seeing her nod, serious, he laughed. "I'm kidding, it's not like I'm going out of my way to hide it. In fact, I think many people know about it, although I didn't intentionally make a point of making it known."

Somehow, she laughed a little. She felt more at ease in front of him.

Himari said her opinion: "Well, a human capable of producing so much light power would obviously attract attention wherever he went."

"That's true." Light agreed.

When she witnessed the flash of light and, if she didn't see it wrong, Light seemed to be made of light at that moment. To think that Light is made of light is somewhat ironic, but well, supposing that perhaps she hadn't seen correctly, she decided for the moment to relegate her doubts to the back of her mind.

Yuto, feeling ignored, lowered his head as he clenched his fists.

This time, he didn't even have an excuse; he's simply too weak, and ended up letting his rival solve the problem. The worst part was seeing the problem resolved so quickly and smoothly and hearing Light's words, saying that he had accidentally killed that Ayakashi by exerting a little force. Even if he wasn't trying to become strong or anything, Yuto felt inferior in some way.

"Are you all right, Yuto-kun?" Light looked in his direction, asking gently.

Himari, observing this, formed an even better impression of Light; after all, whenever Yuto saw Light, he tried to oppose him for no apparent reason.

Yuto, still in a somewhat dazed state and unable to get the word 'Wow...' out of his head, remained motionless.

Light approached him and said: "I sense something dark about you. Stay still for a moment, I'll help you get rid of it."

"Don't touch me, wow?" In the end, Yuto gritted his teeth.

Seriously... He was angrier than he'd ever felt!

"Relax, I don't even need to touch you, I'll use my light to heal you." Light said calmly.

"Yuto, let him do it!" For the first time, Himari called him by name and shouted at him.

Yuto lowered his head and bit his lower lip, but remained still.

Seizing the opportunity, Light brought his hand close to Yuto's head, and a light began to envelop the boy's body.

Yuto, who thought that Light would take the chance to take revenge, instead of feeling any pain, felt incredible comfort. Even his troubled mind began to clear, and the cursed word that had been tormenting him began to lose its hold on him.

"Done." Light asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Mm, I guess okay?" Yuto replied, not noticing anything else strange.

"Light-senpai, thank you very much for your help!" Himari thanked him, bowing towards him.

"Haha, no need to be so formal." Light waved his hand in a relaxed manner: "I'm going now that I've finished."

"I..."

Yuto wanted to say thank you, but for some reason, he simply couldn't feel gratitude.

Realizing this, Himari sighed. She was even more disappointed in Yuto.

However, because of the promise she had made, she would continue to protect Yuto as long as he still needed her protection...

After she left, a playful smile formed on Light's face.

If Yuto saw that, he would be shocked and shout, "Should I have known?!"

As for what exactly he should have known... Well, why waste time thinking about someone like him?

Light rejoiced at the system notifications as he saw his Fate and Fortune points increasing and Yuto's Fortune value decreasing.

━━━━━━━━

[You have successfully created a rift between Himari Noihara and the Chosen One of Fortune, Yuto Amakawa! Yuto Amakawa lost 30 points in Fortune value. You have received 150 Fate Points!]

[The Heroine, Himari Noihara has had a significant change in her perception of the Host. Her Fortune increased by 50 points and her Fate points by 250].

━━━━━━━━

Help me write more and read the chapters before all the regular readers!

P-atreon.com/Kiigan

(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally).

In chapters R-18, there are original and exclusive images for Patreons, they are +18 images for representation.