Tomochika was dumbfounded upon seeing her older sister floating about in her hotel room.
That alone was already strange, but on top of that her sister was currently in a different world.
"It's you… right?"
Could it be that she had been summoned as well?
Did she die and turn into a ghost?
Or had she finally acquired the mastery of floating in the air?
Tomochika viewed any explanation she could come up with as plausible; her sister, Chihara Dannoura, was just that far beyond the confines of common sense.
[Would you please not compare me to such a person!]
The voice resounded within Tomochika's head.
She may have been told not to compare the two, but Tomochika couldn't think of the voice as any other than her sister's.
"Nonono, there's no way you aren't my sister. I've got some decent confidence there's no other living being that high up on the weirdness scale, okay?"
A small but wide frame, far surpassing "plump" and entering the territory of "round," that was her sister. With even just her silhouette being enough to identify her at once, for Tomochika to mistake her was unthinkable.
[You shall call me Mokomoko Dannoura! Wife of the son of the founder of the Dannoura-Style, called the rejuvenator of the Dannoura dynasty and the guardian deity of House Dannoura; your ancestor, your ever-watchful spirit and your guardian angel!]
"Could you not cram everything into one sentence!? I can't even throw in a retort! Let's see, the son's rep, rejuvenator of the dynasty… just how badly did our family stagnate since then!?"
[Tsk tsk. Absolutely hopeless! You tried, but that was no good at all!]
"Did I just get scolded by a ghost!?"
And Tomochika realized: maybe she wasn't talking to her sister after all.
Her sister was the silly act to her straight-man act, she would never complain about the quality of Tomochika's jokes.
"So… you aren't actually my sister?"
[I'm Mokomoko Dannoura!]
"And you're here why?"
If she was her guardian angel then wasn't she supposed to stay hidden from her?
[Certainly, as your spiritual protector my role is only to stay with you and fend off evil spirits. However, with a situation this much of a mess I can hardly stay idle and watch, so I decided to actively help. But why talk while standing, feel free to set your bags aside and take a seat.]
"Um, thanks, I'll do that."
Technically Mokomoko should have just been a suspicious stranger to Tomochika, but she felt it oddly difficult to oppose her. Maybe it was due to the reminiscence to her sister, but Mokomoko didn't really give off the feeling of a stranger.
Tomochika put her bags on the floor and sat down on the bed.
"Is it fine if I ask a couple questions?"
[Ask whatever you wish!]
"Why did you wait this long to show yourself? Haven't there been several situations you could have helped out in already?"
[I was waiting for you to be alone. That youngster with you is seriously scary!]
"Youngster? Oh, Takatou-kun?"
[Right. If I showed up out of nowhere I might have been erased on the spot, so, well, I'd appreciate it if you could tell him about my existence as soon as tomorrow.]
"I can do that, but… you're a ghost, right? Can Takatou-kun even kill you?"
Yogiri's power was certainly incredible, but could it be used on something vague like a ghost? Tomochika had her doubts.
[As a decently high ranking divine spirit myself I can instinctively tell when things are trouble, and that youngster is triggering that instinct big time.]
"Hm, alright then, I'll talk with him and you should be fine. So next, what was that about coming to my help?"
[Mhm, indeed. If I were to put it like a title of one of those recently popular web novels, it would be something like {My Guardian Spirit Is the Strongest, So Even the Other World Is a Cakewalk!} ]
"I have no clue what you mean with that roundabout of an explanation!"
It was an odd way to put it for a ghost of the Heian era.
(Note: Heian era: 794-1185)
[Well, as you can gather from what I said I'm a purely spiritual entity. I can't assist you in a physical manner, so my helping will be mostly limited to spiritual protection. As a matter of fact, I've already started doing so. Remember that time with the system or whatever? I'm the one that stopped it from installing.]
"Aha! So it was you! What are you doing going around tinkering with things!"
[Oh? Did you actually want something that obscure?]
Tomochika didn't have an answer.
If the system's install had succeeded her classmates wouldn't have abandoned her, but would that really have been for the best?
[Frankly, I wouldn't recommend getting that thing. It's designed for battle, just by having it installed one's readiness to fight increases, one's fear of death decreases and one's aversion to manslaughter is numbed. You're basically turned into a battle junkie.]
"Huh… my classmates didn't look that different."
[Maybe not at first, but the change proceeds gradually. After all, only those fit for battle can survive in this world.]
"Does that mean the other ones the system didn't install for also had some kind of guardian?"
[No clue about the rest. I'm the only guardian spirit that came along to this world.]
There's no way to find out at this point, but there might have been a reason the install failed for the others.
"You said something about being the guardian deity of the Dannoura-Style earlier, but then why are you with me? Wouldn't Chihara be a better fit?"
Her older sister Chihara Dannoura was the just successor of the Dannoura-Style, so if there was someone to watch over as guardian deity then it should have been her, Tomochika thought.
[That one's no good as a successor, too weak. Which is why I need you to live on and return to our world.]
"I'd love to go home, trust me, but right now all I'm doing is rely on Takatou-kun for that, really…"
The Dannoura-Style of archery.
A style of the Heian era that combined the use of weapons and hand-to-hand combat, taught on in House Dannoura ever since, until the present day. Tomochika was familiar with it, but in a world with dragons, magic and special skills she didn't see much use in regular martial arts.
[Indeed, even if you were reasonably proficient in the Dannoura-Style, you wouldn't get very far with it. As such! I shall teach you: the True Dannoura-Style!]
Mokomoko broke into a smug laugh and Tomochika started to get a bad feeling.
＊＊＊＊＊
Tomochika's exhaustion could be read from her face when she arrived in the lobby.
"Morning. Couldn't sleep?"
Yogiri spoke with a refreshed face, the fact he had a great sleep written all over it.
"Ah, well, there were some distractions. So, what's the plan for today? Gathering information to catch up with the rest of the class?"
For now their objective was to regroup with their classmates, who were currently on the way to the royal capital, so their first step should be to investigate the routes for traveling there.
"Right, about that. I already took some measures in that regard."
"Huh? When?"
"Last night."
"Wait, did you go out and about all by yourself!?"
"Nah, nothing like that. I asked the person over there, a concierge."
Yogiri pointed to a woman in a suit on the other end of the lobby.
When Tomochika looked over there the lady made a light bow.
A flawless beauty, and without really knowing why Tomochika felt overwhelmed.
"She looked into our classmates' whereabouts, told me several ways to get there ourselves, prepared us an item that'll allow us to bypass the language barrier and even came up with a way to charge my console."
"That concierge is so capable there's nothing left for us to do!"
Almost all the problems they had been racking their brains over were solved in a single night by the stunning concierge.