Chapter 82: The Beast Tamer’s Campus Life

“Are you sure no one will see you like this?” Standing at the entrance of a private girls’ elementary school named Kagurazaka Girls’ Academy, Ryuuki glanced uneasily at Feng Xue beside her.

“I told you, there’s nothing to worry about! As a member of the Nightmare Corps, I can at least manage this level of illusion!” Feng Xue waved her hand dismissively, looking completely unconcerned, her expression practically shouting “No worries!” (Incidentally, Digimon Adventure 3 was one of the few series for which I actually bought a VCD as a child; I watched the Mandarin dub, where Chibimon would always say “No worries!”—for the longest time, I thought it was Japanese for “moe big breasts” until I learned online that it was actually a Cantonese phrase!).

Feng Xue’s self-assurance was not without reason. With an innate grasp of imaginary concepts, her understanding of illusions, furthered by insights gained from the world of Naruto, far surpassed most complete forms and could even rival the likes of the ultimate-level masters within the Nightmare Corps—perhaps only the likes of the Clown Emperor could compare.

Ryuuki glanced around at the passing students and parents, noting that no one seemed to notice the “priest with a plush head” standing beside her. She decided, for now, to trust Feng Xue’s words and led her into the school.

Contrary to what one might expect, the rather tomboyish Ryuuki seemed to be quite popular at this girls’ school—was this the legendary “prince among the girls”?

Surrounded by a crowd of elementary school girls, even Ryuuki found it hard to maintain her usual aloof demeanor… or so it seemed.

Feng Xue watched as Ryuuki was drawn into the group, remaining silent while the surrounding girls chattered enthusiastically at her as if she were their confidante. A certain rumor flashed across Feng Xue’s mind: “Girls at Japanese girls’ schools are all secretly masochists!”

But all jokes aside, kids here seemed remarkably mature—Feng Xue was surprised to overhear discussions about boyfriends and makeup among elementary schoolers, forcing her to reevaluate her own mental image of Japan. (I still remember, when I was eleven, seeing Juri Kato say in an interview that she had her first love in kindergarten—my worldview shattered! For the record, since I begged my parents to buy the VCD, I watched it with my mother, and her expression at that moment was... indescribable.)

“Ryuuki’s quite popular, isn’t she?” Feng Xue leaned against Ryuuki’s desk, fixing her with a look that would irritate anyone. It wasn’t that Feng Xue was picking a fight; it was just that Chibimon’s eyes naturally looked that way, much like how Gatomon always looks like she’s glaring.

“They’re just a bunch of little girls who think they’re mature but are still childish,” Ryuuki replied in a voice far more sophisticated than her years, not realizing that, in Feng Xue’s eyes, she was just as much a child as the rest.

“Yes, yes! Lady Ryuuki is the most mature of all!” Feng Xue replied with a hint of mockery, hopping lightly onto the white fluorescent tube hanging from the ceiling and sitting atop it as if it were the most natural thing in the world—the tube didn’t even wobble.

“You—!” Ryuuki’s irritation was written all over her face, but the bell for class had already rung. No matter how annoyed she was, she couldn’t exactly shout at someone sitting on a light fixture in front of the teacher, could she?

Speaking of which, the school schedule here was really quite relaxed: classes started at nine, ended at three, and if there was no club activity, students could go straight home—this held true from elementary through high school. At most, some students joined cram schools to prepare for university entrance exams (and in any anime, if a cram school appears, it’s either the lair of the boss, or at the very least, the scene of some major plot event). However, lunch break was only half an hour, which explained the “lunch battles” so common in school manga—if you didn’t bring a packed lunch, you’d barely have enough time to buy anything, let alone eat it (vending machines and full-service cafeterias were usually reserved for exclusive boarding schools; most regular schools just didn’t have them).

Kagurazaka Girls’ Academy, while a prestigious school, was not a boarding institution, and being only an elementary school, its campus wasn’t large. Unlike the sprawling public school that Kaito and the others attended, which included both elementary and middle grades, here, if you didn’t bring lunch, your only option was to buy bread.

Incidentally, taking advantage of her illusion, Feng Xue disguised herself as a truant student, got in line before the bell, and managed to snag one of the legendary yakisoba bread rolls from the snack shop.

“The flour’s mediocre, baking time was at least twenty seconds off the mark, the sauce is a bit too sweet and doesn’t really match the savory noodles, the only redeeming feature is the yakisoba itself—undercooked, but at least they didn’t use gutter oil…” Feng Xue munched on her bread roll, muttering her critiques, completely oblivious to the angry tic throbbing on Ryuuki’s forehead.

“If you had time to queue for bread, why didn’t you get one for me too?” Ryuuki finally managed to lower her voice, not wanting to be seen as the sort of girl with “invisible friends.”

“Didn’t I make you a bento?” Feng Xue gave her a strange look. “Don’t tell me you forgot?”

“Huh?” Ryuuki blinked, then suddenly remembered. “Oh, right! I brought lunch today!”

She pulled out the handkerchief-wrapped bento box from her desk drawer, and before she could even open it, a sharp-eyed girl nearby squealed, “Ryuuki brought a bento today!”

In an instant, her desk was surrounded by classmates.

What Ryuuki did next would go down as the second biggest regret in her life—she opened the bento box, revealing a large rice ball decorated with her own face and Chibimon’s, both fashioned into a giant heart.

“So cute!” the girls squealed, while the corners of Ryuuki’s eyes twitched uncontrollably, as if there were a motor inside her head that wouldn’t stop.

“Did you make this yourself?”

“What’s this face next to yours? A clown?”

“It’s so detailed! Is this the legendary bento art?”

“It smells amazing! Even though it’s gone cold, the aroma is still incredible!”

Ryuuki felt her head fill with a cacophony of voices, embarrassment rising up within her and turning her cheeks scarlet. Glancing at the mischievous Chibimon watching from afar, Ryuuki could almost hear her saying, “Didn’t I tell you it was a love bento?”