Itogami Island, Souther residential region…
In the living room, Wu Yan sat next to Kotori while facing a rather cute and petite girl. They were puzzled and amused by the young girl.
Kanon and Nagisa sat together as they examined the young girl with flushed and excited looks. Their eyes were filled with stars. If one listened closely, one could hear Nagisa mumbling "so cute" over and over again.
Indeed, the young girl is cute, if cuteness is a power then her cuteness is OP level.
She's wearing a kiddie white dress they just bought. She looked like she's barely 10 and her raven-black hair reached her waist. With her hair tied in curly locks, her doll-like appearance only accentuated her tender looks. It's not hard to see that she's going to grow up into a breath-taking beauty.
If this kid went strolling, many would mistake her for a very well-made doll. Aunties and uncles will swarm her.
However, the kid's not impressed, she's very annoyed by their reactions.
"Just stop, okay?"
Her tender voice carried a hint of anger.
"You guys have been gawking at me since a while ago, isn't that enough?!"
Wu Yan, Kotori, Kanon, and Nagisa shook their heads. Nagisa started shrieking like a banshee.
"Oh my gosh, I can never get tired of looking at you! You're so cute! Oh, I can do this all day!"
Kanon also nodded, her cheeks were flushed with excitement despite her saint-like temperament.
"You're really cute, Minamiya-sensei…"
This girl whose age is probably measured in single digits is Natsuki's real body.
She had a teenager's appearance and now she regressed back a few years. Aside from changes to her physical appearance, her height also decreased greatly and her voice also went higher in pitch. Her stern and cold attitude couldn't mar her cuteness.
Ignoring her speech and looks, she looked nothing like the Natsuki-sensei they knew.
Wu Yan and Kotori watched with amusement because it's just too funny for them.
Natsuki looked like a moe blob and they fought really hard to keep their laughing urges in check.
Natsuki is not happy with them.
She only regressed a few years, there shouldn't be a great change, right?
She reckons her height only decreased a bit, she didn't think their reactions were warranted given the "minor" changes.
She didn't understand, it's the aura she gave off that sparked this debacle.
Her childish voice destroyed her serious image. Nagisa and Kanon are also very ecstatic with her new look. Fortunately, Wu Yan sent Yukina out on a shopping errand to get the necessary materials for a new Prison Barrier.
Wu Yan coughed once, he can see that Natsuki's very close to losing her cool so he got down to brass tacks.
"So, you were saying something about how Tokoyogi Aya is stealing your time despite my effort?"
Natsuki snorted and she followed up with a sigh.
"It's a curse from her grimoire, even if you intervene, you were late by a few seconds. At least, I kept my memories…"
"In other words…"
Wu Yan rubbed his chin.
"Your powers were stolen?"
"Not all of it…"
Natsuki nodded, she glanced at Kanon.
"Your student helped me retain a bit of my magic power, she didn't steal all my powers…"
Natsuki silently praised Kanon's powers.
The grimoires are powerful magical artifacts, Natsuki knows, she's a witch after all.
If a witch can fight with a young vampire, that same witch with a grimoire can fight an ancient vampire.
The grimoire that took away Natsuki's time is extraordinarily powerful.
However, even when Natsuki lost almost all her powers to Aya, Kanon helped her regain part of her power.
That should have been impossible and this made Natsuki revise her attitude towards this high school girl who had incredible spiritual potency.
Kanon giggled in a bashful manner. She replied with a remorseful tone.
"But, Minamiya-sensei didn't get her powers back…"
Kanon is a Divine Angel with no offensive capabilities. Instead, she has incredible healing and purification powers.
The grimoire that took away Natsuki's time is a curse. Against a curse, Kanon's purification power shone. However, the stolen powers were no longer contained in Natsuki's body so even Kanon's incredible purification couldn't pull the stolen power back into Natsuki's body.
Kanon purified the remnant curse on Natsuki. Then, Natsuki relied on her own recovery abilities to restore a portion of her powers.
"Don't mind it too much…"
Natsuki chuckled, she didn't want Kanon to beat herself up over this.
"I lost my powers but I kept my memories. Aya wants my memory so she's going to come back sooner or later. I can get my powers back then!"
Wu Yan suddenly recalled he had a question for her.
"Right, Tokoyogi Aya said she would allow that item to remain with you for a short while longer, what was she referring to?"
Natsuki lowered her head, she mumbled with a low tone.
"Aya wants the thing within my memories, it's a grimoire called the Dark Oath Grimoire."
"Dark oath grimoire?"
Wu Yan and Kotori exchanged a look. They waited for Natsuki to explain further.
Natsuki continued with a grim look.
"It's a very dangerous grimoire with the power to change the world."
"Did you say change the world?"
Wu Yan and Kotori were stunned. Kanon and Nagisa also exchanged looks of confusion.
A grimoire that can change the world?
There's a grimoire like this?
"Trust me…"
Natsuki sighed.
"It's because the grimoire is too powerful I burned it a decade ago."
Wu Yan and Kotori connected the dots.
"With the real book gone, Aya can only access the contents of that grimoire through your memories?"
"I am afraid so…"
Natsuki closed her eyes.
"She's called the Witch of the Notaria, if she wants to, it wouldn't be hard for her to recreate the grimoire from my memories…"
They can hear the sadness in Natsuki's words. The others also lowered their heads with grave expressions.
Her friend got corrupted by power and Natsuki had to imprison her friend. Forget Aya, Natsuki is probably still dealing with that fact till now.
Wu Yan can feel Natsuki's sadness through her emotionless doll face.
"Okay, now we know Aya's plan. I say we wait for her to present herself to us."
Wu Yan suddenly brought his face very close to Natsuki's face and he winked at her.
"Before that, you wanna join me for a shower?"
