According to my childhood friend, “Cheat abilities are a standard feature in reincarnation stories,” apparently.

A new friend we made after starting high school, Hojo Sumire-san from the literature club, whom Ayu described as “THE literary girl,” also mostly agreed with that idea, so I don’t really know much about it, but I figured that must be how it works.

Now then, as for my childhood friend Sakura Ayuri, who is, self-proclaimed or not, basically a reincarnator herself and will just say things like that…

“Today will be the day we investigate whether I have any cheat abilities sleeping within me! Clap clap clap~”

“You barge into my room on my day off and that’s what you’re doing?”

Today is a day off.

Ayu isn’t in any clubs, and she had come barging into my room, just like me, since I’m not in any clubs either. Maybe this is why I can’t get through my backlog of unplayed games.

“But you’re the only one who knows I’m reincarnated, Gin-chan, so I can’t do stuff like this with anyone else.”

“I only think it might be true, maybe. Also, we did the same kind of thing in middle school and we already reached a conclusion.”

“Now that we’re high school students, maybe something new sprouted! Besides, what you’re talking about is kind of normal even though I went out of my way to reincarnate… I want something more unscientific and convenient!”

“You want something convenient… if someone who really wants ‘that thing’ of yours hears you, they’ll punch you.”

Even though she hates using that thing in front of people because she doesn’t want to stand out, she still made me and Hina go through a lot because of it…

While I was thinking that, not knowing what was going on in my head, Ayu pulled something out of the bag she’d brought.

“Umm… okay, here, first this.”

“…What’s this, a notepad?”

“I thought I’d test whether I can read minds. You write down what you’re thinking right now and I’ll guess what it says, how about it?”

“I’m thinking I want you to go home because I want to play games.”

“Don’t say it! To my face, and it ruins the test too!”

Well, fine. I’ll humor her a little.

So I write something random… it’s a bit early for lunch, but I’ll just write something I suddenly felt like eating.

“Done.”

“Hmm… give me a hint!”

“You’re asking for a hint right off the bat?”

“This is testing a cheat ability that might not even exist, okay? Even if it does exist, I’d still be a beginner, so come on, come on, give me one!”

“Ugh… what I feel like eating right now.”

“Oho… hmmm…”

With that hint, Ayu narrowed her eyes and concentrated, closed them like she was trying to receive something, then pressed her fingertips to her head like she was trying to read something out.

She looked exactly like someone making pointless struggles during a test as they try to force an answer out.

“I got it! …Pasta!”

“Nope, wrong, it was shabu-shabu~”

“Luxury!”

I only said it was something I wanted to eat, not that it was what I planned to eat for lunch.

In other words, I just wrote a wish that probably won’t come true, but Ayu, as the one guessing, still looked dissatisfied and kept grumbling.

“One more time! This time… yeah, dessert! Write what you want as dessert after a meal!”

“Ehh… just give up, there’s no mind-reading cheat anyway. Also, you’re picking a theme and making the range even narrower than before.”

“One more time! One more time!”

“…Good grief.”

Fine, I’ll go along with her again.

Shabu-shabu might have been too hard, so this time I’ll write something safer, something she could even guess by luck.

“Hm… hmm?”

“Are you trying to read it off my face or the notepad? If you can read it like that, that’s not mind reading, it’s some other ability.”

“I don’t have enough hints…”

“Even though you narrowed the answers down… I’ll tell you just in case, shabu-shabu has nothing to do with this.”

I don’t know if it helps, but I’ll add another hint, yet she still tried to read my expression, so I stared right back with a look that said, hurry up and answer already.

If she won’t stop at this point, she’s not suited for mind reading in the first place.

“I got it!”

“Alright, go on.”

“Pancakes!”

“Hmm… hmm?”

“Huh, was it close?!”

“The right answer is… vanilla ice cream~”

“That’s not close at all! Why did you make that ‘kind of’ face!?”

I didn’t think it was even remotely close either, but for a second I hesitated, thinking, well, pancakes sometimes come with vanilla ice cream on top…

But if the guesser says it’s totally different, then the pancakes she imagined probably didn’t have ice cream on them, so yeah, it’s wrong.

“Anyway, that settles it, you don’t have a mind-reading cheat, Ayu.”

“…Well, whatever. Even if you could read people’s minds, that’d come with its own troubles… alright, next is this!”

“Right, it’s not a good thing… wait, next?”

“Obviously! Cheat abilities are something you can come up with endlessly depending on who’s thinking, we’re not done after testing just one thing!”

“Ehh… what a pain.”

“…And yet you’ll still go along with it, which is why I like you, Gin-chan.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Honestly, it’s fine. Teasing Ayu like this is kind of fun too.

Thinking, so this is how my day off is going to end, I faced Ayu again.

* * *

[Clairvoyance]

“Five of clubs!”

“Nope, seven of diamonds.”

* * *

[Psychokinesis]

“Mmnnnh…”

“How is it, does it look like it’ll float?”

“…Hoo! Hoo!”

“That proves lung capacity, not psychokinesis.”

* * *

[Precognition]

“If you could predict the future, you would’ve pulled a good one in that lottery the other day.”

“Okay, we’re done!”

* * *

“I’ve kind of been thinking…”

“What?”

“This isn’t testing cheat abilities, it’s testing psychic abilities, isn’t it?”

“Psychic powers are something most people can’t do either, so if you can do them, that counts as a cheat.”

“That’s way too sloppy… though yeah, like with precognition, if you had a cheat related to studying or sports, you’d notice it in everyday life.”

We spent lunchtime with me eating the pasta my parents made and Ayu eating bread she brought from home. Ayu even casually got instant consommé soup from my parents.

“After we eat, what are we doing? Still testing?”

“Hmm, I’m out of things to test… what should we do?”

You’re the one who barged in, and I was planning to play games from the start, so asking me doesn’t help.

I could play a single-player game and she’d happily watch me play, but I’m not really in that mood anymore either.

Just as we started pondering what to do next together…

Bzz! Bzz!

Ayu’s phone vibrated, like she was getting a call.

“Oh, a call.”

“From who?”

“Hmm… it’s Hotaru-chan.”

“Ugh.”

“Ugh… can I answer?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll stay quiet.”

“Thanks… hello? Hotaru-chan?”

Hotaru-senpai… Kazufuku Hotaru-senpai lives nearby, close enough to reach quickly on foot, though not as close as my house and Ayu’s.

She seems to really like us underclassmen, especially Ayu, and she looks out for us a lot, but for various reasons, I’m kind of not great with her.

“Right now? I’m at Gin-chan’s house, eating lunch while we figure out what to do next. I mean, we’re free if that’s what you mean… yeah, yeah, ah— I’ll ask Gin-chan once.”

‘Wait, does this involve me?’

“Gin-chan, Hotaru-chan is inviting us over to her place right now… do you want to go too?”

“Senpai’s house? I can guess why she invited you, but is it okay if I go too?”

“Yeah, she said she’s got some tea snacks prepared. She said you might get bored and she’s not forcing you or anything, but…”

“Huh…”

Even if I feel a bit uneasy around her, that’s just me feeling that way on my own. Hotaru-senpai’s personality is, annoyingly, really good… or is it nasty in a different sense?

Anyway, it’s her. The ‘tea snacks prepared’ thing is probably also because she predicted or checked ahead of time that Ayu would be at my place, and she likely prepared some for me too. That’s the kind of person she is.

“…Well, if she prepared something, it’d be rude to refuse… I’ll go.”

“Okay, I’ll tell her. Hello? Hotaru-chan? Gin-chan says she’ll come too… Yeah, after we finish lunch…”

There probably wasn’t anything more for me to do in this conversation, so while Ayu kept talking on the call, I went back to eating.

Since Ayu was just eating bread and I was eating pasta, mine would take longer, so I needed to hurry up and finish.

“Yeah… mhm, mhm…”

I just hope nothing annoying happens.

Thinking that, I ate my pasta while glancing at my childhood friend, who still had her bread sitting there untouched as she stayed on the phone.