Seraphim is a Bystander

A Quiet Moment

 
It’s been a ridiculously long time since the last update. Unfamiliar work really is exhausting.
"Yaaawn..."

On the way back from the school trip, a yawn slipped out on the linear train—echoing with double resonance in my head. A heavy sluggishness clung to my body like when I’d stayed up all night.
"What’s up, Aoi? You look sleepy for once."
"You're one to talk, Ken. You look pretty drowsy yourself."

"Well yeah, we were up late last night. But you went to bed early, didn’t you?"
"Ah, yeah… I guess."
Thanks to my master’s training, I usually make sure I get enough sleep, and I’m careful not to show up to school sleep-deprived. So it must have seemed unusual to Ken that I was yawning.

But… last night was a whole situation, and Seras and I ended up completely sleep-deprived. It’s been a while since I’ve felt like this—probably not since I got so wrapped up in a book that I looked up and realized it was morning.
…Huh? Now that I think about it, what does Seras do when I’m asleep? Is she sleeping too?
『I don’t actually need sleep. I do feel drowsiness because it’s shared through our link, though.』

Seras responded to my thoughts naturally, like always. Her voice in my head had surprised me that morning, but I’d already gotten used to it. Still, it’s weird… our body was asleep last night, so why do I feel this tired?
『That’s because your mind didn’t rest. You know that feeling when you go to bed and wake up instantly with no memory of sleeping—and you’re still exhausted?』
Ahh, that… Yeah, this is definitely like that. Even though our body was asleep aside from going out to defeat the Cornered Rat, my mind had been talking with Seras until morning in that space. So yeah, it doesn’t really feel like I slept.

『You can just take a nap, you know? I’ll wake you up if anything happens.』
Still… this is the end of our school trip. Wouldn’t it be a shame to sleep through it?
『I’m sure everyone else feels the same… but hey, looks like they’re all sleepy too.』

Prompted by Seras, I glanced at the rest of the group. Ken and Rei, who’d stayed up late last night, were clearly drowsy—and even Runa-chan and the others looked exhausted.
Tsubaki-san had already started nodding off. …Well, I guess that means I can nap too?
『That’s probably for the best. You’ll have a lot to do once we get home, so it’s good to rest now.』
…A lot to do? What do you mean?

I tried to follow Seras’s line of thought, but my sleep-deprived brain had already hit its limit. My awareness grew fuzzy.
『I’ll handle some of the annoying stuff for you, so just sleep easy.』
Okay then… I’ll take you up on that offer and nap a little.

『I’ll be using the body while you’re asleep. …Well then, good night, Aoi.』
…Her voice really is so soothing.
"...Sigh."

After confirming that Aoi had fallen asleep and everyone in our group had quieted down, I took control of the body. The sensory link that had previously flowed from Aoi to me now intensified, and the body subtly shifted back to a feminine one—prompting a sigh from me.
…Hair length’s fine since Aoi already keeps it long, but the face, height, and chest are just beyond my control.
I resisted the urge to curse the CEO of that black-hole corporation we call Heaven. Instead, I stroked Yuzu-chan, who was curled up on my lap, and activated the nanomachines.

"Nyaa...?"
"Well, you joining the family is kind of my fault, so I’ll handle the prep work."
"…Nya."

"Just follow my instructions, that’s all I ask."
Still curled up and grumpy on my lap, Yuzu-chan tolerated being petted as I opened the messaging app and sent messages to Ichijou-sensei and Aoi’s family.
…Hmph. Once you get used to them, nanomachines are great—you can input stuff directly with ability manipulation. Keeps my hands free.

Replies came in almost instantly on both chats. Ichijou-sensei said, “What’s all this about, all of a sudden?”, while Aoi’s father simply asked, “What’s going on?”
Just as I was composing responses to both, I felt someone approaching.
Ugh… I really don’t want anyone who knows Aoi well to see my face right now.

It’s a hassle to morph my appearance every time, so I just undid the hair tie and let my hair fall to obscure my face. Then I turned to face the window, pretending to look at the view.
"Yo, Kenta—wait, is everyone but Futaba asleep?"
Apparently, one of Kenta’s friends from another group had dropped by and spotted me. Judging by my posture and the nanomachine UI still open, he realized I was awake.

"..."
I slightly turned my head without fully revealing my face and brought a finger to my lips. That was enough—he caught on and nodded silently before walking away from our seats.
…Huh, that worked better than expected.

Feeling a bit relieved, I crafted short, easy-to-understand responses to help Aoi handle things when he woke °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° up.
Luckily, it didn’t take even ten minutes to wrap up the conversations. Checking the time, I saw we still had over an hour until we reached our hometown. …Right, didn’t Aoi bring a book he hadn’t gotten to yet?
The book Aoi had planned to read on the way home was right at the top of his bag. I opened the newly purchased book and—despite being able to understand the entire thing instantly—I chose to read it slowly, word by word, savoring every page.

Yep. Physical books really are the best. Though technically, the books in my archive are physical too.
Just as I was thinking that, a voice called out from in front of me.
"...Mmm? Huh…? Aoi-kun…? Wait, not quite?"

Runa-chan, looking dazed and still half-asleep, was staring at me.
"It’s al・right・go・ba・ck・to・sleep・for・now."
"Ahh…"

Her half-open eyes closed again, and she went back to breathing softly in her sleep. Well, she’ll probably think it was just a strange dream later.
And with that, I spent the remaining hour or so reading and managing the situation.