Chapter 195: A Decision Made.

"The one who was in my house wasn’t Stella."

There was silence in the room after Noah’s revelation, to which Hikari slightly widened her eyes.

"What?"

Noah looked at all of them.

"The person who went to my house had her face."

Luna spoke.

"An illusion?"

"I don’t know."

"Transformation?"

"I’m not sure."

"A clone?"

"I can’t say for certain."

Iris put away her phone, and that alone was enough to show she was paying complete attention.

Noah continued.

"She was identical."

He looked at Hikari as he kept speaking.

"Voice, face, body, everything."

Hikari frowned.

"How did you figure out it wasn’t her?"

Noah hesitated, since he couldn’t tell them exactly what the Great Mother had said about his previous life, not yet.

"She didn’t talk like her."

Aria watched him.

"That seems insufficient to say it wasn’t her."

"Afterward she told me things the real Stella couldn’t know."

"What things?"

Ren asked, and Noah shook his head.

"That’s not important right now."

Aria looked like she wanted to press further, but Luna spoke first.

"Who was it?"

Noah stayed silent, then answered.

"The Great Mother."

Everyone’s expression changed, and Yume was the first to react.

"What?"

Luna took a step toward him.

"The Great Mother was inside your house?"

"Yes."

"With your family?"

"That’s right."

Luna clenched her hands while Aria uncrossed her arms.

"Are you completely sure?"

"She told me herself."

Iris asked.

"Why?"

"I don’t know."

"Did she attack you?"

Noah thought about it.

"More or less."

Yume approached.

"What does more or less mean?"

"I tried to activate an ability."

Noah raised a hand.

"But I didn’t have time."

Luna frowned.

"What did she do?"

"She moved right up to me before I could react."

"And then?"

"She told me to rest."

Ren blinked.

"That sounds..."

"Yeah."

Noah sighed.

"I lost consciousness."

Yume’s eyes went wide.

"What!?"

"When I woke up, hours had already passed."

Luna spoke immediately.

"Did you check yourself?"

"I’m fine."

"That’s not enough."

"Luna."

"I’ll check you later."

Noah decided not to argue, at which Aria brought a hand to her chin.

"There’s something worse, right?"

Noah looked at her.

"That’s right."

Aria swept her gaze over the group.

"From what you said, she can take on the appearance of other people."

The atmosphere shifted, and Noah nodded.

"That’s exactly why I gathered you all here."

Yume looked at Luna, Luna looked at Yume, Iris looked at Ren, and Ren took a slight step back.

"Why are you looking at me?"

Iris answered.

"I have to verify you’re not her."

"Don’t do that."

Aria spoke.

"We need a system."

Hikari nodded.

"Some way to confirm identities."

"Passwords."

Yume proposed, but Iris shook her head.

"She can overhear them."

"Personal questions."

Ren said, to which Hikari responded.

"If she has access to memories or information, those wouldn’t work either."

Noah stayed still because that was precisely the problem, he didn’t know how much the Great Mother knew about them.

Luna spoke.

"We can check magical energy."

Aria looked at her.

"Does each of us have a distinct signature?"

"Exactly."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure enough to recognize them if I’m focused."

Noah thought.

"That could work."

Iris pointed at Noah.

"He doesn’t have the same energy as us."

"But I have abilities."

"He could also learn to recognize them."

Luna nodded.

"I’ll teach you."

Yume raised a hand.

"Why don’t we do something simpler?"

Everyone looked at her.

"If anyone starts acting too weird, we don’t trust them."

Iris observed her.

"That eliminates almost all of us."

Ren let out a fond little laugh, and Yume frowned.

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know."

Noah raised his hands.

"The point is you all need to be careful."

He looked at all of them.

"If any of us shows up unexpectedly, don’t automatically assume it’s who they appear to be."

Hikari corrected.

"Us."

Noah looked at her.

"What?"

"You said any of us."

Noah fell silent, and Yume smiled.

"You’re including yourself already."

"It wasn’t the time."

Iris glanced back at her phone.

"That was funny."

Noah sighed.

"As I was saying..."

He regained his seriousness.

"We don’t know what the Great Mother is after."

Luna spoke.

"But she was interested in Stella."

Noah nodded, so he took out the magical object again, and they all recognized it.

Yume’s eyes widened.

"Is that for her?"

"That’s right."

Aria observed the brooch.

"When did it appear?"

"Today, a little over an hour ago."

Noah breathed a sigh of relief again just thinking about it.

"And I’m really grateful it was today."

Ren understood.

"If it had appeared yesterday..."

"The Great Mother might have seen it, right?"

Hikari finished the sentence, and Noah nodded.

"That’s exactly why I’m so relieved."

The group fell silent, since the risk was obvious, so Iris spoke.

"Then she already knows Stella is going to be a magical girl."

"Probably yes."

"Before you?"

"I’m surprised by that too."

Aria frowned.

"That raises several questions."

"More like way too many questions."

Noah answered while Luna looked at the brooch.

"So what’s the plan then?"

Noah looked at the object, knowing that was the question, since before he had wanted to be careful in order to try to create a natural relationship between Hikari and Stella.

He had wanted them to meet, to become friends, for everything to progress in a way similar to the anime, but now the Great Mother was involved.

They could no longer spend weeks arranging meetings, and they couldn’t wait for Stella to gradually trust Hikari.

Much less if the enemy organization was already watching her, and while the Great Mother herself had used her face to deceive him.

Noah carefully put the brooch away.

"I’m going to talk to Stella directly."

Hikari looked at him.

"Directly?"

"That’s right."

Noah stood up.

"There’s no time for casual encounters, or trying to bring them together slowly, or pretending we don’t know anything."

Yume asked.

"Are you going to tell her everything?"

"What she needs to know."

Luna nodded.

"That’s the safest."

Hikari stayed thinking, and Noah looked at her.

"I’m sorry."

She lifted her gaze.

"Why?"

"Because this wasn’t the plan."

Hikari fell silent, to which Noah continued.

"We wanted you to be able to approach her first."

"It’s fine, that doesn’t matter anymore."

"Hikari..."

She shook her head.

"If Stella is in danger, the original plan stopped being the priority."

Noah smiled slightly.

"Thanks for understanding."

Hikari adjusted her glasses.

"Besides..."

"What?"

"After she becomes a magical girl, I’ll have more chances to talk to her."

Noah smiled a little more.

"That’s true."

Yume raised a hand.

"Are we going with you?"

Noah shook his head.

"I’ll talk to her alone first."

Luna frowned.

"I won’t allow that."

Noah looked at her.

"Luna."

"The Great Mother is nearby."

"Precisely because of that, I don’t want all of you to show up together and draw attention."

Aria intervened.

"That makes some sense."

Luna looked at her, and Aria continued.

"But there should be nearby support."

Noah thought.

"Alright."

He looked at the group.

"Stay available in case something unexpected happens."

Yume crossed her arms.

"If you don’t answer..."

"Then come look for me."

"We’ll do it immediately."

"Yeah, that’s best."

Luna added.

"And keep some ability active."

"I’ll try."

"Noah, I’m serious."

"Yes, I will."

That seemed to satisfy her a little.

Suddenly, the signal indicating that recess was about to end rang, so Noah checked the time.

He still had classes, but he had already made a decision: he wasn’t going to wait too long, since Stella needed to receive that object as soon as possible.

If the Great Mother already knew she would be chosen, every hour that passed without powers could be a risk.

The rest of the day dragged on far too slowly for Noah, who could barely concentrate, and when classes finally ended, he packed his things immediately to go look for Stella.

Iris watched him from the seat next to his.

"Are you going to look for her already?"

"Yes, I’m going right now."

"Then be careful."

Noah looked at her while Iris continued using her phone as if she hadn’t said anything, to which Noah smiled.

"I’ll be careful, don’t worry."

He left the classroom and checked a few places where he had seen Stella before, like the main building, the nearby classrooms, all the way to the area where he had found her hiding during recess, but nothing.

He took out his phone while making sure he still had the brooch stored away.

He saw that he had several messages from the group: Yume asking where he was, Luna reminding him to check in every so often, Aria offering to use student council contacts to locate Stella, and Hikari asking if he needed help.

Noah replied quickly to calm them all down.

[Relax, I’m still looking for her.]

He put the phone away and looked down the hallway.

’Alright.’

This time he wasn’t going to try to control how a relationship developed; he just needed to find Stella, tell her the truth, and hand her the object.

With that, he would turn her into a magical girl before the Great Mother made her next move.

Noah started walking.

"First I have to find her no matter what."

And so he began searching for Stella Lumina all over the high school.