"Did the bullet just curve?!"
The boy running the shooting stall looked at Asakura, who was holding an air gun, in shock and exclaimed.
"…It's Gun-Kata. I used Gun-Kata."
Asakura, who cheated with "Scale", put down the air gun in his hand and said seriously.
"It really exists! Gun-Kata!"
The boy said in shock and excitement: "Can I learn it?"
Asagumo Chihaya, who was beside him, covered her mouth, revealing a cute smile.
"Wait, and hope."
Asakura patted the other party's shoulder with a serious air, and casually said with an attitude as if saying 'Little brother': "Instead of that, can I have the prize I just won?"
"Oh, okay."
Only then did the other party hurriedly walk into the stall, take out the prize that was originally hidden in the most difficult corner to shoot, and hand it to Asakura: "This was placed here by the Student Council before, saying it was related to the afternoon's activities."
"Is it okay if we take it now?"
Asakura asked.
"No problem, no problem, they didn't say it had to be given out in the afternoon. After all, besides you, senior, who knows Gun-Kata, probably few people can hit this thing."
The other party spread his hands.
Indeed, the other prizes at this stall, such as a panda doll with a somewhat silly face, a bearded doll with a somewhat silly face, and a rooster doll sticking out its tongue with a somewhat silly face, were all placed in relatively open areas where even beginners had a good chance of hitting them. Only the small paper box in Asakura's hand was just placed in a very narrow corner, which was relatively special, so he could be certain to some extent that this thing was probably one of the seven Holy Grails prepared by the Student Council.
After Asakura thanked the other party, he and Asagumo Chihaya found a corner and opened the paper box.
Inside was a thermos cup, but the cup was painted golden yellow, and the words 'Divine Monument' (with two lines drawn above it) were written in a round, somewhat cute font. Next to it, the word 'Holy Grail' was written over in a handwriting that Asakura found somewhat familiar, probably from Amakusa Shino's handwriting.
"…"
How to put it, although he knew that the Holy Grail prepared by the Student Council would certainly not be any illegal item, Asakura was still a little subtly disappointed to see that the prize was such an ordinary item.
"Eh?"
However, Asakura soon felt a slight abnormality.
"What's wrong with this cup?"
Asagumo Chihaya curiously leaned next to Asakura, the distance between them was only a hair's breadth, and Asakura could even smell the faint scent of lavender on the girl.
However, at this moment, Asakura had no thoughts of being carried away, but instead handed the thermos cup to the girl: "Chihaya, you try holding it."
The girl, following his words, took the thermos cup, which in a sense could be called an 'artwork', from Asakura's hand. However, before Asagumo Chihaya could examine it closely, cracks appeared on the stainless steel cup wall, accompanied by a grating sound that made one's teeth ache.
The sudden change made Asagumo Chihaya almost instinctively drop the thermos cup. She looked at Asakura, somewhat at a loss.
"Is this Chihaya's grip strength… so terrifying!"
Asakura pretended to shrink back.
"No, it's not!"
Asagumo Chihaya was torn between laughter and tears, and then her gaze fell on the fragmented thermos cup in her hand: "Is this really okay?"
"Don't be afraid, it's not a big problem."
Asakura stroked his chin, carefully examining the cracked thermos cup in the girl's hand: "For some reason, some ownerless magic is attached to this thing, but it itself has no magic reactions…"
Because Asagumo Chihaya still owed a large amount of magic, she absorbed that portion of magic the moment she came into contact with ownerless magic.
And because the thermos cup was saturated with magic, its internal microscopic structure had undergone some unknown changes. After the magic was drawn out, the original structure could not support its supernatural properties, so it directly cracked.
"If I had to say—" After a careful observation, Asakura came to a conclusion: "This thing is similar to the cursed camera in the society, it should also be some kind of cursed artifact."
"Did the Student Council make this?"
Asagumo Chihaya asked in confusion.
If that were true, wouldn't it mean that there were people in the Student Council who possessed extraordinary powers like them?
"Hard to say, but I'm more inclined to believe that the Student Council only obtained this by some coincidence—" Asakura shook his head: "The magic structure of this thing is quite chaotic and crude… Hmm, if I were to use code as an analogy, it's like an amateur who casually flipped through a few beginner-oriented tutorials, then randomly pieced together fragments from them, and as a result, the code inexplicably ran, and that amateur didn't even know what the code was for…"
"What was its original purpose?"
The girl looked curiously at the fragmented thermos cup in her hand and asked curiously.
After all, the cursed camera in the society could still gender-bend people. If it was a cursed item of the same type as that, it should also have similar abilities.
"Hmm, it's hard to confirm… But if I'm not mistaken, it's probably something like 'wish-granting' effect."
Asakura guessed: "It itself only possesses the nature of a 'supernatural item' and has no specific ability, but after the Student Council gave it the concept of 'a Holy Grail that grants wishes', this thing gained similar abilities."
"Can it really grant wishes?"
The girl's eyes widened, looking at the fragments in her hand in disbelief, "Is this thing that powerful?"
"How could it really grant wishes?"
Asakura waved his hand: "It's just similar to influencing probability to a certain extent, guiding things towards the direction of a 'wish'… Hmm, no, if this thing is a cursed item…"
Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly frowned.
"What's wrong? Is it bad?"
Asagumo Chihaya quickly asked.
"If it's truly a supernatural item with a magical property, then even if its effect is 'wish-granting,' it will likely lead to negative developments due to its nature… Well, it is an artifact after all—" Asakura stroked his chin, "It's even possible that it could cause some extraordinary phenomena that are difficult to explain by common sense…"
Of course, unlike a certain Holy Grail corrupted by black mud, this thing is, after all, on the same level as the cursed camera, so it shouldn't cause particularly great disasters.
"Is it like Yanami's situation?"
Asagumo Chihaya asked abruptly.
"Not that bad, not that bad…"
Yanami's incident was influenced by an otherworldly evil god. The cursed items in this world shouldn't be that dangerous no matter what.
As Asakura spoke, a sudden realization dawned on him.
There were simply too many guests at the school festival today. Even though Amakusa Shino had said before that many guests came to see the 'Mermaid Lady,' this deduction actually had a problem. After all, only a few people had heard Hitori sing at the Founders' Festival. Even if it spread later, at most it would be three or four times the number of guests at the Founders' Festival… But today, the number of guests Asakura greeted at the entrance alone was already close to ten or even nine times that of the Founders' Festival.
Could it be that the Holy Thermos Cup accepted Amakusa Shino's thought of 'hoping the school festival succeeds,' which led to the abnormal increase in the number of visitors?
If that were true, then the number of visitors, far exceeding the normal capacity, would likely put immense pressure on Soubu High School. When it reached a critical point, something bad might happen.
Not only that, Asakura now had an even more ominous conjecture.
"…Is there only one Holy Grail that has been turned into a cursed item?"
Asagumo Chihaya quietly voiced Asakura's concern.
"I don't know—" Asakura shook his head, he wasn't sure if this was the only cursed Holy Grail, or if the other six had also become supernatural items: "Sorry, Chihaya, the date might have to be paused for a bit… Please contact the others in the Magic Club and have them start helping to collect the Holy Grails. They have magic and are somewhat resistant to cursed items compared to Muggles. I'm going to find President Amakusa now."
"Understood."
Asagumo Chihaya was not sad about the cancellation of the date; on the contrary, with a rare opportunity to help Asakura, she pursed her lips, her expression serious, yet she also seemed inexplicably eager to try.
"After finding the other Holy Grails, do you need me to destroy them?"
The girl held the fragments of the thermos cup and gestured to Asakura.
Asakura pondered for a moment. Apart from himself, who possessed "Scale" and could isolate the influence of cursed items, it seemed that only Asagumo Chihaya, the magic black hole, could be considered a natural enemy of such things.
Looking at the girl's hopeful gaze, Asakura nodded: "I'll trouble you, but always prioritize your own safety… If possible, it would be even better if you could avoid causing any commotion."
"Leave it to me."
The girl's eyes were bright, and she answered with utmost seriousness.