A supporting character in a romance anime? I became a god using a rat talisman.

Kasumigaoka Utaha, Kato Megumi, and a few other girls walked at the very back.

"This snowstorm...it's really not normal."

Kasumigaoka Utaha wiped the snowflakes from her face with the back of her gloved hand.

"Even the blizzards in Hokkaido don't cause such an unreasonable drop in temperature."

"Utaha-senpai, this isn't the time to discuss whether the weather is unusual or not..." Kato Megumi's voice sounded somewhat ethereal in the wind, "If we don't hurry up, we might turn into snowmen."

"It's just ahead! We'll be at the back door soon!"

Yukino Yukinoshita, panting heavily, pointed to a street lamp a dozen meters away.

But at that moment, the wind suddenly picked up.

A sudden gust of wind swept past from the side without warning, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound.

The person at the front, Yukinoshita, looked back and suddenly shouted.

"Watch out! Yuihama-san! Urushihara-san!"

Along the roadside, the old iron lampposts were torn apart by the strong wind, and the base of one of them made a sickening metallic cracking sound.

The lamppost tilted, casting a massive shadow like a collapsing stone pillar, crashing down directly onto Yui and Michiyo's heads.

"Huh?"

Yui subconsciously raised her head and her eyes widened instantly, her pupils reflecting the rapidly enlarging iron bar.

Michiyo also stopped in her tracks.

Time seemed to slow down at that moment.

Yui could even hear the screams coming from the girl next to her.

She instinctively closed her eyes, curled up into a ball, and waited for the excruciating pain to begin.

The standard human reaction when faced with certain death is an adrenaline rush followed by complete loss of control of the limbs.

call--

However, the expected heavy blow did not come.

Instead, there was a deafening thud, followed by a strong gust of air that swept between the two women, causing their skirts to flutter.

Everything happened too fast.

When Yui opened her tightly closed eyes again, the expected excruciating pain did not come.

She only saw a gust of wind howling in from the exact opposite direction of the blizzard, crashing into the falling iron pole with a brutal force that defied Newtonian mechanics, sending the heavy metal rod, weighing several tens of kilograms, flying.

The iron pole tumbled twice in the air before crashing into a snowdrift by the roadside.

All the girls stood frozen in place, their minds completely unable to process the surreal scene before them.

Yui and Michiyo's legs went weak, and they collapsed onto the snow, panting heavily.

Then their gazes simultaneously fell upon the narrow, snow-covered path ahead, torn open by the strong winds.

In that vast expanse of white mist, a blurry figure dressed in black could be vaguely seen moving rapidly away, soon disappearing into the wind and snow, until nothing could be seen at all.

"Yui! Michiyo! Are you alright?!"

Yukino threw down the blanket she was holding and ran over in a few steps.

Her movements were unusually unrefined, and her usually icy face was now filled with tension and worry.

A pair of fair hands quickly examined Yui and Michiyo, while a barrage of questions followed:

"Are you injured? Where does it hurt? Can you move?"

"N-nothing...it's nothing." Yui shook her head, still shaken. "What...what just happened? How did that lamppost fly off by itself?"

I'm fine too.

Michiyo reacted a little faster than Yui; she had already started remaking the blankets, but her movements were clearly distracted. "Thank goodness for that gust of wind."

"This is outrageous!"

Kasumigaoka Utaha appeared beside them at some point, her tone as if she were analyzing foreshadowing in a suspense novel.

"The wind has been blowing from north to south the whole way here, and it was only when the prevailing wind was blowing from this direction that the iron pole fell down."

"How could a strong gust of wind suddenly appear out of nowhere and blow the iron pole away? This completely defies the laws of physics. I feel like Newton must be turning in his grave."

As Yukino listened to Utaha's analysis, she glanced at the distant snow curtain following the wind direction.

A name flashed through her mind, but she quickly suppressed the thought.

impossible.

That person should be searching for supplies at the resort right now, why is he here?

"I don't know. Since you're not injured, let's go back first and talk about it then."

Yukino took the first step, her tone returning to its usual indifference.

"The weather is already quite unusual; it might be some kind of localized air current collision. Anyway, standing here discussing this will only freeze us to death."

Kasumigaoka Utaha stared at Yukino for a few seconds. Her intuition told her that the second young lady of the Yukinoshita family seemed to be hiding something, but in this environment where people could freeze to death at any moment, it was obviously not a wise move to investigate further.

"Okay. Maybe it's because I've written too many novels that I see conspiracy in everything I read."

The girls grabbed their blankets again and quickened their pace toward the dormitory building.

At the very back of the group, Yui and Michiyo walked side by side, their heads close together, their voices huddled in hushed tones.

"Hey, Michiyo. Just now... you saw it too, right? That figure from behind."

"Ah."

"That figure from behind..."

Yui bit her lip, seemingly trying to confirm her memories.

"Although I can't see very clearly through the wind and snow, I feel like... he looks familiar. He looks a bit like... someone."

It's more than just familiar.

Michiyo chuckled inwardly, then gave Yui a flawless, sweet smile.

"Yuihama-san, sometimes intuition is a girl's strongest weapon."

She did not say the name.

But in the secret glance they exchanged, the answer was already clear.

Chapter 120 Xiao Ke

After rescuing Yui and the others, Kazama Chiba refocused her attention on finding the Clow Cards.

However, in this snow-covered forest, he wandered around like a headless fly for almost half an hour.

Aside from the increasingly thick icicles forming on his eyelashes, he couldn't even see a single Clow Card.

This godforsaken place is filled with unknown magic, like interference signals. How can I find the Clow Cards in this chaotic pot of magic?

The difficulty level is roughly the same as "finding a specific grain of sand on a beach".

Chiyu rubbed his temples in frustration. After casually killing a wild bear that had appeared out of nowhere, he decided to stop this foolish waste of energy.

Continuing to wander around aimlessly is just a waste of time and energy.

He needs someone knowledgeable, someone who can help him analyze the current situation and give him professional advice.

The ideal candidate is of course Xiao Ke.

The problem is, that fluffy chatterbox has disappeared somewhere and can't be contacted.

But it's okay.

Who said there can only be one guardian beast?

He has illusion cards, rat talismans, and Xiao Ke's complete image data stored in his mind.

In that case, why not just build one directly?

Without hesitation, Qianyu found a relatively sheltered spot and then used the Illusion Card to create a phantom image of Xiao Ke.

Its orange-yellow fur, round body, and slightly comical little wings on its back are all perfectly recreated.

But this is just an illusion, without any physical form or consciousness. It is merely a mass of light and shadow shaped by magic, and it is completely different from the real Xiao Ke.

Now comes the main event.

Qianyu narrowed her eyes slightly and unhesitatingly pressed the magic of the rat talisman into the illusion.

The edges of light and shadow begin to materialize, and that illusory luster is gradually replaced by the realistic texture of fur.

Its round little eyes blinked, becoming bright and alert, and its two wings flapped twice, creating visible airflow disturbances.

Successful.

A brand new, freshly baked, and still warm little creature was thus sculpted from nothingness by Qianyu.

"Whoa—!"

"It's so cold! I'm freezing!"

The little creature, which had just gained life, shivered violently in mid-air, frantically rubbing its arms with its two short little hands. Then it looked around at the icy snow with a blank expression.

"Where am I? Why is it snowing so heavily?! Where's Sakura? Where did Sakura go? What am I doing in a place like this?"

The familiar Kansai accent, the familiar talkative nature.

However, it seems that it has no memory of Kazama Chiba.

In other words, this little guy's owner should be Sakura Kinomoto.

Who are you?

Xiao Ke's gaze finally fell on Qian Yu, and her round face instantly scrunched up.

Qianyu looked at the temporary worker she had forcibly created with magic and talismans and nodded inwardly.

Whether it has its own memories or not, as long as this guardian beast has the memories of the Clow Cards in its mind, that's enough.