CH 49

Reika Joogaoka, the vice chairperson of the class committee, was enjoying the aroma of afternoon tea in the cafeteria when she noticed something strange.

It’s not just the actual physical combat skills that are being taught today, but the application of magic chanting - the so-called classroom training that takes up most of the training time.

This is why all of the saints finished their training at the same time today, and all of their classmates ate lunch together.

All my classmates ate lunch at the same time.

In modern Japanese school life, this is not so unusual. In fact, in a school life where classes and breaks are separated by a certain time, it is a natural thing to do the same thing at the same time with people from the same class.

It’s not a big deal.

At any rate, the Saints have become quite accustomed to the “daily life" of this world.

The group of otaku, including Aya Mikoshiba, who prefers independent training in a separate place from the other saints, and the group of Reika “Queen”igaoka, who is at her own pace, are also lax in their meal times.

In the worst cases, they don’t even go to the mess hall, but sit in a corner of the training ground and have lunch while taking a break.

So, basically, Reika had no idea what the other saints were doing during their normal lunch time.

She had no idea what she was talking about when she spoke of the saints, who were in a sense, an outcast, did not appear in the dining room.

“Kyaaa----....”

There was a crashing sound from outside the dining room, as if something had hit the wall. Reika unintentionally spilled the teacup in her hand.

The teacup drops from the long, delicate fingertips and falls in the blink of an eye, almost hitting the floor. However, the cup was caught by the hands of Kiryuin Subaru.

“Are you hurt, Miss Reika?”

“No, I’m fine. But what’s the matter with you?”

Leaving the spilling of tea on the carpet to Subaru Kiryuin, Reika flipped up her school uniform skirt and sashayed (TL: walk in an ostentatious yet casual manner, typically with exaggerated movements of the hips and shoulders) into the bustle.

I’m not sure what happened.

The screams of the girls, the sound of something crashing – and above all, the never-ending clamour (TL: loud and confused noise) of the saints.

From the looks of things, it could be a riot or a fight – it’s certainly not a peaceful situation.

I pushed aside the students, including the servants who were standing beside me, and leapt into the middle of the crowd.

My blonde hair, which had been neatly trimmed – in fact, the servants had combed it - was now a mess, but that didn’t matter.

Reika Joogaoka is still the vice chairperson of her class.

The most reliable person in such cases, Kanami Inugami, a member of the public relations committee, seems to have gone to pick flowers.

The chairman of the committee, Shigenobu Torao, does not seem to be here now either.

Since both are not here, it’s up to me to assess this situation.

Reika’s own principle was to avoid getting into trouble as much as possible.

She thought it was easier to ignore what was happening in class if it didn’t affect her.

After convincing herself that it would be more troublesome to make a big deal out of it, Reika glared at the centre of the commotion with her stern eyes.

“STOP.”

After shouting at the location with a splendid ladylike tone. Reika took out a fan that has a luxurious shade from her skirt pocket and pointed it towards the party.

“What’s all the fuss about?”

“......I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do anything. He just came at me out of nowhere.”

“You didn’t do anything? You spat such contemptuous words at my friend Mitagawa, and yet you say you did nothing? --How can you say that?”

Rubbing his red, swollen cheeks, Eiichi Onegane confronts Takeo Arakaki, the student who, in this situation alone, appears to be the perpetrator.

Arakaki himself looked at Onegane with an annoyed look on his face, then turned his attention to Kenjiro Mitagawa, the student trembling behind Shinzo Kawasaki.

Looking in the direction with a frightened face, Mitagawa’s shoulders were trembling as he grabbed onto the flesh of Shinzo Kawasaki’s shoulder.

At first glance it looks painful, but Kawasaki does not distort his pig-like expression.

There’s so much meat and fat on his shoulders that it doesn’t really hurt much.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning and tell us what happened?”

“No, not what happened. I’m just trying to--”

“Oh, my God.”

An unfamiliar exclamation drowned out Arakaki’s explanation.

At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, all the students in the vicinity turned their attention to the speaker, Kenjiro Mitagawa.

Under the concentrated fury of his gaze, Mitagawa turned his head momentarily, but he immediately raised his head - still staring into the void – and thrust out his hands towards Arakaki.

It was an exclamation that seemed to come from the bottom of his heart.

At the same time that the people around him were amazed that such a voice could come from this small boy, the space exploded in front of Reika’s eyes.

“U,WA.”

“HYAH.”

The screams of Arakaki and Reika were the signal for a distortion of the void.

It’s like a portal to another dimension.

It’s as if the connection to another world has been released.

It’s hard to describe the strange scene that unfolded – and a moment later, right in front of Arakaki’s eyes - the supposedly empty space scattered around him with a powerful bursting sound, as if he had been carrying an explosive device.

“-wha-?”

There’s nothing there - just air, just space.

It’s impossible to touch or see the “waste of space” flying towards Arakaki.

In any case, it is important to remember that space is such an ambiguous thing. There is no way that an ordinary person, trained in combat, can see or recognise it.

As soon as he grasps the vague information that something has exploded, an invisible “object that is hard to describe” explodes in his face.

“. --No.　Absolute barrier mirror force.”

As a result of a long period of continuous training, Arakaki’s skills have become reflexive and almost automatic.

It was a skill that could only reflect and bounce back physical attacks and trivial magical phenomena, but now the skill has evolved slightly further.

The spatial debris that flew towards Arakaki was reflected by the absolute defense wall - and bounces straight back towards the initiator, Kenjiro Mitagawa.

Kenjiro Mitagawa’s skill is Imperial Disaster. –In other words, it is a powerful super-attack type magic that can distort or burst space and attack external enemies in the middle distance without touching them.

In fact, it is a devilish skill that cuts off the material of the target in the entire space.

Even though he is controlled by his emotions, Kenjiro Mitagawa is a quiet boy with gentle roots who does not like to fight.

The last of his reasoning was able to take on the intensity of his emotions and prevent him from going on a rampage that would have directly hurt Arakaki.

Anyway, there is no telling what will happen if the spatial debris collides.

And the most frightening thing of all is that the spatial debris itself is not a magical phenomenon created by Mitagawa.

If it’s not a magical phenomenon that he embodies, no matter what or who wanted to cancel his skills, it would only be voided (TL: good pun right?)

The invisible space bullet, which accepts no one’s will, is reflected by Arakaki’s skill and goes to Kenjiro Mitagawa, who is trembling behind Shinzo Kawasaki.

“Oh, Mitagawa.”

“...... You really shouldn’t make it so easy for yourself to use skills you can’t handle, fatty.”

In contrast to the astonished face of Onegane, who shouted the name of his friend, Shinzo Kawasaki, who showed no sign of irritation, looked at the space with cold eyes.

Eventually, he blew his nose in a boring manner and took a protective stance with his arms outstretched to protect Mitagawa.

“Physical damage reflect Ippo·Tsuko—Change.\3 Physical Damage Reflect Accelerate Lolita Debut”

His eyes, usually narrowed because of his size, widened and an invisible wall appeared in front of Shinzo Kawasaki’s eyes.

When he activates the skill, it’s more or less the same with the absolute defence wall, but with repeated training, it has become more accurate and can reflect some of the energy embodied in the magical elements.

It’s not perfect, and it can’t repel all phenomena.

Some of the “space debris” that passed through Kawasaki’s skills went into his stomach, gouged out some of his skin, and then disappeared.

“ahh, it hurts..”

“Hey, Kawasaki, ....... It’s...”

“It’s just a scratch. I’m just glad Mitagawa didn’t get hurt, that’s all.”

“Kawasaki-kun.......”

As the geeks began to act like in a shonen manga, Reika snapped out of it and turned to Niigaki.

He looks a little uncomfortable, but he’s not happy.

She was tempted to ask what had happened, but she didn’t want to pursue the matter any further.

Even if she tries to ask again, Mitagawa or Kawasaki – or maybe even Onegane - will just lie and make up a story as they go along.

Arakaki doesn’t seem to be thinking of doing anything more, and the group of geeks probably don’t want to make a bigger scene than they already have.

Besides....

“That’s it for me, then.”

When she saw Kanami humming pleasantly as she walked, Reika pondered and disappeared among the onlookers.

◇◇◇

“Don’t you think it’s strange?”

As she sits in her chair, her smooth, hairless legs swinging, Reika calls out to her classmate kneeling in front of her.

Reika’s classmate, Kiryuin Subaru, is on one knee at her feet. While polishing Reika’s nails with a stain on his cheeks, he tilted his head with a gentle smile as if to ask her what she was talking about.

“Are you talking about the fight they had earlier? I don’t think it was anything unusual.”

“Not unusual, but the cause of the quarrel – no, not unusual. I mean the circumstances in which the quarrel took place.”

After polishing her right nail, Reika danced her legs in a seductive manner and crossed her legs.

Subaru’s eyes lit up at the momentary movement, and then he began to devote himself to polishing her nails again.

“Mr. Niigaki was certainly good-looking, and there have been many times when he has used his good looks to his advantage... I don’t think he would bother to fight with other boys like he does today.”

And that’s not all.

Obviously, the atmosphere in some parts of the class is getting worse.

In the beginning, Reika thought that everyone was stressed out because of the confined space and position.

In addition to that, recently, problems often break out in the class.

The first is the behavior of Hibiki Onigawara, the girl who follows Reika around.

She wears a skirt so short that it makes you want to cover your eyes, but she doesn’t mind crossing her legs or sitting on the floor.

And inside, she wears nothing but her raw underwear.

Reika is also a girl, she wants to show off her long legs and get the attention of boys.

Normally, if you try to overexpose yourself or seduce someone, it’s inevitable that your shame will override your desire to look pretty.

Even Reika sometimes wears a flashy party dress with her back and legs open.

The reason is that in such places there are no people who do not try to hide their dirty desires.

It’s not like we’re exposing our skin to the world to see.

Let’s go back to the story.

It’s Hibiki, she has been approached by a lot of boys recently.

Haruto Tanaka, Sho Shiratori, Hirokatsu Yamashiro, and Tsubasa Ryuzaki are just a few of the members of the group that are, let’s say, the least unique.

That in itself is not a big deal.

We talked about our favourite music groups, what we’d like to do if we could go back to the world we came from, and so on.

What Reika is skeptical about is that the person she is talking to is Hibiki Onigawara.

Why is this cool, quiet girl so popular with some boys?

If you just want to talk, you can talk more about a wide range of topics with Saohime Shirayuki or Misuzu Nekoyama.

But it’s none other than Hibiki Onigawara they’re talking to.

And - the fact that Hibiki, who is the focus of so much attention from the boys, has not shown any approach to them.

I’m not sure what’s so funny about that.

For Reika, who has been following Hibiki for more than a year, the fact that Hibiki is not interested in the boys is unthinkable.

Hibiki Onigawara may have a cool, quiet image, but she’s quite the carnivore.

Whenever she sees a guy she likes, or a guy she thinks might be interested in her, she approaches him in a casual way.

She rarely asks him out, but she does make subtle gestures that tickle the fancy of sexually active boys, getting close to them both physically and mentally.

Then, after getting to know each other to a certain extent and making out with each other, she would either suddenly become unimportant and leave, or the other person would get bored with her as well and discard her.

And that’s the way it’s always been.

In my current class, Aihara Sakuya is more flamboyant, so she doesn’t stand out.

Even Hibiki is a very experienced slut.

If a boy comes around, she’ll happily eat him.

But what about the reality?

Unlike the obviously handsome boys like Arakaki and Torasei, but even when she is followed around by boys who look like they could have a girlfriend, Hibiki does not offer her body to them.

It is possible that this is simply because they are not to her liking.

What if it isn’t?

I can’t help but wonder if there’s something going on that I don’t know about.

The whole class is transferred to another world, and the atmosphere is just right. The girls are anxious, and the boys are given the opportunity to show their strength.

It’s an environment where a couple could easily be born, both in terms of situation and position.

But as far as Reika knows, she has not heard of any classmates starting a relationship with each other.

Rather, only unproductive topics come up, such as the breakup of Shigenobu Toranou and Misuzu Nekoyama, or the fact that Haruto Tanaka was dumped by two people in one night.

Isn’t it strange?

When we are in a situation of anxiety, it is normal for us to unconsciously desire a place of comfort.

In fact....

“Reika-sama, I have finished polishing your feet. Now let’s move on to your hands.”

Subaru is getting more obsessed with Reika than they were in the original world.

This is no longer infatuation, but more like worship.

With her sleeves rolled up and her long, beautiful fingertips are left to Subaru, Reika smiles like a benevolent mother.

Even though this behaviour is unusual, it is a strange phenomenon that a dependency does not develop between high school boys and girls of the same age – and in the same environment.

Something must be going on.

I’m sure it will be a big wave that will hit us all soon.

As she watched Subaru diligently polishing her nails, Reika’s eyes narrowed calmly.