VOLUME 2

Chapter 3: Part 4

The evening on the next day, I had been hard at work in the bathroom for over two hours.

“Ayumu! Get out! How long are you gonna stay in there?!”

She banged on the door, but I ignored her. Haruna, just shut up and wait there quietly for a bit.

“Just let me go in and finis.h.!.+ Come out just for a bit!!”

Hmm? I can’t hear you.

Stay calm, stay calm. This narrow, private room sure is peaceful, isn’t it?

“I’ll let that leaf woman cook!”

Ha ha ha. As if you will. If you did that, it wouldn’t be good for you either.

“Ah, also, your cell phone rang.”

“Tell me that earlier, dammit!”

I quickly flushed the toilet, and rushed out of the room while pulling up my trunks and jeans.

“H-Hey! Bayumu! Put your pants on before you come out! Ugh!”

Haruna covered her face with her hands. In place of her fingers, her ahoge pointed to my trunks.

“But Haruna was the one who told me to get out of the bathroom.”

“Hentai! Stop trying to be the king of hentai or something!!”

Haruna pa.s.sed me and rushed into the bathroom with a “Kyaah!”

I washed my hands and hurriedly returned to the living room, and took my cell phone which was on the desk.

I was so overjoyed to see the number on my call history, which I had been anxiously waiting for, that I accidentally dropped the phone.

That number was from Matelis Magical Academy.

Finally…!

I picked up my phone and dialed back that very peculiar number.

“H-h.e.l.lo!!”

“Thank you for your phone call. This is Matelis Magical Academy, Els speaking.”

That voice was not Dai-sensei’s voice. I felt my spirits drop immediately.

“Um, where’s Dai-sensei?”

“Ahh, do you mean Ariel-san? I had called you a bit earlier as Ariel-sensei’s representative, but…”

“Ah, I was away for a bit.”

“Do you have time to talk now? This will be quick.”

Ariel-sensei… that was Dai-sensei, right? Well, I’m relieved then. It looks like this was definitely the phone call I was waiting for.

“Yeah, right now is perfectly fine.”

“I’m sorry it took us so long to call you. It’s been a bit chaotic over here. Well then. First, well… first, has the particular item made it to you?”

“Probably… do you know what exactly the item is?”

“I’m not really sure… she told me that if I said ‘the particular item,’ you would know what I meant.”

What was the meaning of this? She didn’t want Haruna to know about it, but she also didn’t want this Els-san to know about it either?

“She’s… umm, by your world’s time… she’s going to go pick it up from you at 2100 hours.”

2100 hours? I knew what time it was right now, but just to check I took my cell phone away from my ear for a second and looked at the time.

“But the time reads 2300 right now…”

“A-Ahahaha…”

I really don’t think this was a situation she could just cover up by laughing like that…

“The place was… the rave yard? Sorry, I forgot to take a memo.”

“You mean the graveyard? I met her there before, so it could be that.”

“Then it must be that place.”

“I’ll start heading over there right away.”

“Please do. I honestly do apologize for the inconvenience I caused today. Well then, goodbye.”

I cut off the phone call and hurried back to my room. Then, I lined up all the things that might have been this object Dai-sensei had wanted to give me.

–

A set of pervy gla.s.ses that let you see through clothing.

A bomb shaped like an orange, and a bomb shaped like a pencil.

An envelope with a piece of paper that had nothing written on it.

Lastly, an ero book.

–

Among those things was a weapon that attacked anything and everything…? I blankly stared at this all-too-strange lineup.

Which of these items was the item that Dai-sensei had wanted me to hold onto for her? Well, actually…

There was probably an eighty or ninety percent chance that it was the pervy gla.s.ses. There might have been a way to use those other than to see through clothing.

Well, if it really was a weapon, then it might have been the bombs, but those were Haruna’s, so the possibility of that was pretty low.

Dai-sensei seemed to already have come to this world… or maybe she was gone already. But for now, maybe I should go to the graveyard and check.

What should I do? To be honest, I really didn’t want to hold onto an item like this.

I wanted to live a peaceful, quiet life. If I had something like a weapon, every day would turn into a mysterious adventure.

Ah, right. Maybe Yuu would know where she was. Like she had known where Haruna was.

I headed for the living room, and found Yuu and Sera watching television with the same expression they always had on. I quickly asked Yuu whether Dai-sensei had come to this world, and she quickly tapped twice on the desk.

High probability that she is in the graveyard.

That was written on the memo. Was it really that easy to figure it out?

In any case, if she was in the graveyard, that’s good. It was close by, after all. Maybe she had already been waiting there for me for two hours.

Masou shoujo were so multi-talented, but they didn’t carry cell phones with them so it was so inconvenient to contact them…

“I’m going out for a bit.”

I made that brief announcement and was about to leave the living room when I almost b.u.mped into Haruna who had come out from the bathroom.

“Hueh? Where are you going?”

“Have to give something to Dai-sensei.”

I briefly answered her and began to go up the stairs, but Haruna seemed a bit fl.u.s.tered.

“I-I’m also going.”

“Oh?”

Haruna went back to her room and I returned to mine, and I quickly made the necessary preparations.

First, I checked that the black-rimmed gla.s.ses were secure in their case.

If I only took these gla.s.ses with me and figured out that they were the wrong thing, that wouldn’t be good.

Alright, maybe I should just take all of them then.

While I’m at it, I’ll drop by Orito’s house too. I have to give him back this ero book.

I put the envelope and the gla.s.ses in my pocket, along with the pencil. The orange was too bulky for my pocket, so I put it in the plastic bag that the ero book had come in.

I knocked on Haruna’s door, and Haruna appeared, fully changed.

“Well then, shall we go?”

“OK.”

I carried the plastic bag, Haruna carried the chainsaw, and we left the house together.

Although, the graveyard was pretty close by, so it should be fine.

“Let’s hurry up a bit.”

I broke into a light run and took the shortest route I knew. When I turned at a corner and went through a narrow pathway, I realized that Haruna hadn’t followed me. I wasn’t running that fast either…

When I returned to the narrow pathway, I found Haruna walking towards me slowly.

“Are you alright?”

“A… Ayumu.”

I put my hand on Haruna’s forehead. It… felt hot.

“Wha-?! What are you doing?!”

Her face flushed red as well. Could she have caught a cold?

“Do you feel tired?”

“Idiot! I feel a Megalo close by!”

Haruna brushed aside my hand. She was just trying to act tough, wasn’t she?

So, a Megalo really did end up coming. They were fast. Did they really want these crazy, incomprehensible things that badly?

“… Wait just a second.”

I pa.s.sed the plastic bag to Haruna, and in exchange took the chainsaw from her.

“What’s this?”

Haruna took a look inside the plastic bag, and let out a squeak of surprise. Well, that’s to be expected considering there was an orange and an ero book in that bag.

“Don’t make me hold onto things like this!”

I ignored Haruna and took a few deep breaths. I started to chant. In the usual case, I didn’t want to transform until I had no other choice. However, I couldn’t be like that this time.

Because this time, it might not end with just Megalo.

“Nomobuyo, wos.h.i.+, has.h.i.+tawa, dokeda, gunmiicha, dei, ribura.”

Getting used to things is the work of the devil. The person who coined the phrase “well, there’s no other way” was also the devil too. At this point, even if I changed into this outfit I… no, sorry. I still haven’t gotten used to it. No matter how many times I experienced this, I could never think of it as normal.

In any case, I wiped away my tears and headed out into the main roadway, wanting to go somewhere with more room to move.

Alright, come at me! As soon as I thought that, one Megalo appeared.

Alright. If it’s only one Megalo, I’ll deal with this quickly.

If it’s only one…

“Let’s run, Haruna.”

“Hueh? You’re not going to beat it?”

“If it’s just one, I’d like to, but in those numbers I really can’t get involved.”

Haruna looked back, but I took her hand and began to run.

The Megalo noticed our presence, and let out feral roars as they began to head our way.

I could hear their war cries echo behind me.

Even if I didn’t turn back and look, I could imagine what it looked like behind me.

Should I call it a parade? Or no, it was more like a forest full of animals whom had just sensed an impending earthquake.

All four lanes in the road were filled full of these almost-countless number of school-uniform-wearing animals.

It was everyone for himself. Imbued with that primitive instinct, the Megalo even began fighting amongst themselves.

Were they not allies? Maybe in that ma.s.s there were fake Megalo that Kyouko had made as well as real Megalo that had come from the underworld? Maybe the fake Megalo that Kyouko and them had made were also unwanted existences to the real Megalo?

At this rate, maybe I could still shake them off.

I could then hear the sound of many things running.

I didn’t mean the sound of cars or motorcycles.

They were the sound of feet. It was the sound of animal feet pounding into the ground.

Then, the sound of crumbling buildings.

Those Megalo were the ferocious Megalo I had seen before. You couldn’t even say they were going after the masou shoujo; rather, they went after and destroyed everything without discrimination.

“Ayumu! There are a crazy number coming!”

“I know!”

I saw cars that were coming from the far side of the road suddenly doing U-turns and heading back the way they came.

I wonder what this spectacle must have looked like to ordinary humans.

Did it look like a ma.s.s escape from the zoo? A costume parade? Some movie shoot? It probably didn’t look like any of those. The Megalo were crazed with fury and were destroying all the buildings around them as they raged forwards.

I could understand why those people wanted to turn back once they saw all this.

I heard the sounds stop. Maybe they stopped chasing us…?

I took a glance behind me… what the h.e.l.l. It was…

It was way worse than I thought!

The Megalo had soared high up into the sky, and were flying right towards us.

I grit my teeth and ran as fast as I could. My masou shoujo outfit fluttered disgustingly in the wind.

“Unyah!” Haruna’s legs got tripped up.

I see. If there were that many Megalo chasing us, then it was probably hard for her to move very well. I grabbed her hand firmly and pulled her to me.

“Ah-…” Haruna spoke softly, so I put my guard up and looked around.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ahh… umm… it’s nothing.”

Haruna had stopped, but she soon began to move her feet again.

We turned right at the crossroads. If we continued this way, we would have arrived at the graveyard. We would have arrived, but…

We had to take a detour.

Because right in front of us, we saw vampire ninjas battling with Megalo. Geez, the problems just didn’t stop coming!

After proceeding straight, we had no choice but to take a right at the next opportunity.

I looked all around me to gain an understanding of where we were before breaking out into a run.

I tried to take the next turn, but more Megalo were blocking the way. Fine, fine. I guess I have to go straight.

Dammit, can I turn at the next corner? No, I can’t. This time there were masou shoujo there.

I thought that the Megalo had appeared to chase us down, but it seems that the battle had already started earlier. Dammit, there’s nowhere left to run.

“Ayumu…” Haruna looked at me with anxious eyes.

“Don’t stop. If you need to think, think while we’re moving. If we can meet up with Dai-sensei, we should be able to deal with this all even if there are so many of them.”

“Well, if it’s Dai-sensei, she should be able to deal with it in a single attack!”

A single attack, huh… was she really that strong?

Keeping a lookout in front of and behind me, I proceeded straight. I didn’t have too much time to think.

There were masou shoujo in front of me, and Megalo and vampire ninjas behind me. There were also Megalo on the right. How many of them were going to come after us?!

What kind of amazing thing was this item?! What should I do? Which path should I choose?

“Ayumu! To the right!”

Yeah, that’s true. That seemed to be the easiest path. But, I still tried to look for a better way out.

Vampire ninjas… Megalo… masou shoujo. Right, front, behind. On our left, there were just buildings on the other side of the road.

“Going right is no good.”

“Then let’s go back and then go right.”

“No way. We have to go strai-“

“That’s not going to work! What about left?”

“No good. Even if we put distance between us we can’t fight them all. We definitely need to get Dai-sensei…”

“But if we go right, Dai-sensei will definitely be there!”

“Since when has anything ever been ‘definite’ in this world?”

“Masou-shoujo are definite!”

“In any case, we have to go right.”

No, there was still another choice. We were getting messed up because we were trying to stick to the roads.

Up! Up into the sky, where there are no obstacles! I kicked off the ground and leapt into the air.

With the power of the masou shoujo, it was an easy task for me to fly. And in the sky, there were no such things as walls.

I suddenly felt like I could run anywhere I wanted, but I saw the Megalo and vampire ninjas going up onto the roofs as well.

As I thought, they were chasing us.

Even then, it would be pretty hard for them to fence us in if we were in the sky.

However, by the time I had realized that, I had already wasted too much time. And there were plenty of people who had the same idea as I did. The skies were already locked down.

Dammit! I thought I had a good idea too!

Bird-like Megalo charged at me, and I fell back down to the ground.

Well, if they were going to ambush us like that, we had no choice. Yeah, at this point, we had no other choice.

“Ayumu! Are you alright?”

I had turned myself towards the ground to protect Haruna from the impact, and she pulled me up.

“Other than this outfit, yeah I’m fine.”

There were various types of animals around us. I broke out into an all-out run. I just kept straight, didn’t even look left or right, and ran with all my heart.

We almost got caught by the masou shoujo, but I spun to the side and evaded them. We collided into a few vampire ninjas and almost tripped, but somehow broke through, and slipped between the legs of a huge Megalo.

The graveyard wasn’t that far from my house… but today, it seemed miles and miles away.

“Ayumu! They’re coming!”

I didn’t even have to look back, but Haruna let me know what was going on. I just held Haruna’s hand tight and moved forwards.

“Haruna… you…”

“Hm? S’wrong?”

I would expect Haruna to be s.h.i.+vering with fear right now, but for some reason she seemed she was having fun.

Like when we were almost bitten by a wolf Megalo and just barely managed to jump out of the way.

Like when we evaded the sword of a vampire ninja and together kicked away a Megalo who was standing in our path.

Through it all, she was smiling from ear to ear.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES