VOLUME 3

Chapter 3: Part 4

When Sera last saw her, Yuu was going into a mansion.

As we stared up at that eight-story mansion, we heard a thundering roar reverberate through the air. It had come from a corner room on the sixth floor. White smoke silently drifted upwards.

“This is it!”

I started to head through the front door, but I saw the flutter of leafy wings on Sera’s back.

“Ayumu, let’s fly!”

Sera grabbed me and Haruna and flew upwards. A supremely soft mound of flesh pressed into my face, but neither me nor Sera paid that any attention.

Yuu…… Yuu! The vision of that silver-haired girl filled my mind.

When we entered the room from the window, we saw a dreadful sight.

The wall and the floor were burnt black. On the floor were the collapsed forms of a white tiger and a polar-bear-like panda. The two of them were also burnt black, and their school uniforms were in tatters.

And in the corner of the room was Dai-sensei, bound with rope and gagged.

In the middle of the room, Yuu was being lifted by her neck, pulled high enough for her feet to leave the ground.

The one who was holding Yuu’s neck… was the King of the Night.

Well, I guess he did have a normal part-time job, so it wasn’t too strange for him to live in such a normal-feeling mansion.

There was a broken clear table. Plastic bottles and magazines were scattered about. What the h.e.l.l had happened?

“My precious home has just been ruined, and now an uninvited guest appears… how perplexing.”

The King of the Night gave us a bold smile. Yuu seemed to be in pain, and she was grabbing at the King of the Night’s hands.

“Let go of Yuu-“

“Of course I can’t do that. If I let her go, she will just run back to the Underworld. Isn’t that so?”

When the King of the Night spoke, Yuu just glared at him with sharp eyes.

It looked like words were pointless. Sera held aloft a leaf sword, while Haruna ran towards Dai-sensei.

The King of the Night gave us an irritated look, and dark blue mist filled the room.

He wanted to run away, didn’t he? We had to stop him in the next five seconds.

Yuu waved her hands. When she did that, the mist was flicked away. Yuu’s gauntlets probably had magic dispelling properties. Nice one.

“Eucliwood, it’s not good to do unnecessary things.”

The King of the Night could no longer escape, and Sera pierced him with her sword.

Nice, Sera! Cut off his leg!

“Because of you… Now I have to use this masou weapon to escape.”

Yuu and I were shocked at his words.

Mist appeared, and what was clearly a time bomb materialized.

The King of the Night jumped out the window, still holding Yuu.

“Sera!”

I didn’t even have to say it. Sera had already begun chasing after him.

Yuu reached her hand out towards me. Just wait for me, Yuu… I’ll be right-

“Ayumu!”

I already had a foot on the windowsill when I heard Haruna’s frantic shout.

When I turned around, I saw that Haruna was near tears.

“There is also… a bomb on Dai-sensei… What should I do?”

What should I do… I wasn’t used to hearing those words from Haruna. b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.

Thump, thump, thump. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

Kyouko’s words ran through my head. My ego was the one chasing Yuu. Yuu didn’t want that.

I closed my eyes and grit my teeth… and then I headed for Dai-sensei.

I removed her gag and started to untie her bindings, when…

“Idiot! Do you want to blow us all up?!”

Haruna got angry at me.

“Ayumu-san. What exactly are you doing~?”

“Sorry. I’ll get rid of the bombs first-“

“That’s not what I mean. Why aren’t you chasing after her?”

“Ayumu is trying to help Dai-sensei.”

Haruna backed me up, but Dai-sensei ignored her.

“My hand is not the hand you should be taking, don’t you think~?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like I’m doing this for you. I just don’t want to leave Haruna behind.”

Dai-sensei laughed.

“That’s something I would expect to hear from Haruna~.”

“Also, Sera is chasing after him already. Anyways, what should I do about this?”

“This… I could disarm it in five minutes.”

“This… I would be able to disarm it in five minutes.”

When I checked the digital clocks attached to the bombs, I saw that they both showed times less than ten minutes.

“That’s cutting it close. Haruna, tell me what to do. I just need to buy a single minute.”

“A-alright! First you need to draw a magic square with magical energy!”

“Sorry… I can’t.”

“Huh? That’s the basics of the basics, you idiot! Die!”

Both of Haruna’s hands glowed ruby and she placed both her hands in Dai-sensei’s hands.

“Dai-sensei, I’m going to borrow some magical energy.”

Haruna looked serious as she began to mumble a spell. I should probably leave her be.

“Alriiiight~~. Well then, I’ll be the one to tell Ayumu-san what to do~. Please point your hand up~~.”

I did as I was told and pointed my palm to the ceiling.

“Please look at your index finger. There’s a first and a second joint, yeess~~?”

“Yes.”

“So, where’s the next joint~?”

“At the base of the finger.”

“Bzzz! Look at the back of your hand please.”

I turned my hand upside down. Well, certainly, the joint was larger there at the back. So those lines that you often saw used in palm reading were joint lines, were they…?

“So?”

“Ayumu-san is lacking in attention and judgment, so I think disarming this would be impossible for him~.”

“Can’t I try to disarm it just a bit?”

“If you try to touch this with only this world’s knowledge, there’ll be a big boooom~~.”

She was pretty calm in all of this…

“So is this also a masou weapon? It doesn’t look anything like the one that’s attached to Tomonori, though.”

“This is a magical bomb~. I can’t make masou weapons.”

“Huh? So it’s different?”

“Magical bombs are filled with single attack spells~. Masou weapons put large numbers of ma.s.sacre-level spells in people like Ayumu-san, who have no magical talent.”

“I still don’t really see how that’s different…”

“Magical bombs can only be used once, and they’re fairly powerful. On the other hand, masou weapons can semi-permanently activate the strongest magical spells~.”

“So, you’re saying that this bomb isn’t very powerful?”

“This bomb is imbued with the strongest explosive spell~. I tried my best to make it~~.”

“I knew it…”

Haruna was the one who said that.

“Dai-sensei, you made a magical bomb before, didn’t you? That wasn’t a failure; you just couldn’t make anything else.”

“Bingoo~~. As expected from Haruna.”

“Wait a sec. There’s something fundamental here that I still don’t understand.”

“What is it~~?”

“So, who exactly made those masou weapons or whatever?”

“It was my friend~. That friend also made the Gems of Life~~. But we pretended that I was the one who made them~~.”

“Why?”

“…Was it because your friend is a man?”

“Bingo once again~~. Haruna is quite a gifted student, isn’t she~?”

“Haruna, what do you mean?”

“In our world… in Virie, females are supreme. Males can’t use magic, and they’re all perverts, and they only make up around twenty percent of the world. Even if someone said that a man had made Gems of Life, n.o.body would listen to them.”

“But Dai-sensei listened?”

“After all, amazing things are amazing~~. They’re quite groundbreaking items, you know~? It would be strange to keep something like that hidden.”

“All right, I’m done. The magic shouldn’t activate now.”

“Oh? As expected, Haruna. And there’s… one minute twenty seconds left! Didn’t you say you could do it in five minutes?!”

“Perhaps I tried too hard~~.”

Dai-sensei chuckled.

“You don’t seem worried. You must have some other plan, right?”

“To be honest, I have Gems of Life here. With these, none of us will die~~.”

What the h.e.l.l. So we were okay from the start? Were those Gems of Life the ones she took from Kyouko?

Geez, even if I didn’t stay here, even if both the bombs went off… Wait just a second.

“How wide is the explosion range of these bombs?”

“It’s the strongest explosive spell, remember~? If I put it in terms of this world’s measurements, then… The range would have a radius of about a kilometer?”

“And could you save all the people living in that range with those Gems of Life?”

“No, no. I said it already, didn’t I~? That none of us would die.”

“That’s not good! There has to be some other-“

“Dai-sensei! Cast a levitation spell on me! I’ll take the bomb and fly up to the sky! And then I’ll manage with the Gem of Life and a barrier-“

“That won’t work, will it~? Levitation spells only last up until around 800 meters.”

When Dai-sensei gave that explanation, there was only twenty seconds left on the clock.

“I’ll go. Haruna, I’m leaving you my cell phone and my wallet.”

As I said that, I threw them towards Haruna. Then I gathered strength in my legs as I headed for the window. If I leapt off the wall with 600% strength, I was sure I could clear 200 meters.

“Ayumu-san’s body is immortal, isn’t it? Are you sure it’s still okay if you’re blown to dust~?”

“There’s no time to… worry about that.”

“I see. Well then, please fly with all your strength. I’ll also pa.s.s you a Gem of Life just in case~.”

“Ahh… See ya then… Haruna.”

Haruna gave me no response. Her ahoge just jumped back and forth anxiously.

Dai-sensei inserted a blue light the size of my pinky into my chest. I didn’t feel anything.

I took the bomb and leapt out the window.

At the point when I was around 200 meters in the air, I felt a sudden gust of wind blow up from beneath me, wrap me up, and fling me even higher. Soon, I felt almost as if my throat and lungs were about to be crushed…

And then my world went white.

END CHAPTER 3

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES