“Um, can I back out now?”
Itsuka Shido clutched his head, a pained grimace twisting his features.
“That’s not an option, Shido! How can you, as a man, give up so easily?” Kotori declared, her expression one of profound disappointment, as if wishing he could do better.
“If you’re going to quit that easily, I say we send you to Thailand to live out your next life as a girl!”
“Absolutely not!”
“Hmm, in that case, perhaps I should just upload the video of you practicing your ultimate attack—Secret Technique: Flash-Blast Detonation—online. I bet it would get a lot of views!”
“That’s even worse! Besides, how do you still have that? I thought I completely destroyed it!”
“You mean this?” Kotori asked, producing a black disc from seemingly nowhere and dangling it teasingly in front of Shido.
“I keep many backups on hand…”
“Give it back!”
Before Kotori could finish her sentence, Shido suddenly roared and lunged at her.
In the nick of time, the blonde-haired man beside them reacted with lightning speed, tackling Shido and pinning him firmly to the ground.
“Shido, I understand you’re very eager and keen on receiving the Commander’s reward. I can appreciate that, but this is work time. Work must take precedence.”
“Who wants her reward?!” Shido yelled.
“And who are you?”
“Him?” Kotori asked, sitting in the Commander’s chair, her black-stockinged legs crossed, one black-soled shoe pointed at Shido as she looked down at him imperiously.
“His name is Kannazuki Kyouhei. You can just call him Kannazuki!”
“He was once the ace of the Anti-Spirit Team (AST) in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and is now the vice-commander of the Fraxinus.”
‘The ace of the military?’ Shido, now released, slowly got to his feet, carefully scrutinizing the handsome man before him.
Though the man called Kannazuki bore a typically Japanese name, his blonde hair and prominent nose distinctly marked him as non-Japanese, making him seem more British or American. Still, one couldn’t judge a book by its cover; Kannazuki’s reputation as the AST’s ace was built on genuine skill. Yet, Shido couldn’t help but feel that a military ace should at least be a muscular man over six feet tall.
Regardless, in this rather unreliable team led by a middle school girl, there was finally a man who actually looked like an elite.
“Hello, my name is Itsuka Shido, and I’m Itsuka Kotori’s brother!” Shido offered, extending a greeting to Kannazuki.
“I apologize for judging you by your appearance earlier. I never expected you to be an ace. My sincerest apologies!”
“It’s alright. I envy you for being the Commander’s brother!” Kannazuki chuckled, scratching the back of his head and flashing a hearty, open smile, like that of a confident leader.
“So, could you grant me one request?” Kannazuki whispered, leaning his head conspiratorially close to Shido’s ear.
“Hm? What is it?”
“Nothing much. I just hope you can bring me the Commander’s middle school uniform, preferably unwashed after she’s worn it… Wait, Commander, what are you doing?!”
Kannazuki didn’t even get to finish his sentence before two muscular black men, seemingly appearing from nowhere, seized him.
“Kannazuki, don’t think for a second I don’t know what you were telling Shido!” Kotori declared, pointing her lollipop at him.
“Your punishment is to go dig for coal. Don’t you dare come back until you’re as black as they are!”
“No, Commander! I was wrong!”
And just like that, under Shido’s dumbfounded gaze, Kannazuki vanished down the corridor, his whereabouts unknown.
“Isn’t that a bit too cruel?”
It took Shido a full moment of stunned silence before he finally managed to stammer out a question.
“Not at all. Don’t let his appearance fool you; he’s actually a severe masochist. His biggest dream is to be punished by a middle school girl like me. He’s probably overjoyed that his dream has come true!”
Kotori popped the drool-slicked lollipop back into her mouth.
“Speaking of which, Shido, aren’t you going to school? There’s not much time left!”
“What? It’s already almost school time?”
“Indeed! Reine didn’t tell you that you’ve been unconscious for nine days? It’s April 10th now—the first day of school.”
“I thought that was just a joke!”
Shido looked at Murasame Reine with a mixture of dread and hope, silently wishing for her to deny it.
“Shido-kun, it really is April 10th!”
Shattered. His hopes, utterly crushed.
“Reine-san, have I really been unconscious for nine days?”
“Yes, I’ve been taking care of you for all nine of those days!”
Reine’s face, shadowed by dark circles under her eyes, was etched with exhaustion, as if to emphasize the truth of her words.
“Besides me, Kotori has also been helping out. Even if she didn’t come to the infirmary, she stayed in the monitoring room to observe the situation in real-time…”
“Reine!”
As if a sensitive spot had been touched, Kotori immediately cut her off.
“Ten crepes!”
“Oh, Shido-kun, I must be hallucinating!”
“That’s the most blatant bribe ever!”
Shido exclaimed loudly in protest, yet he also let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that even if her outward personality had changed, Kotori’s inner feelings remained unaltered.
“Shido, how much longer are you going to wait here? You’ll be late in just over ten minutes!”
“Just over ten minutes? Then where exactly am I right now?”
“There!”
Kotori clapped her hands, and the surroundings instantly became transparent.
Blue skies, white clouds, the city below, and even Raizen High School, where Shido attended, were all clearly visible.
“Th-this… this is…”
Shido instinctively took two steps back, and then everything returned to normal.
“You’re currently directly above Tengu City!” Kotori said with a triumphant look. “The Fraxinus, you see, is an aerial battleship!”
“An aerial battleship?”
To think Shido would actually get to ride in something straight out of a sci-fi novel. However, given how many strange things he’d witnessed in just ten days, he wasn’t overly surprised.
“If I just threw you straight down from here, you could reach school directly!”
“Hey, Kotori!”
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do something like that to my idiot brother! The Fraxinus has a spatial transfer device that can send you straight to school!”
“Alright, now then, put on your uniform and let’s begin!”
Before Shido could even speak, he was suddenly enveloped by a sensation of weightlessness, as if floating. He couldn’t even distinguish basic directions like up, down, left, or right.
****
Then.
“Ahhh—”
“—Ugh!”
Shido suddenly plummeted from the sky, forced to land on all fours.
A girl’s shriek pierced the air from a startlingly close distance. Before Shido’s dizzy brain could process what it meant, a girl appeared in his field of vision.
She was a girl about Shido’s age, with a tawny ponytail.
“—Huh? Yamabuki? What are you doing here?”
“Whoa, that’s my line! Pervert!”
The girl’s shriek drew the attention of nearby classmates, especially Hazakura Mai and Fujibakama Mii, who were close friends with Yamabuki Ai.
“You, you’re that Itsuka! You actually knocked Ai down!”
“Oh, my god!”