Chapter 2: Volume I. Chapter II. – Hogo-sha Academy

[March 28th, 863]

A three-story tall stone box structure with wooden supports and tiles on its roof - our old and crumbling Hogo-sha Academy.

A sudden breeze passes by as I stare down the building, gently moving my hair tied in a pony-tail to the side. It’s chilly.

Charlotte speaks up from my rear. She’s standing a few meters behind me together with Iris.

“C-c-c-cold! I bet it’s a warning from God. I think we should retreat to the warmth of our home.”

Is she trying to make excuses? Or is it for comedic purposes? I can’t tell…It’s always like this with her.

“Get a grip, will you! You might as well warm yourself up inside the academy since we are already here.”

Iris fiercely grabs one of her arms. The slap-like sound she produces is loud enough to be heard clearly. In response, Charlotte yells out with a what could be arguably a sexual tone…

“Kyaaa! Save me! I’m being abducted by a sexual predator!”

Right, she has a thing for embarrassing us in public too.

Hearing her moans and seeing everyone’s eyes on us, I immediately face-palm myself as I stare at the ground. A few moments later the wind blows yet again, this time somewhat colder and stronger, strong enough to rob the cherry blossoms of their petals.

One of those petals happened to fall towards me. I extend my palm and let the petal land on it as I gaze upon the bright pink flower. It looks so beautiful yet feels so fragile compared to your everyday leaf.

“No spacing out, Yuuna. You are going to be late.”

Iris warns me as she suddenly grabs my arm. It startles me and the pink cherry blossom petal escapes my grasp.

“My petal!”

I desperately but quietly yell out whilst extending my hand towards the flower that’s slowly descending to the ground.

Iris’s grip is strong. I couldn’t get out of it even if I wanted to. I might as well let myself be dragged away. So long, you won’t be forgotten.

———

We have arrived at our classroom.

I stand still within the doorway and inspect the room half filled with students.

The smell of wet wood, the dark oak floor that creaks whenever you step on it, the chalkboard with scribbles still engraved on it from the previous years. Yeah, I didn’t miss this place one bit.

“I’m taking this spot!”

Charlotte yells out as she happily makes her way to the single desk in the last row, next to the window.

Sadly, Iris isn’t here with us, her class is on the third floor with the top students. Lucky her, I bet her classroom is nice and clean.

Each student is assigned to a floor depending on their grades and their performance in combat. Right now we are on the second floor, what you could call the ‘mid-class’, but at the start of each year everyone will get a chance to move up thanks to the combat tests. Matter of fact, they are being held tomorrow.

I will give them one thing though, using the rotten classrooms on the first floor sure motivated me. It’s almost like I can still hear the cockroaches crawling around whenever I enter the room.

What an unpleasant feeling…

“What are you standing here for? You are blocking the entrance.”

A boy’s voice, a really familiar voice. I turn around and find one of my friends standing behind me.

“What’s up?”

He greets me as he lifts one of his hands into a semi-wave position.

This is Hidiku Sato. Medium length hair covered in a shade of black that could consume light. In addition to that his blue eyes are as dark as the deep seas. His height reaches one-hundred and seventy-nine despite being the same age as me. He also has a thing for Iris.

“You need to stop growing.”

I say as I have to ascend my sight to see him in the face. At this rate he will become a giant.

Hidiku puts on an expression of confusion.

“What do you mean? I’m not that tall yet. Just wait a couple more years.”

He then smiles.

Is he taunting me? Is he making fun of my height? Or is he just being oblivious?

As I attempt to figure out Hidiku’s intentions, my face slowly converts from whatever it was to an annoyed one.

“Y-Yuuna….you are making that face again.”

His voice trembles slightly.

The bell begins to ring amidst our conversation, ultimately putting it to a halt. I seat myself behind the desk before Charlotte, just for the sake of being next to a window while Hidiku sits next to me. I always liked to gaze out of it.

Our first subject is history, I love listening to the stories of what the demon race used to be like. Nowadays they are so little of a threat that nobody really worries about them, there’s a bigger chance that you would die from food poisoning. Though, the war between humanity and demons that took place a few hundred years back is my favorite.

The subject after that is demonology, it’s where we study demons themselves. Another fascinating subject. The rest is just math and all that other boring crap.

As our tutor talks to the class, I soon start hearing Charlotte breathing quietly, but heavier than the average, just enough to be audible from my desk. With curiosity I divert my eyes towards my older sister and witness a truly unexpected sight.

“She’s already asleep…..”

I mumble to myself silently. Well, it’s whatever. Since I’m stuck in this class only because of my combat rating, I have a chance to join Iris and leave Mrs. lazy butt in this dump of a classroom, if I work hard enough at tomorrow's exams. On the other hand, Charlotte is stuck here because of her bad grades. I seriously doubt that she will improve anytime soon.

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———

The bell rings for the sixth time and Charlotte instantly arises from her slumber, mainly because it’s the launch break. I swear, it’s either sleeping or eating with her.

“Is it time?”

Hidiku calmly asks, to which I nod as I answer with a relieved tone.

“Yeah.”

So we begin to put our desks together. It’s a little tradition we got going on. For each lunch break all of our friends, meaning my sisters and Hidiku’s two siblings, get together in the middle floor classroom. And it’s just when we are done that Iris appears in the doorway as she makes her way towards us through the crowded classroom, with a gentle smile.

“I see you guys are surviving the first day just fine.”

To that Hidiku replies with a smile of his own.

“Hello, Iris. Long time no see.”

Iris sits on one of the free chairs we have left for the rest of the group and continues the conversation.

“Indeed, how have you been?”

“I’ve been managing.”

He answers. What is he, sixty? He sounds like an old bum just before retirement. The boy then looks around and asks.

“Where is Himari? Didn’t she tag along?”

Himari is Hidiku’s older sister and Iris’s classmate. They always come together, I wonder if she’s busy - I think to myself as I slowly push one of the chocolate sticks I brought from home, chopping it bit by bit into tiny pieces with my teeth.

“Himari is busy helping one of the tutors right now.”

Iris answers with a sigh just before her younger sister speaks up.

“Man, honor students have it tough. If it were me, I would ditch them at the first moment possible.

Says Charlotte as she finishes stuffing her face with a second chicken-burger in a time span of three minutes. How very like you….

“So what about Hiro? Is he planning to come?”

Let me translate - ‘So what about your older brother? Is he planning to come?’ is what I asked Hidiku to which he lets out a sigh and says.

“I think we can all agree that it would be for the best if he did not-”

Before Hidiku gets to finish his sentence, a boy, suddenly and dynamically bursts through the entrance.

“Rejoice, mortals! Roll out the red carpets! The Dark Emperor has returned from the depths of hell to save you from this torture called ‘studying’.

He yells with his arms lifted up high, as if he was collecting energy from the people of earth.

A very tall boy reaching at least one-hundred and ninety centimeters. His hair carries a very dark shade of red, dark enough to mistake it for black, with the combination of clear green eyes. He’s fifteen-years-old and he’s diagnosed with the apparently called ‘chuunibyou syndrome’. His name is Hiro Sato.

How do I know this? He’s Hidiku’s older brother, that’s how.

As we stare at the carefree monkey in unison, two words manage to escape Charlotte’s two lips stunned by fear.

“Oh boy.”

But Hidiku’s brother is not what brings her fear, no. What brings her fear is second-hand embarrassment! Yes that’s right, even the shameless ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is not shameless enough to ignore the cruel humiliation this young boy can doom this world with!

Well, the rest of us are pretty reasonable. The moment we realized what’s going on, our reflexes triggered.

“Hey….I suddenly feel like catching frogs in the backyard.”

I say with the dullest tone and expression I can make.

“Yay. Frogs. Let’s go.”

Iris replies in the same manner.

We saw nothing, we know no one. And with that we got up and left the classroom, passing Hiro without a word and leaving Charlotte behind as bait. The poor girl is still shaking with fear, but oh well, it’s what comes with living with these two nut brains.

Just before Iris leaves Hidiku’s older brother behind, being the kind hearted person she is, my older sister places her hand on Hiro’s shoulder as she says something along the lines of-

“Hang in there. We will find you proper treatment soon enough.”

Iris, your area of effect is too large! The strong sense of pity in your words is hitting us as well! Nevertheless, it left the shameless boy confused.

As we all leave the area after receiving partial damage, Hiro is left behind, wrapping his head around my older sister’s words.

“Huh? Treatment? But I’m perfectly fine.”

He then gets into focus and spots another familiar face.

“Oh! Charlotte, you are here too!”

He yells while dashing into the room with open arms as we watch him from across the corridor.

Charlotte’s screams and shrieking of torture and misery was the last we’ve ever heard from her.

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