Chapter 48: ~Chapter 15~ Part 2

The classroom was unusually lifeless this morning, probably due to the placeholders sticking to their schedules like they were superglued together, and thus there were only two of them in the room. On closer look, they seemed to be both the academically hyperactive type, so that at least explained their early arrivals. As for how I knew that? They wore glasses. A stereotype, I know, but this was that kind of place after all.

Judy and I headed for our respective desks, and while I was planning on walking over to hers after I put down my bag, my plans were torpedoed by the appearance of the class rep. She had a suspicious look in her eyes when she noticed the two of us, and after depositing her own bag she immediately came to my side.

"Good morning, Leo."

"Morning," I returned the greeting with a lazy wave.

"We need to talk."

"I figured."

She glanced around for a moment before she leaned in for a conspiratorial huddle.

"Listen, about what happened yesterday..." she glanced around again and leaned even closer. "How did you break into the Restricted Space?"

I sighed. Wonderful. The day barely even started yet and I was already facing questions I couldn't answer. After a bit of high-speed thinking, I decided to stick to my previous story.

"I didn't. I just tagged along with the princess and Snowy."

"And Judy?"

"Her? She tagged along with me in turn."

The class rep nodded, though the look in her eyes said she thought I wasn't telling her the truth. She wasn't really off the mark, to be honest, but then again, how was I supposed to tell her something I didn't know either?

"Very well," she finally told me with a small sigh of her own. "I told the School it was only a minor incident and that your involvement was accidental. They might still want to talk to you soon, so don't do anything stupid."

Now that perked my interest. "The school, eh?" I mused as the implications started to line up in my mind. So we had an organization that was aware of the supernatural elements in this school and, according to the class rep's words, regulated them. I made a mental note of telling Judy to get some more info about them, but for the moment I had to keep up my side of the conversation. "Before you go, please define ‘something stupid'."

"Things like jumping into a Restricted Field to stop a fight."

I frowned and shook my head.

"Sorry, but that's not happening. You cannot ask me to stand around while my friends are fighting each other." I paused for a second as I remembered something and I couldn't stop a smirk creeping onto my face. "Also, I can distinctly remember someone actually jumping in and trying to stop a fight yesterday"

The class rep reeled back like I just hit her on a sore spot.

"That's different. I was there as an official representative of the School and the Assembly."

Ah-ha! There was one of my keywords! I tried not to show my satisfaction as I forcefully wiped the smile from my face and looked the girl in front of me in the eye.

"Listen Ammy. I know you just want to keep me safe, but I will not be standing idly by while my friends are in danger. Period."

"You are going to get hurt."

I shrugged.

"I could. Or maybe things work out well like they did yesterday. Either way, I would rather try and fail than not try at all."

The class rep silently held my gaze for several seconds longer before she closed her eyes and her shoulders slumped in resignation.

"I never thought you were the hot-blooded type." Her words took me aback for a moment. Me? Hot blooded? Nah. If anything, I was too calculating for my own good. Since I didn't respond right away, the class rep straightened herself and took a half-step back from my desk. "Very well. But remember, I have warned you."

"Yes, and I am grateful for that, even if I am going to completely ignore it."

At last her lips curved upwards a little, though the smile barely touched her eyes.

"All right. Just so we are clear." She paused for a second or five before her expression turned stony once again. "Before I go, there is one last thing I wanted to ask you: How did you get into the Restricted Space without triggering any of the mana sensors around campus?"

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Ooooh... ‘Mana sensors'? Look at those juicy tidbits, just falling into my lap one after the other! After a moment of consideration, I decided to just lean back on my chair and smile mysteriously.

"Would you believe me if I told you my exposure to you guys supercharged my latent psychic abilities into phenomenal cosmic powers?"

"Yes."

I blinked at her. Hard.

"Well, you shouldn't."

"Then how?"

I had a feeling she wouldn't take ‘I don't have a bloody idea, why don't YOU tell me?' too well, so I decided on a more indirect approach. I quickly relapsed into my mysterious smile and quipped; "I cannot tell you just yet. When I can, you will be the first to know."

"Do you promise?" I nodded, and she returned the gesture, albeit hesitantly. By this time students began to steadily trickle into the classroom and she was about to leave and attend to her duties when she faltered and turned back to me and whispered, "Are you sure you are not psychic?"

I let the smile drop and gave her a critical stare.

"I was joking."

"I know, but..." She leaned closer again and lowered her voice to the point even I could barely hear her. "I'm writing my thesis on unconventional and spontaneous mystic arts, and I thought you might have... insights into the matter?"

All her words needed was a knowing wink and an intriguingly raised eyebrow to complete the classic ‘I know you know, and now you know that I know you know that I know you know' exchange, but the class rep just wasn't subtle or self-conscious enough for these kinds of things, so I granted her the benefit of the doubt and gave her a meaningful nod in turn.

Although, to be perfectly fair, she was correct. So far I definitely fell under the 'psychic' umbrella, an ESP to be precise, especially if I were to play fast and loose with the traditional definitions, but it was exactly because I had no idea about the proper terminology of this world that I had to be careful about claiming anything. Who knew? Maybe I was psychic? Or an alien. Or a genie locked out of his lamp. I had no idea, so I did what I was best at; act like I knew what I was talking about and at the same time be as vague as possible.

"Fine, fine. We'll see about that. If I come across anything that might interest you, I'll call you."

As I said that, the princess arrived in the doorway with perfect timing. The class rep followed the direction of my gaze and promptly left without saying a word. I knew she was only doing so to give us some space, but geez, it was still cold of her.

Anyways, the princess visibly staggered when she noticed that I was already in the classroom and for a moment I thought she would run away (possibly accompanied with a fitting assortment of ‘Kyuuun!'s and ‘Awawawa!'s), but instead she showed admirable self-restraint by shakily walking up to her desk in front of mine and taking a seat.

I waited for her to say something, but after it became obvious she was not going to speak first I gently cleared my throat, which made her nearly jump out of her chair. Talk about being tense.

However, before I could start a conversation she whipped her head around so hard that for a moment I was afraid she would pull a tendon in her neck. She stared at me with an expression that hovered somewhere between bone-chilling rage and utter panic for a while... or at the very least that's what it looked like, though I had a hunch it had more to do with embarrassment than either of those emotions. A tsundere through and through.

Meanwhile, she tried to speak, but no words came out of her mouth. I waited for her to finish her struggle, but in the end she just turned back around and buried her face in her arms on her desk. What a wonderful conversation that was.

I let loose a sneaky sigh under my breath and tapped her on her shoulder.

"Do you want to talk?"

She didn't react right away, but then she nodded without looking up.

"So... are you going to talk?"

This time she shook her head.

"Then what?" There was no answer. "How about you write it down?"

She suddenly sat up straight like she was shocked by electricity and began rummaging through her bag. She took out a sheet of paper and some writing utensils and began writing at a frantic pace. Once finished, she checked the page, nodded to herself, and then presented it to me over her back while still avoiding eye contact with extreme prejudice. I reflexively rolled my eyes and took the page.

I found her handwriting very familiar, which honestly shouldn't have been that surprising considering I've already seen it on her two challenge letters. This one, predictably, also called me to the roof.

"So you want us to eat lunch on the roof so we can talk?" She silently nodded. "Just the two of us?" She nodded again. "All right then," I told her as my lips slowly curved into a sardonic smile. "It was nice talking to you."

She didn't react; she just hid her face in her arms again and refused to look up no matter how gently I called out to her. With this intermezzo over, I sat back in my chair and tried my best not to think about how troublesome my lunch break was promising to be.

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