“Yes.” She answered the question without hesitation, but also without feeling.
Ignoring the groans of dismay that came from some of the student council members, as well as the fist pump and shout of, “We’re so back!” from the young man who welcomed her to this world.
This world.
Because there’s more than one.
She’d never been interested in science fiction, but stories of parallel worlds were still common enough she could understand the concept.
It shouldn’t exist though.
This bright cheerful school full of well dressed teenagers, an officious student council.
Normal days, like she’d lived her entire life through, but all vanished forever in the space of one afternoon.
It would be easier to believe she was dreaming.
But not only did it feel too real, the faces were all unfamiliar, her brain wasn’t so imaginative it could come up with this kind of scenario from nothing.
All she could do was dazedly follow along, answering questions when put to her while feeling her instincts smothered by the cotton wool of normal that surrounded her.
It was easier not to think, though.
Not to let her mind dwell on Takashi and the others.
Would they be alright without her?
They were strong, they’d been through a lot, but they had only survived by all of them working together.
It felt like a betrayal, to be here back in the normal world and leaving them to an uncertain fate.
Her heart clenched at the thought of Takashi.
Would she never be held in his arms again?
Rei would surely take care of him, but she could allow herself a woman’s weakness and acknowledge the bitter jealousy that thought elicited.
She hadn’t minded sharing.
A man like him could satisfy both of them, and she wasn’t so cruel as to leave Rei out in the cold when there quite frankly were no other options for women like them.
If the worst happened and she were to face death, she would have smiled and told Rei to take care of him.
But not like this.
She was prepared for death, but who could prepare for another world entirely?
A world without the man she loved, where she somehow had to go on by herself.
And so she let herself be enrolled in this new school, drifting through the process.
Even the revelation that the student council were devils failed to penetrate.
They weren’t human?
They looked human.
They talked and acted normally.
Not like Them, the blind and stupid and murderous dead things that had once been human.
So even if they were not human, she could still see them as people.
When they were finished, she left with Onano.
More whispers and stares in the hallways of this new school, the two stopping in front of a vending machine.
“You want anything to eat or drink?
I’ll have to get back to class for the afternoon soon but you and Kaori can hang out in the club room till after.” She looked at the vending machine.
Food from them was usually still good.
It was easy to smash open the front and take what you liked, though the noise could attract the undead.
This one, unlike any she had seen for months, was lit up.
The interior chilled.
It had been a long time since she’d had a cold drink.
Electricity was a fading memory, ever since the EMP had gone off above Japan.
“Fruit snack pack and iced coffee, please,” she told him.
While chips and candy were still fine to eat from vending machines, fruit was long since rotten unless it was the dried kind.
Onano nodded and fed some coins into the machine before it disgorged her requested items which he handed to her and they resumed walking.
He was dangerous.
Not in the same way as Kohta, an unassuming boy who became a confident man with a gun in his hand.
No, it was the way he moved.
There was a smoothness to it, every step keeping himself poised so that he could lash out at an instant’s notice.
His build belied the kind of training one would expect, made it easy for the unwary to pass over him.
To see him as a pitiable and unworthy figure, as clearly so many of his fellow students did.
Still he did not pose himself as a threat to her.
If it were necessary she believed she could defeat him, but more hopefully if a crisis occurred he might be someone she could rely on.
At the very least he’d acted decisively to get her situated in this new world, declared his intention to take responsibility.
As a man it was commendable.
It was enough for her to stay with him rather than set off blindly by herself into a strange world.
A normal world.
Though once they returned to the club room and found a tiny blonde woman in an alluring outfit waiting for them, she was reminded it wasn’t strictly as normal as the one she grew up in.
She idly wondered how she would look in a costume like that.
If Takashi would like it… she might never know though.
Not unless a way was found to go back.
Or if this strange summoning power might bring Takashi here?
She couldn’t allow herself to hope for something like that though.
It seemed just as suddenly as the world had ended, the world was now restored, even if it was a different one.
Yet given how quickly things could change, seeing that her sword and pistol remained here caused a tension in her gut to loosen.
They’d barely gotten inside when the bell rang, and Onano scowled.
“I’m gonna have to get back to class.
Kaori-chan, can you keep Saeko-san company and get her caught up until I’m back?
We’ll have to sort out the rest after school.” “Fine,” the small blonde-haired woman said in a tone that reminded her of Saya, “But you better not get hard without me, Jiro-kun, I don’t want to miss another!” Her eyes must have widened, surprised to hear such indecency.
“Uh, yeah,” Onano gave her an apologetic look before glaring at Saeki, “You can explain all that to her too.
Just hang tight until I’m back, okay?” and then he fled, leaving the two women alone.
Two women both summoned from other worlds by his uncontrollable ability.
She took a seat at the intact desk, wondering what had happened to the broken one nearby, and put her food and drink down.
Sliced apple, grape, melon, and pineapple.
Forgotten fresh sweetness, matched with the smooth bitterness of her chilled coffee.
Small comforts at a time like this, but she couldn’t deny the impact on her senses.
Still though, she would not squander this chance to learn from her companion.
“So did you come from a world of fairies, Saeki-san?” “No, my world was perfectly normal,” she answered, standing on the desk where she could look up at Saeko, undaunted by the difference in scale.
“Jiro’s power doesn’t just summon things, it can change them too.
That’s what happened to me, transformed me into a fairy not long after I first appeared here.” A troubling fate.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she commiserated, hoping that kind of transformation wasn’t in her future.
“There’s no way to turn yourself back?” Saeki shook her head.
“I thought turning into a devil might help, but it turns out fairies are stronger than devils.
It’s not so bad, being able to fly,” she demonstrated, a flutter of translucent blue wings lifting her into the air, “And my magic has become mighty.
Jiro has developed abilities and knowledge from it too, even if it doesn’t help with the core problem, he’s becoming stronger.
If I stay near him when his ability activates, I might pick up more as well.” The allure of strength was one she could understand perfectly well, and even if one was small being able to fly would make avoiding the undead trivial.
“And you two are that close already?” She hadn’t forgotten what Saeki had said about ‘taking responsibility’ earlier when she’d first appeared, though Onano hadn’t given the impression that he had improper expectations towards her thus far.
The blonde girl landed back on the desk with a superior looking smile on her face.
“His power activates when his dick gets hard,” she said, seeming to revel in the crudeness, though Saeko wasn’t so sheltered that she’d give her the satisfaction of a blushing outburst.
It didn’t stop Saeki from continuing, “And he’s a lonely teenage boy, so it’s not hard to make that happen.
One of his classmates got some kind of magic ninja suit from rubbing up against him in PE this morning.
Although they had to run off and hide…” her face twisted in displeasure.
“There’s a whole thing about hiding magic from normal people, so I suppose I should get you caught up on what’s really going on below the surface.” Which led to Saeko learning all about devils and angels and fallen angels, that the school and indeed the town was secretly being run by the first group, and that Onano had summoned one of the second but she had fled to find her own path.
At least it didn’t seem that there was any sort of metaphysical tie to the summoner, and so if needed she could leave without looking back.
Yet without a destination, for now she would remain and see what came of association with him and Saeki.
“… so I think devils are just naturally violent.
It makes sense because you don’t think of gentleness when it comes to devils, but most of them seem to work through it with their rating game system.
Still apparently some go rogue and just go around causing havoc until they get put down as strays,” she continued to lecture with some editorialising.
It made Saeko wonder if she was the kind of person who might cause havoc in a normal world.
Would devils let a human take part in their violent contests?
Kendo wouldn’t suffice as an outlet for her.
A measured, sporting, event, with blows struck for points… it didn’t compare to reality where she could expose her true self.
Perhaps it was for the best she’d agreed to join Onano’s anime club instead of investigating this school’s kendo facilities.
Still, even if she would avoid causing trouble, she had a feeling it would find her regardless as even without them this world seemed to possess its share of monsters.
As they were not short on time, Saeki also tried to learn about the kind of world Saeko had come from.
She was not a good storyteller, but all the same the girl seemed to get something out of her responses.
“You actually want to go back to a place like that?” she’d asked, looking at her oddly.
“There was something interesting about that angel who appeared yesterday too.
She was short-tempered and slutty, not how you’d expect an angel to behave.
Speaking for myself, I’ve always been more interested in magic than the kinds of things my parents approved of.
It might be too early to draw conclusions, but the pattern seems to be that the people summoned are misfits in some sense.
We’ll see if and when it happens again, but I don’t think Jiro is going to summon anyone that could be considered a normal member of society in whatever world they come from.” If nothing else, the law of averages suggested that if he were simply plucking people at random, he’d have been more likely to get an average salaryman or housewife than an occultist, a renegade angel, and herself.
In any case, their discussion was brought to an end by the ringing of the school bell, and shortly afterwards by Onano’s arrival.
The heavyset young man cracking the door open the narrowest he could get away with before squeezing himself in.
“Hey, you two alright?
No trouble while I was gone?” he asked, looking between the two of them.
“No one came by,” Saeki answered.
Saeko gave her own reply with a small smile, “Saeki-san and I just had a nice girls’ talk while you were gone, Onano-kun.” He smiled a little hesitantly in return and nodded, holding up a plastic bag held in one hand opposite the bookbag on his shoulder, “Great, well, in that case we can get going.
The student council at least gave me a free uniform for you to wear, Saeko-san, but we’ll have to buy you some other clothes and toiletries, so we’ll go shopping before we go home.” “Then I am in your care,” she stood and bowed to him, the three getting ready to leave.
Which for Saeki involved hiding in his bag because even if fairies existed, people weren’t allowed to know that.
Her pistol also went in the bag for logical reasons, though she kept hold of her sword.
This was Japan after all, swords were part of their culture even if guns were not.
Leaving the school and entering Kuoh town proper was an experience.
Cars driving around rather than being crashed or jammed on the street, carefree crowds of people going home from school or running errands or just enjoying the warm spring weather.
It looked so normal, the kind of normal you take for granted where each day is like the one before it.
She knew in truth how quickly it could shatter, but there was still something lulling about it.
Feeling the confidence of the masses, even if they would surely turn into a panicking mob if their comfort was abruptly pulled away from them.
The three of them stopped just inside an alley where Saeki emerged from Onano’s bag and performed some magic.
Even after seeing the dead walk, the otherworldly light and magical circle that formed before the small fairy was startling in its own sense.
Then she set herself on Onano’s shoulder and held still as they resumed walking, seemingly alert to see if anyone would notice or pay attention to her.
This did not seem to be the case, which had her express relief at no longer being confined to a bag when going outside, though she also noted that it would only work if she remained unobtrusive.
A deflection of attention rather than any form of invisibility.
Given her size and attire, she was hard not to pay attention to, but seemingly it worked as they stopped first in a pharmacy to buy toiletries, Onano seemingly conscious of his budget going by the low-priced products he selected with input from Saeki and herself.
She had no wish to impose, even if it was technically his fault she had been brought here, and so she kept her requests humble.
The temptation to just grab whatever caught her eye was present however, actually paying for things was a novel concept at this point.
It was worse when they went clothes-shopping though.
No fun fashion show to be had trying on outfits and provoking reactions.
They went to budget outlet to pick through cheap t-shirts and leggings, plain white underwear.
Nothing like the decadent black lace she had on at the moment so she could cling to her femininity even in a world that had ended.
Even then Onano looked pained at the potential expense.
Though it was Saeki who actually complained as she whispered, “Hey, Jiro-kun, is this the best you could come up with?” “I don’t have a lot of money, we’ll still need to eat as well unless my power gives us something,” he whispered back, shamefaced over his inability to properly provide.
“Don’t worry, Onano-kun,” she said to reassure him, “It’s a man’s job to provide, but a woman should be able to make do with what’s available.
I’m grateful you’ve gone this far for me.” Saeki was still unsatisfied, but even Saeko could acknowledge the wisdom of her next words.
“Even so, why don’t we try a second-hand store?
There might be some actual diamonds in the rough… speaking of, I’ll loan you my old clothes and purse, Busujima.
Not like they fit me anymore.” They all agreed that was actually a good idea, Saeko acknowledging to herself that Saeki was an intelligent young woman.
The comparison to Saya was well-earned, and once more she found herself worrying for how her friends would manage without her.
There was nothing she could do for them though, so instead she tried to keep her mind focused on the present as they went looking around Kuoh’s shopping district for suitable pawn shops and second hand stores.
“I like to look through these kinds of stores for ornaments and decorations, but you can still sometimes find good clothes too,” the blonde fairy had set as they set off, Onano himself seeming a bit unfamiliar with the area so it was a bit like exploring for all three of them.
“Really I just go shopping at the same places for the basics, so I’ve never really looked around for this kind of thing,” he’d admitted, giving Saeko some small insight into both of her new companions.
It was a productive trip however, Saeko having no qualms about wearing second-hand clothing after scavenging through other people’s homes so often, and they lucked into a few trendy looking and affordable finds.
At least what had been trendy five years ago, but fashions hadn’t changed that much, she would hardly look bad in any of it.
The trio just left their third store, cutting through an alleyway to get back towards the main thoroughfare, when it happened.
Two older men leaning against the wall, tanned skin and bleached hair, tight vests worn with gaudy gold chains around their necks.
They could have simply passed by, but that didn’t happen.
Eyes fixated on Saeko and she could tell exactly what was coming even before they pushed off the wall to block the way.
They didn’t even care about the sheathed sword on her waist, perhaps thinking it a cosplay prop, or just a wooden training sword.
They had no idea what she could do with a wooden sword.
The hand that pressed down on her shoulder made it hard for her not to smile even as she feigned weakness, letting herself be pushed back towards the wall while masking her true reaction.
It was just like that time, a moment she’d replayed in her head so often, the first time she’d truly understood herself even if that knowledge had brought her nothing but shame until Takashi had helped her understand that her urges didn’t make her less of a person.
In fact embracing them was the key to survival in their new world.
“Hey cutie, a babe like you is wasted hanging out with an otaku like him.
Why don’t you come spend some time with me and my buddy here?” the man grasping her shoulder asked, a wide leering smile looking down at what he surely believed was a frightened face.
She was going to see what his face looked like, wracked by pain and fear.
Her heart quickened for the first time since she’d appeared in this new world, and her muscles began to tense.
She’d start by breaking his leg, so he wouldn’t be able to run.
Then his friend- A pudgy hand wrapped around that brawny forearm, and she felt the grip on her shoulder spasm before being lifted away, the older and more muscular man looking surprised that the ‘otaku’ he’d dismissed would step in like that.
Perhaps he hadn’t even consciously realised he was being outmuscled by someone smaller and clearly less fit, and Saeko felt her attention shift towards Onano.
“Hey, don’t just go grabbing people like that.
Fuck off and leave us alone,” the bespectacled young man said, a slight quaver of uncertainty in his voice, but his grip was firm and had control of the other’s wrist.
Well.
This wasn’t about her and her desire to hurt any more.
It was a woman’s responsibility to look out for a man’s pride, and so she would support him and see what her summoner was made of.
Smoothly stepping back and behind Onano now she was no longer being held, she simply said, “Thank you, Onano-kun,” so he’d know his gallant intervention was taken properly.
“Little prick!” the aggressor growled, failing to wrench his arm free and then lashing out to punch with the other.
It clearly wasn’t his dominant hand, the attack sloppy and easy for her to read.
Easy for Onano as well as he shifted his weight, pulling down on that captured wrist and driving his shoulder into the taller man’s chest as the punch whiffed nothing but air.
Saeki leapt off amidst the devolving violence, clinging onto Saeko’s shoulder where she landed, while Onano kept moving with his legs bending first low then straightening as he hip-threw the assailant.
All the momentum behind that wild punch redoubled as his feet left the ground and he was flung back first into the wall, legs spread out and folded over his undignified figure with his shocked looking face down against the ground, neck at a painful but not injurious angle.
She watched Onano though.
Seeing it in his eyes.
The giddiness.
The pleasure of violence.
“Haha!
Yeah, that’s what you get, dipshit!” the crowing was undignified, he was acting like it was a revelation.
But perhaps it was, she didn’t know if he’d ever been in a real fight, ever really hurt someone.
She understood the transformative feeling of realising your own strength, holding the life of another in your hands.
But there was one more, and even if he’d taken a back seat while his friend had initially accosted Saeko, he did not take the resistance lying down.
Foolish, given the ease Onano had dispatched the first with, but confidence in greater size and seeming strength saw him hurl himself at the high school student with a yell of, “I’ll get you for that!” His attacks were only marginally better than his friend’s.
Not handicapped by being grabbed and using his weaker hand, but still there was no real form behind the punches he threw, nor the attempts at grabbing when those were frustrated by Onano’s deflections.
Pudgy and seemingly powerless arms under that neat school blazer weaved through the air to brush aside muscular jabs and haymakers.
It was like he was toying with him.
She had been right to see him as dangerous.
These may have only been posturing thugs, but they still had more agility than the undead.
Greater reach and muscle meant nothing as Onano weaved around or parried whatever was thrown at him, frustration growing on the features of the bleached-blond predator.
Though that frustration changed into an ugly smirk of triumph as the first one slithered to his feet, unsteady perhaps but still coherent enough to lunge… Towards her.
Rather than ganging up on Onano, perhaps they sought to make him submit with a hostage?
It didn’t matter.
She would not act weak when it would place another in danger.
The sword remained firmly in its sheath, but the pommel was enough as she slid towards him in an abrupt and unexpected motion, the hilt of Murata-tou meeting his solar plexus with a jarring impact that drove the air from his lungs and saliva from his mouth, eyes bugging out as his feet were lifted off the ground.
They never touched it again before Saeko spun herself around, slamming her foot into him with that gathered momentum and sending him crashing into the wall, limbs spread out and figure pancaked into the brickwork.
His eyes didn’t appear to be seeing anything as he slid back down and his legs once more tumbled over his body in an undignified pose showing his rear to the world.
That felt good.
She could feel the heat on her cheeks, the moistness in her loins.
She needed this.
A shing of metal rasping against lacquer sounded as she drew the gunto from its sheath.
“Did you know?
General Murata once cleaved a pig’s skull in half with this blade, and it never suffered a nick nor a scratch,” she relayed a story told to her by the blade’s former owner, watching in pleasure as the swaggering thug from before cringed in his humiliating pose beneath her.
“I see a pig before me now.” “Wait, we didn’t mean nothing!
We were just fooling around, we’re sorry!” the other one started blubbering, backing away from Onano and kow-towing while Saeko held her sword up like an executioner waiting to strike.
“Uh…” Onano made a nonverbal noise, edging towards her now, while Saeki simply stayed quiet clinging to her shoulder.
Then there was a hissing noise, and the white pants below that snakeskin belt the thug had on began to darken as he shamefully lost his control and whatever lingering qualification he may have had to call himself a man.
A sharp bark of laughter came from Onano, and he stepped closer, placing himself under her blade, between her and her target.
She wasn’t going to go through him, and cold reason began to seep back in through the ecstatic rush of violence.
“Alright pisspants, get the fuck out of here, both of you!
Better not see you again, either!” he yelled, the doubled over thug in his ruined pants righting himself and scrambling away like a dog while his friend similarly ran ahead down the alley, no longer willing to test themselves.
They were human.
Not men, but not monsters either.
She shouldn’t have gone so far as to draw a live blade on them.
If she’d killed them, in a world where laws and police still existed… well, it wouldn’t have been worth it.
They weren’t worth it.
She let out a soft sigh, metaphorical cold water poured over her head, and she half turned away from him to safely sheathe her blade.
“Thank you Onano- no,” she corrected herself, there was no reason for the distance of formality, he’d proven worthy of at least this much regard.
“May I call you Jiro-kun?
I forgot what kind of world we live in, but you stopped me, and you stood up to protect me as well.
I am grateful,” she bowed her head in respect.
“Haha, well I’ve been calling you Saeko-san anyway, so I think we’re past that stage anyway,” he turned towards her with a bashful looking smile.
“This is why you curse people rather than stab them, there’s no evidence that way,” Saeki muttered, sounding petulant from where she sat on the edge of Saeko’s green collar.
Perhaps she could start calling her Kaori as well, though?
“Geez, what a pair…” Jiro shook his head ruefully, going to pick up the shopping bag he’d dropped amidst the violence, only to freeze in place with a pained expression on his face.
“Fuck!” his foot stomped on the ground.
“We should’ve taken their wallets!” A surprised giggle of mirth bubbled up out of Saeko’s throat at the same time as the tension eased down, her hand reaching up to cover her mouth.
They all had their problems, didn’t they?