Once the lights went out, the darkness that sealed the place in was overwhelming, heavy enough to feel almost physical. It was cold darkness, dense as clay.
That was what happened when the windows were shut tight and even the blackout curtains were drawn.
“One chance for a surprise attack.”
I explained it quietly to the three trainee Heroes. First, we set an equipment locker in the middle of the gymnasium and decided to use it as bait. We scattered training weapons, protectors, and whatever else around it in a deliberately sloppy mess.
“When I give the signal, move. Shirogamine, Sera—you two are better off ending it with that first hit.”
We arranged some box-shaped gym apparatus I could not identify and stacks of mats as naturally as we could, then hid in their shadows.
“Because if you don’t, you’re weak, so they’ll probably counterattack and you’ll lose.”
“Yes! Understood. I’ll give it everything I have.”
“Shit.”
As usual, Shirogamine’s answer was all bright enthusiasm. Sera, on the other hand, growled her curse.
Sera was obviously nervous. She was concentrating way too hard on hiding. She had practically flattened herself against the floor, pressing her ear to the training mats to listen to the approaching footsteps. Not that it would do much good.
Unless you had actually been trained for it, you could only guess how far away someone was.
“Instructor, what about me?”
Yukine Indo tugged at the hem of my coat. Apparently she wanted to know when she was supposed to jump out.
“You’re not needed. There’s no point.”
“Instructor.”
Her voice was more openly displeased than I had ever heard it.
“I can’t accept being the only one with nothing to do. I want to get stronger. Will you make me stronger too?”
“Eventually.”
“Promise.”
“If you can follow my orders.”
“Then what should I do?”
“Hell if I know. Sit over there with your knees drawn up.”
“Understood.”
No sooner had she said it than Yukine Indo actually sat down with her knees hugged to her chest and went completely still. Sera and I looked at each other. Shirogamine nodded as if deeply impressed by something.
“That’s Yukine for you. So committed even I nearly recoiled in—”
Whatever came next was lost because I clamped a hand over Shirogamine’s mouth. She at least understood what I meant and cut the useless chatter. Sera sucked in a breath. Roughly ten seconds later, the entrance door opened, and the beam of a flashlight cut through the freezing dark.
Then came voices.
“—Sorry if this sounds rude.”
The first was a low male voice.
“But are you sure it was here?”
He turned back as if asking someone. His body looked bigger than mine, at least, and it was packed uncomfortably into a suit. I could not make out his face. Academy staff, maybe. A teacher.
That was what I thought then. The next instant, that guess was overturned completely.
“I saw light. From this place.”
This one was a woman’s voice, extremely hoarse. It had a uniquely unpleasant rasp, like a tree that had grown twisted and then withered where it stood.
Ether burn.
I knew the condition that made a voice sound like that. It tended to show up in people who overdosed on ether, or in permanent ether-enhancement cases. Ether had wrecked her throat. That meant an ether-addicted Hero—or else a Demon King. New chapters come out on novelping . com first.
Either way, someone like that being inside a school felt very obviously wrong.
“Was someone here? That would be… a little problematic.”
There was clear anxiety in the man in the suit’s voice.
“What do we do, Levi? Can you find them your way?”
“Who knows.”
Another small figure slipped in from behind the suited man. The figure wore a hoodie with the hood pulled low, hiding almost the entire face. But the sliver of profile that showed under the flashlight looked unnaturally pale.
“Someone may have been here, but there’s a good chance they’ve already left.”
“Wait, Levi. That equipment locker.”
The man in the suit pointed toward the center of the gymnasium. He fixed the flashlight straight ahead and approached with care.
Good. Perfect.
At my feet, I sensed Sera swallowing. She was extremely tense.
“Hmph.”
The ether-burned woman did not follow the suited man. Instead, she crouched down where she was.
Annoying. She had the air of someone with real experience. From the way the suited man spoke to her, her name was probably Levi.
“Don’t be too wary of something like that. It’s too obvious. I’ll trace it.”
The way she said it gave me a sharp sense of danger. Trace it, she—Levi—had said. No doubt about it. She was going to use some kind of ether perception.
I decided to move immediately.
I grabbed a coin from my pocket and threw it as hard as I could. It landed a good distance away and bounced with a hard metallic sound. The suited man let out a low grunt and pointed his flashlight that way. Levi, meanwhile, shot to her feet and swept her gaze left and right.
But we moved faster.
Because I kicked Sera and Shirogamine in the back.
“Who’s there?”
Even Levi, who looked like she would be a pain to deal with, only managed that much.
Since I had kicked Sera first, Levi had to take the descending training blade head-on. There was no room to dodge. Sera’s fighting style had been specialized for exactly that sort of thing from the start.
Her opening slash from overhead was fast and heavy.
“Shit! You bastard, you really kicked me!”
Sera’s strike came with a curse attached.
Levi raised her right arm and blocked it.
Even so, a dull crack rang out. Her unnaturally white face twisted hard, and she tried to open some distance—but Sera pressed in with another attack.
That, right there, was genuine growth. When she had sparred with me, she would immediately reset her stance on the spot and tighten her guard.
As expected of my advice.
That said, this ether-burned woman called Levi was not the kind of opponent who could be settled by that level of motivational bullshit. Somehow, I had already suspected as much.
“You little—”
Levi muttered and took Sera’s second strike. This time, she properly knocked the training blade aside, redirecting its force. Sera lost her balance and staggered.
And of course, the counterattack came.
“A student? Why?”
It was probably a roundhouse kick. I could not see it clearly in the dark, but Levi’s small body spun at a ridiculous speed, and Sera—the one who had attacked with the training blade—went flying instead. With a muffled scream, she rolled across the mats.
“She got me… Careless. Too careless.”
After kicking Sera away, she did not follow up. She clutched her right arm instead. It hung limply. Sera’s opening blow might have broken the bone.
“You!”
Suddenly, Shirogamine’s sharp voice rang out.
Her side of things was developing in the exact opposite direction from Sera’s.
“That face! You’re not Academy staff, and you’re not a teacher. Who are you?”
At that moment, the training one-handed sword in Shirogamine’s right hand drove into the suited man’s solar plexus. A deep step-in and a well-timed strike.
But that was all.
The suited man groaned as if his organs had been crushed and collapsed on the spot.
“Trespassers are subject to penalties.”
Completely ignoring the fact that this also applied to her, Shirogamine pointed her one-handed sword at the suited man’s forehead.
“What is your purpose? Hostile action against the Academy? Answer me, villain!”
“…Finish him, idiot.”
I could not help insulting Shirogamine under my breath.
Because the suited man, still fallen, was crawling one hand across the mats. He had gone down near the equipment locker. Training swords were scattered there.
“Indo.”
I called the name of the girl sitting behind me with her knees drawn up.
“My turn?”
“Yeah. This is getting pretty bad.”
The suited man’s hand closed around a sword on the mat. A one-handed sword. The same type Shirogamine was using.
And while that was happening, the woman called Levi was cautiously closing in on Sera.
As for Sera—her situation was not good either. After being kicked away, she should have gotten back up immediately. Instead, for some reason, she was still on all fours, waiting for Levi’s approach like a dog warning off a human.
The other side was probably professional. At the very least, Levi was.
In that case, there was only one thing to do.
Apparently, this had stopped being training.
“Indo, you take the suit. You can use <E3>.”
“Should I kill him?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
He was not a Demon King, and I did not even know whether he was connected to one. Killing someone like that would cause legal problems. More importantly, I was not the kind of asshole so far beneath scum that I killed uninvolved people just because they were a pain in the ass.
Actually, maybe—
“We’re running. Those two might be stronger than me. Try not to die.”
Then I took the <E3> injector from my pocket and pressed it to the side of my neck.
The contents blasted into my body.
The change took only an instant.
The world slowed, and I launched myself forward.