Finally, it’s the third day. Survive this, and we will have one whole day to goof around tomorrow.

   For now, we from Class 2 have to survive a close combat class in the morning.

   For this lesson, the Academy has hired a lot of martial art instructors to drill us through different types of combat skills. Weapons and Regalias are strong, but they are dangerous when used in situations like subduing a mind-controlled person, or fighting in narrow areas.

   This session is basically like a free-for-all where students are free to choose their own instructors to spar with, thereby having a feel of the martial arts that were used on them.

   There’s just one problem. These instructors are overly enthusiastic. They’re like those spotters in gyms who will push people to the limit. They don’t care about genders or body sizes, they see a students whose panting from being exhausted and that student will be dragged to start another sparring session.

   It’s only been fifteen minutes, and almost every students are covered in bruises. These instructors are at least courteous enough to not hit faces and groins, but pretty much everywhere else is fair game to them.

   If I have to learn something, it might as well be a martial art that’s grappling-oriented. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter how hard you can punch or kick, it’s absolutely pointless if you’re pinned to the ground.

   From here, I have three choices: Aikido, Judo or Jiu-jitsu, since they’re the only martial arts mostly focused on grappling.

   Before choosing, I took my time and look at the demonstrations.

   First of all, Aikido is out. Their grappling technique is so complex my eyes can barely follow them. I would probably need a long time to master them. I’m a simple-minded guy, so I prefer to keep things simple.

   Furthermore, I found it to be impractical. The instructor literally told the volunteer how to move to prevent himself from getting hurt. In other words, one wrong move from you, and you might severely injure your opponent.

   Now, there’s only Judo and Jiu-jitsu left. From what I saw, both of these martial arts are quite similar. The only difference is that Jiu-jitsu classes teach its students on how to use and defend against weapons. Based on this factor, I decide to try my hands at Jiu-jitsu.

   The instructor who teach me is a Brazilian called Paulo Costa Camargo, who has a black belt. His Japanese is not that fluent, but he speak it well enough to be able to give me simple instructions.

   He starts off with flinging me a few times, then used some submission moves on me. After that, he tells me to repeat what he did to me by using the same moves on him. I’m a slow learner, so it took a quite a while, but after a few tries, I manage to do some moves successfully.

   ‘You different from others.’ He tells me while he lets me take a five-minutes break. ‘Others just want finish this quick. You learn seriously.’

   ‘Well, all of you instructors bothered to come here just to teach us. It would be rude if I don’t take this seriously.’

   He smiles and pats me on the back. ‘You good kid.’

   After the short break is over, he moves on to teach me how to snatch away weapons from my opponent’s hands. First, he hands me a plastic knife, then a realistic-looking toy pistol, then a pole. He snatches all of them away from me while being slow so that I could copy what he did. I take this part of the lesson more seriously since this could come in handy.

   I spent the whole morning training with Paulo-sensei, as he wants me to call him that. He taught me to use most weapons he and his team brought, and we had a few sparring sessions while using them.

   When the time is up, we bowed to each other as show of gratitude. He then gives me a business card that has his name and the address of his dojo.

   ‘Join us if interested. Will give you discount. Fifty percent for first two months.’ he tells me.

   ‘Thank you, Paulo-sensei.’

   ‘You welcome. Hope see you soon.’

Blackout

Let me make this very clear. I am NOT dissing martial arts here. I just watched some videos online and gave my personal opinions. Please don't bombard me with hate comments if you happen to be a fan of any martial art(s) I mentioned here

   While leaving for the barrack, my body starts to hurt from all the toss Paulo-sensei did to me. That said, I was considered let off easy. Both of Shimazaki’s arms are covered in bruises, as a result from training with a boxer.

   In the shower room, I keep hearing yelps of pain as the water is stinging the students’ bruises and wounds. Compared to them, I don’t have as many bruises, so I could endure the shower without yelping.

   It’s lunchtime again. This time, Oomori wants to plan the menu, so the rest of us will take orders from her.

   ‘All right, let’s make sweet and sour pork, mapo tofu and fried rice!’ Oomori declares.

   Chinese food, huh? Well, fine with me, and the others have no objections, as well. We then divide works among ourselves and start cooking.

   Not long after we’re done, my old friend the teleport Destroyer appears out of nowhere and hands me a piece of paper. I take a look at it. It’s a letter.

‘To Akira,

   Mashiro will waiting for you at the lake where we passed by during the marathon. Bring some food over.

Mashiro.’

   At first, I thought she was being random, but then remembered that we didn’t spend any time together ever since the training camp has started. She was probably feeling lonely.

   And so, I fill up two plates with the food we cooked, and brings two sets of forks and spoons. Before I leave, I tell my classmates where I’m going. Only then, I nod to the Destroyer. He nods too and snaps his fingers.

   The next thing I know, I’m standing right in front of the lake. Mashiro is sitting next to me on top of a picnic mat. I sit down wordlessly on the mat and hand her one of the plate. She accepts it while mumbling a thanks.

   ‘What’s with the sudden invitation?’ I ask her.

   ‘Mashiro just felt like it.’ she simply says.

   Now, most or all of you might have been yelling at me and saying that I’m dense ever since the end of the vampire arc, or probably earlier. I may be a virgin without any relationship experience, but I’m not that stupid. I’ve watched enough rom-com animes to know that three out of five heroines that have appeared so far are smitten with me.

   There’s a reason I was feigning ignorance. If I show too much interest in them, they might end up confessing their love to me. Whether I say yes or no, some or all of them might become dejected and drift over to Yuuji. That’s something I need to prevent at all cost.

   But then, I changed my mind. I’ll never be this popular in real life, so I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. If the girls ever got bored with me and go over to Yuuji, I’ll have to suck it up. He’s the real main character of this anime, after all, and I’m just a mob.

   ‘Sorry for making you feel lonely.’ I say while stroking Mashiro’s head.

   ‘...Apology accepted.’

   She looks much happier and didn’t beat my hand away, so I continue to do it for a while before stopping and start to eat my lunch.

   ‘Why did you pick here to have lunch?’ I ask curiously.

   ‘If we’re with everyone, the girls will surround Mashiro again.’

   ‘Oh.’ I remembered the scene I saw from the first day.

   ‘Besides,’ Mashiro continues. ‘This lake was a special place for Mashiro.’

   ‘A special place?’

   She nods.

   This is new. The anime didn’t mention anything about this.

   ‘When Mashiro was small, her parents brought her here to have a picnic. It was Mashiro’s happiest times. It was… the last time she had a fun memory with them.’

   My ears prick up at that. Is she going to tell me her past?

   ‘What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?’

   I already know the story, but I asked anyway. If I want to help her, I need her to open up first.

   ‘Mashiro was told that she is a prodigy in summoning. But, it was never enough for her. She wanted to become even stronger. So, she summoned a SS Rank Destroyer inside her body.’

   I gasp on a reflex, even though, again, I already know what happened.

   ‘But that Destroyer was too strong for Mashiro to control, and he ended up taking over Mashiro’s body and destroyed the village Mashiro was living at. Mashiro’s friends, Mashiro’s parents, all of them got killed. In the end, Principal Morifuji managed to seal away the Destroyer’s power inside Mashiro’s body. That’s why Mashiro has this.’ she looks at her choker.

   ‘...It must have been rough.’

   ‘Well, it was. But Mashiro came to this school, and she starts to feel happy again. She made friends, and she met you. But every once in a while, Mashiro will have a nightmare about what happened that day. Mashiro is scared that… it will happen again.’

   She starts to look down and trembles uncontrollably. Yup. This is more than her falling in love with me, or her going to Yuuji. I might sound like a pretentious white knight wanna-be, but I want to help her.

   I lift up her face gently with my hands and make her look at me. ‘Mashiro, if you don’t want the tragedy to happen a second time, you need to stop running and face your demon. Literally.’

   ‘But…Mashiro doesn’t know what to do…’ she is on the verge of tears now.

   ‘Yesterday, I had a talk with Coinchenn, the owner of the bone Gáe Bulg is made from. I was just about to have a talk with a random destroyer, but he just barged in to my head.’

    Mashiro’s eyes widened after hearing me say that.

   ‘He was probably planning to take over my body or something, but he failed. By contrast, he ended up telling me his powers, and we had an understanding where if I were to get into harm, he won’t be seeing any blood. I managed to do it because I showed him who’s boss. Look, I’m not telling you to forgive that Destroyer. But if you don’t face him, you’ll never forgive yourself.’

   Mashiro takes her time to process what I said, and eventually came to a decision.

   ‘...Mashiro will talk to him.’

   ‘Good.’

   It’s good that she has the resolution, but this could go out of hand, so we go to Principal Morifuji and tell him our plan after we quickly finish our lunch.

   ‘...Are you sure about this, Mashiro?’ Principal Morifuji asks for conformation.

   She nods.  ‘Mashiro wants to forgive herself. This is the only way to do it.’

   ‘Very well.’

   After insisting that I’ll be going inside her head as well, Principal Morufuji draws a pentacle big enough for two people. Mashiro and I go inside the pentacle and sit down.

   ‘We’ll be pulling you two out the first sign we see any irregular things happen to your body, so rest assured.’ the principal tells us.

   The teachers he called nod to us. Sakuya and Ichika are here as well. We nod too, and close our eyes.

   When I open them again, I find myself  standing in front of a village full of wrecked buildings. This must be the place Mashiro used to live.

   There’s a perfectly intact stage at the middle of the ruins, and on top of the stage is a throne made of steel. There’s a man sitting on the throne. Or should I say, a man-shaped creature.

   He’s wearing a shrine priest’s robe and red pants. One of his arm is on the armrest of the throne, and his head is resting on top of his arm. He is looking at us with his crimson eyes, the eyes devoid of any compassion.

   ‘So, after all these years, you’re finally here.’ he says to Mashiro. ‘Have you finally come to surrender your body? I must say, a young girl’s body is not to my taste, but it’s all I got, so I’ll endure it.’

   ‘Mashiro is here to make a deal with you.’

   ‘A deal, you say?’

   ‘If you promise not to go wild, Mashiro is wiling to share her body with you.’

   After hearing what Mashiro said, he laughed like a maniac for quite a while.

   ‘Are you listening to yourself? Me? Sharing a body with you? How insolent can you be?’

   He then laughs some more.

   ‘When was the last time you were in this world?’ Mashiro asks all of a sudden.

   The laughter stops abruptly. ‘…What?’

   ‘With your power, it must be very difficult for you to come here, and you can’t stay for long.’

   When Destroyers come to this world, the difficulty to pass through the portal that link our worlds and the duration they could stay are inversely proportional to their strength. In other words, the stronger they are, the harder it is for them to come here, and the shorter the duration they could stay here.

   ‘If Mashiro were to die, you might never be able to come to this world again. Is that alright for you?’

   ‘Oh? So you’re going to commit suicide and taking me down with you?’

   ‘Mashiro used to think that she should do it, since it was her fault that her village is destroyed. But, that’s just running away. Mashiro can see that now.’ she says the last part while looking at me.

   ‘It’s too late to fix things back to the way they were. The only thing Mashiro can do now is to live, not only for her sake, but also for those who lost their lives. In order to do that, Mashiro needs to make peace with you.’

   ‘And you think you’re in a position to negotiate?’

   Mashiro shrugs. ‘It’s either this or saying goodbye to this world.’

   He growls loudly. ‘To think that you used to be a small-minded little girl who only seeks strength…’

   ‘So? What will it be? If you agree, Mashiro don’t mind sharing half her food with you.’

   That somehow got his attention. ‘Food that humans eat, huh? I can’t say that I’m not curious about their food, after all those times I treat them like one.’

   He starts mumbling all by himself. After a while, he looks at Mashiro.

   ‘Very well. I agree to your terms. I would let you use my power in full. In return, you would let me occupy parts of your body, including half of your stomach.’

   ‘Wait, all of your powers?’ I speak for the first time ever since we got here. ‘That’s kind of fishy.’

   ‘Worry not, I have no hidden agenda. The girl is more than worthy to use my full strength. Why did you think I agreed to reside in her body in the first place?’

   I look at his eyes. Those are not the eyes of a liar.

   ‘So, what now?’ I ask him.

   ‘Now, the both of you will go back to where you came from, and the girl will take off the choker that’s binding my powers.’

   ‘And you won’t try anything funny?’

   ‘You have my word.’

   And so, we left that place and came back to our world. I told everyone gathered there what had happened.

   ‘...I guess you’re finally ready to have this.’ Principal Morihuji hands Mashiro a small box.

   Mashiro opens the box and finds a small key inside. She takes it out and slowly reaches for the lock on her choker. The tension in the room suddenly got much heavier.

   The lock opens with a ‘Klank!’ sound, and her choker falls out.

   Everyone immediately brace for her to go wild, but it never happened. The only change that she has is her left eye, which has turned crimson, just like the Destroyer’s.

   ‘Can we sigh in relief now? The tension’s killing me.’ I ask.

   ‘Mashiro thinks so.’

   And that’s what we did. Even the usually calm and collected Principal Morifuji looked nervous for a while there.

   Mashiro and I got up and leave the circle. I realize that both her legs are trembling, and she looks kind of scared.

   I put my hand on her head. ‘It’s okay. If you ever go on a rampage, we’ll be there to stop you.’

   The others smile at her reassuringly.

   ‘Thank you…’

   Tears start to flow from her eyes, and she cried loudly for a while.

   When she has finally calmed down, we go back to where everyone else is. They were surprised about Mashiro’s eye and the lack of her choker, so we explained what had happened.

   Understandably, they looked scared since they worry that Mashiro might go berserk, so Mashiro has to wear the choker again to calm them down.

   Mashiro’s situation was sorted out, but it still doesn’t mean that I could skip the afternoon practise, which is about magic. Once again, I ask Arima to supervise me.

   ‘Sorry to drag you into this again, Arima.’ I tell her apologetically.

   ‘No worries. I’m planning to be a teacher of the Academy once I graduate. I might as well get used to teaching.’

   ‘A teacher?’

   ‘Is it weird?’

   ‘Not at all. It suits you, since you’re good at teaching.’

   ‘That’s good to hear. What about you, Kagenashi-kun? What’s your plan for the future?’

   That question really takes me by surprise. I always thought that I will be forced back to the real world once the anime is finished, so I never planned by future here.

   ‘...Kagenashi-kun?’

   ‘Oh, sorry about that, Arima! Honestly, I haven’t think of it yet, even though I’m supposed to decide it as soon as possible.’

   ‘No worries. You still got around two-and-a-half years, after all.’

   That’s the thing. I might wake up one morning and find myself to be back in the miserable real world. It might be a year later, it might be one week later, it might be tomorrow. With this uncertain factor around, I really don’t know whether it’s a good idea to think of my future in this world.

   I stop myself from getting distracted from my practice. Even though I know more about Gáe Bulg’s powers after my conversation with Coinchenn yesterday, I decided to put the practise of those powers on hold. They would have to wait until I’m better at the more basic things, just like Arima advised.

   And so, I pretty much did the same thing I did on the afternoon of the first day. It’s repetitive and frustrating that this is all I could do for now, but I have to endure. If I don’t practice the basic now, I will never be able to do more complicated things.

   By the time I realized, the session was already over. In the end, I could only conjure and control four water spheres at the same time. Arima assures me that I’m improving, so I could only swallow up the frustration.

   When it was dinnertime, I still feel like it might become awkward if I talk to Takagi and Ueno now, so I didn’t go talk to the trio. Halfway through the dinner, Mashiro starts sitting next to me, much to the frustration of her fans. She takes off her choker when she's about to eat to honor her deal with the Destroyer, but even that's not enough to put off the girls. They look like they might start a ruckus, so Sakuya and Ichika sit near us as well. At least, that’s what they claim they’re doing. From what I see, they’re just trying to prevent Mashiro from being even more intimate with me.

   ‘Fuyukaze, you’re being way too close with Akira! Have some shame!’ Ichika scolds.

   ‘There’s nothing shameful about sitting next to someone.’ Mashiro counters.

   ‘And based on that logic, your big sister will sit on Akira-kun’s other side!’ Sakuya declares and sit on my right side.

   ‘Grr… the both of you…’ Ichika is looking at them with an expression that’s close to a crying one.

   Oh boy, I better do something before Ichika starts crying.

   ‘Look, here’s what we’ll do. Sakuya-senpai, you stay on my right side. Mashiro, you’ll sit on my lap. Ichika, my left side is yours.’

   ‘What? But I-’

   The three of us stare long and hard at her.

   ‘...! Fine, I’ll turn a blind eye to this just this once!’

   Ichika, your word’s not convincing if you look so happy.

   Anyway, I ate the dinner of my third night here while being surrounded by three girls and getting fed by them in turn, although Ichika looks very embarrassed throughout the whole time. I’m also getting dirty looks again, but at this point I just don’t care. I just want to spend some time with my harem.

   When dinnertime’s over and it’s time to go to bed, Ichika and I spent lots of our energy to pry off Sakuya and Mashiro from me.

   ‘Well, someone had a fulfilling time!’ Miyahara says to me when I got back to the room.

   I merely shrug. ‘I guess.’

   ‘You guys excited for the test of courage tomorrow night? I sure am!’ Miyahara continues to say.

   ‘You sound like there’s someone you want to pair up with.’

   ‘Yeah, it would be nice if I’m paired up with Takayama!’

   ‘...That came out of nowhere.’

   ‘Wow, I didn’t even realize.’ Shimazaki says.

   ‘Wait, you too?’ even Shimazaki didn’t know?

   ‘Yup. He was that good at hiding it.’

   ‘Why did you bring this up all of a sudden?’ I ask curiously.

   ‘This is another session of guy’s talk, ain’t it? Since Shimazaki started it, I figured I would go next.’

   ‘Hey, don’t phrase it like that. It would mean I’m next.’

   ‘Honestly, your story might be the juiciest one.’ Shimazaki says.

   ‘What?’

   ‘Yeah, what with you and the three girls. You aiming for anyone in particular?’

   ‘I know I sound like a jerk, but no. None at the moment.’

   ‘Being a playboy is fun and all, but remember to not go overboard. You might end up being hated by all of them.’

   ‘...Yeah, I know.’

   ‘Well, let’s sleep early. We got a whole day to play tomorrow, after all.’

   ‘Right.’

   And so, we turned off the lights and sleep, even though there’s still some time before lights out.