A few days have passed since we came back from the training camp. I still don’t have any chance to reconcile with Takagi and Ueno, although Iwata assures me that their moods have become better ever since we had the test of courage.

   I have a bigger worry, though. The second arc of this anime is coming soon, and it involves a war between the Church and Lost Children. The innocent citizens and us from the Royal Blade Academy are of course caught up in it.

   Yup. These two groups of religious fanatics can’t just solve their differences with a few rounds of board games or something. They just had to drag EVERYONE in it. One group claimed that it’s ‘all for the sake of a greater goal’, while the other said ‘a cleansing of the heretic is necessary every once in a while’. You decide which group said which quote.

   It all started with the execution of Romero Oliva, an Inquisitor of the Church who’s the right hand man of the Pope himself. Signore Oliva was accused of being a spy from Lost Children. The one who accused him was none other than our Adelberto Albanese, the Inquisitor whose screen time was cut after I sort of rescued Miyako-san.

   The thing is, Oliva wasn’t a spy, but most people of the Church chose to believe in Albanese anyway since Oliva was a massive jerk who pissed off pretty much everyone. Furthermore, there were rumors that said he was planning to get rid of the Pope so that he could take his place. The Pope was all too happy to have Oliva burned for that.

   However, not long after Oliva is dead, someone somehow found out that Albanese was throwing false accusations at Oliva (the anime never specified the details), and everything went down to hell.

   The followers of the Oliva faction and those who never liked Albanese ended up leaving the Church and becoming the members of Lost Children. To punish the traitors, the Pope waged war against Lost Children around the globe. Naturally, lots of people died as a result.

   The whole thing got so out of hand that Principal Morifuji and all the other principals from every single Royal Blade Academy stationed around the world unanimously decided to intervene and help the Church to suppress the Lost Children.

   The war ended when Yuuji heroically defeated Gabriel Jordan, one of the big shots of Lost Children and the commander that leads the cultists during the war. The Pope and the rest of the zealots wanted to continue the war to purge every single turncoats, but they were warned by the principals that if they insist, they won’t be assisted. Fearing of being outnumbered by Lost Children, the Church had to abandon the war.

   In the end, Albanese was blamed for triggering the war and send behind bars. The Church needed to point fingers or risk losing worshipers, so Albanese had to become the scapegoat. As for Yuuji, he was deemed as hero of the war, and his popularity skyrocketed even more.

   Now, if I want to stop the war, I need to do something about Albanese. First things first, was he the spy? The anime never brought this question into light, so I need to figure out the mystery.

   Why else would you accuse someone of something he didn’t do? Oliva might be a jerk, but having him executed just for being insufferable is going way too far. As for the rumor, it’s just a rumor, not a fact. At most, you could have people spying on him, instead of roasting him alive.

   On the other hand, if Albanese was indeed a spy, he made some major contributions. He send the Pope’s right hand man to his death, a lot of priests and priestess switched sides to Lost Children, the world suffered a major turmoil from the war, and a lot of people have lost faith on the Church for making a bad judgment. Compared to what he did, I’d say getting send behind bars is just a slap to the wrist.

   The only problem is finding Albanese. He’s not Miyako-san. He doesn’t have a fixed place that he stays at for a long period of time. I just hope I could find him before he accuses Oliva and starts the war.

   For now, I’m living my daily life as peaceful as possible. Going to classes, train myself to improve my skills in spear, magic and martial art, getting along with my classmates and my harem, going to missions. You know, the slice of life stuff. Again.

   Summer’s coming up soon, and the weather’s getting warm. As a result, the students are allowed to wear their summer uniforms. Guys can wear their white short-sleeved shirts and the usual black pants, while girls’ summer uniforms consist of a white short-sleeved shirt, a red sleeveless vest, and the usual black skirt and their choice of socks. As for Yui, she ditched her long-sleeved robe for a short-sleeved one.

   One night, I was just done getting Jiu-jitsu lesson from Paulo-sensei. Just as he promised, I got fifty percent off for the first two months. The class is conducted twice a week and starts at 6 in the evening and ends at 7:30. So far, I went to four classes. I manage to learn all sorts of grappling techniques and on how to use different weapons, even though I’m still an amateur at those things.

   Not long after I go back to my room and take a shower, the girls in my harem came over. It was only Mashiro at first, but gradually Sakuya and Ichika also come here on a daily basis, although only Sakuya is honest with her reason for coming here.

   ‘Your big sister wants to spend more time with you~!’ she had said.

   Ichika, on the other hand, was always going on about rules and regulations, and said that she’s here to supervise us.

   Anyway, after we ate our meal, we washed and dried our eating utensils. Everyone did their part, and this is the closest I would let Sakuya come near to my kitchen, or any kitchen at all.

   Just as we’re done with the dishes, I receive a text from Yui.

   ‘Good evening, Kagenashi-kun. I hope I’m not interrupting you or anything. I just want to ask you whether you’re willing to come with me to the Jyunsui Girl High School tomorrow morning. There’s a spirit-related case there.’

   ‘What’s wrong, Akira-kun? Got a mission notification?’ Sakuya asks me curiously.

   ‘It’s more like an invitation. Kiryuu asked me to go to Jyunsui High with her tomorrow.’

   At this, the girls stopped what they were doing.

   ‘The both of you exchanged numbers with each other?’

   Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.

   ‘Well, we’re classmates, after all. Nothing abnormal with that. It’s not like I’ll be making a move on her.’

   For now.

   Thankfully, that calmed them down, although they insist that they want to come with us. I told them no and explained Yui’s situation to them.

   ‘So, to help her in curing her fear of ghosts as soon as possible, you agreed to help her.’ Sakuya sums it up.

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘And you will be doing the mission all by yourself. Just the two of you.’ Ichika says while her left eyebrow is twitching.

   ‘Look, there’s nothing going on between us, okay?’

   For now. Although I hope there will be some developments soon.

   ‘Well, if that is what you say. Just know that we will always be around if you ever need us.’ Ichika assures me.

   Sakuya and Mashiro nod.

   ‘Yeah, thanks. All of you.’

   The next day, Yui and I skipped our lesson at the Academy so that we could go investigate the case at Jyunsui.

   Everyone at this school is a female, even the guards. When we got there, a lot of the students are walking around the campus. It was probably their break time or something. I try to look indifferent while looking at them or I might get labeled as a pervert.

   ‘Those uniforms, they’re from Royal Blade Academy, aren’t they?’

   ‘Are they here to vanquish Destroyers?’

   ‘More importantly, isn’t that a boy?’

   ‘What’s he doing here?’

   ‘More importantly.’ they say. Someone might be in danger and all they care about is the fact that there’s a male in their sacred lily garden. Girls and their priority.

   We go to the faculty office and ask the staff to summon our client, a Toyama Miyuki who’s a first year student like us. When she arrives, she’s being accompanied by her friend Ikehara Moe, also a first year.

   We sit down at the sofas prepared for guests in the faculty office. Toyama is clearly uncomfortable around males, so I let Yui do all the questioning.

   ‘In your request, you said that you saw a ghost last night. Is that true?’ Yui starts by asking.

   ‘Yes.’ Toyama answers in a quite shaken tone.

   ‘Can you tell us the full story?’

   ‘Well, I came back to school because I’ve left my workbook at my classroom. Right after I retrieved it, I leave the classroom. As I was walking at the corridor, I heard a weird noise behind me. When I turned around…’

   Toyama starts to shudder uncontrollably. It took both Ikehara and Yui quite a while to calm her down.

   ‘I…I saw a girl who was wearing our school’s uniform… But… but both her eyeballs are slashed in half…’

   Yui has gone pale in the blink of an eye. I, on the other hand, lean forward. This sounds like a good horror story.

   ‘Not only that, she’s mostly covered in blood. Her uniform too. She kept on telling me to…to give her my eyeballs… Naturally, I ran. I had never ran so fast in my life. Thankfully, I manage to get away, but still…’

   Once again, Toyama goes into shudder mode and couldn’t speak. Luckily, Ikehara takes it from here.

   ‘The ghost that Miyuki saw can only be Kamiya Eri, the girl who died three years ago.’ Ikehara tells us.

   Seeing that Ikehara has no problem with guys, I take over the questioning, since Yui doesn’t look like she could continue either.

   ‘You know of her?’ I ask.

   ‘Yes, she’s one of our school’s Seven Mysteries.’

   That pique my interest even more. ‘Nice. What’s the other six?’

   ‘Kagenashi-kun, is there a need for you to ask that question?’ Yui asks me in a voice that’s implying she’s about to freak out.

   ‘Fine, fine. Just tell us about this Kamiya Eri, then.’

   ‘Alright. Prior to her murder, she was constantly being stalked by someone. She had made several police reports, but the stalker was never caught. On the night of Kamiya-san’s death, she was so busy with her librarian’s duty it was already nighttime by the time she was done. Just as she was about to leave the library, the stalker appeared.’

   Yui gulps loudly at this.

   ‘He went on to say how much he admired her for a long time, blah, blah, blah… you know, the usual things stalkers say. After that, he took out a cutter and tried to get her to submit to him. She resisted, of course, and ran out of the library. Sadly, she couldn’t get away from him, and in the midst of confusion he slashed both her eyes, causing her to die from excessive bleeding.’

   ‘He was caught eventually, but the damage was already done. Kamiya-san’s body was retrieved and given a proper burial, but her spirit never passed on. Every night, she would wander around the school to look for girls so that she could find replacements for her slashed eyeballs… and, that’s how the story goes.’

   I look at Yui. She’s covering her ears with her hands, and looks like she’s about to be sick. Well, at least one of us heard the story.

   ‘Do you know the name of the stalker?’ I ask them one final question before I let them go back to their class.

   ‘If I remember correctly, it was Morioka Kazuhiko.’ Ikehara answers.

   ‘Thanks.’

   After they left, I told Yui the summarized version of the story, since she didn’t hear it.

   ‘...And he managed to get in without being seen by the guards?’ she asks me after I’m done.

   ‘Yup.’

   ‘That’s kind of…weird.’

   ‘That’s what I think too. Let’s go ask the guards about it.’

   Wouldn’t you know, the two guards on duty are the exact same ones who were on duty that night. Talk about a huge coincidence.

   When we ask them why they failed to capture or at least stop the stalker back then, they show us a footage recorded on the surveillance camera inside the security room.

   Inside the footage, the security guards were standing up, probably leaving the room to go on a patrol or something. But then, two tiny…something flew stealthily toward their the back of their necks. One second later, both of them fell down towards the ground.

   ‘The next day after the incident, the both of us went to a hospital to have a checkup. Apparently, we were done in by insect-type Destroyers.’ Guard A tells us.

   Guard B grits her teeth. ‘If only we were more competent, she wouldn’t have died.’

   We don’t want to keep on poking on their old scars, so we thank them and left.

   It’s already lunchtime, so we filled our stomach by having lunch at a fast food restaurant.

   ‘Honestly, I’m kind of surprised.’ Yui tells me while we’re munching down our burgers. ‘I would never thought that Kagenashi-kun would frequent a fast food place.’

   ‘Why not?’

   ‘Well, you love cooking so much, after all. I thought you would think that fast food is a blasphemy or something similar.’

   ‘Nah, I’m not that fixated about cooking. If someone I know wants to eat fast food, I’d say go for it. I would even join in. You, on the other hand,  don’t look like someone who will eat anything other than traditional Japanese food.’

   ‘Is it because of my robe?’

   ‘That’s part of it, yes.’

   ‘See, this is a bad case of judging a book by its cover. You see someone wearing a robe that shrine maiden usually wears, and you automatically assumes that she will have nothing to do with western cultures. We’re not as outdated as you think, you know.’

   ‘Well, I guess you’re quite tech savvy, seeing the way I saw you use your phone.’

   ‘Exactly.’

   After we finish our lunch, I propose to find out about Morioka. Yui agrees with me.

   We search about him online, and find out that he’s being locked up in a prison nearby. We go to the prison and got permission to pay him a visit due to the fact that we’re students from the Academy, even though he’s a murderer who’s not allowed to have visitors. I just love special treatment.

   Morioka has a haunted look when he came out from his cell and sits across us at the visiting area. Considering what he had done, I guess his look is understandable.

   ‘Hello. I guess the two of you are here to ask me about…the incident.’

   ‘Well, we pretty much knew what you did. We just want to know whether you did anything to the guards.’

   ‘The guards? No, I didn’t do anything. I was planning to knock them out one by one, but I found the both of them already passed out inside the security room next to the gate.’

   So it wasn’t him. Then, who was it? Did anyone else had business inside that school? Or was that person helping Morioka? If so, what’s the point of helping him? Great. More mysteries to solve.

   ‘Um, did something happen?’ Morioka asks us.

   I was planning to keep quiet about the spirit, but I guess I can’t now that he asked. So I told him about what had happened after Kamiya’s death.

   Morioka looks even more haunted after I’m done.

   ‘I…see…’ were the only things he could say.

   ‘You’re…reflecting about what you did, right?’ I ask him.

   ‘Of course. You know, they wanted to hang me for killing her. But I told them to put me behind bars for the rest for my rotten life. After all I did, death seems an easy way out, even if I will burn in hell for eternity. So I want to stay alive until my last breath and suffer for ending the poor girl’s life.’

   ‘What you did was indeed unforgivable.’ Yui talks for the first time ever since we got here. ‘Nonetheless, you should forgive yourself. Suffering isn’t atonement, it’s just self-punishment. What you really should do is move on. Be a model inmate so that you can convince the judge to release you on parole. After that, go out there and help people out as much as possible. That’s how you beg for forgiveness, not by getting punished, but by turning into a new leaf.’

   Morioka considers what Yui had said.

   ‘Yes, I guess you’re right. Thank you for your advice.’

   He suddenly looks a lot more cheerful.

   Yui smiles at him. ‘I’m glad to be of service.’

   We have no further questions for him, so we let him go back to his cell and leave the prison.

   ‘That was nice of you, what you said to him.’ I say to Yui not long after we left the prison.

   She shrugs. ‘I meant every word I said. He said death is too easy an ending for him, so I just told him why not move it up a notch and help people.’

   ‘Maybe you should consider having a confession room in your temple like how churches do. People would line up to seek advice from you.’

   ‘You’re just exaggerating. Back to the case, I wonder who was the one who knocked out the guards.’

   ‘Well, we’ll have to leave that for next time. For now, we should deal with the spirit first.’

   ‘I guess you’re right.’ she takes out her phone and looks at the time. ‘There’s quite some time until night falls. Maybe we should go back to the Academy first.’

   ‘Or, we could waste time by hanging out at nearby places.’

   Yui smiles at that. ‘You know, Vice President Kurogane will be very angry if she finds out. We’re not supposed to skip class if it’s not necessary.’

   ‘Emphasize on the word ‘if’.’

   ‘All right, you convinced me.’

   We start off with an arcade. I see a horror shooter game the moment we go inside. I waste no time in dragging Yui there.

   ‘K-K-Kagenashi-kun? What are we doing here?’ Yui asks with a pale face.

   ‘We’re playing this, of course.’ I insert two 500yen coins into the coin slots.

   ‘But-’

   ‘No buts. Let’s just play.’ I hand her one of the plugged-in guns.

   Yui starts screaming as soon as the first group of zombies appears. She pulls the trigger like a madwoman and somehow still manages to hit her targets most of the time. As for me, I aim first and then pull the trigger, thereby getting a lot of headshots.

   After we defeated the boss of the second stage, I hear a loud cheer from behind us. I look behind and find a lot of people is watching the two of us play the game. Guess they got drawn in by Yui’s screams.

   As the game progresses, Yui’s screams got louder and more hysteric, as more and more grotesque zombies start to appear. Even so, her shots are still finding its marks most of the time, so she’s not doing too bad.

   The crowd cheers once again after we defeated the final boss. In the process, Yui and I lost one lives each, and no restart was required. Seeing that the game’s done, the crows disperses, leaving me with a heavily-panting Yui.

   ‘That…was…so scary…’

   ‘You know, it’s fine if you do it now, but it might be problematic if you can’t control your emotions later.’

   That snapped her back to reality.

   ‘I’m sorry…’

   ‘I know I sound strict, but you have to get it together. The lives of yourself and your teammates depends on it.’

   Yes, I’m being a jerk, but those words need to be said. Her friends pampered her, and Yuuji always rush in front of her in the original anime. I can’t do the same. Not after she told me that she wants to change.

   ‘Yes. I understand.’

   She looks quite depressed, so I offer to buy her a crepe. Thankfully, her appetite was not ruined, and she’s gradually eating her strawberry and cream crepe.

   ‘Kiryuu, are you a dog person or a cat person?’ I ask while eating my chocolate banana crepe.

   ‘Huh? I-I guess I’m a cat person.’

   ‘Alright.’

   For the next stop, I bring Yui to a cat cafe. There’s quite a number of cats here, and they’re all the friendly type. We sit down at our seats for like two seconds and one of them immediately jumps up to Yui’s lap.

   That one’s definitely a male.

   No cats came near me, but I don’t care. I brought Yui here to comfort her. Besides, there’s something much cuter than the cats here.

   ‘Ohmygawd~! Aren’t you the cutest thing~? You’re so kyute and fluffy! Yes you are, yes you are~’

   Yui picks up the cat and starts cuddling with it. The cat doesn’t mind one bit, and he’s even purring. Halfway through, more and more cats want Yui’s attention, so she had to sit down on the floor. Her hands are constantly busy as she is always stroking and petting cats.

   ‘Hawawawawa~! This~is~heaven~!’ she says in a blissful expression.

   Well, she’s not wrong there. I secretly take out my phone to record the whole thing. I vow that I will pass this video down as my family heirloom, assuming that I get to stay at this world.

   It’s evening now, so we pay for our bills and leave the cafe. I was right in bringing Yui there, since she looks much better now.

   ‘How should we approach the spirit if she materializes?’ Yui ask me.

   ‘It all depends on how aggressive she is. If it’s possible, I hope we don’t have to exorcise her.’

   Yui nods, agreeing with me.

   We go back to Jyunsui and got greeted by two new guards. They let us in without a hitch.

   I’ve never been to a school when it’s nighttime, and the atmosphere is kind of creepy. It gets worse when you’re here to find a ghost.

   We go inside the school building. Considering that Kamiya’s spirit is looking for girls, it would be a matter of time before she appears, since Yui is here.

   Soon after we reach the third floor, the spirit materializes right in front of us without a single warning.