They always say time flies when you’re having fun, and it was actually true. As I’ve mentioned, this is the first summer where I actually spent it like a normal high school student, and I had an absolute blast.

   With Iwata’s help, I finally made up with Takagi and Ueno. We even went to Comiket together. It’s a shame that with them gone, the Shut-Ins Club has to disband, but they assured me that I cold come visit them at the Research Department whenever I want.

   Now that summer’s over, Season 2 of the anime officially starts (for those of you who are wondering, the summer festival was an OVA). This time, we’ll be dealing with undead and spirits.

   I’ve failed to connect the dots back then, but the Kamiya Eri incident was probably a prologue to this first arc of Season 2. I said ‘probably’ because the person who summoned the insect Destroyers to help Morioka get inside Jyunsui was never caught. He/She may nor may not be working under the orders of the main villain of the arc, Maria Assaf.

   Assaf was one of the top executives of Lost Children just like Jordan, who was supposed to make an appearance during the last arc. She was also a necromancer, and often summoned dead humans, animals, mythological beasts and/or Destroyers to aid her in battle.

   At the beginning of the arc, it was revealed that the number of undead and spirits that are causing havoc around the world have increased in an insane number. This is all thanks to Assaf and her own group of cultists, the Bone Bridge Builders (or BBB for short).

   Assaf and BBB has one simple goal: to connect the world of the living with the world of the dead, hence the name of the cult. To achieve their goal, they try to summon as much undead and spirits as possible, so that the portals between the two worlds will slowly crumble, and eventually fade.

   First, they will find people who are heartbroken about their loved ones who have passed away. Then, they will go to these people and offer to resurrect those said loved ones, provided that they pay for the service. After the successful resurrection, the cultists will urge their clients to spread the word about what the cultists are doing, and thereby getting more and more clients.

   This is an extremely clever method. If they just resurrect random corpses and spirits to cause havoc, they would surely receive public backlash. Instead, they pretended to sympathize with those who lost their loved ones and claiming that they are here to help. This way, they will gain popularity, and also more funds to help their cause.

   To make matters worse, they are doing their best to convince the general public that since spirits do exist, Hell is also real. After hearing all those horror stories about Hell, the public will start to fear death. As a result, they’ll be on board for BBB’s ideology so that living and dying have no difference.

   To encourage this thought process, BBB were on constant lookouts for crimes and accidents that are about to happen. Once it happened, they would intervene and make things worse, which would usually result in deaths. After that, they will use their necromancy to talk to the newly deceased and keep feeding it with hatred until it turns into an evil spirit. The evil spirit will then cause problems, and its existence will spread around in the internet and as urban legend.

   Unlike Destroyers, the governments and spirit exterminators prefer to keep the existence of spirits a secret, so that groups like BBB won’t get their way. The victims that suffered from spirit’s attack are given severe warning to not spread words about the fact that they got attacked by spirits.

   In the original anime, Assaf was eventually confronted by Yuuji and his harem. Naturally, Assaf was overwhelmed, but not before activating a spell that allows mass summoning of the undead in exchange for her life. Because of this, Japan was in utter chaos for almost a year. It took everyone almost the entire Season to clean up the mess.

   When the cases regarding spirits going on a rampage start to pour in, fingers were naturally pointed towards BBB. Madoka and the other students from the Information Squad did their best to search for Assaf, but even Madoka couldn’t find her trail.

   Right now, all of us are gathered at my room and having a discussion at the kitchen. Granted, there’s much better places to have a serious meeting, but the girls prefer to do it here, so here we are.

   ‘Is there any possibility that she’s hiding in the world of the dead?’ I ask Madoka, since I’m not really familiar with how necromancy works in this world.

   She shakes her head. ‘No. Necromancers can summon the dead to use them as servants, or gain information from them. Nothing more. Even they can’t go to the world of the dead if they’re still alive.’

   ‘It’s troubling, isn’t it?’ Sakuya says. ‘We need to find her as soon as possible to end this farce, and yet we didn’t have a single clue to her location.’

   ‘I’m sorry. If only I’m more competent!’ Madoka apologizes by lowering down her head.

   ‘Wait, I’m not blaming you!’ Sakuya says quickly. ‘All of you from the Information Squad did your best! There’s no need for you to apologize!’

   ‘But-’

   ‘She’s right, Kojima. There’s no point in blaming yourself. You did your best, that’s all that matters.’ I tell her.

   ‘...I’ll try to search for her again.’ Madoka refuses to listen and gets up from her seat.

   ‘Kojima, you shouldn’t overdo it, or you might collapse. Just rest for today, alright?’

   She’s extremely reluctant, but chose to listen to me in the end.

   ‘For now, the only thing we can do is to exorcise as many spirits as possible to prevent them from causing too much harm. Also, we should be on constant lookout for BBB members and the regular Lost Children members.’ Sakuya says.

   ‘Indeed. The necromancers are concerning, but other Lost Children might cause problems of their own in the midst of this chaos as well.’ Ichika adds.

   ‘A bit off topic here. Are the big shots of Lost Children fine with one of their executives having her own group of cultists?’ I ask.

   ‘Rather than a group, they are more like her bodyguards.’ Madoka informs me. ‘As long as they remain loyal to the organization, the executives are allowed to have as many bodyguards as they want.’

   ‘And how many BBB members are there?’

   ‘Last I checked, the number was 205,279.’

   ‘...Seriously? How on earth are we going to fight them?’

   This is ridiculous. With that many members, you might as well call it an army! Even if we manage to find Assaf before she activates the spell, there’s no way we could fight her on even grounds.

   ‘We’ll have to worry about one thing at a time. Until we know where Assaf is, we won’t be striking the BBB’s main force.’ Sakuya says to me.

   ‘I guess you’re right.’

   After we ate dinner, the girls go back to their respective rooms, while Yui goes back to her house. Meanwhile, I’m getting troubled over how to survive this arc.

   Assaf must be using a really sophisticated method to hide herself if Madoka of all people couldn’t find her. I told Madoka not to overdo it, but deep down I’m freaking out too. How on earth did Assaf do it?

   Not long after I fall asleep, the Emergency Alert Alarm on my phone woke me up. This alarm will activate whenever there’s a huge threat nearby.

   I pick up my phone and turn off the alarm. Right away, a message appear on the screen.

   ‘A large group of undead Destroyers have appeared on the fifth district. All students Ranked A and above, please engage them immediately.’

   Yikes. If only Rank A and Rank S students are allowed to fight those Destroyers, they must be really bad news.

   Wait. I remember this scene. It’s the part where Mashiro is formally introduced to the audience. Anyway, I waste no time in getting up and get changed into my uniform.

   By the time I reach the fifth district, it literally became a war zone. Buildings are either on fire or in rubble, and students, knights, priests and priestesses from the temples and the Church are fighting large zombie Destroyers. While I’m just standing and taking in the view, more and more people arrives at the scene.

   I see a student who’s about to get bitten by a huge wolf type Destroyer. Just as I’m about to charge forward with Gáe Bulg, Mashiro steps between them.

   Yup, this is how she appears in the original anime. However, there’s a huge difference between the original and right now.

   Mashiro takes out a small key and opens the lock on her choker. I couldn’t see her eyes since her back is facing me, but I can bet that her left eye has turn red.

   She takes a deep breath and blows towards the wolf Destroyer. It’s supposed to be an insignificant breath that could only extinguish the flame of a candle, but when she’s the one who do it, the wolf Destroyer is ripped apart by some strong gusts. Even its bones are not spared.

   Mashiro turns around and looks at the student who’s still on the ground. ‘Are you alright?’

   ‘Yes, thank you very much!’ the student thanks her and gets up.

   Mashiro nods, then she sees me. She waves her tiny hand at me. I wave back.

   I walk to her. ‘What did I miss?’

   ‘Nothing much. We just got started.’

   At this moment, I hear a hysterical laughter coming from somewhere in front of us.

   ‘...Was that Kojima?’

   Mashiro nods. ‘She’s one of the first ones to be here.’

   ‘Well, let’s go help her. Even though she might not need it.’

   Mashiro nods again and follows me to where the laughter came from.

   When we reach the source of the laughter, we see that Madoka and two other students from the Information Squad are fighting three Destroyers. One is a bear type, and the other two are gorilla type.

   On a side note, I could tell that the two students are from the Information Squad with just a glance because they tend to dress up like ninjas and assassins by wearing scarfs and headbands. They also tend to use lighter and shorter weapons like daggers and short swords.

   As for Madoka, she’s using the curved hunting knife her father owned. She nimbly dodges the attacks from the three Destroyers and keeps on attacking their vulnerable spots, all the while laughing like a maniac.

   While the Destroyers are being kept busy, the other two also try their best to defeat them. Mashiro and I join in the battle too.

   One of the gorilla Destroyer sees me and tries to squash me with his fist that barely has any flesh left on it. I respond by rising up a tide made of salt water.

The Destroyer’s fist touches the tide, and it immediately screams in pain, as salt are very effective against undead. I proceed to entrap the Destroyer with a sphere of seawater.

   Naturally, the Destroyer tried its best to get out of the sphere. Unfortunately for it, the seawater purified it first, and it became nothing but bones in a matter of seconds. I dematerialize the sphere and let the bones fall to the ground.

   Meanwhile, Mashiro took care of the bear Destroyer by ripping it apart with wind, just like how she defeated the wolf Destroyer. As for the last gorilla Destroyer, it got defeated after a bomb that was planted into its body by one of the students detonated. It created quite a mess, but the job was still well done.

   ‘Well, we’re going to other areas now. Thank you for your help.’ one of the students tell us.

   ‘And nice job, Kojima-san.’ the other student tells Madoka.

   ‘Yeah, thanks. The two of you did a superb job as well.’

   After they left, Madoka immediately squats down and covers her face with both her hands.

   ‘I did it again… Even though I swore not to do it…’

   I take it that she’s talking about the way she laughs when she was fighting.

   ‘I’m sure it’s fine. Those two talked to you normally even though you acted like that, right?’ I tell her.

   She uncovers her face. ‘I…guess.’

   ‘Don’t worry, Mashiro thinks the way you laugh is cute.’ Mashiro tells Madoka while stroking her head.

   ‘Mashiro, your definition of cute is weird.’

   ‘Not true.’

   ‘Um, maybe we should get going. The extermination is far from over.’ Madoka says.

   ‘Right.’

   ‘Yup.’

   I don’t know how much time has passed, but we eventually manage to destroy every last undead Destroyers, and no death counts to boot, although there are people who suffered minor to serious injuries.

   Ambulances are being called to treat the injured, while the police arrives way too late. From what I see, they’re just here to mock us when they themselves didn’t do a thing.

   ‘Sheesh, why can’t these freaks just kill each other at somewhere quiet?’ a policeman asks his colleague without bothering to lower his volume.

   ‘I know, right? They’re nothing but trouble.’

   I know these two clowns. In the original scene, Yuuji overheard them and preached them about they have no right to talk bad about others, blah, blah, blah, and almost got himself arrested for ‘defying the law’. Me, I’m not that stupid. I just let them run their mouths.

   Meanwhile, someone caught the BBB members who started all these chaos, and the Captain of the Order of the Knights and the Chief of Police are arguing about whose custody should they be placed under.

   The Captain of the knights is called Issac Wilson, a flashy and narcissistic British guy whom I never liked ever since he appeared in the anime. As for the Chief of Police, we have Takikawa-something (his first name was never revealed), a half bald and overweight tax thief that I also detest with a passion.

   ‘We’re really grateful that the police is here to assist us,’ Wilson is saying to Takikawa. ‘But all of you can go home now. Us from the Order will take it from here.’

   ‘Listen blondie. Questioning criminals falls under the jurisdiction of the police. So why don’t you and your shiny friends run along and go polish your armors or something and leave the real work to the professionals?’ Takikawa says with barely-concealed contempt.

   While the argument is ongoing, us from the Academy are just watching and didn’t join in the argument. Why should we? Our schoolmates from the Information Squad can gather up whatever information the interrogated members spit out easily.

   In the end, both of them had to agree to take half of the members each and settle for interrogating their own half. I’m glad the members were even numbered or they will definitely start another argument on who should get the extra member.

   Seeing that the argument is finally over, Sakuya gives out a signal for us to disband and go back.

   ‘Please wait!’ Wilson says to Sakuya just as we’re about to leave.

   Sakuya turns around and looks at him. ‘Yes?’

   ‘It must be fate for us to meet like this! Won’t you do me the honor of joining me for a late night tea?’ Wilson pulls a red rose out of nowhere and presents it to Sakuya.

   ‘I’m sorry to say but I would have to decline your offer. I’m the sort of person who needs her sleep.’ Sakuya politely declines.

   ‘Ah yes, a beauty who lack sleep will definitely not blossom well. If so, we could arrange it to some other-’

   Well, I guess this is one of those times where I have to stand up to sweet-talkers. I’m the only one who’s allowed to steal girls around here.

   ‘Sir knight, if you insist on making an appointment with her, please make it with me, her secretary.’ I stand between them and show him my smile that I reserve for annoying pests.

   His demeanor changes immediately. He looks at me like he’s looking at a bug. He can count on the fact that the feeling’s mutual.

   ‘Who are you…boy? Can’t you see that I’m talking to this lovely lady? Some people really reeks of bad upbringing.’

   ‘You, sir, on the other hand, seem to have bad hearing. I did introduced myself as her secretary. Or did I use some overly complicated words that your simple brain can’t process?’ I ask while keeping up with my fake smile.

   ‘What was that? Listen you-’

   ‘Well then, sir knight!’ Sakuya intervenes before things got ugly. ‘It’s really late now, so we’ll be taking our leave. Good luck in your investigation!’

   Before Wilson or I can say another word, she and the other girls drag me away from the place.

   ‘That was rather daring of you, Akira-kun.’ Sakuya chuckles while we’re on the way back.

   ‘Was I? It’s just that I couldn’t stand flirty guys like him.’

   ‘You even self-appointed as my secretary. Whatever should l tell Aya-chan?’

   The Aya-chan she’s talking about is Shindou Ayaka, a first year, Class 3 who works as the student council secretary. Every once in a while, Sakuya will mention her, who’s this junior that always got her act together.

   ‘Wait, when I said your secretary, I didn’t meant as your secretary in the student council!’

   ‘Oh, I don’t know~. It definitely sounded like you wanted to work at the student council. Right, Ichika-chan?’

   ‘Yes, you should just join us for real, Akira.’ Ichika agrees with Sakuya.

   ‘Oh no no no. No. Way. I’m not going to put up with the mountains and mountains of works that the student council has to deal with on a daily basis.’

   I’ve passed by the student council once or twice when they were busy working, and the amount of work they had to deal with is seriously no joke. I honestly wonder how do they manage to do it.

   ‘That’s a shame. Just remember that our offer has no expiry date. You could just drop by every once in a while, just like Mashiro-chan.’

   Looks like Mashiro accepted Sakuya’s offer that she made in the shopping district after all.

   ‘No, thank you. I’m not going there just to get free snacks.’

   ‘How rude! Mashiro does more than eating snacks when she’s there!’ Mashiro exclaims angrily.

   ‘Oh? Like what?’

   ‘She’s being everyone’s hug pillow! Do you know how much does Mashiro gets snuggled? It’s a very tough job!’

   ‘...Uh-huh.’

   Ichika raises up her hand. ‘For the record, I have never snuggled her.’

   ‘Although that might change if it was Akira-kun.’ Sakuya chuckles.

   ‘Wha-? NO IT WILL NOT!’ Ichika shouts while blushing.

   ‘Ichika, will you keep it down? It’s almost 3 in the morning right now, you’ll wake people up.’ I tell her.

   ‘Oh, right. My apologies.’ Ichika looks at the ground in shame.

   This time, it’s Yui’s turn to raise up her hand.

   ‘Um, if I get to hug Kagenashi-kun, I don’t mind helping out at the student council!’

   Madoka also raises up her hand. ‘Me too.’

   ‘Huh, even the two of you?’

   ‘Oh! Oh! Mashiro too!’ Mashiro says while jumping up and down excitedly.

   ‘What do you say now, Akira-kun? Pretty much everyone wants you as a hug pillow~.’

   ‘Honestly, does it necessarily have to be while we’re inside the student council room?’

   Silence.

   All the girls look at me with a ‘you’re right!’ look.

   ‘Besides, with all the flirting, it would cause trouble for the other student council members.’

   ‘Oh, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.’

   ‘Well, I will!’

   While we’re chatting like this, we’ve already reach Yui’s house. After she went in, the rest of us go back to the dorm. When I got back to my room, I let out a huge yawn. This was one of my toughest night yet. I sure hope we’ll find Assaf soon.