I woke up abruptly when the Emergency Alert System blares loudly from my phone. I look at the clock at my wall groggily. It’s five in the morning. Today’s the day of the joint training with Kyoto Branch, and we’re supposed to gather around the hall at seven. Whatever the emergency is, it better be worth it.

   I turn off the alarm and wait for the message to appear. All my drowsiness disappeared the moment I read it.

   ‘Joseph Brennan, one of the executives of Lost Children has escaped. All personnels are to begin a search for the individual immediately. Further-’

   I skipped through the rest of the message since I reckon that I’ve read enough. I get changed as fast as I can and head outside.

   I don’t know where to even begin looking, but for now I should regroup with the others. Even though that’s what my brain is thinking, I find myself leaving the dorm and heading towards the Academy.

   Okay, this is really weird. What in the world am I doing here when pretty much everyone else is looking for Brennan? Before I could stop myself, I’ve already climbed over the fence and went inside the school ground.

   Currently, my brain and my heart are having a tug-of-war over the control of my body. My brain is keep on saying get out of the school to look for Brennan, but my heart is constantly telling me to go to the Research Department. And my heart is winning.

   My brain finally relents and allows my finger to summon the elevator to go down to the basement with the press of a button. Once the elevator is here, I go inside and wait for it to head down. I was completely taken by surprise by the view when the doors open up.

   There are some researchers lying down on the floor. I counted eight, but there could be more. I didn’t bother to stop and check their conditions and look for the intruder instead, since I could tell that they’re still breathing. They’re not even bleeding. Whoever the intruder is, he or she just straight up knocked them unconscious.

   My heart is taking charge again, and this time it’s telling me to head for the vault, where all sorts of dangerous stuffs are being stored. I guess it makes sense. When I got there, I saw the intruder pointing his weapon at Takagi and Ueno, who’re doing their best to act brave, even though I can see that their legs are trembling uncontrollably.

   ‘Open the vault, please.’ the intruder is instructing the duo. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’

   ‘O-O-O-Over our d-d-d-dead bodies!’ Takagi shouts.

   ‘Y-Yeah! There’s no way we’re doing exactly as you say!’ Ueno adds.

   I open my mouth to call out the intruder.

   ‘What are you doing here, Shimazaki?’

   The three of them look over when they heard my voice. Takagi and Ueno look extremely relieved, while Shimazaki has a sad look.

   He lowers down his rapier, which looks a bit different. Previously, it was a pretty-looking silver rapier with a golden grip. Now, the grip is black in color, and there’s a black chain attached at the butt which ends with a cuff. The cuff is currently attached to Shimazaki’s wrist. For all I know, it’s a different weapon altogether.

   ‘Hello there, Kagenashi. I wasn’t expecting you of all people to be here.’

   I ready my spear and my ring.

   ‘My heart told me to come here. It’s a good thing I listened to it.’

   ‘That’s some reliable gut feeling.’

   ‘I’ll ask again. What are you doing here?’

   ‘I’m here to retrieve Excalibur so that Lost Children can have it.’ he replies.

   ‘And it’s also you who released Brennan.’

   ‘That’s right. They said they still need him, so they want me to get him out as well.’

   I didn’t bother to ask him why he’s doing all this or how did he released Brennan in the first place. They’re not important right now since I could ask him once he’s detained. Or someone else would ask it out of him.

   That said, Shimazaki has zero intention of staying once he realized that he might be stopped. He uses his rapier to draw a straight line at the empty air right in front of him, and a portal appears.

   He gives me an extremely sad look. ‘I’m sorry that things turned out to be like this, Kagenashi.’

   I raise my hand that has my ring on it and summons some skeleton fishes. They follow my silent command to swim towards Shimazaki and apprehend him. Sadly, it’s too late as he’s already step inside the portal. Both he and the portal disappear in an instant.

   I let out a soft curse and dismiss the skeletons. I then run over to Takagi and Ueno.

   ‘Are you guys all right?’ I ask them.

   ‘Yeah, we’re fine.’ Takagi assures me.

   ‘Where’s Iwata?’

   ‘His shift is later in the morning, so he’s still sleeping.’

   ‘I see. Well, I love to stay a bit longer, but I need to leave right now. Can I entrust the two of you to take care of your colleagues?’

   ‘Sure thing. ’

   ‘Good luck and be careful.’

   ‘Yeah. Thanks.’

   Based on how Shimazaki warped himself out of the Research Department just like that, I’m guessing that Brennan is already long gone. Just as I was about to call Sakuya to inform her that the search is futile, I read the second part of the message that came out when I turned off the alarm.

   ‘-Furthermore, a large number of human soldiers created by Ryuuouji Tatsuma are rampaging at nearby streets. Please engage them while conducting your search for Brennan.’

   Hmm, I guess this changes things then. If Brennan is really in a place safe from pursuits, there’s no way those brainwashed homeless would be sent as decoys. Right. Let’s do this.

   It didn’t take me long to leave the school and head for the nearest street where I can hear lots of loud noises.

   I see lots of Academy students and people wearing weird helmets fighting each other. The entire gang of the cool kids clique is here too. Well, except Shimazaki, of course. Saya spots me while fighting two brainwashed soldiers at the same time.

   ‘You’re late, Akira-kun! Where were you?’ she ask me without looking away from her opponents.

   Just as one of them is about to shoulder-ram Saya, Yui uses her talismans to restrict his movements allowing Saya to knock him unconscious.

   ‘I had…something to take care of.’ I simply say as this is not the time to tell her nor the rest of the gang about the bad news.

   ‘More important than this?’

   ‘To be honest, it is.’

   ‘I wonder where Shimazaki is. I couldn’t get hold of him through the phone at all.’ Miyahara wonders out loud while dealing with a soldier who’s trying to get close to Takayama.

   ‘He won’t be joining us.’ I tell him regretfully.

   All of them look at me in surprise.

   ‘What? Why not?’ Miyahara asks.

   ‘Wouldn’t you agree that now’s not a good time?’ I ask while gesturing towards Ryuuouji’s experiments.

   ‘I, I guess not.’

   ‘Besides, we have to find Brennan too. Yui, I believe you got it covered?’

   ‘Yes, Akira-kun. I, along with some other students who specializes in summoning magic, have summoned familiars to help search for him.’

   ‘That’s good to hear.’

   The good news is, it’s still very early in the morning. The street’s practically empty during this hour of the day. Those early risers are quickly evacuated to safer places before they got caught up in the mess.

   The bad news? The soldiers we fought at the lab only used weapons like machine guns and grenade launchers, but these new ones can use magic too. Not only that, they’re much faster and stronger. If the older ones are equivalent to three normal citizens, these newer ones are as strong as six normal people combined. Ryuuouji had been very busy ever since he disappeared.

   ‘What the hell happened to them for them to get this strong?’ Miyahara grumbles.

   ‘Maybe you could offer yourself to be one of Ryuuouji's experiment.’ I suggest.

   ‘I’m not that curious.’

   ‘Guys! Less chat, more fighting!’ Saya chides.

   ‘Yes, ma’am.’

   ‘Got it.’

   The soldiers are indeed tougher, but our side isn’t losing either. It didn’t take us long to defeat the soldiers in this area. We quickly head to another area to help other students. This one, however, are mostly cleared of the soldiers as Madoka and Mashiro are taking the lead.

   Before the rest of us could pitch in and help, Madoka defeated the last of the soldiers with one last insane giggle. After the soldier went down, her demeanor becomes much calmer. Mashiro, who’s already done with her part, flies over to her by using her wind magic.

   ‘Great job, Madoka.’ she says to the assassin.

   She smiles at the petite girl. ‘Thanks. You too.’

   I was about to go there and congratulate the girls for their work well done when other students who worked with them to defeat the soldiers beat me to it.

   ‘Great job, Fuyukaze-san! Kojima-san!’

   ‘Thank you for your hard work!’

   ‘The two of you were very cool back then!’

   Madoka’s eyes widen in surprise. ‘Even me?’

   ‘Of course! You fought harder than any of us!’

   ‘Yeah!’

   Madoka starts to fidget. ‘Doesn’t my insane laughter…terrify you all?’

   ‘Well, it did at first, to be honest. But we pretty much got used to it after hearing them for a few times.’

   ‘I-I see…’

   A female student raises up her hand. ‘May I pat your head, Kojima-san?’

   Madoka’s bashful expression turns cold immediately. ‘No.’

   ‘Aww…’

   Madoka suddenly looks towards me, as if she knew I was here all along. She’s glaring at me with an expression that says ‘This is all your fault.’

   I just smile at her and walk towards them with the others.

   ‘Has anyone seen Sakuya-senpai or Ichika?’ I ask no one in particular.

   ‘I saw them went to the harbor. They’re probably looking for Brennan there.’ a male students answers.

   ‘The harbor, huh? That’s quite far away from here.’

   ‘Is something the matter, Akira?’ Madoka asks curiously.

   I was about to answer her when I saw someone with a higher authority than the two of them combined. Principal Morifuji himself.

   ‘Sorry, I need to speak to him.’ I tell Madoka.

   She nods understandingly. ‘Okay. Go ahead.’

   I quickly walk towards him.

   ‘Sir, I have something to report to you.’

   ‘Not now, Kagenashi-kun. I have to-’

   ‘Shimazaki Shinra has betrayed us. He released Joseph Brennan from his cell, and he attempted to steal Excalibur.’

   Principal Morifuji stops dead in his tracks. At the same time, collective gasps from the crowd is also heard.

   ‘...Are you certain of it?’

   ‘Yes, sir. I was there when he threatened two of the researchers to open the vault for him.’

   ‘Hmm, it is risky to let Brennan escape, but I guess this is just as urgent. Very well. Come with me to my office. I shall hear your entire report there.’

   ‘Yes, sir.’

   He looks towards the others.

   ‘The rest of you, please continue on with your mission.’

   Majority of them had a look of despair, but they snapped out of it when they hear the principal’s command.

   ‘Yes sir!’

   Principal Morifuji nods approvingly. ‘Let us go, Kagenashi-kun.’

   ‘Right behind you, sir.’

   After reaching the principal’s office, I give him my report on what had happened before I joined the others to defeat the brainwashed soldiers.

   The principal raises his eyebrow when I mentioned that I went there by relying on guts feeling alone.

   ‘And you just head there? Without any sort of reasons to?’

   ‘Um, yes sir. I just felt like, well, trusting my heart.’

   ‘Fair enough. Continue.’

   After I’m done, Principal Morifuji has a disturbed look on his face. 

   ‘Before I make any decision, I would like to wait for our comrades at the Research Department and the Prison Department to make their reports.’ he says to us.

   ‘Um, sir?’

   ‘Yes?’

   ‘I know this is a really bad timing to be bringing this up, but what’s going to happen to our joint training with the Kyoto Branch?’

   ‘I regret to say this, but I believe that it will be at least postponed, given the uproar that occurred today. I shall contact Principal Nakahara myself and inform him of what had happened.’

   I guess it’s understandable. It’s already way past the time to head to the training camp, after all.

  For the next few minutes, Principal Morifuji is busy on the phone. He called Principal Nakahara, someone from the Prison Department and someone from the Research Department. He puts down the phone after he’s done talking.

‘I’ve asked them to send a representative each to give us the report. They should be here any minute.’ he tells me. ‘As for the joint training, I’ve contacted Principal Nakahara. He, too, agrees that the training should be postponed after everything that happened just now. We shall held it after everything has settled down.’

I suddenly remember of Shimazaki’s betrayal. That’s not going to be settled anytime soon.

‘...Most of the things.’ he corrects himself after he read my mind correctly.

‘Understood.’

‘Tell me, how would you handle Shimazaki-kun’s situation?’ he asks me all of a sudden.

I’ve asked myself that very same question while I followed him here, so I do have an answer. Even so, I still get nervous when he’s the one who’s asking.

‘Well, I would find out the reason he betrayed us. I’m sure he has a very good reason.’

‘If he doesn’t? What if he was a traitor all along?’

I recall his sad face before he went inside the portal. That’s definitely not the expression that a traitor makes.

‘I know my words probably mean nothing, but I guarantee you that he’s not a traitor.’

‘Let us say that he is. What will you do then?’

‘I will bring him back here and have him being judged of his crime.’

‘Can you really do it? Can you really arrest your former classmate?’ he asks persistently.

For some reason, Principal Morifuji is keep on pressuring me. Either way, my answer is still the same.

‘Yes. Yes I can.’

‘And if he has a good reason behind his betrayal? Are you going to help him solve his problem, then act like nothing has happened?’

‘If Shimazaki was threatened or something, I would help him out as his friend. However, he still did something unforgivable, and I would turn him in anyway. I’ll forgive him and act like nothing has happened after he has served his punishment.’

Principal Morifuji opens his mouth and is about to say something, but then we hear someone knocks on the door.

‘Come in.’

Two people come inside. I don’t recognize neither of them as they’ve never made an appearance in the original anime. Both of them look like they’re in their thirties. One is wearing a lab coat over a simple shirt and jeans, while the other is dressed up like he’s in the military: camouflage shirt and pants, bullet-proof vest, and combats boots.

‘Kagenashi-kun, may I introduce you to the Head of Department of the Research Department Takara Yasuhi-kun and the Chief of Warden Imada Rokuro-kun. Gentlemen, this is Kagenashi Akira-kun, a First Year and a Class 2 Student.’ Principal Morifuji says as a way of introduction.

I incline my head at them politely. I got a polite nod and a respectable bow in return.

‘Now then, I would like to hear the report from the two of you. You may begin first, Imada-kun.’

‘Yes, sir.’