Needless to say, the courtyard became quite chaotic with twenty four people fighting each other. It’s like a freaking war zone here. If you’re not careful, you’ll get hit by attacks from friends or foes alike.

   For the strategy, Madoka proposed a priority method instead of the match-up method we used in the lab at Okinawa. This means that all of us have the same target, but our timing in attacking those targets depend on the situation. All of us agree to use this strategy since it’s not a requirement that we must defeat everyone. All we have to do is to take down Zaimoto while protecting Yui.

   Although I said that, our top target is not Zaimoto. Instead, it’s Hiraoka-san and Hamada-san. Why them of all people you ask? It’s because the two of them are the most dangerous ones out of the enemies team.

   Now, I’m not talking about their offensive or defensive capabilities, of course. They had zero spiritual power before they injected the serum that gave them Tatsuya’s power. That’s precisely why they’re dangerous. Using tremendous powers without training of any sorts is dangerous. If we allow them to use those powers for a long period of time, they might lose control of them and go on a rampage. Hence, they need to be stopped first.

   Also, they’re the most inexperienced ones when it comes to battle. It’s normal strategy to take down the weakest ones first during a team fight.

   Of course, there’s no way we can go all out on offense without having someone to protect Yui. She can protect herself with her talismans and shikigamis. Even her new staff allows her to summon tons of Buddha Statues to act as her shield. Tatsuya is also possessing her and gives her access to His powers. Even so, we can never be too careful.

   We appointed Tomita-senpai, Sakuya and Ise-senpai to be Yui’s guardians. The reason being Tomita-senpai uses a high tech shield that he made himself in the Research Department as his weapon. According to him, the shield can deploy a barrier that can withstand the blast of a nuclear missile. He can also toss it around like a boomerang. As for Ise-senpai, she uses two two staff-type Pseudo-Regalia. One allows her to cast up to six different offensive spells, while the other up to six defensive spells. As long as she doesn’t runs out of mana, she can be quite the force to reckon with. I believe I don’t have to tell you anything about Sakuya. She’s also staying well away from the rest of us just in case there’s a need for her to cast Fuurinkazan, her strongest spell.

   However, it’s not like the enemy would just stand back and let their team members be taken down by us. As such, some of our own forces has to be dispersed, hence the ‘depends on the situation’ I mentioned just now. Until the two shrine maidens are taken down, Madoka will be the only S Rank to join in the attack on those shrine maidens. She’s joined by Uchida and Konya, who uses a pair of steel claws and a shotgun respectively. Sakuya and Ise-senpai are to concentrate on protecting Yui, with the former also to make the enemy team be cautious of her nuking spell.

   Natsuho is currently engaging Jordan, our number three priority target right after the shrine maidens. The reason we put him this high on the list is that not only is his offensive prowess is quite high, it’s also because he could envelope Zaimoto with his huge lightning ball and protect him from harm should the latter be cornered. Since both Natsuho and Jordan use lightning Regalias, it’s like a lightning storm where they’re battling. On a side note, the priests and shrine maidens who are misusing Tatsuya’s powers to cause rains and storms, so it’s already like we’re fighting inside the eye of a typhoon.

   On the other hand, Mashiro is to handle Shimazaki, who’s our number four target. His Ombre is too suitable for him and his teammates to launch surprise attacks, which is why he needs to be occupied at all times. Mashiro summoned Sogdrul so that he and Shimazaki can engage in a teleportation battle. I don’t really know how teleportation works in this world, but it seems like Sogdrul can predict where Shimazaki will appear from and thus tells his mistress. Mashiro will just blast wherever he pointed with her wind, making Shimazaki fly away and has to create another portal just to look for another chance. Her job is to stall him and not defeat him, and she’s doing a good job of that so far.

   Harrison, our number five target, is being hold off by Ichika. The reason he’s one of the top priority target is because of his Regalias. Those six bullets of his that can transform into dangerous animals will throw off the balance in our numbers. For better or worse, he only target females. So far, he’s content with trying to mess with Ichika. The graceful swordswoman is dodging and blocking the attacks from his spirit animals with her katana, all the while trying to land a hit on their owner. Even with her agility, it’s proven to be difficult as Harrison always has at least two animals guarding him.

   I’m in charge of stalling White, the executive with the chakram and the veil. That chakram of hers can travel at an extremely fast speed, but it can still be seen with naked eyes. I’m busy summoning out aquatic warriors and skeleton fishes with the power of Gáe Bulg and Ring of Putrid Water so that she’s too occupied with dealing with them to try and attack my other teammates. I have no plans of defeating her, since all we need to do is keep her occupied and thus pose no real threat if sufficiently occupised, and her veil will make things difficult for me. Might as well try to deal with her chakram from a distance.

   The problem is the Maximovich twins are dead set on taking me down. I don’t know it’s because I look the weakest among the team, but they sure are persistent. I need to fight them off with my spear while continuing to distract White. The only consolation is that while they’re mechanically enhanced, they seem to have zero capability on using magic, or simply refuse to use them. Either way, they’re much slower and weaker than Ichika, so I’m not really having a tough time.

   CHOMP!

   One of my skeleton fish managed to chomp off Anton’s gatling gun, thus making him lose the ranged advantage. He looks at me with even more hatred and tries to stab me with his long machete that he’s holding with his mechanical right hand. I dodge it and give him a knee kick. While he’s dazed from my attack, I finish off the job by knocking him out with the butt of my spear. His sister Viktoria almost sawed me in half with her chainsaw, but I manage to dodge it in time. Meanwhile, White’s chakram is coming at me straight. Instead of blocking or dodging it, I change its trajectory with my spear so that it ended up cutting away Viktoria’s chainsaw arm. Before she could react, I give her a high-turning kick that successfully knocks her out.

   Right. Now I can concentrate on White. Even so, I still need to keep an eye on the twins, just in case they regained their consciousness.

   I took a moment to check on Zaimoto, the sixth target on our priority list, and the rest of the priests. All of them are blasting anyone who’s not on their team with their new powers. From what I gather by observing them from afar, those powers tire them out quite rapidly. Zaimoto is getting way too trigger-happy with his power and shoots out lightning bolts after lightning bolts without pausing. His gleeful demeanor is a stark contrast to his subordinates, who prefer to use their powers sparingly so that they don’t tire themselves. I could only hope that Zaimoto will tire himself out and save us the trouble of trying to defeat him.

   ‘Looking away, boy? You sure are relaxed!’ I hear White shouting.

   I turn my neck to see her chakram a few feet away from me. I dodge to the right on the last second, and it flies away harmlessly. Or so I thought. Three others suddenly appear from it and fly towards me. I parry the first two but failed to deal with the third. As a result, it glazed my right shoulder. If I moved my arm a single second slower, my whole arm would have been taken away.

   ‘Feel like paying attention yet?’ White asks me in a loud voice. She has to shout since everything is going crazy in here.

   I don’t even have time to answer her since I’m too busy dodging and parrying her four chakrams. She’s right. I have to pay attention or I’ll be sawed in half.

   ‘Noooooo, stay away~!’ I hear Hiraoka-san screaming from somewhere.

   ‘Calm down, Chieko! Just aim at them one at a time!’ Hamada-san shouts.

   ‘I’m trying-Ack!’

   ‘Chieko! Oomph!’

   Well, I guess the two targets are out of action. So far, things are looking good for us. The enemy is down by four members, and we still have everyone on our side. And that’s when you know things are about to turn bad.

   The weather had been bad enough with Zaimoto and his crew literally kicking up a storm. Heavy rain are pouring and strong wind are blowing, making some of us difficult to fight properly. Suddenly, the weather became even worse, with loud thunders clapping deafeningly and some lightning actually landing on the ground.

   Oh boy.

   While standing on top of one of my skeleton fish, I quickly have two others get the Russian Twins out of here and place them on somewhere way out of the storm’s range (but still restricted to prevent them from running away) before they got electrocuted by lightning. It sure is hard to be the good guy. I hope someone’s dealt with Hiraoka-san and Hamada-san. As I was wondering why has the weather become much worse, my answer came in the form of a hysterical laughter.

   ‘BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!’ Zaimoto is shouting like a crazed tyrant.

   ‘Zaimoto-sama, please restrain yourself from using too much power! It is detrimental to you!’ a voice I remember belonging to Takenaka-san is saying to Zaimoto.

   ‘Nonsense! We are chosen to wield the power of a God! There is no restriction needed!’ Zaimoto shouts back.

   ‘You are the one that is full of nonsense!’ I hear Tatsuya’s voice shouting. He’s probably talking by using Yui again. ‘I have never gave you such permission! As such, You should stand back and surrender immediately!’

   ‘I will do no such thing! I have the proper authority to use your power, and I shall replace You as the new Dragon God!’

   ‘A mere mortal, replacing a God? KNOW YOUR PLACE!’ Tatsuya yells in anger.

   ‘Tastuya, calm down!’ I tell him through the earphone all of us are wearing on one of our ears to ease communication. ‘Just ignore him and let Yui handle things. And stop shouting. You might damage her throat.’

   Thankfully, that calmed him down.

   ‘My apologies for losing my temper like that.’ he mumbles in a much smaller voice.

   Unfortunately, He’s the only one who stayed calm. Zaimoto is continuing to get his ego inflated since he has Godly powers now. His subordinates are trying to stop him to no avail. The frequency of the lightning strikes has increased tremendously, and I have to watch out for them in addition to attacks from White.

   A lightning strikes White. Unfortunately, she’s unharmed since she has her veil.

   ‘Hey, watch it!’ White yells at Zaimoto.

   ‘My apologies, Miss White! I just have trouble landing judgment on these heretics!’ Zaimoto shouts.

   ‘Well, do a better job at it before you ended up barbecuing one of us!’

   Zaimoto concentrates, and a huge ball made of lightning and wind appears in front of him. He then fires it towards Sakuya, who barely managed to dodge it.

   ‘Like so?’

   ‘That’s it! You can do it if you try!’

   Oh man. I need to keep White busy before she give so much advise to Zaimoto he can practically use the power like he had been doing that for years. I charge towards her with my spear and attempt to skewer her, only to have my thrust deflected with her annoying veil.

   ‘Oh my, what’s with the sudden advance?’ she asks me.

   ‘I can’t have you keep on blabbering advise to him, you see.’

   ‘Are you actually jealous that I was paying more attention to him than to you? How cute~.’

   Yeah. It’s definitely not that. But I didn’t bother telling her since I want to save my breath. A lightning strikes the place right in front of me. I do a somersault and land on the back of one of my skeleton fish. I’m so scared of getting electrocuted I have lots of them floating near us just in case.

   I notice White got temporary blinded by the lightning and covers her eyes with her left hand. Before I could do anything, three of her chakrams fly towards me from behind. I managed to parry all of them.

   I couldn’t help but wonder where’s the fourth one, so I risk a glance and take a quick glance around the courtyard. There it is, stealthily buzzing its way towards Konya’s back.

   ‘Konya, watch out for your back!’ I quickly shouts into my earphone to caution him.

   Konya turns back in alarm just to see the chakram almost reaching him. He does an excellent bridge in the nick of time to dodge it. White clicks her tongue in annoyance. To keep her full attention on me, I decided to control thirty skeleton fishes, which is the most I could control at the same time, to spray putrid water at White. She has such hard time guarding herself with her veil she has to use three of her chakrams to begin getting rid of the fishes in schools. She kept the last one around since I was busy attacking her with my spear and thus needs extra protection other than her veil.

   Suddenly, I hear Natsuho yelps loudly. I don’t dare to look away from White, but her words next told me all I needed to know.

   ‘Heads up, Kiryuu! Jordan’s heading your way!’ she shouts.

   Now I really have to stop myself from getting distracted as I hear Yui and those assigned to guard her are engaging Jordan. Natsuho is also rushing to assist in fighting himoff. White, on the other hand, has enough leeway to look at the situation there.

   ‘Oh my, that leader of yours is in quite a pinch. Are you sure you don’t have to go and help?’ she asks me in a leisure manner.

   ‘Not really. I have faith that they can pull it off. Besides, I’m too busy in keeping you distracted.’

   She chuckles at that. ‘Believing in your friends, hmm? Must be nice to be young.’

   Our fight that’s not really going anywhere lasted for several minutes. And then, I hear Amesaki-senpai’s voice from my earphone.

   ‘Our mission in rescuing Ishibashi Saki is a success!’ she says form the other side of the earpiece.

   Finally. I was waiting for so long. I put up my best poker face while facing White so that I don’t give the good news away.

   ‘Shimazaki, Ishibashi is rescued.’ I hear Mashiro says in a quiet voice.

   I risk another glance towards where Mashiro and Shimazaki are. Shimazaki remains expressionless as he draws a circle with his Ombre and gets inside the portal. He then appears right behind Zaimoto.

   As I watch as much as possible while fending off White’s attack, Shimazaki drops Ombre to the ground. In one fluid movement, he makes a chopping motion with his left hand and chops the back of Zaimoto’s neck, thus knocking him out. Zaimoto falls to the ground, much to the horror of his bodyguards who failed to react on time.

   The crazy weather clears up the moment the person who caused it is out of commission. White is so surprised with the sudden sunny sky she looks towards where Zaimoto is and sees him on the ground.

   ‘Oh, dear.’ she mumbles.

   ‘THE MATCH IS OVER!’ Tanabe announces in a thunderous voice.

   I sigh in relief as it’s finally over. Everyone from my side has the same expression of joy and relief. The same can’t be said for Zaimoto’s side though.

   ‘To think we’ve lost due to treachery.’ White says to no one in particular. ‘Oh well, a loss is a loss, I guess.’

   After the match is over, everyone is to gather up at the main hall inside the Kogane Shrine. Those who are unconscious are carried here by their teammates. Jordan carried the twins on his shoulders like he had been doing similar jobs his whole life.

   ‘As per agreed by both sides, the losers will obey every requests that the winner has put down. Any objections?’ Tanabe asks Zaimoto’s teammates.

   None of them do. It’s not like they have a choice in the matter.

   ‘Now that the match is over, I shall be excusing myself.’ Tanabe says before leaving to his room while still being drenched.

   ‘Will you be so kind as to release the hostages that you have imprisoned?’ Yui asks the remaining priests.

   Tatsuya has already left her body, and is overseeing all these quietly.

   They nod in agreement. Even with Zaimoto still unconscious, they have an oddly refreshed expression, even though their newfound powers will soon be taken away.

   Sakuya takes out her phone to inform Amesaki-senpai of our location so that she could bring Ishibashi here, while Ise-senpai is contacting the Academy’s Osaka Branch so that they could send students over to arrest the team members of the losing team and drain away Tatsuya’s powers from the priests and the shrine maidens. While waiting for them, the rest of us are busy keeping eye on Lost Children’s executives, just in case they’ll risk it and cause havoc anyway.

   ‘Relax, we will definitely honor the agreement we made.’ Jordan assures us.

   He’s also looking pointedly at Harrison. The latter notices the stare and grunts grumpily.

   ‘I’m a lot of nasty things, but being a sore loser isn’t one of them.You have my word that I will await judgment like a man.’

   ‘I’m a woman, but I second that.’ White adds.

   Now that this is sort of taken care of, I go to Shimazaki.

   ‘Grit your teeth, Shimazaki.’ I tell him.

   ‘What?’

   Instead of answering, I clench my left fist and punch his right jaw. He staggers for a bit, but he recovers quickly since I didn’t punch him too hard.

   ‘My turn.’ Saya tells him.

   She punches him with her right fist. Shimazaki took it without flinching.

   Saya and I look at Yui.

   ‘Huh? Am I supposed to do it too?’ she asks us.

   ‘Of course! He kidnapped you, remember?’ I remind her.

   ‘Just give him a good one!’ Saya tells her.

   Yui goes to stand in front of Shimazaki and raises up her right hand hesitantly. She then closes her eyes and slaps him. Very lightly. Saya and I facepalm at the same time.

   ‘What on earth was that, Yui?’ I ask her.

   ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t do it! He’s my friend after all!’

   I let out a sigh. I guess Yui’s too good a girl for this. I look at Shimazaki.

   ‘You still owe a punch to Miyahara and Takayama, just so you know.’

   ‘Of course.’

   ‘And you owe all of us a trip to the Pied Piper.’ Saya adds.

   ‘What? Isn’t the only way to get seats there is to get special tickets through their website? And I heard it’s very difficult.’

   ‘It indeed is, but I wasn’t asking for your opinion.’ she growls.

   He chuckles. ‘Fine, I’ll do my best until I got enough tickets.’

   After waiting for nearly an hour, Amesaki-senpai’s team and the students from the Osaka Branch are finally here while riding helicopters. While the students are cuffing everyone from Zaimoto’s team, Shimazaki has a tearful reunion with Ishibashi.

   ‘I’m so sorry, Shinra-san! If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have betrayed your friends!’ Ishibashi says to him while crying.

   ‘It’s fine, Saki. I would do anything as long as you’re safe.’

   He looks at us.

   ‘Can I count on all of you to take care of Saki while I’m gone?’ he asks.

   ‘Of course.’ I answer.

   After they had been taken away to be sent to the Academy’s Osaka Branch, the rest of us board the helicopter Amesaki-senpai came here with so that we could go there as well to drop off my comrades from there. Along the way, I talk a little with Amesaki-senpai.

   ‘Thank you for rescuing Ishibashi, Amesaki-senpai.’ I tell her.

   ‘No need for thanks. Rescuing civilians are what we do. By the way, Kagenashi.’

   ‘Yes?’

   ‘The tips you gave me last time was really helpful! I almost made it during the last mixer I went!’

   ‘Almost?’ I ask a bit fearfully.

   ‘Well,’ she lowers her head and twirls her index fingers. ‘There were some men that were interested in me, but I put them all off when I saw a cockroach on the table. I raised my fist and crushed it, along with the table.’

   ‘That’s…unfortunate.’

   She lets out a long sigh.

   ‘It’s okay, Amesaki-senpai! I’m pretty sure you’ll find a guy one day!’ I comfort her.

   ‘I hope so too…’ she says dejectedly.

   The trip to the Academy’s Osaka Branch was a pretty awkward one after our conversation.