It all began with a normal morning. Everyone in Class 2 were having PE. Usually, we were stuck with playing a certain sports like basketball or football (there’s gender segregation for some of them, of course). Today, however, we’re allowed to do whatever we like. So I chose to do nothing. I bought a new game yesterday, and I had been playing it for the entire night. As a result, I’m suffering from lack of sleep. Saya notices me sitting all by myself and comes over.

   ‘Some of the girls and I are going to play dodgeball. Come and join us, Akira-kun!’ she invites while pulling my hands in an attempt to drag me.

   ‘No thanks, Saya.’ I decline groggily. ‘In case you couldn’t tell, I’m kind of sleepy. I don’t feel like exercising right now.’

   ‘You’ll forget to be sleepy once you start to exercise. Now come on!’

   I groan and let her drag me to where the other players are. There’s no convincing her once she sets her mind on something, much less when it’s dodgeball we’re talking about.

   ‘Now then, I’m captain of Team A. Akira-kun, you’re the captain of team B.’

   I roll my eyes. ‘Of course I am.’

   ‘I’ll beat you this time! For sure!’

   One of the girl giggles. I think her name was Tanaka.

   ‘You say that, Oomori-san, but Kagenashi-kun managed to beat you every single time.’ she says while smiling.

   ‘Yup yup. All he needs to do is to whisper some sweet nothings at you, and you’ll lose all will to fight.’ another girl, Ishido, agrees.

   The other girls murmur their agreements.

   Saya blushes at the remarks.

   ‘T-That’s not true! I’m not that easy, okay?’

   None of the other girls look convinced. Saya suddenly glares at me.

   ‘You’re not allowed to cheat this time, okay?’ she demands.

   I look at her innocently.

   ‘How else am I supposed to win?’ I ask.

   ‘Um, by playing the game properly?’

   Yui suddenly appears out of nowhere.

   ‘Is it okay if I join as well?’ she asks timidly.

   ‘I don’t mind, but the total number of participants will be odd-numbered.’

   ‘We can ask Shizuku-chan to join us.’ Yui suggests.

   ‘If she’s joining, then her boyfriend Miyamura would definitely insist on joining as well. And our number would be odd again.’

   ‘Well, there is one more person we could invite…’

   Yui sneaks a glance towards Shimazaki. As usual, he’s being all by himself again.

   Ever since he took part in kidnapping Yui, his reputation has taken a dive for the worse. While it was true that he did it to protect his fiancee Ishibashi, a lot of people could not forgive his betrayal that easily. He was kicked out of the fencing club entirely, and girls no longer fawn over him. We’re pretty much the only group of people who acted like nothing had happened.

   I look at Tanaka, Ishido and all the other girls who were his fans just a few weeks ago.

   ‘Is it okay if Shimazaki joins us?’ I ask them.

   They look at each other. They have quite a reluctant expression.

   ‘I know it’s difficult to forgive him at one go, but won’t you at least give him a chance?’ Yui pleads.

   ‘It’s not that we want to remain angry at him, Kiryuu-san.’ Ishido tells her. ‘Still, it’s pretty awkward for us to talk to him after basically ignoring him for so long.’

   ‘So, you guys have basically forgiven him right?’ I ask to confirm.

   ‘Well, yes. I don’t know about the rest of the class, but all of us here wants to talk to him again. We just don’t know how to make the approach.’

   ‘Just wait here. I’ll do the approaching.’ I tell them.

   I walk over to Shimazaki. He looks surprised to see me approach him.

   ‘Now then, Shimazaki. We’ll be playing Rock-Scissors-Paper right now. Make sure to use Paper, got it?’ I tell him.

   ‘Wait, what’s this all of a sudden-’

   ‘Ready? Rock-Scissors-Paper.’

   He did as I told without having the time to collect his thoughts. I used a Scissors.

   ‘I won. Now, as per the rule of the game, you’ll be playing dodgeball with us.’ I tell him.

   ‘Hold on, what rules? You didn’t mention it beforehand! Besides-’

   ‘Don’t bother with your excuse. Now come on. The others are waiting.’ I tell him as I push him from behind.

   ‘Kagenashi, wait! Seriously-’

   Naturally, things were awkward at first. All they did were awkward head nods to replace greetings.

   ‘Come on, all of you. You can do better than that! Just be intimate again before your teamwork is affected!’ Saya urges.

   ‘Easy for you to say, Saya. We haven’t been speaking to each other in months.’ Tanaka complains.

   ‘Remember when Akira-kun first transferred to our class? All of you eventually spoke to him even though he was a gloomy boy, right?’

   ‘Well, sorry for being gloomy.’ I grumble.

   ‘Actually, we spoke to him after Kiryuu-san encouraged us to speak to him.’ Ishido confesses.

   I look at Yui in surprise.

   ‘You actually did that, Yui?’ I ask her.

   ‘Well, you seemed to have a hard time in getting along with our classmates. That’s why I tried to help you. Did I do something uncalled for?’

   ‘Of course not. Thank you for looking out for me like that.’

   I proceed to hug her in front of everyone.

   ‘Akira-kun, please don’t hug me in front of our classmates! Ah! Please let go! This is so embarrassing!’ Yui says while struggling to break free of my hug.

   ‘Oh jeez, get a room you two!’

   ‘That’s right that’s right! Some of us are single here, you know!’

   ‘You should hug Oomori-san too while you’re at it.’ Arima my old magic mentor says to me.

   ‘Why? What did she do?’

   ‘The same thing Kiryuu-san did. She was frequently telling us how funny and interesting you are.’

   ‘Oh yeah, that happened. She was being unusually happy whenever she was talking about you.’ Tanaka recalls.

   ‘Yup yup.’ another girl called Handa agrees.

   ‘And this was way before the two of you have started to go out with each other.’ Ishido adds slyly.

   Saya blushes furiously at that.

   ‘Right, we have enough players, now. Let’s get the game started!’ she says in an attempt to change to subject.

   ‘Did she do the same thing when she was with your group too, Shimazaki-kun?’ Tanaka asks Shimazaki out of nowhere while ignoring Saya.

   Shimazaki was taken aback by the sudden question, but he answered it nonetheless.

   ‘Pretty much. It’s not just that. Whenever Kiryuu was telling us about what she did with Kagenashi, Oomori was always listening intently.’ Shimazaki replies.

   ‘I knew it. She was, or rather is, totally smitten with him!’

   Oh look, they’re talking again. That was easy. I guess being a normie helps a lot.

   ‘Can all of you at least not talk about it when he’s right in front of you? This is embarrassing enough as it is!’ Saya demands.

   ‘It’s okay, Saya-chan. I had fun listening to you talking about Akira-kun.’ Yui comforts.

   ‘You’re not helping, Yui! Seriously, can we play some dodgeball now? We’re running out of time here!’

   ‘Did someone say dodgeball?’

   Suddenly, some other classmates who were doing their own thing heard Saya and rushes over.

   ‘Can we join too?’

   ‘Of course! The more the merrier, as they say.’

   And all of a sudden, the whole class is participating in the dodgeball match. It got kind of chaotic in the end, but I guess that’s what a dodgeball match is all about. And more importantly, everyone is talking to Shimazaki again. And oh, I beat Saya. Again. To add more salts to the injuries, I didn’t even retort to any trickery this time. Naturally, she got very vexed with her defeat.

   ‘One of these days, one of these days…’ she keeps on chanting as she’s walking away. I decide to leave her alone just in case I aggravated her frustration.

   My body’s sweating all over from the match just now, so I waste no time in hitting the showers. A few seconds after I was done and got changed into my uniform, a really loud alarm starts to blare. That got everyone’s attention. The one being used isn’t any alarm, this one is specifically reserved for an S Rank emergency. As per the protocol set by the Academy, we are to abandon literally everything we were doing and gather at the assembly hall. And that’s exactly what we did.

   Principal Morifuji were already standing at the podium when we got there. Every teachers in the school plus the entire student council members are standing right behind him. Principal Morifuji begins to talk the moment all of us are gathered inside the hall.

   ‘Now that everyone is here, we shall begin the briefing.’ he begins.

   A huge white screen appear on top of him. It then shows a picture of the world’s map. Majority of the countries on the map are being marked by blinking red dots.

   ‘A few hours ago, we have received reports that majority of the armed organizations around the world are at wars with each other. Mercenary groups, gangs, even Churches and armies. The list goes on.’ he informs us.

   That last one made me flinch. So they ended up fighting each other after the mutiny incident. This is going to become very ugly.

   ‘The Information Squad is yet to determine the cause of this simultaneous conflicts all around the world. What we do know is that innocent civilians are getting caught up in them. Please work in groups and evacuate them. Once that is done, stop any conflict you happen to come across. This is quite a major operation unlike any we have seen before. Think carefully before acting and good luck. Dismissed.’ he ends.

   Mashiro, Sakuya, Ichika come over to where Yui, Saya and myself are. As usual, Assaf-sensei won’t be joining us. As for Madoka, Ichika told me that she has already left to gather information about the cause of this sudden mass-fighting/war. Shimazaki, Miyamura and Takayama are also joining us.

   Principal Morifuji mentioned that gangs are at war with each other. I immediately thought of Kaoru. I hpoe that she’s doing fine.

   ‘Hold on, I need to call someone first.’ I tell the gang.

   Kaoru picks up almost immediately. Wherever she’s at right now, it’s very rowdy.

   ‘Is everything all right on your end, Kaoru? What’s with the ruckus?’ I make sure to shout so that she could hear me.

   ‘The thing is, aniki, we’re being attacked by the Hidari Gang right now! Honestly, we don’t know what happened! We had a truce, but they broke it like it was nothing! We had been at it for hours now!’Kaoru also made sure to shout.

   ‘Just try to hang on, all right? We’re coming over right now!’

   ‘Okay, aniki!’

   I end the call and tell the gang about the situation Ueyama Group is in right now.

   ‘...And that’s how it is. We should start by going there first.’ I conclude by saying.

   ‘Um, is it okay if we check on my house too? I’m kind of worried.’ Yui asks us.

   ‘Of course we can, Yui. But I don’t think you need to worry that much. I’m sure your father will protect the shrine and everyone inside.’ I assure her.

   ‘Exactly. I doubt anyone is stupid enough to go near your house with him around.’ Saya adds.

   Myself aside, everyone else from Class 2 are still in their gym wears. Looks like they couldn’t get to change before the alarm blared.

   ‘Do all of you want to get changed first?’ I ask them.

   ‘Nah, I’ll just head out like this. It’s much easier to move around in this compared to my regular uniforms.’

   ‘I’m fine with this too. We can’t really afford to waste any time, do we?’

   The others are fine with it as well.

   Yui suddenly gasps.

   ‘Do I smell, Akira-kun?’ she asks me a bit fearfully.

   Now this is an awkward question.

   ‘Um, don’t worry. You’re, well, fine. You don’t smell at all.’

   ‘I’m glad to hear that.’

   As we’re about to head out, my phone starts to vibrate inside my pocket. I take it out to see who’s calling. It’s Iwata.

   ‘What’s up, Iwata?’ I ask him.

   ‘Hey, Kagenashi. I just want to inform you that your new spear is ready.’

   ‘Now’s kind of a bad timing, though.’

   ‘Yeah, I heard about the mess around the world too. Either way, just drop by when you have the time, yeah?’

   ‘Got it. Thanks.’

   ‘Is something the matter, Akira-kun?’ Sakuya asks once I disconnected the call.

   ‘It’s no big deal. Just that my new spear is ready.’

   ‘Well, you should go get it then. Who knows, you might end up needing it. No need to worry about us, or Kaoru-chan for that matter. We’ll be sure to keep her safe. Just call us once you’re done so that we could agree on a place to meet up, okay?’

   ‘Got it, senpai.’

   And so, I head down to the Research Department once again. I called Iwata in advance so that he could come and get me at the entrance. That way, the guards won’t be as agitated when I came out from the elevator.

   This time, Takagi is here too. We nod to each other awkwardly when we pass by each other. Without breaking stride, I follow Iwata to see Utsunomiya-san, the deputy who’s in charge of my new Regalia.

   The first thing I noticed when I go inside the room is a rod-shaped object covered in a white cloth. Sitting next to it is Utsunomiya-san.

   ‘Ah, Kagenashi-kun. So nice of you to drop by.’ he says when he sees me.

   ‘Is my new Regalia ready?’ I ask him.

   ‘Indeed it is. Come and get it.’

   I go closer to him. He gets up from his seat and grabs the wrapped spear before handing it to me. I slowly unwrap it.

   My new spear, which was made from the arm bones of Coinchenn, is around the same length as Gáe Bulg. Unlike Gáe Bulg, this spear has a hexagonal shaft instead of a cylindrical one. Also, its diamond-shaped blade at the tip are jagged.

   ‘I decided to name it Gáe Glàmadh, which means the Devouring Spear in Gaelic.’ Utsumoniya-san tells me. ‘I named it based on Coinchenn’s ability to devour others and gain their ability in turn.’

   I hold the spear horizontally and stare at it.

   ‘Gáe Glàmadh, huh? It has a nice ring to it.’

   I would love to admire its beautiful craftsmanship a bit longer. Unfortunately, I’m kind of in a hurry.

   ‘If you want to use a pentacle, we have a room with one painted on the floor.’ Utsunomiya-san informs me when I was about to keep Gáe Glàmadh away with my teleportation magic.

   ‘Thank you for telling me. May I know its location?’

   ‘I would love to bring you to the room myself. Sadly, I have some urgent work to take care of. Can you bring him there in my stead, Iwata-kun?’

   ‘Yes, sir.’

   Before Iwata and I leave the room, I made sure to bow at Utsunomiya-san.

   ‘Thank you for working on Gáe Glàmadh. I really appreciate it.’ I tell him.

   ‘Don’t sweat it. Just take good care of it, you hear?’

   The room Iwata brings me is a simple room with a bunch of bookshelves at one corner and a pentacle painted with a black paint on the floor. I’m guessing that this room’s one and only purpose is to allow Regalia users to form a contract with the spirit of their weapon.

   ‘Well, I’ll be outside. Rest assured, I’ll come charging in the moment I hear some weird noise from here.’ Iwata tells me.

   ‘Thanks.’

   Once Iwata has left the room, I sit down at the middle of the pentacle. I then put Gáe Glàmadh in front of me horizontally. Next, I close my eyes.

   Next thing I knew, I’m inside an ocean again. Coinchenn stands right in front of me in his human form. He smiles at me, showing his white teeth.

   ‘Hey, master-kun. We finally meet again!’ he says to me cheerfully.

   ‘...I see that you’re doing well, considering the circumstances.’

   ‘No need to look so guilty. You beat me fair and square, remember?’

   ‘I know I shouldn’t whine since I was the one who won and all, but I’m pretty sure that 2 against 1 wasn’t a fair fight.’

   ‘Oh, don’t sweat it. I acknowledged that it was part of the rules. If it ended up backfiring on me, I was the sole person, er, I mean sea creature, to blame for it.’

   He then claps his hands. Thankfully, no shockwave appears this time.

   ‘Now then, enough about past reminiscence! You want to form a contract with me, correct?’

   ‘Yes. State your terms.’

   ‘Actually, I don’t have any.’

   That confession surprised me.

   ‘What do you mean by that? Seriously? There’s nothing that you want?’ I ask persistently.

   ‘I may not look like it, but I’m not a greedy sea creature. All I wanted was fight Curruid one last time before getting killed myself.’

   ‘That’s just…sad.’

   He shrugs.

   ‘You know what’s sadder? Being all alone in the ocean for thousands of years. What was it that you humans say? That there’s nothing at the top except vanity? I’ve never heard truer words than those. So yeah, I much preferred to be used as a spear.’

   ‘Well, so much the better for me if you’re content with this. Let’s get this over with.’

   ‘Yup. Let’s. So, what are we supposed to do?’

   ‘Oh, right. You’ve never done this before, huh? It’s quite simple, really. All we have to do is form a contract verbally. You mention your terms, then I agree to it.’ I explain.

   ‘How does that even work? Will some blinding lights appear and make things official?’

   ‘I don’t know either. The contract with Curruid aside, the contract I formed with Kuromi is at least binding since you know, she’s the Goddess Styx.’

   ‘Hmm, well, not that it really matters. Here goes. I hereby formally acknowledge Kagenashi Akira as my master. I swear to lend him my full strength and aid him in all combats without asking for any compensation whatsoever. How’s this?’

   ‘I guess it’s good enough. I accept your offer of assistance.’

   A few seconds of silence. As usual, there’s no blinding lights or anything flashy that happened like Coinchenn expected.

   ‘It’s this simple, huh?’ he asks.

   ‘Didn’t I told you that it was? Now, I love to hang around and chat some more, but I’m kind of in a hurry.’

   ‘Before you go, at least let me tell you this. It’s about my ability.’

   ‘What about it?’

   ‘It only works on sea creatures. More specifically, those similar to myself and Curruid. Trust me. I’ve gobbled up a selkie once, but I couldn’t change into a human no matter how hard I tried.’

   ‘Why do I have the feeling that you’re telling me this as a warning?’

   ‘That’s because I am. Part of the reason I went berserk and killed all the giant sea creatures around the world is to absorb all their ability. I don’t want you to end up as the same path as me. Trust me. You don’t want to end up on a pointless killing spree and lose your soul.’

   ‘...I understand.’

   ‘Good. Now, I would love to tell you about all the abilities I absorbed, but you don’t have much time, right? For now, those you saw me using when we were fighting each other should suffice. When you want to use them, all you have to do is think of which one you want to use, and presto.’

   ‘Thanks for the tip. Now-’

   Kuromi appears next to us without a sound. She curtsies gracefully.

   ‘My apologies for interrupting your conversation, master. I come here with an important matter. Hades-sama wishes to speak with you.’ she tells me.

   ‘That’s indeed a serious matter. What does he want to talk about?’

   ‘He didn’t provide me with the details, unfortunately. All he told me is that he wants you to see him at the Underworld right now.’

   ‘Um, how on earth do I go down there without being dead?’

   ‘Please do not worry about it. I shall take care of it for you. Please meet me in front of the school gates.’

   ‘Got it. See you there.’

   Kuromi and Coinchenn looks at each other and nod as a way of greeting and farewell. I then disconnected from my head. Everything’s still the same inside the room, with Gáe Glàmadh still placed in front of me.

   ‘Well, then. Let’s go meet the Greek God of Death again.’ I murmur to myself.