The class go well until lunch break. Mirai-san didn't talked to me even once for the entire day. It does makes sense because it will become an issue among the first-years if she spoke with someone in class. And I want to keep low profile so I'm quite thankful for her consideration.
As usual, I headed to the canteen to eat lunch. I ordered two yakisoba bread. I don't prefer to eat heavy meal for now so I ended up with it. Right after I took my first step inside the canteen, I noticed that the canteen is not crowded. There must be something happening somewhere. I didn't cared about them so I go the line and got my order after a minute.
"Is is true?!"
"Yes. They'll arrive here anytime sooner."
"We should hurry. I want to see them personally."
The three male students behind me were talking about something. They immediately walk as fast as they can after they got their order. The other students were also doing the same so this rose up my curiosity. I followed the flow and there are students that were forming a crowd 100 meters away from the big elevator of the Dormitory Island Port. I tried my best to slipped past through them and I managed to get to the front.
"Ah! You're here too, Hiji-san," someone beside me said.
"Akane-senpai," I said to the short twintailed girl on my right side. "What's happening here?"
"The student council presidents of the Pacific Academy will arrive anytime sooner. All of us here want to see them personally," she said and her excitement is very obvious.
I see. The student council presidents, the Rank 1 of their respective Pacific Academy. I admit that I want to grab this almost once in a lifetime chance.
Even a newcomer to this academy will surely tremble in fear just by being near on their presence. They are the most respected student of their respective academies after all.
The crowd became silent when the elevator's pulley started to rotate. It means that it is already boarded by some people. Each second is an eternity for us, who are waiting. I didn't even blinked for a second to completely witness 100% of this scene. After few seconds, there were heads that are already visible into our eyes.
The elevator stopped when it reached the grounds and four students started to walk away from it. One of them is a man who has a silver colored hair. His dignified aura scares the heck of us and thanks to his glasses that made it more emphasized. He's currently talking on his companions that are interacting with him.
The first one who stared on us is a girl with a black hair that hides her right eye because of the diagonal bangs that extends down to her right jaw. The way she stares on us looks like she wants to kill us. Beside her is a girl holding a pocketbook on her left hand. She's reading it while walking but the guy doesn't seemed bothered by it. Based on her appearance, she's the intelligent-type of girl.
The one behind the three students was a short girl with a pink colored hair. She's too energetic and carefree. If her height will be considered, she looks like a small child. She diverted her eyes on us and it shone after few seconds. She's very familiar to- Wait. D-D-D-Don't tell me-
"Hijiiiiiii!" the pink haired girl said and immediately ran towards our direction. Her companions tried to stop her but they judged that it would be useless so they just halted and desperately looked at her.
"H-H-H-H-Hira-neechan?!" I said in extreme shockness.
She stopped running and pulled me out of the crowd. She quickly hugged me tightly that caused all students here to make their mouths agape, even Akane-senpai, probably.
"I never thought that I'll immediately see my future husband!" she said while still hugging me.
My hands didn't know to either hug her also or to push her away. Isn't she embarrassed?! What if the entire student body knew that this girl has a brother complex? She rubbed her head on my chest like a cat.
"H-H-Hiji-san, y-y-y-you said n-n-n-neechan?" Akane-senpai asked while slowly raising her right hand to point towards this annoying girl in my front.
"Y-Y-Yes. She's my older sister," I said.
I couldn't see the expressions of the students behind me but I can feel their mixed emotions. Hira-neechan continued to do what she's doing when she removed her hands from me to wrap it around my left hand. She turned our direction to face the crowd.
"Listen, students of Pacific First. This guys here is my little brother and my husband in the near future! Be aware of that!" she said and started to laugh violently as if she's a demon lord.
The crowd didn't know what to do that time. Hey, you're just the audience here and I'm the one who's involved so don't go ahead of me. I quickly pushed her away because of embarrassment I'm receiving right now. She pouted after I created some distance between us.
"Ehhhhh?! D-Don't tell me that you're-" she complained and her face is ready to cry any moment sooner.
"Don't randomly tell that stupid imagination of yours to others!" I replied with a slight tone of anger and irritation.
"That won't do, Hiji. Because the relationship that lingers between us is not just familial but also purely romantic," she replied and held both of her palms while fantasizing.
"Hira-chan is really a troublesome one," a student said coming from the direction where she came.
"I'm not troublesome! I'm just showing that my love towards him is true!"
The one who intercepted is the girl with a hidden right eye. She wears a blue uniform, but the design is same as the girls here, so I think she's the student council president of the Pacific Third.
"So the 'Pacific Maiden' has a brother complex, huh? How cute," the same girl said.
"It is advisable if you keep your composure in front of our students," the silver haired student, which is the only male in their group, said.
He's the student council of the Pacific Fourth, Manato Souren. All the girls around here were staring to him like crazy. They're all falling in love with him. He placed his left fingers on his glasses to readjust its position.
"You're dead serious, Souren. Just let this little girl have her fun, right?" the scary girl suggested and wrapped her right arm on Hira-neechan's shoulder.
"She's right, Souren. And everytime I see Hiji, my confidence is boosting like it can reach the sun in no time," Hira-neechan added and looked to me.
"You can do your incest things later, Hira. We need to go meet the academy principal right now," President Manato said.
"No!" Hira-neechan shouted and clinged to me.
"S-S-Stop it right now! End that fantasy of yours or maybe it is better to end your life," I said trying to pull her away but her arms were too strong.
"Fine," President Manato said and sighed. "If you want to be expelled, then it's your decision. Let's go," he continued and started to walk away from us.
Hira-neechan removed her arms around me and pulled President Manato to stop him. I took this chance to look to the crowd and saw that all their gazes were directed on me. I immediately averted mine to avoid having eye contact with them.
President Manato halted and looked back at us.
"The first trial for the first-years will start one hour from now. We, the student council presidents, will watch it. I hope that you'll show your discipline in front of our visitors."
The air around us was being shattered by every words that President Manato said. His baritone voice caused us all to coward fear not because of us being frightened but because of respect.
"We wish you good luck and I strongly advice for all of you to prepare right now," he said and started to leave.
The other two girls followed him while Hira-neechan stood in front of me and held both of my hands.
"Good luck, Hiji." She left.
The crowd behind me dispersed. I can hear some who students who were talking about Hira-neechan. I don't know if it is either positive or negative. I'll just let this matter to be solved by President Manato.
"President Karasuma is cute, right?"
Akane-senpai smiled while watching the student council presidents leaving going to the principal room. She scanned her surroundings to see if the crowd was totally dispersed.
"Her entire existence is annoying," I replied and placed both of my hands on the side pockets of my pants.
"That is what makes her cute," she giggled as if she understood what I'm referring to. "I need to leave for now, Hiji-san. I have some matters to do," she added and waved her hand to me before leaving. I just nodded in response.
They don't know the feeling of being bugged by Hira-neechan everytime we talk or see each other. She always calling me her future husband and I'd rather die than being married to her. I didn't hate her because of who she is but it is not right to feel romantic love to your siblings. I can't even say now if it's just some sort of joke but she boldly declared her "love" to me. She literally ruined my high school life and I'm sure all eyes are on me later on the first trial.
Speaking of, I didn't talked to Stacia properly last two days ago. I was quite busy on school and the only the we can see each other is during breakfast and dinner. She'll fight with me later so I need to keep her mind in peace. I headed to Building A rooftop and summoned her.
"I'm sorry that we need to fight later," I said and lowered my head slightly.
My conscience attacks me everytime I think that I need her to fight with me. I'm sure that something terrible happened during her first life that lead her to ask for second one. We knew each other for two years but I can't still say the words I want to say to her properly.
"I-", I looked into her face before continuing. "I don't want to give you burden just because of me. So please, if anything bad happened to you later, you should stop."
She neither nodded nor shake her head. There's no response on her side. Maybe she's waiting for my next words.
"That's all. I'm sorry I can't say it properly," I said and lowered my head.
Stacia took two steps forward and patted my head. This is my first time receiving that kind of response of her ever since we met. I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. To be honest, I want to cry right now in front of her because she's one of my weakest spot in terms of emotions. I don't know why but I feel that we're closely affiliated to each other not just because of our master-servant relationship. There's an unknown bond that connects us. I can sense that it is something very important, but after two years, I still don't have any clue what it is.
I wiped the tears that were forming on my eyes and raised my head I don't want her to see me cry. I smiled at her and it is my turn now to give her headpats. After it, we both looked into the horizon. A question popped up on my head. Will I be able to extend my hands into my own horizon? My own dream? There's no definite answer to that but I'll make sure to give it one.
*****
The Building C, known as the gymnasium, were already full of students who will either watch or to participate in a trial. The latter were the first-years, including me. The interior is like a colosseum but the only difference is that there is a fortified glass that separates the field and the audience seats. There is also a control room on the upper right corner inside. The left side seats are for the first-years while the right side are for the audience which is the seniors. The student council presidents were seating in a luxurious chair so their position was emphasized.
I sat on a random vacant seat on the left side. There is only one minute left before the trial will start. The seat I chose gave me a clear view of the position of the student council presidents. I saw that Hira-neechan is swaying her head like she's searching for something. I'm sure that she's looking for me. That freaking girl. I didn't anticipated that she's the student council president of Pacific First. The first-years were chatting to each other when a voice interrupted them.
"Good afternoon, student," the voice said. We all looked into the field and saw a bearded man, wearing a black tuxedo, pants, and shoes, standing in front of a microphone- Wait, there's nothing there. Is his voice that loud or it is just some sort of technology?
"I thank you all, especially the first-years, for being here today," he said. He's Giuren Gereiss-sensei, our Conceptual Origins instructor. "Today, the first trial for the first-years will occur. We shall give you a few minutes to prepare."
My heart beats intensively because of nervousness. Like I thought earlier, I'm sure all eyes are on me because I'm the 'Pacific Maiden's' little brother. That alone is enough to raise the expectations towards me.
"What you'll do in your trial is to either defeat or survive against Tachibana-sensei's spirit," a spirit, in form of a fluffy fox girl appeared beside Gereiss-sensei but this time, she's serious. "The time limit is two minutes and in the first 60 seconds, the spirit won't do any offensive actions."
Gereiss-sensei stopped speaking to take a deep breath before continuing.
"To give you some motivation and idea on how the spirit beside me fights, the student council presidents will showcase their abilities without relying on their own spirits."
The students, including those on the other side, shouted because of enjoyment. This is a one of a moment chance to see them fight personally. They're the Rank 1 of their respective academies so the expectations to them were very high.
"First one will be the Pacific First president, Karasuma Hira," Gereiss-sensei said and started to leave the field.
Hira-neechan stood up and headed to the field. Right after she took her first step on the illusion field, she extended her right hand on her front and a crimson-colored scythe materialized. She stopped walking when she had a perfect distance from her enemy, who is handling a naginata-like weapon on both of her hands. Hira-neechan looked into our side and when she saw me, her lips formed a smile that exposes the inside of her mouth and waved her free hand to me.
I just looked at her and didn't show any gesture on her. She then performed her signature stance known of holding her scythe like a normal spear. I don't know it's purpose but it looks convenient on her.
Three seconds had elapsed when a loud sound of metal clashing resounded throughout the entire building. There are also sparks that came out from the point of impact. It was Hira-neechan who made the first offense. We didn't even saw that she ran or took a step. The distance between her and the enemy is roughly 20 meters so after we witnessed that, our mouths agaped.
Like what Gereiss-sensei said, Tachibana-sensei's spirit, Xin'Ya, is not doing any offensive. She's just either block or evade all attacks coming from her enemy. Hira-neechan spins gracefully as she strikes her enemy that creates series of arcs. Despite of doing it, I can't see any opening or blind spot on her. Minute had passed when Xin'Ya also started to attack.
Hira-neechan can keep up, or I should rather say, she puts pressure on her enemy, which is a spirit of an "Enforcer". I don't have any idea on how she managed to become the one we're seeing right now.
Her demonstration was finally completed with ease. Xin'Ya didn't get a chance to counterattack. The students cheered on her and she looked again to me to waved her right hand like nothing happened. I just sighed upon seeing her.
The next one is the student council president of the Pacific Second, and I knew what school she belong, thanks to her yellow uniform. She revealed her weapons which are two swords, but the there is thread that is covering its hilt. She started to attack her enemy but instead of rushing, she threw both of her swords and controlled it swiftly using the threads. Her fighting style is a little bit weird but it was amazing.
When the glasses girl, the Pacific Second President, finished, the scary girl entered the field. She holds two kamas on both of her hands and spins it. She gave first a sadistic smile, which is truly unbefitting of her image, before engaging herself into battle.
Xin'Ya's movement became faster so that she can keep up with her enemy's mobility. Her advantage is having a long range weapon while the Pacific Third President's advantage is her speed. But in the end, no one won because of the series of offensive and defensive actions they executed.
Majority of the females in the audience cheered when the Pacific Fourth President, Manato Souren, entered the field. A silver colored gauntlet materialized on his hands. There's no any special attachments on it and that made me curious on how he will fight Xin'Ya.
When the starting signal sounded, President Manato rushed to Xin'Ya. Minute had passed but instead of attacking, President Manato quickly shifted himself into defensive side. He's not showing any motions of attacking for more than 30 seconds. But this scene changed by an unbelievable action.
President Manato held Xin'Ya's naginata and spun, causing the latter to be carried away. President Manato slammed her into the ground so hard that caused Xin'Ya to remove her grip on her weapon. Her enemy seized her weapon and pointed it at her.
Cheers from the crowd resounded once again. So this is what the Pacific Fourth President can do. His face didn't showed any expression after winning the mock battle. After the fight, he left the field and Gereiss-sensei entered.
"I hope you already have an idea on how the enemy moves. Then, the first trial for the first-year will start now."
