Life has this nasty habit of changing just when you think you have it all figured out – Mino Hanako

Even from a young age, I knew I was different from other children. My mind was in constant motion, analyzing and evaluating everything around me.

Because of that, I hardly showed any emotions in my early childhood, but as soon realized that they were a key part of socializing and creating a persona to fulfill that role.

Smile, laugh, cry, comfort… My persona carried all the duties required of me as a human being.

This allowed to me interact with people and observe them. The more I observed the more unique I realized I was, however, I never developed an ego or a sense of self-worth.

I knew that my existence was just some random twist of fate. I was no different from past geniuses who walked the world. Even now, I had to share the top spot on the mock national exams with another person.

While some people would be frustrated about it, I was kind of happy. It was proof that I wasn’t alone. Whether he was a natural genius like me or a hard-working person… there was someone who was equal to me and that is all that mattered.

With any luck, after the final exams we would meet at Tokyo University, but first I must set all my attention at the task at hand.

As I watch from my classroom window, students I didn’t know were entering my school. These were not first years but rather third years like me. As student council president, I prided myself in knowing everything about my fellow students but I didn’t know anything about the people who just entered.

It can’t be helped. They are students from two other schools after all.

Thanks to the destruction caused by a typhoon. Our Shinobu High for girls must play guests to other students for the national exams.

While I have no issues with allowing girls to enter, the boys are a different matter.

It’s not like I hate boys or anything but I still can’t bring myself to accept this.

Shinobu High is an elite school for girls with a proud history. That is one of the reasons I choose this school. Allowing boys to enter will tarnish that proud history is what I thought, however, life often doesn’t go the way you want it to.

You have to learn to adapt to changes quickly or you find the rug being pulled from under your feet.

Regardless of my reservation, it is something that has to be done for the greater good of Japanese society. We can’t have a bunch of students unable to write their exams because of a typhoon.

The schools that were going to share our school were Atsuko and Nakatani.

Atsuko is an average school, where the rejects of better schools gather. They produce average students with average academic and sports results.

Nakatani is a sports-focused school. You may think of it as a all brawn no brain, learning institute.

 Most of its graduates use sports scholarships to enter college.

“Hanako-san” a voice called out to me from behind

It was the leader of the discipline committee Fujikawa Akemi.  

“What is it Akemi?”

“No major problem to report.”

“Does that mean that there are minor problems?”

“Well. Some of the boys are not wearing their uniform properly and some of the girls have short skirts.”

“There is nothing we can do about that. Their teachers should handle their school dress code violations. Focus on any trouble between our girls and them.”

“Understood.” She replied before leaving my class.

Normally, second-year students would be occupying the positions of student council president and head of the discipline committee, but since their classes had to be used as exam classes, we were temporarily reinstated in the positions while the second and first years enjoyed an extra vacation.

The next couple of weeks are going to be hard. I just hope we can get through this without any major incident.

***

As I sat at my desk, waiting for the exam to start. I could feel the anxiousness among my fellow students. This is the moment our elite school has prepared us for. This was the beginning of our long…

SHHHHHINNNNNNEEEEEEEE

What is that? I thought as a blinding light just appeared out of nowhere.

When it disappeared, I tried to get my blurry vision back into focus. I could hear my classmates call out in a panic.

Everyone was confused and panicking.

I managed to correct my vision and saw the word ‘Build’ written on the chalkboard.

Beneath that was a counter counting down. It was weird. It was like someone who I couldn’t see was writing the numbers on the chalkboard really fast. I mean… the numbers were clearly written with chalk on the board but they were changing with every second that passed.

When I looked outside my classroom window, I no longer saw the city, but rather a dense forest with a mountain in the far distance.

The lights in the classroom were still on, which indicated that the building still had a supply of power, however, our homeroom teacher has vanished.  

As my classmates began to panic I quickly took charge. As the student council president, it was my duty to lead.

“Calm down everyone." I said with a smile.  "Everything will be fine. For now, stay where you are while the student council investigates what is happening.” I said before turning my attention to the board.

I approached the board and touched the numbers counting down.

It is chalk…

Traces of chalk was left on my fingertips but I didn’t simmer the board at all.

I have always been a practical type of person who believed in the absolute power of science but if I had to describe what I was seeing here... the word magic came to mind.

No. that’s wrong

It is a well-established fact that advanced technology cannot be distinguished from magic.

What the hell is going on here? 

Am I dreaming? No, it feels too realistic for that.

 Is this some kind of government experiment? But why our school? Even if are an elite school, we are a girls' school. Any experiment would have results that only covered girls of our age. No wait, there are the boys from the other schools but those schools don’t produce elites, so that can’t be the reason…

Maybe we have been abducted by aliens? If that was the case, then why haven’t they shown themselves?

I began to list the possibilities in my mind.

“What is that!?” I heard the girl who sits in front of me ask loudly

I approached the classroom window again and it immediately caught my eye.

Above, in the sky, a giant red dragon flew. It’s the type of dragon associated with western cultures with large wings, a big body, and four legs.

 It flapped its wings as it flew above the forest and then without notice, it flew in our direction fast.

I didn’t know what it was planning on doing but something that big crashing into our school building would level it.

I struggled to give instructions. Not because I was panicking or anything but because something felt off.

Our current situation was the work of someone or something intelligent. Would they let us die so easily?

I continued to watch as the dragon roared before unleashing fire at us, but with a loud bang, the fire hit something.

Something was protecting us.I poked my head outside the window and I quickly paid note of the bright yellow, semi-transparent shield that was protecting the school.

It seemed to surround the entire school, just falling short a few meters outside the gate.

After its flyby attack, the dragon flew off.

Was this a demonstration to prove that the school was some sort of safe zone? Hmm... I never thought I would use one of my little brother's gaming terms but I did just... now? I wonder if...

I shock my me head to snap me back to reality. The schools was safe for now. That is the conclusion my mind came to. However, I still had no idea what the word ‘build’ meant.

There are millions of things a human can build. If we limit ourselves to the confines of the school that would reduce to a couple of things, but if we include anything we find in that forest then the number increases again.

“Hanako.”

Rushing into my classroom were my vice student council president Kayoko, and Akemi.

“What is going on?” Akemi asked

“I am still piecing information together but for now, I want all members of the student council to inspect the school. Akemi, have members of the discipline committee guard the gate. Make sure no one leaves.”

“Eh… But…”

“Don’t worry. If anything that dragon proved that as long as we are inside the school grounds, nothing can hurt us.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Although I said that, I wasn’t 100% sure. It was just based on my own observation but I deemed it necessary to have people man the gate.

“Assign those with martial arts expertise, just in case. Their job is to prevent students from leaving. If anything tries to get inside they are not to engage. ”

“Understood.”

They both dashed out of the classroom after receiving my instructions. I began to formulate a plan in my mind. While it was important to figure out what was happening another subject will have to be resolved.

In every crisis situation, leadership plays a crucial role. While I know that most of the students of Shinobu High will support me, I was not the only student council president present.