Hey there. Yoko here.

 

I somehow ended up tagging along with Kaba-san until his apartment. I didn’t really have any other choice. It’s all for the mission.

“Ufu~ I wonder what kind of people Akiino’s family is like~”

“Yokoso-san, stop stalking me. Please.”

“I don’t understand~ I’m just a simple comrade following the hero until the ends of the world~”

 

Yes. All for the mission.

 

I was surprised. His family was better than I expected, but also, strange. No, I mean, really strange.

I really thought the elevator would have shot straight up to the penthouse level. Instead, it opened on the 7th floor. This is a 30-floor building, you know? Why would you get something so close to street level? Don’t you have enough money to buy a small municipality? Such were my thoughts at the time.

 

As the dinner dragged on, the more I understood. Kaba-san’s past life must have been nothing like this. His sister insisted on being a sister, while his parents meddled with his growth. I couldn’t imagine living through the reversal of these facts; siblings who were no more than roommates; parents who were never there.

How did I know this? All Heroes were born in more favorable circumstances than their last. One could say, even, that they were almost always born in the complete opposite circumstance.

Maybe he’s more like me than I thought, was what I thought.

Surely, he was able to make even a few friends in his past life? That was something I knew nothing about.

 

Anyway, that was last night.

 

“Yokoso-san?”

 

Kaba-san called out to me. We were in Katipunan—the real one. The real Rejisu was a lot calmer, but it had its own bustle. Students in plain clothes were coming back and forth, taking the pedestrian overpass connected to Rejisu to cross the road and climb down to the gate of Katips-U.

Though, it’s not as if they couldn’t just cross the road normally. Vehicles come by rarely through here, after all. It’s just that there were rewards points for using the overpass, something about supporting tradition. The discounts were good, so I insisted on going this way.

 

“Ahaha, I was just thinking of something, don’t worry~”

“Eh? No ufufu?”

“Do you miss it that much~”

“Absolutely not.”

 

Today, we were enrolling in Katips-U, and Kaba-san had no idea why.

 

Clearly, it’s all for the mission.

 

We worked our way through the air-conditioned lobby and stepped onto the escalator.

“Yokoso-san, still, why enrolling all of a sudden?”

“They say the best investment is in yourself~”

“I- well, okay, that’s true, but, I just got dragged into this, you know?!”

“Then, here’s my ultimatum…”

 

I leaned in closer to Kaba-san’s ear. Oh my god, so embarrassing!

…It’s all for the mission!

 

“Either you invest with me… or in me~”

 

I pulled away as confidently as I could and turned away. I could feel my cheeks burning up—Don’t get the wrong idea! Kaba-san! Please!

Oh no. I may have blown Kaba-san’s reasoning away. Kaba.exe, come on! You can do it!

 

“Y-Yokoso-san?!”

 

Ah, yes! He snapped out of it!

He was flapping his arms around with such a confused look.

 

“Ufufufu~ Can’t take a joke, can you~”

Just gloss it over like that! Yeah! Go me!

 

“No, wait, the enrollment! At least give me time to think about it!”

I sighed. Even if he says that…

“Aww, Akiino, it’s been ‘two whole weeks’ you know? And yet you’re here~ Oh, don’t tell me! You actually just want to hang around me?”

“It’s not that! It’s just—university, you know?”

 

He had a little twitchiness to him. I wonder if he got traumatized in his past life or something…

 

 

 

We enrolled in Magic Engineering. Kaba-san was shaking.

 

“Engineering again, huh… It’s like I can’t ever get away…”

“A-Areh? Akiino, are you okay?”

“Ahhh ahaha~ I’m oka~ay!”

 

No, Kaba-san, it’s written on your face.

 

“T-Then, Akiino, why don’t we take a walk first and get to know the campus a bit more?”

“Ahahaha yea~ah, walking is fun~”

 

Wait, hey! That’s my trailing tone! When did you get it?!

 

The campus was just as I remembered. In fact, I don’t think it’s ever changed much in the past century.

There’s a certain other university that hadn’t changed in five centuries, so I didn’t think one was that big of a number.

There’s a huge field in the middle of the campus, sparsely surrounded by school buildings and laboratories, which all also had their own lawns—all very green. The trees’ rustling was always nice to hear. It’s nice to breathe, and it’s nice to walk— I mean, the sidewalks are abnormally flat, you know? Even a clumsy person would find it hard to trip over themselves on a surface as flat as this!

 

I looked behind me to check on Kaba-san. Yep, he’s still out of it.

 

He’s such a strange person. It makes me wonder sometimes why I had ever put him on my hit list. For such a quietly rich person to act as if we were equals—I was right, it wasn’t a bad decision at all to have made him my ally.

 

After all, before they sent me down, they told me that Heaven did not send only Heroes—those who made the world a better place. They also sent scalpels who excised the cancers of this world.

We are Demons.

But—we Demons needed our own Heroes, too.

 

As we continued on our stroll, I caught a whiff of a potential target. It reeked of excess and the carefreeness of naivety.

All around me, there was no one. It was just me, the grass, the trees, and a confused Kaba-san. Still, I could smell that amazing perfume-of-the-elite from miles away.

 

I scanned the field.

 

There, I spotted a certain girl in a fluttering black and red dress. I searched my mind for her face and her name. It was only by the time she turned to look our way that I remembered who she was.

 

It sent shivers down my spine.

 

 

 

Hana Akiino.