Having put on my custom uniform, I finished my breakfast and headed back to my room to grab my textbooks.
It just so happened that I started school during the worst possible ark that I remembered.
"Jeez, I really hated school in my old life, why did I think this would be any better..." I said to myself as I thought back to my days in middle school. I always slept through history and math. But I figured American history won't be coming back to bite me in the ass later since I'm in Japan now.
Math was gonna suck though.
"Thanks for the meal Ukobach! I'll be sure to help clean the kitchens later!" I yelled slipping on my shoes at the exit of the dormitory.
I had recently found out that Ukobach made the meals for all the dorms students, so I made it my best interest to not make him angry for everyone else's sake. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that we actually got along rather well.
I grinned as soon as I spotted a familiar face heading to classes.
"Rin, Hey!"
"Huh? Oh you're back Zara!" He said with a wide grin.
"Hey Rin! Sorry I'm late getting back. Traveling the way I do takes time."
"Yeah, I get ya. It must be tiring." He said as he stopped walking down the stairs.
"You looking forward to your first day here?" Rin asked.
"Not especially. I mean, what if people figure out my identity?" I said in concern.
"Nah, don't worry about it. If no one questions my weird features like my ears and teeth, they won't question magic like yours." Rin comforted. He was being surprisingly mature about his answers.
"You're right, I'm worrying over nothing!" I said with a relieved sigh.
"Hey Okumura!"
"Oh, Hey Konekomaru."
"Who's that with you?" He asked looking over at me.
"Ah, right! My name is Zara Ichimei, I'm a new student starting today. Pleased to meet you!" I said cheerfully as I smiled.
"It's nice to meet you as well." He said as the others caught up with him
"Alright everyone, get onto the trolley for the trip to the forest!
"Wow, this place is huge!" I said in awe. The anime never did it justice.
"This is gonna be rad, Right Zara?" He exclaimed turning to face me.
"Yeah, I can't wait till training starts. I'm feeling a bit rusty since I haven't fought any demons in forever." I said as I sprayed myself with bugspray.
"Hey Shima, you might want this." I said tossing him an extra can of bugspray.
"Oh, thanks- Wait, who're you?" He asked curiously.
"Oh, that's right! Everyone, this is our new student Zara Ichimei." Yukio said catching everyone's attention.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you all. I recently started here, so I only really know Rin and Yukio here, but I hope we can all be friends!" I said with a angelic smile causing the boys to blush.
"Anyone have any questions for her before I start explaining why we're here?" Yukio asked the class.
"Yes Suguro?"
"What class are you? I don't see any weapons, summoning papers or talismans on you."
"I'm a miracle type Aria class. We're actually very rare since we use the sacred powers of the gods."
"Seriously? I thought those were just myths!" Konekomaru said with stars in his eyes.
"Yeah, I can use holy magic as well as sacred weapons, so it was quite hard to avoid being targeted by demons as you can imagine." I said with a chuckle.
"And that's exactly why you are being monitored in case of any danger." Yukio said blankly.
"Oh come on, You know I can handle myself! I'm only a rank lower than you!" I pouted causing Rin to laugh.
"Right, but you're still my student. Anyways, I'll begin explanations once we get moving." He said sternly causing me to shut up.
"During the day this forest is peaceful, but at night it becomes a hotbed for lower level demon activity. We'll need to set up Basecamp before the sun goes down." Yukio said as I watched everyone behind me being miserable.
"Look at that guy, isn't he hot in that coat? And how the hell is the newbie ahead of us?" Suguro complained.
"You heard him, get a move on!" Shura yelled from behind him.
"Hey, Suguro right? You said the heat was bothering you earlier right?" I asked slowing my pace to be next to him.
"Yeah, what of it?" He asked defensively.
"Here, this should help." I said drawing a circle in the air before chanting something.
"Seal of cooling activate." I said as the glowing blue circle rose above our group and produced a cooling sensation for everyone.
"How did you-"
"The magic of the gods can be used in many ways Suguro." I said with a smile before heading back up to the front of the line.
"That was certainly interesting." Shura said to herself as she eyed me.
"That was really nice of her Suguro, you should thank her later." Konekomaru said to his friend, also still mildly surprised by my little stunt.
Having arrived at the clearing, Yukio proceeded to explain what we'd be doing.
"The boys and I will be setting up the temts and building a fire, while that's happening, Miss Kirigakure and the girls will be setting up a magic circle around the perimeter and get dinner started. Right, let's get moving."
"He finally took his coat off." Suguro said causing me to laugh.
Miss Kirigakure, What should I do to help out with this?" I asked pointing at the barriers magic circle.
"Ah, Zara right? I could use your expertise in magic circles to make this thing stronger. I myself am only average at making these." She said surprising me.
"Oh, uh sure thing!" I said with a salute causing her to chuckle at my antics.
"Okay, so I already see a problem with it. This symbol here should be for 'sun' and not for 'star,' and these lines are backwards." I said as I looked at the paint drawn circle and used water magic to remove any mistakes.
"Hey Shiemi, can you fix that line there?" Kirigakure said from her place in the tree as she realized I was right.
"Yeah, sure thing!" She yelled back over at us with a smile.
Once we finished, I found myself curious about what kind of game Kirigakure was playing.
"Miss Kirigakure, I noticed you were playing that game a majority of the time. What game is it?" I asked, my inner gamer from my past life starting to show.
"Ah, it came out a while back, It's called Personality 4."
I sweatdropped at the name.
'That is so obviously a reference to the Persona series from my world!' I thought to myself with a laugh.
"I see, personally I've just played Personality 5. Haven't beaten it yet though." I said with a smile.
"Huh, you never really struck me as the gamer type." She said looking over at me after pausing her game.
"Yeah, before my powers manifested, I was a big gaming nerd. I had all the latest consoles and games. I beat pretty much any game you put in front of me really!" I said with a smile.
It was nice talking about my old life before all this goddess nonsense. But given the choice, I would never go back. I'd made so many good friends in these worlds.
"Huh, you ever played pocket monsters?"
"Yeah, I beat every game I got of it!" I said.
"We should battle sometime then." She said with a grin.
"sounds good to me." I said as we all headed over to the middle where the campsite was.
"I heard a scream so I came as fast as I could!" I yelled as I dropkicked the giant moth demon In the face.
"Sacred Martial Aura!" I then slammed my palm into the face of the demon causing a bright light to purify the flesh of the demon leaving a chunk of its face dissolved.
"Holy shit!" Suguro yelled as he pulled Rin out of the pit of leech demons.
"I'll be needing some help to either re-seal or kill this thing! The rest of you best get going to a safe distance!" I shouted over the pained screeches of the demon.
"Right!" Rin shouted as he drew the sword I gave him.
"Suguro, use the talisman to stun it for a bit!" I said as he nodded taking Shima's staff, pinning the talisman to the end of it before throwing it like a spear.
Rin then cut its feelers off as I drew my own sword and cut open the base of its wings, leaving it unable to fly. leaving it defenseless as it writhed in pain.
"Now shall we kill it or seal it away?" I asked my classmates as we looked at the now immobile moth demon.
"I say we kill the damn thing!" Suguro and Rin said in unison surprising everyone.
"Alright then. Hey Rin, want to do the honors?" I asked as Suguro sent me an odd look.
"Yeah, I sure do! I got a bone to pick with it anyway!" Rin exclaimed as he went for it.
After regrouping, we all went back to camp with the lantern.
"Say, why did you help us Zara?"
"Just as It's the job of an exorcist to protect others from demons, It's the job of those with sacred powers to protect everyone. I guess I wanted you all to remain unharmed. And since you all learned something from it, it's all just as good in the end." I said as I smiled.
"Huh, That makes sense, but why do you follow it to such an extreme?" Konekomaru asked.
"a few years ago, I saved the life of a child and was hit by the truck that would have hit him. That day, while I was unconscious, I met a goddess who told me my life wasn't over yet and that I still had a purpose. I woke up with these powers not long after." I said changing the story a bit to avoid bringing up reincarnation and other suspicious facts.
"I see. That explains a lot I guess. Especially how you hate trucks." Suguro said.
Rin looked at me oddly, likely because he knew I had changed the story around a little.
Suguro started talking to Rin about why he helped him.
"Rin, don't worry about anything happening to you. We're your friends after all." I said with a smile as I pat him on the shoulder. His face turning bright pink.
"Alright, Oh! Hey Shima, I cleaned your staff for you." I said handing him back his golden monk's staff.
"Oh, thanks a lot." He said with a grin.
