‘Emao’ sat in the class, a mandatory one for all freshmen at the Academy. She narrowed her eyes as she looked at the teacher ahead.
Ms. Dayal smiled at the class as she entered.
A controversial hiring that had led to a great deal of protest from both politicians and parents…but Londyn had gotten her way once again. After all, who better to teach a class on super ethics and the responsible use of powers than one who had crossed the line and managed to return? Miss Dayal had wrestled longer and harder with these sorts of questions than anyone else, and her own personal history provided a visceral lesson all on its own.
And if nothing else, it was noted that young and cocky teenagers paid a lot more attention to a ‘boring’ ethics class when it was taught by the Destroyer of Ulsan herself.
For ‘Emao’ though, this class represented something else.
It meant target located.
Bob-sama had assured her she didn’t need to personally get close to Miss Dayal before planting the elixirs. Just having them on the same Academy campus would be enough. But ‘Emao’ wouldn’t settle for anything less than the best on this mission. So she wanted to get as close as she could and ensure the best possible elixirs she could grow.
Bob-sama deserved nothing less.
And so ‘Emao’ fidgeted as she waited for the class to finish. Once she did, she began to ‘work’ on some other homework, waiting for Miss Dayal to finish answering questions so she could trail her home…
‘Emao’ finished planting the last of the elixirs, leaving a spider drone to watch over the hidden plants and alert her to any problems. With that, her task was largely complete, all she had to do was maintain her cover while she waited for the plants to grow.
Yes.
Maintain her cover.
In other words…
Endure days like these…
For several weeks...or maybe months...
‘Emao’ froze.
And fell to the ground on all fours.
‘Emao’ picked up her food tray. She glanced around and rushed for the exit as fast as she could move as a ‘normal’ human…
“Hey Emao!”
‘Emao’ froze and began to tremble. She slowly turned around…
There was Antonio-senpai, waving at her.
She began to shake her head repeatedly.
Antonio made a sheepish smile as he walked over to her.
“I’m really sorry about surprising you last time, but don’t worry! This is my new team, we just started as heroes so you don’t need to be nervous this time! I just, don’t want you to think you have to do everything alone, you know?”
‘Emao’ let out a sigh.
She calculated…
Well, now that she had his attention…and Aurora Legion’s…trying to push him away would only draw more attention. And, well, he was trying to help her. Had helped her that first day in fact.
And well, if it was a new hero team, it should be fine. Nemesis hadn’t had many hero encounters lately so it was highly unlikely she’d know anyone there.
“...ok.”
Antonio-senpai smiled and began walking towards a table. ‘Emao’ suddenly had a thought, tilting her head.
“Wait, you’re a hero, Antonio-senpai? Aren’t you supposed to use your hero name then?”
“Ah! Whoops, I totally forgot about that. Right, I’m ‘Dark Rose’...”
‘Emao’s eyes widened.
Wait.
That name was familiar.
Because obviously Bob would have briefed her on potential risks.
Besides Aurora Legion, there was one other team to avoid.
And that was because…
“There they are! My team, the Nova Guardians! Hey guys, this a new student, Hirose Emao! Why don’t you introduce yourselves?”
A tall woman rose to her feet and held out her hand.
“Hello, little girl! I am Teslilda, is nice to meet you!”
“I’m Crystal Guardian, welcome!”
“El Mantis, hello.”
And the last member of the team…
A little girl who nodded as she continued chewing her food.
“PSI Omega, hi.”
PSI Omega started to scrunch up her brow when she stopped, then shook her head.
‘Emao’ trembled. She began reaching for her back pocket before catching herself. She took a deep breath.
No.
Bob-sama had said he did not blame the girl, and that she was not to enact retribution. PSI Omega was just the targeter, acting under orders from someone she trusted most. She had made poor choices and mistakes, but she was younger than most people remembered, dealing with knowledge and choices no one her age is equipped to handle. So Bob-sama had forgiven her.
But still…
She knew PSI Omega was involved, so she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable around her. Not to mention she knew the mind-jammer was not a perfect countermeasure if the girl really wanted to read her mind.
And worst of all, this girl had made her break her oath.
But she couldn’t back out now, not without revealing she somehow knew this ‘brand new’ hero.
“H-Hi…I’m…Hirose Emao…nice to meet you.”
‘Emao’ sat down for the second most tense lunch of her life.
Emao let out a sigh as she walked down the hallway.
Fortunately, she was a quiet individual. No one would notice her discomfort around PSI Omega if she simply didn’t talk to her, which was fine since she didn’t talk much unless prompted in the first place and PSI Omega didn’t seem very interested in initiating conversation herself.
And PSI Omega herself didn’t seem aware either. For some reason, the girl had not attempted to read ‘Emao’s mind. Finally, a bit of luck.
Because good luck was in short supply for ‘Emao.’
“Oh, who might you be?”
‘Emao’ froze.
In her musings, she didn’t notice the woman approach.
The worst possible woman she could run into.
‘Dr. Ueda’...aka Therapy No Chiyeko, Triple S-class threat rogue ninja. Well, since the villages had disbanded the rogue part was irrelevant…but there was no way a novice like ‘Emao’ could hide her training from an expert shinobi of Chiyeko’s level.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Ueda! Always a pleasure to meet someone from the village!”
That’s it.
She was done.
“U-Um, I-I don’t know what you mean…”
“Ah, I got it. Supposed to maintain cover now, right?”
“U-Um…”
“Well, just tell me this…”
‘Emao’ froze as Dr. Ueda narrowed her eyes and released a wave of killing intent at her.
“Are you planning to harm anyone here?”
‘Emao’ shook her head as hard as she could.
And as soon as it came, the killing intent vanished, Dr. Ueda smiling again.
“That’s fine then, don’t worry, I won’t expose you. In fact, let me know if you ever need someone to talk to, ok? As a professional counselor, I maintain full confidentiality.”
“O-Ok…t-thank you?”
Dr. Ueda smiled.
“Ah, I’m making you nervous, right? I’ll take my leave now, then. May the leaves hide you.”
Dr. Ueda continued on her way…
And ‘Emao’ collapsed to her knees.
“Emao?! What happened!”
Antonio-senpai walked into the hallway, immediately noticing the girl on the ground.
“N-No more…I’ve had enough…I want to go home…”
Antonio helped ‘Emao’ sit down on a break-room couch. He then went and brought her a drink.
“T-Thank you.”
“Are you sure you’re alright? Don’t need to visit the infirmary?”
“N-No, I’m not sick or anything…”
Antonio frowned.
“Um…do you…need to talk to a counselor?”
‘Emao’ shook her head with all her might.
“Ah ok, sorry if that bothered you. Um, how about we do something else then, get your mind off things? Like, you want to watch something? Play something?”
‘Emao’ remembered something. Something she had noticed one of her friends doing. Something she had put off trying at home since she had access to a firing range…
“Um, do you have combat simulations here?”
Antonio-senpai tilted his head.
“Combat simulations?”
“Like, um, on the computer, or some sort of ‘console’ thing?”
“Do you mean games?”
“Um, maybe?”
“Ah, well yea we have a console over there. You want to play something?”
“Do you have anything where you shoot people?”
“Excuse me?!”
‘Emao’ stared forward with unwavering eyes.
“I want to shoot something.”
Antonio-senpai suddenly started to sweat.
“U-Um, sure, yea, we have games like that, I think?”
A few hours later…
Antonio-senpai was hiding behind the couch, staring wide-eyed at the screen in front of him.
‘Emao’s fingers flew across the controller, her reticle jumping the moment she noticed a target on the screen. She had spent about an hour learning the controls…and she hadn’t missed a single shot since then.
“Hey Dark Rose, what’s going on…”
Antonio jumped as Aurora Legion walked into the room.
“Ah, wait you guys!”
They froze, watching the screen as ‘Emao’ gunned down the enemy team with almost mechanical precision.
Chronolock immediately flashed to the couch, holding a controller.
“Emao.”
‘Emao’ was still focused on the screen and didn’t notice someone appear next to her.
“Hm, what is it?”
“We’re playing together, now.”
“Mkay…”
A green ‘Victory’ flashed across the screen as ‘Emao’ slew her final opponent and let out a contented sigh…and then finally noticed who was sitting next to her.
‘Emao’ barely held in her scream.
But it was too late.
She had already agreed. Chronolock had already logged in and started the matchmaking. The hero had a wide grin on her face, chuckling darkly.
“You better be on tonight. It’s finally time for my revenge!”
‘Emao’ began to sweat.
Two hours later…
A certain player was surveying the field on her first match this night. Only three players left on the other team.
Suddenly pixels began to change on the screen. The reticle jumped and fired, immediately slaying one of the foes.
But three avatars had jumped out at once. The player slew the second immediately, but that meant there was an extraordinarily small window of time for the third to act. That was fine though, so far not a single player had been capable of making an accurate headshot from this distance in that short a…
BOOM!
You were killed by Emao!
Elise froze, not moving a muscle as a big, red ‘Defeat’ flashed across her screen. She ignored the flood of private messages that came in, most likely from Chronolock. Instead, she stared at the name on her screen.
“...Angry Observation: Former friendly Nana has never demonstrated interest in combat simulations previously. Now former friendly Nana has decided to join simulations alongside hostile Aurora Legion. Betrayed Statement: So traitor Nana has chosen death. This unit will endeavor to oblige her former friend’s choice. Analyzing increased threat from traitor Nana’s superior capabilities. Updating simulation protocols with new threat calculation. Resuming matchmaking.”
‘Emao’ did not end up reducing her stress levels that night.
