Side Chapter 4: Rejected But Not Weak

The Academy City of Vivicetto was a word that passed by the mouths of both nobles and commoners, it wasn’t a place that one could casually go because it was flying in the sky constantly held up by a lost magic that only the principal of the school knew and passed on for generations. It was a prestigious school for the elite youngsters who could change the fate of the world below, of course it wasn’t a city that was filled to the brim with students because that would be ridiculous. Before it became known as the Academy City of Vivicetto, it was the City of Vivicetto that engaged in the study of magic as well as the technology of the ancients who existed in this world far longer than any of the current people of the world they called home. It had people living inside of it who belonged to it and helped it function as a city. This was the kind of place that Ryou and the others had found themselves, at the moment they stood at the entrance of the academy itself. They were pretty accomplished in terms of the outside world and were high ranking in adventurer status donning different monikers so people could not immediately associate them with the current generation of heroes but that was about to end.

“So are we going to stand here all day long or what?Let’s get inside and get it over with”

“Yeah you’re right”

“With this power I am pretty sure we can handle any youngster who is in our way”

“But Minami-chan you are also a youngster too”

“Quit loitering around Mochizuki”

“But I am only telling the truth here!Okay okay okay I am going!”

“Are you coming along too Ryou-chan?”

“Yes I am”

This was a place where they could potentially meet their old classmates, a place where they would confront the past that they left behind them to continue on into the future. Ryou smiled as he had friends he could trust with his life and moved forward.

☆

The examination area was a wide space that seemed to accommodate for every type of person, a circle with black square tiles each encrypted by a damage negation spell inside of them only visible to a user with magic eyes. The examination of new students usually happened right on the weekends so everyone could see their new challenger, something that was a tradition to the ones who lived here already knew. The second semester had started with a generation of heroes summoned from another world attending the school, and all passing with flying colors. But midway into the semester new students had been submitted into the school by someone who was pretty high up in the Adventurer’s Guild. They had been breezing through the ranks of the Adventurer’s Guild, their strength was real and they had solved numerous cases together as a party. Everyone including those in the Hero Generation Classes were curious to see who these people were.

“Alright the examination may begin now, we will call you by your assigned number and you will head out and introduce yourself to the world. Remember no false names here because we will know immediately that you are lying, so no funny stuff okay?”

The voice of the principal boomed out as he too was watching this happen equally as curious as the rest of the students in the Academy City. 

“No. 876”

The entrance of the girl who entered the arena wowed the people including the hero generation who were usually unfazed by anything they saw in this world, however some of them began whispering amongst themselves. Words of familiarity were riding on their tongues as she looked like someone they knew probably dead somewhere in a far away forest. 

“My name is Funamori Minami, pleased to meet you. I will promptly defeat anyone who is in my way”

A synchronized gasp could be heard coming from a section of the Hero Generation Class, they knew who she was and were afraid of her making the principal even more interested in her.

“Alright then, I welcome you to the Academy City of Vivicetto.”

“SHE IS JUST A THROWAWAY REJECT WHO CAN’T DO ANYTHING!!!”

One of the heroes made that remark so boldly, he was of the brawler class and was proud enough to say that in front of everyone. Her eyes lock on to him and she smiles a vicious smirk pointing at him.

“I’ll fight him rather I can take on every single one of them right now”

“Ah…….wait you are only allowed to fight one person”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA LET HER FIGHT 10 OF THEM!!!”

The principal boomed out in a powerful voice seeing this, he was excited to see what would happen. His heart was telling him something was off about her, that her fate and theirs were connected. This was her fight and she wanted to take them on so she had no issue with fighting geniuses she obviously had something up her sleeve. 

“A-As you wish”

“I do not know how you got here Creepy Eyes but I am going to send you back down to the ground crying in tears”

“I would like to see you try”

“You can start at any time”

“Let’s g-?!

The space around her seemed to darken as she walked towards them slowly whilst pulling her black gloves crackling her fingers after she finished doing so, her wolf tail and ears perked up in excitement. She revealed her bloodcurdling grin at them with her fangs as her eyes turned into a crimson color as she leapt into the air leaving a red afterglow behind. They all froze to see her majestic beauty before she lands and grabbing the faces of the ones who at the back and slamming their bodies into the ground which immediately shatters with her quick response being a kick into the stomach of the third using his body as a weapon to smack the next straight out of the stage. The fifth realizes what is happening and screaming as he tries to punch her. 

“Tch how slow”

Her claws length and shred his clothes into pieces, as she sends a lethal punch to his gut causing him to unsightly wet himself. Her eyes turn to the remaining four who all send magic flying at her, Minami sprints towards them whilst dodging their magic with ease grabbing one of the lightning spells and throwing it back at them giving it more power than usual and exploding sending them flying all over the place. She claps her hands as if Minami had taken out the trash she smiles with a V finger sign at the last remaining member, the original who shouted that she was a throwaway reject who couldn’t do anything.

“Y-YOU MUST’VE USED SOME UNDERHANDED MEANS TO BEAT US ALL RIGHT?!”

“Nope I am just stronger than you weaklings”

“I WILL BEAT YOU HAND TO HAND!!YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A BITCH WHO CAN’T EVEN LIFT A FINGER AT ME WHO IS A LEVEL 29 BRAWLER!I MIKAW-”

“ha…..”

“Ha?”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU ARE SO WEAK! LOOK AT YOU BEING PROUD OF BEING A LEVEL 29 AS IF ITS SOME TROPHY!!”

She laughed at him harshly not even letting him finish his name properly. 

“Alright then I will show you a little bit of my level, my real level not just level 30 with higher stats.”

“You’re bluffing!Its impossible for you to be……levels……above me…”

Her aura from before completely vanished, it was now thicker than before. Almost choking even jet black as nothing but her could be felt. No one in this school could stand up as she was far too strong to make light of at the moment. Minami’s body was covered in the aura, electricity sparked around her as if to show off she was far ahead of him.

“YO-?!”

She smirked and vanished right before his eyes appearing right in front of him before he could even cast a spell on his fists, Minami hooks a punch into his stomach with such an upward force that it sends him spiraling into the air. He is shocked as he is sent flying at rapid speeds, not even magic could stop him but then he sees her in the form of a volleyball serve, she smacks him back down. Flames engulf his clothes as they burn right off, he hits the ground and bounces right off with such a rapidness that one would think he is a soccer ball. And just like one she kicks his ribs which crack immediately, with a smirk she appears on the other side grabbing him as gently as she can, lifting him by the right leg like a chicken. Tears cover his face as he was driven to the point that he is pathetic.

“W-Wut level are you?!”

“Lets see I don’t want everyone to know so I will whisper it to you” 

She goes close to his ear with her smirk growing ever larger.

“I am Level 340, tell anyone and we are going to be having a trip down to the ground you wanted to send me but before that here’s for being a small time thug for the bigger scumbags”

Minami leaps up into the air grabbing both his legs and crashes his head into the magic tiles that all respond in red. 

“I-Is he dead?”

“No he’s not, he is alive. Despite taking quite a beating from that girl his stats allowed him to live albeit  with a single digit holding his life together”

The principal was right she was stronger than ten Hero Generation Class students, her level was far above too. He wanted to probe into her status but it was blocked which shocked him even more. He checks the message for the reason for why he was blocked.

『Goddess Sophia Has Prohibited You From Viewing This Status. 3 Tries Left』

These children were special, he wanted to see how strong they were before he could take special measures to make this go unnoticed. 

☆

Silence overrode the arena as they watched a group of ten heroes be manhandled by an unknown person who they knew, a supposed reject prompting the other Heroes to act in order to save their face, four of them from the different classes volunteered to fight off and possibly humiliate those who were going to steal their thunder. Namely the summoner, the thief, and the swordsman if time passed they would grow even stronger. The instructor called out the next number which gave them all shivers as the summoner takes his place.

“No. 4.21.19.11”

She came out of the darkness dressed in clothes that only those from another world would recognize, the duster hat made her face hard to see with the coat outlining her body’s curves. What could be made out is her white short hair, she stopped in an accurate distance away from the summoner who she didn’t care to know about.

“State your name”

“The name’s Chloe Knightfield Nishizawa, is that you Yuuji-kun?”

“Ah….”

She lifted the hat slightly up with her finger and smiled at him with the expectations of the Heroes being met. The party members were the rejects they threw out at that time and who knows how strong they had become. 

“C-Chloe-san n-nice to meet you”

“Good to see a small time idiot like you is doing great”

“Y-Yeah”

“So are you going to start or should I be the one who will send you crying to your classmates”

“I-I’ll defeat you with my army of monsters!I am far superior than you, everyone hated you anyway just go away and allow us to live in peace!!”

A hundred or so monsters are summoned via the magic circles that appear in mid air, Chloe smiles.

“Yuuji-kun you better amp up those numbers because I will easily plow through them”

“She’s bluffing!”

“She can’t beat that many monsters all at once!”

“Just be honest and admit you are out of your league”

“Well then don’t say I didn’t warn you”

Yuuji stepped back as she moved forward as her green eyes glowed with an aura similar to that of flames surrounding them, as if intimidated by her very presence he orders the monsters to rush towards her. Before the first wolf could drive its fangs into her flesh a kick is thrown at its head with a familiar sound making its entrance as it is sent flying. Yuuji knows what kind of weapon she has in her hands as she shoots with the Tommy guns obliterating the wolves that come her way. She sprints forwards with the Tommy guns in her hands vanishing into a sawed Ithaca 37 which she pumps as she aims at the orc that’s in her way. Chloe leaps onto its chest and puts the barrel into its mouth blasting its head off, with an inhuman motion she grabs its arm and chucks it at the rushing hordes. The goblins were first to taste the might of the boom stick as their limbs were sent flying by the force, brain matter dropping on the ground the more she slaughtered them. A nimble kobold dodges the slow shots of the shotgun with a smirk on her face, she throws heat detecting grenades that burn its body into a crisp and the others who are right behind it. She leaps up into the air with the shotgun turning into her signature Beretta 92 handguns that she rains bullets upon the frozen hordes of monsters that Yuuji continues to summon in a panic. Gaining more and more speed as she leaps out of the magic spells that the orc mages throw at her whilst she headshots them and reaching ever closer to Yuuji with lethal rapidness. 

“S-STOP!!”

“You honestly think that these fantasy trope monsters can defeat modern weaponry, in your dreams you idiot. Now then face this gift that I got from my teacher, 『Death’s Firing Squad Theater』”

The handguns vanish cover the sky with all sorts of firearm: machine guns, submachine guns, handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, carbines, assault rifles, and automatic rifles. The stench of innards could be smelt all the way where he is as Yuuji stares at the abyss of modern weaponry that obscures his vision, it was like he was a death row criminal being sent to his death. His sweat was like a downpour of rain coming down on his body.

“Fire”

He faints before the bullets pierce his body, Chloe smiles as she points the guns at the heroes who all scream as she clicks her fingers only for the joke flag of “You are all losers” pops up and causes her to laugh hard at their fear walking away as she does so. 

☆

The heroes were humiliated by people who they threw away and now they couldn’t do anything about it, the entire school was seeing their pathetic state and their reputation was in shambles what kind of heroes would they be if someone from out of nowhere could beat the living shit out of them. Instead of being humiliated one by one they had to come up with something quick, a tag team of sorts so they don’t get overwhelmed too fast. 

“Numbers 09 and 00”

They entered the stage respectively and the thief, Miyaji and the swordsman, Kenji all froze as they knew what it meant to be too proud so they stood their ground and raised their weapons.

“Are they not going to talk?”

“I guess not Ryou-chan!But we will defeat them together!For glory and fame!”

“Right I’ll make this quick then”

“So will I!!”

They both twitched and hated how much they were being brought down to the level of children. 

“NOT BY MY WATCH!!”

“KENJI WAIT!!”

Kenji was proud of his sword skills and he wasn’t going to allow some brat they threw away when the God of this world was choosing them to just ruin his authority over the other students of this school and the world at large. Kenji swung his sword forwards with Ryou simply raising his sword in a slow manner that made him question why he did so, but then he is knocked back without even getting close to him. His face is written with confusion as he stares at Ryou who yawns as he waits for him to make his move. 

“Miyaji cover me”

“Ri-?!”

He moves one step and is electrocuted by a spell that brings him down to the ground in a matter of seconds as Mochizuki floats in the air sitting on it as if he was on a sofa, a box of popcorn appears from somewhere as he watches him eat it.

“C’mon Ryou I am done with mine hurry up with yours too”

“I wanna toy with him more”

“Ah I see how it is, continue I wanna see you play with him”

“YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!”

Kenji picked up his sword and ran towards Ryou who was still yawning swinging it from his right side but then he sees its blocked by the scabbard of the sword not its blade. With his veins popping he swings his sword haphazardly, left strike - blocked, right strike - blocked, downward strike - blocked, upward strike - blocked, diagonal strike - blocked. All of his attacks were being blocked with Ryou being so bored he put his scabbarded sword to his left side again. Lifting his closed hand with only his index finger up Ryou prompts him to come, Kenji slashes once more but it’s the same result. Shock runs through his face as he watches his attacks be blocked by a finger, wondering what the hell is happening Ryou smiles as he uses that same finger to break his sword make a criss-cross drawing with light being emitted on it. In the next moment Kenji’s clothes are shredded to pieces and he is driven straight into unconsciousness by Ryou’s scabbard’s quick attack.

“What a showoff”

Mochizuki says as his feet land on the ground, the others come out as soon as that pathetic fight ends. The instructor opens his mouth to say something however he steps back as the principal teleports from where he is to the stage clapping his hands.

“Well done, all of you. I am proud to make you enter the school, you even taught some of the problem children a lesson. However….”

He clicks his fingers causing everyone excluding them to fall asleep, his kind eyes stare at them with an intensity that would send any warrior running.

“You come from the worlds that the heroes hail from am I correct?”

“Yes”

Ryou answers for them as they all nod and stand proud.

“I see, I have to keep your existence as a secret then. You see you arrived at the right time, this school will have a tournament very soon and your skill will shake its very foundation. It is obvious that you are far higher than the heroes that the Empire sent to learn here but I do not want them to know that”

“You want us to crush their souls don’t you?”

“Yes”

“Its perfect revenge for us then”

“Y-You have a grudge against these heroes?”

“Yes, They treated us badly and we know the ones we fought are small fry compared to the people who were calling all the shots.”

“We’ll willingly be the villains of the school tournament arc!”

“What Mochizuki said but less grandiose”

“I see, I have a request may you take under your wing two more?”

“Oh?”

“Why?”

“They are weaklings who have been having an issue with the heroes here”

“Sure, always glad to help”

“Great then I will inform them that there is something we can do about the heroes.”

The heroes of this school didn’t know that a storm of brutality had arrived at their doorstep with the principal being behind their very upcoming humiliation.