Chapter 九: What’s for Lunch?!

 

Seiren was somewhat relieved when Line-sensei made him shut up with an attack from his elastic whip deva. That was the way the pervert’s morning would usually start when he was in Sunbird, so experiencing the same old sobering punch after such a wild weekend was a sign things were going back to normal.

The classes for the rest of the day until the lunch break were further proof that things in the high school hadn’t changed. The only difference was that golden-haired teenager, his rival and his newest friend drew a lot of attention when going down the hallways together. And the three were always together because the rival duo had to help Yuki adapt to the academic environment.

Although very shy at first and probably terrified or dumbfounded by everyone’s behavior, the white-haired beauty become more relaxed, talkative and active as time passed, looking rather eager to Seiren as she entered the canteen side by side with her classmates.

Everyone had introduced themselves to her, but the pervert knew the first real chance Miss Iceflame was going to have to get to know anyone from the class properly was going to be during the lunch break. And that meant her terror and confusion were only going to increase.

After getting her portion from the six-armed cook, Yuki went and sat on the table where the six boys who were a part of her class were sitting.

Why had she not joined the other girls from the class on the two nearby tables?

Seiren thought and hoped the reason for that was in order to stay close to himself and Hikaru, whom she knew best of all the people around her.

The pervert was more than satisfied with Miss Iceflame’s choice, but could not savor his joy for long due to the appearance of trouble on the horizon – namely, a bottle containing some kind of alcohol being placed next to the tray from which Yuki was eating. As a response, she lifted her confused gaze from the tray to see who was offering her alcohol during lunch in school.

Seiren knew who was responsible just by seeing the bottle – a boy who had some muscle and a tummy simultaneously, had pale pink skin color, medium-length light brown hair sticking up almost like a flame and pale-green eyes – who was currently looking at the white-haired beauty with a wide smile.

(Vega) ‘What’s up, Yuki? Care for a drink?’

(Yuki) ‘No, thanks. Vega, was it?’

(Vega) ‘That’s me! Vega Warren! Thanks for sitting with the boy group today!

I wanted to give you this bottle to commemorate you joining us! It’s fine if you don’t want to drink it now. Feel free to chug on the booze whenever you like!’

Though she tried to hide it with a polite smile, Yuki’s perverted friend could tell she was as disgusted by the offer as Vega was excited.

(Yuki) ‘I appreciate that, but I’m afraid I’ll have to refuse as I’m underage. And by the way, aren’t you as well? How are you even allowed to bring alcohol inside the school and drink it?’

Miss Iceflame asking the most rational question possible, the answer to which was staggeringly irrational, made not only Seiren, but all the other boys sigh with comical annoyance.

(Hikaru) ‘Many have tried taking Vega’s bottles away from him but none have succeeded so far. And seeing that he’s a lost cause, I guess the teachers have given up on trying to stop him.’

Vega was pushed aside by a tall skinny boy with slightly curly ash-gray hair shaped into a mullet, grayish eyes and pale ivory skin, turning out he had two trays with food in front of him, one of which was slid toward his new classmate.

(King) ‘Don’t listen to that drunk, Yuki. Try this instead. It will help you build a lot of muscle mass and despite what everyone might tell you, it’s actually tasty!’

He started stuffing his face with the contents of the tray left in front of him right after he offered the other tray to the white-haired beauty who tried to hide her disgust but failed once again.

(Yuki) ‘Thanks, King, but I think you’re hungrier than me, so enjoy the second tray, too. I’m fine with what I have in mine.’

Having already swallowed the first massive batch of food he had consumed, King Orsa was ready with more comments and questions for Miss Iceflame.

(King) ‘Your loss. By the way, I forgot to ask. Do you work out? If you do and need any advice, feel free to ask me.’

(Yuki) ‘I don’t as of yet, but I may start eventually. I promise to call on you then.’

Seiren then turned his eyes to the only boy on the table who was eating his lunch in silence. He had the darkest skin and most insignificant muscle mass among the six, brown eyes and jet-black hair, the right half of which was combed while the left was kind of spiky and with a lot more volume.

(Seiren) ‘What about you, techno-genius? You not gonna try and get Yuki to join your club as Line-sensei said earlier?’

Exo Drazz, who seemed to be thinking about something else, was startled when his classmate addressed him, Yuki now turning to him with a cute smile which made the techno-genius immediately look away and blush.

(Yuki) ‘Techno-genius, Exo? So you’re in the Science Club?’

(Hikaru) ‘He’s also the second smartest person in our school, so you’d love to have him on your team, Yu.’

Exo scratched his head with a shy smile after Hikaru’s words, still looking aside.

(Exo) ‘I wouldn’t call myself ‘the second smartest person in Sunbird’, but I know more about tech and gadgets than the others. If you need any help with such things, Yuki, feel free to ask.’ – he was at least able to look at the young Blackscale after that as he addressed him next – ‘And she’s more than welcome to join our club if she’s interested, but I don’t plan on getting her to do anything, Seiren. Yuki should make her own choice.’

Seiren laughed mockingly, being able to notice with his peripheral vision his reaction had annoyed Hikaru, but staying focused on Exo despite that.

(Seiren) ‘Considering you didn’t look at her once while saying all that stuff, Exo, I don’t think Yu’s gonna join your club. Right now she probably thinks you’re just some weirdo and a nerd.’

The attempt to make fun of his classmate backfired on the pervert when Miss Iceflame surprisingly took Exo’s side, breaking Seiren’s heart in the process.

(Yuki) ‘Not at all. I think you should actually aspire to be more like him, Seiren. Focus on studying instead of just chasing around girls. And speaking of studying, if Exo’s the second smartest person around here, who holds the top position?’

A silhouette came closer to Yuki then, revealing itself as a boy that looked at least two years younger than the others and was the shortest among them, had blue eyes, very spiky raspberry-red hair, some of which was tied in a short pony tail, and a light honey skin tone.

(Tokura) ‘Hikaru’s at the top. And about what Seiren is doing, it’s more than just chasing around girls.

I can explain it to you, dear Yuki, but if you want all the details, I suggest joining the Swimming Club. There you’ll be able to constantly enjoy mine and Seiren’s company and I can guarantee you’ll want for nothing with refined gentlemen such as ourselves at your side.’

Seiren was annoyed by his fellow colleague Tokura Braveheart’s proposal to Yuki, Hikaru, Vega and King laughing out loud when they heard what he said, Exo just being comically puzzled.

(Seiren) ‘I wanted to be the one to ask her to join our club, Tora*!’

(Tokura) ‘Early bird gets the worm, my boy.’ – he then turned to the laughing trio, his confident smirk having been replaced with a rather menacing expression – ‘And what are you three laughing about?’

(Vega) ‘Just hearing you call yourself and Seiren ‘gentlemen’, Tora … I never knew you were so good at telling jokes.’

(King) ‘And that pitch you made about the Swimming Club. You just want to peep on Yuki as you’re doing with all the other girls in the club, aren’t you?’

As the tension between Tokura and the laughing three increased, Seiren noticed Yuki had redirected her attention to him after deciding to ignore the other boys’ argument – something that Exo had decided to do as well.

(Yuki) ‘Hikaru’s the smartest person in the school, then?’

(Seiren) ‘It’s crazy, right? Not everyone notices that because of him going mad about stuff all the time.’

(Yuki) ‘And Tokura? Is he a pervert like you?’

(Seiren) ‘I prefer the term ‘connoisseur of the female beauty’, but he’s also a bit different than me. He applies a chivalrous knight approach when wooing a girl because he believes that works best.’

(Yuki) ‘And you calling him ‘Tora’? Is it just short for ‘Tokura’?’

(Seiren) ‘It also has something to do with the fact he likes tigers.’

Tokura had been paying attention to the three’s conversation as well, making a comment about it without looking at them as he got up and stepped closer to Vega and King while also looking at Hikaru with threatening anger in his eyes.

(Tokura) ‘I like sweet kittens best. But do you know what I don’t like?’ – a sphere of light blue energy formed around him and turned invisible almost immediately – ‘Stupid bastards who disrespect my code of chivalry!!!’

The whole table the group was sitting around was pushed away when coming in contact with the now invisible sphere, the air around Tokura having changed with a sense of unhinged wrath being mixed in it.

All the food on the table was thrown aside along with it, reaching other tables while the table itself broke another table in half, ruining the lunch of a nearby group of students as well, Hikaru and King raging about this before even Seiren could.

(Hikaru) ‘At least activate your shield after we’re done eating, Tora!!’

(King) ‘Your desecration of the food must be punished at once!!!’

The young Summerbolt enveloped himself in lightning bolts, teleporting right in front of Tokura but when he tried to hit his classmate’s invisible shield, he was pushed back with great force, landing on another table. Meanwhile King‘s appearance had changed along with his mood, having become three times bigger, with a significantly increased muscle mass, almost no clothes left on him, a longer and spikier deep orange hair and bright green eyes.

His body exploded in scarlet energy as he went for Tokura with extraordinarily fast speed, the result of his clash with the pseudoknight’s shield being the same as with Hikaru, the mad genius currently getting beat up by the students who had been eating around the table he had landed on.

King was crushed in another table yet, by that time a number of fights having broken out in the canteen, Vega opening one of his bottles and taking a swig from it in the midst of all this. He then laughed his heart out while observing what was happening around him, Seiren joining the drunk in that laugh, partially because he was watching Exo crawl away from the chaos of the fighting, all the while screaming like a girl.

Yuki seemed to still be processing the situation she had found herself in, but wasn’t given much longer to do that as a student from another class crushed a water wave in her and pushed the white-haired amnesiac aside with an annoyed expression.

(Random Student) ‘This is all you bastards’ fault! You’ve ruined lunch for everyone again …’

The student couldn’t finish his sentence as Seiren blasted him with a huge amount of bright red fireworks, going to Yuki who was already back on her feet, while Exo was pulled from under the table where he had found refuge by the long scaly tail one of the students had grown.

(Exo) ‘Somebody save me!!!’

(Seiren) ‘You OK, Yu?’

(Yuki) ‘If you mean physically, yeah. I’m not so sure what my mental health state will be if I stick around here much longer, though.’

Seiren noticed he and Yuki were in the way of the table King had thrown at Tokura’s shield then, pulling Miss Iceflame to him and making her duck to dodge the attack.

(Seiren) ‘Focus on surviving till the end of the lunch break for now!!’

(King) ‘I’m not done with you, damn brat!’

Tokura enveloped himself and the sphere around him, which shortly became visible, in azure energy, teleporting in front of King before he could launch a counterattack and crushing him in the floor with a face mixing anger and embarrassment.

(Tokura) ‘Stop calling me brat!!! I’m the same age as you, but my body hasn’t had a growth spurt yet!! And you won’t be getting any more growth spurts at all, because I’m going to end your life right now!’

Just when the pseudoknight was getting ready to finish his opponent, Hikaru landed atop the shield around Tokura with a lightning-clad kick, blowing out some smoke from his mouth with a comically enraged face.

(Hikaru) ‘I’ll be ending your life first, actually!!!’

The young Summerbolt was thrown aside once again as a result of that attack, landing between Seiren and Yuki who were fighting back to back. At that time the pervert was looking at Vega, however, who was enjoying himself until the cook pushed him down with one of his arms as he joined the fight along with some of the teachers and other staff members in the canteen.

(The Cook) ‘Stop wrecking the canteen, shitty brats!!!’

From there the young Blackscale observed as the drunkard’s bottle fell on the floor and shattered into many pieces, Vega enveloping his body in pale green energy to unleash his rage. Witnessing the release of that energy led to a moment of realization for the young Blackscale.

He thought the energy pattern of the attacks launched by the ordinari soldiers who had tried to kidnap Yuki a couple of days ago looked familiar and now he knew where from. It was the same as Vega Warren’s specific energy deva.

There wasn’t any time to dwell on that as more enemies had targeted him, Hikaru and Yuki, however, Seiren still managing to take a quick look at the white-haired beauty while that happened.

Yuki was smiling, looking like she genuinely enjoyed the chaotic situation she had been pulled into. The look on her face made the pervert wonder why he had even worried about how she was going to do after coming to Sunbird in the first place.

It had become clear this girl was going to be fine. And more than fine – she was going to be a star.

Feeling relieved, the young Blackscale could finally focus on his own battle, sending a roar of fireworks to the net of intertwined plant roots an opponent had prepared to catch him with. Meanwhile, a female student who had just transformed into a rocket of purple energy ripped through the ice wall erected by Yuki, a heavy punch greeting her from beyond the wall and turning her back to normal form as she was thrown aside.

Miss Iceflame then kicked away a lava javelin aimed at Hikaru with a leg armored in many layers of ice, surprising both him and Seiren while attacking another schoolmate with her challenging smile still shining brightly on her face.

(Yuki) ‘Come on! Is that all you’ve got?!’ – she got her hands on a tray next, covering it with ice to use as a shield against the barrage of organic spikes shot from the shoulders of one of the students – ‘It’ll take a lot more to bring our class down!’ – after the tray had served its purpose, the white-haired beauty got ready to throw it aside, but ended up hitting someone instead, showing then than she had not forgotten her manners even in the middle of the fight – ‘Oh, sorry about that! I was aiming for …’

Several thin green laser beams were shot at Yuki from behind before she could say any more, managing to cut the partial ice armor she had covered herself with, go through her uniform and leave a few scratches on her skin. Seiren’s newest friend turned around and saw the beams were created by the girl behind her, whose tray had been pushed to the floor during the attempted throwing away of the frozen tray-shield.

Unlike Hikaru’s idiotic anger or Tokura’s anger mixed with embarrassment, though, the animosity on this one’s face was much colder somehow and mixed with a terrifying killing intent.

(Ulura) ‘You just ruined my lunch. I guess I’ll now have to feast on your pain to sate my hunger.’

 

Tora* – from Jap. “tora” – tiger, this being chosen to refer to Tokura because of his affinity for tigers, cats and the like;