—Although the person inside was bolstered defensively by her exoskeleton, high-voltage current was still going through her.
Normally, just one zap would be enough to make one let go, but because it was still coiled around her, she just kept on being zapped and jumping up and down like fish on land.
“…Huh, so you actually did have that standard function installed. I wasn’t expecting that,” Shinichi said.
“I at least have that much common sense, you know!? If anything you’re the one lacking common sense to use it like that!!” Werner said those words partly because he wanted to run away from reality.
Shinichi agreed with him, but he didn’t say anything.
This feature was included among weapons to keep them from being stolen and was not meant to be an attack.
Making an enemy intentionally hold a weapon to paralyze them was putting the cart before the horse.
Especially, since normally the zap would just make the enemy drop the weapon. The only reason it was so effective here was because the snake belly sword could coil around its target.
“That’s not something you’d normally come up with after acquiring a weapon with it for the first time.”
Myuhi didn’t know why, but for some reason, Shinichi’s creativity and adaptability was causing alarms to go blaring within her head. They kept reminding her of that presence similar to the black mist that she felt when she met him for the first time.
There was a lot of ridiculous things in that battle that reminded her of Shinichi. It would also connect the dots as to why the noble girl beside her was so spellbound by him. That day she supposedly left the city, and when she came back, she’d changed into a different person. She was also shocked when she met Shinichi for the first time at the academy and found out about his status.
Garestonian women were said to be weak to strong men, and that trait was particularly strong among the noble women.
If so, then she’s definitely seen Shinichi fight somewhere before.
It was just that given Shinichi’s alibi after transferring schools and because his name never appeared in the list of victims, she couldn’t make a connection between him and the black mist or the department store incident.
“Have you calmed down now, you crazy dog?”
Three different gazes, speechlessness, and an unfortunate deduction.
But Shinichi didn’t care at all about what was happening behind him as he walked up to the immobilized exoskeleton and knocked on its head.
The surface of the exoskeleton was already charred from all the electric shock. After he recovered his snake belly sword, the person inside the exoskeleton was finally released from her plight.
And then as though she no longer had any intentions of fighting, she released the exoskeleton, and it went back into her foster.
“Haa haa haa… Damn it, I lost again…”
When the white hair beneath the armor was revealed, frustration could be seen all over her face.
She was in her jersey as usual, but just for a moment, Shinichi saw her dressed in a body suit that emphasized her bountiful chest. Shinichi was happy to be given an eyeful, but the words that came next left him speechless.
Screams were resounding again from behind him when it was revealed that the mysterious attacker was none other than the female teacher everyone knew, but Shinichi ignored them.
“What do you mean, you lost again? You must really like surprise attacks, don’t you? Always attacking like that.”
He did consider that she might leave the rescue team behind and come here first, but he didn’t think that she’d actually attack him in front of the students.
She was lying on the ground, so Shinichi took full advantage of their positions and looked down at her sharply.
Under his angry glare, Frire was inadvertently shaken.
“B-But you were using a weapon I’d never seen before and was doing something so amazing… I got really excited, and before I knew it, my body started to burn up. If you do something like that, there’s no way I’d be able to hold back… I was a bit impulsive, okay?”
“Impulsive? Don’t attack people on impulse!! And the earlier parts of your excuse don’t make one bit of sense!”
It was a breach of contract too, so he angrily yelled at her.
Frire too seemed to understand that she was in the wrong, as she honestly apologized to him this time.
“S-Sorry… I really didn’t mean to trouble you…”
The way she grew smaller and smaller as she muttered her apology didn’t at all resemble an adult, but when Shinichi looked at her as a younger sister, it somehow fit.
Although she’d grown up a little in the army, deep inside, she was apparently still a kid.
There was no one to point it out to her and help her grow, so it couldn’t be helped. The people around her were the ones in the wrong.
He was also an older brother himself, so he couldn’t just leave her alone.
“Sigh, enough. Let’s go already. You came here to check on the situation of the people who’ve gone berserk, right?”
In other words, Shinichi was the kind of older brother who spoiled his siblings a lot.
“R-Right, that’s right. Thanks— Wait!?”
That being said, she wasn’t really his younger sister.
And since she couldn’t move properly because of the electric shock, she was easy prey.
Fire tried to grab his hand when he extended it, but…
His hand reached out for her
“I’m not waiting. Let’s go.”
“What do you mean by that!? Hey, wait!? I’m still your teacher! Don’t drag me!!”
Then Shinichi slung her legs over his shoulders and dragged her along, her back grazing the ground.
Meanwhile, the three students who witnessed that had to look for their jaws.
“Ah,” Frire said.
“…Are you for real?” Werner said.
“That’s a lot more unfortunate than I was expecting,” Myuhi said.
“I-I looked up to her so much,” Aristel said.
And then teacher and student met each other’s gaze.
It’s a sad story, but this teacher actually forgot about these three students for a moment.
Naturally, given such an embarrassing predicament, even she couldn’t help but turn beet red like boiled octopus and try to escape.
“L-Let go, Nakamura! They’re looking! Everyone is looking!!”
“Yeah, I know.”
But Shinichi didn’t look like he had any intentions of letting go.
No one could see it, but he was actually smiling right now.
“I built my image up these past three years! I can’t let it go to waste here!”
“Don’t worry, I already broke your image before you even came.”
“W-What have you done!!”
Shinichi readily confessed his evil deed and Frire lied down there in shock.
There was a tearful voice mixed in with her speechlessness but Shinichi just laughed.
At that, she realized she’d been played with again, and embarrassment and shock began to surface once more. She tried to calm herself down.
“U, ku, ahh… Alright, I got it. I’m sorry, okay! I’m really sorry! At least let me walk… My clothes are going to get dirty!”
“I wouldn’t do something like this either if you were wearing a suit, but you’re wearing a jersey.”
He blurted that out without really thinking about it, and before long, he suddenly stopped.
Shinichi turned to her with twinkling eyes and said.
“Sorry, you’re right. It would indeed get dirty.”
“Huh?”
Just when she thought he’d grant her request, he let go of her legs, and then while she was still confused, Shinichi’s face approached hers—
“W-What?”
—And then he picked her up by the scruff of her neck like a kitten and then slung her over his shoulders. Her feet grazed along the ground as they moved.
“W-Wait!? Isn’t there something wrong about this!?”
Her position had changed, but she was still being handled the same.
She wanted to protest firmer, but her body was too numb and she couldn’t put out much strength.
Shinichi scooped out a tuft of her hair and muttered.
“Even I can’t bring myself to dirty this beautiful hair.”
“Huh, ah, uu, I-I see… Thanks— Wait!? In that case, can’t you just let me walk on my own!?”
It was her first time having a boy touch her hair, so for a moment, her heart went pitter-patter before realizing she’d been had again.
Alas, Shinichi just muttered, “And yet you haven’t even taken care of it. You just tie it sloppily with some rubber hair tie.”
Clearly, he was ignoring her and focusing only on her hair.
“Listen to people when they’re talking! Hey, listen! Please listen! I know I’m like this, but even I’d get depressed if a guy like you started pointing out one thing after another!”
Frire’s voice had really started to become tearful, but Shinichi ignored her pleas and kept on walking.
“Ha ha, apparently, anyone would end up like that before Icchi, huh, Ari-chan?” Myuhi said.
Apparently, Shinichi truly was a difficult foe to deal with, seeing how good he was at pulling out a person’s true nature.
But just as Myuhi was about to give chase, she suddenly noticed the expression of the girl beside her.
Just awhile ago she was beet red and ecstatic, but now she was making a complicated emotion.
“W-Why do I feel like this? When I see them acting like that, my chest becomes really uneasy. Awhile ago my heart was beating so fast too. Have I fallen sick?”
“…This kid really doesn’t get it, does she?”
Myuhi found herself suffering with a light headache when she saw the top student of the academy seriously asking herself that question.
Meanwhile, her ears and tails were both standing on end as if trying to threaten someone.
In the end, which one was it that didn’t get it?
“…”
—If I open my mouth here, I’ll probably be
Werner witnessed the two’s exchange, but he wisely chose not to say anything.
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