novelVolume 2, The Sixth Question
| ← Ch.016 | Ch.018 → |
Volume 2, The Sixth Question
Please fill in the correct answer in the blank:
"In the Haber-Bosch Process, the ingredients used to make Ammonia are Ammonium Chloride and ()."
Himeji Mizuki's answer:
Calcium Hydroxide.
Teacher's comment:
That's correct. Creating Ammonia is a very important process for industries. Please remember this.
Tsuchiya Kouta's answer:
Teacher's comment:
Please don't create such a method so conveniently.
Yoshii Akihisa's Answer:
Ammonia.
Teacher's comment:
That answer is illegal.
"Akihisa, I'm going to kill you today!"
"Ah, Yuuji, you're irritating~. Your eyes are terrifying, you know?"
After beating the drug out of Yuuji's stomach and splashing a bucket of cold water on him, Yuuji finally regains consciousness. his body sure is strong.
"And isn't it Yuuji's fault for his plan to be seen through? The opponent was that Kirishima-san, you should have at least considered that, you know?"
"Ugh, now that you mentioned it, I really have nothing to say..."
Seems like Yuuji can't keep his cool when it comes to Kirishima-san. In other words, Yuuji is actually quite mindful of her, no?
"Oh ya, are Himeji and Shimada in the classrom?"
"Eh, I'm not so certain, but they should be there, right?"
At this moment, Himeji-san, Minami and Hazuki should be helping out as waitresses in the teahouse now. Hideyoshi and Muttsulini were with us just now, and they should be going back to work.
"I suppose the enemy's about to do something to interfere with our business..."
Yuuji makes this conclusion that's full of danger. What does he mean by 'doing something'? And to interfere with our business?
"...Yuuji."
Once we arrive back at the classrom, Muttsulini, who's waiting at the classroom, comes running over.
"Oh, it's Muttsulini. What's up?"
"Our waitresses got taken away."
"Ehhhh? Himeji-san and ther rest got taken away?"
Why does something like this happen one after another? What's going on?
"Seems like they considered that they have no chance of winning if they come after Akihisa and me directly. This is an expected move that they'll move."
I hear Yuuji's muttering. Does 'coming after us directly' means fighting with us? If so, forget about me, there aren't many people I know that can beat Yuuji in a fight. Though that guy is always slacking and doesn't work hard, he would train himself.
"Forget about that. Are Himeji-san and the rest alright? Where are they taken to? Who were they taken by?"
"Calm down, Akihisa. The situation's still under control."
"Eh? Really?"
"I expected them to directly do something to them, or maybe they might do something to interfere with our teahouse by finding flaws with it."
Seems like taking away the waitress is the enemy's plan to interfere with our business. Our business will be definitely affected once we get hit by something like this.
"Your prediction's really dangerous."
Yuuji seemed to have predicted what will happen to Himeji-san and the rest. This is completely different from just a simple interference, it can't be considered as a joke. If one's not careful, this might even end up as a criminal case.
"There're too many suspicious points."
Come to think of it, Yuuji would reveal a pondering look more often nowadays. He does seem a bit weird ever since then.
"...I know where they are."
At this moment, Muttsulini pulls out some kind of machine.
"What's this? Looks like an audio recorder."
"It's a tracking device."
"OK. Then I'm not going to ask you why you have that."
I don't want to see my classmate as a criminal.
"Then, now that we know where they are, this makes things a lot easier. Let's save the princesses easily, okay? Your Highness?"
"I really don't like that dirty teasing glance of yours, but I have to thank Yuuji first. If something's to happen to Himeji-san and the rest, the situation will end up being a lot bigger than the summoning tournament."
"...That's probably the enemy's motive."
"Eh?"
"Anyway, we'll say more after we saved them. Muttsulini, please save Himeji-san and the rest."
"...Got it."
"Yuuji, what are we going to do?"
"A prince's job is often defined, right?"
Those childish eyes gaze at me.
"What do you mean by a prince's job?"
"We're going to beat up the thugs that kidnapped the princesses."
"Then what are we going to do next? Sakamoto and--Yoshii, right? Are we going to use these people here to threaten them?"
"Wait a second, I'm not sure about that Yoshii--but laying hands on that Sakamoto won't do us any good. Though he's pretty quiet now, Sakamoto's name was infamous during middle school."
"Sakamoto, as in that Sakamoto?"
"Mn. If possible, I don't want to go against him..."
"I understand your feelings, but we can't just go on like this, right? WE were requested to force those two to be unable to do anything after all."
The noise of this chatter comes from the receiver that Muttsulini's holding onto.
Requested? In other words, there's a mastermind behind all these?
(Yuuji, these guys are--)
(Mn, the person behind all these hired those thugs. )
Muttsulini brings us to a KTV that's about 5 minutes away from Fumitzuki Gakuen.
Himeji-san and the rest may be locked up in a room.
"O, onee-chan..."
"YOU PEOPLE! IT'S ABOUT TIME THAT YOU LET GO OF HAZUKI NOW!!"
Minami's angry cries reach our ears. Maybe because Hazuki got taken, Minami was forced to come along.
"Because! The way she cried out 'Onee-chan' is so cute!"
"WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
There should be a total of 7 people letting out this demonic laugh, right? Alright, I'll shut those trashy mouths of yours right now!
(Wait, Akihisa, don't just act on your own. I understand your feelings, but we have to put saving the girls as our priority. We have to wait here until Muttsulini finishes his job. )
(...I got it. )
Like what Yuuji said, we can only wait here. Muttsulini will think of some way to save them, and after that, it'll be time for us to take the stage.
"...I'll clear the ashtray for you."
"Eh? Then what about these big sisters? Can we take them?"
"Then I want the big-breasted one over there."
"Ah! You're cheating! I'll take her when you're done!"
These despicable laughters echo throughout the room.
"Ugh...Mm! Please let Hazuki, let us go!"
"Hm~What should we do now?"
"Then lets see if these onee-chans will work hard or not?"
"KYA! Don, don't touch me!"
"Oi, hold on! Stop that!"
"Ah--really, you women are really fussy."
"KYA!"
Something was pushed away. And that sound can be heard together with Minami's wail. Several seconds later, the clanking sounds echo out loud; it sounds like something flipping a table and falling on the floor.
...And then, something within me jumps out.
(Oi! Akihisa!)
Yuuji's cry to stop me seems like a far cry.
"Excuse me!"
Anyway, I open the door and head into the designated room.
"Yo, Yoshii-kun?"
"Aki..."
The people inside the room are Himeji-san, who's all curled up, and Minami, who's fallen and sitting on the floor.
The situation inside is about as what I expected.
"Eh? Who are you?"
The guy sitting near the entrance asks me. Alright, then I'll take him down first.
"Well, I'm sorry..."
I gently grab his wrist.
"--AND GO AND ROT IN HELL!!"
Then, I proceed to kick him in the groin.
"EWAHHH!!"
An irritating feeling can be felt on my foot. With this hit, the other person ended up unconscious and with blank eyes.
"YOU, YOU BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO YASUO!!"
At the same time, I feel the heavy impact and heard the blunt sound, and this is because I got punched in the face by some guy beside me. I can taste blood in my mouth, did my mouth break—but so what!?
"YAAHHHH—!"
"GWWAAHHH—!!"
I responded with a kick to that guy's face, and that guy falls over with blood flowing out of his nose.
"YOU GUYS DARE DO THIS TO MINAMI!!? I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!"
Who's the one who did that? Is it the one beside Minami? Or...ah, heck if I care. If I don't know, I'll just beat them all up!
"That guy is the one called Yoshii!"
"Why is he here?"
"Anyway, it's good that he came up here himself. FINISH HIM OFF!"
Four guys flip the tables and surround me. Though I'm dazed after being punched in the face, I responded with a punch to that guy's face.
"Don't get too cocky! You're alone!"
"Don't belittle us!"
"..."
Forget about it when they're coming from the front, there's a whole lot of them. Pain continues to flow through me as I get hit from behind and on the side.
"I must, I must beat you guys down..."
Even so, I don't have the right to run away. I rub away the blood on my mouth and glare fiercely at the enemies. Since I can't hide, I'll just endure the pain and beat them all up!
Just as I intend to grit my teeth and endure the attacks—
"I really can't stand you, idiot......think before you do anything—will ya?"
"UWAHH—!"
The enemy rushing forward got hit and is sent flying into the wall.
"Yuuji!"
"Now you owe me one!"
Yuuji said this as he buries a fist into another guy's body. Ah, it's a knee to the gut this time.
"He's, he's here! It's Sakamoto!"
"Even Sakamoto's here!?"
Those guys immediately panic and try to escape once Yuuji appeared. Looks like we can settle it now...
"Sakamoto, you won't care about what'll happen to this little Missy?"
One of them grabs Hazuki from behind. He dares to do this to a girl, and to an elementary school student at that!
"Listen up! Be obedient, or else the one getting heavily injured—"
"...Will be you."
CLANG!The rogue faints, and standing behind him with the crystal ashtray still in his hands is a short boy. It's Muttsulini, who has disguised himself as a staff member and snuck in.
Like what Muttsulini declared, this guy is heavily injured. He sure has enough determination to back his words up.
"On, onee-chan! ONEE-CHAN!!"
"Hazuki! You're alright...you must have been scared, right..."
Regaining her freedom, Hazuki hugs Minami tightly. Such a touching reunion scene.
"Yoshii-kun!"
Himeji-san opens her arms wide as she heads towards me—don't tell me, this is my chance?
"Himeji-san!"
I also open my arms wide in order to receive her gentle body. Come on, come into my arms!
"YOSHII! YOU DARE DO THIS TO YASUO!!"
"GWAAHH!!"
What came over is a delinquent's punch.
"...!"
"What's, what's with this guy? He's crying blood...?"
You dare...! YOU DARE TO MAKE ME MISS THIS ONE IN A MILLION CHANCE!!!!
"Himeji, Shimada! You girls go back to school first!"
"Yuuji! You're trying to prevent me from doing that as well!?"
However, since this judgment is correct, I can't object to it.
"GUUAHHAHAHAHA!! COME TO THINK OF IT, LOOKS LIKE THERE ARE SOME ENEMIES FOR ME TO RELIEVE MY STRESS!! I'LL MAKE YOU FOLKS REGRET BEING BORN!!!"
"Is, is this really Sakamoto..."
"So the devil Asura's rumour is true after all..."
To fight with Yuuji when he's pressured by Kirishima-san to the limit, I can only express my condolences to these guys.
"Oh ya, why is Hideyoshi the only one being tied up?"
"...Rather suitable."
"I was holding onto the ropes that nee-san used to tie me up..."
You were tied up because you were holding that thing? You're really unlucky.
"Also, why am I the only one who got my butt touched..."
Hideyoshi mutters to himself sadly. However, I can imagine what those baddies were thinking as they felt him up, so I can't say anything.
☆
Now that the kidnapping fiasco's over, Yuuji and I are enjoying classroom F that's empty after a day's worth of business.
"Akihisa, that person will arrive soon."
Just as we're sitting down and drinking tea, Yuuji said this.
"Who?"
"That old granny."
He probably meant the school principal.
"Would the principal personally come over here?"
"I called her over. When I met that old granny on the corridor, I told her to 'explain everything clearly'."
"Explain everything clearly...no way, Yuuji. She's still a senior. If there's anything, we should be the ones going over."
"Forget about that whatsoever...these series of events are all related to that old granny. I won't be satisfied if she doesn't explain everything."
"All related to that old granny—EHHHH?"
Yuuji said all these in a matter of fact fashion, yet it seems to be some sudden insider info to me.
"That, that damn old granny. What did she hide from us!?"
Because of this, Himeji-san and the rest got into danger, and made us have so much difficulty in running our teahouse business. We have to protest to that damn old granny!
"...Really, I even specially came all the way over here. You brats are really polite."
As the voice resounds, the sound of the door opening can be heard.
"So you came, old granny."
"So the mastermind behind all these has appeared!"
"Oh my, since when have I become the person behind all these?"
The principal shrugs her shoulders with an 'I'm the victim here' attitude.
"Though you aren't the culprit behind this, you didn't explain what's needed to be explained. This also counts as a form of betrayal."
"Uu...really. I knew that you're smart, but I didn't expect you to even guess what I'm thinking."
"I already felt that it was strange when you came up with the proposal. If we go according to your explanation, there's no real reason for you to ask us. You could have asked for someone with a higher score."
"Ah, now that you mentioned it, you're right. You could also have explained it to the winners and asked them to give up the prizes."
"That's right. It's too inefficient to set us up."
Set up...erm, I guess you mean 'support'?
"Don't tell me she didn't consider that the head of teaching department can't object directly if she could settle this?"
"If so, she wouldn't be so stingy with the repairing of the classroom. A student's health should be more important than education. As an educator, and especially a principal, it's impossible for her to object to this."
"In other words, this old granny purposely acted like that to force us to participate in the summoning tournament?"
"That's about it."
This, this old granny...!
"Do you still remember that condition I gave to that old granny?"
"Condition? Erm—"
"The condition to allow you to decide on the subjects, right? I see, you were testing me there."
"Mm, this was because I thought that you might give the same offer to some participants who're aware of this as well. If so, you wouldn't just agree with conditions that are only beneficial to us. However, that old granny actually accepted my proposal."
To accept this, it means that if we win, it won't be a problem to the principal, right? The reason that she would object to the repairing of the classroom and even request us when we don't have good grades, there must be some sort of reason behind it.
"Also—some people would even come to find faults with just a school festival teahouse, an informer would tip off our opponent, and all sorts of things. Among them, the most important one is when Himeji and the rest got kidnapped by those guys. If they're just here to look for trouble, they wouldn't go to this extent."
That was really dangerous. If Muttsulini didn't install a tracker on them, this would have become a criminal case.
"Really? For the opponent to be so unscrupulous...I'm really sorry."
At this moment, the principal lowers her head. That thick-skinned principal actually did that to us!
"The enemy probably thinks that for you guys with such low grades, he can crush you by breaking your concentration...they must have been really frantic when you two made it to the finals."
Maybe the principal is one with a real strong sense of responsibility, as it's not that simple for a senior to lower her head to us.
"Alright, now that we have revealed our cards, it's your turn."
"Sigh...I'll reveal my helplessness if I say this. If possible, I would prefer not to say this..."
With these introductory words, the principal prepares to tell us the truth.
"My aim isn't the Kisaragi Highlands tickets."
"Not the double entrance tickets!? What's going on!?"
"To me, it doesn't matter what that enterprise wants to do. I'm aiming for the other prize."
"The other prize? Isn't it something called the 'platinum bracelets'?"
"Oh, that equipment that has a special function?"
I checked on it before, there seems to be two of these bracelets.
One can allow the user to divide his score by two and summon two summoned beasts, the other one can substitute a teacher as a witness and allow summoning of monsters. This bracelet seems like it can change the area of use of the summon according to the score, and seems like the user can decide on the subject tested.
"That's right. I hope that you two can help me win those platinum bracelets."
"To win the bracelets? You're not asking us to reclaim it?"
"If so...if she really wanted to reclaim those bracelets, there wouldn't be any need for her to ask us, right? It seems like she's trying to prevent those bracelets from being reclaimed, right?"
Yuuji said to the principal with a mocking tone.
"You really think fast...that's right, I'm trying not to reclaim those bracelets, since new technology would be revealed. If we reclaimed it before it was promoted, the existence of this new technology would be suspect."
If possible. This means that she would reclaim it in the worst case scenario.
"Then, why must we be the ones to take these platinum bracelets?"
"...Because there's a defect."
The principal frowns unhappily. To a technician, having a defect in some new technology must be an unbearable shame. It's no wonder she would have this kind of reaction while she's explaining this to us students.
"Will there not be a problem if we use it?"
"Yes. If you use it, it won't go amok, since there will be a problem when it passes a certain level of power, thus I can't ask other students to do this."
"I see. So you can't ask people with better grades to do this."
This time, Yuuji's the one who gives an ironic smile.
"Erm—in other words...?"
"People like you 'who can win even with low grades' just so happen to fulfill this criterion."
"I don't really understand, but I'll take it as a compliment, no?"
"No, I'm saying that you're idiots."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU OLD GRANNY!!!"
"While you can't understand this before an explanation, I can't help but feel that you can't accept being called an idiot..."
GUUU! Seems like Yuuji understood it. If so, am I the only one who's an idiot?
"Between the two bracelets, that bracelet that can create a summoning field can withstand the power to a certain extent...but for the other one that can summon two summoned beasts at the same time, there's a risk of it running amok if the average is above what it can handle, so these bracelets can only be used by Yoshii."
"Yuuji, can I take this as a compliment?"
"No, you were tricked like an idiot, and to quite an extent."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, OLD GRANNY!!!"
"YOU SHOULD HAVE FOUND THAT OUT YOURSELF!!!"
Damn it! I can't understand it if they didn't directly say 'you're an idiot' to me! Is this the meaning of 'the elderly are the most vicious'?
"Really? If so, the one who is trying to stop us is the one who hopes that the principal loses ground—someone running another school and the people working with them."
"Yuuji, can you stop leaving me out of this conversation?"
"I really can't stand you idiot...the reason why they tried to obstruct us is because they would feel troubled that we'll prevent the bracelets from going amok, right? The ones who would want this to happen are the other schools who got their students snatched away."
Ahh, so that's the case. Yuuji's so naughty, you could have just explained it to me step by step.
"Such incredible deducting. Though it's embarrassing to say this out, I can't just hide all these forever. Seems like the head of teaching Staff, Takehara-sensei is the one pulling the strings from behind. I heard that he has been going in and out of a private school, so that should be the case."
"Then that Toko-Natsu duo, and those delinquents—"
"They're most likely his subordinates, though I don't know what their reason for helping is."
Mmm, I keep on nodding my head, and suddenly, something pops up in my head.
"Wait, then isn't that—a serious situation?"
"You're right, it has got to do with the survival of Fumitzuki Gakuen."
Under the school's special curriculum, the test summoning battles are being observed to see whether they're suitable to be used. If the system is to go amok in this situation, the entire existence of the school will come under suspicion.
"Ah, but if you can just explain this to the winners and reclaim the equipment—"
"Unfortunately, that's impossible. Do you know who your final opponents are?"
Yuuji pulls out a little booklet from his pocket. Following the schedule that's written on it, our final opponents should be—
"The Toko-Natsu group..."
"That's right. They're the guys on the head of teaching staff's side, and they would be very happy if the bracelets go amok."
If so, we can't ask them to give up the equipment.
"I'm sorry. No matter what, you must win."
The principal gives a stiff look. Seems like the situation is serious to such an extent.
"To think it would end up like this."
And even Yuuji said this.
"Principal, I have a question."
"What?"
"As long as the combined marks is less than the average, it won't cause it to go amok, right?"
"Yes. Nothing will happen if one or two subjects are exceptionally good."
"Really, then that's good.""Yuuji, I heard everything I want to hear. Let's go home."
"You're right. We still got something to do after going home—and we need to wake up early tomorrow."
"Then, I'll go back to my office."
The principal silently gets up from the chair.
"I'll leave it to you two tomorrow."
"Yes."
Just like that, the first day of the school festival is over.
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