"Combining clubs only makes us even weirder," Yuuta murmured. Half an hour had passed, yet the Far East Magical Napping Society had obtained no new members. "Hey, maybe we can use our magic to draw in more members?"
"As much as I'd like to do just that, the dreaded Invisible Boundary Lines will mitigate the effects of any charms we use to humans," Rikka said. At this point, her face was resting on the desk of their stand.
"Hmm… Rikka's exact measurements are one-hundred twenty-" Kumin mumbled before Rikka slapped a hand over her mouth.
"As I said, her AP is concerningly high," she said. "However, that does give me an idea. The Wicked Lords were famous among the NEmah, not only for their magic, for their excellent showmanship. A performance of some sort should draw more members,"
"Or make us look even weirder." Yuuta chuckled. Ignoring him, Rikka stood up on the stand and struck a pose that Yuuta was equitably confident he'd seen from a certain manga about vampires and magical ghosts.
He watched in great amusement as Rikka began a semi-complex but easy to follow along dance routine as you'd see on TV. Though, with no music, it was awkward only hearing her occasional audible strain. The sound of her feet on her desk woke Kumin up.
"Hmm?" she said. "Oh, is this the dream where I'm in a street performance?"
"Nope, you're awake," said Yuuta.
"That's what all the dream people say, Yuuta," Kumin chuckled. "Oh well!"
Then she stood up on her own desk and started doing a distinctly different dance than Rikka. But, unlike proper dancers, their movements were not synchronizing or complimenting each other whatsoever, resulting in a very humorous display that got quite a bit of attention.
The cherry on top was when Rikka started to sing.
"I have the courage to become your wings!
And I'll carry you into the liiiiight,
No matter what challenges life has to bring,
I'll trust in our magic and fiiiight!"
To put it bluntly, Rikka was not a very good singer, and not even the Invisible Boundary Lines could hide that. During this, Yuuta was doing his best to look as small as possible between the two wannabe idols.
Suddenly, the bunny girls didn't seem so bizarre.
"...Togashi-san?"
Yuuta yelped and nearly fell off his chair when Nibutani walked up to the stand.
Oh, for goodness sake! She just had to show up at the worst possible moment! Crap, I gotta think of an acceptable explanation for this!
Her words interrupted the other two's impromptu performance, and they took a heavy tumble to the ground in a spectacular crash.
"Hey, Nibutani," Yuuta smiled and tried and failed to hide Rikka and Kumin.
"The Far East Magical Napping Club?" Nibutani tapped her chin while looking at the big sign. "Oh, so it's like some kind of lucid-dreaming club?"
"Wrong!" Rikka said sternly. "This club's purpose is to assemble a team of powerful magic-users to defeat the Dark Organization and bring our society into a prosperous age. Also, napping."
"Napping is a great and healthy use of time!" Kumin said, smiling brightly as ever.
"I see…" said Nibutani. "So, Yuuta, what are you doing here for? Are you doing occult stuff? Cause I used to be really into-"
"No, not at all!" he said, frantically thinking of an explanation. "I"m just here to, um, help my friend, Rikka, with her club. She's the one who likes using magic!"
"Oh, is that how it is?" Nibutani shrugged. Her tone was neutral enough that Yuuta knew she hadn't caught on entirely, but she was drawing closer.
"You two seem to be close friends! Well, best of luck to you both!"
Yuuta let out a sigh. He had just dodged a major bullet.
"On second thought, maybe we should try and lay a little low if we want my social life intact…" he muttered. Rikka didn't seem to notice his nervousness and stared at him with great intensity. "Hey, what are you looking at?"
"Yuuta, do you really think of us as friends?" she said.
"Huh?" said Yuuta. It was then that he'd realized he referred to her as a friend, as opposed to 'that girl' or 'one of my classmates.'
Crossing his arms and sighing, Yuuta gave in.
"It really can't be helped. Given how much you drag me into your magical antics, it'd be improper to call you anything less,"
"Thanks, that means a lot, Yuuta," Rikka said. Yuuta suddenly noticed she wasn't talking with chuuni-terms, and she seemed to realize it too. "A-Anyway! It seems that we are unable to obtain the required amount of members through conventional means,"
Rikka reached into her bag and drew out a colorful crystal in the shape of a tetrahedron star.
"Hey, that looks kinda familiar…" said Kumin. "Aren't those from a mobile game or something?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," the blue-haired girl replied. "I will use this magical crystal to summon an ally for us. Someone who I know we can trust. Here I go."
She threw the crystal on the ground in front of her, causing it to shatter. Immediately, a pale blue magical cylinder appeared above the broken pieces.
"Forces of magic, hear my call, summon to my servant by her true name: Mjolnir Hammer! 1x Summon!"
"That's literally just Fate: Grand Order!" Yuuta remarked.
Just then, Rikka's phone began to ring. Answering it, she started talking.
"Mmhmm? Yes? Ah, you see, the Magical Society demands Yadda yadda yadda. Absolutely. See you then,"
Upon putting away her phone, Rikka turned to Yuuta.
"She'll be here by tomorrow."
"What was the point of all that then?"
"I've been saving Sants Quartz for a 10x summon, but it seems I shall have to grind out more story missions."
"That's still Fate!"
The very next day…
"Good Morning, Big Brother!"
"Good Morning, Yumeha…" Yuuta slowly stirred out of bed. It felt good to beat his alarm clock; it gives one a sense of agency in one's schedule and reaffirmation that everything will go well that day.
"Say, Yuuta?" Yumeha's voice came again. "What do you call the action of abducting someone and holding them captive?"
"Uh, I don't know… kidnapping?" Yuuta slipped out of bed, his eyes still half-closed.
"Oh, then I think I just got kidnapped,"
"WAIT, WHAT?!"
Yuuta shot awake. Standing in the middle of his room was a girl he'd never seen before. She was about a year younger than him and had pale green eyes and remarkably long golden hair tied up into a pair of pigtails that stretched all the way to her feet. Most concerningly, however, was the fact that a clueless-looking Yumeha was tied up in the corner of the room.
"Yumeha!" Yuuta exclaimed. The girl let out a peal of mocking laughter.
"Fufufu, it would seem that you have finally awoken from your death-like slumbers, Dark Flame Master!" said the girl, letting her pigtail drop to the floor. Upon closer inspection, a pair of heavy-looking orange accessories hung off the ends of her hair like maces. "Now, you face down the personification of unstoppable death that is Dekomori Senae!"
"What are you doing here?" Yuuta jumped to his feet and conjured a Shadow Firebolt in his hand. "What are you doing with Yumeha? I'm warning you!"
"Dark Flame Master!" came a third voice. Rikka appeared, leaping into the room from the balcony. "Fighting with magic in close quarters is not recommended!
"She's deathly right, Dark Flame Master!" the girl whose name was Dekomori said. "One wrong move and Yumeha will meet her untimely death! If you wish to set her free before her inevitable death, then fight me one-on-one in the Overlap!"
"The Overlap…?" Yuuta said. Rikka spoke up.
"The Overlap. It's the same space I used to fight Touka three weeks ago. You intersect multiple different worlds together to create an area in which no damage to any plane in existence will occur as a result of the fight!" she said.
"Fufufu, if you cannot understand such a simple concept such as that, Dark Flame Master, then you will surely meet your death before long!"
"Rikka, how do I get to the Overlap?" said Yuuta.
"You must say the incantation to create it and make sure to pose!" she said with her usual dead-serious expression. "This will be a test of your training!"
"Now is not the time to doing anime-like things!"
"Enough with this, let the death begin!" Dekomori's hair unwound around Yumeha as she took a fighting stance. "Repeat after me if you wish to avoid death. Reality is rejected!"
"R-Reality be rejected!" Yuuta struck the first pose that came to mind.
"Synapses shatter!"
"Synapses shatter!"
"Banishment…"
"From this world!"
What happened next made Yuuta nearly trip on his feet. The room around them began to fade into nothingness, replaced by a vast desert. He felt his feet sink into the sand; the early morning sun became a blood-red sky covered in stars of every color. Enormous dunes of bright blue sand were all that could be seen for miles away in every direction. Dekomori was now dressed in a golden suit of knight's armor.
"Holy crow…" Yuuta said aloud. Dekomori's eyes widened.
"Hmph, so this is what the Dark Flame Master's true form looks like, on the edge of death.!" she said. "You clearly possess the death-like power of the Nemah, but can your skills in battle match your aptitude?"
"I honestly have no idea!" said Yuuta. "Wait a minute, what do you mean by-"
He looked downwards and gasped. Instead of his sleepwear, he now wore the clothes of the Dark Flame Master. A black trenchcoat and pants with multiple leather belts wrapped around him at various points. Complete with a pair of fingerless gloves and red highlights on the inside of his jacket like a cape.
"In the Overlap, your imaginations take priority over your senses!" Rikka answered what his brain asked. Similarly, she now bore a gothic lolita style dress with a Victorian-style front tie and a black bow, complete with a dark corset and a poofy skirt. The same one, in fact, that she'd worn when she first met Yuuta. "Because of the lack of influence from any particular world's laws of reality, the way that you see yourself is the way you are! Now you must take that image and form it into a weapon!"
"Enough, let us begin this duel to the death!" Dekomori summoned a magic circle from which a massive golden hammer appeared, decorated with Grecian-style engravings. Yuuta panicked and started to conjure more purple fire.
"You can do this, Yuuta; I believe in you!" Rikka shouted.
"Uh, thanks?" said Yuuta.
"Direct Impact!" Dekomori charged in, the enormous size of her weapon having seemingly no weight in her arms. Yuuta gritted his teeth.
"Incarnate Wings!" he zipped out of the way of the hammer and conjured a magic circle. "Infernal Shotgun!"
Dekomori winced as she blasted with a series of miniature fireballs. Yuuta used the opportunity to reposition and prepare a spell. But when the smoke faded, Dekomori's expression was that of shock rather than anguish.
"Are you mad? A human would try to deflect the blow head-on or retreat for a better position to avoid their impending death. Somehow you managed to combine an evasive and offensive maneuver into a single dash!" she said, her eyes widening. Yuuta drew back for another attack, but she raised a hand. "Wait! Dark Flame Master, I apologize with deathly sincerity! Please be aware, I am not your enemy, nor did I plan to bring you harm or death,"
"Huh?" said Yuuta. At once, the Overlap faded around them, and the group now sat in his bedroom.
"I simply wished to see how well my master had trained you, for fear you would meet an untimely death on the battlefield," she said.
"Your master?" Yuuta said. Without another word, Rikka jumped into the room.
"Allow me to introduce Dekomori Senae, my ever-faithful servant, and otherwise known as the almighty Mjolnir Hammer," she said. "Her introduction was a means of testing your resolve for battle as is important when it comes to-YOWCH!"
"Will you stop waking me up in such bizarre ways!" he scolded Yuuta as he grabbed the back of her eyepatch.
"Ow! Please let go! But slowly, very slowly-ARGH! MY EYE!"
Dekomori shuffled closer to Rikka.
"Are you sure he's fit for this; he seems quite… human," she said.
"I understand your reservations, Dekomori," Rikka nodded. "I too, am aware of the damage that the Administration has done to Yuuta's mind. However, the power of both the Dark Flame Master and the Black Flame Dragon is far too valuable to pass up." She turned to Yuuta. "Dekomori and I met on the electrical ocean wherein I found out she had awakened her powers as an Exalt at a young age. I assisted her in mastering her abilities, and now she serves me whenever I summon her. Speaking of which, how are things going in your world?"
"The war is battling fiercely for the control of Hoover Dam; were I not needed here, I would most certainly be fighting my home country," she said.
"I see. I must apologize, but rest assured that your presence here is even more valuable than that,"
It's like two chuuni-mirrors reflecting at each other.
"That makes four members," Rikka said. "And for the fifth, it seems I must call upon my other loyal servant. Yumeha, if you will?"
"Sure!" Yumeha piped up and clapped her hands. "Summon Chimera!"
At once, Chimera appeared from the center of a summoning circle.
"As you can see, Yumeha has now perfected summoning magic in the first three dimensions. More importantly, she has managed to ignore the fourth to avoid accidental time travel," said Rikka. She picked up her winged cat. "Chimera will be our fifth member. We can summon her after school to avoid the authorities restricting her."
"There's no way she counts as a member!"
"I'm sorry, but cats don't count as members," Miss Nanaste said as Rikka held up her pet. "Even winged snake-tailed cats."
"Wait, you can see that?"
"I see…" Rikka said.
"Perhaps you should try and ask someone else to join?" said Nanaste. The group stood in the teacher's lounge, trying to convince this particular teacher to help them with their club.
"Oh, my Wicked Eye tells me there is a spirit standing over there who wishes to join," Rikka pointed in a direction at what was clearly thin air.
"Oh yes, I am getting a deathly aura from over there!" said Dekomori.
"Hmm? I guess it is a little colder," Kumin tapped her chin
"Don't encourage this!" said Yuuta.
"Sorry, they have to be alive to join," said Nanaste.
"Then… I know! I'll tap into one of my future descendants to join and let them use my body for said purposes! Let me bring my firstborn daughter up…" Rikka closed her eye for a moment and opened it. Then, she suddenly struck a pose.
"Waga nawa Megumin! Archu-wizardu naniwaitashi saikyo kogeki mahou bakaritsu mahou aiyatsurumono!" she said. Then she put her arms down and glanced about. "Eh? Koko wa doko desu ka? Minasan dare? Watashi ga saigo ni omoidashi ta no wa Kazuma to itsusho ni sugosu koto deshi ta."
"Oh my…" said Kumin. "Erm… konichiwa?"
"For goodness sake!" Yuuta buried his face in his hands.
"Sorry, I don't speak Japanese," said Nanaste. "Also, going off of what you said, she's too young,"
"Eh? Nani te itsu ta? Watashi wa ie ni modotto te korera no bakuritsu loli no comment no jubun wo eru-" Rikka slapped herself in the face. "Sorry, it would seem that whatever iteration of my daughter that was lives in another world that speaks a different language and also has magic and wizards,"
"I'm honestly more surprised at the fact that you have kids," said Yuuta.
"My Wicked Eye tells me I shall have two, one boy one girl," Rikka said. "Okay, that was a bust. I know, I'll summon a three-star servant to be our fifth member!"
Without hesitation, Rikka pulled out some chalk and sketched a magic circle on the ground, and threw another crystal on it similar to the one she used to summon Dekomori.
"Hear me, forces of magic! Call upon an individual to aid us in our time of need! 1x Crystal Summon!"
"That's still Fate!"
At once, a mature-looking girl in a maid outfit appeared before them.
"Bonjour. Je m'appelle Catherine. C'est agréable de vous rencontrer,"
"Oh my gosh-can't you get someone who speaks English!"
"Je vous suggère de regarder votre langue, maître de flamme sombre."
"Hello, Catherine!" said Kumin. "Erm… bonjour?"
"Oh well, bonjour Catherine!" said Nanaste. "Where do you come to us from?"
"Don't tell me you're actually buying this!"
"Ah, oui, je suis né dans une famille aisée dans l'Angleterre du 18ème siècle et plus tard déménagé en France pour des raisons que je préfère ne pas divulguer," said Catherine.
"Ah…" said Nanaste. "Alors, que pensez-vous de Rikka?"
"Elle semble être très stupide, mais aussi très gentille et amicale. J'ai hâte de la servir."
"Really, is that so?" Nanaste giggled. "Then Rikka, que pensez-vous de Catherine?"
"Uh…" Rikka blinked. "Oui?"
"Okay, I'll say it. This language barrier just isn't working out," said Yuuta. Catherine nodded.
"En effet, Dark Flame Master. Puis-je vous suggérer de demander à votre ami Isshiki de vous rejoindre? Ou peut-être la fille à qui vous pensez être destiné, Nibutani Shinka?"
"I must agree," said Rikka. "Sorry, Catherine."
Without another word, Catherine nodded and vanished into thin air.
"Darn it! Maybe there's something in the Sacred Text of the Mabinogion that can help us!" Dekomori whipped out a black book with "Mabinogion" stamped on the front in colorful stickers. "According to this passage, the following spell can summon the last mage on earth when read aloud! Ahem…"
Dekomori took a few steps back.
"If thy world is infected by hate, only the restoration of life may cure it! If thy world is full of death, only love may rid of it! The balance of nature and mankind need not be a series of firm glances and handshakes but a harmonious melody of intimate exchanges that shall ascend our world to a greater state. If the only man may understand the greater good. And what is this greater good that humanity is so struggled to understand? Why, itself! A human is not a lump of flesh that exists and lives it is the result of two humans finding love and joining a beautiful courtship that creates all of the beauty in life that which fairies may thrive upon. But man thinks otherwise that-"
"AHAH!"
The door to the lounge slammed open, revealing a familiar face.
"NIBUTANI?" everyone exclaimed.
"Who was that? Who said that? I'm warning you if you don't-" Nibutani fumed into the room as Dekomori tucked the Mabinogion away. Nanaste cleared her throat.
"Excuse me, miss Shinka, what are you doing here in such a fashion?"
"I… er… uh…" she stammered for a moment. "I'm… here to join the Far-East Magical Napping Society!" She suddenly put on her usual cheerful grin.
"SAY WHAT?"
"Well…" Nanaste said. "That makes five members. So congratulations! You now have an official club!"
"Hooray!" they all cheered, except for Yuuta.
"What just happened?"