"GYAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Yuuta was stunned as swirling blue streaks of light flashed past him faster than cars on a highway. The wind rushed through the flume, biting at his face, and drawing tears that streaked behind him. Beyond the flashing lights, he saw Kumin gracefully floating down with her feet below her while Nibutani was screaming as she plummeted. Right beside him, Rikka eyed the ground with solemn determination.
"Take it all in, Dark Flame Master. This is the greatest method of transportation!"
"What's wrong with buses?!" he exclaimed in her face.
"If we make a world with magic, then everyone will travel to work like this and have more time to spend with their families!"
"Everyone?!" said Yuuta.
Suddenly, the whirling cylinder below him opened up into a blinding white light. He screamed as his vision was soon overcome by the ivory glare.
The next sensation smashed him straight into the face, cold hard dirt covered in slightly wet grass. Wincing at the pain, Yuuta's eyes opened once more into a bright blue sky with soft fluffy clouds here and there. There was the sound of a soothing breeze through the gentle blades of grass, and waves of green projected a sweet smell for all to inhale. Dazed, Yuuta sat up and took in the scenery. So much grass, brightly colored as a children's book. He looked around and saw he was on a hill, and that extending beyond it was a massive field full of more brilliant green grass, with small white dots here and there that he realized to be sheep. More rolling hills in the distance, like a grand range of mountains that extended far beyond.
"Holy crow…" Yuuta stood up and took the view. "Another world… just like in the light novels!"
"It's always the first time that's the most shocking," Rikka said. Yuuta noticed her standing beside him.
"Hey, where are the others-" he said before turning around. Kumin was cheerfully enjoying the view with Chimera in her lap while Nibutani was currently pinned underneath Dekomori's backside.
"Ha! The Fake Mori Summer meets her death to even a simple pinning attack on behalf of the Mjolnir Hammer!"
"Get your tiny butt off me, you little brat!" Nibutani struggled from underneath the blonde girl to no avail.
"Tiny? I'll have you know that the Mjolnir hammer is capable of suplexing the largest of dragons into their death, Fake Summer! I would reconsider my words when discussing matter of size if I were in your death shoes."
A grin of sadism suddenly came across Nibutani's face.
"Oh, have I perhaps hit upon a sore spot, tiny warrior?"
"Ah! Stop it, or I will bring you a painful death!"
"Hah! So, this is your weakness?" Nibutani said. "Good luck trying to use the Mabinogion against me again now that I know this!"
"Both of you, cut it out!" Kumin suddenly interjected. They paused their fighting to look at the other girl. "I know you both have your grudges with one another, but right now we're in a completely different world! Can't you two put your anger aside just long enough to focus on the task at hand?"
Rikka nodded as Dekomori reluctantly stepped off of Dekomori
"I understand you two have your differences, but we need to work together if we're going to take down this demon!"
"I never wanted to take down a demon!" Nibutani declared. "You just dragged me into this freaky magical stuff!"
"Indeed, your actions are most indecent!" a random fairy named Alora popped up.
"I'm still quite bamboozled at the fact that you get your powers from fairies of all things," Yuuta said, dusting off his clothes and getting to his feet.
"Why? What's wrong with fairies?" Nibutani shot him a glare as two more fairies appeared and sent him a similar scowl.
"Nothing! Nothing…" he quickly said, waving his hands in denial. After the rather scathing series of comments, she'd given him yesterday, his attraction in her had wavered. It would be one thing if she had more personality than he'd presumed, but in this case, the Nibutani he'd found so endearing was just as much a facade as his memories of being Dark Flame Master.
"Where are we anyway?" Yuuta said.
"I don't know," said Rikka, glancing about.
"Wait, you don't know?" said Nibutani. "Then why would you send us all here?"
"Well, my Wicked resonates weakly with this world, meaning there is a demon around here. And a demon means that the Dark Organization might be hiding the Exalthumanemah here."
"Might?" said Nibutani.
"Enough with that, let's start searching," said Rikka. "Is everyone ready?"
"Yes ma'am!" Dekomori said, saluting her. Kumin snapped to attention and imitated the blonde girl.
"Uh… Kumin?" said Yuuta. "Are you not the slightest bit… phased by all this?"
"Oh, don't worry about it! This is just one of those dreams where I'm on a magical adventure with my friends all of your powers that you talk about are real!"
She doesn't get it one bit!
"Alright, ladies! And… Yuuta," Rikka turned around. "We don't know exactly where the demon is. So, we'll have to scour this world from top to bottom in order to find it! It could take many club sessions, possibly even entire days and-"
"Oh, let's ask that guy if he knows anything," Kumin pointed in a direction. Everyone glanced and saw an old man slowly climbing up the hill with a large shepherd's staff.
"...Yes, that might be a better idea," said Rikka.
"Ah, travelers! Welcome to my fields. I am Shenton," the old man bowed. "As you can see, I am rather proud of my success as a shepherd, or at least I would be if not for Sheeptar the Sheep King!"
"...Excuse me?" said Yuuta.
"Sheeptar the Sheep King!" said Shenton.
"Sheeptar the Sheep King?' said Dekomori.
"Sheeptar the Sheep King!"
"Huh," said Kumin. "Say that five times fast."
Yuuta and Nibutani exchanged glances before they both burst into laughing fits, falling onto the grass again as everyone else gave them odd looks.
"Erm…" Shenton cleared his throat. "I don't see what's so funny here. Sheep are one of the greatest resources in our village."
"Oh my god…" the two teenagers laughed even harder.
"I assume from your response that you don't know what I'm talking about." Shenton pointed in a direction "Sheeptar the Sheep King comes at night once every seven days from behind that hill there. He then steals any sheep that come near him, most of which is from my very flock! If something is not done, then I will have no sheep left! And to not only be unable to present my best sheep at the sheep fair to win my tenth consecutive Golden Sheep Trophy, but to simply not have any sheep at all… would bring the ultimate shame upon myself and my family! My daughters will never marry, and my sons will never start flocks of their own! Something must be done about Sheeptar the Sheep King!"
"Well, you're in luck," Rikka walked up to the shepherd. "We came here specifically to kill a demon, and Sheeptar the Sheep King matches the bill. When will he show up again?"
"He came yesterday, so he'll return in six nights," he said. "If you can deal with him, I will offer you a great reward,"
"We'll do our best, Shenton," Rikka bowed. "Alright, everyone. Let's get back to our world for now, and we'll return a day before Sheeptar arrives."
"Eh? But we just got here-"
Rikka clicked her fingers and a magic circle appeared hovering above all of them. Yuuta felt a wind start to pick up before the circle sucked them all up like a vacuum cleaner. He heard the girls scream for a moment before he was engulfed.
The next thing he knew, Yuuta was back in the clubroom, where all of the other members lay around him.
"Jeez, that was crazy!" said Nibutani. "Honestly, you really shouldn't be so haphazard about when you go around into other worlds! I mean, what if there was something dangerous…"
"Hah! As expected, the fake Mori Summer is scared to death by grass and sheep!" said Dekomori.
"I-I am not scared! If anything, you should be more conscious!"
Rikka clapped her hands to get their attention.
"Enough, we'll address this later. Until then, I want everyone to train up for the battle against Sheeptar the Sheep King. We'll use future club meetings as strategy discussions. By the sixth sunset, we'll depart once again to the other world. We must put our best foot forward; Shenton is counting on us to save him and his sheep. Not to mention, there's a chance that Sheeptar the Sheep King could be the key to finding the Exalthumanemah."
"Of course, master!' Dekomori bowed. "The Far-East Magical Napping society will… ugh, this is too formal."
"Indeed," said Rikka. "We must start working on some group catchphrases and poses, as per the tradition of the Wicked Lords."
"Good grief," said Nibutani. "Honestly, why would you go around trying to save random other worlds for a tiny chance of saving ours?"
"Oh, that's a great catchphrase!" said Yuuta. He then struck a pose. "Save their world today, ours tomorrow!"
"Ooh, impressive, Dark Flame Master!" Rikka's eye lit up. "Let us implement that one at once!"
Yuuta winced when he realized what he was doing. Kumin and Nibutani exchanged a giggle.
"That pose is so funny looking."
"What a loser…"
Dangit… why does this keep happening?
"Meeting adjourned!" said Rikka. "Save their world today..."
"...Ours tomorrow!' said Dekomori, both girls posing.
"We can work on that."
That night, Yuuta thought back about his experience in another world.
Is… is this gonna be my life now? Hopping from one dangerous world to another, fighting demons, and looking for an ancient artifact that'll fill the world with weird magical nonsense? I never signed up for this! All I wanted was a normal high school life… this is no time to bleat, I have to focus. Though, I guess in terms of romance, Nibutani's off the table. But you know, I'm kind of glad I asked her out, even though I was rejected. I always thought telling someone how you feel about them was really hard, but that was actually kinda easy. I have to remember that for my next crush. Hmm… what kind of girl would I like to date?
Well to start off, she should at least be a little cute. And I don't want another repeat of what happened with Nibutani, so they'd have to be the honest type too. No, wait, I don't want someone brutally honest, just someone who isn't afraid to be themselves. And by extension, they should have an interesting personality, that's different from others but still charming. What about her looks? Well, I think I like shorter girls, or at least those who are my height or lower. And… while I like Nibutani's long locks, I think shorter hair might make it easier to form a connection with them. Oh, and she should have cute bangs, pretty eyes that are just the right size for her face, and a voice that can be serious and not serious at the same time. What else… hmm… oh, I know! They should like me for who I am, obviously, and at least respect my hobbies. Oh, but they should also be assertive enough to tell me when I'm taking part in something unhealthy and maybe show me some kind of new and interesting part of life…
Yuuta gulped when he realized that he'd just perfectly described Rikka. He was even subconsciously picturing his dream girl with blue eyes, a propensity for melodrama, and an eyepatch. He threw the thought away into a mental trash can and closed his eyes to sleep.
He was NOT falling for Rikka, no sir. She was insane! A crazy magic-using high-school girl with a freaky eye and chuunibyou of the eighth degree! So, what if she was cute and also really noble. It wasn't like he was enjoying putting weird poses and fighting monsters with her. Which was kind of weird because he'd found himself randomly posing in front of the mirror whenever he passed one. Bah, it was just the Dark Flame Master taking over, or that Mere Exposure effect he'd read about. I mean, she had sort've shoehorned herself into his life without asking permission.
That was enough. He gave it up to a chaotic day and went to sleep.
The very next day, he received the kind of morning which was essentially the same to him as a normal morning to anyone else.
KABOOM!
He was awoken quite suddenly as there was the sound of a blast of fire, a shockwave across his body, and the sound of something being slammed into the wall.
He opened his eyes to see his little sister sitting on the floor in front of the magic circle.
"Ah, good morning, Onii-chan!" she said. "Rikka-san taught me how to make explosion spells!"
Upon closer inspection, Rikka was currently plastered against the wall like one of those sticky rubber toys. She then flopped onto the floor in a similar fashion.
"Yuuta... your sister is learning incredibly fast… I'm running out of things to teach her. I'm starting to think about summoning a familiar for her to continue her study of-GAH!'
He angrily grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Don't turn Yumeha into an explosion loli!" he exclaimed as he shook her back and forth. Restraining her in the morning was such a normal routine by now that he only just realized that he and Rikka were technically quite intimate with one another.
Hey, don't overthink it, it's how things work!
"Yumeha!" Yuuta's mother's voice rang out. "Do you have your things ready? We're leaving soon!"
"Ah, right!" Yumeha reached into the magic circle and produced her yellow nursery school hat. Then from within said hat, she took out her school bag, already packed. "Coming!'
Yuuta exchanged glances with Rikka.
"...Can you teach me how to do that?" said Yuuta.
"Only if you can believe it," said Rikka." But speaking of magic spells, how are things going with your training?"
"Ah, oh right, that," said Yuuta. I've been using lots of magic lately for as many things as I can. Incarnate Wings is probably the one I use most often since fire magic can be pretty fickle when it comes to day-to-day activities. I've also been using Incarnate Claw to clean out chalk dusters instantly, and Incarnate Roar to shout to people from far away. Oh, and I also use Incarnate Eyes to check for spare change in my pockets when doing the laundry and also a low intensity Burning Hands to dry off my clothes instantly. Speaking of chores, now I can clean my whole room instantly with Incarnate Hoard."
"Hmph. It's just like a born human to use magic for such trivial tasks…" said Rikka.
"Oh, come on, surely there are worse uses!" said Yuuta.
"Well, I suppose you have a point there. Nibutani uses her magic for-" Rikka suddenly gagged. "Ugh, never mind, I cannot bear to say it out loud."
That day, as Yuuta headed into school, he saw Isshiki walking in.
"Hey, buddy!" he smiled and waved at him.
"Oh, hi Isshiki," Yuuta waved back. Already, the tan boy ran up to him.
"So, how are things going with your club?" he said.
"Oh, fine..." Yuuta chuckled. He couldn't bring himself to mention Sheeptar the Sheep King. "What about yours?"
"Yeah… about that," Isshiki flushed and rubbed the back of his head. "I sorta… got kicked out."
Snrk.
"Hey, don't look so amused! How was I supposed to know that the music club doesn't actually care about girls? And… also, I sort of broke one of their guitars…"
"Wait, you did what now?"
"Yeah, that really tanked my allowance," he sighed. "So much for buying that new outfit. On the bright side, they let me keep the guitar!"
He excitedly pulled out a shiny red electric guitar. However, upon closer inspection, all of the strings were unstrung, and a large crack could be seen on the board.
"What the heck are you gonna do with a broken guitar?" said Yuuta. "Try and fix it?"
"I don't know, it just looks cool! Besides, I can't really bring myself to throw it away. Think I could use it as a weapon?"
"I mean, if an umbrella can become an ax, then I guess anything's possible…"
"What was that?"
"Uh…" Yuuta realized he'd said too much. He was about to come up with an excuse when all of sudden, the entire courtyard let out a gasp. Hundreds of students whipped their hands around to gander at something behind them. Isshiki's jaw dropped at what he saw. Yuuta turned around. Had it not been for last weekend, he probably would've gasped too.
Nibutani strode into the courtyard with an entire army's worth of fairies fluttering just above her head. Each of their wings as they fluttered let loose tiny shining lights like glittery sparks above her like a shower of gold, except the lights vanished when they touched her skin, leaving her form fully available for the naked eye. Two additional fairies pointed heavy-duty flashlights at her from above and below respectively, illuminating her visage and figure in both a proud yet humble manner. And the finishing touch, a gentle breeze coming from their wings, giving an ever-so-slight blowout to her hair and skirt, adding an alluring, yet sinful, yet gentle note. The result, a spectacle of sparkles and sunshine, with Nibutani as the sole actress. To one who couldn't see her FX generating fairies, they would only see a goddess with the commanding aura of a queen, the dignity of a high-class lady, and the raw beauty of a princess.
Yuuta quickly understood what she was doing, as Isshiki's jaw dropped.
"Dude… I don't know why, but for some reason Nibutani looks especially beautiful today! Don't you think?"
She gets incredible magic power, and an entire army at her command just out of the blue. And would you look at that, she uses it to make herself even more popular in the school. I'll never understand women.
"What do you think it is?" said Isshiki.
"Probably standard-issue fairy magic," Yuuta said without thinking.
"Excuse me?"
"Huh? Oh no, what I was referring to is Nibutani's mental image. That's where she gets her incredible beauty." Yuuta quickly said. He recalled what Rikka said about how magic works off the imagination. "You see, part of what makes certain people successful in one way or another is their confidence. Nibutani doesn't simply think of herself as pretty, she wholeheartedly believes it. And the more she believes herself to be beautiful, the more beautiful she can become. Think of it as increasing the level limit with a special resource in an RPG."
"Uh… is this like one of those "if you believe, you will be saved" type of things?" Isshiki said.
That hits pretty differently after you find out that magic is real.
"No, no, that's not it at all," said Yuuta. He tried to explain it a different way. "If you believed that you were, I don't know, a really cool hero with superpowers, obviously you'd be willing to put yourself through harder training to actually be stronger and more attractive, right? Nibutani works off the same principal."
He quickly leaned in closer and whispered the next part.
"Don't tell anyone I said this, but Nibutani secretly believes she's an immortal ageless mage blessed with eternal beauty and destined to save humanity from its own cruelty or something."
"Eh? You mean Nibutani is a chuunibyou?"
"Exactly!" Yuuta snapped his fingers. "Her mental image is so strong that the truth simply changes to suit it, rather than the other way around. It's not just her either. You know Takanashi? She also thinks she has magical powers and the ability to see the future, which is why she's good in both sports and grades."
"I don't know, that still sounds pretty weird," Isshiki crossed his arms. "Did you read that in one of those You can do ESP books?"
"Look, I'll prove it," Yuuta stopped in place and took a deep breath. He thought hard about the Dark Flame Master, willing just a little bit of magic to release from his body. Already, he became aware of purple flames flaring up around him, surrounding him as Isshiki watched. He commanded the fire to engulf him and illuminate in a comparable way to Nibutani. Parting the fire at the front, he gazed at Isshiki with gentle eyes, raised a thumb to his chin, and tilted his head slightly.
"Good morning, ladies," he said.
"GYAAAAH!" Isshiki recoiled and grasped his heart. Yuuta quickly put out the fire and dropped the pose. "Dude! That was so cool-looking! I gotta try whatever you call that!"
Just then, the bell rang. Every student in the courtyard, including Nibutani, suddenly became aware that they were late to class and immediately hurried into the building.
"And…. there we go!" Nibutani smiled as she looked over her legions of fairies. Each one of them now had a letter on their dress drawn with a permanent marker. "Now, I can easily manage all of you without having to say all your names!"
Circe floated upwards to the girl's face.
"While I must admit, Mori Summer, this does look quite nice, how exactly will this help us accomplish our goals?"
"Allow me to demonstrate!" she said. Without hesitation, she pulled open the door to the clubroom where she came upon a peculiar sight.
Dekomori was standing in the middle of the room drinking a bottle of milk. From the scrunched-up look on her face, she was clearly not enjoying the taste. Meanwhile, Kumin was shouting encouragement while waving about Nibutani's pom-poms.
"You can do it, Dekomori-san! You can beat the white water!"
"Is that what happened to my pom-poms?" Nibutani said, angrily balling her fists. "Why the heck would you go around taking my stuff for your stupid chuunibyou- "
Her sentence was interrupted when her face was promptly sprayed with milk. Dekomori glanced at the bottle in confusion, found it to be empty, and let out a mighty cheer.
"Success! I have defeated yet another one of my greatest foes! Be wary, Fake Summer, for I shall soon defeat you as well, and you will take on the death that you are warranted,"
"Warranted?!" said Nibutani.
"Yay! You did, Mjolnir Hammer!" said Kumin. "Now you only need to achieve your second form, and you shall become unstoppable!"
The two girls let out two very distinct laughs, one sickeningly cheerful, the other tauntingly haughty.
"…YOU DIDN'T DRINK THE MILK, YOU GOT IT ON ME!" Nibutani said. "That's it, all units prepare for combat! Squad A, take her twelve 'o'clock! Squad B, three 'o'clock! Squad C, her six! Squad D, nine 'o'clock!"
In a quick flurry of wings and golden lights, Dekomori was suddenly surrounded by fairies.
"Fire," Nibutani said, smirking as she clicked her fingers.
A thousand tiny shining bolts of golden electricity assaulted Dekomori from all angles. She panicked and quickly started twirling her hair in an attempt to deflect the projectiles but was unable to cover her flanks.
"Nngh! Mjolnir Earthquake!" Dekomori quickly bashed her hair-maces together. At once, a mighty shockwave emanated out from the collision, interrupted all of the fairies, and pushed them back in the air, some of them falling to the ground like loose feathers.
Nibutani grit her teeth as Dekomori let out a cackle.
"I see you've grasped the basics of managing fairy followers, but it'll take more than that to fool me! Now for my counterattack! Mjolnir- "
"WAIT!" Nibutani said, raising a hand. "Where are Yuuta and Rikka?"
"I thought they were playing hooky," Kumin said, casually.
"Of course not!" Dekomori said. "Obviously, the Eye of the Wicked Lord Shingan will always put her mission to find the Invisible Boundary Lines first above any petty romance nonsense. They're in the teacher's lounge."
In the teacher's lounge, Nanaste had asked Rikka and Yuuta to discuss an important matter.
"This isn't easy for me to say, Rikka, so I'll just put it in the bluntest way possible," she said. "Your math scores have been so low, that your teacher came and scolded me. Apparently, he believes that letting you make that club was detrimental to your studies,"
"I'm sorry. I'll try better next time," Rikka said.
"Huh? I didn't' know you were struggling with studies," said Yuuta.
"It's just math," said Rikka. "This world's numerical system is a massive pain… but still, I will absolutely do my best to get a good enough grade on my midterm to change my teacher's mind!"
"Is that so? Excellent!" Nanaste clapped her hands together. "But, just in case, if you fail your midterm, then I'm disbanding your club,"
Rikka's eyes went wide. It was then that Yuuta noticed a pitch-black cloudy shape hovering behind Nanaste.
"Great! Now you have a good motivation!" she said.
As the two of them walked outside of the room, Rikka turned to Yuuta. For once, there was genuine worry in her eye, a stark contrast to how she usually acted.
"Yuuta… what do I do?" she asked, almost pleaded.
That wasn't the only problem. Sheeptar the Sheep King would attack on the same day of Rikka's test. If she did not complete it in time... her mission will be a failure.
"I swear, it's always your fault that I couldn't make it to cheerleading practice!" Nibutani hurled another golden spear at Dekomori, who bounced it off the end of her hammer.
"Fufufu!" she said. "But of course, the fake Mori Summer smells as rotten as her lies. You'll never defeat me and tarnish the name of the real one!"
"Yeah, she does smell pretty bad…" said Kumin. Nibutani glared at her briefly and delivered a high-intensity right hook to her head.
"Yowch!" she fell to the ground and rubbed the spot where she had been hit. "I'm your upperclassmen!"
"Then act like it!" said Nibutani.
Just then, Rikka and Yuuta entered the room.
"Ah, Master, you have returned!' Dekomori" dispelled her hammer. "What happened in the staff lounge?"
"Gather the crew, it's an emergency," said Rikka.
"Ah! Do you mean to tell me we have a code blue?"
"Close. It's a code amethyst,"
"Huh? But the invasions are not supposed to start until next Tuesday,"
"Wait…" Rikka pulled out a small piece of paper and glanced at it. "Sorry, it's a code medium orchid,"
"AH! Not that!" Dekomori panicked before shouting aloud. "ATTENTION FAR-EAST MAGICAL NAPPING SOCIETY! ALL MUST GATHER IN THE BRIEFING ROOM!"
"Dark Flame Master, take attendance!" said Rikka.
"Eh? But we're all here..." said Yuuta.
"Good point," said Dekomori "It would be more efficient to count the people who aren't here,"
"That's right!" said Rikka. "All those who aren't here, don't' raise your hand!"
"Oh, I get it!" said Kumin. "Then the people who aren't here, won't raise their… wait a minute,"
"Nevermind!" said Nibutani. "We're all here, what's the code medium orchid?"
"Human society is posing a major threat to our operations," Rikka said.
"...and if she fails her math midterm, then Nanaste is going to disband the club." Yuuta finished explaining as Rikka and Dekomori proceeded to set up a desk, chair and opened Rikka's math book.
"I don't see any reason why that's a bad thing," Nibutani put her hands on her hips. "I mean, we're not really an actual club if you think about it."
"Huh? We totally are!" Kumin murmured as she slumbered on the floor. "We went through all that trouble to get this club; we can't just lose it without a fight."
"Is she actually asleep?" said Nibutani. "Nevermind that! Besides, just yesterday we were going off about demons and other worlds. Who's to say that we won't unleash some kind of horrible monstrosity upon the school? Maybe it'd be best if we did disband the club."
"You have a point there…" Yuuta tapped his chin. "Hey Rikka, what do you think about-what the heck are you doing?"
Rikka had drawn a miniature pentagram in her math book.
"I'm summoning the correct answer," she said. "I believe… that the correct value is 83!"
Yuuta glanced over at the question.
"Nope, that's wrong," he said. "Are you just guessing or something? Wait a minute…"
He noticed that Rikka had written down some equations to the side of the problems.
"Huh, looks like you've done the math wrong here," he pointed to one of the expressions. Dekomori nodded in agreement.
"Indeed. Five times eight equals forty, not thirty-seven," she said.
"I know…" Rikka gritted her teeth. "This question is a particularly formidable opponent. Seven times four… most confusing. While four times seven is of no consequence."
Yuuta peered over her shoulder.
"Ah, and then there's the issue of eight times six equals forty-eight. That's a hefty challenge up ahead."
Dekomori snapped her fingers as a realization dawned upon her face.
"A-hah! In order to conquer a deathly enemy of this caliber, you need to level up! Let us take on a lesser dungeon for EXP! The level 9 multiplication gauntlet! The first death incantation, nine times one is nine!"
"The second incantation, nine times two is eighteen!" Rikka stood and recited. The two of them looked at Yuuta expectantly.
"Oh, I see!" he said. "The third incantation, nine times three is twenty-seven!"
"And four times nine is thirty-six!" said Kumin.
"Nine times five is forty-five…" Nibutani said, curiously entering the discussion.
"We're halfway there, let's keep going!" Dekomori posed dramatically. "Nine times six is fifty-four!"
"Times seven, sixty-three!"
"Times eight, seventy-two!" said Yuuta.
"And the final incantation…" Rikka stepped up onto her chair like a pedestal. "Nine times nine equals eighty-two!"
Everyone was silent as Rikka awkwardly glanced around the room.
"…Is that not the right answer?" she said. "Of course! It must be eighty-three!"
"Eighty-one, actually," said Yuuta. "Also, I kinda got lost in the metaphor, but I think we need to reevaluate our plan of attack if we want to keep our base."
"Indeed," Rikka crossed her arms. "But don't worry, I have a plan B!"
Rikka and Dekomori stood side-by-side in front of the small wooden shrine building, while the other three lingered about the bamboo arch before it. The duo clapped their hands twice.
"In the name of the Eye of the Wicked Lord," Rikka began. "I command you; imbue my body and mind with the power required to defeat the almighty enemy that stands before me on my math exams."
"Now we're asking the gods for help," Yuuta said, turning to Nibutani and Kumin. "I swear, if those two are the last bastion we have against the overwhelming threat of the Dark Organization unleashing an apocalyptic disaster upon our realm of the living, we'd be better off just joining the Bureau and getting magic out of this world. If we can't even defeat a math test, what hope do we have against Sheeptar the Sheep King?"
"You know, you act like a sensible person." Nibutani raised a finger. "But you still use all those ridiculous terms."
"Eh?" Yuuta blinked. "Oh man, maybe I'm spending a bit too much time around those two,"
"I think it's kinda cool," said Kumin. "Isn't having a unique speech pattern better than just talking the same way as everyone else?"
Just then, the two of them suddenly struck a pose.
"Engage primary links!" Rikka shouted.
"Cut it out! You'll be cursed!" Yuuta called out. Seriously, if those two can mess around with physics as they do, I'd hate to see what would happen if you angered an actual god.
"On an unrelated note, why exactly is Dekomori here?" said Nibutani. "She's a middle schooler; how is she supposed to help Rikka with her high school studies?"
Dekomori turned on her heel to flash Nibutani a wicked grin.
"Fufufu, fake Mori Summer! I, Dekomori, have brought a swift and unsatisfying death upon my math exams. It is already decided that I shall be moving on to your high school. Take that!"
"Oh really?" Nibutani raised an eyebrow. "Alright, fine, how about a test?"
She clapped twice, summoning a small platoon of fairies.
"Give us a math problem for her to solve, won't you?" she said.
"Yes, Mori Summer!" a series of small feminine voices chorused. At once, the fairies started fluttering into the shape of a horizontal circle. Then, they began to cast individual magical spells, sending waves of light to collide in the center, where the shapes of numbers began to form.
"Simplify this expression!" they all exclaimed. Dekomori narrowed her eyes before snapping her fingers.
"X cubed minus eight!" she said, confidently. A blue circle above the equation signaled she was right.
"Eh? Unbelievable!" Nibutani said.
"Fufufu! Are you intimidated Fake Summer?" Dekomori raised a challenging finger. "Shall you spare yourself a painful death and retract your words at once?"
"Why you little…" she turned to her fairies. "Give me a harder one!"
They all nodded and summoned a different equation.
"Solve the system of equations!"
"X equals 10, Y equals negative five!" Nibutani said.
"Another one!' Dekomori called
As this continued, Kumin turned to Rikka.
"Are you really that bad at math?" she said. Rikka said nothing and shuffled back to the shrine.
"Dear whoever, please don't let me get a failing grade,"
"At least pick a specific god!" said Yuuta.
"Don't worry, Rikka, I know what to do!" Kumin said. She then proceeded to pull one of her pillows out of her bag and curled up on the ground in front of the shrine.
"At least ask the gods for permission first!" said Yuuta.
"If I go to sleep thinking about math, I'll wake up with all of the answers for the exam!" she mumbled. "It's been working since I was a little girl."
Rikka cleared her throat.
"Looks like it's time for plan C. Also…" she turned back to the shrine and bowed. "Please do not put a curse upon my friend that turns her into an old lady and subsequently prevents her from returning to the undersea kingdom."
"That's just the plot of Urashima Taro!"
"…And now we're cleaning the school swimming pool?" Nibutani said. Yuuta nodded
"Nanaste said that if we do some chores to contribute to the school, they might reconsider shutting down our club," he said. "And all the club members have to participate."
Yuuta and Nibutani stood side-by-side inside of the empty pool, scrubbing every inch of the tiled surface with brushes and hosing off the gunk as they did so while Dekomori and Rikka did the same.
"If you ask me, finding the Invisible Boundary Lines is contribution enough," said Dekomori.
"I understand your reservations," said Rikka, as she continued to clean. "However, we must remember that we live amongst humans, and thus we must live by their inferior societal structure."
"Of course, Master," Dekomori bowed and continued hosing.
"Speaking of club business, how are things going with the cheerleading club?" said Yuuta.
"Eh, it's fine, but a lot of the upperclassman cheerleaders are really strict about perfecting routines and whatnot," said Nibutani. "Though, I really can't complain if it washes the chuunibyou out of my identity."
"Mori Summer makes for an excellent cheerleader!" a random fairy chirped. Even when she didn't have the entire swarm summoned, there was always at least one fairy nearby Nibutani. It didn't bother her, they made for lovely company. "She's the most beautiful and intelligent girl in the whole universe!"
"Man, you're really serious about the whole erasing the past thing, huh?" said Yuuta. "Then again, I can't really say I'm much different. To tell the truth, sometimes Dark Flame Master gets a little out of control whenever I turn into him."
"Eh? What do you mean?" Kumin glanced up from the side of the pool where she laid down her pillow. "You seem perfectly fine as the Dark Flame Master."
"Hardly," Yuuta blushed. "He's a bit of a loose cannon during fights. Sometimes I get a little scared to let him out, if not him, then the dragon usually ends up causing me some kind of problem."
"Really?" said Kumin. "Strange, I thought both of you seemed a lot more interesting in your chuunibyou forms."
"Absolutely not!" Yuuta and Nibutani said at the same time.
"It's so embarrassing, I can't stop myself from staying stupid lines like- "Yuuta suddenly struck a pose. "Bwahaha! Cleaning this simple pool is a trivial task. But it shall serve as adequate training for defeating Sheeptar the Sheep King."
"Yes, that's exactly how I wanted to put it! I was always going off about how…" Nibutani instinctively began using a dreamy and aloof tone. "…cleaning the pool is an important task to maintain the purity of our beloved school. In order for fairies to make a home out of our world, then we must do our best to make it clean and safe."
"Exactly!" Yuuta snapped his fingers. "And don't get me started on-the math exam is a truly fearsome enemy. If the Wicked Eye cannot conquer it, then we truly have no hope."
"Hey, Yuuta!"
Yuuta yelped and quickly collected himself. Isshiki was standing beside the pool waving at everyone.
"Gah! Isshiki!" he said. Nibutani smacked herself in the face and put on her pretty-girl expression.
"Oh, hello!"
"What are you two doing?" said Isshiki. "I mean, I thought your club was about magic or something, why are you cleaning the school swimming pool?"
"This is a strategic move to increase our reputation among the school," said Rikka.
"Huh?" Isshiki tilted his head. "Wait a minute… what's Dark Flame Master and Wicked Eye, and all of that stuff?"
"Uh, that's…" Yuuta stammered. He glanced around at the other members for help but received none. "You see, um… ugh, I can't possibly hope to explain any of this. Isshiki, the Far-East Magical Napping society is a club where everyone pretends to have magical powers because they're either an Exalt or a Nemah. I know that sounds ridiculous, but the thing is…"
"That sounds pretty cool," said Isshiki.
"…You think so?" Nibutani and Yuuta said simultaneously.
"Yeah! I love fantasy stuff. Anyway, the music club thing didn't really work out so I'm looking for a new one," he said. "But enough about that, how about I give you guys a hand?"
"You mean it?" said Yuuta, as Isshiki grabbed a brush.
"Sure! You helped me, now it's my turn to help you!" he climbed down the ladder to the pool.
"That actually reminds me," said Nibutani. "What exactly is the difference between an Exalt and a Nemah?"
"That's a complex question," said Rikka. "Exalt are the people of the light, they are beings that value honor, justice, and peace more than anything else. They have the power to use healing and sun magic, as well as communicate with celestial beings like fairies. They're the race from which you find dashing heroes, pure hearts like Kumin, or white mages like Mori Summer. On the other hand, the Nemah are the people of the dark, who yearn for passion, strength, and happiness. They have the powers of dark magic and to summon demons to do their bidding. Nemah are the death-seeking warriors like Dekomori, the relentless warlocks like the Dark Flame Master, or the corrupted seers such as me."
"Woah, you got a whole story to go with it too," Isshiki said. "Do you guys' cosplay?"
"You don't think it's weird or embarrassing?" said Yuuta
"Of course not! I mean, it's just role-playing," his friend chuckled.
"Oh, is that what you believe, human?" Dekomori narrowed her eyes. "Then allow me to show you the extent of my power!"
"Wait, don't- "Yuuta said, but it was too late.
"Mjolnir Accelerator!"
Dekomori whizzed forward, briefly becoming a burning hot sphere of golden fire before her hammer smacked Isshiki in his whole body. For a brief moment, Yuuta saw the air forced out of his friend's lungs. Then, the human boy was smacked upwards, flying up into the sky until he was suddenly invisible.
"AAAAAAAAGH!"
"Isshiki?" Yuuta's eyes widened.
"Don't worry, he should be fine," said Rikka. "Assuming he doesn't leave the upper thermosphere…"
"Say what now?"
"Though, that does give me an idea," Nibutani said. "Why don't we use our powers to clean faster?"
"That's a great idea!" Yuuta planted his brush on the ground. "Incarnate Wings!"
Suddenly, Yuuta thrust forwards right into the edge of the pool, where he slipped on the curved edge and was suddenly flung up and out of the pool.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAH!" Yuuta screamed as he flew up into the air in a comparable manner to Isshiki.
"Yuuta!" exclaimed Rikka, before realizing how loud she'd shouted.
"Eh, he'll be fine," said Dekomori.
"He does have a good point though," Nibutani raised a finger. "Fairies?"
"We're already on it, Mori Summer!" the familiar golden swarm of tiny women appeared on Nibutani's command, each carrying miniature brushes or sponges. Without hesitation, each of them flew off to different corners of the pool.
"Using magic for pitiful human tasks…" Dekomori frowned. "And yet you still think yourself worthy of the name of Mori Summer?"
Immediately, she redirected her house directly at Nibutani, spraying the older girl with a blast of water.
"Gah! Cut it out you! Take this!"
Nibutani grabbed another hose and returned fire, the two beams of water meeting in midair.
"Impossible!" Dekomori said. "Let's see you handle this!"
She front-flipped in the air to avoid the incoming water before conjuring her hammer.
"No one can deflect the Mjolnir Hammer, for I have no weaknesses!"
"Fairies, take aim!' Nibutani shouted as her army redirected their attention to Dekomori, summoning their golden spears to their hands. "Ready, aim, fire!'
Rikka watched in astonishment as golden light clashed with itself in a grand display of action. Which didn't really get the pool clean.