The way nothing bad had happened lately, it felt like it was leading up to something finally bursting through and happening all of a sudden. Something big and dangerous. Something that created a nearly permanent pit in my stomach, even though it hadn't happened yet. But it would happen. My intuition, from this kind of thing having happened to me at least ten times before, made sure I knew that.
And when it did happen, it started with a text.
I saw it when I checked my phone during lunch at school. At first, I didn't say anything to any of my classmates. I wasn't sure they'd get it. They'd probably tell me I was being oversensitive. But being this kind of destined hero imbues you with a certain kind of paranoia that honestly keeps you safe more often than not.
So when Murasaki texted me, "shes not here today... and its not excused... even ms suzune is sus that shes just awol..." I could tell that we'd be in battle with something or other before the end of the day. I just didn't bet on how soon.
Before lunch ended, I got another text. But this one was blank, with a voice recording message embedded in it instead. I didn't know what I'd end up playing out loud to the whole class, but I knew I had to. So I did.
My phone filled the classroom with a high-pitched screaming voice, doing its best to be heard over a din of crashing and crumbling. It came out all in one sentence, punctuated only by panicked gasps.
"A sinkhole opened under the school it swallowed one of the buildings a giant sand worm came out." Gasping. "I'm not gonna ask you for help it's not your school but if anything happens to me I like you a lot and I'm sorry we couldn't stop this sooner." Gasping and audible tears. "We're going to try to stop it now." More gasping. "Wish me luck."
And that was all.
I slammed my lunch down so hard that grains of rice flew all over the place, and jumped to my feet. I had to go stop this, even if I had to go alone. I just had to hope they'd understand, that they wouldn't try to stop me. That they wouldn't be pissed off I was basically trying to save an enemy school. Even though I was trying to save a lot more than that, I didn't expect them to understand. I looked around, ready to hear their protests.
But, to my surprise, they were all standing with me.
"What, did you think we'd let you go on your own?" Kat asked, reading my face. "No way. We wouldn't let a friend down like that. It might seem weird, yeah, us busting into Hebijo to save them from a... sand worm. But you seem to know what this is about. And it doesn't matter to me that I don't quite get it. What matters to me is that I have your back. So we're going. Now. All of us." She gave a curt nod, and so did everyone else in the class soon after.
Mr. Kiriya had finally noticed the commotion from across the room at his desk. He approached us then, shaking his head. "I should forbid you all from going," he said. "I should tell you this is probably a trap laid for you to get you all killed. That, in the best case scenario, it's not our problem if Hebijo wants to destroy itself from the inside out." He sighed. "But... there are forces at play here that even I as your teacher don't understand. Forces I can't always be there to protect you from. If it's Linkle's... destiny to do this, I can't get in the way of that. And if you all want to back her up just because she's your friend... well, I'm proud of all of you for that. ...Good luck."
And with that, we'd stalled long enough. I gave him a singular nod, and left. Soon after, the rest of the class followed me. It was time.
When we arrived at Hebijo, the whole entire thing was covered by a shinobi barrier, so that any normal person outside wouldn't see the craziness going on within. But I could feel the craziness even before the group of us breached the barrier. Hebijo was indeed about half destroyed due to a giant sand worm, one that looked oddly familiar to me, that kept burrowing itself underground only to erupt again and continue its destruction. The Hebijo students were doing everything they could to it, just to slow it down, but to no avail. I looked around for... the cause of all this... but she was nowhere to be found at first.
Then she appeared, descending from the top of a tower right before it collapsed, the cape of her battle outfit fluttering behind her. Her golden eyes, with their odd floral shaped pupils, glowed just as brightly as her hidden scroll resonated with mine. And at that point, the entire Hebijo class seemed to abandon fighting the sand worm, leaving it to destroy their school without any resistance. Instead, they turned to me, their expressions empty. They started advancing on me, weapons brandished. Ganondorf laughed at the shock that must've shown on my face.
"Did you forget about that odd little power I have this time?"
I had, because she hadn't used it against me lately. Now it was obvious. She wanted me to forget, so she could use it against me when I wasn't expecting it... now. Shit. Now I had to fight off the rest of the Hebijo class, after I'd spent all that time getting attached to them. Ryona and Ryobi's weird sisterly love... Imu and her sweet loyalty to Miyabi... and whatever I had going on with Murasaki... I had to put that all aside if I was going to save them from this.
Then there was my class, looking at me for a sense of leadership and direction. I swallowed hard, not even knowing what to tell them.
Tris stepped in. "I'll handle Ryona. I know how she fights. The rest of you... take on the other Hebijo students, but don't hurt them too badly. Aim to incapacitate them if you can. At the very least, distract them, keep them away from Linkle. It's up to her to defeat Ganondorf. And once that happens, her evil control on her classmates should be broken. Let's go."
Asuka, Ikaruga, and Kat wasted no time, charging toward the Hebijo students just as they charged at me. But Hibari lagged behind, and Yagyuu lagged with her.
"What about the worm?" Hibari asked, as it made her point by using its head to break down another tower of Hebijo.
"Don't worry your precious little head about that, Hibari, dear." Haruka?! "We're here for that." And I saw the rest of the Crimson Squad rush past me, eager as ever to attack the worm. Sure, they were destroying even more of Hebijo in the process, as Homura's six swords went every which way and Mirai's Gatling gun put as many holes in windows as it did in the worm. But I couldn't judge. I'd always been... well, let's just say they were my comrades in property damage.
"Mistress Haruka..." Hibari's eyes were wide. Yagyuu scowled.
"Don't worry about me. Worry about incapacitating the Hebijo students. We've all got this." And she swooshed away too to go take the worm down with her battle robot.
"G-got it," Hibari said, gathering her wits and charging off next to Yagyuu to fight Ryona and Ryobi, just in time to keep them from charging at me while I stood around dumbfounded.
"What do you want us to do?" someone else asked. I looked over toward the voice and saw Yumi and the rest of the Gessen students. "I guess it doesn't matter at this point, as long as we help out somehow."
Yozakura punched at the air with her massive metal gloves. "I'll help take on that Imu girl. I've fought her before. I know how she operates."
Shiki nodded. "I got teddy bear girl." She glanced at me. "Don't worry, I won't bust her up too bad. I'll return her to you totally safely when I'm done." I blushed in spite of myself.
"I will assist in taking on the worm," Murakumo said from behind her mask. Minori followed her, yelling gleefully the whole way.
"Sticky icky worm! Sticky icky worm! Smash him up into goo, sticky icky worm!"
"I've got light arrows," Zelda said, appearing next to me all of a sudden. "You know what we have to do. Let's go." I nodded, and the two of us scurried off from all the other carnage to track down Ganondorf, who'd since hidden herself somewhere. It was easy to find her hiding place, the way her powers resonated with ours. The light and power glowing from within my cleavage guided us to her hiding spot before long.
She was in the classroom we'd spied on her in before, next to a woman with purple hair and glasses. A woman who seemed like she'd usually look pretty stern, but this time, just looked freaked out. Was this Ms. Suzune? The Hebijo elite class' teacher? Was she... in on this somehow? I told Zelda in my head that we should stay back and spy a little this time too, before just charging in there like idiots. So now we were peering through the window again.
"It will be worth it," Ganondorf told the lady I assumed to be Ms. Suzune. "When this is over, I—we, we'll gain power beyond our greatest dreams. Hebijo will be rebuilt. And from it, we can conquer the entire community of shinobi in the country. In the world. We can crush anyone who dare oppose us, never have to worry about them being a thorn in our side ever again."
"I still don't..." Ms. Suzune shuddered. Okay, so she wasn't in on this. "This is absolutely unnecessary. There are other ways to open the path to Kagura—"
"The path to Kagura?" Now Ganondorf was the one who looked taken aback.
"I thought you knew about it," Ms. Suzune said, her eyes wide. "I mean, you knew about yoma. You knew that you could summon them using shinobi blood, and... this sand worm, it's a yoma, isn't it?"
"I found out about yoma by a happy accident, but I don't know about this... path to Kagura." Ganondorf slowly and deliberately approached Ms. Suzune. "You will tell me about this."
"No." Ms. Suzune's voice was firm. "I know you're the strongest member of our elite class. You transferred here and immediately surpassed everyone that was already here. But I... I don't trust you. I don't know what you are, but you're not a regular shinobi student. And you do not deserve to know about Kagura."
The golden flowers in Ganondorf's eyes glowed in the dim classroom.
"You will tell me," she said. "I had hoped to get you on my side because of how powerful you are, but if you're not willing to join up with me... I will count you as against me."
I'd seen enough. I smashed through the window with my sword and stormed over to slash at Ganondorf. But she seemed to know I was behind her without even looking. She spun around and grabbed me by the throat.
"You..." She addressed me like I was a disease. I guessed that, to her, I was. "Seems you remember enough about your past lives to know it's your destiny to fight me, huh?" She exhaled sharply. "Do you remember enough to know that you don't always win?"
Suddenly, she released her grasp on me, dropping me to the floor. It seemed she was paralyzed. And then I saw the light arrow sticking out of her shoulder. Zelda had managed to get a shot in while she was gloating. Unfortunately, its effects didn't seem to last too long. She came to, and ripped it right out of where it was stuck, like it was nothing. At least it tore her sleeve open. She had crazy biceps, especially for a girl. Some people would definitely find that really hot.
"What's happening here?" Ms. Suzune somehow still managed to sound exactly like a stern, irritated teacher.
"You can help us bring her down if you want to," Zelda called out, continuing to fire off light arrows. But now that Ganondorf was alert, she was dodging all of them.
"I... I don't understand..." Ms. Suzune shook her head. She really didn't seem to know what to do, so she did nothing. In fact, she started trying to flee the scene. Really useful, those teachers. At least she wasn't working with Ganondorf.
Ganondorf... who had used the moment when we were paying attention to the teacher to jump on Zelda, pin her to the ground, and... start groping her? What the...?!
"I'm not deriving any enjoyment from this, like you would, you little pervert," she snapped at me. "I just need... just give me your scroll, and I'll let you go."
"No!" Zelda called out, trying to roll away from where she was being squished against the floor. "I don't believe you!"
I didn't know what to do. With them rolling around like that, it made it hard for me to attack Ganondorf in any way without hitting Zelda too. I needed to separate them somehow. Somehow...
But then, odd purple tendrils snaked in through the window and wrapped themselves securely around Ganondorf—and only Ganondorf—and pulled her off of Zelda for me. Then a shot of ice flew at her and froze her in place. I turned to the window. There was Murasaki, using her prehensile hair. Yumi, using her ice powers. And Kat, being there for, uh, the sake of being there.
"You got this," she called out.
The problem was, the ice freezing Ganondorf in place didn't last long. It probably melted from her white-hot rage and ambition and all that nonsense. And now she was struggling to emerge from the grasp of Murasaki's tangled hair. Thankfully, Murasaki had taken another hair tendril, with her massive shuriken weapon in it, and swung it at her. It hit her, enough to tear her shirt open—damn, she was shredded, as well as having bigger boobs than even Murasaki herself—but that was all it did.
Of course, that was all weapons seemed to ever do around here.
She started levitating, like she had done that one other time, and started charging up a ball of crackling energy. I readied my sword, knowing how this was going to go. She shot the energy ball at me. I swung my sword and deflected it back at her. She deflected it back at me with a casual swipe of her arm. And just like that, we were locked in this obnoxious tennis match. One that it seemed like neither of us was going to win, until one of us started getting exhausted.
I had to hope it wouldn't be me.
Suddenly, she stopped moving, a different and brighter energy crackling around her body. Zelda had hit her with a light arrow. Then she'd gotten hit by her own energy ball, finally. And now it was up to me to finish this, before she broke free and extended the battle further. I slashed my sword at her with everything I had. It shredded her battle costume to pieces. I never wanted to know that she had on a lacy black bra and matching boyshort panties, but now I knew. Great. I shouldn't have let that get me taken aback, because that might have given her enough time to get up again...
I wanted to finish her off with my sword, but something told me that would be... a bad idea, to say the least. So I decided to finish off the fight the shinobi way, even if it required me to string together more words than I was usually ever capable of.
"Hidden ninpo! Hyaaaaah!"
And then came the chickens. I still wasn't sure where they came from. Maybe nowhere. Maybe the power of my ninja scroll made them materialize, and as soon as they were done wreaking havoc, they would just disappear. But they swarmed all over Ganondorf. And as they pecked her into complete and utter submission, I ended up seeing even more that I didn't want to have to see.
Kat, of course, was leering.
Still, it looked like it was over. Finally, the world's most evil high school girl was laying crumpled on the ground, in a way that looked like she might never get up again. And if I had anything to do with it, she wouldn't. Of course, the necessary thing to do now was take her scroll—the Triforce of power—away from her. But, uh, how? I shared a glance with Zelda, who seemed equally perplexed. But it seemed like it hit both of us at the same time.
"Miss Katsuragi, may we have your assistance, please?"
"Yeah?"
"Our longtime nemesis here has an incredibly powerful secret ninja art scroll that she intended to misuse to control the world." Zelda nudged Ganondorf's unresponsive body with her foot. "We need to collect it from her, please."
"Yeah, and?" Now it was Kat's turn to look perplexed.
Until I pantomimed her favorite squeezy-squeezy motion with my hands.
"Oh! Yeah! Don't worry. With my unique skill set, I won't let you down!"
And, within seconds, Kat was groping all over Ganondorf's unconscious and naked body. It wasn't long until she found the shining golden scroll, but the creepy part was, even after she found it, she kept groping. I sighed and shook my head as I snatched it away from her. It wasn't like there was anything anyone could do to stop Kat from being Kat.
But, at last, we had it. All three pieces of the Triforce, all at once. Zelda handed me her piece, after pulling it out of—well, I wasn't going to say where—and once I took it... well, all three of them seemed to be moving of their own accord. Together, they formed a single scroll, one gleaming with power as it displayed the familiar three triangle image on it.
"Take it," Zelda said.
I didn't waste time letting it float in midair where anyone could snatch it up. I grabbed it and shoved it in my cleavage.
At that point, though, Miyabi came storming over to me.
"This is your fault, isn't it?" she snapped. "This always happens. My school always gets destroyed. I'm trying to be an elite shinobi and give this school something to be proud of, and every time, it just..." She clenched a fist and shook it, being all emo.
I held up a finger to shush her. Obviously, she didn't like that, but oh well. One thing at a time. Right now, it was time to seal Ganondorf away somewhere so she couldn't cause all this trouble again. Because, I mean, we could have killed her, but I think that would have been frowned upon, even if she did destroy Hebijo... again. So we had to do what we could.
We just had to hope it'd be enough.
