part1
"So then, because you are a very special person, we've let you into our club room. I'd wonder if you'd like to join with us? What?"
The girl sitting in the main chair ended up whispering to somebody beside her.
"What!? They've discovered us already!?" She stood from her seat.
"Impossible!"
"The devils are really fearsome!" A
"Asahaka nari." He heard someone from the shadows say.
It might have looked like it was just her in this dark room, but since Tristan listened closely, he was able to hear them breathing.
The other people, who were supposed to have kept silent and secret in the room shouted out. Still, the lights were dim. The girl that stood up scrunched her face, stressed at this.
"Our main fighters are out right now, so it's just Shiina. Crap, I hate it but it can't be helped at all! We're moving, we'll have to find some other hide-out, get moving, people!"
At this time, someone appeared from the darkness in the room and said.
"My spies tell me that there is a devil's presence moving fast towards our location. They've also said that they seem like they're from the Student Council." The blonde girl who seemingly came from nowhere said.
At a loss at what is occurring, Tristan said nothing.
"They're getting very close, Yuri. If we do not make an escape now, we may be forced into conflict."
"We'll have to get the girls in the music club as well before we leave."
She opened a drawer, and revealed a strange device a little larger than her hand, it was shaped like the human letter for 'L'. Yuri stood up, and pulled on one side of it.
"Emergency escape. Operation: Start!"
part2
"What's why, sempai, in order to avoid becoming a NEET, and to avoid being a burden to not only your parents, but to the whole of humanity, you must join a club."
Apparently kicked out from the dim room, Sleeper and the member of the Student Council returned to their rooms while taking a flight of stairs.
Actually, one was just pestering the other who actually was returning to his room. But then;
"Sempai, right now, I have to be somewhere urgent. the next time we see each other, you must be a member of a club. The only way to avoid this is to join me at the Student Council. Farewell, small minded sempai." The peculiar girl turned and disappeared off somewhere.
"What is it about clubs that she wants me to join one?" Sleeper held his head in one hand, while holding the rail on the other. While he should be returning soon, he instead got another idea.
"Instead, I'll play the newest edition of my game on my phone." But as soon as he reached for the pocket with the phone,
"Out the way! Urgent business!"
"Forgive us!"
Some students ran him by, bumping into him and disappearing in the same direction as the girl who just departed. Also incidentally running him over on the steps of the stairs.
"W-weren't those students in the Student Council? Ou-ch my back..."
"You there! Class is beginning soon! Stop lazing around and get to your classroom immediately!"
A teacher shouted at him.
"I-impossible." Said Sleeper, his wracked body moved as if shocked with electricity as he did.
part3
Running stride. Flowing hair.
Tsubaki Shinra rushed down corridors of the school with a contingent of devils from the Council with her. And her goal was a band of troublemakers that appeared a while back.
"V-Vice President, how much longer!?"
A devil with blue hair asked her.
"They're very close, just follow me, and we'll catch them this time."
"Although this must be the third time this year we've come up with nothing." A devil behind her said under her breath.
"It's different this time. Up until now, we've been chasing operants and proxies for these troublemakers. Now, we have the entire brains of the operations within our grasp.
"Y-you mean?"
"Their leaders are in our cross-hairs. And we are the bullets."
The vice president elegantly fixed her glasses in the standard expected of her.
Middle on the bridge of her nose, index and ring on the rims of the lens.
And grinned a little.
"Vice president, you're a little scary today." "Oh, sorry, forgive me."
An awkward silence that made the sounds of clicking heels louder came over them.
"This is the place. Everyone, get ready, we're going straight in!"
The sliding door with the sign of the Social Interactions Club over it came into view, and the Vice president immediately kicked it down.
Now that there was no magic barrier they could sense the presence of supernaturals.
Easy for a devil. Now where were their targets?
"You know, I never expected that you'd find us so soon, I was shocked when my spymaster informed me there were a bunch of devils heading straight for us. But unfortunately -"
"Ah hey! I'm not done monologuing yet!"
Instead of listening to her speech, Tsubaki had broken the rules and rushed straight for the leader.
Unparalleled agility, and the scraping of metal halted her advance. Red eyes as well.
"Asahaka nari."
"Out of the way." Tsubaki said to the one blocking her. But her red eyes betrayed no fear or hesitation.
"A-ah. Good job Shiina!" Yuri, the leader here shouted out.
"Open fire!" Yuri then yelled, and pointed her L-shaped tool at Tsubaki.
An orange spark appeared from one of the ends, together with the sound of popping. The spark lit her face for a second before it disappeared, and then appeared again.
This method of illumination revealed the few others doing the same thing with similarly shaped tools.
He was told to stand aside, so that he wouldn't get in the way.
One of the devils screamed out, and then a barrier immediately erupted between the Student Council and the Social Interaction club.
One of the devils were the first to speak out, holding her bleeding arm.
"Y-you brought guns into this school!?"
Yuri was unaffected by how this must seem to them. She closed an eye, and stuck out her tongue.
"Well, we kind of need it, but we only use it for self-defence."
"Y...how dare you..."
"DON'T YOU KNOW YOU COULD HARM THE STUDENTS WITH THAT!"
Tsubaki Shinra, from behind the barrier, began to channel a powerful-looking spell in her moment of anger.
The leader of the Social Interactions Club gained a look of worry. But then laughed it off.
"Escape plan: D!" Yuri yelled.
"Right!" Someone answered back, and suddenly the curtains were drawn.
Because the devils had been in the darkness of the room, the sudden reveal of the full might of the sun scalded their vulnerable retinas. Their acute ability to see even in darkened areas also shared a weakness that had just been exploited.
Then the sound of shattering glass filled the room. And when the devil's pupils narrowed like they were supposed to, they only saw that the windows of the clubroom had shattered, with the curtains swaying slightly. One of them scowled, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
"Are you crying?"
"No, it's just. My eyes still hurt"
"...crybaby."
part4
A repetitive ringing screamed into the air. It was the school that had put on an alarm.
"Phew, we lost them. Hm?"
Yuri, the leader of Social Interactions looked upon her people.
"Hurry up, we still have to evacuate our girls in the Music Club, for now..."
"Yuri, I feel like my bones have snapped, uuh." Someone cried.
"Ow, my knee. As I thought, jumping from the third floor of the school building would still hurt." One of the member's said. "Oh? But didn't you always used to fall off the roof of the school building?"
"That's because someone kicked me from behind isn't it!" The member yelled at her.
"Anyway, sorry it's such a mess right now, but we were discovered by the devils residing in this school." The leader turned to Tristan, who was pulled to exit from the window, but quickly climbed down the face of the building, instead of falling like the rest of them did. "That means we can no longer use this building as our headquarters, so we'll have to get everyone out of here before we leave the grounds. We can't risk our precious comrade's lives while in enemy territory."
"Also, it's best that you come with us, now that the student council have seen you with us, they'll treat you as an enemy, despite your former alliance."
He became surprised that she knew about the Rating Games.
"I was watching you personally during that time." Someone who's breathing and presence had not been sensed until now appeared at his side. It was the same person their leader had talked to before making a rushed escape. He noticed she had a strange earpiece that extended towards her mouth.
"Hello." She had a dead tone for her voice.
"Let's head as quietly and sneakily as we can to the Music Club room. Our girls will likely be there."
"But won't the devil's feel our presence?"
"Move it!"
part5
"Yeah, I thought something was going on when we heard the gunshots. Is that a newbie?"
Social Interactions, plus one, had snuck back into the large building, avoided every student, and now stood inside another club room. Currently the leader was speaking to a purplish-haired girl holding what the humans call a guitar. There were also four other girls in the room when they hurriedly entered, chatting amongst themselves.
But eventually it descended into people shouting over each other since the bell was ringing obnoxiously.
They jumped from the windows in the third floor, secretly climbed back up the building, taking care not to be seen by the rush of students evacuating. Now, Social Interactions plus one were in a room on the second floor, which seemed to be for musicians.
"He's new. We'll introduce everyone properly later, for now, get your band ready. The location of Afterlife Headquarters has been compromised, and we're getting everyone out of here."
"What's wrong, lead?" A short girl with pink hair came between the two who were speaking. She was quickly pulled back away by one of the girls.
Short intervals between the loud clapping of shoes, and growing heaviness in the air. The squire spoke up.
"I can feel the Student Council coming quickly. If we are to leave, we must move now."
"W-woah, he can do something like feel the presence of others? That's like in a fantasy manga..." Someone hiding behind a person with blue hair said.
Then the person who he could not detect appeared beside him and said "What Tristan says is right, I am being told that both the Student Council, and the Occult Club are coming our way.
"Eh, Occult as well? The devils are scary..."
The girl with the guitar scrunched her face and said "We'll have to come back for our instruments, but lead the way." the people who were shouting at each other came to stand behind her, grinning or smiling.
They exited the room, some talking about where they would go after they had successfully left the school. But that would have to be the least of their worries.
"Yuri, it seems we have been trapped." The brightly yellow haired girl that Tristan could not sense said aloud.
Social Interactions plus one exited the music room, to find members of both the Student Council and Occult Club waiting in the corridor.
One of them started to talk at them, while holding a weapon she had summoned.
They'd been cornered.
But then...
"Look guys! There's a window at the end of this corridor. Let's escape through here!"
"You're not getting away this time!" "Isn't that Tristan? Why is he with them?"
Once Tristan saw the first weapon being drawn and wielded as if about to strike, he materialized lightning in his hands.
Hearing the sounds of the glass pane smash, and the jumping that came next, he held the lightning in front, before it burst into a larger form, stretching from the floor to the ceiling, and broadening it's thickness.
Taking the teachings of one of the grand Chaos Daughters into action, the pillar of entangled lightning held in place when it's caster returned his arm. Even when he proceeded to exit the scene using the smashed window, the Lightning Ward held strong the ground it was birthed to protect.
Having had experience with, or seen this magic in action, neither Occult or Council dared not cross it, as it's raging appearance made a shrilling sound to match.