I'm fighting the evil mega-corps and secret villains of this world, but hooking up the MC with his harem is the real challenge! 3 (Overpowered Isekai CYOA / Gakuen Toshi Asterisk)
"Oh, by the way… just because Galaxy originated from Japan and that this school's founding name is in Japanese doesn't mean you have to follow their customs." Claudia brought the topic up after she brought me up to speed with the purposes of the school's many departments, "It would be awfully stifling if we continued to speak so formally, especially when you and I are in the same year, Lucas, so you should feel free to speak to me more casually."
I had a sinking feeling that I was caught in one of those anime cliches where the girl is trying to get the protagonist to use her first name in an overly familiar manner for typical Japanese main characters.
Though her bringing up the point that neither of us were Japanese, and that the school was fairly international in its customs despite its cultural origins were points against my theory that she's inexplicably attracted to me for some unknown reason, the fact is that she deliberately sought me out to attend this school and the attitude she had shown me so far was most definitely not the kind a girl would use with some stranger or acquaintance they just met.
"Sounds legit. I'll do just that then, Claudia. I would say that you have to call me Lucas too but you're already way ahead of me."
"Just so, Lucas."
"You do realize that bit about speaking more casually applies to you too."
"Oh, no… This is simply a habit of mine. Please pay it no mind."
"A habit?"
Well, having distinct character traits does make one more memorable. I once faked being a cliched Japanese Chuunibyou for a week and I'm pretty sure no one at my school would ever forget my name until they got tired of talking about the stupid shit they saw at school.
"Yes. I'm actually quite blackhearted, so I always endeavor to at least present myself as polite and affable. And now I can't speak any other way."
Claudia smiled as sweetly as a doting mother, which didn't match up at all with her words, ah I see, this is the Affably Evil trope in play, isn't it? Though I doubt she's actually evil considering how she's run the school thus far, if I take her parents' positions into account, then she is probably morally grey at worst.
"Critical of yourself much…Blackhearted? Really?" I snorted with laughter and disbelief.
"Oh, like you wouldn't believe. My heart is at least as black as a piece of dark matter…stewed, charred, jammed into a black hole, and topped with blackstrap molasses."
What's next? Darker than Black?
"So long as you don't start talking about Darkness within Darkness you'll probably be okay in my book."
If I had to draw a line in the sand it would be to never go full Kingdom Hearts.
With all that has been said, however, I don't think she's assessing herself quite fairly. If she's opening up to me to this extent, to which I was fairly certain of given I was taught to read people by a few of my fellow vigilantes and my gut feeling was often right, I can safely place her within the "probably a waifu candidate" category considering her personality and status as a StuCo President (fairly typical in harem anime series).
The only odd thing is that she's gunning for me instead of a 'proper' main character.
I don't know what kind of hidden flags I triggered but I wasn't going to complain when she was definitely my type of girl. It might be a careless attitude to take especially since she seems to have a self-admitted manipulative streak at the very least, but quite frankly I was the top dog in this world, I had no reason to fear this girl or the mega-corps.
Not truly. After all, the worst thing the IEF could do is kill the people I care about or engage in wanton slaughter in search of me.
I would be mad and disappointed in the latter, but if they killed my friends, I would just get angry and plot out a more violent approach… after I store what's left of the bodies of my friends so that I could revive them later on, one at a time, so as to keep at least 2 Extra Lives stocked at all times of course.
"I don't believe that's actually possible, nor does it sound like it makes much sense."
"Neither do I. Though it will probably fit into a video game series."
"It does sound rather fitting, ah! Here we are. Please, go on in."
We had arrived at the student council room on the top floor of the high school building. In fact, all the rooms on this floor had something to do with the student council.
The security system read Claudia's school crest and in response, the door opened. The room inside, however, did not appear to contain anything very relevant to student government at first glance. But such was to be expected when in this day and age the technology is embedded into the room such that holographic screens can be called upon and viewed by the people inside the room once they had been authenticated.
At any rate, the room was closer to a giant corporation's CEO office rather than that of a student council's room, given that the Student Council President manages students across 9 academic year groups and the interests of the IEF governing over them I could see why they are given so much power and a room that reflects that.
Claudia took her seat behind the desk then clasped her fingers and let out a deep breath.
"Now, I've already welcomed you as the Student Council President to Seidoukan Academy, so before we get into business… Here, come here." Claudia waved me over, as I walked to her side she spun her chair and turned her eyes to the scene outside the window. "Let me welcome you as a girl showing off the view she gets every day… Welcome to Asterisk."
Looking down at the metropolis created atop an artificial island filled me with mixed feelings. A part of me appreciated the sights as a proof of human technological advancements and architecture excellence, on the other hand, the fact that it was made to satisfy corporate greed and to scout for talent among the superhuman minority of the world makes me sick to the core.
"You transferred here on a special scholarship, and while Seidoukan Academy doesn't have any particular hopes on you other than your continued academic excellence..." Claudia kept her gaze on the city while she spoke as I wondered whether my grades truly did play a part in making this transfer work out, only for her to reveal a part of her true motives a second later, "... my personal hope is that you will participate in the Phoenix Festa and achieve victory."
"... Either you already knew I had a few gadgets to win my fights or you're just making this up as you go along and claiming credit for it." Compared to being Aizen'ed this is pretty tame level stuff, I wasn't at all bothered by what she was claiming and allowed it to show on my calm expression.
"Eh hee hee, that's a secret." She's cute, I'll give her that.
"All right then, keep your secrets." I smiled and walked towards the seat laid out for me.
"Aren't you a biiiiit interested?" She spun her chair around and pouted at me.
Okay, double kawaii multiplier bonus there. But I'm still not letting her have a win that easily.
Hmm, she dropped her habit of speaking formally really quickly. Guess that's another "cute points" multiplier bonus for her.
"I am curious but... you just seem to be the type that prefers to reveal information when you think it's the right time for it, and that's fine with me. I'm not entitled enough to hold that against you and I kinda like the 'mysterious character that knows more than they should' cliche. Besides, you're cute like that."
"That's mean Lucas, you're supposed to at least show a confused look so that I can explain things to you."
Does she have an exposition fetish or something?
"Okay then, I'll start this off by letting you fill in the blanks. You're well aware that I was planning to attend Seidoukan Academy regardless of whether I got a scholarship or not, and that I'm fully willing to pay the exorbitant tuition fees to do so, but for an unknown reason you decided to nominate me for one of those special scholarships."
"Yes, and I pushed through your candidacy," she crowed. "I was never happier to be student council president. Three cheers for authority!"
"Well, I'm hardly going to say something about such authority since your supreme executive power is derived from a mandate from the masses via an election... and not from some farcical aquatic ceremony where a lady throws a fancy sword at you out of a lake."
"Is that a reference to the legend of King Arthur?"
It's a reference to a satirical film about one of his and his knights' many quests but since it wasn't made in this world Claudia's answer was technically the most correct one.
"Close enough."
"Hee hee, I do so love being correct. About my decision… You could say I was proven right on my first day when you took one of the top 12 ranks. If you had turned me down, or failed the extra examination they foisted on you, then I would have lost face. But with the result of a duel that most wouldn't even think you capable of winning, it's safe to say that I was vindicated, in more ways than one."
So she did know I could win a fight against a Genestella student. One possibility I could see is that she had picked up scraps of information from my friends that attended the school and came to such a conclusion… or her Pan-Dora, her Orga Lux that apparently allows her to see the future for upto 20-30 seconds (according to public observations), could actually provide her with visions much further into the future than anyone has realized.
… I wasn't really worried at all, I guess I shouldn't be so surprised at how calm I was taking such an ordinarily worrying possibility. The fact was that she was absolutely no threat to me, not in any real sense. The worst she could ever do was inconvenience me or hurt me on an emotional level.
"Hmm, since this is as good a chance as any, I will tell you the reason why I wanted you here to participate in the Phoenix tag team event."
"Plot progression, yay."
"I want you to become my partner."
"Well, that escalated quickly."
"Though I wouldn't mind being your partner in that way too, I was referring to the upcoming Phoenix Festa."
"I figured. Just for the record. I wouldn't mind giving it a go either since you're definitely my type but I think we should get to know each other better first. Anyways, back to business, we literally just met today, why do you want me to be your partner for this? I didn't come here to fight in the Festa."
"Oh? Truly? It didn't seem that way when you picked a fight with the former 8th Ranked."
"I have no wish, or rather, there is no wish of mine that the IEF's will grant, not to a satisfactory level and… just checking before I go on, how do you feel about becoming an Executive in an IEF?"
Claudia raised a single finger, as if telling me to wait. She pushed a few settings on her screen then flipped it around to show me she disabled the surveillance devices.
"Mind if I add on just in case?" I 'took' out a device the size of a cigarette from my jacket, a small device that would make sure we weren't overheard.
"Go right ahead." She seemed to have understood my intentions.
After allowing me to activate the device, Claudia answered me with a look of determination.
"I would rather die first. To be honest I never really cared about them. The only reason why I'm working within the system is to achieve my own wish."
Everything I've learned about detecting the truth and what the impression I was getting from reading her body through my senses was that she was telling the full truth on the matter.
Though the content of her response pleased me I was more than a little concerned about the fact that she seemed to trust me with the truth of her views, and for the reason why she was willing to tell me all that even though this was the first day we met.
It was an interesting puzzle, that is, the endeavor of figuring out what she was getting out of this.
"Okay, I believe you. Continuing on, the IEF's won't grant my wish and neither will I need and want them to grant my wish. It's the principle of it. No offense to your hard working parents, but I despise the way they control and run this world, though I am playing by their rules for now I draw the line at winning their entertainment tournament arc just to beg them to change their ways for the good of the people. Doing so will accomplish little except reinforcing the current reality that the welfare of the people depends on their say so, and I will not have that."
"Your wish… is for the people? And you don't believe the IEF's will accept that? I see your point… governmental powers were only as broad as the written law, and laws could easily be revised whenever the integrated enterprise foundations wanted. In the case of previous Festa winners, there have been precedents of laws having been changed by their wishes to protect the integrity of the Festa, but even then those changes were limited to a country or two and there were enough loopholes that the IEF's could still take advantage of…it doesn't stop there. All those times the laws were changed they were done so by an individual with 'official' ties.
Claudia gave me the facts as they were, going through it as if she was reminding herself rather than informing me of the matter.
"... Normally I wouldn't push to know more, but since you weren't planning to make a wish in the first place, might I know the details of your wish?"
Instead of responding with words I activated my device, creating a holographic screen and sent a file to her. Opening the file, Claudia's holographic screen expanded to show my modified Universal Declaration of Human Rights document, along with many other screens with detailed civil laws that would bring the world towards the world I knew and my own personal morality.
There was also a little something about marriage laws and how polygamy would be legal, just for the fun of it, but that was just one law out of many.
"T-this is…"
"This is about changing the world. If I counted each of them as individual wishes you can say that I have as many wishes as there are ways to die. In any case, you don't need to delete the file, it's not the first time I tried to introduce such notions at a school without it catching on, as far as the IEF's are concerned I'm just another number clamoring for an end to corporate abuses."
For the third time today Claudia seemed stunned and at a loss for the right words.
"I want, no, I will change the world. But I won't be doing it here, even if I did win and get the opportunity, all of this is the type of thing where they would say 'I'm sorry but this is outside the IEF's ability to grant' and that will be the end of it. And if I tried to just change on thing on the list, well, I'll need a partner for the Phoenix tag team battles, a team in the case of the Gryps team battles, and I don't think anyone in their right mind will want to join me if they think the IEF's will be 'after me' once they find out my wish."
"I see… so you have no wish you would like granted and it would be insanity for someone to risk their lives for the sake of someone else's wish… I take it you won't be my partner for the Phoenix?"
Claudia smiled bitterly seemingly expecting such an outcome based on the facts that had been laid out.
"When did I say that? I'll be happy to be your partner!"
I answered with a bright, carefree smile that made Claudia almost fall off her chair.
"What?! Ahem, forgive my outburst. That was unseemly."
"There's nothing to forgive."
"Back on the topic, no… no, I don't suppose it's right to go back to that after you shared so much with me." Claudia took a deep breath as if embracing herself for a rejection, "I will be honest with you, I have a wish that I will stop at nothing to be granted that will place not just myself, but anyone who sides with me, as a target for elimination by the IEF Galaxy, who governs Seidoukan Academy. Knowing that… will you still be my partner? Even though you said that no one in their right mind will risk their life for another person's wish?"
"Yeah. I will."
I answered without hesitation.
"Also, I think you're misunderstanding something. I said that no one would want to risk their lives if they found out what I would wish for, not that I wouldn't risk my life for someone else's wish. Besides, if we partner up I'll just keep my mouth shut and say I have no real wish, and then considering you're more valuable to Galaxy than I am the worst they'll do is target me."
It's always been that way, ever since I became strong enough to fight every battle on this world and win. I could never be worried for myself here and could only worry about the people I care about getting hurt.
Things would be different in Terra Omega where I'm, at most, the middle-ranked heavy hitter among the god-like heroes I'm friends with. But in this world there was nothing that could take me down.
"You do realize that… no, I apologize, I should understand that you're well aware of the risks. You are no fool. I'm just… I'm sorry but the thought of you getting hurt or killed is… makes me feel more worried than I normally would be for someone I just met."
Seeing Claudia's genuine worry over me solidified my theory that I wasn't a stranger to her, in the sense that she has definitely 'saw' some part of me through her future visions, and that she cares about my safety more than I do myself.
I wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. But whenever I think about it, there is a part of me that feels very… warm. Happy, even.
"I-I'm flattered, truly. Claudia, you're a very kind person, for being concerned about my well being to this extent. But I made up my mind, and though I think you're overestimating my abilities a bit, if you want me to be your partner and if you think I can help you achieve your wish then I will accept your offer and do my best to bring you victory."
"There is no one else I would rather..."
Those words were said so softly that I was certain a normal human wouldn't be able to hear.
"Um, did you say something?"
Claudia quickly shook her head, denying it, "Not quite. My apologies, I was… muttering. If you would indulge my selfish desires once more for the day, could you tell me why you would accept my offer if there is no true benefit for yourself?"
"I think you're interesting and I wanted to get to know you better. That, and well, despite being rather secretive about things I can tell that you didn't lie to me once the entire time we spoke and you were very earnest when you asked me to team up with you. Also… we kinda opened up to each other quite a bit...so that makes us friends and it's as good as a reason as any to spend more time as friends together."
To my surprise she all but leapt out of her chair and hugged me!
I couldn't dodge lest I revealed any superhuman capabilities too early!
Not that I wanted to dodge this development considering how good this feels…
"Huh?! Claudia!"
"Hee hee! That makes me so very happy to hear that. With you at my side, I can now say I've taken the first step to realizing my wish."
"Your wish… what is it anyways?"
"Don't rush these things, Lucas. That's still a secret for now. I'll tell you what I wish for when the time feels right for it."
Despite what she said about 'rushing' things I got the sense that she was the one with the biggest sense of urgency here.
Just before she let go of me, I heard yet another near inaudible whisper of hers, "At last… We meet at least..."
If I had to trust my instincts on this… I'll say that she's desperate. Desperate for what, I'm not certain… and while there's a lot of things I can do to find out I think I'll let her plans play out for now.
The rest of our talk continued normally. I filled up the sheets needed to try out some Orga Lux's even though I was planning to fail all the compatibility tests, we discussed when we would meet up to hang out or train together, then talked about less serious matters for a while before we left for our dormitories.
Once I placed the dummy in my bed, I went to the labs to continue my usual routines on both worlds, did a bit of research and sent out some of my newly developed stealth terminators to protect my friends now that I was going to be a target on this island.
My next few days continued normally, like myself, Claudia and my guy friends had their schedules packed and I kept myself busy by pretending to tinker about in the workshop areas provided (to make it look like I'm making new things or adjusting weapons) as I dodged various challenges from the student population.
Then Claudia came over to my class one day and decided that she wanted to escalate things up a notch.
"Lucas! Let's go!"
"Eh? Go where?"
"On a date, of course! We're partners so we have to get to know each other better~"
My class had an absolute field day as I was dragged out of the school.
By the time we entered the city center the entire school had heard the news from rumors.
When I won Claudia an 'Asta the Squirrel' plushie from a futuristic claw game (the Gekota equivalent of this battle city), it seems as though any Festa enthusiast in the city knew that we were entering the Phoenix together.
Then the challenges started pouring in for real… I would be more annoyed with that if it weren't for the fact that Claudia felt very nice when she clung onto my arm whenever we went around together.
I was planning to just harness the power of friendship (and prep time) to win this tournament arc but it seems as though Claudia has a more advanced idea.