Chapter VII: It's aliens. Trust me.

Even Highwire's reinforcing cheers could only prepare Issei so much.

He had never run or attended a club before in his life.

And now he had to stand in front of someone - even if it was just Aika - and then explain to her why he was convinced that Atlantis was both real and somehow alien in origin without dropping anything to do with the robot bike that was currently sitting out behind the school at the moment.

Easy.

In theory.

Maybe.

But probably not.

Hands on his hips, Issei stared at the paper board which had been provided to him, courtesy of the student council for his club upon request…after it had also been suggested in the same breath for what he might need.

When the president wasn't glaring at him, she was actually really helpful.

Issei felt as though he could look at her in a new light.

At least until he did something to get on her bad side again, but until that he would definitely be really thankful that she was around to help because he would have gone absolutely nowhere if she wasn't there to help him.

Board marker in hand, he raised it up and finished out the remaining details of what he and Highwire had been able to find during the course of their online research and what little helpful info that people had been throwing his way.

Which wasn't a lot.

Actually he had started some sort of argument online about the culture of Atlantis and what these guys did without even intending to do it. Either Atlantis was myth or it was fiction made up by some guy called Plate.

Well.

Whatever.

A final flick of the wrist and he capped the pen once again and stepped back.

'Atlantis: Evidence of Aliens'

Now all that remained was for him to wait for Aika.

In the meantime, he gave the small room he had been allocated a once over.

It might have been a storage room with just a single desk put out for him and his one club member, but it was more than he expected. Maybe he would get some more members in the future and then get a bigger room, but that was for later.

For now though.

"Hey."

The door slid open accompanying the voice, Issei turned around and raised his hand in greeting.

Aika took a step through, then stopped and stared at the board behind him and tilted her head with a silence following that which lasted a good couple seconds. Then with a small grunt, she advanced into the room and placed herself down on the seat provided, folding one leg over the other and crossing her arms.

"So then." She thinned her lips. "...I was expecting something different?"

Despite his worst fears, Issei had to ask.

"What were you expecting?"

She shrugged at that. "Pictures of little green men and crop circles?"

"...I'm being serious here."

"Yeah? So am I." Aika remarked with a look that was definitely the herald of hidden laughter, though she at least didn't do that while he was facing her. Instead he sighed and turned back towards the board and pointed at it.

Or rather, to the minicon symbol.

"This right here is what clued me in." He looked back. "It's basically something which appears in Atlantis…and…"

Dragging the capped pen down, he tapped the board several times.

Fortunately, there had been something else.

Something discovered elsewhere in the world.

"...Urk."

Aika squinted. "Oorook?"

"...Is that how it's pronounced?" Issei stopped and stared. "...No, that's definitely Urk."

"We did a history class on this, remember?"

"We did?" Issei was absolutely certain he would have remembered…actually, would he have?

He thought about it for a second, then thought about it some more.

"Whatever." Deciding to forget it, he lowered his arm. "Point is, this symbol appears at both Atlantis and apparently on some really old ruins in Mess-whatever. Some guys say it's from Urk but I thought it was really weird how it appears when they apparently have nothing to do with one another, right?"

"Apart from being really old cities." Aika remarked with a shrug of her shoulders, but that was about all she said before nodding her head. "Anything else?"

"...There was this one guy online who said he definitely remembered something about Egypt?"

"So the pyramids are involved?"

At that, he shrugged. "I don't know, maybe? It's just some initial stuff but I was going to mainly be following where this symbol shows up and if anything weird happened with the places that it did appear at…you know?"

"...I mean, that's all very interesting." For someone who said that, she didn't look all that interested. "But what does this have to do with aliens?"

Issei blinked, then looked at the board.

What did it have to do with aliens?

It was the symbol of a literal alie-

Ah.

Right.

She wouldn't know about that.

Pursuing his lips, he stood there and thought about it for a few moments as he decided how he would explain this to her without dropping hints. The seconds ticked past before eventually he shrugged his shoulders and turned to her with a really strained expression. "I just think it's nice to think so?"

Aika looked caught somewhere between disappointment and acceptance. "So you play a couple visual novels and read some manga and suddenly thought it would be nice if ancient history was inspired by alien invaders?"

"...No?"

"And would these alien invaders also be big breasted women?"

If only that was the case.

Highwire was cool and all as a shape-shifting robot, but it would sort of be better if they had been a girl with boobs.

Shame.

"No." He denied more staunchly. "Just…aliens? Maybe like…you know…alien robots?"

Was that subtle?

"...Alien robots." Her brows shot up behind her classes. "That's certainly not what I thought you were going to do with this but…alright. You're looking for alien robots?"

"Yes." Issei gave a fittingly robotic nod. "Yes I am. Or just aliens in general. They don't have to be robots."

He pointed at the symbol.

"But that seems really sci-fi to me."

Aika gave it a brief stare, then shrugged. "If you say so…but what else do you have?"

"...What do you mean?"

She frowned and raised her hand to gesture between him and the board. "You've got a really loose connection between a mythical city and a really old civilisation, how do you know that the old symbols just didn't inspire the people making up Atlantis in the first place? Just saying…"

Well…

Uhm…

Issei drummed his fingers against his upper thigh.

Did he even have anything that could be used to explain that?

"...Why not?"

He was met with a stare which brought sweat down his nape, which was until Aika eventually dropped the subject with a dismissive huff. "Well, if you say so. It's your club, after all, and I'm just here to document the transformation between pervert and crazy person…though I'm a little surprised that you would go for robot aliens rather than big breasted aliens."

"You don't need to sound that shocked about it." Issei grumbled to her as he turned around and moved across to the small stack of books he'd scanned out of the library in preparation for this.

He'd gotten some weird looks for that as well.

Actually he'd gotten weird looks the last few times he went into the library, as if people weren't expecting him to be there in the first place.

"This is pretty much what I got on ancient myths and stuff." Issei explained as he turned back around, setting a couple of the books on the desk and sliding them across for Aika to have a closer look at.

Given where he found Atlantis was from, he figured that the Greek myths would be a good start.

Then there was the mes-whatever place, he got some myths on that too.

He'd gotten them because they were thin books, which definitely meant that all the information within them should be helpful or whatever.

Or at least easy for him to understand.

Highwire had said they could handle the long stuff and then bullet point all of that for him to use later.

Aika let out another bemused huff. "You really did decide to go a bit deeper down this little hole, didn't you?"

Why did she keep sounding surprised?

"I wasn't doing this as a joke." He felt the need to defend himself. "So start reading and see if anything sticks out to you, I'm going to start on this Urk thing and this Giggle guy and see what there is."

Aika snorted. "Listening to you butcher names like that, it's no wonder your grades are so bad."

"Hey!"

With another unashamed giggle, she flipped the pages of the book open and glanced down, starting to read through it and ignoring his glare.

Issei huffed and opened up his own book.

Surely there had to be something, right?

The day ended with nothing.

Issei slumped in his chair while Aika sat down her own book and looked across towards him with a face lacking any judgement.

"...Not the most productive day." He said.

"Mmmmh." Aika nodded her head slowly, all without taking her eyes off him. Then she squinted. "You're really sure this has nothing to do with the OR-"

"It doesn't." Issei replied before she could finish, but even he could not deny that it really did look like he was just trying to copy the ORC at this point. He didn't even have any of the popular or liked people in school either.

Rubbing his brows, he slowly stood up and turned to his board, flipping it back down and popping it away.

"You can head back home then, I'll do some stuff and come back tomorrow."

"...If you say so." Aika replied, sounding a bit strange to him but nothing that he focused on for very long.

The hum in his pocket had Issei pull his phone out and put it up to his ear, "Sorry. Even with someone else we didn't get much."

Highwire gave more conciliatory words.

"Yeah but I get the feeling you don't like waiting all that much, do you?"

That prompted a rather sudden string of words from the minicon which had Issei briefly stalling as he tried to reply, then rolled his lips inwards and nodded his head. "It's not that but…Well, I just want to help you. Hanging out with you is pretty fun as well and all that but its still-"

Highwire interrupted with a few more beeps and tones.

Issei nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah. I can be patient."

Dubious beeps followed that.

"I did go and set up the club." He pointed out. "Look, even if it was just me showing up I would still do all this but it's just…well…I feel bad that you're having to rely on me for all of this because my studying is atrocious. Like, I'm pretty sure I'm the worst guy in the school for grades and all of that."

Highwire gave further beeps, telling him to have a bit more confidence in himself.

"I'm confident where it matters." Issei replied back rather quickly, then winced at the tone that was almost chiding. "Yes, studying and work also matter. That wasn't really what I meant but-yes…yes…Well, we can worry more about this later, alright? For now it's just…"

Turning to the book, the flipped across and moved to the back.

"No, it's just that I hoped we would get at least something that could be-"

He stopped and furrowed his brows.

"...No, I'm still here."

Rolling his jaw, he read through the tiny little 'did you know?' fact which was right at the end of the book and could have been very easily lost. He had skimmed over it because of the little picture of a lion, but the moment he caught the words he was staring at it with a bit more focus.

"...Hey, listen to this." He placed a finger down and dragged it across, reading slowly. "Some guy had a weapon which could fly and apparently change shape, turning into a lion and speak to it's wielder…"

He thought about Highwire turning into a bike, then thought about it some more.

Then glanced at the phone.

"...Can you guys turn into anything?"

Highwire gave a vague answer.

"Depends on the minicon? So some of you guys could turn into weapons?"

This time the answer was a much more hesitant affirmation, followed by a rather strained tone of voice as they explained most wouldn't want to do something like that. Even Issei could tell that there was something more to that than the minicon was telling him about.

Yet that was not what he was really thinking of at the time, instead he looked back down and thinned his lips.

"...Is it possible? Could one of you guys have been a weapon for someone to wield?"

Though that did not explain the demon they apparently killed, but he could chalk that up to some sort of big wild animal or something.

Highwire was silent for a short while, then gave a single affirmation.

Admittedly, Issei didn't know why he hadn't thought about it before.

He straightened out. "I think we should start looking at guys who have changed shape in myth as well. Like…dudes who could turn into other things as well? You know what I mean? Is that a thing all of you guys can do?"

Highwire gave a less reluctant and more casual answer this time around, but it confirmed everything to him.

Issei nodded his head at that, then raised it up, flipping the book shut while he did so.

His lip pulled into a small smile.

It turned out they really were making some progress.

He turned his head.

Aika was still in the room.

And now she was staring at him.

"...You…uhm…still here?"

Slowly, she nodded her head.

"So." Clearing her throat, she bobbed her head at the phone. "Conversation partner?"

"...Yeah."

She smiled, then folded her hands behind her back. "They certainly sound like they have you wrapped around their finger if they have you searching for aliens."

Issei frowned at the implication. "Hey, they're nice and I'm doing this because I want to."

Holding up her hands in mock surrender, she looked like she was coming close to laughing at him.

"If you say so." She said, then "But I suppose this does explain your sudden interest in aliens…don't tell me…you met someone online who is claiming to be a girl who is interest in aliens and now you're rushing to get something in common with her?"

Cupping her hand over her mouth, she snickered very loudly.

"Don't tell me…did you get catfished?"

"I did not get catfished!" Issei sputtered, then shuddered. "And they are not a girl-"

"You swing that way?" Aika blinked and dropped her hand. "Then again, with how loudly you talk about breasts, perhaps you're just trying to divert suspicion away from your true interests-"

"I'm not gay either!" Issei threw up his arms. "And Highwire is…erm…a friend? Yeah, they're a friend who has inspired me to look into this sort of thing! I'm just doing this because they're-"

"Highwire?" Folding her arms, she raised a bemused brow. "You don't even know their name and use an online handle? Don't tell me you already told them your name…I figured you were a little thick, but I had no idea you were stupid…did you give them your house number yet? Do I need to pass along a message to the student council?"

Issei cringed. "No! And Highwire is their name!"

"...Ah, so they're chuunibyou then." Aika flatly responded. "I see. That makes sense."

He was getting absolutely nowhere with-

His phone hummed again and he flipped it around, staring at the screen for a moment and then towards Aika.

With a sigh, he dropped his shoulders and walked towards the door.

"Follow me." He said, sliding the door open and stepping past her.

Aika only watched him as he exited the room and made no further attempts to follow him, instead looking on with that same confusion as before, then her eyes narrowed ever so slightly and she leaned back.

"Am I being invited to meet this person then?"

"...Yeah." Issei sighed, "They want to speak with you."

"...I'd rather not meet a stranger-"

"They're not a-" Palming his face, he dragged it down and sighed. "They go to this school as well."

Technically.

Aika looked rather surprised. "Oh? So someone who believes in aliens but wants to keep it a secret from the rest of the school? Or did they just not want to partner up with you in public…I'm not sure if I should feel sorry for you or not. Are you sure this isn't someone playing a prank on you?"

Issei squinted. "...Are you worried or something? I can't tell. It's weird."

She only shrugged and refused to answer that question, instead she stepped past him.

"Well, if they're going to plead to have me go in on the joke…"

She trailed off, spying him from the corner of her eye.

There was a rather short moment where it looked like she would leave.

Except eventually she stepped up next to him. "So? Have you met this person already?"

"Yes." Issei thinned his lips. "That's why they aren't a stranger…Just really secretive…and I'm really debating whether this is a good idea-"

Looking down at his phone just as the next message came in.

[I think she deserves to know the truth if she's going to be helping us. She agreed to join, so this is us showing we trust her in turn.]

It was a little hard to argue with that, he lowered the phone back down.

Not before Aika had leaned over his shoulder, however, and spied at his text message.

"Huh. So am I being inducted into some super secret club?" He wasn't sure why, but she sounded a little excited about it, but there was something about her excitement that was more than a little weird for him.

Perhaps concerning.

Leaning away from her, his lip curled down into a frown.

Was she being inducted into a club?

Well, they were already part of a club.

"It's not really that secret." Issei felt like saying. "I pretty much put the name on it."

Aika rolled her eyes at him, clearly not quite taking him seriously.

Whether that continued to happen, however, was entirely up to what would transpire next.

They were reasonably lucky that everyone else had already gone home by the rush hour out of school, although there were still more than a few left.

Which meant Issei needed to wheel Highwire out to somewhere that was a little less obvious in the school.

They really were fortunate that there was a small grove of trees within the school grounds, though he was also pointedly aware of Aika following behind him and was rather certain she was a bit dubious.

Sparing a glance over his shoulder, he could see she was still following, then turned back and whispered down to Highwire.

"Right now? I thought we were doing this in a couple days."

Highwire hummed back.

Couldn't be helped, they said?

Issei flushed a little. "I thought she was gone, she looked bored out of her mind during the entire setting there."

Further chirps from Highwire.

"You're really optimistic about this, you know? She's probably going to-"

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Issei looked over his shoulder. "Uuuuh…yes?"

Wait, that made him sound crazy.

Aika made a face at him for those words which indicated she thought exactly the same thing, the distance between the two of them increased as she stopped walking, then spread her arms and twirled around.

"This is as far as I think we need to go…" She announced, then dropped her arms and sent him a pointed look. "So is this going to stay between the two of us or is it going to turn into a threeway?"

Issei just stared. "...Seriously?"

"No reaction, huh?" Cupping her chin, she tilted her head. "You really are serious about this, then? Then where is your little shy friend? Are they just waiting out by the trees for me to turn around and walk off? Are they going to show up all cloak and dagger?"

Then she looked up and stared at the branches above their heads.

"Are they hiding up there for a grand entrance?"

She was still on that chunni theory?

With a sigh, he stepped away from Highwire and held up his hands.

"Alright…you cannot scream or freak out about this."

Aika looked back down at him. "...It isn't Kiba-san, is it?"

Issei scowled. "What? Ew. No. I wouldn't want anything to do with a handsome bastard like that guy."

In the corner of his eye, he could barely make out the handlebars of Highwire shifting ever so slightly in his direction, there was something curious about the gesture and he could tell that the minicon was definitely interested in that.

Poor guy had no idea.

"So it's not Kiba-san then." She dropped her shoulders.

"Why do you look so disappointed?"

"Just a stray thought, don't worry about it." Even as she said that, Issei was definitely worrying about it now. "...Well? What am I not supposed to freak out about?"

"You need to promise, alright?" All while speaking, Issei was rapidly turning about to have a look to see if there was anyone near them at the moment, spying up at the trees and staring at them for a few moments, then back down.

Aika dropped her hands to her hips. "You are being really shifty…"

"Aika…"

"Fine." She sighed. "I promise I will not freak out or scream."

Her expression was so bored.

Well.

No turning back now.

Taking another step away from Highwire, he placed himself just between Aika and the minicon before looking towards them.

"Well…you can introduce yourself."

In the corner of his eye, Aika looked at him with some great swell of pity.

"Are you talking to your bike? I have to admit, that is something else-"

Highwire went upright, their back wheel split in half as the legs found balance on the ground, their head folded out from the front and spun about, the peddles slid down the body and turned to anchoring feet. The arms split out from the front wheel, the shield on the left arm span for a few moments and then went stiff.

Spinning around, Highwire raised their hand in greeting, giving a series of soft beeps.

Issei glanced back at Aika.

She stood with her mouth agape, glasses slightly askew on her face.

Then they slid off and dropped to the ground with a quiet thud.

All things considered, it was so far better than his introduction.

Much less screaming involved.