“Hmm, this is bad—there’s nowhere to run.”

Ryuuko muttered as she looked down at the gate.

Unlike the general gates open to tourists, the special gates used by students were smaller in scale.

She had thought maybe that place would work, but contrary to her expectations, the student gate was even more crowded than usual.

Naturally, every arm bore that bracelet.

“…Well, of course. Most kids love festivals, so if everyone’s wearing it, they’ll wear it too, even if they don’t get why.”

Ryuuko collapsed to her knees within Baltius’s wings.

This was the fifth gate she’d checked, and each time she ended up in despair like this.

By now, Toa had grown used to seeing her like that.

“Then… shall we try the next gate?”

Toa understood Ryuuko well enough to say such a thing casually.

“Why are you so optimistic!? Even the student gate, our last hope, is no good! And now the students are against us… What if the student council is wearing bracelets too!?”

“Huh, are they really that strong? …Could it be you’d actually lose?”

“Nope, not a problem at all, I’d win easily.”

Ryuuko answered flatly.

One of the requirements for being ranked S is being able to take over a school solo.

So, if this were seen as a war, then to Ryuuko, it was nothing more than child’s play.

However—

“If I beat up the student council, they’ll totally use that as a reason to name me the next president…! And like, if I beat up someone I know, it’s going to be so awkward seeing them afterward!”

“Ehh…”

“Just imagine them randomly thinking, ‘This girl totally beat me to a pulp with Baltius,’—it’s terrifying! I don’t want a fight that leaves behind resentment! I just want a peaceful life!”

“…I see.”

“Aahh! Stop looking at me with those eyes! There’s totally a hint of judgment in there!”

Ryuuko clung to Toa, bawling.

As Toa patted her head, her expression seemed colder than usual.

“You get it too, right!? It’s awkward when you’ve seriously fought a friend!”

“Is it?”

Mizuhi and Miroku’s faces floated through Toa’s mind.

“It’s all over! A week with no word from me, the board starts getting suspicious and sends a new S-Rank… and there they find my pathetic, tear-streaked body sobbing in the corner—”

“So you’re still alive, huh…”

She was oddly confident she’d survive, even as she bawled with a messed-up face.

“Waaahh! I don’t care who it is—just call in the rookie, Mizuhi-chan or whoever! Let her burn it all away!”

“Wow.”

Toa let out a sound at Ryuuko’s pitiful state.

Still, she didn’t push her away. Instead, she kept patting her head and said,

“It’s okay. Kei-chan will help us. Just wait a little longer.”

“Uuuh… you sure? Even if she’s strong, going against students too…”

“She’ll be fine. That girl is strong.”

Toa answered with a confident smile.

The sheer certainty in her voice made Ryuuko lift her face.

She locked eyes with Toa.

And after a few seconds of staring—

“Who are you?”

“…What are you saying? Don’t say weird things that make no sense.”

For just a brief moment, Ryuuko saw something entirely different in Toa’s face.

Something terrifying. Something impossibly sorrowful—something that didn’t belong to the girl she knew.

“Because, just now—”

“Oh, right, right.”

Toa cut her off and said,

“Actually, Kei-chan and I are dating. We’re like, a totally lovey-dovey couple.”

“Eh—eeeeeeeeh!?”

Ryuuko’s brain was hit with an even bigger shock.

The strange change in Toa’s face just now? Totally irrelevant now.

This was way more important.

The ultimate bombshell for a high school girl—

It was about a maiden’s love life.

“Eh, no way no way no way! Really!?”

“Really, really. We’ve held hands, kissed, and of course… even beyond that.”

“B-b-beyond that toooo!?”

All her fear vanished instantly.

Ryuuko looked around, then said thoughtfully,

“Tell me all about it while we head to the next gate.”

“Sure thing.”

“Yay! I want to hear everything about you two. Look, I’ve still got lots of snacks!”

“Wow!”

Ryuuko pulled out snacks and canned drinks from her extended inventory and laid them out on Baltius’s back.

She had clearly decided to escape reality by indulging in love talk.

Baltius gave her a look as if wanting to say something, then silently began to move.

This ability to look totally hopeless one moment and completely relaxed the next—

It was exactly why the other S-Ranks left her alone.

Not that she knew that.

“Hey hey, how did you two start dating? I mean, Kei seems so serious… like, not the type to care about romance?”

To Ryuuko, Kei came off as a straight-laced explorer.

Always trying to stay calm and collected—she didn’t seem like someone who’d bother with relationships.

Even the fact she was attending Chroma Music Academy was a bit surprising.

“She does seem that way. But, but! She’s actually super clingy and lonely deep down…!”

“Ehh, really!? She always seems so cool! Like a classic big-sis type!”

“Fufufu, no no, Ryuuko-chan. Behind that face, she’s the most caring girl at Fectom General Academy. She always worries about others and acts before anyone else. …Though she has a bad habit of trying to do everything alone.”

Toa smiled while holding a snack.

Her light tone contrasted sharply with the usual her, but Ryuuko’s S-Rank senses had already stopped functioning.

Such is the power of love gossip.

“Wow, really! So, who confessed first!? Ah, wait, don’t tell me—I’ll guess… It was you, Toa-chan!”

With a snack in hand, Ryuuko made her most serious face today.

Toa fell silent for a moment.

“………………Correct!”

“Yay! I knew it, I knew it! I could just tell!”

“Ehehe, yep. I confessed… because I found out her secret.”

“Secret?”

“Yeah. Her shadow. No, maybe to her, that’s the only form where she can affirm her own existence.”

Toa lowered her gaze and continued.

“That’s why I thought—if even just me could support her. If I could affirm her as she is. I’m not as smart as Miroku-chan, and I can’t lead others like Mizuhi-chan. But I thought, at least I could make Kei-chan smile.”

“O-oh…”

(Kinda heavy, huh? Maybe too heavy for love talk?)

Ryuuko’s face tensed slightly.

Noticing it, Toa deliberately shifted the mood.

“So I pushed her down and kissed her right after confessing! And then, a whole lot more!”

“Pff—wha, what!?”

Ryuuko’s face flushed bright red.

She was a pure high school girl who had never had a boyfriend.

Though she was secretly quite knowledgeable—a classic closet romantic.

“Y-you pushed her down!? A-and th-th-then what happened!?”

She looked around to confirm Rei was asleep, then whispered.

Toa leaned in with a smirk.

“She let out the cutest sounds. Like, that cool expression totally vanished.”

“O-ooh…!”

Toa’s rank skyrocketed in Ryuuko’s mind.

To her, a love master was equal to an S-Rank.

She had no idea.

That Kei had multiple girls like this around her.

“And you know, this is something even she doesn’t realize.”

Toa said, whispering:

“Her ears are super sensitive. If you clean them for her, she just melts.”

“M-melts…!”

Ryuuko repeated, face still burning.

Still blushing, she asked,

“A-and, what else?”

“Hehe, then maybe I’ll tell you about our first date!”

“Kyaa—! I wanna hear it all!”

The two girls accelerated.

There was no one who could stop them now.

■

At the same time—

Inside the soundproof room of Chroma Music Academy.

“Now that Nana-chan’s gone home, let’s get started, Starreader’s Staff—no, Zero.”

“Aaahahahaha! This is so exciting!”

Two identical girls stood by a dummy head mic, a certain girl’s invention, in the center of the room.

“Alright, let’s record—ASMR.”

“It’s finally here.”

This major incident threatening Chroma Music Academy—

Was already being twisted into a convenient stage by a supernatural lunatic.