C³

"It"s dead obvious—Your target is that, right? Give it back."

"Ouch...!"

"Shiraho!"

The hand on her shoulder exerted even more force while his other hand gripped her arm firmly. What brute force, like a vise, her bones felt like they were almost fracturing. The cellphone that had taken so much work to obtain fell just like that.

—Not working, impossible. Of all people, a squad leader. I underestimated him.

(But—)

Only Sovereignty... To be frank, Shiraho did not care the slightest about what would happen to the other students. But only Sovereignty—

She had no choice but to take things into her own hands. The dark-skinned girl was standing by under the stairs some distance away. She might hear if Shiraho cried out loudly for help but there might not be enough time. It could also draw in other enemies as a result.

With an arm and a shoulder in the enemy"s clutches, Shiraho forcibly turned her body and tried to deliver a slap with all the strength she could muster from her entire body, hoping to give Sovereignty the chance to escape—However, the enemy was not naive enough to let her plan succeed.

"Futile."

Her wrist was caught with a light sound. The burly man"s face was right in front of her eyes, his monstrous pressure filling her with despair—But just at that moment...

Behind his head...

Shiraho saw a certain steel-colored solid object swinging swiftly towards him.

Then it directly struck the back of the squad leader"s head with a dull thud. His head shook for a while and he also released Shiraho"s arm, but—

"Gah, urgh... W-Who..."

"Hmm."

Despite stumbling greatly, he forced himself to remain standing, his legs pushing forcefully against the floor. Sluggishly, he turned his head back—

"N-Now is the time! The Dangerous Special Attack!"

Instantly, Sovereignty controlled the doll that had fallen on the floor earlier, causing it to jump up hard. With a certain degree of ma.s.s and hardness, the metal doll rushed rapidly at...

The stumbling man"s crotch.

"..."

Normally, this man might have been able to withstand the impact, or blocked instead, but right now, he was also suffering a simultaneous blow to the back of his head. Struck by the double attack, the man instantly sank to his knees.

"Ugh... Oh..."

"Definitely a difference in training methods. Most people would have fainted from that attack just now."

While speaking, the new arrival swung the metal shovel in her hand, delivering yet another blow to the back of the man"s head.

With that, the man finally collapsed. Nevertheless, he was still moaning, evidently not completely unconscious yet.

"Too resilient. Is some kind of power at work...? We must not waste too much time on this fellow. Hurry and escape."

"You..."

"S-Sensei! You"re fine?"

Sovereignty whispered with her eyes staring wide.

Dressed in a red tracksuit, a scar on her face, a shovel always within arm"s reach—This was precisely Shiraho"s homeroom teacher, Kaidou Imi. In stark contrast to their surprise, she nodded with a calm expression on her face.

"Yes, I have been pretending to be hypnotized until now, because I feared that a reckless move would be dangerous."

"How did you escape the hypnosis?"

Shiraho asked while picking up the knight"s cellphone, prompting Kaidou to tilt her head in puzzlement before answering simply and decisively:

"Hmm? How could a few simple words affect me? As soon as the public announcement system was used by someone who was neither staff nor a member of the broadcast club, I already prepared myself mentally: The message is not worth listening to."

Shiraho and Sovereignty looked at each other. They originally thought Kaidou was joking but that did not seem to be so.

Resting the shovel on her shoulder, Kaidou spoke with complete seriousness:

"I am nothing more than a weak and ordinary human, but precisely because of that, I will not lose to anyone in force of will. That is the kind of person I have been striving to become all along. At last, I have evidently succeeded this time and avoided getting bewitched by the enemy"s ludicrous heresy. Yes, I must continue to train here on."

Sovereignty brought her hand to her lips and whispered discreetly in Shiraho"s ear:

"...So she overcame it by sheer force of will?"

Who knows, perhaps it was simply because she was an idiot? Shiraho thought to herself but simply shrugged silently.

Because she did not want shovel punishment for speaking tactlessly.