Re-Tale of a Hero - Chapter 2. The End Of Everyday Life

–Their homeroom teacher Amamiya’s class ended, and the students were having a break.

As Kaito was languidly thinking of taking anothernap, a girl approached him. She was blond, had fair skin, and her eyes were blue. From every angle, she looked like a foreigner, and she was extremely beautiful. When she was up close, she whispered something to Kaito.

“How pathetic of you to have others find out you’re napping. Did you forget to cast concealment magic?”

“I didn’t…but I was surprised by the dream I was having and dispelled it unintentionall. What a drag…”

“You’re at fault for getting exposed. Compared to yours, mine was perfect!”

“So you were sleeping as well…”

“Well, yesterday was quite intense after all. We didn’t get an ounce of sleep last night.”

“Don’t phrase it so strangely!”

“Anything wrong with what I said?”

The girl flashed a nasty smile. She had purposely raised her voice from the “intense” part so that people around them could hear their conversation. She was someone that knew what she was doing.

“We played games together! Games, I tell you! I keep getting treated like a pervert because of your misleading remarks!”

“Fuhahahahah! You reap what you sow. This is payback for bringing me to a world like this, though the games, anime, and potato chips are a masterpiece. Now then, I shall get to composing today as well.”

This beautiful girl was of course Justina Misteltin, the former Demon Lord whom Kaito had brought back from the other world.

…However, contrary to expectations, she was getting used to living in Japan quite well.

A handsome boy with an tinge of wildness whose seat was the furthest back near the window approached the two as they were fooling around. It was Amagi Shiro, a close friend of Kaito’s from middle school.

“’Sup Kaito. Heard you had a lot of fun with Tina yesterday?”

“Sora…as I said many times, we just played games. And besides, she destroyed me…”

“Tina’s a monster at video games after all. She also destroyed me at the arcade last time…”

Hearing Sora’s praise, Tina puffed out her slightly disappointing chest.

“It’s you two that are bad at games!”

“No, it’s clearly you that’s unnaturally good…”

“How about we hit the arcade on our way back today? It’ll be a revenge match!”

“Very well! I accept challenges anytime of the week!”

As they were having their conversation, a girl called out from afar.

“Tina-chan, instead of that perverted master of yours, wanna come over and have some snacks?”

“Umu! I’ll take you up on that offer!”

Tina ran off despite being in the midst of the their conversation.

While watching her leave, Kaito seemed dumbfounded, and his mouth was wide open.

“Perverted master…”

“Is this about the rumor from the other day?”

“Who was it that spread this rumor…”

Kaito was irked by the rumor he heard the other day. According to the rumor, Tina was being trained by Kaito while only wearing a collar.

“Well, considering her personality and her looks, some people are bound to be jealous.”

“The Twin Princesses of Tenou High…”

“I think their nicknames were Tendou Sakura the Immovable and Justina Misteltin the Energetic.”

“As a 2nd-year student, not only is she the student council president, she’s the granddaughter of the school chairman and the Tendo Zaibatsu’s CEO. She has outstanding style and is the perfect example of an ideal Japanese woman. Adding to that, she’s extremely athletic and is at the top of her class when it comes to grades. She has a gentle personality and is said to enjoy reading. For better or for worse, she feels too out of the world, making her unapproachable.”

Following Kaito’s description of Sakura, Sora followed up with a description of Tina.

“On the other hand, if we’re to speak of our Tina, despite her disappointing chest, she has a breathtaking appearance and has stellar grades, not to mention she’s an international student. Having said that, she has an overbearing personality and is constantly restless. She’s terrible at sports and is a serious game addict otaku. Her main hobbies include gaming and producing Vocaloid music…why the heck are they being placed side by side?”

Tina’s specialty ranged all the way from tabletop games to R-18 ones, but this was a secret that only Kaito knew of.

In addition, to maximize her gaming time, she used memory enhancement magic to study for exams, resulting in a situation where not only was she at the top in her class, she was up there with the geniuses even in the national mock exams.

Though he was much more modest about it, Kaito similarly used magic to aid in his studies, so he wasn’t in a position to criticize Tina for her actions. When it came to her athletic abilities, her magic power constantly had her body in an enhanced state. No matter how much she tried to suppress herself, she couldn’t help but perform beyond the capacity of normal humans. Hence, she had to make up for it by attending all the classroom lectures.

“Overbearing, you say…she’s more of a puppy that’s trying to put up a front. Whenever things don’t go her way, she gets depressed and her eyes become like an abandoned puppy’s. People acted carefully around her when she first entered school, but she’s totally become our class mascot now.”

“But it doesn’t change the fact that she’s overbearing.”

“Well, a number of people seem to find that overbearing personality of hers charming and has even formed a fan group.”

“Let’s not enter that territory…”

“Must be tough where you’re freeloading.”

“Don’t even mention it…we’re on the blacklist…”

“Living under the same roof as a beauty is sure to attract attention.”

“She’s a beauty alright, albeit a disappointing one…”

Kaito swore not to let others know that they have had a relationship since his time over in the other world. In fact, the rumor about the naked training wasn’t totally false. Even Kaito had sexual desires after all.

For some reason, their homeroom teacher had returned, and since their eyes met, Amamiya walked up to Kaito and asked, “Amane, have you seen Tendou?”

“President Tendou? If it’s her, she should be sitting over…oh, she’s gone. Should I deliver a message?”

“No need for that, when she’s back…oh, speak of the devil. Sorry for disturbing you guys. Don’t forget to come over after school,” and with that, Amamiya left to talk with Tendou.

From their conversation, Kaito picked up words such as media, coverage, and three years. Kaito, who was listening in on their conversation, shrugged in exasperation.

“Something about the media, apparently.”

“Probably has to do with Ichijou-senpai who’s a grade above us.”

“No doubt about that. Not that I care as long as it doesn’t bother me.”

“The President and Ichijou-senpai live in a different world after all.”

“On one hand, there’s the princess of a large conglomerate. On the other is the most famous high school javelin thrower in Japan. Better not get involved with them.”

“Ichijou Shun, a hot-headed javelin thrower with outstanding looks. Is currently the head of the track and field club as well as the captain of the under-18 Japanese team. He’s focused on track and field at the moment and isn’t involved with any girl. That stoic nature of his has captured the hearts of many girls, and there are fan clubs all over Japan…certainly not someone we should get involved with.”

“The only thing I can beat him in is probably my height… as for you, you should be able to rival him in the looks department.”

Kaito had been on good terms with Sora since the latter transferred during their second year of middle school. Sora was popular with the girls, and though Kaito experienced his so-called popular phase while he was the hero in Enefia, he felt inferior whenever he was before a good-looking person.

As they were talking, the class bell rang. Before returning to their respective seats, Sora tapped Kaito on the shoulder.

“Don’t forget that we’re hitting the arcade after school.”

“Yeah, we should bring that overbearing princess down a peg.”

This they promised.

*****

There was a homeroom period just before school ended.

“All of you, take a seat.”

Their homeroom teacher Amamiya entered the classroom and said that he had something to announce while standing at the podium.

The students that were scattered in groups of threes and fives took a seat as told.

Confirming this, Amamiya told them about a certain news.

“First of all, some TV station staff will be coming over to interview us next month, so don’t do anything stupid while they’re here.”

There was a buzz in the classroom at the mention of “TV station”.

“What’s the interview centered around?” a student asked.

“You’ve probably guessed it already, but they’ll be here for Ichijou, the third-year student.”

No one was surprised by the answer.

“And well, the student council will be busy because of that, and they’re looking for help. Tendou, take over from here.”

Amamiya gave her a wink.

Tendou stood up from her seat and walked up to the podium.

“Several TV stations have requested coverage of our school as Ichijou-senpai would be competing on an international stage next month. The school has granted them permission to conduct interviews and has asked the student council to prepare a send-off party. The student council has of course agreed to take on this task and will therefore be…”

Her explanation continued, but Sora who was sitting by the window appeared out of sorts. Amamiya noticed this and raised her voice to warn him.

“Amagi, pay attention to the explanation.”

However, Sora’s eyes were glued to the outside. Finding it strange, Amamiya was about to call out to him again, but before she could do so, Sora opened his mouth.

“Amamiya-sensei…what’s that?”

Seeing Sora pointing toward the sky, Amamiya checked to see what was going on.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Finding Sora’s behavior peculiar, the other students also went over to check what was happening outside, and when they saw the thing which was hovering above the school, they were stunned.

The whole school erupted in an uproar. The other classes had noticed as well.

“What in the world…”

Amamiya couldn’t believe what she was seeing and blinked her eyes before taking a second look.

“Oh, is this the kind of concept that the student council has in mind regarding the send-off party? Or perhaps something the Tendou Zaibatsu has recently developed?”

“No, neither the Tendou conglomerate nor the student council has something like this planned…at least Grandfather…no, the principal never mentioned something like this….”

Amamiya was trying to make sense of the situation, but her conjectures were denied by Tendou, who was staring outside like the other students, mouth agape.

“Isn’t that a magic circle?” someone said amongst the commotion.

Tina had fallen asleep midway through Tendou’s speech, and Kaito, who’d been ignoring the situation until now, woke her up to check what was going on outside.

A huge circular pattern had appeared, its diameter large enough to cover the entire school. However, they couldn’t recognize the pattern at all.

“What did you do!?” he asked in a whisper.

“Nothing! I was planning on going home and playing a new game after this! Now I can’t!”

“Then are you saying there’s someone else besides us who can use magic!?”

“How should I know, but apparently there is!”

“You failure of a demon lord! You should be sensitive to magic!”

“Says the hero!”

“When it comes to magic, your skills should be above mine! How should I sense something that even you weren’t able to!?”

“This is a first for me as well! Despite how big it is, I can barely sense any magic coming from it!”

“Then what’re those things drawn there? They look nothing like letters at all!”

“How should I know!?”

“Uwahhh…what a pain.”

The hero and the former demon lord completely ignored their surrounding as they talked about their situation.

A sense of crisis rose up within them as they felt more and more magic accumulate, but without knowing what kind of spell it was, there was nothing they could do.

“Hey, Tina.”

“What, Kaito?”

“How should I put it. That magic circle…isn’t it becoming gradually brighter?”

“Umu, and there’s some noise coming from it as well.”

“Isn’t this game over?”

“Indeed, it’s game over.”

Immediately following those words, there was a sudden flash of light accompanied by a sound much like that of glass shattering.

Swallowed by the light, Tenou High School vanished from Japan, without leaving a trace of its existence.