Editing HEAVY OBJECT:MonicaSS (section)

===Part 2===

The teachers’ reinforcements arrived sooner than expected.

Quenser gave a frantic shout while running down the hallway.

“Hurry, hurry!”

“Wait, Quensette! You’re forgetting something!!”

“The teachers are already here, so the dining hall is gonna blow! Besides, I’ve got a weapon, food, my wallet, and a condom. What could I be forgetting!?”

“The heel of Monica’s pump broke and she tripped!!”

“Oh, geez, really!?”

Quenser was annoyed, but he ran back, placed his hands on super-mini dress Monica’s back and below her knees, picked her up princess carry style, and resumed his escape. He handed the twintail girl what he had been carrying.

“Kyah!! D-don’t touch me, servant!!”

“Shut up! Say a word more and I’ll silence you with a kiss!!”

They continued arguing back and forth as he ran down the hallway.

Both Quenser’s hands were full, so they had to rely on Allen’s electric nail gun and Monica’s foil, a light-weight fencing sabre. However…

“There they are! It’s the students!!”

“We can take them right now. Restrain them!!”

Some adults suddenly charged out from another hallway.

Quenser’s throat went dry, but…

“Servant. Sway to the right and take one step forward!”

Monica thrust out her sports sabre while still in his arms. As soon as it lightly contacted the lab-coat-wearing adults in the chest or thigh, bluish-white sparks exploded out.

“Abwah!?”

The professors collapsed and convulsed on the ground while Monica calmly brushed her hair back with a hand.

“Oh, excuse me. One of those was a male épée finishing blow. How indecent of me. But this is all those dimwitted teachers can manage. Fencing already used an electric current to determine a hit, so hook it up to one of the building’s AEDs and voilà.”

“Quit acting like you know how to use machines. I put that together as a sidearm for myself, but I see you still have a bad habit of stealing people’s toys.”

“Servant.”

“Forget I said anything, my lady.”

That said, it clearly had less to do with her fencing skills and more to do with the teachers being distracted by the skin exposed by the idol’s torn dress, but Quenser held his tongue since a high-voltage attack from a defibrillator was too much for him. And they could not hang around here much longer.

They started running again.

They needed to reach safety.

He and Allen broke through the glass covering the faculty smoking room and hid behind a thin partition just as a gas explosion blew up the dining hall behind them.

Quenser grimaced at the intense pain in his ears from the boom.

“Dammit! And I can’t even complain since I did it!!”

“Let’s keep going. We’re almost to a student barricade.”

They finally managed to scramble back to their fellow students.

There were quite a few students huddled behind the barricade. Nobles and commoners normally would not even share the same coffee beans, but they got along just fine when they had a common enemy.

Even so, they could not let their guard down.

Something cut across just past the barricade. And it was accompanied by an explosive noise that sounded like the buzzing of a bee amplified thousands or even tens of thousands of times.

“Um, as you can see, a machinegun is a weapon capable of tearing a hole in a single point by focusing its fire there. Now, you might think a Gatling gun using gunpowder is the most powerful of them all, but…”

“Shit! It’s that infamous professor! He’s as nutty as ever!!”

“Fall back, fall back!! Why the hell is he giving a lecture like normal with all this going on!? And the world’s most dangerous lecture at that! He’s got a whiteboard and a heavy machinegun! They couldn’t show this kind of experiment on an educational show!!”

“The explosive can also come in liquid and gas form,” continued the professor. “For example, if you take LNG meant for a gas turbine and keep just the right amount in the barrel at all times, you can get a truuuly incredible rate of fire like this.”

Fortunately, the crazy old lab coat man with wild gray hair apparently had the same 5-inch visual range as someone walking while using their smartphone, so he did not seem to notice them. He slowly cut across in front of the barricade while carrying the heavy machinegun on his back and rolling the wheeled whiteboard along with him. Of course, he was also firing an unbelievable amount of bullets as he did so. Those trying to escape bought some time with a wheeled barricade made by taking experimental steel panels mixed with heat-resistant reactive material and stuffing it into a giant metal basket meant to carry basketballs, but they could tell it was being worn down while sparks flew everywhere. It would not last forever.

Quenser gulped and spoke.

“Is he like the grim reaper wandering around an online game’s field? He could tear down these thin walls in an instant if he tried. The worst part is that he’s doing this while completely sober. Who the hell gave him a teaching license?”

“Yeah, but he’s one of the people officially recognized for bringing the Legitimacy Kingdom’s Objects from the First to the Second Generation. And he was on a list of the 100 scientists most likely to build a time machine this century.”

“So that’s what happens to a genius who loses sight of common sense. Quensette, try not to end up like him, okay?”

Once the explosive old man left and they breathed a sigh of relief, Allen explained the situation.

It had begun with some confusing matter related to the suspected misappropriation of funds for teaching supplies.

Top Student Allen simplified it as follows: a conflict between the teachers and students.

“Basically, some idiot teacher was bribed into purchasing a bunch of unneeded teaching supplies, so the students started protesting with a megaphone in hand because we have a right to a proper education. And it devolved into this.”

It was not simple enough to just say the naïve and idealistic children took issue with the messy world of the adults. Quenser had chosen the Royal Techno Academy to assist his dream of being an Object designer because its students were the treasures of the Legitimacy Kingdom. Its graduates would be directly involved in the growth of all that world power’s countries. Fail to properly educate them and the entire world power would suffer.

“The conflict started small, but it got way worse once the beautiful Student Council President was attacked after gathering the entire high school behind her. According to what I heard in the Golden Lion Club, she was independently researching the misappropriation of funds and was just about to submit a secret file to a prosecutor. And popular people have a lot of influence, for better or for worse.”

A pile of desks and chairs blocked a portion of the hallway. Quenser’s group was hiding behind those along with other boys and girls in the same blue blazers. Quenser and Allen handed out the food and water they had brought from the dining hall.

“You said this is a conflict between the teachers and students, but do all the teachers support that side?”

“How should I know? But if a teacher approaches with their hands up and insists they want to join our side, who’s going to believe them? They’d just get ganged up on and beaten. And anyone who refuses to take a side will just get attacked by both sides. You’ve gotta pick a side to protect yourself, but the teachers only have one option there. Everyone has to pick a side, but they won’t want to die.”

Quenser groaned.

Having no opening for surrender was its own kind of tragedy. People would be forced to fight to the end even if they did not want to fight at all.

“The Student Council President, who is getting complete bedrest at the hospital, was worried about that too. I only know what I’ve overheard at that salon, but her attempt to find some conclusive evidence apparently came from a benevolent desire to end this before the conflict grew. But the teachers rejected that by attacking her. It’s their own fault. And that’s what led to this macaroni western.”

“Is that really all there is to it? I mean, this is trouble at a school right? Won’t the government’s…um, what was it called? Office of Academics? Won’t the stuffed shirts there come mediate this?”

“Have you forgotten where we are? This is the Royal Techno Academy.”

“Royal means it’s funded by national tax money, right!? So don’t they have to follow the rules!?”

“Officially, yes. But the Office of Academics can’t actually do much since so much here involves military secrets. I sometimes hear about those bureaucratic issues at the Golden Lion Club. If one faction took control of the Academy, it would break the balance of power, so the Offices of Military Affairs, Academics, Administration, and plenty of others all want to be in charge. The school is effectively self-governed because it falls into a gap between all those competing offices.”

That meant the adults could not just talk this out.

In that case, they had to grab giant blackboard triangles and metal bats to fight it out until one side or the other accepted defeat.

War was the absolute worst thing humanity had created, but as more wars had been fought, Quenser felt like they had cleaned them up or at least specialized them with a structure that prevented them from lasting too long. The clean wars accepted by the housewives in front of their TVs would never have ended up like this.

(Wars used to be so long they could last for 30 years or 100 years, right? Who has time to mess with that?)

“Students like us outnumber the teachers by a lot, but the teachers have better tech. Each of their attacks is ridiculously destructive and some of them are trying to send out a bunch of remote-controlled unmanned weapons to fill out their numbers. Plus, they know the layout of the Academy better than we do. When you combine personnel with tech, it’s pretty much a stalemate.”

For one thing, what was the win condition here?

Did the students have to slaughter every last teacher to end this? And was the opposite an option? Since neither side could surrender, there had to be some kind of target they could destroy to end it, but what exactly could they destroy to convince the other side they had lost?

And.

If they did not convince the other side, they could only continue killing the enemy until they had. They had to keep providing “examples” until one side was too afraid to keep going.

At some point, the afternoon grew into evening.

Flames colored their surroundings and the air smelled of farewells.

“The Board Chairman and the Headmaster. We need to target them,” said Allen. “Those are their pillars of support. In a 2-hour movie, they’d be the ones to appear in the first 15 minutes and reappear in the last 15 minutes. And the evidence suggests one of the two was involved in the misappropriation of funds. It doesn’t matter if we actually find an account book. We just have to capture a VIP who knows the whole story. That should convince the others to give up. Then we can grab a megaphone and shout, ‘Are any of the teachers looking nervous!? Then they’re the criminals who got the rest of you innocent teachers involved in this battle. Once they’re gone, you can surrender safely.’ ”

Twintailed Monica responded to that with exasperation while tapping the floor with her stun sabre made from a modified foil.

“Wouldn’t that just start a witch hunt? You’re just asking them to hand over anyone who acts even remotely suspicious. They might just be a naturally heavy sweater.”

“It’s only fair. They’re already targeting the elementary school, middle school, and university Student Council Presidents because they’re the pillars of the students. Plus, the teachers will be easier to defeat if they start attacking each other out of suspicion. I don’t want to deal with this any longer than necessary, so I want to end this nonsense and run over to the screenwriting competition.”

Allen explained it all quite smoothly, but there was no real hatred in his voice.

His emotions had reached the point where driving the teacher’s to absolute destruction felt completely natural.

It was not that he would lose his cool and kill them.

He could kill them while keeping his cool.

The attack on the beautiful Student Council President may have affected the students more than expected.

As “outsiders”, Quenser and Monica had to exchange a glance and shrug. A lot more had happened in their short absence than they had expected.

“But VIPs like that will be strictly guarded, won’t they? What do we do about that?”

“That’s why we’re fighting over infrastructure now: food, water, power, gas, air conditioning, space to sleep, communications, etc. If this drags on long enough, clothing and detergent will carry a lot more weight. …Whatever happens, it’s important to drive your opponent into an environment where simply breathing wears them down. Then you attack their headquarters after they lose their focus.”

That was why Quenser, Allen, and the others had been in charge of the dining hall. Not even the toughest soldiers could keep fighting without food to eat. That had ended in failure, but the teachers had lost their chance at the food as well.

Similar things were happening all over campus. There was fighting over the drink and bread vending machines and even over the chlorine-smelling water of the indoor pool. That was due to a rumor that the tap water could be shut off at any time. They had heard there were students in school swimsuits and teachers in racing swimsuits beating each other with kickboards and lane lines.

“Hold on, Monica. Why are you eating macarons? Where did you get those from!?”

“Those Culinary Research Club girls over there gave them to me. They said something about morale being a surprisingly important factor. Servant, if you show me you have recalled how to treat your master, I might just grant you one.”

“Lady Monicaaaa!!”

“Well done. Now say ‘woof’ for me.”

The twintail girl pulled a snack from its clear wrapping and tossed it toward Quenser’s mouth. It was degrading, but sugar was absurdly attractive to his exhausted mind.

“Come to think of it, those girls were carrying bags of salt like they’re the most important things in the world.”

“Munch, munch. For real? I know it’s necessary, but I really want to avoid being holed up in here for so long we have to subsist off of water and minerals. Now that’s a scary thought.”

Then Allen’s smartphone received an email.

After scanning through it, he showed it to Quenser and Monica.

“It’s time to get to work.”

“What is it now?”

“Just when I thought we had cut off the teachers’ access to food, that meddlesome school store has apparently opened a mobile shop for the teachers. They’ve gotten some emergency rations from outside the Academy fence. Those meals were prepared by parents worried about their kids, but now they’re just going to fill the teachers’ bellies.”

“So our job is to get rid of that food cart, right?”

“Unfortunately. We’ll blow it away and capture the aproned young woman in charge of the store. We’ll threaten her with our projectile weapons and finish her off with Monica’s stun sabre. Does everyone know what to do?”

“Sigh. Why does it sound like I have the most dangerous job?” asked Monica. “Did the Legitimacy Kingdom’s spirit of chivalry decide to take a vacation?”

“Calm down. Now while she is an adult, she’s not actually a teacher, so this is something of a gray zone. But we know the teachers are relying on the school store, so this will help apply pressure to them.”