Editing BlazBlue:Bloodedge Experience Part 1 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 2===

As the sun rises and noon approaches, the classrooms at Shinkawahama High School are filled with a heat that could remind one of summer, even though it's already autumn.
It was break time after the end of the second period of modern literature class. As the boy listened to the refreshing sound of someone opening a soda bottle at the front of the classroom, Naoto took off his jacket because it was indeed very hot. As he rested it on the back of his chair, he saw a man casually approaching him.

"Oi, Kurogane-kun. Can I have you for a moment?"

The person who came right up to Naoto's seat and started the conversation with a delicate cough was his classmate and friend from junior high school, Shinnosuke Fukuda.

The girls in his class thought that his short haircut made him look pretty, while others say it made him look silly. Naoto has a rather casual attitude and in comparison to Shinnosuke, this trait is emphasized even more by his overflowing cheerful personality.

He is about the same size as Naoto. They have similar grades, and their interests are about the same. Overall, they are good friends.

Naoto recalled that the bond they had formed as best friends years ago had led to a troubling incident this morning.

"Damn you, Shinnosuke. You made me get into a terrible mess there..."

Why should his childhood friend, who is like family to him, investigate his preferences in visual novel heroin’s?!

"What's wrong? Whatever."

Shinnosuke looks at Naoto with a resentful look at first, but he doesn't seem to take offense in the slightest, instead he looks back at him with a pleased smile. For a moment, Naoto thought about explaining it to him to scold him. However, such thoughts quickly disappeared. He would only be laughed at. Furthermore, it will only result in exposing his own pettiness.

"It's nothing, ...I don't want to talk about it."

"Is that so? Well, that's all right. How did you like the learning 'material' I lent you? Did it help you?"

It's ‘learning material’, huh? A dry laugh escaped from Naoto's mouth.

"No, not at all."

If anything, he thinks it may have been Haruka, not him, who learned something from the game that was forced upon him. But he won't reveal that.

"You do realize these games are just fantasy, right?"

When Naoto shakes his head reluctant to accompany his take, Shinnosuke's eyes widen in disappointment.

"What are you saying? You're the one who is living that fantasy life."

“WHA-? Hey, you're the one who's talking."

"Are you out of your mind now?! Your childhood friend, who is also your cousin, wakes you up every morning and makes you breakfast every day, and when you come home, you eat dinner together every afternoon in the apartment that you live alone in. ...Now, what part of that doesn't sound like fantasy to you, chap?!"

"Stop calling me that! You'll take responsibility if it sticks as a nickname!"

Shinnosuke leaned forward and clenched his fists when he made his impassioned speech. Naoto, striking back, also said that he was out of his mind. But Shinnosuke is not the kind of man who will back down against such little resistance. He grabbed Naoto's head with both of his hands and forcefully pushed it in the other direction. This is a great way to get the most out of your free time in the usually boring classroom.

"…What?"

"Look closely, Naoto."

He directed Naoto's head to the front of the classroom.

Shinnosuke was in a rather serious mood. They turned to look at Haruka, who was sitting in the front seat chatting with her friends. While grabbing Naoto's head, Shinnosuke continued in a low voice with a strong tone.

"She has a kind and gentle personality, is popular enough to be elected to the student council and always has the ability to be very approachable. In addition, she is good at housework, especially at cooking, which is extremely delicious. She is not the most beautiful girl, but she is cute and pretty. She has above-average boobs too...!"

"Hey you... Where are you looking at?"

"On top of that, her mother is a wealthy woman who owns an entire mansion and she's also an incredibly beauty with big tits! There is no way you can't make a mistake with that! A win-win!"

"Hey! You’re too loud!!"

Shaking off Shinnosuke, who shouted in his ear, Naoto hurriedly covered his friend's dirty mouth. 

As expected, Haruka, who seemed to have heard the voice, turned around and tilted her head. As expected, Haruka, who seemed to have heard Shinnosuke's voice, turned around and tilted her head. As soon as she did, she waved her hand and Naoto conveyed a message with a gesture. She nodded in agreement and returned to chatting with her friend. After witnessing this, Naoto released Shinnosuke's breath.

"Ha... ha... shit..."

Apparently, it was really hindering his breathing. Naoto simply apologized to Shinnosuke, who was looking a bit more grim than usual.
"Oh, anyway. I think you should be a little more aware of your own privileged circumstances. One of these days you're going to get beaten up by some less fortunate boys."

"Like you, for instance?"

"Oh, I wish."

Shinnosuke's eyes were unexpectedly serious as he turned and looked down at him. Naoto immediately withdrew his mischievous smile.

Naoto put a hand on his cheek and gazed at Haruka again. It seemed that they were having a lot of fun talking about various cheerful topics, making it a little difficult for high school boys to approach them.

Haruka was smiling happily, and she certainly had a rather nice appearance. According to what Shinnosuke told him before, she is known as a cute girl not only among her classmates but also among her seniors and juniors. Some of them are even seriously trying to become her boyfriend. However, Naoto was still unable to understand why Haruka was so popular.

(Is it really, because she’s cute...? )

For Naoto, the feeling of meddling, nagging, not being able to leave him alone, filled his mind when thinking about her instead of how cute she is. Haruka, for Naoto, acted more like a mother than a girl of her age after all.

There is no such thing as a "mistake" to be made with Haruka, as Shinnosuke said, but in the first place, he had never even considered such a thing.

(Come to think of it, Yuki says it all the time, too.)

Naoto's eyebrows wrinkle with mixed feelings as he remembers.

Yuki, Haruka's mother, is the one person Naoto can't get over more than Haruka. She is very busy with her work and rarely comes home, so they only see each other occasionally, but every time they do, she approaches Naoto with a suggestive smile on her face.

'When are you going to get your hands on Haruka?' 
'You're a man, right?' 
And so on.

(What is wrong with them anyway? I mean, Yuki-san is her mother, right? A normal mother wouldn't tell some guy to go and make the move on her own daughter. I really don't know what she's thinking at all sometimes.)

As he was mumbling to himself, Shinnosuke, who stands beside him gave a short "Oh". At the sound of his voice, Naoto also noticed. The bell was ringing, announcing the end of break time. Haruka also checked her watch, cut off her conversation and went back to her seat. As she did, she looked at Naoto, smiled friendly and waved lightly. He has no bad feeling about it. When Naoto smiled back, Shinnosuke was looking at him with a hint of envy in his eyes.

But before Shinnosuke could say anything, the door to the classroom was opened exactly on time. The person who came in was Tadayuki Isa, the teacher in charge of the next class, Geology.

He was not tall, but he had a sturdy build, and his round, chubby face always had a serious frown on it. He was in his mid-forties, Naoto believes. He wears square glasses of an old-fashioned design, always wears the same kind of clothes, and is not the type of person who cares much about his appearance. In addition to geology, he is also in charge of life guidance, but his nagging and critical nature has made him into a teacher who is getting a bad reputation among the students at many times.

Shinnosuke is another one who has a hard time with Isa. As soon as he caught sight of him, he turned around and went back to his seat, not wanting to be spotted.

He glances over his slack eyelids at each of the students as if to confirm that they are in a hurry to straighten up their appearance, and then he roughly places the attendance book and textbook on the teacher's table.

It was not an unusual sight. It was the beginning of another depressing class that came around twice a week.

But Naoto was struck by the second... surprise of his day.

(What is... that number?)

He blinked multiple times to make sure he wasn't looking at some wrong number, but the number remained unchanged like a label above the wrinkled, middle-aged man's head.

"925". You don't see this kind of number every day. It's just too low…

"Kurogane! How dare you did not take out your textbooks and notebooks! Class has already started!"

"Huh... Ah, yes, sorry!"

Naoto came back to his senses when the thick finger of a shouting man pointed at him. He pulled his textbook out of his bag and spread it out on the desk. After seeing that, Isa gave a lecture on how foolish it is not to be well prepared for anything, and then began his lesson in a heavy, pompous tone.

Holding the textbook in his hand, he writes hard-to-read characters with such strong pressure that the tip of the white chalk cracks. He often took out his handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead, as if he was hot. Actually, there was nothing particularly unusual about this scene. But Naoto's heart was in a buzz. The classes were never very interesting to begin with, but today he couldn't listen to Isa's at all, because…

(925? Are you kidding me...? Even patients at a university hospital have more decent numbers.)

He wondered if there was something wrong with his eyes. But when he looked around the classroom, there was no one other than Isa who was showing abnormal readings. How can it be possible that only a particular person's values are not normal?

(What is going on with him...?)

Naoto covered his eyes with the palms of his hands. Turns out that that was a bad idea.

"Kurogane!!"

The whole classroom tensed up at the angry voice that came again. When Naoto looked up to see what was going on, he saw Isa glaring at him from in front of the teacher's table with a terrifying expression.

"You've got some nerve to fall asleep in my class..."

"No, I wasn't sleeping..."

"Don't you dare to talk back to me!"

Isa's voice came at him with even more force. Naoto knew that he had made a mistake. When he's in a bad mood, Isa hates it when a student says something he doesn't agree with. You could even say that he hates the students.

Today, Isa seemed to be in a worse mood than ever before. He slammed the textbook he was clutching in his thick hands onto the table and pointed at Naoto with his hand.

"Answer the question I just asked you. You would know if you weren't asleep."

(Ugh…) 

Naoto was at a loss for words. He hadn't been sleeping, but he also didn't listen to anything Isa had said, so naturally, the helpless boy didn't know what the question was.

"I'm sorry, I don't know."

It's not like he can just admit that he didn't hear it, so he tried to keep his emotions in check and answered calmly. As soon as he did, Isa's mouth twisted up and he looked at him with both rage and dominance in his eyes.

"There you go. This is why you shouldn't sleep. Hayami... Answer me instead."

"Y-Yes."

When Haruka replied with a hint of surprise, Naoto reflexively raised his eyebrows. He is sure it wasn't intentional that Haruka was picked instead, but he feels guilty that he caused this fire to start.

"It's from volcanic activity..."

"That's right. You are indeed studying well, Hayami. You may sit down."

He looked strangely pleased and then Isa moved his head in a big vertical motion. Naoto had to wrinkle his brow again at the sight of him.

(The numbers are...)

It increased.

It increased to more than 70 at once. It was way too big of a change for Naoto to be happy that his classmates were able to answer his questions.

"On the other hand, you, Kurogane..."

With a harsh tone, Isa turned to look at Naoto again. The number on his head increased again. This time, the number rose to 37. The fluctuations are quite large. This is not a normal change at all.

Isa pointed at Naoto and glared at him, his thick lips moving rapidly as he talked about how hopeless he was. Normally, he would be frustrated and uncomfortable with this one-sided argument, but he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut because it would make the conversation even longer. Naoto is listening to the teacher's words but is not paying any attention. He just keeps staring at the value above his head, continuously increasing and decreasing by one or two.

It's so strange. He had no idea why this was happening and this uncomfortable feeling that is sticking around inside of him. He can't stand it, so Naoto opened his mouth. 

"Isa-sensei. Is there something wrong with you?"

For a moment, the classroom fell silent. He found that everyone who had been holding their breath during Isa's lecture had stopped breathing completely. Eventually, Isa's face turned red with anger as he shook his fists on the table. He did it. Naoto couldn't help but clutch his head at the regret that had come so late.

Isa roughly banged on the teaching table with his clenched fist.

"You brought this on yourself, Kurogane!!"

The air around Isa was numbed by the outrage in his voice. The boy thought he was going to be hit by his teacher, but Naoto's ears picked up a strange sound as he lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

'-thung’

It was like the sound of a coil being wound. But it was a more unpleasant, biological sound. The instinctive disgust he felt gave Naoto goosebumps for a moment. Is something in there? Naoto frowned, horrified by the disgusting presence, and then... 

The bell rang, signaling the end of class.

"By next week, each of you should have researched at least two different things that volcanic activity can bring about. I'll ask you about them in the next class."

After saying that, Isa hurried out of the classroom.

Just before Isa disappeared behind the door of the classroom, Naoto finally saw that his number was 1007. It was still far too low for someone who could walk on his own feet.

"Puh..."

The stifling atmosphere that had been present in the classroom earlier came to an end with Isa's departure. As Naoto listened to the voices of his classmates, who had faintly returned to their normal routines, he propped himself up on his desk and exhaled deeply.

His head was full of inexplicable thoughts and couldn't quite put his finger on this experience. He dug his hands into his spiky hair and roughly brushed it around. It was an old habit of Naoto's that he tended to do when he was feeling embarrassed.

"I can't believe you interrupted Isa while he was in his preaching mode. He was totally on to you."

Shinnosuke came running up to Naoto as soon as Isa left the classroom and said that with a dumbfounded look on his face. He was somewhat unhappy, probably because he had been given an extra task as collateral damage thanks to Naoto. Naoto had no choice but to apologize for that.

Naoto looks up with his hands still in his hair. And beside Shinnosuke stood Haruka with a worried expression on her face.

"Nao-kun, are you still feeling a little woozy this morning? Lack of sleep, maybe?"

"No, it's not that, but... well..."

He couldn't say thing. Naoto was at a loss for words. Neither Haruka nor Shinnosuke knew about this mysterious eye of Naoto's – ‘the eye of the hunter’. 

Of course, he wasn't going to talk about it. So how could he say anything about the numbers, that represent the life-force of someone? Naoto couldn't help but be curious, so he asked the two in front of him as if he was checking on something.

"Hey, you two. Wasn't there something off about Isa today?"

"Yeah? Nothing out of the ordinary if you ask me. Just the usual Mr. Isa stuff."

Shinnosuke's answer came back to him immediately and it was a simple one. Naoto smiled out of the corner of his mouth. In the first place, Shinnosuke must not even remember the content of the class, let alone Isa's condition. This boy is very much like himself in many ways.

To be fair, he didn't expect much from his best bad friend. Naoto looked at Haruka who had a troubled look on her face and turned her finger on her small chin as if she was thinking.

"...Although it wasn't that that strange. When I was called after Nao-kun didn't answer, Isa-sensei's eyes were kind of flashing."

"Is that so...?"

"Yeah. He would stare at me and then suddenly look away and then right back at me again. And although his eyes were looking at me, they weren't really focused. I thought it was a little strange."

Even Haruka, who could not see the numbers, felt Isa's discomfort. It could be wrong observation. It could be a misunderstanding. If anything, it seemed perfectly natural to think that way.

But this uncomfortable feeling was like an ominous chest pounding, making Naoto's nerves tingle with annoyance.