Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 02

Chapter 02: The Wrecking Crew in the Classroom

Class continues until the bell rings

But if the bell is broken

What then of class

Point Allocation (Classroom)

•

There existed a wooden classroom.

The view outside the classroom’s windows was filled with the white sky. The classroom itself was on the aerial ship Musashi. It was a classroom of Musashi Ariadust Academy.

Though it was a rather small classroom, there were not even 20 students in it. The back of the classroom was rather empty.

A short female teacher stood in front of the blackboard. A nametag with “Sanyou” written upon it was attached to her. With a world history book in hand, she was speaking.

“…Well then; in the past, humanity descended to the Earth from the heavens. More specifically to this land, the Far East. But because the planet’s environment was inhospitable to the people, humanity was unable to leave the Far East. As such, humanity copied the Far East to a different space, doubling the amount of land; whereupon they started to live in the real world and the Harmonic World. At the time, they questioned whether they would be able to ascend to the heavens like the humanity of old. Therefore, humanity proposed an idea. If they repeated the same history as humanity of old, they would definitely be able to ascend to the heavens. The thing they made for this purpose was…”

A breath. Sanyou touched her chalk to the previously untouched blackboard.

“…the Testament. The history book that covers each and every aspect of the Former Earth Age’s history.”

•

She rapped the blackboard and circled the word “Testament” twice to emphasize it.

“People currently believe that if we follow the same history as humanity in the past, we will be able to reach the heavens again. They created the Seven Compositions with the Old Testament, which records history Before Christ; and the New Testament, which records the history of Anno Domini.”

Sanyou continued to write the words: “A Walkthrough to History”. As she did so, she spoke.

“However, when the future became clear there were people who read of coming events in order to gain power. As such, humanity rendered the information of the Testament unreadable; all except the events of the coming century. Yet they could not leave the renewal of the display of information to people. To solve this they used the ley lines, which govern all things, to bind the Testament with fate.”

Sanyou turned to face the class. Their faces, lined up in a row before her, were frowning.

Faced with this, Sanyou bathed in their confused stares.

…This is bad. Looks like fate and things are pretty hard to understand… I guess I shouldn’t mention the Excerpt?

As her mind started to fall into panic, Sanyou recalled the things she had studied at home last night. She drew a deep breath.

“What do you think fate is? What do you think, Abe-kun?”

She tried asking one of the male students. Having been asked this, he suddenly spoke with a timid voice.

“…Marriage?”

…Is he being sarcastic because a man ran away from me a few days before?

Sanyou felt her heart freeze for an instant. However, laughs spilled out from around the boy. The other students turned to the student who had answered and shouted what had decidedly become his nickname.

“Hey, Marriage Man!”

Seeing the class’s atmosphere become lively, Sanyou smiled wryly.

“Um, the reason he thought that fate is the same thing as marriage is because marriage is…”

“Inescapable,” she began to say.

“I-i-ines…escaping me over and over… Goddammit, God failed when he made a character like me!”

“S-Sanyou-sensei! Don’t get so agitated by reality!!”

These noisy brats, they think that anyone can get married just because they’re young; but I’m still 24… Yeah, I’m still 24…still. I’m within the accepted range of ‘still’. I’m not even halfway through a life of 50 years.

Sanyou forced down the murmurs of her heart for the moment.

“Anyway, fate is inescapable.”

Everyone nodded, looking at Sanyou with an inexplicably sympathetic gaze, but she chose to ignore it.

“Um,” she started to speak again.

“We learned that fate exists during the Divine Age. We also know that it is fundamentally changeable. It is explicitly because of fate’s existence that things begin and end. It is commonly accepted that we can access it through the ley lines, which govern all things in the same manner as time and space.”

“The people of the past linked the renewal of the Testament with fate, which will continue to flow as long as the world exists. Matching with the flow of fate, the Testament shows us the history of the coming century.”

While speaking, she started to write on the blackboard.

“As regards to the recreation of history, the Testament was given the same status as the principal scripture of the Former Earth Age. However, because gods truly existed in the age when humanity ascended, to the humans who had returned all Christian religions lost their status. Therefore in history creation, the Christian religions do not worship God…”

She wrote.

•They believe in the Testament’s history recreation itself.

“…This is how things have turned out. In religions like Shinto where multiple gods are necessary, they responded to the new knowledge by shifting the gods’ domains from the gods in the ascension age.

Because of the fact that gods exist and the belief in the Testament, religious organizations and groups are known as Testamental religions or Testamental conventions; and believers are called Musicians… In the Far East, Shinto is more accurately described as the Shinto faith, and shrines are Shinto conventions. Consequently, people who are able to use its power are Shinto Musicians.”

This was not all.

“The majority of Testamental religions outside of the Far East are just the backwards reading of the names of their counterparts of the Former Earth Age. This connotes the fact that they are truly different from their counterparts in the Former Earth Age; but the origin stems from the people who had moved to the Altered Space ‘The Harmonic World’. They read the name backwards because they took the meaning of its inverse as a blessing, that they would one day be able to leave this different world like they had in the past.

“The Testament-worshipping Tsirhc denomination and its variant, the Mlasi domination, kept the backwards reading even after leaving the Harmonic Divine States to avoid the confusion that would result from a change. The current principal Testament religions are…”

• Pro-Testament. Tsirhc branches:
  • Sion: Primarily demons. They favor the Old Testament. Nomadic race.
  • Catholic: Mainly K.P.A Italia, Tres España, and Hexagone Française. Worships saints.
  • Protestant: M.H.R.R. Favors the entire Testament. Subdued but very good at commerce.
  • Orthodoxia: Sviet Rus. Favors holy paintings. Russian interpretation of Catholicism.
  • Anglican Church: Mainly England. Divorce is legal. Officially Protestant but inclines towards Catholic.

• Pro-Testament Offshoot:
  • Mlasi: Mainly the Middle-East. Five prayers every day and a month of fasting.

• Non-Testament
  • Dunhi: India. The cycle of life and death. Curry.
  • Oat: China. Full of sages. Ramen.
  • Shintoism: The 800,000 gods of the Far East. Unexpectedly spontaneous.
  • Buddhism: Far East’s version of the path of Samsara. Packed with many spells.

“Well, looking at those who live in Musashi, everyone is basically Shinto. If someone isn’t, people mostly don’t care as long as they’re not involved.”

Sanyou continued to speak.

“Humanity started to repeat the history of the Former Earth Age which had been described in the Testament. Of course they retired and cared for the broken peoples and leaders who had died, also following up on their behalf. The majority of wars were also agreed upon, and they came with guarantees. So in the beginning things were compressed in this manner; but recreation formally started at 0 AD.”

Sanyou thought for a moment, looking at the class’s speed in copying down the notes on the blackboard. Looking at one, then two, then three, she passed her gaze across the entire class.

…I’m probably going too fast.

She confirmed that the place she was standing, on top of the teaching platform, was not blocking anyone’s view. After taking a breath, Sanyou stepped away from the platform and walked amongst the class in order to give them some time to copy down the notes.

Sanyou reached the back of the classroom.

…Is the order of the curriculum I’m teaching really alright?

She was slightly perplexed.

•

It’s really complicated.

A teacher like me thinks so, so what does the class copying down the notes think?

Last year was a failure. In the second year, we started world history with Rome and the Far East’s history from the Nara period.

I got too excited about Rome and the Heian period and had to rush through the last half of the course.

…I mean, that part of history is pretty interesting.

Especially when we got to the foundation of Roman Empire; that famous line Julius Caesar spoke to Brutus during his assassination, “You again, Brutus?” was very memorable. The assassination of key figures leads to their protection through “retirement”, and I explained that concept very thoroughly.

Third years have to choose their future career paths, so it was a pretty bad mistake…

This is my third year as a teacher. I had taught the first and second years, so this is my first time teaching third years.

Will it be alright? The future lives of my students really depend on this.

“…”

The class was currently copying down the notes on the board, and the air was filled with tension.

Looking at the class from the back of the classroom, she understood the differences between each one.

The ones born in the Far East and Asia had mainly black hair. There were occasionally people who had dyed their hair, but their base color was black.

However, this group of students did not make up even half the class. The rest of them had either blonde or brown hair, and there were also students with red and white hair.

…There are also a lot of people that don’t have any hair or who, in other words, don’t meet the prerequisites to be described as having “hair” at all.

The majority of half-dragons and devils have scales and shells instead of skin, so they don’t have hair. The majority of slimes and spirits are the same. Conversely, half-beasts have hair all over their bodies; some in tortoise-shell patterns or stripes, some long and some short. The varieties are rich.

When I look at them, a slight anxiety wells up in my heart.

I was once also one of these people, and we looked like this as well.

…But I feel like our teacher had gotten more of their things together.

As she thought this, there was a sound that crept into her hearing. The voices and the sound came from the class in the classroom next door.

…Third-year Plum Class, Makiko-senpai’s class.

Makiko Oriotorai sat next to Sanyou in the faculty’s office. To Sanyou, who had moved to this job two years ago, Oriotorai was an existence with which she had enough of an age gap that she could safely refer to their relationship as one between a senior and a junior. Oriotorai often let her observe classes, and she was irregularly reliable when it came to Sanyou’s weak areas.

The voice she could hear now belonged to Oriotorai.

“Long story short, right now the capital is being ruled by the P.A. Oda.”

No, that’s not really true Oriotorai-senpai. The Akechi family of P.A. Oda has acknowledged their own autocracy.

…Makiko-senpai, please take your lecture seriously!

She’s teaching them the Far East’s history, right?

Sanyou hit the nail right on the head. There were not many teachers in Musashi Ariadust Academy. The lessons were all taught by the class teachers.

Oriotorai’s lessons are always noisy, but I’m jealous that she gets along so well with her students.

…I wonder what kind of lesson they’re having right now…

The day before, they had a lesson where the losers had to bungee jump. But what I could hear now was Oriotorai and the girls’ voices.

“Strip! Strip! Strip!!”

…Seriously, what kind of lesson are they having!?

•

Oriotorai’s class was fundamentally based upon a principle of absolute punishment. Her way of teaching was simple.

1: Teach.

2: Ask someone, who is required to respond.

3a: If they cannot answer, they will be punished, but points will not be deducted from them. Nicknamed “execution”.

3b: If they can answer, they can gain points corresponding to the punishment that was announced.

Furthermore, each person announces his own punishment at the beginning of each month. The actual contents of the punishment when it needs to be put into practice are, with the exception of the guilty party, discussed by the class and the severity adjusted. As such, favors and connections are important to have beforehand. If they chose a light punishment, it was possible that the conference would increase the weight of the punishment by ten times just for amusement’s sake; so none of them could let their guard down.

If the punishment you announced was heavy, then your grades would go up every time you could answer.

In addition, a special characteristic of Oriotorai’s class was the “review”.

“Alrighty then; the Far East history for today is going to be about the ‘Harmonic Unification War’, the circumstances leading to the Divine States’ provisional occupation.”

Oriotorai was sitting in a chair beside the teacher’s desk.

“Suzu~ It’s fine if you just talk about what you know, so please give us your review.”

“Ah? Eh? …Sensei, ah, um, y-yes. T-The Harmonic Unification War?”

Continuing to face downward, the girl Suzu stood up, her movements panicked. She was blushing.

“A-according to w-what I know…um, in the past the world was divided into the Divine States in reality’s world and t-the Harmonic Divine States w-which had been copied over to Altered Space. T-this was done by controlling the ley l-lines. The people of the Divine States lived in the Divine States in reality’s world while the people of the other countries lived in the Harmonic Divine States of the different world. They got along p-pretty well, I think; um, is that fine?”

“Yeah, you’re fine. To summarize, they recreated the descriptions within the Testament in reality and the other world; all the while thinking of a countermeasure to the harsh environment outside the safe Divine States.”

Everyone nodded after Oriotorai spoke. There were some voices that were saying, “You were great!”

Sitting in the window seat of the row of seats all the way to the back, Toori was opening the guide to the game he had bought with a smile on his face.

“Hey, don’t worry Bell-san! If things got dangerous, I’d get punched in your stead! It’s alright! I’m not gonna die today till I get to the first branch of this eroge, at the very least!”

“You. Please stop saying things that’re obvious death flags. Actually, why’re you opening up your guide in the middle of class? You’re even filling in the survey?”

Hearing Oriotorai’s words, Toori raised his voice.

“Huh!? What’re you saying, sensei!? I just want the membership special, so please let me go!!”

“Ahaha, yeah, if I could I’d like to seriously let you go…but this is my job.”

“D-don’t just say it so directly, sensei! Your job!? A job, huh!? I’ll say this really clearly then…adults’re dirty!”

Toori stood on top of his chair and pointed at Oriotorai with his two index fingers.

“Is money everything!? Sensei, you’re just getting money from the school by teaching classes, aren’t you!?”

“I’m pretty sure that that’s what being a teacher’s about,” the class muttered. Despite this, Toori did not show a single sign of caring. He examined the guide, holding it up such that the sunlight passed through it.

“Goddammit, I can’t go down the committee president route even if I look through the guide! Also, I can’t change the name of the protagonist in this game! I entered in Tenzou’s name for my first playthrough, thinking that I’d get a bad end!”

“Why did you choose me, Toori-dono!? I am in charge of blonde girls with big boobs!”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it, Tenzou! The second time I’ll take a male character’s route with Urquiaga’s name!”

“You bastard…! We should have decided that I am in charge of older sister characters!”

The treasurer, Shirojiro looked up at their argument. Frowning, he looked at Toori and spoke.

“Be quiet. I’m working right now. For some reason, during this docking we haven’t been exporting anything to Mikawa compared to the goods that are coming in. The struggle to reserve warehouses is fierce. Save it for later… Heidi, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Mmm, you know, Shiro-kun, I’m just thinking that we’re in class too.”

“You guys need to shut up…” Neshinbara muttered. But as expected, Toori ignored them. Her eyes still hidden, Suzu spoke, a small smile on her face. After her shoulders stopped their slight tremble, she took a breath.

“Um, i-it’s fine, then?”

Suzu waited for everyone to settle down before speaking.

“It all started with the… Nanboku-chou war.”

•

As they listened to Suzu, the class looked at their textbooks.

The Nanboku-chou war.

“The Far East was called the Divine States at the time. There existed two representatives of the emperor within it, and this war was the struggle between them.”

The true emperor of the Divine States controlled the environmental gods using the Three Sacred Treasures; and by doing so, he managed the ley lines running through the Divine States.

However, the emperor’s role was unrelated to that of the government. They were both man and god, living gods. And they were isolated from all things of this world.

Therefore, it was the task of the representatives that had been acknowledged by the imperial palace to recreate the role of emperor in the Testament’s description of history.

“However, d-despite reaching a truce with a promise to share power between the north and the south, the northern court b-broke the promise as d-described by the Testament’s description of history a-and didn’t share power, starting their rule as a d-dictator. And in…1412…? The southern court r-rebelled. However…”

Suzu clearly spoke these next words.

“The Testament’s description showed that in the year 1443, the southern court would assault the imperial balance and pillage the Divine Tools. And until they were taken back in 1457, control over the ley lines was lost… The Divine States in the other world, the Harmonic Divine States, lost control of the ley lines which had been supporting Altered Space; and they fell towards the original Divine States.”

“…What happened after it fell?”

“More than half of it completely collapsed and was obliterated. H-however, the remaining portion overwrote and fused with these Divine States, still retaining the weather and other conditions that it had had when it was still part of the other countries. Because of this, there are many p-points where the lands of the Harmonic Divine States exist. T-these are called harmonic territories. Those pillars of a different sky that we see a l-lot, the earth beneath the sky included, are harmonic territories.”

She continued.

“The people of the other countries, who had been living in the Harmonic Divine States before, s-swarmed into the Divine States all at once. Though they were just escaping danger, they had also pinned the blame for the incident onto the Divine States. Battles occurred everywhere. And e-eventually…the Divine States s-surrendered to the invasion forces of the other countries. This was the ‘Harmonic Unification War’. Yet…”

Yet, the other countries did not completely annex the Divine States.

This was because there had been nothing of the like in the Testament’s descriptions.

As such, the countries invaded all of the Divine States, setting up Academies which were training areas for military and political matters. These Academies were made the highest institution of the country. All this was done in order to avoid a coup through military or political means.

“A majority of the Divine States is subjected to provisional occupation by the Academies of the other countries and the Union of the Testament, who controlled the Academies. Currently, the chancellors and Academies of the Far East and the other countries are…”

She had spoken to that point when Oriotorai prompted her.

“Could you tell me about them?”

“Ah, yes.”

Counting them off her fingers, Suzu listed them:

Shimazu — Africa Union — Kyushu: A land of plant-type race beings. Possesses abundant labor force.

Oouchi, Ootomo — Tres España — Shimonoseki: Reigned by Felipe II. A country with great debt as the king invested in developing the New World.

Mouri — Hexagone Française — Chuugoku: Ruled by the up/down duo of Louis XIV and Terumoto Mouri.

Hashiba — M.H.R.R (Holy Roman Empire) — Kinki: Current emperor under house arrest. Catholics and Protestants are in disarray.

Oda — P.A. Oda — Kinki ~ Tokai: Eight years ago, Nobunaga inherited his name and half-seceded from the Testament Union.

Houjou — Alliance of Indian Countries — Tokai ~ Kanto: The long-lived of the Houjou have an automaton-based civilization. They are the ones behind the Alliance.

Uesugi - Sviet Rus - Hokuriku: The Sakra Raitei-san does a good job in ruling this land with fear.

Aki — K.P.A Italia — Setouchi: Alliances of cities led by the head of the Tsirhc Catholics, the Pope.

Takeda — Qing — Kanto: A large country based around the moving city-states of the elven races.

N/A — England — Floating Island: Ruled by the Fairy Queen Elizabeth. A country of fairies and magical races.

Matsudaira — Far East — Tokai, Kanto: The representative of the Far East. Formed an official alliance with P.A. Oda 10 years ago.

Suzu took a breath.

“A-also, because o-of the rules of history recreation there are still lands that the T-Testament Union cannot occupy d-due to the fact that they have not been explored yet.”

N/A — Siberia — Touhoku Region - Arctic land sparsely inhabited by unconventional races.

N/A — New World — Hokkaido Region - Mostly uncharted lands, but recently an incipience of potential power is seen there.

N/A — Savage Land — Shikoku Region - Mostly filled with barren harmonic territories. Primarily inhabited by silicon-based races.

Suzu took another breath. Nodding at her, Oriotorai asked her a question.

“Why is that England doesn’t have a corresponding land of the Far East?”

“Ah, j-judge, that’s because… In the Harmonic Divine States, England was Tsushima. It was really small, so I t-think they raised the bottom of the sea. So when the Harmonic Divine States collapsed, t-the island moved w-with it and renewed the ley lines. Because of this, they don’t rule over the Divine States and, u-um, and from a neutral standpoint they act as a bridge between the other countries and the Far East.”

“That’s right, they’re getting the Floating Island and the other countries’ technology from the IZUMO group.”

“Judge,” Suzu nodded, standing there stiffly.

“That’s about right. Much better than if I’d done it. Maybe I’ll ask you next time too~.”

Hearing Oriotorai speak, Suzu loosened her body. She sat down, expelling a breath of relief.

But at the same time, Toori stood up and spoke.

“Sensei, you’re dirty…!”

•

“Eh?”

As everyone turned back to look at him, Toori was pointing at Oriotorai with two fingers.

“That’s dirty, sensei! You’re just egging Bell-san on and asking her to do the next one because you’re an idiot! Adults are seriously stained!! But I’ll point it out! I promise this!”

“…Hey Toori, saying that you’ll confess in the morning and now this…are you really in such a hurry to die?”

“Huh!? There’s no way that I’d want to die, sensei! Or could it be that you’re going to kill me if I confess!? What kind of jealousy is this!? Do you love me that much!? That much!?”

“Ahahaha. This is starting to get seriously old; I’m just going to go past whether or not I love or hate you and say that I wanna kill you.”

“I-is that something a teacher should say to a student, sensei!? Wow, you’re so cool!!”

Toori clapped once. Looking around at everyone, he spoke more politely.

“Well then everyone, we will be gathering tonight to celebrate the night of my confession’s eve! The celebration will be held—”

Not even turning back to look at Toori, Shirojiro said this.

“Don’t even try to go to a place that will cost money. If you choose a place that won’t be covered by our budget, I’ll hang you from the stern.”

“Well, looks like it’s gonna be held here! Maybe we’ll do dares like we did last year!? It’s kinda outta season, I guess.”

“…Um, Toori-kun, this might not be the best time.”

Frowning, Asama had raised her hand. She summoned Hanami and opened up torii signframes around her. Each of the signframes were filled with statistics.

“The rate of incidence of phenomena is increasing as compared to the previous year. If we do dares, they might seriously happen.”

“Then let’s have an exorcism!”

Toori spoke to Asama as she tilted her head in puzzlement.

“There’s a lot of us that have those kinds of skills, right? So…let’s exorcise the school grounds tonight so those kinds of things won’t happen! If there’s something that’s evil, we can exorcise it. You’re fine with it if we go to school to do that, right sensei? It’ll be like one of the student council activities!”

“Mmm… I was actually thinking that it was about time to be doing that.”

“Is that so?”

Having been asked this by Asama, whose twin-colored eyes were opened wide, Oriotorai shrugged and nodded.

“I mean, the Seven Mysteries are a part of every Academy, aren’t they? Judging from the rate of phenomena now, the teachers are worrying that such things might even happen here.”

“Then if you leave it to us…”

“It’d take money if you asked someone else to do it, right? It’s not like phenomena are actually occurring. But well, we were thinking that we should probably investigate beforehand. So I volunteered for the night watch just in case.”

“Then it’s decided. We’ll do it! It’ll be a ‘ghost hunt’!”

“Yeah. I’ll allow it, so make sure you patrol around at night and replace the charms on the nameplates of all the classrooms in my stead. If there’s a shrine at the classroom, please worship it. I’ll take care of the sacred sake that I bought with my own money to cleanse the school.”

“Y-you’re the worst teacher ever!!”

“Well, I bought it for a good purpose, you know? Ghosts do exist after all, and there’re some in the school that act as guardian spirits. The fact that there’re shrines and charms above the entrances to every room is proof that they exist. Even if you can’t see them, they’re here. To respect these ‘Nobodies’ and accompany them are the rules. Even if they come out, unless they’re evil spirits, just act like everything’s normal. Is that fine?”

She folded her arms again and spoke further. She gestured towards Toori with her chin.

“Well then Toori, it’s time for your punishment.”

•

Hearing Oriotorai, everyone fell silent.

At the end of the class’s questioning gaze, Oriotorai scratched her head.

“Remember Suzu’s explanation? The northern court started its dictatorship in 1413. It was a small mistake.”

Suzu shrunk back, a soft exclamation on her lips. Seeing this, Oriotorai waved her hand lightly.

“Well, it’s fine, you were more than able to make up for it in your explanation after. And there’s no punishment when you fail in the ‘review’. But…there was an idiot that said he’d get punched in your stead, right?”

Oriotorai picked up the notebook of the attendance record that was lying on top of the teacher’s table. She checked its contents.

“…The punishment that Toori announced this month is…to strip.”

“Uwaaaah! Did I write something softcore like that!? I should’ve written something super hardcore from the start…or maybe I should say bigcore!”

Toori stood up and shouted, a grin on his face.

Everyone thought for a moment. After a little while, the class said this.

“Then, if the punishment is to strip…”

•

“Strip! Strip! Strip!”

Sanyou heard these voices from the neighboring classroom. After a small pause, she also heard cheers of praise.

…Eh? Does that mean someone stripped!? Is that really alright!? Like, isn’t that like child #@*$!?

“Wow…!”

…O-one more!?

“Wooow…!”

…What!? W-wait a moment…

Sanyou looked at the male students who were earnestly copying down the notes on the board.

The male uniform of the Far East was constructed in this manner.

…Umm, a jacket, a shirt, pants, and underwear…altogether four pieces. There had been three cheers just now, so…

“Whaaaa…!?”

…Why’s the fourth time a question…!?

The instant after she thought this…

The wall to her left and the lockers up against it were broken through in a ‘大’ shape, and a naked boy came tumbling in.

•

The sound of splintering accompanied the wooden fragments of the lockers and debris flying through the air.

“—!!”

The boys that had been copying down notes stood up, and the girls rocked backward.

The nude boy who had come flying in rolled three times before he flew into the back row of the rows of desks. However, he only sent a few seats flying because the students that had been at the point of impact had scrambled out of the way. To describe his movements, he smashed into a desk and was sent into the air, impacting the remainder of the desks with his limp body.

The sound of destruction echoed, and the chairs that had been sent spinning through the air fell to the ground and rolled.

All that was left was the desks and chairs, left fallen and bent.

And silence.

But after a while the girls brought their hands to their cheeks, looking at the nude boy on the floor; who was lying spread-eagle, just like the character ‘大’.

Their first reaction was to pull their bodies back. The next moment, they said this in unison:

“Ahhhhh…!!! Sensei! Sensei! …It’s a pervert! The pervert Chancellor’s spinning around!!”

Sanyou heard the cries of the students, but because everything had happened so suddenly, her mind was left in a state of incomprehension. She thought this:

…Yes, I can see that too. He was spinning. Vertically too.

“S-Sensei! Please do something!!”

Eh? Sanyou thought. There was a nude boy lying face-down in front of her. His butt was in clear view.

…But…what? W-what do you…want me to do about this…?

Sanyou wiped at the sweat that clung to her whole body. In the special classes she had taken in order to become qualified as a teacher, or in her three years of experience as a teacher, she had no memory of learning about how to deal with a spinning pervert who burst through a wall.

But all around her were eyes swimming in confusion and the expectation that the teacher, being older than them, would take care of this for them.

They were all looking at her.

Being the object of so many gazes, the amount of sweat dripping down Sanyou’s back increased.

…The students! The students are expecting things of me that they’ve never expected before; but like I thought, this is too much…!

Answering my student’s hopes and dealing with a pervert…can these two things be thought of on the same wavelength?

But she was the person responsible for this classroom. Therefore Sanyou approached the fallen nude, keeping her body low by pulling her hips back. In between the splinters of wood that had scattered everywhere and the fallen chairs and desks, there lay the butt of the fallen nude.

The butt did not move.

…Then…

She got closer to him in order to check if he was still alive. She lowered her body and took a breath.

“U-um…”

“Wooooooooooooah, that was seriously surprising…! Would a normal teacher seriously kick her student!!”

The nude sprung up with the force of a spring-loaded doll and turned to face Sanyou.

His hips were thrust right before Sanyou’s eyes, as she was squatting down.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

She screamed in reflex.

“Huh?” The nude said. Putting a hand on his hips, he twisted them to the left and right.

“Hey, isn’t it Sanyou-sensei!? Why’re you screaming like that!? Did something weird happen!? Please tell me! I’ll solve anything for you!!”

“Hyaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

The moment she screamed, the nude was impaled from behind by a longsword in its sheath and he toppled to the ground.

•

Immediately reviving from the blow, Toori looked at Sanyou who had been grabbed from behind by Oriotorai.

Oriotorai was speaking to Sanyou right before his eyes. Sanyou’s breathing was ragged and tears were spilling from her eyes.

“It’s alright, it’s fine Mitsuki…just calm down, OK?”

“Yeah Sanyou-sensei! If you don’t stop crying then we’ll be seriously troubled!! Here, just take a look.”

He had thrust out his hips; but looking at his groin you could not see skin, just a square bundle of light.

“Look, Sanyou-sensei! Through Amaterasu’s optical divine musical technique which can manipulate sources of light, I can make use of optical camouflage! Or in English, God Mosaic! Shiro’s prepared a whole bunch of charms for me, and I do a lot of stripping; so no matter what kind of massive damage I take I’m fine due to the power of the Idiot Spell!”

“Ah, no, um, rather than that…”

Sanyou’s gaze rested on Aoi’s left shoulder.

“Um…is your left shoulder alright?”

“Huh? Ahh, this.”

There was a scar on his left shoulder. Wide and thick, it traced a curve down towards his side before circling back; the legacy of a laceration five centimeters in width.

Toori raised his left arm, showing it to Sanyou.

“It happened a reeeeaaaallly long time ago. Since it was so far back, the scar got bigger as I got bigger. That’s all.”

Toori nodded at her. After a while, Sanyou nodded back, faltering only a little.

A figure clambered through the gaping hole in the wall. It was Heidi.

Heidi looked around for just a moment, taking in the debris on the floor before counting something off on her fingers.

“…Righty. Well then, sensei, Azuma-kun’s arrived, you know? He’s walking through the courtyard right now.”

“…Heidi. You calculated the price of repairs, didn’t you?”

“Hmm?” Heidi smiled.

“The Bertoni Company is backing DYI ventures after all. If we settle this using the school’s repair fees, we’d be in really big trouble. Should I make arrangements now?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Oriotorai nodded. Seeing this, Toori asked her a question.

“Sensei, he’s coming back?”

“Yeah, but rather than that, please get on some clothes and think about how we’re going to fix this.”

“How to fix it?” Toori muttered. He noticed that in one of the classroom’s containers, which lay on top of the lockers, there were scrolls of Japanese paper that were used in writing classes.

“How to fix it…”

Murmuring it again, Toori took one of the scrolls and held it up to Sanyou and Oriotorai.

“Won’t it be alright if we cover it with this? It’d be like a massive sliding door. What do you think, Sensei?”

“I guess.” Oriotorai said, as Toori unrolled the scroll of Japanese paper in front of her.

Spreading it wide with his hands, Toori slid the paper between his legs, effectively straddling it. With his next motion, he wedged the paper between his butt and groin, pulling it up and squeezing it tight. Having done this, he rolled it back up.

“Then with this…”

“Wait a second, what the hell did you just do!? Didn’t you just do something really weird!?”

“Huh!? What are you talking about, sensei!? Just leave me alone! I’m by myself!!”

“Um, Toori-kun, Sensei… I think Azuma-kun’s about to arrive.”

“Ah,” Oriotorai said, lifting her head. Releasing her hold on Sanyou, she looked at Toori, eyes narrowed.

“You’re going to be in the same class as Azuma starting today, so don’t tell him anything weird. After all, he’s—”

“I got it,” Toori answered with a smile. Standing in front of Sanyou and Oriotorai, whose narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, he was still completely nude.

“He’s the emperor’s child after all… There’s no way I’d do anything strange.”

After he finished speaking voices could be heard from Plum Class, the neighboring classroom.

“Sensei! Azuma’s arrived!! And so has the king!!”

Hearing this, Oriotorai sighed. She lightly tapped her shoulders with the hilt of her longsword.

“After they’ve greeted everyone Azuma and the king’ll come here. I’d like to do something about the wall before they do…”

Looking at the classroom’s clock, its needles indicating that it was directly before noon, Oriotorai said this.

“At this time today, Masazumi’s probably on break. Well, she’s escorting President Sakai to Mikawa as the representative of the student council, so it’s not like she’s just absent… I wonder what she’s up to now.”

Study: Musashi’s Administrative Divisions

Toori: “Sis! Sis! Teach us about… uhh, what was it called? Mu-Muchachi’s A…Aninstrative…Invasions! Ah, that last part sounds erotic!”

Kimi: “Fufufu, my foolish brother, your super forced joke is simply wonderful. Musashi’s Administrative Divisions, then?”

Toori: “…C’mon, Sis. Getting down to topic already? I thought you would play along with me for a bit longer. You’re quite the killjoy.”

Kimi: “And you’re so noisy. I’m going to start the explanation now, so sit there like a good boy and listen.”

Musashi’s Internal Politics Division

• Academy (Chancellor’s Officers, Student Council and Student Committee)
  • Authority split into Executive, Judicial, and Legislative power divisions.

• Provisional Council (Assembly of Academy’s influential alumni)
  • Leaders of the bureaucrats that assist Academy in making and executing decisions.

• King of Musashi (Yoshinao)
  • Has the management rights for Musashi, and can veto the Academy’s decisions.

Kimi: “The Academy is regarded as the heart of the nation, so the members of the student committee were originally the bureaucrats. But in the Far East attendance isn’t unlimited like the other countries. We graduate at 18 years of age, so a bureaucratic organization that doesn’t have the power to make or pass motions, the Provisional Council, was made. And then…well, Musashi’s King is a division specific to Musashi. The other countries don’t have someone that can veto like the Musashi’s King.”

Toori: “What happens if there is one?”

Kimi: “In other words, there will be someone who can stop you if you make a crazy decision. The kings from other countries aren’t nuts like you, that’s why they don’t need one.”

Toori: “…Hey, someone, anyone, listen up… This sister of mine is really incredible sometimes.”

Notes

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