Book Girl Ascends the Stairway of the Gargoyles and Idiots Chapter 3

Idiots, Staircase and Summoned Beasts

The distance looked to be about 200m when viewed directly.

Kanba Yukihiro sighed as he looked up at this building in front of him. He looked slowly at both left and right side, and there were 12 students, including Yukihiro, standing in front of the terminal that was placed quite some distance away. Their uniforms were of the male and female variety, of different styles. One of them was the uniform Tenguihama Academy’s Yukihiro was wearing, while the other…

“…Feels just like a date.”

The boy had been muttering sternly since just now. He was wearing the same uniform as Yoshii Akihisa’s Fumitzuki Academy. The ratio in numbers between Tenguihama and Fumitzuki was 1 is to 1. In other words, there were 6 people on both sides.

“You ready? We’re going to begin.”

The boy beside Akihisa said. This boy had an athletic frame, sharp eyes and short hair that gave a deep impression. His name was Sakamoto Yuuji, and like Akihisa, he was a second year of Fumitzuki Academy. On a side note, the people on Fumitzuki Academy’s side were all second years.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s hurry up then!”

An energetic petite girl’s voice answered Sakamoto impatiently as the girl jumped around.

The girl was Kokonoe Yuuko, and her round cat-like eyes were rolling. She was a third year from Tenguihama. Behind her, a delinquent-looking boy then said, “Then, let’s begin!” His name was Izutsu Ken, a student from Tenguihama, and like Yukihiro, he was a first year.

“Pl, please take care of me.”

The one who asked politely was a beauty with nice flowing long hair. She was a student of Fumitzuki Academy, Himeji Mizuki.

“Please take care of me too.”

On hearing Himeji’s greeting, a lanky girl \with nice flowing black hair bowed. Also, a bespectacled boy bowed lightly too. The girl’s name was Amagasaki Izumi, and the boy was Saegusa Souji. Both of them were second years in Tenguihama.

“Please take care of me!”

A confident-looking ponytailed girl waved her hand, and a boy with nondescript appearance nodded. The ponytailed-girl was called Shimada Minami, and the nondescript boy was called Tsuchiya Kouta. Both of them were students from Fumitzuki Academy.

“This atmosphere sure feels comfortable.”

The last person from Fumitzuki Academy who said this was a pretty girl with a rather unique choice of words. He, Kinoshita Hideyoshi, was a student who looked like a pretty girl, albeit sounding rather old-fashioned.

“Is everyone ready? We can begin.”

The last person from Tenguihama said. This handsome looking boy who gave off a sharp and primitive vibe looked around at everyone. He was a 3rd year of Tenguihama, Kariya Kengo. Everyone nodded after hearing his words, took a slight breath, and call out.

“““SUMMON!”””

Everything started from a mere moment of inspiration from Kokonoe.

“This is the one. The people from the school everyone’s talking about is here!”

The club president Kokonoe suddenly called out in the ‘club room’ of the staircase club Yukihiro belonged to, the roof of Tenguihama’s first sports hall. She waved a piece of A4 paper, and Yukihiro took a piece of paper from her.

“Is this ‘test summoning system’ Fumitzuki Academy a famous school?”

The paper had a brief introduction of Fumitzuki Academy, which used the ‘test summoning system’, and a rough explanation of the activities that would be held the next day. The place was not too far away from here, but Yukihiro did not understand the content on the paper.

“You haven’t heard of Fumitzuki Academy, Button? It’s very famous.”

Kokonoe widened her eyes in shock as she asked. Yukihiro shook his head and asked Izutsu beside him,

“Do you know?”

“What do you mean? I did hear of Fumitzuki Academy before. It’s that high school that assigns classes according to test scores, right?”

“Fumitzuki Academy, is it?”

Saegusa helped elaborate on the vague explanation Izutsu gave.

“They sort the students according to their grades starting from the second year, and imported a world-leading system, the ‘test summoning system’, where they could call out summoned beasts whose strength is based on the test results.”

“Summoned beasts, huh? Sounds like a video game.”

Yukihiro muttered. Saegusa’s eyes lit up as he nudged his glasses up, saying,

“Yeah, that’s a kind of game. Besides, the students in the class had to use the summoned beasts for battle.”

“Ah, battle?”

“Yeah. I just said that they sort classes based on the scores. As for the class facilities, the highest ranked A class differ greatly from the lowest ranked F class. If they wanted to study in a good environment, they would need to work hard to enter the better class. Thus, students would have to fight using battles to decide who’s better. The strength of the summoned beasts are proportional to their scores, so if they want to have a better classroom, they would have to work hard to get better scores. In that case, the students would work harder on their own to get better scores. This was the aim of the school.”

“Sounds really hot-blooded.”

Izutsu sighed out as he said. However, Yukihiro was still puzzled.

“But the normal test scores are 100 at maximum, right? There has to be a limit no matter what, so how can they pull this gap?”

“Most of the schools are as such. However, Fumitzuki Academy’s test scoring system doesn’t have an upper limit, only a time limit, and there is an unlimited number of questions. In other words, they are to answer as many questions as possible within a given time. There’s no concept of full marks there, and it’s said that someone got 500 points in a single subject.”

“Wow…”

Izutsu called out.

“How is it? It’s nice, right? The Fumitzuki Academy system introduction talk will begin tomorrow. I got a piece of this paper from the staff’s office printer.”

Kokonoe happily took the piece of paper from Yukihiro.

“Is this really fine?”

Yukihiro asked.

“There’s still more.”

Kokonoe answered nonchalantly.

“Then, how about everyone go take a look during the next rest period?”

Amagasaki, who had been listening silently, cautiously raised her hand to raise her opinion, but Kokonoe shook her head and said.

“What are you saying, Izumi-chan? Why should we wait for so long? Let’s go now! They already printed the promotional poster beforehand, so that means that there’s some form of preparation for the event going on, and the people involved are going over there to play. Isn’t this too sneaky? I feel we have the right to take part too.”

“Such a lame argument.”

Yukihiro sighed as he looked around for help. At this moment, Kariya, who did not show much in this conversation, stepped forward to say.

“I don’t care about any preparations beforehand, but we’re not people involved in this, so we have no rights to take part. Let’s begin club activity today.”

Kariya interrupted the conversation skillfully, but Kokonoe would not give up.

“What are you saying? We’re related personnel here. Look!”

Kokonoe put the piece of paper in front of Kariya, and pointed at the words on it. Kariya merely answered with a ‘oh’.

“The event is sponsored by Izumi’s family company, Tenma Corporation.”

Kariya looked over at Amagasaki, who responded shyly with a ‘yes’.

“But I don’t have too much involvement—”

“That’s how it is. As Izumi-chan’s friend, everyone in the staircase club have the right to take part in this activity beforehand. Let’s get going!”

“But there’s a problem with whether there’s a preparatory event before hand—”

“Well, I’m not too certain actually—”

“Okay okay. Everyone, let’s get ready. There’s not much time left.”

At Kokonoe’s insistence, Yukihiro and the rest had to be there.

Everyone managed to get there successfully. Of course, the preparatory event did not happen. Just like that, Kokonoe happily looked around, saying that there would be something interesting.

There were no guards assigned at the entrance, and as there were many office vehicles entering and leaving, the gates were wide open. They knew that it would be bad to enter on their own, so Kokonoe could only stand at the entrance and look inside.

“There’s nothing special here. Let’s hurry back, prez.”

Kariya said from behind Kokonoe. Yukihiro and the gang were at the Amagasaki Conference hall that would be used for the briefing the next day. This place belonged to the Tenma Corporation, and was loaned to Fumitzuki Academy for this activity.

It seemed that both sides were planning some event together, but Amagasaki herself did not know the details.

“Oi, are you done?”

Kariya wanted to grab Kokonoe by the collar, but she cried out.

“The kid’s moving the podium.”

Kokonoe was not saying anything really shocking. However, her round eyes got even rounder. She looked back at Yukihiro and the rest and waved at them. The gang could only move over.

“What is it, Kokonoe-sempai? Is there anything shocking here—”

That was a podium that would be used for an orchestra, taller than a human, yet the kid was able to move it easily.

“…”

Kariya was speechless. The kid that was moving the large podium with his back facing Yukihiro and the gang was walking and soon vanished behind the building.

“…Let’s start chasing after it.”

Suddenly, Kokonoe charged out before anyone could stop her. Izutsu followed her, and then, Kariya, Amagasaki, Yukihiro and Saegusa followed suit.

There seemed to be a tail behind the kid that was moving the podium, and its ears seemed to be sharp. Even if it was a kid, its body proportions were weird. The limbs were unnaturally short, and the head was very big. If its size were of an ordinary person’s, it might even be seen as a puppet. However, as it was less than 1m tall, that would be impossible.

“Don’t you find that kid strange?”

Yukihiro asked Saegusa behind him, and Saegusa merely curled his lips without answering. At this moment, they heard a gruff voice from the front.

“Yoshii, put this on the stage. The workers will be here soon.”

Yukihiro got over to Kokonoe and the rest who were hiding in the shadows of the building and looked over. That kid put the podium on the stage, and there were a few adults who looked like workers. Not too far away from them was a man who looked like a sports teacher. He was dressed in shorts and pants, seemingly showing off his tan muscles as he instructed the boy beside him.

That boy was Yoshii Akihisa. He, who was wearing the uniform of Fumitzuki Academy, was looking tired as he stared at the podium.

“Se, sensei, I’ll be grateful here if you let me rest.”

On hearing Akihisa’s words, the teacher folded his arms.

“What? How useless you are, Yoshii. You can’t take it after a mere 5 hours of manual labor?”

“No…I’m a human compared to you, Iro…no, Nishimura-sensei.”

“Oh really? You’re saying as if I’m not human.”

“Ah, no. I guess you can be considered a human, Nishimura-sensei.”

“Yoshii, grit your teeth and keep working.”

“Huh? Why?”

That sport teacher-looking man (it seemed that he was called Nishimura-sensei) had a manzai-like conversation with Akihisa. Soon, the teacher relented.

“…Never mind. I’ll let you rest for a while.”

“Thanks. How long do I need to rest?”

“Hm. 3 seconds will do.”

“Don’t I even have a minute? Is it even legal to have rest periods in single-digit seconds?”

“Just kidding. Just rest whenever you want when I’m not calling you.”

The man said that as he moved towards the stage, and Akihisa sat down relaxed. The kid that moved the podium ran to him.

“Really, you can’t just boss me around like that even if it’s punishment…”

Akihisa muttered as he looked over at the kid. The kid suddenly vanished.