“…”
Driven by that urge, Ren lifted up her shirt.
She wore a mature floral-print lace bra that matched her panties. Too impatient to undo the front hook, she tore it away and grabbed the contents.
“…Hee hee.”
“!?”
Ren turned toward some mocking laughter that had not just slipped out. Whoever it was had clearly used it to let her know they were there.
Someone else had appeared inside the supposedly locked room.
The girl thought her heart would leap out of her mouth.
“J-Jiyuuni Ange… What do you want?”
She groaned the question with a tremor in her voice.
The red-haired girl continued laughing instead of answering. She narrowed her green eyes and observed Ren’s body as if licking across it.
That was when Ren finally caught on.
She currently had her bra removed and her hand in her skirt. She could not afford to have anyone see her like this.
“Hee heed”
Ange’s red hair flipped around…
“I saw you?”
…and she leaped out the window.
For a moment, Ren simply stood there in a daze, but…
“~~~… Wait!!”
After leaving the tennis court, Mutsuki returned to his classroom to change. Once done with that, he walked down the red-lit hallway to reach the building’s exit and head home.
The “go home” announcement was playing, but his pace was carefree.
He was too worried about Ren to listen to the announcement.
Back on the tennis court, she had suddenly held the left of her chest and curled up.
(Was it true that she has heart problems? But…)
He seriously doubted the rumors of heart disease. And she did not seem to be suffering much at all.
Then was there some other reason she had held her chest then?
But just as he wondered that…
“Huh? Hey, Ange.”
“Wha-!? M-Mutsuki…what are you doing here?”
He had assumed she had long since gone home, but he happened across Ange as he exited the stairs.
When he approached, she looked around in concern for some reason. And…she held a paper bag to her chest and turned her back.
“Hm? What’s that?”
“It’s nothing,” she bluntly responded.
Mutsuki tilted his head. The bag was bigger than a school bag meant to hold school supplies. He had no idea what she was trying to hide, but it was unnaturally large to be walking around with.
“What’s going on? And what’s the business you mentioned in your email before?”
“It’s nothing!”
“…You don’t have to yell.”
The boy approached her frankly and the girl suddenly shouted angrily back at him.
She got angry easily, but this was strange even for her. Taken aback, Mutsuki frowned.
“What is with you? You’ve been acting weird lately and you’re keeping all kinds of secrets.”
“…What’s it to you if I have secrets? I’m not causing you any trouble.”
“I’m not saying it’s causing me trouble; I’m just worried. You’re almost never around at night either.”
“I wasn’t asking for your worry. And you always fall asleep right away, so what does it matter if I’m not there?”
“Wha-…?”
It was true he had been going to sleep early lately due to his early mornings.
But it irritated him to have his worries answered like that.
“…What?”
Ange glared indomitably back at angry Mutsuki.
The atmosphere rapidly grew heavy…
“There you are, Jiyuuni Ange.”
A voice cut in from down the stairs.
It was a familiar voice, but Mutsuki and Ange were both shocked when they saw who it was. The girl walking slowly up the stairs was dressed in an unfamiliar way.
Her bright blonde hair was tied back. Her clothing made her look like a princess in a pure white dress and some gold accessories could be seen here and there. It was clearly a knight’s armor.
Shirohara Ren…no, FeTUS’s Dame Lavriel let the sword at her hip and her scarlet cape sway behind her as she approached the two of them…and she seemed somewhat reluctant to look Mutsuki in the eye.
“Wh-what is this? First him and now you?”
She glared sharply at Ange.
The angel girl cautiously held the bag, but the knight remained elegantly courteous as she raised the back of her hand to her mouth.
“I believe I made myself very clear before: I am a member of the proud Baran family and I am a knight. Thus, any slight against me is a slight against the Baran family and Great Britain as a whole.”
“Huh?”
“I hate insults above all else!!”
She placed her glove’s finger in her mouth and pulled it from her hand.
“Challenging an angel now is not the best idea, but this relates to my family and my bloodline. Nothing else matters more!”
“What? Um…Senpai, calm down…”
“What is your poin-…ow!”
She threw the glove at the confused girl’s face.
“Jiyuuni Ange! I challenge you to a duel!!”
Chapter 5
“Both of you! Wait a sec-…”
Mutsuki’s voice was drowned out by the sound of the school building’s wall being blown away.
Red and gold. Two balls of light shot out onto the athletic ground.
“My power is the sword of prayer. Manifestation of almighty wisdom, appear before me!”
“Just so you know, I’m not going to hold back! Haaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”
“Myrddin!!”
“Prominence!!”
The two drawn swords clashed.
Ange wielded a giant mass of metal that was probably larger than she was in both width and height, but Ren’s sword was thin. Yet it did not bend or break. Also…
“Why…you!”
As the angel charged her way, the witch chose not to dodge and instead caught the attack head-on. She did not fall back.
Even if Ange was lighter due to her smaller body size, she had to have the greater overall weight when her sword was included. If her power in the clash had been matched, it meant her opponent had greater strength or speed.
“!?”
And Ren’s lighter blade gave her the more dexterous weapon.
The clashing swords moved toward Ren…were pulled toward Ren. She intentionally relaxed her strength to get Ange to lean forward. Then she placed her weight on the intersection of the blades where their strength was focused.
“Agh!”
And she kicked Ange back.
Ange was sent flying by the solid hit. She slammed into the side of the gym supply room, creating a large dent.
“Your speed is decent, but your movements are all too rough.”
Despite how angry she had been just before the battle began, Ren was extremely calm and showed no openings as she approached.
A normal human would have been turned to mincemeat by the force that slammed her into the wall, so even Ange grimaced.
She raised her divine sword in both hands.
“Prominence – Loop!”
“Oh…?”
She attacked with the split halves of the sword.
The flurry of attacks from the double swords kept Ren from counterattacking and she was forced to fall back while blocking.
That was when Mutsuki caught up.
“Stop this, you two!”
Seeing their stretched shadows as they clashed too quickly to follow, he was briefly dumbfounded, but then he shouted at them.
Ren had likely made sure no one was around in advance. Everyone was supposed to have left school and those two were the only ones on the athletic ground. That was a relief, but…
“Deryaaaaaaaaahh!!”
He did not want Ange or Ren to get hurt, so the sight of their three weapons coming so close to slice each other in two was bad for his heart.
“What is going on?”
Machina and Subaru arrived after hearing the commotion. Their eyes widened at the disastrous state of the schoolyard.
“Why are they fighting?”
“I don’t know. Senpai just suddenly did this…and now Ange is like that. We have to stop them somehow.”
“It would be best not to approach right now. They’re both taking this very seriously.”
Subaru loved battle through and through, so her eyes sparkled as the scene excited her.