"Huh? H-Huh?!"
"R-Rin… Rin-senpai?!"
"Are you serious?"
"Th-That… that other world sounds insanely dangerous…"
"And you're leaving here too…"
Mozunono, who'd been shrinking in the back like a piece of scenery, instantly widened her eyes, like she'd just watched the sun rise in the west. Her face was pure disbelief.
She was still clutching the baton Shirakawa had returned to her, her fingers whitening from the grip.
To her, Rin wasn't just a senior, she was her ideal in swordsmanship.
Rin-senpai was always masked, always strict, yet more upright than anyone. How could she suddenly throw away everything the academy represented?
"I've thought it through, Nono."
Rin didn't turn around, but her voice was unshakably firm.
Her back was straight, so straight it felt like she was forcing her spine to stand tall for the rest of her life, all in this single moment.
"I've… made up my mind. I'm going to change."
With that, Rin stepped forward and walked decisively to Haimer's side, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with Tsukuyo.
At this point, three of the Five Swords were already beside Haimer.
The balance tilted instantly.
An extreme palpable pressure, poured down onto the remaining two.
Mary… and Warabi, who still had her head buried in the black bear's thick belly fur.
The air inside the gym seemed to grow viscous.
Every gaze, Haimer's calm, abyss-deep look, and the three girls' appraising stares, felt like needles pressing into their skin.
…
Mary hugged her heavy dictionary to her chest, nails digging deep into the cover.
Go?
Or stay?
This was supposed to be a serious question of life and death.
Reason told her that staying here, where she had comfort and status, where she lived as a proper young lady, was the correct choice.
After all, who would willingly throw themselves into a fight with monsters that sounded both disgusting and deadly?
But in that moment,
All her rational calculations were drowned out by a far stronger emotion.
Rin chose to go.
Onigawara Rin, the one Mary always mocked for that tacky mask, for being rule-bound like a fossil, for hesitating when it mattered.
That Rin had chosen the thorn-strewn path without hesitation.
And her?
Was she going to curl up here like some timid little quail?
If she backed down now, she'd be losing to Rin.
And that feeling, was ten thousand times worse than death.
"Ahhh, seriously!"
Mary's irritation finally boiled over. She clawed at her golden hair, hair she normally tended with obsessive care, never allowing a single strand out of place.
Then,
Bang!
She slammed the thick dictionary, her treasured companion she carried everywhere, hard onto the floor.
"Fine! I'll go!"
"Who's scared of who?!"
"I'm sick of staying here all day anyway!"
"If even Rin the coward dares to go, what do I have to be afraid of?!"
As if to prove her resolve, she didn't even bother picking up the dictionary. She strode straight to Haimer's other side, and even deliberately bumped Rin with her shoulder, snorting coldly.
Just like that, four were in position.
Now everyone's eyes fell, at last, on the one still sitting on the floor with her entire head buried in the black bear's thick belly fur.
Warabi.
The petite girl, small enough to pass for a grade-schooler, was acting exactly like an ostrich, trying to use the bear to block out reality.
Muffled mumbling drifted out.
"Mmm… should I go? Should I really go?"
"It sounds so scary… I'll die, right? I'll definitely die…"
"But…"
Warabi couldn't help lifting her head slightly out of the dense fur, revealing a pair of timid, watery eyes.
She carefully swept her gaze across the four who had already gathered beside Haimer.
Amou looked down at her from above.
Mary held her chin high.
And even Satori,
was smiling at her with that sweet, tilted-head expression, like she was saying, Oh my… so Warabi-chan is the one being left behind~
If nobody else was going, then even if just one person stayed with her, she would have raised her hand first and voted to remain.
But now,
Everyone else was going.
Was she really going to be the only one left behind?
"Hiss!"
"Fine! I'm going too! I'm going, okay?!"
With that decision made, Warabi sprang to her feet and stomped hard, like she was forcing courage into her own bones. Then, still trying to psych herself up, she turned to the black bear, who was staring blankly.
"If everyone's going…"
"Don't you even think about running!"
She pulled the thick chain around the bear's neck.
"You're coming with me too!"
"If we die, we die together!"
"Rrrow?!"
The bear let out a miserable, unbelieving wail.
Its little black-bean eyes stared at its owner, this owner who was unreliable, sure, but at least used to care about animals.
The bear's face practically screamed:
Are you sick?!
Please spare the bear!!
It only came to watch!
Why was it being dragged along as cannon fodder?!
"Waaahhh!!"
And yet, even as it dug its claws into the floor, carving deep grooves as it cried pitifully,
in the end, it was still helplessly dragged right up to Haimer.
And so,
The Tenka Five Swords, together with the Empress Amou… were fully assembled.
…
Watching their grim, martyr-like expressions, like they were about to march to an execution ground, Haimer couldn't help shaking his head, exasperated.
"Alright."
"Fix your faces."
"Why do you all look like that?"
"I said it's a world with no retreat."
"I didn't say I'm tossing you in right now to feed monsters."
"There's no need to act like we're parting for life and death."
"And besides, I'm not some unreasonable evil god."
"Since you've made your resolve and placed your lives in my hands…"
"Then."
"I'll give you a little time."
"Go settle whatever ties you still have in this world."
"Say goodbye to friends. Pack your bags. Eat whatever you want one last time."
"Anything you want to bring, anything you can't put down, go deal with it."
"Then come to me unburdened, and we'll leave."
"Miss the timing, and you're out."
The moment he said that, the previously solemn atmosphere collapsed.
The girls, who had been wound tight as bows, deflated like punctured balloons, letting out long breaths.
"Phew…"
Warabi immediately flopped down on the floor and wiped sweat off her forehead with zero dignity.
"That scared me to death… I thought we were going to die right away…"
Mary swayed slightly too, then hurried to pick up her dictionary and hug it back to her chest.
Even Rin, who had truly made her decision, let some of that steel resolve ease, replaced by something more complicated.
Because when the time comes to truly leave…
who can do it without any attachments at all?
…
Over the next few hours, the Academy fell into an uproar.
After all, news traveled fast.
Or rather, these girls were the academy's center of gravity.
The moment they made their choice, the girls who always trailed behind them learned everything almost immediately.
In the girls' dormitory, a crowd waited, each wearing a different expression.
"Rin-senpai…"
Mozunono stood at the very front, gripping the white baton Haimer had returned to her.
When she saw Rin step out of her room, the junior who had clung to her like a shadow for so long turned red-eyed, tears pooling and trembling.
"Are you… really leaving?"
"Then who'll teach me swordsmanship? Who'll patrol with me?"
"Without you… I can't do it alone!"
Rin stopped and looked at the junior who had depended on her all this time.
She sighed, reached out, and gently patted Mozunono's head, her gaze complicated.
"Nono."
"You're not a little kid anymore."
"You're a swordswoman of Jikishinkage-ryū too."
"A swordsman can't hide behind someone else forever."
"Since you're already a candidate for the next Five Swords, you have to learn to stand up on your own."
"My sword has found a new direction."
"And you…"
"Need to find your own path."
"The academy… I'm leaving it to you."
"This is a trial."
"And it's also an opportunity."
Elsewhere,
Ubaragasaki chōka had wrapped herself in her whip like a cocoon, trying to stop Mary from packing.
"Lady Mary! You can't abandon me!"
"Without your elegant guidance, my whip technique… my whip technique will turn into limp noodles!"
"Shut up, Chōka!"
Mary yelled as she crammed skincare products and odd bottles of rapier maintenance oil into her suitcase.
"I'm going to conquer another world! I'm not going on vacation!"
"And besides, if I don't go, you'll be a follower forever!"
"Stand up straight!"
"Don't embarrass me!"
As for Warabi,
she was surrounded by her people.
Her subordinates, the Three Beast Warriors.
Tōko Tsunemi held an iron fan, worry on her face.
Tanukihara Kinue had a pencil tucked by her ear, her twin batons tapping unconsciously.
Saruwatari Nico pushed up her goggles, gripping an adjustable wrench tight.
"Boss…"
"You're really not taking us?"
"We're the Three Beast Warriors! We swore to follow you forever!"
"Idiots!"
"That place is dangerous!"
Warabi snapped back, then pointed behind her at the black bear, Kyoubou , who was currently licking the fur of a fluffy little bear cub.
"And I'm not just going myself."
"Kyoubou is going too!"
"And Kyoubou's kid, this little newborn, he's coming too!"
"If Kyoubou and I leave, someone has to stay here and watch the place, right?"
"Otherwise what if the boys revolt?"
"You three keep an eye on everything!"
"And when I…"
"When I become a great hero…"
"I'll definitely come back to see you."
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