Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

Of the pizza slice sections of the city, his high school was in R Block. The large square platform was supported by several pillars rising from the ocean. This was a lot like the international airport from the day before, but it was much smaller at only three hundred meters across.

“Hey.”

When he entered the classroom, a few boys casually greeted him. Quite a few boys and girls had already gathered for morning homeroom. Kyousuke was not the type to be constantly late, but he did not arrive particularly early either.

There was one person he tended to speak with, so he went with the usual routine and approached a desk at the front of the classroom.

The desk belonged to Rendou Akiya, the head of the going-home club who was known for trying everything and losing interest in everything.

“Did you see the news? Amazing, isn’t it? The police did a hell of a job. I hear the Toy Dream Company is taking action too, so people are speculating there’ll be an airport occupation attraction out in no time. Y’know, something like a survival game.”

Despite the rough manner of speech, Rendou Akiya wore a girl’s blazer and pleated skirt and had semi-long brown hair. …But as the name Akiya suggests, he was a boy.

According to the student handbook, “All students must wear the designated uniform as they diligently work at their studies.”

In other words, it never specified a difference in uniforms for boys and girls. …Although it was probably just an oversight because that difference was assumed.

And Rendou Akiya only wanted to expand the realm of fashion, so he was not actually a so-called “trap”. The boys who had made a mistake there and sent him a love letter had received a broken nose as a response, so it was an important point to keep in mind.

“What’s this, what’s this? Are you talking about a new job opportunity?”

Then a girl with braided hair and thin-framed glasses approached.

“Oh, it’s just you, Librarian-chan.”

“Learn my name already. It’s going to be May soon, you son of a bitch.”

It was the Librarian-chan who had a way of ruining everyone’s image of her along with their hopes and dreams.

After replying in a low voice, she dropped her voice down to a whisper.

“(C’mon, if they’re taking applications for a part-time job, tell me. I have a weakness for that kind of thing.)”

“You’re getting a little ahead of yourself. We’re only talking about rumors of a new attraction.”

“(If you only look for openings after everyone’s talking about it, all the positions will already be filled. You can’t get the best position unless you act first. And I think that applies to just about everything.)”

“Anyway, I think this would be on the horror side of things, and don’t you have trouble with that?”

“What do you mean by that?”

This was based on the distorted version of Kyousuke and the others’ actions.

But that distortion did not affect him, so he had no way of knowing how exactly it had been distorted. He just hoped they had not left any odd hints at the scene.

“Apparently the Rainy Girl was spotted before and after the occupation.”

But his fears had been way off base.

He doubted busty Lu Niang Lan would fall into the category of “girl”.

“Online, they’re saying it might have been a harbinger of things to come like when dolphins go nuts before a disaster. I doubt the Toy Dream Company really understands Japanese horror, but if they go for it, this might turn into a haunted house.”

“Ah…ah ha ha. In that case, I think I’ll sit this one out…”

“You really can’t stand horror, can you? You even avert your gaze when you see things like scary fairy tales.”

“What’s wrong with that? Those things are sick. There’s nothing wrong with having your corners rounded off by the flow of time like rocks on the riverbed. I don’t understand why everyone goes out of their way to make rough and inaccessible stories just because they’re original.”

Librarian-chan laughed dryly and really did take a step back.

She seemed to have a lot of trouble with that genre.

Kyousuke frowned.

“Isn’t the Rainy Girl a ghost that appears on the way to or from school?”

“Yeah, but thanks to the spread of rumors online, she’s apparently showing up in front of schools in Guam and New York these days. What a shame. If she only appeared inside the school, we might have been able to make a great haunted house for the cultural festival.”

The way Rendou Akiya spoke made it obvious he did not believe the stories.

For anyone not involved in the world of the summoning ceremony, that was the normal view. Librarian-chan was overly sensitive to still be afraid of ghost stories in high school. Although just like having trouble with seeing blood, it was something some people simply could not overcome through effort alone.

“I’ve heard that your class’s festival attraction is factored into your student score.”

“And I’ve heard the Toy Dream Company sends out scouts to check them out like a ramen magazine’s investigator. That means we can’t get careless. We’re talking about a global corporation here. If we gather attention in a good way, we’ll be set for life, don’t you-…”

Rendou Akiya was cut off by a blaring emergency bell.

However, the students did not start running around in a panic because of the alarm. They first looked up at the speaker in confusion.

“What a pain. Did some idiot get all worked up and hit the button?” muttered Rendou, but things seemed to be different.

The usual tones came from the speaker, followed by a girl, presumably from the broadcast committee, speaking.

“We will now begin surprise emergency crime prevention training. Each class is to obey their teacher’s instructions and quickly evacuate. I repeat…”

“Ugh. Did you hear that?” asked Librarian-chan in disgust. “It’s already started raining outside, but do they want us to all gather outside and listen to the principal speak?”

“Since it’s raining, won’t they change it to the gym?” suggested Kyousuke.

“It’s a pain either way!” shouted Rendou. “What’s this about? Was I not the only idiot who got caught up in all the talk about the airport occupation on the news? If terrorists or a gunman attacked the school, what good is it sending us all out in the halls?”

“Morning homeroom hasn’t even started, so what are they going to do about attendance?”

“Oh, damn. If my absence would’ve been overlooked in all the confusion, I should’ve gone back to bed this morning.”

But their complaints changed nothing.

The event was clearly pointless, but it was well known that mocking this kind of training could lead to a serious deduction on one’s student score.

On the instructions of their homeroom teacher (a gentle type with gigantic breasts whose secret nickname was “The Cow”), they walked down the hall in two lines, one for boys and one for girls. It felt like being forced to hold up a sign saying “Please slaughter us all. We’ll be your meat shield.”

As they descended the stairs, they ran into another class.

It was an upperclassman class.

“Outta the way, first years. It’s not about being polite, you idiots. Those are the rules.”

“Don’t get involved. They don’t look too bright, so anything you say would be a waste of time.”

The group of boys chuckled as they passed by.

Rendou dug into his ear with his pinky.

“Ahh, ahh. They’ve given up on their humanity already? I don’t want to end up like that. Do they think that single year of difference makes them adults or something? They might as well be old men with plenty of ego but no actual ability. I can already tell they’ll still be failures even at thirty and forty. I bet the only thing that’ll change is how much hair they have left.”

“Yeah, but high schoolers like us might disappoint some middle schoolers if they saw us.”

“I’m not proud of it, but when I was in middle school, I believed I’d lose my virginity the instant I advanced to high school. I thought a kind upperclassman or female teacher would lure me into the gym supply shed at the opening ceremony.”

“Really? I still thought I could save at least one world back then.”

The two boys laughed like idiots.

And no one realized that one of them had said something which may have been no laughing matter.

Then Kyousuke noticed a gentle citrus scent.

One of the upperclassmen was a girl with long black hair tied near the end with a large ribbon and with a chest large enough to give Lu Niang Lan a run for her money. She gestured him over with a hand, winked, and whispered in his ear.

[[Image:BloodSign_v02_064.jpg|thumb]]

It was unclear if she realized she was squishing her soft breasts with her own arm.

“(Sorry about having you go along with this boring event first thing in morning, Shiroyama Boy. But this student assembly will use up first period, so hopefully that makes up for it.)”

It may have been to keep their conversation private, but she was far closer than he had expected.

She was not actually touching him, but he could feel the warmth from her soft cheek.

“Should the student council president really be saying that?”

Kyousuke replied wearily and the upperclassman replied as a sweet smell wafted from her hair.

“(Don’t be silly. I was forced to spend all night writing up a speech for the assembly greeting. I don’t like this any better than you. Although I am glad this is getting me out of my first period social studies elective.)”

“Really? You chose it yourself and you’re still complaining?”

“(It’s a miracle that anyone can make a world history class that boring. Why does he just write a list of dates up on the board? He doesn’t understand all the romance found between the lines. And unfortunately, he’s a complete lost cause as far as that’s concerned.)”

She waved goodbye and continued down the stairs.

Librarian-chan cut in then.

“Ugh. She’s just on an entirely different level from the rest of us if she thinks history is normally any fun.”

“Huh? But Librarian-chan, as our Librarian-chan, don’t you love things like Water Margin and Shakespeare?”

“Learn my name already. And I only do this to establish my character. While I do like books, I don’t really know that much about them. I’ve only ever bought two or three books and the rest I borrow from my parents’ bookcase.”

Hearing that felt like seeing an idol without makeup on.

Her student score was likely composed of magic.

Kyousuke started feeling a little blue, but Rendou Akiya made an unexpected recovery.

“Keh, keh. But all you read are surprisingly fantastical fairy tales.”

“Sh-shut up!! Toy Dream 35 is a foreign-owned amusement park city, so we kind of are citizens of a fairy tale!!”

Librarian-chan blushed, but she seemed unable to deny her love of fairy tales.

As Rendou had said, it was a surprising side to her.

“But that wealthy president with F1 specs is nothing like us commoners with moped specs,” said Rendou. “She’s the most likely candidate to be recruited by Toy Dream HQ. Her economic thesis ‘Repeat Customers and the Catharsis of Repetition’ was published in the British magazine ‘Business & Credit’ and gathered a ton of attention. She’s on her way to an important position in a global corporation. Cut the string of her balloon and she’d probably fly up above the clouds. She’s nothing like us.”

Kyousuke had been exactly right about the students gathering in the gym for the surprise crime prevention training.

What good was gathering here if this had become a school of death with terrorists and gunmen wandering around? Kyousuke was used to fighting, but even the other students could tell this would become a giant execution ground.

The principal’s speech was so bad that even a summoner like Alice (with) Rabbit Shiroyama Kyousuke’s endurance was pushed to its limits as he tried not to fall asleep on his feet. If this was a supernatural ability to distort people’s sense of time without relying on a Material, it was a high level one.

And after that lesson on how ''not'' to give a speech, the upperclassman’s speech was all the more effective. It felt like being handed frigid mint ice cream after wandering on and on through the desert.

“What matters most is to be prepared for the unexpected and the best way of doing that is repetitive practice. In other words, these are preparatory exercises to make sure your knees are not trembling uncontrollably when it actually matters. Think of it like swimming in the ocean. If a child who has never even placed his face below water is suddenly thrown into the sea, everyone knows what will happen, right? And unfortunately there is no life buoy analogue in a firefight. The only way to learn how to swim is practice. Falsely assuming you know what to do is the scariest thing of all.”

The text itself was the formal language of a school assembly speech, but unlike the principal’s bland reading, she added gestures at the important points and changed the inflection of her voice to create dramatic waves. It was the difference between “reading” and “performing” a speech.

She also gave familiar examples to deal with people’s frustrations and confusion as to why they had to do this, which provided the same sense of accomplishment as solving a riddle. Instead of feeling you had simply been told the answer, you felt you alone had figured out the answer because of how smart you were.

It did not matter if you had been guided every step of the way by her explanations.

“If she put that together overnight, she could become a playwright or a politician’s secretary,” commented Rendou.

“But that means working behind the scenes. Don’t you think she would look more at home in the spotlight herself?” asked Librarian-chan in the line next to them. “But if there’s this much of a difference, why doesn’t the principal just get her to write his speech for him?”

“I bet it’s a matter of pride. Do that and the adult will cry.”

As Kyousuke and the others whispered to each other, a member of the broadcast committee brought the assembly to a close with a microphone in one hand.

“That was Student Council President Benikomichi Fuuki-san. With that, the emergency crime prevention training is complete. Classes will resume as normal with second period, so please return to your classrooms in a timely fashion.”

In other words, it was just another peaceful day.

Otherwise, they could not spend so much time on training like this.