Chapter 17
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: 2.9 Nanami in Crisis
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"Naibusu?"
A female student searching for Naibusu in the boys' locker room by the pool.
Her name was Shiina Nanami.
She was the girl Naibusu had marked as number one on his pure love couple priority list with Yuuki.
"Naibusu, you there?"
「I'll help you end the bullying.
Come to the boys' locker room by the pool.
-Naibusu.」
Shiina Nanami, who had been heading home after school, found that note in her shoe locker.
The casualness of telling a girl like her to come to the boys' locker room.
It was just like Naibusu.
On the other hand, she couldn't help but think there probably wasn't a more private spot at this hour.
But why had he asked to meet in such a secretive place?
She was grateful for Naibusu's offer to help, but if he made weird demands like before as payment, she'd kick him right between the legs, Nanami thought.
"No one's here?"
It was quiet.
He wouldn't have lured her here and then hidden, would he?
Was the note just a prank?
Even so... she'd had a little hope.
As Nanami turned away in disappointment, a figure appeared before her.
"Ta-da! I'm right here~."
"...Akane."
Tsukimiya Akane.
She was the last person Nanami wanted to see right now.
Akane and Nanami went way back.
Thanks to Rune Academy's system of automatic advancement from elementary to middle to high school, anyone just going with the flow would inevitably cross paths with peers who were Rune Holders.
Akane and Nanami were no exception.
By the time factions started forming among the girls, the two had naturally become leaders of their respective groups.
With egos as strong as theirs, clashes were inevitable from childhood.
"Ooh~ Scary! Don't make that face just because of a little prank!"
Akane laughed playfully, but Nanami wasn't in the mood.
Akane was the ringleader who had targeted her as the next bullying victim.
"If you make such a scary face, guys won't like you. Right, Shuji?"
"Heh."
A man with long bangs entered from the doorway where Akane had come in.
Shuji. He had a different real name, but everyone called him Shuji.
"...Akane, Shuji. What's your game?"
Nanami grew even more wary than when it was just Akane.
Shuji was a delinquent on par with Naibusu.
The root of the rivalry between Akane and Shiina lay in Yuuki's existence.
Two girls with strong self-esteem had fallen for the same guy.
Akane, who had already gotten close to Yuuki using her childhood friend advantage, and Nanami, circling the periphery and eyeing Yuuki hungrily.
Their relationship had soured rapidly.
"Well, Shuji said he wanted to talk to you, so I just made the opportunity~. You kids handle the rest. I'll go for a swim."
Akane exited through the opposite door from where Shuji had entered.
The leftover Nanami glared at Shuji.
Nanami's generation was the last one where men had been conscripted during the Great Catastrophe.
Many men had died. The male-to-female ratio in their grade was 2:8.
Even those who survived often came back warped by war trauma.
Like Naibusu.
Or Shuji standing before her.
"...Shuji. I have nothing to say to you."
"Heh. You don't have a choice, Shiina."
As a result, the pool of guys girls liked was naturally limited.
It was inevitable that two beauties would go for Yuuki.
He was the most normal among the remaining male classmates.
And this Shuji in front of her was exactly the type Nanami hated most.
Moreover, he was obsessively fixated on her in an abnormal way.
"Be my woman, Shiina. Then I'll make a place for you in the class."
"Don't make me laugh. No way in hell."
Shuji's face hardened at Nanami's firm refusal.
"Behave yourself. I don't want to mess up that pretty face."
"Cut the disgusting crap. Go die."
Like other guys, Shuji wasn't right in the head either.
Partly because survivors were idolized, partly due to Great Catastrophe trauma.
But there was a limit to sympathy for circumstances.
Shuji's behavior was arrogantly beyond that limit.
"You won't get it without some pain? You're no better than a pig or dog. You want me to treat you like an animal?"
Nanami ground her teeth at Shuji's creepy grin.
"You think you'll get away with this? The Student Council won't stand for it."
The Student Council had declared stricter punishments for sexual violence this semester.
But Shuji just sneered.
"Student Council? Oh~. That playground for puppet bitches?"
Shiina, who secretly supported the Student Council, twitched her eyebrow at Shuji's blatant insult.
"Kukuku. This'll be fun. Can those puppet bitches really catch me? The youngest lieutenant from the Great Catastrophe?"
"...The Student Council isn't puppets."
Nanami didn't know much about military ranks.
She'd learned about them in class and heard Shuji brag countless times, but she had no interest.
So she didn't know how impressive a lieutenant was.
Still, she thought the Student Council and President's Guard were far superior to the likes of Shuji.
"Kuku. Who knows? The Student Council's all women now. Puppet bitches who haven't even properly killed monsters, let alone being Rune Holders. Doesn't it bother you seeing the president clinging to a thug like Naibusu?"
"...That's not it."
Shuji was right; the Student Council was a bit off lately.
Until last year, there were cool male seniors, but they'd died in accidents or suddenly gone abroad to study. Now, most members of the Student Council and President's Guard were women.
"That's not it? You don't actually believe the rumor that Naibusu is the president's boyfriend, do you, Shiina?"
"... ."
Naibusu stood out as extremely incongruous in that Student Council.
Nominally, he was part of the President's Guard, a Student Council affiliate.
But no one had seen him guarding the president, and he didn't seem to have the ability or sense of responsibility for it.
Yet Naibusu was in the Guard.
And more than a few had seen him chatting familiarly with the president.
It was natural for rumors to spread that the president had made him her boyfriend and placed him in the Guard.
"The Student Council's short on manpower. They couldn't suddenly take on a big shot like me; they'd never handle it. If I wanted, I could flip the Student Council and take over. So they're clinging to mediocrities like Naibusu."
"...All that talk boils down to bragging again? Don't you ever get tired?"
"This isn't bragging. It's analysis."
Shuji slicked back his long bangs and grinned smugly.
Then he thrust his fist out toward Nanami.
"My Rune is 'Fist Rune'. It enhances all fist-related actions. Punches, of course... and 'fist fuck' too."
She'd thought he was crazy, but not this level.
Nanami felt chills run through her entire body.
"...Could you spare my ears that filth? It dirties them."
"I tried to be nice, but no dice. I'll let you taste my fist fuck too, Shiina."
"Try it if you can!"
Reasoning was pointless.
If words failed, only fighting remained.
Nanami assumed a combat stance.
Shiina Nanami was strong.
Her ability was the 'Spring Rune'.
Thanks to the Rune's power to increase bodily elasticity, Nanami had never lost in bare-handed combat.
At least, not to other girls.
The Academy was essentially an officer training school for anti-monster combat personnel.
Courses naturally included bare-handed sparring and combat practice.
But sparring was separated by gender.
She'd sparred with Yuuki from the boys' group once, but he'd held back and lost on purpose.
Against Yuuki, who knows.
But she was confident she could beat Shuji.
The physical gap between genders could be bridged with Rune abilities.
And Nanami had trained diligently.
"Hah!"
First strike wins.
Nanami closed the distance to Shuji in an instant using her signature elasticity.
She unleashed a roundhouse kick at his torso.
A blow that could snap a log.
Blocking it sloppily would break an arm.
Then Shuji's boasted Fist Rune would be useless.
"Heh."
But Shuji chose to block rather than dodge.
He intercepted Nanami's flying kick with his right arm.
-Thwack!
The heavy impact transmitted through her leg made Nanami sense victory.
All the 'girls' who'd blocked her kick so far had cried out in pain and forfeited.
Even when she hadn't gone full force.
So, Shuji should be done too.
"Hmph."
But Shuji just scoffed.
He casually swung the arm that had blocked her kick without a care.
Nanami panicked and blocked the fist with both arms.
-Thud!
"Kuh!"
She barely managed to block, but the shock sent Nanami staggering back several steps.
Unbelievably heavy blow.
Nanami felt like she'd been hit by a truck.
'──What!? What's this?!'
Nanami was shocked.
Her elasticity prevented breaks, but both arms were numb for the time being.
"Heh. Get it now? The difference in power."
Shuji leisurely laughed and aimed his fist.
Nanami forced her trembling arms up and took a stance.
Shuji's attitude pissed her off, but she couldn't deny his strength.
He wasn't all talk.
"I survived the Great Catastrophe with these fists. While you girls were peeling mandarins in warm rooms, we fought monsters in the cold wind."
'Can I keep fighting this and win?'
Nanami pondered while glaring at the still-ranting Shuji.
Odds of winning were low.
And if she lost... she'd face something unimaginable.
'Then run?'
The main door was blocked by Shuji. But the back door was open.
The back door connected to the pool, and the pool to the girls' locker room.
She could escape that way?
"Hmph!"
The decision was quick.
No point in fighting.
Better to run and alert others.
But.
-Clank. Clank clank.
'It won't open!'
The back door, always open, was sealed by a thick iron gate.
'──Akane!!'
Nanami recalled her nemesis who had slipped out the back first.
"Kukuku. Kukkukuku."
Shuji approached with a grotesque laugh.
Nanami bit her lower lip and assumed a fighting stance.
'No choice but to fight now!'
If she could buy just one moment, she could escape through the main door.
So, just one solid hit.
Even if blocked, if she could steal his timing...!
"Even now──"
"Hah!"
Nanami ignored Shuji's words.
She unleashed another roundhouse kick.
Aiming for the neck this time, full power.
"Hmph."
But even that strike was futilely caught in Shuji's hand.
Shuji gripped her ankle and swung her around like a hammer throw.
"Ah...!"
The world spun.
Nanami couldn't even comprehend what happened,
-Crash!
before slamming into the iron door.
"Guh, hek!"
Air fled her lungs in an instant.
Impact crushing her back.
Pain rattling her organs.
Nanami couldn't breathe for a moment.
Nanami was already out of the fight.
But Shuji didn't stop.
He twisted his waist.
Aimed a punch at Nanami's abdomen pinned to the iron door.
With enough force to shatter both her and the door.
'Ah.'
Nanami saw it but was helpless.
The impact had frozen her body.
'Yuuki...'
Nanami,
braced for death.
-Boom!
A sound like hammering an iron door echoed.
The door where Shuji's fist had struck was badly dented.
But.
Nanami was nowhere to be seen.
"──What are you doing to my precious Nanami?"
A voice filled with rage, as if crawling up from the depths of hell, rang out.
A man holding Nanami, glaring at Shuji with blazing eyes.
It was Naibusu.