Chapter Seven

Courier Blue

I came from a wealth family.

Or rather, my father was wealthy. I grew up free. I was allowed to do what I wanted, when I wanted, without consideration. As long as I avoided getting myself killed or injured, it was fine. My father isn’t an Overseer, but he wishes that he was. To him, my status as a rare S Rank makes me the proud jewel of our family. He gave me freedoms that kids could only dream of.

But that freedom was not enough. Living under his shadow was like living in a gilded cage. Everything seemed sound and perfect, but nothing in my life felt… mine. He pays for my high rise apartment here in Tokyo, as well as most of my expenses. Even still, I try my best to spend as little as possible.

Just taking out my credit card, to pay for the expensive coffee I ordered, is enough to bring a wave of bitter memories back.

The freedom my father gave me was immense. The resources he provided seemed boundless. But that mattered little because I only saw him once a year. He spends most of his time with his wife… his second wife, a rich woman who seemed to be wealthier than he was. I felt little love from that greying old man. To him, I was nothing more but an investment.

He’d call, occasionally, to check how I was doing. He’d send a gift every Christmas, a letter every New Year’s, a new cell phone every summer. But our interactions ended there. I haven’t even heard his voice personally in years. It’s always through a phone, through a computer, never in person.

He always talks about me to his friends, always addressing me as his “Rank S Overseer of a son.”

He’d probably hate me if he found out I was helping out a C Rank with his problems.

“That’s a waste of time.” he would say with a disgusted scoff.

“You’re a waste of time.” I’d reply in all my handsome wit.

[—

On my stroll to class, I couldn’t help but think about what the president said a few days ago. Kenta Yoshida was apparently the president’s enemy once. Or, at least, he once acted against the Supreme Student Council. That explained why it sounded like he knew his way around the school.

I considered turning to him for help, but eventually decided against it. He’s helped enough. I’m better off tackling this thing on my own, for a while at least.

As I mingled with the river of students walking to class, I found myself so focused on the Oshiro-Nakano situation that I felt like I a machine running on autopilot. I was so absorbed that I almost failed to react when a student crashed into me.

“Aww!” the small girl yelped.

Despite the suddenness of the crash, she still managed to stay on her feet. The entire collision lasted a second, and as I struggled to recover, I caught the girl pacing away, her form disappearing amidst the waves of taller students. I stood on my toes to search for her, but found her gone. I was still half confused when I realized that I was holding a paper envelope.

Turning the brown envelope around, I saw two simple words, written in Japanese.

‘OPEN ME.’

I ripped it open as I continued my walk to class. Inside was a small, expensive-looking earpiece. After a bit of glancing around, I placed the device into my ear and tucked the envelope under my armpit.

“Hello, Kimura-san.” said a feminine, almost robotic voice.

“This is so cool.” I replied. “I feel like a secret agent.”

“Keep your voice low and follow our instructions.” the voice said.

“May I first know who I’m speaking with?”

“It has come to our attention that you are trying to help Yori Nakano.”

“You could say that. I’m doing it for purely selfish reasons, though.”

“Regardless, you are doing good. You’re trying to change the school, and that is something that my organization appreciates.”

I continued to walk to my class, my eyes darting left and right, waiting to see if any Enforcers popped up to block my path. To my surprise, none came.

“Don’t go to B Building. Make a right turn to L Building instead. Do it now.”

“I’ll be late for class.”

“No you won’t.”

I followed the voice’s instructions and made a sharp right. The school had thousands of students, so it was easy to blend in. Doubly so because I still didn’t have my rank halo stitched on my uniform. Unbelievable. In contrast to B Building, where my classroom was, which resembled a stereotypical building you’d see in a Japanese school, L Building instead looked older and more worn out.

The exterior of the building was wood, and even from afar I could tell that the paint on its walls were starting to decay. It had the same automatic doors that the other buildings had, but it still didn’t appear as polished and modern as the other parts of the school. I joined the crowd of students walking inside, still waiting for the Enforcers to show up.

“Find shoe locker A301. The code is 875112.”

It took me a while to navigate the corridor of lockers, but I eventually found what I was looking for. A holographic display popped up when I raised my hand to the locker. After punching in the code, the locker opened with a light hiss. Inside was a small envelope, sitting atop a pair of indoor shoes.

“Get the envelope and find a quiet place to open it.”

“Roger.”

I left the building and performed a series of Saltus across the school’s rooftops. I eventually settled someplace random, on top of a building overlooking the sports field.

“Is this good?” I asked the mysterious stranger.

“Uh… we lost you.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

I opened the envelope. Inside was what looked like a flash drive, but its port didn’t resemble a USB’s. After looking over the memory stick, I realized that it was small and compact enough to connect with my phone.

“This looks really high tech.”

I connected the stick to my phone and waited for everything to process. The files inside were mainly photographs, but a few were documents. The photos were taken without the targets’ noticing, from far away, with a high grade camera. The photos were shot around the school, but it took me a while to recognize the two people on the photos.

“Nakano and Oshiro-senpai? This is some weird paparazzi shit.”

“That was taken over a year ago.” my mysterious friend said. “Nakano-san went to a nearby junior high. His mother was an instructor in this school and he would often come to visit.”

“Most of these shots were taken while they were hanging around a garden. Can’t say I recognize the place.”

“The academy’s old greenhouse. Nakano-san’s mother was in charge before she left for Kyoto. That greenhouse was the place where Nakano and Oshiro first met.”

“So much for childhood romances.”

“Yes. They would often spend their time in that greenhouse after class hours—”

“Spare me the details of their relationship, I’m not interested. Why are you doing this? Why help out a stranger like me? In fact, you haven’t even introduced yourself.”

There was a delay before I got my reply.

“Like you, Kimura-san, we are interested in changing the school. We are a multi-campus organization specializing in the transportation of goods and information.”

Great. I never really planned on being involved with something big, but it’s unavoidable. I already got in a scuffle with the Enforcers. Other groups were sure to take notice of that.

“Fancy. What should I call you guys?”

“Courier Blue. We are willing to aid anyone who seeks to hamper or overthrow the efforts of this school’s student council. Your willingness to engage Enforcer Company is proof that we share similar ideologies. And while, like you, we hold no personal attachment to Yori Nakano’s attraction to Yuuka Oshiro, we still firmly believe in the idea that an Overseer’s feelings should never be held back.”

I clasped my hands together, nodding my head.

“Alright. I’ll bite. What do you want in return? You can’t just be doing this for free.”

“That is true. The truth is despite our resources, our personnel are not who you’d call competent fighters. We are spread out and united with our cause, but we lack the power to directly resist the forces of Enforcer Company or the Supreme Student Council.”

“I thought there was a silent war going on between the school’s many factions. Can’t you ask help from the archery club or something?”

“It would be useless. Enforcer Company is entirely composed of powerful A Rank and B Rank Overseers. The other groups are mostly composed of B’s and C’s. Not to mention Enforcer Company directly trains its members in combat.”

“What about the council?”

“Only the president is a competent fighter, but the vice president and secretary have access to resources that not even we can touch. You may not know this, but they also have a faction under their control that specializes in gathering information.”

I flipped through the images on my phone and scoffed, crossing an arm over my stomach.

“So in return for helping Nakano, you guys want to recruit me?”

“You are the only other S Rank Overseer in this school. There are others but… well, they are studying in other schools. We can’t just ask them to transfer to Autumn Mountain for our cause.”

“I’ll give you guys favors.” I replied sternly. “But I’m not interested in joining Courier Blue. Consider me a freelancer or something.”

The delay seemed to last for two minutes. I considered running off to class, but the voice returned soon after.

“That is acceptable.”

“That’s nice to hear. Now. Let’s get down to business. How do we get our shy kohai to confess to our confident senpai? Tell me everything about their relationship and why she’s so mad at him.”

[—

Two days passed.

The sky was turning grey.

I stood in front of the old greenhouse as the sun began to set in the faraway horizon. Hands on my sides I watched as the Enforcers took their position in the distance. Row after row of sheathed swords stood in perfect lines. They watched me with steely eyes as the sky continued to darken.

A crowd was gathering around us. Students from every rank and every year level came to watch the spectacle.

A girl pushed her way through the ranks of Enforcers. Her hair was fire and her eyes were ruby-red jewels from the pits of hell itself. Her tall frame accentuated her confidence in herself and in the proud power she possessed.

Rina Miyamori. The Enforcer Company’s captain. An A Rank Overseer with no peer.

“Second year, Hideaki Kimura!” she bellowed. The red sword on her hip swayed. “The Supreme Student Council orders you to stand down and leave. This area is restricted.”

“Restricted?” I shouted back. “Are you kidding me, it’s a dilapidated greenhouse.”

“A dilapidated greenhouse scheduled for demolition! Get out of the way.” she replied, her fingers touching the tip of her sword.

“I can’t do that.” I replied. “I have a friend inside trying to recover something precious to him. You’re kinda ruining the moment with all your shouting. So, I’m going to have to ask you to leave instead.”

She scoffed, her eyes narrowing like a predator’s.

“You saw what I did to your men.” I said again. “What makes you think you’ll stand a chance?”

I half expected her to come rushing at me, right then and there. But instead, a delicate hand came upon her shoulder. The lady’s mere touch seemed to evaporate the anger brewing in the captain’s eyes.

The president stepped forward just as the first droplets of rain began to fall. She almost seemed to glow amidst the dimming sunlight. A pair of pure blue eyes focused on me from behind her spectacles.

“Kimura-san, don’t do this.”

“President.” I smiled. “I thought you said you’d keep Enforcer Company out of this.”

“The first instant was an accident. Miyamori-san here acted without my approval. But now… you’ve made things difficult.”

“Sorry to say this, prez, but I’m not stepping aside, even for you. Bribe me with your expensive fried squid all you want, but I’m not letting you stop Nakano from doing what he needs to do!”

Ayane tilted her head, looking incredulous.

“I’m not bribing you with anything!”

“Sure you’re not. But you will be.”

She sighed, her long fingers rubbing her brows. She took another step forward, as the rain continued to patter on her hair and blazer.

“This is my last warning, Kimura-san. Please, stand aside.”

“No.” I spread my feet apart, my fists clenching on their own. “I’m asking you to stand side, bishōjo president lady. I don’t want to humiliate you in front of your school.”

“So be it.” her reply was cold.

Her gaze changed. Her eyes turned sharp. I knew, that in that moment, in her eyes, I became someone else. In that brief second, I stopped being a student in the school; I stopped being her on-and-off friend. Instead, I became nothing more but a target that she wanted to eliminate.

I readied myself, flaring my senses for her attack.

She disappeared in a flash of blue light, displacing the droplets of rain that fell around her.

But before I could summon my own powers, I felt it right then and there, the signature feeling of a fist on the side of my face. Before I knew it, I was already sailing through the air like a cruise missile. I crashed hard into a nearby tree, snapping the trunk in half. As branches and leaves fell around me, only one thought crossed my mind.

So that’s what it feels like to get blitzed.