PHASE 6 - I DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG!

I barely slept that night.

I was overcautious of what may happen. The whole night, I opened the window and kept my eye on the crescent light, watching for signs of it transforming back in that freaking blood moon. I might be transported to the emo-world once again, so I turned my guard up. But nothing happened from midnight until morning.

I was so scared that I already took the bus two hours earlier than usual. My main priority is to get back to Dradecim City as soon as possible and have Tiara or that runt Jeannette as my escort. I can’t take these Eidolon attacks anymore.

Because of my extreme punctuality and the clean road during dawn, I arrived at the Dradecim City at five. I looked at the skies all the way waiting for signs until I made it to a fast food chain and ordered breakfast burger and a cup of large coffee. I wasted my whole hour there, daydreaming for what if’s scenarios regarding being attacked by an Eidolon once again.

“Hey, Alaric!” It was my classmate Divina, our class representative, and journalist. Everyone in our class knows her because of her annoying attitude. Besides that, there's nothing notably worthy to describe this girl. She is about to leave the establishment but happened to see me. “Let’s go to school!”

<>

I was out of my mind when we walked to our school. Still looking up, waiting for the peaceful blue skies to turn bloodshot red. While being so skeptical with the surroundings, Divina continued to run her mouth.

“You’re certainly sick, Alaric. You look like a panda because of your eyebags! And you’re too early! Alaric and punctuality don't mix! Ahahahaha!”

I kept silent. I didn’t care what comes out from her mouth, not until…

“E-EH!!! My wallet and phone got stolen!”

“W-What?” She finally got my attention. I looked at her, and she’s on the verge of crying.

“T-That guy who bumped me… he slashed my bag and snatched my money and phone!” She turned around and saw a mysterious guy. The snatcher resorted to run when he realized he has been noticed!

There are no other people nearby, and Divina only has me for help. I’m the masculine here, and she’s a wimpy little girl. There’s no way she can chase the snatcher with her physique. And the guy clearly has some sort of knife in his hand.

There’s only one thing for me to do.

“Good luck chasing him, Divina. I have to go.” I waved goodbye at her, then I proceeded to run straight to the other way, leaving the dumbstruck Divina behind, moneyless and phoneless.

Seriously, I have a bigger problem than her! I’m being chased by monsters from a parallel dimension! I have enough problems to deal with! I can’t get afford getting shanked by a hooligan! Even if I managed to take the snatcher down, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to come back alive. I might get transported to Yami anytime!

As I said, my main priority is to be safe by getting in touch with Tiara. Not to play hero.

<>

I was already in the condominium building where Tiara lives. As frustrating as it is, the elevator is not functioning right now. I have to run through the stairs!

I was about to hit on the sixth floor when suddenly, I bumped into a person who is just rushing like me!

“Auuuuu….” It was a Japanese girl’s moan. As I thought, it was Tiara once again. She was holding her forehead due to the sudden pain I accidentally inflicted.

What makes this similar to those cliche Japanese anime is that our position is awkward. She’s sitting on top of me with her full weight! I didn’t have time to protest about the hurting forehead I got.

“E-EH!!!?” Tiara finally came to her senses and noticed my face. “I-I’m sorry about that, Rikkun!”

“I-It’s okay... But more importantly… get...off…”

Tiara’s face became strawberry red when she realized that she’s the woman on top (lol). I was about to burst out laughing but then my face turned to despair when I saw her right fist rushing to my nose!

“B-B-B-BAKAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

There was a shockwave that made a mini earthquake, and that shook the whole building.

<>

Tiara and I went to school. My nose got broken once again, but Tiara healed it for me. She even apologized for failing to resist her feelings. Seriously, is ‘not punching my nose’ a hard thing to do? What happened was not even my fault! We’re 50-50 to blame!

When we entered the classroom, we saw Divina crying on her desk. There are girls comforting her but when they saw me, they gave off a deadly glare. Those girls watched every movement I made as if they are assassins waiting for my wrong move! They whispered something like “That Alaric is the worst person ever!” , “He’s so selfish!” , and “That handsome nerd is pure garbage!”

Seriously, I’m not the bad guy here! I’m just trying to survive!

“Rikkun…” Tiara grabbed my attention when we’re finally on our respective seats. “Nette-Senpai wants me to give this to you. She said that you might need it if you change your mind.”

It was a plain blue notepad. When I opened it, there was a title page that says “Gate Guardian for Dummies” in beautiful cursive lettering.

“You two seems to be good friends,” I said to her.

“Ahahaha… I-I don’t think so…” Tiara scratched the back of her head. “She’s my senior, so she always bosses me around. We don’t talk except on matters of Gate Guardians. I requested to have the Friendly Handshake to her but she always rejects me.”

“Is that Friendly Handshake Song really necessary to make friends?” I was cringing so hard.

“It is!” Tiara exclaimed. “The Friendly Handshake is a promise of the two persons to never betray each other, and stay friends forever!”

I give up. I made a deep sigh. “You really suck at making friends.”

“R-Right…” She just forced a smile.

<>

Yeah, lecture time. Macho Steel’s class has begun to take its boring stage. Some students at the back are either asleep or secretly playing with their phone. Macho Steel won't notice them since he’s so busy writing a long math problem on the board.

Heushac, whose seat is just in front of me, is busy doodling. He’s drawing an anime-style man in a school uniform wielding a sword, fighting a giant werewolf.

I looked at myself and saw Tiara who is also busy writing on her notebook. She’s not writing the math problem, nor doodling. She’s practicing her calligraphy skills with different sorts of colored pens. Because of that, I remembered the note she gave me.

Gate Guardian for Dummies.

It looks so short but it is easy to read. I know that Jeannette’s specialty is teaching lessons. She’s still as intelligent as before. That runt’s brain is bigger than her whole body.

I felt a light pinch on my left arm. It was Tiara, showing her artistic lettering of my whole name. Alaric Eisenhower. It was so cute and colorful that it makes my name gay. There’s even a rainbow in the background! I curled my eyebrows and glared at her, silently implying that I reject that garbage.

Tiara noticed that I have been reading the note she gave me. She looked at me with desperation and excitement with her golden brown puppy eyes.

“Rikkun… Would you like to see a Gate Guardian in action?”