Magic City Ersatz-Domum, Ilad Kingdom

“Come on! just take it! We’re just trying to help y’know? You need all the food you can get right?!”

“Haha, look at you, if you don’t take our generous gifts how is your mana capacity gonna grow!?”

“Hooh! Head’s up, Kiri! There’s a nice piece of fruit headed your way!”

“Hahaha! Nice, direct hit! Oy Kirio! why don’t you have some Cheerio too!?”

Ignoring the laughing and constant food being chucked at him, Kirimara Zéi kept walking forward, in his head the words being spoken around him were already lost and now only hung stagnant in the air never reaching his ears. Whether they realized that or not, his classmates didn’t much care and kept up the rain of food as the stream of students began leaving school with the setting sun in the background.

Of course Kiri was given a wide berth to ensure that as much food as possible could hit or interrupt him. In fact the sight was rather surreal when taken from an outside view, a single student walking slowly through the pack of students attempting to exit school grounds, while parting the river of students like he was Moses and it was the Red Sea, while assorted foods pelted him from random directions. The sight of a single student walking through this rain of food, getting hit by globs of lunch and walking on as if nothing happened, indeed there was no other such sight throughout the whole of the Ilad Kingdom.

But for however strange it might be, this was a commonplace event within this school, and was even affectionately known as “Extra Help” for the evening, though “Extra Help” was considered more than just the ‘farewells’ at the end of day. In fact “Extra Help” was multiple events, there was “Extra Help” during lunch, “Extra Help” in the morning, “Extra Help” during class, even “Extra Help” during combat practice. In summary “Extra Help” was every moment a teacher wasn’t watching, and even then it was restricted to specific teachers. Of course Kiri wasn’t the only one to receive “Extra Help”, but he did receive it the most for two specific reasons and simply put they were, one being he had been targeted the longest, and received the jealousy of students that envied the ‘special attention’ that he got.

“Kiri, wait up!”

As soon as the feminine voice pierced the air, the onslaught of food began hitting an invisible wall around Kirimara, and not much later the torrential downpour of uneaten meals ended.

“tch, She’s here already”

“Ahh~, way to go, the guardian angel is here.”

“Kitaaa~, the golden knight!”

“huehuehue, Kaneru-sama!”

“Oy, wasn’t there something wrong with that last line? Hey who said that!?”

““”“.......””””

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“Kiri! Wait up already!”

“Oh, Sanada, sorry I didn’t realize you were there.”

Looking up from the book he was holding Kiri stopped just outside the gates of the school and paused for his sole friend to catch up.

“Jeez, look at you! That’s why I said you should wait for me!!”

Finally taking note of his appearance Kiri realized there were chunks of random food particles on his face, in his hair and generally all over his body.

“Ah...”

“Don’t tell me, you didn’t notice it right?”

“...”

“...”

“It’s a good book so...”

With not a single scent of doubt in the words he exhaled, Sanada could only take in what he had said in disbelief. Throughout the day this had gone on repeatedly, and the same response was continually given to her. There was no lie in his words either, truly he had not even noticed the food plastering him from different directions, the excessive aggressiveness in class towards him during combat training, or even during class. Whether he just didn’t care about it or he had gotten completely used to it after years of similar treatment the result was the same.

“Ahhhh! why does he have to be so ...! Mo~ See if I care anymore!” Sanada yelled, then stormed off in a fit of rage.

She paused for a moment and silently muttered “You weren’t like this before, why did you have to be the one I…”

“Eh? What was that? I couldn't hear you” Kirimara asked.

“Ahhhh Dammit! Nothing!” She yelled in frustration, before running off back into the school.

In response to her seemingly erratic and irrational actions Kiri simply sighed while saying “What’s wrong with her? She wasn’t like this when we were kids I’m pretty sure, and during the tour either…”

Again he sighed before recollecting what happened during the tour, where they had unwittingly been reunited after almost a decade. Nothing ridiculous popped out in his memory of the event, he remembered showing her around the school, pointing out the various important locations, and then showing her out. In fact the only ridiculous thing about the whole situation was why a sophomore (at the time) was giving her (a prospective freshman) a tour in the first place. The idea that a random sophomore like him would be called in right before his junior year started to show a transfer student around was nigh ridiculous. The only reason he was called for the job was because the Principal found him while walking down the road, and then pushed the responsibility on him. Maybe it would forever be a mystery…

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“Ahh~ this sucks!” Sanada yelled while she slumped against the side of the school. Who would have thought that her childhood friend and crush would be at the same school as her 8 years after they parted! To make it worse they didn’t even recognize each other at first, only after she met him in class did she realize they were the same person. During the tour he had been so… Apathetic? He slowly went through the tour like he didn’t really care, and showed no enthusiasm at all. She thought he was a very dull and gloomy person for the majority of the tour, all the way until the very end.

That’s when it happened, a simple trip at the end of the tour going down the stairs, and who saved her as she fell down the stairs? None other than the tour guide himself, and after he caught her as she fell, he stood up and enchanted her heart. Was it the gap he showed between his previous character and the one he showed at that moment, or maybe the fact that he saved her, or possibly both? Whatever it was that caused it, when he stretched his hand out to her while giving that stupid grin it was too late for her. By the time he left her at the gates with the words “I’ll see you in school, future kouhai” and another silly smile she couldn’t forget his face.

From then on, the story goes something like this: On the first day of school, she realized her true love was the same person as her childhood crush when *cough* *cough* coincidentally *cough* running into him throughout the day. On the second day of school, her ‘true love’ realized this same fact. On the third day she saw how he was treated, and pestered him to allow for protection. On the fourth day of school, her true love gave to her… this current exasperation. Throughout the whole process, he was nothing like how she saw him during the tour and it was beginning to affect her.

The feeling of having no chance was slowly creeping up her heart.

(A/N): Next

Chapter will be next week sometime, in the meanwhile tell me what you guys thought of the writing 'style' I'm not gonna lie, I tried imitating what Lv1Slime did and how he rights (sort of in the japanese style is what I mean). Really do like his work though, if you haven't already I highly recommend reading "The Monster with no Magic".