Even though the inside of the school building was normal, it still had 60 floors. It looked stupid getting onto an elevator.

Eventually, they brought him to a stair landing a little above the 12th floor.

Unlike the crowded area around the elevators, this place was deserted. It was the kind of place that wouldn’t reach public notice.

Ishounuma was waiting in the middle of the stairs.

He looked down with a disappointed face.

“You’re in Cla.s.s A…”

“But I think that there has been some kind of mistake.”

The four young men were surrounding him.

Ishounuma raised his left arm. There was a bangle with a snake relief. It did not have a crystal fitted into it.

A window appeared.

He started up a harmless game of rock-paper-scissors, he lost a few times and won a few times.

Did it have some kind of meaning?

Eventually a beep was emitted through the quietness.

Ishounuma smiled like an animal.

“Huhuh, the sound and video recording won’t work here.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Ring Gear has a feature that allows it to record the movements of pupils. It’s not working now.”

“Is that…by any chance, breaking the rules?”

“Be quiet. I’ve got better things to do than worry about than some stupid rule.”

“You should worry about it but…”

“Do you want us to beat the h.e.l.l out of you here, or do you want to listen to what we have to say? Make your choice.”

“Both of them are unpleasant, aren’t they.”

The men surrounding Masaki clenched their fists.

“Oi, transfer student. Is talking big all you can do? Listen to what I’m saying. Or I’ll punch your stomach right now.”

“No thank you.”

“Oi you, do you understand what kind of situation you’re in? The recording function is blocked as well. Are you expecting someone to save you? I said that I’ll finish you off with one punch right now!”

Ishounuma raised his threatening voice.

Masaki sighed.

“If I give in once to that kind of threat, terrible things will continue to be demanded from me. Besides this isn’t the first time that I’ve been in this situation…I can’t draw back here can I.”

“Really? Well then, tomorrow you won’t be going to school, you’ll be going to the hospital!!”

Ishounuma shouted.

The man behind him reached forward with both his hands and Masaki pinioned him.

“Hmph…so you can’t fight by yourself?”

“Ha! This guy is going to be punished. His punishment for acting too familiar with Sakurazaka-san!”

Ishounuma threw his fist forward.

No matter how he thought about it, there wasn’t any reason for him to hit him one-sidedly.

Even if his upper body was pinioning someone in a hold, he still had the freedom of his legs––. Despite his legs being longer than his arms, it was half-baked.

Turning around to face Ishounuma, he threw a kick at him. The power of the kick came from the swing of his knee.

It reached the toes of the person on the other side of him.

He caved in.

“Gah!?”

Ishounuma somersaulted then collapsed.

With the heel of his returning right foot, he stamped on the toes of the man in his hold. If it had been on the top of his foot it wouldn’t have hurt very much, but the toes were one of the weaknesses of the human body.

Behind him, screams of “Gya!?” were heard.

The instant his opponent’s power slackened, he let go of his upper body and released the hold.

After this, the men on his right and left started to clench their fists. He didn’t have any particular grudge against them but if they were going to do something, he couldn’t hesitate.

He showered punches on the nose of the man to his right, and low-kicked the back of the knee of the man on his left.

They moaned in pain and faltered.

They stepped back, putting distance between Masaki and themselves.

Masaki shook his wrist to clear away the lingering sensation in his right hand.

“I thought you guys had a little more experience with fights.”

“Wh, wha!? Who the h.e.l.l are you?”

“Although I dislike fights, I’ve fought together with Shirley many times. She would go against any violent guy regardless of their strength…And for some reason, people often act hostile towards me.”

Thanks to that, Masaki had gotten used to dealing with situations like that naturally.

And after Shirley left, he had done a lot of training. Because he believed in her words “We’ll meet again.”

“I thought that it might be necessary if we were to meet each other again…and to think that I had to use it so quickly.”

Ishounuma who was crouching down, stood up holding his side.

“Do-, don’t f.u.c.k… with me! Are you tryin’ to make a fool out of me!!”

“You can still fight?”

Judging from his experience, Masaki guessed that they hadn’t received any of their power from martial arts training or from experiences in brawls. He couldn’t find a reason for them to be strong.

Ishounuma extended his right hand and pushed it out.

“I’ll beat the s.h.i.t out of you!!”

The color of the faces of the men around him changed.

“Hey!? Isn’t it risky, Ishounuma-san!?” “If ya do that, it’ll leave behind evidence that even the Noise Application can’t cover!” “If you use it, you’ll really kill him…!!”

While frightened voices were raised around him, Masaki slowly put some distance between himself and them. Ishounuma shouted at the guys who were hesitant.

“Shut up! I didn’t come here just to be made a fool of, can’t you just shut up?!”

Masaki grimaced.

He knew that guys like this couldn’t understand reason but…

“If I make a counterattack when I’m about to be hit, am I making a fool of you? That’s an egoistic thing to say.”

“Your att.i.tude p.i.s.sed me off! I don’t know what kind of Dialect you have, but you better use it! There’s no way that a guy who just awoke can beat me!”

“Hmph…”

This wasn’t good.

He was in Cla.s.s A.

If his power was anywhere near as powerful as Alice’s, then he wouldn’t be able to finish him off.

Masaki’s Dialect was useless in a fight.

With his bloodshot eyes, Ishounuma exclaimed,

“Diiiiiee!!”

A fireball around the size of a basketball materialized in the palm of his hand.

It soared.

It was getting close to Masaki’s face.

“That’s dangeroouuss!!”

A person running up the stairs jumped out from the side, and with their right hand––struck the fireball!

They crushed the blazing-red fireball with their fist that was wrapped in white light.

At the same moment, a flash of white light gushed out from their fist. It became an arrow of dazzling light that went through the staircase.

There was a thunderous sound.

Broken pieces of concrete scattered in a flashy manner. The shockwave spread out into the corridor, causing the gla.s.s to break.

Three of Ishounuma’s followers screamed and crawled away to escape.

There was a hole in the outer wall.

Smoke was faintly rising from the right hand that had crushed the fireball.

The person who had suddenly appeared smoothed down their brightly-colored hair, then glared at Ishounuma with cold eyes.

Even though the person wasn’t tall, their erect figure seemed big and imposing.

They opened their lips and spoke in a sharp voice.

“What the h.e.l.l were you doing!?”

“Ah, uh…Sa, Sakurazaka…san…”

Ishounuma moaned.

The person who came was Shirley.

Having avoided being hit by the fireball, Masaki wiped the cold sweat off himself.

“You saved me.”

“Masaki, are you alright!?”

“Ah, thanks to you, I don’t have a single scratch.”

There was medical tape on his shoulder and leg from the incident in the morning, but he hadn’t been hurt in this place.

“Thank goodness,” Shirley said in relief.

It suppressed her anger a little.

“And? What was that supposed to be, Ishounuma? You had better give me a good explanation!”

“Well…it’s…because that guy was making a fool out of us…”

“Masaki wouldn’t do something like that. Well, he wouldn’t say something bad about someone. So did you seriously plan on letting him die?”

She glared intently at them.

Ishounuma gave a dry laugh.

“Ha, haha…That guy is in Cla.s.s A, so he wouldn’t die from something like that right? Hey, that’s it? Right?”

To be honest, he didn’t know what would have happened if Shirley hadn’t come…

“I don’t really understand Dialect. It might have been like that if he says so.”

Him not having any knowledge about it was a fact.

So it was possible that that fireball might have been something harmless like an illusion. But he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to check if a fireball were shot at him a second time.

Shirley nodded.

“Well then, I’ll let it go this time. But, if you do something like this next time, I won’t show any mercy! If I hear that you used your Dialect, I’ll go against you!”

“Forgive me, Sakurazaka-san…I’m a Level 6 so I can’t match you.”

Shirley bared her teeth.

“That’s why you’re no good! It isn’t about whether your level is high or low! I’m talking about whether your actions are right or wrong!”

“Hii!?”

Her intensity caused Ishounuma to step back. His face went completely pale.

“Next time something like this happens, I’ll arrest you as a member of a Breaker––got it?”

Shirley looked at the Ring Gear on her left hand and tilted her head to one side in confusion.

There was something that was bothering her.

Shirley’s words caused Ishounuma to bob his head up and down several times.

“I, I got it…I went a little too far with a joke. I won’t do something like that again…then I’ll see you in cla.s.s, Sakurazaka-san!”

After seeing him off with a pout, Shirley fixed her eyes on her Ring Gear once his figure was out of sight.

“Did it disappear…?”

“What happened Shirley?”

“Ye, yeah. The crystal.”