Once Upon the Horizon's Hatred (Unedited beyond this Point)

"Yeah… I guess I should take a look."

Heightening my curiosity level to what it's supposed to be, I stood─and joined the eavesdropping Amaterasu.

It didn't take time for everyone to notice and walked to view from the window. Some didn't issue their interest from otherwise earned oblivion, or they didn't want to see something hectic. No one felt joy from the event though, purporting toxicity for what's about to happen.

I'd like to have it as a sleazy clickbait but my classmates of old and recent were being confronted at the school grounds.

Likely, they were to return from their futile search.

Yet, the dignified Ayase Kyoukaisenjou halted them from their march─three cohorts eyeing our stage actors for intimidation.

Class 2, Section A: the class parallel to our class.

Her horizon's daughter being the second Strongest Mage in school.

For naught, the supremacists who won't stop in their venture in canceling human intrusion. So in a day's worth that they've been quiet about the subject, it's about right they'd appear sooner or later. No less spearheaded by the most hateful one, whom I began to hate in retaliation.

Mostly because I love human culture, and I don't like her stance.

Well, myself aside, being ambushed by a group critically acclaimed for their immense magical talent spelled bad news.

Theoretically, if not factual, a recipe for disaster.

"What was their objective?" …I ought to ask, but that's the standard action for the unaware.

Snow White bit his lips, humbly representing they pricked his nerves.

And for another, an enthusiasm drained─knowing it was someone I wouldn't want to confront the most.

"And here I thought you wouldn't be interested even if their names sprang…" Amaterasu sighed in much regarded disappointment, a thought whence she expected too much of my otherworldly carefree behavior.

I smiled back at her, wryly for a fair point. "I wouldn't feel the need if it's just Kuzuhara but Miss Ayanami is there."

"(Yeah, I get you.)"

"Don't you think it's bad news enough for me to be worried?"

"Well, I think it's bad news even if it's Gomi alone. Geez, how can you be inconsiderate? Aya comes like a storm for everyone she doesn't like."

"Let's just see how this goes on."

As Amaterasu nodded, she readily touched my head─and shared with me her spell.

"Spirit of the darkness and butterflies, humor me thine wicked revelations…"

Wings flapped in crimson, a harmless Eldritch critter aligned itself unto my left eye socket. I opened them firmly, and the mindful trinket waited for its chance. Blink once and open─the butterfly penetrated the skull through the eyes.

All nerves engraved, and senses redefined to match my fake little sister's wavelength.

Only for a short while ago, I didn't feel the nastiness in the atmosphere.

From swallowtail to the largely intimidating monarch, the field across the school has them flying around. All eyes centered towards the commotion: Amaterasu and I, who are from the Detective Club, were defeated by the Mind Club. Although I suppose it's not a concern whether who scoops more of the news. While both our factions are prominent, we don't write for the school paper or have established ourselves as competitive gossipers.

No matter, I'd care for someone else beyond them.

"You don't and will never belong to the school, Nayami Ayanami."

Aya's first words sounded for astounding righteousness, a resonance embroiling both classmates on the scene.

"First glance of Yukihime not anywhere near Nayami." Kuzuhara said out loud, causing Aya's eyebrows to furl. "Classic and peak Ayase Kyoukaisenjou: I'm too low in the list, you decided to attack when I'm the one with Nayami."

"Exactly as you phrased it, Miss Kuzuhara," Aya smirked to ridicule, genuine though forced from her depressed countenance.

She curled her lips, and thrusted unto Aya her two cents for the matter, "I can take you on, you know?"

"Uh-huh, you think you have what it takes?" Brat characters always roll their eyes for who they think isn't worth their attention: Aya baubled, "Courage taken but even if you personify the lion in your mind, you're still a Level 3."

Alright, for all I know, if she takes an interest in a person, she'd really take interest in them.

If it doesn't they'll likely be invisible or much worse, nonexistent.

I don't understand how she took Gomiko Kuzuhara in a respectful yet ridiculous stance. Herein, the pretense of her nonexistence has been removed and became the subject of her overpowering gaze. All her fierceness

"I don't need your opinion, Miss Kuzuhara, so step aside while I have a shred of respect for you."

From my neutral standpoint, the situation should have been fine.

Honestly, it only seemed to me that Aya was kindly talking to both of them─wonderful to the extent it's quite commendable.

I've never seen a peaceful conversation with the person involved before. Made into a spectacle, considering our abundance of interactions from furious to violent. Not a single moment where she wouldn't curl her eyebrows can be scanned from your overpowered protagonist's perfect recollection.

If anything, her interest towards Kuzuhara didn't last long.

"You really don't take interest in your surroundings, huh, Miss Kyoukaisenjou. Unfortunately, I didn't advance a single level yesterday." Hit by her negligence, Kuzuhara shot an arrow towards her own heart. "You may act like a bitch, but you're strangely invested in someone else's progression."

I would pose the same assessment, but─Aya isn't a comic tsundere as she's naturally hopeful of everyone's growth.

"No, that's not the problem." She looked straight into the class president's eyes. "I wish to speak to Miss Ayanami, if you would please leave us alone?"

She finally wrote about her loss of interest, and huffed her dejection out: Kuzuhara readied herself knowing her plan hadn't worked enough─reflexively shielding the worried Miss Ayanami from behind. Inversely, she wouldn't leave Nayami alone with someone she doesn't trust. All the observing butterflies considered, not a single soul would do anything for anyone's welfare.

Her menace had a forceful look on her face, which the cohorts mimed.

The definite look on Miss Ayanami's eyes weren't the same.

Commitment in her senses being a hypocritical sin, for her to act like she didn't nearly kill someone yesterday… no, never mind.

From behind those nonsensical exchanges, the embroiled character took a step upfront and said, "...Um, I don't mind talking to you."

I shouldn't be surprised with the action but the suddenness got to me. Hmm, maybe not the suddenness but the sentence's second half?

"Miss Ayanami, I don't think that's a good idea."

With Kuzuhara holding her shoulder, there was doubt.

Sure, I opposed the thought firmly as much as Amaterasu showed it in her face.

Miss Ayanami gripped Kuzuhara's hand, holding it tight for assurance.

"Mm-hmm, it's fine, Miss Kuzuhara… I." She looked down once again, blouse clasped in unease. "I can take care of myself," she murmured as she looked her in the eyes.

"Are you sure?"

Miss Ayanami nodded, freely pivoting to face Aya and her arrogance.

The wicked antagonist smirked, evident of an upcoming joyous interrogation. She closed her fan, fashionably setting it down her waist.

Ben, her feet leaped out from her past position to see Miss Ayanami's face.

Holding her forehead and lifting the uneasy girl's forelocks. It was an action best regarded as "close inspection." Behind those actions were mysterious to me, until this bully decided to put her sleuth smarts into the game.

"Hmm, so you're finally speaking," she enunciated, face contorted in a maniacal manner that the transfer student shivered.

"You are Nayami Ayanami, right?"

Face closed-in for the victim to worry about personal space, Aya asserted dominance hellish for every introvert.

"Did you know, Miss Ayanami, that this school was designed to shape soldiers?"

Ayase Kyoukaisenjou stated her prejudice, whence the child nodded in agreement. Pointing to her unjust transfer to the Military Magic course. Nichiyoubi City being a frontline to human invasion, of course, it's bound to have the cute one berated by all aspirants.

"It's even more unforgivable how you're assigned to the best class only because you're Miss Narukami's relative," she whispered, confusingly showing vileness and consideration. "You should know what it means, right?"

Her overbearing behavior, an uncannily distraught misdemeanor for someone younger than who she's burying for ridicule.

I've always understood how Ayase Kyoukaisenjou can't forgive the world for how it works. Such was my senseless notion to regard her message healthier than what it seems. So, it's not hard to fathom what her judgment is.

"Your powerlessness will be a burden to the school in due time."

She'd be right on several fundamentals. As a mage in a military school, she herself recognized it wasn't prevalent. And she may be a psychic who can thrash me out for a day, it doesn't amount to qualification when it's a hidden talent.

As a side note, Naru did a good job hiding

Aya's index finger and thumb met, opening her fan.

She took a step back, finally relieving Miss Ayanami from her clutch─but still menacing enough to receive Kuzuhara's hostile gaze. A gaze damned to curse her fellow mage. Aya disregarded the notion─as obliged to initiate on our dearly new classmate.

"Don't you think you're out of place here?"

Miss Ayanami didn't utter an answer.

She just stood there, trying to come up with something, actually opening her mouth but shut it tight at a blink. Her look evened to the ground, erratic in her form. Shaky on her feet, and cold sweat touching her spine for the damnation she shouldn't receive.

It was my omen coming into fruition.

An expected vindication towards Nayami Ayanami, there would always be someone who would try to take her out of the picture.

I didn't expect it to be Ayase Kyoukaisenjou of all people, but she was sufficient for the role. Notwithstanding the others, whom I expected to throw her out of the school sooner or later. It's not that I wished for Miss Ayanami to meet her fate but rather─my disbelief towards people.

There's only little to trust, only a small fraction accounting to the traffic to walk by Shibuya.

Conceited if observed: I trusted that outside the spectrum, someone would voice the collective opinion.

"You're not one to decide whether someone belongs somewhere," Kuzuhara intruded, lowering her gaze to intimidate her intrusive underclassman.

"Oh, yeah, you're only protecting her because you have the same origin." Aya lowered her chin in response, linking her glare towards her weaker upperclassman. "How would you react if she wasn't partly human instead?"

Kuzuhara missed her chance for retort.

Else, she wasn't given the slightest window to speak her mind. Aya continued, "Let's not forget her questionable, sudden transfer. If it's not politically cultivated, then we're all living in another timeline."

Ayase Kyoukaisenjou fumed, burdened with despotic idiosyncrasies I might as well agree with. Her depression over these matters have lasted over her life. I'd at least wish, even if I'm her worst critique, that all her problems are wiped from existence.

"This is the Nichiyoubi North High School, home of the most powerful Mages across the world. It's not your regular loony bin of a high school full of retards: no Nichiyoubi mage should stand powerless and irredeemable."

Spotlight on Nayami Ayanami, the transfer student.

She's powerless enough to belong in our spectrum, it might have been scholastically better if she's introduced the same as the class knows.

Level 5 Black Mage who wields fire and wind: the comet assassin who managed to render the Strongest Mage unconscious until dawn. Man, I'd rather imagine the chaos of her being the firebrand relinquishing Snow White of his position. Her raging flame thawed the unmelting ice: where has she been hiding the whole time?

While it'd be hectic for Miss Ayanami, I don't think in the slightest I wouldn't enjoy being overshadowed.

Yet now, she's subjected to the vindicator's staff─from someone significantly weaker than her.

"Drop out of school right now, or else!"

Firmly extracting her beliefs, she thrusted her conclusion for the maiden bathed in the grace of the iron-blooded fortune gods.