Mundane School Life ③

The school trip that they were only told just yesterday.

Their destination was Kyoto. The travel of several hours using bus ended in no time at

all.

The rookie bus guide had taken out all the plans for killing time mid journey she had

prepared and her cheek muscles were starting to cramp from making twitching smile

too much. She was relieved from the bottom of her heart that they finally arrived.

It helped that the students had good mood. The students this day were relatively cold,

they wouldn't react even when she prepared things like karaoke or quiz, but the

students here (especially Nakano and Saitou) were really hyped up.

Although they frequently showed speech and conduct that were far removed from

common sense, it was relatively endurable if she persisted in seeing and hearing

nothing. The bus driver who was similarly seeing and hearing nothing casually giving

her follow-up(mental analysis) was also a great help.

And so, even after watching the party trick (?) of the students that began from some

time ago, even when currently right beside her there was a female student juggling

countless knifes in a level that the video of it could be uploaded to the "World Shocking

Video" even while looking like she felt it troublesome, the rookie bus guide was still

enduring!

――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 50

"Sonobe~. You're finished with just ten? You can do more aren't you?"

Tamai Atsushi said such thing with a disappointed look. It seemed that he wasn't

satisfied with the juggling of ten knifes.

The rookie bus guide thought.

In the first place it's already out for a student to carry knife! Sensei! That child is

carrying knife see! What's more it's a lot! Why are you making face as though it's

normal!?

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"Well, if I get serious then I can do around thirty, but the ceiling is low so that's

impossible."

"Sonobe-san, that's amazing~"

Sensei! What do you mean "That's amazing~" !? What's with that carefree expression!

Sure it looks cute, sheesh. But! Your cute student look like she is going to spend a sharp

cutting life you know!? Please give her your guidance!

The rookie bus guide acted the straight man in her heart and stared at Aiko. Reach,

this unsaid feeling!

"??"

Aiko tilted her head in puzzlement. A beat later she smiled carefreely for some reason.

The rookie bus guide whispered "Damn iiit" . It didn't reach. But she was cute――how

should she deal with this helpless feeling...

But, there a small whisper entered the rookie bus guide's ear.

"Ten more minutes..."

"Ah, yes."

The bus driver was wearing his hat so low over his eyes that it was unclear how he

could see the front, giving other nothing but anxiety seeing it. According to such bus

driver, it seemed that they would reach the first sight-seeing area for today in ten more

minutes.

The rookie bus guide cleared her throat with a cough and pulled herself together, then

she urged Yuuka who had moved to juggle playing cards without her noticing to return

to her seat.

The cards weren't only juggled up, they also flew horizontally, furthermore they

returned back like boomerang. Although the rookie bus guide was entranced by the

artistic juggling of dozens of card moving like that, but she forced herself to do her job

properly.

Yuuka returned to her seat while getting applause from everyone. Her cheeks were

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slightly red from feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Sonobe-san, thank you very much. Everyone else also have amazing skill. This is the

first time for me seeing students this amazing."

She smiled sweetly. Inside her heart she was trembling with fear, thunderstruck, and

on the verge of madness, but as a bus guide she couldn't forget to smile. Muscular pain

of facial muscles? Bring it on!

Saitou and Nakano reacted.

"Please say that "This is the first time for me" one more time!"

"Put your heart into it! Please say it while looking a bit embarrassed!"

Truly a straight sexual harassment. The rookie bus guide's expression was screaming.

Anyway, card abruptly stabbed into the forehead of the two. "My head, my heaaad-"

The two idiots were writhing around on their seat.

"Chih, it got dirty."

Blood stuck to the card. Yuuka treated it like a dirty thing just as she said by wiping

the card on Saitou's cloth. Her eyes were completely cold that if anyone faint of heart

saw her they would become weak in the knees. Though all the other female students

also had the same eyes.

"Guide-san, sorry. The girls in the class will firmly punish these two idiots."

"Be, before that, blood is going spu~rt, spu~~rt out from their forehead like fountain

though-. The hospital-"

It was a sudden bloodshed. The rookie bus guide was flustered.

There Kaori sighed while coming their way. Her gaze was unusually cold. She slapped

a large band-aid on the two's forehead. "Higii!?" Saitou and Nakano screamed in

harmony. *twitch twitch*.

"Geez, you shouldn't dirty the bus with blood! Nakano-kun and Saitou-kun is also

playing too much!"

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Seeing Kaori giving a scolding, the rookie bus guide had a thought. "No, that's not the

problem!" She thought.

――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 46

"I, I'm sorry for my students behavior! I'll scold them for this later. I'm really sorry!"

The small animal teacher bowed her head repeatedly. Her figure apologizing for her

students who were screwing around too much really looked like a teacher, but as

expected it seemed like she wasn't concerned by the bloodshed itself.

――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 43

For a moment the bus guide was assaulted by a feeling that wanted to scream loudly

while escaping by crashing through the window, but she would die if she did that so

she barely desisted from doing it. Above all else, as a bus guide, there was no way she

could abandon the guest!

"E, e~rr, everyone, looks like you all are full of energy there! After this, in less than ten

minutes, we will arrive at our first sightseeing area for today, the Fushimi Inari Shrine.

After that, we will go around several sightseeing area just as written in the guidebook

before we head toward our hotel for today."

'Yee~~s!' The students replied back energetically again with liveliness that was

different from student these days. The rookie bus guide's mind that was almost

toppled was slightly healed from that. These students were actually welcomed guest

for a bus guide if the supernatural something they nonchalantly showed frequently

wasn't counted.

'I'll do my best!' The rookie bus guide fired up herself while taking a bold action of

releasing her personal information in order to shrink the distance a little between

herself and the students.

"Honestly speaking, I came from Kyoto. I lived at the area slightly north from here,

near famous places like Kurama hot spring and Kuramadera that everyone surely has

heard before. Because of that, I know about various things like the good hidden places

and so on, so please ask me anything without reservation."

'Ooo~' The students immediately showed surprise good-spiritedly. How should she

say it, this calls had an amazing sense of unity, they looked like they really got along

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with each other.

She was putting her guard up because they were the "returnees", and in actuality their

many speech and conduct were removed from common sense, but it was completely

unthinkable to see them as an object to be avoided.

Perhaps the rookie bus guide had also got a bit used to the students because her

shoulders relaxed a bit. It felt like her willpower was recovering.

"Kurama hot spring and Kuramadera? Are they famous place desu~?"

Shia raised her hand *pyon* and quickly threw a question.

Seeing from how the other students weren't making wondering face, certainly it

seemed those places were quite popular, but for Shia it was a name that her rabbit

ears heard for the first time. It seemed Yue was also the same because she was going

"Nn?" with tilted head.

From the face of the two that were obviously foreigner, the rookie bus guide thought

"It's not unreasonable that they don't know" , she smiled sweetly while giving more

explanation.

"It's a really lovely inn that is surrounded by nature. The winter hot spring that is

surrounded by trees with winter make-up is especially recommended. Kuramadera is

known as a power spot that is famous even in Kyoto. It's also introduced as the home

of the tengu(long-nosed goblin) and so on. About the detail of the history, I will tell it

at another chance if you are interested but..."

The rookie bus guide chose her words so that even youngster from foreign country

could easily understood and also pickled their curiosity at the same time. She then

continued speaking full of playfulness.

"It was also said that far in the past, "the demon king descended" there or something,

it's a lovely place."

All the students without a single exception sent their gaze toward the back seat.

"E, eh? Everyone? Wha, what's the matter?"

Their reaction was different from what she had in mind. Or rather, their reaction was

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more than she expected! Furthermore it was an incomprehensible reaction!

The rookie bus guide was confused!

When she followed the gaze of the students, she reached the center of the back

seat――a single male student who sat firmly like a mountain right in front of the rookie

bus guide.

The eyes of the rookie bus guide and him――Hajime met.

If one had to give an allusion about Hajime's mental state here, then Hajime-san in

Japan was relatively high-tensioned. Actually, he also nonchalantly joined in at all the

energetic replies until now. Even when they were doing karaoke he was

enthusiastically singing out anime song.

If the gazes that were saying things like "She said the demon king descended there"

"In other words, Nagumo descended there?" were directed toward such unusually

high-tensioned Hajime, how would he react...

He grinned widely, and released a tiny bit of "Pressure"! Indeed, I am the demon kingsama!

The students got roused up saying "Oo! Nagumo played along!" "Yoo, our demon kingsama!" !

However, even though it was only a pressure that was nothing for the students who

had been trained at another world, the rookie bus guide who was right at the front of

that demon king was completely a different case...

"くぁ(kua)wせ(se)drftgyふじこ(fujiko)lp!?"

Such weird shriek resounded through the parking lot of the Kyoto's Fushimi Inari

Shrine they had just arrived at.

――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 23

Liberated from the long bus travel, the students stretched their body.

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Perhaps because it was a school trip that was a bit out of season, the surrounding was

throwing glances at the students because it was rare for a group of students to visit at

this period of time.

Amidst that atmosphere, the female students were gathering around the rookie bus

guide. For some reason Kaori and Shizuku were holding her left and right hand

respectively, while other girls like Yuuka, Taeko, Nana and so on were surrounding

them like guards. It was a bit of harem situation in a sense.

"E, err, everyone? I'll be leading, so if possible stay behind me...or rather, why do I

have my hand being hold?"

"It's fine, it's fine okay?"

"We are at your side."

"Err...guide-san. You want candy? It's sweet milk taste. I think it will surely heal you."

Kaori, Shizuku, and Yuka were sending extremely considerate expression and voice

toward the rookie bus guide. The other female students were also sending her kind

words one after another.

She was really happy that they would get along with her. Especially because it was the

female students and not the male students.

However, still however.

As expected she couldn't hide her bewilderment toward this strange consideration

and kindness. Rather, it felt a bit scary instead because they were too kind.

"E, excuse me. Everyone, did I do something? Everyone seems to act a little different

compared to before...eh? Come to think of it, since when we arrived at the parking

lot? Eh? Eeeh? I remember talking about the local...after that...."

"It's fine if you don't remember!"

"Now now, guide-san. Let's go ahead, okay? Okay?"

Kaori panicked while Shizuku hurriedly pulled at her hand and asked her for being

area guide.

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Certainly, right now it was time to work. For some reason her memory of a few

minutes ago was a bit fuzzy, but the students were hoping for the area guide. Her guide

soul would die out if she didn't respond enthusiastically!

The rookie bus guide switched her attitude and walked. Allthe female students moved

simultaneously with her like a colony. Behind them the male students were following

in groups.

"Say, Yue. Is that person really okay? I don't think we need to go as far as erasing her

memory though."

At the back of the group, Hajime asked Yue with a really awkward expression.

The demon king-sama never expected that the guide would go mad just from that

degree of Pressure. The speech and conduct of the whole class until then that

considerably lowered the SAN value of the rookie bus guide was also one cause, but it

was himself who dealt the finishing blow, so as expected Hajime was unusually in the

middle of introspection of fooling around too much.

Though the biggest cause of his introspection was because Yue said "Bad!" to him.

"...Nn. She should be okay because she was healed with Soul Magic. In the first place,

it looks like she have an amazingly strong willpower that is rare for an ordinary

person...perhaps, she even have some kind of amazing experience in the past?"

It was as though the rookie bus guide possessed toughness as if she even had the skill

of Fear Resistance. Yue was looking at the rookie bus guide with eyes as though she

was seeing a mysterious thing.

"What kind of amazing experience that would make a rookie bus guide obtain Fear

Resistance...that would be too amazing for the work of bus guide."

"...By the way, I didn't manipulate her memory. She has resistance, but it seems that

her memory was normally blown away."

"...Perhaps I'll give her something later as apology."

A rookie bus guide who was given apology present from the demon king. There was

no doubt that if the people of Tortus heard about it they would get a distant look.

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From a glance, it looked like the bus guide-san was greatly popular with the students.

The group looked around Fushimi Inari Shrine like that.

Yue and Shia reflexively leaked out voice of admiration toward place that gave off

history and mystique like the famous "Torii Corridor" and so on.

The rookie bus guide stood still at a certain place.

"Everyone, this here is called "Omokaru Stone". If you lift the head of the stone lantern,

it's said that your wish will come true if the stone is lighter than you thought, but your

wish won't come true if you think it's heavy. Does anyone want to try~"

When the students turned their gaze following those words, there were two stone

lanterns. The students made racket with chitter-chatter while trying it out one after

another.

"I wish to get a girlfriend today!"

Nakano yelled a wish that was extremely reckless without shame while sending a

glance toward the rookie bus guide and lifted the stone.

"-!? ...It, it's lighttt! Very liiight!"

It seemed that it was really heavy far than what he thought. Even though he had

another world cheat, but he still felt that it was heavy for some reason.... Perhaps his

wish was just that "impossible~".

Sympathizing gazes gathered toward Nakano. Saitou who saw that gave up giving a try

and quietly took distance from Nakano.

The next who reached out his hand was Nomura Kentarou who showed a fine play

when the bus departed at the beginning, and his party member who took the healing

role, Tsuji Ayako. Both of them glanced at each other while reaching their hand, and

slowly lifted up the stones.

"Tsuji, how's yours?"

"U, uh. I thought that it's normally light though...Nomura-kun, you?"

"Me too, I think it's light. ...Tsuji, your wish is..."

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"That's a secret!"

Both of them blushed slightly while glancing at each other with their hand still holding

the stone.

"Can you believe it? Those two, they aren't going out even like that you know?"

"Who cares, put down the stone quickly already, Nomura. Or I'm going to crush your

head along with the stone."

Atsushi and Noboru were peevish. Seeing the two who were both conscious of each

other since returning to earth and yet still hadn't gone out with each other, not just

Atsushi and Noboru, the other classmates were also making doubtful expression.

The students were making noise like that while at the end Shizuku and Kaori made

their attempt. Shia asked the two with an excited voice.

"What kind of wish the two of you want to have come true? Please tell me before lifting

up the stone desu."

"I...as I thought, I want to be able to keep being together with Hajime-kun from here

on forever, I think?"

"Let's see...I wish, that my family will be a bit more quiet, something like that."

Kaori looked a bit embarrassed while Shizuku got a distant look when saying their

wish. Pitying gazes gathered at Shizuku.

Like that, Kaori and Shizuku reached their hand toward the Omokaru Stone...

"My, it's light. I wonder if my family will restrain themselves a bit with this?"

Shizuku lightly lifted up and down the Omokaru Stone really happily. Even more

pitying gazes gathered toward her.

But, beside her an abnormal situation occurred. Kaori wasn't trying to lift up the

Omokaru Stone from above the stone lantern.

No, looking at how she was shaking all over, it wasn't that she wasn't lifting up the

stone, it looked like she "couldn't lift up the stone".

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"Nnuuuuuuuuh!? What's this!? Why is it this heavy!? It doesn't twitch for even an inch

though!?"

'Could it be, the stone is glued?' In her confusion Kaori-san even forgot the fact that

just before this everyone was normally lifting up the stone.

"Is it getting stuck..."

The rookie bus guide who was watching over the students smilingly picked up the

Omokaru Stone with a bewildered expression.

'Hyoi-', it was lifted up really lightly.

"..."

"..."

An inexpressible atmosphere was flowing. The air felt even heavier from the fact that

Kaori had spoken out her wish before this.

"This, this time it will surely be okay!"

"Tha, that's right!"

The rookie bus guide desperately followed up. Kaori was getting teary eyed while

reaching her hand toward the Omokaru Stone once more.

It didn't even twitch.

"WHYYYYYYY!? Is my wish that difficult!? Is it really thatimpossible of a wish, so much

so that the weight isn't just simply heavy anymore!? UWAAAAAAAHN"

Kaori's posture was already clinging on the stone lantern, tyring to somehow lift up

the Omokaru Stone at the head part. Naturally, she very much gathered pitying gazes.

Amidst that, Yue-sama came forward with trotting steps.

She sent a warm gaze at Kaori who was struggling hard to lift up the Omokaru Stone

with tear-stained face and then,

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"...Kaori. Do you know the words, knowing your place?"

"What does that mean!?"

'Wanting to be at Hajime's side is a wish that is beyond you, you know?', those words

implicitly conveyed that.

The strange situation where the Omokaru Stone couldn't be lifted up no matter what

she tried even began to gather curious attention from the surrounding people who

came for sightseeing.

"Err, Hajime-san. Could it be..."

"Aa~, yep. It's absurdly concealed skillfully but, from what I see with my magic stone

eye, it's that Yue's doing."

Just as Shia's instinct told her, it was Yue-sama's doing.

Yes, in front of the public she was concealing her magic power while activating gravity

magic in a miraculous feat!

The proof of that was how the weight was added in proportion with the strength Kaori

used. The stone lantern where the Omokaru Stone was placed was starting to make

ominous sound *crack crack*.

Even Kaori seemed to notice from that sound.

"This is...YUU~~EE~~~-!! You are bullying me again! What are you thinking doing

that in this kind of place!? Dispel it quickly! Now, right away!"

"...I don't understand what are you talking about desu."

'Pyu~pyu pyuh pyu pyu~~~' Yue averted her gaze while whistling unnaturally. If it

was for the sake of bullying Kaori, then she wouldn't shirk from doing miraculous feat!

Kaori who sensed that Yue had no intention of dispelling the gravity magic had a vein

emerged angrily on her forehead.

The classmates who guessed the situation from the two's conversation showed

exasperated face or amused face. Amidst that, Kaori took a dee~~p breath one more

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time.

"Tha, that, Kaori? I know what's going on but, there are a lot of people here, it's better

to give up..."

"Shizuku-chan. There is battle that a woman cannot withdraw from."

Shizuku thought 'Atthe very least don'tfight using body reinforcement at a sightseeing

area, seriously', but Kaori was already――activating her charging maiden mode!

"THIS STONEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! I'LL ABSOLUU~~~TELY, LIFT YOU UUUUUUUUUUP"

A surging war cry! Kaori displayed the physical strength of god's apostle all out,

pouring her all into conquering the Omokaru Stone! It seemed she still have some

reasoning left to at least suppress the visualization of her magic power light, it was

fortunate at that point but...

"...Muh. Unreasonably stubborn!"

"Watch me-, Hajime-kun! I'm, not going to lose!"

'I cannot watch this in various sense', Hajime's straight man retort didn't enter the ear

of the two.

Shizuku and Aiko tried to stop them in panic.

However, before they could *crack*, an ominous sound resounded and the two

reflexively stopped moving.

Looking carefully, the stone lantern finally couldn't endure the super heavy weight and

had crack entered it!

"Please spare me from sudden destruction of tourist area~~a!"

"A, anyway everyone! Form a wall! Become human wall so that other tourists cannot

see!"

Aiko tried to stop the two while half-crying, while Shizuku gave instruction to the

students to form a crowd.

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Kaori didn't yield against the attention from around her, she didn't even yield against

the super heavy weight, finally she succeeded to hold the Omokaru Stone in her arms.

And then, she raised it high above her head with the cry 'DAAA――――!' even while

shaking all over.

Her pose looked like an athlete of barbell weight lifting, or perhaps like a combat race

that went "Share your strength with me!". (TN: This is Dragon Ball reference I think.)

At the same time, a depression formed at the ground under Kaori's feet in radial shape.

Countless fissures spread outward like spider web.

"Look, look-, Hajime-kun! I properly lifted it! My wish will come true!"

"...Nuu. Damn Kaori. She did it."

It seemed that Kaori-san who was immersed in her sense of accomplishment already

forgot. About the fact of "It's out if it feel heavier than what you imagined". It was

already out for her right from the beginning.

But, no one could say that to her looking at that brightly glowing expression.

Anyway, while the classmates were blocking people's gaze, Hajime punished the two

with Shockwave attached forehead flick while fixing the ground and stone lantern

with transmutation.

Everything was fixed in the blink of eye so there shouldn't be any witness.

Yes, no one except the rookie bus guide who was among the students.

The rookie bus guide who witnessed the whole sequence of events was making

twitching smile for a while before,

"...fuhih"

She fainted, leaving behind a strange snicker.

――Rookie bus guide's SAN value 18