Volume 1, The Sixth Question(1/2)
Please answer the following question:
Write down the molecular formula for Benzene.
Himeji Mizuki's Answer:
"C6H6"
Teacher's Comment:
It's very easy, isn't it?
Tsuchiya Kouta's Answer:
"Ben + zene = Benzene"
Teacher's Comment:
Do you despise Chemistry?
Yoshii Akihisa's Answer:
"B-E-N-Z-E-N"
Teacher's Comment:
Come to my office later, together with Tsuchiya.
"Good job, everyone. Thanks for all your efforts in taking those tests."
Yuuji said that as he stood behind the lectern and put his hand on the table.
We had tests the entire morning. The tests finished not too long ago. Now we were getting ready for lunch. To replenish the scores we lost in all our subjects, the amount of tests we took were scary.
"We will begin the Summoner Test War with Class B this afternoon. Are you ready to kill?"
"Oooo..!"
Morale was still high, and it was our class's only weapon.
"The goal of this War is to hold the enemy in their classroom; therefore, we can't afford to lose the battle at this corridor."
"Oooo..!"
"Himeji Mizuki will be the commander there. Guys, be prepared and ready to die."
"I.. I will try my best."
Himeji shyly walked out of the crowd; maybe she didn't want to shout like the boys did.
"OOOO..!"
The morale of the front line troops went over the limit since they were able to fight alongside a beautiful girl.
In conclusion, the key to this War was the battle at the corridor; if we lose there, we're finished. Therefore, from the fifty students in Class F, we sent out forty into that battle. This troop will be led by Himeji, who's the strongest student in our class and the second strongest in the whole school, so we should be able to win that battle without any hassles.
(?)
When the bell that announced the end of lunch break rang, the War with Class B finally began.
"OK, everyone, let's go! The target is the systematic tables!"
"Yes, sir!"
To successfully hold the enemy in their classroom, we must take control of the momentum.
We rushed to the corridor outside Class B at full speed.
Since a lot of the students in Class B were good in non-science-related subjects and since the Mathematics teacher Mr. Hasegawa has a larger summoning field, we picked Mathematics as our main subject for battle; in other words, if we wanted to finish the battle fast, Mr. Hasegawa would be very useful.
There was English Composition teacher Yamada-sensei and Physics teacher Kimura-sensei there on our side as well. This time, we need to increase the number of supervising teachers and finish the enemies off as fast as possible!
"I can see the Class B students!"
"They brought Ms. Takahashi!"
The Class B students walked slowly toward us, but there were only ten of them. They should be the vanguard, and they just wanted to test our ability.
"Don't let them escape alive!"
Along with this threatening shout, the War against Class B had officially started.
Class B Nonaka Chounan VS Class F Kondou Yoshimune
Cumulative
1943 VS 764
What!? He's too strong! It's like they're on a totally different level!
Class B Kaneda Ichiyuuko VS Class F Mutou Keita
Mathematics
159 VS 69
Class B Satoi Mayuko VS Class F Kimishima Hiroshi
Physics
152 VS 77
The difference between fighting abilities was overwhelming; our frontline troops kept on losing. If we don't send in reinforcements before their scores are reduced to zero, our numbers would greatly decrease.
Just as I was trying to see whether we had any reinforcements or whether the route was being cut off by our enemies..
"I-I'm late.. S-Sorry.."
Himeji hardly caught her breath and arrived at the scene; I thought she should be running all the way to the front line.
"Himeji Mizuki is here!"
One of the students in Class B shouted. It seems that Class B already knew about Himeji not being in Class A and made appropriate investigation, I guess?
All the students in Class B were shocked when they heard that. It was very easy to see that they were scared of Himeji.
"Himeji, although you just arrived, can you please..?"
"Y-Yes. I'll go now."
Himeji immediately dashed into the middle of the battlefield. Looking at her gave you the feeling of calmness. I really feel like taking a photo right now and keeping it as a souvenir.
"Mr. Hasegawa, I am Iwasheeta Ritsuko from Class B, and I would like to challenge to Mathematics Himeji Mizuki from Class F!"
"Ah, Mr. Hasegawa, I am Himeji Mizuki; nice to meet you."
Himeji was immediately targeted by the enemy; maybe the enemies wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible?
"Ritsuko, I'll help as well!"
Another girl from Class B stepped forward and summoned at the same time. Two of the ten students from Class B were present here; it seems that they were really scared of Himeji.
"Summon!"
The magic circle appeared after the summoning, and the Being that we were all familiar with stood in front of us.
The enemies' Beings pointed their sword and spear at Himeji's Being, but it seemed to be very calm and just held the greatsword that we've seen before.
It was now a face-off between the three Beings with the faces of their respective owners, but..
"Eh? Himeji's Being has an accessory."
"Ah, yes. Because I'm pretty good in Mathematics.."
"You can wear an accessory in the subject you're good at?"
Himeji's two-head-tall Being had a beautiful-looking bracelet on its left wrist beside the greatsword on its hand.
"T-That's..!?"
"She's not an enemy we can handle!"
The enemies started panicking when they saw the bracelet.
Ah, this reminds me: wearing the bracelet means..
"Erm, I'm going to attack."
Himeji tightly held her hand; following her action, her Being dashed towards the enemy from its left-hand side.
"Wait a minute!"
"Ritsuko! Dodge the attack first!"
Both of their Beings jumped to the side with dramatic actions. Suddenly, the bracelet on the wrist of Himeji's Being emitted a bright light.
*Beep!*
"Ahhh!"
"Ri.. Ritsuko!"
The instant the left arm emitted the light, one of the enemies' Beings that couldn't escape in time was covered in flames.
Class F Himeji Mizuki VS Class B Iwasheeta Ritsuko & Kikuiri Mayumi
Mathematics
412 VS 189 & 151
So, wearing the bracelet means that the Being is capable of using a special ability? Although I have forgotten what the requirement score for that is, I did remember somewhere in the rules stating that students who score above a certain amount are able to equip on their Beings a bracelet that allows them to use a special ability. This rule has nothing to do with me, so I totally forgot about it.
"S-Sorry. I can't be gentle on the battlefield!"
Himeji's Being stuck to the enemy that had lost control due to dodging the previous attack, and cut both it and its weapon in half, killing it instantly and winning the fight.
"Iwasheeta and Kikuiri have died in battle!"
"What!? How's that possible!?"
"Himeji Mizuki's scarier than the rumors say!"
The remaining eight students from Class B looked extremely shocked; it was not surprising for them to look like that.
By the way, Himeji, you're too strong.
"E-Everyone, please do your best..!"
Himeji said something that didn't sound like a command from a commander, but it was extremely effective.
"I'm going to unleash my power!"
"Himeji's the best!"
The number of Himeji believers had dramatically increased.
"Himeji, you can have a rest now!"
"Ah, yes."
The enemies' morale had significantly dropped, so it was better to let Himeji rest now. A special ability could deal a huge amount of damage, but it would cost a lot of points. Even if there was no Himeji in the fight, defeating the enemy vanguard was just a matter of time now.
"Switch with the main troop and retreat at the same time. Don't die in battle!"
And that was the enemy's command. Anyway, we've achieved our target successfully. Let the enemy step back slowly, restrict their actions in the Class B classroom, and then the battle for today should be close to the end. It was thanks to Himeji's extraordinary fighting ability that the plan's going so smoothly, thank you very much!
"Akihisa, I'm heading back to the classroom now."
"Huh? Why?"
Hideyoshi had walked towards me while I was looking over the overall situation of the battle.
"Heading back"? Did something happen to the main troop?
"The Class Representative for Class B is.."
"The guy named Nemoto."
"You said 'Nemoto'; could it be Nemoto Kyouji?"
"That's right."
The guy called Nemoto Kyouji had a very bad reputation. According to the rumors, he was a pro at pulling dirty tricks and would take whatever actions needed to achieve his goal. There were rumors about "poisoning the opposing team in a ball game", "bringing weapons when fighting others", and so on. I didn't really believe that he could be that bad, but being careful wouldn't harm us at all.
"I see, then we should head back as soon as possible!"
"Although I don't think that Yuuji will fall for his trap, we better head back just to make sure everything is okay."
After we informed Himeji about this, Hideyoshi and I brought a few men back to the classroom.
☆
"Wha, this is terrible!"
"I never would have imagined that they would actually do all this."
"This is so mean."
When we got back to the classroom, we saw not only holes all over the chabudai but also pencils and erasers all broken or split into two.
"This is bad; now we can't replenish our scores smoothly."
"Yeah, this might be a minor problem, but it will certainly affect our score replenishment."
By the way, I think that Nemoto is a petty coward.
"Don't worry about it too much. Although it'll take some time to repair, it won't affect our plan too much."
"Well, Yuuji, we'll follow what you say."
Something didn't seem right.
"How did the classroom get this bad, and Yuuji, how did you not know anything about it?"
There were no problems in the classroom before lunch break, so it must have happened sometime between the start of the battle and now. However, Yuuji should have been in the classroom at that time and been able to stop them, right?
"They wanted to sign a treaty with me and I went to negotiate with them, so the classroom was empty during that time."
"What treaty?"
"Well, if neither of us can win the War before 4 PM, then we will maintain the situation of the War as is and continue it from there at 9 AM tomorrow morning, and until that time, both sides cannot do anything related to the Summoner Test War."
"I see. And you agreed?"
"That's right."
"But if it comes to the point where stamina determines the result, we should have the advantage, right?"
"That's true for all of us except Himeji."
Ah, I see.
"After forcing them to stay in the classroom, the War will end for today; the true battle will start tomorrow."
"That's right. It seems that we can't take them down today."
"At that time, Himeji's fighting ability will be more important than that of the whole class."
That meant the battle would be focused on certain areas? Then it should be the same as the battle against Class D and let Himeji finish off the Class Rep, I guess?
"That's why you accepted their suggestion: to let Himeji fight in perfect condition?"
"Yes. This pact is good for me."
Is it? Good, then, if you say so.
However, I keep feeling a little bit strange about this. They destroyed our tables, and then signed a treaty that was good for us at the same time. I don't think Nemoto Kyouji is such a naive person.
"Akihisa, we should head to the front line now; they may have used some dirty tricks again."
Hideyoshi ran out of the classroom after he said that.
"Yeah. Yuuji, we'll leave this to you."
"Oh, I will go prepare new pencils and erasers."
Yuuji raised his hand and said goodbye. I turned away from him and chased after Hideyoshi.
I managed to catch up with Hideyoshi quickly without running at my full speed.
"I keep thinking that we haven't seen the last of them!"
"Yeah. I don't think they'll stop here; we better be careful."
What would be the next dirty trick they'll use? Damn, they have stronger fighting ability than us, so why aren't they fighting us face to face?
We were about to reach the battlefield.
historical
"Remember to be careful!"
"You, too, Hideyoshi!"
After reminding each other, we went back to our troops.
"Yoshii! You're finally back!"
The person who welcomed me back was Sugawa. Huh? Wasn't Shimada supposed to be controlling the troop?
"Sorry to keep you waiting! What's the situation now?"
"Very bad for us."
"Huh!? Why!?"
The enemy's main troop never appeared, and our fighting ability is better than theirs; why are we in a bad situation now?
"Shimada was captured and is being held hostage."
"What!?"
Now they're using a hostage!? Do they really believe that they can win through dirty tricks!?
"Therefore, the enemy has only two people left, but we can't attack them at all. What should we do?"
Now my troop is confronted with the enemy because of this incident.
"Hmmm.. let me see the situation before I make the decision."
"Then we should head there now. The enemy is blocking us in the corridor there."
Sugawa led the way, and I followed behind him.
After walking through the human wall formed by my troop, it was clear that the situation in front of me was exactly as Sugawa said: Shimada and her Being were being held hostage by two Class B students.
And they had the Remedial Teacher beside them as well.
"Shimada!"
"Y-Yoshii!"
Why does this sound like a soap drama?
"Stop right there! If you come any closer, I'll deliver the final blow to her Shokanju and send her to the Remedial Room!"
One of the enemies that captured Shimada stood out and restricted my actions.
Not only would they let our precious female classmate die, but they deliberately held her hostage to threaten us and lower our morale. It was a really smart strategy.
If we blindly dashed forward before we managed to defeat them, they would defeat Shimada and use the fact that she was sent to the Remedial Room to make us feel guilty.
..This is nothing at all.
"Everyone, prepare to attack!"
"Leader, are you sure about this!?"
There's no other way! There are always sacrifices in War! This is not revenge for being tortured every day; it's just one of those decisions that a leader must make!
"W-wait, Yoshii!"(?)
Even the enemy was telling me to stop; so uncool.
"Don't you want to know how we caught her?"
"It's because she's an idiot."
"I'm going to KILL you!"
Huh? What? Why does Shimada sound stronger than me even though she's being held hostage?
"This girl believed the false information about you being injured and left the troop to look for you in the infirmary alone."
What did he say!?
"Shimada.."
"W-What?"
Am I thinking too much? It seems like Shimada's face was pretty red.
"Trying to kill me while I was injured, are you a demon!?"
"That's not why I went!"
This is so scary. Now I can't have a nap in the infirmary in peace.
"Was there anything wrong with visiting you to see how bad your injuries were!? I was worried about you!"
Huh..?
"Shimada, is that true?"
"Y-Yes. Can't I do that?"
Shimada looked a little bit angry and turned her head to the side.
Really. Her, worrying about me. That Shimada..
"Haha, now you understand. So, listen to me and don't try anything."
"Everyone, attack!"
"Why!?"
Why? Do you really need to ask that?
"She is not the real Shimada! She must be an enemy in disguise!"
You guys picked the wrong person to fake! That Shimada would never be so gentle! If she were the real Shimada, she would definitely be very happy to send me to hell!
"Oi, wait a minute! This person is the real Shimada!"
Class B students, look how uncool you are.
"Shut up! You still want to keep using that dirty strategy after we've seen through it? How ugly!"
"I'm telling you that she's the real one..!"
Class B Suzuki Jirou VS Class F Tanaka Akira
English Writing
33 VS 65
Class B Yoshida Takuo VS Class F Sugawa Ryou
English Writing
18 VS 59
Defeat those two first! Deal fatal blows to their Shokanjus!
"Aaah..!"
"Help me..!"
Both of them were immediately taken away by the Remedial Teacher. This felt really good.
Then, all that's left is..
"Everyone, be careful! The enemy might drop the disguise at any time and attack us!"
This was the impostor who was trying to imitate Shimada!
"Y-Yoshii, you're so mean.. I really was worried about you.."
"Stop your silly act, you second-rate actor!"
The real Shimada would never say something like that!
"It's true! I really was worried about you!"
"Surround her. Even if she is from Class B, she can't fight this many of us at the same time."
"It is true! They told me 'Yoshii saw Mizuki's panties and can't stop his nosebleed', so I got really worried!"
"Cease attack! She is the real Shimada!"
She's the only person who would fall for such an stupid lie.
"Shimada, are you alright?"
I lent my hand to Shimada who was sitting on the ground. Damn you, Class B; how dare you use such a dirty trick!
".."
(?)
"It's good that you're okay. I was worried about you!"
".."
"Go have a rest in the classroom. You must be very tired, right?"
".."
"By the way, these guys really are cowards. Do they have no pride as human beings?"
".."
There was no reaction from Shimada.
(?)
"Ah.. Shimada. Actually.."
"..What?"
She finally turned her head and looked at me.
I put on an apologetic face and flashed my best smile at Shimada, who was now staring directly at me.
"I knew that it was you all along!"
She went berserk.
☆
"..Where am I?"
When I regained consciousness, I saw a ceiling covered in dirt. This is.. ah, our classroom.
"Ah, you finally woke up?"
The cute voice came from my side. Could it be the healing voice of Himeji?
"I was worried about you. Yoshii, you looked like you were beaten up by someone and then pushed down some stairs."
Correct answer.
"Even if it is a Summoner Test 'War', there's no need to injure someone like this, right?"
No, instead of calling it a war, you should call it a one-sided slaughter..
"It's nothing important. How's the Summoner Test War going?"
I tried to sit up on the tatami, and felt pain all over my body.
"According to the treaty, we're now in a ceasefire. The War will continue tomorrow."
"And the situation?"
"We sort of attacked the front of their classroom as planned. However, our losses were greater than we imagined."
Yuuji read the damage report on the paper one by one. Although it was sort of within our expectations, this was still a huge loss. It seems that we didn't have a total win in the battle at the corridor, and since we put most of our men in there, the result was not good for our overall strategy.
"Although some accidents occurred, it seems that things went smoothly for now?"
"You could say that."
However, the opponent was that coward Nemoto Kyouji; he must have some hidden plan.
*knocking on the door*
"Oh, Muttsurini. Is there anything to report?"
Before I realized it, Muttsurini was beside me.
Muttsurini was a member of the intelligence team today, so he didn't take part in the battle. His job was to stay alert and record what was going on in the enemy troops.
"Huh? Something strange is going on in Class C?"
*nod*
According to Muttsurini's information, Class C was preparing for a Summoner Test War. If they aren't planning to challenge Class A, then there's only one other reason..
"They want to take on the easy target. They're such cowardly bastards."
As Yuuji just said, they were planning to attack the winner of this War. It is easier to take on opponents who are tired and exhausted.
"Yuuji, what do you plan to do?"
"Hm, what should I do..?"
Yuuji raised his head and looked at the clock. It was 4:30 now- not too late.
"We better sign a treaty with Class C as well. If we threaten them with using Class D to attack them, I believe that they'll give up the idea of attacking us."
"Also, they don't believe that we'll win, right?"
It shouldn't be too hard to sign a treaty with Class C.
"Okay. Let's go now."
"Yeah."
I injected power into my aching body and stood up. My body seemed to be fine.
"As a backup plan, Hideyoshi, you stay in the classroom."
"Huh? Why? Is it not okay for me to go with you guys?"
"If your face is seen, my hidden strategy that I'm saving for emergency situations won't work."
"I don't quite understand what you're talking about, but if you say so, I'll just do as you say!"
Hideyoshi stepped down obediently. But what is this emergency situation Yuuji was talking about?
"Then, let's go. It will be a little dangerous since we're short on numbers."
Without Hideyoshi, Yuuji, Himeji, Muttsurini, and I headed towards Class C.
"Yoshii, it took me a long time to wash your blood off my fingers; I'm going to make you pay for that later."
"Was it Yoshii's fault?"
While we were in the corridor, we saw Shimada, who was using her handkerchief to wipe her hand, and Sugawa, who had his bag on his back.
"Ah, Shimada, Sugawa. Nice timing. Let's go to Class C together."
Although I don't think it will happen, the Class C students might attack us, and it'd be dangerous to be going there with only a few of us. Also, we need extra people to guard Himeji. I kept on thinking and called on my two best friends in front of me at the same time.
Of course, as my best friends, they won't reject my invitation.
"Hmmm, okay?"
"Ah, no problem for me."
Now I have backup I can trust.
"Hurry up, or Class C's Rep will head home."
"Yeah, let's go!"
After Shimada and Sugawa joined the team, the six of us continued to head towards Class C.
"I am Class F's Representative, Sakamoto Yuuji. Who's the Class Representative here?"
There were still a lot of students remaining in Class C. It was just as Muttsurini reported: they were preparing for a Summoner Test War and waiting to pick off the easier target.
"I am. What do you want?"
The girl who appeared in front of us had very short hair. Wasn't Koyama the star of the volleyball club?(?)
"I am here to negotiate with you as Class F's Representative. Are you free now?"
"'Negotiate'? Huh.."
Although I don't like to badmouth girls, Koyama was so far away from being gentle and steady. After she heard what Yuuji said, she showed an evil smile on her face for some reason.
"Yeah, I'm here to propose a treaty of mutual non-aggression."
"A treaty of mutual non-aggression.. What do you think, Nemoto?"
Koyama turned her head and spoke to the group of students in the corner.
Huh? "Nemoto"?
"Of course not. There's no need for that, right?"
"What!? Nemoto!? Why is Class B here!?"
The person who brought a group of people and walked towards us was our current enemy: Class B's Representative, Nemoto Kyouji. He had short hair, an unshaven beard around his mouth, and evil-looking eyes. He looked totally different from Yuuji who had a pair of sharp eyes.
"How terrible, Class F. You broke the pact. I thought we agreed that we wouldn't do anything related to the Summoner Test War?"
"What did you say..?"
"Weren't you the ones who broke the pact first? I'm just doing what you were going to do!"
After he said that, the group of people at his back started moving. The person who was hiding behind him was Mr. Hasegawa, who was short and was staying on the battlefield for now.
"Mr. Hasegawa! Yoshino from Class B wants to challenge-"
"Not so fast! Sugawa from Class F will accept that challenge! Summon!"
Just when Yoshino from Class B planned to attack Yuuji by surprise, Sugawa jumped out and accepted the challenge for Yuuji. Good job, Sugawa!
"We didn't violate the pact! This is just between Class C and Class F-"
"It's no use, Akihisa! Nemoto will definitely use the words 'anything related to the Summoner Test War' as an excuse!"
"Yes, that IS what I'll do.?"
"Nonsense!"
"'Nonsense' is a very useful theory!"
"Akihisa, run!"
"Damn!"
Leaving Sugawa who was fighting at the back, the rest of us left Class C as fast as we could.
Class B Yoshino Takayuki VS Class F Sugawa Ryou
Mathematics
161 VS 41
"Don't let them-->>