88 Club Week

Nova had decided that the cooking club was enough to join for now, but walked around just in case there was another interesting club to join.

He eventually found a place with an amazing lack of people.

『...Why is there so little peopl-?』[Nova]

As he said that out loud, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

Once he turned around, he saw a familiar face with speckled beard hairs.

『...Hanzo?!』[Nova]

Hanzo gave him a wide grin with his eyes closed.

『Yo!』[Hanzo]

Hanzo removed his hand from Nova's shoulder before beginning to talk.

『So, do you remember that time you asked for sword training?』[Hanzo]

Nova's mind wandered back to when he had asked Hanzo to teach him how to use the sword.

After a moment, Nova nodded, before quickly realizing what was about to happen to him.

Hanzo dragged Nova over to a table nearby.

『Here's your chance, Nova!』[Hanzo]

Once he was dragged over, he saw Derenne struggling to draw students over.

『Would yo-』[Derenne]

The moment she spoke, they would make eye contact with her, causing her to look away, leaving them to walk away from her with a confused look.

Hanzo patted Nova on the back, moving him ahead.

『As you can see, Derenne is having a bit of trouble with the whole club recruitment thing.』[Hanzo]

Nova stumbled forward a bit and ended up catching himself right before he crashed into the table.

『...N..Nova?』[Derenne]

Nova looked at her, then realized that she was wearing pajamas, despite everyone else wearing school uniform.

『...Why do yo-』[Nova]

Before he could finish his sentence, Hanzo came up from behind and covered his mouth and whispered into his ear.

『...Don't ask about the pajamas.』[Hanzo]

Nova suddenly thought back to Derenne's aggressive side, then agreed to not talk about it.

『Ah… Hanzo..』[Derenne]

When he showed up, her face flushed pink and she hid under the table.

Hanzo couldn't help but sigh when he saw this.

『...She always gets like this whenever I show up.』[Hanzo]

He patted Nova on the back.

『I'll tell you the story later. Go ahead and sign up!』[Hanzo]

Nova nodded and reluctantly waited for Hanzo to leave.

Once Hanzo stepped away, Derenne popped her head above the table.

『...Right. Are you… here to join the Weapons Mastery club..?』[Derenne]

Nova nodded.

「Weapons Mastery club…? I think I could use Reischneid better if I went here.. This is perfect!」[Nova]

Nova pulled out his student ID and handed it to her.

「...Why does she hide from Hanzo though…?」[Nova]

Once she finished scanning the card onto the club pad, she handed it back to him before sighing.

Nova sensed that there was something off about her and Hanzo.

『...Do you dislike Hanzo?』[Nova]

Once he said this, she immediately refuted this.

『 No! No! Not at all!』[Derenne]

Her hands moved around very quickly.

『He's… a close...』[Derenne]

She stopped talking and covered her face, but Nova got a general idea.

Just as she was going to start talking again, Hanzo showed up behind her with a giant grin on his face.

『Ah?! Really?! I thought you hated me for sure!』[Hanzo]

He got super close to her, causing her to make strange noises and cover her face.

『Eeeh?! Han..zo?! Wh-wh-wha?!』[Derenne]

She turned every which way, but Hanzo kept close to her.

『I always thought you hated me because of that incid-』[Hanzo]

His sentence was stopped by a strong right hook to the face.

『G…..URCK?!』[Hanzo]

He was sent flying several feet away.

『Hanzo?!』[Nova]

Once Nova turned back to Derenne, he heard a low noise coming from her.

『...Han..zo.』[Derenne]

She seemed to be staring down at the floor before she slowly raised herself up, revealing glowing red eyes..

『...HANZO!』[Derenne]

A huge burst of mana exploded into the surroundings, causing some of the surrounding students to have to take shelter behind things, or even just fall over.

Hanzo quickly recovered his bearings and shouted at Nova.

『Crap. Nova! You signed up, check your student ID for details! I'm off now!』[Hanzo]

He got up and lowered his body a bit.

『Accelerate!』[Hanzo]

A white afterimage seemed to layer itself onto him and make him look almost see-through.

『You… won't get away, HANZO!』[Derenne]

Suddenly, he seemed to jump and disappear into the sky, with Derenne quickly following after him.

After that, students began to murmur to each other in the crowd.

『...They're a whole other level...』

『What was that about..?』

『I kinda want to join their club..!』

Nova got the hint and started to move on before it got too crowded nearby.

...…

He finally got a rest at a nearby place right as the sun was setting and everyone was packing up.

『Haah… Two clubs is enough, right? I sure hope so...』[Nova]

He massaged his shoulders and cracked his fingers and knuckles while stretching.

「Haah… No matter what kind of physical exhaustion I get, I can heal myself with my Blessed Flame Rebirth...」[Nova]

He let out a giant yawn.

「But mental exhaustion is a whole other problem...」[Nova]

He pulled out his student ID to take a look at the club schedules.

「...Well, without training in my sleep, it's a lot more rest...」[Nova]

Nova thought about the training sessions with Reischneid he had.

He looked far into the orange sky, as if he was looking at something far into the distance.

「...When are you coming back, Reischneid?」[Nova]

Nova sat there and dozed off until the next time he opened his eyes, the night sky was settling into a light to dark gradient of blue.

「...The night sky is always so amazing...」[Nova]

Just as he stood up, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

When he turned his head, he was greeted by Oswald's light smile.

『Do you have enough space for one more club?』