Chapter 4 — It’s a Skill That Makes You Popular!

At the front of the bus, with Suguru Yazaki at the center of it all, an escape plan was being hatched. The students who, like Tomochika, hadn't glowed at all earlier had been sent to the back, where they were being totally excluded.

Besides Tomochika herself, there were three others suffering the same fate:

Ayaka Shinozaki: Rich and with a very domineering personality, she was disliked enough that she had no friends in the class.

Yuuichirou Kiryuu: In a word, a delinquent. He had a rather rough personality, so most people kept their distance.

Yogiri Takatou: Most of his time at school was spent sleeping, so he rarely interacted with his classmates.

"Is he honestly sleeping right now?" Kiryuu said, giving Yogiri an exasperated look.

Yogiri had been sitting in the back of the bus from the beginning, and the tumult that had struck earlier hadn't been enough to rouse him.

"Now that you mention it, he's always asleep, isn't he?"

"Who cares?! Why did I get stuck in this situation?!" Ayaka exploded at Tomochika, in response to her thinking out loud.

"Not like I know either..."

Tomochika looked towards the front of the bus. The discussion appeared to be proceeding smoothly. Rather than arguing, it seemed like everyone was eating up everything that Yazaki suggested.

After a while, the students began to get off the bus. It had been about an hour. Mission Start, or something like that.

"Pft. Not even a word to us, huh? Let's go," Kiryuu said, heading to the front of the bus.

"Takatou! Everyone's leaving! Wake up!" Tomochika said, shaking him lightly. But it didn't seem like he wanted to wake up at all.

"Just leave him. He likes his sleep, doesn't he?"

"Who cares about Yogiri anyway?" Ayaka turned to follow Kiryuu.

While she wasn't exactly happy about it, there wasn't much Tomochika could do if he wouldn't wake up. As she made up her mind to leave, she noticed the two in front of her had stopped at the front of the bus. Wondering what the delay was, Tomochika moved up behind them.

"What are you trying to pull here?" Kiryuu said, the threat heavy in his voice.

Standing in front of the exit was Yazaki and Asuha Kouriyama.

"Sorry, but we can't take you with us. We need you to stay here," Yazaki said, his tone anything but apologetic.

"Oh? Just cuttin' us clean off, are you? Who died and made you king?!"

"Not a king, just the General," Yazaki replied, casually pulling on the handrail by the exit. As he did, the solid metal bar changed shape.

"This is a General's power. For those of us who got the Gift, even being level one, our bodies have become this strong. Bringing normal humans like you along would just slow us down. You understand, right?"

Seeing Yazaki's clearly inhuman power, Kiryuu went stiff.

"B-But if you're that strong, you should have no problem keeping us safe, right?" Ayaka said with a hint of desperation.

"Please understand. We're not exactly happy about this. But thinking of the class as a whole, we have no choice but to leave you behind if you don't have powers."

"So then don't protect us. Don't even look after us. But you can at least let us follow you, right?" Tomochika pleaded. After all, they would be quite helpless if they were just abandoned here.

"We can't do that either. To be honest, leaving you here is part of our plan."

"Okay then, let's have you all looking nice and attractive! Charm Up!"

Before Tomochika could ask exactly what the plan was, Asuha made her move. Raising a hand, she held her palm towards them, and their bodies began to glow.

"What? What's happening? Asu, what did you do?"

The light soon dissipated, but there didn't seem to be any difference. There was no way that all she had done was make them glow for a bit, though.

"Her class is Beauty Coordinator, and Charm Up is a specialized buff skill. After going through everyone's abilities, we decided it would be useful as a way of managing Aggro. In short, we've decided to use you guys as bait."

"Bait?" It took a moment for what they were saying to sink in.

"Tomochii, you know this Charm Up skill I used on you? It will make you, like, super popular!"

"After using some of our other skills to search for nearby enemies, we found there's only a single dragon, somewhere above us. In other words, if it comes after you guys, then the rest of us should be able to reach the city safely."

"Are you saying everyone agreed to this plan?! What about Mikochi? There's no way she would have agreed to this!"

"By Mikochi, you mean Jougasaki? Of course she agreed."

"Sorry, but it's not like we're saying you have to die or anything. All you have to do is hold its attention for a while. If you stay in here, you should be all right." As if trying to convince herself, Asuha gave a short laugh before stepping off the bus.

Yazaki followed her, closing the door behind him by force. Kiryuu immediately rushed to the door.

"Dammit! I can't get it open! How strong is this guy?!"

"What do we do now?"

"How would I know?! What's going on?! Why is this happening to me?!"

As the three of them descended into a panic, a roar shook the air.

"That was...a dragon?"

They couldn't see it, but Tomochika's instincts told her that a sound like that had to come from something truly monstrous.

"The windows! We can get out through the windows, right?"

At Kiryuu's words, Tomochika approached the nearby window, only to find that it was sealed shut. Looking out, she could see her other classmates running away as fast as they could. The effort they exerted in doing so showed just how close the source of their fear was.

I have to do something quick!

Tomochika threw a fist at the window in an attempt to break it, but she never even made contact. The bus shook with enough force to nearly throw the vehicle on its side, sending her flying.

"Is everyone okay?!" Tomochika called out, pulling herself up from the aisle. The only answer was Kiryuu's terrified scream from the front of the bus where he had been thrown.

Between the two of them, Ayaka had collapsed, covered in blood. A long, thin, white object had punched straight through the roof and into her chest.

◇ ◇ ◇

"Seeing Shinozaki get stabbed, I ran over here to get away. But someone was already back here, sleeping up a storm," Tomochika said with a hint of bitterness.

"A parallel world...? How am I supposed to charge my handheld, then?"

"Really?! That's the first thing that stood out to you about this story?!"

But as far as Yogiri was concerned, with his handheld's life on the line, this was now a serious situation.