Chapter 6 — What, You Just Want Me for My Body?!

"So, shall we kill them just to be safe?" Once he realized the objects flying towards them were their classmates, Yogiri figured that would be the best course of action.

"Yeah, if you find your classmates flying towards you, of course you kill them! What is wrong with you?" Apparently Tomochika thought he was being sarcastic or something.

"Well, what else are we supposed to do? Are you just going to be all friendly with the people who left you to die?"

"Wait. Were you actually serious about killing them?!" Of course she had thought it was a joke. Now that she knew he was serious, though, she was starting to look a bit anxious.

"Leaving us here was basically the same as trying to murder us. That's a crime the whole class committed, so they can't complain if we do the same to them, right?" It wasn't like he held a grudge against them or anything. But as far as he was concerned, he and Tomochika had earned the right to take revenge."Still...I'm not sure I can agree with that. Even if you could just snap your fingers and make them die."

"Even if I didn't want to kill them, I'm thinking there's always the possibility they will be hostile towards us." Tomochika blinked in surprise, as if the thought hadn't even occurred to her. "I wonder what they want if they're only sending three people."

"They said they had ways of looking for enemies, so maybe they found out the dragon died?"

"And...they thought maybe some of us survived and are coming to help? Kind of odd, since they're the ones who abandoned us with the excuse that we'd just slow them down."

"True enough." Recalling Yazaki's words, Tomochika immediately deflated.

"If they are acting independently from the rest of the class, then their objective could be the leftover luggage. In that case, if they've left the class behind, survivors like us would be in the way too.""That's...just a guess, right?"

"Yeah. But it's a very real possibility. I'm trying to think of ways to keep you safe, so I'd like to keep the risk level as low as possible. I'm not trying to ignore your feelings or anything though. Let's just wait and see how things go."

"If their objective is the luggage, couldn't we just run or hide somewhere?"

"I'm sure they've already seen us. And trying to run away from people who can fly is pointless. For now, let's just find out who's who."

The three former classmates soon came close enough that even Yogiri could recognize them. According to Tomochika, the one on the left was Ryousuke Higashida, looking quite attractive, if somewhat superficial. In the center was a small, brown-haired Yoshiaki Fukuhara. And on the right was the plump Daimon Hanakawa.

The flying trio landed a few meters away from them.

"Tomochika yet lives?! But how?! This is beyond all expectation! My plan to turn her into a zombie slave and have my way with her is ruined!"

Hanakawa's honeyed voice was truly unpleasant. Yogiri was actually impressed by his ability to ruin a person's mood with so few words.

"I told you she might be alive, right? Charm Up doesn't last that long, so the dragon probably just left," Higashida said. Apparently, their ability to seek out enemies couldn't detect whether or not those enemies were actually alive. And as the dragon's body was on the other side of the bus from where they were currently standing, they hadn't seen it yet.

"It's better that she's alive anyway. The thought of controlling her as a zombie is kind of gross," Fukuhara said, poking fun at Hanakawa. Although he looked smaller and younger than the others, it seemed he had a bit of a cheeky streak.

"Do my ears deceive me?! Sir Fukuhara's ability is truly as pearls thrown before swine! Surrender it to me. I must engage in the procurement of a zombie harem!""I'm not really fond of killing people just to turn them into zombies, though."

"Hehe, I foresaw such an occurrence. Thus I have prepared this very slave collar! As they still live, I have no need of Sir Fukuhara's powers!"

"Gross. Why on earth would you make something like that?"

"It's not that bad, is it? Don't you think it's twice as much fun to break their spirits yourself?" Higashida chimed in.

"Well, my humble self is not so comfortable with such a bold assault..."

"Then get out of here."

"However, the act of cuckolding is a great pleasure of mine! For instance, doing it in front of the person they like...that thought alone gives such pleasure! Particularly if I might assume the role of providing gentle consolation after the fact."

"You really are gross."

"Leave it at that, guys. Look, Dannoura is totally shocked.""Oh, I guess Takatou is here too. And look, he's even stepping forward as if to protect her. How brave!"

"Perhaps...is the boyfriend performing the cuckoldry?! I cannot allow it! Tomochika belongs to me alone!"

"Oh, that's a good idea. I was just going to kill him, but that's much better. I kind of want to see how someone who's always so spaced out reacts when his girl gets stolen from him."

"Great news, isn't it, Takatou? Looks like you get to live a little longer!"

The way they were talking, as if they could do whatever they wanted without consequences, was starting to get a little irritating. Maybe I will just kill them, Yogiri thought.

"I, uhh, don't really know what's going on here," Tomochika whispered, stepping closer to him, "but I guess it's safe to say we aren't going to be able to get along with them."

Yogiri considered what to do next. It would be easy enough to kill them, but then what? He would rather get as much information out of them as he could first.I guess I'll start by trying to talk to them.

As Yogiri thought things over, Higashida made the first move, stretching out his right hand. Yogiri judged that there was no real danger in the action. Higashida had no obvious intention of killing them, and his palm was facing away from them anyway.

"Fire Ball!"

Higashida's hand began to glow, and in the next instant, something blew past Yogiri. That was it. Thinking it over, Fire Ball had to be some sort of flaming sphere, right? But Yogiri couldn't see anything like that, and there was no sound of it hitting the bus behind them either.

A few moments later, the sound of something heavy falling came from behind them. Turning around, Yogiri saw a bizarre sight. The rear half of the bus had disappeared.

The sound he had heard was the remainder of the bus falling over onto the ground. A straight line had been gouged into the landscape, the now naked earth carving a path towards the forest in the distance, where a large hole had opened up.In short, whatever Higashida had fired, it had erased everything in its path without a sound. Who knew how far it had actually traveled before fading away?

"As always, Sir Higashida's Fire Ball truly beguiles the senses! No need to charge, yet displays such first rate power! In possession of such strength, he is confident enough to say, 'No, it's not Hellflame. It's Fire Ball!'"

Despite Hanakawa's flattery, Higashida didn't seem especially satisfied. While he didn't seem to have even considered the possibility of a counterattack, with an ability like that, it wasn't surprising that he would look down on everyone else as if they were trash.

"I can only use basic magic. So I went ahead and refined it as much as I could. I could even kill a Demon Lord with it now. I was the one who blew off the top of Mount Caluone, you know.""So that was Sir Higashida! As expected of our hero!"

"Being a Hero sounds good, doesn't it? Quite a step up from me. Having the power to control the dead is really only useful for a Demon Lord's underling."

Yogiri had no idea what any of them were talking about. From the way they spoke, they made it sound like they knew quite a bit about this world and the Gift that the Sage had given them, but it hadn't been all that long since they had left the bus behind.

"That's how it is. You understand how strong I am, right? There's no point in resisting. Come on over, Dannoura. Takatou, you can watch from there."

He seemed to feel that his demonstration had been sufficient. The three of them showed no sign of expecting any sort of disobedience.

"Impressive," Yogiri said, looking over at the bus, which no longer held its original shape. Whatever this "Fire Ball" of Higashida's actually was, it appeared to have a diameter of about ten meters. Anything within that radius had been cleanly obliterated, but everything outside of it was essentially unaffected. Touching the frame of the bus, he found it was only slightly warm."Higashida! Why are you doing this?!"

"We already decided that, if the opportunity ever arose, we'd cut loose and do whatever we wanted. And surprise, that opportunity just came knocking. So there was nothing to do but grab it, right?"

"Right, and you had to be first, Dannoura. Ask anyone at school and they'll say the same thing."

"My humble self is already quite indebted to your lovely visage, which has brought me great pleasure on many nights!"

Looking at their vulgar expressions, it wasn't hard to guess what they were aiming at.

"So what? You're just after my body?" Tomochika said, wrapping her arms angrily around herself. Yogiri was impressed yet again. He'd expected her to be paralyzed with fear, but she was actually showing a lot of spunk."I'm impressed you've got the nerve to say that much right now. Whether it's a parallel world or not, I bet you could make it on your own anywhere," sneered Hanakawa.

"Looks like you two get along just fine," Fukuhara joked, although he couldn't quite keep the envy out of his voice.

It was certainly rather twisted, but it seemed their feelings for Tomochika were the real deal.

"For now, let's try and get them to talk to us," Yogiri said gently. Even though she was putting up a brave front, Tomochika must have been feeling uncomfortable. So the first step would be to shut them up and put her back at ease.