～ Part 2 ～
Nonetheless, there wasn’t any fact that had to be said again here. The 5th class meeting in a different world — hastily held on the deck — mostly focused on two points: ‘How should they act on this Albadanba from now on?’ and ‘How are they going to look for Inugami?’.
Both Kyousuke and Ryuzaki were a little surprised because their classmates’ determination was more firm than expected. Should it be said as before one knew it, or was these changes already too slow? Still, from the fact that they had a strong feeling to avoid parting with Inugami and decided to stir up trouble with the vampires in order to avoid that, they didn’t try to avert their eyes or escape reality.
“The growing ones are not just Kyousuke-kun.”
Whispered Rin into his ears.
“For now, I will inform Welkano-san and chieftain Bergel of Inugami missing case tomorrow.”
Ryuzaki said that to everyone.
“Moreover, I’m thinking to change the correspondence by observing the other party’s attitude. Then, the problem is how are we going to find Inugami, however…”
Among them was the figure of a girl timidly raising her hand.
It was Hanazono Hana the Alraune. Since she was the type of student that didn’t assert herself too much normally, the gaze of everyone immediately gathered to her.
“Umm … I think I will try to ask the trees and grasses of this island and look for her.”
It was Hanazono’s declaration of intent to try to make use of alraune’s ability — being able to hear voices of plants — for anything other than the home garden for the first time. At a place a bit way, Kinogasa also nodded. Since spores flew every time he nodded, other students had evacuated.
“Then me too, I will try to ask the mushrooms of this island and look for her.”
“Do mushrooms grow on this island.”
“It should be okay since some fairly poisonous guys are growing.”
Ryuzaki uneasily scratched his cheek, Kinogasa reassuringly commented.
“I see, then me too, why don’t I try to ask the tentacles growing wildly on this island…?”
“Are tentacles the kind that grow wildly…?”
“It should be okay since some fairly poisonous guys are growing.”
Shokuzura reassuringly commented.
“Well, I more or less understand. It’s best to have many ways to search. Utsurogi, you and Rin please go together with Hanazono group as guards.”
“Hmm, understood.”
“I’ll leave it to you—.”
There was no way the vampires would leave it alone once they knew this side was looking for Inugami’s whereabouts. Thus Kyousuke and Rin who could best Knight-class vampire were attached as guards.
Additionally, plans such as students capable of flight searching from the sky came out, among them, Nekomiya Miya proposed this:
“I think it’s better to have on standby an agile rescue unit that can immediately rush to the rescue once we know Inugami’s whereabouts. I who can use «Shadow Passage» and then I want agile students like Saruwatari.”
“Understood. I’ll leave the composition to Nekomiya. The students who joined the rescue team are to stay at a place we can contact at anytime…. But better not at the branch school. I want you to wait near the village where we had that welcome party.”
This rescue unit had Goubayashi attached as a guard. It was supposed to be a team with high combat ability on average, but it was a little insufficient to fight against one Pawn. On that point, Goubayashi would never fall behind the degree of
Pawn-class vampires.
“Then I shalt protect this branch school.”
With voice unusually clear, Harao Masaki said. Because students who owned Pawn-class fighting ability was limited, Ryuzaki had planned to arrange like that anyway, but it was still surprising to see him propose it by himself.
“Protecting the branch school is substantially Asuka’s guard, isn’t it? I’ll join too.”
The one who said that and raised her … his hand was Kaoru. Yes, protecting the branch school was protecting Akai.
Because they didn’t know how the opponent would move, they couldn’t afford to leave Akai in this bad condition defenseless.
So the discussion will be this smooth when the students assertively cooperate? Ryuzaki couldn’t hide his surprise. So far, he had worried by himself, consulted his reliable friends sometimes, hurt his head in thinking about group division, but this made him realize how inefficient that was.
The class might be starting to show its unity in the truest sense at last.
“As for everyone else, I want you to nonchalantly continue to prepare for the trade fair starting from tomorrow. The problem of Inugami and the vampire on this island indeed requires urgency, but this trade fair is also an event we can’t be shoddy with. If we can make it a success, we may be able to get blood for Akai as well as prepare the materials for a new caterpillar unit when we’re moving on the continent again.”
Everyone nodded at Ryuzaki’s words.
A battle with the vampires might take place on this Albadanba. But if possible, he didn’t want to involve the islanders or the merchants in this. Not only for humane reasons, but also to avoid taking any actions that would invite their distrust.
After dividing to a search unit, a rescue unit, and then a guard unit for the branch school, the remaining personnel were to hasten the preparation for the trade fair. The island wasn’t wide, but it was by no means narrow. They needed to hasten the work while making sure not to be distracted even if a battle did occur.
Naturally, this was a story when Welkano and chieftain Bergel were NOT related to the vampires.
At a glance, those two were just ordinary humans. Because they weren’t vampires, there would be a little abusive method,
“…Sakuma,”
Ryuzaki called out to the succubus girl who had remained silent so far.
“In the unlikely event that I tell you to use «Temptation» on Welkano-san and/or chieftain Bergel, can you do it?”
When she heard that question, Sakuma made a face like she had received a surprise attack. Her mouth shut tight, her gaze dropped and started swimming. Conflict emerged. Sakuma’s gaze turned to Kyousuke direction for a moment, and it wasn’t Ryuzaki to overlook that.
He roughly sensed her feelings.
“…Understood. If you need to prepare your heart, I won’t force you. You don’t need to prepare your heart in a hurry either. Good?”
“…Yeah.”
The significance in his words, Sakuma probably understood as well.
If the question of whether or not she would be able to use «Temptation»destabilized the situation, then it would be better to clearly decide not to use it from the start. All the more so if Sakuma need to prepare to harden her resolve.
“Ryu-chan, please call me if ever you need «Temptation».”
“Right, I’ll be counting on you. Kaoruko.”
In this way, the 5th class meeting came to an end with the discussion generally concluded.
Next day, early in the morning, Kyousuke and the others were about to depart to search for Inugami.
Members of the search unit were Hanazono, Kinogasa, Shokuzura. Attached as their guards were Kyousuke and Rin. Further adding Akira to this team as well made it 6 people in total. Akira’s ability was difficult to use when walking in the forest, but it was great that combining with him allow Kyousuke to fly and overlook the forest from the sky.
Since it became a team without a single group leader, Kyousuke was appointed as the leader.
“…I’m not that kind of gara though.”
“Then what kind of gara are you?”
“It’s dashigara.” [Notes]
So said his one-shot gag that he took the entire night to think up together with Rin, but it wasn’t received very well.
“Utsurogi, better not make too strange a character.”
He even managed to make Kinogasa excessively worry.
“Kinogasa, Kyousuke is making an effort to break his shell to become a new Kyousuke. It’s a good thing.”
“Akira, you don’t need to say anything unnecessary…”
Which is better between ‘empty’ and ‘strange character’? This is a little troubling but let’s set that aside.
“Let’s stop joking at that. We pretty much did come here to search for Inugami.”
On the sandy beach, the quiet sound of the surging wave resounded. The sky where the sun had yet to rise completely was deep blue, stars late to return home were twinkling here and there. It was exactly early in the morning. Sea fog streaming in the beach obscured their vision.
As a matter of fact, they wanted to go searching for Inugami at the very moment the search was decided last night, but they were stopped by Ryuzaki. It was because searching at night was too dangerous. This place was an unfamiliar land, the forest was inhabited by magic beasts, on top of that, vampires were lurking. The islanders could hardly be considered as allies either. As a result of considering various circumstances and taking as much concession as possible, they decided to start the search at the time when night just barely broke into dawn.
“Inugami-san…. She is all right, right?”
Muttered Hanazono.
“We can’t be optimistic.”
Akira uttered cold words.
“But no need to be pessimistic either. Because the information that she came into contact with the vampires itself is only our logical inference. Unexpectedly, she may just be wandering the forest, chasing after butterflies.”
“Yeah…”
Hanazono firmly nodded to his words.
“Then, Kyousuke-kun. What do we do now?”
Rin asked Kyousuke who was gazing at the dense forest.
“What do you mean by what do we do?”
“You know, that. Setting aside tentacles and mushrooms anyway, grass is growing everywhere, isn’t it? If you make Hana-chan talk to them one-by-one, the sun will instantly set…”
“For now, let’s try going to the plaza where the welcome party was held yesterday.”
Kyousuke looked around at everyone and said.
“In which direction did Inugami go after she slipped out from the welcome party? First is to follow her footsteps.”