Type-Moon, Is a Small Opening Also an Opening?

Thus, every attraction across the universe and every major game was filled with an air of excitement.

However, after Dorm Supervisor Helena had yanked X out of bed and tossed her outside the dormitory, the utterly disheveled X yawned and leisurely threw on a casual sporty outfit she had not washed in ages. The outfit was theoretically blue, but since it had gone unwashed for so long, it now looked blue-black.

"You'll settle down once you can't find a job."

With the tears of those days still not quite dry, X remembered that she had once been like this too—lively and full of hope, convinced that a bright future lay ahead. Then she kept hitting walls while job-hunting. It was too tragic. Sigh, young people were all like this. They would settle down once they reached her age.

"Ow, ow, ow! Pinch lighter, that hurts, Dorm Supervisor Helena!"

Perhaps Helena, who stood there with her arms folded, had overheard X's muttering in her worn-out middle-aged-man manner. The purple-haired older beauty immediately grabbed X by the ear and dragged her straight from the ground into the dorm supervisor's office, ignoring X's loud cries the entire way.

As for the Chaldea students preparing to go out and have fun during graduation season, they barely paid it any mind. The antics between that ancient upperclasswoman who still holed up in the dorm despite graduating, and Dorm Supervisor Helena, who worried about her all day, had practically become a "course" by now. In short, they were used to it.

"If you hadn't spent all day going on about fighting the Artoria Race, you'd have had a job ages ago, okay?!"

"But I've been working hard too..."

"Locusta, who graduated at the same time as you, is already a purple-rank pharmacist at Nova Rome headquarters. X, you need to take this more seriously..." As she said this, Helena pinched X's cheeks with an exasperated look. "She even introduced you to someone at Roman headquarters before, but the moment you got there, you nearly beat up their current president..."

"It's because that Nero had an Artoria face. My radar went off; there was nothing I could do. I apologized afterward too."

"So you think it doesn't hurt because you're not the one standing there, huh?"

"Waaah... I'm terribly sorry. I'll never do it again."

"So there'll be a next time... Anyway, take this a little more seriously. At the very least, dress a bit more neatly. You look like some kind of delinquent."

"Got it, got it." X gave a thoroughly perfunctory reply. "Oh, right, when's dinner, Helena? My stomach's rumbling like thunder."

"...Just wait a bit. Honestly, thunder? At this rate, Zeus is going to create heaven and earth inside your stomach."

"Hehehe."

"Oh, right. There's something I need to tell you."

After mooching a meal from Dorm Supervisor Helena, Mysterious Heroine X strolled through the academy. The air conditioning in public areas like the academy stairs and hallways had already been turned off due to the approaching graduation season, making the place as stiflingly hot as a thermal planet.

Every time the blonde girl took a long stride, the twin tails behind her swayed once. Sweat had already beaded on her forehead, yet she was brimming with vigorous energy. Seeing her stride forward so energetically and imposingly, one could conclude that she seemed utterly unaware of the changing seasons.

After all, no one would wear a hat and a blue scarf at the same time in such scorching weather.

"Oh, it's Upperclasswoman X. Why are you out today?"

"Mm, hi..."

Perhaps because she had not left the dorm in so long, even after taking a shower, X found the air scorching hot and her face painfully prickly. The feeling grew even stronger whenever unfamiliar students greeted her.

So X pulled her scarf up beneath her face, leaving only her eyes exposed, then rigidly hurried toward the academy sports field.

Ahhh, Dorm Supervisor Helena said there was a Galactic Police recruitment drive at our academy these next few days? Is that for real? Would the Galactic Police really be short on applicants? And the process can't possibly be that simple, right?

Could President Edison have been scammed by someone? I shouldn't have come. Even if it's real, I might not succeed anyway...

"Name."

When X came back to her senses, she found that she had already arrived at the Galactic Police job fair Dorm Supervisor Helena had specifically told her about. Since it was getting dark, there were not many people left. She seemed to be the last one, so her absent-minded expression turned into a forced smile.

"...Ah, my name?"

"What do you think?"

The silver-haired young man seated before X seemed amused. His gentle smile and beautiful silver hair, like ocean waves, glittered under the refracted light.

"Mysterious Heroine X!"

"Age."

"That's a secret."

"If things go well, it'll have to go into your file."

"But I don't think things will go well for me..."

"Giving up on yourself? Interesting."

"There's nothing I can do about it. I'm a Servant who exists to deal with the Saber problem. I clearly remember the Saber problem becoming a social issue, but I haven't seen even one in ages. I spent so much time training so I could stand at the pinnacle of Saber..."

"The Saber problem? How come I've never heard of it?"

"You don't know?"

"I really don't..."

"Haven't you noticed? Lately, some people throughout the universe have very similar faces. From the presidents of huge corporations to little knights training on barren planets, they can all look exactly alike. It's practically like some kind of virus, isn't it? And I intend to deal with them."

"Now that you mention it, that does seem true."

The silver-haired young man nodded lightly, giving Mysterious Heroine X an unexpected delight.

Because he was the first person ever to respond like that. In the past, whether teachers or students, everyone who heard her say such things reacted with comments like, "What nonsense are you dreaming up in broad daylight?" "You've got to be joking, right?" "Copy the school rules a hundred times. That's your punishment for wasting my class time." "Upperclasswoman, your idea would make a great novel or little black book," and so on.

"So, what efforts have you made toward that?"

What filled this place was not the weak chill of the dorm's old air conditioner, but the sweltering warm air overflowing in from the sports field, somehow even hotter than outside. Yet this man had not shed a single drop of sweat, and he could even casually drink the hot tea beside him. He truly was an unfathomable Galactic Police officer.

Mysterious Heroine X thought this as she clenched her hands within her sleeves and tried hard to compose her reply.

"I once saved an ancient dynasty on a small planet from crisis, resolved infighting within a human unified guild on a medium-sized planet in a certain star sector, and drove away invaders from another universe. But those were all just trivial matters. I didn't take any of them to heart at all."

"Invaders from another universe?"

The silver-haired young man's brows froze in surprise for an instant, only to shoot upward the next.

"An evil god?"

"Yeah, it apparently really was called an evil god, but before my Secret Calibur, there is no enemy I cannot defeat!"

"Then you've passed."

"...Thank you for the encouragement. I'll work harder next time—huh?"

She had expected the usual rejection, yet received approval instead. X was momentarily stunned.

Wait, this isn't some 'an overbearing CEO falls in love with unemployed me, rotting away in my tiny apartment' novel, is it? Are you saying that I, who graduated and then spent thirty years unemployed and shut away in a dorm room, am suddenly being brought by a Galactic Police officer into a Galactic Police Bureau with an absurdly low acceptance rate, getting hired, rising to the pinnacle of life, and maybe even becoming a police chief managing an entire cosmic sector? I can't hold back my laughter anymore...

"In that case, sign this contract first."

"A contract? Shouldn't the Cosmic Police use personnel files?"

"This procedure still needs to be applied for, so sign this contract first."

"Okay!"

X signed her name without the slightest hesitation. Imagining the wonderful days ahead, she nearly started drooling from the corner of her mouth.

But X soon realized one thing: you shouldn't be happy too early about becoming a Servant.

First, she was not immediately hired. Instead, the silver-haired young man brought her to Cosmic Police University at the center of the universe, where she met someone at the school gates wearing a black mask and calling himself Mikael.

"One year. Train her with the intensity of an Agent and an Archangel Detective until she can graduate. I'll leave her to you."

"Wait, shouldn't the police academy curriculum take four hundred years?! Why is it one year???"

Listening to the silver-haired young man speak with Mikael, X could not help but complain.

"Didn't you defeat an evil god? Then you should be able to handle this level of intensity..." The silver-haired young man smiled faintly. "X, surely you didn't think you could just take up the post after learning a little of everything? Necessary studies are still required. Besides, I went through the same thing back then."

In the legends of the Lord of Cosmic Order, when that so-called Satan persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he must have worn just such an innocent smile!

As a chill crawled up her spine, Mysterious Heroine X became certain of it.

"Waaaah! Mizuvia, I regret this!"

But the next second, a sheet of contract paper was pressed against the girl's face. Mizuvia said with a half-smile, "Regret it? I have no idea what you mean. It must just be discomfort. Stay a few more days and you'll be fine."

Only then did X notice that the contract stated:

As a special application, the human Mysterious Heroine X must acquire the necessary credits within one year and, after successfully passing the joint examination, take that year's Cosmic Grand Examination and achieve a total score no lower than the admission scores of the major cosmic sector police academies. Both requirements must be met, or this special application will not be approved.

—Cosmic Order Department

"Come on, Boss. Four hundred times the training intensity would've been bad enough, but there are exams too?" While confirming this was not an illusion, X shot Mizuvia a sidelong glance. "Please, I was nearly at the bottom of my class at the Higher Chaldea Academy. Let's not bother with this, okay? How about you find someone else, Boss?"

"No. Since you said you defeated an evil god, then you can definitely do it. I can also be your teacher and tutor you at night."

"Heh, feeding me another empty promise."

"I believe in you."

"Even if you say that..." Mysterious Heroine X continued in a forceful tone, "What can't be done, can't be done!"

"I can be your roommate and go through this training with you. I'll tutor you in academics at night as well. In short, I won't simply leave you to fend for yourself. And I am deeply sorry that you signed the contract without reading it through." Mizuvia raised her head, her tone exceptionally gentle. "I searched for a long time before I found you, X."

"This is just too difficult. If I fail, I feel like I'll shut myself away."

"Can't you accept it no matter what?"

"If I don't accept it, does that mean you can't find anyone else, Boss?"

"Not necessarily, but in the short term, I truly cannot find a student capable of repelling an evil god before even graduating."

"Now that you put it that way, I suppose that's true." A faint smile appeared on Mysterious Heroine X's face. Casually pressing down her hat, she hesitantly asked Mizuvia, "So, you mean we'll sleep together at night? Isn't that a little fast? And this roommate business..."

"What's the problem?"

"Wasn't it love at first sight..." Mysterious Heroine X muttered, her face suddenly flushing red.

"Isn't Heroine X a ninja?"

"?"

Hearing that, Mysterious Heroine X looked herself over. Since her scarf had always covered half her face, it was perfectly normal to mistake her for a ninja.

"Also, I already have a woman I like."

"??? Why emphasize that she's a woman?"

That statement thoroughly confused Mysterious Heroine X. Her expression became rather terrible, and even her voice changed pitch.

"Do you think I'm a man, Boss?"

"Are you not? What girl wears the same clothes until they practically develop a patina without washing them? Of course, that possibility cannot be ruled out—people who shut themselves away—but little X, you're a graduate, so you probably wouldn't be like that. Even if you're called Heroine, you can't determine someone's gender from their name. And judging by how you look, there's no way you could be—"

"Every Saber besides me, and you too, Boss, can just go die!"

Though there had been some twists and turns along the way, Mysterious Heroine X ultimately passed the police joint examination and the Cosmic Grand Examination one year later, successfully completing the special application. Thus, she was renamed Mysterious Heroine XX.

But the good days still hadn't arrived, because the district where she and Mizuvia were stationed was the poor, understaffed, lawless zone known as the M87 Nebula. There wasn't even a local interstellar police station. In other words, Mizuvia and XX had to find someone to build one first.

My god, isn't the boss way too unreliable? Why do I get the feeling that, despite clearly having connections, he's being suppressed? Could he be the heir of the losing side in some factional struggle or something? Does that mean my future is hopeless...?

At a construction company near a small spaceport on a frontier planet, she watched her boss discuss plans for building the local interstellar police station with the foreman of Team 432, a branch of Mahākāla Construction Bureau 8—a top-ranked major construction company born in the Indian star region. The foreman was a tiny humanoid mouse.

Come to think of it, it was strange. XX always felt that Mahākāla was building the police station for her boss at a loss, though she had no idea why. It couldn't be that they were after her boss's looks, could it? It didn't seem like that either...

No matter what, it was good that it could be built. It would have been even better if she hadn't later learned that her boss had used her salary to cover the police station's facilities. Well, Mizuvia said he had used his own salary to make up the difference too, but the more XX thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. She felt that her innocent self had been tricked by her boss.

"XX, isn't Via here?"

While XX was reminiscing about the past and battling an old-fashioned claw machine, a voice suddenly rang out beside her, startling her so badly that she instinctively released the claw from the doll shaped like Mizuvia.

"Haha, Sister Yug. You've come looking for the boss again?"

She was a blue-haired woman with a gentle smile. Her beautiful blue hair cascaded down her back like ocean waves, and she had the air of someone well-read.

Her name was Yug. She was the librarian of a large library, as well as an acquaintance of her boss.

XX had initially been certain of this because, when Yug had entered without permission, XX had mistaken her for an Outer God. But after the girl asked in confusion, "An Outer God? Me?" unknown bubbles drifted and swayed around her body, and XX could no longer sense any aura of an Outer God. She figured she might have been mistaken.

During their conversation, XX learned that Yug and her boss seemed to have known each other, though for some reason, they had been unable to stay in touch.

"Mm. Isn't Via here?"

"Every time you come, Sister Yug, the boss isn't here. I don't even know what I'm supposed to say anymore..."

Hearing XX's words, the blue-haired girl gave her a gentle smile.

"That means he's busy. It's actually a good thing."

"But you miss him every single time, Sister Yug. Isn't that a little too strange?"

"That is my fault. I've caused trouble for you and Via, XX. Next time, I'll consult the books and pick a proper time before coming."

"No, no, no! That's not what I meant at all!" XX hurriedly waved her hands. "I've just always wondered what your relationship with the boss is, Sister Yug. You say you're old acquaintances, but I've gone through the boss's communications, and there wasn't a single photo of you, Sister Yug, or even any mention of you..."

It wasn't hostility or distrust—just confusion. After all, from their few meetings, XX felt that Yug was a well-bred girl with outstanding grades, at least far better than Professor Tokiomi's unruly younger daughter, who loved pestering the boss. Apparently, she was now attending Queen's Academy.