"What are you guys even talking about? I can't understand a thing!"
Well, Honoka Kosaka still had no idea what Minami Kotori and Umi Sonoda were talking about.
"Teacher..." ×n
Meanwhile, Senba Gari stood at the podium, sweating as he looked at the group of girls in front of him. He thought, feeling miserable.
Boo-hoo-hoo, I knew it. No matter what else, gossip is second nature to girls. But the way you're gossiping is going to kill me! Somebody save me!!!
Then the school bell rang, and to Senba Gari, it was like a heavenly deliverance. He hurriedly addressed the girls below.
"Okay! That's all for today! We'll officially start class tomorrow! See you!"
"Whoosh!"
Senba Gari dashed out, and when Minami Kotori saw him run off, she hurried after him.
"Eh! Kotori! What's wrong? Umi, let's follow her!"
Seeing Minami Kotori rush out, Honoka Kosaka called to Sonoda Umi, and the two followed.
"Okay!" Sonoda Umi said, following Honoka Kosaka toward Minami Kotori.
"Phew~ Are all girls this gossipy nowadays? They ask so many questions, I can barely keep up!"
Senba Gari reached the stairs and let out a sigh of relief, muttering to himself. Suddenly, an excited voice behind him reached his ears.
"Gari!"
As Senba Gari turned toward the voice, a grayish-brown figure crashed into his arms and hugged him.
"U-Umi, am I seeing things? Kotori's actually hugging that new teacher!"
"..."
When Honoka Kosaka and Sonoda Umi caught up, they stared at the scene in front of them in disbelief.
History had a way of repeating itself.
"Thank goodness, Gari! You're finally back! I missed you so much, Kotori did. Why haven't you come to see me in ten years?"
Minami Kotori held Senba Gari tightly, her eyes glistening with tears. She looked up at him with a pitiful expression.
"Hey, Kotori, could you not look at me like that? You know that was the one thing I could never resist when we were kids."
Looking into Minami Kotori's pitiful eyes, Senba Gari suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of guilt. He lowered his head and spoke to her.
"Also, your two friends are right behind you. Are you sure you still want to keep hugging me?"
At his words, Minami Kotori quickly let go. Blushing, she turned toward Honoka Kosaka and Sonoda Umi, who were still standing there, staring at them in shock. She looked at them, embarrassed and uneasy.
"Um, Honoka, Umi, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, well, we saw you suddenly run out after class and got worried, so we followed you. Right, Umi?"
Kotori's question made Honoka sound a little flustered. She then looked back at Umi.
"Ah, y-yeah! That's right! But, Kotori, do you know this new teacher?"
"Well..."
"Let me explain. First of all, I've heard about you two from Aunt Minami. You're Honoka and Umi, right? Is it okay if I call you that? You've been looking after Kotori while I was away these past few years."
Senba Gari cut in as soon as Kotori got a word out.
"Oh! No, not at all. If anything, Kotori and Umi have always been the ones looking after me!"
Seeing Honoka Kosaka looking nervous, Senba Gari's lips curled into an amused smile. He spoke up.
"Come on, why so serious? I was just being polite. Let me introduce myself again. I'm Senba Gari. As for why Kotori and I know each other, you could say I was her childhood friend."
"Eh! Childhood friends? Then why haven't we ever heard Kotori mention you?"
Honoka Kosaka looked at Senba Gari in surprise.
"What?! Kotori never mentioned me to you?! Boo-hoo-hoo, Kotori, Gari knows I shouldn't have left back then, but you actually forgot about me! Sob, sob."
At Honoka Kosaka's words, Senba Gari put on an exaggerated performance in front of the three girls and addressed Minami Kotori.
"Gari, quit messing around. Kotori won't fall for that again."
Watching Senba Gari's over-the-top performance, Honoka Kosaka and Sonoda Umi gave the new male teacher a look of disbelief. Minami Kotori sounded helpless too.
"Tch, you didn't fall for it. I guess I've been out of practice for so long that you saw right through me, Kotori."
When Minami Kotori and the others didn't take the bait, Senba Gari clicked his tongue, sounding a little disappointed.
"Gari~ Could you please be serious for once~?!"
Seeing dark, ominous wisps start to rise behind Minami Kotori, Senba Gari spoke nervously.
"H-ha ha. Well, Kotori, I was just trying to lighten the mood. Otherwise, your friends might still feel nervous."
"Um, Umi, don't you think Kotori's been acting strange ever since she saw the new teacher?" Honoka Kosaka whispered to Sonoda Umi, glancing curiously at Minami Kotori.
"Yeah. Maybe she hasn't seen the new teacher in so long that she's not sure how to act around him," Sonoda Umi guessed after hearing Honoka Kosaka.
"All right, all right, enough fooling around. Class is about to start, so you three should hurry back."
Senba Gari ruffled Kotori's head a few times, then spoke to the three of them.
"Oh! Right, class is about to start! Kotori, Umi, let's go!"
Honoka Kosaka grabbed Sonoda Umi and Minami Kotori by the hands and was about to head back to the classroom, but Minami Kotori looked at Senba Gari with some hesitation.
"But, Gari..."
Senba Gari saw her hesitation and spoke to her.
"Don't worry, I won't sneak off again. I'm a teacher now, after all. So go on."
After hearing Senba Gari's answer, Minami Kotori happily followed Honoka Kosaka and Sonoda Umi away.
A few minutes later, Senba Gari stood alone outside the first-year classroom, his right hand hovering uncertainly over the doorknob.
Things won't happen the way they did just now again, right?
Senba Gari tried to reassure himself, then opened the classroom door. Once he reached the podium, he said,
"Hello, everyone. I'm your new world history teacher, Senba Gari. I look forward to teaching you."
A familiar, energetic girl's voice rang out. He turned and saw Rin Hoshizora, a girl with short orange hair, exclaiming to the brown-haired girl with short hair and black-rimmed glasses beside her, Hanayo Koizumi. He also spotted a familiar-looking red-haired figure staring at him in surprise.
"Hanayo! Look! Isn't that the senpai who helped us get your bag back last time? He's our teacher now, nya~"
"Eh! It really is him!"
The short-haired girl with glasses looked up at Senba Gari in surprise.
"Eh! Rin, is what you just said true?!"
"Yep, yep! If you don't believe me, you can ask the teacher, nya~"
Rin Hoshizora pointed at Senba Gari on the podium, who was starting to have a bad feeling, and spoke to the girl who had just asked her.
Back at the podium, Senba Gari watched the girls below him grow curious, cold sweat starting to bead on his forehead. He thought,
Wait, this feels familiar. Could it be?!
"Teacher, teacher, is what Rin said just now true?"
"Ah, yes. At the time, it was because..."
"Teacher, teacher, how did you catch up with them?"
"Ah, I..."
"Teacher, teacher, do you know martial arts?"
"Teacher..."
"Teacher..."
"I-I... Somebody save me!"
Senba Gari looked close to tears as the girls rushed up to him again. He was once more experiencing how terrifying girls could be.
Below the podium, Rin Hoshizora looked at Senba Gari, then turned to Hanayo Koizumi with some confusion.
"Hanayo, did I... cause trouble?"
"Um, I'm not sure either," Hanayo Koizumi said timidly.
Nearby, Maki Nishikino heard their conversation and glanced at Senba Gari on the podium. She twirled a finger in her red hair, then sighed helplessly.
"Why am I starting to feel like the rest of my high school life is going to be a lot of trouble?"
Master! There's an emergency!
Just then, Silver Phantom's voice came through Senba Gari's earpiece.
Bank Robbery
Master! There's an emergency!
At the sound of Silver Phantom's voice, Senba Gari felt as if he had heard salvation once again. He quickly addressed the girls in front of him.
"Um, students! I've got something urgent to take care of, so you can study on your own for the rest of class! Bye!"
With that, Senba Gari immediately took off running and left the classroom, leaving the girls behind to stare at one another.
As he ran along Sakura Path, Senba Gari spoke to Silver Phantom through his earpiece.
"Phantom, switch my earpiece communications over to Aunt Minami for me."
"Understood, master. Switching now... Done."
"Thanks. Hello, Aunt Minami. Something urgent came up, so I'm taking a leave of absence. Please cover for me. Bye."
With that, Senba Gari ended the call with Kotori Minami. When he reached Silver Phantom, he put on his helmet and climbed aboard. As he started Silver Phantom, he asked,
"Phantom, what's going on?"
"Master, the enemy is a monster-type Mlortha. It's currently in a standoff with the police at a bank."
Silver Phantom played a video on its LCD dashboard. It showed a brown eagle Mlortha facing off against a group of armed police officers.
--Scene Change--
Outside a bank in Chiyoda City stood a brown, humanoid eagle Mlortha with no arms, only a pair of wings. It clutched a gray bag in its yellow beak, stuffed with the money it had just stolen from the bank.
A group of armed police officers had surrounded it and stood ready in front of it. Two or three police helicopters circled overhead. One of the officers held a loudspeaker and shouted to the eagle Mlortha in front of him.
"Monster up ahead! You're surrounded! Surrender immediately, or we'll open fire!"
The eagle Mlortha said nothing. It merely gave a light flap of its wings, sending several brown feather darts flying toward the officers. The darts struck several of them in the forehead, lodging in their heads. Blood slowly trickled from the ends of the feathers, and the officers collapsed as everyone watched in horror.
While everyone was still stunned, the eagle Mlortha began beating its wings downward. Then, with the bag full of money in its beak, it quickly flew into the sky.
"Boom!!!"
The eagle Mlortha stopped in midair and beat its wings rapidly, creating a small tornado. The police helicopters circling overhead were instantly sucked in. The helicopters collided with one another inside the tornado, then exploded in a massive blast. The tornado dissipated at the same time.
Just as the eagle Mlortha was about to fly away, a fiery red figure and a silvery-white figure blocked its way in midair. They were Divine and Silver Phantom.
Divine, with fiery wings on his back, pointed the tip of the Flame Feather Blade at the eagle Mlortha.
"Sorry, but if you want to leave, you'll have to leave the bag in your beak behind!"
"Master, the way you put that makes it sound like we're the ones robbing the bank." Silver Phantom spoke from nearby, blue flames blasting from its feet and back. →_→
Silver Phantom's comment nearly drove Divine mad.
"Could you stop talking for once?! I mean, make it give the money back, so the bank doesn't lose it!"
"Oh~ I get it. Then we can keep the money for ourselves afterward! Right? (⊙o⊙)"
"Get it? No, that still makes it sound like we came to rob the bank! I just want to avoid trouble!"
"Tch, so you weren't planning to rob it after all, master. ╮(￣⊿￣)╭"
"Are you only happy when you're driving me crazy?!"
Before you continue