All-Heavens Rescue Club

Faculty Office.

Smack! A club application form bearing five wildly arrogant characters was slammed heavily onto the desk by Shizuka Hiratsuka.

The beautiful teacher, known for her iron fists and fiery spirit, pointed at the name on the form. Her finger trembled furiously, and the veins on her forehead visibly bulged.

"All-Heavens... Rescue Club?!"

Shizuka Hiratsuka abruptly slapped the desk and rose to her feet, letting out a roar that echoed through the entire office:

"Lin Xiao! Are you kidding me?!"

The other teachers in the office all flinched at the angry shout and turned sympathetic looks toward him.

"Sensei, calm down. Mind your ladylike image. If you get more wrinkles, your chances of succeeding at matchmaking will plummet." Even before the furious Shizuka Hiratsuka, Lin Xiao remained perfectly composed.

"Don't you dare bring up matchmaking!!!"

Like a tiger whose tail had been stepped on, Shizuka Hiratsuka snapped, "You brat, I told you to join a proper club, and you came up with an 'All-Heavens Rescue Club'?! Do you think this school is some magic guild from a light novel?! Why not make a 'Cultivation Club' or an 'Ultraman Club' while you're at it?!"

"Huh? An Ultraman Club would work too? Then I'll change it..." Lin Xiao made as if to pick up a pen.

"Enough already!" Shizuka Hiratsuka snatched the application form back. She was about to tear it to pieces without mercy, but when her gaze swept over the [Member List] at the bottom, she suddenly froze.

[Members: Yukino Yukinoshita, Eriri Spencer Sawamura, Miko Yotsuya]

Shizuka Hiratsuka's eyes widened. As though she had seen a ghost, she brought the form closer and checked it over and over again.

"Yukinoshita? That aloof beauty who isolates herself and ignores everyone? Sawamura? The ace of the art club, that absurdly proud heiress? And Miko Yotsuya, who looks like she's desperately lacking any sense of security?"

Shizuka Hiratsuka drew a sharp breath, and the way she looked at Lin Xiao changed completely.

As a teacher, she had always been troubled by Yukinoshita's isolation, and had been considering which club she could shove her into for some social development. Yet... this usually lazy-looking boy had quietly pulled together several of the most troublesome—and prettiest—problem girls in the entire school into one club?!

Did this kid know some kind of mind-control magic?!

"Ahem." Though inwardly shocked beyond measure, Shizuka Hiratsuka still tried to maintain her authority as a teacher. "Lin Xiao, I admit that being able to gather them all together means you do have some talent in this regard."

"But!" Shizuka Hiratsuka jabbed her finger hard at the words "All-Heavens Rescue." "This name is absolutely unacceptable! If the dean sees it, he'll call both you and me, the club adviser, lunatics! Change it to the 'Volunteer Club' or the 'Literature and Arts Club,' and I'll stamp it approved."

"Changing the name is impossible. I'll never change it in this lifetime." Lin Xiao sighed and helplessly shook his head. "Looks like I'll have to use some extraordinary measures."

"What are you planning to do? Bribe a teacher?" Shizuka Hiratsuka sneered and puffed out her chest with righteous conviction. "As Shizuka Hiratsuka, a teacher of the people, I am incorruptible. No money or gifts can ever shake my principles..."

"Sensei, I previously defeated a Greek Age of Gods mage named Medea."

"To thank me for sparing her life, that Witch offered up a magical elixir called [Youth Dew]."

With a flick of his wrist, Lin Xiao produced a small glass bottle, like a liquid gemstone, out of thin air in his palm.

Shizuka Hiratsuka's words came to an abrupt halt. She stared at the glowing bottle. Though she did not understand anything about an Age of Gods mage, a woman's intuition told her that this thing was anything but ordinary.

"W-what... is that?" Shizuka Hiratsuka swallowed.

Lin Xiao gently set the little bottle on Shizuka Hiratsuka's desk and pushed it toward her. In a low voice like the Devil's temptation, he slowly said:

"This elixir can instantly restore someone's skin to its most perfect condition at eighteen years old and erase every wrinkle."

"!!!" Shizuka Hiratsuka's pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints!

Eighteen-year-old skin!!!

Those words were like peerless blades, each one landing a devastating critical hit and shattering Shizuka Hiratsuka's proudly held "teacher's principles" and "the last dignity of a single young woman"!

"T-this kind of thing with no scientific basis... do you think I'd believe it...?" Shizuka Hiratsuka's voice trembled.

"Whether you believe it or not, you'll know after trying it tonight, Sensei. If it doesn't work, you can shut down my club tomorrow."

Lin Xiao pointed to the [All-Heavens Rescue Club] application form on the desk and smiled faintly. "So, about the club's name..."

Bang!!!

Without the slightest hesitation, Shizuka Hiratsuka pulled out the red [Approved] stamp from her drawer and slammed it onto the application form with the lightning-fast hand speed honed through twenty-nine years of being single!

She even used so much force that she nearly smashed the desk apart!

"Approved! I'll go register it with the administrative office right now!" Shizuka Hiratsuka tucked the elixir into the inner pocket of her white coat. She no longer looked at Lin Xiao as a problem student, but as a living bodhisattva who had come to save her from suffering!

"If this is real, then I, your teacher, will definitely give my full support to your club's 'rescue' activities!"

"Pleasure doing business with you, Hiratsuka-sensei. I wish you an early escape from singlehood."

Satisfied, Lin Xiao picked up the application form bearing its bright red stamp, turned, and strode out of the office.

Three minutes later. Special Teaching Building, Reading Room.

The atmosphere in the room remained terrifyingly oppressive.

Yukino quietly read her book, though a frosty aura radiated from around her. Eriri sat sulkily on the other side, occasionally shooting Yukino a sidelong glance. Miko, meanwhile, was curled up in a corner, clutching her lunchbox tightly like a little hamster struggling to survive between the cracks of a battlefield.

Creak— The door opened.

Lin Xiao walked in, holding the application form.

"Hmph, Hiratsuka-sensei chewed you out and sent you packing, didn't she?" Eriri immediately switched into mockery mode, her golden twin tails swaying smugly. "I told you, there's no way the school would approve a name that terminally chuunibyou..."

Smack. Lin Xiao did not waste any words. He simply slapped the form onto the table.

At the bottom-right corner of the form, an [Approved] stamp representing official school authorization was glaringly visible.

"..." Eriri's mockery caught in her throat. Miko covered her mouth in surprise. Even Yukino, who had maintained her cool demeanor all along, put down her book in astonishment. Her beautiful eyes widened slightly, her face full of disbelief.

"H-how is this possible?!"

Eriri grabbed the form and checked it repeatedly. Once she confirmed that the stamp was real, she looked utterly devastated. "Did you mind-control Hiratsuka-sensei?! She actually approved such an embarrassing name as the [All-Heavens Rescue Club]?!"

"I told you already." Lin Xiao pulled out a chair and sat down, folding his hands beneath his chin. He gave the three girls, whose worldviews had just been shaken, an unfathomable smile.

"In this world full of ordinary daily life... I am the biggest cheat of them all."