Sky Striker Ace, but Symphogear

As Chris listened to the teacher's voice on the podium grow more animated, she thought to herself, preparing to space out at her desk and somehow endure this rather long stretch of time.

"Um, hello. Don't you have a textbook? Do you need to borrow mine?"

However, just as Chris was about to do that, the black-haired girl sitting beside her quietly asked her.

"Ah, well..."

Caught off guard by the person beside her suddenly offering help, Chris had no idea how to deal with such enthusiasm. She had never known how an ordinary girl was supposed to respond in a situation like this.

[Chris, check the shoulder bag I gave you. I already put a textbook in there. Just take it out.]

Just as Chris was struggling, Raye's voice suddenly called out to Hibiki in her heart.

[What are you talking about? Isn't this an empty bag... There really is one?]

Hearing Raye's voice, Chris replied skeptically. But when she reached inside, she actually pulled out a book.

"Haha... No need. Since I came here to see whether this school would suit me, of course I brought one of their textbooks. It's just been so long since I last attended class that I forgot to take it out."

Pulling the textbook from her desk, Chris answered with a natural smile.

"Is that so? All right."

Seeing that Chris did have a textbook, the black-haired girl stopped insisting and focused on the lesson.

[What exactly did you do?]

After dealing with the black-haired girl's question, Chris asked Raye what she had done. How had she known what was happening over here, and how had she stuffed a textbook into that empty bag?

[I just put an invisible floating unit under your chair. The book was placed there through a Warblade Mecha portal opened by that floating unit. Well, you probably won't understand it put that way. Just think of it as an invisible machine beside you that can open portals and send and receive messages.]

Raye explained. Naturally, she could not simply leave Chris to hold down the fort alone. If something went wrong, she would be the one in trouble.

[I'll put tools into that empty bag whenever you need them, and I'll remind you when you don't know what to do. So don't put too much pressure on yourself.]

Raye continued, trying to ease Chris's anxiety through her actions.

[All right.]

Hearing Raye's words, the pressure in Chris's heart from being alone temporarily eased.

[Good. Now focus on class, Chris.]

From the raised platform at the back of the classroom, Raye said this while frowning at the tablet in her hands.

[Image: Raye]

P.S. I'm feeling better physically. Tomorrow I'll see if I can post more.

The Trio

Ding-ding-ding...

"All right, class is over."

As Hibiki rang the dismissal bell and the teacher left, Chris realized that this ordinary lesson had come to an end. And she had actually sat here and listened seriously for an entire class.

[Who am I? I'm Chris Yukine, a student at Lydian Music Academy. Wait, no. I didn't come here to attend school. I have a mission. What mission was it again?]

Chris, completely assimilated into the atmosphere of an ordinary girls' high school classroom, thought in confusion.

"Um, your name is Christina, right? That's what it says in your textbook?"

Just as Chris was agonizing over it, a voice suddenly came from beside her.

"Who?"

Chris snapped back to her senses and looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

[Wait, what is going on?]

Then Chris discovered that the situation seemed slightly bad.

While she had been thinking alone, a group of high school girls she did not know had somehow gathered around her.

She immediately tried to contact Raye telepathically, but for some reason, Raye did not reply right away.

[No reply. Did Raye run into trouble? Did something change?!]

Failing to contact Raye caused the unease in Chris's heart to surge sharply.

[Looks like I can only rely on myself now. One, two, three, four... This is bad. Haven't I been completely surrounded?!]

With no other choice, Chris looked around and began assessing her situation. Then she discovered...

At her front right stood a small brown-haired girl with twin tails. Her lively eyes were full of curiosity and scrutiny toward Chris. She had to be an assault vanguard.

Directly to her right was a poised girl with long golden hair draped over her shoulders. Her calm, unflustered gaze left no doubt that she was an agent with professional training.

At her rear right was an energetic-looking girl with short gray hair. That confident posture full of leadership had to belong to a commander hardened by countless battles.

Finally, on her left, her deskmate—a refined girl with short black hair—had long since sealed off the way. Nothing showed on the surface, but Chris always felt that she was the most terrifying of the four.

At that moment, the four girls had completely surrounded every area around her. No matter which way Chris went, she would have to face at least two of them.

[This is bad. In a situation like this, my identity must have been exposed. They're plainclothes agents lurking in this school, and they noticed something wrong and came to arrest me. No, I can't just sit here and wait.]

Chris's nerves instantly tightened to the limit as she reflexively thought this. After all, even an office worker brushing past her could be an enemy. It was perfectly normal for an enemy stronghold to have a few undercover agents.

[Behold my Demon Bow... Damn it, Raye took my Demon Bow away earlier... Fine, even so, I won't surrender easily. Whatever humiliating interrogation methods you have, bring them all on. I will not yield!]

She wanted to escape with the Demon Bow, but then remembered that Raye had taken it away in advance. Chris's expression changed several times before finally settling into one of heroic resolve.

[Calm down, Chris. Nobody wants to do anything to you. This is just ordinary high school girls being curious about a newcomer. At least they don't mean any harm.]

Just as Chris was thinking like that, Raye's reminder, which had not answered her earlier, abruptly called out to Hibiki in her heart.

[Ah, is that so?]

Hearing the familiar voice of Hibiki in her heart, Chris's anxious emotions immediately calmed down.

[Probably. At least that's how it is here. Anyway, just deal with them casually. Act natural and you'll be fine.]

Raye, hiding in a bathroom stall, replied as she watched the girls outside the door seemingly searching for something through the Wasp Unit.

Right after class ended, she had sensed that things were about to get troublesome. To avoid being pestered by these students with nowhere to vent their youthful hormones, she hurried off to find a place to hide, which was why she had not replied to Chris's message in time.

[Whew. High school girls are terrifying.]

Chris sighed. They had surrounded her so naturally.

[True. Anyway, ask me if there's anything you don't understand. I'm getting back to work.]

Raye agreed inwardly, then returned to her work on the tablet.

She had already finished setting up surveillance in the teaching building and was now arranging surveillance for the dormitory building.

"Christina, Christina, what's wrong?"

The girl who had greeted Chris earlier—the small twin-tailed girl at Chris's front right—saw that Chris had not responded and asked again in confusion.

"Mm... Ah, right, that's me. So, what do you need from me?"

Having settled down again, Chris heard the question and answered as naturally as possible before asking one of her own.

"Well, it's nothing really. We were just curious why you suddenly came here to sit in on class. Oh, right, you don't know our names yet, do you? I'm Yumi Itaba, and this is Shiori Terashima."

"And I'm Sousei Ando. The girl over there is Kohinata Miku."

Once they had started talking to Chris, the trio that had suddenly approached quickly introduced themselves and also introduced the black-haired girl beside them.

[What's with these people? They're way too familiar. Who asked you? Don't just come up and introduce yourselves on your own! Now I have to chat with them, don't I?!]

After being forced to listen to the trio introduce themselves, Chris thought this to herself.

[What do I do next? How would an ordinary high school girl respond now? Damn it, I have absolutely no experience with this. Anyway, think about my character setup first. Introduce myself...]

At this moment, Chris felt profound respect for Raye, who had escaped this vortex of social pressure beforehand. Raye was amazing for noticing something so troublesome and immediately leaving.

"Haha, my name is Christina. Um, you can just call me Chris. As for why I came here, first, I need to find a school to attend, but I don't know which school is better, so I thought I'd experience it first before making a decision. As for my other personal reason, I'll keep that secret for now."

Chris explained the persona Raye had arranged for her in one breath.

"I see, I see. Christina, huh? So Chris, you're like one of those mysterious transfer student characters from anime."

Yumi Itaba nodded, thought for a moment, and said this. As for the part Chris wanted to keep secret, Yumi did not ask further since they were not that close.

"Come on, Yumi. Didn't Chris say she hasn't decided whether she wants to transfer here yet?"

Sousei Ando smiled and refuted her.

"Don't worry. According to anime logic, a mysterious character like little Chris, who suddenly appears out of nowhere, will definitely become a mysterious transfer student within a single episode for some reason."

Though Sousei Ando said that, Yumi Itaba still insisted on her opinion.

"This isn't anime."

Saori Terashima, who had been silent until then, said with a smile.

"Of course that's not my only reason. Don't forget, Lydian Music Academy has the best teaching setup around, at least here. Once Chris experiences how great Lydian is, she'll definitely choose this place."

Yumi Itaba made this judgment with complete confidence.

"But while the teaching is good, Lydian's facilities aren't particularly great, are they?"

Hearing Yumi's words, Saori Terashima spoke with some doubt.

"Yeah, yeah. Whether it's the classroom design with steep, smooth slopes, the school track where sharp right-angle turns make running awful, or dorm rooms so cramped that even two people feel crowded, they're inconvenient in every possible sense."

Sousei Ando said this very seriously as well.

"Come to think of it, why was the school designed like this?"

"Who knows? Maybe the designer only cared about appearance and not practicality."

Very quickly, as the topic shifted, the group's conversation moved away from Chris and toward complaining about the school facilities.

[Yes, yes, just like that. Ignore me completely and let me escape this hellish break between classes.]

Watching the topic drift farther and farther away, gradually becoming a perpetual motion machine as the trio completely forgot about her, Chris popped champagne in her heart. She had not expected the problem troubling her to solve itself.

[I'm so lucky.]

Chris's mood brightened, and she even unconsciously began swinging her legs, clad in black stockings and little red shoes.

But the facts proved that sometimes, it was better not to celebrate too early.

Thump—

[Huh? What was that?]

When Chris swung her foot beneath the chair, she felt it hit something hard, producing a crisp collision sound.

[Chris, sit properly. Your foot hit my Bumblebee Drone.]

Raye's voice, Hibiki, rang out at just the right moment, answering Chris's question.

[Ugh, why did you put the Bumblebee Drone under my feet, Raye?]

Chris asked in near despair.

[That's a strange question. If I need to open a portal to your shoulder bag without anyone touching it, then under your chair is obviously the most convenient place.]

Raye said it as though it were only natural.

But that was no longer what Chris cared about, because the strange sound she had made—Hibiki—caused the trio, who had been chatting among themselves, to notice her again.

"Ah, sorry, Chris. We got so caught up talking that we forgot about you."

Yumi Itaba, having noticed Chris again, immediately apologized. The other two did the same.

[No, you absolutely don't need to apologize. Keep talking. Don't mind me!]

At that moment, Chris Yukine, who had briefly escaped their line of sight, was caught once more by the force field known as high school girls.

"Honestly, you three. If you still hadn't noticed, I was going to remind you."

[Tch. So no matter what, I have to face this challenge?]

And unlike before, when there had only been a force field of three girls, Kohinata Miku, who had remained silent on Chris's left all along, joined the encirclement as well.

[This is the worst—]

Chris thought this.

Photos

High school girls' conversations were often wildly unpredictable. You never knew what would make the topic veer off in some completely unexpected direction.