Instead, it was a creature's stress response to an overwhelming sense of insecurity.
When someone grew used to hiding inside a shell, once that shell was shattered...
Even the gentlest breeze from the outside world felt to her senses like a biting winter wind.
So much so that Onigawara Rin keenly sensed something.
In the air, aside from Kikakujō Mary and Hanabishi Warabi, who had brought a bear...
There was another, more concealed gaze mixed in, one that instinctively made her uneasy.
It was nothing like Sasamori Aya's direct stare.
It felt more like being watched by a cold-blooded animal.
"If you say you came here to help..."
"Then why are you still hiding?"
"And you!"
"Come out!"
"Or do I have to drag you out?"
With that...
A vicious gleam flashed through Onigawara Rin's delicate eyes, now no longer concealed by her mask.
She pointed her sword toward the pile of old gymnastics mats in a corner outside the gymnasium.
At those words...
Kikakujō Mary, who had been looking down and brushing dust off herself in an attempt to preserve her last shred of elegance, froze.
"Hey, hey! Onigawara Rin, have you lost your mind?"
"We're not suspicious people!"
"We're fellow peacekeepers at Kyōsei Academy! We detected an unidentified intruder forcing his way in, so we..."
Thinking Onigawara Rin meant her, Kikakujō Mary flushed red and tried to use that official line to cover up the fact that she had actually come to eavesdrop too.
After all...
She had always prided herself on being an elegant lady. If people found out she had been hiding in a corner, eavesdropping like some creep...
How was she supposed to show her face at the academy again?
Something like that...
Once word spread through the academy, it would mean social suicide!
"Exactly!"
Rubbing her still-aching ankle, Hanabishi Warabi waved the short baton in her hand and hastily chimed in, putting on a show of bravado.
"We weren't eavesdropping!"
"It was tactical concealment! Tactical! Get it?"
"And besides..."
"Onigawara Rin, were you so scared that you started hallucinating?"
"There's nobody there!"
After all...
Where Onigawara Rin pointed, there was nothing but a pile of old gymnastics mats, without a soul in sight.
However...
Before Kikakujō Mary and Hanabishi Warabi could conclude that Onigawara Rin really had been so rattled that she was jumping at shadows...
As it turned out...
A light, airy voice suddenly drifted out from behind that very pile of old gymnastics mats.
There was no panic at being exposed in that voice. Instead, it held a teasing lilt, as though she had deliberately revealed herself during a game of hide-and-seek.
"Oh my."
"Little Satori's been found."
She made no attempt to hide herself.
Then...
A girl with long emerald-green hair slowly emerged from the shadows behind the old gymnastics mats.
She wore a neat uniform, and a harmless smile rested on her face.
That smile was so perfectly fixed that it felt like an expression painted onto a mask.
She looked harmless, even a little adorably clueless.
-Nemumeno Satori.
The last of the Five Heavenly Swords, and the most inscrutable of them all.
Anyone who did not know her...
Would probably have been fooled at first glance by that seemingly harmless appearance, assuming she was merely an innocent girl who had wandered in here by mistake.
Yet...
Everyone present involuntarily tensed at the sight of Nemumeno Satori.
"You..."
"When did you get there?"
Kikakujō Mary's eyes widened, and she nearly dropped the dictionary in her hands.
Despite being an expert in Rapier Fencing, she had not sensed anyone there at all!
"I've been here the whole time."
Nemumeno Satori scratched her head, her smile remaining utterly unchanged.
"Ever since you started eavesdropping."
"And when Onigawara Rin's mask was shattered."
"Even..."
"When that god arrived."
"Little Satori was here all along."
"Little Satori thought she'd get to watch a little longer. After all, that expression on Rin's face just now was so entertaining~"
Nemumeno Satori scratched her head as she spoke, that trademark smile devoid of warmth resting on her face.
"But I never expected Rin's senses to really become so sharp."
"When you wore that mask before, your senses were as dull as a rock."
"It seems our divine guest was right. That mask really was holding you back."
Having said that...
Nemumeno Satori's gaze passed over the others and settled directly on Haimo, who stood at the very center.
She tilted her head, the curve of her smile deepening.
"A pleasure to meet you, Lord God."
"I'm Satori. Nemumeno Satori."
"What you said just now was really interesting."
"So..."
"Is that world really full of all the adventures you described?"
"If it is..."
"Then Little Satori wants to go."
"Very much."
"Little Satori wants to see whether she can find something in a world like that to make her feel even a little bit alive."
Nemumeno Satori spoke in a cheerful tone.
At that point...
The Five Heavenly Swords.
Onigawara Rin, Kikakujō Mary, Hanabishi Warabi, and Nemumeno Satori.
Along with the Empress, Sasamori Aya, who had already switched sides.
Practically all of the academy's strongest fighters had assembled.
This scene...
Would probably have left the academy's ordinary students gaping in disbelief if they had seen it.
After all...
These girls normally refused to acknowledge one another's superiority.
Getting them to stand quietly together was nothing short of a miracle.
Faced with Nemumeno Satori's almost pathological declaration...
Kikakujō Mary finally could not hold back.
Clutching her thick dictionary, she cast an uneasy glance at Haimo, then looked at the others around her.
"Hey... are you all serious?"
"About going to another world..."
"No matter how you look at it, that sounds dangerous!"
Kikakujō Mary's voice sounded a little strained.
The urge to become stronger had indeed gone to her head for a while earlier.
But...
Once that rush cooled and reason regained the upper hand...
She still felt a faint unease.
"Yeah."
"If we really went..."
"Would we be able to come back?"
Hanabishi Warabi asked timidly.
That question...
Had undoubtedly struck a nerve with everyone except Sasamori Aya and Nemumeno Satori.
Including Onigawara Rin.
After all...
Although she longed to become stronger and break free of her past...
That did not mean she was willing to sever every tie she had to this world.
Her life was still here.
As was her past, which, though far from happy, had always been part of her.
To abandon everything and go to a completely unknown world...
That price was too high.