Vol.3 Ch.1: Rainy Day Goldilocks ①

-Chapter 1-

Starlight Academy is a large institution separated into 5 distinct zones, titled ‘districts’, each with their own methods of operation. Of these, the nucleus of the arrangement is the location nicknamed Central, the area located in the center of the other four. Starlight Academy, with its various districts, is very particular about its rules and regulations. In order to uphold these rules, there must be those who enforce them. So, in Central there is a certain team that is rarely seen in action, but is mobilized when the higher-ups deem it necessary.

This team is known simply as ‘The Enforcers’.

“Emergency Alert received! We’ve confirmed that the target has entered Central!”

“Immediate mobilization required! Contact with the higher-ups is now in progress!”

“Send out the B Team to scout Central! Send backup to the gate guards for every district! How are the security camera’s looking?!”

“Sir! Transmitting camera feeds to primary screens 3 through 12! As of this moment, no abnormalities have been detected within the city!”

“Surveillance team, keep watch over all cameras! Focus on the feeds surveying the fields outside the city!”

Within a dark, moderately sized operations room, numerous monitors lined the desks and walls. Various groups within the room began to shuffle around, taking action in order to deal with the emergency situation.

This was the main operating facility of The Enforcers.

“Sir! Camera’s 5, 8, and 12 have significantly reduced quality due to weather conditions!”

“Dammit! Those are necessary feeds! How long is this rain expected to last?”

“Weather reports say it won’t clear up until daybreak!”

“Unacceptable! Someone go wake up C Team and have them patrol the fields! Move B Team to focus on the city perimeter!”

“We’re having trouble reaching the other district managers, sir! Other than the contact, only the East District’s Mitsuo Tokushige has responded!”

“Good enough, get him on the line!”

The Enforcers were scrambling, and their commander was in a bit of a panic. The mobilization of the entire Enforcers team was extremely rare. The most typical cases they find themselves involved with were simple delinquents trying to either break out of the school or into other districts, or perhaps outsiders trying to sneak into the school to get some kind of scoop. Incidents like those are usually assigned a Code Green alert status, meaning only a small section of the overall team is assigned to deal with the situation. Depending on the specifics of the situation, it could sometimes be assigned Code Yellow, but that was extremely rare, and even then it just authorized wider-scale operations of a more sensitive matter, usually involving having to enter one of the four outer districts. But this case was different…

“Hey hey, what’s this all about, everyone? I was enjoying my beauty sleep I’ll have you know.” Mitsuo Tokushige’s voice echoed throughout the room via the speakers.

“Tokushige, sir, this is an urgent matter. The alert we received was Code Red.” The commander grimly reported.

Situations even more rare than Code Yellow… the Code Red alert. For many members of The Enforcers, this would be their first time ever having experienced this level of alert.

“Oh? This is certainly not good.” Tokushige’s tone immediately became more serious and stern. “Who sent in the alert?”

“It was Chishiro.”

“Heh, so he finally screwed up…” Tokushige’s smirk could be heard from his tone of voice alone.

While the commander continued to fill Tokushige in on the details, the other Enforcers kept a watchful eye on the cameras. The heavy rain that night had severely restricted the range of view of some of the cameras however, so other members stayed in constant contact with the teams out in the field. A short while later, one of the members spoke up.

“Sir! C Team has spotted the target! They’re in pursuit!”

“Where’s the location?!”

“Just east of the city, sir! The pursuit is heading towards the wall of the East District!”

“So the target bypassed the city after all…” the commander grimaced.

“Seriously, though? They’re headed toward my territory?” Tokushige couldn’t help feeling a bit amused.

“Maintain pursuit! Don’t lose the target!” the commander shouted into a walkie-talkie connected to the C Team’s frontrunner.

“Yes, sir!” the frontrunner responded, as he and his team dashed through the wet ground in the heavy rain.

It was the middle of the night, so the rain made the already poor visibility even worse. Especially out here in the field where there were very few light sources. Still, the C Team marched onward, keeping their target in sight. It was only a matter of time before they reached the wall dividing Central from the eastern district. Right now, C Team planned to corner the target there, where they’d have nowhere else to run.

As they chased their target further in, more and more trees appeared in their way. The target zigzagged between them as if trying to lose the pursuers, but the Enforcers wouldn’t let the target out of their sights that easily.

Eventually, there was nowhere left to run. The target came to a halt when greeted with the large wall at the edge of Central. On the other side was the East District, but from here, there was basically no way to get to the other side. The Enforcers quickly surrounded the target.

“There’s nowhere left to run. You’re coming with us.” the C Team’s frontrunner sternly declared.

The members of the C Team all raised their weapons: specialized guns that shoot a high-voltage cable at their target. Basically, they were long-range stun guns.

“Ngh…” the target grunted with a ragged voice.

The C Team frontrunner took a good look at the target, and realized they were already quite injured.

Was the target already engaged in combat before running into us…?

The frontrunner couldn’t help but wonder that, but let the thought slide and refocused on his mission to capture the target.

“You can’t escape. Cooperate with us and you won’t have to get hurt. Let’s go.” the frontrunner cautiously approached the target, when…

“Hyaaah!” with a bellowing scream, the air around the target changed.

“Ghh-!” the frontrunner hesitated at the sudden gust of wind, which swirled the flying rain droplets around, as if circling the target.

At that moment, the unbelievable happened.

“Wh-what?!” the frontrunner was stunned.

Right in front of his eyes, large black wings burst out from the back of the target. He’d never seen anything like it before, and had started to question whether he was fully awake or not. But those doubts lasted only a moment, as he realized what this situation meant: they hadn’t actually cornered the target.

“Men, fire!” the frontrunner commanded as he fired his own gun.

But just as the high-voltage cables launched towards them, the target shot up towards the sky with a mighty leap. With a flap of the wings, the target was already nearing the top of the high wall.

“Dammit!” the frontrunner shouted before contacting the commander again via the walkie-talkie. “It’s not use! The target flew! I-I don’t know how to explain it… We can only assume they’re entering the East District!”

“What the hell?! You imbeciles!” back in the operations room, the commander was visibly upset at C Team’s failure. “Just, hurry to the East District gate and stand by for orders to enter!”

After hearing the frontrunner’s ‘Yes, sir!’ on the other end of the line, the commander slammed his fist down on his desk in frustration. Still, he considered it lucky that the one district manager he managed to contact was the manager of the East District himself.

“I take it you heard all that, Tokushige?” the commander asked. “Since we need the district manager’s approval to enter, could you give us the okay?”

“Hmm… Let’s see…” Tokushige’s thoughtful voice echoed from the speakers throughout the operations room. “… No, I don’t want your men to enter.”

“What?!” the commander was taken aback. “Sir, this is an emergency situation! We must-!”

“Now, now, hold on. I just thought this little situation could serve to be quite interesting…” Tokushige interrupted the baffled commander. “You can call back your men. And don’t worry, I’ll talk this over with Chishiro personally. Hehehe…”

Feeling unsatisfied, the commander could only do as told. After a moment of hesitation, he called back all of the teams and canceled the emergency alert.

Meanwhile, back at the wall where the C Team was preparing to make their way back following their order to retreat… A large electric shock could be heard from above.

“Hm…?” the frontrunner looked back up towards the wall.

The top of all of Starlight Academy’s walls held a barbed wire with a moderate electric current running through it. It’s what made the walls a foolish thing to climb, discouraging students from trying to escape their districts that way.

Did the target… get zapped by that?

Waiting for a moment just in case, after nothing came falling back down to the ground, the frontrunner had decided that he must’ve misheard, and continued back to base. He marched back through the trees alongside his team, in the bleak pouring rain.

Unknown to anyone, on the ground of the other side of the wall, deep in the woods of the eastern district… the Enforcers’ former ‘target’ lay, collapsed and unconscious on a rocky uneven ground…

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It was Monday, June 12th. Outside, dark clouds filled the sky and the sound of a distant thunder rumbled in the distance. Yuko Maeda sat at her desk in the classroom; Class 1-B of Starlight Academy East District’s high school. There, she stared out the window with her head on her hand as she listened to the teacher up front drone on about something or other.

It was a rather ordinary day. Summer was just about here, and as a result, all the students now wore short-sleeved summer uniforms. Due to the weather heating up, many students found it a relief to finally be rid of the thick black blazers the school had them wearing most of the year. The simple white button-ups and their short-sleeves were much more breathable. Though, for someone of Yuko’s physique, she couldn’t help but feel that the shirt’s thin fabric left her feeling a little exposed, especially for such a muggy season when everyone would tend to sweat.

Well, she didn’t really let it bother her.

At the moment, she simply stared off into space, looking at the cloudy sky. It seemed likely to rain in the evening. She had a rather late shift at the café tonight, so she’d be heading back home to the dorms pretty late. The thought of trying to make her way through heavy rain on a dark night had her feeling exhausted already. She glanced at the umbrella attached to her bag hanging on the side of her desk, taking solace in the fact that at least she was prepared.

In the end, it’s just another day…

Yuko sighed. It’d been about 3 weeks since her trip to Central, where she encountered quite the bizarre situation. Not to mention the stuff back in April, when she discovered all kinds of stuff about another world called Alviquan and the magic powers that can be used by those from that world. During that whole incident, Yuko learned that she herself had a magic-wielding alter ego which she and her new friend Kanna had dubbed “The Guardian.” Kanna herself was someone native to that other world, who now resided here in Starlight Academy’s eastern district as their high school’s student council president.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t spoken to Kanna much lately…

After the midterms at the end of May, Yuko had mostly spent June relaxing and going about her daily routines. It made her realize how she never really had anything to talk to Kanna about when things were mundane and peaceful like this.

“Okay class, please take a look at this work sheet.” the teacher mumbled, handing out some assignment that got passed back through each row.

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