Chapter 25

After Blessing-Praxis was Weapons Class. Miss Cho was a woman with a tight body-suit, thick glasses and her black hair forming boxer braids. “Okay, everyone!” Next to her was a small cage. Inside of it was a small tanuki: A D-Rank Yokai who is said to cause mischief. He shouldn’t really be any threat to the students in such a school and yet it is strange: Are Yokai not the biggest enemy of the military and thus the biggest enemy of this school which focuses on creating members of the military? If so, is it not odd that she is actively caring around one of our enemies?

In the next moment she claps her hands, opens the cage, grabs the Tanuki and… the Tanuki vanishes. Instead of it a small brown club rests in her hand.

“Ohoho! Are you surprised by the magic trick performed by Miss Cho?” Sherlock- sorry, Great Magician Sherlock, as he calls himself - is looking at me with a slim grin. He is holding one of his fingers in front of his mouth dramatically, though I have no idea what he wants to tell me.

“It’s her blessing. She is chosen by Fate and can turn creatures - including Yokai - into weapons, adapting their very attributes.” Nagao Ayumi, his eyes still colored in two different ways, his hair still being absolutely crazy, explained the phenomenon to me.

“Okay, everyone. Partner up! Each one of you will get a club like this and will try to fight with it.”

Before I could find a partner or be asked by someone I know, the last student still unknown to me stands in front of me. She is wearing some sort of beanie and her brown hair is hanging down beneath it. She has a little star-sticker glued to her cheek. “Yo! Isuri, right?”

I nod. “I’m Arita Fumiko! Just call me Ari, if you want to! That’s easy!” “Nice to meet you, Ari.”

The two of us end up forming a team. Both of us soon enough are in possession of a bat and look at each other.

“You used a weapon before?” She asks me. I nod - yet again.

“Of course! Though I’ve never used a bat.”

“Oh, you did? Crazy, I thought you were a total noob in regards to fights.”

“Was I that pathetic in my battle against Uyeno?” Well, I did get beaten with a single hit.

“Mhhh… Yeah, kinda. I don’t blame you for losing after she hit you, that much is obvious. The thing that was weird as hell though was you just accepting to be hit. If you pull some shit like that in a fight against a yokai you will end up losing and probably dying instantly. There are such a wide variety of yokai… and most of them have special abilities in some way. So, be more careful.”

“Thanks for the advice… Okay, are you ready to start?” On the one hand I appreciated the advice. After all, it was actually useful. On the other hand I now wanted to absolutely beat her and show her that I am not a ‘total noob’.

…

Turns out a club is only remotely close to a sword but is mostly different. I’ll cut it short: She beat the hell out of me. After she had hit the bat straight out of my hand for the third time she just started laughing. “Come on now, Isuri! That’s honestly pathetic. Come on, you don’t have to beat me, but at least put up a bit of a fight!” She was making fun of me. I would like to prove her wrong but… well… it was not possible. I was an absolute amateur in comparison with her… scrap that, I was probably an absolute amateur overall!

“Nawww, don’t get sad now, Isuri.” She was patting my head furiously. “That’s what this school is for after all. None of us started out as an expert… At least that’s what I think. And you’re the newbie, so of course you’ll end up as the weakest one.”

“Yeah, yeah… I get it, don’t worry.”

Soon enough this lesson ends. Thankfully.

Everyone slowly leaves and I stand where I stand, a bit perplexed. What to do now?

“Isuri!” Kida stands behind me and grabs my shoulders, then shakes me hard.

“Woah! What is it, Kida?” “Don’t you remember? You’ll join me and my gang!”

“We are still not your gang!” Muraoka was protesting loudly behind her. I can understand him.

“Oh, so we are your gang now? That’s cool!” Arita was also there. She not only beat me, she is also in favor of the whole ‘Gang’-term… Wait, will I be part of the gang as well once I join their meeting?

“Okay, let’s go.” Kida intensely turned around and began walking off.

“Uhh… Where to? What are we doing?”

“Well, listen up! We’ll go grab something to eat in town! Cuz that’s what you gotta do, you know?”

“Uhh… okay?” Come to think of it, I haven’t had food in quite a while… Maybe that’s why I was so bad at everything physical today?

Thus, the four of us leave.

“Why the hell are we your gang, Kida?”

“Duh, because I was the one to approach the two of you originally. And now I did the same with Isuri.”
“So if someone were to approach you first-”

“Nope, it’d still be my gang. That’s for sure.”