Hagane

The next day came, this time I made sure to bring my packed lunch.

“Kazuchi-kun! Good morning!”, Tachibana-san and I meet each other in the hallway

“Good morning Tachibana-san!”

“Miyuki-nii, I’ll be fine on my own now, you can go to your classroom now.”

‘Heh- the captain was with her?!’

Entering the room, I noticed that Kido-san was already here.

“Good morning Kido-san!”

“Kido-san! Hi! Good morning! I’m- “

“Kazuchi-kun...Uruha Tachibana…Good morning.”

Remi-sensei enters the room.

“Okay kids, take your seat!”

I tossed my bag towards my seat and hurriedly sat down. Everyone else also fixed themselves on their respective seats.

“For today’s activity…”

Remi-sensei reached down her pocket to get a remote. She clicks it and the floor under the teacher’s table flipped over revealing a replica of an enchanted beast. It was quite large, about the same size as a grown man and it physical features looked somewhat similar to that of a pig, except for the elliptical disc on its backside.

“This right here is a replica of an enchanted beast called Hagane. Haganes are enchanted beasts that can create a hardened exoskeleton around their whole body through magic similar to astral magic. This Hagane replica has the orb from what used to be a living Hagane. Meaning that with the push of this button- “, Remi-sensei pushes another button on the remote she was holding and all of a sudden, the Hagane replica got enclosed by some reddish outer shell that extended throughout the whole body of the replica.

“This is the same material used in making the protective armor you see in armored vehicles and armored vests.”

Remi-sensei let’s go of the remote she was holding.

“Silver bullet!”

Water appeared out of thin air near Remi-sensei’s hand and it quickly compressed taking the shape of a bullet before launching towards the Hagane replica.

 The bullet just bounces off the armor like it was a rubber ball bouncing off a solid wall. The bullet ricochets towards a student but Remi-sensei dispels it before it made contact with anyone.

“As you can see, that attack just bounces off this armor, no scratches or dents.”

“So your task for today is… Figure out a method to shatter or deactivate the orb that is inside this protective shell.”

Remi-sensei creates four walls made of air to make a tiny room separating the Hagane replica from the rest of the room.

“Anyone who wants to give it a shot can come up here”

“Sensei! I’ll give it a try!”

Tachibana-san quickly got up and volunteered to be the first to try.

“Wind dagger”

‘Wait…Wind dagger?! A memories of yesterday’s incidents flashed through my mind. Could she be the culprit? But she was right there with me, and she didn’t have her power adapter on at those times’

The air above Tachibana-san swirled and took the shape of a dagger and it shoots towards the Hagane replica. But just like the Silver Bullet, it failed to penetrate the protective shell.

“Tch, wait! Let me try one more time!”

Tachibana-takes a step backwards. She snaps her finger and multiple wind dagger appeared surrounding the Hagane replica.

“Is it really okay if I shatter that orb?”

Remi-sensei nods

The daggers came crashing down, bombarding the Hagane replica. The protective armor gets misshaped, then…it gets completely shattered into tiny pieces before disappearing into thin air as the orb gets shattered by one of the daggers.

*claps and cheers*

“Wooo!! Great job Tachibana-san!”, some of our classmates cheered as Tachibana-san steps out of the separate room where the replica was at.

Remi-sensei walks up to the replica and replaces the shattered orb with a new one.

“Alright, next!”

One by one, the rest of the class attempted to penetrate protective armor but they failed. One guy tried to crush the replica by creating a huge boulder. Another guy tried the same technic that Tachibana-san used, but his skills were nowhere near Tachibana-san’s.

“Aozora, come, give it a try.”

Kido-san steps forwards. She stares at the Hagane replica and walks towards it. She then places her right hand over the protective armor.

“Internal conflagration”

The orb inside the protective shell bursts into flames and the armor disappears shortly after.

“Amazing!”, the class cheers.

“I didn’t know you could do that!”

I look towards Kido-san hoping to catch her attention… And I somehow did get her attention.

I greeted her with a thumbs up and a huge smile.

“Mr. Kazuchi, you’re the only one left, come here.”

I walk towards the replica.

‘I could probably just imitate what Kido-san did, but that would make me look like a loser who just feeds off other people’s idea’

Then I thought to myself; judging by how it reacted to the force that was applied to it by those fast moving bullets and daggers, I think the secret to how this armor works it's seems firm and solid but it actually relies on “surface tension” to negate external forces. So basically, if I try to exert force concentrated into a single tiny point, piercing this armor should be relatively easy.

‘I don’t know how I got this idea, it just appeared in my head like it was something that was already taught to me’

“Ice spear”

A spear made of water materialized and solidified above the replica.

‘Now visualize it to be thinner’

Water begins to drip from the ice spear as it becomes thinner and thinner until it was almost as thin as a needle.

I now moved the thin needle of ice towards the replica. With one swift motion, the ice penetrates not only the armor, but also the orb inside. It was like a hot knife cutting through butter.

“Good job! Though to be honest, I expected something more explosive from you Mr. Kazuchi… hahaha”

Remi-sensei claps her hands twice.

The walls surrounding the replica vanished.

“There’s only five minutes left before lunch break starts. I’ll dismiss the class ahead schedule, but you should wait for the school bell to ring before exiting the room. After eating your lunch, proceed to the coliseum. That’s all, see you later class!”