‘First of all, allow us ta formally introduce ourselves. The name’s Shishiaki Natsuho, a Second Year, Class 1 Student. I’m da student council president of this ’ere Academy of da Osaka Branch. Please ta meet ya all!’ Natsuho begins.

Another girl steps forward to introduce herself. From her physique, I’m guessing that she was the one who dressed up as the skeleton.

‘My name is Isa Aoi. I am a Second Year, Class 2 student and I hold the position of the vice president in this student council. Nice to meet you.’

Next, it’s the one who probably dressed by as the fish man. Or the werewolf. I’m not sure. The two of them are around the same size.

‘Konya Tsutomu here. A First Year, Class 1 student. I’m the secretary. A pleasure to meet you all.’

The one who introduces himself next is definitely the frankenstein, since he’s a head taller than all of us in the room. He probably has the same height as Instructor Kurogane.

‘I’m Tomita Kou, a Second Year, Class 3. I’m in charge of the finance. Nice to meet you.’

Lastly, the guy who was the fish man or the werewolf.

‘My name’s Uchida Katsumi. I’m one of the First Year, Class 1 student. I’m also the manager of General Affairs.’

Next, it’s our turn to introduce ourselves. I’m going to cut out this part since you guys already knew about us.

‘So, what’s ya mission this time?’ Natsuho asks once the introduction is done.

I told her about the events that had happened a few days ago.

Natsuho grits her teeth once I’m done.

‘Ta think that they had da galls to kidnap a shrine maiden while a God is possessing her, we really gotta do something about those Lost Children. Have ya found out where they took her?’

I look at Madoka. She nods and takes over.

‘She’s inside an underground lab in Kamagasaki.’

‘Yup. Not really surprised. We had our fair shares of trouble from there, too. But ta think that they even have a lab…’

‘To be precise, it’s a lab used by Ryuuouji Tatsuma.’

All the Osaka students gasp loudly except for Natsuho. Contrary to the others’ shocked expressions, she has a blank look on her face.

‘...Who?’ she asks.

‘You know, the wanted mad scientist. The owner of Ryuuouji Bio Lab?’ Isa-senpai tries her best to refresh Nastuho’s memory.

‘Nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.’

Madoka takes out her phone and taps at it a few times. She then hands the phone over to Natsuho.

‘Perhaps this will help.’

Natsuho stares at the screen.

‘Oh, him. Yup, I saw him lots at da news. He’s involved too, huh?’

‘Yes. Apparently, he’s continuing his insane experiments while being shielded by Lost Children.’

‘Well, with any luck, we can nab him too while rescuing ya friend. All right! Let’s da this!’ Nastuho shouts.

‘Actually, there’s more.’ Madoka interrupts.

Natsuho looks disappointed in that.

‘Aww. How long da I have to wait until we can blow stuff up?’

‘Natsuho, how many times do I have to tell you that you can’t just blow tings up?’ Isa-senpai chides.

Natsuho puffs up her cheeks. ‘Why not? Blowing stuff up is fun!’

‘I have a feeling that you and Shishiaki-senpai will get along real well.’ I whisper to Saya.

‘I think so too.’ she whispers back. ‘I can’t wait to deepen our friendship during this mission.’

‘I, on the other hand, could relate to Isa-senpai.’ Ichika whispers. ‘Here I thought I was the only one with a president that is that handful.’

‘Ichika-chan, you sure don’t mince your words.’

‘I prefer to be honest, you see.’

While we’re whispering away, Isa-senpai and Natsuho are still not done with their argument. The former seems to have a hard time convincing the latter that blowing up things without thinking about the consequences first. The other student council members are just being quiet and generally staying out of their way. I decide to intervene, so I let out a cough.

‘What?’ Natsuho demands. ‘The two of us are still talking!’

‘Yes, I’m sorry for interrupting. However, as I said time and time again, we’re short on time. We would appreciate it if we could get to the rescuing as soon as possible.’

Natsuho has a look that she wants to argue some more, but thankfully she relents.

‘...Fine. Do continue, Kojima.’ she concedes reluctantly.

For some reason, Isa-senpai and the rest of the student council look extremely surprised.

Now that the interruption is gone, Madoka is free to talk again.

‘Before I continue, I would like all of you to swear secrecy and not leak out whatever I said to you.’

‘Why? Is it top secret or something?’

‘Yes.’

‘In that case, ya have my word that I will take it to ma grave. Da same goes ta them.’

Her fellow student council members nod in agreement. After being assured that they will keep their mouth shut, Madoka begins to tell them about the incident that happened few years ago, right from when Shimada was tasked to return spring to the entire Japan, up until Zaimoto-san, an Assistant Head Priest, is the illegitimate son of Shimada.

‘So, ya all think this Zaimoto fella is in cahoots with da Lost Children in kidnapping ya friend?’ Natsuho asks.

‘We’re not so sure of that yet.’ I answer. ‘For now, we just want to rescue Yui first.’

‘Got it. That’s what we’ll be doing.’

‘Do you have any information regarding the underground lab?’ Isa-senpai looks at Madoka and asks.

Madoka nods and takes out a thumb drive. ‘I do.’

While Isa-senpai is booting up the laptop, Konya, Uchida Tomita-senpai and busy setting up the projector and the white screen so that all of us can see the date inside the thumb drive. Meanwhile, Natsuho is just sitting there and acting important.

Once the preparations are complete, the projector projects out five layers of maps, which indicates that there are five floors in this lab.

‘The underground lab is below a building that operates as a loan company run by shady individuals.’ she begins. ‘Three years ago, Lost Children contacted them and requested to have an underground facility built at the basement to be used as one of their bases.’

‘And they agreed just like that?’ I ask.

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‘They used a mixture of carrots and sticks. If they comply, they would get riches beyond their comprehension. If they don’t, they will get annihilated. Needless to say, their bank accounts are full of money since then. Anyway, this is where Kiryuu is held.’

Madoka points at a south-eastern part of the fifth floor.

‘This is where all the test subjects are being kept. All of them except Kiryuu are being forced to wear mind-controlling helmet all the time so that they won’t go on a rampage. As for Kiryuu herself, she is being locked inside a special cell reinforced with anti-magic glass of the highest quality.’

‘You mentioned that the Dragon God’s power is being harvested so that Ryuuouji can toughen up his test subjects.’ I remind her.

Madoka slightly moves her finger so that it’s pointing the middle of the same floor.

‘This is where they do it. The good news is, they seemed to have a hard time of getting His power out, and even more difficulty in injecting those powers to the test subjects. After all, it’s the power of a God. The bad news is, quite a number of test subjects have lost their lives.’

That’s really unfortunate, but there’s nothing we can do for them. The only thing we can do is try to liberate the others by wrecking the place and put Ryuuouji behind bars so that these crazy experiments can be stopped once and for all.

‘So far, the experiment had been conducted twice a day, the first time at nine o’clock in the morning and the second time at nine o’clock at night.’

I raise my eyebrow.

‘Only twice? With Ryuuouji’s twisted personality, I thought he would do it non-stop.’

‘There’s no doubt that he wants to. However, it would put a huge strain on Kiryuu. He can’t have the host of the Dragon God burns out or he might risk losing Him.’

‘So, if we want to rescue Yui, we have to decide whether we’ll do it while she’s at the lab or when she’s locked up.’ Saya concludes.

‘True. How are we going to do this? Either time is fine for me.’

‘Before that, how’s the security over there?’ I ask.

‘Needless to say, it’s much tighter than the lab in Okiniwa. For starters, Kiryuu’s being imprisoned at the fifth floor. By the time we got there, she would already be taken to some other location. And since there’s that many floors, it also means that they can station lots of guards all over the place.’

‘Any executives?’

‘Joseph Brennan and Gabriel Jordan are there, the former to help with the research and the latter for guard duty.’

‘Them again? What about that Harrison guy and the woman with the veil and the chakram?’

‘They are Tyler Harrison and Sofia White. Fortunately for us, the two of them are not at this lab.’

‘Hold on, who on earth are ya talking about?’ Natsuho asks with a bewildered look.

‘To keep a long story short, they were four of the Lost Children Executives that we fought when we went to a mission at Okinawa.’ Madoka answers.

‘And we’ll be fighting two of them?’

‘Actually, I don’t really think it’s a good idea to fight them head-on this time.’ Sakuya says.

Natsuho glares at her fellow student council president.

‘What was that, Morifuji Sakuya? Are ya chickenin’ out?’

‘Natsuho-chan, you should know that your big sister never runs away from her fight.’

‘Since when did I became ya little sister? And we’re the same age, fer cryin’ out loud!’

‘My birthday is on April, and yours is on June, right? That makes me the elder one by default.’

‘Wait a second, why on earth da ya know my birthday?’

I decide to intervene before things get ugly.

‘I agree with Sakuya-senpai. As Madoka has said, by the time we reached where Yui is, she would definitely be taken elsewhere. We have to avoid battle at all costs until we can get to her.’

‘So what do ya propose us ta do?’

‘If possible, we need to sneak inside while pretending to be one of the cultists. We could disguise ourselves as researchers, but I reckon none of us here are knowledgeable about all the scientific mumbo-jumbo.’

I look at Madoka.

‘Will it be difficult to sneak in as Lost Children cultists?’

‘It can be tricky, but it’s possible. All the security cameras at the lab are connected to their main server. If the profile of a supposedly member does not show up at their database when they pass by those cameras, they will be treated as an intruder.’

‘So, we have to somehow make the server acknowledge that we’re part of the group.’

‘Yup. By hacking. I can take care of that part.’

‘Won’t it be dangerous? What if you get found out?’ Isa-senpai asks in a concerned tone.

‘No need to worry about that, senpai.’ Madoka says confidently. ‘I’ve done it for at least twenty times, and they never noticed.’

‘At least twenty times? That’s really impressive.’

‘Thank you.’

Natsuho looks quite impressed too. Strangely enough, she didn’t persuade the ace of the Information Squad to enroll at the Osaka Branch like she persuaded me.

‘Back to the topic at hand. I can hack into their server so that we can be recognized as their members. The problem lies in the fact that we can’t use our real identity, since pretty much all of us here are on their watch list.’

‘With our Research Department, we can create a fake identity and a fake face for all of us.’ Tomita-senpai says.

‘Even a fake face? How does that even work?’ I ask curiously.

‘It’s difficult to be explained in simple terms, but let’s just say that it’s very convincing.’

‘No need to worry. Tomita-kun works part-time at the Research Department, so he knows what he’s talking about.’ Isa-senpai assures me. ‘Even though he’s just a part-time, he’s still one of their best.’

I caught Tomita-senpai blushing for a moment when she complimented him. I’ll just pretend that I didn’t see that.

‘Anyway, I’m heading over to the Research Department right now to ask my friends and colleagues to take care of the things we need. Can you wait until then before you hack the server, Kojima-san?’ Tomita-senpai asks Madoka.

Madoka nods in confirmation. ‘Of course.’

‘Great. I’ll be off, then.’

After Tomita-sanpai has left, those who’re left work together to put away the laptop projector, and the white screen. Well, everyone except Natsuho. Again. Isa-senpai hands the thumb drive back to Madoka its original owner.

‘So, what now?’ I ask the rest. ‘I do believe in Tomita-senpai’s capabilities do get things done, but it won’t be done in an instant, right?’

Natsuho raises up her hand and waves it enthusiastically.

‘Oh oh, let us show ya our hospitality by showing ya around!’

I look at Sakuya. She shrugs.

‘Why not? It’s not like we have anything better to do. However, we have quite a bit of numbers on our side. I suggest to split into two groups.’

‘Hey, why are ya in charge of-’

‘Natshuo-chan will act as Akira-kun’s guide. Isa-san, Konya-san and Uchida-san. Can we trouble the three of you to be ours?’ Sakuya asks.

The three of them look utterly confused. I don’t blame them. I probably have the same look as theirs. I decide to ask the question that they were also thinking.

‘Wait, what’s with this weird arrangement?’

‘Oh, don’t mind the small stuff. Are you fine with it, Natsuho-chan?’

Natsuho is the very look of enthusiasm.

‘Ya betcha! Come on, Kagenashi. Let’s go!’

‘I beg you par-’

Before I could even finish my question, Natsuho has already dragged me away from the student council’s office.

‘So, where da ya wanna visit first, Kagenashi?’ she asks me once we’re outside.

‘I’m not sure. When we got up here and passed by some places, I realized that the facilities here are pretty much the same as the one at the Tokyo Branch, so I don’t really see the point of this tour.’

‘Ya not sure, eh? Well, we’ll just have a walk until Tomita’s done.’

‘Senpai, didn’t you hear the second part of my sentence just now?’

‘Nope!’

I let out a sigh. This is going to be a long tour.

We soon pass by the principal’s office. If I remember correctly, the principal of the Osaka Branch is a man named Nakahara. I barely know a thing about him since he didn’t appear in the original anime.

I was expecting a single table-and-chair for the secretary and a door that leads to the principal’s office. I did see them, but there are also rooms for vice principal, the head of teachers, and the head of inventory. These I have never seen at the Tokyo Branch.

‘Are they the assistants to the principal?’ I ask while pointing at those rooms.

‘Yup. I bet ya never seen those where ya came from, since Principal Morifuji is such a lone wolf!’ Natsuho answers smugly.

‘Why are you acting so proud of it?’

With how much of a workaholic Principal Morifuji is, it comes to no surprise that he doesn’t have any assistants like Principal Nakahara. Honestly, it’s already a miracle that he hired Tamai-san, his secretary.

‘Speaking of Principal Morifuji, da ya think I was too harsh on Morifuji Sakuya?’ she asks all of a sudden.

I look at her in surprise. So far, she looked very upset whenever she was talking to Sakuya like the two of them are mortal enemies. Now, she looks extremely meek and remorseful, like she regretted every single harsh things she had said. She’s also speaking in a normal volume, which is not like her.

‘Before that, why are you even treating Sakuya-senpai like an enemy? It’s quite obvious that you’re the only one who thinks that way.’

She lowers down her head and quiets down. Just as I thought that she’s not going to answer, she opens up her mouth.

‘I was just being petty because I was jealous of her.’

‘Jealous?’

She nods slowly.

‘I mean, she’s so pretty, her hair’s a nice golden color, her eyes are like emeralds, and her smiles are pretty too. Most importantly, her boobs. They’re huge. Compared to hers…’

She put both her hands on her chest and slides them down all the way to her stomach. They met zero resistance. This is one of the few times when I truly don’t know what to say.

‘Not ta mention, she’s popular and always gets her work done. Me? I’m nothing but a joke. The only thing I can do is make people laugh. It’s a real miracle that I ever got ta be the student council president. Ta top it all off, she has ya by her side.’

Now I’m even more surprised.

‘Me?’

She nods again.

‘A few months ago, she suddenly called me over da phone and bragged about ya. And she called on every once in a while ta report on every single thing ya did. Every. Single. Thing. It was hella annoying at first, but eventually ya started ta pique my interest. She told me about how ya were always calm and collected, how ya always managed to solve tough problems, and how ya always stopped her from going bananas. My team are more than I could hope for and always got ma back, but they were never firm enough to stop me from using crazy ideas. And ya did exactly that not long afta we met. And more than once too.’

So that’s why they looked so surprised. That said, it’s probably partly that and partly because she actually listened to me.

‘Um, how about you control yourself from, you know, going crazy?’ I suggest gently.

‘Ya think I didn’t try that? It was no use. I’m a straight up loose cannon. Anyway, back ta what I was saying. Over time, the jealousy just kept on growing until I could barely hold it in. When ya showed up in person, I tried to take ya away form her. Ya probably don’t believe it, but I did that just because I needed someone to act as my break, not ta spite her. With that said, I’m sorry fa being selfish.’

‘I’m sorry too for thinking like that.’

‘Ya don’t have ta apologize. It’s only natural that ya’ll think that way.’

‘So, do you want to make up with Sakuya-senpai?’

‘I do, but what about da tour?’

‘Just forget the tour, alright?’

‘...Alright.’

I nod in satisfaction.

‘Alright, then. Let us go find them.’