I wake up when I hear someone knocking on my door. I was always a light sleeper, so I could wake up at the slightest of noises. I pick up my phone and look at the time. It’s precisely twelve in the midnight. I get up and open the door. It’s my girlfriends. And Natsuho.

‘Good morning, Akira-kun.’ Sakuya greets me. ‘Did you had a good rest?’

‘I don’t think I got enough sleep, but it’ll have to do under the circumstances. What about all of you? Did you had a good time last night?’

‘We definitely did. We talked about the same person so much we forgot to sleep.’

I roll my eyes.

‘Gee, I wonder who were you talking about.’ I say sarcastically. ‘More importantly, you said that none of you got any sleep. Are all of you going to be fine?’

‘It’s going to be fine for me Akira-kun. I’ve been to Yui’s house multiple times for sleepovers where we don’t sleep at all, so I got used to it.’ Saya assures me.

‘I did most lookouts, spying and surveillance missions that made me sacrifice my sleep.’ Madoka informs.

‘This wasn’t the first time Mashiro stayed up all night.’ Mashiro tells me. ‘She always styed up late to play video games.’

Ah, so she’s just like me.

‘No worries, your big sister’s used to skipping a night’s worth of sleep.’ Sakuya tells me proudly.

‘Due to the constant work we had to complete at the student council. That you constantly avoid doing by not coming over to the office. That the rest of us had to complete for you most of the time.’ Ichika adds sentence by sentence while looking menacingly at Sakuya and slowly approaching her.

‘Ichika-chan, you’re being too close. Too close. And your expression is scaring me.’

‘Wait a minute. Sakuya is actually a slacker?’ Natsuho couldn’t believe her ears.

‘That is correct. Capable as she is, she also skips work majority of the time.’

‘Her room was a huge mess the last time we went there.’ Mashiro says.

‘She’s terrible at cooking too.’ Saya says.

‘And she loves to be spoiled.’ Madoka ends.

‘You see, Shishiaki-senpai. Not everyone is perfect, not even Sakuya-senpai here, despite what you said last night.’

‘Hey! Remember my warning?’ Natsuho demands while cracking her fists.

‘Oops. I spoke too much. My point is, the supposedly invincible half-blood student council president here is actually a useless big-’

I couldn’t finish my sentence as Sakuya is busy squishing my face with her palms, her cheeks puffing up all the while. Luckily, Ichika comes to my rescue.

‘Time is running short, so we should get going.’ she tells Sakuya.

The student council president of the Tokyo Branch stops squishing my face at once.

‘Of course. Let’s go.’

Along the way, Natsuho walks beside me once again. Thankfully, she’s not bumping my shoulder anymore. She’s looking at me while grinning, one look and I can tell that she’s up to no good.

‘So, I heard yer scared of heights.’ she begins.

‘Yes. Yes I am.’ I confess.

‘Ya ever been ta USJ?’

‘Not even once. But I do hear stories about that place.’

‘Did ya know that it has lots of scary, I mean, fun rides?’

‘So I’ve heard. And?’

‘Maybe we could all go there after this whole thing’s done.’

‘Oh, that sounds wonderful!’ Sakuya claps her hands enthusiastically before I could say anything. ‘Don’t worry, Natsuho-chan. We’ll be sure to drag him along.’

‘Gotcha. It’s a deal, then.’

‘Aren’t you glad, Akira-kun? You got to go to USJ after going to D*sneyland!’ Saya, who was behind me, walks up and pats my head.

‘I can’t wait.’ I say sarcastically.

Of course, I got zero say in this. Whatever. With any luck, we’ll be so busy they’ll forget about the trip after we’re done with the mission. To be honest, they’re unlikely to forget about it this easily.

When we got to the Research Department, the others are already there. In fact, most of them are already done with their modification. Tomita-senpai, at least I think that’s him, is changing his voice at the voice changer. He looks completely different after getting a new face. I could only guess that’s him since he’s much taller than the rest of us. There’s also someone that looks like a student who’s wearing a lab coat sitting right in front of the computer that’s connected to the face changer.

A woman who could only be Isa-senpai walks towards us when she sees us coming in.

‘Good morning, all of you. Please proceed for the face and voice changing.’ she tells us.

She has a totally different voice than she did. Those inventions really worked. Not that I ever doubted them.

‘Wait a second. Is that ya, Aoi?’ Natsuho asks.

Instead of answering, Isa-senpai pokes Natsuho’s forehead with her index finger. Natsuho backs away in pain.

‘Ow, wat was dat for?’ she demands.

‘Still think it’s not me? Want some more?’

Natsuho quickly covers her forehead with her hands.

‘All right all right! Ya made ya point! No one else pokes ma forehead as painfully as ya do!’

Isa-senpai retracts her finger. ‘I’m glad we finally understand each other. Now get on with it.’

‘Yeah, yeah.’

Natsuho walks over to the face-changing machine and puts her head in it without a single hesitation. While she’s doing that, I decide to use the voice changer, since no one else is using it right now.

‘Do you have any preference, Kagenashi-kun?’ Tomita-senpai who has a different face and voice asks me.

‘You can even adjust that?’

‘Sure can.’

‘Well, I would love to try all kinds of voice, but given the fact that my persona is a twenty-one years-old, I don’t have much of an option, do I?’

‘You could make it slightly deeper than your original voice if you want.’ he suggests.

‘I’ll leave it to your discretion.’

‘Got it.’

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After pressing a few buttons and pulling some levers, Tomita-senpai nods at me to signal that I can use the machine. Therefore, I press my face towards the object that looks like an oxygen inhaler.

Almost immediately, some sort of gas comes out of the inhaler. I try not to flinch and breath it all in.

‘Okay, that’s enough.’ Tomita-senpai tells me after a few minutes.

I oblige and get my face away from the inhaler.

‘Try saying something.’ Tomita-senpai tells me.

‘Ah, ah. Testing one two three.’ I say tentatively.

Yup. My voice is completely different. It sounds like an adult’s, but not someone who’s very old.

‘Cool! My turn!’

Before I could register on what’s going on, I was shoved by a person I’ve never seen before but has the voice of Natsuho.

‘You can go ahead first, Akira-kun.’ Saya tells me when she sees me coming over to the face changer.

‘Thanks.’

The researcher in front of the computer looks at me impassively. He has the look of someone who wants to get things over with as soon as possible. It’s completely understandable given the circumstance, since he has to wake up at middle of the night just to help out a bunch of strangers.

‘Please take care of me.’ I say to him politely.

He nods and gestures towards the machine, signaling me to get started. I do just that and proceed to put my face inside the square.

After a few seconds, something rubbery is getting plastered to my face. Again, I try not to fight it. Even though I’m keep thinking that, it’s easier said than done. The fake face that’s covering my real one is lukewarm and quite uncomfortable. It’s such an unpleasant experience that I wish it would end soon.

My wish was finally granted around three minutes later. I hear a ‘beep’ sound coming from the machine. I take that as a cue to remove my face.

The first thing I do is naturally touch my new face. It feels exactly like a real skin, even though it’s actually artificial.

‘Here you go, Akira-kun.’ Sakuya passes me a pocket mirror.

I accept it gratefully and look at my face with it. I look exactly like Minamoto Satoru, the fake person Tomita-senpai has created for me.

I walk over to the clothes hanger where all the robes that the Lost Children wear and choose the one that fits me the most. It’s slightly too big for me, but it’ll have to do. After my preparation is complete, I patiently wait for the others to finish.

The researcher got up and left when everyone had their turn at the face-changer. Tomita-senpai made sure to thank him before he went back to his room or something.

Most of them are done when they changed both their voice and face. In Sakuya and Mashiro’s case, they would have to deal with their eyes, and the former’s blond hair. There are already colored contact lenses prepared for them, and a black wig for Sakuya.

‘How do I look, Akira-kun?’ Sakuya asks me when she’s done.

‘I prefer your real look. Your blond hair and green eyes are much prettier. And your real voice is much more pleasing to the ears.’ I reply.

I can’t tell at all because of the fake skin, but I’m pretty sure Sakuya is blushing after hearing my compliment. Instead of saying something, she’s busy stomping on my foot.

‘Ouch, could you please stop it?’ I plead after she continues to step on my foot. ‘We don’t really have time for this kind of charade.’

She finally stops after she got tired.

Blackout

Due to my amateurish mistake, this second briefing should have been after the first briefing, and the explanation of the machines should be in this chapter. My apologies for my mistake.

‘Right. Let’s have a final briefing before we head out.’ I suggest. ‘Madoka, have you already hack into Lost Children’s main server and uploaded our fake profiles?’

Madoka nods in conformation. ‘No one will suspect us as spies while we’re inside.’

‘What about the students who’re responsible for the diversion and concealing of bodies, Isa-senpai?’

‘All of them are standing by outside. We got more than fifty of them, and at least half of them are A Rank, so it’s very unlikely for them to fail.’

I was about to continue when I forgotten about something.

‘Would you like to take over, Shishiaki-senpai?’

‘Is there a need fer dat?’

‘I mean, you were saying all those things about how you’re the one that’s in charge here.’

‘Ah, dat. It’s fine. I was just jokin’. You go on with the briefing.’

‘If you say so. Does anyone like to take over?’

Nobody does. Since that’s the case, I decide to continue.

‘Now, after we managed to sneak inside, please don’t be rash and head for the fifth floor immediately. I’m talking to the two of you, Saya and Shishiaki-senpai.’

‘Hey, even I wouldn’t be that stupid!’ Saya protests.

‘Same ’ere!’

I wonder…

‘Akira-kun, you were totally doubting us!’

‘No I wasn’t.’

‘Don’t lie! Even if your face is different, I could still tell from the way you move! Let’s get him, Shishiaki-senpai!’

‘Yeah!’

‘Okay, I apologize. I’m sorry. We really don’t have time for this.’ I quickly say before this drags on.

Luckily, this seemed to do the trick. The two of them have backed down obediently.

‘Well, we’ll definitely get him back when we go to USJ.’ Saya tells Natsuho.

‘Yup. I can’t wait.’

Or not. Right. Concentrate, concentrate. I let out a soft cough to get myself back on track.

‘As I was saying, we can’t rush ahead and rescue Yui straight away, since it’s the lowest floor, and we can’t afford to get surrounded when we have almost no way out. Isn’t that right, Madoka?’

She nods in agreement. ‘Magical barriers had been set up around the lab to prevent majority of magic being used, including teleportation. They’ve obviously learned their lesson, and they’re not planning to make the same mistake twice.’

‘Can’t we just destroy those barriers?’ Uchida asks. ‘If it’s around all the time, it’s probably formed by a machine or something.’

‘That’s right. All the machines are inside one of the rooms at the third floor. However, there’s a major hurdle. Jordan has volunteered to guard the room’

A deep silence has befall the room. There’s no way we can destroy or turn off those machines with him around.

‘I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but there’s some more.’ I begin.

I tell them about the time when the Dragon God, who was possessing Yui at the time, didn’t looked surprised at all when they were kidnapped.

‘So you’re suspecting that He might have followed them voluntarily?’ Sakuya-senpai asks me.

‘That’s right. If that’s the case, it would explain why they only have two executives to guard the place when they’re obviously expecting intruders.’

‘If your theory’s right, what do we do?’ Tomita-senpai asks. ‘There’s no way we can rescue Kiryuu-san if the Dragon God is their additional security.’

‘We have to be patient. This is just my theory, so it’s probably wrong. However, in the case that I was right all along, we need to find out the reason He’s cooperating with them. With any luck, we’ll win Him over to our side. I don’t know where to begin, though.’

‘We could listen to gossips.’ Madoka suggests. ‘If we stick around long enough, they’re bound to make slip-ups.’

‘Can’t we just ask them?’ Natsuho asks.

‘Ask them how?’

‘Something along the line of, “Hey there, that God you captured looks mighty docile. A bit too docile. You think there’s a reason fer dat?”’

I look at Madoka. She thinks about it for a moment.

‘We could try that, but it’s best not to do it immediately. We have to blend in as best as we could, and we can’t afford to raise any suspicions.’

‘And it should be done by a single person. It might be bad if multiple people ask the same question.’ Ichika adds.

All of us look at Madoka at the same time. She merely shrugs.

‘I can handle that without a hitch.’ she says confidently.

‘But, how will you convey the message to us?’ Mashiro asks.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll find a way. Is there anything else for us to discuss?’

‘We ought to carry around some voice recorder.’ I suggest. ‘If we got something, we could replay it to the Dragon God to convince Him that He’s being tricked. Assuming that he’s indeed being tricked.’

Tomita-senpai nods. ‘I’ll go get some at once.’

He leaves the room for a while and comes back with some tiny ladybugs made of metal.

‘Just put them on your fingertips. If you want them to start recording, tap on it once. To stop, tap it again. IF you want to replay the recorded voice, tap it twice in a row.’ he explains.

‘How long will the battery lasts?’ I ask. ‘We might need to stay there for a long time.’

‘No need to worry. It has its own generator.’

Wow. This must be another of their supposedly pointless inventions that they made. Each of us accept one of the ladybugs and put them inside our pocket.

‘One last thing. The students who’re supposed to attack the real cultists. How will they know that it’s us and won’t attack us?’

‘They’ve painstakingly memorized all our fake faces, so they’ll hold back when they’re facing us.’ Isa-senpai informs me.

‘Wait, they’re attacking us fer real?’ Nastuho asks in shock.

‘Of course. We can’t afford to be unscathed when our group were supposedly attacked, right?’

‘I guess…’

‘Speaking of which, we can’t be using our Regalias or Pseudo-Regalias, since it’ll definitely blow our cover. We’ll have to make do with those.’

Tomita-senpai gestures towards a large opened metallic case. It contains all sorts of weapons such as swords, spears, guns, and so on.

At first, I figured that I don’t have to rummage through it since I still have Akira’s old spear. Fr some reason, I can’t get it out even after a few minutes of searching with my teleportation magic, so I have to make do with the one inside the case. Everyone also takes turn to pick a weapon of their choice, except for Mashiro, who’s adamant on using Itachimaru’s power.

‘Can Mashiro leave her choker and lock here?’ she asks Tomita-senpai.

‘Of course. We’ll make sure that it’ll be kept safe until we return here.’ he assures her.

‘Thank you.’

I look at the time. It’s thirty minutes to two in the morning.

‘Right. It’s almost go time. Let’s get on with it.’

All of them nod in agreement.

But first, we need to get changed out of our uniforms for obvious reasons. In addition to the rack full of robes, there’s an additional rack with some normal but rugged clothes and long pants of different sizes. We pick a set randomly and get changed in separate rooms. We decide to keep the robe and only wear it when the attack begins.

When we got back, Mashiro summons Sogdrul so that we can be teleported near the building where the lab is built on. Madoka tells him the coordinates, and he snaps his fingers. In the blink of an eye, we’re inside an abandoned office of some sorts.

Madoka points at a building right opposite us.

‘That’s the loan company.’ she tells us.

After looking around for a while, I still don’t see any Academy students around, but Isa-senpai assures me that they’re already nearby. Now all we can do is wait for the Lost Children reinforcements to arrive.

Rather than seeing them, we heard them coming, since we hear sounds of fighting all over the place. I guess it’s already begun. I take out the cultist’s robe and wear them over my clothes. Everyone else do the same.

Okay. Let’s do this.