"S-Shirasaki-san..."
Nagumo stuttered, deeply aware of the heavy, suffocating silence that had just fallen over the classroom. The very second Kaori approached his desk, the atmosphere shifted dangerously. He could literally feel the burning, hostile glares of every single boy in the room boring into his back.
Why him?!
What is so incredibly special about that sweaty otaku?!
That bastard doesn't deserve her!
If Kaori Shirasaki had chosen to flirt with Kouki Amanogawa—the handsome, golden-boy protagonist of the school—the other boys would have hated it, but they could have swallowed their bitter jealousy. They knew they couldn't compete with Kouki.
But Kaori had bypassed the golden boy to talk to Hajime Nagumo, a kid who rested at the absolute, miserable bottom of the high school hierarchy!
Yet, Kaori seemed entirely oblivious to the murderous intent radiating from her classmates. She simply leaned over Nagumo's desk, her bright, impossibly sweet smile melting away his tension.
"Good morning to you too, Tanaka-kun," she added softly, glancing past the stuttering otaku to look at Suzuki.
"Hmm..." Suzuki slowly lifted his eyes from his textbook, letting out a dry breath. "Good morning, Shirasaki-san."
"I can tell your greeting is completely insincere!" Kaori puffed out her cheeks in a cute, exaggerated pout.
"I can tell you only came over here to see Nagumo anyway," Suzuki retorted smoothly. "So please, take your conversation somewhere else. Your fan club is entirely too loud, and it's ruining my focus."
"What's the matter? You already got your elite acceptance letter to Toudai. You should relax a bit, you know!"
Kaori sighed and playfully reached across his desk, trying to snatch his heavy economics textbook.
Suzuki smoothly leaned backward, sliding the book out of her reach. But as she leaned over his desk, the physical proximity suddenly became overwhelmingly apparent.
Her signature scent—a soft, intoxicating blend of white lilies and sweet vanilla—washed over him. As she stretched her arms forward, the soft, pristine fabric of her uniform blouse pulled tight. The undeniable, generous curves of her chest strained against the buttons, practically hovering inches from his face. The sudden, alluring display of her soft, feminine development was incredibly distracting, even for someone as disciplined as Suzuki.
He immediately leaned further back, avoiding the tempting trap. He had absolutely zero desire to be caught up in some messy, hormonally driven high school scandal just months before he started university. Even with his superior physical strength and his heavily guarded plans for the future, he knew he couldn't survive the chaotic, destructive threat of a beautifully oblivious teenage girl.
"...Here," Suzuki sighed, pushing the textbook across the desk toward her. "Stop annoying me. Go bother your Nagumo-kun."
"Hehehe!" Kaori giggled brightly, hugging his massive textbook to her soft chest as if she had just won a major victory.
Normally, Kaori solely focused her attention on Nagumo. But recently, she had been making a concerted effort to drag Suzuki into her orbit as well.
Suzuki had been actively avoiding her. It wasn't deliberate malice; he was just genuinely busy. As an orphan fighting for his financial survival, he had to manage his grueling studies, his intense athletic training, and his part-time jobs perfectly.
But it was exactly that silent, solitary dedication that attracted Kaori.
When every other boy in the school was obnoxiously showing off or playing juvenile games, Suzuki was a quiet, unmovable mountain. Kaori vividly remembered the National High School Ekiden Championship back in December. While the other high schools sent their older, experienced runners, Suzuki—only a first-year at the time—was chosen as the ultimate Anchor.
He carried the entire, crushing weight of the team's hopes on his broad shoulders. The pressure was so intense that older, veteran athletes from rival schools were literally collapsing, screaming, and crying on the asphalt.
But Suzuki? He was a machine. He received the relay sash with a stoic, completely calm expression, perfectly hit his target pace, and crossed the finish line in first place without breaking a sweat. Then, while the rest of his team was crying and celebrating, Suzuki had immediately clocked out, packed his bag, and went home to study.
Nagumo possessed a gentle, sweet kindness that Kaori adored. But Suzuki... she wasn't entirely sure how to describe the feeling he gave her. He simply radiated a profound, deeply reliable masculine strength. Even though he preferred to be alone, absolutely no one dared to treat him like a loner.
He was a man among boys. Kaori just wanted to see what he looked like when he wasn't carrying the weight of the world.
"Aren't you going to study for your own exams, Shirasaki-san?" Suzuki asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.
"Ugh..." Kaori grimaced, her shoulders slumping. "It's so hard to study all the time. I just want to rest for a bit, you know?"
"You want to be a doctor, don't you? If you mess up your studies, you're going to accidentally kill a patient."
"...That might be true," Kaori sighed, before a playful, tempting smile returned to her lips. "But I could always just be a nurse, right?"
Shirasaki-san... as a nurse...
At that exact moment, the collective imagination of every teenage boy in the classroom completely short-circuited. The mental image of the beautiful, softly curved Kaori Shirasaki dressed in a tight, pristine nurse's uniform, gently tending to them in a hospital bed...
"Kuhhh!"
"S-She would be the absolute cutest...!"
"Nurse Shirasaki... hehehe..."
"...."
Suzuki slowly pushed his glasses up his nose. What is wrong with these idiots?
Yes, Kaori was undeniably stunning. Her long hair, her sweet aura, and her surprisingly developed figure made her the ultimate dream girl. Unfortunately for the fan club, her heart was stubbornly set on Nagumo, cementing him as public enemy number one.
As for Suzuki? None of the boys were jealous of him interacting with Kaori, because everyone knew Suzuki was strictly off the market.
"Kaori, why are you still wasting your precious time with a guy like that?"
The crowd parted as the golden boy arrived. Kouki Amanogawa, the handsome, charismatic protagonist-type, stepped up to the desk.
"You are just entirely too nice, Kaori," Kouki sighed dramatically, glaring down at Nagumo.
"Jeez, there is no point in talking to the lazy ones."
Ryutaro Sakagami, Kouki's heavily muscled, athletic sidekick, scoffed. Ryutaro was fit, but his physical feats paled in comparison to Suzuki's, making his tough-guy act look a bit pathetic to anyone paying attention.
However, before Kouki could further assert his dominance, a tall, striking girl stepped past him and smoothly took the textbook from Kaori's hands.
"Stop bothering him, Kaori."
"But Shizuku, he already got his acceptance letter to Toudai! Don't you want him to take a break?" Kaori whined playfully.
"He will get plenty of rest at my place later," Shizuku Yaegashi replied coolly.
Shizuku was the school's undisputed "Cool Beauty." Her charm was mature and sharp. She had waist-length, silky black hair tied back in a practical, high ponytail that whipped elegantly behind her when she moved. Her deep brown eyes were usually highly intelligent and intimidating, but as she looked down at Suzuki, a subtle, incredibly alluring hint of shyness softened her gaze.
"Here," Shizuku said softly, sliding the textbook back onto his desk. "You need this, right?"
"Thanks, Shizuku."
"Um..." She leaned down slightly, her long hair brushing against his shoulder. Her voice dropped to a sweet, private whisper. "But... no more books later, okay?"
"I promise. I'll focus entirely on you when we go home," Suzuki replied smoothly.
"Um." Shizuku nodded, a deeply satisfied, beautiful smile blossoming on her lips.
"...."
The classroom fell silent again.
The boys might have been furiously jealous of Nagumo for getting Kaori's attention, but they could only sigh in absolute, defeated awe at Suzuki. He had somehow managed to tame the untouchable Shizuku Yaegashi.
Why had Suzuki chosen her?
It was a highly practical decision. With his overwhelming athletic success and academic status, Suzuki was incredibly popular. Rejecting dozens of confessions every week was exhausting and risked damaging his reputation. To solve the problem, he needed a girlfriend. Specifically, he needed someone emotionally mature, fiercely independent, and physically intimidating enough that the other girls wouldn't dare try to bully her out of jealousy.
Shizuku was the absolute perfect fit.
The person with the most complicated reaction to their relationship was Kouki. Shizuku was Kouki's childhood friend, and deep down, Kouki had always assumed she would eventually fall for him.
Yet, Kouki couldn't do a single thing about it. He was entirely paralyzed by Suzuki's overwhelming superiority. Kouki was popular, smart, and athletic. But Suzuki was an elite Toudai scholar and a national, record-breaking athlete. Kouki might have had a slightly prettier face, but Suzuki radiated an intense, masculine dominance that Kouki simply lacked.
Unable to challenge the alpha, Kouki immediately turned his frustration back onto his favorite punching bag.
"You can't just keep taking advantage of Kaori's soft heart, Nagumo-kun!" Kouki scolded loudly, puffing out his chest. "She can't look after a slacker like you forever!"
Ugh...
Nagumo slumped down in his seat. He couldn't even look to Suzuki for help; Suzuki's large frame was currently hidden behind his beautiful girlfriend. Worse, the entire class seemed to aggressively agree with Kouki, completely ignoring the fact that Kaori was the one who had approached Nagumo in the first place!
Man... Nagumo thought bitterly, staring at his desk. I wish a giant black hole would just open up and suck all these idiots into another world...
At that exact, impossible moment, a blinding, violent flash of pure white light erupted from the center of the classroom floor.
"A Magic Circle?!" Nagumo gasped, his otaku instincts kicking in instantly as complex, glowing geometric runes spun violently beneath their desks.
"..."
Suzuki froze.
Oh, god...
Suzuki had explicitly planned to skip school and stay home the second he received his university recommendation to avoid exactly this kind of agonizingly cliché scenario. But he had gotten sloppy.
"Suzuki...!" Shizuku gasped, terrified by the blinding light.
Suzuki's instincts took over. He immediately reached out, grabbing Shizuku's waist and pulling her soft, trembling body tightly against his chest. Another body—Kaori—stumbled backward in the chaos, and Suzuki caught her too, shielding both girls as the blinding light reached a deafening crescendo.
Then, the light vanished. The classroom was gone.
Suzuki slowly loosened his grip on the two girls, his mind rapidly processing the catastrophic shift in their environment. He kept his expression perfectly calm as he analyzed the threat.
The ceiling above them was impossibly high, lost in a swirling, soft golden mist. Massive, pristine white marble pillars—thick enough to hide a city bus behind—lined the grand hall, topped with intricate gold-leaf carvings of angelic wings.
Dominating the far end of the hall was a colossal, terrifyingly beautiful statue of a goddess. Carved from a single piece of glowing white stone, it looked down at the students with a cold, judgmental gaze.
Burned into the polished marble floor beneath their feet were the smoking remnants of the Summoning Array—a complex, glowing geometric pattern that slowly faded from a violent purple to a dull, scorched grey.
"Where the hell are we?!"
"What's happening?!"
"Everyone, please calm down! There is no need to panic! I'm sure everything is going to be okay!"
Suzuki closed his eyes. That was definitely Kouki, he thought, thoroughly exhausted by the boy's relentless protagonist energy.
Ignoring the screaming teenagers, Suzuki locked his eyes on the group of men approaching them. Leading them was an elderly man dressed in incredibly lavish, opulent religious robes. He carried an ornate staff and wore a sickeningly warm, welcoming smile that immediately set off every single alarm bell in Suzuki's head.
"Welcome to the world of Tortus, Brave Heroes," the old man proclaimed, spreading his arms wide. "We have been eagerly awaiting your arrival. I am Ishtar Langbard, Pope of the Holy Church. Please, follow me. We have prepared lavish refreshments to welcome your divine presence as the great saviors of this world."
"....."
Suzuki adjusted his glasses, his face completely expressionless.
He wasn't entirely sure why, but he felt an overwhelming, almost violent urge to beat the absolute shit out of this old man.