Evil Avalon - Volume 2 - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: The Training Session

The school’s exercise grounds and gymnasium inside the magic field had a small free space between each other. Today’s training session would take place there. When we arrived, several of our classmates were already present, chatting with each other.

Akagi, Pinky, and Tachigi would serve as today’s coaches. Kaoru would too, and she walked over to the other three. They began a discussion. The rest of the class had high hopes for these four; they were having some success in their dungeon raids, and their levels were higher than average for Class E. I hoped they continued to improve without bowing to the interference from the other classes.

I flung my rucksack on the floor while stifling a yawn, then watched Akagi and his friends. Suddenly, I heard a breezy female voice calling to me from behind.

“Hey there,” said the voice.

I turned around and noticed Risa, dressed in a tracksuit, smiling and waving at me. Her loosely fastened hair made her look mature, and it suited her well. She laid her belongings down carefully and sat beside me.

But I was glad I had someone to talk to now. Being the odd one out would feel awkward.

“Is this gonna be like sword fighting class, do you think?” asked Risa.

“Kaoru made it sound like they’ll be teaching us more thoroughly than that,” I replied.

“Ugh, so annoying. I don’t really wanna take part.”

Our main objective was fact-finding, so we could slack off with the training as long as we looked like we were taking it seriously.

I asked her how she’d slept the night before, and the rest of the participants arrived during our conversation.

One of them was Kotone Kuga, who walked in quietly as if to avoid being conspicuous. Kuga seemed drowsy, and her short bob bounced as she walked. She had infiltrated our school as a secret agent belonging to an American intelligence agency. The organizers had forced her to attend this session because she appeared as level 2 on our terminals but was at least level 20. She looked grumpy and was yawning without trying to hide it, making it clear to everyone that she didn’t want to be here.

Behind her walked in a boy with long blond hair and his hands stuffed into his tracksuit’s pockets. The person Risa had said was a player—Tsukijima—walked over to us.

“Oh, look who decided to take part!” he said to Risa, sitting down next to her. “Didn’t think you’d show up to this session when there’s nothing they can teach you.”

None of the students he usually hung out with were here, meaning he would participate alone.

“Morning,” said Risa. “I’m surprised you could be bothered to come too.”

“Tachigi chewed my ear off until I agreed,” said Tsukijima. “What a waste of time...”

My terminal said he was level 3, but I wondered what his true level was. Players knew plenty of ways to level up, and it was understandable that he’d find the training session pointless.

“By the way,” he continued, “I see you talking to Piggy a lot these days. What’s the deal with that?” Tsukijima peered at me suspiciously.

“H-Hi,” I said, putting on a fake smile and greeting him to avoid awkwardness. It was always the friendly types that would ask these imposing questions.

I was spending time with Risa, though, who he knew was another player, so it was only natural for him to be suspicious. I’d need to create a believable excuse to ease his suspicions.

Risa helped me out by answering first and explained, “We’ve been raiding the dungeon together. So we’re raiding buddies, I guess you could say.”

We’d agreed to keep my player status a secret.

“With him? You do remember how he ended up, don’t you? Well, I guess he reached an okay level by the end. Maybe he could come in useful...”

Piggy was one of the game’s villains and would cause scandal after scandal before finally getting expelled in Kaoru’s route. It made sense that players would want to keep their distance from me. Even I had needed a long time to stop sulking about becoming Piggy. However, I actually enjoyed being him now because of his caring family.

“Once you get to know him, he’s actually quite nice,” added Risa. “Right, Souta?”

“Huh?” I mumbled. “Oh, err, sure.”

“Why do you call him by his first name when you still call me Tsukijima?”

I got the impression that he had a crush on Risa. He probably didn’t realize who her game character had been. She was definitely attractive, but on the inside, she was the cutthroat leader of a famous PKK clan.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask,” started Tsukijima, “are you the one that told Akagi about the sword, Risa?”

Risa was silent for a few seconds. “Should we really be talking about that here?”

“Sure, why not?” replied Tsukijima. “Piggy won’t have any idea what we’re talking about. So, are you?”

He was asking whether Risa had been the person to teach Akagi about the Static Sword to give him the upper hand in his duel against Kariya.

“I’ll turn the question back on you,” retorted Risa. “Are you the one that taught Kariya how to defend himself against the Static Sword?”

“Yep,” answered Tsukijima, chuckling. “It was pretty funny watching Akagi get trounced, wasn’t it?”

Risa paused briefly before saying, “But it’s good for us if Akagi does well.”

So Tsukijima was to blame for Akagi’s defeat and Class E becoming such a depressing place with no status. Kariya had known the Static Sword’s abilities and how to counter them. If he hadn’t, Akagi would have won.

But why do that? If Akagi had grown in confidence and strength, he would’ve handled most dangerous game events by himself, giving us less work. By stopping his character’s progression, there was no telling which of the game events he’d be able to suppress, and we players would have to clean up the mess.

“I do want Akagi to handle the events for us,” admitted Tsukijima, “but he was about to form a harem, so I felt like throwing a spanner in the works.”

Apparently, Tsukijima had loved Kaoru in the game. After seeing Akagi becoming friendly with Kaoru, he’d wanted to knock Akagi down a peg. His aim would’ve been to exploit Akagi’s loss to Kariya, which would decrease the heroines’ affection scores for Akagi.

Oh wow, so he’s a Kaoru fanboy! I thought. It was brave of him to admit that in front of Kaoru’s fiancé and childhood friend. Piggy’s mind had a fierce new rival to contend with.

Most of the game’s heroines were easy to win over, and Kaoru was no exception. She’d devote if you took a dominant approach, and she had an admiration that bordered on adoration for strength, which any player would attain naturally. Tsukijima knew all of this, so it would be easy for him to win her heart by acting assertively while demonstrating his strength.

The same wouldn’t work for me, regardless of my strength or assertiveness. She had an abysmally low opinion of me after years of sexual harassment.

I must step back and give her space to forget to win her over... Wait, this is Piggy’s mind at work, not me! Dial down your annoyance, Piggy!

“So you’ll start being more helpful toward Akagi now?” asked Risa.

While I was still fighting an intense mental battle with Piggy’s mind, Risa seized her opportunity to casually inquire about Tsukijima’s plans. It was an important question for judging his outlook.

“If I feel like it,” he responded. “Besides, whatever game events occur won’t affect me.”

Tsukijima was confident he could survive the devastating game events even if the protagonist’s party failed. When higher than level 30, you could successfully clear any of the game’s events. It seemed that Tsukijima had a way to reach that level in a relatively short period. Was his leveling really that efficient?

“Who cares about Akagi?” said Tsukijima. “The only thing that matters is if we have the power to survive.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you valued people’s lives in this town... No, this world,” pointed out Risa.

There were many devastating game scenarios in DEC. We might survive them, but this world’s inhabitants wouldn’t be so lucky and suffer staggering casualties. Did he think this was nothing more than a virtual world based on the game? My family weren’t just game characters, nor was Kaoru. I pictured the rowdy dinnertimes around my family’s kitchen table. My hyperactive younger sister, my laid-back father, my calm mother... Perhaps it wouldn’t be right to describe my feelings as love, though I treasured the time I spent with them. And Kaoru... I knew just how determined she was to overcome our class’s hardship, how much effort she put in, how difficult it was for her...

Everyone here had their feet planted firmly on the ground, with their own worries, joys, sadness... They were alive.

“That’s the world we’ve come to,” stated Tsukijima. “We’re the chosen ones. We could reshape the whole world if we wanted. I’ll do whatever I want to.”

“The chosen ones?” repeated Risa sarcastically. “You really think that?”

“Who else is there?” asked Tsukijima. “AKK’s Flash didn’t make it. Demon from Rounds didn’t either. Even Mav isn’t here! We’ve got this awesome world to ourselves. What more proof could you need that God chose us?”

I am here, I thought. If nothing else, Tsukijima had a vivid imagination.

I disagreed with his opinion about this world, even if he didn’t seem like a bad guy. Although he didn’t try to sow discord and invite destruction, I wasn’t entirely on board with his belief that we were there to use our special powers. I’d also initially thought I was inside a virtual world and everyone around me was an NPC. Had I not felt Piggy’s warm attachment to his family or desperate love for Kaoru, I might have ended up like Tsukijima. However, I had felt those emotions that had become precious to me.

Unless he changed his mindset, Tsukijima and I might never be able to work together.

“You sound pretty sure of yourself that you’ll level up quickly,” remarked Risa. “Do you know something I don’t?”

“I’ll let you in on the secret if you say you’ll team up with me,” said Tsukijima, smiling mischievously. “But only if you agree to use a magical contract.”

So, he did have a secret technique of some kind. I hoped Risa could weasel it out of him.

“Ah, sorry, Piggy.” Tsukijima roughly patted me on the shoulder. “Do me a solid and forget you heard anything.”

“Sure...” I replied. Even the real Piggy would understand the conversation you’ve just had, and he wouldn’t be likely to forget it!

I continued thinking about what I should do about my relationship with Tsukijima until Tachigi approached us. Tachigi explained the format of the training session while glancing down at some pieces of paper. “We’ll now begin the training session. I want you to arrange yourselves into the pairs that I’ve designated in this list.”

We would first practice in pairs with plastic swords, like during sword fighting class, and we had prearranged partners. My partner was apparently...that girl, of all people. Kuga, the girl yawning drowsily in front of me, clearly had no desire to participate in the session.

She possessed the Appraisal skill, an improved version of Basic Appraisal, so she could see through my Fake skill and decipher my real stats. I’d need to let her have the upper hand in our training. Otherwise, things could get ugly for me.

“G-Good luck...” I said to Kuga.

In reply, she simply yawned. I faced her with my sword ready, but she held her sword in her hand and let it dangle. She wasn’t even looking at me.

What the hell am I supposed to do?!