The Fascinating Silver Red – Chapter 21

This is a fanfiction by Doughnut Gunso.

Chiharu was pacing around the Student Council Room anxiously.

“O – okay,” she said as she was moving. “So we have Katsura-sensei accompanying Izumi to restore electricity to the school campus. We also have Risa keeping an eye on (she glanced to her left) Aika-san and Director Sanzen’in. Once we have power back, we will ask Miki to contact her family to look for military support, and… and…”

She stopped and let out a heavy sigh. “What else should we do?” she cried out loudly.

“Ah, Sharna-chan! Sharna-chan!” shouted Fumi. “Did you hear her? The Secretary is ignoring Fumi! I have nothing to do, but she is not telling me to do anything!”

“I am not the Secretary any more!” Chiharu shouted back. “I am now the Vice President! I got promoted, but I am doing a poor job! I can’t even think of anything for you to do!”

“Calm down, Chiharu,” said Masumi gently. “I think you already have everything planned. You are doing fine.”

“I am not doing fine!” said Chiharu heavily. “Hina would surely think of more… some more…”

“You are not Hina,” said Masumi, still very gently, “but you are already doing a very good job.”

Chiharu slumped into Hinagiku’s usual chair. “Now I really understand how amazing Hina is,” she said weakly. “This is hard work, but I am very sure that she would make it look easy.”

Masumi smiled. “Yes, and that is why we all love and respect her, isn’t it?” she said.

“Now I wonder where she is…” said Chiharu. She intended to talk more, but then a loud “crack” interrupted her.

“What’s that noise?” asked Masumi, who heard it as well.

The two girls both walked very slowly towards the wall, where they believed was the source of the noise. They saw nothing wrong with the wall, until a huge crack suddenly appeared with bright white light. Pink petals of light also shot out of the crack, but as they touched the ground they simply disappeared.

“What the…” exclaimed Chiharu. She didn’t have time to finish her sentence tough, as the crack began to widen so it now looked more and more like an open door. The bright light from within the “door” kept on increasing in intensity, and now it was as bright as a very strong spotlight.

Chiharu and Masumi covered their eyes with their arms, so they missed the next moment. A huge beam of light shot out of the “door”, flew across the room and out of the balcony at very high speed, just like a shooting star. The light from the “door” disappeared, and everything went dark again. The very subtle difference was that two more girls were now standing against the wall.

Masumi sat on the ground in great shock. “W – what happened just now?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“Well, Sakuya can explain that to you,” said one of the girls who appeared out of the wall – it was Saginomiya Isumi. “As for me, I have some other business out there.”

“Are you sure you do not need me to lead you, Isumi-san?” asked the other girl, Aizawa Sakuya. “You might get lost again.”

“No, I won’t, Sakuya,” said Isumi calmly. “How can I get lost by following the Student Council President?”

Chiharu blinked. “H – Hina?” she asked. “Did you see her?”

“Didn’t you see her?” asked Sakuya, apparently surprised. “She just flew into the sky!”

*

Ginka suddenly realised she was fighting the monsters alone, and she was finding herself more and more outnumbered. “Where are you, boy?” she shouted.

“I – I am very busy here!” Hayate shouted at the top of his voice, while fighting the oncoming monsters with his bare hands. He found his body heavier and heavier over time, and he didn’t notice that he was covered in his own blood. “I need your helping hand!”

“Don’t be kidding!” cried Ginka. “I am busy here as well! How am I supposed to…”

But she was interrupted as a meteor shot into the ground, sending the monsters into the air. Even Hayate was blown a few yards away.

“What the…” Ginka screamed as she was temporarily blinded by the meteor, but as she focused her sight again, she did not see a meteor, but a young girl with pink hair in a three-point landing pose, with a sword in translucent blue supporting her weight. Ginka stood still, speechless, as the girl walked slowly towards Hayate, who was still lying on his back.

Hayate struggled to get up and see what was happening, but the first thing in his sight was a wooden sword – the very Wooden Masamune he had lost a moment ago – held by a girl’s hand. He took the sword from the girl without thinking, and suddenly his body became a lot lighter. He stood on his feet, and as he saw the person who gave him Wooden Masamune, his eyes widened in shock.

“H – Hinagiku-san…” he said, his voice trembling with joy. “You are alive…”

“There is no time for sentiment, Hayate-kun,” said Hinagiku, but she was smiling gently. “We have business to finish here.”

Hot blood rushed into Hayate’s brain. It was as if he suddenly found the motivation to live again. “Yes, ma’am!” he shouted.

The two of them stood back to back as the monsters rushed towards them again.

*

Ayumu was watching the television as she held Nagi in her arms. She suddenly saw some exciting development on the screen, which made her smile despite herself.

“Nagi-chan, look!” she whispered to Nagi, who was still sobbing. “Hina-san is back!”

“Don’t lie to me, Hamster,” Nagi murmured. “That won’t make me feel any better…”

“No, just look, Nagi-chan!” said Ayumu, more loudly and eagerly.

Nagi raised her head and teary eyes and turned to the television. The tears in her eyes began dropping down, but the meaning of the tears was totally different now.

“You are right, Hamster,” whispered Nagi in joy. “It really is Hinagiku!”

*

Ginka realised that her burden was greatly reduced. Instead of fighting a large group of monsters head-on, she now only picked up the odd ones, leaving the large group for the boy in blue and girl in pink to handle.

As two great swordsmen with two great swords, Hayate and Hinagiku formed an invincible pair against the large group of monsters. Anything that came close to their swords was reduced to dust, and if there was a computer calculating their K.O. Count, then it should read over 900 by now.

Hayate became more and more spirited now that he had Hinagiku watching his back. “It’s like Athens all over again!” he shouted with a smile on his face.

“You and I remember Athens very differently,” said Hinagiku coldly as she slashed another group of monsters.

Hayate didn’t know what he had done to hit a brick wall, but he realised that he needed to shut up.

King Midas was watching the battle coldly as he walked towards the Sanzen’in Mansion – he was finally a few blocks away. He was annoyed by Hinagiku’s sudden appearance, and the turn of the tide of the battle. “I should have tried harder killing the girl…” he whispered, but he knew that there was something to do other than regretting…

*

Hayate, Hinagiku and Ginka had cleared the monsters around them, while the firepower of the Sanzen’in fortress was finally able to slow the other monsters down. The three fighters on the frontline now had some time to take a breath.

Hayate took his time to check on the moves of King Midas, and saw that he had just pointed at the sky again, and an entire new army appeared out of nowhere. “Listen to me, Hinagiku-san,” he said. “This battle won’t end unless we defeat King Midas. Luckily he has come this close, so he really has saved a lot of work for us, but we still need to focus on attacking him rather than these small fishes!”

Hinagiku opened her mouth to respond, but someone was ahead of her. “Hayate-sama is right, Student Council President,” said Isumi calmly as she walked towards them. “We can’t keep on fighting forever. If we don’t focus on defeating King Midas, we would lose in the end.”

“I agree,” said Hinagiku. “The problem is, these distractions still persist (she slashed two monsters which managed to get close to them), so it is not likely we can focus on attacking the big boss.”

“Well, you just need a little more help with that,” said a voice behind them. The fighters all turned and saw Athena and Machina coming. They did not look like they had fought a single monster at all.

King Midas chose this moment to laugh hysterically. His laughs were so loud that Hayate and Hinagiku had to cover their ears.

“Athena!” King Midas said finally. “Have you forgotten that I have lived inside you for a while, so that not only you cannot hurt me with your powers, but that your attacks would actually make me stronger?”

Athena turned to him and smiled. “No, I haven’t,” she said calmly. But I have other ways to fight your army.”

She tapped her finger and called: “Machina!” The butler nodded, and duly turned into a giant serpent, snatching all the monsters directly ahead of him, and head-butted King Midas. The army of monsters was split into two halves with his one strike, and it was the first time in this long battle that King Midas was touched.

“You!” snapped King Midas as he witnessed his army taking a huge blow, while himself feeling the pain of Machina’s ambush.

Machina gathered himself around his allies and hissed loudly. Ginka and Isumi came together, chains and spells respectively in their hands. Hayate rubbed his sleeve against his eyes, removing the blood covering them. Hinagiku swung Shirosakura around as warm-up exercise. Athena looked around, took a deep breath, and shouted: “Aven – ”

“No, no, A-tan!” cried Hayate in horror. “That’s copyright violation!”

Athena blinked. “What? I can’t use that phrase?”

“No!’ exclaimed Hayate. “Please think of something else!”

Athena sighed. “Alright then. Cuties Assemble!”

King Midas laughed again. “What do you mean, Cuties?”

“We are stamped by Manglobe as such – lovely, shiny, charming and smiling,” announced Athena. “Now we come together to defeat you, and with this we are to take our final move to destroy you!”

She took out her cellphone, which was now ringing.