“The winner can be the class representative!” the troublesome student behind Akuto’s seat declared, looking excited. He patted Akuto on the shoulder and gave him a look of respect as he whispered to him.
“Name’s Hiroshi Miwa. Please call me Hiroshi! And please let me call you boss! Boss! You’re amazing! My grades here are super low and they treat me like a delinquent, but your ideas totally resonated with me! It made me think that someday I might be able to make somethin’ outta myself!”
—Isn’t it his fault we’re in this situation right now?
Akuto thought, but he didn’t have the time to be distracted by Hiroshi.
“Hiyaaaahhh!!” With a shout, Junko suddenly launched an attack at Akuto.
“Whoa!” Akuto had been sitting, but he fell backwards in his chair and managed to dodge the attack. It seemed that his work as a delivery man had trained his body and reflexes in a way he hadn’t realized.
“Okay everyone, it’s dangerous so please step back.” Miss Mitsuko directed the class away from the duel and clapped her hands. Everyone except Junko and Akuto drew close to the walls of the classroom. Miss Mitsuko clapped her hands again, and a mana field enveloped Junko and Akuto. With her magic barrier, it seemed they would be able to fight to their hearts’ content without damaging the classroom.
—Now I’ve really been backed into a corner. I have to figure out a way to get out of this situation... All I can do is to try and calm Hattori down...
Akuto glanced at Junko’s face. Her eyes were burning bright red, and Akuto got the feeling she wouldn’t listen to anything he had to say.
“Hyaaaah!” She attacked a second time. Akuto jumped backwards to avoid the attack.
“Fight hard, boss!” From outside the mana field, Akuto could hear Hiroshi cheer him on.
Akuto was seriously fed up with him.
—How can I get Hattori to calm down...
But no matter how hard he tried, he could only think of one method.
—I guess this is all I can do.
“Gwaaaahhh!” The third attack. In a strange move, Akuto moved forward to square up with Junko’s attack.
Akuto stuck his head out in front of the wooden sword’s downward trajectory. At the moment when it looked like his head was going to be smashed, Akuto twisted his body, dodged the sword, and moved forward to slip under the hand guard on Junko’s sword.
“What?!” Her surprise caused the anger in her eyes to disappear.
The gazes of the rest of the class were glued to the action between Akuto and Junko.
An earthquake-like commotion erupted throughout the classroom.
Akuto had embraced Junko’s body from the front. With both of them being such a good-looking, matching pair, it looked like the embrace of two lovers, reunited after a long period of separation.
“Calm down...” Akuto whispered in Junko’s ear.
“Ah!”
Whether because she was ticklish, or just because it was the natural heart-thumping reaction any girl would have, Junko fell backwards as if her waist had gone limp. In order to prop her up, Akuto put a hand behind her back, and this pose made him look as if he was forcing her to kiss him.
“W-What are you... Let m—” Junko groaned.
“I won’t let go until this misunderstanding is cleared up,” Akuto said with a serious look on his face.
“What’s there to misunderstand... Everything up until now... And even now! What are you trying to do by embarrassing me like this? How humiliating!!”
“It’s all a misunderstanding. I’m not doing this on purpose to spite you, and I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“R-Really...?” Calming down a little bit, it seemed that Junko was ready to listen to Akuto’s words.
Akuto also felt slightly relieved, and gently spoke to Junko.
“That’s right. So please, let me re-swear our oath right here. I swore that oath to you because I truly liked you, and my feelings back then weren’t just superficial.”
However, the entire class clearly heard those words.
At this point, both Junko and Akuto finally became cognizant of the current position the two of them were in.
“Crazy... The Demon King sure is somethin’ else...”
“Junko’s known to be the strongest, straight-laced class representative, but he broke through her defenses... Not just that, but he made her fall for him...”
“Not even now, she had already fallen for him...” Everyone was whispering to each other.
In an instant, Junko’s face turned bright red.
“You’re only making it worse! How much more humiliation are you trying to put me through!” Junko yelled. After shaking her body to free herself from Akuto, she swung down at him with all of her strength. From his position, he couldn’t move away from the attack.
“Crap!”
Seeing that he wouldn’t be able to dodge, Akuto raised the sword held tightly in his hand. Even if he couldn’t avoid the attack, he could still block it. He braced himself for the impact and put all of his strength into the hand holding the sword.
And then...!
BANG!
A power that even Akuto himself couldn’t have imagined erupted from his right arm. There was a sensation of a burning mass of power flowing from his arm into the wooden sword.
—I have to stop!
Akuto thought instinctively, but it was impossible to stop the outpouring of power. The moment he thought the heat would be released from the sword, there was an explosion of light between Akuto and Junko.
The center of the classroom was filled with a pure white light. The blast easily broke through the mana field that Miss Mitsuko had put up, and spilled out into the classroom.
“Get down!” Miss Mitsuko shouted in surprise.
In the same moment, the roar of the explosion filled the classroom.
Miraculously, none of the students were injured. But the walls of the classroom had been blown apart on all sides. Akuto and Junko stood frozen and dumbfounded, in the middle of all the other students who were covered in ash and tile debris.
In the blink of an eye, this incident became known to the entire school. Based on this, the entire rest of the student body decided exactly what they thought of Akuto.