Nina stood and pushed the door. It didn’t move. She tugged and hit it repeatedly, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Did someone lock it?”
The shed stored academy equipment, and the person patrolling the grounds would lock it up. Boxes and objects were stacked high enough to hide Nina as she dozed off. They must not have seen her in there.
If that was the case, it meant no one was going to come unlock the shed until morning at the earliest.
Aida might assume Nina stayed a bit longer at work if she was only a little late, but there was obviously something wrong if she didn’t come home at all during the night.
Her mom had only recently gotten back her strength to get out of bed, and Nina didn’t want to put any stress on her if she didn’t have to. There was a chance she could collapse in the street if she went out looking for Nina.
“I have to get out of here.”
It would be easiest if she could break down the door, but she didn’t think she was strong enough to do that because of how sturdy it felt when she was tugging at it.
That left her only one option.
She looked at the window above her.
“I should be able to get high enough to reach it if I stack some boxes up…but I think it’ll be a tight squeeze.”
She might be able to break the glass, but she couldn’t exactly break herself into bits to go through the window. It was hard to tell if she’d be able to get through or not.
“Welp, let’s try first and think about it more later if we have to.”
Nina got to work stacking the crates in the gloom. She didn’t know what was in them, but they were ridiculously heavy. They felt more stable when piled up, but sweat was pouring down her temples by the time she got them three high.
“Next, just gotta break the glass…”
She climbed up on the crates and smashed the glass with the haft of a spade. There was something satisfying about the sound as the glass fell both inside and out of the shed.
If she tried to get out as it was, she’d end up covered in her own blood. She had to make sure she got every shard of glass out of the frame before trying, but she was having a hard time aiming the end of her spade and couldn’t knock the last bits out.
She was still too far down to do it, so she considered stacking another crate up before finishing cleaning the window frame out.
“Nina?! Are you in there?!” came a shout.
“…Ed?”
It was definitely Ed’s voice coming through the window. She had no clue why he was at the academy at night, but it was dangerous to come any closer.
“Ed, there’s glass everywhere, don’t come any closer!”
Even a single shard of glass piercing his soft toe beans would be a tragedy. She’d rather end up covered in blood herself if it meant saving a cat from harm.
“Nina, stand back from the door!” she heard him shout. Before she could reply, the shed’s door shuddered.
She didn’t even have time to register shock at what was happening before the door burst down with a loud, splintering crack. It thumped down, sending dust into the air and letting moonlight stream into the shed.
“Nina!” A figure rushed in, searched the area, and quickly found Nina atop the crates. His eyes caught the moonlight and glittered blue and gold like gemstones, leaving Nina frozen with a spade in hand. “Nina, are you all right?!”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” She was tempted to say that the shed door wasn’t all right, but she didn’t have much right to, seeing as she was the one who broke the window. “Ed… Is that really you? Why are you here? And why are you human?”
He was both in human form and wearing the academy’s uniform. Considering he was in the same year as her, it made sense that he would own the uniform.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t think of an explanation for why he was there.
“You were late returning home,” he answered. “I asked Dino, and he said you had gone to put away the buckets. I came to see if you were here… What in the world happened?”
Despite his explanation, Nina was still left with nothing but questions, but she decided she should answer his question before asking hers. “I must’ve fallen asleep after putting the buckets away. The door wouldn’t open, so I was gonna try going out the window.”
“Which is why you broke the glass? You’re not injured, are you?” He sounded half exasperated and half concerned, but his voice was slowly going back to normal.
“I’m fine,” she answered. “So…why are you here?”
“I told you. You were late returning home.”
“Well, yeah, but how’d you know I was late going home?”
He probably could have used some divine power to go to Dino and then come to the academy, but the only person who had any way of knowing when Nina was supposed to get home was Aida, who knew her work schedule. Even if Ed had simply been waiting for a long time at her window, he wouldn’t have any way of knowing if she had to stay late at work or was still at the academy.
“Well… Come down from those crates first. Are you sure you’re not injured?” he asked concerned.
“I’m fine.”
She’d stacked the crates vertically. While she had been able to climb up, climbing down was another matter. She wanted to ask Ed to either move away or turn around because there was a chance he’d get a complete look up her skirt since she would crawl back downward from the crates, but he stepped forward and opened his arms before she could say anything.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Come on, I’ll catch you.”
Despite how calmly he said it, she had no idea what he was saying. She froze, blinking, then her cheeks started burning. “D-Don’t be stupid! I don’t want to knock you over!”
To Nina, it was the obvious thing to say, but a wrinkle of disappointment appeared on his brow. “I know my body tends to give out, but I train it plenty to compensate. I will have no problem catching a person your size, Nina.”
“And I’m saying it’s a huge problem!”
“Nina,” he repeated quietly, making Nina jolt. He sighed with the sort of smile you’d have when looking at your dearest love. “Come here, Nina.”
“Urk!”
What the heck? What was that? That smile? The face of a boy chosen as a god’s servant was such an unfair trap that it bewildered her.
“I-I just don’t know! I might knee you in the face and make your nose bleed and knock you over!” she shouted frantically, but he only smiled back.
Argh, I have no clue anymore!
She steeled herself, closed her eyes, and jumped from the crate. There was a moment where she felt like she was floating in air, then a pair of strong arms wrapped around her.
She opened her eyes to see his face so near hers, his blue and gold eyes crinkled happily. “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”