Chapter 1:
The Hero Investigated
Once, there was a Hero named Suzuka Hachishiki. He was a Maneuver Cavalleria, Captain of the Imperial Air Force City Defense Corps 1st Mobile Unit, Suzuka Squad…a man who’d killed, slaughtered, and massacred monsters from another world.
His parents, the nuns and his friends at the orphanage who had taken him in, and the comrades he’d made in the army after enlisting had all been killed by Jave. But Hachishiki survived one reckless assault after another, fueled both by a desire for revenge and the urge to follow his fallen friends into death. As a result, he saved countless lives and found himself celebrated as the Hero.
Thirteen years ago, he died in battle against an enemy Queen.
However, just before he died, a side effect of the Gate sent his soul into the body of a newborn. The Hero was reborn with all his memories intact. His magic, however…not so much.
Magic was required to pilot a Division Maneuver. Magic was rated on a scale of one to five. He’d been a Division 5, the strongest mankind was capable of, but now he was bumped all the way down to Division 1.
The former Hero, now reborn as Okegawa Kuon, faced this fact at the tender age of five, a fate so cruel it made him cry. It had sent him into a total meltdown.
But he didn’t give up.
Reunited with Nanahoshi Kaede, his master in his previous life, he dedicated himself anew to the study of Shichisei Kenbu Machine Fencing. He made that impressive strength his own, entered Jogen Maneuver Academy despite his division, and met the strongest student the school had ever had—a Division 5 named Suzuka Hanabi. He joined her team, they made each other better, and their hearts grew as one.
Tasked with closing the Gate over the Capital, Hanabi and the rest of the team had been in mortal danger, but Kuon arrived in time, rescued Hanabi from the enemy’s clutches, killed the Queen, and destroyed the Gate.
Suzuka Hanabi’s efforts allowed many Cavalleria to retreat from the battlefield.
Okegawa Kuon’s efforts saved Hanabi’s team and destroyed both the Queen and the Gate.
In return for their achievements, the Air Force gave the duo a new name: The Twin Star Heroes.
Additionally, Kuon discovered that the senpai he loved was a girl he’d saved in his previous life. However, Suzuka Hanabi did not yet know that the boy she loved was the reincarnation of the Hero who’d saved her, whom she’d looked up to her entire life.
✦ ✦ ✦
That was a close one.
Okegawa Kuon let out a sigh of relief. Broadcasting their flirting to the entire Air Force during an operation was unprecedented. If his master hadn’t pulled some strings, even the Twin Star Heroes could both have been thrown in solitary.
Instead, they’d been let off with a three-page essay and three hundred push-ups each. They might be called heroes, but both Kuon and Hanabi were still trainees.
Right now, they were in a room at Jogen Maneuver Academy. “I’m sorry, Kuon-kun…”
“D-don’t worry about it, Senpai.”
They’d both managed to get their essays done and then started doing push-ups together in the headmaster’s office. Hanabi had made it to two hundred and then found herself unable to move, so Kuon took over her extra hundred. After all, they were a team. “My body’s lighter, so it’s less work,” Kuon said, trying to make her feel better. This backfired.
“Oh? You don’t say?” Nanahoshi Kaede said, sitting down on his back mid-push-up. She was his master and the one who’d ostensibly saved them. As Hanabi watched ruefully, cursing her unresponsive arm muscles, Kuon kept counting, “Two hundred sixteen, two hundred seventeen!” He voiced no complaints about his extra burden, but there was quite a puddle of sweat forming under him. Keeping up a good rhythm was vital in these situations. He just had 184 to go. He could do it.
“Hanabi?” Kaede asked. “You look like you want to say something.”
“I absolutely don’t!”
“Your slices got dull as that last fight went on, didn’t they? Even with a DM on, if you don’t visualize the movements clearly, your body won’t keep up. You’ve got a mental limit telling you that you can only swing a sword for so long. And you know why that is?”
“…Because that’s how long I can swing a sword without the DM.”
“Exactly. So you understand the reason for this punishment? Then why have you stopped?”
“Ungggh…”
“The reason your biceps gave out is because of your excessive chest blubber.” Kaede poked Hanabi’s boobs with her wooden sword. It was midsummer, and the school trainee uniforms were quite thin. Hanabi’s massive boobs swung all over the place. It was mesmerizing. Kaede’s behavior was verging on sexual harassment, and in another military school there might be consequences, but at Jogen Maneuver Academy, you were better off saying “yes” to whatever the headmaster came up with.
Thus Hanabi was forced to yell, “You’re completely correct, ma’am!”
Meanwhile, Kuon was entering his 218th arm extension, thinking, Pot calling the kettle black, you big-boobed loli cougar.
“Kuooon? I feel like I should be giving you can extra fifty just because…”
Dang, she always knows. She never misses a beat.
“Two hundred nineteeeeen!” he roared.
He only had 231 more. He could do it.
As she bullied her pupils, Kaede shook her head.
Cards on the table—she was the one who’d hacked Hanabi’s frame and opened up her comms. She’d figured if Kuon and Hanabi started talking, odds were good they’d get flirty. If they’d kept their private lives out of the mission, she’d never have been able to administer this punishment, but…well, that hadn’t happened.
She had a legitimate reason for doing this.
The military brass were hell-bent on covering Hanabi in glory, treating her like an idol, their very own Joan of Arc. But Kaede had seen what that treatment had done to her former student, Suzuka Hachishiki, and she was not about to lose anyone else the way she had him.
Thanks to Kuon’s stupidity, everyone now knew the Twin Star Heroes were partners on and off the battlefield, and that would protect Hanabi from the worst kinds of idol worship. Being the Warrior Princess was plenty.
They no longer needed a single Hero, but venerating a duo instead made little difference. The result would still be the two of them being used and getting killed.
“We don’t need a Hero who stands above us all.”
Words she’d said herself five and a half months earlier, but the reality wasn’t quite so easy.