Erica didn't know what to do.
This Yū Narukami would probably be better as an ally than an enemy but that didn't stop one simple problem from being raised because of him.
He was too normal.
That's not to say she didn't believe he was genuine, the fact that Shizuka was eating one of his bento's without any negative effects was proof that he hadn't attempted to poison Godou or anything like that.
The problem was the effect he would have on Godou's development.
For so long she had been trying to get Godou to accept that he was no longer a normal human, that he was one of the most powerful figures in the world and that he should start acting like the king he was.
But this new Campione could threaten that development by making him believe that his current way of acting wasn't a mistake.
And now Godou was apparently planning on spending some extra time with the other teen and she didn't know of any suitable excuse to stop him.
At least, not any that would prevent him from spending time with the eighteen year old.
Oh, both she and Yuri had received in the information about the eighth Campione that had been discovered the previous night, including exactly which God he had slain.
Not that she was particularly worried, she had every confidence that Godou could defeat the other teen should the two do battle, he had defeated Verethragna, the God of Victory after all and even if his authorities had restrictions on them, she was certain he could win.
Sure, since Izanami was an ancient Shinto Deity with very few known parallels, her power was more pure and therefore greater than that of those that had a great accumulated history.
That's not to say other Gods didn't have greater abilities, while their power may be spread thinner than Izanami's they tended to have more abilities at their disposal, which in turn allowed them to overcome the difference in power.
But that lack of extra history meant Godou would have far less trouble making a sword to sever Izanami's authorities.
But she still couldn't stop herself from thinking about the danger this other King presented to her Kings mental state.
Shaking those thoughts out of her mind, she decided that she needed to think up a plan to separate the two without gaining Godou's ire… so for tonight, she would let the eighth Campione talk with her lord, hopefully by tomorrow she could come up with a suitable method of removing the negative influence.
It was simply a matter of time.
She just hoped she wouldn't be too late.
Yū couldn't stop himself from smiling as the lunch break ended.
All his previous concerns about the other Campione had been dispelled in their brief encounter and he was now certain that a peaceful coexistence was not only possible but highly likely… if anything it seemed more like they might actually become allies as well.
Though he would admit that he was concerned about that Erica Blandelli that seemed to stick to Godou like a limpet, she clearly did not like him and he had no idea why.
He really hoped she wouldn't try and start a conflict between them, that would simply make everything awkward.
She had also been the only one to not accept one of his bento's, even if most of them were going to be saved for later.
It was always satisfying to see someone enjoy the food he had cooked, even when the people eating it were merely acquaintances instead of the close friends he shared them with back at Yasogami.
But that didn't matter, what mattered was that he was going to be spending time with his fellow king, something he hoped would help foster good relations between them and allow for a trustworthy ally among the magical world.
After all, the History Compilation Committee existed to hide the existence of magic and deities from the general populace so what was there to say they didn't hide other things from the Campione?
That's not to say that he didn't want to trust them, he hoped they were a trustworthy organisation, but he wasn't going to blindly accept them as such, not after tha whole debacle with Adachi in Inaba.
If they hadn't been so instantly trusting of the apparently useless detective, then maybe things might have turned out differently… though if he was honest with himself he knew that things turned out as well as they could've, after all, they had managed to save everyone they could even if it had been a close call on every occasion.
But even if he wasn't prepared to fall into the same trap again, he was still the type of person that wanted to trust others.
After all, it was possible that the HCC was just like the investigation team, keeping people out of the loop in order to avoid creating panic and protecting them from the knowledge that things aren't as they seem.
He honestly hoped that they were like that.
But as they say, set your hopes high and your expectations low.
That way he won't be disappointed if they turn out to be not as nice as he hoped they were.
His attention focused on the teacher as they entered the room and without any further contemplation, he prepared himself for the rest of the school day.
Now if only they could start teaching him something he didn't already know.
Godou was nervous.
School had finally ended and he was going to be spending some more time with the newest Campione.
Sure he was nothing like Salvatore or Voban, but in the end he was still a Campione and it was possible that the older teen was simply pretending to be nice while there were others around in order to keep their existence a secret from the public.
Bah, who was he kidding, Narukami-san wasn't like that, his instincts honed by reading his foes in baseball practice told him that and those instincts were rarely wrong.
No, what really made him nervous was the thought of how Erica would act if she was around him for too long.
It was no secret that she didn't like him, something that he simply didn't understand. After all, Narukami-senpai was perfectly pleasant and showed no signs of being anything but sincere.
Well, except for his ability to lie as effectively as he did against Shizuka… alright, maybe Erica did have a reason to be distrustful of the grey haired teen.
But still, he trusted the other high schooler and that was all that really mattered.
In the end though, he just knew that having Erica around would make everything far more awkward than he would really be comfortable with but it was still better than trying to deny her advances at every moment of the day.
So he would just hope that she and Narukami-san would just ignore each other.
If that happened then he would probably get a much needed break from the constant attention she lavished on him.
It wasn't that he didn't like her, quite the opposite in fact, but the reality was that he didn't want to become committed until he was older. So to put it another way, she was simply trying to go too fast for him and it made him uncomfortable.
Plus, the attention she gave him caused most of the boys in his class to focus their ire on him… it wasn't even his fault she clung to him like she did, so why was he always getting the short end of the stick?
It hadn't been that long ago that he had been kidnapped by Takagi, Nanami and Sorimachi over the fact that Erica and Mariya spent a lot of time with him… and it wasn't like he could just tell them that they were both members of secret organisations that revolve around magic, Gods and Godslayers.
Things had only been exacerbated by Sorimachi's Imouto fetish making him obsess over the way he treated Shizuka… honestly, just because he didn't have an Imouto fetish didn't mean he treated her horribly… if anything it was the other way around!
He never accused her of being a serial womanizer but that was pretty much all that ever left her lips when she talked about him nowadays.
It just wasn't fair.
"Godou," he gulped nervously as he noted that Erica, who had been far quieter than usual after meeting Narukami-san, had just spoken his name, "I have something I need to take care of, please be careful around the other Campione while I am away."
He nearly tripped over his own feet when she said that.
The thought of Erica of all people deciding to leave him alone was just outright strange… sure he knew he should be grateful but all he could bring himself to be was suspicious of her intentions.
"What do you need to take care of?" he was fully aware that she wouldn't tell him what she was going to do but he found himself asking anyway.
"I need to contact Copper Black Cross about the newest Campione," Godou found himself blinking at that excuse, sure he knew it was just that, an excuse, she'd never bothered taking time away from him to contact them but it was certainly a good excuse.
"I see," he knew he didn't sound particularly convinced but then again, he was certain she would be capable of telling he wasn't convinced even if he tried to sound genuine.
The grimace she made upon hearing his lack of belief in her excuse would've been imperceptible if he didn't know her as well as he did and it showed him that she was definitely planning something behind his back. And given the events of the day, he was certain it had something to do with Narukami-san.
"Kusanagi-san," and before anything else could be said, the very person he believed was the cause of this unease called out to him.
"Ah, Narukami-san, how are you doing?" he asked as calmly as he could given the current situation.
"I'm doing fine," the smile on the grey haired teens face was once again contagious and Godou found himself smiling as well, "so are you and your girlfriend ready?"
"I already told you we're not a couple," the dark haired sixteen year old grumbled loud enough for his senpai to hear him.
"And I've already mentioned that Godou is in denial," the seventh Campione found himself nearly crying at Erica's dismissal of his statement, "and I will not be joining Godou on this meeting as I have other matters to attend to."
"I see, then are you ready to go Kusanagi-san?" and with that question from the eighth Campione, the slayer of Verethragna simply let out a nod of acceptance, "I will ask this first, is there anywhere within walking distance of here? I came to school on my scooter so I'll have to take it back home tonight."
"Ah, you have a scooter?" he was definitely surprised to hear that, he didn't expect the older teen to have his own form of transportation.
"Yeah, though I'm considering applying for a standard vehicle licence," he admitted calmly, making the other teen widen his eyes in surprise.
"Really? Do you have a car as well?" the question was a perfectly valid one and the laugh he received in response was rather telling in his eyes.
"No I don't, but I have managed to save up a few hundred thousand Yen over the past year," the older of the two admitted casually, "though I'm going to see about getting the HCC to get me a good one instead of spending my own money on it."
At that statement Godou froze, he also noted that Erica also froze as she started walking away from the two males.
"W-what do you mean you're going to get the HCC to buy it for you?" the younger teen couldn't believe his ears, he had expected Narukami-san to be like him and try and avoid getting too close to any of these mages associations and here he was saying he was going to take advantage of one of them already.
"Well, they're expecting me to do things for them so it's only natural that I expect them to pay me for it," at that Godou realised he wasn't dealing with someone like himself, to think that he would only help them because he wanted whatever they could get him.
His displeasure at that revelation must have been easy to read if the next sentence Narukami-san said was anything to go by.
"Let me guess, you think I'm only going to fight Heretic Gods because I'm getting paid right?" the former Baseball player had to suppress a wince at that statement, "I'll tell you this, I'll fight any Heretic God that causes harm to anyone, regardless of whether I'm getting paid or not, but that doesn't mean I won't take advantage of it to get a bit extra for myself."
That explanation made the dark haired teen stall a bit, he didn't understand what the older teen was implying despite his attempts at figuring it out.
"To put it simply, I see myself like a Doctor, I won't sit by and let someone die just because I wasn't getting paid, but that doesn't mean I won't use those same skills to make a living," and that explanation hit the younger teens mind like a sledgehammer. He had never thought of it like that, he had always assumed that since he had to strength to fight Gods, it was his duty to do so and he therefore shouldn't take anything from that situation.
But it seemed that Narukami-san thought about using that strength for both the right reasons and personal gain at the same time.
There was only one real problem he could think of.
"But what about getting too close to any single organisation?" he was sure there would be some sort of problem in the long run if he got too close to a single group, even if he was close to representatives of both Copper Black Cross and the History Compilation Committee.
"Well, the representative of the History Compilation Committee that I met last night basically said that the Campione are so far beyond everyone else that there is no point in trying to stand up to them, so I doubt they'll cause either of us too much trouble," the shrug the older teen gave at that explanation made Godou Kusanagi feel strange.
It was obvious that Yū Narukami, the one person he felt was normal among the Campione, was taking his role as a king in stride and not letting any of the stress get to him… and yet he was still acting normally outside of everything involving the mages associations.
It was just something he felt seemed almost paradoxical after seeing those that accepted their positions in the food chain.
Was it really possible to retain a normal life while still accepting the political power that came with being a Campione?
He turned his gaze towards Erica, only to blink in surprise as he saw her smiling at him. The smile itself was something that he knew very well, it wasn't the coy one that existed to try and seduce him, it wasn't the mischievous one that threatened his sanity… it was the reassuring one, the one that told him that everything was alright and that what he was thinking wasn't wrong.
She could read him better than anyone and he could also read her better than anyone… and right now, he realised exactly what she meant, "you should listen to him."
With a twitch of her lips, she turned and walked away, leaving him alone with the newer Campione.
"So are you finished talking with your girlfriend?" and once again Godou found himself wallowing in a pit of despair.
"She isn't my girlfriend!"