"It's happily decided then!"
"From now on, Haramura-kun will be responsible for all my physical training. If I ever get into danger due to insufficient stamina in the future, Haramura-kun would surely regret it."
She was clearly a youthful, beautiful girl.
Clearly, she usually acted quite normal.
But now she was acting all pretentious and affected, like a master of manipulation.
If it were some unrelated woman trying to talk to him like this, relying on her looks, he wouldn't show her even a hint of kindness.
But when it came to Shokuhou Misaki...
"Fine, I can train you when I have free time."
"But how long you can stick with it depends on your own willpower."
Training one person or a group made no difference.
He'd already promised to teach her how to read people's hearts without using abilities, so occasionally helping her with physical training was just going along for the ride.
However!
He had no confidence in this girl's willpower whatsoever.
"Don't worry, with Haramura-kun there, I'll definitely be able to persist."
The meaning on Haramura Makoto's face was far too obvious—she couldn't possibly miss it.
He had no idea where her confidence came from that could support this physically weak girl in saying such things.
But that didn't stop him from nodding in agreement.
"Alright, you've rested enough."
"Let's try to learn swimming today."
...
"Whoosh—!"
Through the sound of tearing air, a white beam suddenly burst from the darkness, friction with the air as it penetrated steel framework and struck the wall behind.
"Sizzle—!"
The moment the beam hit the wall, it didn't produce an explosive energy, but instead, as if concentrated by a high-temperature flame gun at a single point, rapidly melted and dissolved like cream.
At that moment, an extremely pitiful scream came from behind the wall.
Then, several voices emerged from the darkness behind.
"Mm? Hit it, right?"
"Super lucky."
"As expected of Takitsubo and Mugino, Academy City's strongest combination of Level 5 and Level 4—absolutely invincible."
"...Hmph..."
Accompanied by these words, several figures slowly emerged from the darkness behind.
"The missions these days are getting more and more unreliable. The target's situation is completely different from what the broker provided."
A girl with a tall, slender figure and fluffy tea-colored wavy hair spoke in an extremely impatient tone. Despite her young age, her manner of speaking and physique leaned toward the mature type.
"It was still okay! At least in terms of difficulty, it was indeed super easy level."
Speaking with this strange verbal tic was a middle school student with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up over her head and a petite figure.
"But because the broker and client provided inaccurate intelligence, causing errors in the process, we worked all afternoon and now can only get two-thirds of the original payment."
The girl who spoke later was also complaining.
From her appearance, she seemed to be of Nordic origin, with fluffy long blonde hair and azure eyes. She had a slender, petite build, wore a dark blue beret on her head, and was dressed in a super short skirt with black knee-high socks. From her appearance, she was an overwhelmingly cute girl.
"Sorry, I made an error in the direction I indicated..."
This was the last to speak.
Her face showed almost no expression, but her white pupils were already filled with dense bloodshot veins. A trace of fatigue showed on her face, and she was a rather plainly dressed girl with shoulder-length black hair.
"It's fine, Takitsubo. That guy pushed his body's potential to its limits."
"I didn't anticipate that he could still activate his ability in that situation either."
The most mature-looking one with tea-colored wavy hair directly thrust her hand into her hair with a completely irritated expression.
Her words seemed to show concern for her companion, but her behavior and expression showed no trace of such feeling.
This was a combination of four girls.
Just from their entrance, these were four girls with completely different personalities.
But their one common trait was probably an aura atmosphere completely similar to the pitch darkness that currently concealed them.
Originally, if he hadn't burst out his ability and calculated at normal speed, her ability would have perfectly melted through his leg, making him lose mobility.
But who told him to push himself beyond his limits? There was no helping it.
But since it had already come to this, there was no point in continuing to be annoyed. Her smooth hair slipped between her fingers.
"Notify that guy to come clean up."
"Is it okay to leave directly this time? No need to wait for pickup?"
The blonde cute girl immediately took out her phone and sent a message according to the tea-haired girl's request.
"What's the point of waiting?"
"The mission target is already dead. We can just leave directly."
"That's true."
Between two points, a straight line is the shortest distance. Without having to take detours and just using abilities to dissolve walls, even in a complex abandoned laboratory, their exit speed was quite fast.
Then, looking at the empty streets and carless roads.
"Speaking of which, if there's no pickup this time, seems like we can't just hitch a ride back."
"And Mugino, the only one old enough, doesn't even have a driver's license."
"Shut up!"
The tea-haired girl spat impatiently and stomped her high-heeled foot hard on the ground.
"Whatever, let's find some trash to use as disposables when we get back."
...
The afterglow of the evening sunset painted the entire sky a brilliant red.
The location returned once again to Hanakaze Junko's villa.
But now it was quite different from the afternoon—Shokuhou Misaki was still there.
However, the man who had taught her swimming skills all afternoon had long since left.
Instead, accompanying Shokuhou Misaki was the second-in-command of the Shokuhou faction, Hanakaze Junko, who had left at noon.
"Your Majesty, did you have a pleasant afternoon?"
Hanakaze Junko looked at Shokuhou Misaki, who was still wearing her swimsuit and lying on a lounge chair, showing the most sincere smile on her face.
"Of course I was happy!"
Leisurely drinking juice and eating sweets that Junko had just ordered the family chef to make.
She had consumed quite a lot of energy this afternoon, and this was a rare time when she could eat sweets freely—she couldn't waste it.
But while using her fork, her gaze remained fixed on her middle finger, on a ring of somewhat antique style and unclear material.
"Really very happy."