บท 245: Saving a Hero
"Shizuku!"
"Shizu Shizu!"
As both Kouki and Suzu called out to her excitedly, the rest of the students similarly called out to her or let out sighs of relief, now believing that the reliable and cool big sister would save them. Shizuku was equally happy to see her friends, but she didn't let it show on her face as she focused on the person she already identified was her opponent, one of her closest friends, Eri. As she hadn't been present when Eri gave her speech, Shizuku couldn't help but ask,
"Why Eri?" The girl in question became noticeably agitated at Shizuku and cried out,
"I'm just getting rid of the useless trash! Trash like you who don't know how to appreciate what they're given!" Shizuku's focused looked wavered for a second at Eri's outburst and she muttered,
"What?" Eri became even more agitated and she declared,
"It's because of things like this I despise you the most! Always near Kouki and looking like you two belong together, yet acting like its some kind of chore being around him! You have what I've literally killed for and you don't seem to even care!" Shizuku's eyes narrowed as she heard such a stupid reason to do the things Eri had, and she said,
"I can't speak for your chances Eri, but I can guarantee that I will never be able to end up with Kouki, he closed that door a long time ago." The last part was barely a mutter, but several people did catch it and Eri and Kouki's faces both changed when they heard it. Though she never really talked about it Kouki was technically her first crush when they first met, but this ended soon after she met him when she realized he wouldn't be the kind of 'prince' she was looking for, a fact she admittedly hoped he would change over time. As this old thought went through her head another figure appeared, but Shizuku swiftly pushed it away before turning her attention on Eri once more. It was then that she noticed that the amount of people surrounding them had increased until there were well over fifty of them standing there, as well as all of the ones pinning her classmates down, all giving Shizuku a sense of wrongness from how none of them were actually alive. Eri seemed to just notice this as well and her agitated state was quickly replaced with a calm one as she said,
"No matter, you're about to die anyways you ungrateful bitch. I bet you regret coming back now right?" Shizuku snorted at Eri's words and secretly thanked Irina, Xenovia, Tomoe, and Bennia for training her for the last two months, as her biggest concerns now were the fact that she was about to use her blade to cut human flesh, and how her classmates might be used against her as hostages. The last concern proved unnecessary as a wave of fire suddenly rushed out over the group, instantly setting the zombies holding down her classmates aflame.
"I'll help so you can fight without worries Shizuku!" Kaori cried as she came out from where her and Aiko were hiding. She then casted two more spells, first was a barrier around everyone to prevent the zombies from attacking them, then an area of effect healing spell so that everyone could recover from the surprise attack. While she healed them Aiko was busy going to wach and every stud net to make sure they were alright, guilt flooding her conscience from leaving them to face this alone. They had initially tried to stay hidden as Kaori wasn't confident enough with the couple fire based spells Ravel had her learn to be of help, but she saw her chance when Shizuku was talking with Eri to prepare her attack. Using the momentary pause in the enemies when Kaori attacked, Shizuku made her move.
Before Eri even knew what happened she was already down five guys as Shizuku swiftly moved through them and used the 'Dragons Demonic Flame' enchantment Alex added to her weapons to ensure they stayed dead. At Eri's order they all started to move in on her at once to try and box her in, but Shizuku used her sword to cut space itself to make a "hole" before she disappeared into it and resumed her attack from behind the opponents. Everyone watched dumbfoundedly as Shizuku moved so fast that even the hero Kouki couldn't keep up, and they could only see her for the briefest of milliseconds when she slashed an opponent before disappearing once more. All it would take was a single cut and her target would combust into blackish flames before turning to ash a moment later. As she fought the undead Knights a trio of spell casters across the room tried to power a spell to attack her, but they were interrupted when a kunai sprouted from each of their faces and they also suddenly burst into blackish flames. By this point over half of her undead soldiers had been reduced to ash and Eri was starting to sweat a little from how easily Shizuku was dealing with them; though she figured Shizuku would stronger when she came back, she had completely underestimated her rate of growth. A second later however her expression turned calm once more when she realized she still had a certain zombie left among those Shizuku hadn't dealt with yet. As she closed in on that particular zombie it turned to look at her and Shizuku froze momentarily when she saw who it was.
"Lady Shizuku! Please help me!" The maid named Nia cried out. She was a maid that had become quite close to Shizuku during her stay, and was well on her way to becoming one of Shizuku's self proclaimed 'soul sisters'. When she paused momentarily the remaining zombies as well as the Nia zombie didn't miss this chance and attacked, forcefully pulling Shizuku from her stupor as she tried to dodge the oncoming attacks. Though she was mostly successful she still suffered a slash to the side of her face, which resulted in a wound several inches long on her cheek.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! There goes your 'cool beauty' image scar-face!" Eri insanely cackled from the side, feeling gleeful that she "ruined" Shizuku's face with such a wound, even though healing magic would have fixed it easily. However her cackling soon stopped when she saw what happened next. The moment the attack connected with her Shizuku started channeling Regeneration magic on her face and the wound started to slowly close, once again making everyone stupefied before she restarted her attack. Shizuku then turned towards the zombie Nia who held a dagger in her hands with a bit of blood on it, showing that she was the one who managed to cut her face. Shizuku's faced adopted a saddened look as she blurred towards her and buried her blade into Nia's heart while muttering,
"I'm sorry..." As she burst into flames the maid's expression seemed to turn peaceful before disappearing. After driving her blade through a friends heart Shizuku's expression hardened as she started destroying the remaining zombies with extreme prejudice, hating the fact that a friends face was being used to attack one they cared about. She was forced to face such a thing yet again when the last zombie to attack her was the king himself, even though this feeling was just from "killing" Liliana's father. Just as the rest before him however his body burst into flame with a single cut from Shizuku's sword, and she whispered a silent apology to Liliana. While slightly out of breath from all the magic she used for the black fire, Shizuku turned back towards Eri with a ferocious expression while the latter cried out,
"What the hell?! Are you some kind of monster now?!" Eri complained as everything she planned and worked towards seemed to fall apart. Shizuku simply sighed and said,
"When I heard that my classmates were in trouble I wanted to help them myself without Alex doing it himself once again, but I wasn't strong enough so in the end you could even say I sold my soul to the devil to gain the necessary strength." Everyone looked at Shizuku strangely as they wondered just what she had to do to get stronger, while Kaori knowingly giggled in the background. This was quickly replaced by a cry however as Eri smiled victoriously and another voice cried out,
"DON'T MOVE OR I'LL KILL HER!" Everyone turned to see one of the people who had seemed to be injured previously, Hiyama, holding Kaori hostage while also pressing a sword against her neck. He was hiding among the rest of the class in the event something like this happened so that not only would he and Eri be able to get away, but so he could take what he wanted most with him, Kaori. Seeing Kaori in such a situation the freshly healed Kouki grabbed his holy swords handle and demanded,
"Hiyama! What are you doing?!" Hiyama made a face at Kouki's demand and sneered,
"I'm just taking Kaori with me since I deserve her! If you don't want me to kill her now then throw down your sword and surrender!" Kouki was dumbfounded at Hiyama's logic and said,
"But if you killed Kaori then you wouldn't be able to have her either, she'd be dead!" Hiyama snorted and replied,
"I'll just have Eri bring her back! It doesn't matter how she is as long as she's mine!" Seeing Hiyama's irrationality and what seemed to be a touch of insanity in his eyes, Kouki and the others had no choice but to put away their weapons and let Hiyama get his way, Kaori would die if they didn't. Hiyama started cackling madly until he noticed someone didn't listen to his orders and he shouted,
"You too Shizuku, weapons down or I'll kill your precious best friend!" Shizuku sighed and decided to also do as Hiyama said, not from necessity, but because there was no reason for her not to. Though she was slightly worried for Kaori, Shizuku knew she wasn't in any real danger due to the people that were most likely watching over them to ensure nothing happened, a fact Kaori herself was well aware of. As her swords suddenly disappeared into nothing, Shizuku asked,
"Are you sure about this Hiyama? Kaori does have one scary and over protective boyfriend watching over her." Hiyama's face changed as Shizuku mentioned Hajime, before he shouted,
"SHUT UP! DON'T YOU DARE MENTION HAJIME! I'M THE ONE WHO DESERVES KAORI! I'M THE ONE WHOS BETTER! I'M-" they never heard whatever else Hiyama was about to say he was, as at that moment a bullet came flying from someplace no one could see and Hiyama's head splattered across the wall in an excellent shot that made sure none of the gore hit Kaori herself. Though she also turned a bit pale from the scene, Kaori quickly turned towards the direction the bullet came from and shouted cheerfully,
"THANK YOU HAJIME!" Though no one could see him where he was stationed in a tower clear across the city, Hajime smiled back through his scope at his beloved before turning his attention back towards the area surrounding the city. His job was to be on guard for any "unexpected situations" that Alex said might happen. He did however use his new spider golems to keep an eye on the girls and to use transmutation through to shoot if he needed to help them. Meanwhile back in the throne room Shizuku was admittedly pretty worried and went to check on the condition of her friend, and Eri had slumped down onto her knees in disbelief that everything she planned was undone so easily. A moment later she realized that there was no one watching her and so she tried to sneak away, only to back into something hard. Eri hesitantly turned around and saw a muscular man standing behind her, towering over her relatively small frame with a smirk on his face.
"And where do you think you're going miss?" Alex asked with a chuckle as Eri gulped.
(A.N. So what do you guys want me to do with Eri? I had an idea to make antagonist women into maids like Nyx, but I also wanted to see if the idea would be supported before I tried it. The only other idea I have for her right now is to just kill her and be done with it, but if someone has a better idea then I'm all ears.)
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