Chapter 2

Although Zerozaki Hajime did not agree to Yanagi Renji's request, she felt there was no rush and that she could explain another time. With so many people around right now, it was not the best place to say too much. Yukimura Seiichi had watched her leave the tennis courts until she disappeared completely from view. "Yukimura, do you know her?" Sanada Genichirou asked, looking somewhat puzzled by his pensive expression. Yukimura Seiichi turned his head to look at Sanada Genichirou and shook his head. "She looks familiar." Anyone with eyes could see that Zerozaki Hajime had a unique aura and was exceptionally striking—the kind of person who was unforgettable even when lost in a crowd. Combined with the fact that she had grabbed Yukimura Seiichi's hand to destroy those monsters, Niou Masaharu and Yanagi Renji both felt that the relationship between Yukimura Seiichi and Zerozaki Hajime was definitely more than meets the eye. "The probability that Yukimura knows that female classmate is 89.99 percent." Yanagi Renji stated his conclusion. "Puri, why is there a decimal point?" Niou Masaharu teased. "This is out of respect for the probability of the event occurring." Yanagi Renji closed his notebook. Since Yukimura Seiichi was their club captain after all, the others did not dare to gossip too much.

On the way back to the Archery Club, Zerozaki Hajime opened the space-time backtracking function of the System and pondered the locations where these monsters had appeared. She discovered that while these monsters seemed to appear at random, in reality... they really did appear completely at random. At any rate, Zerozaki Hajime could not discern any pattern for the time being. All the way there, Zerozaki Hajime kept the System interface open, only to find that in this school—aside from those regular team members—no one else could see either the monsters or her System. That was fine by her; it saved her a lot of trouble. The regular team members of Rikkai seemed to share a tacit understanding, as none of them mentioned the magical incidents surrounding Zerozaki Hajime to anyone else.

By the time club activities ended, Zerozaki Hajime still had not closed the System interface, merely minimizing it to the side. "I never expected Zerozaki-san's archery to be so good!" Ayanokouji Yumi took off her archery uniform and praised Zerozaki Hajime's skills. Zerozaki Hajime smiled faintly. "It's alright, not particularly difficult." Since archery was her forte, Zerozaki Hajime felt there was no need to be overly modest.

The residential area where Zerozaki Hajime lived was not too far from Rikkai, just a little over ten minutes away on foot. Just as she was about to step into the neighborhood, the System interface indicated that two monsters had appeared at Rikkai. What's more, they were moving in completely different directions—in fact, opposite directions! Oh no, the tennis team regulars must have all finished training and gone home. Zerozaki Hajime had no choice but to leave her schoolbag with the security guard at the neighborhood entrance, then hurriedly find a secluded, deserted spot to activate Stealth Mode in her ethereal form. Because these monsters were very weak, Zerozaki Hajime did not bother returning to her adult form. While her adult form was extremely powerful, it also consumed a lot of energy. Zerozaki Hajime checked her energy reserves; grabbing Yukimura Seiichi's hand back at the tennis courts had temporarily provided enough energy to sustain her for quite some time. That was right—this was something Zerozaki Hajime had just discovered: she actually had to sponge off a kid's energy just to recover her own. She covered her face in embarrassment; it was simply too humiliating.

She sighed, then activated teleportation mode to chase after the nearest monster, finding it right at the entrance of a video arcade. The white faceless monster was just about to fly into the arcade when it spotted Zerozaki Hajime, and in an instant, the monster was obliterated by a beam of light from her. Kirihara Akaya, who had come out to buy a drink, saw the faceless monster at the entrance get blasted to death by a beam of light and immediately dashed out of the arcade. Spotting Zerozaki Hajime crossing the street, he was just about to call out to her when unexpectedly, a passing car blocked his line of sight. By the time the car drove past, Zerozaki Hajime had long since vanished. Kirihara Akaya sighed, turned around, and walked back into the arcade to resume playing his game, quickly forgetting all about wanting to find Zerozaki Hajime.

Seeing that her energy was still sufficient, Zerozaki Hajime continued teleporting to search for the monster in the other direction. Following the map, she arrived at the seaside. Night was about to fall, and there were very few people on the spring beach after dark. Zerozaki Hajime looked around the beach in confusion, completely failing to spot either the monster or any tennis team regulars. Just as she was wondering what was going on, someone dashed out from a small grove by the shore, with a faceless monster hot on their heels! Because of the dim evening light, she couldn't make out who it was, but without a second thought, Zerozaki Hajime unleashed a beam of light to destroy the faceless monster. Seeing the monster vanish, the person collapsed onto the sand. Frowning, Zerozaki Hajime stepped forward to check on the situation. She had a vague impression of this person—he had white hair just like her. Except this person's white hair had a bluish-purple tint, whereas hers was pure white. Seeing him lying motionless, Zerozaki Hajime reached out to check his breathing and patted his cheek. "Classmate, are you alright?" That shouldn't be the case; she had clearly seen the monster she just destroyed return its energy to this person. Just as she was debating whether or not she should consider calling the police, the person slowly opened his eyes. Seeing Zerozaki Hajime, a look of surprise crossed his eyes. "So it's you..." Zerozaki Hajime pulled her hand back from her pocket, helped him up into a seated position, and asked, "How are you feeling right now? Do you need me to call a doctor?" The man shook his head and said weakly, "...No need. Just help me up and take me home..." Zerozaki Hajime gazed at him for a moment, then did as he asked: she grabbed his hand, draped his arm over her shoulder, and hoisted him to his feet. "What's your name?" Seeing Zerozaki Hajime take the initiative, he raised an eyebrow. "Niou Masaharu, Class 3-B. And you?" "Zerozaki Hajime, Class 1-A." "Zerozaki-san, looks like you're an esper~" "No, I am a Space-Time Order Officer." "A Space-Time Order Officer? What kind of thing is that?" "It's a bit complicated to explain. Basically, your world has been invaded by other monsters, and an Order Officer is needed to maintain order." "Ohh, so you're not from this world; you're just here on a mission." "Mm." Zerozaki Hajime was somewhat surprised; this person seemed to accept her otherworldly identity rather quickly. "Then... has Zerozaki-san seen our captain?" "Who is your captain?" "Yukimura Seiichi—the one you were holding hands with this afternoon." "......" Zerozaki Hajime didn't really want to answer that, because she had met Yukimura Seiichi in her adult form, and admitting she had seen him would lead to more explanations. Instead, she changed the subject and asked Niou Masaharu about the other tennis team regulars. Seeing that she didn't want to talk about Yukimura Seiichi, Niou Masaharu shrugged and didn't mind. As the two of them chatted about the names of the tennis team regulars, because they were standing so close, Niou Masaharu couldn't resist taking a few extra sniffs of the cool yet indescribable fragrance that emanated from Zerozaki Hajime. Zerozaki Hajime narrowed her eyes and suddenly said, "You're speaking without even pausing for breath. It looks like you can walk on your own after all." With that, she pushed away the arm Niou Masaharu still had draped over her shoulder, maintaining a distance of one meter from him. "Puri, you caught me." Niou Masaharu straightened up slightly, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looked down at Zerozaki Hajime. "Shall I walk Zerozaki-san back?" "Do you think that's necessary?" Zerozaki Hajime gave him an amused look, then turned and walked away.

However, Zerozaki Hajime had forgotten that she was still in her ethereal form, and being in this state caused her energy to deplete at an astronomical rate. Her ethereal form actually came in two types: one was Stealth Ethereal Mode, where regular team members could see her, but ordinary people could not; the other was Pure Ethereal Mode, where regular team members could see her, but could not touch her. Regardless of which type it was, both consumed a massive amount of energy, though the latter consumed even more. Consequently, in Niou Masaharu's eyes, Zerozaki Hajime suddenly vanished just as she had taken a few steps, startling him greatly.

The moment she was bounced back to Yukimura Seiichi's side, Zerozaki Hajime felt utterly dead inside. Inside the bathroom, Yukimura Seiichi was shirtless. Under the bright lights, his fair, slender torso was bathed in a faint, luminous sheen. While it should have looked delicate, the clearly defined abdominal muscles unmistakably revealed his hard, powerful side. Seeing Zerozaki Hajime suddenly appear before him, Yukimura Seiichi dropped the hand resting on his waistband, took a deep breath, and said, "You......" "Sorry, I'll leave right now." Zerozaki Hajime rubbed her forehead. She tried to use Pure Ethereal Mode to phase out of the bathroom, but due to insufficient energy, she failed to shift completely and ended up bumping right into him. "Are you alright?" Yukimura Seiichi quickly put his shirt back on and walked over to Zerozaki Hajime. Seeing the tip of her nose turned red from the collision, he couldn't help letting out a chuckle. Rubbing her nose and hearing that soft laugh, Zerozaki Hajime gave him a speechless sideways glance, then shook her head. "I..." Before she could finish her sentence, a knock sounded from outside the bathroom door, and a woman's voice asked, "Seiichi, are you alright? Did you bump into something?" Zerozaki Hajime took a step back and silently looked at Yukimura Seiichi standing beside her. "I'm fine, Mom. I'm taking a shower." As soon as Yukimura Seiichi finished speaking, he turned on the showerhead. The sound of running water immediately filled the air, and Yukimura's Mother outside the door walked away. After a short while, Yukimura Seiichi asked in a low voice, "Are you the same person from earlier?" Zerozaki Hajime looked up at Yukimura Seiichi and nodded. "I currently don't have enough energy to leave your house. Could you bring your hand over here?" Yukimura Seiichi paused for a moment before lifting his hand out in front of her. "Excuse me." Zerozaki Hajime did not hold his hand; she merely touched the back of his hand with her fingertips. The chilly sensation made Yukimura Seiichi's brown eyes flicker as he recalled how Zerozaki Hajime had grabbed his arm that afternoon. "Alright, thanks a lot. I'll be leaving now, sorry to intrude." Having recharged her energy and with no intention of lingering, Zerozaki Hajime activated her Pure Ethereal Mode and prepared to leave. "Wait, I still don't know your name—I mean, your name at school." Yukimura Seiichi called out to her, but Zerozaki Hajime paused for a fraction of a second before replying, "Zerozaki Hajime." Without looking back, she phased right through the bathroom doorway. Having visited the Yukimura household several times now, Zerozaki Hajime knew her way around. As she passed through their living room, she heard the Yukimura family gathered together chatting. Yukimura's Mother was saying, "I wonder if I was just imagining things earlier. Seiichi said he was taking a shower in the bathroom, but I clearly heard a girl's voice." Yukimura's father replied helplessly, "Huh? How is that possible? When Seiichi went into the bathroom, I had just stepped out of it myself. You must have misheard." Hearing their conversation, Zerozaki Hajime thought to herself that she would have to be more careful next time; otherwise, explaining things would become even more troublesome. She phased straight through the wall, stepped out of the Yukimura residence, and headed toward her own neighborhood.

After finishing his shower, Yukimura Seiichi went upstairs to his bedroom. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a white object flying toward his window from not far away. He immediately shut all the windows in his room. Yukimura Seiichi knew this thing was after him, and he wasn't worried about it flying off to harm anyone else. Finding that it couldn't get into the room, the faceless monster kept slamming against the window. The sound it made was quite loud. Yet aside from Yukimura Seiichi, no one else could hear it. Yukimura Seiichi picked up the phone on his desk, intending to call Zerozaki Hajime, only to remember that he hadn't asked for her number at all. With a headache-inducing expression, he stared at the faceless monster outside the window. Actually, this faceless monster wasn't ugly at all; if anything, it looked somewhat cute—round and shaped just like a ball, except its mouth was terrifying when it opened. "Waging such relentless harassment in the middle of the night." Zerozaki Hajime's voice suddenly rang out from behind Yukimura Seiichi.