Seeing Zerozaki Hajime, the Faceless Monster seemed terrified and turned to fly away.
Zerozaki Hajime rushed over to Yukimura Seiichi, grabbed his wrist, and shot a beam of light toward the fleeing creature.
The beam pierced through the glass and shot swiftly toward the Faceless Monster.
Seeing the monster annihilated, Zerozaki Hajime finally let go of Yukimura Seiichi's hand.
"Good thing Zerozaki-san was here, otherwise I'd have been bitten."
Yukimura Seiichi glanced without a trace at the spot Zerozaki Hajime had just held, his voice gentle.
"These things are too hard to clean up completely. I wouldn't have come to bother you if I had any other choice."
Zerozaki Hajime opened the window, frowning as she looked out into the night.
When tracing their origins, she discovered that this monster originated from Rikkai Junior High School, and the source probably had to be found right inside the school.
"Does Zerozaki-san have a mobile phone, then? If something like this happens again, it'll be easier for us to communicate at any time."
Yukimura Seiichi looked at Zerozaki Hajime with a slight smile.
He pulled out a chair, motioning for Zerozaki Hajime to sit down and talk, while he sat on the bed nearby.
Zerozaki Hajime sat in the chair. Figuring Yukimura Seiichi made sense, she didn't hesitate and opened her contact list, letting him punch his number in.
Then she dialed the number herself so that Yukimura Seiichi could save hers as well.
Watching Zerozaki Hajime cross her legs, Yukimura Seiichi suddenly remembered her mature woman appearance when they first met.
Back then, she was stepping on a pair of white high heels he estimated to be about 12 centimeters tall.
When she walked up to him, Yukimura Seiichi figured Zerozaki Hajime must have been half a head taller than him.
"I remember... Zerozaki-san didn't seem to look like this at first."
Zerozaki Hajime turned her head to look at Yukimura Seiichi, sized him up for a moment, and replied,
"Special circumstances. I deliberately changed my appearance to sneak into your school."
"But Zerozaki-san could easily have disguised herself as a teacher, right?"
As he spoke, a thought occurred to Yukimura Seiichi. He stood up and poured her a cup of warm water in a disposable plastic cup.
Zerozaki Hajime took the warm water from Yukimura Seiichi and smiled in gratitude.
"I wanted to, but being a teacher for you guys isn't that simple. It's much faster to just be a student."
Originally, after exterminating the monster, Zerozaki Hajime had wanted to leave the Yukimura residence directly, but she had tracked down Rikkai Junior High as the breeding ground for the monsters.
Since there was a source, there had to be a specific origin object, and finding it herself wouldn't be convenient.
Therefore, Zerozaki Hajime figured that by interacting more with these regular team members who could see the monsters, she might discover something unusual.
Of course, the best scenario would be if they could help her look for the origin object together.
"It seems that only the regular members of the tennis club here at Rikkai can see the monsters. If you guys find anything strange in Rikkai, you can contact me."
Having stated her thoughts, Zerozaki Hajime waited for Yukimura Seiichi to agree before leaving his house.
"Yes, we will. We'll do our best to assist Zerozaki-san. But Zerozaki-san, why did you have to grab my hand when you destroyed those monsters?"
Just as she was about to stand up, Zerozaki Hajime heard this and shifted her gaze away with a hint of awkwardness, though she figured there was no harm in telling him.
"After coming to this world, my energy was greatly depleted. I need..."
Zerozaki Hajime paused to think, choosing her words carefully to avoid misunderstandings.
"I need some physical contact to recover my energy."
"So, in other words, I'm Zerozaki-san's charging station?"
Yukimura Seiichi looked at Zerozaki Hajime thoughtfully.
......
Well, putting it that way wasn't wrong either.
"So only I can help Zerozaki-san recover? Or can anyone else do it too?"
Yukimura Seiichi asked the question he most wanted answered.
Zerozaki Hajime was momentarily stunned. She looked at Yukimura Seiichi with a hint of confusion in her eyes, but still replied,
"Probably not just you."
Because she had also tried it with Niou Masaharu, and her energy had recovered then as well.
Strangely, the atmosphere suddenly turned chilly. Zerozaki Hajime looked at Yukimura Seiichi with even more puzzlement, but seeing his expression unchanged, she felt a bit perplexed.
A thought suddenly occurred to her, and her tone became somewhat uncertain,
"It's just that the rebound point currently snaps back to you."
As soon as she said this, the strange atmosphere instantly vanished.
This brat...
Zerozaki Hajime was somewhat speechless, though her expression remained calm.
Yukimura Seiichi wanted to ask when she would snap back to him again, but on second thought, he decided the time wasn't right.
"It's getting late. Get some rest early, I'm leaving."
With that, Zerozaki Hajime stood up and, without waiting for Yukimura Seiichi to speak, jumped out the window and left.
Yukimura Seiichi hurriedly walked over to the window, watching with an inscrutable look as Zerozaki Hajime departed.
The next day, Ayanokouji Yumi, sitting in front of her, saw Zerozaki Hajime walking into the classroom while yawning, and tilted her head.
"Zerozaki-san~ How come you look like you haven't slept enough?"
Before Zerozaki Hajime could answer, Urayama Shiita, who sat by the window to her left, walked over.
"Zerozaki-san, if you're feeling sluggish, you can drink some coffee. Otherwise, dozing off in class might get you punished by standing in the back."
Zerozaki Hajime was momentarily taken aback, not quite understanding what he was driving at. Still, Urayama Shiita was their class monitor, and caring about classmates was normal; she figured she didn't need to read too much into it.
Speaking of which, she had to blame that scheming Yukimura Seiichi. Perhaps because her connection with him was deeper than with others, it caused whatever Yukimura Seiichi said to be either inexplicable or overwhelmingly probing.
Zerozaki Hajime looked at the clock above the blackboard, and seeing there were still about ten minutes left, she went downstairs to the convenience store next to the cafeteria to buy some coffee.
"It's yesterday's magician!"
"Show some respect, Akaya, you should call her Zerozaki-san."
"Puri, what a coincidence, Zerozaki-san."
Hearing the familiar voices, Zerozaki Hajime, who was picking out coffee, turned around.
Seeing it was the regular members of the tennis club, Zerozaki Hajime raised an eyebrow, never expecting her name to have spread through their tennis club so quickly.
Zerozaki Hajime smiled and nodded at them without speaking.
Although Niou Masaharu had told her the members' names and physical traits yesterday, Niou Masaharu felt like the kind of person who loved to act and lie, so she couldn't be sure if he was tricking her.
Seeing that Zerozaki Hajime neither spoke nor intended to leave, merely staring at them, Yanagi Renji spoke up first.
"Hello, Zerozaki-san. We've heard about you. I am Yanagi Renji, Class 3-F."
He then pointed to Kirihara Akaya beside him.
"His name is Kirihara Akaya, Class 2-D."
Zerozaki Hajime gave Niou Masaharu a chilly look; the guy had indeed lied to her.
When introducing them yesterday, Niou Masaharu had claimed the squinty-eyed one was Yagyuu Hiroshi, and the seaweed-haired one was Sanada Genichirou.
"Puri, the cat's out of the bag~"
Niou Masaharu winked at her.
Zerozaki Hajime nodded slightly.
"Zerozaki Hajime, Class 1-A. Class is about to start, we can chat when we have time."
She grabbed a canned coffee, paid for it, and left.
There were many students coming and going in the convenience store. Apart from Kirihara Akaya's "magician" comment briefly drawing sideways glances, the rest of the ordinary conversation wasn't particularly novel.
"Niou, the probability that you lied yesterday was 98.99%."
Yanagi Renji watched Zerozaki Hajime walk away and said to Niou Masaharu.
"Who knows~"
Niou Masaharu picked up a bread roll to examine it, put it down, and picked up another. After pondering for a long time, he finally shoved his hands into his pockets and took nothing at all.
Zerozaki Hajime walked into the teaching building, about to change into her indoor shoes, when she opened her system interface.
Good grief, work was coming in bright and early. These monsters spawning at random locations were all flying in the same direction.
It was the third-year building of the middle school division. Zerozaki Hajime tossed her coffee into her shoe locker, detoured to a quiet spot behind the school, and activated stealth mode.
When she hurried to the other building, she saw Sanada Genichirou being chased by a Faceless Monster.
In a flash, Zerozaki Hajime grabbed Sanada Genichirou's wrist, shielding him behind her.
The energy replenished from their physical contact amplified the power of the beam she emitted, and the monster was quickly obliterated.
Zerozaki Hajime didn't have time to explain much to Sanada Genichirou; she had just seen two monsters fly into a third-floor classroom.
She sprinted toward a cherry blossom tree, stepped diagonally onto the trunk, bent her knees, and using the momentum, launched herself toward the third-floor classroom window.
Yagyuu Hiroshi from Class 3-A and Yukimura Seiichi from Class C were standing by the classroom window, staring blankly at the sight.
The instant Zerozaki Hajime sprang out, her body brushed past the April cherry blossoms. Shards of petals drifted around her with her movements, and the warm spring sunlight showered over her, making her wine-red eyes shine brilliantly.
Sanada Genichirou was also too stunned by the scene to speak, but as the disciplinary committee member, he still called out,
"Danger! Zero..."
Before he could finish, Zerozaki Hajime had already jumped through the window of Class 3-B and vanished from their sight.
"Ah! Why is this thing here again?!"
Marui Bunta had just entered the classroom when he saw yesterday's monster charging straight at him.
Yet in the eyes of others, Marui Bunta was just talking to empty air, and they all looked at him with utter bewilderment.
Zerozaki Hajime froze time and went into pure virtual mode to avoid crashing into desks and to free up her hands to clear out the monsters.
She fired a beam of light at the monster biting Marui Bunta, but the beam's energy wasn't enough to destroy it.
Upon seeing Zerozaki Hajime, the monster immediately began flying around wildly.
Switching from pure virtual mode to stealth mode, Zerozaki Hajime rushed over to Marui Bunta, grabbed his wrist, and fired the beam of light again, eradicating one of the monsters.
Seeing this, the other monster hastily flew out of the classroom.
"You're coming with me!"
To maintain her energy, Zerozaki Hajime prepared to drag Marui Bunta out of the Class B classroom with her.
"Eh??!?"
Marui Bunta was yanked off balance by her, but this unprecedented experience felt rather novel to him.
At that moment, Yukimura Seiichi and Yagyuu Hiroshi both rushed to the doorway of Marui Bunta's classroom, their expressions shifting slightly when they saw her holding hands with Marui Bunta.
Zerozaki Hajime frowned.
"Where did it go?"
"Hehe, I know where it went. I'll take Zerozaki-san there; Marui, you stay here."
Yukimura Seiichi smiled. He glanced over Zerozaki Hajime and Marui Bunta's hands once more, his expression growing even more unfathomable.
Zerozaki Hajime nodded slightly. She let go of Marui Bunta, having just seen the monster fly off to the right.
"Let's go."
She directly grabbed Yukimura Seiichi's wrist and chased after it to the right.
"Hey! Didn't you say you wanted me to come along?"
Seeing Zerozaki Hajime leave him behind, Marui Bunta sounded somewhat unhappy.
Yukimura Seiichi glanced sideways at Marui Bunta, speaking from behind Zerozaki Hajime,
"Zerozaki-san, I just remembered you were going to take Marui with you at first."
Without looking back, Zerozaki Hajime merely chuckled, teasing him,
"Weren't you quite happy that I changed my mind?"
Yanagi Renji and Niou Masaharu had just reached the third floor when they saw Yukimura Seiichi being dragged away by Zerozaki Hajime.
The two looked at each other and followed them as well.