"Why do you think he gathered us here?"
Irina asked as she was the first one to step into the underground base that Kisuke had dug under his candy shop. Behind her was everyone who'd already stepped onto the other world previously, plus Sakura.
"Apparently, he's going to introduce us to someone.", Sakura answered while tapping on her smartphone, "But did it really have to be this secretive?"
Sakura's question was everyone's primary concern. If it was just anyone, Kisuke would just bring that person directly to the mansion. But for him to arrange something that would bring them out of the spotlight, they couldn't really think of anyone deserving of such an effort from him.
Akeno, meanwhile, turned to Riveria who was staggering on her feet and assisted her, "Are you alright? When was the last time you slept?"
Riveria leaned her shoulder against Akeno and smiled at her, "Thank you. I'm fine, just a bit dizzy." She'd been awake for a whole week now and was trying to cram as much knowledge as she could because she didn't know when she could have this kind of environment. But because of Kisuke's sudden call and her wanting to go too, she underestimated her fatigue and only realized how bad she was doing when she finally started walking around again.
Medusa approached them and checked on Riveria's condition, "...The lodging should still be clean and functional thanks to the preserving Magic, please take a rest there."
"I'll take her there." Akeno lent her shoulder and grabbed her waist before bringing out her black wings and flying towards the old lodging.
Sona looked at them while saying, "She's far too much of a workaholic." These past few months, their group had been mostly relaxing by going on vacation to scenic spots, on individual dates, and just generally lazing around. It had been a while so they enjoyed it quite a lot and it also had the effect of confusing all the eyes that had been gathering on them and were suspicious that they were up to no good because only Kisuke had the complete control of the barrier.
Kuroka approached from behind her and said with a teasing tone, "As if you're any better, nya~! You and the others were way worse just because you finally learned how to stave off sleep from Kisuke."
Sona slowly turned to her with a complicated expression and tried to deny it, "It wasn't that bad... I think. I mean I at least don't think that was pushing it?"
"No." Medusa immediately rejected her notion, "You were way worse. The days that you didn't break a bone were very rare, your sparring sessions would last for days to a week without you noticing and you would immediately go out and hunt to test what you'd learnt for the sole reason that you wanted to do it because it was still fresh in your heads. After that, you'd all return to take a few hours of sleep before diving back to the training."
"...Was it really that bad?"
Kuroka nodded her head, "It was bad. But it was also our fault since none of us really stopped you because you kept going without any problems, nyaa. It seems like you entered some sort of trance during that time and we didn't want to interrupt it. Of course, I also joined the training, but I couldn't enter the same trance so I would often leave to take a breather."
"..." Sona didn't know what to say, 'We did first learn how to live without any sustenance and be comfortable with it when needed... But was our common sense really that warped?'
The eyes of the other girls who heard them talking became distant. Sakura, on the other hand, sighed while shaking her head, '...They've gotten plenty of rest, but it looks like I'll have to arrange for some form of rehabilitation. I can't have them spread their insane methods to others or they'll be killing someone sooner or later... and not physically, which makes this way worse in a sense.'
At that moment, a black line drew itself in the space in front of the group before opening like a mouth, revealing a black space. Within that darkness, a young woman with flaming red hair stepped out with a large smile on her face.
She was wearing a strange attire, but none of them noticed that as their eyes all went straight to her face, which was very familiar despite being 'aged' a little.
The red-haired teenager's smile grew larger while watching everyone's expressions and opened her mouth, "Wahahaha~! I've re---"
But before she could finish her words, the always passive Ophis suddenly sprung into action without any prior warning. Pouncing at the woman with the same face as her before punching her straight in her nose with all of the physical strength available to her at the moment, sending the newcomer flying across the wide underground hideout and hitting the wall, which caused a small earthquake.
With the shockwave of wind blowing on their faces, no one could properly react to what was happening and could only stare blankly as Ophis leaped once again to follow the red trail.
Thanks to the barrier surrounding the hideout, the walls only cracked a little. Flanna, though, was a bit taken aback because she was not expecting such an energetic greeting and saw that Ophis was shortening their distance again, still rearing her fist back to give her another punch, "What was that for, you shitty black!?"
But Ophis ignored her protest and silently threw another punch straight at her face.
Flanna gritted her teeth and pulled out the skull-themed greatsword from behind her to block Ophis's fist.
In the distance, everyone heard a loud clank and saw the red and black silhouettes bouncing away from each other.
Seeing the chance to test out her new toy, Flanna immediately lunged forward to retaliate by swinging her greatsword horizontally.
Ophis watched the sword from her side, but as someone who doesn't have much of an idea on how close quarters combat works, she just watched it without doing anything to intercept or block it since Claire and the others weren't around her for her to act like a tank.
The sword hit Ophis' flank... Or at least that's what should have happened but the sword just went through Ophis and didn't hurt her in any way.
"..."
"..."
Flanna and Ophis stared at each other before the former swung her sword back, resulting in the same outcome.
Flanna didn't know what was wrong with her greatsword and kept swinging it left and right but it kept doing nothing. Ophis, meanwhile, was slightly amused and followed it with her eyes.
Finally, Flanna swung her great downwards. Although it broke the earth beneath Ophis' feet, it still did nothing to the target herself.
"..."
"..."
"...Hey... Blacky... Why don't we talk this out?"
Ophis's reply was another punch to her face.