"You there! Kurokami Tatsurou!" A voice called out Tatsurou's full name, that when he heard it, Tatsurou stooped talking to Marie and turned around to see who called him, as he did he saw a rather petite girl with black messy hair with white tips that reached to her hips that was tied up into a side ponytail thanks to a scrunchie, her eyes were also red, and she wore a school uniform that consisted of a black blazer that had a symbol of a school, an equal black shirt that had a bow on its collar, a black pleated skirt and black thigh-highs, that was pointing at Tatsurou.
"Say, Tatsurou, do you know that girl?" Marie asked as she too looked in the same direction as Tatsurou and saw that girl.
"I have no idea, who she is..." Tatsurou said to Marie with a confused expression, as he kept looking at the girl.
"Wait, that symbol on the left side of her blazer, it's from the Misaiko all-girls school, but I don't know anyone that studies there, well, Yumeko studied there but, besides that I don't know nobody who goes there..." Tatsurou thought as he looked at the symbol on the girl's blazer, that belonged to Misaiko all-girl school.
A private school that had facilities, that went from grade school to university and was also responsible for studying magic-based powers, despite being localized in district 4 that was known mostly for the study of Esper powers, and if anybody asked "why is there a school that researches magic, in an esper specialized district?" the answer is rather simple, it's because Misaiko, also studies Esper powers intending to understand them and see if they can be fitted in the same ranks as regular magic.
"Hey, who are you and what do you want?" Tatsurou asked as he placed his hands in his hoodie's pockets while placing himself in front of Marie, and looked at the girl.
"Who I am? Simple I'm Izumi Naoki! A student of Misaiko, and a proud member of the Soteria Intern Program!" Naoki said with a smug tone as she got close to Tatsurou and pointed at him with her index finger.
"Hmm...I see, I see, sorry, doesn't ring a bell...and you knowing my name is a bit weird..." Tatsurou said with a stoic tone as he looked at Naoki that became angry upon hearing what Tatsurou said.
"What?! Knowing your name isn't weird!" Naoki said as she glared at Tatsurou, that wasn't thinking much about her now, since she got close, understandable if we looked from the perspective of an outsider, Tatsurou was 1,75cm tall, while Naoki was just 1,50cm, 6cm shorter than Shirayuki and 12cm shorter than Marie, it was basically like seeing a corgi barking at a wolf, and to Tatsurou she didn't look like a treat now.
"Anyways, what do you want, with me?" Tatsurou asked with a calm tone as he sighed and looked at Naoki.
"That's pretty simple! I just want you to get out of the Soteria Intern Program!" As Naoki said this Tatsurou looked at her for a bit in silence.
"Come again?" Tatsurou asked with a confused and surprised expression to Naoki.
"Are you deaf or something? I said get out of the Soteria Intern Program!" Naoki said this again and again Tatsurou became silent.
"Wait, I'm not part of the Soteria Intern Program, you must have mistaken me for someone else..." Tatsurou said as he laughed a bit nervously.
"Don't lie! You're right here in the Soteria database!" Naoki said as she pulled out of the pocket of her skirt a smartphone and showed Tatsurou a page that had his photo, his name and that he was a new addition to the Soteria Intern program, and as Tatsurou saw this he became silent once again, sweating nervously, it honestly looked like someone threw a bucket of water on him.
"Tatsurou, what's wrong?" Marie asked with a worried tone, as she moved forward and looked at Tatsurou that was way too silent, but he suddenly looked at Naoki's phone again and his eyes opened wide.
"No...way!" Tatsurou said as he turned his back to both Marie and Naoki, and started to run in the direction of his school, this caught both of the girls off guard.
"Huh?! Tatsurou?!" Marie asked more worried than confused as she saw Tatsurou running as his life depended on it.
"Damn it, Yumeko!!!!" Tatsurou said with an angry tone and expression as he kept running, and not having the best of thoughts about Yumeko...
Meanwhile, in district 4's public Esper school, Yumeko was in sitting in a chair in front of her desk in the faculty office, she was wearing her usual business suit and her violet hair tied into a ponytail.
"I have so much work to do...I need coffee... " Yumeko said with a tired tone as she yawned and looked at her desk, that tons of papers that ranged from documents to books to use in class, exams that needed to be graded, to even the odd magazine and whatnot.
"Your desk is always a mess Kuroiwa-sensei..." A voice said this to Yumeko, that when she turned around to see who it was, she saw a young woman with black hair, that was wearing a light blue blouse and skirt, holding two mugs of coffee, she was a fellow teacher.
"Well, could be worse..." Yumeko said as she laughed a bit, the woman just sighed.
"Black coffee with tons of sugar coming right up, as usual!" The woman said as she handed one of the mugs she was holding to Yumeko.
"The smell of coffee in the morning is always good, even if it came out of the school's crappy coffee machine!" Yumeko said as she grabbed her mug and started drinking her coffee, the woman just sighed.
"Please, don't say that..." The woman said but it was mostly useless, as Yumeko had already turned to her desk again and was drinking her coffee happily.
"Honestly, this morning is so calm and peaceful! I believe that nothing can ruin it..." Yumeko said as she stooped drinking and a smile appeared on her face, but all of this "calm and peaceful" moment was cut short as the door of the faculty room, was swung open, making Yumeko jolt.
"Yumeko!!!" Tatsurou called Yumeko's name with anger in his voice, as he stood at the entrance of the office.
"Oh! Tatsurou, good morning!" Yumeko said this with a happy tone as if nothing was wrong, but Tatsurou wasn't having any of it.
"Yu-me-ko!!! Do you care to explain, me why I'm in the Soteria Intern program?" Tatsurou asked as he entered the faculty office and began to slowly walk in Yumeko's direction.
"Ara, I don't know, what you're talking about..." Yumeko said as she looked away from Tatsurou while shrugging.
"Now, I get why you called, asking for my student Id, it was to put me on the intern program that Soteria runs! Why would you do that?" Tatsurou said again with an angry tone as he looked at Yumeko, that this time kept silent and signaled with her hand for the woman that was in the office to leave.
"Now, Tatsurou calm down and take a seat..." Yumeko said as soon as the other woman left and closed the door, Tatsurou then grabbed the chair of the desk next to Yumeko's and took a seat and silence reigned for a second.
"Aren't you going to..." As Tatsurou was about to ask if Yumeko was going to explain what was going on, she gave him a head flick.
"Ow! What was that for?" As Tatsurou asked this, Yumeko grabbed his left cheek with her right hand and started to pull on it.
"First off when at school, it's Kuroiwa-sensei, second treat your teacher with more respect, and third don't scream like an idiot!" Yumeko said with a faint hint of anger as she kept pulling on Tatsurou's cheek and used his left hand to count the things Tatsurou should and shouldn't do.
"Alright, I get it, so stop pulling!" As soon as Tatsurou said this Yumeko stooped and sighed while crossing her arms.
"Now, that you are a bit calmer, I will tell you the reason, why I put you in the Soteria Intern Program..." Yumeko said as she looked at Tatsurou that was rubbing his cheek.
"Well then, I don't think I have to tell you, but in a mere two weeks, you caused me a lot of trouble, with the fight in the warehouse on the docks with that woman from the Black Bear Organization and the fight in the museum, with that Knight from the Lion Emperor, those fights caused a mess in the Soteria and AMDF in general, but the worse of all, is the fact that an underage civilian was involved in those fights and he did what was supposed to be our job..." Yumeko said, as she grabbed her mug of coffee and took a sip.
"I'm sorry about that..." Tatsurou said as he looked a bit away.
"But, how is joining the Soteria Intern Program solve anything?" Tatsurou asked with a curious tone towards Yumeko.
"That is simple, you see as a civilian you can't do the work that belongs to us, but if you belong to the Soteria you can go around helping and saving people, basically it's like having a license to use your powers and of course even if you are just an "Intern" you will receive payments for the work you do!" Yumeko said as she stooped drinking from her mug, and it was true, in Takamagahara, the only people that could use magic freely were the members of the AMDF, to maintain peace and order or people that acquired a license to use magic, but truth be told there was an unspoken rule that, if one were to use their magic abilities for simple things like, let's say floating to reach a higher shelf in a store or use a magic circle to light a cigarette, nobody would say anything, but those are of course small instances were using magic, is pretty much ok.
As for the Soteria Intern Program, it was a subsidiary of the Soteria unit, this program was created roughly around the same time as the AMDF, the premise of this program is a rather simple one, to create the future members of the Soteria Unit, students from middle school to high school are allowed to join, but there are only 3 ways to join, the first via the ranking system that Takamagahara possessed, the second was through exams that were held 4 times a year, one for every season of the year and the third was via recommendation, the one Yumeko used to enroll Tatsurou.
"I see..." Tatsurou said as he rubbed his chin with his right hand, thinking that this wasn't probably too bad of a situation, since he didn't want to cause Yumeko any trouble.
"And after all, if you are on the Soteria program with me, you and I won't get in trouble anymore and as your supervisor, of course, I will receive a little share of your gains!" Yumeko said with a mischievous smile on her face and started to giggle like a witch.
"I knew that there was more to this...only you to do something like this..." Tatsurou said as he placed his hand on his forehead and sighed.
"Come on, don't be like that! I also did this, because I'm worried about you! You always go head first without thinking of the consequences, when it comes to helping people! So this is something I won't let you refuse, you're going to join, and that's final!" Yumeko said with a tone that had worry and anger, as she crossed her arms and glared at Tatssurou for a moment.
"Ok, ok, I get it, I will join the program...and I have to agree with everything you said, I don't want to cause any trouble and if it makes you feel better then ok, I will join, I'm just a bit angry that you placed me in it without asking..." Tatsurou said as he got up from the chair he was sitting and began walking towards the exit of the office.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I thought you wouldn't accept it if I asked directly, you know how you tend to not be very cooperative when I ask you for a favor..." Yumeko said as she smiled, that was when Tatsurou, that was close to the door, stooped.
"Well, that is kind of right, but if you asked nicely I would accept, after all, helping people and getting paid is always good..." Tatsurou said as he placed his hand on the door handle began opening the door.
"But Yumeko..." Tatsurou called Yumeko's name as he opened the door and then placed his hands in his hoodie's pockets, this made her look at him a bit curious.
"When it comes to helping people, I don't do it to get something in return, and if I do have to get something, a grateful smile is all I need!" Tatsurou said as he took a step out of the office and for a moment Yumeko looked at him in silence, until she began chuckling.
"Tatsurou, that is a line from that popular shoujo manga the "Princess of the Dawning Light" right?" Yumeko said as she tried to keep her chuckle under control but she completely lost it and burst into laughter as she saw Tatsurou jolting and with a face that read "how did she now" upon hearing her question.
"Seriously?! I can't believe it, a guy that looks like a delinquent, reading and quoting shoujo manga, to look cool!" Yumeko said as she kept laughing uncontrollably.
"You know that "Princess of the Dawning Light" is published in the Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine! So, it's not a shoujo! And it's really popular between boys and girls!" Tatsurou said with an embarrassed face and tone as he turned and looked at Yumeko that was still laughing.
"But the art style is so girly and there's only one girl as the main lead, the rest of the cast are boys...wait! Don't tell me, that you buy the weakly magazine, where it's published and then the volumes?" Yumeko asked as she kept laughing, but she laughed even harder, when Tatsurou, just looked away from her.
"I knew it! Tatsurou, this pure gold!" Yumeko said as she placed her arms around her stomach now and tears started to fall from her eyes from how hard she was laughing.
"I-I'm going to the classroom!" Tatsurou said as he turned to the door again and took his leave, and as soon as he was gone Yumeko laughed a bit more but calmed down a bit, soon after.
"Honestly, I laughed, but that line, describes him perfectly..." Yumeko said as she wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled, but meanwhile Tatsurou...
"I tried to act cool and look what happened, I should have kept my mouth shut, now I looked like a run of the mill otaku...I'm such an idiot..." Tatsurou said after he sighed while he made his way to the classroom, and despite what the delinquent look that Tatsurou had might suggest, he was an otaku, he enjoys anime, manga, and light novels and he is not afraid to admit it, but the genre he likes the most are romance and shoujo type and the occasional magical girl show, something that he kept a secret from the people close to him, as to not happen what we just witnessed.
"Well, Yumeko won't tell anyone, but she will probably make fun of me, for as long as she remembers..." Tatsurou said as he looked down and sighed again, but he suddenly stooped as if realized something.
"Wait, I think I'm forgetting something..." Tatsurou said as he placed his hand on his chin.
"Must be my imagination..." Tatsurou said as he shrugged and proceeded to make his way to the classroom again.
Meanwhile, somewhere not so close to the school was Marie standing still on the sidewalk.
"Tatsurou left me behind...and I don't know the way to school..." Marie said with a monotonous expression and tone as she looked like she was about to cry...