"Hey…why don't we go outside already?"
"And do what? It's not like we can guarantee it's safe out there."
"I appreciate the level-headedness of your response, but could you at least put down Monster Hunter while saying it?" Yogiri and Tomochika were still sitting in the rearmost of the tour bus. Yogiri was playing his game, waiting for Tomochika to calm down. "Also, I've been watching for a while, and aren't you really bad at the game?"
"It's kind of strange. Why does the third hit on the lance have so much windup? I was never this bad before."
"You're playing in Bushido style, right? Why not try switching to Striker style? That should remove the windup from the last hit of your three-hit combo."
"Wait, seriously?"
"Yeah, seriously."
As instructed, Yogiri switched styles. Sure enough, the controls immediately returned to what he was used to.
"Ooh, nice!"
"Also, you're far too reckless with your attacks. If you're going to use the lance, even if you can fit in three strikes, just do two instead. Or if you can fit in two strikes, do only one. You always have to be ready to block or evade." She paused for a moment, nonplussed. "Is this really the time to be talking about it, though?"
"What are you, Dannoura? Some sort of Lance God?"
"Seems like common sense to me…" she said, somewhat unconvincingly.
"So, have you calmed down a bit?"
"I guess. It feels wrong to be okay in a situation where people have died though, so maybe it's just some sort of shock? Even the smell isn't bothering me anymore."
If that was the case, she was probably okay, Yogiri thought to himself. Returning his game console to his sleeve, he turned to actually listen.
"Then why don't you tell me what happened."
"You really march to the beat of your own drum, don't you? But fine, I'll explain. Basically, it seems we're in some sort of parallel world. There was someone who called herself a Sage, and she said we were all Sage candidates. Then Yazaki started dividing us all up."
"Hold on, I don't get it at all. Can you start from the actual start?"
"Right. Okay."
Tomochika began to explain from the very beginning.
◇ ◇ ◇
During the trip, the bus emerged from a tunnel and they suddenly found themselves in a grassy field.
"Huh?" Tomochika blurted out as she stared absentmindedly at the landscape from her window seat. Moments before, they had been passing by mounds of snow at night, but now they are speeding through grasslands in daylight.
Before long, the other students begin to notice as well, and chaos erupted soon after.
"What's going on, Mikochi?" she asked Romiko Jougasaki, the girl sitting beside her.
"We're in some sort of field, I guess?"
"Yeah, I can figure that out by looking."
The tunnel they had just passed through was nowhere to be found, and the bus was now traveling through a thick field with no road.
As the confused students began to panic, the bus came to a sudden stop. Moments later, a woman in a white dress boarded the vehicle. She looked kind of dorky, like she was doing some sort of Magical Girl cosplay. That was Tomochika's first impression of her anyway.
"Greetings, Sage candidates. My name is Sion, granddaughter of the Great Sage."
Although Tomochika was normally one to butt in with all sorts of comments, this time her bewilderment left her speechless. That was probably for the best, though. Speaking carelessly would have been a mistake, as was soon demonstrated by their homeroom teacher.
"Who are you?! What are you —"
Despite the teacher's assertive attempt, he never managed to finish what he was saying. As he stepped towards her, Sion casually placed her hands on his head, which exploded with a light pop, showering the the front rows of the bus in blood and brain matter.
"Everyone, please quiet down. Your best course of action at the moment is to bottle up all your feelings and just tremble in fear for a bit. Listen to me, and don't do anything stupid."
The students fell silent. In one moment, the woman had displayed just how terrifying she was.
"I have no intention of harming any of you, but that only holds true if you don't upset me. Please pay careful attention. My combat level is five hundred and thirty thousand, you know?"
The students were frozen in place. Even Tomochika bit her tongue.
"Ah, I was hoping I could just smile here," she said, lifting her left hand towards the driver's seat.
From that hand, a light began to shine. In an instant, the driver — chair and all — was burned to a crisp.
"You see? It bothered me that it looked like he was trying to get away, so I ended up killing him."
As Sion spoke, with seemingly no regard for the lives she had just taken, the students shrank back to her.
"You may think me unreasonable, but this is simply the way of the world. 'Darkness is only a single step away,' and all that. Now, why don't I explain the situation to you? As you may have noticed, you are no longer in the world you call home. I have summoned you into a parallel world."
There was no way they could believe such a claim offhand, but despite the bewildering circumstances, the students didn't make a sound. They had decided it was best not to do anything unnecessary.
"I summoned you in search of candidates to become Sages. The Sages rule this world, but sometimes our numbers drop a bit, so from time to time our ranks require replenishment."
She raised her right hand towards the students. As the bus filled with light, Tomochika prepared herself for the worst — but no such thing happened. Timidly opening her eyes, she saw Romiko glowing with a blue light in the seat beside her. The students across the aisle were also glowing, in red and yellow. Standing up, Tomochika looked around the bus. Everyone was glowing in a full rainbow of colors.
What? What's happening? Wait, why aren't I glowing too? Not that I wanted to glow or anything…
But it felt like she was about to be separated from everybody.