Ryan was once again contemplating the almost absurd position he found himself in. In front of him was Yuno, a pink-haired, pink-eyed girl who reminded him of a rose: beautiful from afar, but get close and you realize she's more venomous than a rattlesnake. "A weed disguised as a flower," he thought, a sly smile playing on his lips.
He slowly shifted his gaze to Alya, seated beside him. Her Russian beauty was otherworldly, deep blue eyes sparkling like sapphires, framed by silver hair that shimmered in the light of the room. Ryan sighed discreetly as he admired the girl's curves, which he considered as dangerous as her sharp personality.
And then, turning to the other side, there she was: Rika. Her hime cut, with perfectly aligned indigo strands, looked like a divine masterpiece, and the recent maturity in her appearance drew attention. She was no longer a child, although Ryan noted, with a touch of internal sarcasm, that her growth had been... limited. "She grew? Yes. But... not enough yet," he concluded, before his gaze wandered back to Alya.
Taking a deep breath, he murmured to himself in a resigned tone, "I am blessed and cursed at the same time..."
The three girls looked at him at the same time, expressions ranging from curiosity to suspicion, while the other boys in the room watched the scene with boiling hatred in their eyes. "Damn protagonist...!" was the collective thought.
Time flew by, and Ryan ended up wandering to the cafeteria, where he grabbed a random plate and threw himself at an empty table. He stared at the food with a lost look, as if it held all the answers to life, until he heard a soft, gentle voice approaching.
"Mii~ Did something happen?"
He slowly raised his head, finding Rika standing beside him, holding her snack and displaying that serene smile. Sighing, he pulled out a chair for her, and Rika gracefully accepted the gesture, sitting beside him and carefully adjusting her plate.
"What's wrong, Ryan? Did a kitty scratch your face?" she teased, imitating a cat's paw and running her hand near his face.
He sighed dramatically, resting his head on the table as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
"Life has lost all meaning... Why am I alive, just to suffer?"
Before Rika could answer, a voice full of disdain emerged.
"What's gotten into you now?"
Ryan slowly raised his eyes, finding Yuno already settling at the table, looking at him with a mixture of judgment and confusion. Try as she might, she couldn't understand the chaotic logic that governed his mind.
"He's a little depressed, Mii~..." Rika said, worried. Ever since Ryan saved her from a dark fate, she had become more attached to him.
"In this world..." Ryan murmured with a defeated air, "there is no Blue Archive."
"Blue what?" Rika tilted her head, confused. She really wanted to understand what Ryan was saying, but sometimes it seemed impossible to keep up with his ramblings.
"Blue Archive! How can there be a world without the pinnacle of gacha games?!" he exclaimed, clenching his fists dramatically.
Yuno rolled her eyes as she opened her iced tea.
"When I was hunting you down, I did a lot of research on your life. I saw that you were addicted to this game and spent 10% of your organization's profit on it. I decided to try it to understand, but honestly? I found the gameplay tedious—"
BANG! Ryan slammed his fists on the table, suddenly standing up.
"Take it back! Wash your mouth out for speaking of Peak Archive! A heretic like you would never understand the value of my students—" He sat back down, now theatrical, almost with tears in his eyes. "How can I live without my queens? Hina, Hoshino, the brain rot of Reisa... the twisted beauty Tsurugi... my favorite prejudiced Momoi..." He began to list with a choked voice.
Yuno interrupted him with an accusing look. "Hmm... I'm seeing a pattern in your tastes."
Ryan crossed his arms, looking away. "Evil is in the eye of the beholder."
Rika, lost, was doing her best to follow the conversation. It was then that a translucent interface appeared before Ryan's eyes.
"Sensei, what about me? (╥﹏╥)"
"Arona..." he whispered, leaning in to read the message. His somber expression was replaced by a renewed glow. "Arona-chan! You're back! Don't disappear like that again, you're the only student I have left in this dark world!"
Yuno, trying to maintain her composure, pulled her chair closer, speaking in a calm, but slightly hesitant voice:
"Arona, are you okay?"
After a few seconds, messages began to appear rapidly on the interface, as if typed by invisible hands:
"I'm fine, Yuno-sensei (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)! Thank you for your concern ♡. It's just a shame I can't materialize yet... It will take a while for me to fully recover."
Ryan, now more serious, calmly asked, "How long do you think it will take to fully recover?"
The screen blinked before a new message appeared:
"Technically, I could recover right now, but it would consume a lot of your energy, leaving you weak. So, for now, don't worry! I'll let you know as soon as you're stronger ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶."
Yuno looked away, murmuring almost inaudibly as she sucked on her tea.
"Is there... any way to recover faster?"
The answer was delayed, but came in the form of a drawn emoji:
"Like this
/)/) (\(\
( ᵔ ᵔ) (ᵔ ᵔ )
/ づ❤️⊂ \
"So, we're back to the main goal: recovering the divine fortune," Yuno said, taking a quick sip of her tea with her eyes closed, as if wanting to end the subject definitively.
Rika, curious as always, leaned slightly toward Ryan. "Speaking of which, what did you actually achieve by expelling that strange goddess?"
Ryan gestured dismissively with his hands. "Honestly? Nothing to get excited about..." He glanced at Yuno, clearly expecting her to complement the answer.
Yuno let out a heavy sigh before answering, "Well... I feel a little stronger. I can also use my teleport without getting so tired. Other than that, not much has changed."
Ryan turned his gaze to Rika, assuming a more casual tone: "In my case, I can now go back in time by mentally marking a point. It seems that this also consumes less energy."
Rika raised an eyebrow, assessing the information. "So... was it worth it?"
Ryan shook his head, more serious this time. "We couldn't absorb all the energy from that crazy woman. And to make matters worse, we only delayed her. She's still coming back."
Before he could continue, he grabbed the iced tea from Yuno's hand, who immediately reacted with a deadly look. "Hey!" She clenched her fists in irritation. "You have no limits, do you?"
Ryan, unconcerned, took a sip directly from her straw, completely ignoring the complaint. "What's wrong? Are you really going to make a fuss over an indirect kiss?"
Yuno rolled her eyes with an expression of pure disdain. "You can have that damn tea, you idiot!" She crossed her arms, visibly frustrated.
Casually spinning the bottle in his hand, Ryan ignored Yuno's indignation and changed the subject. "Anyway, we have to take advantage of the time we gained by expelling that goddess. We need to become stronger. Last time, we barely scratched that crazy woman. When she comes back – and she obviously will – we'll be dead if we're not prepared."
He cast a determined look at Yuno and Rika, but also couldn't help but notice Alya and Yuki entering the cafeteria. A smile spread across his face as he concluded, "I won't let the girls I love get hurt because of me."
Rika turned completely red, letting out a soft "Mii~" as she looked away. As for Yuno... well, she looked like she was about to explode with anger, her eyes practically piercing Ryan.
Meanwhile, a conversation at the next table caught his attention. A boy was speaking in a low voice to his friends, but loud enough for Ryan to pick up.
"Did you hear the latest? It seems there's a ghost in the girls' bathroom on the second floor! Some girls got sick there, and one even fell and hurt herself."
Another boy responded with skepticism, "Oh, come on... That's just a story to scare freshmen."
"Think what you want," retorted the first, "but the teachers sealed off the bathroom. That's a fact!"
Ryan frowned, thoughtful. Ghost? He immediately remembered the girl he had seen earlier, Miko Yotsuya. Was that what she was running from?
"Don't tell me you're taking this seriously," Yuno teased beside him, observing his concentrated expression.
Ryan turned his head to face her, indignant. "You heard my thoughts, you crook?!"
She shrugged, completely uninterested. "You're the gossip here, you imbecile."
Rika, who was watching the interaction with an amused smile, decided to intervene: "Mii~ You say that, but you forget about Hanyuu!"
Ryan and Yuno stopped at the same time, turning to the side. Only then did they realize that the little dog goddess had been there all along. "Woof woof woof woof~", she murmured in her typical shy voice.
The two sighed, saying in unison, "She's right..."
Ryan looked at the three of them with a playful glint in his eyes. "How about we drop by there after class? After all..." He gave a provocative smile. "It has to be you guys. It's a girls' bathroom, after all."
As he spoke, Ryan noticed a familiar figure in the cafeteria. It was a girl with black hair that went down to her waist, with bangs falling down her left side held by a delicate rabbit-shaped barrette. He stared at her for a few seconds, trying to remember where he knew her from, until the memory surfaced.
"Ah! Look, it's the Bunny Girl from that day!" He pointed with his chin, drawing the attention of the girls beside him.
Yuno and Rika looked at him with curious expressions before following his gaze. They soon spotted the girl trying unsuccessfully to buy something at the cafeteria counter. No matter how hard she tried to get the vendor's attention, it seemed the woman was simply ignoring her.
Ryan frowned, a discomfort growing in his mind. "Why do I feel like this girl only brings trouble?"
Before he could elaborate on the thought, the girl turned and met his gaze fixed on her. Without hesitation, she lowered her shoulders in a gesture of exasperation and pointed directly at him.
"Hey! Come here and help me!"
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