Chapter Text
It was 10 O'clock, and both Nukumizu and Yanami were still stuck in the safe zone of the school.
It was a dream, a total nightmare came to life: last Sunday they were just having their first ever date, eating ice cream, had some silly kisses, drink soda from lover straw, and next time they went to school together in bicycles, the whole school gone into a riot over their relationship.
And of course, it was caused by one certain idiot forgotten to take care all his own loose ends. Anna only recently stopped giving him unamused glare, and even then it's clear he won't live this down any sooner. Himself have gave up justified himself, admitting that he could at least fix up some of the misunderstanding before instead of thinking time would make everyone shrugged off the rumors.
Although if they caught Asagumo-san, Gods only know what they had in mind for unintentionally made everything even more absurd with all her secret stashes of airsoft guns.
"Okay, you two. I'm going to escort you two outside the school, just like what I supposed to do in the first place," said their appointed escort, Nurse Konuki. "But because I'm not too happy with how stupid Nukumizu-kun here handled his issues, I'm going to ask for a favor."
"Of course there would be one..."
"What was that, Nukumizu?"
"Of course we'd do that, Sensei!" Anna corrected in Nukumizu's place while giving him a hard look. "What would be it?"
"A kiss," she said and quickly continuing before the two of them looked at her funny. "Specifically, your first ever kiss. Reenact it in front of me, and not only you two paid your debt to me, I won't bother your good time anywhere and anytime. No binoculars, no secret cam, no funny teas, and all it take is one big kiss."
Both teens gulped at their sensei's request. "Sensei, are you sure-"
"Kiss, or you two owe me with interest later," said the nurse firmly as she grabbed her phone for a snapshot, making sure there won't be negotiation.
Without any other choice, both of them started to lean at each others shakily, lips puckered as they slowly getting closer, and as they got real close, Anna grabbed the face of her boyfriend...
"Okay, the coast is clear," said the blonde nurse, signaling it's safe. "Guys, get ready to move."
When she turned around she found both of them kissing...again. "Uh, you two?"
Both quickly released each others, flushed hard from both the excitement and embarrassment. "S-sorry, Sensei. We just...had a lucky kiss before departing?"
She raised one of her eyebrow. "The second one today?"
The nurse waved away her two charges when they just blabbering their excuses and getting redder than exploding volcano. "Don't worry. I was young and innocent too before, so of course you new lovebirds want to keep experiencing that feeling. Keep that memory, because by next year you two will want so much more~"
"Wait, what do you mean by-" Kazuhiko shushed her away, not wanting to have her surprisingly innocent outlook corrupted so soon.
"Well," the nurse picked something from her pocket, and it was a rather futuristic looking gun. "Let's hope this one is truly 10MM Mark III like Asagumo-chan promised. The second version's already more advanced than the ones Asagumo stored around the school, but I won't take a risk of fighting in any disadvantages with such valuable task."
"Whoa..." Anna was mesmerized by the details on the gun. "She really went all in in designing this one. This look like the bigger version of that noisy cricket gun from Men in Black."
"And if I use it in full power, it definitely can hold a candle to the fictional version. But of course, no student here deserved such fate, don't you think?"
Kazuhiko had to hold the urge to test the thing at full power and asked instead, "I'm grateful you have such wonderful toy, Sensei. But did you really have that thing in your pocket the whole time?"
"After the gyaru vs fujoshi shenanigans, I won't take my chance. Now let's go."
When the coast was clear, Konuki really meant it. Despite the other two could hear disturbance around the campus, they found no one. No student shooting at each others, no pink-haired buxom girl bodyslamming people who badmouthed her favorite new couple...nothing. It was as if by sheer luck, they found a buffer zone.
After making it to the next section, they still found no one...except a tall, yet slender pink-haired student, who stayed relatively expressionless despite her obvious haggard appearance and anxiety. "Three of you! Run while there still time! The staffers are still holding the line, but it's only matter of time before the whole school is overwhelmed!"
"Nonomura-chan, stay calm and explain the situation, please."
"G-go and see it yourself, sensei. Tsuwabuki is a smoking ruin! We're the few who are still left! The rest have either ran or incapacitated! And I can't find Amanatsu-sensei either. We all that's left, do you understand me?!"
"Kona-chan is missing?!" Konuki-sensei asked in shock.
"Kazu-kun, I don't think I ever see someone shouted that loudly with as few expressions as possible."
"...That's what you got from all her warnings and ramblings?" Kazuhiko asked to the blue otter with both amazement and bewilderment.
Suddenly, she stopped, and trembled hard. Before anyone in the trio group could ask her what was wrong, she inhaled as much air in her chest as possible. When she released her scream before they could calm her down, for the first time, Nonomura's expression matched her words. "RUUUUNNNN WHILE YOU CAAANNNNN!"
Her scream did not do the trio any good, gave them motivation to run faster or something. If anything, it attracted every other factions in the hearing to their proximity. All readied their airsoft guns while half of them threatened, "Never should have come here..."
"C-come on now, there's no need to get violent..." Kazuhiko tried to defuse the situation, to no avail.
The three wandering students took a cover while Konuki-sensei took care the attackers. And soon it was clear that Asagumo's next-gen airsoft gun really met its expectation. The three-shot spread gunned down three of the attackers in accurate shot, it hit the attackers faster than their own bullet travel, and one bullet seemingly enough to knock down the student, unlike the stock guns that seemingly only gave manageable pain for the blonde nurse when a bullet hit her in the shoulder. Combined with her flexibility in dodging the shots (usually bragged for...another kind of rigorous action), and it became clear why she remained relatively unscratched.
Unfortunately, when she found the gun to run out of bullets, there were still two people left. And with how their guns have been lining up against the blue-haired girl just when she's finishing to load up the gun, Konuki-sensei was in severely disadvantaged situation. She had no choice but to raise both her hands in surrender, her gun dropped on the floor despite being reloaded already.
"Look what we have here. We're afraid your journey ends here, Yanami heretics," said one of the remaining attacker.
"You two will shoot your own teacher? After watching your faction fight, no offense...but all of you were fighting worse than mudcrabs"
"The hell's mudcrabs?"
"I don't know, Kazu-kun. But it don't sound tasty."
Both remaining attackers answered their nurse's question by pointing their gun at her direction without hesitation. "For the Empire."
"For the Empire."
But before they could shoot at her, another airsoft gun already incapacitated one of them. And while the remaining enemy was distracted, Sayo grabbed her own rubber gun and shoot it at the offender, ending the threat once and for all.
And after the scene ended, their savior walked to them. And everyone rejoiced.
"H-Hakemada-san!"
"Sosuke!"
"You. I've seen you sneaking before, Hakemada-kun."
"Thank goodness I'm not too late. Congratulations to you two, by the way," said the cavalry to the new couple while hugging Yanami.
"It's too bad you congratulate us after the whole school gone insane instead of before."
Sosuke rubbed his head. "I know. It's unfortunate you two can't have even just one peaceful day in the school as couple. Sensei, guys, let's go to the Yanami Federation's base first to strategize."
"Wait. What about me? I got lost looking for a place to hide, and now I still have nowhere to," Nonomura asked, expressionless once more.
"Weren't you kept going on about run-" Kazuhiko's snark was stopped by his girlfriend and nurse.
"Are you with us, or with one of them, Nonomura-san?"
She shrugged. "I just want to live a quiet student life. But joining you look...preferable?"
"Then welcome to the Federation," said Sosuke as he offered his right hand.
The slender pink-haired girl accepted it.
"First of all: bad news first, guys. All the secret escape routes to run out of the schools are being guarded by Basori's agenda members. None of us can run from those exit points without significant battles."
The four of them were in the base of the Yanami Federation, having a briefing over their current situation by certain pink-haired cupid. The gist was despite Yanami's many friends and associated, they're still undermanned if they had to go total war against other factions, especially after the 'Crimson Chikapyon President' rose up in popularity.
For now they won't ask too much question...especially since the answer to why Karen's wearing some Gridiron Football protective padding and helmet was 'they didn't allow me to store my Cupid Praetor suit in locker room', raised more questions instead. That, and they haven't heard a word from any other teachers either.
"Okay, so the good news is, some of the other agenda lovers-"
"You mean, shippers?"
"Yes, it's kinda like that. Just think of it as local Toyohashi slang," Karen clarified to Anna. "But anyway, some of them are more reasonable and can be convinced into supporting us, whether directly helping us, or giving us space."
"Hmph. Look at me," suddenly a voice barged into the conversation. "I confessed to Yanami-chan before, got rejected and I still helping this silly alliance."
"Haha, yeah. Thanks, Nishikawa-kun," said the girl awkwardly at the blonde teen.
"At least we have something workable here," said Konuki Sensei while ignoring the brief detour. "Anyway, tell us more about these Oblivious Gates."
"We have four Oblivious Gates, in multiple points in our school, guarded by four factions who ship Nukumizu-kun with other girls," Hakemada started. "You win their approval by showing how you two are perfect couple while respecting the other candidates, and we're going to walk through the school gate far easier. Some easier to deal with, some we'd rather avoid until we don't have any other options. Any question before we describe how to deal with each gates?"
Nukumizu raised his hand. "So, if it's about me...why call it Oblivious again?"
The rest of the people only looked at Nukumizu with unamused look."...What?"
"This is the problem with you, Nukumizu-kun."
Nukumizu only slumped at those words. When even Hakemada said that...
"Either way," it was Karen's turn to explain. "We have marked four different difficulty levels for each gates. First one is Citrus Gate, or Yakishio-chan's admirers. She already calmed down most of the athletic clubs people, and Nukumizu-kun already did favors to them by convincing Yakishio-chan to stay in track and field, so all we need is to gather their support for your relationship, and we most likely will get backup from them."
"And the second gate, is Little Red Gate," Sosuke continued his girl's explanation. "Komari-chan is friends with you two, so getting her on your side is no-brainer. But since most of her followers are also...fujoshis, who gone berserk, and Sakurai-kun isn't here to help or distract them, we can't guarantee they'll be satisfied enough to help us, or even letting us go. Realistically, we're hoping for schism at most."
"The impossible one, is Tiara's gate," said Karen with obvious disdain. "We can't do anything on them, they obviously want this relationship die, so...there's no game here. Just run from them like you're helpless protagonist in horror games. They can't be bargained with, can't be reasoned with, and they definitely won't feel remorse or feel, and definitely won't stop until you two break up. Dealing with them is worse than brokering a deal with two Scottish grandpa with incredibly thick accent about whether their best sheep worth 300 pounds or not."
"...What?"
"Uh, think about it as speaking to someone with real thick Tsugaru accent," Karen explained at the other confused people, and at least now most of them just nodded. "Anyway, the point is, don't pursue, fight, and make deal with the Empire without help. Any question from you all?"
It was Anna who raised her hand first. "So...why don't we just faking a break-up in front of them?" Anna suggested.
"I witnessed several of them making blood contracts on you two. Trust me, they're too fanatical to make false break-up work. At least not today," Sosuke's explanation made everyone shivered. The school nearly went nuts, didn't they?
"Why's no one else pointing out how silly it is that the shippers named themselves 'Yanami Federation' and 'Basori Empire'?" this time it was Nukumizu's turn to complain.
"Trust me, Nukumizu-kun, if it's up to my choice I'd name these 'Otter's Warm Water' and 'Crowned Warm Water' instead of such imperialistic names. Anyone else?"
Nonomura raised her hand while ignoring how the names were even more ridiculous. "What about the third gate?"
Visibly, the two new allies looked uncomfortable before Sosuke addressed it. "Well, we're still studying the gate, but the only reason why we put it as less dangerous than the fourth gate is the mental state of the main girl is more mature and stable than Basori-san's. Otherwise they might be even more dangerous than her cult. Hence why we want you to ignore this gate before we can be sure about its danger."
"W-what's the gate?"
Slowly, Karen leaned forward, and ominously called the name.
"The Pale Gyaru gate."