After he finished answering the question, the odds that were even before, began to tilt more towards the guys that were scared shitless, the characteristics he mentioned were indeed quite strong, but I still believed that they have gotten this scared after knowing about the strengths of that Metaphysical .
I looked around to see that some of the eagerness in the eyes of the people in front of had begun to recede, seeing them like that, the Captain was about to say some cheering words, but just as he was about to do this, a voice sounded from the tunnel leading to the training ground .
It was the voice of Moroha Haimura apologizing for being late and right behind him was the girl that I hadn't seen her touching this particular training ground before, but all of a sudden she was interested on joining the meeting .
I couldn't help but look at her strangely and they just so happened to now standing beside me Shizuno was right next to me and her seeing me looking at her weirdly like that, she at first didn't pay my gaze at her that much of attention, but seeing that even though the captain was still reprimanding Haimura for being late and I was still looking at her like that, she turned her head towards me and said :
What ? .
" Nothing, I'm just surprised that you really came, I had been here for almost a week and since day 1, I have never seen you near the training ground, but here you are and you seemed quite enthusiastic about being here too, I'm surprised and so proud of you .
I wiped my non-existent tears and acted quite emotional, wanting to tease her a bit for it, but she just glanced at me coldly with an eyes that seem to say ' stop it, it isn't funny, get some help ', that stare stung more than any words or spells she could have thrown at me .
Just as I was feeling aggravated there by myself, a whisper suddenly sounded behind me, someone who had seen our interaction seemed to begin gossiping about this, I wanted to stop the rumors before they reach the ears of the wrong people .
But the gossips were spreading like a wildfire, I was not able to stop them in time, the gossips about me having close relationship with the Shizuno had already reached the wrong people's ears, without even needing to turn back and take a look, I was able to sense three pairs of eyes glaring at the back of my head .
I was surprised at the fact that there were three pairs instead of two, I already anticipated that Tokiko might react that way, Sophia not to much, but I guess I thought wrong, these were the two pairs that I had already known that they might be the ones reacting badly to this .
But the third pair of eyes on me was completely out of expectations, I didn't know to whom those eyesw which were looking at me belonged to, I was intrigued to turn my head and sneak a peek on who was the third person glaring at me, Shizuno was right beside me, Kamekichi was also standing in the front line, so it couldn't be him .
If not for the fact that I quite worried about the consequences of me turning around to take a look, I would have did and rid myself from all guessing, but I couldn't bring myself to do so, the idea of using Fixed Point came to my mind, but I soon discarded of that thought due to the other consequences that might be circling around around using that spell, in the end I decided to stop stirring mor troubles for myself and decided not to turn around .
After he got reprimanded for being late, he took a step backwards and once again stood beside us, but his body was shuddering and he was wondering, why was it cold here all of a sudden, but seeing the deadpan expression on Shizuno's face, made him swallow the words that were stuck in his throat, he almost choked on them, so he began coughing .
After I witnessed this, I wanted to laugh at how funny he looked, but then I saw that her deadpan expression was focused on me as well and couldn't help but dryly laugh at this .
As the captain caught our full attention back to him with his answers to some of the questions who was being asked, that differed quite a lot in the degree of importance, from being questions about how many people lost while on this same mission, who we were 1 in total to some stupid questions asking about whether that boa was a male or a female, some were even asking about why it was staying in the forest .
I not caring to even store the replies of the captain to these inquiries, leaned closer to Moroha and decided to ask him about how did everything work out with Satsuki, he seemed to be a bit defeated when he said that he had promised to compensate her next week, she directly asked to go on a date .
As he told me this, he suddenly looked at me dead in the eyes and said :
You have a thing for Satsuki, don't you Ryuu ? .
I was a bit taken aback at his sudden question, but in the end, I still nodded my head and said :
" I'm not still certain of what exactly those feelings I feel towards her are, but I know that I might go to a fit of rage, if someone were to end up bothering her or wishing to do something bad to her, that's what my current feels like .
He looked at me and seemed to be quite surprised at me saying this, so it seem he was just testing the waters with his vague question just now and it seemed that I had wasted my chances in trying to bluff him, after a few seconds, I saw him bowing suddenly in front of me and saying :
Thank you for helping me earlier, I think exactly the same as you .
If those words were said normally, no one would have cared about them much, if that was said back in the classroom, no one would have taken it the wrong way, because they all understood what kind of help that he was talking about, but now in this tensed atmosphere and him suddenly starting to say some weird things like this, it hadn't even been a few seconds since he had said this and there were already people who was beginning to laugh their heart out .
His words alone was fine but the hesitant tone and the actions of his, made the gossips start again, but this time, they were more ridiculous than before, so ridiculous that I almost summoned my sword and start swinging at those who were spreading them .
The girls were beginning to gossip about something between something happening between me and that guy, then the envious guys and those who held deep resentment towards me, began to say things like how that seemed to be indeed the case, they were beginning to actually come to some sort of an agreement, they were agreeing that all these previous rumors circling around the school were fake and that I had other interests .
Hearing those last lines were like the last straw that broke the camel's back, I directly released a bit of killing intent and held all those that were laughing their heart out at the swordpoint, seeing whether will they continue to laugh, my rage was triggered by those guys, I will want to hear how much they can laugh now .
Just as I was venting my frustration, I heard a coughing sound and saw that it came from the Captain's direction, hearing his cough awakened me from the tensed state I was just in, I directly called all my clones back and let the scene regained the calm it had from before .
After the guys that almost peed on themselves out of fright just now was able to stand up again, the captain gave me one last look and luckily the rumors didn't continue to spread, thanks to the fact that the one who was the reson that they started in the first place, seemed enough conscious to understand what did he do and he started clearing the confusion up .
There were no apologies, no taking back what they said earlier, nothing, the talks in the room were all beginning to circle around one things, how scary I was, but I'm really wasn't in the mood to be caring about what do thet think of me that much anymore .
The guy Moroha came to apologize to me for creating such a misunderstanding, but I just brushed it off and told him that it wasn't his fault for what other people wanted to believe, even though what they maybe thinking going on, might in fact be nothing but a bunch of wrong assumptions .
I raised my voice as I was saying those words for all of them to be able to hear it loud and clear, they needed to understand what is the point I'm trying to make clear here .
My words seemed to have affected some of them as I was able to see a lot bunch of them lowering their heads down out of shame, there were still those that were glaring at me, but the second my eyes crossed with theirs, they were all lowering their eyes like the others .
I then turned towards the captain and even though he seemed to be angry about me interrupting his talk, he still continued to ask about whether there will be anymore questions, but no one seemed to be wanting to ask anything else .
He then proceeded to tell that he will brief Moroha and Shizuno about what they missed out on, currently he was going to share the strategy he planned for us to use to be able to take down that horned boa without hopefully suffering any kind of losses or injuries to the members of the corps, the sound of the saliva being gulped in the room sounded quite loud .
After he finished telling us the plan, he once again reminded all of us that we were free to use tomorrow as we liked, but he still asked for some people by name to attend to training tomorrow, he wasn't ordering them to be here, but was suggesting that it was better for them to be in the training ground, those guys who were mentioned by name felt a bit of discomfort and some reluctance in complying to the Captain's suggestions .
Those guys were the weak spots of the Strikers and they must be at least get some rehabilitation, before the mission starts, there was also the captain mentioning Haimura's name, which caught me by surprise a little, unlike the weak guys that were indeed In need of that training, I didn't believe that this guy need to be treated in similar way to them .
So the captain must have some things that he had in mind for him, at least that what I was currently believe, the guy wasn't that reluctant to be called out, he accepted what the captain was asking him to do without much of a problem .
After the captain finished saying all this, he started to cheer all the guys that were down up, telling them that he wanted to just give them some pointers that should help him in getting out of the battle unscathed and that it won't probably take that long, so they will still have some time to play around with there free time as they liked .
Then he began to start motivating us again and he made us say that weird anthem again under the excuse of welcoming a new member, but I sensed that he was just talking advantage of this situation, even the guy who we were being saying the anthem in his honour, seemed to be quite perplexed by what was happening .
His body shook a little and I saw that he like myself seemed to be not quite fond of doing this, but sadly for him, it was now his turn to say that We Are The Saviors .
After a few minutes wasted in waiting for him to say it, he with somewhat uncomfortable expression on his face began to say the anthem and with that the welcome ceremony was over and the meeting was too finished, I suddenly had a fun thought assaulting my mind, if I were to have accepted to become the new captain, I might have been able to make them stop having to do that anthem .
But I would have been probably met with the objections from the other members of the Strikers, even though I believed that among the guys present, many people would be happy about removing the need to do this, I also believed that just as many would probably be against it, it gave him some motivations or maybe a sense of heroism, I think .
I didn't have a problem with them saying it, but the words said in it filled the others with so much passion that might be a double-edged sword, if those words were to be not worth it anymore, most of those guys who believed in them, would most likely stop continuing to be Saviors .
The words emphasized meaning like courage, being good and righteous and striking the evil to bring peace and prosperity, but once that something come up and challenge those meaningful words, the results would be chaotic to say the least .
The moment the captain gave us the choice to disperse, most of the guys and the girls began to head away as if they were running from a disaster, I kept on getting a few unkind glances by those who were leaving, but they only dared to glance at me for milliseconds before I caught up their stares and stare at them back, then instantly they would lose interest in a staring contest .
I too believing that I should be going as well, but just as I began take a few steps towards the tunnel leading to the exit, I heard a cold sneering voice coming from behind ne saying :
Don't you have some explanation to do ? .
Hearing the familiar voice, I didn't even need to turn my head to see who was talking to me, I directly said :
" I don't want to make you angry or anything, but was there something that I did that required aneexplanation, I'm genuinely asking, I really don't know what to explain .
" If it was about what that stupid guy from earlier said, please just delete that part completely from your memories .
Then I was surprised again at the fact that just as I finished saying this, two other voices directly joined her in saying :
What kind of relationship do you have with Urushibara Shizuno . ×3