Hachiman stroked Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina for a moment. Seeing they did not obey like Bocchi-chan, he reluctantly released them, raised his wrist, and flicked out a sharp sleeve dagger.
Oh well, he only brought Chisato and Takina to clean up the scene, not really to have them help him kill.
He would teach Chisato properly later. On-the-spot counseling clearly did not work.
"Mr. Hikigaya, are you going to fight up close? There are too many of them."
Nishikigi Chisato came back to her senses and, with Inoue Takina, watched the seemingly show-off Hachiman with great worry.
Although she was tormented by the two choices Hikigaya had given earlier and felt he was teasing her on purpose, she could not just watch him go to his death.
One man facing so many people, with only that short dagger on his wrist...
"Don't worry. Why would I come here just to die? If you're really worried, you can cover me from behind."
Seeing enemies from the open ground swelling and getting close to them, Hachiman stopped arguing with Nishikigi Chisato and the others. He pointed to the only place showing a green light and strode toward the delinquents and cultists.
"Sylpha, you rescue the victims. Third floor of that building over there."
"Yes, Savior."
Sylpha looked at the white-hooded figure of Hachiman with his back to her, then aimed her bow and shot a magic arrow with a glittering spell at the window of that room.
She then leapt down and, as if walking on level ground, ran along the building's exterior into the third-floor room, drawing the longsword at her waist and killing first, rescuing after.
She did not worry about the Savior's safety like Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina did.
Even the elf princess crouched before the Savior. So many elves could not stand against the Savior. He was far stronger than her.
She only helped the Savior with tedious tasks or served him when needed.
How could the Savior of their elf tribe not have attendants?
Meanwhile, Hachiman had strolled up to the delinquents wielding bats and knives.
Watching the crowd surround him with momentum, he lightly swung, severed an opponent's wrist, glanced at a delinquent rolling and shrieking on the ground, sidestepped a baseball bat, flicked his sleeve dagger, and severed two more arms.
Although blood splattered and the scene immediately became gruesome, his white robe was not stained with a drop.
Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina's worries were completely unnecessary.
Joke aside, even without accounting for his reflexive passive, he was fused with assassin and 47-killer templates. His killing technique and experience were extremely rich. If any of these people even touched him, it would be an embarrassment.
The delinquents who had boldly surrounded them with knives and bats were instantly frightened by Hachiman's casual killing technique. They swallowed, froze in place, and backed away in fear as they stared at the white-hooded figure, slowly retreating.
Although he did not slit throats to kill at once, this man in a white hood whose face could not be seen would take a step and sever someone's arm. A trail of severed, bloody limbs and howling disabled people in the blood made the scene even more terrifying.
They did not realize Hikigaya and the others had fallen from the sky. All they knew was that after a loud blast, several people had appeared inside the school.
Besides a strange man in a white hood, there was a blond girl dressed in a fantasy cosplay style, and two schoolgirls in uniform.
Thinking it was some special event, they had called friends and grabbed tools to deal with the man first, then capture the three girls.
Who would have thought they could not handle even the man.
These delinquents had long records, but they were cowards when it came to the tough. It was unrealistic to expect them to charge in without fear of death.
However, among them were some cultists who had lost their minds and were not intimidated by Hachiman. They still surrounded him.
"Danger. The enemy has a gun!"
Inoue Takina and Nishikigi Chisato were shocked by Hachiman's effortless yet terrifying fighting style.
Inoue Takina suddenly noticed a gun barrel peeking from the corner of a building behind Hikigaya, her pupils narrowing, and she shouted out.
Nishikigi Chisato raised her handgun and fired at the gunman before him.
However, before her bullet hit, a switchblade had already struck the throat of the gun-wielding cultist.
"Don't worry. Don't worry about me. Just protect yourselves."
Hachiman severed several people's arms, turned back and smiled at the two of them, then casually snatched a fruit knife from a cultist and tossed it toward Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina.
"..."
Nishikigi Chisato's pupils narrowed. She tried to dodge but realized the target of the fruit knife was not her or Inoue Takina.
When Inoue Takina turned around, she saw a tall man wearing sunglasses lying on the ground with a fruit knife in his neck.
Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina glanced at each other and saw the horror in each other's eyes.
Actually, Nishikigi Chisato could dodge bullets, even at very close range, if she could read the opponent's trajectory and timing.
But someone like Mr. Hikigaya, who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head and could dodge bullets while still having the energy to watch over them... This was too extreme.
'Why did Mr. Hikigaya bring us here? As cheerleaders?'
'Without using firearms, Mr. Hikigaya alone can probably take down dozens of them in close combat.'
———
This battle produced no surprises.
Or rather, it was more like a one-sided massacre.
They could not reach the hem of Hachiman's white robe. A single glance could get a person's arms cut off. Some even tried to grab the apparently ordinary high school girls Nishikigi Chisato and Inoue Takina to threaten Hachiman.
But the guns in their hands were not toys. Nishikigi Chisato had moral qualms about killing, but she was not polite to attackers who tried to approach.
Inoue Takina, with machine-like precision, aimed at the heads of the delinquents and shot expressionlessly as she followed behind Hikigaya, taking out criminals peeking from surrounding buildings.
For Lycoris, who were all orphans raised to be killers, killing enemies on missions was routine. Inoue Takina, an outstanding second seat among Lycoris, had the mission as her life goal. She was not very concerned about teammates or hostages as long as the mission was completed.
Against cultists who had lost their wits and did not even seek cover, Inoue Takina took them out one by one and only needed to watch her reloading times.
Seeing that they could not rely on numbers and could not even stop the white-hooded man's advance, the delinquents and cultists, already in disarray, abandoned their shrieking comrades and fled in panic.
Hachiman walked behind them and felled one unlucky person after another who could not outrun their companions or was blocked by them. He then stood by the rusted academy gate, watched the wicked flee in all directions, breathed out, and used cleaning magic to remove the blood that had never dried on his sleeve dagger.
It was not that he could not catch those worthless scum. In his vision, allied green dots were lighting up in the distance. Lycoris reinforcements had arrived.
Kokutetsu Academy was extremely remote and desolate.
What had been a secret den where they indulged their vile desires without being noticed had become a trap in the empty wilderness.
Lycoris might not match the supernatural in raw power, but they were professional agents raised from childhood. How could these people escape Lycoris killing in such open areas?
Inoue Takina, who had followed Hikigaya, slowly stopped and stared in awe at his white-hooded figure reflected in the sunlight.
The desolate, mottled floor was soaked with blood, strewn with severed limbs, and filled with dying wretches.
Yet on this bloodstained ground, there was a clean, immaculate path stretching to Hikigaya's feet.
No, precisely speaking, it extended from Hikigaya's feet outward.
This path with no blood or dust was carved step by step by Hikigaya himself.
Just looking at this hellish scene, she felt Hikigaya might be the demon being hunted.
But thinking of those on the ground who, though bleeding out from severed arms and appearing pitiful, were worse than beasts for how many innocent women they had persecuted, she thought Hikigaya should be called an angel.
Even she, who did not care much for teammates or her own life, felt these people deserved death, perhaps even to have hands and feet cut off and then live to suffer Hikigaya's promised tortures.
"Mr. Hikigaya, did you have professional training before?"
Inoue Takina swallowed hard, steadied her complex, shocked feelings, and ran along the clean path to Hikigaya's back. She asked hesitantly in a low voice.
Although she knew he used magic, this battle was not something magic alone could explain.
Like Chisato, she had no aptitude to learn magic. Even Lycoris selected to learn magic did not necessarily become strong just by learning spells.
She had watched the fight. There was no doubt Hikigaya relied on his physical ability, combat technique, and experience to kill. He had not used magic, except perhaps cleaning magic due to his cleanliness obsession.
She had heard of cleaning magic, but it was said to be an ordinary dusting spell.
To wield it as naturally and skillfully in combat as Hikigaya did, he must have been in countless battles.
"I am just a normal high school student."
Hachiman glanced at the distance where a gunman still held a weapon and did not know whether to shoot the dying, dismembered man on the ground. He smiled at Nishikigi Chisato, who still cherished life and let them suffer, and at the tense Inoue Takina behind him. He then reached out and stroked her sleek black hair.
"But I can teach you. Takina, do you want to learn?"
"Mr. Hikigaya would teach me? If-if possible, I would like that. But I don't have much money to pay as a fee."
Inoue Takina had not considered this, but hearing Hikigaya offer to teach her, she was tempted.
If she could learn even half of his ability to move through countless attackers without a scratch and dispatch them with ease, even learning a fraction would likely get her reassigned to DA headquarters for more missions.
But the problem was she had no money.
Lycoris used activity funds for most things. They could not be spent on paying Hikigaya. The pocket money she could freely use was probably only the wages she got working as a waitress at STARRY from Ijichi Seika.
"It's fine. We'll discuss payment later. Just wanting to learn is enough, Takina."
Seeing Inoue Takina show no embarrassment from his head pat and only care about the skills he would teach, Hachiman somewhat regretfully let his hand fall.
"Now, Takina, can you coordinate with the Lycoris who have just arrived? Help me check these people's identities and whether the cult leader is inside."
Although Nishikigi Chisato had deep psychological issues and mercy toward lawbreaking thieves, that did not mean Inoue Takina, who was not indifferent to human life like a killing machine, had no problems.
Lycoris were all orphans who, to repay DA for raising them, obeyed orders absolutely. Inoue Takina was a standout who put the mission above all and ignored her own safety. Psychological issues did exist.
But Inoue Takina seemed to have made completing missions her goal. His dependency and affinity passive did not work on her.
How to corner the DA agency then? Cold-faced, long-haired Takina was actually quite cute.
"..."
Inoue Takina watched Hachiman turn and walk away, pressed her lips, and hesitated to speak.
Actually, she wanted to ask why he had stroked her head.
'Does head patting have some special meaning?'
'Is it testing my talent? A requirement for learning his combat skills?'
She did not dare ask or show any odd expression.
If Mr. Hikigaya said he patted heads just for fun, she would have to worry he might cut off her head as a toy.
After all, with a sleeve dagger on his wrist that easily severed arms, cutting off her head probably would not stump him.
But her thoughts were probably redundant. Mr. Hikigaya looked like a good person.
Inoue Takina collected herself and turned to the approaching Lycoris to let them handle the site and check the records of those present.
"Crap! I seem to have forgotten about Ebihara-sensei's fiance. I wonder if he's in Kokutetsu Academy. If he was in that crowd earlier, did he run away or did I cut him down too?"
Hachiman returned to Nishikigi Chisato's side. He looked at Sylpha, who had used magic to move the victims to the ground, and suddenly remembered Ebihara Urara's fiance.
Besides wiping out a cult that ruined ordinary families, he had apparently promised Ebihara Urara he would help find her fiance.
He did not know whether Saijo Takayuki was dead or alive. The love-life system only alerted him when encountering female character triggers. Male characters were never covered by the system.
"Mr. Hikigaya, you mean Ebihara's fiance might have joined the cult? But didn't you say he was kidnapped?"
Hearing Hachiman, Nishikigi Chisato slowly lowered her gun, which she had been pointing at the half-dead cultists on the ground, and turned to him hesitantly.
Although she did not spend long at Sobu High, only long enough for him to bring them to the office and jump out the window, she remembered he had initially asked her to help search for Saijo Takayuki, suspecting he had been kidnapped.
It was only after Takina said the mission had updated and that Kokutetsu Academy was connected to a cult that they came here to exterminate the cult.
"That was just to comfort Ebihara. Why would a lending company kidnap a heavily indebted man? Ebihara has no money. Asking her to teach at Kokutetsu Academy to waive interest is obviously a trap."
Hachiman waved his hand. He was not hiding things from Nishikigi Chisato and directly explained.
"After your colleagues finish dealing with the fleeing cultists, have them check whether Ebihara's fiance is among those present."
"If Mr. Saijo is also a cultist and still alive..."
Looking as if he had already guessed Kokutetsu Academy had problems, Hachiman stared at the flustered Nishikigi Chisato and asked with a smile.
"Do you think I should tell Ebihara that her fiance is a cultist?"
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