In the days leading up to the start of school, almost everyone who had gone home for summer break had returned to Aoyama Apartments.
A good number of students lived in the building. When he ran into Saitama yesterday, he even heard him complain that during summer break, the place felt half empty.
Sato had gone back to the countryside, Takanashi Rikka had gone to her grandfather's house, and even Gabriel had returned…
"By the way, Gab, did you go back to Heaven?"
At that moment, a large group of people were gathered in Saitama's room, playing games. Sato was naturally among them.
This time he was lucky enough to be teamed up with Gabriel, and together they absolutely crushed the duo of Saitama and Tohru.
Although Tohru hadn't been playing games for long, she had decent talent, so her skill level was fairly good. On the other hand, despite his overwhelming strength, Saitama could only be described as being bad at games while still loving them.
After getting beaten badly by the two of them, the pair had lost all confidence. Saying they needed a break, Sato and Gabriel started a one-on-one match.
Gabriel's eyes were fixed on the screen, her fingers rapidly tapping the buttons.
When she returned the other day, Sato had seen her smooth golden hair restored to its original state, but today it had already become messy again.
Hearing the question, Gabriel curled her lips. "If I don't go back to Heaven, where else would I go?"
Sitting beside her, Sato glanced at her after taking his eyes off the screen, suddenly curious about the difference between Heaven and the human world.
"What's Heaven like?"
"What's it like? It's just like that. Actually, it doesn't look much different from the human world. No, that's not right. It's completely worse. There are no electronic devices there, no computers, not even a single game console. It's unbelievably outdated!"
"The worst part is those customs officers. They wouldn't even let me bring electronic devices back. Damn it!"
As she spoke, Gabriel suddenly gritted her teeth, the veins on her hand bulging as she gripped the controller.
This girl was beyond saving.
Seeing her like this, Sato couldn't help but click his tongue. He had heard from Vignette that Gabriel was the top graduate of the Angel Academy, but that must be fake, right?
There were dark circles under the angel girl's eyes, probably from staying up all night ever since she came back from Heaven.
And the fact that Heaven even had customs checks was honestly surprising.
"Tsk, every time I come here and see all of you gathered in this room, I get a bit on edge."
Suddenly, a certain teacher who wasn't good at knocking pushed the door open and walked straight in.
Hiratsuka Shizuka had a troubled look on her face. There were only a handful of top-tier powerhouses recorded worldwide, so why were so many gathered in her jurisdiction?
"Want some tea?"
Saitama stood up and asked.
"No, no need."
After entering, Hiratsuka Shizuka sat down unceremoniously next to Sato. She raised an eyebrow at the screen, then shoved aside Sato, who had just been defeated, and snatched the controller from his hand.
"This is an all-out fighting game, right? How are you this bad?"
"Hiratsuka-sensei, aren't you being a bit too familiar?"
Sato couldn't help but complain. When she sat down just now, her sudden shove had almost knocked him over.
He moved aside and asked, "Why are you here?"
"Obviously for your matter."
"These are the enrollment materials."
As she spoke, Hiratsuka Shizuka pulled out a stack of documents in a transparent file folder from her clothes and tossed it to Sato.
Sato caught it reflexively, then felt the warmth coming from the file.
"Wait, where did you just pull that out from?!"
He suddenly widened his eyes at the teacher in front of him. She was still wearing a white coat, and it looked like she had been busy at school preparing for the new term before coming here.
But the problem was, her white coat didn't have pockets. Did she stuff it into her waistband or something?
Hiratsuka Shizuka was already immersed in the game, staring at the TV screen without blinking. "Didn't you just see? I didn't bring a bag, and I was afraid I'd forget, so I kept it on me."
Ugh.
Sato's expression turned a bit strange. Boss, aren't you being a bit too careless?
"What is it?"
At that moment, Kobayashi stepped behind Sato and asked curiously.
As Sato opened the file, he said, "Some documents needed for Kanna to attend school."
Soon, as he looked at the certificates inside, Sato raised an eyebrow.
"Whoa, are these real or fake?"
"They're both real and fake."
"How so?"
"The documents are completely legitimate, but the information is entirely fabricated."
Sato nodded, then suddenly frowned and looked at Hiratsuka Shizuka. "Since you can go this far, why not just inform the school directly?"
"That's different."
Hiratsuka Shizuka shook her head.
"For visitors from other worlds living here, the first rule to live properly is to live like an ordinary person."
"So if we just inform them directly, it would definitely look like privilege. Do you think those old foxes sitting in the principal's office wouldn't pay extra attention? And if they investigate and find something wrong, what then?"
"Our memory erasure team already has a heavy workload."
Sato raised an eyebrow. The Hero Association even had such a special unit?
But he felt that true memory erasure was unlikely. The mechanisms involved were too complex. It was more likely that psychic-type ability users were sealing or interfering with that part of the memory.
"Oh right, where's your little dragon?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka was suddenly taken out by Gabriel's effortless combo. Without changing her expression, she turned to Sato and asked.
Tsk, so bad.
Sato sneered inwardly. And you were criticizing me? You didn't even manage to struggle.
"Still inside SAO."
Sato suddenly paused, then let out a sigh. "Come to think of it, this is my fault too."
"Huh?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka looked at him in confusion.
Sato glanced at her and said, "If you don't understand, forget it."
Hiratsuka Shizuka narrowed her eyes slightly.
This brat is getting ahead of himself. Too bad I can't beat him. If Hikigaya were here, that would be nice.
…
Hikigaya household.
Hikigaya Hachiman, who was watching TV, suddenly sneezed. He rubbed his nose in confusion.
What's going on? Did I catch a cold?