Inside the Medical Emergency Club ward.
"...I'm truly glad you're alright, Sensei."
The white-haired girl in a blue nurse uniform immediately gave me a serious examination the moment she approached.
After confirming that, by Kivotos standards, I was no longer in any major danger, a gentle smile actually appeared on her usually calm face.
She was worried about my safety, and even showed such obvious emotional fluctuation for someone like her. She definitely has feelings for me!
I said sincerely, "I have you to thank for this too, Sena. Without you, I don't know what would've happened to me."
"It's nothing."
Sena shook her head. "This was my first time treating an adult. It's already fortunate that nothing went wrong."
That wasn't really the case.
Leaving aside whether I could've recovered to my current condition, or even whether I would've survived at all.
At the very least, if Sena hadn't driven the ambulance and rescued me from Arius Squad, I would probably already be imprisoned in the Arius territory right now, only able to hope for rescue that might never come.
Just as I was about to correct her excessive humility, a somewhat weak female voice came from one of the hospital beds:
"Sensei..."
It was a brown-haired, golden-eyed girl wearing glasses, struggling to prop herself up, causing Sena to immediately walk over and press down on her shoulder.
"Chinatsu, you still can't move around. Lie down properly, this is your senpai's order."
Chinatsu, who served as the Prefect Team's health officer, had been attacked by the Sanctum Tower during the subsequent rescue operation.
Sneaking a glance at me, the person she had a crush on, she weakly made one final effort.
"But right now, I'm part of the Prefect Team..."
"You can return to the Medical Emergency Club too, you know?"
Sena said, "High quality corps... no, patients can all be freely handled."
"No, I'll pass..."
The corner of Chinatsu's mouth twitched as she gave up resisting and lay back down on the bed.
"Please allow me to formally decline."
I thought that this was perhaps one major reason why Chinatsu transferred from the Medical Emergency Club to the Prefect Team.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the same ward, the atmosphere had been strangely subtle for a while now.
"Hehe, Kayoko-san, you're looking pretty good."
"Is that so? Then I'll take it as a compliment. Same to you, Ako-san."
These kinds of seemingly ordinary pleasantries somehow completely changed in meaning when paired with their expressions and tone. Even from far away, I could smell the faint scent of gunpowder in the air.
Iori, lying on the neighboring bed, seemed to have noticed something too, yet didn't dare confirm it, her expression hesitant.
I had no idea whether Kayoko and Ako had some kind of grudge between them before, but now that I thought about it, they really did give off the feeling that they simply didn't get along.
For now, I decided to chalk it up to the instinctive incompatibility between cats and dogs.
Thinking that, I walked over and stopped beside Kayoko.
"Ako, Iori, are you both alright?"
"Yeah."
Iori said, "It's just..."
"Sensei, we're fine no matter what."
Ako interrupted her friend's explanation and pitifully said to me:
"President Hina is missing... She was clearly still lying in the hospital bed earlier, but suddenly... She's not in the club room either, and we can't contact her..."
Hina...
That girl who, despite being severely injured, still exhausted herself protecting me while fighting against an immortal enemy.
Now that the Eden Treaty she had always pushed for had ended up like this, both her body and heart, which had already endured far too much, must have reached their limit.
Just thinking about how the me she admired not only failed to protect her, but even dragged her into suffering even greater injuries, made both my chest and my wounds ache.
"Sensei, the Pres she..."
"Yeah."
I solemnly assured the blue-haired girl worried for her friend,
"Leave Hina to me."
"...Alright."
Ako replied seriously, "Then we'll leave everything to you."
...
Rumbleeeee!
"Cough, cough... ah..."
Misaki, who had pushed Atsuko away at the final moment but ended up having her lower body pinned beneath bricks and rubble herself, let out a quiet bitter laugh.
"Looks like... I can't move anymore..."
Yet at this moment, a strange sense of nostalgia arose within Misaki's heart.
When was the last time her body had felt a heaviness similar to this?
Her vision grew blurrier and blurrier, and her consciousness gradually drifted away. Amid the haze, she finally remembered that night of torrential rain.
The only difference was that now, it was even colder than back then.
"This world... is always like this..."
Misaki's voice grew softer and softer until it completely disappeared.
Atsuko bent down and confirmed that Misaki's breathing was still stable, that she had merely lost consciousness, then stood back up and silently chased after Saori and Azusa.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Saori, having heard the explosion and collapse behind her, had already fallen into furious rage.
How dare Azusa go this far!?
Driven by intense emotion, Saori no longer held back her stamina, yet at the same time lost none of her rationality.
With the combination of both, only a few short minutes passed before Azusa was forced into close combat.
Finally standing face to face with her former teammate, now her enemy, Saori merely stared coldly at the other girl several steps away.
Instead, Azusa, who had been fleeing this whole time, realized she couldn't escape so easily and fired first, trying to force Saori back in search of a suitable opportunity.
But just as Saori had said.
Once it entered the stage of direct confrontation, Azusa could never defeat her.
Saori observed even the slightest movement of Azusa's fingers. With a single sidestep, she dodged the first bullet and rapidly closed the distance.
Although Azusa fired another aimed shot, the speed at which she moved her muzzle simply couldn't keep up with Saori's movements.
The next instant, Saori, already having closed in directly before Azusa, knocked aside the rifle with one arm while drawing a handgun better suited for close combat with the other and fired at Azusa.
Azusa ducked to evade it, then after a feint, tried to widen the distance between them. But Saori suddenly lowered herself and charged forward, then abruptly planted one hand against the ground. Using her waist as an axis with the momentum, she unleashed a thunder-fast spinning kick that struck the rifle held by Azusa, whose strength and physique were far inferior to hers, causing both of Azusa's hands to go numb and lose their grip.
Not only did the rifle fly out of her hands, even Azusa herself was thrown onto the ground by the tremendous force.
Just as she hurriedly tried to get back up, a coldly gleaming gun barrel was already pointed at her forehead.
"Checkmate, Azusa."
Saori declared from above.
"...That isn't your gun."
Azusa, already cornered with no way out, suddenly said in an uncertain tone.
Saori froze for a moment, then her pupils contracted sharply.
"...This is Sensei's gun."
After recognizing the truth and obtaining the answer from Saori's reaction, Azusa softly asked:
"Before this... did you point it at Sensei like this too?"