Little Garden — Seven-Digit Outer Gate, the Forest at the End of the World.
When descending upon Little Garden through the proper channels, a so-called "Trial" was an inescapable rite of passage — as the three girls who had just arrived from another world were about to discover firsthand.
SPLASH——!
Three streaks of light falling from the highest heavens plunged with pinpoint accuracy into the depths of a forest pool. The waves they kicked up surged several meters into the air.
"So this is the 'interesting thing' the invitation letter was hyping up?"
"Some backwater wilderness with not even a welcoming party to greet us — how utterly aggravating."
A dissatisfied voice rang out, laced with a particular brand of arrogance.
Sakamaki Izayoi — a girl with loosely curled short hair, her school uniform collar thrown open with careless abandon, eyes gleaming with a wild, unfettered defiance — was grumbling as she wiped the water from her face.
She swept her gaze around the surroundings, taking in this new world the invitation letter had promised would grant her something worth calling "fun."
Beside her, the other two girls who had fallen from the sky alongside her were clambering out of the pool with somewhat less than graceful composure.
One was dressed in an elegant crimson formal gown that befitted a young noblewoman, wringing furiously at the sopping hem of her long hair — Kudou Asuka.
The other wore an expression that appeared utterly blank yet radiated quiet wariness from every pore — Kasukabe You.
The three girls stood in the water, eyes meeting. They didn't know each other's names. But some strange, unspoken resonance passed between them in an instant, and all three understood without a word that they were all, equally, outsiders to this world.
"Um..."
Kudou Asuka hesitated, about to open her mouth to try to assess the situation — when the unexpected struck.
ROAR——!
A thunderous bellow erupted from the depths of the pool.
A colossal blue serpent bearing a single great horn burst violently up from the bottom, shrieking as though it intended to tear apart whatever intruders had dared to violate its domain.
This was the local "Water Deity" — the existence tasked with administering Little Garden's "Trial" to all new arrivals.
Under normal circumstances, it was not a creature prone to such fury. But the three girls had crashed down and shattered its sleep, and right now its temper was at a volcanic peak.
"Insolent... insects... how dare lowly worms like you... offend the great Water Deity that is I?!"
"?!"
A downpour of water arrows rained from every direction like a violent storm, forcing the three girls — who hadn't even had time to introduce themselves — to scatter and dodge.
The girl with the headphones raised an eyebrow. She took one unhurried step back, shoved both hands in her pockets, and let a mischievous smirk curl across her lips.
"Hey — something this small-time doesn't need me to bother with it, does it?"
"We're all people who got sick of our old lives. Surely you two have at least something going for you?"
"I don't know your name yet, but your personality is truly awful."
Kudou Asuka let out a cold snort. Without sparing Izayoi a glance, she stepped forward.
As the former young mistress of a top-tier financial conglomerate, she possessed a natural sense of responsibility ingrained in her bones. She didn't know who these two other girls who'd arrived alongside her were — but if she could display her abilities right now, perhaps she could secure the position of "leader" among them.
A red gleam flickered through her crimson pupils.
"Beast — kneel!"
"Aristocratic Dominance" — a Gift of the spoken word that carried absolute, inviolable compulsion.
The rampaging serpent lurched to a sudden halt. Its enormous body buckled as though crushed by a weight of ten thousand tons, and its massive head was driven straight down into the mud.
"Next—"
Asuka drew the ceremonial dress sword she'd been carrying as a personal sidearm — not the most suitable weapon for the job, but it was what she had.
But before she could act, the girl standing right beside her suddenly moved!
Like a lion or tiger breaking from cover, that small, slight body detonated with a force that defied all common sense. A kick wrapped in pale azure light struck true — hitting the serpent's most vulnerable point with absolute precision.
BANG!
A dull, crushing impact rang through the forest. The serpent's eyes rolled back, and it crumpled into unconsciousness.
As if responding to some invisible rule being fulfilled, at that very moment a small, delicate sapling shimmering with ghostly blue light crystallized in midair — and slowly, gently drifted down, floating before the three girls' eyes.
"What is this?"
Asuka furrowed her brow. Everything had happened far too quickly. They'd taken down the serpent that attacked them, yes — but she still had no clear picture of what was actually going on.
The serpent lay unconscious in the mud beside the pool. Asuka and the girl who had just unleashed that startling power — Kasukabe You — exchanged a glance.
She didn't know what the situation was. But it seemed the other two girls who'd appeared here alongside her also possessed qualities that set them apart from ordinary people.
Setting aside the headphone-wearing blonde who was still standing around looking smugly useless, this quiet-seeming brown-haired girl might be worth speaking to.
"Uwah, I almost missed it——!"
But before Asuka could say a word, an urgent fourth voice came calling from somewhere in the distance.
It belonged to a girl with rabbit ears — and from that alone, the three of them knew this was no creature that existed anywhere in the societies they'd come from.
It was Black Rabbit.
Those blue rabbit ears of hers were flailing wildly in the wind. She came bursting out of the forest, bracing herself against a nearby tree, visibly out of breath.
Behind her walked two figures — a man and a young girl, hand in hand, making their unhurried way forward.
Their pace was slow. And yet with every step they seemed to cover the ground in a single stride, keeping perfectly in tow with Black Rabbit without falling a step behind.
"That was almost a disaster, but thankfully..."
"Anyway.... huff huff, welcome, all three of you, to Little Garden! This place is..."
"Don't come any closer — back off!"
"?"
Black Rabbit wheezed her way to a stop in front of the three girls, pressing her palms together in a gesture of goodwill — the words of explanation barely forming on her lips.
They were not met with kindness.
Kudou Asuka and Kasukabe You dropped into combat stances simultaneously, eyes fixed on the suspicious creature with the rabbit ears.
They had just been attacked once already. Trusting something that had now come bounding out of the wilderness at them was not something either of them was inclined to do.
And in particular, the blonde headphone-wearing girl standing behind those two narrowed her eyes — her gaze drifting past Black Rabbit to the man and the young girl walking hand in hand behind her.
Her eyes glimmered. The corner of her mouth curved upward. Whatever she was thinking, she kept to herself.
"...??"
Seeing this, Black Rabbit's expression shifted — but the moment she spotted the unconscious serpent lying by the pool's edge, she understood immediately that she had, despite her best efforts, arrived one step too late.
Like a tutorial NPC showing up after the player had already cleared the first dungeon — for all they knew, she could be a monster in disguise.
"Ah, no, listen — you three! Here's the thing..."
A flustered Black Rabbit scrambled to explain herself, doing everything in her power to look harmless.
Those three invitation letters had cost her everything. If the three summoned heroes who were supposed to join No Name ended up not joining — that would be a catastrophe of the highest order!
"I'm not interested in how things are."
Black Rabbit's words were cut short as the blonde headphone girl suddenly spoke up:
"A rabbit that appeared out of nowhere by the roadside — and... heh, I was starting to think this world wasn't anything special. Like that thing just now that called itself a 'deity.'"
The corner of the headphone girl's mouth slowly curled into a smile.
"But now it seems the more interesting existences have shown up right on cue, haven't they?"
"Like — hey——!"
No warning. No preamble. No superfluous exchange.
The ground beneath the girl's feet exploded.
BOOM!
Launching off the earth itself, Izayoi's figure blurred into an afterimage. In an instant she had crossed dozens of meters — and that heavy, air-cracking fist came driving straight at the two figures who had followed Black Rabbit here!
Well, she was a Problem Child, after all. That was just how she was.
In Sakamaki Izayoi's eyes, her entire reason for coming to this new world was simply to find something that could give her a thrill. And right now, before her stood exactly that — an existence she couldn't see through at all.
"Don't——!"
The gust of displaced air screamed past. Black Rabbit's expression locked up the moment she realized what was happening — but her cry came half a beat too late!
Izayoi's fist had already arrived.
____
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