You’re Right, They’ll Expel Me if I Run into the Store with a Weapon!!

“Hey! Why did the lights go out?!”

“I-I don’t know!”

“The curtains!”

“Idiot! We’d be completely visible from the outside!”

The previous sense of composure disappeared as if it were a lie, and panic and haste spread rapidly, engulfing the entire hall in chaos.

The sudden loss of light is not something experienced in everyday life. This sparked fear to spread easily.

“Hey! I hear gunshots somewhere!”

Amidst the clamor, what could be heard was a series of fierce gunshots, further exacerbating the surrounding fear.

“Everyone, to the emergency stairs! At this rate—”

“Senpai, please be quiet! I’m the leader here! Don’t issue orders on your own!”

“You—”

Takami tried to give instructions, but the leader, with angry eyes, denied him. Takami, with an angry look, forcefully grabbed the leader’s shoulders.

“You don’t understand anything! This blackout is not normal! There’s only one person I know who would take such bold action!”

Remembering the figure of a certain girl, Takami shouted with determination in his voice.

“Even if we all band together—”

Thud!

In the midst of speaking, the front door suddenly opened, and a student leaped in. Everyone aimed their weapons at the student, but before they could shoot, he uttered with a sobbing voice.

“They’re here! They’re here! Down the corridor!”

“Hey! What’s here!”

The leader, greatly shaken by his words, shrugged off Takami’s hands and demanded a report.

“In the pitch-dark corridor, a woman in a black mask, a girl in a uniform was there! It was too dark to see clearly, but she kept shooting! But I couldn’t hit her at all! Everyone was getting shot! Black thorns appeared everywhere!”

Despite his jumbled words, he conveyed what he saw with his trembling body. In the darkness, his expression was barely visible, covered in sweat and snot, with heavy breathing escaping his mouth.

Seeing his state and hearing his words, everyone in the room growled.

The first to speak up was Takami.

“Hey! We need to retreat! Shiori Himeji is—”

“Enough, please just be quiet! Don’t interfere with my comrades! Listen only to my commands!”

Yet, the leader, an upperclassman, pushed Takami away with a shout, descending from the stage with a red face of anger, pulling out a gun and aiming it at the front door.

“Everyone, get ready! The back door is barricaded and cannot be used! The only entrances are the three doors at the front! Listen! We will take down the enemy together!”

Aside from the back door, there are only three entrances into the hall, placed side by side in front of the stage.

The doors, adorned with red, luxurious designs, were locked from the inside. From a distance, everyone aimed their guns at each door.

“Listen! Fire simultaneously the moment they open! Do not let them enter this room!”

Following the order, everyone except Takami and Kumoba raised their voices in unity. However, Takami, with a bitter expression, muttered.

“This is hopeless…”

“Still talking? I’m not wrong! Your words are unnecessary!”

Hearing Takami’s voice lacking in spirit, the leader was once again infuriated.

Facing Takami, who seemed to be trying to steal his comrades, the leader’s face turned angry. However, Takami’s expression remained dark, and he continued to mutter.

“Was it ‘Black Spear Appearance’? Just producing black thorns isn’t scary at all! The opponent is just one person, if we’re prepared, we can win!”

“You don’t understand. Why can you only think so simply? It’s not about the power. Why do you only focus on the doors…”

“What are you talking about? The back door is completely blocked, leaving only the front doors as the entry point.”

Misinterpreting Takami’s warning as nonsensical, the leader scorned him.

This sentiment was shared by everyone else, except Kumoba.

“You guys don’t understand anything… You really don’t understand anything…”

Takami, wearing a look of resignation, looked at everyone with pity.

“Combatants can enhance their physical functions. But among those combatants, only the ranked ones operate on a completely different principle from us.”

Finally, he pulled out his gun, pointing it downwards, embodying a resolve that was firmer than anyone else present.

“The ranked ones… they don’t follow the laws of humans…”

Below the giant hall where the leaders were on guard lies a room known as the multipurpose room.

With no windows or lights, the room is completely enveloped in darkness.

She alone can utilize her vision in this environment. The black mask she wears is equipped with infrared lenses, allowing her to maintain her vision even in the dark.

Yet, she did nothing and remained still. Why? The answer is simple.

“To pry open the lid of darkness”—that was Shiori’s aim.

“Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!” “Zaan!”

Suddenly, what appeared in front of the leaders were spikes of jet-black thorns extending from the cracked floor.

“──Prepare yourself. And understand.”

The thorns that continuously grew covered half of the floor on the wall side of the hall, proudly standing in line.

“The ranking individual, he is of a different dimension from us.”

In the midst of everyone losing their words to the phenomenon and scene, Takami praises her existence.

“The ranked individual, he is not the same as us.”

The black thorns pierced through the floor.

By doing so, it occurs as a natural providence.

“What appears next, is a mighty warrior recognized by the world.”

──The ranked individuals do not follow the laws of man…

The advice given by Takami earlier now becomes reality.

Ranked individuals do not courteously enter through the door.

They can transcend the laws permitted to people.

“Here it comes! Combat College Japan Branch, ranked tenth──Shiori Himeji!”

And then it happens.

The space between thorn tips cracks.

The floor screams a cry known as the earth’s roar.

The answer, now present at this place.

“The Great Collapse of the Floor”

Shiori created a phenomenon that cannot be achieved by human strength.

“Uwaaaah!?”

“Help meee!?”

“I’m falling!”

The vast floor of the giant hall tilts diagonally with a thunderous noise.

It’s the same phenomenon as opening a can lid.

Only the floor near the room’s walls is pierced and destroyed by the black thorns from below, creating a scene as if a lid was opened on the opposite side.

Most of the floor on the door side collapses to the lower floor, while the stage side of the floor barely remains.

In the large crack in the dividing floor, thick iron rods connecting the concrete are visible, preventing the floor from completely collapsing.

However, the floor tilts at a steep angle, sliding students down to the lower floor like a slide.

There is no light there, only deep darkness spreading.

And then, what happens next is,

“Aaaaah!?”

“Don’t come! Don’t comeeeeee!?”

“Help meeeeee!?”

More than twenty comrades slide into the darkness, and a storm of gunfire rages on the lower floor. The cries of many fill the darkness, instilling fear in those who have not yet fallen.

“Ah, ahh…”

One of the frightened students stammers like a broken machine. However, in their hand, a silver glowing pistol is held, its muzzle pointed into the darkness.

Seeing this, Takami’s face drastically changes.

“Stop! Don’t shoot at all! It will hit our comrades below!”

He shouts, and the student aiming the gun makes a realized expression and lowers the muzzle. But,

“No, shoot! Everyone, open fire together!!”

Another leader denies it, ordering to attack into the darkness.

“Hey, stop!”

“Shut up!! Just shoot, everyone! This is an order!”

While clinging to the tilted floor, he draws his gun and points it into the darkness.

“Shoot, shoot, shoot!!”

At the leader’s roar and gunfire, students unable to make a correct decision out of fear start shooting all at once.

Takami’s attempt to stop them is drowned out by the gunfire, and countless bullets rain down into the darkness.

“Damn, Kumoma!”

He calls out a comrade’s name through the intercom, as he couldn’t see him around.

“What is it?”

“Didn’t you fall?”

“Managed somehow.”

Kumoma appears from behind the stage’s shadows.

“What were you doing!”

“Working on removing barricades and, though only partially, guiding evacuations.”

“You…!”

Takami made a bitterly amused face and began to enhance his body. He concentrated the enhancement solely on his legs, and once he surpassed the target enhancement value, he leaped with great momentum.

Landing several meters away, he found himself in the shadowy back of the stage where Kumoma stood. Behind Kumoma, the figures of four girls were visible.

“You really are something, aren’t you?”

“I just happened to be near these cute girls. I carried them all and flew to evacuate.”

“It’s not by chance, you idiot! But, good job!”

After hitting his comrade, who was obviously there for the cute girls, he quickly turned back. Behind him were the juniors, continuing to fire under the orders of their leader.

“Can we defeat it?”

“It’s impossible. They must have anticipated this situation as well.”

Takami said, knowing full well. All their actions were within her expectations.

“Let’s go.”

With Takami leading and the four girls in between, Kumoma followed. The six shadows disappeared from the hall.

And then──

“Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, fire!”

Together with the comrades who had fallen below, they fired all their ammunition. This included the leader and everyone present. Eventually, the sound of empty guns signaled that the ammunition was depleted.

“Did we do it…?”

The question leaked out was met only with silence. No sound came from the darkness below, eventually giving way to a sense of relief.

“We defeated them… We really did it!”

“Yes! We did it!”

“We defeated a ranked individual!”

At the leader’s cry of joy, the comrades who had suffered together screamed in jubilation. Freed from fear, they celebrated loudly. Eventually, they began to realize their situation and started to crawl out from the tilted floor.

But at that moment,

“Eh?”

A single gunshot rang out from the depths of the darkness. Following that, one comrade leaned his body into the air and fell into the shadow of darkness.

──It’s not over yet.

Amano said from the commentator’s seat in the stadium.

Immediately after saying that, Shiori began to move.

“Eh, Agaaa!?”

It happened in a flash.

From the dark depths several meters deep, Shiori, wearing a black mask, shot out like a cannonball, and without even landing, she punched one of the students.

The student, eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth, did not bleed, meaning they had not yet been defeated. Shiori lightly held them by the nape of the neck at her waist height.

“Ah, ah”

“Please”

“No, don’t come”

Everyone trembled in fear at the sight. The dark skull turned slowly, its sharp red eyes piercing through all their fears.

Shiori moved again.

She threw the unconscious student to a corner of the space and reached for her next prey. She punched one student in the face, their face a mess of tears and snot, and threw them into a corner as well. She dominated them unilaterally with her enhanced human capabilities.

“Ah, ah, AAAAHH!”

“Help me! Help meeee!”

Screams rose, someone pulling the trigger of an empty gun, desperately climbing the tilted floor, and some throwing themselves into the darkness—all captured by Shiori.

Her enhanced physical abilities allowed her to shatter the tilted floor and perform high-speed maneuvers like a bouncing ball. As a result, no one could escape Shiori’s grasp.

One by one, Shiori threw the punched students towards a certain place. It was the stage side of the floor in the hall that had not yet collapsed. The shadows thrown roughly piled up, and it ended in less than twenty seconds.

“Ah, ah, ah”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry”

“Don’t come, don’t come, don’t come!”

The students’ faces were painted with fear. Shiori, with an ominous aura, looked at them through the mask. Each of her movements greatly amplified their fear, and no one could stand up.

“I give up! I surrender! So please!”

Among them, the leader pleaded with Shiori, his face filled with immense fear. His previous confident expression was completely gone, now just a boy with a face messed up with tears and snot.

But,

Suu───Suu───

He pulled out a black pistol from his bosom. Without hesitation, he aimed it at the frightened students.

“I surrender, so stop already! This is an event, right? If we surrender, it’s supposed to end, right?”

The leader desperately argued his point, but the muzzle was still firmly pointed at them. And slightly, Shiori’s skull moved.

“Surrendering just because you said so… That’s not a rule that exists.”

That statement recalled a memory. It was written in the rulebook read before the event began.

──Retreat confirmation, the person is determined to have retreated from the event if they touch the collar choker for ten seconds or if an enemy touches it for three seconds.

That was the method of retiring from the event.

Realizing this, the students each placed their hands on their collars.

They believed that after ten seconds passed, it would all be over.

However, that was not the case.

“Aah!?”

Smoke rises from the muzzle that was pointed at them.

What ensued next was the violent sobbing of the students.

“Why, why!? We were trying to surrender!”

While clutching at the shot areas, they expelled their fear through tears. Since vital points were avoided, no retreat judgment was made.

In front of them, their faces twisted in severe pain, Shiori still did not lower her gun muzzle and said,

“If you don’t touch it for ten seconds, you’re still considered a participant. That’s why I can shoot.”

“What is that! There’s no way that’s allowed!”

“The teachers won’t stay silent about this!”

“…………No warning. It seems like this action is permitted.”

The message conveyed after a pause indicated a continuation of the action.

“Why! Why would you do something like that! Do you find joy in tormenting us!”

The leader shouted this out. Even while engulfed in fear, he fiercely barked at Shiori, who pointed her gun at them.

“…………”

Shiori remained silent in response.

To that reply, the leader inwardly smirked, curling the corners of his mouth.

“Is it okay for a senior to do such things! Attacking people who have no will to fight! Those who do such things aren’t human!”

“…………”

With Shiori’s continued silence, the leader inwardly curled his lips even more.

These were words that were socially correct, meant to demean the opponent’s stance.

If you can’t win in battle, win with words.

(I’ll destroy their reputation around here and end everything!)

The malice inside the leader drooled over Shiori’s despair.

“We wouldn’t do such things! We don’t bully anyone nor abandon our comrades! We’re different from someone like you!”

“…………”

“We are entirely right! We are the justice, and you are the evil! Hey, say something!”

“…………”

“Can’t say anything, huh!”

Shiori said nothing.

Instead, black thorns slowly began to emerge at her feet.

A bundle of black thorns.

Thorns growing upon thorns, upon which she deftly stood.

And she steadily moved away from them.

“Running away, huh! That’s right! You’re the one who’s entirely at fault! You have no right to blame us!”

(This is the finishing blow! Hahaha! Your reputation ends here!)

The leader internally laughed and trembled with joy, feeling saved and having driven away the ranked individual with words, believing he had saved everyone.

His sense of self-worth skyrocketed, becoming an entity filled with new respect, self-praising in his joy.

“…………”

Shiori’s backward movement stops.

Below, a deep floor hole spreading darkness is visible.

Shiori glanced there and then turned her crimson eyes towards them.

“Attacking people who have no will to fight… not abandoning comrades… which mouth is saying that?”

Something moves at the bottom of the darkness.

Its identity soon appears in front of them.

“Can you say that in front of these children?”

It was the “corpses of comrades” lifted by countless black thorns.

Their bodies stained with blood were embraced by several black thorns, which stood menacingly from the darkness below.

“I haven’t fired a single shot. The storm of gunfire was an accident caused by these children panicking. They self-destructed on their own.”

The fate of those who were knocked out.

Shiori spoke of the facts as she saw them.

“You guys rained down bullets from above without hesitation towards these unconscious children… Really, which mouth is saying that?”

“Aah, ah, aah”

The leader stops breathing, faced with the presented facts, as they completely negated his shouted words.

“This is an event, a game, right! Like the games played in virtual spaces! We won’t die, and we were supposed to unite our strengths!”

“This is reality.”

Shiori’s words cut off all excuses, defenses, and objections, silencing them.

Eventually, Shiori once again pointed her gun at them.

“I had installed makeshift landing mats at the fall site to prevent serious injuries, intending to observe how you would overcome that──”

Since creating the hole, Shiori had not performed any attack actions.

Rather, she had taken actions considering her juniors.

“Becoming panicked and firing indiscriminately, self-destructing on your own. I wouldn’t have done anything if it stopped there. But──”

If one were to evaluate their response to the situation, they would have scored zero.

But more than that,

“The indiscriminate shooting that involved comrades, that completely destroyed my kindness.”

Shiori’s words became cold with quietly heated anger.

It was an act that should not have been done as a human, and they had committed it.

“But still, that doesn’t mean you should be harsh on us!”

“There was plenty of kindness. But

it was all used up for those who fell. To protect them from the barrage you created.”

Shiori shielded the unconscious ones from the rain of bullets with black thorns, covering and protecting them. She wiped away all the mistakes they made.

“What was it you said? I heard it faintly.

- Shoot, everyone open fire together

- Shut up, just shoot, this is an order

- Shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot!

──Who said that?”

The question clenched the leader’s heart.

It was because it was the worst choice he had made.

“Sorry─”

“Your attack was a dangerous act of abandoning your comrades. Despite having an unconscious comrade, you used up all your ammunition and shot through your comrades as well.”

Shiori cut off the leader’s apology and, with her heart dyed in darkness, aimed her gun at them.

“Therefore, I have no intention of being gentle with you anymore.”

A death sentence.

The muzzle of the gun created shackles of fear, and nobody could move.

Everyone imagined the pain that would soon come their way.

“It’s good that everyone here is a ‘man’.”

A man?

What is she relieved about?

“It’s distressing to harm women.”

With her gun still aimed, she stood before them.

“If possible, I would only want to deal with the brats who abandoned their comrades.”

Then, black thorns began to emerge from under her feet.