“Hey Yuugo. Congratulations on moving here. Sorry I’m late, but you got the gift from Mizari, right?”
“Oh, Hercus! Thanks! Your timing is a bit bad though…”
It was Hercus, one of Yuugo’s friends, whose conspicuous silver hair was in a hairband. He said hello while entering with a carefree attitude.
Yuugo pointed with his chin to Avado and the others who were sitting on their legs… But surprisingly, Hercus did not seem the least bit perturbed. If anything, he seemed to understand.
“Ah… I knew it. I had a feeling this would happen.”
“Ah? What do you mean?”
The way Hercus spoke as if he knew what was going on confused Yuugo, but Hercus put his hand in his pocket and handed him something.
“Here. It’s yours, right?”
“This…!? Is my Blaster!? Why do you have it!?”
“Before I get into that, let’s wait for the other person involved in this. We can talk after he gets here.”
What Hercus presented was the magic item Yuugo was desperately looking for, his Blaster.
He immediately equipped it and activated his armor, and let out a sigh of relief after he used features like the violet armor and shape changing, confirming it was his.
He asked Hercus again why he had it, and he pointed to the door, just as someone else was entering.
“D-dammit…! T-this wasn’t supposed…!!”
“G-Geema!!”
“Geema? That’s the guy that did this?”
“Why is he in tatters? What happened?”
Darom was surprised when he saw this student stagger his way in, and called out his name.
This told Yuugo and the others this was the root of this misdeed. But perhaps in part because he was smaller than they expected, they could not hide their surprise of how pitiable he looked.
He was injured, but more importantly, so exhausted that he walked one step at a time while using the wall for support.
Yuugo imagined a heinous delinquent student, but he was baffled by how small he looked.
Neither Yuugo or his friends understood what happened, and their faces showed it. But now that everyone was present, Hercus could start explaining.
“Mizari told you I had some minor business to take care of, right? Said business was a duel with Geema.”
“Eh? Really? That was all I heard, minor business… But why were you dueling a third year student?”
“Well, remember how you asked me to return the materials Isaac stole with Claire? Geema heard about it, and kept insisting we’d duel. If he won, I’d introduce him to Claire… I thought it was too interesting to pass up.”
“Hey hey, don’t just offer someone as a prize without their consent. I’m not one to talk, but still…”
“I didn’t think for a second I’d lose. I’m afraid Geema here puts on airs and acts cocky, but he’s not that strong. You and Marcos are definitely stronger.”
“Eh…?”
Yuugo was starting to feel bad for him, and wondering how Avado and the others felt intimidated by him.
He could see where this was going, but Hercus continued to explain.
“So Geema came at me full of confidence, and I saw a bracelet I recognized. He was not using his normal magic item, he challenged me with a Blaster all of a sudden.”
“And… I can imagine how it ended…”
“Let me guess. He activated Blaster, and then could barely move? And the duel ended up being a one-sided fight in your favor. Right?”
In a way, a technician like Angel was more knowledgeable about Blaster than its user, and Hercus nodded in response.
She smiled awkwardly, thinking that was an obvious outcome, and explained further.
“Like I said before, Yuugo’s Blaster isn’t something anyone can just put on and be stronger. Its weight and magic energy consumption are a lot higher than the normal ones, so if just any person uses it, it’s going to sap their stamina and magic energy like crazy.”
“We… Or rather, An modified it a lot. And I tuned it for my big brother, so Geema would be better off using the fake one he got.”
“What an idiot. You can’t even understand that the power of a magic item depends on the person using it. Just what have you been learning in this academy anyway?”
Marcos spoke rather harshly, but his words without a doubt indicated Geema’s foolishness.
For a hero, what mattered was not the precious henshin item, it was the strong will to help people. Yuugo understood this and agreed with him, as Hercus finished telling his story.
“Well, since Geema basically sabotaged himself, I won easily. But I thought something was off, so I took Blaster… Then I wondered if it wasn’t yours, so I brought it here.”
“I feel like the wind was taken from my sails… Normally things start because I did something in the past, and it ends with us being even. But this time, it was totally the other guy’s fault…”
“Cheer up Yuugo, it happens.”
Said Melt to Yuugo’s back, not wanting him to feel so discouraged.
It was all so unfortunate and foolish, that it got Yuugo feeling listless, but he thought to himself he could not let it end like this.
He sighed, raised his head, and talked to Geema, who was drinking what looked like a potion handed to him by Avado and the others, to restore his lost stamina and magic energy.
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So not only this guy stole the device because he thinks it is what makes Yuugo strong, but he also stole it on the same day as the duel and didn’t do any test run to get use to it? Yea, Marcos is right, what has he been learning in class?