Gate Guardian - Song of the Frozen Soul 4 A DREAM CAME TRUE

I had a weird dream.

In this dream, I find myself holding hand in hand with a beautiful maiden. I quite can't remember her face, but all I know is that my heart flutters whenever I hear her voice.

I seem to be touring her in the school. I showed her the gymnasium, the school clinic, the amphitheater, the library, the mini-park, the ceremony hall, and the wide oval. We also explored various buildings of the Dradecim National High School.

It was already afternoon when we finished. The girl waved goodbye at me with an adorable smile and went back to her room.

But when I was about to walk away, I heard heavy gruntings. I ran to the corridor and saw my teacher Macho Steel trying to restrain two students who are fighting each other. With his muscular body, Macho Steel was able to push one student away, and the other one suffered from his armlock.

The student that was pushed away had his face look horrific. His eyes are hollow dark, and black blood oozed from it, crawling on his cheeks! Then he revealed a pocket knife and stabbed the busy teacher from the back!

<>

I was heavily sweating when I woke up. I also find it really hard to breathe. My ears are receiving a deafening noise, probably because of my alarm clock. I looked at the time, and it's already six in the morning.

I'm late again.

You may tell me "Oh Alaric, six o'clock in the morning is early, I wake up at night!" Well, guess what? My hometown is one and a half hour journey from here. It even goes as long as two and a half if there is a traffic jam. I had to wake up at five in order to get in time, but I also need eight hours of sleep! So stop judging, you're not a judge.

I did all my morning routine, and if you consider running through the corridors at the second half of my first period as part of my habit, then you're right.

"You're late again!" Macho Steel shouted when I finally arrived in the classroom.

I did apologize, but he didn't care to listen and just yelled at me to settle on my seat. Good thing is that it's still homeroom, so I'm certain that I didn't miss any lecture or pop quiz.

Macho Steel cleared his voice as he continued to talk to the class.

"As I was saying earlier, your new classmate Miss Hikari is still adapting in this school. Somebody should tour her inside the campus so that she wouldn't be lost so easily… Any volunteers?"

All of the guys raised their hand, except me. Those guys just wanted to have an opportunity to talk to the new cute girl. If only they knew that behind that adorable face is a weird magical girl that fights monsters from another dimension...

I looked at Tiara, who was quite embarrassed. She's hiding her rosy cheeks by covering her face with a book. Bringing up her name in front of the classroom and having someone to tour her around the school must have triggered her shy personality. Or maybe she's just pretending to be shy, considering that she punched and yelled at me last time.

"Mister Eisenhower!" Macho Steel said.

"Wh-WhWait, m-me!?" I pointed my finger at my own face. That call is scarier than a graded recitation!

"Yes." Macho Steel nodded with a smile. "Since you're her seatmate, you guys will be talking to each other now and then. Consider this as a punishment for being late all the time."

"I don't want to-"

"Are you okay with that, Miss Hikari?" Macho Steel completely ignored me.

"U-Uhm, y-yes!" Tiara nervously replied. Then she looked at me with her puppy eyes.

I heard a lot of mumble from my classmates, and all of it is negative. From the guys, I heard something like "Why is that Alaric so lucky!" and "I want to walk with our cute classmate, but that arrogant heartthrob ruined my plans!". But from the girls, I heard something like "Go for it, Tiara! Destroy his nose once again!"

Seriously, this class needs to chill.

I was about to protest but Macho Steel stopped me by just staring. "If you have any complaints, feel free to submit it here." Then he lifted a small trash from under the teacher's desk.

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Our class was dismissed as early as one o'clock due to a teacher meeting. As agreed (by Tiara and Macho Steel), I have a job to tour this Japanese girl around the school.

It matters not to me if she's from the opposite sex or a magical girl who can beat monsters to a pulp. I should do this tour guide job fast so that I can go home and stream one season of ecchi anime.

We met up in front of our classroom. When I arrived, she looked at me with this sparkling puppy eyes, as if she's a dog waiting for his master to come home.

"M-Mister Alaric… T-Thank you for being my tour guide for this day~"

I scratched my head, slowly formulating the words I wanted to say. "W-Well… Let's get started. Follow me."

"Y-Yes!" Tiara replied as she tailed me.

As we circled around the buildings, her mouth started to unleash weird stories.

"I-I kind of got lost during my first day here, and I didn't know where's the girl's toilet. So I used the boy's toilet instead. Ahaha~"

"You're hopeless…" I sighed. "Maybe you should ask your mommy to hold your hand the whole time so that you'll never get lost."

"L-Like this?" Tiara tilted her head.

I felt that my right hand was warm and soft. That's when I realized that this girl is holding my hand tightly! My blood pressure went up, and my heart went ratatatata! like a machine gun! That was a sudden critical hit!

"I-It's a joke! Get your filthy hands off me!" I shrieked. Then I turned away to hide my reddish cheeks. Like a typical tsundere. I-It's not what it looks like, B-Baka!

"I-I'm sorry, Mister Alaric!" Tiara replied as she released my hand. Now we're both blushing.

<>

The awkward atmosphere didn't last at all, because I took my tour guide job professionally. Being a school guide is easy. All I did was to go in front of the building, point it while saying "This is the gymnasium." or "This is the library." Then we go inside the building and discuss the stage of the amphitheater or the home economics building in a maximum of one sentence. Then we move to the next.

It took us 45 minutes to end the tour without any problems. Even with my plain and boring discussion, Tiara seemed amused. She had this satisfied smile on her face when we reached our classroom to fetch our bags.

"T-Thanks for showing me around." Tiara bowed politely like a Japanese would be. "Y-You're really a good friend, Mister Alaric!"

"Don't mention it," I said.

As we are about to wave farewell to each other, we heard loud voices and heavy grunting! There are even weak tremors in this building, which is a sign that it came from the lower floors!

Tiara and I rushed to the location of the cause of this noise. We arrived at the corridor of the third floor and witnessed a quarrel. It was between two of our upperclassmen, and they seemed to be brawling like kids. There was a huge commotion in this place!

Thankfully, a well-built macho man from the faculty entered the scene. It was Macho Steel or Mr. Kent to the rescue! He intends to pacify this chaos!

"Stop right there!"

Macho Steel shouted as he pushed away Student 1 with his powerful palm! And then the super-teacher made an arm-lock to the other student's neck to restrain him!

Something was weird on Student 1. He has this round hollow eyes which were crying with black blood. He roared like a pissed lion, and he reached out and deployed his pocket knife!

It was right at this moment where I remembered my dream. This day went exactly as how I saw everything in my sleep. This chaotic scene in front of me, the school tour, and holding hands with a pretty lady. It all fits together.

Macho Steel is in danger!

Chapter end