Volume 1 - CH 2.5

PART 5

Then, for some reason, York’s hand shot up in the air almost a millisecond after that question was asked, as if she was waiting for an opportunity to prove herself like that. Also, her shoulders trembled slightly as she giggled.

「–––––– What a trivial matter! Truly, a child’s play! By being able to feel the ripples and fluctuations of the “Force”, predicting that sort of thing is so easy that it’s hardly even worth mentioning……」

「Oh my, someone feels really confident here. Well then, what kind of dangers can you imagine by looking at this particular picture, York-san?」

As soon as York stood up from her seat once again, she right away pointed her finger at…… The flip machine itself, it would seem.

「The color of the car must be jet black!」

「Wrong.」

Hearing Ranger’s words, York sat right back down while looking visibly displeased, mumbling something under her nose.

「Oh! Me! I think I have something!」

This time around, it was Yuudachi who raised her hand vigorously up in the air.

「Oh. Talk about unexpected. Would you like to share your answer with the rest of the class, Yuudachi-chan?」

「The amount of soba in those bowls is way too small!」

「…… Y-Yeah. And what about any dangers? Can you see any in this particular picture?」

Ranger spoke in a calm and gentle manner, but it seemed that she was giving it her absolute all in order to maintain a calm and composed demeanor. Especially when you could see blue and purple veins that started to pop up all over her forehead and temples.

「H-How about you, Cygnet-chan?」

Being called by her name like that all of a sudden, Cygnet opened her mouth quietly after a moment of pondering the question.

「Umm, this is, uhh…… T-The speed is the problem here? Probably?」

「Yes, yes. That’s right. That’s a very good answer. But you should sound more confident about it when you are speaking up. Also, can you name anything else?」

After being praised by the Ranger like that, Cygnet narrowed her eyes and began to ponder over the illustration projected by the flip once more.

And just like that, what followed was a long period of awkward silence that filled the classroom.

「Umm, if you would be so kind as to let me take a closer look, just a little bit……」

「Huh? Umm, well, sure. I don’t mind.」

Cygnet then stood up from her seat and approached the flip projector, and then she squinted her eyes without blinking even once.

There was little to no sidewalk at the place where the bicycle Manjuu was riding while carrying the bowls of buckwheat noodles in its small hands. Ahead of the car, there was an intersection with no traffic lights or pedestrian crossing. Not to mention that the visibility in this picture must have been really poor, and beyond that was a huge truck that was staying in place.

After that, what followed was yet another period of long and awkward silence.

「…Umm, Cygnet-chan? Are you still here with us?」

When Ranger finally managed to pull herself together from this strange calm numbness that this situation managed to induce in everyone and raised her voice slightly, Cygnet let out a groan without looking away from the flip projector even for a moment.

「……Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more, and I think I will be able to see it.」

「When you put it like that, it really makes me wonder what in particular you are looking at……」

But after a few more minutes of fruitless endeavors, Cygnet finally decided to give up and reluctantly returned to her seat, looking as if she was about to cry.

Ranger then let out a deep sigh as she gave the correct answer to the four Destroyers.

「……Listen well, everyone. In this particular case, the answer is: The bicycle may wobble and come to the center of the road all of a sudden”. You must always be able to foresee the dangers in the imminent future and be able to respond to them in a swift and flawless fashion. Not to mention that we have an incoming intersection here, as well as that huge truck, which makes the visibility of what’s ahead really poor. So the correct way to drive this blue car is to slow down instead of driving at the maximum allowed speed limit, in order to be able to respond to any possible dangers.」

While standing in the back of the classroom and observing this entire situation take place, Belfast turned towards Enterprise, who was standing right next to her, and asked her in hushed voice.

「Umm, I was actually wondering if that would be the case here, but…… Could it be that Ranger-san always gives her classes in such fashion?」

「Yeah, you got that right.」

Enterprise answered the question while putting her hat back on top of her head.

「But, I guess that those four students might be a little bit too imaginative, or let’s say, original, for Ranger’s particular teaching methods.」

「…… Is that really the case here, I wonder?」

Belfast, who was watching this whole scene unfold from the sidelines, was already sensing that the atmosphere in this classroom was turning rather strange. And it would probably only get worse from this point onwards.

「Most probably, if you let something like that overwhelm you, Belfast, you might not be ready for things that are about to come……」

「Does that mean it gets this bad……?」

Averting his head from the serious look in Enterprise’s eyes, Belfast once again began listening to the Ranger’s lecture in earnest.

As for Ranger, she looked as though she has already given up on that particular flip, she put it back inside of her bag, and then she took out yet another flip from the bag.

「…… For the time being, the danger predictions that we did just now are for the sole purpose of developing the ability of constantly judging the danger in your surroundings and properly assessing the situation. So each one of you should be aware of all of those things at all times. As well as ––––––」

While saying that, Ranger rummaged through the contents of her bag, but after a few more minutes have passed, she was still unable to get the one that she was looking for. It was as if it was stuck in there somewhere and refused to be found.

「Hmm, that’s weird. I’m sure that I was putting it into the bag, so it should be in there somewhere for sure.」

She then tried to pull on something inside of the bag with a little bit of force.

「Umm, are you sure that you are alright, Ranger-sensei?」

Just as Javelin got up and wanted to talk towards Ranger and lend her a helping hand, a certain object that was different from what the Eagle Union’s Aircraft Carrier was looking for slid out of her bag with a mighty force. And yes, it was certainly not another flip.

「Hmm? And what is this thing supposed to be?」

While Javelin picked that object up, Cygnet, who was sitting right next to her, peered at it from Javelin’s side.

「T-This is……!! N-No, don’t! Not this one!」

When Ranger realized what was going on, she hurriedly tried to reach out to her hand to retrieve the object that Javelin was holding onto, but Javelin was already gripping it tightly and would never accidentally drop it.

「Is this something that is also related to that whole danger prediction?」

She then turned the particular object upside down foe everyone else to see.

What they could see what a single sheet of paper. That sheet of paper was really similar to that danger prediction flip from before, but was anything but that theme-wise. And it was hand-drawn. An in the picture that was drawn on that piece of paper, they could see a girl with big sparkling eyes running in a hurry down the corridor that looked like a school one. And right as she was turning the corner of that corridor, there was a handsome young man who was about to walk right into the girl. It was that particular kind of a scene.

「This looks like a key frame from an anime storyboard.」

「Or rather…… This is more like a manga manuscript, wouldn’t you agree?」

Cygnet, who was still peering at the picture from Javlin’s side, answered with an utmost confidence.

That image, it had been correctly framed, had speech bubbles all over it that did not yet have any words written on them, and Cygnet nodded even more strongly while looking at those parts in particular.

「Oh geez, this is sick…… That is a genuine manga panel!」

Even those who thought this to be an anime key frame now had no other choice but to also agree.

Actually, this particular manga was something that Ranger secretly received from Akashi when she passed in front of the Store Department earlier. She wanted to take a look at the shoujo manga manuscript out of curiosity, and she had been asking for it for a long time now.