Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, Vol. 2

In time, they would be unable to ignore the attraction growing between them, and those soft lips would be his to… Well, one could hope!

What else could possibly happen? I’m sure of it! Medhi and I are just beginning our story together!

He glanced her way to see an expectant smile on her face.

“Then Masato and I will be attending the same school! …Tee-hee-hee! That should be fun! I’m really looking forward to it!”

See? See that right there? Medhi was on board! She wanted what he wanted!

It was starting! Their story was just beginning!

They spent about an hour rocking in the passenger carriage before finally reaching their destination, the town of Mahweh.

This place was also known as School Town. Like the name implied, the school building in the center of the town doubled as the town’s symbol. If you went down any of the town’s tight grid of roads, you’d soon see it.

The building itself was every bit as ornate as a palace, and the students who gathered would be taught all manner of things. A thought that made them all tense…

Or not, as the case may be. It didn’t seem like anyone was all that tense, really.

“As I said, since parents and children are adventuring together, the parent must be the one to take the lead. It is critical that the parent issue clear instructions and continue pushing their offspring forward. Understand? It is the parent who decides how a child is raised. Only you can raise your own child.”

“R-right… That much is true…”

Since long before they left the carriage, and long after they did, Medhimama had been speaking at length about her personal education theory. The endless torrent of words had left Mamako quite worn out. Porta clearly wanted to support her somehow but couldn’t get a word in edgewise, and Wise was doing her best imitation of thin air.

But Masato didn’t care about any of that. All he cared about…

…was that Medhi was giving him an angelic smile and talking to him.

“So you’re also fifteen? First year of high school? I am, too. Wouldn’t it be great if we end up in the same class?”

“Oh, uh, yeah! I agree! It would be really great!”

Did you hear that? Did you hear it? The angel spoke, and she said if they were in the same class that meant her route was open for sure! Wait, she didn’t say that? Well, Masato heard it like that.

He glanced sideways, and she was standing so close their shoulders were almost touching.

This distance alone was all the answer he needed. She would definitely accept him. This was clearly a sign she was on board. He was sure of it. It was a hard-rooted conviction.

The girl next to me is my heroine. My girlfriend. I hope! You gotta hope!

But, well, that did seem to be where things were headed. It was best to be open to these possibilities.

Hoping to progress this story as fast as possible, Masato led the way through the school gates. He called out to the group wilting under Medhimama’s rain of declarations. “Come on, everyone! Let’s get going! Ha-ha-ha!” And led the way to reception, following signs clearly labeled APPLICANTS THIS WAY.

Now they just had to greet the official at the counter and apply.

“Hey! We’re here to enroll! The paperwork of my future, if you please!”

“Understood. Then please write your name and job on this sheet.”

He took the paper and filled it out. NAME: MASATO. JOB: NORMAL HERO.

Wise, Porta, and Medhi all filled their documents out as well.

“Everyone done? Then I’ll turn them all in. Ma-kun’s, Wise’s, Porta’s, and Medhi’s. Five in all!”

“Thank you very much. I appreciate all your help.”

“My, how polite. You certainly have flawless manners, Medhi.”

“Mm. The way she does that slight bow. Her polite speech. As beautiful as she is well-bred. You can only describe her as perfect… Hey… Wait a sec…”

As much as he would have liked to continue extolling Medhi’s virtues, Masato’s brain had caught up with him.

Mamako had gathered up the forms and handed five of them over to the official.

Five?

“…Mom. I’m probably wrong here, but…did you fill out an application, too?”

“…Tee-hee ” She stuck her tongue out.

Mamako’s full-body tee-hee tongue-out attack activated!

Hit full in the face by his actual mother’s adorableness, Masato…

“…Gahhh…”

…takes heavy damage. He’s on the brink of death.

“Whaaat?! Why did he take damage?!”

The reason was simple: because he was her son. What other outcome was there?

Mamako may have applied, but of course, they would not accept such an application. Participants were limited to children only. The official lady managed an awkward smile, quietly placed Mamako’s application to one side, checked over the other applications, and placed her seal of approval on them.

But then her hands paused.

“…Oh? …Your names… I remember them… Oh, right!”

“What’s up?”

“Um… Medhi, there’s no issue with you at all. We’ve accepted your application, so you may proceed directly to orientation. You’ll receive a simple explanation of how the school works. However…”

“…What about us?”

“Masato, Wise, Porta, and Mamako, if we could have a moment of your time before orientation? There’s someone who wants to speak to you.”

Well, then.

Medhimama’s expression grew instantly suspicious. “Um, Mamako?” she asked. “The children with you appear to have been summoned to the principal’s office before they even completed enrollment. Are they…delinquents?”

“N-no! It’s nothing like that at all!”

Of course it wasn’t. This was…

“This again.”

“Seems like it.”

“I agree!”

All three of them had a pretty good idea of who wanted to see them.

And they were more or less right.

A clerk led them to the headmaster’s office, where they found a coffin in the center of the room.

“A coffin? Here?”

“Any time a coffin appears in front of us, odds are it’s her.”

“I agree! I’m sure it’s her!”

“Right… Wise, if you please?”

“Roger. I’ll bring her back pronto… Spara la magia per mirare… Rianimato!”

The shaft of light poured down. The coffin covering the dead dissolved, and the person inside emerged.

Long black hair, excessively calm countenance, fairly attractive.

She was wearing a suit that definitely seemed like something a headmaster would wear, and the moment she was alive again, she sat up like nothing had happened and greeted them.

“Well, well, I see you’ve all come rushing to your dooms— To your duties. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules.”

“If you say the whole thing before you correct yourself, it’s really not very effective.”

“Allow me to cut right to the chase, then. How shall I introduce myself this time?”

“How…? Um, like…Ms. Shirassse, for example?”

“Perfect, I’ll go with that. I am Shirassse. I must inforrrm you that I am the Mysterious Headmaster, Shirassse.”

Right, so her name was Shirassse, then.

To be clear, her real name was Masumi Shirase. She was a government official who always showed up dead and always gave a different name and occupation, which was really obnoxious. “Were you just thinking I’m obnoxious?”

“N-no… We weren’t…”

She was not to be trifled with.

“Why was I dead? …I’m sure this suspenseful development must have come as a shock to you all.”

“Not so much anymore, really. You’re pretty much always equally inexplicable.”

“As you say, I am as inexplicable as I am inexcusable, but if you’ll allow me to make excuses, I shall show you how it’s done.”

“Er, nobody said ‘inexcusable’…”

But as obnoxious as she was, Shirassse never really listened. She walked across the room to the desk by the window.

And fused with it.

“…Uh…?”

The upper half of Shirassse’s body was the same, while the lower half was now a desk. She had always been quite strange, but had she finally become half-furniture? Creepy.

But of course, that wasn’t it. Masato figured it out first.

“Um, is this…a bug? One of those bugs where you can walk through an object you shouldn’t be able to?”

“Indeed! And then this happens.”

From her position inside the desk, Shirassse took a single step. Immediately after…

…Shirassse died. Back in the coffin. “Yeesh, a sudden-death bug.” “What now? Just leave her?” “I think you’d better bring her back again.” Wise cast another revival spell.

“So there you have it. Thoughts?”

“We get it. You were dead because of that bug. This school was hastily slapped together and has bugs everywhere.”

“I’m so pleased you understand… Now that we have solved the bug masquerading as a locked-room murder trick, let us get down to business. If you would?”

Shirassse led the party to the reception area, took a seat herself, and began to explain.

“Let’s begin. I’d like to thank you for answering the call for students. As far as the school itself goes, creation of the headmaster character wasn’t completed in time, so someone said, ‘Can you fill in?’ and here I am.”

“Isn’t that so often the way? We’re with you.”

“The school’s name is officially Gioco Accademia. The school was created to silence a stream of complaints from a certain guardian to the effect of ‘This may be a game, but as long as children live here, it makes no sense that there isn’t a school.’ To that end, it was rather hastily put together.”

“Maybe we don’t need to know that part.”

“Gioco Accademia allows you to earn SP by taking part in classes and getting good grades. And these points can be exchanged for special power-up items. If we don’t offer some benefit, we’d never get any students, so…”

“Yes! I want that amazing item!”

“Hee-hee,” Mamako said. “Looks like someone took the bait!”

“Bait it may be,” Shirassse admitted. “But improving yourselves is hardly a bad thing. If it makes you take the classes seriously, then our goals align. But that’s all there really is to say about the school itself. Any questions?”

Masato’s hand shot up.

“Just one… The flyer posted at the Adventurers Guild had a note written on it that seemed aimed rather specifically at us.”

“You noticed that? Well done. It was well worth personally visiting each guild branch to write that note in so I could convince you to come here.”

“I figured as much. You sure got us hook, line, and sinker. So…did you have some job for us? Beyond just attending the school, I mean?”

“Oh! I know!” Wise said, raising her hand. “You want us to help with the bugs, right? You’ve got too many bugs like that one you just showed us!”

Shirassse shook her head. Bzzt.

“Operations is forever short staffed, so certainly assistance with debugging would be welcomed. And you have a duty to resolve issues that are beyond management’s resources, so it’s only natural you’d assume as much. However…”

“No, wait, I don’t think that’s actually our duty or anything…”

“It is in my mind,” she said firmly.

“You can’t just decide that!”

“But I will be handling the debugging. You can just do what comes naturally to you. You seem to have already established a connection without us doing anything. I leave it all in your capable hands.”

“Um, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“That would be telling!”

Shirassse gave a rare smile. But she seemed disinclined to inforrrm them of what that smile meant.

“With that said, we welcome your participation in this school with open arms. Enjoy your time here, engaging in cheap heroic clichés like the desire to become stronger, lusting after those power-up items, helping out your friends, and tripping them at the last minute because this is, after all, a competition.”

“You make everything sound so unpleasant. How do you always manage that?”

What she said hit uncomfortably close to home, which made it all the worse.

But it wasn’t all bad!

School life… Hopefully Medhi and I are in the same class.

Masato was so excited about that, he’d almost forgotten the original goal.

And thus, their time at the Gioco Accademia adventurer training school began.