When the Guardian Becomes Obsolete
On the other side of the institute, Shiori and Mochi were in the home economics classroom. They sounded flustered.
After the conversation they had with Airi a while ago, she had helped them both reach the same conclusion.
For Sora to forgive them, they had to compensate him with the same coin with which they had ruined his day.
While Mochi tried to cook Nikujaga, Shiori had come up with the idea of preparing Dashi-maki Tamago, however…
Mochi ended up burning the meat, and no matter how hard Shiori tried, her egg came out too raw.
“No, no, no! I don’t understand why my cooking stats are so low!” Mochi cried in frustration. “Sora will never forgive me if I serve him a piece of charcoal in soup!”
“Aaah, this is so frustrating…” Shiori muttered as her dish fell apart. “I calculated the cooking time three times, but the heat transfer is inconsistent. Besides… how did I even carbonize a potato in water…?”
Both were frustrated, annoyed. Ever since Sora had given them the cold shoulder, several of their stats had dropped drastically.
At that moment, a shadow appeared behind her. It wasn’t a teacher or anyone familiar. It was someone who moved with an elegance straight out of a top-tier video game.
“The secret to good nikujaga is searing the meat before adding the broth. And for that dashimaki… your wrist movement needs to be softer"
Startled, both girls quickly turned toward the entrance, thinking Sora had found them.
But the person speaking to them was nothing like Sora: a boy with neatly styled dark hair, a spotless uniform, and a smug smile. His gaze was sharp and serious.
“Who are you?” Shiori asked, narrowing her eyes. “I’ve never seen you in the school database.”
“Just another student passing by,” the boy replied, silently stepping closer. “My name’s Ren… So, what are two girls like you doing alone in the cooking room?”
Meanwhile, Sora walked slowly through the hallway. Classes were about to start again, yet his feet unconsciously carried him toward the clubrooms. Tomoki’s words echoed in his mind again and again.
“What will you do if they find another guy they like? A Player 2 who doesn’t ignore them?”
"I doubt… I seriously doubt that will happen. I mean, it's not like we're in a romance story, right?" Sora thought to himself. "Besides, they can go with anyone. After all, the only thing that unites us is an old guild from a video game that shut down a long time ago…" Yet, something inside Sora unsettled him; saying those words to himself made his heart pound.
"What am I doing…" Sora whispered, stopping in the middle of the hallway. But as he realized, he had stopped in front of the home economics classroom, and inside, Sora could hear the faint voices of people he knew.
He wanted to peek into the classroom, just for a second, to convince himself they were okay and that his discipline lesson was working.
Sora applied his old stealth technique, pressing his back against the wall next to the slightly open door. His heart beat at an erratic pace. "Just a quick look... just to confirm they haven't set the institute on fire," he repeated mentally.
He peeked just a few millimeters. What he saw was a critical hit directly to his stability bar.
Inside the classroom, Sora saw Mochi happily chatting with the boy. Meanwhile, Shiori took notes on his cooking advice. The harmony in that kitchen made Sora strangely uncomfortable.
Sora stood frozen, his back pressed against the cold hallway wall, watching how Ren fit in so naturally with the girls.
“Listen, girls,” Ren said from inside. “A leader should never let their team fall apart like this. Sometimes, people who call themselves Guardians forget that a shield that never moves is just a wall in the way. You need flexibility. You need someone who can bring out your team’s true potential—not ignore it.”
Those words were the last drops that filled the cup.
Sora clenched his teeth in anger. Tomoki's words and Ren's were true. Ren was an upgraded version of him, one he couldn't easily surpass.
"Maybe… they're right," Sora thought, lowering his gaze to his hands. "I'm not good at studies, nor at sports, I don't have much money either, I don't have any of the qualities Ren has."
The fear Tomoki had planted materialized before his eyes. It wasn't that the girls would go looking for someone else; it was that the world itself was offering them someone better, someone who didn't ignore them, who didn't give them cold lessons, and who, above all, wasn't broken inside.
"Maybe… they'd be better off with a much more capable Guardian," Sora murmured to himself.
His discipline lesson had become the perfect space for a Player 2 to log into the server of their lives.
Without saying a word, Sora walked away in the opposite direction.
"If they're happy with someone like him, who am I to interfere?" he told himself, though the knot in his throat indicated his system was suffering a feeling he had never experienced before.
He didn't return to the classroom. He walked toward the stairs leading to the rooftop, needing fresh air to cool his mental processor. However, just as he opened the door to the roof, he encountered a figure who also shouldn't be there.
"Well, well… I didn't expect to find you here all alone. What's the matter? Did your companions abandon you?" said that girl as she began to laugh. However, she noticed Sora's reaction.
For his part, the only thing he did was lift his head.
The girl standing there was Mika, not in a cow costume, but in her gal uniform.
"Something like that, Mika…" Sora responded with a dull voice. "I think I just found out the world no longer needs old Guardians."