I will save you in this 5th Life

After I went to my room and got the stuff I needed for the day and also made sure to get my pouch of knives even if they might not be in a good condition

I am probably gonna clean it at school when I am free

I took a look at the time on my device to make sure that we still had enough time to go to the office to report the incident last night but also make it in time so that we are not late for school

I saw that the clock on the wall said it was 7:20 pm which meant we are probably going to barely make the second bell depending on how long the whole reporting process will take

After making sure everything I need was ready, I took a look at what I was wearing only to realize that I had not changed clothes at all last night, so I instead quickly went out and saw that Yuuna was already ready and standing outside to wait for me

She looked at me wearing the same thing as earlier but not carrying anything in my hand curious

"Are you planning on going like this?"

I shook my head and said

"No of course not but I wanted to take a short shower before I did go to school so I wanted to see if you were already ready so that I could tell you to take your time instead of waiting outside

Since you are already done, do you want to come inside and wait for me to get done with my shower so that you don't have to stand outside awkwardly"

She seemed to think for a bit and said

"I don't want to disturb you and could just go back in to wait for you inside my own room"

I then said

"It's fine since you are already out so it will just be a hassle for you to reopen the door and wait for me again, and it will be easier for you to know when I am done if you are waiting in my room

And since I was disturbing you in your room for that long, it is fine for you to "disturb" me as long as your want to

So don't be shy and come in to wait"

I did air quoted as I said the word disturb

I went and pull on her wrist and said 

"Come on in and don't be shy, although I am sorry if it is too messy"

She seemed to relent and said

"Sorry to disturb"

As she went through the door of my dorm room

She took a look around while I was thinking nervously whether I left something necessary around my room that would creep her out

She then said

"I was scared at first but then from what i am looking it i think your room is very clean, i guess you are just too much of a worry wart?"

Phew

I let out a breath I was holding in my mind and felt relaxed there was nothing weird that was laid out in front of her

She then took a look at the clock and said

"5 minutes had already passed since we planned to go to do the report together, I think you should hurry up and get to showering if we want to make it in time for school"

I nodded and got to stripping my clothes off when I suddenly heard a yelp behind me causing me to turn around to see Yuuna sitting down and facing the other way

Then I realized

"Ohhh, that's my bad for not telling you before taking my clothes"

She then shook her head and 

"its fine, I just had a big reaction as well, we are both girls so I am weird for reacting like that in the first place, but I am still going to be looking away so please get to showing soon before we are late for school"

I nodded and went it

"I will be quick, sorry for the trouble"

I put all the clothes I just took off into the washing machine to make sure they are getting cleaned while I am in the shower

And after I entered the shower I put my hand on my face

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

I screamed internally again

Man this is the second or third I am screaming internally, I wonder if my mind's throat is fine

I just went and done did it

I went and took off my clothes all so naturally in front of someone I am not fully familiar

But I guess I don't see her as a stranger if I can do it in front of her, although I did act tough outside the shower when I just realised I was stripping naked in front of someone

Hopefully, my tone did not make it that clear for her to realize

I finally turned on the shower after having a meeting with myself in my mind

As the cold water streamed down my body I thought about what happened just now with a much cooler head, figuratively and metaphorically

"Her reaction was quite cute though, does that mean she has some feelings for me?

Although I was thinking all this time if it was the case but I wasn't too sure if I was overthinking

There were times that I thought I was overstepping my boundaries when I was with her, but then she did not stop so I was confused as hell if she was really fine with it or was just too afraid to brush me off too much

But that reaction earlier, do girls normally become that embarrassed when they are seeing someone of the same gender if they are not into them in some sort of way"

I lightly slammed my head on the wall as I continued to overthink and clear my head at the same time

"What should I do, should I go and confirm soon or do I just wait and see what happens

Man imagine if everything was just my imagination, that would be soooo creepy

But even if I did try to confirm when would be the perfect time to do so

And isn't confessing your feelings to someone this early kinda weird, but when is a good time to confess to someone?"

By the time I was done thinking I realized I already finished showering and only 10 minutes had passed

So I was planning on grabbing the towel I bought into the room, which I actually did not bring...

Man I really am messing up so much today, I need to get a grip before I do something worse

I don't think I should just go out like this, for both her and my sanity's sake

I slightly opened the door and called out to her

"Uhm sorry to trouble you Yuuna"

As I opened the door and slightly peeked out, she was shocked yet again and let out a yelp due to seeing my naked upper body slightly come out

She then turned again to face the wall and asked me

"What do you need and why are not wearing anything?"

I am so dumb

I berated myself as I said what I wanted from her

"Could you get me the towel that I might be hanging near the windows or maybe somewhere I put on my bed"

"Okay let me go and see if it is there"

I saw her stand up and put her bag on the chair as she went to look for the towel that I forgot to bring

I then went back into the bathroom to wait for her to bring me the towel

While waiting, I continued my train of thought earlier about when would be the optimal time to confirm her feelings towards me, because at this stage there is no mistaking this feeling that I have towards her, especially from the dumb actions that I just did

Hopefully, she did not find out already, but it would be weird if she did not from all the dumb actions that I did during the short time I spent with her

Would she be creeped out by someone confessing to her despite only knowing them for s short while

I was continuing to musing in my thoughts when I suddenly her knock at the door and I slightly opened it again to accept the towel she bought me

"Thanks, where did I put it because I don't remember putting it away"

"I found it right on your bed next to your pillow, and I thought that you had set it aside there so I just pick that one up to bring it to you now

I hope I got the right one?"

I took it and gave her a nod after making sure it was the correct one

"Thanks for getting it for me, I actually didn't think it would be on my bed and sorry for the trouble again"

I closed the door and dried myself as I finished up my last thought process about this whole feelings debacle

"I guess the best time to do so is probably after we finish the battle to finish the leader of the school year so that there would not be anything awkward during and before the battle

And also to prevent there being anything weird feelings that would affect the result of the battle so I should probably wait till it is done before I go for it"

I finished drying myself and wrapped myself up before readying myself to go out and get my clothes from my room, which now that I think about it, I should have asked her to get them for me earlier as well 

I was slowly opening the door to ask her to turn around when I saw that she was standing outside the door of the bathroom and turning her head to the other side while she was handing me something with her right hand

I took a look and saw

"Oh thanks for that, I should have asked you earlier but I forgot at that moment, hopefully, my wardrobe was not too messy"

She said while still not looking at me

"It's fine it is not much trouble at all, to be honest, I am more sorry about the fact that I had to go through your wardrobe, but I thought it would be better for you to get dressed than coming out with only a towel and catching a cold

So I chose to invade your privacy and get you your clothes"

I took the clothes she had handed me and said

"It's fine I don't really have anything to hide, and you were right in thinking that it is better for me to get dressed than coming out and wearing a towel and catching a cold"

And under my breath I said

"And also its better than embarrassing myself"

"Did you say anything?"

"Nah I didn't, but thanks again I will be done quick"

I closed the door and got dressed in the clothes she bought me, it is a good thing most of my clothes are pretty much of the same style so it was probably easy for her to choose the clothes for me to wear

As I wore my shirt, I opened the door and came out to see that she was reading something while waiting for me

I called her out to tell her I was ready to go, and she looked up and smiled at me while putting away her book

"Do you have anything left you to want to do?"

I nodded and said

"Let me get my stuff and lets get ready to go before we are too late" 

I quickly collect the stuff I needed such as my Personal Device and the weapon pouch along and crammed them all in the backpack I set aside next to my table

And then once I made sure everything was ready I went to the entryway of the house where she was waiting for me

"Lets go then?"

She nodded and opened the door

As we made out way to the Security Office, we talked about how many times today we used the sentence "Lets go before we are too late" and how funny it would be if we really were late in the end

To which she replied

"It wont be that funny if that really happened would it"

"I guess not?"

After increasing our pace of walking we made our way to the office, which was thankfully open but also seemed very busy based on the amount of security personnel rotating in and out of the area

We walked to the door and waited for the security officers in combat gear to finish walking and then we walked in towards the counter in order to give our report about what last night

At first, the person at the counter was listening calmly, but once we said that we had a run-in with the creature last night she was surprised and immediately called some of the officers in order to take us to another room for a more detailed statement

We waited for a few seconds and an officer came up to us and lead us deeper into the office where the other rooms were located

As we walked in deeper we were able to hear the conversations of the other officers in the office since they were speaking quite loudly and hurriedly

"Call Team 2 and 3 to go to the industrial districts to see if there is any trace of the hidden UMA since it might find a good place to hide in that area but make sure not to disturb any of the constructions that are happening over there

Call back Team 1 and 4 to the Office for resting and resupplying, and send out team 5 to follow up on the common requests of the general populace so that we are not overwhelmed with the other teams

And send Special Team Alpha to the dungeon areas to see if there is any trace of the UMA

And don't forget to ask Team Beta to enter the sealed forest to perform a sweep of the location for more traces of the UMA

That's all the orders for now'

While the person was speaking the other officers next to her were typing away at their desks or calling the various teams involved in their operations

Yuuna tapped my shoulder and said

"It seems the creature we fought really is messing everything up, I don't think I have seen anything this crazy as long as I have been alive"

I nodded and said

"Definitely, even when I was watching my parents works, I don't think I have seen any thing this frantic, hopefully the thing we can provide would really help them out."

They then led us to the innermost room of their office where they told us to wait for a while before there would be someone coming to take our statement regarding Red

Although it took a while for them to arrive, they constantly checked up on us if we needed anything so the experience while waiting for them was not uncomfortable at all

When the person came in, we recognized her as the one that was giving orders earlier to the other officers in the office, and it surprised us to see her take the statement since we thought she was someone on a higher level and the person taking our statement would be her subordinate

It seems she saw our surprised faces and was curious as to what caused our surprise

"Whats up with your shocked faces, anything surprising happened?"

"Ah no no, we just thought it was surprising that a commander, which i aussme you are, would be the one coming to take our statements"

Yuuna next to me nodded

"Ahh, you would be right most of the time, but we did not really have any personnel at hand to deal with this and your case is also special because its on a high priority mission for the Security Units around the area, so it is normal that I am here to take the statement"

We nodded after hearing the answer

She bought out her Device and slotted it into the table that we were sitting at, and then a screen popped up along with a  keyboard for her to type on

"Lets get started shall we?"

We nodded

"Let's get started with all the features of the one you met"

I started off

"I am not really sure about most of the features but I remember that it was shorter than me and I am 175 centimetres without shoes, it was also surprisingly skinny since I was able to get a better look from the time I got close to her, but I could not see their facial features since it was shielded by their tentacles thing"

"Hmm it seems to match with most of the statement that we have recovered from out witnesses, but it seems that it varies based on the colour you encountered huh"

She said as she typed

"Oh and I actually found the book they were holding in the school library of the STARs Academy so i am not sure how it got there and to its hands"

"The book thing was also something that other encounters with the other UMAs, but no one could really pinpoint where the book came from so this is some vital information

Even if we can't be sure that all the books come from the same source

We will send a team to investigate just in case"

We nodded and then Yuuna spoke up to say

"I don't know if you guys already knew this already but we did have a short term battle with the thing you are hunting for and we thought we found something interesting while fighting with it

We don't know if you already knew it already but we are going to say it in case it is important information"

The commander seemed to be more alert when they heard that we had a full-on battle against Red

"I was curious when you said you had a close up look of it and its book but this all makes sense if you have had fought against it

This is actually very rare information since the other run-ins with the UMA and its other comrades were mainly ambushes or resulted in the person being attacked running away 

So we do not have any combat based information regarding it, this is going to prove very useful so please proceed with this information"

Yuuna looked at me and nodded, signalling for me to start with my statement first

"I ran into it when I was buying food outside, and every time I tried to cut off its tentacles, although it was easy to cut off even with the throwing knives that I had, could not really stop it from regenerating

And during my last-ditch effort against it, I saw its book glowing as the tentacles came out from the ground so I had a thought that it was the catalyst that summoned the tentacles and I thought to throw one of my daggers at the hand that was holding the book to hopefully stop the continued assault of the tentacles

I was successful in doing that, more successful than I thought since it let a guttural scream once I made it drop the book, and seeing that it had lost focus I ran my blade through its chest hoping that it would kill it

Oh, wait I am supposed to say that I was going to kill it?

It counts as self-defence right?"

The commander looked at me and nodded

After getting her confirmation that I was not in any legal trouble, I continued my story and said

"I then thought that I had defeated it for good and tried to unmask it to see who was the one that was attacking

But it was a careless mistake since I got hit and blasted back with its tentacles, which might have been its last-ditch effort to save itself

I hit my head and the rest was history, except for the fact I saw a bright attack hit it before I passed out"

I turned to Yuuna and waited for her to continue

"I had followed the trail of tentacles and red liquid to find Itsuki knocked and I immediately went to heal her while seeing if the monster would attack

After making sure Itsuki was fine, I first tried to attack the monster with fire-based magic which did not seem to have that big of an effect but when I saw that it was avoiding my Holy Wall gave me an idea

I thought to use a Light-Based attack to see if it will have a better effect on it

And once the attack it seemed to have a much more considerable effect since it shrieked loudly and ran away, sadly I was not able to defeat it"

Once the commander her the last sentence Yuuna said, she slammed the table and stood up

"Wait so you are certain that it had a stronger impact compared to your other attacks right? 

Yuuna was startled but still replied as she nodded

"I am certain since once I mixed in the Light Element into my Flame Lance causing it to be some kind of a bootleg Holy Lance and shot it at the creature it seemed to have a larger impact than my Flame Lance"

"Wait did you just say you used Element Polymerization?

But let's put that aside, these are all very useful information 

Thank you for that

But let me make a call first"

She took out her Device from the slot and used it to call someone in

After a few seconds, someone came on

It was a very nervous female officer with blonde hair and she asked the commander what she wanted

The commander first told her to stand up straight and not be nervous, to which she somewhat complied but she still seemed nervous

"Gather everyone with Light Affinity to Briefing Room One, you don't have to call them in if they are on the patrolling teams 

And also call to make sure each of the patrolling teams has someone who can use Light-Based Magic, I will explain the details later"

The officer nodded and left the room in a hurry

The commander sighed and turned to us

"Thank you for the all the information and sorry for not introducing myself earlier

I am the commander of this station, and I am called Shimamoto Mayumi 

Pleased to make your acquaintance"

Yuuna and I also introduced ourselves

When she heard my name she was surprised and said

"Wait are you Instructor Raiko's daughter, because your surname matches and face looks so similar to her"

I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment and nodded

"Yes you are right, she is my mom"

She got slightly closer and said

"You have grown since the last time I saw you, and are looking more and more like your mother, although your build is leaning more to your father

Hope everything is going well at school

Well other than this thing that just happened

Have you told instructor Raiko about this"

She seemed like a completely different person compared to earlier and seemed much more talkative

After I answer her questions, I told her that I had to hurry to school so that I did not miss any school time and also that I had to get checked out at the school's medical facilities

She seemed to understand and escorted us out of the room and asked us to fill in some forms at the main counter while she went to the briefing room she mentioned

Which still took some time and after we finished the forms some minutes had already passed, which also made it certain that we would be late for the classes

But as we were leaving, Mayumi called out to us and we turned to see that she was in some sort of combat gear with a bow that was slung over her back

Seeing her bow made me think

Her name really fits in this case, huh?

She handed us a letter and said

"We probably took much of your time but this letter should help you out when explaining

Good luck at school and stay safe"

She did not letter us finish as she tied up her brown hair in a ponytail and turned into the serious person that we met earlier in the meeting room and left with a group of people behind her, presumably to search for more traces of Red

Yuuna also seemed very surprised by how early she could change her face, but then she recovered and motioned that it was time to head to school

After taking our time to reach the school, the school guard looked at us and was planning on reprimanding us for being late but then we immediately gave them the letter

He opened the gate and let us in after reading the letter

Once we got in, Yuuna turned and said

"Do you want me to go with you to the medical station or will you be fine on your own"

I shook my head and said

"Its fine I will be okay, just don't forget to help me tell the instructor that I would at the medical station"

She nodded and waved bye to me

I made my way to the medical station that was on the left of the hall

Once I went in a strong smell hit me, but it wasn't that it was a bad-smelling scent, it just smelled weird and unnerving

It was empty so I was easily able to find a spot for the medical officers to check up on me, they used both Vital Check and their medical equipment to check if there is something wrong

And after a while the doctor taking care of me said

"There is nothing wrong internally and it seems that the person providing medical aid to you has done quite well

But you had recently had hit your head on some hard walls so there is a chance that you might develop a concussion, so we suggest you at least take a week to 2 weeks to rest yourself and not do any intense activities in case it worsens"

Wait?

1 to 2 weeks?

That's so long and I would even miss the battle against Nozomu and not have enough time to practice for the mock battle, I despaired as the doctor looked at me with puzzled eyes