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[Crossover] Ch 178: The Three Saints Unmasked
🕑 Added 2025-08-02 18:13:54 +0000 UTC— — — — — —
High God Forest
Just outside a traditional Japanese-style building, Yukina Himeragi and Sayaka Kirasaka stood quietly. One calm and composed, the other visibly nervous.
"Yukina," Sayaka whispered, trying her best not to tremble, "I'll go in first and check things out for you. If something happens to me.... just don't forget me, okay?"
Yukina gave her a look that was equal parts amused and helpless.
"It's just a test," she thought. "Why is she acting like she's marching to her doom?"
Despite being a year older, Sayaka always managed to feel like the younger one. Yukina couldn't help but offer a bit of reassurance.
"Relax. It's not just Sensei handling the evaluation. We'll be fine."
"Oh—right!" Sayaka's face lit up with realization. "I totally forgot there were others involved. That makes it way less scary."
Her fear wasn't of the test itself, but rather of Yukari Endou—the chaos she usually brought with her. If it was a joint assessment, that meant other, hopefully normal, superiors would be present too.
As long as Endou wasn't the only one in charge, Sayaka, who consistently ranked in the top three in her grade, didn't feel all that intimidated by the test itself.
She let out a frustrated sigh and muttered, "It's all Endou-sensei's fault. Every test ends up with some bizarre nonsense."
Yukina gave a conflicted sigh of her own. "Sayaka… we're still close enough that she can probably hear you…"
Sayaka froze like a statue.
And right on cue, a voice filled with authority and an edge of danger echoed from inside the shrine.
"Yukina Himeragi!"
"Here!" Yukina straightened up instantly and answered, then glanced at Sayaka in surprise.
"…Guess I'm going in first. I'll wait for you outside once I'm done, okay?"
"Huh?"
Sayaka blinked, her expression turning a little weird. "Wasn't I supposed to go first?"
She quickly put the pieces together. The sudden change in order—was that because Endou-sensei heard what she said earlier?
Sayaka's face turned pale, and Yukina could only give her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before stepping forward and pushing open the shrine doors.
---
Inside was a spacious hall.
At the front, where a sacred statue would normally sit, a long veil of gauzy fabric separated the room from four seated figures behind it. Their silhouettes were faint, but visible.
In the center of the hall was a single kneeling cushion.
Yukina approached silently, sat in seiza on the cushion, and waited for the higher-ups behind the veil—the elites of the Lion King Agency—to speak.
Then, a dignified woman's voice came from beyond the curtain, laced with both authority and sentimentality:
"Yukina Himeragi. It's been five years since you joined the Lion King Agency, hasn't it? I still remember… it was winter. You walked barefoot through the snow, and we were the ones who saved you that day...."
As the voice spoke, a vivid memory stirred within Yukina.
She remembered that day. When she was six, a group of sorcerers had nearly sacrificed her to their god—a Spirit Wolf—but she was saved by one of the Agency's Sword Shamans.
Her eyes welled up with tears, her jaw tightened—
And then she snapped her fingers into a counter-curse.
Pop.
Just like that, her expression shifted instantly—from tearful to angry.
"Isn't probing someone's memories a bit much for a test?"
The woman behind the curtain had deliberately triggered her trauma—then used a spell to peer into her memories.
Doing that to an eleven-year-old was just plain cruel.
But the voice responded not with denial, but with praise.
"For someone with only six years of training to break my spell… you really are exceptional."
Yukina blinked. The anger on her face eased slightly. 'Wait... was that part of the test?'
Then a teasing male voice cut in.
"Well, that's one way to test someone. Still, don't you think digging through a kid's memories is a bit much, Koyomi Shizuka?"
'Koyomi Shizuka?' Yukina's eyes narrowed slightly. 'That's one of the Three Saints… so she's the one who cast the spell on me?
There was a long pause behind the veil, followed by a sigh.
"I apologize," said a woman's voice. "That was uncalled for."
"Not to me," the man replied. "You should apologize to the girl."
His tone turned cold. "And while we're at it, this whole shrouded-in-mystery routine is getting real old."
Golden light flickered through the air.
Then, the veil—meant to obscure the figures behind it—began to unravel, fading away into nothing.
And just like that, Yukina could see them.
The four people who had been hidden behind the curtain now sat clearly before her—and her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Shirona-senpai…? And you're here too, Koyomi-senpai?!"
Three of the four were people she knew.
Yukari Endou, of course, was no surprise. But sitting beside her, wearing an elaborate kimono, was Koyomi Hiina—a former senior who'd graduated from the elementary school division two years ago.
(Trivia: Koyomi's real name is Koyomi Hiina, as Koyomi Shizuka is the title that she has as one of the Three Saints of the Lion King Organization.)
And next to Koyomi was Shirona Kuraki, also a senior from the middle school division, currently in her second year.
They were both familiar faces. People Yukina had trained with, chatted with, laughed with.
If they were just ordinary seniors, that would've been fine.
But if they were secretly part of the fabled "Three Saints"—the legendary figures within the Lion King Agency who rarely showed themselves…
Then this wasn't just surprising—it was ridiculous.
All sense of fear or tension evaporated.
Instead of a solemn test, it felt more like a reunion. A class gathering. Like some kind of awkward middle school alumni meetup.
Yukina tried her best to keep her expression serious, but it was hard not to break into a dumbfounded smile.
The mysterious and legendary Three Saints had just been completely unmasked in Yukina's eyes. And frankly… they didn't seem that scary anymore.
She then turned her gaze to the one person among the four she didn't recognize—Ryo Yagami.
In this chaotic setup that felt more like a school reunion than a sacred evaluation, he was the only adult who still carried an air of gravity.
.
.
.
