294 Water Balloon

I had intended to scout Teacher Milk, but somehow, things had spiraled until we were set to pull a prank on Weiss.

I was bewildered at first, but Shari managed to talk me around. "Getting to act alongside her is an opportunity," she insisted. "We can investigate while we work."

I thought I caught a faint smile playing on her lips, but it was probably just my imagination.

More than that, though, her earlier words—I will definitely not lose to you—kept gnawing at me.

But right now...

"Ready?" Teacher Milk asked.

"I mean, technically? But... if we actually hit Weiss with this, isn't he going to lose his mind?"

"Today’s the day I finally part ways with my muscles, I guess..." Duke lamented.

"I'm actually getting kind of excited to see how he reacts," Milk sang out.

Teacher Milk was holding a water balloon. So were Duke, Shari, and—of course—me.

We were actually going to throw these at the Weiss Fancent.

The sheer terror of it.

“Are you guys messing around while I'm trying to be serious? I'll kill you.”

“I didn't realize you had a death wish. Die.”

“Have you said your goodbyes to this life? Begone.”

Every single hypothetical ended in my demise. I was going to die. Today... was the day I died.

"Forgive me, biceps," Duke muttered. "Thanks for everything. Quads... I'm grateful you supported me until the very end."

"Allen," Shari said softly. "We... we really wanted to make our dreams come true, didn't we?"

Apparently, Duke and Shari had reached the same grim conclusion. Though, for some reason, Shari actually looked a little happy about it.

That was when I started hallucinating. I could see golden halos hovering over their heads, pointing the way to heaven. And right there with them was a beaming Teacher Milk.

"But Teacher..."

"What is it, Allen?"

"Weiss has his Inviolable Domain (Barrier). Isn't this kind of pointless?"

"I had Shari imbue Eleanor’s Corrosion into the water inside these balloons," Milk explained. "It won't deal any damage. In a real fight, the throwing speed would be too slow to be useful, but since we're inside the Academy, he's bound to have his guard down at least a little."

To think she’d planned it out that far. Wait, was Shari actually going to be okay?

"...Teacher, you promised you'd never mention my name, right?"

"I won't tell Weiss. Relax."

"You mean it?! You swear?! Absolutely, definitely swear!?"

It seemed Shari, who had been smiling just a moment ago, was gradually being overtaken by anxiety. It was the first time I’d ever seen her look so desperate, and despite the circumstances, I found myself laughing. Duke, standing beside me, joined in.

"Oh, screw it! What happens, happens!" Duke yelled. "If we're doing this, I'm going to soak him to the bone!"

"Fair enough," I agreed. "I'll worry about the consequences after the fact."

"You two are so carefree..." Shari sighed. "But I suppose you're right."

Just then, a figure appeared in the distance, blond hair fluttering in the breeze. It was Weiss.

Yep... I’m definitely going to die.