As the tree’s yellow leaves signaled the start of a new season, it was time for our autumn field trip. The trip would take place at the farm, and I was in a group with Honoka, Miu, and Kyoko.

"What do you want to see first, Sia-chan?" asked Honoka.

“There's nothing that I want to see right away, so let's go in order," I said.

This option would also be the one that allows us to walk the least. Laziness at it’s finest.

"If we're going in order, then first would be the sheep," said Kyoko.

We arrived at the place where the sheep were being maintained. Even though I've never seen a live sheep in my current or previous life, the familiar atmosphere made me immune to its cuteness.

I looked to the sheep, with its fluffy white fur, and then back to Honoka, with her fluffy brown hair.

“It's Honoka…” I murmured.

“Truly, Honoka,” agreed Kyoko.

“Yup, Honoka, no doubt about it,” said Miu.

No wonder I'm immune. There's no point in coming to the farm to see sheep if there's one right beside me. The only difference is that there's more fluff.

“Hm? Did you guys call me?” asked Honoka.

“No," said Kyoko.

We went inside the gates so we would be able to touch the sheep. When Honoka came in, all of the sheep turned their heads.

What just occurred was a scene of a family finding their relative who was thought to be dead. The sheep flocked around Honoka. It was Situation: Overfluff.

“Oh? It looks like all the Sheep-san like me. I wonder why?” asked Honoka.

“It’s because you guys are the same kind, obviously," said Miu.

“Hm? Did you say something, Miu?” she asked as she pet one of the sheep.

“I said it’s because you guys are the same-GUH." Before she could finish her sentence, Kyoko slapped her behind the head. She passed out for a full minute, but woke up for the fluff.

We pet the sheep to ascertain it’s fluffiness, and Honoka got to ride one of the them. I’m no sheep whisperer, but I think the others were jealous. I could see their black eyes of envy, with the lucky sheep reflected in them.

When we were satisfied, we moved on to the next destination: the cows. We had permission to drink their milk if we milked them ourselves. It was a great idea; we would work hard for our reward and feel good about ourselves in the end. The only problem was that no one wanted to do it.

Rock-paper-scissors was our game of choice, and the loser would be the one to milk them. After suffering an intense game with Kyoko for ten minutes, my trusty scissors failed me and I was the chosen one.

“S-Sia-chan, hurry up and do it!” said Miu.

“Just wait! I’m not mentally prepared for this yet…” I said.

I reached my hands towards the cow’s udders and got ready to squeeze. When I finally found the courage in myself to do it, a white liquid dripped into the bucket.

"Moo!"

"It came out..." said Miu.

"Well of course. What did you expect to come out, blood?" said Kyoko.

"I'm not stupid! I know living things don't pee blood!"

If only you knew... If only you knew...

As they say, the first step is always the hardest, so from then on it was a breeze. I gathered enough milk to fill half a bucket, and we split it between the four of us.

"Delicious~" said Honoka.

"Agreed," I said. The milk had a rich thickness to it, compared to store-bought milk which is smooth and watery. I like store-bought milk, but this milk is a different kind of delicious.

When we finished our milk, I had a good idea.

"Let's tip a cow!" I said.

"Eh? Won't we get in trouble for that?" said Honoka.

"It's okay. The teachers have their hands full with our classmates, and the farmers are busy. Also, even if they see us they'll let us off since we're kids," I said.

It’s so easy being a kid. Now that I’ve went through the pain of being older, I can live my childhood to the fullest.

"Sounds fun! I'm in," said Miu.

"Hmm~ If you guys are doing it, then I might as well," said Honoka.

"I’ll do it, but only this one time," said Kyoko.

"Great! This is something I've always wanted to do,” I said.

I always saw people tipping cows on Youtube, but since I never saw one in real life I couldn’t experience it for myself. It’d be hard for my small body to tip it alone, but I think it’s doable with the four of us.

“On the count of three, we push,” I said.

We were all on one side of the cow. I checked everyone’s expressions to see how they were faring. They were nervous, but ready nonetheless.

“Ready? One. Two. Three!” We all pushed, but the cow showed no signs of budging. On the contrary, it was annoyed and kicked Miu, who flew five feet across the grass.

“No good, huh… Let’s try one more time. Miu, hurry up and get over here,” I said.

“No ‘Are you okay’ or ‘Do you need my help’? I’m human too you know!” was what she said, except she still got up to join us in our endeavor.

“This time for sure! One. Two. Three!” This time, our force and nakama power pulled through, and the cow finally tipped.

“Moo!”

“We did it!” said Honoka.

“Hey! What are you kids doing over there?!”

Oh crap. One of the farmers saw us!

“Time to run!” said Miu.

You don’t have to tell me twice!

After a while the farmer stopped chasing after us, deciding it was a waste of time.

We were told that the food we gathered on the farm would be our lunch, so our group went to the corn field.

“I want to eat this already~” said Miu, who held corn in her hand.

“You can’t. The corn is sprayed with pesticide, so we have to wash them before we eat them,” said Kyoko.

“Ugh, I know~” said Miu.

I pulled out one of the corn, but saw a tiny green bug on it.

“Hm? What’s this? A grasshopper?” I said, taking the bug off the corn to inspect it.

“Oh, that? I think that’s a locust, but—”

“AHHH!” Kyoko was about to explain something to me, but was interrupted by a scream.

We looked towards the sound of the scream, and saw A-kun running towards us.

Why is he running? No... it looks like he's running away from something?

I squinted my eyes so that I could see clearer. What I saw was A-kun running away from a swarm of locusts.

Are you serious!? And why the hell are you bringing the swarm towards us? Go run the other way, stupid!

“Locusts?!? And a swarm of them?! I thought the corn was already sprayed with pesticide!” I said.

“You’re half right and half wrong. The corn is sprayed with pesticide, but those aren’t normal locusts. Those are Robust Locusts. They’ve evolved over the years to overcome the effects of pesticide. Other than that they’re harmless, so there’s not much to worry about,” said Kyoko.

Robust Locust? Why the heck does the name rhyme? I bet the person who coined that term thought they were a genius. On the other hand, Kyoko sure knows a lot of things.

Wait, if the locusts evolved over the years, why haven’t we built better technology to counter them? I fail to understand the way this generation thinks.

A teacher came to save A-kun and used intermediate water magic to kill some of the locusts, but there were too many of them.

“Kids, focus on escaping! The adults will handle this!”

Honoka, Miu, and I ran to the nearest greenhouse for safety, but Kyoko was standing in the same spot in front of the locusts with a determined look on her face.

“Kyoko?! What are you doing?! Hurry up and get away from there!” I said.

Despite my warnings, Kyoko stood there and took out a mini fly swatter hidden inside the back of her shirt.

Where did the fly swatter come from!? There’s nowhere to hide it on your tiny body! And what the heck are you carrying that around for? Did you wait for this perfect situation to use it?!

“It’s okay! Kyoko always protects me from flies, so she’s used to things like this!” said Miu.

No, there’s definitely something wrong with that logic. One annoying fly is different from a swarm of them, you know?!

Ah… That’s it… I’m done being the sane one. Whatever happens, happens.

Kyoko got ready for the swarm in a kung fu battle pose. When they were within arms reach she swung her arm to the right, taking out 5 locusts in the process. She repeated this process and looked as if she was dancing. She was fast and efficient, taking out as many locusts as the adults who were using intermediate magic to defeat them.

Kyoko... You're only a kindergartener... It's okay to be scared, cry, and piss your pants you know? You're making me look bad! Even though I'm supposed to have a high schoolers mentality...

"K-Y-O-K-O KYOKO! Kyoko is love! Kyoko is life!" Miu was cheering her on. She was in full cheerleader mode, bringing out the loudest voice and best dance moves she could muster.

"Kyoko, do your best~" said Honoka.

Since they’re cheering, I might as well too.

"Kyoko, banzai," I said with a monotone voice and put my arms up in my “banzai” pose.

It was going well for the first five minutes. Most of them were being taken out by the adults, and a lot of the crops were damaged, but luckily no one was hurt. When there were only a third of the locusts left, a giant locust came out and confronted Kyoko.

It was... the Queen Locust.

"So, you've finally come to challenge me? I'm sorry to say that these will be your last minutes!" said Kyoko.

Chirp chirp.

"Hmph, you are a brave little one, taking out many of my underlings. They prove to be no match for you, so I will take you down myself!" said Queen Locust, as she flew towards Kyoko, getting ready to attack.

Kyoko swung her arm and aimed for Queen Locust's body, but she dodged and landed on Kyoko's eye. The Queen Locust immediately retreated after landing her attack.

"... It hurts." Kyoko put her hand on her injured eye. A strange aura was coming out of her, and the Queen Locust was frozen in fear.

"Ahh~ That's what you get when you anger Kyoko!" said Miu.

Kyoko's mad? That explains the strange black aura seeping out of her.

Kyoko swung her arm again, and since the Queen Locust had been struck with the [Fear] ailment, she was too slow to react.

Splat!

The Queen Locust was hit by the mini fly swatter, and splattered it’s bug juices on the ground.

..Gross.

All the kindergarteners in the greenhouse turned their heads to look away. I think one kid even cried.

The other locusts ran away at the sight of their dead queen. The matter had been settled, and Kyoko was deemed today’s savior.

Since most of the crops were ruined by the locusts, the farmers agreed to make our lunch.

“Kids, the food is here!”

All of the kindergartners were happy just from hearing those words. Not only had we suffered an intense battle, but it was already passed the time that we normally had lunch. Hungry kids equals grumpy kids.

They gave us our food on a Styrofoam tray except… what they served us was fried locusts.

“Hm? What’s wrong kids? Locusts have lots of protein, you know! You kids are very lucky to eat a luxury like this,” said Teacher, as she ate a locust off of her skewer.

Even if you say that....

None of the kids replied to Teacher, and stared at their tray of locust kabobs.

It was safe to say that no one in the kindergarten class ate lunch that day.

In a dark place, many people were filing about. The people were of different ages, gender, and personalities, with the only thing connecting them a tattoo of a red hawk.

“So? What’s the next mission?” asked a young teenage boy. He popped open a can of soda he got from a vending machine earlier and downed half of the drink in one gulp.

“It’s a capture mission. The target has a fair amount of magic power, and you are to bring her to the organization,” said a woman in her early twenties.

“Another capture mission? Is this one strong? I’ve been itching for a good fight,” said the boy.

“She’s five years old,” said the woman. She checked the papers she was given with the information of the target.

“Seriously? I wish the boss would give me harder missions…”

“It’s because you’re still young. Also, I’ll be accompanying you on this mission.”

“Hah~ Everyone treats me like a kid. I’m already fourteen, you know!” The boy crumpled his soda can in frustration. He would always be assigned capturing missions instead of the harder ones, despite his talent at such a young age.

“And? Give me the details of this girl,” said the boy.

“The girl goes to Hakuten Elementary and has an MPE of 345. Her name is…” The woman checked her papers again to make sure she remembered the name correctly.

“...Sia Analie.”