By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

I do have to admit, and I apologize for the rude language, that when I saw that the bulk of this short story collection would once again be devoted to the late lamented spy group Avian, my first reaction was to scream “OH, FUCK OFF!” at the book. I appreciate their tragic death, and I get that the author regretted doing it so fast before they got to write all the stories they had inside them for the group, but come on, I feel like we have gone down this well about eight more times than was really necessary. At least, that’s what I thought when I started the book. As it turns out, though, this is probably the strongest short story collection to date. The series itself tends to hide a lot of its most pivotal moments as a writing conceit, and the short stories have been dedicated to filling in what we missed. This includes finally giving everyone catharsis for what happened to Avian. Who are, by the way, still dead.

The wraparound story in this volume concerns Lan, the surviving member of Avian, who has become something of a leech around the halls of Lamplight. As they discuss what to do with her, we get four short stories: 1) Lily and Sara return to Lily’s old spy school, to find that most of those she went to school with are still there… and are ready to bully the shit out of her again; 2) Thea and Grete visit Pharma’s brother Holytree, who is also a spy, and has an enormous sister complex; 3) Erna guards Amelie as Klaus uses her to try to resolve the last plot arc, and Amelia tries to bond with Erna; and 4) There’s a festival in town, and everyone is going… except Monika, who is too busy castigating herself for her traitorous actions. And avoiding Annette still trying to kill her. In the end, Holytree asks for a chance to duel Klaus to the death, and shows both Lan and Lamplight a path forward.

The most satisfying of these stories may be the first. The bullying that Lily went through (and goes through again when she returns) is vicious and attacks her physical appearance, as always, but she’s gotten stronger, as well as craftier – and Sara is now in her corner, and not about to stand by and watch her friend get stomped. It was VERY satisfying to see their revenge. Sybilla also really comes off well in this book, being the “big sister” of the group in more than one story, and reminding folks what it means to really be a big sister, more than anything else. We still don’t see the actual conversation between Monika and Lily, but we do see that Lily is taking it seriously, and agonizing over her response. My favorite story may have been Erna’s, though, as she shows that you can have compassion and empathy and let that lead you to the right decision… much to Amelie’s disappointment.

All this and a battle royale crying/punching match. If you’ve been skipping these side stories, this is definitely one to read anyway. Especially as the next volume’s not till next year.

By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

The author says in the afterword that this is an attempt to write a much lighter book after the events of the last arc, and I guess it is technically? There’s certainly a lot of wacky shtick going on here. There’s childhood marriage promises, There’s a search for PIRATE GOLD!, there’s Annette… being Annette, and there’s Thea… being Thea. That said, this is also darker than you’d expect, with even one of the jokes being an incredibly dark one about disposal of a corpse. There’s murders, there’s revolution, there’s tortured confessions getting brutally rejected. And there is Annette being Annette, because she is who she is, and despite the cover art changing for the first time to show her being all happy and a beachside setting, at the end of the day this is just a brief delay. We know, and Lamplight all gradually figure out, that these happy days are coming to an end, and it’s time for then to evolve further.

Lamplight are on an island resort (with an attached Naval base) taking a vacation after the events of the last three books. After partying on the beach on the first day, Klaus has one instruction for them: they can’t all gather together as one unit till the 13th day of their vacation. As a result, Grete ends up dealing with an island teenager who met Klaus years ago and wants to marry him; Thea and Sara investigate the naval base, as well as a grisly murder that is one of a string of grisly murders that have been happening every three months; Lily, Sybilla and Monika decide to try to find that legendary pirate gold, and discover a lot more than they had really planned, and Erna… fishes. (It’s OK, she gets the bulk of the prologue for the next arc.) As for Annette, she’s helping to plan a wedding at first, then loses interest and helps Thea at the naval base, then ends up finding the three pirate hunters, and then … vanishes?

The best part of this book is showing how the character development everyone got in the last few books has not vanished and is being built upon. Grete’s love of Klaus is not demeaned or made comedic, and he’s taking it seriously. We don’t know how Monika and Lily’s discussion went, but they’re treating each other the same as always, and a newly risen from the ashes Monika can now even be part of the goofy comedy relief when it suits her. Thea … OK, Thea has the grandest goal in mind for her future, but she also has the furthest to go, as this volume shows – but I did love the conflict between her and Sara and how it doesn’t damage their friendship at all. And Annette is still a sociopath, but she’s figured out how to use that as part of her job, and she’s also realized that she doesn’t want to get SO evil that her friends stop liking her. She’s growing up! They all are. The next arc, I expect, is gonna be dark again.

So get ready for… short story collection? (sigh) Short story collection. This was excellent.

By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher.

I’ve mentioned before that Spy Classroom drops far more short story volumes than most light novel series. This is the third, and there’s a fourth one coming after the next main volume in the series. The short story collections all take their subtitles from James Bond films, and this one is no exception. This one also has a purpose: just as the 2nd SS book had all the Lily stuff that the author had to cut out of the 4th book, this has all the bonding between Lamplight and Avian that had to be removed from the 5th. Which means, yes, it’s one last round for Avian, who have now been dead for five books but keep coming back for more punishment nevertheless. Of course, they’re all alive here, and since we already saw them abusing our heroines in the main series, these are a far more gentle series of short stories… mostly. Towards the end, we finally get to see exactly how Avian died, and it’s just as brutal as you’d expect.

The “honeymoon” part of the book just means that this takes place when Avian are in between missions and freeloading at Lamplight HQ, leading to the following short stories: 1) Pharma uses the three youngest members of Lamplight to catch a pedophile politician, much to Sara’s horror (she is one of the three); 2) Lan tries to avoid getting killed by Annette for calling her a “runt” in the main series, and also tries to catch a member of a gang of ex-spies, with Monica’s help… sort of; 3) Annette is trying to get a stray cat she saw in the alley by the docks to open up to her, and Queneau is there to tell her it’ll never happen as long as Annette is the way she is; 4) Avian continue to try to catch the ex-spies, as well as continuing to try to get one over on Klaus, but are horrified to find Lamplight are better at that than they are; 5) everyone comes together – if only by accident – to take on the leaders of the ex-spies; and 6) Avian gets brutally slaughtered, leading to Book 6 of the main series.

I’ve already said that Sara is my favorite character, but Annette may be the most interesting character, if only as she has the farthest to go in terms of character development. Her story may be the most predictable in this book (also, content alert, there are murdered animals in this part), but it’s also the most needed, as she’s told point blank that she needs to “alter her nature” in order to obtain her goals. Annette experiences loss here for possibly the first time she’s conscious of, and I wonder if it will impact her going forward. Most of these stories are an inverse of the 5th book, which was there to show us why Lamplight were so bad compared to Avian. Here we see, in cases other than pure combat, Lamplight have better teamwork and better planning, mostly as Avian doesn’t work as a team but as a bunch of folks who work together. They almost manage to get past this… before that ending.

Each of the SS collections has been better than the previous, which pleases me. Next time we’re back to the main story, which apparently starts its third arc.