Under Gen Chisei's piercing stare, Luminous and the others casually tossed their luggage onto the Hummer.
Just as Gen Chisei was about to lose his temper, a calm voice interrupted the brewing storm.
"Hello, I'm Morin."
"...Hello."
Gen Chisei took a deep breath to steady himself and looked at the young man in front of him. This was the freshman who had received an unprecedented A pre-rating and then jumped straight to S after the entrance exam-the one rumored to have rescued Principal Angré from two Dragon Kings. In terms of pure strength, he should be the strongest of the four.
"I'm Gen Chisei, graduate of Cassell College, Class of 2003. Welcome to Japan."
Cassell College hadn't hidden Morin's résumé, so the Japan Branch naturally knew the story of him saving Angré. Still, no one believed they'd truly found a way to target Angré himself. In the hybrid world, many people knew the weakness of Angré's Word of Power-that brief window before activation-but knowing and exploiting were two completely different things.
"Oh!" Luminous suddenly looked over with exaggerated surprise and gave a thumbs-up. "Your... Chinese... is very good!"
"The guy is clearly speaking Chinese and you're still replying with your broken anime Japanese?" Morin slapped him on the back of the head.
"I just didn't react in time..." Luminous laughed awkwardly.
Gen Chisei looked at Morin with growing hope. "It seems you're the leader of this operation team."
Compared to the playboy, the deadpan killer, and the airheaded idiot, Morin at least looked like a normal human being.
"Nope," Morin shook his head and pointed behind him. "Caesar is."
"I'm the leader."
Caesar had already returned after loading the luggage. He smoothly took the thin cigarette from Gen Chisei's fingers-the one Gen had been planning to use to calm his nerves-and replaced it with a thick cigar sealed in an aluminum tube.
"Don't smoke those girl-cigarettes. Try this."
Gen Chisei stared at the thick, long cigar in his palm, utterly dumbfounded.
What the hell is happening?
And since when did my cigarette become a girl-cigarette?
It was just... a little small. A little thin. A little short!
Before he could explode, Caesar had already wandered back to the car, as if he'd merely stepped down to show goodwill and preferential treatment to a junior from the Japan Branch.
The best solution would be to have Crow and Yaksha turn these people into concrete pillars and sink them into Tokyo Bay, Gen Chisei thought darkly.
"Ahem." Morin cleared his throat twice, interrupting Gen Chisei's mental execution sequence.
"They probably don't know your real identity-Head of the Gen Family, Amaterasu-no-Mikoto. After all, we arrived late, and they were resting the whole way. No time to read the files."
Gen Chisei fell silent.
...So up until now, Morin was the only one who knew who he really was?
Then what did the other three think he was?
Some random lackey from the Japan Branch sent to pick them up?
And they hadn't even read the files for such an important mission?
That was absolutely not how professional Executive Bureau commissioners operated.
Unless-
Unless these people were really just overpowered children with no sense of responsibility, sent here for show.
Gen Chisei decided to test them.
After getting into the car, he pulled out a document and handed it over.
"What's this?" Caesar asked, taking responsibility as team leader. Seeing numbers and Chinese characters, he guessed it was a payment form.
"Do you need my credit card?"
"This is a body disposal confirmation form," Gen Chisei said flatly.
"If you die here, your remains will be sent back to your hometowns-assuming your remains can be found."
He deliberately emphasized every word.
This should scare them. If fear appeared, he'd know they were useless.
Instead-
Caesar signed immediately, praising the Japan Branch for being thoughtful. He didn't want a memorial service in Japan.
Luminous smiled and signed not only for himself but also for Morin and Finger.
"The three of us are from the same city. Might as well save on shipping."
Gen Chisei's mind went blank.
Save shipping costs?!
This is a body disposal form! People will DIE!
Were they fearless... or simply incapable of understanding the gravity of the situation?
Either answer was bad.
If they were idiots, he'd have no idea what disaster they might cause.
If they were fearless monsters, he'd have to work overtime just to stop them from blowing up Tokyo.
...
Meanwhile, in the presidential suite-
Constantine and Samson were staring intently at a basin filled with bright red creatures.
"Brother," Constantine said solemnly, "these shrimp are very fragrant."
"Spicy crawfish," Norton corrected. "They're delicious."
"Brother... are we running out of money?" Constantine asked seriously.
"What?" Norton was startled. "Why would you think that?"
"But we're eating these..." Constantine gestured at the crawfish. "That must mean we're poor."
Norton froze.
He vaguely remembered that in ancient times, anything resembling this was considered low-end food. Back then, crawfish didn't even exist.
"...Anyway," Norton waved his hand, "nowadays there's no such thing as high or low class food. Only tasty and not tasty."
"I see," Constantine nodded thoughtfully.
"Try it first." Norton put on gloves and picked one up, preparing to demonstrate the proper technique-suck the juice, pinch the shell, twist-
Crack.
Norton's heart sank.
He looked up just in time to see Constantine chewing a crawfish whole, shell and all, wearing a reluctant expression.
"Brother," Constantine smiled, "the flavor is good, but the shell is a bit hard and prickly..."
"Of course it's hard!" Norton smacked his forehead.
"You're supposed to peel it and eat the meat inside!"
"So that's how it works..." Constantine seemed enlightened.
Nearby, Samson calmly took a crawfish out of his mouth and began peeling it-despite the shell already being half shattered.
As a dragon, he usually swallowed things whole. Peeling was pointless.
He'd simply forgotten he was in human form.
"Wow, crawfish? Nice."
Morin suddenly appeared.
The three dragons barely reacted anymore. Morin popping up like this had become routine.
"Want some?" Norton asked, holding one out.
"Nope." Morin waved him off. "I'm water-based. I don't need to eat."
"Where are you guys planning to go tomorrow?"
"We haven't decided," Norton replied.
"Then let me suggest something." Morin smiled.
"Go to the most luxurious host club in Japan."
"...What?" Norton stared at him. "Why would we go there?!"
"Don't misunderstand, I'm not gay," Morin said quickly. "I just know some interesting people there."
"And when in Rome, do as the Romans do. You're in Japan-experience the culture."
"What kind of culture is that?" Norton was speechless.
...
"I've booked the entire top host club in Shinjuku," Caesar announced grandly.
"All seniors from the Japan Branch are welcome! My treat!"
"Gen-kun, you must come too!"
Gen Chisei: "..."
This will definitely get rejected, he thought desperately. We're on a high-risk mission!
"Awesome!" Luminous cheered.
"Experiencing local specialties is important," Morin nodded seriously. To be fair, he'd never been to one either. Why would he go to a host club without a special interest? To compare swords?
"No objections," Finger said, then went silent again.
Gen Chisei finally reached a conclusion.
These people aren't fearless heroes.
They're just a bunch of absolute idiots.