One month later—-
"Breaking news! More monsters have emerged in Tokyo! Stay inside people, this is not a drill!"
Omariro watched the news on his TV as goblins and slimes chased fleeing civilians. Before the monsters could reach them, Gakuto charged in, headbutting them all with his helm.
"Haha! Head's still got it!"
He turned to the scared crowd. "Don't you worry, my buddies and I won't let anything happen to ya!"
"Pff, whatever! Half of you already quit!"
"Yeah, who says the rest of you won't!"
"Where's Sir Nyugawa? He's the only cool one!"
"Well… Gakuto stammered. "Um…"
"Guys, guys!" a young girl insisted. "Cut the Blaze Kadianchō some slack! He's got a heavy workload with the others disappearing like frauds."
"Well…I guess…"
The crowd thanked him and moved on, and Gakuto gave the camera a thumbs-up. "Make sure you keep yourself safe at all times! You never know when a monster may show up!"
The feed ended, and Omariro switched the TV to some golf. Beside him, Emeru jumped onto the couch as a small blob.
"Mr. Omariro…!" she groaned. "Please feed me, I'm hungry!"
"Slime already ate," Omariro pointed out.
"But I'm hungry again!"
Omariro snapped his fingers, and the fridge door opened. Using hand movements, he pulled a piece of raw meat out and tossed it at Emeru's feet, and she quickly dug into it.
"Ooh! Thanks!"
She took the meat and ran off as Han came down the steps, his body covered in dust. "I've cleaned the upstairs, Sir. Anywhere else for me to clean?"
"Boy can take break now," Omariro stated.
"Oh. Well, sir. I have to make it up to you and everyone else for trying to kill you, so I figured this all was the least I could do."
"Boy made mistake," Omariro explained. "Boy will learn."
"But what if it happens again?"
"Mirei gone. Out in the world. Dangerous. But gone from boy."
"Why is she like this, Sir?" Han asked. "Why did she and that other Herald want you so badly?"
"Students become mad with power," Omariro told him. "Had to be locked away."
"But I became crazy too," Han recalled. "You didn't lock me away. They tried to make you out like a bad guy, Sir, but you're not like that."
"Mirei, Shion, all old students," Omariro recalled. "Committed atrocities. No reasoning. Had to be caged."
He looked at his hand. "Will be again."
Rika came down the stairs and hugged Han. "Han! Feeling any better?"
"Yeah, I guess. You?"
"Yep. Finally starting to sleep again after all this stress."
She sat on the couch next to Omariro, curling up to him. "Hi, sir!"
"Girl awake."
Rika nodded. "Are we training today?"
"Training tomorrow," he answered. "Back sore."
"Okay…could we do something else? I know monsters are roaming around, but still…"
She yawned. "We all would just like a vacation with you, Sir! That's all."
Han raised a hand. "I'm perfectly fine cleaning, but—-"
"Shh, Han."
Zaria and Nonoka walked through the door, both sweating up a storm.
"And where have you two been?" Rika questioned.
"Playing sports," Zaria shrugged. "Nonoka is pretty great at throwing a football."
"Tsk. Duh," she scoffed.
"Well," Rika remarked. "You're just in time. I was just asking Mr. Nyugawa if we could go on a vacation!"
"Ooh, vacation?" Zaria wondered, climbing onto the couch. "Where, sir? The fair? In the Bahamas? A cruise?"
Omariro continued watching his golf.
Rei walked down from upstairs, while Sōshin zipped past her, rushing downstairs. "Hi, friends!"
"Great," Nonoka said, rolling her eyes. "The two bundles of sunshine have arrived."
Rei stopped at the base of the steps. "Hehe, are we watching a movie?"
Omariro tried to keep focus on his golf, his face visibly annoyed.
"Erm," Han interrupted. "Maybe we should all leave Mr. Nyugawa alone?"
"Sir, please?" Rika begged. "Pretty please?"
"Yeah, I wanna do some fun stuff with you!" Zaria added.
"Hmm," Nonoka pondered. "Pff, what the heck. Me too!"
"Ooh, we're having fun with Mr. Omariro?" Rei giggled. "Count me in!"
Sōshin jumped up and down. "Yay! I get to play with friends!"
Without warning, Omariro clapped his hands, and all the kids except for Han disappeared. Han looked around.
"Um, sir," he questioned. "Where'd they go?"
"Gone," Omariro replied. "Will join them later."
Han shrugged. "Oh. Okay."
He went to resume his cleaning as Emeru came back into the living room, shifting into her humanoid form. "Mr. Omariro! It's my playtime!"
Omariro clapped his hands, causing her to teleport away as well. "Slime have fun."
He went back to watching his golf, the house now peaceful and quiet.
Shirarahama Beach—-
Later, Omariro teleported himself and Han onto the beach, where Sōshin and the girls had already changed into swimwear. As soon as they saw him, their eyes lit up.
"Oh boy," Han realized.
Zaria was the first to swarm him. "Thanks for sending us here, sir!"
"Yeah!" Rika agreed. "It's really nice!"
"Do you like my swimsuit?" Rei asked.
"What about mine?" Nonoka questioned.
Sōshin held up Emeru, who was now a blob again. "The new pet is a great swimmer!"
"I'm not a pet!"
Omariro watched the kids swarm him, and the faces of Itsuki, Ichika, and the others appeared in his mind.
"Sir?" Zaria questioned. "Are you alright?"
"Children have fun," Omariro told her. "Gone in three hours."
Rika pointed to the jet skis nearby. "Ooh, we should race! Sir, could you join us?"
Omariro snapped his fingers, and two of the jet skis appeared before them. "Go."
"Erm…" Rika blushed. "I thought we were doing it in the water…"
Nonoka pointed to some food stalls nearby. "We could get some food if you wanted, Sir?"
Omariro snapped his fingers once again, and plates of food appeared in all of the kids' hands. Han and Sōshin simply began dining in as the girls shared a look.
"Mr. Omariro…?" Rei wondered. "Are…you not gonna eat?"
"Food irrelevant."
Zaria looked around. "Well, what do YOU wanna do, Sir?"
Omariro noticed a golf course nearby, and he immediately teleported to it. Zaria pointed after him. "Well, I guess we're going golfing! Come on, guys!"
Once they caught up, they found Omariro being admired by a group of golfers.
"Hey, it's the Legendary Kaitansha!"
"You mean Kadianchō. Didn't you hear, he has his own squad now!"
"Look! There they are!"
Rika gave them some waves. "Thank you, thank you. Now if you'll excuse us, we have a Master to join."
Omariro took a golf club as a burly man stood next to him. "I challenge you, old man! You might be a big deal in the Dungeon World, but in the sports world, I'm king!"
Omariro ignored him.
"The name's Masayoshi," he introduced. "In case you cared."
Omariro hit the ball, scoring it into the hole.
"Hole-in-one!" a nearby ref declared.
The kids clapped behind him as Masayoshi took a club and set his own ball down. "That's nothing. Watch a real master at work."
He struck, sending the ball flying clean in.
"Heh," he taunted. "Match that."
Omariro placed his ball down and hit it into the hole with ease.
"Ooh, you're really good at this, Sir!" Rei complimented.
"Yeah, Friend Omariro's got skill!" Sōshin added.
Masayoshi's face turned red and he took his position, steadying himself. "Ha!"
He hit the ball, but it overshot by a few inches and missed, the wind taking it away. "What the—-? Hell no! That's not fair!"
"That's game!" the ref declared.
"Bullshit!"
Omariro left.
Zaria gave the crowd a wave, throwing up a peace sign. "See ya! We've gotta go now!"
They followed Omariro further down the beach, where boys and girls were going up against each other in a game of tug of war.
Nonoka lifted an eyebrow. "That looks fun. Can we do that, Sir?"
"Children do as they wish."
The girls got on one end as Omariro and Emeru watched, while Sōshin and Han got on the other.
"Umm," Han commented. "I don't think this is fair."
"Totally fair!" Rika assured him. "Rei and I aren't really strength types anyway, so just assume it's a 2v2!"
"We've got this, Friend Han!" Sōshin cheered.
A nearby ref counted down. "Three, two, one, pull!"
With the strength of Zaria and Nonoka combined, Han and Sōshin got pulled into the dirt.
"Girls win!"
They all celebrated, but Han walked up to Omariro. "Sir, can you hop on our team?"
The girls immediately stopped celebrating. "WHAT?"
Omariro simply walked over to the end while Han and Sōshin took the front.
"Wait…" Zaria interrupted. "This isn't fair."
"Of course it is!" Sōshin laughed. "Three against four!"
"No, no, that's not how the math works, kid! At least let us get the slime!"
"Go ahead," Han shrugged.
"Come on, Emeru!"
Emeru hopped over to the end, forming multiple hands from her blob. The ref counted down. "Three…two…one…"
With a casual tug, Omariro pulled the rope so hard the girls all went flying into the ocean. The ref had to adjust his glasses.
"Whoa. They don't call him the Legendary Kaitansha for nothing…"
The girls all emerged from the water, floating above the waves.
"Aww, my hair's wet," Rika complained.
"Meh," Zaria responded. "Looks fine to me."
Han and Sōshin joined them in the water as Omariro stole a lounge chair and lay back in it, cracking his back. The owners frantically looked around for it, only stopping when they noticed who was on it.
"Hey, it's the Legend!"
"Shh! Don't disturb him!"
Nonoka slipped on her smoothie while relaxing in the water. "Having this much downtime is pretty…satisfying."
"I know, right?" Rika agreed. "If only we could get Mr. Nyugawa to join us…"
Sōshin floated Emeru atop the ocean's surface. "I'm sure Friend Omariro will participate soon! Maybe he's just tired!"
"He is significantly older," Han noted. "Maybe we should let him do things at his own pace."
"Should we go sunbathe with him?" Rei asked.
"Yeah, that sounds nice," Zaria said.
As they got up, a trio of jet skis drove past them, dousing them with water.
"Hey!" Zaria exclaimed. "The hell?"
When the jet skis turned around, Zaria noticed it was Yūto, Airi, and Rio.
"You shitheads again?" Zaria groaned. "You're the reason we lost that tournament!"
Yūto chuckled. "Watch how you talk to us, girl!"
Nonoka and Sōshin both stared, confused.
"Are these new friends?" Sōshin wondered.
"Yeah, who are these people?" Nonoka agreed.
"Dokkōdan," Rika muttered. "The biggest jerks in Japan."
"Actually," Rio corrected. "We're their new heroes."
"Come again?"
Airi held up her phone, which showed a news feed of Zan being interviewed by a reporter.
"Kaidanchō Zan Ikaruga," she greeted. "What separates you from those failures of Kaidanchō that came before you?"
"A lot, my dear lady," he announced. "They're weak, unwilling to take risks, totally by the book. My Dokkōdan and I don't play by the rules. Monsters don't, so why should we?"
"I like your mindset. How do you plan to combat the growing monster problem in Japan?"
"Squeeze it out from the source," he declared. "My Kaitansha are looking for the root cause as we speak."
"And lastly, what words do you have for the remaining Kadianchō?"
"Simple. Get the hell out of the way. Only one that's even worth my time is Nyugawa, and I shall surpass his legacy soon."
"Bold words. Well, I hope you can live up to them, Mr. Ikaruga!"
The news feed ended.
"Bullshit," Zaria hissed. "Utter bullshit."
"Not at all," Yūto grinned. "Prepare for a new world order."
They drove off, splashing the kids in the process. On the beach, Omariro soaked in the sun before he noticed Marin standing over him.
"Woman."
"You can use my name, you know."
"Why is woman here?"
She sighed. "The monster attacks have grown worse, and Dokkōdan is using the chaos to gain control. We need order back in Japan."
"State intention, woman."
"To put it simply, I want your help to get the Kaidanchō back together."
"Hmm…"
"You're the only one who can, Omariro. Before it's too late."
——