— — — — — —
'Getting nervous now that we hit the mark, huh?'
Tohru and Hilda exchanged a glance as they watched Kanna's tiny fidgeting. Both had the same thought.
"Kanna, what exactly are you planning? If you're here to drag me back home, forget it—I'm not going." Tohru sighed. Kanna was her friend, and seeing her this weak… she couldn't just ignore her.
Kanna lowered her head, looking pitiful, like she might burst into tears any second. "I… I got kicked out for playing a prank. So I can't go back."
A prank?
'Well, it can't be helped. Kanna really likes messing around.'
'But even if I took her back now, it wouldn't work. If she doesn't reflect properly, she'll just get kicked out again,' Tohru thought with a helpless shake of her head.
"Kanna, do you have anywhere to stay right now?" Kazuma reached out and ruffled Kanna's head as he spoke, smiling.
"N-No…" Kanna shook her head, trying to slip out of his hand, but couldn't.
"Then come stay with us. We already have baby Beel. One more baby won't make a difference. Actually, scratch that—even the adults are troublemakers. Adding you won't change much."
Kazuma extended the invitation casually.
Kanna instantly stopped crying. Her expression snapped into wary alertness. "Humans are totally untrustworthy villains!"
"What are you after? Planning to use me? Trick me? I'm warning you—I don't have any treasure!"
Her mind jumped straight to everything she'd been taught: every dragon she'd ever met had drilled into her that humans were greedy and evil.
Completely untrustworthy race.
"What would you even have that's worth tricking you for? And if I wanted to scam someone, wouldn't Tohru be a way better target? Why bother with a little gremlin like you? I'm just used to it, you know? Seeing a little girl crying makes me want to comfort her."
Kazuma rubbed her head again—firmly. Back in the 'Black Bullet' world, he'd met plenty of small girls just like this.
Kanna stared up at him, and suddenly her blue eyes widened. For a moment, she saw something—children her size gathered around this man. Their faces full of bright, innocent smiles. They held out their hands toward her, like they were saying, "Come play with us."
"W-Was that… a mistake?!"
Kanna rubbed her eyes hard. When she looked again, the children were gone. But for some reason… Kazuma didn't feel as scary anymore.
"You're sure you're not lying to me?" She stared at him with big, unblinking eyes, as if trying to read his heart through sheer will.
"You don't have to trust me. But you should trust Tohru. She's been through way more than you, and she's a lot stronger too."
"With her around, you shouldn't have to worry about getting hurt."
"…Okay."
Kanna lowered her head, tears slipping out. She'd been wandering alone in this strange world, surrounded by humans, without a single dragon she knew.
She had been terrified. But now… she felt just a bit safer.
Grrrrumble~
"My stomach is hungry."
The moment she relaxed, her belly growled loudly.
"Then let's go eat again," Kazuma said.
They found another restaurant, ordered a mountain of food, and started a small welcome feast for Kanna.
"By the way, Tohru—why do you and Kanna keep staring at me? Is my face dirty?" Kazuma touched his cheek. Looked clean. Still handsome as ever.
"Oh, that's just because Kanna's still wary. She's trying to see if you're lying. Our dragon eyes are pretty special, you know. We can see things other people can't."
"Through our eyes, we can roughly sense what someone's thinking."
Tohru's tail swayed lazily. Honestly, she was staring at Kazuma simply because she liked staring at him. No reason needed.
"Kanna, did you see anything?" Kazuma asked with interest.
"No. Nothing." Kanna shook her head. Aside from the children she saw earlier, everything else was blocked.
Every time she looked at him, she felt like a thin film was covering him—something stopping her from seeing deeper.
"Yeah, you really do have some kind of barrier around you," Hilda added. Her covered left eye had a similar ability to see what others couldn't.
But because her two eyes saw different things, she kept one hidden to avoid visual chaos.
"I see."
Kazuma thought for a moment. Was it the natural energy? His Haki? Something else? He carried so many things he wasn't sure which one was responsible—but it was a good thing either way.
"Another question—why do you say Earth has so little magic? I don't feel anything missing."
He tightened his fist and sensed the outside energy. It felt plentiful—not lacking at all.
"That's what's bothering me," Hilda said. "In a place where magic is this scarce, how did you end up this terrifying?"
"When my master cries in the demon realm, the lightning he releases can level a town."
"But here on Earth, he can barely produce anything. That alone should show how starved this world is for magic."
In a place this empty of magic, someone as monstrous as Kazuma shouldn't logically exist.
"Mmmf… mmm…" Kanna said, still stuffing her face. "Back home, every breath pulls in tons of magic. But here… it's like there's no air at all. My whole body feels soft and weak."
It really was like altitude sickness—only magic-based.
"It's not that energy is scarce. It's magic that's scarce."
Kazuma concluded after listening. Earth wasn't lacking energy—only the magical component within that energy.
He used natural energy now, not magic, so the effect didn't hit him.
"I don't feel anything either," Tohru said. She felt perfectly normal here.
"That's because you're weird," Kanna replied bluntly.
"More like you're strong enough that you don't need the environment," Hilda explained. "Powerful demons don't rely heavily on outside magic. Weak ones get crushed by Earth's low magic, but strong ones maintain their strength just fine."
"In other words, you're simply too strong to be affected."
Bang!
Kazuma suddenly slapped the table. "I've decided. When we get back, we're starting lessons. Magic theory."
"Tatatata!" Beel copied Kazuma, smacking the table and chirping proudly.
"Wait, Beel. You're joining the classes. Your magic power is huge, but you barely know how to use it."
"Look at us. I'm strong as hell. Tohru's strong as hell. Kanna… passable. Hilda… average."
"At least we're all strong. But you? You're weak as a butterfly. You can't even beat an electron."
He scooped Beel up, and for some reason the Lion King theme practically played in his head. Kazuma lifted the little guy into the air with a deadly serious expression.
"From today on, you're Baby Simba Beel!"
"Da..da-da-pa!"
Beel clenched his tiny fists, staring back with a face full of determination like he was saying, "I won't let you down!"
"Alright, enough playing around. Time to go."
Hilda grabbed Kazuma and Beel and followed Tohru and the others out of the restaurant.
---
Meanwhile at the hospital, Tatsuya Himekawa had just been wheeled in by his family's butler.
"Hey! Himekawa, you bastard, what the hell are you doing here! And put down that banana, that's mine!"
Kanzaki glared at the heavily bandaged Himekawa, livid.
"Why aren't you dead yet, Kanzaki? And what do you mean what I'm doing here? I should be asking you that. Tch, switch my room!"
Himekawa shot a disgusted look at Kanzaki. "I'll pay extra."
Getting hospitalized was bad enough, but being stuck next to this idiot made it unbearable.
"Sorry, Mr. Himekawa," the nurse said helplessly, "we really don't have any empty rooms. The regular rooms are full of students from your school, and this is the only special ward with any space left."
"And you can thank Mr. Natsume for being discharged. Without him, you wouldn't even have this bed."
She looked exhausted. Recently, the hospital had been practically taken over by Ishiyama High students.
"Damn it…"
Himekawa had no choice. He couldn't exactly ask his family to send a helicopter to extract him. He definitely didn't want his dad hearing he got beaten up, either. So he swallowed his pride.
...
Once the nurse left—
"Hey! Didn't I just tell you that's my fruit basket? If you want to eat, buy your own!" Kanzaki's forehead veins bulged as Himekawa helped himself to the fruit like it was his birthright.
If he weren't in a full-body cast, he'd definitely get up and throw hands right now.
"Hmph. How much? What's the price for this basket?" Himekawa scoffed.
"Five million yen. Pay five million and it's yours, idiot!"
"Five million? Are you insane? Even a scammer won't say that number!"
"You're some rich young master, aren't you? Stop being stingy. It's only five million."
"Get lost. I'm rich, not stupid. If I paid that, people would laugh at me forever!"
"Then don't eat it! Put it back!"
"I'll eat it if I want. Fight me!"
Even wrapped in casts and bandages, the two idiots didn't stop arguing. They'd threaten to fight at the slightest provocation.
Truly, delinquents to the core.
"Honestly… I keep saying it. Our school idiots have no virtues besides ridiculous vitality." Natsume, who was packing to leave, sighed at the scene and walked over to Himekawa.
"Oi oi oi, what're you doing?"
Himekawa tensed up when he saw Kanzaki's underling approach. He couldn't move, and if the guy tried something, he couldn't fight back.
"Relax, Himekawa. I just want to ask something. Were you also hospitalized by that teacher?" Natsume asked with interest.
"Who else could it be? That monster shattered my high-strength ceramic plate—eight millimeters thick—with one punch! And his hand didn't even get a scratch!"
Himekawa couldn't help ranting. Eight millimeters of reinforced ceramic wasn't something a human should be able to break barehanded.
"Tch. Anyone who relies on gimmicks like that is trash." Kanzaki sneered.
"Screw you. It's called strategy. Ever heard of it?"
"Anyway, in the end, he punched me into the sky. I went through three ceilings before I stopped!"
Himekawa shivered, remembering the pain.
"Well… credit where it's due. You're pretty durable to survive a punch that sent you through three ceilings." Natsume commented with genuine amazement. Ishiyama High students were absurdly resilient.
Kanzaki growled. "That teacher's a total monster. If this goes on, Ishiyama High is done for! We have to take him down!"
"Yeah. Once I heal, I'll send people to dig up his info. Find his weakness. Then we'll beat him so hard even he ends up hospitalized!" Himekawa vowed.
Natsume sighed again. "Blind confidence and optimism… that's all our idiots have besides vitality."
---
Meanwhile, on the way back to school, Kazuma and the others stumbled across an interesting scene.
"All these biker gangs got flattened… Who did this?"
The road ahead was full of bodies—unconscious punks everywhere. Curious, they followed the trail for nearly five hundred meters.
At the very end, a man in a short yukata was calmly eating fried noodles while sitting on a "chair" made from a pile of knocked-out delinquents.
"Hm?"
Tojo Hidetora, who had lost his part-time job thanks to the nearby delinquents starting trouble, looked up while eating. His instincts told him the group approaching was strong.
"Blonde chicks. Green-haired baby..."
"Yeah, no mistake. That guy must be the new teacher. Looks like things are about to get interesting."
He hopped down from his human throne. The punks were too weak; he hadn't gotten a satisfying fight at all.
But now someone strong had shown up. Time to have some real fun.
"Tojo Hidetora… The way he's charging over here… he wants to fight me, doesn't he? His temper's even worse than mine."
Kazuma handed Beel to Tohru, then walked forward.
One step. Two. Three.
They stopped face-to-face. No words. Just fists.
Boom!
Their punches collided, exploding like a bomb.
.
.
.
The update schedule's been a mess lately, especially the timing. Starting with the next update, everything will be back to the normal time. I'll also try to prep a mass release while I'm at it. (Keeping the update time consistent is guaranteed.)