— — — — — —
"A new teacher, huh? Someone besides me actually volunteered to work here. Interesting. I kinda wanna see what kind of guy he is."
Curious about the newcomer, Kazuma followed the principal to the office.
Inside stood a man around one-ninety tall, looking to be in his thirties. That had to be the new teacher.
"This is Mr. Oyama Takeshi," the principal said. "He's preparing to join the school staff. Kazuma-san, I'll let you two get acquainted."
"You are that Kazuma?" Oyama didn't even try to hide his disdain. "I've heard the rumors about you. Frankly, I don't think you're qualified to teach at all. You're basically a thug."
"To be honest, I'm not interested in pretending to get along. I'm here for one thing—reform. Reform and more reform! I'm going to turn Ishiyama High into a proper school, an elite academy on par with Saint Ishiyama!"
"I'll stake my fifteen years of teaching on it. And the first thing I'll do is get rid of teachers like you."
He didn't offer a handshake; he didn't even pretend to be polite. Just pure hostility.
"Principal, keep an eye out," Oyama said as he stormed out. "I'll whip this place into shape!"
His "hell-style education" was about to begin. In his mind, every unruly brat in this school was about to be disciplined into oblivion.
"Oyama-san! Our students are… a tiny bit aggressive, so please be careful!" The principal watched him leave and wiped his forehead. Was this guy okay? Why did this school only attract problematic people?
"Principal, does he have some kind of brain issue? The way he gets worked up over nothing…"
Kazuma wasn't angry. He didn't even care enough to be angry. Honestly, it felt like the man had escaped from a mental ward.
"Please don't mind him, Kazuma-san. You'll still be paid in full. Your teaching has been… a bit violent, but the school's been much calmer. So I absolutely acknowledge your ability."
The principal looked up, trying to comfort him.
"Relax, Principal. I'm not losing sleep over a clown like that. Besides, his timing is perfect. I was planning to head out and buy some things anyway. He can take over for now."
"Alright, I'm off." Kazuma left without a second thought. He'd been trying to find an excuse to slip out—now he didn't need one.
---
He met up with Tohru and the others.
"A new teacher showed up today. He'll take the class. We're going shopping." Kazuma told the girls.
"Huh?" Hilda frowned. "Someone's trying to steal your territory and you didn't beat him half-dead?"
To her, the Kazuma she knew didn't tolerate disrespect.
"Territory? Is that war?" Tohru's eyes lit up at the phrase. Her vertical pupils sharpened—she was ready for battle.
"Fight me for territory? Hilda, please. He's just an overconfident idiot. He's not even worthy of my hostility."
Kazuma snorted. "When we're done shopping, if he's still standing—then I'll think about remembering his name."
Did these people really think teaching here was that easy? If it were, the principal wouldn't be suffering this much.
"What an arrogant man," Hilda murmured, nodding in satisfaction. Yes, this was the Kazuma she knew—violent, ruthless, and treating people like they were beneath him. A devil who tolerated no defiance.
"We can get sweets, right? I want sweets. Tohru does too, right?" Kanna tugged at Kazuma's shirt, big eyes sparkling with nothing but desire for food.
"Today's for buying your daily necessities and showing you around the human world," Kazuma said, patting her head. "So eat whatever you want."
"Yay! I liked you best, Kazuma!"
Kanna lit up instantly, face full of joy and anticipation. She wasn't a glutton—she just liked exploring the world with her mouth. It was a big world, after all, and she only wanted one tiny bite of everything.
Once everyone was ready—Hilda, Tohru, Kanna, and baby Beel—they headed out.
---
Meanwhile, outside the first-year classroom—
"So this is the terrifying Ishiyama High everyone talks about? Looks average to me. Students are just students."
"Disobedience should be punished. If they still won't listen, expel them. A school isn't a place for trash. Only elite obedient students deserve to stay."
Oyama stood outside the window looking in, full of contempt. As a top graduate of Saint Ishiyama, he'd only come because of a bet that he could "fix" the place.
He'd heard a lot of students had been hospitalized recently. Savages, the lot of them.
Then... He slammed the door open.
"What is this behavior? Sit properly when you're in class!"
"Don't you know to stand and greet a teacher? What on earth did your last teacher teach you?! No manners at all!"
Oyama marched to the podium and glared down at the delinquents.
"Listen up. In my eyes you're all worthless—trash with no value. But I'm a generous teacher. If you behave, I'll teach you proper manners."
"If you don't… I'll have the principal expel you. This school won't keep people like you."
Oyama finished with a smug grin. Surely he'd scared them into submission.
"The hell is this guy? So damn cocky."
"Stand up and greet him? Even Kazuma-sensei never made us do that."
"Call us trash? When I send him to the hospital, he'll learn what trash really is."
Weapons were already being pulled from under desks—
But someone stopped them.
"Guys, chill! Calm down! What if this is all part of Kazuma-sensei's plan? He wants us to rebel! Then he'll have an excuse to beat the crap out of us!"
"It's been three days since the last beating. He's probably itching for it but needed a reason, so he sent this guy to provoke us!"
"Think about it—who'd be stupid enough to pick a fight with us? Nobody in their right mind would. This has to be a setup."
The guy who stopped them had that "I've already seen through everything" look, and it was incredibly convincing.
"Oh… ooooooh. That does make sense."
Everyone calmed down fast. No way the new teacher was actually that stupid, right?
Believing it was a conspiracy was far easier than believing this teacher was just an idiot.
The classroom, which had been buzzing with the urge to riot, suddenly went quiet. The delinquents sat in their seats, staring at Oyama with a look that said, "Go ahead, keep talking. If we move, we lose."
"Hmph, trash is still trash."
Oyama had no idea what was going through their heads. He thought he had intimidated them, so he turned around and began his "lesson."
It only took a few minutes before he exploded again.
"You don't even understand something this basic? Is your head full of water? Or glue?"
"I told you to read the passage, and what is that mumbling? Can't even speak clearly. What are you doing in school? Go deliver packages instead."
"You people have no future. When you graduate, you'll be at the bottom of society!"
"I say two sentences and you already look impatient. Are you studying for me? You study for yourself!"
"If you refuse to learn, you'll end up as garbage. Useless to society!"
"Everyone write a thousand-word reflection. Then come up and read it to me. Anyone who can't do it is expelled!"
Oyama kept bouncing between insults and threats like a maniac.
"Damn it, I can't take this anymore! Even if Kazuma-sensei beats me to death, I'm thrashing this guy first! Get him!"
In an instant, the delinquents snapped. They grabbed their hidden weapons and charged like they were heading into a gang execution.
"W-what are you doing?!"
"Come any closer and I'll expel you! Your parents worked so hard to send you to school, and this is how you behave?! Think about how heartbroken they'll be! Do you even care?!"
Oyama was panicking now. He hadn't expected these students to actually attack him. He used the strongest weapon he had: the threat of expulsion.
"Go to hell!"
"You think this is some normal school? This is Ishiyama!"
"You want manners? I'll give you manners!"
Threatening to call parents or expel students worked in normal schools. In Ishiyama, it was useless. These kids didn't care about threats. They only respected strength.
Here, being weak was what made you trash.
...
It didn't take long before the new teacher was beaten so badly he was unrecognizable.
"Pathetic. With all that bragging, I thought he might be tough." One student spit on the ground. "Guy's nothing but trash."
"So tall, yet totally useless."
"By the way, which idiot said this was Kazuma-sensei's conspiracy?"
Now that the beating was done and Kazuma still hadn't shown up, the truth was obvious. The new teacher wasn't a pawn in some plan. He was just stupid.
They'd overthought everything.
---
Outside the class, a crowd gathered at the door, drawn by the noise.
"The new teacher got wrecked."
"He deserved it. Walked in here acting all high and mighty. Not killing him was mercy."
"Threaten to call parents? My old man's yakuza. If he came, he'd dump this guy in the harbor."
"Oh? My dad, too."
"Same here..."
While the students chatted, two figures approached—just discharged from the hospital.
"Hmm? The new teacher got beaten up?" Himekawa blinked in surprise. Someone strong enough to take down that monster?
"And badly beaten, too. Let's go see," Kanzaki said. With Tojo defeated recently, they were curious who in the school could fight like that.
"Move it. Out of the way."
"First-years shouldn't block the road."
The crowd scattered when they recognized Kanzaki and Himekawa.
Inside, they saw the wrecked teacher lying on the floor.
"Who's this? How'd the teacher get so tall in a few days? Drink a gallon of milk?" Kanzaki stared.
"You idiot. Milk doesn't do that. This clearly isn't that Kazuma guy. It's someone else." Himekawa sighed.
"Then where's that monster, huh?" Kanzaki scowled, itching to punch him for no reason.
"Hmph, this calls for my brilliant deduction. According to my research…" Himekawa pushed up his glasses confidently, basking in everyone's attention.
"Cut the crap. If you drag this out any longer, I'll punch your stupid smug face right now."
"Fine, fine. Listen." Himekawa cleared his throat.
"I paid for info. Turns out Kazuma was only a temp. A substitute. Now that they hired a real teacher, the temp gets tossed out."
"In short, that monster Kazuma has been fired!"
"Which means the school can return to normal. We're free!"
"We're free?!"
"No more random beatings?!"
"No more sudden trips to the hospital?!"
"Wait.… To be fair, things weren't that different before he showed up. But who cares, let's celebrate!"
The students instantly erupted. Glass shattered, doors were kicked, graffiti went up, fistfights broke out. Total mayhem.
---
Outside, the principal, tending to the flowerbeds, sighed heavily. "Is Oyama-san still alive…?"
Another one down. It wasn't the first time some overconfident outsider tried to tame this school. None lasted a day before ending up hospitalized.
This school wasn't like others. These kids grew up in chaos. For them, fighting was survival.
Many of them were literally born into crime families.
---
While the school erupted in chaotic celebration, a "family of five" returned through the front gate, arms full of shopping bags.
"Pretty lively today."
"Hey, you. Yeah, you. Take this stuff to my classroom." Kazuma tossed a pile of bags at a delinquent without looking.
"K-K-Kazuma… Kazuma-sensei?! Didn't you get fired?!"
The kid froze, horrified.
His scream spread across campus instantly. The riot stopped dead. Everyone turned toward the school gate.
And saw him.
Mouths fell open. Then, pure survival instinct kicked in.
Run.
"I got fired? Who the hell spread that rumor? And why are you all running? You think you can outrun me? Get back here and take your beating."
Kazuma grinned—a merciless, predatory grin.
He wasn't here to teach. Ishiyama students didn't need teaching. He was here to rule.
"Ah, Kanna knows this one. It's the game where you throw the ball back and forth, right?"
"Right. Except the ball is a person. Catch."
Kazuma punted a student into the air. Kanna jumped up, side-kicked the "ball" to Tohru. Tohru volleyed it to Hilda.
And so began a school-wide battle royale disguised as a "pass-the-ball" game.
.
.
.