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In one corner of the residential district, the area in front of the cafeteria where Class 1-16 had set up shop was in an uproar.
“Seriously!?”
“That girl Kurumi just got ‘expelled’ and she’s HAPPY!?”
“And apparently she’s been wanting to go to the Special Training Class this whole time!?”
“Is she out of her mind!? Why would anyone want to go to a place like that…!?”
Everyone present looked like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
But two girls who happened to be there were different.
The Saint and the Miko—those two, more beloved than anyone in this academy—stood frozen as if struck by lightning on a clear day.
Both wore expressions that practically screamed, “So that was an option…!”
Yes. The girl who longed for hell wasn’t the only one…!
“Chef Leopin…! I’m coming right now…!”
Kurumi, having been told she was expelled, looked completely unburdened as she tried to dash away.
But the vice principal—now like some crazed bird—flapped his arms like wings and blocked her path.
“Ky… kyeh-kyeh-kyeh! KYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! T-That order is canceled! ‘Expulsion’ is canceled! Kurumi will remain in Class 1-16! Everything I said is null and void—aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
At that moment, the last remaining Kurumi ticket at the tip of his frantic hands turned into bubbles and vanished.
“GYAH!?”
The vice principal jumped like he’d been shot.
“N-No!? Th-That wasn’t an order! I only canceled the previous order!?”
But no matter how he protested, the ticket wasn’t coming back.
“GYAAAAH!? I was going to use that last one to reissue the order—so she’d never go near that trash again! KYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”
With his backup plan crushed, the vice principal suddenly grabbed the shelf holding the RPG Candy.
“Kyeeeeh! Just like I suspected, Kurumi is a rotten delinquent student! She’s peddling evil candy and corrupting other students! Right here and now, I’ll smash it all to pieces!”
Kurumi rushed to stop him.
“P-Please stop, Vice Principal!”
“No! Shut up! I hate delinquent students! Get out of the way!”
“Kyah!?”
Kurumi was shoved roughly—but a sturdy female student’s arm caught her.
In the same breath, the vice principal was grabbed by the collar like a thieving cat and lifted into the air.
One arm held Kurumi. The other hoisted the vice principal effortlessly.
Only one girl could pull off something like that.
Kicking his legs, the vice principal bulged his eyes.
“T-Tomoe!? Not only are you helping a delinquent student, you’re using violence against a teacher!?”
Tomoe shot him a cold look.
“Violence is this. …Hmph!”
With a harsh snort, Tomoe hurled him aside.
The vice principal rolled across the ground, then looked up at her like a child who’d been hit by a parent for the first time.
“N-No!? As Kotone’s attendant, how can you do such a thing!?”
“That is my line!”
Tomoe snapped.
“What you just did is unfit for an educator! What you are now is unbearable to behold… Before you disgrace yourself further, vanish! Otherwise, I will split your skull with my Rock-Splitting Sword and force you back to your senses!”
Rebuked by a student, the vice principal stumbled back.
But the snickering of the bystanders stirred up his reckless bravado.
He yanked a fistful of tickets from his tuxedo’s inner pocket and scattered them into the air.
On their faces were the members of Class 1-15—the so-called troublemaker class.
“Yes! Pira Brothers! Boodle! Come out here! I’ll teach Tomoe a lesson for laying hands on me!”
As the tickets dissolved into bubbles, four men pushed through the crowd.
Dressed like bandits, they wore neck braces, and their arms were slung in bandages.
They looked miserable—yet their appetite for violence was even stronger than the vice principal’s.
“HYAH-HAH! No way—teacher-approved violence!? This is the best!”
“This chick’s the one who picked a fight with us before!”
“Just ‘cause she’s a woman doesn’t mean we’ll go easy on her! Gyahahahaha!”
“Hunting a female bear might be kinda fun too…”
The thugs fully became the vice principal’s lackeys, quickly surrounding Tomoe.
Tomoe didn’t move, sweeping them with a severe gaze.
“I do not swat away sparks that drift my way.”
“Hyahahahaha! Too late to beg for mercy now! In front of everyone, we’ll make you—”
“I crush every spark…!”
Tomoe finally drew her Rock-Splitting Sword.
—Shrrrang!
The sheer pressure was like real steel, enough to make even the thugs flinch.
This was bad, the vice principal thought—and as if playing a card game, he pulled out a new ticket.
“At this moment, I activate Tomoe’s ticket!”
Hit by an unexpected counter, Tomoe gasped,
“Th-That can’t be…!”
“It can! It’s the ticket Tomoe paid when she bought a wooden sword at the School Store! My command to Tomoe is: you must not retaliate! Let yourself be beaten to a pulp and reflect!”
Monaka and Kotone tried to rush forward, but other attendants held them back.
“Please stop, Vice Principal!”
“Stop it, Tomoe!”
Their pleas were swallowed by the crowd’s roar.
Tomoe quietly knelt, sat with her knees together, placed her beloved sword beside her, and slowly closed her eyes.
“For a warrior, the most important thing is the lord’s command. Next is one’s oath to others.My oath with the vice principal—I will fulfill it here. …Do as you please.”
“Muhohohoho! You can talk fancy all you want, but you can’t defy the ticket’s power! Now then—make her regret it! She won’t resist, so there’s nothing to fear!”
The moment he knew Tomoe wouldn’t fight back, the vice principal lunged first.
The thugs followed right after him.
“HYAH-HAH! We can do whatever we want!”
“P-Please stooooooooop!!”
Two girls’ screams rang out.
Not just them—every classmate flinched hard.
They timidly opened their eyes, and there…
—DO-GWAA! SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Five thugs went flying, as if erased, from a sweeping full-force swing.
They soared straight into a heap of trash that served as a temporary scrap pile, diving in headfirst.
“FUGYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?!?”
The stacked scrap collapsed with a clatter, burying them alive mid-scream.
It was a gruesome sight—yet none of the classmates were looking at the thugs anymore.
Who did that…!?
Their eyes locked onto someone who was casually trying to walk away.
Of course—it was him…
“L-Leopiiiiiiiiin!?”
At that moment, Leopin had a log slung over his shoulder, his back to the class.
But at the call, he turned.
“Huh?”
With a blank, almost innocent look, he glanced around at the stunned classmates and the people buried with only their legs sticking out, then said,
“Ah—sorry, sorry. I felt like I hit something, and it turns out it was thugs. Looks like there’s one new one mixed in too… well, a thug’s a thug, right?”
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