.

What had lasted in a little over 20 minutes felt like an eternity for Ousame. Nothing he could think of worked on this devil in the form of a boy. Even if Kazuya only doubted an answer he gave, he would ruthlessly do something to make him scream in pain. The boy even claimed that he could hear his heartbeat. No matter how absurd that sounded, he believed it. All the lies he mixed in were immediately identified while the truths were dissected.

"THAT'S ALL I KNOW I SWEAR! Please…. Just let me go already…" he begged. The grown man cried loudly in front of Kazuya. He had already completely surrendered to him.

"I seem to have already run out of questions" Kazuya sighed as he showed Ousame's name had been added to his phonebook. "I will contact you if I remember any more. You do know what happens if you lie to me right?"

"Y-yes!" his hellish experience made it abundantly clear.

"Also, I may ask you to do a few things" Kazuya pulled a chair and sat down in front of him.

"I-if it is something I can do then please… do not hesitate"

"Good. I'm really not as unreasonable as you might think. These boys over here were like you, asked by an anonymous person to hurt me" He beckoned the leader who showed the messages on his phone to Ousame. "The requester may be careful but he still left traces. Sooner or later I will grab that tail"

[The awards ceremony will be starting in a few minutes. Will all the teams receiving an award please report to the arena]

A public announcement was heard. The tournament was finally over and all those in the room knew that Kazuya had to attend. They hid the relief they felt on their minds as this person left scars on their minds they wouldn't be able to erase so soon.

"Looks like time's up" Kazuya stood up. "You said you bought the tall girl's debt for cheap from their family, right?"

"Y-yes" he was nervous that he would get mad at him for causing her betrayal again. "D-do you want me to cancel their debt?" he nervously asked.

"No. I want you to charge them with the amount you paid plus the medical bills you'll be spending on your injuries. Never let anyone know that it was me who asked of this" He looked at Ousame as if he didn't want to hear anything but 'yes'.

"I will follow your instructions" he found this reasonable and accepted without hesitation.

"I also want you to find out why they suddenly sold the debt to you. It's a long shot but there might be a clue there somewhere" Kazuya gestured the five to clean up the mess.

"H-how will I contact you?" Ousame asked. Kazuya had his number but he did not know how to get in touch with him.

"Good. Looks like you really did plan on doing my request" Kazuya's response made Ousame feel glad that he asked. He didn't want to know what would happen if he forgot to ask this important question. "I will contact you instead and give you the details on how to contact me in the future" Kazuya turned around and called the leader of the five.

"What is it boss?" After witnessing Kazuya's terror firsthand, he lost all thoughts of doing anything to get punished for.

"Give me your clothes" Kazuya quickly changed out of his uniform and wore his. He took some of the blood scattered around and made himself look like he was injured.

"Boss what are you…"

"Take a few pictures and send it to the requester. Tell them that your mission was a success and get your money" he posed as if he was injured. Several photos were taken and were sent before he quickly changed back and fixed himself up.

"Thank you boss!" he didn't think they would make any money and only suffer losses so he happily obeyed.

"No need to thank me. Whoever requested this has to suffer some loss" he grinned. "I will also get in contact with you if I need something" He looked at the group whose legs were shivering when they met his gaze.

"Anytime boss! We're at your service!" the leader's admiration for Kazuya grew more. He viewed him as strong, ruthless and doesn't forgive betrayal. That means that he was the type to be loyal to a fault so he had no objections about having a positive relation with him.

Kazuya soon left them and headed back to the arena. Their school had successfully won two championships so everyone's eyes were mostly on them. There were even some photographers who asked Kazuya and Tomoyo to take pictures together.

The journalists who wanted to get their interviews were held back. The awards ceremony was still not over and Jirou was especially overprotective of his granddaughter. He learned from last year's events that he had to take some measures because Tomoyo was reported to have been too devastated to speak in the article about her in the last tournament.

The chairman of the committee gave a speech before handing out the awards for the team tournament. Mahiru was nowhere to be found so the Sacred Forest Academy's vice-captain received their trophy. He wanted Kazuya to receive it but ended up getting rejected. Kazuya was already going to receive the championship award for the individual tournament so he gave the chance to their vice-captain who will soon be graduating,

"Hey Kouzuki Kazuya" he was called by Akabane Nanami whose team was ranked third.

"Hello again pretty lady" Kazuya politely greeted her.

"D-do you r-really mean that?" she nervously asked. "T-that was the question I didn't get to a-ask earlier"

"Mean what?" Kazuya tilted his head feeling confused.

"That I'm p-pretty. N-no one has ever called me that b-before especially g-good looking guys like you s-so I wanted to make sure if you were just f-flattering me" she tried to avoid his eyes. She was nervous to hear his answer so she fidgeted every time he moved.

"Why wouldn't I mean it?" She indeed looked like a rough girl but Kazuya had already seen a lot of them from his time in Edea. Those battle-hardened girls and even beast race ones were more preferable to talk to than those types who were like nobles who used products to heavily change their appearance.

"I-I don't know… y-you're the first ever to refer to me as p-pretty so I wanted to make sure"

"Please be at ease. I'm really not lying to you, you may have a wild look about you but you're certainly unlike those who doll themselves up with so much effort. A natural beauty is always better than an artificial one so please be confident about yourself" Kazuya smiled at her. She reminded her of some of his beast race people that he met. They were rough and eager to use violence but they were very straightforward and easy to get along with.

"T-thank you!" she was so overjoyed that she jumped into his arms. Kazuya found this natural and reacted as if he was pounced on by a beast kin.

"You're welcome pretty lady" he tried to calm her and used his fingers to brush through her messy hair.

"!!" Nanami indulged herself with his touch. She felt her legs melting when Kazuya gently moved his fingers to gently scratch the area below her chin. She was in bliss.

"Have you calmed down now?" Since this always worked against his furry friends, he didn't doubt that it would be effective towards this girl that reminded him of them. His voice woke Nanami out of her trance as her face almost look like a tomato because of embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry! I d-don't know what came over me…" she couldn't remove her gaze from the ground.

"Hehe, it's not a problem. I'm honored to be hugged by such a lady" he gave her head a pat. She was taller than him so he had to reach for it but he was successful. "I'm about to be called on stage so I have to go now" he let go of her. "Until fate brings us together again" this was the usual farewell for one of the tribes of the beast races so felt it was appropriate.

Kazuya returned to his teammates and found Nishida and the other boys giving him a thumbs up. He didn't know what they were up to so he just smiled at them while waiting to be called.

"We all decided to call you our boss from this day forward!" Nishida spoke to represent the boys in their club who witnessed what just happened.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Don't you know who you just tamed? Scarlet Academy is not too far away from our school and she's famous around the area"

"That girl is a delinquent?" Kazuya didn't believe him.

"She's not really a delinquent but she hangs around them a lot. They follow her because she's strong and it was because of her that the other schools don't mess around lately. Even the older students are afraid of her"

"But she wasn't even that skilled" Kazuya knows that she was stronger than him without the use of mana but her skills were very rough and still needed work.

"Because kendo has a lot of rules. I heard that some a group of delinquents tried to take over their neighborhood. They simply made fun of her messy hair and the streets ended up littered with their unconscious bodies"

"Is that so? What does that have to do with me?" Kazuya had lost interest. He didn't care for gossip and knew that the story was exaggerated.

"We just can't believe that Akabane Nanami was acting like that towards you boss. You truly are a genius when it comes to handling girls" they all looked at him as if he were a master.

"Don't look at me like that. If you want lessons on how to handle women then Miyamoto-sensei would be the one to ask. He's been giving me tips on how to handle girls. He says I lack social skills so he's been teaching me when he has time" Kazuya turned their attention towards the teacher who was feeling proud of his students. The boys wasted no time and crowded towards Miyamoto just as Kazuya was called to receive his medal.

"Congratulations on being the champion of this tournament's individual championship" the chairman presented him with both a gold medal and a trophy before guiding him to stand alongside Tomoyo and Ayame. The crowd cheered for him as he received a bouquet of flowers from one of the emcees.

The cheers and admiration from the crowd gave him mixed feelings. They reminded him of the world he wanted to return to. It was still a long time before he can go back Edea so he was worried that he would lose his determination over time. Meeting Kyouko and the cheerful side Mei made him feel a thankful for being able to return and experience this point in his life that he had lost.

"(Wait for me Edea… I will definitely be back)" he tightly clenched his fists.

He stepped down the stage and went straight for the crowd. Kazuya approached the area where Kyouko and Mei were standing. The two were ready to escape from the journalists who wanted an interview.

"This is for you mom" He put the gold medal around Kyouko's neck and handed her the trophy.

"Kazuya…" She was proud of him for winning. He was now giving her the award he worked hard for as if saying that this was for his mother so she couldn't help but feel touched by her son's sentiment.

"This is for you big sis" he gave the bouquet he received to Mei. She of course felt envious after receiving the awards Kazuya won but she understood. This was the privilege of being his mother.

"Thank you Kazu. (You're going to make this big sis of yours unable to live without you at this rate)" she happily received the bouquet of flowers. This wasn't the first time she received flowers but this was the first time she was willing to receive them. Kazuya was unaware that this version of Mei was slowly deviating from her original version in this time as well.

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

Back at the Sacred Forest Academy, the final results of the Kendo tournament were announced. Regular classes were already over so those who heard the announcement were mostly students in clubs and the remaining faculty members. They felt proud of the second graders who gave their school glory. There was one student however who didnt think this was good news. He went to a secluded area near the middle school kendo club after excusing himself to make a call.

"Yo, why if it isn't our model student. Why are you suddenly giving me a call?"

"You still haven't delivered! Why do you think I would be calling? He even won the tournament!" Lee tried hard to keep his voice down but he was clearly agitated.

"Our deal wasn't to prevent him from doing anything like that. Besides, thanks to the fact that he was in a tournament. It was easier to get to him from there rather than in our academy" Kuuga sounded confident which was why Lee felt even more frustrated.

"What are you talking about? He already won! I want that kid taken care of immediately before I see that smug face of his"

"The job is already completed. The target was struck in the locker areas after the awards ceremony. I've sent the evidence to the usual place so you may confirm it there"

"It's done?" Lee was startled. This guy has never failed him before which was why he was frustrated but this sudden piece of info greatly changed his mood.

"Don't take my word for it. See for yourself. They did a good job if I do say so myself" Kuuga laughed. "I'll be expecting the rest of the payment tonight so don't forget to transfer it after confirmation"

"I got it. You don't need to worry about the money. I know how you operate"

"Good. I look forward to our next business deal. The exams are coming soon and you haven't been in good condition lately" Kuuga laughed and ended the call. Lee didn't care about it because that guy only cared about whether he was getting paid or not.

He accessed his private mail. Lee immediately checked the pictures sent and an evil grin grew bigger on his face. The bloodstained appearance of his supposed little brother satisfied him.

"This is a better job than I expected" he couldn't help but start laughing. Kazuya may have won the tournament. He imagined what Kazuya would be feeling after being attacked while holding the title of a champion. "This is what you get for messing with me. Enjoy the walk of shame, champion" he felt victorious and thought that he had been struck at the right moment. After winning, walking out of the venue in shame not a bad ending for him.

"Let's see how you will face me now"

.