After leaving the set meal restaurant in District 7, Hamazura felt the cell phone in his pocket vibrating.
He pulled it out and looked at the screen which displayed "Takitsubo Rikou".
However, when he pressed the connect button and put it to his ear, it was not her voice he heard.
"Hamazuraaa! You're super slow for someone's who's just supposed to be doing odd jobs! Where did you super run off to!?"
"Ugh, who cares; I was thinking of killing some time by kicking those idiots' asses, but all those delinquents ran off after you. And since you are taking forever, it'll be night before you get back at this rate. We'll go find you instead." added Mugino.
"I-I see. Well, I'm—"
"No, no," Mugino interrupted him for some reason. "I'm bored, so I was thinking of making the Hamazura Search into a game."
"?"
"It'll be a punishment game where Kinuhata, Takitsubo, and I will search for you and whoever finds you first gets to punish the last one to find you. Let's see, the punishment will be…"
"It'll just be making the loser wear a super bunny suit, right?"
"What!!!???" Hamazura reacted.
"Hamazura, you've been super gloomy lately and it's making me wonder why Takitsubo-san would stick with you."
"…Don't worry. Hamazura's good points lie elsewhere…"
(Huh!? She ignored the bunny part!?)
Hamazura started trembling as he sensed a rising danger, but he didn't ask for details then. He swore in his heart he would talk with her alone about it later.
"Okay, the super Hamazura Search competition is about to start. Ready, go!"
With a click the line was severed.
Hamazura stared down at his cell phone's small LCD screen.
He may not be able to go down the same path as Hanzou. He may not be able to return to Skill-Out.
Even though he had overcome World War III, Hamazura was still an underling who could do nothing but run when regular, everyday delinquents came after him.
Except he still had connections to other people.
With Mugino, with Kinuhata, and with Takitsubo.
Frenda may be gone, but Hamazura and the others had regained the connections that came with Item.
There were people who would come searching for him if he was missing.
That wasn't very extravagant, but it helped to support the depths of Hamazura's heart.
He had realized all that once again.
(…I can't just continue to run away.)
Battles in that peaceful world would not be decided with the result of a fist fight. And he couldn't forcibly take victory from someone else. Instead, he had to become someone who could protect those who were important to him. That would solve everything.
As Hamazura was seriously thinking about all that, he had another thought.
(…Huh? Takitsubo and the others said they were searching for me, but what am I supposed to do?)
Could he move around doing whatever he wanted or should he stay where he was?
The game had started without any detailed rules being explained. As such, Hamazura couldn't go on, couldn't go back, and was stuck timidly where he was as if he was an idiotic piece of art.
"Oh?"
A voice called out to the timid objet d'art titled "Hamazura".
It was a girl's voice.
He turned around and saw…a difficult to describe girl. She was wearing an oddly short mini-yukata (?), had brown hair, wore thick makeup, and had accessories all over. She felt like the result of asking an old man who had never seen a city high school girl to describe one.
He knew her.
He didn't know her family name, but her given name was Kuruwa. The chain wrapped around her shoulders, torso, and legs rattled as she approached him.
"Oh, Hamazura-shi. What are you doing here?"
"I'm the End of the Century Emperor Landmark."
"?"
He was a hidden goal point, but he gave a light smile instead of explaining further.
"What are you doing, Kuruwa-chan? Looking for Hanzou again?"
As far as Hamazura knew, Kuruwa had an unfortunate obsession with everything ninja and he thought she had been chasing after Hanzou in various ways.
Whether it had anything to do with that or not, she seemed to have had some kind of inner change as she was speaking much more politely than before.
"No, no. Hanzou-sama seems to be rather busy right now, so I'm doing something else."
"Really?"
"Yes. If I were seriously chasing after Hanzou-sama, I might use my seductive techniques to get all the information you have, Hamazura-shi."
"Seductive…techniques….?"
That may have been something he would normally love to hear, but his breath caught because he had been caught off guard by one of those very techniques once.
(Hearing Kuruwa say that is a dangerous sign,) thought Hamazura as he put himself on guard.
Kuruwa must not have liked the look on his face, because she looked a tad offended and moved her hand to her kimono's obi.
"You look like you don't believe me. Perhaps I should show one to you now."
"W-wait!! Don't strip!! Keep your clothes on!! Using seductive techniques with no goal is nothing more than an endless erotic hell!!"
Kuruwa must have sensed something from Hamazura as he trembled in fear, because she removed her hand from her obi.
"I want to be with Hanzou-sama very much, but I don't want to get in his way."
"Oh, yeah. He did say he was doing something. He seemed really busy and even said he didn't even have time to eat."
"Hanzou-sama did?"
"I saw him just a bit ago at that set meal restaurant. As usual, he was ordering nothing but cheap Japanese food."
"Well, he is the kind of person that would order normal fried vegetables at a Chinese restaurant."
"Or fish at a yakiniku restaurant."
The two laughed at their shared view of Hanzou and gained a tiny bit of a kindred spirit from it.
"So did you hear about what was going on from Hanzou-sama?"
"A little. He said it was a money making opportunity."
"Hmm. That doesn't sound like what I'm working on."
"What are you working on, Kuruwa-chan?"
"Oh, it's just a matter Hanzou-sama got involved in that I'm sticking my nose into. But would he really start working on something else while still involved in that?"
"?"
"Well, you've already heard about it, so I can talk about it with you."
"About what?"
"Oh, you know. The thing about..."