By late morning, they had all gathered at the station, fully packed and prepared to go home. Or at least, almost all of them were there.

“Where is Coach Kuroiwa?” The captain asked.

“Are we sure we want to know the answer to that?”

“Shindou, I know what you're implying, and…” Ibuki's lips slowly formed a thin line. And then, “You know what, yeah, I'm on board.”

“Huh?”

“They want to leave him behind.” Matatagi answered Sakura with a smirk. “Good to know I'm not the only one.”

Shindou had his arms crossed. “That man has been more of a menace than Kusaka, Minaho and Matatagi combined.”

“Hey!”

“Ouch.”

“Damn. Gotta up my game then.”

“In any case, we only have a couple of minutes left until we're supposed to leave.” Manabe began. “Aunty said that, because of how far away we are, our chances to warp immediately to Earth are very few. If we don't go now, we'll either have to wait another week, or we go the long way around, which could take us just as long.”

“But… We can't just leave him here, right?” Shinsuke said.

“Honestly, even if we bring him back, wouldn't he just be thrown in jail?” Tsurugi countered.

“Oh yeah, we never talked about that, did we?” Tetsukado spoke up. “Why the hell is there someone called ‘The Emperor of Darkness’ in soccer?”

“Why are we still questioning all this when we've seen all the shit we've seen?” Matatagi retorted.

“Because unlike everyone would like to think, he isn't an alien! He's a human from Earth!”

“Technically speaking, we are also aliens to―”

“Minaho, I swear to god―”

Kusaka, who cut off the defender, was also cut off by the blonde manager.

“That aside―”

“That isn't something you just push aside!”

She ignored whoever that was.

“― Do you think we should try to find him? For Hikaru's sake?”

“...”

“...”

“...”

All those from Raimon went silent.

“Who's Hikaru? I feel like I've heard that name before.” Sakura asked.

“Our teammate from Raimon, and also his nephew.” Aoi explained.

To which Tetsukado immediately reacted with, “That guy has a family?!”

“Which one was he?” Konoha asked in a barely audible voice, likely thrown off by all the shouting.

“The purple haired one. The one not wearing goggles on his chin. Forward.” Kimiko pointed out.

“That kid?!”

“He's related to him?!”

And before they could process the new information,

“Everyone!” Kamata called from the main entrance of the train. “It's time!”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“... Shall… we just go? … Or…?”

Good question, Ichikawa. But none of them could answer.

“Aunty! What about the coach?” Tenma decided to ask.

“The coach?” She looked around the area. “Oh, he really isn't here…”

“Eh?”

“I think he may have a different ride home? He may, he may. His orders were to leave the planet as scheduled, which is now! Now!”

“... Tenma, what do you think?” Shinsuke asked.

But the captain looked even more confused than when he first learned about Fifth Sector. “I… D-Do we have any other choice?”

“Even if we did, I'd rather act like we didn't.”

“Shindou, you really pull no punches, do you?”

“Pray tell, Ibuki, what reason would I have to do so?”

“Fair enough.”

With that, they all boarded the train, taking to the skies right on time.

Not a single person noticed the man on the opposite platform, disappearing into a certain spacecraft.

~~~~~

Just as they thought they could have a relaxing ride home with no worries…

“What the hell is this?! What kinda joke are you playing?!” Mizukawa had fully awakened as herself. She had Ibuki by the collar, and was glaring at every single person present, not letting anyone get close. “Who the hell are you people anyway?!” She then turned towards the window, finding almost nothing. “Where is this?”

“Mizukawa-san, um…” Tenma began, but had no words to continue with.

“We’ll explain everything, s-so for now can you sit?” Aoi went on for him.

“Yeah, we’re about to warp right now.” Shinsuke warned.

“Warp? What are you sleep-talking for?! What school are you from, huh?!”

“T-That’s…”

“The return of Iwashiro Junior High’s Minotaur…”

So this is what you mean when you said she’s like Hakuryuu but worse, huh?

Yup. Her anger issues are no joke.
To think that Potomuri suppressed that much of her true personality…
You have to admit it's pretty funny when you compare Poto-Mizu and Mizukawa-san.

Poto― Okay, yeah, sure. Tsurugi suppressed as much of the sigh as he could to not draw any attention to them. Can you… I don't know, use your abilities to… calm her down?

You wanted to say ‘strap her to her seat’, didn't you?

Whatever works.

She let out a small smile before walking over to the confused girl. “Mizukawa-san?”

“Hah?!”

Confused and angry girl.

“I know everything is pretty absurd to you right now, but if we don't all sit during the warp, we could probably die, so can you hold off on beating everyone up until we get back please?”

“... You're shitting me.”

“Actually, you'll shit yourself if you're not strapped in properly for the warp.”

“K-Kimiko…!”

She only gave the blue haired manager a shrug. “What? I'm not wrong.”

“But still…!”

“Your name's Kimiko?”

Purple eyes went back to the troublemaker. “Yeah, that's what most people know me by. Gouenji Kimiko.”

“Hm…” She seemed to be sizing her up before nodding slightly. “Mizukawa Minori. Though you probably already knew that.”

“I do.”

“Either way, you got my respect. Not a lot of people can talk to me the way you do.”

“Oh? Does that mean I get a prize?”

“Sure. How does a knuckle to the face sound?”

“Damn. For free?”

The delinquent choked at that, and the blonde took it as her victory. The rest refused to bring up the topic again out of fear for their lives, and so they strapped themselves to their seats. Luckily, Mizukawa's seat had always been next to Ichikawa's, who she thankfully didn't seem to want to punch at first glance.

But as they strapped into their seats, the train started rumbling violently.

"Whoa! What? What? What?!" Sakura's panicked voice was by far the loudest of them all.

"Aunty! What's going on?!" Tenma shouted over her.

"I-I don't know! There might be something wrong with the automatic navigation system!" The conductor replied. "Hold on! I'll switch to manual mode right away!"

She went to where the controls were and started mashing buttons and screens, but not even a minute had passed and she began looking even more worried.

"No! No! I can't control it!"

"EHHH?!"

"I have no choice but to warp like this! Everyone hold on!"

All eyes shut out of fear of what would happen. They felt the usual pressure as they went through the wormhole, and relaxed when they felt it vanish. Upon opening their eyes, they were met with what looked like the remains of a destroyed planet.

~~~~~~~~~~

IMPORTANT NOTE!!!

Next update will be on Monday, January 1st 2024!

Sorry, but I've been focused with studying and my part-time job, so I haven't finished writing what comes next. Please be patient with me 🙏

I'm a bit upset though, I've had a good streak running. Like, I think it's been 2 years since this book was first published? And I've updated at least once a week since then without fail. Kinda sad that I need to take a break from it, but it can't be helped. Anyways, see you all then!