— — — — — —
"Tina-Chan, how could you team up with Enju like this?"
"After brushing your teeth at night you're not supposed to eat anymore."
Kayano walked out from the corner and caught Tina red-handed.
With her Observation Haki, of course Enju's sneaky movements couldn't hide from her. She'd only been trying to follow the trail and find where Enju hid her snacks, but she hadn't expected a bonus catch.
"So… am I even making it out alive tonight?"
Tina looked at Kayano, who was holding her in one hand and now was dragging Enju back with the other. She felt like she'd already been sentenced.
Kayano confiscated all their snacks and made both of them brush their teeth again.
"Tina-chan has no snacks to eat now. Time to go back to bed."
"Uhhh.... I still need to go to the bathroom."
"Want me to go with you?"
"No, I can go by myself."
"Alright, then we're going to sleep."
Kayano took Enju back to the room. Meanwhile, Tina's "bathroom adventure" was far from over. She ended up running into:
People gaming at midnight.
People watching TV.
Someone secretly training.
And even one person who was sleepwalking.
After somehow dealing with all of them, she finally reached the bathroom door. Just looking at it made her suddenly feel like she really did need to go.
"I said bathroom so many times I tricked myself. Well… might as well go now."
Still half-asleep, Tina stumbled inside. Dawn light was already creeping in outside.
As an owl-girl, Tina had been busy all night. Sleep finally hit her hard. She yawned.
"No… can't sleep yet… work's not… fin—"
Her head slid sideways and rested against the wall. And she fell asleep like that.
---
Outside, someone else had been watching.
"What is she even doing?"
"Wandering around all night and then falling asleep in the bathroom. Was she actually here to assassinate me?"
"I'm starting to think she came here just to act cute."
Kazuma had watched Tina all night. If she really came to assassinate him, nighttime would've been the time to strike. But instead, what did she do?
Snacked. Played games. Watched TV. Got dragged into reading with Kayo. And finally fell asleep in the bathroom.
If this was an assassin, then this assassin was unbelievably unprofessional.
"Forget it. I'll go sleep too. Then I'll give them class later."
"…Now I feel like some weirdo who spent all night watching little girls."
"If anyone saw this, they'd think I'm some kind of creep. I swear I'm not. I was just being careful."
After Kazuma left, the others found Tina. They quietly carried her back to bed.
...
The Next Day
When class started, Tina forced herself to show up.
"Ah… ooh…"
Unlike the energetic nighttime Tina, the morning Tina looked like a confused, sleepy baby deer. Her eyes were half-shut and she swayed side to side like she could pass out at any second.
"Originally, we should continue deeper into language study. For example, the saying: 'Since the enemy has arrived, let them rest here forever.'
"The rough meaning is: If the enemy comes to your door, then let them sleep peacefully. Here. Forever."
"There are many layers to this idea, but today we won't go into detail. We'll cover something simpler."
Kazuma wasn't good at math, but this type of literature? That was his home turf. His moral philosophy was literal gun and cannon.
His left-hand gun was named Benevolence. His right-hand cannon was Righteousness.
Benevolence and righteousness dwell in firepower. Profound wisdom indeed.
"…Was that 'let them rest forever' part directed at me?"
Tina tilted her head. Maybe it was, maybe not. But she was too sleepy to care. Where was her caffeine?
Oh right. She didn't bring it. Just like her gear. Tragic.
Without her daytime caffeine, Tina simply could not remain conscious. Period.
While Kazuma continued teaching seriously, Tina swayed harder and harder. The other girls watched her nervously. Every time she was about to fall, she somehow recovered.
Their hearts were exhausted.
"Tina, are you falling or not?!" They stared with rising tension.
Then finally, Tina tipped forward and face-planted onto her desk.
"Finally!"
All the girls exhaled like they'd just survived a war.
Then Tina was woken back up. She sat upright. And continued swaying. Everyone swayed with her.
As soon as class ended, she collapsed again. Then everyone else collapsed too.
"…Some kind of new performance art? Little girls are strange."
Kazuma sighed. His class wasn't that boring. Right? ....R-Right?
...
Combat training began soon after, but Tina was already carried back to her room and was snoring peacefully.
"Everyone has learned most of the basic techniques already. The only one who needs to start from scratch is Midori."
"Midori, I'll teach you how to use the Six Powers. Once you master them, you can develop your own style."
"Besides that, there's Life Return to help recover stamina and wounds, and Observation Haki to heighten your perception. How well you do depends on your talent, so don't rush."
Midori nodded seriously.
"And after that, you'll learn how to handle weapons such as grenades, submachine guns, and floating heavy cannons."
"We don't need close combat?" Midori asked.
"Of course we do, but only when firepower can't solve the problem."
"If we can take someone out from afar, why run up to their face?"
"You're wondering: if firepower is enough, why bother training the Six Powers? Simple. You don't need to use close combat often, but you absolutely need to be able to when it counts. Otherwise one day you'll just die."
"So we prepare."
Kazuma's philosophy: If firepower ends the fight, perfect. If it doesn't, then we use more firepower.
Midori nodded again and trained seriously.
Thanks to her cat-like physiology, her explosive strength was high, so she quickly learned Shave and Finger Pistol. And her soft-body flexibility made Paper Art easy. But Moon Step, Tempest Kick, and Iron Body were harder.
Moon Step especially. Cat instincts hate heights. She froze halfway up and refused to move.
"Midori-Chan, here." Kazuma took out a book from his treasure vault and handed it to her.
"Master Onii-Chan, what is this?"
Midori opened it. Inside were pages of drawings and handwritten notes. The handwriting and styles were all different, clearly made by multiple people.
She saw Enju, Kayano, Kayo, Sanae, and many others recorded inside.
"This is a collection of all the ways Kayano and the others developed and customized the Six Powers. You can study the parts that suit you," Kazuma said.
"You can also use these as a base to keep researching and create your own unique style."
Every girl in the guild had her own fighting habits and personality, so each had developed the Six Powers differently. Kazuma gathered all of those methods, learned them himself, and filled in the parts the girls hadn't described clearly. In the end, he compiled it all into this book.
It honestly looked like a children's drawing notebook. But it was really a record of everyone's hard work and growth.
To Kazuma, it was precious enough to belong in his treasure vault.
Midori's eyes lit up. "Then… if I can develop a special Six Powers style too, can I also…"
She wasn't looking for praise. She just wanted to leave her own mark like everyone else. Everyone else had left behind their names and techniques, and she wanted to join them.
"Of course. There are still plenty of blank pages in the back. They're waiting for their rightful owner to fill them."
"And once you record your style there, all the future members of the guild will read your notes."
"You'll become a big sister who teaches the newcomers."
Kazuma smiled as he said it.
"A big sister who teaches the newcomers… like Kayano… I'll work hard! I'll definitely work hard!"
Midori clenched her fists, burning with motivation. She trained even harder from that moment on, determined to become a reliable, mature big sister.
---
Half a month passed in a flash.
During that time, Tina kept trying every night to find a chance to escape, but something always interrupted her. Once, she even tried forcing herself to stay awake during the day to slip out, but that plan lasted about three seconds before she collapsed.
After enough failures, Tina realized escaping the normal way wasn't going to work.
Which meant she would have to do something… less normal.
"Guild Master, I think I've learned enough. I want to take an outside mission."
She planned to use the mission as a chance to leave, contact her organization, and receive the next step of her orders.
"An outside mission…"
Bang. Bang. Bang.
"Our guild's…"
Bang. Bang. Bang.
"Training is not…"
Bang. Bang. Bang.
"…completed yet, so you can't go."
Kazuma was working out while talking. The medicine he'd taken was nearly fully absorbed now, and his physical strength had increased dramatically. After continuously refining his Six Powers, he was now brushing against the threshold of Armament Haki.
And not just any Armament Haki, but a modified, magical kind.
"…Alright," Tina replied.
She hadn't heard a word he said. She was simply staring at the man in front of her, who was punching with the force of a rocket launcher.
Only now did Tina truly understand how terrifying he was. Sure, he usually played around with them, but when serious, he was monstrous.
No wonder he was secretly called the Dark Overlord of Tokyo.
Wait. I'm supposed to assassinate this guy? Can I even win?
For the first time in her life, Tina began doubting her mission. She didn't know whether it was Kazuma's teachings taking effect… or simply those punches beating common sense into her.
Either way, she now suspected the mission giver was insane.
Fight this man? She'd die instantly.
"If there's nothing else, don't distract me. And stay farther away, or you might get hit by accident."
Tina watched him continue punching.
"…Actually, I do have one thing. Tomorrow morning, I want to go out to buy caffeine. If I don't drink it, I'll fall asleep during the day."
She spoke quietly. "…That's fine, but I have a question."
Kazuma paused and looked at her. "You're nocturnal, right? Why don't you just sleep during the day and be active at night?"
"Why force yourself awake with caffeine?"
Tina froze.
Why? She didn't know.
The people who trained her told her she had to work during the day, and she also had to work at night. She was never given time to rest. She lived only to complete missions for the organization. Like a machine that never shut down.
"…Why?"
She tilted her head. She genuinely didn't know.
"How should I know?" Kazuma replied.
"…Because it's lonely at night if it's just me?" she tried to explain.
"That's not true. Half the guild is awake at night. They snack, game, watch shows. You run into them every night."
In this guild, messed-up sleep schedules were normal. Even Kazuma occasionally stayed up late.
"As the saying goes, cats…"
Midori popped up: "Master Onii-Chan, you called me?"
"No, not you. I meant literal cats. Go do your thing."
"Oh. Also, I created a new Six Powers technique. Come look later."
"Got it. I'll come after this."
Kazuma waved her off, then returned to Tina.
"Anyway, you don't have to force caffeine. Sleep when you're tired. Wake when you're rested."
"…Okay. I won't drink it tomorrow," Tina said softly.
This was supposed to be her perfect chance to escape. But she rejected it herself.
She didn't know why.
It felt like accepting something. Or admitting something.
Like choosing what she wanted instead of following orders.
Tina turned to leave. She planned to just continue living like this… and maybe think about contacting her organization in another month.
"Oh, right, Tina," Kazuma suddenly said. "I was too busy before, and you were always asleep during the day, so I forgot to ask."
"Did you come here to kill me?"
He asked it casually, like he'd just remembered something trivial.
.
.
.