Leopin ran off toward the setting sun. The mud-doll squad watched his shrinking silhouette, and the shadow stretching out behind it, too stunned to move.
Then they snapped back.
"H-he got away!?"
"Mr. Nickbacca! What if that trash was eavesdropping on us just now!?"
"Impossible! He was a hundred meters from where we were standing! Hearing a whisper at that distance would be beyond even sharp ears!"
"But what do we do!? If he left us here, we're...!"
"W-we all call him back!"
They shouted at the sinking sun.
"H-hey! Celebrity kid! Be a good boy and come back!"
"Trash! Come back here! Leaving us behind is a joke, right!?"
"Yeah, yeah! If you really mean not to come back, we've got ideas of our own!"
"That's right! Starting tomorrow we'll bully you within an inch of your life!"
"You know it won't end well if you make enemies of us, right!? If you get it, come back quietly!"
A little while ago they had been crying and clinging to Leopin. A short rest, and this was them. They could act this arrogant because they had been spoiled rotten since they were small.
So they waved their selfish standing around without even understanding the spot they were in. Then the silhouette showed no sign of coming back, and they started to panic.
"W-we went too far! He got teased too much and sulked, right!? We won't call you celebrity kid anymore, so come back!"
"Tra... no, Leopin! Please, come back!"
"We ran the Hell Marathon together, didn't we! We're best friends forever now, right!? Come on, cheer up already!"
Few situations fit the words "too late now" this well. Along with the sun, Leopin's figure was vanishing over the horizon.
In the forest, growing darker by the minute, they finally heard that voice. Not a person, not an animal. The howl of an evil spirit.
"Gya, gya, gyaa!"
That alone made the mud dolls jump.
"Wah!? Th-that voice, don't tell me...!?"
The bushes shook hard, and a green-skinned creature burst out. The mud dolls' faces twisted in fear, and they screamed.
"G-goblins!?"
The mud dolls tried to be the first to run from the pack of goblins licking their lips. Their legs would not hold them, and they were surrounded in no time.
They clung to each other and shouted at the top of their lungs.
"H-help! Help us, Leopin-kun! No, Lord Leopin!"
"Your friends, no, your best friends, are being attacked by goblins!"
"No, no! Don't come, don't come! No, Leopin-kun, do come! Come here!"
"H-hurry! Leopin-kun! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Or we'll die, we'll die, we'll die!"
In a pinch like this, shouting that way usually brings a hero running. For them, everything was already too late.
The goblins took advantage of the mud dolls being dead on their feet and kicked them around for fun. Kicked by the whole pack, the mud dolls wailed, ugly and loud.
"Ow, ow, that hurts!"
"Help, help us!"
"Please, please, forgive us! Forgive us!"
Then one mud student noticed.
"R-right, Mr. Nickbacca! The distress signal! Launch the distress signal!"
"I can't! He said he rewrote the name, didn't he!?"
"That's obviously a bluff! The only one who can rewrite the text on a set-piece firework is a Fireworker!"
"Yeah, yeah, that trash is unemployed! There's no way that trash can do something even we can't...!"
By ordinary thinking, that was right. But Nickbacca could not let that one line go.
"In that situation, what reason did he have to bluff...!? And he ran like a devil and drove us into a corner...! Maybe...!"
At last he caught the tail of the truth.
It was not only that he had seen Leopin's absurd ability with his own eyes. It was a place he could reach only because he had taken it on his own body three times.
"If it's him, if it's Leopin...! Rewriting a set-piece firework is something he could pull off...!"
Then that tail snapped clean off.
"Hey, how long are you gonna stand there whining, you muscle daruma! I'll launch it instead, so hand over the distress signal!"
"What kind of way is that to talk to a teacher!? I'll beat some sense into you!"
"Teacher and student don't mean anything in this situation! Hey, everyone, take the distress signal off this meathead!"
At last they turned on each other.
"Damn it, this meathead's strength is ridiculous!"
"Ow, don't push! You! Don't try to shove me outside!"
"It's your fault the trash got away! Take responsibility and be the shield!"
The mud dolls grappled and swung at each other. The goblins stared, as if asking what these guys were doing, and stopped kicking.
A red tube rolled to a stop at one goblin's feet. The goblin picked it up with a puzzled face and started fiddling with it.
Nickbacca wrung out every bit of strength he had left to stop it.
"S-stop!"
Too late. In every way, they had already been left behind.
The red tube spat fire.
Nickbacca reached for the ball of light climbing into the sky, a broken cry caught in his throat. His face was the face of a man falling into a deep valley.
A roar, and countless sparks burst in the sky. Light like blooming flowers lit the sky, already dark.
The letters that appeared shone across the whole sky, bright enough that they looked readable from anywhere in the country.
"Please, save me! I was an idiot to obey the vice principal! I'll quit the academy, so please save me! Sincerely , Nickbacca"