Chapter 3 The Graffiti on That Wall Is a Beautiful Memory, but the Fist and Foot Marks Are Best Forgotten. We Should Really Get Rid of Those.

The second day of school.

Masato yelled, “Okay, we’re off!” across the inn and started walking.

Faster and faster, like he was in a power walking race.

“Hey, Masato! Wait up! You’re going too fast!”

“Masato, please wait! I want to walk with you!”

His party members’ cries were enough to slow him down a little.

He turned to look back and saw Wise and Porta hustling after him. Just them. Safe for now.

Wise was whatever, but he did want to wait for Porta, so he waited till they caught up.

“Geez. You went off like a rocket! Ever heard of a li’l thing called cooperation?”

“Cooperation is nothing but a chain that ties me down. Even the greatest of the great understand that.”

“Wait, what? That doesn’t even make sense… Oh, hang on, Mamako still isn’t here.”

“I think we’d better wait for Mama…”

“Stop. Both of you. Please don’t say another word.”

Why had Masato left the inn in such a hurry? Why else?

There was no getting out of Mamako observing class. Her presence was also a big help to them, so that much he was forced to overlook. But going to school with her was out of the question. He would not stand for it.

Masato was supposed to be walking to school with someone else at his side.

This is no place for moms… I’m supposed to be here with my heroine!

Coincidentally bump into her on the way to school, chat about this and that, walk side by side… He knew just the angel to do that with.

Who? It’s obvious, right? I need not say.

Masato pressed forward, hoping to be reunited with his destined partner, down the main road to the school.

And as he reached the corner of an intersection, he heard familiar voices coming from a side street.

“You overslept? Why, I never! Medhi! Hurry up! You have to be number one in everything! Including getting to school first!”

“Yes, Mother! I’ll just go on ahead!”

Masato hurried into the intersection, glancing toward the voices. As he’d hoped, his heroine was running toward him.

Perfeeeeeect! Thank you, destiny!

This is it, this is it, this is it! It’s reunion time! Masato prepared himself to enact the perfect coincidental encounter. He was totally prepared to act naturally. Here she came!

Medhi’s head was down, not looking ahead of her at all.

“…Every time she opens her mouth it’s just ‘number one’ this, ‘number one’ that… Shit… Gimme a break, you toxic bitch…”

Mm?

What was Medhi muttering? Was he hearing words like shit and bitch?

No. No, no, no, no. Masato’s heroine would never be so foulmouthed. This couldn’t be. He must be hearing things. He was sure of it.

More importantly, there was the situation at hand.

…Oh! Is this what I think it is?

On the way to school. Beautiful girl running without looking ahead. With those conditions in mind, I hardly need explain the outcome. Yep. There was only one way this could play out.

And Medhi had premium-sized goods equipped up top.

Ba-dump, boing! If you know what I mean.

But that could only happen if they bumped into each other.

Masato had already realized they were on a collision course. It was technically possible for him to call out to Medhi and avoid the boing entirely. He could easily do that.

But…was that the right course of action?

“Of course it is. We’d avoid injury entirely. Right?” Masato asked, looking up at the sky. Addressing the heavens, the source of his beloved sword Firmamento’s power. The heavens had chosen him as their hero, and they would surely respond to his call.

He was sure they would, but…

“Hmm, that’s odd. No answer? What does that mean? Hmm.”

He’d just have to wait for one. It wasn’t that he was looking forward to the emotional boing he’d always dreamed of, but he was better off withholding judgment until the great powers above answered him. If they bumped into each other in the meantime, oh well.

Just then…

“…Mm?”

The ground beneath Masato’s feet began to move. This was no earthquake. The shaking was extremely localized. “A Mother’s Fangs?! Now?!” Indeed, it was.

Just before Masato and Medhi made contact, an earth spike shot upward at an incredible speed. This was a skill borne from a mother’s love that could seek out her son’s location wherever he was, no matter what situation he was in.

Since they were in the middle of town, the spike was a little smaller than usual, but having this appear right before his eyes was still unbearable.

“Augh! Look out!!”

Masato managed to avoid running straight into it, skidding to a halt, off balance. He almost fell over backward, but as he hastily bent his upper body to avoid collapse…

…Boing! He bumped into something. With his face. And that “something” was…

“Hee-hee. I caught you at last, Ma-kun! Gotcha!”

…his mother’s large, pillowy, fragrant…you-know-whats.

“Nooo! Not these! The other ones!”

“What other ones? Um… I’m confused…”

“Oh, uh, no, never mind, forget I said anything.”

He was supposed to have boinged off Medhi, but he couldn’t exactly tell his mom that… Oh, how convenient, a pillar of earth for him to punch. Thank goodness there was something to punch nearby.

About the time he put his two hundredth fist mark on the pillar, Medhi’s face emerged from behind it. Beautiful. Pure. The image of perfection.

“…Oh, Masato. Everyone. Good morning.”

“O-oh, Medhi. Mornin’. This thing sort of popped up out of nowhere. You aren’t hurt or—”

“Medhi! Why have you stopped?! Get yourself to school right now!”

An irate voice cut Masato off. A flicker of annoyance crossed Medhi’s face, but she did as she was ordered and ran off toward the school.

He considered calling after her, but he’d just get her yelled at again, so he let her go.

Wise and Porta caught up with Masato, and they waited for the boss character to arrive.

“Oh, hello, everyone. Do you know how to greet people properly?”

“Sure I do. Good morning.”

“Mornin’.”

“I know how to greet people, too! Good morning! Was that good enough?”

Masato’s party stood face-to-face against Medhimama, who seemed to have caked on more makeup than she did yesterday. She didn’t exactly come across as hostile, but there wasn’t anything particularly welcoming about her, either.

Meanwhile, Mamako behaved just as she always did, greeting her with a smile. “Fancy running into you here, Medhimama! Will you be observing today, too?”

“I will. As will you, I see… But if I may make one thing perfectly clear, Mamako…”

“Yes? What is it?”

Medhimama fixed Mamako with a piercing glare. “I have prepared not only a sailor uniform but every other manner of garb I could conceive of! I will not allow you to monopolize things any longer! It will be Medhi and I who emerge victorious! There will be no repeat of yesterday!”

After this intense speech, she turned and walked away.

Mamako looked rather confused by this one-sided declaration of war and just stared blankly after Medhimama.

“U-um, Ma-kun? What was that about?”

“Just ignore her… Easier said than done, though… She’s not really going to let us do that. We’ve drawn her aggro now.”

Medhimama was hell-bent on supporting her daughter with a deeply obnoxious level of passion. And Masato’s party would be the ones to pay the price. What could they do about it?

Masato called Wise and Porta over and held an emergency meeting.

“Umm, as you saw for yourselves just now, today’s class is gonna be a mess again. We’d better go in with a plan.”

“Wh-what? Don’t we already have one?”

“Yes! With Mama there, Medhimama will be totally shut out! We can take the class in peace!”

“You have a good point, Porta… But remember, thanks to Mom’s actions yesterday, she ended up taking all the points we were trying to earn. Hard to be happy about that, right?”

““Oh…””

Yep. After Mamako entered the classroom, she’d taken over and made off with all the points. That fact was inescapable. A light that shone too brightly could easily do more harm than good.

“So before anything else happens, we’ve got to turn the tables. Class today will be our show!”

“Okay! Let’s do this!”

“Right! I’ll do my best! I’ll try so hard!”

Porta was super adorable when she got all worked up like this, but this was no time to savor that.

Masato flipped his own switch, getting fired up, and his party strode toward school, their auras clearly visible.

They were doing this. They had to do this.

With unbridled passion burning in their hearts, they took the day’s class head-on!

“Okay, yesterday we mostly focused on combat, so today we’re going to focus on crafting. It might be a little tough for you fighting types, but let’s do our best.”

““W​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​a​i​t​!””

Masato and Wise both grabbed their chairs, ready to throw them directly at Mr. Burly. “What? When did this become a school for delinquents?!” All schools have some, you know.

They calmed down a short while later.

They were gathered not in the classroom but in the food science lab. As the name implied, this room could handle both home economics and science lessons. The students were standing at tables covered in kitchen utensils and experiment apparatuses.

Observation seats were placed at the back of the class for Mamako and Medhimama.

Both were wearing sailor uniforms.

Ignoring those dangers…

Mr. Burly, though somewhat intimidated by Masato’s and Wise’s glares, pushed on with his explanation.

“Um, uhhh… A-anyway, we’ll be crafting today. By actually experiencing Item Creation for yourselves, you’ll learn about its effects.”

“But, Mr. Burly, that’s the problem.”

“We’re in combat jobs. We can’t do Item Creation at all.”

“I anticipated a certain degree of sulky complaints. But don’t worry. This food science lab is designed to allow the Item Creation experience. The room is set to allow users of any job to perform crafting.”