CHAPTER 397: CHAPTER 395: DO YOU EXPECT THE HOLY LORD TO KEEP HIS PROMISE?_1

Outside the classroom, the students were particularly excited, chattering away.

Aozawa listened to their voices and couldn’t help but reflect that this was what youth was all about.

He headed towards the club building, not going through the main entrance, but turning aside and circling around to the side.

Aozawa liked to take shortcuts.

Approaching the Guzheng Club window, he heard Natsuka Yanagimachi’s complaining voice, "Ah, I wrote the wrong answer for that question just now. Damn it!"

Clearly, Natsuka Yanagimachi was comparing answers with Hojo Shouko.

Aozawa walked closer, his eyes scanning the interior of the Guzheng Club’s activity room.

On the tatami mats, feet clad in white and black stockings rested.

The curves of the girls’ legs were completely visible in the summer.

"Natsuka, isn’t it normal for you to do poorly on tests?"

"Senpai, you don’t understand anything!"

Natsuka Yanagimachi glared at him, then quickly picked up the wooden boards she had brought from home and rushed forward. "Hehe, let me see if Senpai is just bluffing!" she said.

She raised the boards high, stacked three layers thick, her bright eyes full of anticipation, like a fan waiting for a pop star’s concert to begin.

Aozawa shook his head. "Don’t hold the boards. What if splinters fly into your face when I punch them? Put them here."

"Oh."

Natsuka Yanagimachi placed the wooden boards on the window frame. She took two steps back and called out, "Senpai, you can start now! Oh, wait, I need to take a picture and record this to show off in the group chat later."

"What group chat?" Aozawa was curious.

Natsuka Yanagimachi casually replied, "The ’Fans of Older Guys’ group. If they knew I had a senpai with such strong arms, they’d definitely be jealous."

Aozawa feigned shock. "You don’t have a crush on me, do you?"

"Haha, Senpai, don’t joke around." Natsuka Yanagimachi waved her hand, started recording, and aimed the camera at the wooden boards. "Senpai, you can start."

"Alright."

Aozawa raised his right hand and chopped down.

CRACK! The three-layered wooden boards split cleanly in the middle.

"Wow, that’s amazing, Senpai!"

After Natsuka Yanagimachi said this, she stopped recording, picked up the broken boards with her right hand, and looked at them in awe. "So a person’s hand really can break through wood!"

"As long as you have enough force," Aozawa replied, retracting his hand.

Natsuka Yanagimachi shamelessly asked, "Senpai, could I feel your strong biceps again?"

"Natsuka, don’t harass Aozawa-senpai," Hojo Shouko interjected, no longer able to stay silent about her friend’s outrageous behavior. She then handed over a bento. "Aozawa-senpai, it’s a tuna bento today to give your brain a boost for this afternoon’s test—do your best."

"Mhm, I’ll definitely try hard," Aozawa said, accepting the bento with a smile. "Shouko, you do your best too. Natsuka, you too, while you’re at it."

"That’s so mean! Why am I just an afterthought?"

"You look like the type who isn’t good at studying. Even if you tried hard, it likely wouldn’t make a difference."

Upon hearing this, Natsuka Yanagimachi couldn’t stand it any longer. She put her hands on her hips and declared, "Senpai, I’m done pretending! I’m second in the grade! If it weren’t for Shouko, I’d be first!"

Aozawa was surprised. "Shouko, you’re first in our grade? That’s amazing! You’ve never mentioned it."

"Claiming to be first always feels a bit like bragging to me," Hojo Shouko explained. "I didn’t mean to deceive you, Senpai."

"Hey, the focus here is me! Second in the grade!" Natsuka Yanagimachi slapped the window frame, strongly expressing her inner protest; she wanted at least a few compliments.

"Fine, you’re second. So what?"

"That’s cold, Senpai! You’re giving me the cold shoulder!" Natsuka Yanagimachi crossed her arms, her cheeks puffing out in anger at this differential treatment.

Aozawa laughed and raised his hand to pat her head. "Alright, you’re great."

Natsuka Yanagimachi quickly knocked his hand away, covering her head. "Wow, you’re so forward! How can you just casually touch a girl’s head? Senpai, you don’t have feelings for me, do you? Uh oh, I sense danger!"

"You really are a troublesome one. I’m leaving now," Aozawa said and waved goodbye. He planned to eat his lunch and then go to the U.S. Forces Japan ammunition depot to test out his new idea.

"Goodbye~"

Natsuka Yanagimachi waved her hand and turned to Hojo Shouko beside her. "Are you jealous?"

Hojo Shouko nodded. "I feel a little pang of jealousy."

"Hehe, don’t worry, I won’t compete with you," Natsuka Yanagimachi laughed, then playfully added, "But if you keep hesitating, maybe I will~"

"Natsuka, sometimes I think being too confident isn’t a good thing. Are you sure you stand a chance against Phoenix Academy’s Senior?" Hojo Shouko’s expression returned to its usual calm, radiating a tranquil beauty like a figure from a classical painting.

Natsuka Yanagimachi smiled. "In matters like these, how can one know the answer without giving it your all?"

"When you already know the answer will be bad, why bother to try?" Hojo Shouko shook her head.

She thought it was good enough to be able to meet Aozawa-senpai in person and chat with him on her phone, making his bento every day. One should learn to be content and understand one’s place. No matter how Hojo Shouko thought about it, she didn’t believe she had a chance against Phoenix Academy’s Senior. It would be better to let things take their natural course rather than make everyone uncomfortable. She just needed to be his friend’s younger sister.

「...」

「On the second floor of a Chinese Restaurant in Ikebukuro.」

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

The office desk’s phone suddenly rang, and a man picked it up.

"Mr. Mitsui, about Mingfeng Real Estate."

"Get lost!"

A simple, blunt roar erupted from the man.

Mitsui Arashi thumped his office desk heavily and said impatiently, "Haven’t I told you, right now! Don’t disturb me with anything! What are you people here for? Am I just raising a bunch of useless fools?!"

After his outburst, he slammed the phone down, his heart filled with dread, with no intention of dealing with company affairs.

Amat had vanished inexplicably. Could it have something to do with Higashiyama Jiro? Or was it Dio’s doing? He wasn’t sure. The current Tokyo was no longer solely under Dio’s influence. In the shadows, other visitors from Different Worlds were likely capable of such things. If Dragon people could come here, and Dio could too, there was no reason others couldn’t. He could imagine all sorts of scenarios, each with some flimsy justification, yet he had no concrete evidence to prove any of them correct.

Mitsui Arashi was panicking. He feared that by publicizing the tournament so much, the new Angel Envoy’s Servant would notice it, and then the person he was supposed to deliver wouldn’t be Amat, the strongest on Earth. Would trying to fool that being with someone else really work?

Mitsui Arashi loosened his collar, his mouth dry and throat parched. He felt even more nervous than the first time he faced an assessment from his father.

At least back then, he knew he would only lose power but could still maintain his wealth. But now, he might lose both power and his life.

Mitsui Arashi irritably poured a cup of tea and gulped it down, inwardly cursing Iwasaki and the others.

When there were benefits, they all flocked to him. But when danger loomed, they ran faster than anyone. If he was going to die, he would definitely drag them down with him.

As these thoughts raced through Mitsui Arashi’s mind, his eyes swept to the person lying on the sofa.

It was naturally impossible to choose someone from the original top eight. He had to find another martial artist who hadn’t appeared yet, claim that this martial artist had killed Amat, and maybe that would deceive the Angel Envoy.

Mitsui Arashi was considering the excuses to use later when he suddenly noticed something off with the space in front of him. An oval entrance appeared in the office. It was shaped somewhat like a clam.

His heart skipped a beat.

Then, a familiar tall figure stepped out and stood in the office.

Those crimson eyes seemed to emit an evil glow, and the dragon tail swayed gently.

"Three days have passed. Where is the person I wanted?"

Mitsui Arashi swallowed hard and quickly pointed to the martial artist on the sofa, smiling. "It’s him. He will definitely meet your requirements."

Aozawa glanced over. The martial artist was tall; his well-defined arm, thigh, and abdominal muscles proved his regular training.

However, his ’sound’ was clearly no match for Amat’s; at best, it was comparable to the ’sound’ of this single building.

"I heard you organized the strongest martial arts competition. Where is the champion?"

Aozawa’s question made Mitsui Arashi tremble. He bent his waist involuntarily, a sycophantic smile appearing on his face. "Actually, the champion suddenly disappeared. It’s very likely Dio killed him."

He changed his strategy, deciding to tell the truth. He hoped that less scheming and more sincerity might move this being.

Aozawa growled, "Do not make excuses for your incompetence. Failure is failure. You have disappointed me."

Saying this, he kicked the martial artist outside, a seemingly rough action that actually spared the man from the subsequent attack.

Before coming to the Ikebukuro office, he had detonated a missile stored at the U.S. military base and captured the sound of the explosion. He wanted to test if, when releasing a sound, he could capture it again and then release it, creating a cycle of destruction. As for the agreement with Mitsui Arashi, he had no intention of fulfilling it from the start and wasn’t concerned about adversely affecting future collaborations with the conglomerate. The power imbalance between them was already severe. Thunder and rain are both graces from heaven. The next time he appeared before another conglomerate member as the Holy Lord, that person would probably curse Mitsui, saying he deserved to die for daring to disappoint the Holy Lord’s expectations.

"No, no, my lord, please give me another chance!" Mitsui Arashi’s face turned white with fear. Forgetting his earlier thoughts of dragging others down with him, he pleaded loudly for mercy.

Aozawa just wanted to test if Burst Sound could cycle infinitely. He punched the air directly.

The sound of the missile’s explosion was released.

BOOM!

A massive explosion, and flames engulfed the shockwave, blasting this entire floor apart. The blast erupted from the windows, its roar echoing throughout Ikebukuro.

The two-story building collapsed from the force, and the shockwave shattered the windows of surrounding buildings.

Aozawa retracted his hand. He found he could indeed draw back the sound generated by the explosion, proving that his theory about cycling Burst Sound was correct.

He used Element Replacement, transforming into a gust of wind and departing the scene. He wasn’t worried about collateral damage; this street and its surroundings had long been cleared of ordinary people.