Restarting My Life After Failing to Protect Girls in My Class – The Day I Was Called the "Demon God of Dragon Slaying" - Episode 21

The booth seat in the back of the shop, where I sat with Noma and Aoki, was the starting point of the crowd.

The sports bar, which had been quiet and spacious before, was now completely packed with over fifty people wearing gray haori.

Everyone stood, facing the booth at the back of the shop.

Meanwhile—

“Uuuhhh…”

“Stay, stay, Miyuki. Kizuki-kun is talking right now.”

Noma, Aoki, and I remained seated on the sofa, looking up at the large crowd. It was as if we were royalty welcoming our vassals from the throne.

Naturally, the ones standing at the front of the vassal group were those with significant positions—in this case, the leaders of the combat-oriented delinquent group, Shumisen.

“The Immortal Fukazawa, the Beast Tsuchiya, and the Thunder Emperor Kawano?”

As I repeated the names they had just introduced themselves with, the three men in the front row, corresponding to those names, confidently nodded with replies like, “Yeah,” “Nice to meet you,” and “Just call me Thunder-san.” But I ignored them and looked at the ‘fourth’ person.

“And then—”

The man standing there had his shoulders supported by two people on either side of him, barely managing to stay upright, his face swollen and bruised beyond recognition.

“The Fighting Demon Inura? One of Shumisen’s Four Heavenly Kings?”

He must have rushed here as soon as he received the bare minimum medical treatment at the hospital. His stitched-up eyebrow was wrapped in a bandage, his broken nose was left untreated, and his entire face was swollen bright red.

There was no trace left of the handsome man he had been before fighting Saiki.

The blonde woman with a wolf-cut hairstyle, who had guided us in that underground club, and another woman I didn’t recognize were pressing large ice packs against Inura’s face and the back of his head.

In total, two people were supporting his shoulders, and two were cooling his face—four subordinates completely devoted to him.

“Um… Can we let Inura sit down?”

The blonde wolf-cut woman hesitantly asked. I gave a short reply.

“Do as you like.”

With that, Inura sat across from us in the booth, accompanied by the two women tending to his face.

His lips, split open and stitched with four stitches, moved as he spoke. “Sorry… kept you waiting.”

His words were slurred, likely because several of his teeth were broken, and his tongue was badly injured.

“I wasn’t waiting. I just came because I was led here. Once Noma and Aoki have calmed down, we’re leaving.”

“Don’t say that. Letting the benefactor of our lives and our team leave for free would disgrace the name of the Shumisen Four Heavenly Kings. The Sixth-Generation Shumisen Leader, Kanata Dojima, would tear me apart.”

“I never had any intention of saving you.”

I responded to Inura with a cold tone I would never use with Noma or Aoki, but Inura didn’t seem to mind. He continued speaking casually.

“Oh, come on. Don’t be so modest. I was out cold and missed it, but I heard you put up an incredible fight against Saiki.”

“Fight? It ended in one hit.”

“And after that, you even took down the enraged Golgotha guys? When I heard about it at the hospital, I couldn’t believe it.”

“You should’ve just stayed in the hospital and rested. What a shame.”

I let out a deep sigh.

This guy… Inura… Even though Noma and Aoki, whom he had deceived and handed over to Golgotha, were right in front of him, he kept talking as if nothing had happened. Not even a proper apology—just directing the conversation entirely at me.

So in my mind, I was cursing Saiki, thinking—You should’ve finished the job properly. How could you beat him up so much and still be this weak?

“Rest? The doctors and nurses told me to stay put, but there’s no way I could sleep through something like this. It hurts like hell, and I can barely see in front of me, but I came because I have something to tell you.”

“…I have nothing to hear from anyone in Shumisen.”

Right now—I deeply regretted not letting Saiki beat him up more before stepping in.

“Just listen. Because you beat Saiki, the other Four Heavenly Kings came back to the team. They all agree with what I’m about to say.”

At Inura’s words, the remaining three Heavenly Kings, who had been standing, reacted enthusiastically.

“Hell yeah! No objections from me!”

“I was shocked at first, but if Inura says it’s fine, then it’s fine.”

“To be honest, I’m not entirely convinced… but if the guy who took down Saiki Raiga is here, I guess I’ll accept it. Shumisen is all about strength.”

At this point, I had no idea what they were talking about, nor did I intend to think about it. No matter what, Inura was going to say it anyway.

“Hey, friend of Miyuki and Aoi.”

“………………”

I sat back deeply on the sofa with Noma and Aoki, saying nothing.

Noma, who was pressed against my arm, was trembling—whether from anger at Inura or something else, I couldn’t tell.

Aoki, sitting close to the trembling Noma, was staring at Inura with eyes as cold as death.

Yet Inura, oblivious to the anger and contempt from the two girls he had deceived, looked only at me and declared firmly:

“I want you to take over as the acting leader of Shumisen.”

“………………”

“Until Kanata Dojima is discharged from the hospital. The entire Shumisen group—178 members from the first to seventh squads—will be under your command.”

“………………”

“Starting tomorrow, we’ll be busy hunting down Golgotha. With Saiki gone, now’s the perfect time to wipe them out. And I want you to lead the charge.”

Handing over all of Shumisen’s authority to an outsider—me.

Not everyone in Shumisen had been informed in advance. As soon as Inura made his proposal, the bar, filled with over fifty members, erupted in chatter.

“Seriously? Is that even okay?”

“Hey, don’t go telling the underlings outside about this yet. This is gonna cause trouble.”

“I don’t like the idea of an outsider leading us in place of Dojima-san…”

Then, at that moment—

“Everyone! Listen up!”

A loud voice echoed from the center of the bar, but from my seat, I couldn’t see who was shouting.

“It’s me, Fuyuki Tajima, captain of the Sixth Squad! I saw it with my own eyes! That guy took down ‘that Saiki’! The ‘Hyper Zombie’! The ‘Immortal Dragon’ who put so many of our guys in the hospital!”

The room fell into murmurs, excitement building. Then, Tajima shouted triumphantly:

“Dragon Slayer! A demon greater than our Fighting Demon! The Dragon-Slaying Demon!”

And with that, the entire Shumisen group roared in excitement.

“Dragon Slayer!! Demon God!!”
“Dragon Slayer!! Demon God!!”

The sound was as loud as the “Kill, kill!” chants I’d once heard in an underground club.

“Dragon Slayer!! Demon God!!”
“Dragon Slayer!! Demon God!!”

The entire sports bar shook violently, and even the liquor bottles behind the counter rattled.

In that strange atmosphere—

“W-What…?”

“It’s okay. I’m here, and so is Kizuki—”

Noma and Aoki looked around nervously, but I just sank deep into the sofa, acting as if nothing was happening.

“Dragon Slayer!! Demon God!!”
“Dragon Slayer!! Demon God!!”

No—this is wrong. I thought about staying calm and letting it pass, but there was no way I could just sit and watch this nonsense shaking the entire bar.

“—Hahaha!!”

A chuckle slipped from my lips, and once it started, I couldn’t stop.

“Ahahahaha!! Hahahahahahaha—!!”

I laughed so hard that even Noma, sitting right next to me, was startled.

If you throw cold water on people at the peak of their excitement, they’ll lose their energy all at once.

The loud chants of the Shumisen members were drowned out by my laughter. From the back of the bar, they stopped one after another—until the place became quieter than it had been since they arrived.

“Hah. Seriously, this is hilarious.”

Laughing until my eyes teared up, I wiped my face and—

In the next moment, baring my anger, I looked across the low table at Inura and spoke.

“So, you all showed up together, just to do some stupid recruiting and ridiculous chanting? If anything, the whole Shumisen group should be here begging on their knees to Noma and Aoki.”

My heavy voice carried from my stomach. Inura stiffened in fear.

“N-No, I was just…”

I leaned forward, making the sofa’s springs creak loudly under my 112-kilo weight.

“You guys look like the biggest idiots of the century, so let me spell it out for you: I refuse.”

A clear rejection.

Inura couldn’t even speak.

“Hey, kid. Who the hell do you think you are? You’re just a high school brat, and Inura is offering you the honor of being acting leader of Shumisen!”

Kawano, the “Thunder Emperor” of Shumisen’s Four Heavenly Kings, stepped up to intimidate me, shoving his face close.

And then—he swung an uppercut at my chin. His bare fist traced an arc.

“Gahhh?!”

But before his punch could land, my index finger’s second joint had already stabbed deep into the bridge of his nose—right between his nostrils.

A light strike using a one-knuckle punch to concentrate force.

The sudden sharp pain made Kawano jerk his head back and jump involuntarily. He couldn’t land properly and fell on his butt.

“—!!”

The searing pain in his nose sent tears streaming down his face. He sat frozen for a moment, then let out a weird wail.

“Y-You bastard!!”

He glared at me with teary eyes and stood up—but then froze.

“—!?”

Bl00d poured suddenly and heavily from both his nostrils.

The Shumisen members around him panicked.

“Kawano! You’re bleeding, it’s bad!”

“This isn’t just a nosebleed! It’s gushing like a faucet! We need to get to a hospital!”

“My brother had a motorcycle accident and got cerebrospinal fluid leakage—it looked just like this! If it’s mixed with brain fluid, it’s serious!”

The murmurs of anxiety spread.

“Wh-What just happened?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t even see it.”

“Kawano definitely punched him… but this guy’s faster than the Thunder Emperor?!”

The unity and excitement from their chanting were gone. Over fifty members stood frozen, now feeling out of place.

“Hey, Inura. How are you going to take responsibility for tricking Noma and Aoki into fighting Golgotha?”

My heavy voice pressured Inura, who stammered.

“W-Well…”

“What are you going to do?”

I asked again, and this time, someone else answered—

A blonde woman with a wolf cut, sitting next to Inura, holding an ice pack to his face.

“Miyuki, Aochan—No, Noma, Aoki.”

She turned to face them properly.

“I’m really sorry for what happened. From now on, Shumisen will never get involved with you again. We’ll stay away, and when my ‘big brother’—the sixth leader of Shumisen, Kanata Dojima—gets out of the hospital, he’ll officially apologize. Please, accept this.”

Inura looked panicked.

“Are you stupid?! Do you realize what it means for the boss to bow his head?!”

But the blonde woman didn’t back down.

“Then what do you want to do? This guy is furious. Furious enough to kill us.”

Unlike Inura, she seemed to truly care about Shumisen’s members as the leader’s sister.

“If he wanted to, he could kill all of us instantly. Inura, the other Four Heavenly Kings—everyone.”

Her serious tone silenced Inura.

“You didn’t see it, but this guy is different. He’s nothing like us delinquents—he’s on a whole other level.”

Kawano, still clutching his nose, and the other Shumisen members felt the same.

The blonde woman looked around the bar, then turned back to her gang.

“This guy has power far beyond us. We should never, ever pick a fight with him.”

Inura frowned but couldn’t argue.

“Listen, we were so desperate to save Shumisen that we betrayed our friends. And because of that, we dragged a true demon out from the depths of hell.”

Her emotional plea struck a nerve. Maybe hearing her say “we sold out our friends” made Inura reflect.

He looked at me.

“…Are you…a demon from hell?”

He muttered.

“…I just… I only wanted to protect Shumisen…”

He whispered again.

I said nothing. I just sat deep in the sofa, staring at him.

…………………………

I don’t know what Inura saw in me.

But after a long, long silence, he bowed deeply, like a man resigned to his fate.

“Miyuki, Aoki, and you… I caused you trouble. I’ll do whatever she says. Please forgive me. No, I beg you—please forgive me.”

Betrayal like this deserved massive compensation, but it wasn’t my place to decide the terms of forgiveness.

“So? Do you two want anything else?”

Noma frowned.

“…No. I think… this is enough.”

Aoki added,

“We’ll never forgive Inura. But if we never see him again, then fine. It’s over. We were stupid to trust him.”

I smirked and offered advice.

“You should be more careful picking friends.”

“”Yes.“”

“Otherwise, you’ll fall for worse scams.”

“”Yes… You’re right.“”

I chuckled. Then, standing up—

“Let’s go. It’s too crowded here.”

As I walked, the Shumisen members parted like the Red Sea.

At the entrance, I turned to Inura.

“If you really want to help the city, stop fighting Golgotha and start cleaning up trash. That would make you a much better ‘righteous gang.’”