Translator: Haruto.

I’ve arrived at the public bathhouse to honor the promise I made with my master…

“Oh! There you are! We’ve been waiting for you!”

For some unknown reason, my master brought Hades with him.

“Hey, you look well.”

“Huh?! What are you even doing here?! Don’t you have a job? You know, running the underworld?! And how come you know each other?!”

“Hahaha! Relax! I just took the day off! No souls were scheduled to arrive today anyways! And, more importantly, when my buddy here told me you guys were coming to the bathhouse, I just had to tag along!”

“As for me, I ditched work, but it’s totally fine,” says my master with a huge smile on his face.

“It’s totally not fine! Master, you’re the leader of the Purging Mask. Shouldn’t you be a little more responsible?”

“Man, it sure was hard giving my secretary the slip. She has quite a nice derriere, but she’s too strict! I’m too old to be treated that away!”

“Are you two absolutely sure it’ll be okay for you to be here?”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t you worry about it,” they say in unison.

They sure are careless.

I can’t help but feel worried.  

“Anyhow, it’s time to venture into the men’s bath!”

Something is telling me that their idea of the men’s bath is different from mine…

“Hahaha! You looked intrigued, Shuu!” exclaims Hades, smiling playfully.

This guy sure loves to laugh all the time. It’s like his life depends on it or something.

“Wait, I thought you were able to read minds…”

“In the underworld, not here. And only when I’m dealing with souls, so chill, I can’t hear what you’re thinking.”

“Huh, is that so…”

“Ahem! At any rate, I believe it’s time to explain why we’re here exactly! The thing is, we’ve come to enjoy the peeping paradise that is the men’s bath!!”

“Come again?”

Hades is like the god of the underworld, right?

Why is the guy who’s supposed to judge the souls of the dead about to commit a crime?

“I know what you’re about to say! But it’s fine. Gods are above all good and evil! Such concepts—like crimes—only apply to humans! Or at least that’s what the Japanese gods taught me. And to be honest, I agree with them!”

I still think there’s a line you shouldn’t cross…

But, that aside, what in the world are our Japanese gods teaching this guy?!

“Whatever! I’m not doing it!!” I declare.

“Come on now, didn’t you promise you’d accompany me? Don’t tell me you’re going back on your word.”

“You tricked me! You never said that’s what we’d be doing!”

“Huh, I see how it is. Maybe I should have a little chat with your parents, then.”

“If you wanna tell on me, go right ahead! I’m sure they’ll understand once they hear my side of the story!”

“Are you sure? Who do think they’ll believe, their troublesome son or the one and only leader of the Purging Mask?”

“That’s dirty!! Is that how the leader of the Purging Mask should behave?!”

“This is just how we grownups fight our battles.”

“I definitely didn’t want to know that!”

In the end, I had no choice but to tag along on their peeping mission.

Inside the public bathhouse…

“Now then. There’s a whole unexplored world laying on the other side of this wall. It is a realm only true men are capable of conquering!” says my master trying to sound cool, but in my eyes, he’s just some old peeping tom wearing nothing but a towel.

As for the muscular, tall, good-looking, and impressively disappointing lord of the underworld…

“Come on, boy! Prick up your ears! Listen to the voices of the nymphs!!”

Heeding his words, I strain my ears and what I hear is…

…

……

“Wow!! It’s huge!”

Hm? Is that Amane’s voice?

“I know, right? This bathhouse is super big even though it isn’t that popular, and best of all, it has an open-air bath!”

“Yes, I love it, Asuka-chan!”

“Hehe! You three had better be thankful I found it!”

“We are. It really is quite something …”                                          

“Oh, look, Amane-chan, Momoka-chan! They have hot springs, too! These are really good for your skin!”

Hmm?

“My! Really, Ayame-chan?!”

“You know, it’s incredible how cheerful Amane has become.”

“You think so, Momoka? I haven’t met her in a while so I didn’t even know she had changed, to begin with,” Asuka commented.   

“Yay! We have the entire bath to ourselves!”   

“Ayame! Don’t run like that! You’ll fall!”

…Yeah, that’s Amane, all right. What are they doing here?

“Hm! The shrine maidens have arrived right on time, just like the reports said they would.”

“They’re all gorgeous, right? We can’t let this chance slip away!”

“That’s correct. Well then, it is time to go into this new dimension!”

“Yeah! Let’s do this!”

Foosh.

I step in front of them without saying a word.

“Hm?” they both say in wonder.

“Hades, Master… I’m honestly grateful to you two. Hades, you helped me come back to life. And you, Master, taught me how to fight… With that being said, there are just some things I can’t allow…”

Well, I only really care about Amane…  

“I can’t allow you to see Amane naked!!” I declare sternly.

“Ohh? A mere mortal dares challenge a god…?”

“While I do not like to brag, I am humanity’s strongest man at the moment… And yet, who would have thought my own disciple would be so bold as to stand against me?”

I can’t beat them… I know that.  

The fight would be over in the blink of an eye if they were to get serious.

However! This is a public bathhouse! The floor is slippery, they aren’t allowed to make a ruckus in here, and they have to be careful not to wreck the place. These three factors should allow me to hold my own against them, at least until the person in charge of the bath comes in to kick us out!

A drop of water falls…

A splash is heard as it touches the ground, marking the beginning of the battle.

The quietest fight ever seen between three men has begun!  

I infuse my body with life energy and break into a sprint.

Let’s make a ruckus—

“I won’t let ya.”

Hades cancels out my life energy using some strange black aura.

“Wh-?!”

“Here’s a little lesson. The Shikiryuu Style allows you to erase the sound of your footsteps completely.”

I only got distracted by Hades for a second, but that was enough for my Master—I mean, the Old Perv to close the distance between us.

He rains down punch after punch on me, and every single one is stronger and faster than the last. Albeit, they don’t make a sound. It’s as if we’re in a movie and the sound has been edited out.

Even when his fists are flying through the air nothing is heard.

The only thing echoing in the bath is the sound of my footsteps.

The Old Perv moves his entire body freely and silently.

It’s starting to creep me out.

I don’t even have the leisure to raise my voice, having to guard myself against Hade’s attacks and the Old Perv’s barrage of punches.

The slippery floor is actually working against me as well.

I’m obviously using a special running technique too, but it just isn’t enough.

Fwip!

I slip at last.

And the Old Perv isn’t kind enough to forgive such a misstep.

“Dragon Fist: Magnus.”

“Ghaaa!”

The force of his attack spreads through my entire body.

I come really close to passing out but I manage to endure it.

Come on, pull yourself together! Eliminate all waste! Enhance your senses! Learn and steal from him every single technique you can!

Dark spheres fly toward my still wobbling body.

They’re aimed at my vitals. Talk about ruthless.

I grab a nearby mop, cover it with life energy, and strike them all down.

While I’m at it, I fling a few soaps at my master.

He evades them all easily, but I still manage to lure him into my trap.

“Dimensional Transfer!”

I summon a huge dimensional portal and use it to direct a Circular Slash at him.  

It’s obvious I caught him by surprise.

“You sure have grown… but you still have much to learn.”

The Old Perv strengthens himself with life energy.

Huh? Crap!

“Haahhh!”

He swings his hand across the air.

That’s all he did, and yet, it was enough to blast me away.  

“Uwaaaaa!!”

Bam!!!!

I break through the wall dividing the men’s and women’s baths…

I raise my head, only to discover Amane’s two mountains and her valley right in front of me…

Huh?!  

I stand up and try my best to assess the situation.

Question:

Where am I?

Answer:

The women’s bath.

I look at Amane again.

Her face turns beet red in a mixture of embarrassment and anger, and life energy overflows out of her, making the floor shake.  

“G-Greetings, Ma’am! Lovely weather we’re having, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Shuu-kun.♪”

Her lips are smiling but her eyes aren’t.

“I-It’s not what you think, Amane! It’s not my fault! I tried to stop—”

“You still saw the naked bodies of other girls, didn’t you?♪ You can only look at mine…”

“I-It was an accident! An accident, I say! I didn’t plan to…”

I try turning to my master and Hades for help, but Hades is nowhere to be seen, and my master has been captured by Asuka.

“A-Amane? We can talk this out! So, let’s just put down that divine arms, okay?”

“Nope.♡”

“U-Uwaaaaaaaaaaa!”

I got a good beating.

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