Outside the Anomaly Management Bureau.
"Satou Kazuma, Kitahara Iori!?"
"Hayashi!!!" *2
Three exclamations rang out simultaneously.
Hayashi and the two guys with their arms around each other's shoulders met eyes, and expressions of surprise appeared on all three of their faces.
Satou Kazuma was from 'KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!', and Kitahara Iori was from 'Grand Blue Dreaming.'
In this world, they were Hayashi's closest mischievous friends at school.
—For example, one time Hayashi went looking for an anomaly, tracked it all the way to Kabukicho, and happened to run into these two coming out of a private viewing cinema.
Then... Kazuma and his friend ignored Hayashi's talk of searching for the supernatural and gave him a detailed tour of Kabukicho's layout.
After analyzing the 'professionalism' of various private cinema viewing companions for him, and with their compatible personalities, the three naturally became good friends.
It's just that Iori was always scheming to recommend 'flammable oolong tea' to Hayashi, but Hayashi always declined, never letting him succeed.
Did he think Hayashi didn't know? That was actually a tradition of their diving club, called Oolong Tea, but it was actually high-purity flammable alcohol.
This made Iori very regretful; every time Hayashi refused, he would have an expression that said, 'You have no idea what good stuff you're missing out on!'
Kazuma also joined in the teasing, clearly having tried Iori's flammable oolong tea; otherwise, he wouldn't have shown that kind of expression.
—'I got tricked, but my brother managed to avoid it? What happened to sharing adversity? This is tough! Really tough!'
... However, Hayashi didn't expect to meet them here today.
"Hayashi, you're not investigating supernatural incidents again, are you? I'm telling you, there aren't any ghosts around here..."
Before Hayashi could speak, Kazuma blurted out, and with his overly expressive face, he immediately tried to push Hayashi away... as if he didn't want Hayashi lingering here.
But before he could finish, Kazuma finally noticed the beautiful and lovely Yuki beside Hayashi.
Instantly his face changed.
With just one glance, Kazuma, with his professional eye, determined that the young lady beside Hayashi, with her noble temperament, elegant demeanor, and delicate features, was definitely not one of the 'teachers.'
A pure, well-bred young lady!
Damn it! His brother has a girlfriend, and one who's clearly a high-quality, pure girlfriend!?
"Brother Hayashi, are you going to betray our pure friendship?"
Even his address changed; Kazuma gritted his teeth and shouted at Hayashi, his tone filled with intense jealousy!
They were all brothers, so why was Hayashi's girlfriend so pure and beautiful!!!
At the same time, Iori, beside him, glared at Hayashi with the same indignation as Kazuma and secretly pulled out his ever-present flammable oolong tea.
He thought to himself, 'This time, no matter what, I'll make Hayashi drink it!'
Facing the exaggerated behavior of these two guys and feeling their overflowing jealousy, Hayashi's expression didn't even twitch.
After all, these two guys were natural comedians; normal operation, normal operation!
Hayashi directly ignored their later words and, recalling their initial attempts to chase him away when they first saw him... Hayashi slightly tilted his head, glanced at Yuki, and asked.
"They're your people? How come they don't recognize you?"
"?" * 2
Before Yuki could answer, Kazuma and Iori first showed confused expressions. What did 'your people' mean?
Their gazes turned to Yuki. No, if they had seen such a beautiful and noble young lady, they would surely have been deeply impressed and wouldn't forget her.
And facing Hayashi's questioning gaze and Kazuma and his friend's utterly bewildered expressions, Yuki's red lips parted slightly, finding the three of them quite amusing.
She stepped forward, bowed gracefully, and said to Kazuma and the other man:
"Greetings, Yuki of the Anomaly Control Division. May I ask who you two are?"
"Ah, that's the most mysterious department in our bureau!" Kazuma.
"The Anomaly Control Division, where you don't have to clock in and yet they have the best benefits!"
Just by listening to their voices, one could tell how envious and jealous these two were of Yuki's department.
It even made Hayashi sigh to Yuki.
"Your department has such good benefits!"
"It should be 'our department,'" Yuki corrected Hayashi's statement, then said with a humble expression, under Kazuma and Iori's envious and jealous gazes.
"The benefits are just average, but some of the special privileges and not having to clock in are quite nice."
Hearing this, Kazuma and Iori expressed their disagreement. Not to mention the basic salary of the Anomaly Control Division—those were minor issues, just small change.
The benefits were the key; all of the Anomaly Control Division's monthly living expenses could be reimbursed by the bureau.
If they had the benefits of the Anomaly Control Division, they would want to spend all their time in Kabukicho!
And she calls these benefits 'average'!
Compared to Kazuma and his friend, Hayashi understood why Yuki was so 'humble.'
After all, she was a proper, well-bred young lady.
"So, because you don't have to clock in, they haven't seen you?" Hayashi guessed.
"That's probably it! Normally, we only follow the director's orders, which are Elysia's." Yuki nodded.
Hearing Yuki say this, Kazuma and Iori beside her became even more envious; they also wanted to become Elysia's direct personal guards!
At the same time, their gazes towards Yuki were filled with curiosity.
After all, within the bureau, there were many legends about the Anomaly Control Division due to their lack of contact.
There were quite a few legends about the Anomaly Control Division. As far as they knew... only the director had the authority to view their files, and no one knew how many people were in this department.
They rarely took action. But according to some rumors, these people were generally strategic weapons.
And today, seeing Yuki standing here with Hayashi, Kazuma asked with a tone full of envy.
"Hayashi, are you joining the Anomaly Control Division?"
"Yes, that's right!"
Seeing Hayashi nod in affirmation, Kazuma exaggeratedly clutched his chest, his face filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred, and collapsed weakly towards Iori.
Iori, equally cooperative, supported him with a sorrowful expression.
"No! Brother, be strong!"
"Brother Iori, I hate it so much. If I hadn't come to this world, I wouldn't have lost my goddess. If I hadn't lost my goddess, I wouldn't have fallen into this sad place!"
Kazuma said mournfully.
Hearing this, Hayashi watched the two of them act like clowns with a somewhat strange expression.
Hayashi understood now; no wonder Kazuma was also a transfer student. It turned out that when he was reincarnating with Aqua at the beginning of the story, there was a problem with the teleportation.
And he ended up in this world.
Now look!
According to his original plan, he should have gone to a fantasy world to become a hero, defeat the Demon King, and save the world.
Now, what good is it? Sacred treasures? Didn't get any. Goddess he was linked with? Lost!
He was naturally in immense pain!
And listening to Kazuma's mournful cries.
Hayashi patted his shoulder! With an expression of unwavering loyalty to a brother, he said:
"Brother, believe me, your goddess crossed over with you; it's impossible for her to be lost. She must be in this world too. Trust me, I will definitely help you find her!"
"Waaah! Good brother!!! I was so jealous of you, yet you still thought of me! It was I who was too base!"
Touched to tears by Hayashi's words, Kazuma immediately grabbed Hayashi's hand and said with a moved expression.
"We're all brothers!"
Hayashi said with a noble expression, full of righteousness.
But in his heart, he was recalling how every time he and Kazuma did a ten-pull gacha, that guy often got double golds.
His drop rates in games were even more outrageous.
Then he would show off in front of him, mocking him for being unlucky. Recalling how he gambled against Jabami Yumeko, died eight times, and only won on the ninth... Hayashi declared that he absolutely must find that idiotic goddess Aqua for Kazuma.
Otherwise, that guy Kazuma's luck was too infuriating!
He couldn't stand the lucky ones.
"Good brothers for life!!" Kazuma.
"Mhm mhm!!!" Hayashi.
"Uh..."
Watching Kazuma and Hayashi's sudden display of brotherly unity, Yuki, though not familiar with Kazuma and his friend, still... given their clownish and mischievous friend behavior just now.
She keenly sensed something amiss but couldn't quite pinpoint what was wrong.
Just then, Iori quietly said.
"Hayashi's words definitely have ulterior motives, but I won't warn Kazuma!"
...
'You really are good friends! Good brothers!'
Yuki thought silently, feeling speechless.
After Hayashi and Kazuma's 'brotherly' banter continued for a while.
"By the way, are you two going on a mission?" Yuki asked.
At this point, she wasn't in a hurry to take Hayashi to complete his onboarding. After all, as Kazuma and his friend said, their Anomaly Control Division was super laid-back.
"Yes, we're on an outdoor assignment. There are two tasks; one is urgent: a man-eating monster has appeared in the east of the city, and I need to investigate and deal with it."
"The other is in the same area: a strange entity wearing yellow leather clothing is wandering around."
"It's probably from another world again, and we need to make contact and confirm its safety."
Iori explained.
Hearing this, Yuki looked at Hayashi with great interest.
Her thoughts were similar to his. Hayashi met her gaze, and instantly, the two reached a consensus.
'Join the fun?'
'Agreed!'
Editor's Notes:
Low views… Low collection… Low Powerstone… Low motivation.
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