**** This is the final part to the "Mystic Mayhem"-arc. I'll be back to individual stories after this point.
Shinpi-tekina Docha (Part 3)
Back in the main lab area, things were slowly beginning to look grim for the little cat-dog. The little toothy gargoyle, known as Huginn by his other fellow gargoyle, was cackling to himself as he poked at the poor creature through the cage's forcefield with a twig. His partner, whom he referred to as Muninn, watched the critter's reactions and movements closely.
The gargoyles' masked sheep-man master held one of his mutated ooze-filled mosquitoes on his right hand, letting it dance delicately over his dispassionately twiddling fingers. "Finally," he mused to no one but himself as he watched the bug in admiration, "after all these years, I can continue my work." If he was in a better mood, he would have smiled as he said that.
Not that it mattered, as his internal celebration was interrupted by a loud series of bangs and clangs coming from the corner of the chamber walls on his left. He turned to face the direction of the noise and, to his bewilderment, saw four turtles and a human girl rolling and tumbling out of a ventilation duct onto the second-level walkway above. The turtles landed flat on their faces on top of each other while the human girl landed on top of the pile in a sitting position, feeling cheery.
"Nan?" the sheep-man exclaimed.
The five kids promptly got back on their feet, with Hiro taking a leader's stance, with one hand on his side and the other pointed at the sheep-man himself. "Alright, you incredibly and unusually buff bookworm," Hiro said, "give us the little guy and you'll walk outta here with your horns still attached."
"Shouldn't we also stop him from creating kurage-jin?" Hoku interrupted his big brother's attempt at an intimidating hero's order.
Hiro thought for a moment. "Hmm, okay." He then reassumed his hero pose and repeated himself. "Give us the little guy, stop creating kurage-jin –"
Basho interrupted him with a side comment. "Echizen-kurage, Hiro." Uzuki groaned loudly from the gratuitous correction. But Hiro took the advice as well.
"Okay! Stop creating Echizen-kurage-jin, give us the little guy –"
As Hiro corrected and lengthened his hero's demand, while Hiro's words were being talked over by Mon suggesting a bunch of other small conditions to add to the red-masked turtle's statement, while Basho gave more technical corrections, as Hoku expressed his amusement at what was happening, as Uzuki watched the whole thing without a remark…the sheep-man's eyes lingered on the group, particularly on the turtles.
His eyes glistened as he admired how perfectly balanced each turtle's physical proportions were, how they moved with such vigor and without adverse reaction, their level of intelligence showcased in how verbally coherent they presented themselves…he had found something truly wonderful.
"Erai utskushi osu," he whispered tenderly, like someone who found something that truly touched their heart and soul.
After watching his brothers go back and forth in trying to agree on how to go forward with the whole situation, Hoku decided it was enough. "Okay. Hiro, how about you just take it from the top?"
"Okay," Hiro obliged, "First, you apologize to the cat-dog, then –"
"Let's do this!" Uzuki shouted, taking a flying leap off the walkway and flying through the air on a downward angle in the direction of the cat-dog. "UUZUUKIIIII OONNIIISHHIIIII!"
Back at the top, the guys were instantly panicking like crazy. "Shinjirarehen! She just went all in!" Mon cried out in absolute disbelief.
To her credit, Uzuki managed to land right into the cat-dog's cage and immediately started pulling on the vine bars. The vine bars stretched as she pulled hard in every direction, using both her hands and even her teeth. Too bad she didn't notice the two imp-like gargoyles flying in the air behind her, leading to her getting snatched back up into the air by her jacket, the talons of the gargoyles' feet having gotten a grab at her shoulders.
Seeing her get carried away by his gargoyles, the sheep-man turned his attention back to the turtles, flicking out a small purplish-pink orb in his palm and slamming it onto the floor of his lab. The orb flashed brightly to crack the floor open, a stream of neon-pink vines with purple veins sprouting up to shoot in the direction of the turtles. The vines whipped forward and struck into the upper level wall like spears, but the turtles were quick on their feet, jumping over the vines just as they struck and running down them like ninjas on a tightrope. Well, they 'ran' as far as trained ninjas went – Hiro and Basho consistently ran all the way down the vines and Mon slid down like a surfer while Hoku more or less rolled and tumbled backwards, sliding on all fours.
The sheep-man then flicked out three more of those same orbs between his fingers and tossed them at the floor again, throwing them further like a discus. When the orbs hatched something that emerged from the further-cracked floor yet again, it wasn't simply a cluster of vines. The turtles found themselves facing a rapidly growing giant golem, one that appeared to be made of some kind of sandstone, its perfect thick curvatures only betrayed by its mismatched facial features. Gaps in its armor and limbs looked fleshy like the vines from earlier but the rest of it looked simplistic to the point that it could be taken for a robot.
"Whoa!" Basho exclaimed at the magnitude of the newly created foe.
"Oh my gosh!" Mon cried in similar surprise.
"Shinkendekka?" Hiro yelled in disbelief.
"Uchi o mihende ~e!" Hoku hollered at the giant creature without releasing any one of his limbs from the vine he was riding.
The giant golem grabbed the base of the vines that had sprouted out earlier and gave a violent yank, sending the vines whipping in another direction with the turtles moving atop being taken along for a ride with them. The vines were snapped up and down so that they rippled like a wave, sending the turtles hurdling down towards the stone floor with a meteoric crash. The guys were left lying on the shallow crack-filled semi-crater, shifting around on their shells or plastrons with a few groans.
They recovered in time to see the giant rocklike golem look down upon them with a drool-riddled roar. "Soreran hyōhon o tsuka maeru!" the sheep-man commanded.
"Team, ikuzo!" Hiro yelled in turn, readying his new weapons while his brothers were spurred to do the same. Immediately, all for of them made a mad dash at this new enemy. As they ran at ninja-speed, they watched the giant get ready to punch.
Hoku sprinted until he was under the golem, getting down and sliding across the stone floor just as the giant landed its first punch. Taking his new sword, he swung it as hard as he could that he sliced the monster's foot clean off its leg. The golem stumbled but recovered with another drooling roar. It went on to punch a fist into the floor and dig out a handful of giant-sized chunks of broken rock, then flinging them at the other turtles.
Hiro and Mon watched out for the oncoming rocks and leaped just as they landed, avoiding their crushing strikes with flips and slides. When they both reached a high enough point, Mon swung his Kusari-fundo to wrap its line around Hiro, then did another hard swing to launch him in the direction of the monster's head, the chain unwinding to release the big snapping turtle.
"Hotto sūpu!" yelled Hiro as he flew at the golem's face and landed a devastating Tonfa punch on its stony cheek. To his surprise though, the golem didn't get knocked over or even budge, leaving him plastered front first on the monster's head. The golem still stumbled again due to still missing its severed foot.
Basho got at a safe position at a distance from the golem and deployed the rockets on the jetpack he wore on his softshell. He ascended up into the air and activated his titanium staff, re-summoning a pair of twin rockets from both ends of it. When the rockets powered up and fired, the staff instantly spun at breakneck speed, though Basho was unfortunately not fast enough to prepare for the strike he wanted. "Oh no no no no no!" he exclaimed in panic when he felt his staff's rocketing power take him into the spin with it. Spinning so fast, he ended up losing both his control and grip on the staff, unable to keep it from flying away in the same erratic runaway spinning from back on the surface a few hours ago. "Look out, guys!" he called out frantically.
The staff spun as it flew, stealing past his brothers and Uzuki until it made a beeline for the golem. It struck the golem in the head, and while it didn't appear to do anything at first, the rockets flared up again, powering up so hard that it flipped the golem over and kept it somersaulting in the air at least twice before slamming it back down hard. The impact was hard enough to take it down for good, judging by the loud crash and the ensuing wind and dust clouds that enveloped much of the chamber temporarily. The staff flew back to Basho like the boomerang he programmed it to be. "Okay, now that is a Hanshin maul," Basho congratulated himself.
The sheep-man had initially shielded his eyes with one arm from the concussive blast of wind and dust, but didn't need to hold it long as everything quickly settled back down. He took a moment to reexamine the group of turtles now splayed across the piles of stony rubble left behind from the golem's fall.
"Gūzen inshō-teki," he marveled at the display, "Their techniques are a bit crude, but with adequate training, they can be as formidable as I hoped."
At the same time, the guys didn't seem to exhibit the behavior that would warrant such words from their assailant. Hiro was splayed over a chunk of rock, his arms hugging the top as he let his tongue hang out from how tuckered out he was. Mon was lying flat on his shell on another rock, huffing, puffing, and panting as he took a similar breather. Hoku was sitting on the stone floor, hunched over while he coughed and sputtered from the remaining airborne dust. Basho seemed more composed than any of his brothers, having landed on his feet atop the fallen golem's shattered head and sat down, immediately taking out and scrolling through his phone.
Uzuki, meanwhile, was still wrestling with the two little flying gargoyles that continued to hold on to her. "It's okay!" she yelled to her friends from the height she was at currently. "I got this!"
Hoku was the first to recover from the intense workout and got right to his feet, facing the sheep-man. "Well, great to hear. Since you're surrendering…"
The sheep-man only have a little scoffing laugh. "Draxum-danshaku does not surrender."
"Okay then," Hoku improvised, "Why don't you tell him that – oh, wakatta! You're going with that whole 'fukitsuna-san'ninshō'-speech, aren't you?"
Hiro jumped in. "Only Hiro can use the san'ninshō!" He readied himself in stance on all fours before springing forward in an upright sprint. "Okay, guys! Time to put our training to use!"
"What training? You guys have been training?" asked Hoku in a tone of absolute skepticism. He nonetheless joined his brothers as they all made a mad dash for the obvious bad guy in front of them.
The sheep-man, having identified himself with the name 'Draxum-danshaku', threw up a pair of small orbs that were dark-red in color and had the texture of a spiked fruit and grasped one in either hand. The small orbs cracked open to coat his hands and forearms in that same spiky shell, giving him the impression of natural gauntlets. He lowered himself slightly to prep a battle stance as the turtles dove at him from all sides.
Hiro tried to swipe a few Tonfa punches at him, but Draxum deflected them in quick succession and punched him away. Hoku tried to get in a few swings and slices while Mon attempted to snare him with the chain of his Kusari-fundo, but Draxum parried the strikes and avoided the coiling chain weapon with similar ease. When Basho ran at him for his turn, the other three turtles did a simultaneous pounce. But again, without even another word, Draxum lifted both of his fisted hands and slammed them onto the stone floor, creating a weblike and crack-filled crater beneath him and unleashing a shockwave of released wind that blew the turtles back a few feet, sending them sliding on the floor incapacitated.
Seeing the turtles lying down and writhing in pain a bit was satisfying enough for Draxum. He smirked, "And that is why Draxum-danshaku never –"
*BONK*
Draxum's mighty spiel was rudely interrupted by one of his little gargoyle minions falling onto him, colliding with the helmet on his head. He turned his attention to observe the downed gargoyle, turning out to be Muninn, trying to reorient himself.
"Kan'nin'ya de, bosu," Muninn groaned through the dizzying pain he was currently experiencing, which was all he could mutter before Uzuki came down hard on him yet again with an improvised battle cry. While she wailed on him with her golf club-weapon and stomping feet – even making him bounce on the floor a little, she also held Huginn between her teeth and shook her head around with the gargoyle swinging hard. She did stop to glance at the four turtles watching her and give a thumbs up, letting them know that she did handle her situation like she told them earlier. The guys reciprocated with another thumbs up as well.
Unfortunately, the moment didn't last for long. While Uzuki got right back to kicking the two little gargoyles around, Draxum used his glove to shoot out a stream of dark green and vinelike organic matter at her, entrapping the girl in a pseudo-cocoon of weblike greenery that left her tumbling onto the floor. The guys immediately gathered around her in shock and concern before turning to Draxum with looks of sincere outrage.
"You did not just do that to our friend!" Mon was the first to make it known. Without any extra banter, he unwound his Kusari-fundo and flung the chained orb at the sheep-man. Draxum easily sidestepped the strike, dodging it, but it was when he looked behind to the orb that passed him that got everyone's attention.
The orb was spinning like a buzzsaw in midair without falling nor moving anywhere else. Suddenly without any notice beforehand, the saw-ball set itself ablaze, the flames forming the likeness of eyes and mouth on a jack-o-lantern while emanating a maniacal laugh. Everyone blinked at what they saw Mon's weapon become. "Whoa!" Mon marveled out loud, "Mystic weapon! Awes – AAAAAAHHH!"
Mon was suddenly yanked forward by his apparently-living weapon zooming to the second-level wall across from everyone else, which bounced off upon collision to head another angle at breakneck speed. He yelped as he ricocheted off every part of the circular chamber, steadily going further and further upward until his magic weapon took a detour through the glowing green core that stood atop the central gadget-laden column that stood at the center of the chamber, the structure in which Draxum had used to perform his earlier experiment. At a high speed, Mon smashed into the glowing thing, causing it to generate abnormal amounts of electrical sparks before collapsing, its green hue changing to orange before exploding. Said explosion began triggering a series of other explosions to follow, but Mon was still too busy being pulled along in the tumultuous ride his weapon was giving him. When Mon finally headed straight down, he was aiming for Draxum below, but Draxum jumped out of the way in time for Mon to shoot smack dab into the stone floor again, bouncing a couple times after impact to land in a sitting position and finally come to a stop. At the same time, his weapon landed next to him and extinguished itself, seemingly reverting back to a normal weapon.
Mon, though slightly dazed and still in shock, looked to see his brothers and Uzuki sparklingly eyeballing him with eyepopping curiosity. "Whoa! Mon, saikō yatta!" Hiro pointed energetically. "How'd you do that?"
"Wakarahen," Mon shrugged, "I was just swinging my weapon like this, then all of a sudden…" His weapon flared up again, the fiery cackling face on the Kusari-fundo's chained ball reappearing. Mon concluded, "…just like tha – AAAAAAAHHHHH!" Just like before, the fiery laughing thing took off in another direction, carrying Mon away with it.
Just from watching Mon, Hiro was sure that if Mon grabbed a glowy weapon that turned out to have a magic power, then it should be the same with his own glowy Tonfas. "Look at that! Okay, let me try!" He waved his Tonfas in little circles, repeating the little movements in a sort of mock-incantation. "Come on," he beckoned his twin wooden weapons, moving them to try and turn something on in them, "Magic weapon! Magic weapon! Magic weapon!" The Tonfas immediately flashed with a red aura, culminating in crimson electric sparks. "Yes!" he exclaimed in delight, poising his Tonfas to clack them together like his own fists, "Magic weap – OOOOO!"
The explosive energy released from Hiro clashing his fists together with his Tonfas was powerful enough to send him hurdling backwards into the wall behind him, hard enough that he smashed into said wall and flopped back down to the floor after impact. It left a crack-filled dent on the wall and Hiro himself sprawled upside down in a pained daze. At least Hiro wasn't so loopy that he couldn't talk. "Mo kinō suru wa," he managed to tell Hoku, Basho, and Uzuki in a muffled groan.
Hoku decided it was his turn, confidently turning to run at Draxum again with his sword readied by his side. "Can't wait to find out what mine does!" he exclaimed, feeling blue sparks emerging and dancing around the blade. Once he felt the sword charged up enough, he got right up to Draxum and took a hard swing at him, while Draxum himself promptly lifted his armored forearms in defense. The swing of Hoku's sword cut the air…but Draxum didn't appear to be harmed.
Draxum wondered what just happened. Hoku was wondering as well, albeit looking sweatier and more nervous. They both looked up to see Hoku's sword generating beams of blue light above, but then looked down to find a circle of similar energy opening up right below Hoku's feet.
Hoku didn't have any time to react to himself sinking down into the bluish-white circle below him, slowly at first but then immediately escalating into a rapid fall. "Whoa! Whoawhoawhoawhoa!" Hoku yelled as he flailed his limbs to try and stay afloat, though it proved to be in vain. He slipped down until he was completely below the circle's surface, which apparently exhibited itself as some kind of portal. Another of the same portal opened up directly above the one Hoku once stood on. Hoku soon reappeared, dropping out of that portal but then falling straight back into the one on the ground. Then he came back through the top one and into the bottom one. Then the top again, the bottom again, the top, the bottom…Hoku seemed to repeat this fall of terminal velocity faster and faster each time. "Get! Me! Off! This! Ride!"
Draxum, along with the cat-dog in its cage behind him, watched the repeating spectacle wordlessly. Draum was too busy trying to decide on what he thought Hoku was doing to react to Basho casually sliding up next to him while leaning on his staff. "And that's why I like trying the old-fashioned way," Basho stated matter-of-fact, "with impossibly futuristic high-tech weaponry."
Without further delay, Basho then flipped his staff and began his own series of strikes, prods, and swings at Draxum. Just like before, Draxum proved skilled at dodging the purple turtle's first several attacks, even blocking and deflecting some of them. Basho alternated each strike with a spin of his staff, putting distance between himself and Draxum at some point to look for another opening. With the press of a button, Basho activated one end of his staff, making it unfold and recombine parts into what appeared to be a rocket-powered fist.
Draxum was in no mood to keep entertaining his foe, so he leaped to enact a jumping forward thrust, his left arm reshaping its magenta chitin from a clawed hand to a pointed lance. He made his strike, but Basho ducked in time to avoid it, leaving his adversary exposed to the incoming rocket hammer-fist. A hard hit with an audible clang sent the guy flying across the room, rolling and tumbling on the floor a bit before he then righted himself, digging a claw onto the floor to slow himself to a stop.
"Keikakudōri!" Basho bragged loudly. He seized his chance, running and jumping at Draxum to land a finishing strike with his staff.
"Abuhen!"
Basho didn't get a chance to land his desired blow as he felt himself getting struck by another on his side. Specifically, that strike came from the flaming and cackling Kusari-fundo that was still currently flying around, pulling his little brother Mon for a high-speed ride around the room. What's worse was that when they both skimmed the ground, they ended up rolling around to the point that they got entangled in the Kusari-fundo's chain, balling them up together as though they were in a net. They still kept rolling.
Draxum recovered himself, massaging his sore chin, to look upon a new variation of the ridiculous sights he had witnessed the turtles showing beforehand. "You fight like untrained buffoons!" he hissed in disgust.
Mon and Basho were still stuck together rolling around the room. Hiro was still lying in the same spot under the dent on the wall he made. Uzuki was still trying to pry off her organic restraints with her teeth. Hoku still remained stuck between the two vertically placed portals he accidentally made while in terminal velocity.
Draxum manipulated his chitin claws to form more of the same bioorganic matter he used to trap Uzuki. "But under me," he continued, "you can become true warriors!" With that said, he shot three globs of sludge, trapping Hiro and Hoku in greenish cocoons just like with Uzuki and also Basho and Mon together in one.
Mon turned his eyes to Basho, who exchanged a similar look to him. "We don't spend enough quality time together," Mon told his older brother affectionately, even rubbing a cheek against his.
"Oh, please not now, Mon," Basho objected non-energetically.
"How are we gonna save the cat-dog now?" Uzuki exclaimed to Basho, the worry in her voice having returned louder than ever.
"Basho's got it," Basho answered her, flicking his head to slip the pair of goggles he wore over his eyes. Through the goggles' enhanced data-displaying vision, Basho scanned and pinpointed the core that sat atop the lab's central pillar sparking more intensely, going into overload. A warning icon flashed in the goggles' field-of-view. "Isshun matte!" Basho gasped, letting out a tiny sound of fright from his mouth.
Draxum took a step closer to the guys, finally getting his own chance to talk. Holding up a hand that closed into a fist for extra expression, he seemed unaware of the current meltdown happening behind him. "Turtles, why are you trying to stop my plan? Uchi-ra wa min'na issho ni kore ni imasu!"
Basho figured now was as good a time as any to stay on topic. "Uh, I don't know if this is part of your plan, but…THE LAB'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE!" He and Mon were now jumping and wriggling around in the bindings they were trapped together in, yelling in fright and desperation as they flailed like jumping beans in an amateur attempt to escape their situation. The same could be said for Hiro, Hoku, and Uzuki as they repeated Basho and Mon's actions in their own bindings.
Draxum finally turned around and looked up to see the core atop his lab overloading, shortly culminating in it exploding, followed by more explosions that trailed down the rest of the central pillar until it got closer to the ground where he was. The ensuing explosions also blew bits of the walls and ceiling to pieces, sending giant-sized chunks of rubble falling straight down like meteorites. "Aw nuts," he muttered. A bunch of debris slammed on top of him, burying him underneath a noticeably tall pile of giant rocks.
The central pillar, the one structure that functioned as the sole machine that enabled Draxum's experiments, tilted drastically and split in half, releasing the glowing green mutant mosquitoes once contained within its now-shattered tank segment. The cat-dog creature was still stuck in its cage, curled up and bracing itself from the frightening collapse around it. Then with wide eyes, it narrowly managed to avoid a falling beam that slammed on top of its cage, denting the vine bars and deactivating the forcefield accompanying them. Seeing the latter happening was the perfect opportunity for the critter to finally teleport itself out of its cage, freeing itself at last.
Everyone was still panicking like crazy until Uzuki noticed the cat-dog teleporting right in front of her and gently landing onto her lap. "Chibi-tan!" she gently exclaimed in elation and relief, taking note of the cat-dog lying spread out on its belly in a relaxed mood over her lap. While the sight was adorable and comforting, Uzuki could think of a better time for that. She beckoned to the creature. "Can you do your thing and get us out of here?" The cat-dog nodded with a smile, obliging with repeating its teleportation magic by surrounding its signature luminous blue aura around both itself and the rest of the gang. With a single flash, all six were teleported – out of their bindings, to boot – and out of the building, just in time for more rubble to come crashing down on where they used to be.
By some stroke of luck, the cat-dog teleported them back to the spot the turtles landed upon first arriving at the 'mystic hidden city' as Uzuki called it, a good distance that was more than far enough away from the now self-destructing lab. Wasting no time, Mon took out the magical trinket and redrew the same glowing M-sigil that got everyone here to begin with. In the same second that the portal opened, everyone jumped through, enabling it to close just as the lab's distant explosions spread to their position.
At the other side of the portal, all five kids flew right out and landed on sand, finding themselves back in the baseball field of Matsushima Park. Everyone seemed a bit dazed from the impact, in which their weapons slid across the sand briefly. Mon regained his senses to see the little M-trinket that was key to their escape rolling across the sand as well, only dropping on its flat side like a coin a few inches away from him. The trinket looked fine at first…until its cap suddenly sprang off, revealing a little spring attached underneath, while a few smaller bits and pieces of glass broke off too.
"Shimouta," Mon lamented, "dad's trinket broke!"
Everyone else got back on their feet without any worse for wear. Uzuki arched her back to stretch her muscles as they felt a little sore from all the exertions she had to go through. But in no time at all, she found the cat-dog teleporting right above her, letting itself fall as she quickly lifted her hands to catch the little critter.
Uzuki felt the greatest sense of relief she ever had the entire night, immediately cuddling the magic animal in her embrace while giving it the biggest and tenderest smile she could sincerely make. "Aw," she cooed to it, "Are you okay there, boy…or girl?" She spared a glance to the guys standing behind her who looked just as relieved. "Jibun wa tashika ni sono zuenbu no dogachaga o tōshite odayaka yatta." Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Hey, I think I know what to call you! 'Dogachaga!' That should be perfect for you!"
"Hm, I dunno. It kinda sounds too long," Mon commented while taking a close gander at the cat-dog himself. "Think you got an easier name for the little guy?"
Uzuki paused. "Well, I still think dogachaga fits the best, so…" Her face lit up once she figured it out. "Okay, how about 'Docha'? Short enough, but close enough to the meaning, right?" She turned to look the critter in the eyes. "What about it?"
The cat-dog answered her by bumping and rubbing its head against her cheek. "Alright then," Uzuki concluded cheerily, "Docha, it is."
"Guys! We just defeated a boss villain," Hiro pointed out, taking charge of the group once again. "We're heroes! We deserve a name, like: Mad Dogs!"
"Mad Dogs?" Hoku hesitantly questioned, "shouldn't it, maybe, be something like: Ninja Mutant Turtle Teens, or…I don't know. Keep brainstorming."
The group didn't get long to do that further brainstorming though, as their eyes were caught by the sight of a lone green-glowing mutant mosquito drifting next to them and then away towards the city streets. "Huh?" they all collectively remarked. They were caught off guard by a massive cloud of those same mosquitoes flying out of the portal behind them and taking off into the dawning sky, going so fast that it generated a breeze. When the gang recomposed themselves, they saw the insects streaking in clusters, splitting off into several groups and flying off into the rest of the city in all directions.
"Well uh, this can't be good," Basho tensed, his eyes narrowing in a wincing expression at the sight and knowing the implications of what he just saw. Everyone seemed to agree, wearing expressions on their faces that showed that they were just as nervous.
"We should really go. I think I can hear people's bikes rolling around the corner," Hoku said quietly to the group. Without further prodding, everyone hurriedly ran out of the baseball field, hoping to get out of sight before anyone notices them or what happened because of them.
The work of heroes had just begun, and it already wasn't going to be an easy start. There definitely was mayhem coming for them all.
'Mayhem' finally got his name, yay! Here, it's "Docha," named after the Kansai term 'dogachaga' (you'll find the definition below). Hope the chapter title makes more sense to you now!
Also introducing 'Baron Draxum,' or as he refers to himself in Japanese: "Draxum-danshaku" (recall the rule about name and title order back in Chapter 3). Remember back in the last chapter when he spoke a sentence in the Kyoto Dialect? That's because Draxum is a Kyoto-speaker in this story, setting him apart from the heroes who are Osaka natives. One character detail, simple but makes quite a difference…
Kyoto dialect phrases Draxum spoke:
Nan? (なん？): "What?" | Standard: Nani? (何？)
Erai utsukushi osu (えらい美しおす): "It's so beautiful" | Standard: Totemo utsukushīdesu (とても美しいです)
Soreran hyōhon o tsuka maeru (それらん標本をツカまえる): "Capture those specimens" | Standard: Sorera no hyōhon o toraeru (それらの標本を捕らえる)
Uchi-ra wa min'na issho ni kore ni imasu (うちらはみんな一緒にこれにいます): "We're all in this together" | Standard: Watashitachi wa min'na issho ni kore ni imasu (私たちはみんな一緒にこれにいます)
Osaka terms/phrases:
Shinjirarehen (信じられへん): "I can't believe it!" | Standard: Shinjirarenai (信じられない)
Shinkendekka (真剣でっか): "Are you serious?" | Standard: Shinkendesuka (真剣ですか)
Uchi o mihende ~e (うちを見へんでぇ): "Don't look at me!" | Standard: Watashi o minaide (私を見ないで)
Kan'nin ya de (カンニンやで): "I'm sorry" | Standard: Gomen'nasai (ごめんなさい)
Saikō yatta (最高やった): "That was awesome!" | Standard: Saikōdeshita (最高でした)
Mo kinō suru wa (も機能するわ): "It also works" | Standard: Mo kinō shimasu (も機能します)
Abuhen (危へん): "Watch out!" | Standard: Abunai (危ない)
Jibun wa tashika ni sono zuenbu no dogachaga o tōshite odayaka yatta (自分は確かにそのずえんぶのどがちゃがを通して穏やかやった): "You sure were calm through all that mayhem" | Standard: Anata wa tashika ni sono subete no konran o tōshite odayakadeshita (あなたは確かにそのすべての混乱を通して穏やかでした)
Dogachaga (どがちゃが): chaos, complete disarray, turmoil, mayhem | Multiple related terms in Standard Japanese apply here
Other terms/phrases (mainly Standard):
Kurage-jin (クラゲ人): Jellyfish-people
Ikuzo (行くぞ): "Let's go!"
Gūzen inshō-teki (偶然印象的): Accidentally impressive/Impressive by chance
Danshaku (男爵): baron
Wakatta (わかった): "I get it now"
Fukitsuna (不吉な): sinister, ominous
San'ninshō (三人称): third-person
Keikakudōri (計画通り): "Just as planned"
Isshun matte (一瞬待って): "Hold on a minute"
Chibi (ちび): little guy/little one
-tan (たん): an honorific that serves the same purpose as "-chan", except that it sounds cuter or more affectionate – think of it as "-chan" pronounced in baby-talk and being overall cutesier