Kazuma sat in seiza before Kensei, sweating slightly. He'd shown up, panties and spats in hand and had, initially, bragged to Ma about using the secret technique. Unfortunately, Renka had overheard him and almost gotten her hands on our heroic pervert. Only the promise of swift retribution by her father had stayed her hand. That had been nearly an hour ago. An hour of being forced to sit perfectly still, awaiting the wrath of God to fall upon him, his sensei before him with arms crossed and eyes closed.

Ma opened an eye, tilting his head to look towards the center of the compound. Listening for a moment, he smiled before leaning in, falling to his own knees. He rapidly whispered, holding Kazuma's hands, "Well done m'boy! I never dreamed of the day a student of mine would manage to use this technique in actual combat!"

Kazuma blinked, trying to parse together what was happening. "You're… not angry?"

"Angry? I couldn't be happier!" Ma corrected him, pulling the boy to his feet. "All of that with my daughter? That was just a show to make it seem like I was! She'd have never let us celebrate if she knew. We were waiting to make sure she wasn't still listening to us." Ma looked up, tilting his head again to listen for Renka.

"So, you're… happy?" Kazuma clarified, still unused to such positive words.

Ma gave Kazuma a hug, holding the teen. "I'd go so far as to say I'm proud," Kensei expanded. Letting Kazuma go, he stood back up. "Alright! I think the 'punishment' will be just a bit more training. That's likely the least I can get away with without her getting suspicious. I think a few hours of stance training followed by hand hardening should do the trick!"

Kazuma paled, trying to inch his way towards the door at the promise of even harder training.

"Now, now, none of that! You'll thank me for this later!" Ma exclaimed, grabbing Kazuma's collar and dragging him to the training grounds.

Kazuma cried, hours of standing in Horse stance his immediate future followed by hours of destroying his hands in piles of sand. Thankfully, they had a goddess on hand to heal him back to normal when his hands became too damaged, allowing his training to happen faster than the masters could have ever dreamed!

Odin sat with his finger clasped, staring at Valkyrie with disbelief. She'd been defeated by one of the loser duo? She also didn't seem to have a scratch on her, so that meant that Satou had defeated her so soundly that he hadn't even felt the need to harm her. Just who was this boy? "Do you have anything to add to your report? Anything might be helpful in future fights with him."

Kisara blushed, unable to meet her leader's eyes. "I can't really say what happened. I went to kick him, and the next thing I knew, I was beaten. He was just walking away, nowhere near where I'd kicked him." It wasn't the entire truth, but it also wasn't exactly a lie. Enough that Odin didn't really question it.

"I see… He must have a master of some sort teaching him to be that skilled. I don't like it, but I ask you to try again. Take some of your subordinates this time. I hear you have three skilled underlings that might be able to push him if you work together?"

Kisara nodded, knowing he was talking about the trio, Takeda, Koga, and Ukita. "I… yes, with them backing me up, it shouldn't be an issue."

Odin nodded, not actually expecting her to win, but hopefully garner information that they'd be able to use. As it was, they didn't even have a clue as to what kind of martial arts the boy used. "Excellent. I look forward to hearing your report before the end of the week."

Kisara took the dismissal for what it was, bowing and leaving to rally her soldiers.

"Loki. I want you to get any and all information you can on Satou," Odin demanded, Loki stepping into the light behind him.

"Sir?"

"If he took Kisara out in such a way that she didn't know what happened, he might be a threat to us. I need to know what his goals are, who his master is, everything. I want to know his weaknesses, his strengths, EVERYTHING. Do I make myself clear Loki?" Odin asked, staring Loki in the eyes, causing the underling to wilt.

"Got it. I'll see what my network can dig up." With that, Loki walked off, needing to make a few calls to his own underlings.

Pain. Pain and suffering. That was all Kazuma knew as he was finally allowed to stop training. They hadn't even had Aqua fully heal him at the end! He wasn't sure he'd be able to hold a controller right now, let alone partake in raiding. He'd really wanted that limited time drop too. Stumbling into his house, past his parents who looked at him with unasked questions, he collapsed onto his bed, still drenched in sweat.

His brother peaked in, curious as to what lazy Kazuma, of all people, might have been up to to get that sweaty. "Yo?"

"What you want?" Kazuma asked, not even bothering to lift his face from his pillow.

"Uh, you okay? You've been coming home late and pretty exhausted. You didn't, like, get a part time job or something, did you?" his brother asked, taking a seat in Kazuma's computer chair, spinning idly.

Kazuma groaned, rolling over enough to look at his brother while they talked. "Did you really just insult me by thinking I got a job?" Kazuma did admit to himself it would probably be easier than the martial arts training he kept, for some reason, subjecting himself to. Mentally saying screw it, he sat up, taking off his drenched shirt.

"Yeah, you're right you- holy shit, when did you get muscles?! Did you start doping or something?" Jiro asked, obviously getting ready to run and snitch to their parents.

Kazuma let out a snort of derision, tossing his nasty shirt at Jiro's face. "As if! Those cost money. Money I could use for gacha pulls and new games."

Jiro panicked, almost gagging on the shirt before tossing it to the side. Looking at his brother critically, he asked, "Then what happened to you?"

"Oh, I joined a dojo. It's called Ryouzanpaku. One of the teachers liked me and it's not too expensive, so I stuck with it," was the best explanation Kazuma could offer his brother, unsure of why he'd stuck it out now that he was thinking about it. Any other time, the moment things got hard, he normally ran away in an attempt to be a lazy NEET.

Jiro still didn't look like he believed his brother, but he was willing to accept it for now. "Uh huh… Well, Mom and Dad are starting to get suspicious of how late you've been staying out, so maybe tell them about it?"

Kazuma waved it off, rolling over. "Yeah, yeah. I'll see if I can't set up a day they can swing by or something. Now, if you excuse me, I am gonna sleep."

Jiro shrugged, leaving the room, closing the door and turning the light off on his way.

Kazuma mulled over in his mind, why was he still going to the dojo? It wasn't like they would force him to keep coming if he didn't want to, right? His traitorous thoughts were interrupted by his phone vibrating. Letting out another moan, he grabbed it, seeing who messaged him.

Hey, I know my dad took you through it today, but you had it coming! What kind of guy just steals a girl's panties mid fight? Even if it is mildly impressive. Dad tried to show me that technique years ago and I never got it. So, good job, I guess? Even if you are a bit scummy.

Reading it over a few times, Kazuma finally realized it had to be smiled, texting back a reply.

Thanks. If I'm being honest, I'm not exactly sure how I did it myself. Kind of just moved on auto-pilot, you know?

The reply was almost instant, making it clear she had been waiting on him to respond. "Of course you have it ingrained in you like that! Do you have any idea how hard most martial artists train to get that kind of technique integration?" There was a pause before another message popped up. "I know Dad wasn't really mad at you and he tried to get out of punishing you. He's always been like that. Just don't let him know I know, okay? I am going to kick your butt tomorrow to make up for it, so get some sleep!"

Kazuma smiled, sending her back a thumbs up before laying back on his pillow, a goofy smile on his face. He had his answer; they cared. He was so used to just being told to do better and… they were just proud of what he did, not complaining about what he didn't do.