(MC POV)
"Speak of the devil huh…" Nishimura sighed, rolling his shoulders as soon as he realised where we were.
Maeda turned to me, "It seems like Onii-san is dragged into this too… Could you help us?"
I shrugged, "It's not like I can just sit here and pretend nothing is happening either. Besides, if I don't do anything, my family would also be in--"
"Master! You're alright!" Lian Li yelled out in relief, leaping into my embrace.
Following behind her were the rest of the girls, mirroring Lian Li's action in running up to hug me.
Unfortunately, Lian Li's slip of the tongue did not go unnoticed.
"Eh? Ma… Master?" Fujiwara parroted, looking at me in shock.
I suppose there's no point in hiding it now.
"Lian Li isn't actually my cousin. She's my disciple," I explained.
The three of them nodded their heads as though that explained everything.
Lian Li looked up at me weirdly, as though she didn't understand what had just transpired. She was muttering "Cousin?" under her breath too, but she just shrugged a second later and went back to cuddling me.
That reminds me... Did I ever tell them that Manami was my disciple as well? I don't actually have any memory of that… Maybe I just forgot, I suppose. How odd…
"Anyway, the important thing is that we need to deal with this End Dimension, right?" I asked.
"End Dimension? Master, what is going on?" Manami asked.
Nishimura nodded at me, ignoring Manami's question, "Amongst the End Shadows, there would be one that is maintaining this particular End Dimension. We just need to find it and eliminate it and we will return this place back to normal."
I patted Manami's head before turning back to Nishimura, "I'll explain later. So how do we find it?"
Manami merely shrugged and went back to hugging me.
Fujiwara smirked, "Well, they usually come to us unless there are other Origin Hunters in the area. With this many people, they're definitely going to be coming to us."
Maeda shifted her gaze to the girls who were still hugging me, "But still… To think Onii-san's family are also affected by the End Dimension huh?"
I tilted my head at her, "Is it a bad thing?"
She shook her head, "It's just a little surprising that we have so many people in one place. How did we go so long without even knowing you guys were also one of us?"
I could only shrug in response to that, maybe we were all just at the wrong places at the wrong time.
"Putting that aside… Are you girls done?" I prodded my girls who hadn't stopped hugging me since a while ago.
"But Master feels so nice…" Lian Li muttered, burying her face onto my chest.
"Ara, ara? Do forgive me, Master. Just let us bask in your presence for a little while longer~" Manami sighed, hugging me tighter from behind.
"Guhihihi~ Aniue's scent~~" Tsuki giggled pervertedly while hugging my side.
Cai Hong tightened her grip on my leg while cuddling her face on my thigh, "Papa, warm…"
Hmmm… Why are they being so clingy now? It's not like we haven't seen each other for awhile, right?
"Alright, alright. We have a monster situation on our hands now so let's deal with that first."
Lian Li looked at me with a curious expression, "Can't Master just wipe them all out easily?"
I chuckled, "Well, I need to know what I'm facing first, don't I? So let's go and find them first before they--"
A loud explosion rocked the entire school before I could finish my words.
All of us looked out the window to see a dust cloud in front of the school gate, presumably where the explosion had come from.
Floating just a short distance away from the dust cloud was one of the floating eyeball monsters, though instead of looking in our direction, it seemed to have its attention directed at the foot of the dust cloud instead.
"No way… Is there another Origin Hunter there?" Maeda gasped.
Huh… What are the odds?
Our group made our way out of the school building and to the gates just as the dust cloud was beginning to clear, revealing a figure wielding a sword standing in the middle of the street.
"Eris?" I called out, recognising the figure that was within the smoke.
The swordswoman turned and gasped, "Master! You're here!"
The floating eyeball took her momentary lapse in concentration to attack her with one of its tentacles.
Unfortunately for the floating eyeball, Eris had never stopped monitoring the enemy in front of her for even a second, that's something I drilled into her after teaching her for so long.
She brought up her sword in a graceful arc, the wind blowing towards her and forming around her blade.
Right as the tentacle was about to hit her, she swung her sword back down and the appendage was sliced in half, parting on both sides of her.
The wind blade she summoned did not stop there, continuing onwards until it struck the monster in its eye and cut its pupil in two as well.
The monster let out a howl of agony before it disintegrated into dust.
With the threat neutralised, Eris immediately ran up to me and hugged me like how her sisters had done before her.
"Master! I missed you! Where 'ave ya been?! This one apologizes for taking so long! Mmm… Warm…"
I only managed to start patting her head to soothe her before another eyeball monster showed up behind where its brethren had just disintegrated, this one being the red variant.
I was about to step in to destroy it when Lian Li flung her hands forward and unleashed a blast of golden lightning at the monster.
Memories of her attack powering up the monster flashed through my mind and I was prepared to shield my disciples from its counterattack only to see the monster explode into dust.
That was also when I realised that Lian Li had managed to manifest her own powers without my help. Did she awaken to them in this situation? Since when was she able to use her powers in this world? Was it limited to the End Dimension or was she able to manifest them normally as well?
Before I could even ask, I felt the familiar sensation of the world returning back to normal again.
The scene in front of me changed and I was standing in front of Tsuki's three friends again at the stairwell, the three of them giving me full-faced smiles.
"We knew we could count on you, Onii-san!" Maeda grinned, raising her hand to give me a high-five.
I gave it to her albeit with a little confusion since I don't think I remembered I did anything in the fight.
"Master! Homeroom is starting soon!" I heard a familiar voice call out.
Turning in the direction of the voice revealed Eris waving at me, dressed in the school's uniform. Hmm? Wasn't she wearing her usual outfit a moment ago?
I waved back at her, telling her that I'll be there in a minute.
Hmm? Why do I feel like there's something weird about this scene?
.̴̢͊ṯ̸́n̸̦̰̄a̶͉̲͒͝t̵͓͆ŗ̵̽o̴̡̺̊͝p̷̯̠̆m̴̢͒i̴͍̼̿̋ ̶̪̎t̶̞̽͝o̴̠̐n̶͕͊͘ ̷̞̈́̀ș̵̗͝'̵̫̰̓̇t̷̫̜̂͗Ḯ̸̺͙̓
Oh nevermind, it must not have been important.
...
Is it?
Why isn't it important? This should be important right? There's definitely something--
.̴͍͓͙̳͆͛͜T̷̩͍̖̉̋̓Ǹ̴̟̑̽͂Ä̵̹̣̅̇͌ͅT̶̼͙̥̓̇͘Ŗ̸̫̟̣͉̻̼̆̊̚͘Ô̴̙̩̫̲̜̣͚͐̑̈́̓́P̷͍̐́̽̈̀̓͌M̷̛̛̱̤̗̠̥̦̉̇̀̕̚Ǐ̶̩̯͉̳̲̀̀̽̑͘ ̵̥̮͈̞̔̓̓T̵͇̀̎́̊̀͠O̷̫̍̂̐̂̃̍N̶̜̦͈̘̔̅̅ ̸̯̑S̴̹̼̖͐̾̿'̷̢̮̼̯̽̈́̐͛̓T̶͚̳͚͕̽͒I̷͍̲̫̹̦̤̰͊͛̆̅̋̆̚
Right… Yes, of course it's not.. I just need to head back to class.