A new day of summer began. Again.

But let's fastforward to the sunset, when Izuru arrived at his empty home after a long day of working with all he had at Risei's place. For such a vintage-looking coffee shop mainly visited by the older folks, the workload made digging up dirt the entire day sound like a paradise.

The younger Sawada fell on the couch in the living room, with a white handkerchief over his face, but with a sigh, the handkerchief flew away and fell on the floor.

"Working on a factory is starting to sound like a way better job than that place." Izuru grumbled. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. "Summer job my ass, I'd rather be starting humanity up from the stone age... Hm? She didn't get home yet?"

Izuru got up and walked into the kitchen, where a small note from his mother was left attached to the fridge with a Gear Chronicle emblem-shaped magnet.

"I went to have dinner with Homura, will be back later tonight... Guess I'm by myself then." He shrugged.

Stepping into the living room, Izuru sat back on the couch with a console controller on his hands, but when he grabbed the televesion's controller to turn it on, he slumped his shoulders and looked around.

Pouring some coffee into the pair of mugs that stood on her desk, Sumireko sat on her office chair and crossed her arms, looking over at Izuru in confusion.

"Migraine?" She asked.

"I'm sure of it. I must have got it during work but my brain hasn't noticed it yet." Izuru nodded, taking a sip of his coffee. "Bleh, I'll buy the stupid new coffee machine at this rate."

"Leave her out of this!" The doctor deadpanned. "What makes you think you caught one of those?" Sumireko asked.

"I got home and didn't felt like spending hours on games and shit like that. That's obviously a sign of sickness!"

"...dumbass." Sumireko sighed. "Congratulations! You've done that type of stuff so much that it bores you now!"

"...ah? No way, that's not true, that has to be impossible! I'm the ultimate grinding and farming machine, I can't get tired of this crap! Sumireko, save me!"

"Why not just... Do anything else? Oh, I know! Let's talk about summer!"

"What's there to talk about that? Ban just took us to his family's beach house and shenenigans happened." Izuru shrugged. "More stuff was thrown at me than I expected."

"Eh?! You guys went to a beach house?! Ah, and all I got to do was go to the pool with Yu-chan... By the way, so many randos tried to flirt with your mom, it was hilarious!"

"Don't tell me that kind of crap...!" Izuru deadpanned.

"We took a bunch of photos too, look, look!" Sumireko laughed, showing Izuru her phone. "Don't be a wuss and look!"

"Sheesh, alright, alright." The black haired sighed, grabbing the phone. "Hm, seems like even the pools get filled in the middle of summer. I thought everyone would go to the beach by now." He pondered, swipping to the left.

"I know right? For a country filled with coasts, people still prefer the pools. But I guess I'm not surprised. Going to the beach by car or bus means road traffic, taking the train means go into a cluster of people, and even taking a plane to some other country is annoying with flight durations and jet-"

Izuru swipped one too many times to the left, and what he saw made him scream in shock and toss the phone at Sumireko.

"Oh god, why?!" He asked, covering his eyes.

"Ah? What did you saw?" Sumireko asked, laughing as she looked at the phone. "Oh, I remember this one! Yu-chan got my phone while I was changing into my swimsuit!"

"Why didn't you delete that?! Or just cover yourself?! You were looking at the camera!"

"Oh shut up, I know you young guys are all into this crap. Call it an early christmas gift! Now tell me, did it get your heart racing?!"

"It got it racing in a way, alright!" Izuru admitted, looking away with a red face. "Oh god, I always thought Ryuuga would get a stroke first because of all the crap Taira makes him eat but I was oh so wrong!"

"You're so childish." Sumireko chuckled, crossing her arms. But then, a malicious smile appeared in her face. "Ara ara~."

"STOP THAT!" Izuru yelled.

"This is priceless!" She laughed.

"You little... You wanna go have dinner in Asakusa?"

"Ahah- Eh? EH?! W-WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH THAT?!" Sumireko asked, turning red herself.

"GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE GUTTER!" He screeched. After a sigh, Izuru explained. "I'm all by myself tonight. Ban's busy with something and Tate is doing his monk trainership with Boris this week, so I don't really got anything to do tonight other than just get some cheap microwave dinner from the supermarket and do nothing until I go to sleep. Doesn't seem like you're getting any more patients today either, so why not? Call it me paying you back for all the good things you've done for me."

"My. my, does that include-"

"That photo is only going to haunt me! Let me treat you to dinner as an apology for that! And delete that, you idiot!"

"Hm... Alright, I don't see why not. Aimi and Minami are having movie tonight at Minami's house, so I also don't have a reason to get home soon. Besides, I always wanted to go to Asakusa with someone from there! Yu-chan refuses to go there so I was getting desperate!" Sumireko answered with a smile. Pulling out her phone, she deleted the photo. "And done. I just have one request. Can you wear that black blazer you usually house out of school?"

"Huh... Sure, just give me five minutes to go get it." Izuru shrugged.

"Thanks, you're the best!"

Sumireko leaned back on her chair, drinking the rest of the horrible coffee on her mug, and watching as Izuru stepped out of the office. She took her medical coat off and looked at her wristwatch.

"Three, two and..."

What followed was the sound of the message notifcations on Izuru's phone ringing, and then him yelling again.

"A-AH?!"

"It's a gift for being such a good friend to Aimi!"

"This is beautiful!" Sumireko exclaimed, her eyes glimmering.

As the two walked the most visited streets of Asakusa, a summer festival was being held around Senso-ji Temple, the oldest buddhist temple in all of Tokyo.

"I haven't been to a summer festival in years! The games, the food, the fireworks, the beauty! It's making me all giddy and shit!"

"I guess those are cool too." Izuru shrugged, looking around.

"Admit it, you wanted to come here." Sumireko giggled, poking his cheek. "Do it, do it, do it!"

"S-shut up." Izuru grunted, looking away in embarassment. "Look, I didn't want to come alone and you happened to still be in the clinic at the right time. It's not like I wanted to come at all or anything!"

"Ara, your tsundere is showing."

"It's not being a tsundere, it's being a Sawada!"

The males with Sawada blood tended to be the tsunderes in the relationship, Shouto and Ryuuga included.

"I fail to see a difference." Sumireko chuckled with a smug. "Now, where are we going to eat?! All these food stands look amazing, I want to visit all of-"

"Ramen joint in the less visited streets."

"...ah?"

What he meant was one of those small ramen restaurants in the smaller streets, that had like two or three tables max and stayed open late into the night, the ones tired office workers visited on their home from work to get some more minutes away from their annoying wives and dumb things their kids might have done at school.

Because the tables were already being used by said office workers, Izuru and Sumireko sat by the counter, and were soon given their bowls of ramen. Izuru got the pepper one while Sumireko got herself a seafood ramen.

"You're cheap." Sumireko deadpanned.

"I have a tight budget. Thank you for the food." Izuru clapped his hands.

As the two ate their dinner, the office workers all shared the same thought upon seeing such a young man being on a date with a beautiful woman like Sumireko.

'HE'S A GOD!'

One of them actually thought something else.

'No way, Ryuuga's little brother gets to be with some hot chick while I have to pay Riku for attention?! I keep getting cucked!'

And Izuru was aware of all that jealously. In fact, it made his ramen taste better.

"This is so good!!" Sumireko cheered.

"That's the secret to good ramen." Izuru commented. "Big restaurants need to serve tons of people all at once, but the smaller ones serve less. That gives them more time to work on their craft."

"Eh? When did you did you become a pro chef?"

"I got taught by someone in the business. That and got it yelled into my ears by some cunt." He shrugged. 

"Sounds like you're on your way to become a great husband one day."

"Pfft, as if."

"Hm... Tell you what, if you're still single after I turn fourty, how about we get married?"

"Aren't you fourty though?" Izuru asked, and then got whacked on the head. "I deserved that..."

"I'm thirty five!"

"Oh yeah... Math making, math making, math making... Alright, I'll marry you in five years if I'm single by then."

'HE'S A GOD OF ROMANCE!'

"Hooray!" Sumireko clapped her hands. "Oh no, I shouldn't have dunked my soda before the ramen came... I'll be right back." She chuckled and left for the bathroom.

One of the office workers spoke up.

"How?"

And Izuru took full advantage of the pedestal he was being put on. Humility is for another time.

"I said 'Hi'."

When Sumireko returned, Izuru got back to enjoying his pork and pepper ramen, this time with the added flavour of the despair of those around him.

"I don't know, those guys seemed to be staring at us. Blegh, I bet those ugly bastards were making me an innocent high school girl in their eyes!" Sumireko exclaimed.

Izuru and Sumireko were back at wandering through the summers festival being held. More precisely, the stands that had games.

"Nah, I'm sure they were looking at us for some other reason. Maybe they were shocked by how cool I was." Izuru joked.

"I'm all about being checked out, I know I'm hot, but not by those guys! I don't want some old and sweat ugly bastards looking at me, I want the young and cute men!"

"That tells alot about you..." Izuru deadpanned. "See anything you wanna try?"

"Hm... Hmmmmmm... Hmmmmmmmmm... Oh, that one, that one!" 

What Sumireko pointed at wasn't a stand or part of the festival, it was a well-known place in Asakusa were one could pay to break tiles as if doing martial arts.

"Huh?" Izuru looked over Sumireko's shoulder. "You mean... You wanna go break tiles? Why tiles of all things?"

"I heard tons about it from Yu-chan doing it, I wanna try it!"

"Of course my mom's involved in this in some way...." He sighed. "Alright, let's go yeet some tiles."

"I hope you're paying."

"It's breaking tiles, how expensive can it get?"

More than he thought, apparently. He had to use the emmergency credit card Ryuuga gave him.

Equipped with a sort of boxing glove on her right hand, Sumireko punched through a small tower of five grey tiles.

"Let's go! These tiles just got owned!" She cheered, throwing her arms in the air. "Bruce Lee has nothing on me!"

"Yeah, yeah, just watch me annihilate that without breaking a sweat." Izuru chuckled, putting on his glove. "Hey owner, stack me fifteen of them!"

"Hey hey, no need to be a toxic gamer over tile smashing." Sumireko chuckled, walking out of the way. "Besides, do you really thing there's some sort of record for this?"

"There is. This place's record has been thirty tiles for decades now. There's a photo on the wall of the young lady who made that record." The owner explained.

"Wait, it was a chick that made that record? Let's see, Narukami Yu- HOLY SHIT!"

Sumireko's reaction was thanks to the photo on the wall. It was Yu, Izuru's mother, back on her younger days. She was even wearing her school uniform.

"You have Narukami in your name?! That's sick! Why didn't you just start using it after that fallout with your old man?!"

"Only losers do that and I'm not a loser." Izuru deadpanned. "You know what? Owner, stack me thirty one tiles! My name is Sawada Izuru, son of Sawada-Narukami Yu, and I'm beating my mother's record!" He declared.

"Holy shit, I thought it was just the effect of giving birth twice but your mom's tits were still huge when she was your age!" Sumireko pointed out.

"STOP TALKING ABOUT MY MOM'S CHEST!"

"What? I'm sure your friends do it too."

"THEY DO NOT!"

"Then they think it." Sumireko said, tapping her forehead with a smug.

"I DIDN'T NEED THAT THOUGHT IN MY HEAD!" Izuru groaned.

"Besides, I'll have you know I have a good reason to point this out. It's amazing just how some years can affect someone. I really hope mine grow to match Yu-chan!"

"For crying out loud- I think your tits are big enough and great, now drop the subject!"

"Ehe, I got you to say it."

"...I'm just going to punch these and move on with my life..." Izuru muttered, his face turning red.

"Wait just a second, are you sure you want to punch that many? That's a really big pile, y'know. You're going to get yourself hurt."

"Pffft, as if." Izuru placed a finger on his forehead. "I'll have you know that my absolute IQ of 69.000 generates so much gravity that it not only boosts the weight of my fists but also increases my power level when I'm in Asakusa! Boosted by the festive yells of my people, boosted by the gods prayed for at the many shrines and temples of our beautiful hometown, boosted by the burning hot blood of the Sawada, my fists has become an industructible spear! This is my Asakusa! With all these factors in the equation, my IQ 69.000 mental CPU produces only one conclusion!"

Izuru raised his fist and swung it down at the tiles.

"ABSOLUTE VICTORY!"

The first five tiles were absolutely shattered to bits, and the twenty five underneath them were ripped through by the ultimate strengh of Izuru's fists!

...but the final tile, the one who'd go past his mother's record, only had a small crack left in it.

All the other tiles fell to the ground, leaving only the slightly cracked final tile behind.

Izuru stared down at the final tile. He looked to be holding something back.

"Let it out." Sumireko deadpanned.

"SORRY, I LIED, HELP!" Izuru yelled, holding his damaged right fest near his chest as he fell back.

"This sucks..." Izuru groaned, looking at his bandage-covered right hand. 

"What? The hand or the part where the owner said your mom broke it without taking any damage?" Sumireko asked.

"Both!"

"You'll get them next time." Sumireko chuckled, grabbing hold of Izuru's damaged hand. "There, better?"

"W-what's that supposed to mean..."

"Do you want me to kiss it too?"

"H-hell no, you old hag!"

"Shame. I bet tones of young guys like you would pay to be kissed by a beautiful older woman." Sumireko laughed.

"You're just pure evil..." Izuru deadpanned.

Because staying more time in the festival would mean have to return to Shibuya on foot late at night, Izuru and Sumireko left earlier and took a train back to Shibuya, where she lived. At his own demand, Izuru walked Sumireko home. He even threw his blazer over her shoulders because of the night being chilly.

"Are you sure you coming all the way here was a good idea?" Sumireko asked.

"Yeah. Turns out Ryuuga's in Shibuya so I'll meet up with him after this." Izuru explained.

But he wouldn't be meeting Ryuuga after the life-changing experience he was about to have.

"And here we are." Sumireko said, stopping in front of her apartment. "Thank you for the date, Izuru."

"Would you stop calling it that..." Izuru deadpanned.

"Okay, okay." She chuckled. "Hm... Actually, there's one thing I want to ask you before you go."

"Huh?" Izuru narrowed his eyes. "Huh, sure...?"

"Do you love Aimi?" Sumireko asked, bluntly.

"W-what the-?! The hell's that supposed to mean?!" He asked in embarassment.

"You know exactly what I man, just spit it, playboy."

"W-well... D-depends on how you define it. Aimi's someone very close to me, but no way I'd date her. No offense, of course. She's like... A female Tate. Y'know, we're like best friends, I guess. Something like that."

"And Minami?"

"A-ah?! T-thats two questions!"

"Speak up, loverboy!"

"W-well... I'm aware of how she feels... But I'm not ready to try and return those feelings. I dunno how I feel about her, besides us being friends. Same goes for the others." Izuru explained, looking away in embarassment.

"I see..."

"I-i don't mean it in a bad way, I swear! O-of course that I-!"

"Then I won't have to feel bad about this."

"A-ah...?"

Taking a step forward, Sumireko silenced Izuru with her lips.

'O-oh god, oh god no, oh god, oh fuck, oh no, oh shit, holy fuck, holy Valeos, holy true strong man, oh fuck, oh gacha gods, oh fucking hell, oh no-!' Izuru's brain was jumping into overdrive.

"You're something else, y'know... You act like a dumb kid sometimes, but you're so responsible and mature too... Tonight, my pescription will be different..." Sumireko whispered, placing her hands on Izuru's firm chest.

'W-w-w-what's that supposed to mean?!'

"I got a spare doctor coat in the closet."

"W-w-what do you mean with- E-eek!" Izuru yelped at the feeling of Sumireko grabbing the buckle of his belt.

"Ara, ara, don't think too much about it." Sumireko chuckled, pulling him closer as she reached for the doorknob.

This was it! At long last, after many fights, after many stupid gacha jokes, after many trials and tribulations, Izuru was about to become a man! His popular phase was in full swing, and soon he'd attain the godhood those at the ramen restaurant saw in him! Nothing was able to stop him, he had surpassed the bindings of a high school student and achieved adulthood! He began the evening as just a boy, but he'd end this night as a man!

Tonight, his fate was to have his world turned upside down as he rocked Sumireko's world!

...as if.

Before Sumireko could grab the doorknob, the doorknob was twisted from inside the apartment.

The two "love birds" stared blankly at it.

"....eh..." Sumireko blinked.

"...I'm gonna die..." Izuru blinked.

What stood on the other side of the door was the blue and cold gaze of Sumireko's own daughter, Aimi. She blasted the two with the flat glare that made her be known as the Ice Queen of Heiwa. But she wasn't mad, she was just disappointed.

"...my, my, I completly fell for your manly musk on this, Izuru!" Sumireko laughed, shoving the blazer into Izuru's arms.

"Wha-"

"Okay good night now!" She said, dashing into the house.

"A-AH?! DON'T BACKSTAB ME LIKE THIS!" Izuru yelled, taking a step forward.

"On that night, I received a grim reminder..."

But he was stopped by Aimi simply placing one hand on his chest.

"You disgusting playboy."

"...technically speaking..."

In pure and utter terror, Izuru slowly looked down at Aimi with a trembling body and showed a weak and sleazy smile.

"B-black cat p-p-p-pancakes...?"

"...Aimi is Endo's daughter too."

The following morning, Izuru entered Cafe Holmes, where he recieved the confuses looks of his boss Risei, who was behind the counter, and of his friends Ban and Tate, the latter being dressed as a monk.

"Dude, what happened to you?" Tate asked.

Both his hands and forearms were covered in bandages, aswell as his forehead, and he was wearing the sunglasses Taira had given him to hide an ugly black eye.

"I..."

Izuru slowly flicked the glasses up with a trembling hand.

"...punched some tiles..."