Comprehensive Manga: The Master is not here today.

Chapter 616: Ikebukuro's Unique Gang
In short, after understanding the current situation and chatting for a while, the girls' boudoir night talk came to an end and they returned to their rooms to rest and have a good night.

“——Knock knock.”

The next day, Fujimaru Ritsuka was awakened from his sweet dream by a knock on the door.

“Ha~~~ here I come…”

She opened the bedroom door and looked at Pest standing at the door. She said helplessly:
"Didn't we agree last night that since we're not in the small garden anymore, we don't have to do the same thing as before?"

In response, Pest replied calmly:
"Mashu is almost done with breakfast, and she asked me to wake you up."

"...That's okay."

So Fujimaru Ritsuka obediently got up, changed clothes and washed up.

Coming downstairs, Mashu was setting the table, with Haibara Ai helping. Seeing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka couldn't help but slightly curl his lips.

This is the peaceful daily life she longs for.

On the other side, seeing the figure of Fujimaru Ritsuka, Mashu smiled and greeted:
"Good morning, senior. Breakfast is ready, come and eat."

"Ok!"

After breakfast, the four girls, Ritsuka Fujimaru, Mashu, Ai Haibara and Pest, prepared to set off for Ikebukuro to start dealing with the incident entrusted by Gaia.

Ikebukuro is located in Toshima Ward, Tokyo. It is a bustling urban area along with Ginza, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. It has a daily traffic of about one million people and is also a popular neighborhood among young people.

At Ikebukuro West Exit Park, just after exiting the west exit of Ikebukuro Station, four girls were waiting for someone on the side of the road.

Mashu confirmed the information again and said:

"The agreed place should be here."

The goal of their operation this time is to find the legendary Headless Horseman who is active in this area.

Before that, Mashu wanted Fujimaru Ritsuka to meet another person first. That was the person she and Haibara Ai met during their previous operation, and he was also one of their original targets.

but……

"This is incredible! When did such a cute girl appear on this street~!"

"Dear ladies, do you want to play with us?"

Three scoundrel-looking hooligans came over, grinning mischievously and started chatting them up.

Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled and said:

"Sorry, we already have an appointment, so please go find someone else."

"Don't be so heartless... We are [DOLLARS]~? Super cool, right?!"

"What is [DOLLARS]? A gang?"

"Forehead……"

The three thugs were speechless for a moment, feeling that things were not developing quite the way they had imagined.

Generally speaking, shouldn't we be frightened and afraid of them?

But seeing that Fujimaru Ritsuka was looking at them with pure curiosity, without any fear or contempt, they somehow calmed down and explained:

"[DOLLARS] is not that scary entity, but the Unique Color Gang. It is like the [Yellow Turban Bandits] and [Blue Square] organizations in the past."

"Besides, we [DOLLARS] are the colorless one-color gang. Sounds cool, right?!"

"That's it..."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded thoughtfully.

Although she didn't quite understand what the Du Se Gang was, judging from their words, it should be a bad society that was not even close to the level of the underworld, or a small gang of hooligans, right?

In addition-

"If there is no color, then anyone can claim to be a [DOLLARS], right?"

Hearing this, the gangsters smiled smugly and said:
"Of course! That's why there are so many members of [DOLLARS] online. We are now the strongest force in Ikebukuro!"

"The Yellow Turbans and Blue Squares are outdated. Now it's our DOLLARS' world!"

"But in this case..." Fujimaru Ritsuka wanted to ask something else, but at this moment, the gangster's eyes suddenly lit up and he suggested excitedly:

"If you're so interested, why don't you join [DOLLARS]? Then we can be companions!"

"Eh?"

"It's very simple, all you have to do is join an online community...!"

Watching the scene in front of him, which had initially developed from a gangster chatting up a girl to a club recruiting new members, Pest was speechless.
"What is she doing? What is there to talk about with these guys?"

She was originally planning to teach these thugs a lesson, but unexpectedly, Fujimaru Ritsuka directly joined them, making her feel inexplicably embarrassed.

Mashu smiled and said:

"Because you are very curious, and this can be considered a way to obtain information, right?"

"... Never mind. Whatever."

Seeing that Mashu's tone was full of defense for Fujimaru Ritsuka, as if "whatever the senior does is right", Pest could only shrug and shut her mouth.

Under the cordial invitation of the gangsters, Fujimaru Ritsuka finally chose to join [DOLLARS] because she was indeed curious about this so-called unique gang.

The way to join [DOLLARS] is also very simple. Just search for [DOLLARS]'s online community on the Internet and register an account in it, then you will become an official member of [DOLLARS].

After entering the community, Ritsuka Fujimaru took a quick look at the posts in the community and found that this was basically a hodgepodge forum with all kinds of discussions, and it didn't look like something that could be related to a bad group.

"——Master?"

At this moment, a voice with a somewhat unexpected tone came from the side, attracting everyone's attention -

The owner of the voice was a handsome young man with blond hair and sunglasses, wearing a black bartender's uniform. He looked like a professional in the underworld and was completely different from the three thugs in front of Fujimaru Ritsuka.

The moment the three hooligans saw each other's figures clearly, they froze in place, staring at each other in disbelief, and stammered:

“It’s just so-so…”

"Mr. Heiwajima!"

Mashu called out cheerfully, and the young man called "Peace Island" responded, then came to Mashu, bowed his head respectfully and apologized:

"I'm sorry, Master, I'm late!"

Seeing this, Mashu smiled a little embarrassedly and waved her hand:

"It's okay. We've only been here for a short while. Right, Senior?"

"Well, almost."

Ritsuka Fujimaru agreed with a smile and looked at the young man in front of him. The other party also looked over, and then saw the three thugs standing next to Ritsuka Fujimaru.

No matter how you look at it, these people don't seem to be people that Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others know. They look more like thugs who want to strike up a conversation with them.

So, the young man frowned and said:

"What do you guys want to do?"

"Me, me, me, we..."

Unable to utter complete sentences out of fear, the thugs' bodies began to tremble as they watched the other party's expressions gradually become impatient.

"——Nothing, they just chatted with us casually."

At this time, Fujimaru Ritsuka's voice came, saving the situation, and then smiled at the three people:
"Don't flirt with girls like that next time, okay?"

“Yes——!!!”×3
The three of them were suddenly shocked and responded at the top of their voices. At the same time, they gave Fujimaru Ritsuka a grateful look and ran away immediately, disappearing in the crowd in the blink of an eye.

The three of them gradually stopped walking until their strength was exhausted, breathing heavily as if they had survived a disaster:

“…Alive, alive—!”

At this time, recalling the scene just now, one of them hesitated and said:

"I say, that guy just now was Heiwajima Shizuo, right?"

"He... called one of the girls 'Master'?"

(End of this chapter)