Episode -4 B

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Dabi and Yona clung tightly to each other, trembling in fear as they stared at Eat.

But after looking between the children one by one, Eat calmly spoke as he had prepared.

Eat: "Warriors of the universe! The demon army will soon arrive.

Should you not be the ones to stop them?"

Dabi: "Please spare us……."

Yona: "We’re sorry……." Eat: (raising his voice) "Spare you? Spare who? And what exactly did you do wrong!" Yona &

Dabi: "Kyaaaak~~!@" Eat had raised his voice without realizing it! In that instant, Polun’s advice came back to him.

('Be gentle with the children~ Got it? They’re just little kids, so be kind and gentle~ Okay? Please~')

Eat: "Ahem, my apologies. My voice got louder without me noticing.

But if we are to fight the demon army, training is required. Rise!" However, Dabi and Yona were so overwhelmed with fear that none of Eat’s words reached them.

Of course, all of Eat’s attempts to calm the children with various reassurances were completely useless.

As time passed and nothing went the way he intended, Eat grew deeply flustered.

Having never dealt with children before, he hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.

Eat: "Ah, um… warriors! Would you turn around for a moment?

—I’ve prepared an incredible weapon for the war!"

Dabi: "Please spare us……."

Yona: "Me too……."

Eat: "Haa…… please, I’m begging you, just turn around once. Okay?" At Eat’s pleading, Dabi finally turned around slowly.

Standing there were suit-type robots as imposing as Roland gorillas.

Dabi and Yona stood with their mouths open, unable to contain their awe at the overwhelming presence of the machines.

Dabi: "Th… th… whoa!"

Yona: "Whoa, they’re real robots!" Eat could not let this opportunity slip away.

While the children were distracted, he had to completely captivate them.

Eat: "Warriors! Now then, would you like to board them? You’ll control them yourselves!"

Dabi: "Whoa!"

Yona: "Yes! I want to try!" Before they knew it, their fear had vanished, leaving only curiosity behind.

Like realizing you’re dreaming yet still unable to escape the dream,

the children became delighted and excited.

Smiles spread across their faces as they fidgeted with excitement.

Dabi: "Doctor, put me in!"

Yona: "Me too!"

Eat: "Excellent! Warriors, stand before a robot and shout your own names!" Dabi and Yona stood in front of the robots they liked best. An extremely excited Yona

nodded at Dabi, and Dabi, filled with anticipation, responded with a thumbs-up.

Dabi: (grinning) "What do we do?"

Yona: "Let’s try!" Dabi and Yona shouted their names.

The giant robots carefully lifted the two children and guided them into the cockpit inside their chests.

Soon after boarding was complete, the doors closed and everything went dark for a moment.

Then the interior lights flared brightly, and the children burst into cheers.

Dabi: "Amazing! It’s a real robot! Whoa, what’s all this!"

Yona: "Dabi, this is incredible! It even smells really nice!" To hurry the training, Eat checked the manual and shouted to the children.

Eat: "Warriors, this is your first training session! Hold the controller and fix your feet

—onto the pedals. First, try walking. After that…." But the excited children couldn’t hear Eat at all.

Just as Eat began to flare up, he remembered Polun’s request and barely held back his anger.

After many ups and downs, he finally managed to calm the children and successfully teach them the basic controls.

Eat: "Now, try practicing on your own." (he looks exhausted)

Yona: "Yes, Doctor!"

Dabi: "Mm……." (seems frustrated that it’s not going as he wants)

Yona began to move the robot, clumsily but surely. But Dabi made little progress at all.

Watching from behind, Eat thought to himself.

'Will that child become my greatest trial?'

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Yona made slow but steady progress in piloting the robot.

Thankfully, thanks to Yona’s advice, Dabi’s skills also improved noticeably.

Next, Eat began kindly explaining how to use the weapons.

Following the instructions, Yona opened the hatch on the robot’s thigh and gripped the handle of a dagger.

Then he approached the flustered Dabi and carefully explained how to draw the weapon.

Dabi followed Yona, trying cautiously to take out his weapon as well.

At that moment, Eat recalled Polun’s advice again.

('Eat, the more you praise children, the better they do and the better they become. Got it? Please praise them a lot.')

Eat nodded. Then he did not hold back his praise toward the children.

Eat: "Good, warriors! As expected of space warriors. Now then……." At that very moment—while he was in the middle of praising them—

the dagger from Dabi’s robot flew straight toward Yona at terrifying speed.

Yona was startled, but with astonishing reflexes, he dodged the incoming blade.

However, the dagger did not stop and instead flew toward the doctor’s exclusive chamber behind them.

The steel blade only stopped after piercing halfway through the front glass where Eat had been standing.

Dabi: "Ah, Doctor, I’m sorry! I messed up!"

Eat: "……." Eat lightly pushed the giant blade that had stopped right before his nose with his finger.

The sharp sting made anger surge within him, but in that instant, the face of his beloved Ina flashed through his mind. He barely suppressed his anger and murmured. "Ina, will I be able to do this? A great trial has begun again." Eat had to make a decision.

If he insisted on practice alone, he had no idea how many days would be wasted.

Time was not exactly urgent, but he also could not afford to be endlessly leisurely.

He decided to deploy the children into real combat immediately.

Eat: "Now then, warriors! Training is sufficient. The minions of the space demon king

are almost here, so prepare for immediate launch!"

Yona: "Already? Wouldn’t that be difficult right now, Doctor?"

Dabi: "Ugh, is it okay to go out like this?"

Yona: "You definitely can’t~"

Dabi: "Right…… huh!" Dabi: (shouting) "What did you say?!" Just as Dabi was about to protest in frustration, Eat pressed the launch button.

Dabi’s desperate shout was quietly ignored.

Dabi: "Wait!" Leaving that cry behind, the robots immediately transformed into launch form and shot out of the base.

Outside the base was, astonishingly, vast outer space. Countless demon army forces were rushing toward the two children.

Dabi and Yona trembled in fear, but Yona slowly pulled out a massive gun from the robot’s back.

Then he carefully pulled the trigger toward a space monster.

The first accidental shot pierced straight through the monster’s wing.

When Yona brought down a monster, he looked incredibly admirable in Dabi’s eyes.

Dabi: "Yona, that was amazing! How did you do that?"

Yona: "Aah!"

Yona: "Aaaahhh~!" (suddenly begins screaming)

Dabi: "Huh? What’s wrong, Yona~" Yona, who marked the start of their first battle, fell into panic.

Amid fear and confusion, he flailed helplessly, and Dabi spent quite some time calming him down before he could finally settle.

But they were soon overwhelmed by the enormous size and terrifying appearance of the approaching space monsters…

In the end, the two children panicked, screamed together, and wildly pulled their triggers in all directions.

Soon after, the first sortie of the space warriors ended.

Yona scored 50 points, and Dabi scored 7. The highest possible score was 1000.

'Mission failed.' The two children returned carrying their first failure.

Eat did not hold back encouragement and praise, telling Yona and Dabi that their skills were already quite impressive.

At his words, the children, who had been dejected, slowly regained their spirits. Smiles returned to their gloomy faces.

However, Eat’s expression was far too dark. The only hope left to him was praise… he could not stop praising. "If we build training step by step starting tomorrow, tremendous improvement can be expected in a short time, space warriors! Well done." Thanks to Eat’s continuous encouragement and praise, Dabi and Yona gained great strength.

Through ongoing training afterward, the children gradually developed fairly skilled control.

However, they never earned enough points to complete training in a single session.

Eat chewed on the manual every day. He had to find a way. He sank into deep thought.

Yona’s score remained in the 450 range, and Dabi’s stayed in the 300 range.

Unable to find any method other than praise, Eat was about to end the day with more praise again when Yona, deep in thought, spoke up.

Yona: "Eli!… Right, Eli!"

Dabi: "Why Eli?"

Eat: "What is Eli?"

Yona: "Eli isn’t an object. He’s our friend, Doctor!"

Dabi: "That’s right, Eli is good with machines!"

Yona: "And Eli is really good at games."

Dabi: "Yeah, that’s right!"

Eat: "…………..Games?" The next day arrived, and Dabi and Yona appeared with Eli.

And the space warriors began again.

Eli couldn’t contain his amazement and kept cheering. "Whoa~~~~~ Robots~!" Excited, Eli waited with his friends for his first robot test drive.

Soon after, Eli shouted his name loudly and boarded the robot.

Eli: Whoa~! It smells nice~

Yona: Right? It smells good~

After manipulating the robot a few times, Eli displayed astonishing control in a short time.

As if balance were ingrained in his body, he handled the robot with incredible precision.

He even placed small objects on his fingertips without dropping them,

and controlled the robot as naturally as moving his own arms and legs.

Seeing his innate talent, Dabi and Yona looked at Eli with subtle envy.

Before long, Dabi, Yona, and Eli all reached similar levels of piloting skill and waited together for deployment.

Just having Eli beside them gave Dabi and Yona strength and reassurance.

Eli: "Ah, I’m so nervous! What is all this, guys! I’m really tense!"

Dabi: "Don’t worry! I’ll help you!"

Yona: "Just trust me, I’ll take them all down!" Eat gave the launch command. Moving into outer space, Eli was overwhelmed with emotion.

'Me… me! I’m in outer space!' Eli felt a thrill run through his entire body.

Strength surged into his hands gripping the controls.

Soon, countless demon army forces began approaching before his eyes.

Seeing the enormous space monsters, far bigger than he had imagined, Eli began to feel a little afraid. "Whoa~ they’re real monsters? Why are they so big~" At that moment, Dabi charged into the enemy first.

Yona followed right behind, increasing speed and taking down monsters.

Encouraged by his friends’ performance, Eli clasped his hands under his chin and closed his eyes briefly in prayer.

Eli opened his eyes…

After taking a deep breath to calm himself, he slowly gripped the controls.

Soon, Eli also began moving slowly toward Dabi and Yona, starting to eliminate the demon army.

As the battle progressed smoothly, Eli suddenly increased speed.

Putting away his ranged weapon, Eli drew swords in both hands and plunged into the enemy ranks.

He cut down the charging demon army without hesitation, while Yona and Dabi stared blankly.

Watching this, Eat threw aside the ice cream he had been eating and stared with tense eyes.

As Eli increased speed further, Dabi and Yona, who had been standing still watching, also began accelerating.

Eat observed the situation seriously, watching the two friends learn from Eli’s growth—

At last, as if he had found an answer, he smiled.

Time passed, and the children returned excited after completing the mission.

Their flushed faces made them look like children who had just returned from vigorous play.

Yona: "Whoa, I’m sweating!"

Dabi: "Seriously, following Eli makes you sweat."

Eli: "That was so fun~ If we try once more, I think I’ll get used to it!" "Whoa!" At Eli’s confident reaction, Dabi and Yona felt glad they were with him.

Eat approached the brightly smiling children, hurrying over in surprise.

He wanted to quickly share their improved results. He believed it could give them new motivation. "Yona: 610 points, Dabi: 500 points, Eli: 830 points!" Excited by the dramatically improved scores of Yona and Dabi, Eat looked at the children.

But while Eli showed regret that he could do even better, Yona and Dabi seemed to be losing their smiles.

Eat spoke louder in excitement. "Space warriors, what’s wrong? You should be happy! This is tremendous progress!" At that moment, Eat sensed not the joy of achievement, but a strange emptiness in the children’s expressions.

At the time, Eat did not understand why.

He only realized later that meaningless score competition did not bring the children joy.

Afterward, Eat tried to smash the scoring machine with axes in both hands.

The children happened to witness it and desperately stopped him. In the end, they barely managed to settle it by unplugging the code.

From that day on, the more Eli improved, the more Dabi and Yona learned from him and improved as well.

They no longer divided individuals by scores. They simply rejoiced together upon completing missions and cared for one another.

Instead of rough training, Eat gradually realized he had to tend to the children’s hearts,

so that each one could return with happy memories.

---

The one who had introduced the machine that displayed the children’s actions as scores was the golden owl, Polun.

This was not part of the king’s orders.

Polun, who had never spent time with children, had introduced it purely on personal judgment for better results.

For that reason, when the king received reports of the children’s training process, he was enraged and summoned Polun separately.

He sternly reprimanded him.

That day, Polun burst into tears on the spot, sobbing so much it felt like buckets could be filled. "Bwaaaah~ Bwaaahhh" -4 B END