Just Can't Sleep

After a poor showing in the simulation, Aira lectures Momo, Jiji and Mantisian as they feign innocence. She faults Momo's Moe Moe Tri-Beam for its short range and the way it drains her into uselessness, and Momo's retry fails embarrassingly. Aira then tells Jiji his Ha Wave inflicts no real damage and warns Mantisian that his punches are meaningless if he keeps his distance. Declaring them nowhere near ready, she insists they use their remaining time well, and the three agree.

Momo phones Seiko's lodging but learns she never arrived, deepening the mystery of her whereabouts. Realizing ten o'clock and Reiko Kashima's appearance loom, Momo steps outside and meets Mantisian, who heads home in the mobile house. That night, unable to sleep over the banging walls, Momo moves about and is found by Jiji, who cups his ki-charged hands over her ears to muffle the noise. Impressed but flustered at being watched while she sleeps, Momo objects, so Jiji shifts behind her and pledges to keep watch until morning, framing it as a kind of training. When Momo praises how he accomplishes anything despite his joking, Jiji admits he can only speak to her normally by acting that way, growing self-conscious as he sneaks glances at her. By morning, Okarun wakes in astral form, mistakes his resting body for death, seeks out Momo, and finds her asleep alongside Jiji.

This Volume 11 entry, part of the Space Globalists Arc and Kintama Hunt Saga, covers nineteen pages and debuted on January 31, 2023. It balances training stakes with the budding Jiji and Momo dynamic and the deepening worry over Seiko's disappearance.