Shinichi was currently at a public place. There were a lot of eyes here, and it was also the same region he lived.
If he were to commit an act of violence here, it’s likely that the police would get involved.
It would be easy to run, but the security cameras have already captured his face.
If the police of Japan were to investigate the issue, they would easily be able to find his house.
—That’s a little… No. It’s definitely problematic.
This was a normal occurrence to Shinichi, so he had forgotten to pay attention.
Yes, committing violence in Japan was a crime.
While that might seem like common sense, for Shinichi, who has been living in another world for some time now, violence was such a normal thing that he’d long forgotten it was a crime. It was only now that he realized his error.
As such, he decided to make a run for it instead.
If they decide to run after him, then he’ll find a hidden place and beat them to his heart’s content.
In Falandia, that was the best way to prevent others from plotting revenge against you or hating you.
The fact that Shinichi’s way of thinking was closer to the Falandians than anything else only proved that he had indeed come from Falandia.
The peaceful days spent at modern Japan was already a distant story to him.
Fortunately, he already had his luggage in hand.
So long as he ran at a decent pace, it should be a trivial thing to be able to run from them.
As Shinichi stood up, he made up his mind to run.
“Oh! So this is where you were!”
At that moment, however, a man Shinichi did not know called out to him.
The tall man dressed in a suit walked toward Shinichi.
As the man spoke, he made sure to hide Shinichi behind him to protect him from the group.
It was apparent that he was acting, however, for he sounded like a b-rate actor as he said the lines he’d decided on beforehand.
“I don’t know what happened, but I’m sorry. You see, this kid here is actually a foreigner. I know he looks Japanese, but he’s actually really bad at Japanese and that’s why things tend to end up like this.”
—What a terrible liar.
Shinichi felt like saying that aloud, but he stopped himself.
After all, this man was trying to save him by pretending to be an acquaintance.
It was something that the protagonist of a manga would often do.
Now that Shinichi himself was the object of such an act, he couldn’t help but be a little moved. As such, he decided to watch how things went.
“Huh? Really?”
“…Idiot, don’t let him fool you!”
The boy yelled at his friend, but judging from how he hesitated for a moment, he might have actually believed the man a little.
From the looks of things, however, it seems what the man did only served to pour oil into the flames, as now they switched their targets from Shinichi to him.
“Are you looking down on us, old man!?”
“Uu, as I thought…”
“…”
It’s unfortunate, but…
Although his methods were a bit sloppy, he still tried to save Shinichi, so Shinichi believed that his character was still plenty remarkable.
Even now, the man was restlessly gesturing for him to run ahead. That brought a smile to Shinichi’s face.
If he were to abandon a guy like this, that would really leave a bad mark on his conscience. Besides, there was no need to run.
Although Shinichi didn’t really feel like it, he released ‘that voice’ under the pretense that he would be doing so partly as an experiment.
“‘Why don’t you just stop? I’m a weak All D, you know?
I’m sure bullying a weak guy like that isn’t any fun to you guys either.
Wouldn’t it be a better use of your time to talk with your friends on that free table instead? Am I wrong?’ ”
Shinichi separated his will from his voice and simply spoke what he wished to order to the people he targeted.
To everyone else, his words were just words. But to the people targeted, his words resounded heavily and something seemed to change.
“…Right. Let’s leave him alone already.”
“…Yeah. Let’s just talk instead.”
“…Okay. Hey, there’s a new store in front of the train…”
Suddenly, these boys and girls headed to the table just as they were told.
They spoke to each other in monotonous voices as they sat themselves and began to chat.
They were acting as if nothing happened.
“…As usual, a terrible power that violates human dignity…”
The fact that Shinichi was able to use it on the people of this world too caused him to sigh as he made a complicated expression.
Shinichi restored his will upon his voice and ‘sealed’ that voice again.
“Huh? What just happened? What’s going on?”
The surrounding crowd that were watching didn’t want to get involve in the first place, so they just acted like they didn’t see anything, but for the man who was personally involved, the sudden change of events, left him greatly bewildered.
“I’m sure they just got bored.
But enough of them. Thank you so much for going out of your way to help me.”
Shinichi bowed as he implied that he shouldn’t worry about them.
Although the man couldn’t actually save him, he still tried to save him. As such, he was worth bowing to him.
When Shinichi lifted up his head, he saw the face atop that tall body for the first time.
“Got bored? Ah, I mean I couldn’t really do anything in the end, so… Huh?”
“Hmm?”
When the man looked down due to their height difference, he too saw Shinichi’s face for the first time.
The situation and each other’s face left them with a feeling of deja vu that made them freeze in place.
And then they naturally called out each other’s name.
“…Daigo?”
“…Shinichi?”
The expression on the face at the top of that tall body changed into that of surprise and agitation.
Impossible, he muttered, but his gaze never left the childhood friend that stood before him.
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