“Ugh, you saw that? Damn, that’s really embarrassing.”
Although Shinichi was all smiles because Daigo was laughing from embarrassment, the information those close to Shinichi got then only served to throw them into despair.
The organization didn’t even last a year before it rapidly shrunk. Today, not a single one of its members is left.
After all, Garesto immediately answered their plea, searched for their missing relatives, and then disclosed the results.
Because of this many were found and brought back to their families on Earth.
But that was only true for the people that had good luck and were able to drift to a city in Garesto.
“Still, how did you manage to survive in a place crawling with monsters like that?”
“Ha ha ha…”
The members of the association learned for the first time that there were creatures that threatened the humans in Garesto.
Monsters that attacked people. A world where things only thought to exist in fantasy existed.
A world where the cities where enclosed in giant walls, outside of which ran rampant with such monsters.
A world where despite such cities, it was normal for monsters to be able to get in and wreak havoc.
That’s why he couldn’t help but ask that.
“I met a native creature with a gentle temperament who protected me.”
“Oh, right. There are two kinds of monsters there, right?
The monsters that could wreak havoc and the ones that resemble the animals in our world.
But, hmm… I didn’t consider that…”
After all, it was publicly disclosed that both types were violent.
There was, however, a note that there were a small number of exceptions. One of which were the Amaryllis.
But no one bothered to cling to such an unlikely thing. The odds were simply too low.
That’s why when the relatives of the members couldn’t be found no matter how many times search parties were sent, the members couldn’t help but fall into despair.
Surely they had already been eaten by the monsters, they thought.
Even if they wanted to believe, they couldn’t find it in themselves to.
“Enough about me. What about you? What are you doing here? I heard from my dad that you moved to your mom’s hometown after middle school .”
“Yeah, about that… Due to some circumstances, I came back here alone.”
In this reunion, the only who had his guard down and was being intimate was Shinichi’s childhood friend.
After all, Shinichi had heard that he’d moved to a distant place after graduating from middle school.
And yet for some reason, Daigo was here in front of him.
“Mind if I ask about those circumstances?”
“Ha ha, it’s nothing complicated. I couldn’t find a job at my mom’s hometown, you see.
So I came here, where my dad has a lot of connections, to find a job.
Shinichi realized that he asked a difficult question, but Daigo just laughed it off in self-deprecation and said it was nothing.
He says the reason he was at the library was also to prepare for his interview and to study what was needed.
But what his words implied shocked Shinichi.
“Job hunting? …You mean, you couldn’t become a police officer?”
If the greatest impression Takamine Daigo left to Shinichi was him saving him many times, then the second greatest impression he left him was the way he looked as he passionately talked about his ‘dream’.
—I will absolutely become a police officer!!
Given his stature, Shinichi thought it was the perfect job for him too, so this was quite the shock to him.
“Oh, right. In your case, of course that’s what you’d be concerned about.”
Daigo wryly smiled upon seeing his childhood friend’s shock. But as far as Shinichi was concerned, him smiling like that only made him appear more pitiful.
“I managed to get into police academy, but then I failed.
I could keep up with the training and the studies, but the competitions were no good.”
“…What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about the guys with high rank. Judo or kendo or anything that involves moving your body, I just couldn’t win at any of those.
If it’s just one or two attributes and it’s only one rank above mine, then I could still manage, but when they’re at least two ranks higher than mine, their strength and speed is just on a completely different level.
Techniques, feints… They just don’t work anymore. That’s when I finally realized what it meant to win with just pure power.”
And this was in a competition with rules. If this were out in the world, outside the ring, with an actual criminal. It makes one chilly just thinking about what could happen.
“Of course. It’s not like you can’t become a cop just because your status is low.
Police equipment has advanced, and it’s not like picking fights with criminals is the only thing the police do.”
“So, why?”
“…You know, right?
I’m not as smart or dexterous as Takeshi.
Even my grades were just barely passing. And yet the body I was so proud of wasn’t work.
I couldn’t use Garesto’s equipment well and my rating went down.
When I tried to do something about it, I’d already neglected my studies and failed the exams several times.”
The stereotypical path to failure, Daigo said in self-deprecation.
Shinichi didn’t know what to say to him.
In the end, he appeared lost and chose his words.
There were probably other circumstances and reasons he wasn’t willing to tell him.
Because of that he couldn’t console him or encourage him especially since he wasn’t there in those days.
“I see…”
“You don’t have to make that face. It’s over already.”
“…Ah, then do you know what Takeshi is doing now? Dad didn’t know where he moved.”
Takeshi Sasaki.
Their other childhood friend and the smartest of them three.
Although he was a mischievous boy who took advantage of his guile all the time. It was for his friends’ sake that he used it.
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