Once to deflect the weapon. A second toward the stomach.
A third toward the face and send the man flying. And a fourth to crush the man’s face.
That might have indeed been a bit much if the objective was just to defeat the man.
“Right. An opponent of that level took me four hits to take down. That’s because I’m a weak coward.
I couldn’t relax until I beat him hard enough until he couldn’t move anymore.
Besides, someone who’s really strong wouldn’t even be attacked in the first place, right?”
There was some sophistry mixed in there, but Shinichi spoke as if he was just stating facts in a way that these people whose standards revolved around one’s fighting strength would be able to understand.
But Shinichi didn’t talk about his rank since it would just cause fear and confusion.
But…
“Huh—-!?”
What was she so surprised about? Exactly what warranted such a reaction?
The girl in front of him had shock written all over her face, but it was a different kind of shock compared to Nobuhiko’s.
“…What? Did I say something weird?”
“Ah, no, it’s… nothing.”
Her face betrayed her words, but Shinichi was a stranger and had no right to pursue it.
Still, it seems that something he said resonated with something in her, as all that zeal from before quickly cooled down.
“…Here. This time make sure not to lose it alright?”
Shinichi handed her her things again to change the topic.
The girl looked like a completely different person as she nodded. All that zeal from before was gone, and in its place appeared a docile girl who appeared even timid.
But perhaps this was how she was originally, and her previous state was merely due to excitement.
“Will you be filing a complaint?”
“Huh? Oh, yes! Of course… I’ll file a complaint.
I can’t let criminals off just like that.
I believe that’s a…. kind of duty… I have to fulfill, so…”
“…”
She said reluctantly as she glanced at her terminal repeatedly.
It was as if she was trying to tell herself that as she blinked her eyes.
Although it didn’t seem as if she was hesitant to file a complaint after talking about duty and whatnot, it was still obvious that she was troubled by the time, given how she kept glancing at the time on her terminal.
“…Rinko-san, can you hear me?”
It can’t be helped.
Shinichi called Rinko through the terminal he was given for emergency use.
This wasn’t a conversation that needed to be kept under wraps, and having to go back would be a pain too, so Shinichi decided to call her.
“Huh?”
“Yeah, I found her. But she seems to be in a hurry, so would it be fine at a later date?
Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem. There are a lot of eyewitnesses and there are security cameras above too.
It should be fine as long as she wears the same outfit as she’s wearing today, right?
Thanks. Bye… And that’s how it is, so you can go already.”
Shinichi said as if it was no big deal. But now the girl was troubled. Things were happening too quickly for her to process.
But that was exactly what Shinichi was aiming for.
“…H-huh? A-Ah!
My errands aren’t really that important!”
“But you do have errands to run, right?
There’s no deadline in filing complaints, so you can just file one later.”
‘So you can go’ Shinichi urged with a smile.
He knew from experience that doing things this way was the most effective to get someone to do something.
As much as possible he wanted his impression on this girl to be that of a ‘pushy boy’ instead of someone who is ‘strong’.
He wanted to make the situation more convenient for him. That’s why he wasn’t being kind ‘at all’.
“…I’m sorry. To be honest, my free time is limited, so this is actually a huge help to me.”
“Don’t worry about it. But you better hold on to your bag this time.”
“Y-Yes! Thank you so much!”
The girl politely bowed and then walked away into the crowd.
She probably had something she was looking forward to as she was obviously happy even from behind.
No more was that dispirited look as she wove through the crowd of people and vanished.
Considering how well she was moving now, if she had just decided to chase after those petty thieves earlier, she would have probably been able to deal with them on her own.
She did mention that she had been training, so her stats were probably up there too.
But just having high stats didn’t guarantee that one would be able to deal with a criminal when one happened into one.
Shinichi was already used to it, so it would be strange to compare her to himself.
After seeing her off, Shinichi turned around and returned to his family. He ignored the gazes of the people around him.
“Sigh…
Why in the world are the Garestonian more accepting of me than my own countrymen?”
“…You’re really incompatible with peaceful people, Master.”
“Don’t say that… I’ll get depressed.”
Along the way, Shinichi exchanged words with his partner who was inside his bag.
Who would’ve thought things would turn out like this?
That by dealing with some petty thieves, he would realize that he was getting further and further away from the people of this world.
Although the very fact that he thought of those thieves as just some petty thieves was by itself enough to show just how much his mentality has deviated from the norm.
He had lived in this world for 13 years, and yet just 2 years in another world was enough to convert his thinking to theirs.
Although in a more stricter sense, his home world didn’t exist anymore.
“…It’s probably going to take some time…”
But how could he accept that? He still wasn’t ready.
There was a side to this world that hadn’t changed.
At the same time, there was a side to this world that he knew too little of.
It was his hometown (old home) and yet it was also a different world (unknown).
Because of that he couldn’t figure out how to deal with it, and just trying to understand it was already taking all of his effort.
As a result, he couldn’t even leave his fate to his circumstances.
Already it has been two weeks since his return, and yet his mind still hasn’t changed since that day.
Should he be happy when people accept him? Should he be sad when they reject him?
He couldn’t even grasp something so simple.
“Still, you’re as gentle as ever with women, aren’t you, Master?”
“…What are you talking about?”
As Shinichi’s face turned a somber shade, ‘she’ said that.
Shinichi glanced down at her with only his eyes to keep others from knowing that he was conversing with someone. A lonely but amused face greeted him from his bag.
“Exactly which part of that was gentle? I did everything at my own pace. Everything.”
“But the reason you did that is because she was troubled, right?
You probably gave her a good impression. She was also evidently charmed by your strength.
Fu fu, you did it, Master! The first girl since arriving in this world! The first!”
She said cheerfully. There was also some displeasure mixed in, but that was because she was already ‘used’ to this.
As far as Shinichi was concerned, this behavior of hers was just annoying, though.
“Stop that. There’s no way someone would like someone just from something like that.
You’ve been reading too much of that kind of manga since coming to this world.”
Ever since coming to the world, she has had two interests. The first was food and the second was manga.
Moreover, her favorite genre was love comedy. This caused Shinichi a lot of headache.
But of course. The owner of those manga was none other than Shinichi himself before he was drifted into another world.
The personal effects that were currently in Shinichi’s room were those that he had before he was drifted.
He hasn’t touched those once since coming back, though.
“That’s right.
With this even if you reunite with various people and incidents happen I won’t say a thing.”
Just like in the stories (manga).
The kitsune smiled. If they were anywhere else, Shinichi might have already thrown his bag.
Just what was this woman expecting?
Even though she sighed deeply every time Shinichi made contact with women, she loved to prolong these kind of things. It was really hard to understand her.
“Haa, I probably won’t meet that girl again. I don’t know if she’s a traveler or what, but she felt like she lived in a different place.”
“But even then you’ll probably meet again since your luck with people is so bad it’s scary.”
“Like I said, stop that already! It won’t be funny in my case, you know!”
The two of them quarreled with each other as usual without letting the people around them notice.
Shinichi knew why she was doing this, so he gratefully played along.
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