After dispelling the barriers and various wards, the group walked away, acting as though nothing had happened.
Really, it was only the boy walking furthest back that looked as such. Everyone else wore an exhausted expression.
“I can’t believe he fixed it just by touching it… There’s got to be a limit to how ridiculous someone can be,” Frire said.
“Uu… What a terrifying presence.
Fortunately, I was being held up or my legs might have given way…” Myuhi said.
“That kind of power has definitely gone past human limits,” Tomoe said.
〈The dimensional crack has been repaired. Reason: Unknown. Analysis: Impossible.
Identifying the reason has been judged impossible at the present time; therefore, any further analysis will be canceled.〉
Everyone was scratching their heads at the ridiculousness Shinichi had once again shown.
Even Garesto would have needed a large equipment and a few days to patch up that crack, yet he did it in his bare body and took only a few seconds.
They knew he couldn’t be measured by common sense, but even then it took them a while to accept what they had seen.
Shirayuki gave up altogether and just labeled him as incomprehensible.
It was evident who had repaired the crack, yet her sensors couldn’t pick up anything.
Having judged any further attempt to be pointless, Shirayuki decided that it was pointless to even think about it.
A casual display of the impressiveness of her AI, but no one noticed that.
Though even if there were, it would have only served to trouble her as they would judge her for giving up.
“You lose if you care. Because I don’t intend to explain anything,” Shinichi said.
They didn’t pester him since they knew he wouldn’t answer,
so they just nodded back when he said that and came to terms with it on their own.
‘It’s Shinichi, so it can’t be helped,’ was the general sentiment.
“…I mean I don’t get the theory behind it either,” Shinichi muttered.
“Kyukyukyu.”
He himself didn’t actually understand how the repair was accomplished.
It seemed ‘possible’ so he made an ‘attempt’, but if someone were to ask him how,
and while it indeed was possible to show to some extent through words or theories
he himself didn’t actually understand. In a sense, one could say that he’d merely memorized the contents of a textbook but did not actually comprehend.
Powers in the domain of the gods tended to be such.
He could use the power, but there were reasons other than just personal reasons for preferring not to use it.
But of course, if one were to ask if he’s comprehended the other knowledge and techniques that he’s inherited,
he would not be able to nod immediately either.
“Ah, by the way, Tomotomo, you sure it’s okay for you to be with us?
Didn’t you give Yoppi’s group some kind of excuse to slip away?” Myuhi said out of consideration after checking the time,
implying that they might come looking for her if she stayed here for too long.
As such, Tomoe quickly turned the offer down to Frire and left.
“Ah, Tomoe.”
When a voice reached her, she turned around.
Shinichi’s voice seemed more troubled than usual.
“What?”
“Umm… I’d let my guard down a bit too much, and you really helped out this time, so… Thanks.”
“Huh? Ah, yeah.”
Tomoe was a bit confused to see him scratch his cheeks, embarrassed, and thank her like that.
She’d only come here out of consideration, and she didn’t actually predict that there would be an outbreak of raybeasts.
She found it embarrassing for him to thank her over a matter so trivial.
Shinichi did not miss that opening and added a few more words.
“I’ll leave those two to you too.”
With a serious face, he quietly bowed his head. Tomoe was taken aback for a moment,
but she quickly understood what he meant, so her jaws slackened, and she curtly turned away.
“Hmph, I refuse. They’re my friends, you know.
I don’t need you to tell me to take care of them. Anyway, I’m going.”
She quickly wrapped up the conversation, then bolted off.
Shinichi saw her off, and before long, a grin found its way onto his face.
“Huh?”
“Oh, you’ve gone and done it now.”
A similar grin could be seen on Myuhi.
Because the joy oozing out of the girl he’d thanked and relied on was all too plain to see.
Not a trace of that tension that had been burdening her since she saw that drone could be seen.
“Having someone thank you for saving them, and having someone you care for count on you…
That’s really effective against a girl
…Your ability to swindle girls really is terrifying.”
“Can you not make it sound so malicious? …I can see where you’re coming from, though.”
‘Indeed, I’ve done it again,’ Shinichi dropped his shoulders.
He actually wasn’t intending to, though. He just wanted to sincerely thank her for helping him,
and to entrust his siblings to someone he could trust.
He had no idea that doing so would make her so happy.
“Ahaha, in the end, which is the greater sin? To be aware or to be oblivious?”
“Ugu…”
Those words mercilessly poked at his sore spot, but he had no other response than to groan.
Seeing that, Myuhi decided that she would ‘get back’ at him in this manner from now on.
“…What are you two talking about?”
However, there was actually someone here even more oblivious.
〈It is highly recommend that study and relevant experience be accumulated to be able to follow this sort of conversations.〉
“I was asking for an explanation, though? …Hey, Nakamura, look!”
Shirayuki’s fed up voice only added to Frire’s confusion, but when Frire saw ‘that’, she suddenly raised her voice.
When Shinichi turned around to see what was going on, he was taken aback for a moment by the three faces he saw.
No matter how one looked, those were definitely ‘deer’.
“Look, they’re approaching you properly too!”
“Oh? Have they gotten so used to people that they can’t feel how threatening Shinichi is anymore?”
“…”
Frire was genuinely happy, while Myuhi was confused, but Shinichi himself just remained quiet.
But that lasted only for a moment before his face broke out into a – suspicious – smile.
“There’s enough left for three. Want some?” Shinichi said.
“Icchi?” Myuhi said.
Myuhi thought something was off, but Shinichi gave the theer the remaining crackers.
The deer were wary of him, but ate nonetheless.
Frire was elated as though it was her own affair, while Myuhi wore a delicate expression.
Because Shinichi’s face after feeding them was the very picture of evil.
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