Ch.263School Trip (2)

“So you’re Arigiri Shota.”

“You look like shit, just as I heard.”

The thugs immediately surrounded me.

“You know me?”

I shrugged my shoulders as I spoke.

“Yeah. You’re the playboy who’s made all the pretty girls in our neighborhood your girlfriends.”

The thugs said.

Ah… my girlfriends. They are quite famous.

“My girlfriends aren’t just pretty by neighborhood standards!! They’re galactic level!!!”

I immediately shouted loudly.

“Shut up!! Don’t rub salt in our wounds here!!”

A thug yelled.

“That’s why you’ve become the enemy of men. You’ve been strutting around lately and we don’t like it… We’ll take this opportunity to beat you to a pulp.”

The thugs surrounded me.

So it’s jealousy after all.

“Hey, I heard you go to the local kendo dojo. Draw your sword.”

The thugs shouted at me.

“Release!! Bleach? Bleach? Bankai!! Ahahahaha!!”

They all burst into laughter.

“These bastards…!!”

That comment made me angrier than ever before.

“Does swinging a sword automatically mean Bleach?! Huh?! There are many better manga featuring swordplay!! Don’t just throw out the name of some popular manga!!”

I immediately flew into a rage.

“W-what… this guy.”

At my words, they backed away slightly. These bastards… they’re touching my reverse scale? I hate normies who try to relate to otaku by blurting out names of famous manga!!!

“Sorry, but if I draw my sword, you’ll die. I don’t want to become a murderer. I’ll subdue you lightly.”

I flicked my hand.

“Ha. Look at this guy.”

The thugs’ expressions immediately hardened.

“Die!!!”

The thugs rushed toward me at once.

Whoosh-! Whoop-! Hng-!

Fists flew at me with tremendous force. I instantly sensed they were quite experienced fighters.

However… dodging their punches was no challenge at all.

‘If I can dodge swords, how could I not dodge fists?’

Having evaded even more dangerous attacks before, each movement of their fists appeared extremely slow to me.

Then I immediately positioned my hand like a blade.

“Karate chop!!!”

I lightly struck one guy’s neck.

Thwack-!!

My hand cleanly hit the guy’s neck. Here, I applied my flash strike technique. I didn’t need to cut the weak point. Even with a strike, the damage was amplified around the weak point. I could see it with my eyes—the damage spreading like a wave from the thug’s weak point.

“Gack?!!”

The guy who took my chop immediately collapsed.

“This guy… what did he…!!”

The remaining two thugs immediately rushed toward me.

I quickly grabbed a nearby broom. Probably used by a part-timer to clean the store entrance.

“Hyaaaah!!!”

I swung the broom like a sword.

Whaaaack-! Whack-!!

The broom cleanly struck both thugs in the face.

“Guhhk!!”

Both thugs lost consciousness and collapsed.

“B-but you said you wouldn’t use a sword…”

One thug complained.

“You believed that? Naive bastards.”

I’d be stronger using a sword, so why wouldn’t I? I smiled and threw the broom aside.

“Woooah!! That was awesome!!!”

“Ooooh!!!”

The people around seemed to mistake this for entertainment. They immediately applauded and cheered.

Slash-!

I immediately struck a pose.

“Kyaaaah!!”

“Ooooh!!!”

“Yeah!!!”

People cheered in unison.

Anyway, with this, I’d dealt with the rotten thugs who were threatening the kid.

Just then, the guy who’d taken my karate chop got up. He recovers pretty quickly. These guys… might be stronger than they look?

“Y-you… I’m going to sue you! And I’ll gather all my older friends…”

The thug got up, gasping for breath.

“Sure. Go ahead and sue me or report to your friends. But… what about your reputation? Try spreading the rumor that you were trying to extort money from a kid and got beaten up by a passerby. Will your friends or seniors say ‘Oh, good job’? Hmm?”

I said with a smile.

“……….!!”

They fell silent at my words.

Whether gangsters or thugs, once they lose face, it’s over. Reputation is everything. There’s no way these guys would voluntarily admit their reputation had fallen.

“Grrrr!! Y-you’ll see!!”

They immediately started running away.

“Hmph. Cute guys.”

After saying that, I approached the kid.

“Hey kid. I heard you’re looking for someone to eat with.”

I said with a smile.

“Ah… yes.”

The boy nodded.

“I was about to eat too. Want to join me?”

I said to the boy.

“Ah! Yes!!!!”

The boy’s eyes sparkled.

———-

After ordering two hamburger sets, I sat down with the boy.

“I-I’ll pay for my own meal.”

The boy said.

“No, it’s fine. Your allowance must be tight. Save your money and buy some dirty magazines or something.”

I said.

When I was young, collecting dirty magazines was my joy… there was fun in turning the pages, anticipating what exciting photos might appear next.

“Big bro… kids these days look at dirty stuff on smartphones. Magazines are relics of a bygone era.”

The boy immediately objected.

“Ah… I see.”

A generation gap already?

“Anyway, thank you, big bro.”

The boy said.

“It’s nothing. I was just itching for some action anyway.”

Well, this was a mandatory event. I pretty much knew things would turn out this way.

“Big bro, you’re strong.”

The boy looked at me with admiring eyes.

“Not really. I’m not strong.”

I said.

“By the way, are you on your way back from cram school?”

I asked the boy. I needed to progress the communication quickly, so I got straight to the point.

‘Besides… I see strange options appearing in my head.’

Perhaps it was due to the “Past Life Hero’s Persuasiveness” trait I’d acquired before. I had a sense of how favorably the other person would respond to certain words.

“Ah… yes. After eating this, I have to go to another academy.”

The boy said.

The name of this communication was “Boy Attending Cram School.” It was a communication featuring a modern child groaning under the rush of private education. The player eats a meal with the boy, helps him breathe easier, and helps the dreamless boy find a dream.

“Kids these days are as busy as adults.”

I said.

“Yes. My mom keeps saying I’ll fall behind if I don’t study hard. She wants me to study hard and become a lawyer, doctor, or engineer later.”

The boy said.

“Hmm… is that so?”

Well, what parents want for their children is pretty much the same everywhere.

“Do you have a dream, big bro?”

The boy asked.

“Me? A dream, you could call it that… I’m currently a high school student and a writer. I want to be more successful as a writer. That’s my dream. And when I graduate, I’ll probably marry my girlfriends… I’ll need a lot of money for that.”

I said.

“And… I also want to be more successful as a kendo athlete.”

The desire to fight strong opponents and climb higher to the top existed within me too. That’s what excited me. Yes, I had to admit it. I was an inescapable swordsman after all.

“Wow… a high school student who’s also a writer…!! And a kendo athlete…!!”

Somehow, admiration swirled in the boy’s eyes.

“You’re lucky to have so many dreams, big bro. I don’t know what I want to do.”

The boy said.

This was the turning point of the communication.

The best option immediately appeared in my mind.

‘Do you really need to have a dream?’

Somehow, an incredibly irresponsible option popped up.

Is this right? In the original, I think the advice was more heartwarming and hopeful. But I trusted my trait.

“Do you really need to have a dream?”

I asked the boy.

“Huh?”

The boy was taken aback by my words.

“You don’t need to live with grand things like dreams or goals.”

I continued.

“Then big bro…”

“I’m not writing or doing kendo because of some grand reason like the meaning of life or a reason to live.”

I looked straight at the boy.

I wanted to tell this boy the truth, without any flowery words.

“I just want to climb higher. I want to become a superior being. That’s all.”

I said bluntly.

“……”

The boy looked surprised.

“You’re attending lots of academies, right? For studying, sports, arts and such.”

“Ah… yes.”

The boy nodded.

“Then for now, aim to get better at those things. As you climb higher, the scenery changes. Why not just focus on that and run forward? Don’t think about anything else.”

That was all I knew.

“It’s just like a game. Once you level up, you can do anything—dungeons, raids. Leveling up increases your options.”

I said.

“If you work hard at anything, you might find something you really want to do. Don’t shoulder too many worries when you’re so young.”

Whether you live focusing only on what’s in front of you or draw some grand picture, life is pretty similar.

“I see…”

Surprisingly, the boy seemed to have gained some insight.

“Nom.”

After finishing speaking, I dipped a french fry into the soft-serve ice cream we ordered together.

“Wait!! What are you doing?! French fries should be eaten with ketchup!!”

The boy shouted loudly.

“This is delicious too. Sweet and salty.”

I said seriously.

Dipping fries in milkshakes is actually authentic in America. Even in that famous prison break TV series, the guards eat like that.

“That’s clearly weird food…”

The boy muttered.

“Try it once. You won’t regret it.”

I said.

“Oh, alright…”

The boy followed me and dipped a fry in the soft-serve cone.

“…It’s delicious!”

The boy’s eyes widened.

“Right?”

I said with a smile.

Anyway, after finishing our meal, the boy and I went outside.

“Shota!!!”

All my girlfriends greeted me at once. Wait. How did they know I was here? Honestly… there was something suspicious. Umi had a strange knack for finding me. Could it be… did she install something on my phone? I’ll have to interrogate her later.

Eri, Umi, Taiga, Kana, Tina, Mika, and Kirtan—a full party composition. Even I had to admit it was a large harem.

Since they were all such beauties, people’s gazes were fixed on them. Some guys mistook them for some idol group or something.

“What brings you all the way here?”

I said with a smile.

“Well… I was worried you might be cheating.”

Umi said.

“There was a story about infidelity on TV. That’s what suddenly made Umi suspicious.”

Eri added an explanation. Umi… she’s quite susceptible to such influences.

“I was late because I was making friends with this kid.”

I patted the boy’s shoulder.

“Are these… your girlfriends, big bro?”

The boy looked at me.

“Yeah.”

I nodded.

“If I climb higher too, can I date pretty girls like them?”

The boy’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“Ah… the probability is high.”

I nodded.

“I… I just want to climb higher. Then I can… make a harem with pretty girls like them too, right?”

Somehow… the boy seemed to have found a new goal.

It was somewhat disrespectful, but as long as he was motivated, that was okay.

“Oh!! Good luck, kid!! Let’s aim to be as rich as Middle Eastern oil barons together!”

I just gave him a thumbs up.

Yeah, but… honestly, a man’s motivation often comes from sleeping with pretty, sexy women. (This is strictly my personal opinion.)

Anyway, the boy’s worries were immediately cured.

Ding-!!

A message appeared indicating that the communication with the boy was complete.

Problem solved!!!!