Chapter 315 Extra: Hetuan’s Birthday
Sticky Hetuan had never wanted to hear the incredibly pleasant class dismissal bell sound more than at this moment.
Of course, it wasn’t that our classmate Hetuan hated studying, nor was it that the teacher on stage was boring.
The real reason was that today was his first birthday party.
Well, the first birthday party where he invited friends to attend.
Before coming to Shikoku, Sticky Hetuan didn’t even understand what friends were. Perhaps in his small world, there were only his incredibly loving parents.
Due to ability-related reasons, his appearance was completely different from ordinary people, but the unreserved love and care from his biological parents protected Hetuan as he healthily grew to fifteen years old. Then, under his parents’ arrangements, he entered the hero high school named Shikoku and enrolled in Class C-1 of the Hero Department.
The appearance of psychics always had some peculiar changes, so his classmates, who were also psychics, had a much higher acceptance level for Hetuan’s completely different appearance than ordinary people. Although he wasn’t very popular with his classmates due to his sticky attribute and world-ignorant personality, Hetuan still made a few friends worth spending time with.
This was why Hetuan was so invested in this matter. Not only did he call his parents a week ago to ask how to host friends, but he also used all his hidden savings to prepare for this elaborate banquet.
He looked up at the elderly Mrs. Hanada on stage who was diligently teaching “Hero Ability Studies,” and Hetuan diverted one of his eyes to look at the time in the back.
Then, he left an identical circular shell on the table to pretend to listen to the lecture, while his body shrunk into a smaller slime and crawled into the desk drawer. Two small palms extended from his soft original form, and he began to count diligently.
“Hamano and Dragonji must be counted, and also Mika, Shun Muto… I wonder if he’ll have time in his first year? As for Koumaru… if I invite him, he’ll definitely fight with Hamano.”
“If it’s four people, the vegetables I bought yesterday don’t seem to be enough? But the roasted chicken ordered from Tomo’s house is larger than imagined, so if I buy some vegetarian dishes, it should be enough.”
“Ah, it should be on time. I already prepared the ingredients yesterday. New manga and games should be enough to keep me busy until I finish cooking.”
Counting his intended friends one by one on his fingers, Hetuan’s round face revealed a happy little expression as he controlled his ability to absorb the split portion back into the larger one on the table.
Pretending to pick up the textbook with his hand, Hetuan’s small eyes couldn’t help but look at the two people behind his seat.
The tall blond man looked very serious, his notebook filled with notes, and his head occasionally nodded in agreement with what the teacher was saying.
But the short-haired woman, separated from him by just an aisle, was a different scene. The desk filled with books was artfully arranged with a sense of messy beauty, as if it were a dragon’s nest, with various stationery and materials stuffed under the homework books, creating a small, tall mountain on the desk.
And the girl, who was originally quite good-looking, was leaning against the bed, picking her nose without any regard for her image, holding a small mobile phone in her hand, as if she had no intention of listening to what the teacher on stage was saying.
It was as if the person on the other end of the phone had said something outrageous, her entire face contorted into a terrifying expression. The sound of her forcefully typing a reply could be heard by Hetuan, even from several seats away.
With a trace of awkwardness, Hetuan turned his eyes back and nervously wiped sweat from his face with a tentacle.
There was no problem with Hamano Tsukasa, but if Dragonji discovered that he had accidentally glanced at her facial expressions, she would inevitably hit him a couple of times later.
“Ring Ring Ring—”
Just as Hetuan was lost in thought, a bell sound emanating from the classroom’s light waves directly saved his soul.
His body, which had been limp like water, instantly solidified. His black eyes shone with hopeful light, staring intently at Mrs. Hanada, who still hadn’t put down her teaching materials on the podium.
Mrs. Hanada, with her many years of teaching experience, was naturally not affected by the students’ eager gazes. She pushed up the glasses on her nose and looked through her teaching materials.
Then, she looked up and spoke softly in her most gentle voice.
“Students, this problem is very important. We’ll go over it for another five minutes.”
…….
The teacher’s five minutes was always a vague expression. After fifteen minutes of hellish extended class, Mrs. Hanada finally closed her teaching materials with satisfaction and announced the dismissal.
The students who had been waiting for a long time were finally freed, packing their bags in small groups and discussing after-school activities.
As for our Hetuan, he had already prepared the things he needed to take home. He leaped from the desk, landed on the ground in a pancake shape, and then slowly recovered.
While dodging passing classmates, Hetuan, with his “jio jio” footsteps, arrived at the back of the classroom.
Crawling up the desk with “Hui xi hui xi,” Hetuan’s body converged on the tabletop, forming a large blue hand that poked the arm of the desk’s owner.
“Hamano, Hamano.”
Hetuan’s movement interrupted Hamano Tsukasa’s note-taking. The blond boy looked up and couldn’t help but show a sincere smile when he saw Hetuan.
“What is it, Hetuan?”
Putting down the pen in his hand, Hamano Tsukasa looked at his good friend in the class earnestly.
“Um… do you want to come to my house for dinner today? I…”
After hesitating for a moment, Hetuan still looked up and invited him with a sincere expression.
“Sorry, Hetuan. Teacher Yagi needs to discuss the school exchange with Minna-ko school later, so I might not be able to come to your house for dinner.”
Before Hetuan could finish, Hamano Tsukasa clasped his hands together and apologetically refused.
“Then… okay, if you’re busy, next time then.”
Hetuan nodded with a slightly dejected expression, but he knew that Hamano Tsukasa, being the top student, was to be sent by the school for an exchange competition with the neighboring school, which represented the honor of the entire academy.
The slime, now slumped, recovered in an instant. Its soft body stretched out and stuck to the adjacent desk, then bounced to Ryuki’s desk with its elasticity.
“Ah, dinner? No time! Those brats in the next class actually said our class cheated in the last combat test. If I don’t teach them a lesson today, I’ll write my name ‘Ryuki’ backwards!”
Ryuki was still angry, packing his things. He casually ruffled Hetuan’s head, refused his invitation, and then grumbled as he walked out of the classroom.
“Hetuan, sorry, my mom has already cooked dinner at home today. Let’s eat together next time.”
“Shun Muto? He skipped class and went out to play this afternoon. If you’re looking for him, just go to his house.”
…….
“Sigh……”
With a large schoolbag on his head, Hetuan stood at the school gate in the sunset and sighed deeply.
For some reason, his friends all seemed to have their own things to do today, which delayed Hetuan’s birthday invitation from being spoken.
Jumping towards the apartment with footprints on his head, Hetuan felt a inexplicable sadness in his heart.
Although with so much food, Hetuan could eat it all by himself using his abilities. But just as his mother told him, good things are more delicious when shared with friends.
“Anyway, I’ve always celebrated with my parents before, so it should be fine to celebrate alone this year!”
He suddenly raised his head and comforted himself, but the soft and dispirited body of the slime did not look like it was fine at all.
He walked to the apartment with his limp body. Hetuan was not in the mood to transform into a human today either. The blue, circular jelly cube hopped on the stairs, and he finally arrived at the door of the innermost room on the second floor of the apartment with his schoolbag.
At this moment, Hetuan had also come to a slight realization. After all, he was too embarrassed to tell his friends about this in advance, so it was quite normal for them to be busy with their own things without clearing their schedules. At most, he could find a weekend to have a meal together and make up for it.
He patted his cheeks as a form of self-comfort, extended his tentacles, transformed into a key, and inserted it into the lock.
After a crisp click, the door was gently opened, and Hetuan “jio jio-ed” into the single apartment he had been living in for almost a year.
And just as Hetuan casually placed his schoolbag from his head aside, a pair of hands suddenly blocked his eyes.
“Surprise!”
“???”
The sudden voice startled the soft body of Hetuan, which instantly hardened, turning into countless spikes to stab forward. But the familiar voice and scent made Hetuan stop his actions.
He nudged away the hands blocking his eyes with his tentacles and looked forward.
“Hamano?!”
“Yo, Hetuan.”
The blond boy stood opposite Hetuan with a smiling face and greeted him warmly.
And in the small living room behind the boy, several familiar figures waved at Hetuan.
“Hamano… why are you guys…..”
“I led them in through the electrical circuits. Sorry for not telling you in advance.”
With some electromagnetic currents appearing on his hands, Hamano Tsukasa smiled and closed the room door behind him.
“But… weren’t you supposed to discuss matters with Teacher Yagi?”
“That kind of thing was postponed long ago.”
Waving his hand carelessly, Hamano Tsukasa picked up Hetuan and walked towards the bedroom.
“Hey, Hetuan.” “Sorry to disturb you.” “Hehe.”
His companions in the room also sat around the small table, smiling as they watched Hetuan being brought in by Hamano Tsukasa.
“You… didn’t you all have things to do?”
Disbelievingly rubbing his eyes, Hetuan subconsciously asked this question.
“I only took a few minutes to discipline those guys, so I finished quickly.”
“I told mom I was going to a friend’s important house for dinner.”
“I skipped class to buy a cake.”
“…….”
The ordinary, heartwarming conversation suddenly fell into an eerie silence after the short boy in blue sitting by the bed spoke. Shun Muto, however, unknowingly smiled and brought up the box hidden under the table.
“Shun Muto, are you an idiot? Why did you skip class to buy a cake when I told you to?!”
Ryuki, sitting opposite him, couldn’t hold it in any longer at this moment. Looking at the silly, short boy, he couldn’t help but speak.
“Because this is an important mission that my senpai assigned me. I specifically found someone to custom-make it.”
Shun Muto didn’t care about Ryuki’s scolding and looked at Hamano Tsukasa seriously, answering with full confidence.
“Um… right…”
Hamano Tsukasa nodded awkwardly. This guy had volunteered to buy the cake, so why was he blaming him now?
“Shun Muto, let’s open the box first.”
Smiling and watching his friends argue, Hanami Mika intervened and signaled Shun Muto to unwrap the cake.
Shun Muto nodded and directly unwrapped the blue box.
Then, what appeared before everyone was…
A blue, round, soft cake with eyes and a mouth??
“Why does this cake look exactly like Hetuan? Shun Muto, are you crazy?!”
The cake in front of him once again broke Ryuki’s composure. He couldn’t help but spit out flames from his mouth, staring furiously at the still calmly seated Shun Muto.
“Isn’t eating a cake that looks exactly like you a cool thing? I spent a lot of money to have this custom-made.”
“I’ll eat you!……” “Ryuki, don’t be angry…”
Seeing his friends start arguing again, Hamano Tsukasa rubbed his forehead helplessly, wondering how Shun Muto would come up with such a thing.
But for the safety of this junior, Hamano Tsukasa placed Hetuan on the table and interjected.
“Shouldn’t we ask Hetuan if he likes it?”
At this moment, Hetuan just recovered from the moment of touching emotion. He looked at everyone around him, then at the ridiculously funny blue cake that looked exactly like him, and finally nodded heavily.
“Ah, right!”
It was then that Hetuan realized his negligence as the host. He activated his abilities to the maximum, and countless tentacles flew out, bringing all the snacks and game manga he had prepared onto the table.
Then, other tentacles reached into the kitchen, turned on the stove, and took out the pre-prepared ingredients from the refrigerator.
“You guys… you guys play for a bit, I’ll go cook first.”
Just as Hetuan was about to send his main body to the kitchen, a hand gently pressed on Hetuan’s body.
A light, ring-shaped object was placed on Hetuan’s head, and on the other side, the cake Hetuan had two candles somehow stuck into it.
The room lights suddenly went out, and the flames on the candles were lit. Everyone gathered around the table, smiling at the bewildered little slime, and finally blessed him in unison.
“Happy birthday, Hetuan!”
(Ps: Happy birthday to Hetuan, and thank you to the boss for the Flame Emperor!! Love you QAQ)
