Chapter 82: Amusement Park or Cinema?
While typing away messages on her mobile phone, Kazumi walked into her home, familiar with every corner. She tossed her uniform, which was stained with the cheap scent of oden, into the old washing machine in the living room and directly walked into her room in her underwear.
Looking at her unremarkable and somewhat childish figure reflected in the mirror, Kazumi couldn’t help but curl her lips in disdain, wondering why Sato Shinichi would like a girl like her.
“Is it because you’re a pervert!?! Starting to melt copper at this age!!!”
While replying to messages and complaining about her cheap boyfriend, Kazumi casually took out her pure black skeleton pajamas from the cupboard and put them on.
Although it looked somewhat strange, the somewhat oversized pajamas hung loosely on the slender body of the young girl, and combined with her cold expression, it surprisingly created a unique sense of beauty.
So cute and weird!
However, Kazumi didn’t have time to think about whether it was cute or not. She was fully engaging her true form as a top student while high-intensity chatting with her cheap boyfriend.
Kazumi had practically surrendered or, after careful consideration, made the choice best suited to the current situation.
The body’s instincts were genuinely hard to resist, just like tying someone up and not allowing them to eat would eventually drive them mad from hunger.
Kazumi had previously tried to put her phone away and ignore messages from others, but doing so resulted in her sitting in front of the table for half an hour without reading a page of a book, her mind consumed by those pointless unknown pieces of information.
So in the end, Kazumi relinquished her behavior; her academic prowess and the powerful computational ability it brought allowed her to operate under dual threads effortlessly, handling her own matters while allocating some brainpower to respond to her cheap boyfriend’s greetings seemed quite reasonable.
It was just like paying for her meal ticket!
Using this excuse to justify her current behavior, Kazumi kept an eye on the messages from the person on the other end of her phone while also pulling out her precious black leather notebook. She flipped to the latest page and gently struck through the line that wrote “Noyoru Yokota.”
“Did I overestimate him? After all, he’s just a fifteen or sixteen-year-old kid. No matter how mature he is, he can’t be that mature.”
She casually replied to Sato Shinichi with a cute little cat emoji, and once again focused her attention on her notebook.
Originally, Kazumi had considered Noyoru Yokota to be someone who could potentially cause her trouble, which was why she had written his name in her notebook.
A senior from the same school’s Hero Department, a psychic, a delinquent who harbored ill feelings towards her—these points combined were already enough for Kazumi to be wary of him. Though not scared, some necessary precautions were still in order.
With an adult mindset, Kazumi wouldn’t act like a foolish protagonist in a shonen manga, charging headlong into things without thinking. Reality was not a comic; she wasn’t the main character; there were no outlandish cheats or explosive abilities—only the bloody reality.
However, after what she experienced today, Kazumi realized she might have misunderstood things. How mature could kids her age really be? What she saw was merely a poor creature facing oppression and too timid to resist.
People often share a sense of empathy, especially when encountering someone who has had similar experiences.
It was like a third-rate author urging young readers in a group to work hard and study to get into a good university every day.
When seeing someone with a similar experience, people tend to feel the urge to help, perhaps because they see a part of themselves in that person or don’t want anyone else to tread the same wrong path they did.
Kazumi could deeply relate to Noyoru Yokota’s situation. While she might not fully understand the specific circumstances, the general process was likely similar.
Or perhaps bullying everywhere is just like that, bringing mental pressure far greater than the physical harm endured.
And these delinquents were just bullies who pick on the weak. The more you back down, the more they inch forward. If you push back a little, they may well think twice about provoking you.
What really infuriated Kazumi was that Noyoru Yokota had his own strength; that crimson, wave-like ability was likely what qualified him for the Hero Department at Shikoku Gakuin.
Yet even as a future potential hero, he chose to give up resisting due to his various concerns, allowing that group of delinquents to viciously take revenge on him.
Kazumi understood the reasoning behind him being cautious and intentionally held back—that’s something every individual deals with. However, if you lack the courage to make a choice in any situation, you may never succeed. Being indecisive prevents you from knowing the outcome.
The last line Kazumi noted in her mind, calling him a “coward,” could very well have been an insult to her past self. She could have had a better, more perfect youth, but it was somehow diverted due to that instance of bullying.
At that time, she didn’t even have the ability to change everything. If not for that classmate who bravely stood up for her, Kazumi didn’t know what kind of person she might have become.
Removing that entry from her mental map, Kazumi figured she just needed to adapt and respond flexibly to this young boy still caught in his rebellious stage. However, if she could casually give him a nudge to help him out, it might also be a pretty good idea!
A student from the Hero Department at Shikoku Gakuin may not be from the elite class, but at the very least, could become a key hero at a third-rate agency, and all she would need to do is borrow her cheap boyfriend’s connections just a little bit. This deal seemed pretty much in her favor.
She casually selected the cinema option from the weekend date question asked by Sato Shinichi, then wrote Noyoru Yokota’s name in her notebook. Saving the boy from bullying seemed like it could evolve into a pretty rewarding project.
As Kazumi responded to Sato Shinichi’s messages, she sketched and jotted down ideas in her notebook, managing to outline a simple plan. Overall, given Sato Shinichi’s powerful background, Kazumi felt there was really nothing to fear regarding this matter.
After formulating a few emergency contingency plans to conclude her project, Kazumi tossed her pen aside and picked up her mobile phone, allowing herself a momentary break.
However, as she reviewed the chat history, Kazumi belatedly realized that she might have unintentionally agreed to something significant!
