SLKD – Volume 1 Chapter 4

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Volume 1 Chapter 4 – Breakfast, the Confession Plan, and Combat Training Simulation

“There are less side dishes than usual but let’s eat anyway.” I said to Silent Water.

“Mhm! Waa! This fried pork chop is really delicious.” Silent Water said as she eats a piece of the fried pork chop and exaggeratedly praised me with her small mouth.

“Really ! If it’s delicious, eat some more.”

“This so called cucumber salad, also taste really good.”

“Haha, you don’t say.” Listening to Silent Water praise me made me very happy. I think, for a person who cooks all day, nothing is more musical to the ears than the word of praise, “delicious”.

“This thing called Watercress is really delicious, this is the first time I’ve eaten such delicious things.” Right now Silent Water looks like a little girl. So cute.

“Oh right, Silent Water, What did you eat in the demon world?” Haha, Silent Water’s praise made me happily ask. I was also curious about what spirits eat growing up.

“Water.”

“……”

“What’s wrong?”

“Uh… nothing, nothing, drinking water is good, water is good.” Well I guess she had never eaten anything before which was why she said the food I made was delicious…

“Nothing will happen to you if you eat these right?” After hearing about Silent Water only drinking water, I start to get worried. Can spirits even eat food?

“I don’t know. I only know that the stuff you make taste really good.”

“I see.” Then I remembered. The nerd me had read an article about spirits and it said that spirits can eat food because they had the body structure of animals. When they come into the human world, they came by using a special kind of power. This power needs constant nourishment and they must consume something externally. Simply put, they need to eat food.

As I was washing the dishes, Silent Water stood next to me and watched me carefully, memorizing my movements. Looking at her serious expression, I suddenly feel very happy and suddenly feel like I have found a family member.

——————————

“Well, this is your room.” I had tidied up a guest room near my bedroom and transformed it into Silent Water’s room.

Silent Water must have been really happy because she suddenly jumped on the bed and hugged the pillow.

I was about to ask her if she had “any problems” but I found out that she had already fell asleep.

Meh~~~ She should be tired. She ran out of the demon world with her mother to the human world and lost her father yesterday. She also lost her mother today but she did her best to remain calm. It was hard on her.

I poured a cup of tea and put it on her table. Since she is a water sprite, she must need replenishment.

I turned on the nightlight and gently closed the door. I planned to go downstairs to take a shower.

After my shower and watching TV for a while, it was already midnight.

“I still have to go to school tomorrow.” I turned off the TV and went upstairs to bed.

Just as I laid down on the bed, I already started to get sleepy. I fell asleep pretty soon after I started to get drowsy..

——————————

“Boy…” A really rough voice echoed in my ears.

“Boy ! ! !” The voice came again.

I reluctantly opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by gray.

“Who is it?” I asked.

After I spoke, a group of white balls and a group of black balls lit up from the darkness.

Their dazzling bright light made me squint my eyes

When I opened my eyes again, two dragons appeared in front of me!

One was white, the other was black. Unlike in books, they do not have wings. They have two hands and two feet. They are dragons of the demon world. They are like the dragons in the Chinese New Year paintings, with bodies as long as snakes and long whiskers. They had four claws and they were muscular with many “abs”.
(TL: they look kind of like this)

The original gray space split into a world of half black and half white.

“Boy, you talk very boldly.” The black dragon said.

“Well~~~ he is a person that had already died before.” The white dragon said while laughing.

“You are.. dragons?” Although I knew that this question was stupid, I could not help but ask it out loud.

“Yes, we are the famous…” The black dragon was in the midst of his speech but the white dragon interrupted him: “Hey! Yalide! Don’t be so conceited and don’t bother with all that tiring stuff okay? We have already died thousands of years ago, how have you still not changed at all.?

“Ha? You say that I’m conceited and a bother? You bastard, Freed, do you have the right to talk about me? Don’t pretend that you are all high and mighty, you don’t think that I know that you…”

“Don’t talk bother talking about things of the past, or do you want to fight me, you asshole?”

“Who’s afraid of who?” The black dragon started to laugh: “I happen to want to talk about it, in fact you…”

*Bang* Without waiting for the black dragon to finish talking, the white dragon’s tail whipped his tail against the black dragon’s body. It probably hurt a lot because he used a massive amount of force.

“You bastard, I just know that you love to use sneak attacks. And you claim to be a child of the light.” The black dragon angrily roared as a black light whizzed at the white dragon’s body.

“This asshole…”

All of a sudden, the white and black light engaged in a fierce battle. That can’t be good, ah, two dragons are actually fighting each other. A dragon’s power was very great and even angels are unable to handle them. Even demons respect them out of fear and they even had their own exclusive property in the demon world.

But, the scene in front of me, how can I describe it, was really spectacular. In the collision, the white and black light was hard to distinguish. All of a sudden the light beams changed direction and aimed straight at me…

“Oh wow…” I sat up and I hear the sweet sound of birds singing out my window. Aside from the sound of my rapid breathing, it was quiet in my room.

“What a puzzling dream.” I wipe the sweat off my forehead and got out of bed. I washed up, put on my uniform, and went downstairs. The smell of fried pork chops enter my nose…

In the kitchen, I see Silent Water in an apron looking like a young housewife. Seeing me, she smiled: “You’re awake, the meal is almost ready, please wait a little while.”

“Oh… okay.” I replied blankly. Spirits are really scary, how do they learn so fast? How can it smell the exact same as the one I made yesterday? No, it smells better than the one I made yesterday.

I sit at the table and watch Silent Water busily at work. I did not know why but my heart suddenly feels warm, was this how a family feels like? It had only been one day and I already view Silent Water as a part my family. Did this feeling come up because I have no parents?

“It’s done, try it.” Silent Water took out a bowl of rice and placed it in front of me. She then served me fried pork chops and watercress, the two dishes I made yesterday. We ate all the cucumbers yesterday so she did not make any of that.

I used my chopsticks to pick up some watercress into my mouth and started to chew: “Delicious…” Silent Water really was too much, was this really from a someone who had just entered the world of cooking? I picked up a piece of fried pork chops. It tasted very good too.

“You are too good at this Silent Water, the stuff you made are truly delicious.” Just those words could not describe its spectacular taste but I am not good at using pretty words so I just said it as best as I can it normally.

“Not really.” Silent Water timidly lowered her head: “As long as you like it.”

“Hey, how did you make these Silent Water?”

“Me? To be honest, my family’s ability to mimic others is the best out of all the spirits and I am the worst out of my family.” She got depressed as she talked about her family.

“Ah… to be honest, Silent Water, there is no best or worst here. As long as you do you best at whatever you are doing, your heart will get through. To me, Silent Water is always the best.” I usually do not encourage people but I randomly blurted that out.

“Mhm~ thank you.” Silent Water said in a trembling quiet voice.

As I rub her head, she looked up at me with wet watery eyes.

I smiled: “Silent Water, as long as you are willing, this is your home until you find the master you belong to.” I don’t really know what to say so I just said what I was already thinking in my mind.

But when I thought about the day Silent Water finds her master and leaves me, my heart clogged up.

Every spirit is in search of their own master. This is the same reasoning behind the spirit familiar summoning that will take place at my school in two weeks. June 20th is one of the best days of the year to summon spirits to this world. On that day, the human world’s spiritual aura would be abundant so the number of spirits who find their masters will significantly increase.

After meeting one another, the summoner and spirit will form a contract. The spirit will become the summoner’s familiar and fight along side the summoner as his partner.

“Mhm.” Crystal clear tears stream down Silent Water’s face: “——… master.”

“What did you say?” Silent Water’s voice was very low at that time. I only heard the word master.

“Nothing, lets eat.” Silent Water suddenly regained her earlier spirit.

——————————————————————————————

Although I did not hear what Silent Water had said before, I didn’t really care about that. In the time that Silent Water had not found her master yet, she would live together with me. While living with me, I had to take care of her and treat her like my family.

After breakfast, I realized that Silent Water did not make me a bento. Well~~ that’s fine. I can make it myself and also use this to teach Silent Water how to make new dishes.

On my way to school, my heart was bursting with emotion.

Because I’m going to school again, yo. I’m attending a school for spirit users, yo. Although magic is very dangerous, I could also study in battle combat. If I think about the past me, I was the ace of the boxing and kendo club in middle school. However, that is in the past. This world’s Kendo Club was no longer a random hobby club that used wooden swords but instead one that teaches someone how to use spiritual power to cause fatal damage to demons with the sword. Ah~~ The more I think about it, the more I want to hurry up and be at school already to learn those skills.

Walking on the road, I see that there were not many students around me. There were only a few. “How strange, why are there so little people?” Are they all late?

As I stare at the familiar streets with strange new buildings, I arrived at the school pretty quickly.

“Pillar Nofu Academy, what a really foreign sounding name.” I sigh as I looked at the big school sign. Speaking of school, this school was completely different than my original world’s Northern Sea High School. Although Northern Sea High School was the largest high school in it’s area, how can it possibly compare to this academy? This academy covers an area three times that of Northern Sea High School’s and it looked like those schools for the rich on TV.

“As I predicted, this world is simply awesome.” I sighed again.

At this time, a guard loudly shouted at me: “Hey kid, you’re still not going in there? Class is starting in 5 minutes.”

Startled, I hurriedly ran past the gate. So I was the one running late. I snoozed my alarm because I thought that I did not need to go to school that early.

I walked inside the classroom. Yo, it was an automatic door! I wasn’t even two meters from the door and it opened. It did not even make the *ding dong~~~* noises that automatic doors sound like on TV. It opened quietly without noise.

“Yo, that trash Lin Xiang is actually late?” As I came in Yamada Yukihito exclaimed and the people around him bursted into laughter.

I really wanted to openly yell at him but the cool Takahashi spoke: Yamada, are you already tired of living?”

The classed stopped laughing. A bunch of girls cried out: “Yeah, that’s our Takahashi, what a swell guy.”

Yamada countered: “Hmph, who’s afraid of who?”

As Takahashi stared down at him, Yamada shrank.

%>_<% So cool. The Takahashi of this world is way too cool. The gentle one of my world was good but I love this cool Takahashi.

I walk to my seat. The Satsuki sitting next to me tilted her head: “You’re late? Are you feel sick?”

“No, it’s just… I got up late.”

“Huh~~~ mhm~~ ? How rare.” Satsuki nodded her head. It seemed that ‘I’ had never been late for class before. Even if ‘I’ had never been late before, there is always a first for everything.

“So, when are you going to help me create an opportunity?” Satsuki added.

“Hah?” I said in confusion.

“You didn’t forget right? What I said to you Saturday night.” Satsuki looked at my strangely. Don’t tell me that people like ‘me’ have never forgotten what other people have said to me?

“Oh~~ my bad, I just woke up. My brain isn’t awake yet.” I look at this Satsuki as I compared her to the Satsuki in my original world. Aside from their hairstyles, I did not see any other differences. The only weird thing that I noticed was that this Satsuki seemed to be prettier. Is this because of the aftereffects of the nerd me liking this Satsuki?

“Eh~~ em~~” I coughed two times. I spoke like a true master: “Okay. I will let you confess to Takahashi in four days, Friday. You have to personally tell Takahashi your feelings but you also have to get to know him within those days too. After Friday, if you have not confessed, I will tell him for you.”

“Mhm~ mhm~”

“You and Takahashi have been together for so long, do you know what kind of person he is?”

“Of course. He is handsome, powerful, and a perfect guy who is always self-motivated.”

“……” So that’s how it was. Bookworm Lin Xiang, how could you ever compare to Takahashi? But don’t worry, you already knew that it was impossible for you so you quietly swore to yourself to protect her in secret. I will keep your promise and protect her in your place.

“What aren’t you talking anymore?”

“Ha~~mhm okay. I’ll tell you more about Takahashi. In this world he…”

“What do you mean in this world?” Satsuki said, interrupting me.

Startled, I quickly replied: “Yesterday, I was talking on the phone with my uncle. I talk in Chinese with my uncle and I accidently spoke in Chinese earlier. I meant this time, not world.” (Japanese pronunciation of world and Chinese’s time is a bit similar)

“Ohh~~~” Satsuki nodded her head: “Continue.”

“This w-… time’s Takahashi at the moment has many admirers but I have never seen him date anyone. This is because he is solely focused on improving his skills right?” I watch Satsuki’s expression as I said that. I don’t want her to think that I’m carelessly saying that because that was what the nerd Lin Xiang summed up last night.

“Satsuki looked to the side and her face flushed pink: “I feel like today’s Lin Xiang feels very weird.”

Tch~~~ Was I found out? No no no, impossible, nobody can find out.

“I have always been like this. Who cares about that, let’s get back on topic.”

“Oh! Okay.”

“Anyway, he has always been trying to become stronger so this is probably the reason why he isn’t dating anyone. Hey. Hey! Are you listening?” What’s up with Satsuki? She keeps staring at my face. Has she figured it out?

“Ah? Ehm… I’m still listening.”

“But he is not a blockhead. He may fall in love with a girl one day. Right? Hello? Satsuki, are you even paying attention?” Shit, did this guy really figure it out? She keeps staring at me.

“What…what did you call me?” Satsuki said in surprise.

“Didn’t I say… classmate.. Satsuki. Oy, stop changing the subject.”

*Ring ring ring* The class bell rang.

I deliberately sighed: “Look at that. It’s your fault, it’s already time for class.”

“Then… then we can talk after class.” Satsuki didn’t see to hear me as she was lost in thought.

Phew~~~ so dangerous. I completely forgot that the nerdy Lin Xiang was timid and always polite towards others. He usually said “classmate” in front of their name to show his respect. Although I knew that my surroundings had changed, in front of Satsuki, I totally forgot that I was in a different world.

Our first class was math. I was looking forward to learning things that would increase my power but I never expected that it was a real math class with a math textbook. The content inside was relatively simple too. Since this world also teaches magic to it’s students, looks like the learning courses have been lowered in level to reduce the burden on the students. The courses here are so simple.

After the first class, I suddenly felt tired. Dammit, I slept at twelve last night but I woke up at 5:30 because of that strange dream. I’m so sleepy.

Satsuki seemed to want to continue our conversation about how she was going to confess to Takahashi but Takahashi came over to my seat, wanting to talk to me too. She became timid and opened a book, pretending to be busy studying.

“Why didn’t you come yesterday?” Takahashi handsomely laughed as he spoke to me. His white teeth were like glistening like diamonds.

“Yesterday?” Speaking of that, the nerd Lin Xiang promised Takahashi that he would help him at work on Sunday. “Ah… That’s because I got sick yesterday.”

“Oh, so that’s what happened. Was that why you were late today?” Yes this is Takahashi, a gentleman. In this world, he was a perfect guy. He’s cool when he’s supposed to be cool and knows exactly when to be concerned for someone.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” This is good, this could also be my reason for being late this morning.

“Are you alright now?”

“I feel a lot better.” Takahashi glanced at Satsuki out of the corner of his eye. From his expression, it looks like he is fond of her?

We chatted for a while and then the class started again. During this ten minute talk during the break, I notice that Takahashi sometimes stares at Satsuki. Because of how he acted, I feel that he also likes Satsuki too. Looks like even without my help, the confession would be successful? But if I tell him, it would be no fun. It’s better for Satsuki to personally confess to him.

This next class was English. However, I was too tired and started to doze off.

“Student Lin Xiang, what’s wrong?” A pleasant sounding hypnotic voice entered my ears.

I raise my head and find the English teacher, Ijima Meiko, to my side, watching me.

“I… I’m fine, I only have a little cold… maybe?” Ah ! ! ! ! Damn, I accidentally asked a rhetorical question.

“Oh, so that’s how it was. Studying is important but it is also important to take care of your body.” Ijima Meiko softly said.

I felt a chill come from behind my back. All the guys in my class had an indescribable expression on their face. It was the same expression I saw on the guys who were back in my original world when they see me together with Satsuki. Wasn’t it an “I want to kill you” expression? How come I’m seeing it in this world too?

Speaking of Ijima Meiko, she was really amazing. She was only 20 years old this year and reached the level of Magus. She was one of the ten strongest youngest spirit users in all of history. She inherited her abilities from Ijima Michita, her grandfather and the headmaster of our academy.

Ijima Michita, a battle Elder. He gave up the honorable of being one of the world’s guardians in order to become our spirit user-in-training school’s headmaster. He had a profound motto: “How can one person protect the world? I rather train a group of future guardians.”

This highly prestigious Ijima Michita was a noble battle Elder that overlooked Ijima Meiko’s strength. With just her appearance, all the male students fell in love with her. She was named the “Male Killer” by the academy students.

She had a model’s height of 1.75 meters, a slender waist with a full you-know-what. If you glance at her just once, she would already be unforgettable in your mind because of her enchanting face. If looks could kill, she would have killed all the male students and teachers in this academy.

Even the bookworm Lin Xiang liked her but he only liked her appearance and did not really love her with his heart. This was because she does not look down on the weak Lin Xiang like other teachers.

In my eyes, Ijima Meiko is indeed beautiful but it was because of her mature charm. I feel that after a few years, Satsuki would also grow up into becoming a “Male Killer” too.

I force my eyes open and actually sat through the entire class.

I lie on my desk. Satsuki poked me with her pen and then waved: “I’m tired, let’s talk after the next lesson.”

“Hey. Hey. Hey.” Satsuki poked me with her pen a little harder. But I was already exhausted and have already flown off into the dream world.

“Hey, you slept through an entire class. Are you really sick? I swear you looked fine this morning.” Satsuki said in a blaming tone of voice near my ear.

I raise my head and rubbed my eyes: “Oy, a cold is a cold. Besides wasn’t it only Physics. Now back on topic, where were we?”

“We were at Takahashi not being a blockhead so he could one day fall in love with someone else.” Satsuki said as she tutted at me with her small mouth: “Today’s Lin Xiang is acting really strangely.”

“Ah~~~ It’s because I caught a cold and makes me forgetful. That’s why I’m like this, you know that. I’m not being strange.” I smiled bitterly: “I already said to not change the subject earlier. Listen to me.”

“Hey, wait, why are you standing up?” I originally wanted to finish talking in one breath so I can temporarily ignore Satsuki afterwards. Lest I reveal my secret.

Then the entire class stood up and left their tables.

“What did you say? Let’s continue after this lesson. It’s time for simulated combat training.” After she finished talking, she left with two other girls in the class.

Simulated combat training ? ?

Cool ! It was finally time for the fighting course. I remember that the nerd Lin Xiang hated this lesson. It was because this course tests our combat skills. With his skills, he could not even win against the lowest ranked demon in this simulation. The students would always laugh at the Lin Xiang that was forced to run in circles because of a lesser demon.

Takahashi grabbed me on my shoulder: “Let’s go, you can’t skip it, there’s something fun to look forward to this time.”

“Fun? What kind of fun?”

“It will definitely be fun, hehe. If you, go you’ll know.” Takahashi said with a smile.

“Oh!” I’m looking forward to it.

—————————— Combat Simulation Training Room

The combat simulation training room. It was a room that covered an area of more than 200 square meters. It has advanced technology that could simulate a demon’s form and even clone a demon’s ability. However, for the student’s safety, the highest setting was only a low demon. All the simulated forms were either lesser demons or low demons.

The teacher in charge of this course was Yaozele-something? I didn’t care what his name was. I just knew that the nerdy Lin Xiang who I thought would never think badly of others, hated him. If you weren’t strong enough, this teacher would even refuse to look at you. He was a typical teacher who only cared for the strong.

He seems to be 30 this year? And probably not married? Heh~~ but with that kind of character, how could anyone like him.

He likes sports so we line up and then he did roll call.

After roll call, he began to call names of the first people to fight against the lesser demon simulations: “Takahashi Nobuhiko.”

Was it zeyao or yaoze? Whatever. When the teacher called out Takahashi’s name, all the girls in the class made a *Waaa~~ oohh~~* sound. He was truly worthy of being the number one spirit user in this class. He was already a lvl 2 Intermediate Magician in his first semester and he already had the capability to fight a low demon.

Takahashi had a handsome aura around him when he went on stage. He really was so cool. At this moment I wanted to shout really loudly saying: “That handsome guy is my good friend.”

Of course, I wasn’t that silly. If I said that out loud, I would be despised by all the girls in here and be killed under their glares… Wait a minute, what the heck? I felt like I became a different person. Why the hell would I said to say ‘that handsome guy is my good friend’ out loud? Gross.

Forget it, I don’t want to think about it. I’ll have a look at how Takahashi eliminates demons and maybe learn something from him.

“Are you ready?” The system said in a voice like it was the opening of a game. Then it started to countdown: “Three… two… one.”

In front of Takahashi, a foggy thing appeared. At the same time, on Takahashi’s head, a golden magic circle appeared. Silver blades flew out of the circle to stab the demon.

“Takahashi-san is truly worthy of being called a genius. In just a few seconds, he brought out such a big magic circle of the gold magic.

This so-called gold magic is one out of the five basic magic properties a spirit user could specialize in. They are wind, fire, water, electricity, and gold kinds of magic.

Light magic. Aside from angels, no other species could use it. As for dark magic, it was exclusive to demons and a black mage.

Gold magic. It is a difficult to master magic that could materialize weapons. Only intermediate magicians and higher could cast that sort of spell.

“So handsome…” All the girls screamed as if it were a concert and the atmosphere kept rising.

That previous magic was really cool, was this the fun thing that Takahashi was talking about?

“Then, after Takahashi-san’s performance, we will request Satsuki-san to step on up….”

As soon as Satsuki went up on stage, the male students who were bored suddenly became vigorous. They shouted: “Satsuki, Satsuki, Satsuki.”

—————–

Satsuki specialized in wind and fire magic. If you combine wind with fire, the wind will strengthen the fire and let it be more destructive.

After Satsuki went on stage, in less than 3 or 4 seconds, the lesser demon got K.O.’d.

This could help me learn somethings but I don’t really want to learn magic. I rather learn combat skills. Speaking of combat fighters, the rank 4 in the class, Yamada specialized in close quarter combat. I should learn from him.

The person who was rank 3 in the class was the class monitor. She specializes in poison and fog. It fits well with her personality and character.

I forgot to mention that in addition to the five basic magic properties, there are other types of magic out there, such as poison magic, fog magic, wood magic, and so on..

Miss rank 3 killed the demon in less than a second. How terribly fierce… Now it is Yamada’s turn. He held a sword and when the system was preparing for the next demon simulation, I saw flames erupt from his sword.

As soon as the system said start, the demon appeared. Yamada ran up to the demon. His movement contained no elegance but the me that learned Kendo could tell that every slash of his blade was accurate and deadly.

————————————————

The class had a total of 60 people. After 59 people went up for the battle simulation, I saw a number of fighting techniques. Now it is the turn of the lowest ranked person in the class, my turn. The previous 10 simulations left people bored out of their mind but when they see me get on stage, they became spirited again.

These bastards, they were probably looking forward to another one of ‘my’ embarrassing performances. But they won’t get it. Since I had already beaten a superior demon even though I had no idea how that happened. Oh, it was the white flame. Would it appear again?

As I thought about it, I shook my fist but nothing happened.

‘Hum~ if I think about it, how could that have happened. Maybe an angel was helping me out.’

I smiled to myself and stood on the designated location.

The mechanical voice of the system began again.

“3… 2… 1…”

This time, a fog-like substance appeared in front of me.

Once it appeared, it hit me…

Weird. What’s going on? The other 59 people’s simulation that I observed were completely different. Every time a demon appeared, it always tried to escape and let them fight with the simulation. How come when it was my turn the demon took the initiative to attack me? It’s speed was pretty fast too.

I jump backwards and the demon’s claw hit the place I was standing earlier and a deep rifted appeared.

‘Ha? What’s going on? Why was it’s strength so powerful? If it was a direct hit, then I would really have died. Does this system hate me enough to pick a demon that would initiate a fight? Was this a special way it tormented weak people like me? Wasn’t this AI a bit cruel and unusual?

Just when I was about to fight back, there was a *whoosh*, and a sword that radiated silver light stabbed the heart of the demon. The demon disappeared. The attacker was my good friend Takahashi.

“What the hell is going on?” Takahashi loudly yelled at the teacher.

“I… I don’t know either.” The teacher replied, panicking.

What happened? And why does Takahashi look nervous too?

“Do you call that a lesser demon? That was obviously a low demon, if Lin Xiang did not avoid that attack and got hit, what would we do?” Ah~~ I’m so moved. So Takahashi was worried about me.

No wonder, that demon’s murderous intent was heavier than all the other simulated lesser demons. If it weren’t for Takahashi’s fast reflexes, I really would not know what could have happened.

“I’ll immediately go check. It must be a system error.” The teacher said as he trotted away to the control center.

That guy, although he was snobbish, he was probably already to take responsibility for a student injury.

“Long live Prince Takahashi-kun ~~” A girl suddenly cried

“Yay, yay.”

“Whoa~~~ he’s so hot~~ Takahashi-kun, you’re so hot.”

“Yeah, he’s super hot, how can he be that hot?”

“I need to catch up, I will definitely become Takahashi-kun’s woman!” Wow, that was a really bold statement.

Takahashi laughed and paid no mind to them. He patted me on the shoulder and we walk together back to the classroom.

“I can’t believed that just happened.” Takahashi sighed.

“Yeah.” I nodded my head.

“But, how could you have dodged that? That demon’s speed was clearly very quick.”

“Mhm?” As he asked me that, he looked somewhat uncomfortable. He was probably wondering why my reaction speed became! “Ohh~~ just now? You know that I have a cold right? I was about to sneeze so I took two steps back because of that.”

“So that’s how it was.” Takahashi’s disbelief vanished and his eyes returned to his previous kind expression: “You were really lucky, but that’s a good thing.” Takahashi laughed, and his white teeth flashed every so often.

——————————————————

Back in the classroom, because of what had happened before, the girls could not keep calm. They all ran up to Takahashi.

“Ne~ ne~, Takahashi-kun you’re soooo hot. Everytime I look at you, it makes me love you even more.”

“Don’t be in heat, Riko.”

“Yeah Yeah. Ne~ ne~ Takahashi-kun, if something like that happened to me, you have to save me.”

Takahashi was surrounded by 27 chattering girls and the male students in the class were all jealous out of their minds.

There are a total of 29 girls in our class. One of the girls that did not join was my timid friend — Satsuki. The other was that poisonous class monitor, Kamiki Kuji.

“What? Jealous?” I smiled at the Satsuki who was staring intently at Takahashi.

“Hmph~~~” Satsuki snorted as if in a bad mood.

When she pursed her mouth flat, I realized that she was legitly unhappy. Relax, Takahashi obviously likes you, I snickered to myself.

After another lesson, it was time for lunch.

“Ahh? You have a bento?” Satsuki said in surprise as she saw me take out a bento from my bag.

“Ahh.. yeah… I had free time this morning so I made it.” I open my bento.

“Whoa, it’s deep-fried meatballs!?” Satsuki’s eyes shone as she exclaimed loudly.

Even if it’s a different world, she still likes eating deep fried meat balls? How typical of Satsuki.

“Haa~~~ this, I knew that you liked to eat this. Here, for you.” Since I was used to making deep fried meatballs for the other world’s Satsuki, I unconsciously made some this morning.

After her delightful feelings of happiness, Satsuki suddenly thought: “How did you know that I liked deep-fried meat balls?”

“……” Shit, I forgot. The nerd Lin Xiang always eats in the dining hall and did not know that she liked eating deep fried meat balls.
(TL: I suddenly realized that croquettes are deep fried meatballs.. found a cute looking bento too)

“Well… it’s because… when I first opened my bento, didn’t you say ‘whoa, there’s deep fried meatballs’? I figured that you must really like them.”

“Hmm~~ mm?” Satsuki said in a suspiciously strange tone of voice.

“Hey, stop thinking about the small stuff, you gonna eat that? If not, I’m going to eat them all.” I threatened.

“I do, I do…eh? These deep fried meat balls are so delicious, who made them? Isn’t this too delicious?” Satsuki said after she took a bite. Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth.

“Bought it off the streets.”

“Liar, I’ve eaten all the neighborhood’s fried meat balls and I’ve never eaten these delicious ones yet. It’s impossible that you made it, since you burned all your cooking when we’re in home ec.

Now that I think about it, that really happened before. Home economics is a class designed to teach people how to cook and will help people survive in the outside world. It’s good to live with a full stomach. That nerd Lin Xiang though, he always finds a way to burn his pot inside out.

“Hmm? Xiang you bright your own bento today?” Takahashi came over.

Satsuki immediately bowed her head and busily eat her bento.

“Mhm, yeah, sorry, I can’t go with you to the canteen…” I laugh, embarrassed.

“Is that so? No problem, I’ll go eat alone.” Takahashi glanced at Satsuki again and left, looking unhappy.

“Hey! That was a good opportunity! Why didn’t you talk to him?”

“Ahh~~ mmh~~ I got nervous.” Satsuki grumbled. Looks like she regretted her lack of courage that made her unable to talk to Takahashi.

Seeing her like this, I couldn’t help laughing. Aside from appearances, even the personality was completely different. The Satsuki from my previous world was very bold.

I laughed out loud: “Alright, I’ll bring you to the place Takahashi works at this afternoon, after school. You better not miss your chance again.”

“Mmm… I’ll definitely try my best.”

——————————

“I’m sooo full.” Satsuki said as she closed her empty bento.

I saw a grain of rice on her lips and stretched out my hand to take it off. I smiled: “Remember to wipe your mouth after you finish eating.”

“I… I… I… could have… done that myself.” Satsuki blushed and ran out of the classroom. Probably going to the bathroom?

After I closed my bento cover, Yamada came back into the classroom with his two minions while biting into a toothpick. Seeing that Takahashi wasn’t around, he swaggered over in my direction: “Yo, trash, help yo daddy here buy a bottle of juice.”

“I want one too.” Yamada’s two followers said at the same time.

I stood up.

Yamada thought that I was going to help him, as if I was his dog or something, and added: “Then three bottles of the same kind.”

I held out my hand out and casually started to speak: “Give me me money and I’ll consider if I want to help you buy them.”

Yamada looked very surprised by my actions: “What did you just say? I heard you wrong, right?” He raised his fist and it came towards me.

*Pah* I caught Yamada’s heavy fists. Then I kicked him in the stomach and he slumped onto the floor. The chattering of my classmates were so loud that no one noticed that Yamada had been defeated by me.

Yamada angrily stood up as his fists flew towards me again.

This time, I didn’t give him an opportunity to even touch me. Before his fists even reached me, I kicked him and sent him flying 3-4 meters backwards. As soon as I saw his disheveled appearance, I felt happy, carefree, because ever since I saw him this morning I was reminded of how he bullied the nerd Lin Xiang. It was not a pleasurable feeling at all.

All the students in the class turned in our direction. With great care, I ran over to where he fell and said spoke in a fearful tone of voice: “Uh, violence is bad, you see, it even made you slip and fall over.”

I lowered my voice down to a volume that only Yamada could hear: “I gave you an exit out but you did not take it, so now you’re losing face. What? If you want to fight, come at me. Oh, you should also bring your seven best friends.” I was referring to the seven friends of his that I beat to a pulp in the other world.

But in this world, Yamada and those bully friends of his always blackmail the me of this world.

The two followers had seen the easy to bully me unexpectedly beat Yamada with such an unexpected power. When they saw what had happened, they became completely stupid.

Yamada swore loudly: “You two assholes, why aren’t you coming to help me up?” They finally reacted and went over to give Yamada a lift.

After Yamada was helped up, although he was less arrogant, he growled: “Lin Xiang! Just you wait.” Then he went to the infirmary with his two attendants.

By now, most of the people in the class had returned. They did not know what I had done earlier and asked: “What happened?”

Fortunately, Takahashi and Satsuki had not arrived yet. I don’t want them to see me like this.

I sat back in my own seat, turned my head facing the window, and watched the scenery outside. I ignored the whispers of my classmates in the classroom.

A while later, Satsuki returned. Her face felt like it was more delicate and smoother than before so I guess she went to wash her face. She asked me: “When I left earlier, wasn’t it really noisy before? How come it’s so quiet now? What happened?”

“I dunno, oh, it was probably because Yamada fell down.” I said.

“Ohh~~ so that’s what happened.”

———————— After school

After school, Takahashi ran to his workplace.

Originally, I wanted to call him but did not call him in the end. So now it became a situation of going home together with Satsuki, which surprised a lot of the boys from school.

“The campus Madonna is unexpectedly leaving together with that piece of crap? Am I dreaming?”

They rubbed their eyes and realized that they were not dreaming. Then they started cursing me.

I was already used to it in the other world so I didn’t really care. Satsuki seemed to not be used to the stares of the male students but she did not utter a single sound.

“Hey~ you alright? Want to walk further apart?”

“No, it’s fine, I’ll use this… to practice my courage.”

I sighed and did not say anything else. As we walked along the long path away from the academy in silence, we arrived downtown.

Tired, Satsuki asked me: “Hey Lin Xiang, are we we there yet?”

“We’re almost there. You see that intersection in front of us? We just need to walk about 200 meters past that and we’ll be there.”

“Ha? That far?”

“It’s not far, it’s short. As long as you think about Takahashi, you won’t get tired.” The pedestrians around us kept coming and going. Suddenly, a duo of mother and daughter caught my eye.

The little girl was holding her mother’s hand in one hand, and a balloon in the other. She was bouncing up and down energetically.

The mother released the girl’s hand to bend down and picked up a coin she dropped.

At the same time, the balloon flew away from the girl and she ran away chasing it… but in front of her was a heavily trafficked road.

“…ne, Lin Xiang, are you listening to me…” Before Satsuki even finished her sentence, I gave her my bag and told her to: “Hold it.”

As I ran towards the girl, at that moment, the truck from the other side of the street appeared. In this situation, I could have waited for the girl to run out of the street, or even wait for the truck to brake, but that would be too late

Damn, why is it like this again? Do I have to die one more time?

No, I won’t die. Last time, I helped a kid riding a tricycle by kicking it out of the car’s range. This time, it was only a lone girl and there is nothing in my way. I can do it.

Okay, I caught up with the girl. The little girl was only 2 meters away from me and the truck finally began to brake after discovering the little girl. I took the little girl in my arms and barely rolled out of the truck’s way.

I quickly stood up, avoiding the traffic on the other side of the street as I held the little girl in my arms and casually walked back on the road.

The little girl’s tiny beady eyes stared intently at me. It seems as if she didn’t know what had happened.

That’s good, this means that this accident will not leave a shadow in her heart.

Next to the road, the little girl’s mom was scared out of her wits. She dropped her wallet and everything else she was holding to run at us.

I wasn’t sure if anything happened to the little girl so I carefully checked for injuries.

The little girl saw her mom crying so she started to cry as well. She dropped into her mother’s arms.

The little girl’s mother continuously said thanks to me as the truck driver pulled over, parking at the roadside. He got off and asked me if I needed to go to the hospital. I swiftly rejected him.

I was only a little dizzy but I didn’t get hit. Did that me I had to go to the hospital? I used to always get hit on the head with a stick in fights. If I went to the hospital every time I got a little injury, wouldn’t I have been in there at least a dozen or more times already?

After declining the mother’s invitation to dinner, I walked over to Satsuki’s side: “Sorry about that, they’re freaking out too much.”

Satsuki just continued to stare at me with an indescribable expression on her face. I ask: What’s wrong?”

She woke up from her trance: “Hmm? Hmm, yeah.” She looked surprised as she asked me: “You… when did you.. become so fast?”

“I was always like this.” I laughed.

Satsuki lowered her head: “Really… I had always felt like I never completely understood Lin Xiang. We’ve been classmates for 3 years, and we’re friends too.” What was she talking about this time? She sounded like she was accusing me of something.

However, it was true that you do not really know me. We have only met for one day. I rub her head like usual: “Alright, let’s go, to Takahashi’s store.”

Satsuki flushed beet red. She swatted my hand away: “Don’t touch my head~~ Today’s Lin Xiang is really weird, completely from the past.”

After hearing her say that, all the hairs in my body rose and I felt like I sweated a storm.

Oh no, the nerdy Lin Xiang would never touch Satsuki like that. I could bluff my way through that rescue but I have no explanation for touching her head. Don’t tell me that I have to tell her that I “came from another world.”

If I say that, wouldn’t they send me to a mental hospital?

I bitterly smiled, “I’m still myself. Okay, let’s stop talking about this, let’s go to where Takahashi is.”

“This… today… I don’t want to go anymore.” Satsuki said in a low voice.

“How come you don’t want to go anymore?” I’m confused, how come Satsuki suddenly said that she doesn’t want to go anymore?

“I don’t want to go, I want… to go home.”

Although I don’t know what happened to her, but since she didn’t want to go anymore, then we won’t go. I took both bags from her hands: “Then I’ll walk you back.”

Now that I think about it, what should I eat today? Lost in thought, I considered this problem.

As soon as I took Satsuki’s bags, she looked as if I scared her or something. Wanting to get her bag back, she fell into my arms.

“What’re you doing~~ aren’t I just helping you hold your bag.” I helplessly said.

She took two steps back, grabbed her own bag and bent her head, not even daring to look at me. She clutched her bag to her chest as she turned: “As expected, today’s Lin Xiang is weird, oh, even I have become weird.”

After she finished speaking, she ran away.

“Hey!” I shouted at her retreating back.

What happened to that guy? You know, the you over there always made me help you every time you went home. The you over there?

……

Darn, I acted the same way I act to the other world’s Satsuki, to this world’s Satsuki. I don’t know why I always forget about the fact that I traveled through time and space when I’m in front of her.

Her face was so red. She was probably mad at me? She probably hates me now?

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