6 Protection (2/2)
It was only by a few steps—not even five seconds!
This incident which should have been over already instead led to this terrible ending!
Reality was definitely the worst game there was!
However…
Luckily, he still had save files.
Load!!
The world around became dark, before lighting up once more.
Seiji was in his room, sitting on the bed.
It was earlier this morning, when he had just woken up.
In case of emergencies, Seiji would save a new file whenever he woke up.
This time he definitely wouldn’t allow the tragedy to repeat itself!
He didn’t go for his usual morning jog; instead, he waited silently in his room.
At the same time that he remembered, there was a knock on his door.
When he went to open it, he saw a girl carrying a lunchbox for him.
There was no dagger, no blood, and she was still safe.
”Haruta-kun… your eyes are a bit red—is there anything wrong?” Mika Uehara was concerned about him.
”Nothing, just some dust in my eye.” Seiji smiled and blinked, ”what about you—do you have something on your mind?”
...
On her way to school, Mika couldn’t help sneaking glances at the boy beside her.
She wanted to go to school after giving him breakfast, but after receiving it from her, he adamantly insisted on keeping his promise to continue escorting her to school.
She couldn’t convince him otherwise, so that was how it ended up.
Was his insistence on escorting her after receiving breakfast a roundabout way of telling her he didn’t want to be in her debt? Thinking this, Mika felt slightly disappointed.
Suddenly, a figure dashed out in front of her.
He had filthy clothes, messy dyed-blonde hair, and bloodshot eyes.
”It was all because of you, you fucking bitch!”
Mika Uehara was terrified by the malevolent aura emitted by blondie, and her mind was frozen with fear, but instantly, a huge shadow protected her from the front.
It was Seiji Haruta.
He stood firmly in front of her, just like a thick wall.
He was waiting for this bastard.
”Mika, stand back and call the police.” He whispered to the girl. ”Leave this guy to me. I will protect you.”
He remembered the sight of her soaked in blood and silently vowed that he would never allow time to repeat itself!
”Get the hell out of my way!” Blondie roared madly as he lunged at Seiji with his glimmering dagger.
Seiji fearlessly countered his attack, using both hands to grasp firmly onto blondie’s wrist which was holding the dagger, as his right foot aimed for blondie’s crotch and kicked out with devastating force!
*BAM!* As they collided, there was the sound of something breaking.
Blondie’s crazed expression had abruptly frozen.
Then he screamed as if he was dying.
I’ll never tell you that you succeeded the first time, so I had to load once.
I’ll never tell you that in order to defeat you without getting injured, I had to load twice.
I’ll never tell you that in order to take advantage of this perfect chance of claiming self-defense and crippling you for life, thus leaving you functionless down there forever, I had to load three times.
I came back to this scene a total of six times!
Seiji viciously knocked over blondie as he was shrieking madly and making inhuman sounds!
Mika Uehara watched all this with her mouth wide agape.
She was unable to comprehend how this boy, who was just a weak otaku not long ago, was able to fearlessly block someone so malicious.
And there was no way for her to understand why his movements were so accurate as he defeated blondie.
The only thing she could see was his thick shadow, and his words rung incessantly in her ears.
”Stay back, Mika. I will protect you.”
Something hot flowed out from her heart, burning her chest, scorching her entire body, and almost causing her to shout out loud.
She shouldn’t be like this; she should be calmly observing the situation and worrying if he was injured or not.
But she could only stay where she was right now and feel the impact of blissful fortune upon her.
Her legs were shaking, and something hot was oozing out of the corner of her eye.
Ahh!! She couldn’t deny it any longer.
At this very moment, Mika Uehara was utterly certain that she had completely fallen in love with this boy named Seiji Haruta.
...
After that, everything progressed as expected.
The street-side surveillance cameras recorded everything. Blondie was the one who was intended to harm someone, and Seiji only acted in pure self-defense.
In that sort of situation, for a boy who wasn’t knowledgeable in martial arts, accidentally giving the attacker such a permanent injury was understandable.
In fact, for him to be able to calmly and accurately stop the crime was incredible already.
And so, Seiji Haruta was judged to have committed no crime; not even his guardian was required for him to leave the police station. Blondie, however, had been charged with attempted murder.
And with this, the incident had finally come to a conclusion.
...…
It was a brand new day.
Mika Uehara held a lunchbox and was about to knock on the door.
But she hesitated, putting the lunchbox down and taking out a hand mirror to check her appearance once more.
If her mother could see her, she would definitely smile wryly and say: ”This child, you already checked your appearance several times before going out today.”
Okay, perfect.
She touched her chest and attempted to subdue her frantic heartbeat, before raising her hand to knock on the door.
At that moment, the door suddenly opened.
”I felt like you might have been standing outside.” He smiled at the girl who was now frozen solid.
”A… argh! Don’t scare me like that!”
”Haha, sorry.” Seiji took a good look at her face and felt a sense of relief in his heart. ”Good morning, Mika.”
She had a faint red tinge on her cheeks as she looked at him, and she somehow felt as if he was feeling the same way. A brilliant, alluring smile of peerless beauty gradually suffused across her face.
”Mm… good morning!”
The girl who was smiling radiantly in the early morning sunlight seemed as if she could brighten the entire world.