“Damn it, may I never break safety rules again in my life!” a guy mentally cursed, awkwardly slipping out of the bus.
Looking at him, you could easily tell that physical activity was a regular thing for him.
It showed in his strong build and broad shoulders, which, given his considerable height, looked quite organic.
He wasn’t a giant, just well-proportioned.
His face was neither ugly nor especially handsome.
The look was completed by a short crop of dark hair, a habit from the army that hadn’t gone away six months after being discharged.
Pulling a pair of heavy-looking wooden crutches out of the bus, Samuel (for it was him) headed home.
Why the crutches?
Oh, that was the result of a stupid accident and negligence at work.
Those were exactly the words he was fired with from the warehouse where he worked as a loader.
And it didn’t matter that the management was blatantly stealing funds, forcing regular workers like him to work with frankly crappy tools and equipment.
The result was a crack in his tibia.
Good thing it wasn’t a full fracture, though he had every chance of getting one when the winch broke and some part of some musical equipment slammed into his leg.
And even though Samuel had no idea what kind of musical thing was in that box, it was really heavy.
The stream of profanity that poured out of his mouth at that moment would have sent any composer into ecstasy.
He had just come from the hospital, where they finally removed his cast.
Samuel didn’t understand why he even needed a cast, but he didn’t dare argue because he was even more clueless about medicine than about music.
His injured leg was now securely fixed in a rigid brace, but at least he could take it off.
He was incredibly annoyed by the inability to even take a proper shower, and he planned to spend the next hour soaking in the bath.
With these thoughts, Samuel headed home.
His route took him through several courtyards and a row of garages to an old-looking two-story brick building.
It was located about five hundred meters from the main road, had several identical houses nearby, but no decent access road, let alone a sidewalk.
At least hobbling along the brick-and-gravel path on crutches was not a pleasant experience, as Samuel had been learning every day for the last two and a half weeks.
On top of that, there was his momentary whim.
He didn’t want to lose his shape, so he asked a familiar mechanic to carve him some heavier crutches.
For a bottle of liquor and a thousand-five hundred yen, the guy finished them in a day.
The result was a pair of monstrous-looking contraptions weighing about eight to ten kilograms each.
Actively and now habitually cursing the local administration for the crappy roads in his head, Samuel moved toward home.
That’s when his attention was caught by someone’s shout.
“… huh?! I’m asking you, you dumb bitch!”
*BZ-DAM!* came the sound of a metal garage wall being struck.
And it all came from the same direction.
Samuel didn’t hesitate for long.
His proactive and responsive nature wouldn’t let him ignore the situation.
He would soon regret this decision, but since he didn’t know that yet, he didn’t stop.
He turned into the narrow passage between the steel garages.
He’d only walked about twenty meters and turned into the area where he thought the sound came from when he saw a scene right out of a cliché movie.
You know, the one where a couple of scumbags try to do something nasty to a pretty girl.
Following the same cliché, the girl was indeed pretty, not what you might actually expect in real life.
But Samuel only noted her beauty in passing before focusing his attention on the supposed “scumbags.” One of them stood almost right up against the girl, his left fist (Samuel realized then what sound he’d heard) pressed against the garage wall just a few centimeters from the beauty’s head.
He loomed noticeably over the short girl.
Another guy stood nearby.
There was no point in describing them both in detail, because the clichés ended there.
Both guys looked simple.
Jeans, hoodies, sneakers.
Just different colors.
Their facial expressions were gloomy and angry, not what you might expect from “scumbags” in such a situation.
But Samuel had only seen those in movies and anime, so that wasn’t much of an argument.
“Hey, guys!” he called out as he approached.
“Did you have some kind of disagreement with this girl?” He didn’t see the point in starting a fight right away.
Not out of fear, but because maybe he had misunderstood something.
The situation still looked a little strange, and Samuel was afraid he might be misinterpreting it.
Silence.
The trio of two guys and the girl sized up the guy.
Then the guy standing a little further from the girl decided to answer.
“Listen, why don’t you just hobble on out of here, huh? This is none of your business.”
“Maybe,” the guy readily nodded.
“But I can decide for myself whether it’s my business or not. And don’t let the crutches fool you.” He slightly raised his right creation of the crazy mechanic.
“They’re a little heavier than they look.” Then he slammed it down with all his might onto the brick beneath his feet.
The rubber-tipped end of the crutch softened the blow somewhat, but only in terms of dispersing the impact.
It was more than enough to leave several noticeable cracks in the rather crumbly brick.
“And I handle them pretty well,” Samuel smiled brightly at the tense guys.
“Listen here…” the first one who had spoken to the “rescuer” started to stoke the conflict.
“Wait,” the guy who had been looming over the girl put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.
Apparently, hitting the garage wall earlier had cooled him down a bit, while his friend was still wound up for some unknown reason.
“She’s not worth it, believe me,” he said, seemingly to both his friend and Samuel at once, which further fueled Samuel’s suspicions that something was wrong.
Glancing at the girl, Samuel caught a rather mocking, panic-free look accompanied by an annoying smirk.
His suspicions grew even stronger.
“But she…”
“Stop it, Vadim. Let’s go. I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to fight a cripple over that bitch. Especially since it’s not even clear who would beat whom.” The guy assessed Samuel’s impressive physique.
“She’s really not worth it,” he repeated, looking Samuel straight in the eye, then dragged his friend away.
A few minutes later, their silhouettes disappeared ahead.
“Uh, well…” the guy awkwardly shifted his crutches, realizing that he had probably interfered where he shouldn’t have.
“Well, I’ll be going…”
“Stop.” One short, simple word, but spoken in such an authoritative manner that it instantly shifted Samuel’s state from “looks like I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong” to “why the hell did I even get involved here?!”
“Yes?” the guy winced into something like a friendly smile, looking over his shoulder.
“For your information,” the girl elegantly waved her hand, “I didn’t need the help of some pathetic cripple to take care of a couple of cockroaches.”
It was at that moment, slightly stunned by her words, that Samuel finally bothered to get a good look at who he had “saved.” Long, greenish hair flowing over her shoulders and down her back looked simply magical and must have cost the girl a lot of effort and money.
The contours of her body under her blouse and trousers were more than pleasing to the eye, and her facial features were refined and pretty, if a little foreign.
“I’m not a cripple,” the guy answered, tearing his gaze from her impressive upper nineties.
“So you have nothing to say about being pathetic? Just what I expected from such a dim-witted cripple. Oh well, it doesn’t matter.” The girl tossed her head, clearly not wanting to hear his answer.
“You did well and all, so I’m promoting you from disgusting cockroach to pathetic lame mouse.”
“Well, thanks,” Samuel said, barely containing his irritation and beginning to slowly understand why those guys were trying to pick a fight with the little brat.
“I hope you’re finished. Then I’ll be going.” He turned away from the girl completely.
“And yeah, if you don’t want a repeat of this situation, I suggest you be a little more polite around here. And hide that necklace.” He nodded without looking toward the girl’s neck.
“It looks expensive, and giving people around here an extra reason to bother you isn’t the best idea.”
“Necklace?” the girl said in surprise, watching the guy slowly move into the passage between the garages where he had come from.
Glancing down, the beauty silently stared at the accessory hanging around her neck for a few seconds.
Then, having made some decision, she quickly walked toward Samuel.
The sound of her approaching footsteps caused the guy, who hadn’t seen the look of surprise on her face, no small amount of irritation.
“I’ve decided to walk with you for a bit. You may begin expressing your joy and admiration,” the girl drawled in a haughty and, most annoyingly, completely serious tone.
“Well, thanks,” the guy muttered.
However, he didn’t drive the rude girl away.
He decided to simply ignore her.
After all, he had already mentioned the neighborhood’s bad reputation more than once.
And despite her obnoxious personality, he didn’t really want to leave the girl alone here.
But he had no desire to force himself on her as a chaperone after all the things she had said.
Luckily, the girl seemed to understand the situation and decided to walk with someone safe.
‘Maybe she lives somewhere in that direction?’ the guy thought.
Continuing to walk in silence, Samuel occasionally noticed out of the corner of his eye that the girl was staring at him relentlessly, practically burning holes through him with her gaze.
“What?” he finally snapped, turning around.
“Oh, I’m just waiting for the pathetic plebeian to find his manners and deign to introduce himself to a beautiful girl.”
“Huh… Could you maybe not talk like that? It’s a little annoying.” He rubbed his eyes.
“My name is Samuel.” Then he moved toward home again, moving his crutches much faster.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but fine.” The guy’s eyelid twitched at her words.
“My name is Kalli. But I sincerely hope a plebeian like you won’t say my name out loud. Actually, it would be nice if you didn’t even think about it.”
“Whatever you say, Kalli,” Samuel said in an openly mocking tone, not at all surprised by the girl’s answer.
“Sigh… pathetic plebeians can’t even grasp the hopes and aspirations of their masters. What deplorable lack of intelligence…” The guy’s eyelid twitched twice.
“Oh well. I have another question. How do you feel about anime?”
“Huh?” Samuel was so surprised that he even stopped and turned to look at the rude girl, stunned by the abrupt change of subject.
‘She’s definitely crazy.
I need to gently get rid of her and get out of here.’
“Hmm… it’s fine. I watch it sometimes, but I prefer reading. Fanfics, light novels, manga… stuff like that.” Almost breaking into a run, which was quite difficult on crutches, the guy answered with complete honesty, surprising even himself.
“Excellent!” Samuel noticed out of the corner of his eye the girl’s pleased smile, which easily kept pace with him.
That smile sent a wave of unpleasant goosebumps down his back.
“I’ve been studying it all recently. Not bad, for a lower species,” she nodded with satisfaction.
“I especially liked the isekai genre. What about you?”
“It’s fine. I read almost every genre except god-awful yaoi and omegaverse, and maybe a couple of others.” The guy sped up even more, and only one thought ran through his head:
‘Why the hell am I answering all her questions like an obedient puppy?’
“Let’s imagine for a second that I’m an all-powerful goddess and I can send you to any world and give you one interesting perk within reason. Where would you go and what would you ask for?” The girl had almost completely dropped her previous manner of speaking, asking a question that was clearly just an attempt to keep the conversation going.
This caused genuine panic in Samuel.
If you ever thought a person on crutches was slow, you were wrong.
The speed Samuel was moving at now was almost as fast as his top speed with healthy legs.
Sweat poured into his eyes, his breathing became ragged, and his arm muscles ached from the heavy crutches.
But the girl still calmly kept up with him and quietly waited for an answer.
“The world… huff-puff… of My Hero Academia. With… huff-puff… the abilities of Accelerator from Railgun and Index.” With these words, the guy finally stopped near his building entrance.
He frantically pulled his keys out of his pocket and pressed the key fob to the intercom.
Yanking the door handle, he reluctantly turned his body slightly and only then realized that the girl, who had been hovering at the edge of his vision just a moment ago, had simply vanished.
All of this, including the fact that the desperate rescuer had almost instantly answered a question he had never even thought about before, plunged him into a state of sticky, irrational fear.
Franticly looking around, Samuel flew up the stairs to the second floor and quickly opened the apartment door, rushing inside.
But even after finally getting home, the poor guy didn’t feel safe.
“I’m totally… huff-puff… losing my mind,” Samuel said, trying to calm himself.
He failed.