Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Jin’s POV
   Darth Tin Can. Why? Because both he and Darth Maul use double-bladed weapons? He would feel honored if it wasn’t the Tin Can part. Don’t even get him started with The Walking Metal. He has a strong urge to find the person who came up with that name and do all kinds of unpleasant things to him. He takes out his ringing phone from his pocket and answers the call.

   “Hello?”

   “Good evening, Minase-kun. How are you doing today?”

   “Not so good, particularly after watching the interview with you in it.”

   Somehow, he could tell that Sergeant Wakaba is flinching on the other side of the phone.

   “Please don’t take those nicknames seriously. I’m sure that they mean no harm.” she says hurriedly.

   “Don’t worry, sergeant. I have no plans of doing anything to them.”

   “I see. I’m glad to hear it.”

   “Or rather, I can’t. Not with their names and address remain hidden. Can you help me to do something about that?”

   “To be completely honest with you, no. I dread to think what you might do to them.”

   “A shame. Anyway, since you don’t sound urgent, I take it that you’re not to talk to me about work?”

   “No. I just want to ask you about your alias.”

   “Ah. I guess it might have been difficult for you when you’re talking to me.” he admits.

   “Do you want to think up of one? Or do you want to choose one from the list I received?” she asks.

   “No, it’s fine. I heard the reporter mentioning Silver Wolf. Yup. That will do, although my armor isn’t made of silver.”

   “Understood. From now on, we’ll all be calling you Silver Wolf.”

   Thankfully, the name doesn’t sound too cringey nor chuunibyo. To be honest, pretty much anything is better than The Walking Metal.

   “Is there anything else?”

   “No, that’s all. By the way, you have to prepare for the Cultural Festival at school, right? I heard it from my sister. Good luck with that.”

   “To be honest, the rest of the class are the ones who are going to need it. Someone unhelpful like me is around, after all.”

   “If you’re actually conscious of it, why don’t you actually do something about it?”

   “That’s because pretty much all my classmates hate me. There’s no point in trying to contribute if I have to work with people who have zero plans on listening to me.”

   “Well, good luck anyway. And, um, speaking of your classmates…”

   “Yes?”

   There’s a few seconds of awkward silence, just like the first time they talked to each other.

   “...Never mind. It’s nothing.” she tells him.

   “I see. Have a good evening, then.”

   “You too.”

   Jin could somehow tell that she wanted to ask him about Estyshana. Again, he doesn’t know how he knows it. He just does. The demon probably used her Bloodline Magic to prevent the detective from even asking about her. As long as her host family isn’t harmed, he has zero intention of doing anything.

   Enough worrying about others, though. He has to go to Watanabe’s house tomorrow. How bothersome. He requested to go there out of protecting Estyshana’s secret, but he should have just kept his mouth shut. Then again, he still needs to head to someone’s house anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

   It’s not that Jin refuses to cooperate. It’s just plain suffocating to work with his classmates whom refuse to talk to him. It’s partly his fault for not making the approach, but their hatred towards him prevent normal conversations anyway. Wakaba is the only one who’s talking to him, and her kindness made things worse by making his classmates think that he’s two-timing. He just wishes that the Cultural Festival can arrive and be over in an instant.

   On the next day, Jin follows Watanabe and the rest of his classmates who are part of the kitchen crew to Watanabe’s house right after they bought the necessary ingredients. Even though Estyshana is not taking part in any cooking, she’s still tagging along, for some reason. Jin really hopes that Wakaba could put a tight leash on both her and Watanabe so that they don’t ruin everything.

   “So, what are all of you planning on making today?” Estyshana asks curiously as they’re heading towards the supermarket that Jin always go to.

   “I’m starting to run out of ideas, actually. Besides, all we did for the past few days were just replicating things people did a thousand times over. We barely made anything new and/or improved.” Wakaba replies with a troubled expression.

   “As for me, I can barely find anything special on the internet. Sorry.” Watanabe apologizes.

   “So, are we just going to repeat the process once again?”

   “Maybe we could walk around for a little bit at the supermarket. Who knows, maybe we could find some inspiration while we’re inside.” Yoshii suggests.

   “I guess that could work too. Anything to get ideas.” Wakaba agrees.

   “Ideas, huh…” Estyshana mumbles.

   She suddenly looks at Jin.

   “...What do you want?” he demands by using telepathy.

   “Speaking of ideas, you have some right?”

   “What of it? I’m not going to share them.”

   “Why not?”

   “Because I don’t want to be the one who’ll get blamed if it didn’t work out. As if I wasn’t hated enough already.”

   “You want to end this as soon as possible, right?”

   Jin rolls his eyes in annoyance. He hates it when the demon makes sense. He clears his throat to mentally prepare himself.

   “Um, I have an idea.” he tells them.

   All eyes are on him immediately.

   “Watanabe, you mentioned that you tried to look for something special on the internet, right? Maybe you put too much thoughts in it.” he begins.

   “Maybe I did. What do you propose then?”

   “It doesn’t really have to be special. As long as it’s something you can’t find around here. Like common desserts eaten by the general public in other countries.” he suggests.

   They start to murmur among each other.

   “What do you think?”

   “I think he’s on to something.”

   “True. Even if people there can find those things everywhere, it can’t be said the same for the citizens from Japan, right?”

   “Hong Kong has some good desserts. So does Taiwan.” Jin informs them.

   The more he talks, the more interested they look.

   “What do you think, everyone?” Wakaba asks around.

   “Sounds nice.”

   “Yeah, let’s do this.”

   Now this surprised Jin. He was expecting them to reject it just because he was the one who proposed it.

   “Maybe we could get the service crew to wear traditional Chinese outfits while we’re at it.” someone suggests.

   “Good idea. I’ll call Asuka so that the design team can get to it.” Wakaba agrees.

   While that was being done, the rest of them are to look for recipes of the desserts online. In the end, they settled for some simple things like the Peanut Cream Dessert, Hong Kong style mango pudding, and red bean buns. They immediately get to shopping. Once done, they depart to Watanabe’s house.

   “I still can’t believe that we’ll be meeting Watanabe-san’s mother!”

   “And I still don’t know why all of you are so eager to see her.”

   “Oh come on, Watanabe-san. She’s, like, famous. Very famous. You of all people should know that!”

   “That said, she’s under quite a lot of criticism lately, right?”

   “Yup. For defending Silver Wolf.” the daughter confirms.

   The nickname Jin chose for himself was announced by the news this morning. He has yet to watch the evening ones, so he has yet to find out about the public’s reaction to it.

   “Was your house ever surrounded by extremists who want your mother to change side?”

   “So far, no.”

   “I don’t want to jinx it, but be careful, okay? I’ve heard that some people are crazy enough to actually toss Molotov cocktails at the house of the people they hate.”

   “Don’t worry. Chifuyu’s sister is a police officer, right? She’ll come to our rescue if we’re ever in trouble. Or even better, Silver Wolf himself might show up.”

   “Just be careful, okay? Who knows where they might be lurking.” Wakaba warns her.

   “Don’t worry. I never go out alone, and my mom always travel while getting accompanied by her bodyguards.”

   “Wait, you mother has bodyguards? That’s so awesome!”

   Eventually, they reach Watanabe’s house.

   “Mom, I’m home! And my friends are here.” Watanabe shouts when all of them has go inside the house.

   A few seconds later, a woman in her forties comes out from the inner part of the house. She’s wearing an apron in front of her clothes, and she looks kind of out of breath. There she is. Watanabe Chieko, the famous news anchor.

   “Welcome, all of you. I’m Chieko, Anri’s mother.” she greets them all while panting a bit.

   “It’s been a while, Aunt Chieko.” Wakaba tells her.

   “Indeed it has, Chifuyu-chan.”

   “Um, is it really okay for us to come in right now?”

   “O-Of course it is. No need to be shy, just make yourselves at home.”

   Jin felt that Wabaka’s question was a bit odd, but he just shrugged it off. It doesn’t have anything to do with him, anyway.

   Chieko-san suddenly notices Estyshana and her purple eyes and red hair.

   “Hello there, welcome to Japan.” she says to her in perfect English.

   Estyshana looks at the news anchor, smiles and curtsies elegantly.

   “I thank you for your welcome. Furthermore, I would also like to thank you for having me over today.” she replies with absolute grace, but using Japanese.

   Chieko-san beams.

   “My, what a polite young lady you are. And you speak such fluent Japanese. I wish our Anri could learn a thing or two from you when it comes to acting more like a girl.”

   “You give me too much credit, madam. It is I who has a lot of things to learn from your dear daughter.”

   “And you’re modest too! You’ll definitely be a good role model for Anri!”

   “Not at all. I am sure that a dignified lady such as yourself can bring up your daughter to be a fine adult.”

   “Oh, now you’re just flattering me!”

   Meanwhile, Watanabe is looking on with both her cheeks puffed up.

   “You feeling jealous or something?” Jin asks her.

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   That got her all flustered.

   “W-W-Why should I?”

   “Beats me. You sure looked like you were.”

   “I’m not, okay?”

   “Sure, if you say so.”

   While the two of them are talking, a few of his classmates rush forward to talk to Chieko-san.

   “I’m a great fan of yours, Chieko-san!”

   “Me too me too! I never miss one of your broadcasts if I could help it!”

   Chieko-san smiles warmly at her fans.

   “Thank you for your support.”

   “Come on, you all. You’re troubling her. Don’t forget the reason we came here.” Wakaba tells them while looking a little upset.

   “Oh, that’s right. I got too excited.”

   “We’re sorry, Chieko-san.”

   “It’s fine. I don’t mind at all.”

   All of them follow Watanabe and her mother to the kitchen. They pass by the living room along the way. It’s a very plain living room with a minimum number of furnitures and electrical appliances. When they got there, Chieko-san addresses all of them.

   “Well then, I’ll be leaving now. If you encountered any problems, please don’t hesitate to look for me at the second floor. Anri will tell you which room is mine.” she tells them.

   “All right, mother. We’ll just tell you if we need something, so please leave.” Wakaba says to her.

   Chieko-san pouts at her daughter’s attitude.

   “That’s no way to talk to your mother, is it Anri?” she chides. “Really, what happened to the Anri who was all clingy-”

   Watanabe quickly pushes her mother out of the kitchen.

   “Let’s not talk about my embarrassing past, shall we? Now please, leave! Right now!”

   ‘Ah, jeez! Don’t push! Okay, I got it! I’ll leave!’

   After Chieko-san has left, Watanabe lets out a sigh of relief.

   “Seriously, after all the time I took to tell her not to talk too much…” she grumbles.

   “Your mother isn’t going to leave you just because she’s constantly being surrounded by her fans, you know?” Jin tells her.

   She glares at him.

   “I told you that it’s not like that!” she tells him.

   Wakaba lets out a snicker.

   “So you noticed it too, Minase-kun? Despite how Anri looks and acts, she’s actually very possessive of her mother.” she whispers at Jin.

   “Can you not tell him nonsense, Chifuyu?” Watanabe demands at her childhood friend.

   “Okay, I’m sorry. Now then, let’s get started everyone.”

   “Let’s go outside and watch the TV or something. We can’t help anyway.” Watanabe tells Estyshana.

   “Sure.”

   Jin is surprised that the disastrous duo is actually willing to leave without being chased out. He was expecting them to at least hang around and get in the way.

   “Hey, at least tell us where everything is!” Jin calls out to Watanabe.

   “Don’t ask me! I’ve never touched any of the things in there except the kettle!”

   “You can’t be serious…”

   “Don’t worry Minase-kun. I know where the pots and pans and everything else we need are.” Wakaba assures him.

   “I take it that you’ve spent your time here before.”

   “Sure did. There were a few times when Aunt Chieko was so busy she didn’t have the time to cook dinner. I had to come in and cook something for them.”

   “Wasn’t it better for them to intrude at your house instead?”

   “Aunt Chieko already bought the ingredients, and she wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible.”

   “I see. Well, I’m glad that at least someone knows her way around here!” he shouted the last part on purpose.

   “I heard that, Minase-kun!”

   After digging out all the utensil, they immediately get to work. The progress was kind of slow since everyone had to share the limited utensils. While working, the others are chatting happily among themselves. Jin is, as usual, working quietly all by himself. As a result, he gets thing done quickly much faster than everyone else, particularly when the Peanut Cream Soup that he’s in charge of isn’t really complicated. When he brings out the whole pot, Watanabe and Estyshana are already waiting to be served.

   “About time. We were starving.” Watanabe grumbles.

   “Don’t dig in yet. We’re supposed to wait for the the others.” Jin tells her.

   “Can’t we at least have a spoonful? We’re supposed to eat this while it’s warm, right?”

   “The answer is still no.”

   “Aww, you’re no fun.”

   After the rest of the kitchen crews are done with their products, they have a test eating. Overall, everyone is pretty satisfied with this lineup. And it’s decided, they’ll be doing a Hong Kong desserts cafe for the upcoming festival.

Ryota’s POV
   Ryota’s class is doing a haunted house for the Cultural Festival. Good for them. Himura and his henchmen are perfect for the roles of ghosts. They can scare anyone who comes inside by threatening to beat them up and take away all their money. In fact, that’s what they’re doing to him right now. While the rest of their classmates are being busy, Ryota is being dragged to the back of the school where basically no one ever passes by.

   Ever since Ryota became part of Director Bouchard’s experiment, he can feel that he’s getting stronger and stronger. The Mk II pills that he ate even allowed him to crush a cinder block that weighs 20kg with only his bare hand. Even so, Ryota’s too much of a coward to use that new strength of his and protect himself. Hence, the extortion continues.

   “...Good, it’s the amount that we want.” Himura says in a satisfied tone once he’s done counting the money Ryota handed over.

   “Does that mean I can go now?” Ryota asks nervously.

   “Sure.”

   Ryota lets out a small sigh of relief. Before he could leave though, Himura pats his shoulder in an almost friendly manner.

   “Despite how I usually act, I’m a man of my word. You keep the money coming, and we won’t hurt you. Got it?”

   “Y-Yeah. Sure thing, Himura-kun.”

   “Good. Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind and beat you up anyway.”

   Ryota leaves as he was told. At first, he was planning to head back to class, get his back, and then head to the UCI lab as per his daily routine. On his way though, he almost bump into a girl.

   “I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?” he asks the girl hurriedly.

   “Oh, please don’t worry about me. I’m not hurt at all.”

   Ryota made sure to keep his distance from the girl. The last time he got too close to a girl, her boyfriend thought Ryota wanted to molest her and beat him up. The injury he got took him an entire month to recover. And now that he takes a closer look at her, he realizes that she’s quite pretty. She definitely has a boyfriend who might beat Ryota up.

   “I’m glad to hear that. Well, see you.”

   “Yes. Goodbye.”

   Ryota and the girl part ways. It was then when he noticed something on the ground. He bents down and picks it up. His eyes widen as he recognizes the thing he just picked up. He turns around. The girl is walking away nonchalantly, as if she didn’t realize that she has dropped something.

   “Um, excuse me!” he calls out to her.

   The girls turns around and looks at him.

   “Yes?” she asks.

   “I think you dropped this.” Ryota says while showing the thing he picked up to her.

   Upon seeing the thing, the girl reaches into her pocket. Naturally, she couldn’t find the thing. She immediately walks over to him.

   “Gosh, I was so careless. Thank you.” she says to him gratefully.

   “No problem.” he says while handing it back to her.

   “I’m so glad. It was very hard to get this.” the girl continues to say.

   “Um, I’ll apologize if I’m wrong, but is that a limited keychain from the anime movie Stardust?”

   The girl’s eyes widen in surprise.

   “Yes it is. You’ve actually heard of it?”

   “Heard of it? I’ve watched it too. And during its premiere day, at that.”

   “Oh, does that mean you have one of these too?”

   “Yes. I don’t want to end up offending the movie’s fans, but I barely brings it outside since I’m afraid of losing it.”

   “No offense taken. I know you’re worried about it, which is why you try to keep it safe.”

   “Oh, by the way, I’m Fukuma Ryota.”

   “I’m Tajima Reina. Nice to meet you, Fukuma-kun.”

   “By the way, what are you doing out here all by yourself, Tajima-san? It’s way past school hours.”

   “The thing is, I was asked to do some shopping by my classmates.”

   “By yourself?”

   “Yes, by myself.”

   “...I see.”

   So even a pretty girl like Tajima-san gets bullied. Ryota has complicated feelings about this discovery.

   “Say, would you like to tag along?” she asks timidly.

   That surprised Ryota.

   “Is it okay? Won’t I be a bother?”

   “Of course not. If possible, I would like to discuss Stardust with you along the way.”

   Ryota couldn’t believe his ears. Not only did he finally found another person who also enjoys the movie that he loves so much, the person is also a pretty girl. Finally, his luck is starting to turn around.

   “I would love to!” he says to her.

   At that time, Ryota should have declined her invitation. Alas, he was too naive. Unknown to him at that time, the meeting of the two of them that day triggered a series of unfortunate events.

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