{Chapter 2} First request from World Ability Users Agency
Part II
“Boooooo!”
Hiroto spitted his coffee quite grandly. Ichigo smiled bitterly as he looked at it with half-lidded eyes.
“You really have an attitude, don’t you?”
“What happened? Suddenly like that”
“It’s not sudden. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. No, especially since the entrance ceremony …….”
Hiroto looked at Ichigo, who was drinking a can of coffee as if it was nothing.
“Because, you’re too weird. You’ve been kicked out of your house, you’ve been living on your own, and you’ve been working part-time. And now you’re asking me for advice? Even if it wasn’t me, others would also think there’s something going on. The events are completely unconnected, though.”
“I-Is that so?”
“Yeah, well, ………that’s not all”
“Eh? There’s more?”
“Of course there is, but it’s the main reason …….”
Hiroto was a little nervous at Ichigo’s more serious expression than usual.
He has known Ichigo for a long time. He can easily tell the difference between when he is serious and when he is joking.
At the beginning, it was as if they became friends just because they got along with each other. After that, they connected with each other more than they thought, and now they can be called best friends, Hiroto believes that.
Although they didn’t confirm it by saying it to each other, there was no need to between Ichigo and Hiroto.
“I think of …… you as my best friend. I don’t remember when, though.”
“What is it, all of a sudden?”
Hiroto was surprised to hear Ichigo suddenly say something that they had never said to each other before. His eyes met Ichigo’s, and his face was so serious that he couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.
But at the same time, Hiroto felt uneasy about what Ichigo was about to say.
Ichigo paused for a moment and looked at the center of the park.
“You know, I forgot about …… you once.”
“……!”
“It’s not like it slipped my mind, you know? I forgot there was someone named as you…….”
“…………”
Hiroto accepted Ichigo’s words and lightly lowered his eyes.
“After all …… there’s really something to it.”
“W-What do you mean?”
“Because you’re not surprised, and you’re not angry as well.”
“A-Ah, No! I was surprised because Ichigo said something strange, and I couldn’t speak. ……”
“…… Hiroto.”
“Yes?”
“Is that something you can’t even tell me?”
“……”
“If you look at …… me like that, then there’s something going on, something you can’t tell me.”
Ichigo laughed bitterly.
The boy Hakamada Ichigo appears to be goofy at first glance, and his first impression from the people around him is actually not very good.
Moreover, his face wasn’t bad, and he was good at getting along with girls, which made him especially unpopular with the men.
However, once you get to know him, you will realize that he is a surprisingly warm-hearted person when it comes to his male friends.
Ichigo carefully observes the personalities and conditions of his male friends, unconsciously grasps them, and casually follows up on them. He also has a side of him that is extremely reluctant to let his follow-ups be exposed.
In this sense, Ichigo was a person who was completely divided between his female friends and his male friends.
He tries to connect with girls directly and aggressively, but he draws a clear line between the two and keeps a good distance.
With guys, he keeps his distance without getting too close, but as a result, he is friendly.
This personality, when refined, could be a quality that would make him a good fit in the center of any group. However, at the moment, Ichigo doesn’t realize that he is such a person, and there is a sense that he thinks he is a more dry person to people other than his best friend, and he sometimes says and does such things.
This is partly due to the fact that Ichigo thinks such a persona is cool, but it also means that he is still developing, which is not a bad thing at all.
“Hiroto, I’m fine with whatever you are, okay? No, it’s more the fact that I forgot you that’s a little depressing. And also that happened twice.”
Ichigo said and bowed lightly to Hiroto.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while. …… I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”
Hiroto was silent.
No, it’s just that he couldn’t say a word.
His house was special. It was not like a normal family, because it was a family with gifted individuals. And he himself was one of those ability users. For that reason, he may not be normal. And also because of that, there are many secrets.
But, that was it.
Other than that, he is a normal person. To be honest, it was painful for him to have hidden things from the one who is his best friend. Even if it was something that could not be helped.
He never thought that his hidden ability would make the people around him think this way. While the simultaneous activation of spiritual power and magical power allows him to wield enormous power, the side effect is that he will be forgotten by those around him, and he has always thought that he alone should endure loneliness.
The only time he wielded this power was when he was protecting the people he cared about.
Even though he would be forgotten, he thought it was okay. As long as the people he cared about could be saved.
However, after Ichigo’s unexpected apology, Hiroto thought that he might have been wrong.
He may have caused his best friend in front of him to be troubled.
When he thought about it, Hiroto made up his mind.
“Ichigo……”
“Hmmm?”
“I’m …… sorry too.”
“About what?”
“There’s something I’ve been keeping quiet about.”
“…… Okay.”
“I’ll tell you everything.”
Hiroto stood up and drank his canned coffee.
And he picked up two dead leaves that had fallen at his feet.
Ichigo has no idea what Hiroto is going to do, but he stares at him in silence.
Then he threw a can of coffee towards the center of the park. Immediately afterwards, he clutched the dead leaves he had picked up in his fingers and released them in a horizontal sweep of his arm.
The tattered dead leaf glided at an unbelievable speed as if it was thrown by a knife master, slicing the steel coffee can that Hiroto had thrown into three clean pieces.
In addition, the leaves that tore through the steel cans didn’t stop there, they also tore through the iron bar that stood 50 meters away at the back of the park, and the part that held the iron bar fell down with a thud.
“S-Seriously, ……?”
Ichigo was dumbfounded with his eyes wide open, and Hiroto gave a troubled smile and began to talk about himself and the Domori family. But he could not say anything about the demon cave or the demon world beyond the cave.
“It’s just like those of the manga ……”
“……I know that it’s hard to believe.”
“No, well I can’t say that since you showed me this. Now I see……. Then the reason I forgot about you is also …….”
“Yeah, it’s not your fault, Ichigo. It’s on me too, I’m sorry.”
“Hahaha, it’s okay. I’m glad to know I’m not such an unreasonable guy.”
“And, Ichigo, …… this is ……”
“Yeah, I know. Of course it’s a secret, right?”
“Yes.”
For Hiroto, it was necessary to ensure that this was protected. Also, he knows that when it comes to the things that should never be said, Ichigo is very tight-lipped.
That’s partly why he was willing to talk about it. Although he hadn’t suspected it from the start, Hiroto sat down next to Ichigo again with a relieved look on his face.
Therefore……Hiroto didn’t notice that Ichigo now had an unusually large amount of cold sweat pouring down his face.
“A-Ah you know what, Hi-Hiroto?”
“Hmm? What? Ichigo.”
The expression on Hiroto’s face was radiant.
It must be so, because he just now let out a secret that he hasn’t told anyone since he was born.
Hiroto’s face has a radiant smile on it, as if a huge weight has been lifted.
“Uh!. N-No….that’s right.”
Ichigo’s disconcerting and uncharacteristic attitude made Hiroto’s face darken as if he realized something.
“Y-Yeah you’re right. …… This is not normal. You’re scared, aren’t you? You’re scared of me …….”
“No! No, I’m not scared at all!”
“It’s okay…… You don’t have to force yourself.”
Hiroto stared into the distance sadly. He had thought of this as a possibility.
But, he wanted to alleviate the pain that his abilities had caused his best friend. So, he was prepared for this. Only the secret would have to be kept strictly confidential…….
He turned around and smiled as much as he could so as not to scare Ichigo, including his gratitude for being his best friend until now.
But Ichigo was not there.
“Oh, what?”
Hiroto looked for Ichigo, who had disappeared from his sight, and saw the back of Ichigo’s head below …….
…… Ichigo was on his knees.
He was on the ground on the bench, facing Hiroto, in a magnificent dogeza.
“What are you doing? Ichigo.”
“S-Sorry, ……, Hiroto-kun.”
“What’s …… t-, ah!”
Hiroto felt a presence behind the bench where Ichigo was sitting.
“Y-You didn’t…”
“N-No, I never thought we’d be talking about this, you know? I thought you were hiding something about this part-time job, so I thought……. I’d ask you about it.”
“Because! I thought you wanted to apologize for forgetting. ……!”
“W-Well I have been thinking about that for a while, you know? I thought it would be a good opportunity to apologize to you while I’m at it. ……”
As he said that, Ichigo had shifted from Dogeza to prostrate himself.
Hiroto’s sweat poured from his body, and he slowly checked behind …… him.
“Matsuri-chan! Mito-san!”
He was surprised to see Matsuri and Shizuka standing there, looking surprised yet mysterious.
“Hey, Ichigo! You~!”
Hiroto grabbed Ichigo by the chest and became teary-eyed.
“No! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, but I didn’t think we’d be talking about this!”
“If you say it like that! I’ll think about it too! What are you going to do! You shouldn’t have told me this! Ichigo, you Idiot! You Rotten Strawberry!”(TN: strawberry is also pronounced as Ichigo)
Hiroto, who was in a panic, accused Ichigo of using a swear word that he used to say to him.
“Y-You’re the one who blabbered about that on yourself! Generally speaking, if you have such an amazing technique, can’t you at least detect the presence of people?”
“I can’t sense a person’s presence unless I’m aware of it, except if they’re trying to kill or harm me!”
“I don’t care! This happened because you misunderstood and gave off a vibe of your own!”
Hiroto let go of Ichigo and put his hands on the ground.
“Ahh, it’s over ……. A lot of things are over now. …… If it was just Ichigo, I would have managed to do it by force or by any means necessary. ……”
Hiroto murmured like a survivor of the human race who greeted the day the world ended with tears in his eyes.
“Hey, didn’t you just say something disturbing?”
Ichigo retorted, but Hiroto was not listening to it.
For Hiroto, he didn’t want Matsuri to hear about it. Because of the length of their relationship, Matsuri was the person who had been kept in the dark about this for the longest time.
He thought that if he was going to confess, he should sort out his feelings and tell her directly when the time came for him to do so.
And now Matsuri was coming towards him.
“……Hiroto.”
—Part II end–
Spoiler: Don’t have high hopes, I really got my expectations shattered
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damn… that’s technically a betrayal… now he has to kill them…