This blond teenager, Yoichi, had met Satoru at the Yotsuya subway station that morning.
He looked completely bewildered.
He didn't understand what "gangster" meant, nor the meaning of "loser."
Satoru also paused.
Sometimes, when you curse someone with a phrase they don't understand, it can be quite awkward for both yourself and the person being cursed.
Satoru thought for a moment and decided to be simpler and cruder.
He raised his slender, pale wrist, and his bony hand formed a fist.
Then, he stuck up his middle finger.
An international friendly gesture.
This time, Yoichi understood.
"—I'll kill you!" Yoichi squeezed out a resentful voice from between his teeth.
Then he shoved Aiya away.
Now that he had found the main target, this good-for-nothing was useless.
You see, this is one of the characteristics of a "loser"—no brains.
He even actively released the hostage.
Satoru casually caught him, then handed the still-shaken Aiya to Sakito.
Sakito: "Don't worry, Mr. Hayashi! Hiro is my best buddy, I'll definitely take good care of him!"
Knowing that Satoru valued Aiya quite a bit, the latter's status in Sakito's mind changed from "not familiar" to "close friend."
Initially, when he heard that Satoru was going to confront these delinquents, Sakito didn't want to follow along.
He did not want to be beaten for nothing.
He was not like Higoshi; that guy was brainless, relying entirely on loyalty.
However, Sakito's real purpose in following Satoru was to show off.
But after thinking it over, he still came. What if he got beaten up?
Getting beaten up with Ayaka, and outnumbered at that, might even become a beautiful story if it spread later.
Things like "injured to cover for Kobayashi-kun," those girls would definitely look at him with starry eyes.
Besides, these delinquents, though fierce-looking, were actually only five people.
There were three on their side.
Three against five, the difference wasn't too great.
Satoru glanced at Yoichi's school uniform, feeling it looked familiar, but it clearly wasn't from this school.
"You're not Shiraki students, are you? How did you get in?"
Yoichi raised his chin arrogantly and smiled:
"The gates of your Shiraki are like a prostitute's legs; anyone can open them!"
Yoichi's original intention was to provoke using "school honor."
But unfortunately, Satoru himself had no sense of collective honor, and besides, he had only been at the school for two or three weeks, so he had no sense of belonging to it at all.
As for Sakito, he was constantly planning how to get hit with fewer punches later; he absolutely had to protect his handsome face.
Only Higoshi gritted his teeth, stomped his foot, and replied loudly:
"You've actually played with a prostitute!"
But there was no anger, only a strong jealousy in his words.
Instead, Yoichi was dumbfounded, unsure how to respond for a moment.
Satoru quickly told this embarrassing fellow to shut up.
He formally answered the provocation:
"Like your mother?"
You see, people from Japan aren't professional at insulting others. Satoru, upholding the traditional virtues of the Huaxia people, went all out on the opponent's direct blood relatives within three generations.
Yoichi's face turned black, then red, then green.
Satoru's heart was filled with satisfaction.
A kind word warms for three winters, but a cruel word truly feels good.
According to the usual procedure, Yoichi should have punched Satoru's smiling face by now.
But he held back, even showing a smile like ice shards.
He weighed the phone in his palm, his eyes glinting with vigilance and danger.
"I just sent a text message."
"And then?" Satoru tilted his head and asked.
"You're very naive." Yoichi chuckled, "Look at how confident you are right now; you don't actually think the three of you can beat the five of us, do you!?"
"You don't think I can't beat them, do you?" Satoru retorted, already untying the wooden sword from his shoulder.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
After hearing this, Yoichi laughed even more wildly: "That's why I said you're naive; even if you can beat the five of us, so what!? There are more people coming than just the five of us this time!! My companions have already received the message and are rushing over. How many people do you think are outside looking for you?"
Satoru hadn't answered yet.
Yoichi held up two fingers.
"Two... two?" Sakito said uncertainly.
Three against five, the disadvantage wasn't too great.
But three against seven meant each person would have to deal with more than two opponents, and they would definitely lose.
Sakito's innocent reply brought a murderous gloom to Yoichi's eyes: "Twenty... plus."
Sakito's legs went weak, and he almost sat down.
Thanks to the mutual support with Aiya .
"Tw-twenty—"
The number of half a class; even if each person just kicked him once, it would be enough to stomp him to death.
Now Sakito truly regretted it.
He shouldn't have come with Satoru just to show off.
Although Sakito had never been a good student and had participated in fights, those were small-scale skirmishes with two or three people.
Twenty people or more, this could already be considered a mob fight, couldn't it!?
"Ko... Ayaka—"
Aiya was equally terrified.
No way, Ayaka, how did you offend these guys?
"One against twenty..."
Satoru thought for a moment; if he could take out five or six before being surrounded, he might still have a chance.
"What, what?" Higoshi said, "It's one against ten—although two of us are useless, Aibo, don't forget me; my fighting spirit is truly strong!"
Satoru was very moved; he looked at Higoshi with a smile:
"Is it possible that you're just simply weak? Not worthy of fighting ten?"
"—You!" He didn't expect to be stabbed in the back by his friend at a time like this; Higoshi's heart ached.
"Alright, you step back too. I'll beat them until they're looking for their teeth on the ground first."
Satoru thought. This guy openly let Aiya go, but he wasn't some gentleman; he'd just take him hostage first!
No sooner said than done.
Satoru was about to charge with his sword in one go.
Behind them, the delinquents' irritable tongue-clicking sounds echoed:
"Hmm? How is there a girl hiding here? Ha—she's quite pretty."
"Want to play with us? We guarantee you'll have a lot of fun, *slurp*."
"Physically happy, that is; I don't know about mentally, hehehe..."
Then came the noisy footsteps; just as Yoichi had said, at least forty pairs of feet were stomping on the corridor floor.
Subsequently, the woman they had "teased" responded coldly:
"Why don't you go pee and look in a mirror?"
Satoru was stunned.
Because it was Ayaka's usual cold and dismissive tone.
At the stairwell in the corridor, hidden by the wall.
A tall, slender beauty with long black hair emerged. She brushed her black hair from her shoulder, raised her pale chin, and looked disdainfully at the group of delinquents who had spoken.
Then she walked towards Satoru, her arm crossed:
"You're causing trouble again?"
"Clearly, trouble found me."
"If you weren't causing trouble, why would trouble find you and not someone else?" Ayaka asked indifferently.
"Ayaka-senpai." Satoru smiled wryly, "That's victim-blaming, which is unacceptable."
"Hmph." Ayaka snorted, "This is heaven's punishment for you not replying to my text message."
Satoru: ...Then that punishment is quite severe.
Speaking of Ayaka's text message... Ah, it seems there was such a thing.
But his mind was preoccupied with Eriri's matter, so he had forgotten about it.
"My phone ran out of battery," Satoru said righteously.
"Is, is that so?" Ayaka was startled; this was something she hadn't expected: "...If it's out of battery, go charge it then. Anyway, it's all your fault!"
Damn it, so it was just out of battery. That's great, that's great. She had thought that the incident where she used his underwear for a spell had come to light and he disliked her. Ayaka thought, her chest rising and falling slightly.
Ayaka had been standing at the stairwell for a while.
Her earlier text message, "Are you coming to the Kendo Club today?" had also gone unanswered. Ayaka waited until after school, finally unable to bear it, and went directly to his class to find him.
But before she even reached Class F, she encountered this situation in the corridor.
Initially, it seemed like a minor issue, five people.
Ayaka could handle three, and she could handle two; it would be easily resolved.
As she was about to walk to Satoru's side, she happened to hear Yoichi utter the shocking words "over twenty people."
Over twenty people.
This number made Ayaka have to weigh the pros and cons.
So, instead of rashly going directly to Satoru's side to stand shoulder to shoulder with him in shared indignation,
After thinking it over, she also took out her phone and started sending text messages.
Because Sakura wouldn't look at her phone during training, she sent it to Kato Takeshi, known as the "third boss of the Kendo Club."
"Ayaka in danger, come quickly."
And then she wrote the specific address at the end of the message.
She just didn't expect that as soon as she put down her phone, this mob of delinquents swarmed in.
"Ko... Ayaka-senpai—" Sakito swallowed.
This was a beautiful girl he would have absolutely no chance of close contact with at his previous level.
Higoshi also glanced at Ayaka, thinking, *Damn it, even the Vice Minister of the Kendo Club has fallen into my buddy's hands.*
There were fewer and fewer beautiful girls left for him, Higoshi, at school.
As for Aiya ... according to his previous aesthetic, the tall Ayaka would definitely hit his XP.
But now he only felt bored.
Compared to sexiness, cuteness was indeed superior.
The "big sister" attribute was meaningless; could there be a loli... Ayaka didn't look at them much; she just snatched the broom from Higoshi's hand and stood back-to-back with Satoru.
"Hold on, our people will be here soon," she said...