Chapter 6 – The Strength of the Boy Called the Fierce God

Although Shinta forcefully peeled Miina away from the piece of trash, the other two naturally weren’t going to let that action slide. They were momentarily dumbfounded by the sight of their buddy crouching on the ground, but their flames of anger soon flared up like oiled paper catching fire.

“You bastard, you really did it now!!”

“Bring it on, you gloomy loner!!”

With their buddy taken down, the men raised angry roars that caused everyone in the class to cower in fear. Amidst all that chaos, only Shinta maintained a calm face and looked at the duo with cold eyes. That piercing gaze, as if he were looking at insects, only amplified the trash’s anger even further.

“You bastard!!”

The man with a face full of piercings swung his fist while spraying saliva into the air. With the men beginning to rampage in earnest, the girls let out small screams. Setting the girls aside, the boys were visibly terrified too. As a fellow guy, Shinta felt it was a bit pathetic.

(Jeez, this is seriously a pain in the ass.)

“Guh, stop darting around!!”

Continuing to dodge the thrown fists with quick footwork, Shinta was lost in thought. To be perfectly clear, a situation like this wasn’t a pinch at all for someone who once made a name for himself as the Fierce God in the delinquent scene. If he put in a little real effort, he could beat down small fry like this in an instant. However, if he exposed that violent side of himself here, his classmates would distance themselves from him even more starting tomorrow.

(No, no, I don’t really care about how people look at me, right?)

Was it because he ended up going out to play with his classmates like this even if he was swept along? Shinta gave a wry smile upon realizing that conservative thoughts were beginning to sprout within him. That momentary hesitation proved to be a mistake. He didn’t notice that the man he had sunk first had already gotten back up.

“Guh, eat this!!”

Burning with pain and humiliation, that man grabbed the microphone rolling on the floor and threw it. The dull pain ruined his control, so the projectile luckily passed right by Shinta’s side. Or rather, perhaps he should say unluckily.

“Kyah!?”

“Wha!?”

Missing its mark, the microphone flew straight toward Ichizu standing behind Shinta. By some stroke of luck in the midst of misfortune, the mic hit the chair right next to her and she avoided getting hurt. However, this became the trigger that completely shattered Shinta’s brakes and his intent to resolve things as peacefully as possible.

Before he knew it, Shinta had unleashed a knee strike into the man still swinging fists right in front of him. Flowing seamlessly from that motion, he delivered a right straight worthy of a pro boxer squarely into the face of the man who threw the microphone. In the blink of an eye, the consciousness of the two buddies was wiped out to leave the last remaining man utterly dumbfounded.

“You’ve gotta be… kidding me… Wait, your face…”

The man choked on his words at the suddenly unbelievable sight, but upon looking closely at Shinta’s face, he realized his opponent’s true identity.

“W-W-Whoa! Don’t tell me you’re the Fierce God from back then!?”

“Huh? Back then?”

During his middle school days, Shinta was constantly busy dealing with idiotic delinquents flocking to him to make a name for themselves. He didn’t bother keeping the existence of a petty thug like the one in front of him in his memory. On the other hand, the moment he realized Shinta’s true identity, the man began groveling on his hands and knees right then and there.

“S-S-S-Sorry! We, um, had some frustrating stuff happen at school, and we just took it out on you guys!! We never in our wildest dreams thought the Fierce God-san would be at this karaoke place!!”

Hit by flashbacks of the trauma of being beaten down in the past, the man started blurting out things no one even asked out of sheer terror. Despite spitting out a long speech at rapid fire, this man wasn’t reflecting on his actions at a fundamental level. That fact only poured more oil onto Shinta’s fire.

“What kind of backwards apology have you been spouting this whole time? It doesn’t matter if the guy you picked a fight with was me or not. The biggest problem here is that you came in picking a stupid, baseless fight. We were the ones using this room first. Am I wrong, huh?”

“N-N-N-No, you’re not wrong!! I’ll take these guys and disappear right now, so please spare me!!”

“Then get lost right now. And… if you try pulling any more annoying crap at this place out of spite… when that happens, I’ll completely crush those ill-mannered legs you used to kick the door open.”

“Eep!? O-Of course, absolutely! Hey, you guys, wake up!!”

Feeling a danger that went beyond his well-being straight to his life, the man nodded like a broken toy. Just like that, he half-dragged the two who were still out of it and disappeared from the room. Having driven away the annoying flies in this manner, Shinta was inwardly filled with regret.

(Hah… I really did it now…)

In the dead-silent room, his own small sigh sounded strangely clear. He had bared his fangs as the Fierce God, the persona that was constantly feared during his Yankee days. There was no doubt they were repulsed by him, and it was practically guaranteed that today’s events would spread to the other classmates by tomorrow.

Because he still had his back turned, he didn’t know what kind of expressions the other classmates were making at him right now. But he could easily guess that their faces were uniformly filled with fear.

“Sorry ’bout this, guys. I’m gonna take off now, too.”

“W-Wait, Kamiji-kun!”

Unable to endure the atmosphere in the room, Shinta left almost as if he were running away. From behind, only Ichizu called out to stop him. Shinta intentionally pretended not to hear and walked straight out of the establishment.

(In the end, it just means I don’t have the right to taste a normal youth like everyone else.)

He had walked a life where he sent countless people to the hospital. For someone like him to try and reform, it was probably inevitable that it would just end in spinning his wheels. And so, Shinta believed he had failed to deepen his ties with his new classmates, but an entirely unexpected development awaited him the next day at school.