Chapter 93

On the other side.

Toriya Satone came out of the bathroom, efficiently letting her hair down.

While walking briskly toward the room, she quickly glanced at the wall clock on the wall, estimating the remaining time.

The timing seems a bit tight; I don't know if I'll make it in time, maybe I should call and ask for leave later...

Although in fact——

Miss Tenka has actually considered whether to just quit her job...

After all, work is just work, it's not like a dream or anything; if we're talking about dreams, becoming a gymnast was actually her dream, she was once an ace of the gymnastics club in middle school... but because of her father's passing, she had no choice but to give up that idea.

Instead, after graduating high school she gave up on further education and learned culinary arts, becoming an Italian chef, single-handedly taking on the responsibility of raising her younger sister Rikka.

Although her cooking skills have been honed to a very high level, and she is now a head chef at a high-end restaurant, when it comes down to it, it's still just a job.

Right now, being caught up in this kind of magical situation, her worldview has undergone a process of shattering and reconstruction; quitting her job to focus on handling the current situation would also be a perfectly normal choice.

It's just that at this critical juncture, resigning rashly would inevitably attract too much attention, so Miss Tenka can only continue maintaining her identity as an Italian chef and work for a while longer.

She tidied her clothes, packed her things, and came to the table.

An amulet lay quietly on the table.

This was given by the other party before leaving, saying that although there shouldn't be any danger during the day, there's no harm in making an extra preparation, so she was told to wear this amulet, saying it was for prevention, just in case.

The reasoning is indeed that reasoning...

But...

Toriya Satone extended her slender, delicate fingers, silently picking up the amulet and examining it carefully for a while. She had never accepted goodwill or gifts from the opposite sex; she never expected the first time she'd break that habit would be under these circumstances.

But thinking about it carefully, she glanced at her own room, then withdrew her gaze.

Comparing it like this, she instantly felt it was nothing much.

She strung the amulet onto her keychain, and Miss Tenka seriously sensed it for a moment, but didn't feel anything special — neither did she feel any change in her body, nor did she feel any difference in the surrounding air.

She didn't dwell on it too much, and didn't suspect this thing had no effect; she just thought the amulet's power might only be triggered at a critical moment.

Grabbing her bag, Miss Tenka walked out briskly and closed the front door.

Arriving downstairs at the apartment building, she had just walked to the roadside when a taxi slowly pulled up beside her, the door quickly opened, and a hurried woman got out from it, running straight past her side into the apartment building.

Immediately after came the sound of thud-thud-thud running upstairs.

Those footsteps were both fast and urgent; who knows what she was rushing back to get.

"Wait——"

Toriya Satone didn't think much; seeing the taxi about to drive off, she directly waved it down, then opened the door and got in, stating her destination. She was planning to hail a cab anyway, so this worked out perfectly.

The taxi started up and drove off steadily.

The rest of the trip was extremely smooth; she had originally thought she might be late to some degree, so she even took out her phone, preparing to call the restaurant to explain the situation and say she'd be a bit late...

However in reality, there was no traffic jam or anything; it was basically all green lights the whole way, the taxi almost never stopped, or only slowed down occasionally, until it slowly pulled over at the roadside upon reaching the destination.

When it stopped, Toriya Satone raised the phone in her hand to look; the screen was still on the contacts list, no call had been placed, and the current time was displayed in the upper right corner.

——Naturally, she was not late.

——Even in such a rush, upon arriving at the destination there were actually still over six minutes to spare.

It was suspiciously smooth; clearly this time should be the morning rush hour.

She didn't think too much about it, just simply took out her wallet, paid the fare, and then prepared to open the door and get out... but just as she reached out and grabbed the door handle, opening the door, a gust of wind happened to blow by outside.

*Snap*—

A large-denomination brand-new bill was blown by the wind, carrying a few leaves that might have been from street trees, and instantly stuck onto Miss Tenka's hand.

At this moment, she hadn't even had time to put her wallet away.

"?"

Toriya Satone was a bit stunned; she looked at the large bill in her hand, and suddenly felt that things seemed... to have become a little off.

——Wanting to hail a taxi, there just happened to be a taxi dropping off a resident downstairs, allowing her to seamlessly get in and go...

——Originally thinking she'd be late, she had already planned to call and say so, but the result was the ride was exceptionally stable and smooth all the way, green lights unobstructed...

——And then upon reaching the destination, she had just paid the taxi fare, hadn't even gotten out of the car yet, and the fare used flew back into her hand in another form, even bringing back a considerable portion of interest...

The morning sunlight began to turn bright.

A moment later, Miss Tenka stood on the roadside, pursing her lips as she examined the keychain in her hand.

It seems only it could be the cause of multiple coincidences or good luck appearing in a short time, right?

————

————

At the school.

The class bell had been ringing for a while.

Black Flame User... no, Fu Yuta Togashi sat in his seat, listening absent-mindedly to the teacher lecturing at the podium; his body was sitting in the seat, but his soul had long since drifted off who knows where.

It should be a joke, right...

It's definitely a joke, right...

That was probably just a simple greeting, saying hi, cracking a joke, how could it possibly be real.

But... but... I just feel the last words the other party asked me to consider sounded really serious, or am I overthinking it?

Fu Yuta Togashi's expression was a bit dazed; his gaze shifted slightly, finally fixing on his own right arm.

As a former Chuunibyou patient, who called himself "Black Flame User (DarkFlameMaster)" during delusions, the so-called user of Dark Flame...

It's because his setting was that the power of the Dark Flame Dragon resided inside his body; because the Dark Flame Dragon possessed the ability to destroy the world, in order to eliminate this hidden danger, the Dark Flame Dragon was sealed inside his childhood body.

——Basically a knockoff setting.

——It might also be inspiration influenced by the "Yu-Gi-Oh" manga of this world.

And in the later refined settings, when he was in his second year of middle school, he, who harbored the Dark Flame Dragon inside his body, became a target, pursued by the Agency; in order to seal it, he wrapped himself in bandages, and thus he came all this way.

During this period, he assimilated with the Dark Flame Dragon, so he became the "Black Flame User (DarkFlameMaster)"...

Cough cough, recalling this point, Fu Yuta Togashi couldn't help but grip the pen in his hand tighter, goosebumps rising all over his body. After all, speaking of it, looking back on this kind of past black history is really not something that makes one feel good.

Humiliating, awkward...

Especially such a detailed review of details, making it so that even his toes almost wanted to dig out a two-bedroom apartment on the ground...

No! Can't stand it! Want to die so bad!

If not for a thread of rationality remaining, knowing this was during class time, Fu Yuta Togashi almost let out a sound.

Just like many past nights, when he couldn't sleep at night, it was often because he reviewed his own stupid black history, recalled those chuunibyou, childish moments, his whole body felt terrible, embarrassed and annoyed to the point of wanting to bang his head against the wall.

Right now it's the same; if not for the chance encounter this morning, and that problem placed before his eyes, forcing Fu Yuta Togashi to face his past "settings," he simply wouldn't want to excavate these sealed memories.

Then the question comes——

If this really is an opportunity... should he accept it or not?

No longer a chuunibyou "setting," but a certain opportunity that can make fantasies come true, can he seize this point?

Just like that, in a state of delusion and anxiety, Fu Yuta Togashi muddleheadedly passed the morning classes. With the bell ringing through the campus once again, it also heralded the arrival of lunchtime.

Students gathered in twos and threes, or directly pushed desks together in the classroom, or walked out of the classroom holding bento boxes.

Many students, especially those male students, all seized the time to discuss enthusiastically.

"Hey hey! Did you guys hear, about that thing last night..."

"I know, I know, definitely a biochemical virus leak, right? Otherwise how could there be such a big formation..."

"Are there really zombies? Or did the Americans' weapon experiment go wrong? Seems like the suburbs are all blockaded now, right?"

"Right right right, I also think it's definitely a weapon test; someone posted images on the forum, that place is simply like a hell... but I only took one glance and the post was deleted."

(Chapter End)