Chapter 7: Cunning Lala

Returning to his room, Yuuto let out a sigh as he sat on the bed.

"I really just exploded in front of a teenager… damn it!"

He cursed as he rubbed his temples, his eyes closed tightly as his mind raced.

'What a great successful man I am! Screaming at a girl who barely knew anything about the world…'

Although his body was that of a 17 year old, mentally, Yuuto saw himself as a man with more than 50 years of experience!

He was a man who had seen the world, gone through its ups and downs! He had been through it all and gone through things most kids could not imagine!

And yet!

'I ended up exploding!'

Yuuto had pride in his own control over his own emotions and yet he was unable to control himself. Going as far as to show off his power- a more frightening and disgusting power of his- just to scare off Lala.

Others may think that Yuuto had done well to control his own emotions, after all he did not attack Lala like a beast which most 17 year old young men would do.

Unfortunately, due to his own mentality, Yuuto did not really mind the opinion of others. He saw them logically and when people get too illogical he just ignores their inputs.

It may sound stupid for someone like him who achieved relative success in his past life to have such a mindset but, his past life was not a world that was happy-go-lucky or fun.

In fact, his past world was filled with all sorts of illogical BS that only the logical individuals could do something with their life.

Yuuto had lived in a world where even good deeds would be seen as the deeds of a devil in a different perspective.

It was a world where saving a child from getting run over would make people question why he did not think of trying to stop the car instead. Where the consequences of doing a good deed was criticized instead of the good deed being recognized or the cause of the problem being addressed.

A world where people simply wish to point fingers, whatever happens to them is the fault of another. If you don't have a job its the governments fault, or the employers fault or maybe even the patriarchy.

Such a world, Yuuto learned to maneuver it by handling things through logic.

Ignoring all the drama kings, queens, "things" that continue to pander their self-righteous "me too" idea. A world where nobody but a few select groups with certain gender identities, color and race have rights.

It was a world that was filled with thousands of disillusioned individuals who live a life of endless fallacy. 

This was the world that Yuuto had come from, and the world Yuuto came to was the opposite of it… is what he thought.

Yuuto did not want to think that the people of this world were like those of his past but-

'The scars are too deep…'

Yuuto sighed internally as he lamented his own trauma.

One thing that made Yuuto really hate his current state was the fact that he was both clear headed and muddled at the same time.

His [Heroic Constitution] allowed him to grow endlessly and reach unbelievable heights, both mentally and physically. This state of his allowed him to continuously strengthen his body to monstrous levels but his mind was also being forged.

With every headache, every stressful event and every panic inducing moment, his mind would be tempered like steel. His thoughts would be clarified and his psyche would be healed allowing him to reflect upon himself.

Due to this, in a matter of seconds, Yuuto was able to see through his failings and how badly he had acted towards Lala.

His constitution helped him avoid breaking down and rapidly adapting to this world but, it also brought a problem, this being his lack of proper personal development.

Trauma and twisted personality traits were things that even grand heroes like Artoria Pendragon and divinity such as Gilgamesh carry despite being "perfect" beings.

Living for more than a hundred years, Gilgamesh still retained his twisted sense of self-worth, his ego that did not seem to have a limit and pride that could make even demons feel inferior.

Instead of having a calm and collected mindset, these legends had extreme personalities whether good or bad.

Artoria Pendragon was a king for the people, carrying immense pride and sense of responsibility till the end, Iskandar his pride as a leader, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne carried his pride as a knight…

Every single hero carried a quirk, one that they were not born with but was most likely molded through years of living with a heroic constitution.

They obtained these quirks due to their own personal goals, their own view on perfection.

Gilgamesh saw himself as the epitome of perfection.

Artoria lived to serve her people, seeing kingship as self-sacrifice.

Iskandar sought a leader seeing kingship as a role taken by a role model, a friend and a leader.

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne held his code of chivalry, refusing to fight allies despite being chased by them, allying with enemies when facing against a great evil.

All these individuals, heroes of their own right, had capabilities that surpassed normal men and most likely carried with them a heroic constitution, some possibly even greater.

With what Yuuto understood from his own experiences, he could already see what kind of future awaits him-

"A calm collected individual unbound by anything and yet is not disconnected from reality and emotion"

Yuuto muttered under his breath as he thought of his ideal, what he believes is the best type of mind to have.

This type of mind was actually a paradox in and of itself.

For a perfect mind to Yuuto is one of logic, unbound by convention and emotion and yet not disconnected from it-

How does one become unbound by emotion yet remain connected to it?

Yuuto could not imagine what kind of individual that was but his constitution that was his blessing gave him this curse.

A curse to continuously aim for this twisted ideal…

'What will happen to me in the future?'

Yuuto always thinks to himself whenever he experiences this kind of outburst.

However small it was, Yuuto would always try to picture his future, what kind of mind would he have? What kind of mentally would he carry?

Would he be able to bring a smile to his siblings face?

Would he be able to achieve what he believed is his dream?

The curse of change was something Yuuto would at times think he would better of not having and yet-

'My mind knows that I need it…'

Yuuto stood up form the bed and walked towards the nearby desk, on top of it were a bunch of framed photos.

In one of them he was having a group photo with a bunch of amusement park employees, mascots and a person dressed as a princess in front of an amusement park.

Another had him smiling together with a group of kids with colorful hair, interestingly aside from Yuuto the other boy was only a stupid looking black haired boy. He and the other boy were making peace signs while holding a pendant each and all the other kids, a bunch of girls with colorful hair held keys in different shapes.

A graduation photo where he, a little kid graduated with a bunch of teens all wearing a familiar uniform with a red blazer.

There were more photos scattered about, some photos from China, others from Korea, he even went to the US, UK, Germany and spent a few months in Russia.

Yuuto had gone all over the world meeting with many interesting characters and faces, throughout his travels he had experienced the shock of breaking down more than once.

Right now, Yuuto was still able to show some emotion and act based on his emotions but-

'My logic would always…'

"Onii-chan! Dinners ready!"

Mikan's loud voice snapped Yuuto out of his thinking and with a smile, he headed downstairs.

"Whatever, I'll leave it all to future me"

He whispered under his breath as he headed down-

:: Break ::

"I know I said that I'll let my future self handle things but… I didn't mean it to be this early in the morning-"

Yuuto sighed as he sat opposite of a beautiful young lady with pink hair.

Various gazes were directed their way, fortunately, Yuuto, unlike Rito, was good looking.

As such all the men and women who looked their way could only curse in frustration over their own inferiority.

Even some rather unsavory individuals were shut up by Yuuto's cold glare.

Though, it had to be noted that Yuuto did not really expect to be sitting in front of Lala this early in the morning-

'Well, I don't have class anyway so there's no issue but… this is really gonna be a problem'

Ever since entering the cafe, Lala remained silent, Yuuto had already ordered them drinks and Lala was pretty entranced in her own Frappe but she still avoided Yuuto's gaze.

After a good half an hour had passed, Yuuto finally gave up and started the conversation.

"So what do you want?"

There were a LOT of things he wanted to say, but he held back.

He didn't want to lose his position so he did not immediately apologize for his actions and instead continued with the atmosphere which he left Lala with last night.

It may sound manipulative or toxic to some but Yuuto was not really planning on getting into a relationship with Lala.

Moreover-

'The mission is still incomplete'

In fact, he was planning to look for Lala today for two reasons, one was to apologize as his adult mind could not calm down if he didn't admit his own mistakes. The other was that he wanted to see what other trouble the alien princess was going through.

He already saved her from her pursuers and yet-

'Ah! Zastin…'

After recalling last night's encounter, Yuuto finally recalled the legendary Devilkian Knight turned Mangaka.

'If memory serves me right, he would come after Lala after his two subordinates fail… now the question is- When?'

Yuuto tried to delay his own thoughts, he slowed down his thinking as he predicted the cliche but-

"A dud"

"Yes?"

Yuuto unconsciously spoke out his thoughts which made Lala respond to him while tilting her head. To which Yuuto responded saying-

"Nothing, that said you haven't answered my question yet"

"Ah!...."

Yuuto stared at Lala waiting for her to answer and the alien princess took in a deep breath before a look of determination formed on her face after she pumped herself up.

"Yuuto-san!"

Lala suddenly stood up, then, in front of many, she bowed her head as she said-

"I'm sorry for suddenly proposing to you yesterday!"

Her words quickly caught the attention of many, Yuuto could already hear their murmurs-

"Proposal?"

"Did he reject her?"

"Poor girl…"

"Scum!"

"Who would reject such a beauty?"

The comments were varied and came from different people, Yuuto knew that these people did not know about his own mindset, his own situation and much less about Lala.

They did not know that Lala was an alien princess running away from engagements and proposed to him in an attempt to escape getting engaged to someone she did not love or know.

'They're probably making up stupid scenarios in their mind, like Lala being some mistress, or her being the main girl but I have a sidechick… given this situation they're probably painting me as some bastard player who goes around breaking women's hearts…'

Yuuto did not react to their comments and instead replied to in a calm yet very audible voice as he said-

"You know, suddenly proposing to me is not the problem, the problem is that we just met yesterday and we barely talked for an hour before you proposed to me out of the blue"

With his words the comments around began to change but like Yuuto, Lala did not really mind them and instead focused on Yuuto as she suddenly smiled wide with a flushed face.

Seeing this expression Yuuto was confused, after all he was calling her a sl*t, albeit indirectly with the way he said his words.

Yet, for some reason…

"I knew it! Yuuto had the same thoughts as me!"

Lala exclaimed as she grabbed Yuuto's hand, then she continued with her words filled with a weird passion-

"Papa always brings random men telling me to get married! Yuuto! You also dislike this right! I know you do! I'm sorry for yesterday but! Yuuto! I want to know you better! Please… would you get engaged to me?"

Hearing her words Yuuto did not flare up this time, due to yesterday's explosion he was now able to calmly look at this situation.

'Lala does not mean any harm, she simply does not understand love… yeah, the fact that she still approached me despite seeing how badly I broke her pursuers….'

The moment Lala appeared before Yuuto once more, he already knew that his spontaneous change of view on Lala's personality last night was a bit too much.

After seeing how she reacted, Yuuto realized that he did go a bit overboard last night.

'The benefit of having a rapidly adapting mental'

Yuuto sighed as he closed his eyes, thinking about Lala's proposal.

'I could reject her now, avoid this mission altogether and get on with my life, I could just drop her now but-'

There were other ways to get the Gate of Babylon and a bunch of other quest that could give him abilities that could be as good or even better than the Gate of Babylon.

'But…'

Seeing Lala's hopeful eyes, Yuuto, with his guilt over last nights actions still hanging over his head, sighed as he, with great difficulty responded saying.

"Fine… but this is tempo-"

"Ey!"

"Eh?"

Before Yuuto could finish his words, Lala cutely let out a cute voice as she pulled Yuuto's arms to her breast making him grasp them firmly.

This caused not only Yuuto but a lot of others to be frozen in shock.

Yuuto was momentarily shocked though as it flew out of his mind that in Devilukean customs grabbing breasts while proposing was the way to get engaged.

'So that's why she took hold of my hands… I did feel quite a bit more force from her grip compared to yesterday'

Recalling the difference in strength used by Lala, Yuuto learned a lot in this short interaction-

'One she's stronger than she let on and two…'

Yuuto looked at his hands that were still being trapped in between Lala's breast and her hands as he sighed-

'She's cunning'