Protection

It was a new day.

As usual, Seiji went out for a morning jog and returned home after working up a sweat.

After washing up, he prepared to make his own breakfast. Truthfully, he was slightly disappointed that breakfast wouldn’t be provided for him every morning by a beauty.

Just as he was thinking this, there was a knock on his door.

"Miss Uehara?"

The pigtailed beauty pouted upon hearing this.

"…Mika?"

She finally showed a smile of satisfaction.

"For you!" She handed him the lunchbox that was in her hand.

"Oh, but this…"

"She… she already got used to making them, so she made one extra out of habit… that’s what mom said this morning!" Mika looked away from him and showed a hint of shyness, "so there’s breakfast for you today as well, and in the future… well, we’ll probably make breakfast for you occasionally."

"Thank you so much, but wouldn’t this be too much trouble…"

"It’s no trouble at all; it’s just food for one extra person. In… in exchange, if there’s some work that requires physical strength around our house, you need to come help out!" She looked back directly into his eyes.

Seiji was surprised for an instant, before a gentle smile suffused across his lips.

"Thanks… I will."

His smile was breaking the rules with how dazzling it was, ahh! Mika felt like her face was burning up again.

After talking to her mom last night and confirming her feelings, she felt as if she was no longer able to look at Seiji normally anymore. Every time she did, she felt nervous inside, and her heartbeat seemed to increase severalfold!

Just hearing his voice and seeing him smile would make her cheeks heat up.

Ahhhhh—she couldn’t take this anymore!

"I… I’m going to school!" She turned around and scurried off, leaving Seiji with the impression of her back and those twin pigtails swaying in the air.

"Be careful!" Seiji was slightly concerned she would trip.

Then, he returned back to his room to enjoy his breakfast.

When he opened the lunchbox, Seiji paused; he had noticed that the food inside was evidently different from before as every dish seemed to have been made by someone inexperienced.

He realized instantly that the previous breakfasts must have been made by the landlord, and this one must have been cooked personally by Mika Uehara!

He could envision that pigtailed girl waking up at the crack of dawn and clumsily cooking under the instruction of her mother.

The eggs were slightly burnt, the squid was twisted into a strange shape, and this cucumber… just how did she cut it into something that looked like it was an ingredient for dark magic?

Seiji sighed deeply.

He didn’t have the ability to eat this type of breakfast calmly.

Mika Uehara was walking down the sunny street.

‘He’s probably eating his breakfast now… I wonder what he’s thinking.’ Her heart kept pounding as she thought this.

"Ahh—Mom… she forced me to cook for him personally, but this will be exposed instantly… it’s so embarrassing!" She touched her own cheek and found that it was burning.

"I… I admit, I do like him a little, but this is so… direct. Urgh, it’s all mom’s fault!"

Nozomi Uehara sneezed as she washed dishes at home.

No matter how embarrassed Mika was, she had already made the breakfast, so there was nothing she could do.

‘I hope that he’ll like it…’

This was the first time in her life that she made food for a boy, humph…

As she was lost in her thoughts, a figure suddenly darted out from a nearby alley.

The figure had filthy clothes, messy dyed-blonde hair, and bloodshot eyes.

"It was all because of you, you fucking bitch!" Blondie was viciously glaring at the girl in front of him; he felt like he had fallen down into hell because of his family going bankrupt, and he had lost all sense of reason.

All because of this **** in front of him, he had lost everything!

He was going to take revenge!

He was going to fuck this bitch up!

He was going f*cking to kill her!

Mika Uehara was terrified by the malevolent aura emitted by blondie, and her mind was frozen with fear; however, before long, she instinctively turned around and shouted for help.

"Help! Someone save me—"

"Don’t run, you fucking bitch!"

While cursing, blondie brought out a glimmering dagger and chased after her.

He was very fast and managed to catch up to her swiftly.

Mika Uehara despaired upon feeling the blondie behind her catching up, but then a familiar figure abruptly appeared in front of her.

"Haruta-kun… Seiji!"

Seiji, who was crossing the street, opened his eyes wide in astonishment at this scene, before immediately rushing over.

"Mika!"

He had to get there in time!

But it was too late.

Blondie reached Mika just a few steps before Seiji did, and he viciously stabbed his dagger into her back.

*Splurt!* Bright red blood gushed out incessantly.

Mika’s expression froze at this instant, while Seiji felt an icy feeling from the depths of his heart, followed by absolute rage.

"Bastard!" He roared and kicked the blondie with manic fury.

*Smack!*

Blondie was toppled over, and he dropped his dagger.

But it was too late.

Seiji caught Mika, who was collapsing, and saw her blood spreading quickly on her back.

In his arms, she blinked and looked at his face.

Ahh! Her body felt unnaturally cold.

Mika Uehara felt like she saw many things, and then nothing at all, and the last thing she saw was the anxious, worried face of a young man.

He went to all that trouble to become handsome; why was his expression so negative?

She wanted to smile at him, but she wasn’t able to, and something wet dripped out of the corners of her eyes.

The boy’s face was twisted; all his features were distorted and filled with endless self-regret and pain.

It’s not your fault… don’t have such an expression, Haruta-kun… no, Seiji.

Thank you for coming to save me.

She opened then closed her mouth, trying her best to say the words she wanted to express the most.

"Was breakfast… good?"

Then she saw nothing but darkness.

"Ahhhhhhh! Damn it!!"

Seiji hugged the bloody girl and began roaring uncontrollably.

It was only by a few steps—not even five seconds!

This incident which should have been over already instead led to this terrible ending!

Reality was definitely the worst game there was!

However…

Luckily, he still had save files.

Load!!

The world around became dark, before lighting up once more.

Seiji was in his room, sitting on the bed.

It was earlier this morning, when he had just woken up.

In case of emergencies, Seiji would save a new file whenever he woke up.

This time he definitely wouldn’t allow the tragedy to repeat itself!

He didn’t go for his usual morning jog; instead, he waited silently in his room.

At the same time that he remembered, there was a knock on his door.

When he went to open it, he saw a girl carrying a lunchbox for him.

There was no dagger, no blood, and she was still safe.

"Haruta-kun… your eyes are a bit red—is there anything wrong?" Mika Uehara was concerned about him.

"Nothing, just some dust in my eye." Seiji smiled and blinked, "what about you—do you have something on your mind?"

...

On her way to school, Mika couldn’t help sneaking glances at the boy beside her.

She wanted to go to school after giving him breakfast, but after receiving it from her, he adamantly insisted on keeping his promise to continue escorting her to school.

She couldn’t convince him otherwise, so that was how it ended up.

Was his insistence on escorting her after receiving breakfast a roundabout way of telling her he didn’t want to be in her debt? Thinking this, Mika felt slightly disappointed.

Suddenly, a figure dashed out in front of her.

He had filthy clothes, messy dyed-blonde hair, and bloodshot eyes.

"It was all because of you, you fucking bitch!"

Mika Uehara was terrified by the malevolent aura emitted by blondie, and her mind was frozen with fear, but instantly, a huge shadow protected her from the front.

It was Seiji Haruta.

He stood firmly in front of her, just like a thick wall.

He was waiting for this bastard.

"Mika, stand back and call the police." He whispered to the girl. "Leave this guy to me. I will protect you."

He remembered the sight of her soaked in blood and silently vowed that he would never allow time to repeat itself!

"Get the hell out of my way!" Blondie roared madly as he lunged at Seiji with his glimmering dagger.

Seiji fearlessly countered his attack, using both hands to grasp firmly onto blondie’s wrist which was holding the dagger, as his right foot aimed for blondie’s crotch and kicked out with devastating force!

*BAM!* As they collided, there was the sound of something breaking.

Blondie’s crazed expression had abruptly frozen.

Then he screamed as if he was dying.

I’ll never tell you that you succeeded the first time, so I had to load once.

I’ll never tell you that in order to defeat you without getting injured, I had to load twice.

I’ll never tell you that in order to take advantage of this perfect chance of claiming self-defense and crippling you for life, thus leaving you functionless down there forever, I had to load three times.

I came back to this scene a total of six times!

Seiji viciously knocked over blondie as he was shrieking madly and making inhuman sounds!

Mika Uehara watched all this with her mouth wide agape.

She was unable to comprehend how this boy, who was just a weak otaku not long ago, was able to fearlessly block someone so malicious.

And there was no way for her to understand why his movements were so accurate as he defeated blondie.

The only thing she could see was his thick shadow, and his words rung incessantly in her ears.

"Stay back, Mika. I will protect you."

Something hot flowed out from her heart, burning her chest, scorching her entire body, and almost causing her to shout out loud.

She shouldn’t be like this; she should be calmly observing the situation and worrying if he was injured or not.

But she could only stay where she was right now and feel the impact of blissful fortune upon her.

Her legs were shaking, and something hot was oozing out of the corner of her eye.

Ahh!! She couldn’t deny it any longer.

At this very moment, Mika Uehara was utterly certain that she had completely fallen in love with this boy named Seiji Haruta.

...

After that, everything progressed as expected.

The street-side surveillance cameras recorded everything. Blondie was the one who was intended to harm someone, and Seiji only acted in pure self-defense.

In that sort of situation, for a boy who wasn’t knowledgeable in martial arts, accidentally giving the attacker such a permanent injury was understandable.

In fact, for him to be able to calmly and accurately stop the crime was incredible already.

And so, Seiji Haruta was judged to have committed no crime; not even his guardian was required for him to leave the police station. Blondie, however, had been charged with attempted murder.

And with this, the incident had finally come to a conclusion.

...…

It was a brand new day.

Mika Uehara held a lunchbox and was about to knock on the door.

But she hesitated, putting the lunchbox down and taking out a hand mirror to check her appearance once more.

If her mother could see her, she would definitely smile wryly and say: "This child, you already checked your appearance several times before going out today."

Okay, perfect.

She touched her chest and attempted to subdue her frantic heartbeat, before raising her hand to knock on the door.

At that moment, the door suddenly opened.

"I felt like you might have been standing outside." He smiled at the girl who was now frozen solid.

"A… argh! Don’t scare me like that!"

"Haha, sorry." Seiji took a good look at her face and felt a sense of relief in his heart. "Good morning, Mika."

She had a faint red tinge on her cheeks as she looked at him, and she somehow felt as if he was feeling the same way. A brilliant, alluring smile of peerless beauty gradually suffused across her face.

"Mm… good morning!"

The girl who was smiling radiantly in the early morning sunlight seemed as if she could brighten the entire world.