Passing by two of his pseudo-friends as he flew by them, everything regained its color. The saturation and tone were adjusted to the right degree in the radio of Kaharu's heart, and he could feel a new sensation well up again. A very normal sense for him to feel, as it was present before his powers as well.

Hope.

That warmth was reluctantly welcomed by Kaharu as he sprinted down the stairs, flying by onlookers like Kosuto who stared at him confused. Everything about him seemed different from the morning, maybe that trend would continue to the future even. Kaharu didn't know and he didn't care, he took his attitude of living in the moment as motivation for his struggles as he kept running, getting warned by public morals committee members as his running in the hallway disturbed people, which he promptly ignored willfully.

His sense of freedom went overboard. The quick transition from utter despair and numbness to hopeful ecstasy put all of his personality traits up three notches, his confidence especially soaring high above in the sky.

- I'll protect them

At all costs…!-

…

"Oi, Oi! Is this all you've got?

"That's pretty weak! Why'd you even step in?"

*Huff, huff*

-What should I do…? They've got me outnumbered, and I can't summon my full strength in this state…

I can't run away either, then this girl would get hurt…!

Damn, these guys...!-

The sight of a beat-up, blonde high school girl was beheld by the three perpetrators of the incidence, smugly and maliciously smiling with their hands under their waist, disrespecting their opponent by not even holding a proper guard for them. Onata had a hard time defending against the three high school students as she had taken damage during their assaults, but she remained strong with her guard up and determined eyes set on the opponent. She, with her sense of justice, had intervened in an extortion-esque situation where money was demanded for lunch, in a very round-about way. Even though she had said to herself to try and stay out of trouble in order to avoid damages, as her current state didn't allow for her to fight with all she got, she still did it, being unable to ignore it as she saw it happen. Now she had to pay the consequences, for trying to uphold her own justice. She smiled slightly as she prepared to get defeated in a final assault, but she would go down fighting. Despite being unable to find any substantial reason for doing so, Onata felt like that was the best way for her to about that.

But that preparation would ultimately prove to be unnecessary as another person entered the scene.

Kaharu Kahari quickly made the corner and entered the view of a newly-confused blonde high school student. Her confusion was especially directed at the smile on his face, which was unusual to see on the face of the notorious Kaharu Kahari. Even though she wasn't at school as much as her friends, even she'd heard of his exploits and infamy.

Kaharu, like he usually did, called out to the group, saying

"Hey, what're you guys doing!?"

A red-haired kid, with swirly eyes and an angular school uniform taken well care of, turned around as he instantly recognized the voice. A giant wave of recognition swallowed both of them as they saw each other and figured out who they were.

Amatsuyu and Kaharu had met, as they'd done before.

Amatsuyu asserted his claim of being there by saying

"We're just here to loan some money, but this girl here put herself in between us and so we just tried to get our position back."

His line was said with a very confident tone backing it up, as his smug smile curled itself in amusement and his head twisted slightly. He looked out-of-this-world.

There was something really strange about his demeanor, something very corrupt could be smelled in the air if you took the energy to go through the layers of confidence hiding it. Kaharu raised his eyebrow at the unexpected meeting with an acquaintance. His confidence being clearly dominated over by the pure believability of Amatsuyu's tone. The brown-haired, small-nosed victim of the original display of aggression looked around in fear as she felt the tension of the situation.

Amatsuyu, both knowing about the fierceness of Kaharu and the fact that his time to shine would come very soon, continued with saying

"But I see the 'hero' has arrived, so there's no reason for us to force our demands here anymore. We've proven our point. Koutaro, Tatsumi, let's bounce."

The retreat hurt Amatsuyu's pride a little bit, but he picked his battles and would through that win the eventual war. As they turned their back to return, Kaharu stared at them with a confused glare. He wouldn't have expected Amatsuyu to retreat from the situation, nor did he recognize that confidence that formed the backbone to his speech. Kaharu bit his lip, yelling

"Like I'd let you get away so easily!"

The line was followed by a jump kick from Kaharu, directed at Amatsuyu's back.

*SLAM*

It connected and Amatsuyu fell to his knees with a sudden shock. He quickly turned his head, twisting it around to witness what had just happened, and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw a recovering Kaharu Kahari. His eyes turned dark as he looked at him, having just experienced actions he didn't know Kaharu would do. The fact that he was on his knee also infuriated him, drawing his rage up to his, almost taking over it. But his more logical side won the civil war barely as he thought

- This bastard…!

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Wait, calm down Amatsuyu. It's unlikely for you to win over him right now, you'll have your time soon. Bare through it. -

With his teeth gritted, Amatsuyu took his figurative tail and dashed away from there, like a bear stood behind him and his life was put in danger. His friends looked to him and followed his movements, also escaping. Kaharu thought of chasing them but threw it away as he figured that recovery took priority at that moment, having taken a moment to actually think about the best course of action.

Although that wasn't the main reason he decided to turn around to face the victims of the assault. It should've been indecipherable from the situations brevity, but Kaharu had the feeling that he'd get to see Amatsuyu soon in another conflict. Often not using his brain, Kaharu accepted that intuition as he walked slowly towards the alleyway again.

"You okay?"

Onata asked the brown-haired girl who tried to suppress her surprise and fear from what she'd experienced. She leaped into the arms of Onata as she said

"Onata! You're a real saver, thank you for doing that! I was so scared!"

Onata scratched her cheek with a cheeky smile on her face as she tried to coherently talk

"No… I-umm"

But she accepted the warmth, it felt nice once in a while to be met with such praise. That soon came to a stop though, as the realization that she was accepting it came to her mind, causing her to become redder than the few drops of blood dripping from her hand. She put distance between herself and the victim quickly with a combination of subtly pushing and jumping back a couple of paces. She said

"No, it's fine. It's not like I was trying to save you specifically, I just happened to pass by. I don't like stuff like that."

The girl kept her grateful smile as she responded

"Well, again, thank you very much, but I need to go to my friends."

There was a brief moment of eye-contact between Kaharu Kahari and the victim as she started walking, with an empty almost scared face blankly ignoring him.

The delinquent known as Kaharu Kahari wasn't deserving of gratitude, that's what the girl was silently thinking as she passed him. It wasn't like he'd tried to save her specifically, he just wanted to fight that other delinquent.

The tough reputation around Kaharu Kahari landed him that consequence, even he knew it himself. He'd himself had walked down the path of delinquency, of violence and rebellion. Being constantly against the establishment and people who hadn't accepted him, but that was a lie. He was normal before, too normal.

It hurt, his heart trying to wriggle out of the limited movement the arteries around it provided it with. Much like his apparent struggles to do something positive, the heart failed.

There was a certain cold air around the brown-haired, small-nosed girl, whose pigtails and ponytail bounced as she walked with a blue shine in her eye looking extra isolating. Kaharu's new mission of trying to protect the school's student from trouble, issued by platonic convincing on a rooftop, suddenly felt pointless.

Kaharu didn't see the point in trying to do that if it didn't yield him anything in return. After all, there wasn't any clear difference for Kaharu whether he beat up someone who messed with him, or if he tried to save someone. The only difference being that protecting the students of that school took a lot more effort than just running around beating up people he didn't like. He somewhat wanted to protect the students, but the mental strain that came after cold rejection challenged that notion. Was it really worth it?

Kaharu didn't know at that moment, he thought to himself

-Is it worth it?

Is there even a difference between me beating up some bothersome idiots, and me trying to protect the students here? I'm just fighting people in the end, is that all I can do----- -

"Um… Thank you for, uh, kinda saving me there."

Her face kept the same redness as she said it, occasionally peeking at Kaharu's face but returning to the ground quickly. It must've been hard for her to say that, as Kaharu's eyes lit up after hearing it. His root-thoughts remained the same, but the glossing on the cake suddenly proved to look exquisite. Kaharu kept his neutral face, hiding a smile within him, and said

"It wasn't that much trouble. But, could you say that again?"

Onata broke with the level of embarrassment and changed her pose quickly, saying

"Huh!? Who do you think I am!? Why would I do that?"

"Shut up! Just do it. I saved you, didn't I?"

Her face returned to that redness again, making very subtle gestures suggesting at her embarrassment, as she said

"Thank you for saving me..."

Kaharu nodded slowly to himself as he felt satisfied with it, saying

"That makes up for it"

"For what!? Don't make me look stupid!"

Onata walked up to Kaharu, pointing her finger near his face as she said

"Listen, it's not like I need your help. I was just in a bad condition today."

Kaharu raised his eyebrows in intrigue, and asked

"Oh? The reason?"

Onata stepped back, keeping her finger pointing at Kaharu, and said

"Because I didn't sleep enough last night!"

"What!?"

"I need to sleep at least 8 hours for me to be able to do my best."

Kaharu practically fell down to the ground in defeat as he couldn't believe it, but he commented

"Right..."

Onata exclaimed

"Don't believe me, bastard!? Let's fight tomorrow then, and we'll see."

Kaharu dusted off his school uniform a little bit before replying

"Let's do it."

...