Repaying Kindness
Having finished a thoroughly satisfying round of trading blows, Jun led his companions toward the merchant selling books.
"What about Harry, though?"
"He's probably still parked in front of the cookie vendor. I asked him to come with us, but he refused — said he had to pick out the tastiest ones for you."
And he'd taken that at face value.
What a pure-hearted friend.
Which is exactly why I like him so much.
Being around him put Jun at ease. With most people, you couldn't help fretting over what they were thinking, what they were feeling — but with that friend, none of it mattered. Jun genuinely loved that about him.
I'm such a high-maintenance human being, aren't I?
When someone was nearby, their presence nagged at him until he craved solitude. When he was alone, he ached for human warmth and went looking for company. That self-contradicting streak had left his relationships in his previous life in shambles — which was precisely why the buddies whose thoughts he could read like an open book meant so much to him. That was the biggest reason he had never been able to cut ties with that particular beast.
Knowing him, everything looked so good he couldn't pick. I'll just buy him one of each.
Jun resolved to load Harry's arms with cookies. Of course, since too many at once would rot his teeth, he'd stash them in his subspace inventory and dole them out one at a time.
"What about my share?"
"You think I'd shortchange my own mom?"
"You're such a good boy, my Juni."
Fortuna smiled warmly and ruffled Jun's hair. For reasons he couldn't quite pin down, she absolutely adored being called Mom by him. He felt a little guilty toward Mrs. Han from his previous life — but he didn't mind calling Fortuna Mom either. Strict one moment, tender the next, she radiated a maternal warmth that reached him. It was almost embarrassing, given how he'd once told God he had no need for a new family because he'd never be able to accept one.
Well — if the maternal instinct she gave off had been pure, undiluted motherhood, he probably wouldn't have been able to accept her as Mom the way he'd just claimed. It was the sticky, secretive lust coiled inside that maternal warmth, the way it needled his sense of taboo, that had let him embrace her as his mother.
Probably.
No — honestly, that was exactly it. Among Jun's private preferences, that particular flavor had its place.
"Kh—!"
Confronted once more with his own secret tastes, Jun picked up his pace for no good reason. Leon and the two tomboys complained, but he ignored them. He had no intention of letting a bunch of kids see the face he'd flushed red with self-reflection.
Before long, Jun and his party reached the book merchant. The cookie vendor was set up nearby, so Jun turned his head this way and that, searching for Harry.
Strangely, no matter how hard he looked, Harry was nowhere to be found.
A bad feeling settled over him.
"Jun, hurry. Misfortune is piling up around you."
The Angel of Luck's warning was not one he took lightly.
Activation
With his information-processing capacity soaring, the world around him began to crawl. Jun swept his surroundings with calm, settled eyes, focusing on the space itself.
"Cheap! It's cheap!"
"Ugh, I hear the village chief skimmed money again."
The merchants' hawking and the housewives' gossip ringing through the marketplace came through as sharp and clear as if they were right beside him. Footsteps thudded. An apple rolled off a stall with a soft clatter. Every motion of people walking the streets, every tumble of fruit from a display — he saw and felt it all as vividly as if it were happening inches from his face.
Before long, the entire space enclosing the marketplace was under Jun's complete command.
And only then did he find what he was looking for.
Thud! Thud!
"...Stop... I don't want this..."
"Jun, did you find Harry?"
The moment Jun started toward him, Leon — who had been watching him the whole time — asked the question.
"Yeah. We have to help him, now. He's being attacked."
"I'm coming with you."
"The bastards doing it are that son of a bitch and his hangers-on. You sure you can hit them?"
"You just said Harry's already getting beaten. Then..."
Leon trailed off with a pained look, then set his jaw with grim resolve and added, "I'll hit them."p>
Having him at his side would be a real comfort, so Jun didn't refuse the help.
"Linda, go get Father Leonard. He should be at the village hall. Heni, you bring your dad. He's at the butcher shop, so head there. And that empty lot behind the general store — the one they cleared for a warehouse? Bring them there."
"Got it."
"O-okay."
Once the two tomboys nodded, Jun kicked off the ground and sprinted. Leon stuck close on his heels.
Adults were visible all along the street, but neither Jun nor Leon asked any of them for help. Doing so would blow the whole thing wide open, and someone would inevitably end up bowing their head in shame over the fallout — someone who had done nothing wrong.
A short while later, Jun and Leon cut through the alley between the general store and the bakery and arrived at a secluded empty lot.
There was Harry, being beaten by kids half again his size.
They had been grinding their teeth since the alley, listening to the sounds of the beating — and now fire sparked in both their eyes.
"Hey!"
"Th-there!"
The pounding footsteps alerted the attackers to Jun and Leon. One of them — the one currently stomping on Harry's stomach — puffed out his chest for show and shot them a sneering look.
What the hell are you smirking about?
Jun bit down on his lip and fired up his mana core. The ambient mana around him dyed itself in his color in an instant. Then he drew his right fist all the way back and pictured it — himself, standing right in front of that sneering face.
Realize
⟨ Blink ⟩
Imagination became reality.
"Huh?"
"The hell do you mean, 'huh,' you son of a bitch!"
Crack!
The right fist Jun had drawn back slammed dead-center into the bastard's face. His body reeled helplessly backward.
"Frank!"
"Fr-Frank!"
A pair of twins who looked like carbon copies of each other — face and build both — cried out his name and scrambled to his side. Jun ignored them entirely, fixing the remaining attackers still near Harry with a calm, flat stare. Under that dry, expressionless gaze, the thugs found themselves taking an involuntary step back. The one who only flinched a little turned his head toward Leon instead, as if Jun weren't worth his attention.
"Ah, haha. Hey, Jun. There's been some kind of misundersta— (thud!) Guh—!"
A piggish kid with soft, overfed flesh broke into a cold sweat and started making excuses. His breath reeked so badly that Jun gifted him a fist that needed no reply before he could finish. The kid drooled in what looked almost like bliss.
"Are you out of your mind? How dare you hit the village chief's son?"
"You're finished, you orphan bastard!"
The hangers-on clustered beside the fat kid snarled as if they meant to threaten him. For all their noise, their weight was rocked back on their heels like scared dogs — not the least bit intimidating.
"For, look after Harry."
"Got it."
Fortuna fluttered her fairy wings and flew to Harry. Multicolored dust scattered in her wake, drifting over to Jun and sinking into him. He felt the strength surge through his entire body.
Worrywart to a fault, that one.
Like I'd lose to trash like this—
"Fuck! What are you standing around for?! Attack him already!"
"As if I'd just take it—!"
Jun casually slipped Hanger-On Number One's tackle, planted a fist in the kid's face, then snapped his head aside to dodge Number Two's swing. He dropped his stance low and rode the rebound straight into an uppercut under Number Two's chin. Both hangers-on were out of the fight in an instant.
"Th-this can't be right..."
The fat kid stammered in disbelief. Jun answered in a voice without rise or fall.
"You're slow. All of you."
He had kept Activation running from the moment he'd found Harry. In that slowed-down world, the movements of kids who hadn't even fully grown into adults were sluggish beyond belief. On top of that, his half-awakened spatial specialization covered every blind spot and measured the exact distance between him and each thug. Thanks to that, Jun could move with clean precision along the optimal path every time. Attacks from kids who knew nothing but swinging their arms and legs with raw force never stood a chance of touching him.
"Why did you go after Harry?"
Jun asked the son of a bitch — Frank. Frank glared back with bloodshot eyes, then curled his lip into a sneer.
"Heh heh. What, is it that weird that I went after him? You gonna tell me I shouldn't have touched him 'cause we're family? 'Cause we're both orphans?"
"No. My head isn't that full of flowers. Exhibit A: I have never once thought of you as my older brother."
Jun meant every word. Frank was an orphan living at the church just like him, and older to boot — Leonard had told Jun to treat him as a big brother — but Jun had refused every single time. And for good reason. Frank was the kind of bastard even the village mutts in Primuni knew to avoid. He picked fights with anyone over nothing and barked viciously at the drop of a hat. Frank would never know how many times Leonard had been forced to bow his head because of him. Jun had no interest in treating someone like that as his senior just because of age. His own inner age made it even less appealing.
"That's a little hurtful. So what are you trying to say?"
"You knew damn well I'd come at you like this if you touched Harry — so why did you do it? Keep picking those pathetic little fights."
Frank had a particular habit of needling Jun and Leon. Leon always just rolled over and took it, calling him hyung — but Jun would endure up to a point, then drive right back into him the moment it went too far. Naturally their relationship had hit rock bottom, and Frank picked a fight every time Jun crossed his line of sight. Well — since Jun kept his personal belongings in subspace and spent most of his time training outdoors, the best Frank could manage was a shoulder-check or some trash talk behind his back.
"Pa-pathetic little fights, huh."
"Yeah. Pathetic little fights. And if you were going to pull something this stupid, you should've waited a few more months. Then I could've settled this without watching anyone's face."
They had argued plenty, but actual fistfights between Jun and Frank had been rare. Leonard cracked down hard on that, if nothing else. So Jun had been counting the days until Frank turned fifteen in a few months, went through his coming-of-age ceremony, and left the church. When that day came, Leonard might still be miserable about it — but he wouldn't stop the fight.
Instead, the bastard had forced a brawl now, which meant Leonard's loving iron fist was a guaranteed appointment.
If I'm getting hit either way—
Jun put even more power into his fist. Beating the bastard black and blue now would make the scolding later sting a little less.
The cleanup afterward will be even messier... well, Future Me can deal with that.