Part 1
Hamazura and Hanzou entered a set meal restaurant where everything was worthy of complaint other than the price. They settled down at a table in one corner of the restaurant and Hanzou ordered a bunch of food that was seasoned so that it felt like it needed some beer with it to be complete.
When Hamazura had been in Skill-Out, he, Komaba, and Hanzou had gone to that restaurant together frequently.
A flat-screen TV was set up in a corner of the restaurant. Hamazura idly watched a talk show that was going on about a reorganization of the Roman Catholic Church that included the top position of pope changing from Matthai Reese to Pietro Yogdis. Hanzou then started speaking.
"Aren't you going to order something, Hamazura?"
"I actually just ate at a family restaurant," responded Hamazura and only ordered a few skewers of salted yakitori. "…You always order Japanese food, don't you? And you don't seem to care what kind of restaurant you're in either."
"Do I really?"
"You're the kind of guy that would order fish at a yakiniku restaurant."
After the food arrived, Hanzou focused on eating for a bit. It seemed he hadn't had any lunch yet. Hamazura disassembled the skewered chicken and ate the pieces one by one after carefully removing the skin.
As Hanzou continued to chow down on his food, Hamazura looked at him questioningly.
"What's with you? Did you not have any breakfast?"
"Oh, I've just been busy lately, so I haven't been able to eat a proper meal in a while. I just don't have the time, so I've been eating things like jelly and beef jerky. It's been a while since I've been able to sit down and eat."
"?"
"Hey, I haven't been able to get a hold of you recently, Hamazura. Where have you been?"
"I'm the End of the Century Emperor back from the battlefield."
"Ahn?"
Now it was Hanzou's turn to look puzzled.
Following that, Hamazura and Hanzou started exchanging information that could have been thing's they had actually seen and could have been mere rumors. One was about the customer that got so pissed at the stingy settings of a pachinko parlor's slot machines that he plowed into the parlor with a dump truck. One was about the strengthening of security on ATM's that made even going around and destroying vending machines a better means of gaining money.
"Hehh. So you've got a girl, Hamazura."
"Well, yeah. …But to be honest, I'm a little uneasy about it," said Hamazura as he stabbed the removed chicken skins with a skewer. "Y'see, with the way I've always done things, I can attack, but I can't protect. I don't want this to be a relationship that ends in a few months. And so I finally have to think about things long term when I act."
"Money problems?"
"…I was thinking of maybe using my lock picking skills. Not to steal stuff from cars, but to have a road service where I open people's doors for them when they lock their keys in the car or whatever. If I can strengthen my stealing skills in that direction, I can use them to protect, too."
"Nee ha ha," laughed Hamazura in embarrassment.
He pulled out a small reference book that looked like it was for a correspondence course from his pocket and put it on the table.
"I don't think that getting my skills up to a practical level will be easy. I tried reading a magazine that talked about security, but I had no clue what the stuff about electronic locks was about."
"…Well, at least you know what area you're interested in, right? Like with choosing between the fine arts and the sciences, you have to choose what you're good at. At the very least, there's no way it could end up being wasted effort. All the work you put in will add up."
"I'm not so sure."
"Hey, you're the guy who had the heavy machinery we needed to steal an ATM up and running in two minutes. I'd say going down the path of locks is a good decision."
That was when a cell phone started ringing.
Hanzou pulled his cell phone from his pocket, looked at the screen, and then put it away.
He grabbed the bill and stood up.
Hamazura looked puzzled.
"What is it?"
"A money making opportunity," Hanzou said with a bitter smile. "But this is what you were calling an 'attack'. You can't protect anyone with this. There's nothing in it for you now."
"I see."
"Well, I have to hurry. See you, Hamazura."
"Hey, I'll pay for mine."
"Didn't I just tell you this is a money making opportunity for me? The food's on me."
Finished speaking, Hanzou turned his back to Hamazura and headed for the register.
Hamazura felt a little left out by not being invited along, but then…
"…Oh? The cashier isn't here. I can make a dash for it!!"
"You bastaaaaarrrrddd!! Don't dine and dash leaving me behiiiiiiind!!"
He then drowned his faint feelings in Worcestershire sauce.
Part 2
They went to buy the groceries for dinner at a nearby supermarket.
"…"
"…"
Accelerator and Misaka Worst stood listening to the outdated pop music that made one wonder, "Why the hell did they choose this?"
They felt as out of place as someone who went to a baseball game and accidentally ended up sitting in the seats by the third-base where the opposing team's cheering squad sat.
"Is this an attempt to line you and Misaka up next to normal people in order to find out just how twisted we are?" asked Misaka Worst as she pushed the rattling shopping cart with one hand.
Accelerator responded sounding even more displeased than her.
"…They're trying to get us used to peaceful scenes."
It may have sounded like a ridiculous idea, but there was actually nothing more important for people who had returned from the battlefield. If they weren't able to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling there and weren't able to adapt to the empty peaceful days, they would end up distancing themselves from the peace they had returned to and would only be able to live in constant battle.
Up until then, Accelerator and Misaka Worst had been at the center of evil created by various people.
They had been covered in filth crawling around in a world where blood being shed was the norm and outsmarting the established rules in order to live on was necessary.
They had gained a type of strength from those experiences, but they also held the risk of distancing themselves from peace.
Monsters.
Targets of fear.
Those who were found worthless if they could not kill someone.
If they didn't want to become those things, they had to take in that out-of-place atmosphere. They had to get to the point where that kind of place was the norm.
But…
"Hey, hey, Mr. Honor Student."
"Shut it."
"That sales advertisement doesn't matter. It's free if you steal it all."
"…Do you want me to punch you?"
"Why? Anyway. They're careful to make sure people don't take anything from the store at sweets shops, but doesn't it seem like they haven't thought of the idea of eating it all in the store and sticking the empty wrappers between the shelves?"
"You really are rotten to the core, aren't you?"
"Actually, Misaka can't believe that people actually go through the process of paying the amount on the price tag to get things. Isn't getting everything as cheaply and easily as possible the foundation of business?"
"It isn't business if you aren't paying for it."
"Oh! How about we eat some samples and then pretend to get food poisoning?"
"If you do that, I'll fucking eat you alive."
As he complained, a quizzical expression came to Accelerator's face.
(…How the hell did I become the one with more common sense?)
This did seem very out of place for him, but, at the same time, it wasn't really.
It was true that informing someone else what common sense dictated was out of place for him.
However, he decided that being immune to common sense was hardly something to brag about.
Part 3
After leaving the set meal restaurant in District 7, Hamazura felt the cell phone in his pocket vibrating.
He pulled it out and looked at the screen which displayed "Takitsubo Rikou".
However, when he pressed the connect button and put it to his ear, it was not her voice he heard.
"Hamazuraaa! You're super slow for someone's who's just supposed to be doing odd jobs! Where did you super run off to!?"
"Ugh, who cares; I was thinking of killing some time by kicking those idiots' asses, but all those delinquents ran off after you. And since you are taking forever, it'll be night before you get back at this rate. We'll go find you instead." added Mugino.
"I-I see. Well, I'm—"
"No, no," Mugino interrupted him for some reason. "I'm bored, so I was thinking of making the Hamazura Search into a game."
"?"
"It'll be a punishment game where Kinuhata, Takitsubo, and I will search for you and whoever finds you first gets to punish the last one to find you. Let's see, the punishment will be…"
"It'll just be making the loser wear a super bunny suit, right?"
"What!!!???" Hamazura reacted.
"Hamazura, you've been super gloomy lately and it's making me wonder why Takitsubo-san would stick with you."
"…Don't worry. Hamazura's good points lie elsewhere…"
(Huh!? She ignored the bunny part!?)
Hamazura started trembling as he sensed a rising danger, but he didn't ask for details then. He swore in his heart he would talk with her alone about it later.
"Okay, the super Hamazura Search competition is about to start. Ready, go!"
With a click the line was severed.
Hamazura stared down at his cell phone's small LCD screen.
He may not be able to go down the same path as Hanzou. He may not be able to return to Skill-Out.
Even though he had overcome World War III, Hamazura was still an underling who could do nothing but run when regular, everyday delinquents came after him.
Except he still had connections to other people.
With Mugino, with Kinuhata, and with Takitsubo.
Frenda may be gone, but Hamazura and the others had regained the connections that came with Item.
There were people who would come searching for him if he was missing.
That wasn't very extravagant, but it helped to support the depths of Hamazura's heart.
He had realized all that once again.
(…I can't just continue to run away.)
Battles in that peaceful world would not be decided with the result of a fist fight. And he couldn't forcibly take victory from someone else. Instead, he had to become someone who could protect those who were important to him. That would solve everything.
As Hamazura was seriously thinking about all that, he had another thought.
(…Huh? Takitsubo and the others said they were searching for me, but what am I supposed to do?)
Could he move around doing whatever he wanted or should he stay where he was?
The game had started without any detailed rules being explained. As such, Hamazura couldn't go on, couldn't go back, and was stuck timidly where he was as if he was an idiotic piece of art.
"Oh?"
A voice called out to the timid objet d'art titled "Hamazura".
It was a girl's voice.
He turned around and saw…a difficult to describe girl. She was wearing an oddly short mini-yukata (?), had brown hair, wore thick makeup, and had accessories all over. She felt like the result of asking an old man who had never seen a city high school girl to describe one.
He knew her.
He didn't know her family name, but her given name was Kuruwa. The chain wrapped around her shoulders, torso, and legs rattled as she approached him.
"Oh, Hamazura-shi. What are you doing here?"
"I'm the End of the Century Emperor Landmark."
"?"
He was a hidden goal point, but he gave a light smile instead of explaining further.
"What are you doing, Kuruwa-chan? Looking for Hanzou again?"
As far as Hamazura knew, Kuruwa had an unfortunate obsession with everything ninja and he thought she had been chasing after Hanzou in various ways.
Whether it had anything to do with that or not, she seemed to have had some kind of inner change as she was speaking much more politely than before.
"No, no. Hanzou-sama seems to be rather busy right now, so I'm doing something else."
"Really?"
"Yes. If I were seriously chasing after Hanzou-sama, I might use my seductive techniques to get all the information you have, Hamazura-shi."
"Seductive…techniques….?"
That may have been something he would normally love to hear, but his breath caught because he had been caught off guard by one of those very techniques once.
(Hearing Kuruwa say that is a dangerous sign,) thought Hamazura as he put himself on guard.
Kuruwa must not have liked the look on his face, because she looked a tad offended and moved her hand to her kimono's obi.
"You look like you don't believe me. Perhaps I should show one to you now."
"W-wait!! Don't strip!! Keep your clothes on!! Using seductive techniques with no goal is nothing more than an endless erotic hell!!"
Kuruwa must have sensed something from Hamazura as he trembled in fear, because she removed her hand from her obi.
"I want to be with Hanzou-sama very much, but I don't want to get in his way."
"Oh, yeah. He did say he was doing something. He seemed really busy and even said he didn't even have time to eat."
"Hanzou-sama did?"
"I saw him just a bit ago at that set meal restaurant. As usual, he was ordering nothing but cheap Japanese food."
"Well, he is the kind of person that would order normal fried vegetables at a Chinese restaurant."
"Or fish at a yakiniku restaurant."
The two laughed at their shared view of Hanzou and gained a tiny bit of a kindred spirit from it.
"So did you hear about what was going on from Hanzou-sama?"
"A little. He said it was a money making opportunity."
"Hmm. That doesn't sound like what I'm working on."
"What are you working on, Kuruwa-chan?"
"Oh, it's just a matter Hanzou-sama got involved in that I'm sticking my nose into. But would he really start working on something else while still involved in that?"
"?"
"Well, you've already heard about it, so I can talk about it with you."
"About what?"
"Oh, you know. The thing about..."