A silence so thick hung in the tiny ramen shop that the sound of broth boiling in a huge pot seemed deafening. The elderly chef behind the counter froze, stopping his ladle before it reached the next customer's bowl. Two office workers sitting near the entrance slowly pulled their heads into their shoulders, trying not to make their stools creak.
Mikey stood just a couple of meters from our corner table. His empty, dark eyes drilled into the back of my head, which was hidden under a stupid black bucket hat. Draken towered over his shoulder like a monolithic rock with a dragon tattoo, his massive arms crossed over his chest.
— "Hey," — Mikey repeated, and his voice, deceptively clear and calm, sliced through the tense air.
— "I asked a question."
— "Did you go deaf from the camera flashes, big guy?"
Ai, sitting across from me, froze. She slowly lowered her head even further, instinctively pulling up her jacket collar to hide half of her face. Her star-filled eyes flashed anxiously beneath the thick lenses of her disguise glasses. Marin next to her stopped breathing altogether. Her fingers turned white, gripping the wooden chopsticks in a death grip, as if they were her only weapon against the leaders of the Tokyo Manji Gang. The girls understood perfectly well: if a fight broke out here, our disguises would fly off in the first few seconds, and then we wouldn't be filmed by a government drone, but by random passersby.
As for me... I just sighed. My Six Eyes, easily piercing through the thick lenses of my sunglasses, scanned both guys. No mana. No cursed techniques. Just two teenagers with abnormally high physical stats for ordinary people and inflated egos forged in street fights.
I unhurriedly picked up a generous portion of noodles with my chopsticks, lifted it over the bowl, allowing the hot steam to envelop my face, and sucked it into my mouth with a loud, absolutely indecent slurp.
— "M-m-m," — I chewed thoughtfully, ignoring the threat of total violence hanging over us.
— "Ai, you know, this coupon didn't lie. The pork just melts on your tongue. But here's the problem..."
I placed my chopsticks on the edge of the bowl and turned my head slightly, just enough for Mikey to see the edge of my smirk from under the bucket hat. — "...for some reason, the broth started to taste bitter. Ah, I get it,"
— I snapped my fingers theatrically. You two are blocking my light from that lamp. Your shadow ruins the aesthetics of the dish, and my aura demands perfect lighting during dinner." "Take a step to the left, if you would be so kind."
Under the table, Marin kicked me hard in the leg, which, considering the active [Infinity], only resulted in her squeaking quietly and grabbing the bruised toe of her sneaker. A thick vein bulged on Draken's temple. He took a heavy step forward, shielding Mikey. — "Are you immortal or something, you bastard?" — the vice-president of Toman growled, and his voice made the cheap paper lanterns under the ceiling tremble.
— "Mikey is talking to you. Turn around when you're being spoken to, or I'll shove that bucket hat down your throat."
I didn't even flinch. I just lazily propped my cheek on my fist. — "Kids are so loud these days,"
— I drawled, looking at Ai, who currently resembled a statue. First, one cries loudly on TV, and now these two are shouting in a decent establishment."
Hearing Takemichi mentioned, Mikey ended up right next to our table with an imperceptible movement. His face was devoid of emotion, but pure, concentrated fury splashed in his eyes.
— "Takemitchy" — Manjiro Sano said quietly, resting his fists on the tabletop so hard that the cheap plastic creaked pitifully.
— "Is our friend." "Two days ago, he was a normal guy. And today I see on every channel how some giant creature is chewing on him while you drag him by the scruff of the neck like a rag doll." "He was crying for the whole country to see."
Mikey leaned closer. He smelled of gasoline and the street. — "I don't know what kind of disappearance tricks you were showing off in that park, and I don't care about mages or the rest of the nonsense on the news." "But if you dragged our guy into your shady business against his will... I'll crack your skull open right here."
It became so quiet in the ramen shop that I could hear a drop of sweat fall from the chef's nose and hit the wooden cutting board. I slowly raised my head. From under my black sunglasses and the brim of my bucket hat, I looked straight into the empty eyes of Invincible Mikey. The smile vanished from my face, giving way to that icy, arrogant calmness that instinctively made Dungeon Boss demons back away.
— "Dragged him against his will?" — my voice dropped an octave, vibrating in the cramped room.
— "Boy, you are confusing cause and effect. Takemichi Hanagaki was elevated to the rank of my personal Prophet." "It's the most prestigious position in modern Japan. He carries my luggage, and in return, he gets the exclusive right to stand next to the Strongest and absorb my greatness."
I leaned back slightly in my chair.
— "And as for him crying... Well, someone has to compensate for my absolute composure, right?" "Besides, it works perfectly for his meme image." "So, if you came to say thank you for making your friend the most recognizable person from Hokkaido to Okinawa - you can just pay our bill."
Draken exhaled loudly through clenched teeth. Mikey didn't say a word. He simply straightened up, and his right leg, known on all the streets of Tokyo as a deadly weapon, soared into the air with inhuman speed, aiming exactly at my temple. Marin shrieked hysterically, and Ai squeezed her eyes shut in horror.
Manjiro Sano's kick was flawless. There was no wind-up, no warning — just pure, animal reflex multiplied by years of street fights. His leg sliced through the stuffy air of the ramen shop with a whistle that would have made an ordinary person's ears pop. The target - my temple. A perfect hit that should have sent me into a deep knockout, and possibly into intensive care. The leg stopped exactly a millimeter away from my head.
The sound of the impact was like a dull clap, as if Mikey had hit thick bulletproof glass with all his might. The shockwave from the collision ruffled my white hair and blew a couple of napkins off the table, but that was the end of it. Mikey froze, balancing on one leg. His empty eyes widened in shock. He tried to press forward, putting all his weight into the leg, but the space between his sneaker and my skin was absolutely, mathematically insurmountable.
Draken, standing behind him, sucked in a loud breath. — "What the... Mikey, did he block it?! I didn't even see him raise his hand!"
— "He didn't raise it, Kenchin," — Mikey said quietly, slowly lowering his leg and taking a step back.
He looked at his foot, and then at me as if I were an alien. — "I hit... nothing. There's a wall there."
I calmly swallowed the noodles, raised my chopsticks, and wagged them edifyingly in the air.
— "Great flexibility, kid."
—"But if you want to reach the Strongest, you'll have to grow a longer leg. And, preferably, saturate it with a couple of tons of cursed energy."
—"But for now..."
SMACK!
A ringing, juicy smack echoed through the ramen shop, interrupting my grandiose speech at the most interesting part.
My head jerked forward from the momentum, and my sunglasses nearly flew into the broth. Mikey staggered back.
Draken pulled his hands out of his pockets. The chef behind the counter dropped his ladle. I slowly, very slowly turned my head, rubbing my bruised crown.
— "Ouch. Marin, what was that for? That was uncalled for."
Marin Kitagawa towered over me. Her fists were clenched, and a dark, demonic aura of fury seemed to swirl around her, making even the leaders of Toman instinctively tense up. [Infinity], set to automatically filter threats based on mana level, speed, and intent to kill, simply ignored the cosplayer's strike. To the System, a smack on the back of the head from an angry friend did not constitute a threat.
— "Stop acting like a dark lord!" — Marin barked, her voice breaking into a shriek.
— "People are scared enough as it is! They're Takemichi-kun's friends! They're worried about him! Just. Explain. Everything. To. Them. Normally!"
She breathed heavily, looming over me like an angry mother over a misbehaving teenager.
Ai Hoshino, sitting across from me, hid her face in her palms, but her shoulders were suspiciously shaking with silent laughter.
Mikey and Draken stood in complete, absolute stupor. A second ago, this white-haired giant had stopped a deadly kick with the power of his mind, radiating the aura of an absolute deity.
And now some girl in a jacket had just slapped him karate-style, and he was just sitting there rubbing his head like a guilty schoolboy.
— "Kenchin..." — Mikey muttered, blinking.
— "There's something I don't understand about this life."
I sighed heavily, adjusting my bucket hat and glasses. The entire atmosphere of mystery and grandeur had been shattered by the edge of a single palm.
— "Alright, alright, woman, don't boil over," — I grumbled, turning around on my chair to face the bikers.
— "The automatic filtration system is sometimes too lenient..."
I crossed my arms and looked at the leaders of Toman.
— "Listen up, terrors of the neighborhood. No one kidnapped or tortured your Takemichi. He tagged along with me into the Gate himself because... well, let's just say he didn't have a choice." "But I got him out alive, returned him to his girlfriend with fully completed math homework, and now he is officially my Prophet."
— "Your what?" — Draken frowned.
— "My official representative in the world of mere mortals," — I translated into a language they could understand.
— "Considering that tomorrow his face will be on every billboard, and his school will turn into a pilgrimage site for otaku from all over Japan... the guy will need protection. Tough guys who will chase away reporters and crazy fangirls from him."
I smirked, watching the meaning of my words dawn on them.
— "You're a gang, right?"
—"Tokyo Manji or whatever you're called. Consider this me giving you an exclusive contract.
You guard the Prophet's peace at school - and I, out of the goodness of my heart, won't wipe your favorite neighborhood off the map of Tokyo when I'm in a bad mood."
—"How's that for a deal?"
Draken opened his mouth to reply to my phenomenally brazen stunt, but he was interrupted by a strange sound.
— "Pfft."
Ai Hoshino, sitting across from me, had reached her limit. Two days of continuous, extreme stress: Gates, monsters, the transformation of a two-meter-tall mage into a loli-elf, live broadcasts to the whole country... And now this same mage, capable of wiping out entire districts, gets a hilarious smack on the head from a cosplaying schoolgirl, and then in all seriousness hires the leaders of the most dangerous street gang to work as "nannies" for the crybaby Takemichi.
It was too much. The idol's professional composure cracked. Ai frantically clamped both hands over her mouth, lowering her head so far she almost buried her nose in her ramen. Her shoulders began to shake suspiciously with suppressed laughter.
— "Hey, is she okay?" — Draken frowned, distracted from my proposal. Ai, trying to pretend she was just very hungry and in a hurry, grabbed her chopsticks and slurped up a portion of noodles. But the giggle was still trying to escape, and as a result, she simply choked.
A loud cough shook her slender body. The hot steam from the boiling broth hit her face, instantly and completely fogging up the thick lenses of her disguise glasses.
— "A-Anzu-chan!" — Marin panicked, rushing to save her friend and pat her on the back. But in the commotion and cramped space of the diner, her hand accidentally caught the earpiece of Ai's glasses, along with the edge of the cheap black wig.
The glasses fell onto the table with a clatter. The wig slid to the side, ruthlessly exposing those recognizable, perfectly styled dark purple strands. Ai reflexively raised her face, red from coughing and laughing, gasping for air. One of the office workers at the next table, who until this moment had been trying to blend in with the wall, suddenly froze.
A piece of juicy pork fell from his chopsticks right onto his pants. He had been a hardcore, devoted fan of "B-Komachi" since their very debut. He could have recognized his idol even in a diving suit.
And right now, those incredible eyes with shining six-pointed stars were looking straight at him from the next table
. — "E... E-e-eh?!" — the clerk jumped up so abruptly that he knocked over his stool.
— "AI-CHAN?! AI HOSHINO?!"
Time stopped in the ramen shop. The chef dropped his ladle, which sank into the pot with a splash. Draken and Mikey simultaneously shifted their gazes to the heavily breathing girl.
— "What?" — Mikey blinked, looking closer. His animal intuition finally put the puzzle together.
— "The one from the TV? What the hell..."
— "It seems our private dinner has come to an end," — I noted philosophically, pushing away my empty bowl. I placed the system coupon on the sticky wooden table, smoothed out the wrinkles on my bulky bomber jacket, and stood up, towering over the frozen leaders of Toman.
Then I did something that probably made Draken's pulse stop for a second. I reached out and... casually ruffled Invincible Mikey's blonde hair. Just tousled it, like a misbehaving elementary schooler. Mikey froze like a marble statue, unable to comprehend the fact that someone in this universe had dared to touch his head so dismissively and was still alive.
— "The bill is paid," — I smirked, scooping up Ai and Marin by their waists, thankfully my long arms allowed me to do this without any problems.
— "See you at school, bodyguards. Don't disappoint the Prophet."
And before Mikey could snap out of his stupor and explode, and the fanatic clerk could pull out his phone for a photo, I activated [Blue]. The air collapsed with a deafening, whipping pop.
All that remained in the small ramen shop were napkins flying in all directions, cooling broth, a trembling clerk, and the absolutely shocked top brass of the Tokyo Manji Gang, who had just received the strangest assignment of their lives.