After giving a deep bow toward the orphanage, a place that had raised him for several years despite feeling strangely distant, Shirou Amamiya turned and walked decisively onto the streets of Fuyuki.
The streets were clean and orderly, with a steady flow of traffic. On both sides, pedestrians in neat clothing hurried along with indifferent expressions. It felt as though an invisible barrier separated each person from the next.
Looking at the scene before him, Shirou felt no sense of returning home. Instead, a strong sense of alienation welled up inside him.
Though he had been born in Fuyuki, he had spent countless years in the otherworld known as "Britannia," where his values had taken shape.
From what he remembered, this island nation called Japan was peaceful.
And the existence of public welfare facilities like children's homes meant that a stable order had already been established here.
By contrast, while the nobles and lords of the Fairy Kingdom also took in children, it was only to raise them as expendable soldiers for war.
"A world without calamities, without war… a peaceful Fuyuki City. That's nice…"
The feeling didn't last long before a practical concern surfaced.
"Doesn't that mean there's no place for me here!?"
Shirou Amamiya had once devoted himself to honing his combat skills.
On the Fairy Island, nothing could be trusted.
Parents, children, lovers, friends. Anything beautiful or noble could betray you. Only power would not.
Body and mind, Magecraft and swordsmanship.
The power Shirou Amamiya wielded was exactly what had led him to become the King of Britannia.
But now, that same power he once took pride in seemed completely unnecessary in peaceful Fuyuki.
"How am I supposed to make a living now? Where am I even supposed to find a job that suits me… Ah, there it is."
His gaze landed on the sign of a Chinese restaurant by the roadside, and he fell into thought.
Just as he was wondering whether he should try applying as a chef—
"Get out of here! Vampire! Don't play here!"
A child's shout rang out.
The harsh noise was all too familiar to Shirou. He had encountered it countless times in Britannia. Bullying.
The fairies of Britannia loved to bully.
They ganged up on the weak, rejected anyone different, and took pleasure in tormenting those beneath them.
Shirou could never understand it. Morgan had told him it was simply the nature of fairies.
They delighted in good with innocence, and reveled in evil just as purely. That was what made fairies so utterly untainted.
"..."
Turning his head, he saw several children in the park throwing stones at another child crouched on the ground.
I see.
A faint smile tugged at Shirou's lips.
Human brats really aren't that different from fairies.
That said, did they just say "vampire"?
The word made Shirou frown.
There were vampires on the Fairy Island as well.
More precisely, they were blood-sucking fairies, occupying the very bottom of fairy society.
After all, humans there were nothing more than livestock raised by fairies. Naturally, fairies who drank the blood of livestock were considered filthy and impure.
Are vampires discriminated against in this world too?
"Thud."
Shirou raised his arm, and his small hand caught the stone that had been thrown at the bullied child.
"Hey! What are you doing!?"
The child leading the group shouted angrily.
"Get lost if it's none of your business! What, do you think you're some ally of justice?"
"An ally of justice? I'm not aiming that high."
His matter-of-fact reply left the kids completely dumbfounded.
Shirou Amamiya was no ally of justice. If he had to call himself anything, he was the Savior's companion.
Though in this world, "Savior" seemed to be the sort of word people would group together with "justice."
But on the Fairy Island, the very idea of a "Savior" was almost synonymous with evil.
The Savior Aesc, in other words Morgan, was an absurdly meddlesome person.
She always appeared before weak fairies being tormented and stepped in to help them… by using violence.
And during his journey with her, Shirou had once encountered a vampire fairy.
When he met Baobhan Sith, she had been getting bullied by other fairies.
Crouching on the ground with her head covered while stones rained down on her, she had looked exactly like the brat in front of him now.
The scene before him overlapped with an old memory, and Shirou moved before he even thought about it.
"You trying to stand up for him?"
The children marched toward him angrily.
"Never seen you around here before. Get lost!"
"That guy lives in a haunted house!"
The boy leading the bullying planted his hands on his hips.
"Yeah, that's right. His grandpa's a vampire, ah!"
A stone thrown by Shirou grazed his cheek as it shot past, whipping up a fierce gust through the park.
"Huh..."
The children who had been so lively just moments ago all froze in shock.
Even the passing office workers and high school students stopped in their tracks, staring in disbelief.
"Did I just imagine that…?"
The world record for baseball pitch speed was close to 170 km/h, something practically everyone in Japan knew.
But the stone the red-haired boy had just thrown had clearly gone far beyond that.
It tore across the park like a meteor before vanishing into the far reaches of the sky.
If it had hit someone in the head, it probably would have blown it apart like something out of a Hollywood movie.
Meanwhile, despite throwing a stone with the force of a cannon shell, Shirou himself looked completely unconcerned.
"..."
The ringleader of the bullies began trembling all over.
In the evening light, the red-haired boy stared straight at him.
It was a cold gaze sharp enough to pierce through flesh.
Like a pair of inorganic amber glass eyes, it seemed to freeze the air around them.
How much hell did someone have to witness to end up with eyes like that?
Even a fearless ten-year-old was now shaking at the knees, a dark wet stain spreading down his pants.
The fear of that single moment would take decades for him to recover from.
"That was just a warning…"
Shirou bent down, picked up another stone, and tossed it lightly into the air again and again as he spoke without expression.
"Next time, I won't miss."
"Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" "Just you wait!" "I'm telling my mom!"
The children screamed as they scattered in every direction.
"Good grief… kids born in peaceful times are unbearable."
Shirou Amamiya had no particular obsession with "justice," and he did not care whether people called him an "ally of justice" or anything else. If something annoyed him, it annoyed him.
He turned and looked at the child crouching on the ground with his head covered.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Ugh… uuu…"
The bullied child nodded tearfully, then slowly raised his face.
Once Shirou got a proper look at him, he could not help frowning. This was obviously an ordinary human boy, so where was the vampire part?
"Kid, what's your name?" Shirou asked.
The boy, whose hair looked like purple seaweed, answered fearfully, "Shin… Shinji. My name is Shinji Matou."