Restarting My Life After Failing to Protect Girls in My Class – The Day I Was Called the "Demon God of Dragon Slaying" - Episode 20

“Can you make the lights as bright as possible?”

We went along quietly to Shumisen’s hideout because we needed a relatively safe place where we could stay for a while without involving any of our family or friends.

I also wanted my smartphone back.

It’s not like Noma and Aoki have forgiven Shumisen.

It was 5 PM.

The sun was still high, the temperature was still warm, and there were nearly two hours left before nightfall.

We had been in the car driven by a Shumisen member, whose name and face we didn’t know, for about fifteen minutes.

Noma, Aoki, and I were led into a spacious and clean sports bar near Shin-Nishifu Station. We were guided to a sofa-style booth in the very back of the store.

A large monitor on the ceiling was playing an overseas soccer match—though there was no sound.

The air-conditioned bar was quiet, and the only noise was the clinking sounds of the bartender, who seemed to be the master of the place, preparing for opening behind the counter lined with liquor bottles.

“Two bottles of cold water and one bottle of sparkling water.”

After seating Noma and Aoki on the sofa first, I placed an order with the bartender. I exchanged a 1,000-yen bill for the three bottles on the counter.

For a high school student, spending 1,000 yen on water was quite a lot. But since I spent most of my money on karate training and rarely used it otherwise, this felt like a good time to spend it.

“Drink up. It’ll help you calm down a little.”

I placed a bottle of mineral water in front of both Noma and Aoki on the low table in the booth. Then, as if shielding them, I took the seat at the outermost edge.

Pshhh.

As I drank straight from the sparkling water bottle, Noma, hugging her mineral water to her chest, scooted close to me. Aoki followed her lead.

As a result, we ended up sitting in a row: me at the entrance of the booth, then Noma, then Aoki.

Noma spoke up.

“Uh, um—Togo, I’ll pay you back for the water.”

I smiled lightly and declined.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s on me. I put you guys through something tough earlier, so this is my way of making up for—”

“It wasn’t tough at all!”

Before I could finish my sentence, Noma shouted.

“—Huh?”

I blinked in surprise.

Looking at her, I noticed that her right hand was firmly gripping my shoulder. Her eyes were looking up into mine.

“S-Sorry… I’m sorry…”

As if realizing what she had done, Noma quickly pulled away. But she wasn’t her usual cheerful and playful self. Instead, she seemed unusually soft, vulnerable, delicate.

“…I’m sorry, Togo…”

“…I see.”

She was still shaken by the fear and shock from earlier.

So I gave her the gentlest smile I could and looked into her trembling eyes. “It’s okay. I’m here, so you’re absolutely safe.”

“…Togo—”

If this had been my first life, I don’t think I could have lasted twenty seconds staring into the eyes of a top-tier beauty like Noma. I would have been too flustered and looked away immediately.

But now, I had lived through society, illness, death, grueling training, street fights, and even the rare scenario of rescuing the class’s ultra-beautiful girl from villains.

Everything I had been through gave me the experience I needed to withstand ‘The Weak Gaze of Miyuki Noma’—a challenge on par with facing the sorcerer, Homura Yasunori.

“—”

Noma’s soft pink lips parted slightly, and I braced myself for her next words.

“…Hug me… I want you to hold me…”

For one second, I froze.

I almost asked, What do you mean?

But I held back.

I recalled the knowledge that physical contact releases oxytocin in the brain. I also remembered my experience in my working days when a drunk female colleague would always demand hugs.

“Sure.”

Still smiling, I gave my consent—and Noma threw herself at me, wrapping her entire upper body around my chest and stomach.

It was like a baby clinging to its father or a koala climbing onto its caretaker.

“…Togo… Togo…!!”

Her thin fingers gripped the collar of my T-shirt tightly.

“There, there. You were scared, huh?”

So I hugged her back with the exact same intensity.

For me, it wasn’t much force at all, but for Noma, it was probably just the right amount of reassurance.

“—Haha. This is kind of funny.”

I chuckled involuntarily.

Because before I knew it, Aoki had also wrapped her arms around Noma’s back and waist.

The three of us were huddled together in a long embrace.

“…Hey, Kizuki… your body is really warm.”

“How do you know that, Aoki?”

“…Because Miyuki’s body is hotter than usual.”

“You know Noma’s body temperature?”

“…We’re best friends.”

“I see. Because you’re best friends.”

And we stayed like that for quite a while.

“It was so scary!! Seriously terrifying!! Thank you so much, Togo—!!”

Noma started crying into my chest and wouldn’t stop.

I stroked her head, rubbed her delicate back, and kept repeating, “Yeah, I know. It was scary. But you’re safe now.”

“Those guys were insane! Covered in bl00d and everything!”

She sobbed like a child woken by a nightmare.

“It was my fault. I should have protected Aoi, but my body wouldn’t move! And I brought you into it too, Togo—I really didn’t know what to do!”

She wailed like a kid who had lost a big game despite all their effort.

“And they were planning to rape us! I swear, I’m still a virgin! People might think I mess around, but I don’t! I only do things with someone I truly love!”

She cried desperately, like a girl whose first love had just been shattered.

I let her cry until she was exhausted.

Until she finally calmed down, I let her rest against me.

———

“…Sniff…”

When her sobs faded into quiet sniffles, she murmured.

“…Togo, I’m sorry… My face must be awful right now. Let me stay like this a little longer.”

I nodded. “Okay. But once you feel better, drink some water.”

And so, the embrace continued.

“…Togo-kun, you smell a bit like your father…”

“Eh? I’m still seventeen, so I don’t think it’s just old man smell…”

“It’s okay, Kizuki-kun. It just means that I like your scent. Miyuki is a bit of a daddy’s girl.”

“………………”

“………………”

“………………”

“…Hey Aoi, this might be bad… I think I might like Togo’s smell better than my dad’s. What should I do? Maybe the two of us are actually a perfect match.”

“Calm down, Noma-san. You’re just upset because of everything that happened earlier. By the end of summer vacation, you won’t even notice my smell.”

“I’m glad you’re a decent person, Kizuki-kun. But please stop trying to act smart like that, it’ll hurt my feelings.”

“Oh, I see. Sorry.”

“………………”

There were only the three of us and the bartender behind the counter in the sports bar; the members of Shumisen who had brought us there were no longer there.

They’r probably busy rushing Inura, who was badly beaten by Saiki, to the hospital, and contacting his comrades who weren’t there today to let them know that the leader of the rival organization, Golgotha, has fallen.

I’m really glad that we collected our smartphones first.

“Sorry. I have a lot of snot on my face…”

Noma-san was still whining, but finally, he looked up.

It’s not just a runny nose, my chest is soaked with tears, drool, and snot.

But even so, seeing how cute Noma-san was with her red nose and dry eyes from tears, I couldn’t say anything.

In fact, it was a huge perk of the job, as there was no way any man in her class had ever seen Noma-san’s face or gestures like that.

“Come on, drink some water. Your tears will dry you out.”

When I suggested this, Noma took the plastic bottle in both hands and made a noise in his throat—nod, nod, nod.

Aoki also drank the mineral water and let out a cold sigh, “Hmm…”

—

Noma, who had just finished tightening the cap on the plastic bottle, suddenly stood up.

“Blue.”

I turned to Aoki, who was sitting deep in the sofa. She looked a little surprised.

First, Noma-san bowed her head deeply.

“Everything that happened today is my fault. I agreed to Inura’s request without thinking… I’m truly sorry. I don’t think you’ll ever forgive me.”

While Noma apologized, her long, flowing hair didn’t move at all.

Aoki’s lips parted.

“What do you mean you don’t expect me to forgive you? Are you going to stop being friends? End all ties?”

Noma still doesn’t lift her head.

“That’s… well.”

“Right. So I guess there’s no other way, but I’ll forgive you. I feel like it would be wrong to continue being friends with you without forgiving you for just one thing that happened today.”

“…Is that okay?”

“I was overestimating Inura too. I could have stopped Miyuki, but I didn’t—that’s my fault.”

“…Thank you.”

“But, Miyuki and I are both alive, that’s why we can say this. You should thank Kizuki properly rather than me. I want to thank him properly too.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I understand.”

Then Noma-san turned to me, who was sitting on the sofa.

I thought she would just bow her head like that, but it was completely different.

“Noma-san?”

Of course, I spoke up.

This was because Noma suddenly bent her knees and sat upright in the narrow space between the sofa and the low table.

“Noma-san?”

If something like that were to happen in this situation, there was only one course of action to follow.

–Kowtow–

“Thank you for your help.”

If a female classmate were to do something like that, if I saw her delicate back in her uniform shrinking beneath my feet—even I would be pretty flustered.

“Hey, that’s really awkward, so stop.”

In order to enlarge the space where Noma was, I used all my strength to move the heavy low table as far away as I could.

“Stop it. Kizuki-kun, you’re being really timid. I know you feel guilty though.”

Aoki immediately joined in to help Noma up.

I gave a light smile to Noma-san, who had sat down on the sofa at Aoki’s urging.

“I’m honored that you’re so grateful, but maybe that’s going too far.”

Noma-san looked truly apologetic and awkward.

“But it was because I got him involved… that Togo ended up fighting…”

“You think maybe you made me a criminal? That it was your fault?”

Noma-san jumped and raised her shoulders in surprise at my words that seemed to hit straight to the point.

I leaned back against the sofa and took another sip of carbonated water.

“Don’t worry about it. This isn’t the first time this has happened.”

Naturally, Noma-san and Aoki-san looked at me with puzzled expressions. I took the time to choose my words, “Um…”, but in the end, Noma-san asked me directly.

“So you are actually a delinquent? Like Inura?”

“No, no,” I replied with a wry smile, alluding to my activities as Hoodie Mask, which continued until the early winter of my first year of high school.

“At first, I was practicing fighting while helping people. But then word got out that I was helping people, and I started getting chased by other braggarts who wanted to make a name for themselves. That was a good thing, though.”

A non-specific explanation.

Naturally, Noma and Aoki didn’t seem to understand anything, and just looked at each other and tilted their heads slightly.

So I made one thing very clear.

“I’m a practical karateka. I kept quiet about it at school though.”

–Clang, clang–

The doorbell on the door of the sports bar swings loudly to announce a visitor.

A group of more than fifty people dressed in casual clothes with matching grey haori coats streamed into the store, filling it up.

The people of Shumisen.

“A–”

Suddenly, Aoki cleared his throat.

Aoki took a quick look at their faces and then muttered to herself.

“…There was also someone who dragged Miyuki and me to Golgotha…”

It seemed she was remembering the time she was sold by Inura.