My youth story cannot be a knight war

"Uh wow!"

When he reached a corner of the street, a hand suddenly stretched out from the street entrance and slapped the man's thigh as he walked, catching him off guard and giving him a big fright.

Even the pancake in his hand fell because his palm loosened. When it was about to touch the ground, another hand reached out from below and caught it.

"Young man, you seem to be carrying a deep sense of worry in your heart. What exactly makes you so distraught?"

A pretentious tone of voice came from the side, and the brown-haired man who caught the pancake raised his head, and when he smiled, his two rows of teeth flashed no less brightly than the reflection of the sunglasses on his face.

"Can you please confide in me? If so, please let me be your spiritual enlightener!"

"No thanks, Takagi-kun. I'm not a woman. I'm not interested in any deep spiritual discussions with you!"

The man in the baseball cap reached out and snatched the pancake from the other person's hand without any hesitation. His eyes under the baseball cap were full of displeasure as he looked at the man behind the white table in front of him, whom he called Gao Mu.

"By the way, you're on duty really early today! I remember you eloped with that new girl, Miss Yumi, three days ago and said you'd never come back. How come you're back after only three days?"

"Oh, you're talking about this?"

The man whose surname was Takagi but whose real name was unknown pushed up the thick sunglasses that covered most of his face and said with a smile:

"Under my unremitting use of the true love in my heart to comfort her, Miss Youmei finally broke free from the prison of her inferiority complex. From now on, she will be able to walk proudly in the sunshine and under the guidance of the public. She no longer needs my company to comfort her—"

"In short, you dumped me after you pulled up your pants, right?"

The tone was as sharp as a knife as he revealed the other party's true actions. The man in the baseball cap's eyes under the sunglasses were now full of deep disgust. He looked at the other party whose smile became awkward with the eyes he looked at non-burnable garbage.

"Not bad, you've made some progress compared to the last time I was with Miss Kari, who I only spent two days with. Anyway, I wish you a quick death on a woman's belly. I have to go to work now, sayounara~"

After complaining, the man in the baseball cap was about to leave without hesitation. Unexpectedly, seeing this, Takagi suddenly jumped over the table and pounced on him, hugging his thighs tightly with both hands in a very ungraceful manner.

"—You can't leave, my friend!"

The mysterious smile on his face turned into a crying face in seconds. Takagi, who was kneeling on the ground with tears streaming down his face, raised his head and howled like a wolf at the man.

"Please! Please take care of my business! I've been hungry all night. If I don't eat something, I'll really starve to death!"

"One thousand yen! Just one thousand yen is enough! Please (;???Д??`)!"

"Let go! Don't do this to me on the street!"

Looking at all the passers-by around who were attracted by Takagi's howling and whose looks became strange after seeing them, the man in the baseball cap gradually couldn't hold his expression anymore, and with a twitching face, he looked down at the other person who was holding his thigh tightly and refused to let go.

"Didn't you say last month that you won 10 million yen by predicting the winning numbers in the lottery? How come you're so broke now that you're starving?"

"Because, because..."

After hearing the man's words, Takagi sniffed the snot that was flowing out of his nose, and cried out in a voice like a seagull crying blood.

"Because... when I broke up with Miss Yumi, she asked for 9 million yen as a breakup fee. If I didn't give it to her, she would go to the police station and accuse me of forcibly assaulting her, saying that I used despicable means to force her to go to a love hotel with her..."

"To prove the truth of her words, she even showed me the video she secretly filmed when we checked into the hotel. Because we had some special play at the time, the overall video looked quite..."

"... Doesn't that mean there's still one million left?"

This overly extreme answer really made the man unable to hold it together. This time, the muscles of his entire face began to twitch, and the baseball cap on his head slipped to one side due to the pulling of the muscles.

"The remaining one million or so was already spent on my trip with Miss Youmei—Wuwuwawawa!!!"

Looking at Takagi hugging his thighs and crying loudly, the man's eyes under the brim of his hat suddenly dimmed and became dead silent. He could no longer find any words to describe his "friend".

"It sounds like this time Miss Yumi isn't one of those elks you hooked up with before, but a real cheetah... I never thought you'd fail one day."

Reluctantly, he reached out and took off the baseball cap on his head, and his lush black hair spilled out.

"...It looks like you finally got what you deserved, Takagi. That's good."

Glancing at Takagi, who was still hugging his thigh and crying bitterly, Hayato Hayama covered half of his face with his hands and let out a speechless sigh.

"...Hayato?"

Although she had a premonition in her heart, when she actually saw the man's face in full, it still caused an indescribable shock to Yumiko Miura's heart.

She covered her mouth tightly with her hands, her eyes almost blank with disbelief.

Ye Shan stared blankly at the face in front of him, his eyes frozen like wood, and only meaningless syllables came out of his open lips.

The person in front of me is him.

Although his mind was blank, Ye Shan was still clearly aware of this fact - the comparative facts were literally right in front of him, and he couldn't escape them.

But why do I appear?

Compared to the ecstasy and happiness that most people would feel when they realize that they are about to become famous in front of the whole world, Ye Shan's heart was filled with endless loss and confusion at this moment.

Can someone like me... also become a part of the "story" like Zaimokuza-san and the others?

Obviously I am just a...

"You are nothing but a 'fake'."

"!"

The cold voice rang in his ears, and the moment he heard this voice, Ye Shan suddenly came back to his senses.

What caught his eyes was Yuigahama Yui's look of disbelief.

Her eyes kept scanning the curtain in front of her and Ye Shan in front of her, muttering to herself in astonishment.

"It's really you... Hayato, it's really you!"

"...Congratulations, Hayama-san."

The silent Yukinoshita spoke softly, but while she was praising Ye Shan, she looked at him as if he were a stranger who had nothing to do with her.

"You will be as famous as us in the future. As a member of Sobu High School, I am happy that the school has another celebrity like you."

"I……"

Ye Shan opened his mouth, but he cared more about something else than Yukinoshita's seemingly complimentary but actually cold and sarcastic words.

Why did that voice just now sound like... Thinking of this, he looked towards the other person present.

Hikigaya was unusually silent at this moment. He crossed his arms over his chest, with an indescribable expression on his face. He didn't care about the gaze Ye Shan cast at him.

Although I didn't see the woman who was with the blond man before, the other party's voice seemed...

No way?

Hikigaya reached out and rubbed his nose, trying hard to suppress the thoughts that came to his mind.

But despite this, a feeling of unease surged in his heart like a tide, constantly eroding the edge of the rational area in Hikigaya's mind.

[After some struggle, Ye Shan had to agree to Takagi's request. He sat in front of his small table with a dark face, watching the other party take out a few copper coins from his sleeve with a smile on his face.

To be honest, as a staunch materialist, he has always been skeptical about the superstitious word "divination" - not to mention, he has never heard of any traditional divination method that uses Fuglin gold coins like Gao Mu in front of him did.

Looking at the gold coins flowing between the other party's slender fingers and emitting warm yellow light like pollen butterflies, Ye Shan wanted to complain. Wouldn't it be possible for Takagi to get out of his current predicament by simply selling these gold coins?

In fact, he had occasionally mentioned this method since he met Takagi, but the other party was determined not to do so, saying that even if he was so hungry that he had to work as a gigolo in the red light district, he would not sell the four gold coins.

"Hey!"

The palm of his left hand suddenly slapped the back of his right hand, and several gold coins flew into the sky under the shock. The reflected sunlight from the rotation illuminated Ye Shan's eyes for a moment, causing him to squint due to the physiological reaction.

The next moment, four gold coins fell on a wooden table covered with a white towel, forming a curved triangle. Gao Mu supported his chin with his right hand and lowered his eyes, which were hidden behind his sunglasses, to the four gold coins on the table.

"Hmm~ I see!"

Gao Mu immediately raised his head, clapped his hands on his chest, and said in a serious tone:

"My friend, you will have a wonderful encounter today. This encounter will completely change your destiny. You will gain an irreplaceable life treasure and an even better bond from this encounter!"

"But this encounter also carries an equal amount of danger. You can only choose one of the two rewards. Once you choose one, the other will disappear and can never be retrieved."

"And your future choices will determine the ultimate fate of this encounter."

Takagi's words were dignified and solemn, and his tone at this moment contained a deep magnetism. In a trance, Ye Shan felt that the other party was really like those wizards in the Middle World who wore linen robes that covered their entire bodies, and stroked huge glass beads with their hands to reveal the fate of the stars to the world, full of unspeakable mysteries.

However, his handsomeness did not last for a second. The next moment, his proper tone turned mean. Takagi opened his hands and extended them forward, smiling like a humble servant asking for tips from customers in the Taisho era.

"Sheng Hui, 1,000 yen. Thank you for your patronage~!"

"Actually, I've always been curious about how you were able to discern such delicate divination information from these four gold coins... Never mind, here you go."

Ye Shan rolled his eyes at the other person's sudden change in expression, and took out a thousand yen bill from his wallet and handed it between the two open palms.

"Remember, don't spend the money recklessly this time, or I won't lend you any more."

"Don't worry, I know you're the best!"

Takagi took the banknote happily, looked at Hayama who stood up and left, and waved to him with a smile.

"My divination is always accurate! My friend, prepare yourself for the most shocking encounter of your life~!"

"Hi, hi, hi..."

Ye Shan waved his hand speechlessly, walked to the end of the street, and turned under Takagi's gaze, turning into the street entrance on the right.

The roar of the speeding motorcycle stirred up a faint whistling wind, blowing up Ye Shan's hair on his forehead. He subconsciously looked in the direction of the wind.

Two people rode past him quickly on a motorcycle. In that quick glance, Ye Shan saw that the two people riding the motorcycle were about a man and a woman, and their faces were covered tightly with helmets, so they could not be seen.

At a certain moment, Ye Shan's eyes met the male driver's, and he vaguely saw a pair of strange eyes.

Those seemed to be a pair of pupils shaped like a hexagram, but before Ye Shan could see clearly, the other party went away in the next moment with the exhaust gas chasing from behind the motorcycle, and the exhaust gas hit Ye Shan in the face.

"Pfft cough cough cough!!!"

A pungent and fierce smell hit him, and Ye Shan started coughing violently without warning. He covered his mouth and nose with his right hand, squinting his eyes uncomfortably as he looked at the motorcycle that was quickly moving away behind him.

"What are you doing! Driving so fast..."

Frowning, Ye Shan turned around and continued to move towards his goal.

——Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!!!

The steps that had just been taken stopped at this moment.

4. The Other Side of the World (6K)

[Zizizizi——

A violent noise suddenly sounded out of nowhere, echoing and vibrating endlessly among the tall buildings in the city.

It is difficult to describe how chaotic this sound is. People who have not experienced it with their own ears will never be able to imagine that there are such disgusting rhythmic sounds in the world.

Even the sharp, piercing sound of fingernails scraping against a blackboard, which humans loathe the most, cannot compare to the sound that rang out at this moment. It was like a rusty chisel spinning and piercing the eardrum, causing both physical and psychological damage.

"Mmmmm!!!?"

Aqua held his head tightly with both hands, blue blood vessels on his forehead were jumping densely, and the beating of each blood vessel amplified the vibration caused by the sound in his brain.

He clenched his teeth tightly, and his stern face, which usually lacked expression in front of outsiders, was now filled with unconcealable pain. Aqua maintained this posture and fell into the arms of Akane Kurokawa beside him, with fine cold sweat oozing from every pore of his body.

"Aqua! Aqua, what's wrong with you!?"

Kurokawa looked at Aqua, who was trembling slightly in his arms, in horror. He held his hunched upper body with both hands and looked around anxiously.

"Someone come! Something happened!"

"Hey! What the hell is wrong with this guy!?"

Her petite figure now displayed a speed that surpassed the rest of the people present. Magana swiftly crossed the human wall formed by people who were also running here, and arrived in front of the two people first.

Half-kneeling, looking at Aqua in Kurokawa's arms, whose expression was visibly painful, Arima pinched his trouser leg with his delicate fingers, relying on the pain in his thigh to force himself to stay calm, but his questioning tone still couldn't hide his anxiety.

"Did he suddenly have a headache? Or—Ah! Never mind! Someone has a cell phone, call an ambulance!"

"Wait a minute."

Daiki Himekawa, who was standing behind her, looked at Aqua with an inexplicable flickering gaze. Before Arima could speak, he reached into his trouser pocket, took out his cell phone and prepared to call the ambulance.

"Wait... no need."

Aqua, who had collapsed in Kurokawa's arms, suddenly stood up again. He panted, stretched out his hand to gesture to Daiki Himekawa to stop, shook his head and said.

"I'm fine now. I'm sorry... for causing trouble for everyone."

"Aqua?"

"Hey! What's wrong with you? Are you sick lately?"