There was a feeling of uniform discomfort, it was likely despite his patchwork memory of two lives that he despised having to hurry. It was better to plan around delays by leaving early and having extra time rather than not enough.

  It was unfortunate then that he had not planned around acting kindly and going so far to help an old lady who turned out to be more important than he realized.

  Even after his absurd number of playthroughs he knew he never discovered every intricacy of every character's story. So he felt a little less bad about not knowing that there was an interaction with one of the main female love interests family so early into the game.

  Doubly so when it was such an insignificant interaction. Even when he delved into the student council president's story, having helped her grandmother never came up.

  Now because of an act of heroics he would get involved with her way earlier than would be good for him. She hated Kuro, justifiably so yet he had not begun to repair his image yet. It was only a matter of time before this turned into an incident in the future.

  And now he was jogging through busy streets because he spent way too much time helping what was supposed to be a simple old woman.

  Hopefully they had not roughed the kid up too badly yet. There was a minor unnamed character that served as an interaction to the darker side of Sukimi academy. Like any large institution, corruption abounded.

  Delinquent students like Kuro who had family that couldn’t be ignored and were able to get away with forming cliques that later on became gangs after school. Bullies who the protagonist was supposed to overcome on his rise to beating Kuro.

  Now I was him, and there was no MC to get in between them and their cruelty. Kuro was someone everyone was afraid of, but did everything alone. In the school bully hierarchy he stood above all of them yet was not one of them.

  I could clean them up in the place of the MC and turn my image from deranged psycho to hero, and this was the perfect opportunity to start.

  He finally arrived at the alley where this was supposed to happen after a solid ten minutes of non stop jogging. He wasn’t even breathing hard.

  “The world is so unfair.” He could only shake his head at how crazy his physique was as he turned into the shaded passage a few blocks from the school.

  “C’mon Itto we go at him any harder and the boss finds out we’ll be in trouble.” Said a short, kind of fat boy with black hair who was rifling through a backpack on the ground. He was talking over his shoulder to a blond boy who had to be Itto who was smoking while sitting on the back of a much smaller guy whose clothes looked pretty scuffed up.

  The guy was shaking, whether that was from fear or from the excretion of holding up someone probably over twice his weight due to how small he is was uncertain.

  “Alright that's enough, give him his stuff back and get lost.” I had intended on trying to settle this peacefully if possible but it looked like they had beaten him up and were about to steal from him. My breathing grew heavy and it felt like my blood turned into molten bubbling metal in my veins.

  “You can leave easily or I can hurt you first. Your choice.”

  ‘Hopefully they decide on violence, I would love to crack that fuckers head open.’

  The thought startled me. I was being way too aggressive against some normal high school kids who thought of themselves as local tough guys at school.

  The blond boy lit up with a chuckle. “This idiot thinks of himself as some kind of hero Taka. I am gonna teach this pretty boy a lesson real fast and we can cut the shrimp loose.”

  Itto was making his way over when Taka had a look of realization dawn on his face. “Itto wait that's…”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The boy was not listening as he strode over full of confidence.

  He was saying something to me but it was hard to make out, it sounded like he was speaking through water as he slowly waded through the air on his way to me.

  I realized my heart had slowed, the blond boy Itto was throwing a punch at a snail's pace.

  ‘Was this how Kuro saw things? It would explain the boredom if every fight was about to be this easy. Hold back. Do not move too quickly.’

  He did his best at moving slowly, it was awkward ducking at slow motion like he was choreographing a fight rather than participating in one.

  ‘Hold back. Hold back. Hold back.’ He kept repeating the words in his head like a mantra.

  As lightly as he could he pressed his fist into the boy's stomach. The world began to regain its speed as his heart came to a normal beat again. He winced slightly as the boy he hit had his feet leave the ground. He landed in a pile clutching his stomach and writhing on the concrete as he gaped for air like a fish. Then he puked onto the ground as he continued to try, and failed to catch his breath.

  The fat one Taka came over holding his hands up. “I am so sorry I tried to tell him it was you Kuro but he wouldn’t listen.”

  I scowled. “Just give me what you took from him and scram.”

  The fat one flinched then reached into Itto’s pocket and took out a green wallet with a velcro binding and broken metal chain. “Um, here you go Kuro we didn’t take anything out of it promise, it’s all yours.”

  I stepped out of the way as the fat one picked up his blond friend and hurried down the alley. I waited a few moments after they left before turning back to go help their target.

  He was just starting to stand up now, he had brown hair, hazel eyes, and slightly tanned skin. He was extremely short though. The poor guy only came up to 5’4 and was very slight. He probably did not weigh a hundred pounds while soaking wet.

  He shared a class with Kuro and the protagonist of SSD, a background character named Ren who could be saved from bullying.

  If the MC never intervened over the first few weeks of school starting he would get targeted by bullies. Eventually he disappeared from the class, the game never showed it but from an assembly vigil it was implied he eventually took his life because of how bad it got.

  At this point since he could not help sooner he would eventually at best transfer schools and his family leave the city.

  If he was gonna be a hero then this was the perfect place to start, he needed protection and a friend.

  Except the guy looked like he was about to faint from fear.

  He was staring at me and sweating, I could smell the fear on him. He probably heard the fatty say who I was. “You can take whatever you want from my wallet Kuro I won’t tell anyone. Please just don’t hurt me.”

  “What? I’m not gonna hurt you. Here, take your stuff back and let me know if anything is missing.” I passed him his wallet back and he looked up at me slightly confused.

  “I-I’m sorry Kuro if there is not enough money in it for you. They swiped most of the cash in it but I can get you more if y…”

  “Wait they took the money” Ren almost left the ground with how hard he flinched.

  “Y-Y-Yes but I can get you more.”

  I sighed, shaking my head. “I am not gonna take your money. From now on you are under my protection, if anyone gives you trouble they will answer to me. Starting with those two after promising they didn’t take any of your stuff.”

  Ren was just staring at me with a lost look as his mouth opened and closed. I waited patiently while he floundered to find a response. It was strangely endearing.

  “Why?” He finally asked.

  “Why what?” It was my turn to be lost.

  “Why are you doing this? Pretty much every group of bullies in the school are taking shots at me. Why would you put yourself between them and me?”

  I had not realized he was so close to the edge already. Another week or two and I probably would not have been able to help him.

  “Because I am sick of all these idiots having free reign over the school. I am gonna clean Sukimi academy of the lot of them. That starts by saving you, besides someone as cute as you shouldn’t need to deal with these fuckers making your life miserable. I am here to be your hero.”

  I placed my hands on my hips and stuck my chest out, striking the most heroic pose I could think of.

  There was a strange sound down the alley like someone running away. It distracted me for a moment as I thought that maybe Taka had come back to cover his ass and when I looked back Ren was just staring up at me, he was blushing… And he had a strange smell to his blood that I didn't recognize.

  ‘Did I mess this up already?’