21 No Other Way

So cold.

When Kitagawa Tera held on to Asamiya Hitomi's hand, this thought unconsciously flashed through his mind.

Although it was still January and the temperature was not high, Asamiya Hitomi's body temperature was significantly lower than that of normal people. When Kitagawa Tera was holding her hand, it felt like holding a block of ice.

Despite being like this, her body functions remained unaffected, and she could eat, talk, and move freely.

Apart from her complexion being a little too pale, Asamiya Hitomi seemed fine.

Kitagawa Tera became more and more curious about Asamiya Hitomi.

"Asamiya-san, do you need me to accompany you to the hospital for a checkup?"

Asamiya Hitomi blushed, took her hand out of his, and replied softly, "No, no need. They're just superficial wounds. Mizuki-san didn't hit too hard. I'll be fine after applying some medicine at home…"

"Thank you so much for your help this time, Kitagawa-san."

Asamiya Hitomi bent down and bowed deeply to Kitagawa Tera.

"No, it was my fault. If I hadn't talked with you so much, Asamiya-san, Mizuki wouldn't have troubled you." Kitagawa Tera shook his head.

Since the entire thing started because of him, it was only right that he resolved it. Instead, Asamiya Hitomi had innocently suffered because of it.

Kitagawa Tera pondered, and without hesitation, he took his wallet out and stuffed a few ten-thousand-yen bills into Asamiya Hitomi's hand.

"T-this is?" Asamiya Hitomi looked at the four ten-thousand-yen bills in her hand and shook her hand, refusing to accept. "No. How could I accept Kitagawa-san's money when you saved me? For me to accept this money…"

Regardless of anything, she felt that she could not accept the money from Kitagawa Tera.

Forty thousand yen was definitely a huge sum of money for an ordinary high school student.

She had heard about the Kitagawa family situation, and he was not so well-off that he could take this money out.

"You hold it." Kitagawa Tera's voice was still calm, without any change at all.

For him, money was just something to make him feel peace of mind.

"Besides…" Kitagawa Tera was expressionless as he mentioned the three boys lying half-dead on the ground. "There are three wallets that I haven't gone through."

"Does Kitagawa-san want to take their money?" Asamiya Hitomi was stunned.

While she was grateful for Kitagawa Tera's strength, when he mentioned them, she was a little worried. "Some of them are in the same year as us. Taking their wallets…"

"The incident happened because of them. If I don't do this, they'll be getting off too lightly. Since it's already like this, I'm not worried about them finding trouble with me."

Beating one was the same as beating two. He might as well rob them once to make them understand the consequences of letting the rashness of youth take center stage.

Kitagawa Tera took their wallets out. It was scattered inside. The one with the most money only had slightly more than ten thousand yen, and the other two had only three to four thousand yen. It was insufficient for Kitagawa Tera to recoup his loss.

It seemed like he would have to look for Seki and Ikegami to recoup some of his loss.

Kitagawa Tera sighed in his mind.

At this moment, Seki and Ikegami, who were at the infirmary, felt chills and looked at the door, appearing to sense something.

"Is that devil thinking about us?" Seki trembled and appeared somewhat scared.

"Seki, we left Omiya and the others in the classroom. Will that devil do anything to them?" Ikegami's expression was bitter. The more he thought about what had happened, the more wronged he felt….

"We're lucky to have escaped alive! How can you still worry about them!" Seki felt extremely aggrieved.

Upon thinking that he and Ikegami were well-known seniors in the second year but were trashed so badly by Kitagawa Tera that they did not even dare to talk back, he felt so aggrieved.

"I've thought it through. I'm going to look for a taekwondo gym… I want to learn some skills and then teach Kitagawa a good lesson!" Ikegami said viciously while clenching his fist.

"…" Seki.

Seki helplessly said, "Did you forget that Omiya is a blue belt in taekwondo…"

Even Omiya fainted from Kitagawa Tera's kick, so what was the use for Ikegami to learn taekwondo?

Also, Seki vaguely sensed that Kitagawa Tera was not on the same level as them.

When he heard this, Ikegami's face turned green and then white. Finally, he whined in a tone like a crying little girl, "Is there really nothing we can do about this guy?"

"… Yes, really nothing." Seki sighed.

In particular, when he thought about how Kitagawa Tera had, from the beginning until the end, only kicked twice and slapped Mizuki twice, but they ended up like this, he had the urge to cry too.

…

After much persuasion from Kitagawa Tera, Asamiya Hitomi finally accepted the money.

But she had repeatedly turned down Kitagawa Tera's suggestion of sending her to the hospital for a checkup.

Since Asamiya Hitomi had declined and did not appear to have any problems walking, Kitagawa Tera did not insist.

He packed his schoolbag, went to the multimedia room to find Kamiya Mirai, and left together with her.

Kamiya Mirai looked at Kitagawa Tera and asked in slight puzzlement, "So slow, Tera-kun. What did you do just now? It shouldn't take so long to get your bag, right?"

It did not take long to reach Class 1-1 from the multimedia room, but Kitagawa Tera took half an hour to return.

Kamiya Mirai had even had the urge to take out her phone to call Kitagawa Tera and ask him where he was. But she found that she did not have his number and could only wait.

"Something happened." Kitagawa Tera did not have the intention to tell Kamiya Mirai about what had just happened and instead conversed casually before walking out.

Kamiya Mirai quietly followed behind Kitagawa Tera and said curiously, "This doesn't seem to be the direction to your house, Kitagawa-san."

"I still have some personal affairs to deal with. I have to talk to this police officer first," Kitagawa Tera said while walking toward the police officer.

After discussing with the other party, Kitagawa Tera walked back.

"… What Tera-kun is going to do later can't be known by others, right?" Kamiya Mirai winked her eye, her interest suddenly surging. "Does the next thing you're doing require those strange powers you have?"

This little girl's intuition was still as sharp as ever.

Kitagawa Tera glanced at her but did not say a word, acknowledging silently.

"Can I see Tera-kun's powers again?!" Kamiya Mirai was more excited, seeing that Kitagawa Tera did not disagree.

During school, she had been dreaming about Kitagawa Tera displaying his extraordinary powers again, but she did not expect it to happen so quickly.

"Compared to that, I'm more interested in knowing why you know the direction to my house." Kitagawa Tera looked sideways at Kamiya Mirai.

The cheery Kamiya Mirai suddenly toned down.

Come to think of it. After Kitagawa Tera left yesterday, it should have been Arano Ryoko letting it slip, making Kamiya Mirai take note of it.

"Ahem Ahem…" Seeing Kitagawa Tera still staring at her, Kamiya Mirai coughed and cast her gaze into the distance.

It was finally quiet.

Kitagawa Tera's heart was calm as he led Kamiya Mirai to the lake park.