After she stopped crying, Mika played with Kenji for a long while before falling asleep. She had always been a heavy sleeper, so she used one of Kenji's outer garments as a blanket and sprawled out for a nap in a sunny spot.
Kenji gazed at the peacefully sleeping Mika with a wry smile. She looked like an angel, but her strength was so monstrous that he'd lost count of how many clothes she'd torn. Would he be able to win against her when he got older? He couldn't be sure.
"She's pretty, isn't she?"
Nagisa, who had been watching Mika just as he was, spoke. Kenji chuckled and took a sip of the green tea on the table.
"She is. Her actions, not so much."
"Mika-san can be a little... energetic. But please don't hate her for it."
"Is there any reason to hate her? I don't think it's a bad thing. Being so energetic it's tiring."
"Is that so? Then why did you say those things during our game of house?"
"Oh, that was just a joke."
"Fufu, I know."
Nagisa covered her mouth and laughed like a proper young lady.
It was the complete opposite of Mika's boisterous laugh. It wasn't just her laugh; Nagisa was the antithesis of Mika in almost every way. Her behavior, her hobbies, and even her preferences were different.
That might be why they were so close.
After all, don't they say people who are too similar get tired of each other quickly? It was a saying that usually applied to lovers, but it wasn't much different for friends. Perhaps that's why the friendship between Mika and Nagisa, who were on completely opposite ends of the spectrum, was stronger than that of others.
Well, they were both fond of sweet foods, so there was that.
"Is the garden work going well?"
"Yes. The roses I planted last time have already bloomed."
"That was fast."
Nagisa's hobby was gardening. A few months ago, she had expanded her hobby to include tending to the entire garden. As a result, there wasn't a single plant in the kindergarten that hadn't been touched by her hands.
"How about you try growing something too, Kenji-san? I can teach you."
"Raising Mika is enough for me."
Nagisa couldn't offer any rebuttal.
As Kenji said, for the past year, it had been him, not Nagisa or Torimune, who had put up with Mika's whining and tantrums. That was the reason Mika clung to him so much.
What if Kenji were to shift his attention from Mika to the garden? She would probably smash the garden to bits or pull out any plant Kenji was growing.
Nagisa pictured Mika chewing and swallowing the uprooted plant and shivered.
"You certainly have a point."
"Right? She's a handful."
"Well, it is the act of nurturing a life, after all. It can't be helped."
"Mika's the same."
Kenji chuckled, and Nagisa smiled elegantly. She hummed a tune as she poured black tea into a cup. Kenji rested his chin on his hand and watched her, then a wide grin spread across his face.
"By the way, Nagisa. I saw something strange the other day."
"Hm? What was it?"
Nagisa tilted her head. Kenji leaned back in his chair and continued.
"It was... yesterday, was it? I went out to the garden for a walk after lunch, and I saw someone squatting there."
"...One moment."
Nagisa's expression stiffened. But Kenji paid her no mind.
"It was a familiar back. So I slowly approached, and they were doing something strange."
"Kenji-san. Please, wait a moment."
"What was she doing? Ah, right. She named the flowers she was growing 'Mika' and 'Kenji', and then started kissing the petals of both flowers indiscriminately."
"Kenji Suzuki."
"And then she started talking about the weather, and what she had for lunch... and finally, she said she wanted to be friendlier but didn't know how—"
-Whoosh!
Nagisa grabbed a roll cake from the plate and threw it. Kenji's head snapped back as the fastball of a cake hit him square in the face. While not as strong as Mika, her physical strength was also leagues above his own.
"Gack!"
"Was it fun, teasing me? And more importantly, when exactly did you see that? I'm sure there was no one around...!"
"I'm just that good, I guess."
"Be quiet! And don't you dare tell Mika about this. She'll definitely make fun of me."
"We'll see."
"Hey!"
Leaving the shouting Nagisa behind, Kenji stood up from his seat. The roll cake smashed on his face was surprisingly edible despite its mangled state. The cream smeared all over his face was a bit sticky, but he could just wipe it off.
"I'm heading out for a bit. You play with Mika."
"Where are you going! I'm not done talking to you!"
"WhErE aRe YoU gOiNg! I'm NoT dOnE tAlKiNg To YoU!"
"Grrrrrr!"
Nagisa grabbed another roll cake. Kenji quickly slipped out of the kindergarten before she could throw it.
It was summer.
*
Kenji walked slowly down the street.
The time was around 2 PM. It should have been the middle of class, but there were quite a few students on the street. He didn't pay it much mind. Some people on the street glanced at him, but he grit his teeth and ignored them.
Kenji pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead and bought a sports drink from a nearby convenience store. Then he sat down on a park bench and stared blankly at the sky. Unlike the sky he had seen on Earth, the sky of Kivotos had a giant halo along with the sun.
"..."
Kenji stared blankly at the sky for a while, then let out a deep sigh and tossed the crumpled can into a trash bin.
'This place is full of strange things.'
Like the halo in the sky, this world was filled with bizarre things that couldn't be seen on Earth. Animals and robots that acted like humans were prime examples.
But what could he do? He'd been dropped into this godforsaken world, so he had to survive somehow.
Kenji gave a bitter smile and got up from the bench.
Just then, a Trinity student walked past him. A pistol was holstered in a gun holder on her thigh.
It wasn't a model gun. It was a real pistol loaded with live ammunition. Kenji had witnessed bullets pouring out of a gun just like that a few months ago. A crazy scene where bombs and bullets flew everywhere. But there were no casualties. There were hardly any injuries, either.
'It's truly insane.'
High school girls who don't die even when shot by bullets and bombs. It was absurd.
But at the same time, it raised a question. Robots and beastmen without halos had also been exposed to that firefight, but no one was hurt. All they did was exclaim that it stung when their clothes got holes in them.
A thought occurred to him then. Would I be fine if I got shot, too?
Of course, it was just a thought. There were ways to test it, but he lacked the courage. He had spent his whole life avoiding bullets and knives; he couldn't do something as crazy as letting a bullet pierce his own skin. Just because he'd lived in Kivotos for a year didn't mean his common sense had changed to match that of the locals.
'There will probably be a chance later.'
Whether by his own will or someone else's, he didn't know.
Kenji wiped the sweat from his forehead and wandered the streets without a destination. He had memorized the layout of the buildings near the kindergarten from walking around with Mika and Nagisa, but there were still many places he didn't know. There was a limit to how much he could wander around in a child's body.
So, Kenji regularly left the kindergarten to explore the Trinity district. It wasn't particularly boring. How could he be bored when convenience stores sold bullets and guns, and Shiba Inus and robots were talking all around him? If he was truly bored, he could usually hear an explosion somewhere in the distance, so there was never a dull moment.
'Aside from the danger, is this place better than Earth?'
Kenji thought about the human relationships he'd had on Earth.
His parents died in a car accident, and his relatives took all the insurance money. He had no siblings and no friends. His grades at the university he'd entered through special admission weren't bad, but he had never once thought of it as an enjoyable life. He only studied because he had nothing else to do.
He was discharged from the military without issue, and after returning to school, he worked hard and became the top of his department. But the girlfriend he'd struggled to get already had a boyfriend, and the guys who approached him wanting to be friends were just assholes trying to sleep with her.
"This place is better."
Kenji whispered to himself and chuckled. Perhaps everything that happened on Earth was just preparation for his transfer here. Otherwise, it was hard to explain the incredibly difficult life he had lived. Meeting Mika and Nagisa might have been a consideration from some damn god for him to live a somewhat happy life.
"Thanks a lot, you bastard."
Kenji muttered towards the sky. Naturally, there was no reply. It was the expected result, so he showed no particular reaction and walked through the residential area.
Similar-looking buildings. Fences prevented him from peeking inside, but he could occasionally hear the laughter of children and adults.
Happy families. Kenji smiled faintly and wiped the sweat from the back of his neck.
Just then, a voice came from right beside him.
"O, one born to a fate of chaos."
"..."
"The fog that carpets the path before you weighs heavily on your shoulders. In the moment when a choice is demanded, should you fail to choose correctly, you shall fall upon the path of ruin."
"...?"
Kenji turned his head towards the source of the voice. Peeking over a low wall, a girl was looking down at him. The fox ears on top of her head were peculiar. She met the gaze of the bewildered Kenji and opened her mouth.
"You may not be the only one to fall upon that path of ruin, yet your companions bear you no resentment."
The girl fell silent after those words. Kenji stood there, looking up at her for a moment, then let out a small laugh and said.
"You've got a bad case of eighth-grader syndrome. Go get some sleep."
"What did you say?"
"Ugh, the Black Dragon of Flame in my right arm... it's stirring...!"
"Gasp!"
As Kenji clutched his right arm, the girl's face turned pale and she quickly ducked back inside the building. Kenji watched her go and muttered to himself.
"Why are there so many crazy girls here?"
Yurizono Seia.
His first meeting with her ended on such an anticlimactic note.