The Bounty Hunter

June 10th, 2088

“Oi Minato, you’re spacing out again.”  My friend Okamura Reiji poked at me with his chopsticks.  We were currently at a food court in a mall.  He hadn’t started eating yet, but still I was not pleased being harassed with an eating utensil.  “Tch, I was only thinking about something.  Yet here you are assaulting the man paying for your meal.  How shameless.”  I grumbled, focusing my attention on Reiji:  he was a rather feminine looking and short Japanese man with black hair and eyes.  He was quite overweight and had a pair of somewhat large glasses on his face.  However, his features could be considered decent in spite of that and he had a laidback and carefree attitude.  

Reiji chuckled lightly and said “My bad, my bad.  Anyways, now that I have your attention.  How’s your vacation been so far?  Did you finish the summer homework yet?”  I rolled my eyes at the question “Of course I did, although it was a pain to do.”  The private middle school Reiji and I attended has an escalator system to its linked high school but unfortunately that also meant summer homework even after graduation.  It’s a pain, but it is still far better than the failing, underfunded public school system.  The government has been forced to enact all sorts of major changes in an attempt to fix it, causing it to be more similar to the Western school system as a result.  It didn’t affect the private schools much, apart from altering the school year start and end along with the vacation scheduling.  3 months off in the summer reduces education costs, hence the government forced all schools to do that.

“As expected from our number one student!  Such impressive academic diligence!”  Reiji teased.  “I don’t want to hear that from you, Mr. Number Two Student.  You could easily take the number one spot if you actually tried.  But you are probably too busy reading manga or playing an eroge to study, you damn otaku.” I responded grumpily. “Correct! Currently, I am engrossed in this awesome manga about a hero summoning.  Fufu, in his harem there’s this super cute nekomimi that is so moe.  Ahh, how I wish I could have a nekomimi girl as my own.”

And there he goes.  I should have cut him off early, but now he has built a head of steam and I’m stuck listening to him fantasizing about nekomimi girls.  My problem is not that I find it irritating (although it is), my problem is that I have to restrain myself from laughing.  Imagining the face he would make if he knew the amount of nekomimi exposure I have had over the years makes me want to burst out into laughter every time.  But I endure, because I don’t want to have to explain why I’m laughing so hard to him.  Thank goodness for this stone-faced demeanor that I have developed.  Reiji is the only friend I made since entering middle school and I don’t want to have to lie to him. 

We had met at the start of middle school, when we were both in the same class.  I was alone, since my closest friend Hikari had moved away right after primary school, and I had no interest in talking with others let alone becoming friends with them.  After the events at Hafor, I found it hard to relate with others here at home.  Everything here just seemed so petty and immaterial, it made it hard for me to open up to others.  Even with my parents I had become more quiet, although I was still able to show my emotions. 

My fear of getting hurt by loss made me avoid having more things to lose.  So for the first two months I don’t think I spoke more than a few words to anyone, firmly establishing myself as a silent loner type.  Reiji, on the other hand, was isolated because he was a proud otaku and the class ostracized him for it.  We first had a meaningful interaction when I observed the three class delinquents about to beat him up after school.  Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t have given a damn if it wasn’t for me noticing one of the books on the ground that the delinquents had scattered. 

The title was “A Guide to Fantasy Monsters” and it had a picture of an ogre on it that was nearly the same as the one I was trying to collect a bounty on at the time.  I had failed up until now because I lacked information on it and its abilities.  Looking at the cover, an idea flashed through my head.  What if I could use the fiction written in this world as a rough reference for fact in the other world?  I had been doing that to an extent with magic, so why not with other things as well?  The common interpretations in fantasy literature about elves, dwarves and beast-kin were reasonably accurate, so doing the same for monsters wouldn’t be strange. 

And so I decided to help Reiji so I could pick his mind and library for useful info about monsters and the fantasy world in general.  I stood in front of Reiji, facing the delinquents and simply said “Back off.”  This statement was accompanied by some mild killing intent.  Most people in this world, let alone some brats, have never experienced killing intent.  So the three delinquents scattered in terror, leaving me behind with Reiji.  I turned around, expecting words of gratitude or something but what I got was completely different “NOOO! Cross-san, I appreciate the help, but this set-up is wrong!  The cool, tough loner type should be saving the love interest, who then melts his icy heart!”  Reiji apparently was in shock at the difference between his anime and reality. 

I was inwardly startled at that unexpected response, and for the first time in what felt like ages, I was amused.  And in my amusement, I decided to make a little mischief.  “You’re right, romance flags like this don’t come up often.  In fact, it may be the only one of its kind I ever come across.”  “Yeah! That’s right! Perfect chances like this don’t come up often.”  “So take responsibility.”  “Okay! Wait, what?”  “Melt my icy heart Okamura-san or else I might never know what love feels like.”  “EHHHHHH?!?!” Reiji’s reaction at that was truly priceless, and I could no longer hold it in. 

“Pwahahahaha!  Baka, that’s what happens when you say stupid things with such a serious face.”  I nearly doubled over as I continued laughing and the burdens on my mind felt a little lighter.  It was so refreshing that I couldn’t help but smile afterwards, startling Reiji.  After that incident, I started approaching him and asking him various questions about fantasy novels, tropes, etc. and he would enthusiastically answer.  Eventually, we would start to eat lunch together and even go out after school occasionally.  Simply put, we became friends.

Reiji’s POV

My name is Okamura Reiji, the child of a computer programmer and a TV producer.  I am what most people call at otaku, although I simply see it as enjoying life to the fullest.  I encountered my hobbies due to boredom.  Both my parents often had to work overtime, so I would be left under the care of a babysitter who had no interest in entertaining me.  Academics were way too easy for me, so I wasn’t able to even study to pass the time.  Honestly, why do so many kids make such a big deal about how hard school is?  But after I started watching anime and reading manga I was able to at last have some fun.

Naturally, becoming an otaku led to me not having any friends at school.  There were actually plenty of closet otaku at school, but we would only hang out after school due to their fear of becoming social outcasts.  I also had plenty of friends elsewhere who I met at conventions and events. 

It was only in school where I was isolated, but I can’t say that I really cared.  The only time it was annoying was when the bullies would try to physically accost me.  I knew very well that you can’t back down in those situations, so I would always get hurt worse than if I hadn’t resisted.  But most bullies started leaving me alone to find easier targets. 

But when I got to middle school there were these three major idiots who for some reason locked onto me.  It was a very irritating 2 months.  And then one day the Delinquent Trio managed to catch me in an isolated area after school.  It was clear that I wasn’t going to get out of this without a serious beating.  My beloved books were scattered across the ground and I was psyching myself up to go down swinging.  Then Cross-san appeared in front of me, staring down the bullies. 

Cross-san was the only person who was more of an outcast than I was in the whole school.  And it was by choice.  He was the epitome of cool and his outrageously good looks along with his serious personality had all the girls swooning.  But he was always distant with everyone and just seemed to not give a damn about anything.  It was like he saw everything as being too inconsequential.  Honestly, he was way too world-weary for a 13-year old kid.  But here he was standing up for me.  All he said was “Back off.” and those three nincompoops ran away crying. 

Ho, this is just like that one scene from “Our Hearts as One” where the heroine was surrounded by gangsters and the loner love interest swoops in and saves her.  Man, that’s such a cliché although their romance after that was well-written.  Wait, didn’t this just happen in real life?!?  And I’m the heroine?!?  NOOO!!! I JUST RUINED CROSS-SAN’S CHANCE AT TRUE LOVE!  I frantically tried to apologize and was then told to “Take responsibility.”  Needless to say I was completely dumb-founded at that demand, and the next thing I knew. “Pwahahahahaha!”  A clear and mischievous laugh was being emitted from Cross-san’s mouth. 

I didn’t think laughing was physically possible for Cross-san…  And then BOOM!!!  Cross-san smiled creating a scene that was way too bright for me to look at directly.  Phew, that was dangerous.  Even my heart skipped a beat and had I been a girl I would have immediately fallen in love.  After that incident, Cross-san started to approach me and we quickly became friends.  Did I just clear the flags on Cross-san?  I’m not the heroine of this shoujo manga-esque development, right?  Cross-san, I’ll apologize once more for usurping the role that a cute girl was supposed to play.