Becoming an Eminence in Shadow in the New World (DxD / StrikeTheBlood) Chapter 25: Yukina Himeragi

Looking at the girl in front of him, who was about to faint, Cid hesitated.

Normally, when he ran into sothing like this, he would just pretend he had not seen it and not bother getting involved. At most, he would call the security team afterward and let them deal with it.

Of course, that was under normal circumstances. This ti might have to be an exception.

It was not because he had been swayed by her looks. It might sound a little conceited to say this, but he had known quite a lot of beautiful girls growing up. Thanks to that, he was almost starting to feel aesthetically numb.

The reason this ti might be different was simple.

The girl in front of him looked exactly like the photo on the student ID inside the wallet he had picked up a few days ago.

"Hello, is this the hospital?"

After thinking it over for a while, Cid finally took out his phone and called Itogami Island Hospital.

After all, she was the benefactor who had indirectly sponsored him with 200,000 zeni. He might as well skip the security team and send her straight to the hospital.

"Grrr..."

The sound coming from the girl's stomach made Cid fall silent just as he was about to speak.

"Hello, sir. Where is the patient right now? We will arrange for an ambulance to head over imdiately."

The voice from the phone snapped Cid back to his senses.

"Never mind. Wrong number."

"Eh, wait..."

Beep beep beep.

Without waiting for the other side to respond, Cid hung up.

Well then, what he had to do now was simple.

Thinking that, Cid looked at the girl who was still on the verge of passing out.

...

"Ahh... This is so good."

It was the sa cafe he had co to with Kanon Kanase last ti, the sa corner, and Cid was sitting in the sa seat as before. The only difference was that the person sitting in Kanon Kanase's old seat had changed.

"Sip sip..."

With his head lowered as he drank through a straw, Cid secretly observed the girl sitting across from him.

She had shoulder length black hair, bright brown eyes, delicate features, and was probably around fifteen years old. And as for her chest... all he could say was that it had potential.

She felt a lot like Nagisa Akatsuki. If he was not careful, he might mix them up. Not that she was his type, but he still needed to pay attention... No, wait, why was he even thinking about that? Damn it. Stupid puberty.

"Whew, I'm alive again."

After wolfing down two sandwiches and even licking the crumbs off her fingers, the girl across from him looked like she still wanted more.

"Thank you, Senpai. Senpai is also a student at Saikai Academy, right? Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm a first year transfer student who just moved to Saikai Academy. My na is..."

"Yukina Hiragi, right?"

Now that she had food in her stomach, the girl thanked Cid right away. She seed like a good kid.

"You know , Senpai?!"

Her introduction was cut short, and confusion and caution imdiately appeared on her face. Her hand instinctively moved toward the guitar case beside her, but she quickly realized that was inappropriate and lowered it again.

Which made sense. If a stranger appeared right when you were about to starve and bought you a al, that was one thing. Maybe you had really t a kind person.

But if that sa person could accurately say your na, then it was only natural to wonder whether they were really a good person after all.

"Well, how should I put this? It is a little complicated to explain, so before I answer that, let ask you sothing first. How many days have you been hungry? Your answer will determine how guilty I feel."

In response to Yukina Hiragi's question, Cid laid his face on the table and weakly asked one of his own.

"Th three... three days."

Cid stayed slumped over the table, looking half dead, but still refused to give up and asked another question.

"Why?"

"I lost my wallet."

"How much money was in it?"

"200,000 zeni."

When answering that question, Yukina Hiragi turned her head to the side, her face slightly red. After all, starving for three days because of sothing like that, and nearly fainting from hunger in the end, was pretty embarrassing.

"I understand now."

After hearing her answers, Cid completely gave up. He had fully confird that the girl in front of him was the owner of the wallet he had found a few days ago, so all he could do was accept his fate.

Lifting his head from the table, Cid took out two gold coins from his wallet. Each gold coin was worth 100,000 zeni.

"Here."

"Eh? No, that's not necessary, Senpai. My living expenses will arrive in a few more days. I can just hold out until then. You really do not have to go to so much trouble for ."

The girl, or rather Yukina Hiragi, seed to have mistaken Cid's action for him trying to lend her money, and quickly waved her hands to refuse.

After placing the two gold coins on the table, Cid pressed his right hand to his forehead and looked at Yukina Hiragi as he spoke.

"You've got the wrong idea. This is your money."

"My money?"

Yukina Hiragi looked completely confused by Cid's words. After thinking for a mont, sothing seed to occur to her.

"Could it be that you, Senpai, are..."

"That's right. I'm the one who picked up your wallet."

"Eh!?"

As he said that, Cid took a white wallet out of his backpack. When he looked up, however, he noticed the strange expression on Yukina Hiragi's face.

"You... didn't just assu I was so other kind of person, did you?"

"No, no, no."

Hearing Cid's question, Yukina Hiragi shook her head rapidly in denial.

"Forget it. It doesn't matter who you thought I was. Let's talk about compensation."

"Compensation?"

"Yes, compensation. How much do you want? As compensation for making you starve for three days, I will pay whatever amount you ask. Please forgive ."

Cid had never considered himself a good person. You could tell just by looking at where most of his Shadow funds ca from.

Thieves.

In essence, what he did was not that different from what thieves did. The only difference was that thieves robbed civilians, while he robbed thieves. It was simply thieves preying on other thieves.

Sotis, if he happened to run into a civilian who had been robbed, he might help them recover their stolen belongings.

But he would never make a habit of doing it.

After all, he was not so champion of justice.

He would not go out of his way to slaughter innocents or rob civilians, but he would kill thieves and take their wealth. If you thought about it carefully, that was pretty hypocritical.

Cid himself thought so as well.

But what could not be done simply could not be done.

If he had to give a reason, it would be this. If soone who aspired to be an Eminence in Shadow fell to the level of a third rate villain because of money, what kind of Eminence in Shadow would that be?

Cid and Shadow were both the sa person and two different people.

Not because he had so kind of split personality disorder. He was simply suffering from chuunibyou.

The background character Cid and the Shadow Cid were both disguises created by the real Cid who wanted to beco an Eminence in Shadow.

Imagine soone finding a wallet full of money on the street but, driven by greed, never bothering to look for the owner.

That was perfectly normal, right? Just human nature.

But let ask you sothing.

Would you ever think that this person secretly possessed the mysterious identity of an Eminence in Shadow?

Of course not.

Yes, he wanted people to think that Cid the background character was ordinary.

But not in that way.

He wanted people to see him as completely ordinary, so ordinary that no one would ever suspect he could be the legendary Shadow.

That kind of contrast was exactly what he wanted.

Not people thinking, "Soone capable of such a low act could never be the legendary Shadow, but he might be so third rate villain."

Cid did not care about rumors others spread about him, because lies were still lies.

But what happened today was real.

If his identity were ever exposed one day, today's incident would beco devastating evidence against his status as an Eminence in Shadow.

And besides...

Cid glanced at Yukina Hiragi and the pale look on her face caused by not eating for several days.

He decided to treat it as the faint sting of a conscience he was not even sure he still had. As long as she did not na so outrageous price, he would just treat it as paying money to learn a lesson.

It seed the amount of information had been too much for Yukina Hiragi to process at once. It took her quite a while to piece everything together, and when she finally did, she covered her mouth and laughed softly.

"Senpai is a good person."

???

Wait. Are you people blind? One after another, everyone keeps saying I'm a good person. It is starting to make doubt whether I really am one.

"So, does that an you forgive ?"

That was what Cid was thinking, but the tone he used when he spoke was quite different.

"Mm, I forgive you, Senpai."

Unaware that the man in front of her was secretly wondering if she might be blind, Yukina Hiragi nodded lightly.

"Then... the compensation?"

"No need. Senpai already returned my money, didn't you? Looking at it that way, I didn't really lose anyth... actually, no. I suddenly feel like I do need sothing as compensation."

Cid had just let out a sigh of relief when he heard the first half of Yukina Hiragi's sentence. But when she finished speaking, his heart jumped right back up again.

Even though he felt her way of ssing with his nerves was a little cruel, this was still his fault. Cid prepared himself ntally.

"What do you want?"

"Compensate with another sandwich. I wasn't full just now."

Waving the sandwich wrapper in her hand, Yukina Hiragi smiled playfully. It gave her an unexpectedly cute look.

"Just that?"

Cid stared at her in disbelief, completely missing how cute she looked.

"Yes, just that. Is there a problem, Senpai?"

Yukina Hiragi nodded and asked in return.

"No problem. If anything, it's too easy. I'm just surprised you forgave so easily."

"It's fine, it's fine. I've already forgiven you, Senpai. Just make sure it doesn't happen again."

For the first ti, Cid looked directly at Yukina Hiragi, their eyes eting.

"S Senpai, what are you... looking at?"

Under Cid's gaze, Yukina Hiragi's face gradually turned red, and she instinctively looked away.

After watching her for a while, Cid finally ca to a conclusion.

Yukina Hiragi truly did not resent him for making her go hungry for three days. There was not even the slightest trace of resentnt in her eyes.

"Alright. I still have my doubts about you calling a good person, but you really are a good kid."

"Eh!!!???"

After saying that, Cid ignored the completely confused Yukina Hiragi and walked straight to the counter.

"Hello. If I rember correctly, custors with VIP status get an extra couple set when buying sothing here."

By coincidence, the employee behind the counter was the sa one he had seen the last ti he ca here with Kanon Kanase. At that mont, the waiter's gaze kept shifting back and forth between Cid and Yukina Hiragi.

"Ah... y yes, sir. This... this is the complintary couple set. Please take it."

Ignoring the waiter who had clearly misunderstood sothing and was now looking at him like he was so kind of scumbag, Cid carried the two complintary sandwiches back to the table.

With the strange atmosphere from earlier gone, the two of them started chatting naturally.

One was a transfer student who had been trained in a special organization since childhood. The other was a second year high school student who had grown up in a world still stuck in the era of the First Industrial Revolution.

Despite their completely different backgrounds, the conversation between them quickly beca lively.