[Shinji, I heard you stopped that teor heading for Z City and made it disappear completely. Is that true?]
Shinji was lounging in the living room, tea in hand, lazily scrolling through his phone when the ssage popped up. Just as he expected, it was Lily again.
He tapped the screen and replied without much thought:
[What else could it be if not true?]
[How did you do it? I rember Lady Fubuki once said you're an esper too. So you used your powers, right?]
[Yeah, I did.]
He'd originally planned to leave it at "Yeah," but that felt too blunt, so he added a little more to soften the tone.
Now that he thought about it, Lily had been ssaging him more often lately. Most of the ti, it wasn't about anything important, just random everyday topics. It seed like she was just looking for soone to chat with.
[By the way... don't you have any friends?]
[??? What's that supposed to an?!]
Her quick reply clearly showed she'd been caught off guard.
[I ant it literally. You keep chatting with , a total outsider, about stuff people usually share with their friends.]
Shinji wasn't trying to be an. He was genuinely curious. As far as he was concerned, she barely knew him, yet she spoke to him like they were close.
Normally, Lily would reply in a flash, but this ti it took a couple of minutes before her response finally ca through.
[How can you be an outsider? You're already part of the Blizzard Group... Even if you won't admit it, Lady Fubuki has decided that you're joining us no matter what!]
[The fu-seriously?]
Shinji replied with just an ellipsis, then tossed his phone aside. He knew how stubborn Fubuki could be. Once she set her sights on soone, she never backed off. Let her think whatever she wanted.
"Hey, today's discount day. Wanna go grocery shopping together?"
Right then, a bald head popped in through the open window near the door.
"Sure."
Shinji gave a nod. For a change of pace, it would be nice to go out casually.
He and Saitama went grocery shopping together every now and then. It had beco a sort of routine.
With his phone still in hand, he stepped outside to join Saitama. As they walked down the empty street, Saitama glanced over.
"Your phone was buzzing just now. Was that a call or a bunch of ssages?"
"Nothing important."
Shinji shrugged and opened his phone to put it back on silent. He had turned it off earlier and forgotten to switch it back.
As he adjusted the setting, Lily's flood of ssages lit up the screen. Most were s or random, aningless comnts.
Still, he wasn't annoyed. He understood that girls her age could be like that, probably in middle school, or maybe early high school at most.
And of course, in this case, "high school" didn't an college or anything beyond that.
Seeing that she'd spamd his phone with so many ssages, Shinji figured he might as well respond.
[I'm out grocery shopping with a friend. I'll talk to you later.]
[Wait, you actually have friends?]
Lily replied instantly, attaching a confused .
[Why wouldn't I?]
Shinji fired back.
[I always thought you were the lone-wolf type who doesn't make friends.]
[...That's not entirely wrong, but I do have a few, at least.]
He paused for a second. It was surprising how much Lily seed to know about him. More than he'd expected, honestly.
It was true, Shinji wasn't fond of socializing. More precisely, he didn't like aningless interactions.
And what exactly counted as aningless? That was sothing only he got to decide.
Like forcing himself to hang around the Tank Top Army just because they held sway in the Hero Association...
Or sucking up to Tatsumaki, the strongest hero aside from Blast (if you went by the webcomic), even though her personality was clearly awful...
Stuff like that felt pointless to him.
On the other hand, the way he got along with people like Saitama, Genos, or Bang was different. Those relationships were effortless. Nothing fake, nothing forced.
A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he ssaged Lily again:
[Don't tell you don't have any friends?]
She didn't reply right away. He guessed that silence ant he'd hit the mark.
It really was strange, though. Wasn't the Blizzard Group a pretty big organization? Even if she wasn't tight with everyone, it was hard to believe she didn't have at least one close friend.
Or maybe her standards for what counted as a "friend" were just unusually high?
[So what if I don't? You're so annoying!]
She finally responded.
"..."
Shinji had typed out a follow-up, [With all those people in the Blizzard Group, not even one close friend?], But after hesitating, he erased it. He didn't want to drag the Blizzard Group back into the conversation.
[No reason. I was just curious.]
With that, he turned off his phone.
He'd already switched his phone to silent, so it wouldn't keep buzzing randomly in his pocket.
"Soone ssaged you, didn't they? You seem pretty popular. Always chatting with people every day... Are they fans or sothing?" Saitama, walking beside him, asked offhandedly.
"Not fans. Just a pro hero I knew from before," Shinji replied.
"Oh, so coworkers, not fans. By the way, did you sign up for so kind of texting service? Using regular SMS must be pricey."
Saitama actually sounded a bit curious.
"Looks like you still don't know about LINE, huh? It's an instant ssaging app. You can just download it straight to your phone."
Shinji explained casually.
LINE had only started catching on in this world recently. Most people were still stuck using flip phones, and the tech progression here was all over the place. The tiline for what got invented and when felt completely skewed.
Given that Saitama had been living like a recluse for over three years, probably longer, he didn't need much. Reading manga, playing gas, and watching TV were more than enough to keep him entertained. It wasn't a surprise that he didn't know what kind of apps people used these days.
"Is that so? Guess I'll check it out when I get ho."
Right after saying that, Saitama suddenly ca to a stop. "I was going to look into it later, but..."
Before he could finish, a kunai sliced through the air toward them from the distance.
Saitama raised a hand without even looking and casually caught it between his fingers. "Looks like that troubleso guy is back."
A mont later, Speed-o'-Sound Sonic appeared directly in front of them, eyes fixed on Saitama with a sharp glint.
"That guy looks kinda... familiar..."
Saitama stared for a mont, trying to rember. "Joint Panic?"
"It's Speed-o'-Sound Sonic!"
Sonic snapped, imdiately correcting him.
"Hm? Seems there's an annoying extra tagging along..."
His gaze shifted to Shinji, standing calmly next to Saitama. "I ca here to challenge Saitama to a proper one-on-one fight. I'll deal with the nuisance first."
"...?"
Shinji blinked, a question mark practically hanging over his head as Sonic suddenly targeted him with open hostility.
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