BA, I just want to save the world

Tired physically and mentally, Hinata walked silently in the rain, letting the cold spring rain hit her body with a biting chill, bringing a hint of coolness to her tired and overheated body.

However, walking alone in the heavy rain, on this deserted street, this loneliness and coldness made her envy those who had many friends.

But she gave up the idea after just thinking about it. As long as she was alive, she would be subject to more and more constraints and endure all kinds of pressure and troubles. She understood this as a matter of course.

"Besides, I'm neither cute nor cheerful. I'm boring and lazy. No one will like me... I can't even imagine myself being popular."

In this silent world with only the falling rain, Hinata fell into deep thought.

The more she thought about it, the more depressed she became. The hunger in her stomach and the cold rain made the gloom in her heart even worse.

Just as she was immersed in self-doubt and depression, the rain on her body stopped abruptly without warning.

She subconsciously raised her head, and her eyes inadvertently met Mo Lu, who had appeared close to her without her noticing.

"....Is there something wrong?" she asked doubtfully.

To be honest, the "Angel 24" convenience store work clothes the other person was wearing seemed quite abrupt in this situation.

"It's not summer yet, it's still quite cold to get caught in the rain, right?"

"Um... I'm fine, please don't worry about it. After all, I'm already soaked, and running won't help, right?"

"But what if you catch a cold?"

"Well....."

Hinata seemed a little troubled by the worry about strangers, and she didn't know how to deal with it.

But his voice was soft and clear, like a spring breeze blowing across the lake, creating ripples, so she didn't dislike this sudden person too much.

But Mo Lu's next sentence made her dumbfounded.

"Speaking of which, this is the discipline committee uniform, right? So even elementary school students can join the discipline committee? Hmm~ I don't quite understand this."

"....Huh?" She was speechless for a moment without any malicious speculation.

Of course, she also understood why the other party had misunderstandings.

After all, my height has hardly changed since elementary school and has always remained at 142 cm.

The most obvious thing is the school swimsuit I wore in elementary school. I still feel it fits me well when I wear it today. Sometimes, even when I walk alone, people would mistake me for a lost child and send me to a lost children protection center... or something like that.

While leading Hina to the store, Mo Lu also noticed that the child following behind him seemed to be troubled by something, and unconsciously looked down:

"What's wrong? Did I say anything weird?"

“Um…” Hinata was still thinking about how to explain her situation, but they had already arrived at the door of the convenience store.

Mo Lu then took out a bath towel from the store and handed it to her: "Hurry up and clean it up."

"How much is this?" She took it hesitantly, but Mo Lu waved and smiled, "No need, I also bought some daily necessities. I can take them home and wash them after you use them, and then I can use them myself, right?"

"But..." Hinata held the bath towel and swallowed the words back.

She thought that what she was least good at was dealing with this kind of people...especially when the other party obviously had no ill intentions.

And she was almost certain that Mo Lu said this just to make her accept his kindness. After all, who would buy daily necessities for no reason?

Although the probability is not zero, is it really such a coincidence?

"Okay, okay, it's very cute for a child to occasionally accept care from an adult, right?"

Seeing that she was hesitant and still worried about something, Mo Lu couldn't help but take back the bath towel and started wiping her long silver hair.

..........................

..........................

Faced with someone like Mo Lu, Hina had no chance to refuse, and she didn't even know how to refuse.

She was distressed, but could only let it go...and soon she was taken to the staff room, where she temporarily changed into Mo Lu's casual clothes.

The wet school uniform was placed in the convenience store's dryer, and when she was about to thank him, Mo Lu handed her a bottle of hot milk.

"This... is for me?" She stared blankly at the milk in front of her, looking a little overwhelmed. However, Mo Lu smiled and held the milk out to her again:

"Of course. I'm an adult. I actually prefer wine to milk. And if you drink more, you'll grow taller. And you just got caught in the rain, didn't you? You should at least drink something hot."

"Thanks....."

Hinata was a little hesitant, but then she thought, she had already accepted so much help from him, so this little bit didn't seem to be a big deal.

At Mo Lu's invitation, she sat next to him at the counter and drank the hot milk in small sips.

“....It tastes so good....”

The warm milk, which was obviously sweetened by the addition of sugar, tasted strangely good. It flowed down her throat into her stomach, moistening her cold, chilled body. Her cold little hands also felt quite comfortable on the wall of the milk cup. She couldn't help but let out a small sigh, and the tense expression on her face unconsciously relaxed.

"Even if you feel warm, you still need to take a good bath when you go back, okay?"

"Um...thank you."

"Don't be so polite. Why do you keep thanking me? Just come and visit me more often when you have time. I'm bored running the store by myself~"

Mo Lu just sat there, with his elbows on the counter, his chin supported by one hand, staring at the girl in front of him, with that gentle smile still on his face.

Now he personally feels like he has picked up a cute stray kitten on a rainy day.

The way Hina drank the milk in small sips also made him want to stroke her wet silver hair... just like he wanted to stroke Shirako in the beginning.

But facing this warm gaze, although Hinata didn't hate it, she seemed a little uncomfortable, so she stopped drinking milk, turned her head and looked over, hesitant to say something and whispered:

"Um...can you please stop looking at me like that?"

"why?"

"....a little shy...."

"What's the matter? You're so cute, you must be the center of attention all the time, right?"

"Hey? Cute? Me?" As if she had heard a fairy tale, the milk in Hina's hand trembled and she seemed extremely at a loss.

This made Mo Lu couldn't help but reach out and gently poke the pink face: "Haha~ You are such a cute child."

"Wait a minute....what are you doing?"

"I didn't do anything. Don't be afraid. I'm not a bad person, okay?"

"...I have a rough idea of ​​this."

It was precisely because he had no hostility at all and was even full of goodwill that Hina didn't know how to deal with him and lowered her head in distress.

After a while, her beautiful purple vertical pupils looked at him again with obvious confusion and vigilance: "....Are you so nice to everyone?"

"How could that be? It's just... should I say it's professional instinct? Or is it that I can't just leave a cute girl alone?"

"...Professional instinct?" Hinata looked up and down at his uniform. "Don't you work at a convenience store?"

"Come to think of it, I haven't introduced myself yet? Um....what's your name?"

"...When asking someone's name, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" Hina subconsciously refuted, but then sighed softly: "Forget it... I'm a member of the first-year discipline committee of the senior department of Gehenna Academy, Kurosaki Hina."

"....Higher education department? Huh? Are you sure it's not an elementary school?" Even a special existence like Hoshino was a few centimeters taller than her, which made Mo Lu a little unconvinced.

“Haha…”

Although she wanted to prove her identity, she really didn't look like a high school student at all, so Hina just sighed tiredly, gave up explaining, and turned away to look.

In fact, she herself doesn't even know it. Sometimes she finds it troublesome and doesn't want to explain. She just wants to sleep and rest. Usually, she is a lazy person who doesn't bother to care about anything and thinks everything is troublesome. This is why she has no friends.

But this attitude, to some extent, seemed to confirm Mo Lu's judgment, and made him understand that this child probably wanted people to treat him as an adult?

After confirming this in his heart, Mo Lu, who did not intend to expose others, put aside the question and said with a smile:

"My name is Mo Lu. Although I work at a convenience store now, I was a sensei in the past and will probably be a sensei in the future. You can call me by my name, or sensei is fine."

"....sensei? Ah, sensei?" Hinata didn't react for a moment, but when she came to her senses, she couldn't help but wonder: "Is there still anyone doing this job?"

"Of course not the normal kind. My job is to guide and protect, right?"

"...Guide, protect?"

"It's troublesome to talk about it now, but we will definitely meet again in the future. You will probably understand it by then."

“…Really? Then I’ll wait and see, sensei.” While speaking, Hina smiled for the first time.

That lovely, gorgeous and pure smile, like a bright moon in the night sky, made him unconsciously take out his mobile phone and secretly take a picture.

Hinata was quick to notice his movements and frowned unconsciously: "....What are you doing?"

"Record the cute side of Hinata-chan~"

"H-Hina-chan...?"

"Don't worry about this for now~"

"So....what do you want to do by doing this? What's the point?"

"I think we will definitely meet again in the future, so I'll show you this photo later. It will be fun to remember that this was our first meeting~!"

He explained the future with a smile on his face, and Hinata gradually lost the desire to ask him to delete the photos. Instead, she leaned on the counter tiredly, looking at the increasingly heavy rain outside the window, and said softly helplessly:

"You are so optimistic... You are actually thinking about the future now. I didn't say I would come again, did I?"

"Hina isn't the kind of person who wouldn't repay a favor, is she?"

“Huh?” Hina turned her head in surprise: “…are you suddenly asking for repayment for a favor?”

"We finally got to know each other, it would be a pity to end it like this. You know, everyone's birth and meeting is a miracle like the intersection of bright stars. I don't want to miss my own miracle."

"...I'm really not good at dealing with people like you."

The overly idealistic speech made Hina lie on the counter again without getting up. She just turned her head while lying on the table, revealing her left eye, and said softly with some embarrassment: "But what you said seems to make some sense... I think I will probably come again..."

Chapter 10 Miracles and Impossibilities (K)

Hina's shy look, with only half of her face showing, really touched Mo Lu's heart.

He really thought Hina was cute, but Hina herself had some strange inferiority complex in this regard, and she just lay on the table, muttering quietly:

"Of course... I can do it if it's like this, if you don't mind..."

"What are you talking about, kid?" Mo Lu didn't know what to say about her cute but strange inferiority complex. He shook his head and laughed: "Of course I don't mind a cute girl like you chatting with me~ It's just..."

"Sure enough, there is something..."

"No, it's just that I have something to ask you, and I wonder if you would mind."

"....Tell me about it?"

"Can I touch your hair? Oh, if I can, I'd like to play with the horns a bit!"

"...?"

His matter-of-fact answer made Hina blink and not react for a long time.

Mo Lu just listened quietly to the sound of rain outside the store and waited for about a minute... She finally came to her senses, stood up from the counter in shock, and looked at him with a slightly red cheek:

"——Why would you think of something like this when you are so serious?"

"Hmm? Isn't this a normal thing?"

"Ordinary...normal?"

Is there some misunderstanding between me and this person about being ordinary? ——Hina felt that her brain was not enough now.

But before she could figure out how to refuse politely, Mo Lu had already pressed on her head, making her frown slightly, and even touched her horns to play with them. It felt as if there was a tiny electric current constantly stimulating her horns.

She endured the strange touch, twisted her body and tried to move the hand away, but she heard his worried voice:

"You look like you're troubled. Did something happen to you?"

"Huh? Why... do you say that?"

"When I first saw you, you looked tired and exhausted."

"Well... there's something going on."

"If you don't mind telling me?"

"...They are all trivial matters, there is nothing much to say." At this time, Hina already wanted to sigh.