As I went to see how it was going, I saw Rei being attacked. Blood rushed to my head while I told myself to stay as calm as possible. It was then I touched my newest weapon, the wristwatch on my wrist.

Flames I had created hit my target with precision. This “Accuracy rate X” would further improve my sensory accuracy rate! With this, I could aim for Rei’s clothes only! Well, let’s leave that thought for another time.

“The result of my newest weapon is pretty good.”

I said as I approached Rei. Although it was more or less alive, I won’t let the evil spirit hurt him. But first, I need to check him for any injuries.

“Rei, are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. You’re really strong, Kurousagi…”

Rei said with a sad tone, making me anxious.

“You’ll grow stronger too, Rei, so there’s no need to worry. Until then, I’ll protect you.”

“...Okay.”

“Well then, I will take care of that evil spirit who dared to touch “my” Rei.”

“...”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,”

Rei answered somewhat happily. While wondering what was going on, I glanced at the evil spirit coming in our direction.

“Disappear.”

Shatter.

The sound of glass breaking resounded as the evil spirit crumbled and disappeared. I had easily defeated the evil spirit like this. If it was this easy, maybe I should have attacked straight away instead of thinking of protecting the civilians. However, from what I saw earlier…

“It looked like you were about to be done in again, Rei.”

“At this level, I feel like you could have beat it if you had put your mind to it, but… I guess you really need to practice changing attributes after all.”

Rei looked at me with a complicated look.

“...Sometimes, you act like you aren’t looking at me although you really are, Kurousagi,”

Rei said to me with a rare discontent look on his face. After hearing that, I said,

“...I don’t remember doing that so it can’t be helped.”

“Really, it’s troubling that you have no self-awareness.”

“Huh?”

“There are civilians here, so let’s leave it for now. We encountered the mid-boss earlier, so there’s no need to stay here any longer. Kojirou, you twins, and… the other civilian, and Rei, thank you all for your cooperation.”

Kojiro waved his hand, and the twins told me that there was no need to thank them since I had taken it down single-handedly like always.

Like this, we greeted each other and said farewell before leaving the hospital. However, it seemed like the civilians would continue going to places like this. If this was the case, we might meet them again sometime.

I thought as we returned home. At the same time, Rei was looking at me nervously. I wondered what was wrong.

“Kurousagi, what do you mean that you don’t remember?”

“That’s a secret. If you grow stronger, Rei… Until then, I’ll stay by your side.”

“Is that so? If you stay by my side… then I won’t ask.”

“Good.”

We returned in silence after that. The next day, Rei was finally motivated to learn how to change attributes like I had been telling him to do.