The autograph event was being held in the lobby of a hotel.
It had just passed lunchtime, and the event had not officially begun yet, but the lobby was already packed with people... They were all fans of Teacher Kurumada—the manga had been around for more than thirty years and had once taken the world by storm.
Reporters were interviewing fans who had arrived early to wait, grabbing whoever they could.
Suzuki Xiaya shoved and squeezed his way through the crowd with the child. After frightening several elderly women, he successfully reached a corner of the lobby... Suzuki Xiaya looked at the artbook clasped in the child's hands and shook his head disdainfully.
All the way there, he had been giving the child an introduction, trying everything he could think of, waving his hands around until he was practically out of words.
"This thing isn't any good. The fighters inside are weak as trash. I could take on a whole bunch of them by myself without even breaking a sweat. The gods are the only ones who'd be a little troublesome."
The child gave him a doubtful look at that. Suzuki Xiaya could only stammer for a while before finally saying that there were probably, maybe, a few tough opponents.
"...Kid, get the autograph and leave immediately!"
"But... we have to queue."
Suzuki Xiaya couldn't cause trouble here, so he could only follow impatiently behind a plump middle-aged man in a white short-sleeved shirt with a denim collar.
He glared at the man in front of him. The man broke into a cold sweat and automatically gave up his place. Suzuki Xiaya was delighted. He felt that he could glare his way through the entire line and become the first person to get an autograph.
So he really did use