Angel had a good impression of the bakery clerk.
He remembered a young man, slim and simply but neatly dressed, with an apron bearing a bread logo around his waist.
His features were not sharp or striking, but they were remarkably gentle. That gentleness was more than a look; it was a quality that seemed to come from within.
Even when Angel used Extrasensory Perception to examine his emotions, he found the same warmth and kindness beneath the surface.
In the hurried, restless Modern City, the bakery clerk was a rare breath of fresh air.
For some reason, he made Angel think of the word... domestic?
It seemed an odd word for a young man, but anyone who met him would understand.
Back then, Zuniga had collapsed by the roadside after entering a challenge space. Polluted acid rain poured down on him, while most passersby merely watched with indifference.
Only the bakery clerk had struggled to carry Zuniga to the bench outside the shop.
His own life was hardly easy, and a demanding manager might fire him at any moment. Even so, he had brought Zuniga, who looked like a homeless man, to the storefront.
Worried that Zuniga might be cold, he had poured him a cup of hot milk.
But Zuniga had not woken up, so the clerk had held the milk and waited quietly...
It was a small act of kindness, yet it spoke to the peace and gentleness in his heart.
In short, Angel liked the bakery clerk. But he had taken him for an ordinary background NPC and had not paid him much attention at the time.
Zuniga had used Targeted News on him?
"I used Targeted News on him mainly to see whether he'd encountered an Outsider from Beyond the Heavens, and whether he might