"Haah—"
Kurosaki Ichigo yawned as he walked out of Karakura First High School. The sky had already taken on a somewhat dusky hue, and his teacher's mind-numbingly dull lullaby had left his head spinning.
Who was that boy under the overpass last night? Ichigo thought back to what had happened. It still felt bizarre, because nobody else had seen how that guy named Wu Biao had appeared.
At the time, Ichigo had sensed a strange fluctuation and instinctively glanced over. Then he'd seen Wu Biao suddenly emerge from thin air.
That had immediately made Ichigo curious about him.
"Hey, kid, it's you again!"
A voice suddenly interrupted Ichigo's thoughts. He turned his head and only then noticed a semitransparent middle-aged man floating in midair beside him. That's right—floating...
Ichigo's mouth twitched. He turned away and walked on, completely ignoring the mysterious semitransparent creature.
But the middle-aged man's ghost followed after him, refusing to give up. "Kid, I'm so bored. Talk with me for a while."
"..." Ignored.
"Just for a bit. Keep me company, and I'll give you money, okay?"
"..." Ichigo's mouth twitched. What am I supposed to do with money from a ghost?
"Fine, I'll go all out. If you talk with me, I'll introduce you to my daughter. She's beautiful! Just a few days ago, I floated into the bathroom and watched her shower. Her bust, her butt, those long, fair legs..."
As he talked, Ichigo still showed no reaction, but the unknown creature had already gotten a nosebleed...
Damn, this guy's a pervert!
Ichigo immediately labeled the man a pervert in his mind. He continued ignoring the guy, who wouldn't stop bragging to a stranger about his daughter's body, and hoped that if he ignored him long enough, the pervert would leave on his own.
"Come one, come all! Don't miss out! For just 100 yen, you can't lose! You can unleash all the stress from work and all the pain of a broken heart! There's nothing more satisfying than beating up a human punching bag!"
"Is this your punching bag? No! This is your punching bag!"
The bizarre sales pitch caught Ichigo's attention. But when he saw who was shouting, he froze. The person hawking a "human punching bag" on the street was none other than the strange boy who had appeared under the overpass last night.
That was Wu Biao, the guy with the odd name. He was dressed just like yesterday, bare-chested, with a pair of ragged jeans on, streaked with traces of blood.
A sign hung from his chest, covered in a bunch of writing Ichigo couldn't understand. But he recognized the "100 yen"!
"Hey... bro, it's you!" Wu Biao spotted Ichigo walking over and hurried toward him, looking anxious. "Bro, tell me, what the hell kind of place is this?"
After leaving the riverside yesterday, Wu Biao had run all the way back, hoping to return to the place where he'd been fighting and give his enemies a good beating. But he kept running until deep into the night, and ended up running out of Karakura Town.
What he found was an endless ocean. That's right, an ocean, damn it...
Had I really crossed an entire sea with one charge? How could I possibly have run that far in the blink of an eye? Then Brother Biao realized he'd probably... gone the wrong way!
Wu Biao ran back to Karakura Town and headed in the opposite direction. This time, at last, he didn't find another ocean. Mountains appeared before him.
Naturally, he kept running. In the end, he'd covered all of Karakura Town, exhausted, thirsty, and starving, without finding a way back.
Finally, he could only head to the center of Karakura Town and look for any familiar buildings. Instead, he discovered that he couldn't read the signs in this godforsaken place. He could make out a few characters that looked like Chinese, but couldn't understand what they meant.
Yeah, that's right. I must be dreaming. Once I wake up, everything will be fine!
With that thought, Wu Biao fell asleep. But... when he opened his eyes, he was still in this unfamiliar world. His stomach was ravenous, so he took the only 10-yuan bill in his pocket and looked for a store where he could buy some bread.
After searching for a while, he finally found a shop. But... they wouldn't accept his money. In the end, the owner got so fed up with him that he gave Wu Biao a bread roll and showed him the local currency again.
"Bro, tell me the truth. What the hell kind of place is this?" Wu Biao grabbed Ichigo by the shoulder. "This makes no sense! I only blinked, and everything changed. Tell me where I am! Which way is S City? Also... could you buy me a meal first?"
"..." The barrage of questions left Ichigo's head spinning, and he nodded without thinking.
Ten minutes later, Ichigo stared at the stack of more than ten large bowls on the table. His face was darker than the bottom of a pot. These were huge bowls of ramen—the biggest size they had...
The other customers in the ramen shop had forgotten all about their meals. They stared, stunned, at Wu Biao, who was wolfing down food with his head lowered.
Bang—
Wu Biao set down the bowl and burped contentedly. "Ah, I'm alive again!" Then he finally remembered what Ichigo had just told him and blinked in confusion.
"So you're saying this place is Karakura Town, and you've never heard of S City or Earth?"
"Yeah, I've never heard of any of those things you mentioned!" Ichigo nodded expressionlessly, but his heart ached. This meal was probably going to eat up more than half his allowance for the month!
"How's that possible? Could I have transmigrated?" Wu Biao waved a hand, but it froze in midair. Thinking back over the whole night he'd spent running around, he realized that he probably really had transmigrated.
No matter how good he was at fighting, he couldn't cross an ocean or climb over mountains with a single charge!
Wu Biao rubbed his chin. "I see. Looks like I really did transmigrate..."
"What does 'transmigrate' mean?" Ichigo asked curiously.
"Transmigrating is..." Wu Biao furrowed his brow. How was he supposed to explain transmigration? "Forget it. I transmigrated. You wouldn't understand even if I explained it. Not everyone's as smart as Brother Biao."
"..." Ichigo's mouth twitched. Damn it, just explain! How's anyone supposed to know if you don't?
"But if I transmigrated, doesn't that mean I lost a whole month's wages from hauling bricks?" Wu Biao blinked, then shook his head indifferently. Brother Biao had never really cared about money.
In Brother Biao's world, as long as he didn't starve to death, it didn't matter if he had no money.
"Man, it's hard enough to find work. I wonder if there are any construction sites in this world looking for brick haulers. I'd better find somewhere to get a meal, or I really will starve to death!"
A wandering orphan?
Listening to Wu Biao mutter to himself, Ichigo felt he had some idea of what was going on. He spoke up. "The convenience store near my house is hiring cashiers. Want me to ask them about it?"
"A cashier?" Wu Biao stared at him blankly. "I can't do that. I don't recognize any of the money here. They even have 100-yen coins! Are only rich people living here?"
"Huh?" Ichigo's mouth twitched. This was the first time he'd ever heard of someone being fourteen or fifteen and not recognizing money.
Setting aside the question of what a 100-yen coin was, Ichigo said helplessly, "If you really have nowhere to go, I can talk to my dad. You could help him out at our family clinic!"
Ichigo didn't know why, but he was really curious about where the young man in front of him had come from. The guy didn't look any older than he was, and Ichigo wanted to help him as much as he could.
"Help out? Haha, that's no problem at all!"
_(End of chapter)_
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