Asking? Provoking? Talking? The Prelude to Battle

"Ha?"

After Uraraka Shige uttered those words, the group of boys who looked to be around the age of second-year junior high school all simultaneously expressed their surprise and confusion.

"What are you talking about, kid? Asking us for directions?"

A guy with a thin, short wooden stick in his mouth stared at Uraraka Shige in disbelief.

You haven't paid me back for asking for directions yet!

The guy who had been leaning against the wall, with his hands in his pockets, quickly picked up where the guy with the stick in his mouth was going off to say.

Then a bespectacled man, whose build seemed to be trending towards becoming overweight and chubby, adjusted his glasses with his short, thick fingers and gave Uraraka Shige a friendly reminder:

"We kindly warned you before that this isn't a place for you. Whatever else you want to ask, you should at least pay for the information we provided, right?"

The last to speak was a tall, muscular man with a fierce-looking face, who was comparable to the others, including Uraraka Shige.

"That's it! Asking about travel expenses! Asking about travel expenses! You don't expect us to help you for nothing, to give you hints for nothing, do you?!"

As he spoke, he stood up aggressively and walked towards where Uraraka Shige was.

"Hurry up and hand over the directions fee!"

As the guy got a little closer, Uraraka Shige noticed that this seemingly fierce-looking fellow actually had a small yellow horn on his forehead, though it was partially hidden by his hair. He hadn't noticed it before because of the distance and the dim lighting.

However, whether or not Uraraka Shige noticed this was actually irrelevant. After all, the horn wasn't growing on his head, so what did it have to do with him?

At this moment, what he cared about was still the news about 'AFO', and he didn't even care about the so-called "inquiry fee" that these guys had repeatedly emphasized.

Do you know where that 'king's' 'residence' is, and how to get there?

So Uraraka Shige asked directly, his words carrying a hint of probing.

However, the result of his attempt was not very satisfactory.

"Huh? What are you talking about, kid? What 'king' and what 'territory'... Are you playing some kind of role-playing game?"

The first person to react to Uraraka Shige's words was the guy who had been holding a small wooden stick in his mouth earlier.

He held one end of a small wooden stick in his hand, then grinned and forcefully bit the stick in two with his teeth, snapping it in two with a 'crack'. After chewing for a moment, he spat it out onto the ground with a 'pfft'.

He then tossed aside the remaining small wooden sticks in his hand, stood up, and grinned mockingly at Uraraka Shige.

Although the light wasn't particularly bright, it wasn't dim either. When the guy grinned, Uraraka Shige could vaguely see that his teeth all appeared to be extremely sharp triangles.

"Wait... could it be?"

Uraraka Shige suddenly paused, a thought vaguely forming in his mind. Then he suddenly began to look for the characteristics of these guys that were different from ordinary people.

The guy with glasses and short, stubby fingers, after adjusting his glasses, stuffed a handful of potato chips into his mouth, puffed out his cheeks, and chewed them heartily. Some saliva even dripped from the corners of his mouth, forming a line.

"Gudu! Hey! Don't make fun of others like that!"

The bespectacled guy, after hearing Triangle Teeth's mocking remark to Uraraka Shige, still wore a cheerful expression. He forcefully swallowed the potato chips in his mouth, making a very clear and loud 'glug' sound, and then said something to Triangle Teeth. He then looked at Uraraka Shige again, his expression still friendly, and reminded her once more:

"And you brat over there! We've never heard of this 'king' or 'territory' you mentioned, we have absolutely no idea! But that means you'll have to pay for directions twice."

The man leaning against the wall took his hands out of his pockets; his fingers had long knuckles and his nails looked quite sharp.

He spoke after the bespectacled fat man finished speaking, as if the words of this bespectacled fat man, who seemed to have a good appetite, had given him some inspiration.

"Wait a minute, if you put it that way, then if we change the 'asking for directions fee' to 'inquiry fee,' then we can charge you three times!"

"If you charge both a fee for asking for directions and a fee for inquiring, then you could charge five times! Besides, this isn't something you can decide on your own."

Finally, it was the tall, burly man with horns on his forehead who had already come up in front of Uraraka Shige who spoke. His words seemed to express some dissatisfaction with the man leaning against the wall.

Then the man with horns on his forehead looked down at Uraraka Shige, who was barely taller than him, and urged him directly:

"Kid! Did you hear that? Two directions and three inquiries, that's a total of five fees! I won't overcharge you, one thousand yen each time, I'll just charge you ten thousand yen. Now, hand over the money!"

At this moment, Uraraka Shige had already sized up all the people present, except for the smallest-looking guy who had only given him a word of advice at the beginning.

When urged by the horned man on the forehead, he still acted as if he hadn't heard or noticed, only muttering regretfully with his head down.

"What... So not all thugs know this... It's even a local from Kyoto... How useless..."

After muttering those words, Uraraka Shige slowly looked up at the horned man on the forehead who seemed to have heard his muttering and appeared somewhat angry. In a hoarse voice, he softly asked:

"Since you know nothing, and yet you're asking for directions and inquiries... it seems you're just looking for an excuse to rob me? You bunch of incompetent scoundrels!"

After Uraraka Shige uttered those words, the air at the end of this dead end seemed to freeze instantly.

Then, in the next moment, all the guys who were still standing in their original positions, including the smallest one, all stood up.

The kind-looking, bespectacled fat man put down the bag of potato chips he had been holding, his expression turning fierce, and he seemed to have some difficulty standing up.

"Whoa! Oh dear... kid... you just said something pretty outrageous..."