"Ah! No, I mean...!"
Ai covered her mouth with a scared expression, backing off even more.
"Pffft...! Hahaha! You're right, Ai! He does look like an orc!"
"Totally! He looks just like those orcs from the anime!"
The two girls that Butaro didn't know apparently felt safe enough to start making fun of their savior - who was twice their height and at least six or seven times their combined width - and they started laughing loudly.
One of them even took out her smartphone and took a photo of him.
It really cost Butaro a lot not to reach out and crush the device between his thumb and index finger.
"Shibou Butaro? Seriously? What a dumb name! Hey! Hey! Why don't you try saying oink! Come on!"
The girl who took out the phone heckled him so maybe she was taking a video instead of a photo...
"Wh-what the hell do you think you're doing!?"
Shirohime Kanae, the girl who was the first to recognize and thank Butaro started scolding the laughing girls.
"Kiku! No!"
And was fast enough to grab the raised hand of her friend who seemed furious enough to slap the girl mocking Butaro.
"Ai! How can you be so rude to Shibou! He just helped us! Apologize!"
"But... But he kind of does look like an orc, no...?"
"Ai...!"
Both Shirohime and Tsumire Kiku, the scared classmate of Butaro turn feisty, gasped, and looked at Ai in shock at her words.
"Pffahahah! See!?"
"Go on, say oink!"
"..."
Well, I guess that I don't even have to confess now, the answer is very clear...|
Butaro dropped his head in defeat, heartbroken, ignoring the annoying girls' mockery.
"If you girls are fine then it's all that matters. Bye."
He said as calmly as he could and he turned away.
"See you later, orc!"
"Come on, at least oink as a goodbye!"
"Would you two shut up already!? Ai, those are supposed those great friends of yours!?"
Shirohime got angry at the laughing girls and started shouting at them while Ai tried to calm her down.
"Gentle giant! Thanks for saving us! I... ove.. you..."
"Nah, you don't owe me a thing."
Tsumire called after leaving Butaro and he glanced back at her and waved to her with a faint smile, shaking his head after not properly hearing the last part because of the girl losing confidence and mumbling it.
An orc, huh...?|
Butaro's eyes were stinging and he clenched his teeth while jogging back to the apartment.
Why an orc though...? Even after I helped her out... Orcs are always the bad guys, right? At least the ones that look like me...!|
He thought to himself feeling something like a tennis ball made of ice getting stuck in his throat.
Before opening the door Butaro blew his nose and wiped his eyes just in case.
Then he gave his mother the special pudding and went straight to his room.
------
It was a long night for Butaro, he couldn't fall asleep at all.
Only right before dawn, he managed to snooze for a bit but even then he had this weird dream.
********
There was a girl that looked around his age, but her skin was golden as if she was spray-painted and her ears were long and pointy like an elf's
Her hair was shoulder-long and also golden while her eyes were emerald-green.
The perspective of the dream widened.
The golden girl was wearing weird clothes, one that would be best suited for some MMO-fantasy game's NPC.
She was surrounded by giant furniture - or alternatively, if the place she was in and the furniture around her was an average-human size then it would mean that the golden girl who had a physique of a high school girl was only three and a half feet tall.
"...^&*^%...?"
Suddenly the girl flinched and turned, looking right into Butaro eyes like it was some sort of a TV drama skit, and opened her mouth - but instead of words, the sounds that left her mouth didn't sound as if they were made by a human at all.
******
The odd dream ended just like that!
--------
Butaro woke up more tired than before he fell asleep.
He shook his head and started stretching to clear his mind.
He went to the bathroom.
Then he went to the kitchen and ate a very light dietetic breakfast, he already knew that dieting won't work but he was at the point where he actually started liking this whole healthy food that he abhorred at the beginning.
After that, he prepared for school and left the apartment after saying goodbye to his parents.
Butaro looked up at the sky high above and sighed.
"I hope that Ai won't start calling me an orc all the time now..."
He mumbled to himself and straightened his uniform with one hand, leaving his hand on the spot where Kiku snuggled up to before.
"Oh well, it's not like I'm going to die even if she would."
He smirked trying to cheer himself up and started walking.
It was a busy morning, Butaro was tall and his legs were deceivingly long so his walking speed was much faster than an average person's.
*Honk!* *Honk!*
"...hmph..."
Butaro looked ahead and saw who was abusing their car horn like that - and frowned upon seeing the culprit.
It turned out to be some guy in a western imported car, he was the third in the line before the traffic lights and was honking relentlessly at other cars for, apparently, not being fast enough.
What a rude person. I want to punch the hood of his stupid car in to teach him a lesson.|
Butaro frowned and shook his head, subconsciously clenching his fist.
Still, he controlled himself and looked to the side, checking out the shop displays when...
-------------------
The man in the western car had enough waiting, the two slowpokes in front of him managed to pass the crossing but the light turned red just as he was about to go!
He had important matters to attend to!
He glanced to the sides just for the formality's sake and hit the gas without much thought and entered the crossroad even though he wasn't supposed to.
And when he almost crossed it...!
*WHAM*
Something has crashed into the side of his car!