"Now, what do I do?" Hayato muttered once he found himself alone in that unknown city.
Kigayo was a huge place, despite not being the biggest city of Sekitan's province, according to Gen and Hiro. Hayato lived in a huge metropolis before, but he barely left his house, so he wasn't used to walking in these places. Rather, he felt quite anxious when thinking about how he didn't know anyone there and had little idea of where he was.
'Well, it seems that the masks are a universal thing, indeed. Even here, people use these masks by habit. It's a strange cultural point. I don't think I will get used to this fact so soon.'
Not only was Kigayo a huge place, but its buildings were incredibly big, too. The typical Japanese cultural aspects you could see often in the city he previously was in were mostly gone, replaced by the bland sight of tall buildings made of concrete and industries that occupied several blocks, almost like small cities inside Kigayo's perimeter.
For a moment, Hayato felt like walking across a standard industrial city of his past world, though there were still huge differences. Not only the architecture of the constructions was completely different, but the way the industries functioned was, too. Just like the rusty and steamy technological devices he often saw in the previous city, Kigayo had this steampunk characteristic all over the place.
'It is always strange to me how their technology has this strange design that makes it look like very outdated technology, and yet they can produce some effects that we could only dream of achieving back in my world. This place seems like something out of a video game.'
Hayato appreciated the view of the city for a little while, but then shook his head.
'Now, you should focus on finding the person Mr. Satoshi commented. I don't know how I will be able to find him in this huge city, but if it was impossible, I doubt that the old man would charge me with this task. He was tough to deal with, a very strict person, but not abusive. He knew when I was reaching my breaking point.'
Since the night was coming, he thought it would be better to find somewhere to stay. He didn't feel like sleeping outdoors.
'Though... I barely have any money with me. I spent most of it to get information with that barmaid. The few coins I have are for dinner. That is, if I can buy anything to eat with this much money.'
Hayato decided not to overthink things right now. It was counterproductive.
'Even if I need to sleep outdoors, I think one day won't kill me... or so I hope. I mean, isn't it dangerous to sleep outside? Will someone try to mess with me? I think that's what I fear the most.'
As those worries started appearing in his mind, he began to walk straight across the street. It was hard to walk on the sidewalk due to the enormous flow of people. The sidewalk was not narrow by any means. Actually, it was far larger than usual. However, with the number of people walking in the street at the same time, it was nigh impossible to keep a smooth flow going.
'Man... not even in the city center of my previous world did I experience such busy streets. Not that I walked there often or in rush hour, but still...'
Hayato didn't have a strong body as his weight was way lower than the ideal for his height, so he was fairly weaker than the average person. Walking in crowded spaces was especially rough on him due to this fact. He felt like a leaf being pushed by the wind to any side it blew. The slightest touch made him lose his balance.
'I should work on this damn issue. Once I start getting more money, I will eat way more than now.'
A man taller than Hayato crossed ways with him, accidentally bumping into his shoulder. While for him it was nothing, just a tap, for Hayato was enough to trip, mainly because he had one of his feet yet to reach the ground. Without a solid base and with little to no space to place his foot, he stumbled to the side.
The crowd, obviously, kept going like they didn't notice what just had happened to him. For them, it was like Hayato was invisible. The only things they had in mind were the problems of their lives and the will to move forward, no matter what was in front of them.
This way, the boy couldn't handle the pressure and was thrown off the sidewalk. He stumbled a few steps into the road, but could get on his feet again and stood firmly.
"Damn it, I need to get ba-"
Before he finished his phrase, he felt the ground trembling. At first, he thought that a huge vehicle was coming his way, but it was nothing like that. The road was as busy as the streets, so the traffic was terrible. The vehicles barely advanced a few centimeters per minute.
'What is going on, then?' he asked himself after feeling the ground trembling under his feet once again.
After a moment of concentration, Hayato looked to the right.
'It is coming from there. This big construction. Is it a deposit or something? It looks like a deposit.'
As soon as he realized it, one of the walls of that deposit exploded in front of his eyes. From the hole created there, several vehicles came out at a high speed.
Hayato got so shocked that he couldn't move a single inch from where he was. Although his mind screamed for him to run away as fast as he could to get distant from the ruckus that would soon start, his body didn't respond at all.
'Those things are like motorcycles, right? They definitely are motorcycles. But...'
He was speechless before, but now his jaw dropped once he witnessed the motorcycles flying away before reaching the ground or colliding with any of the cars below.
'They fly!?'
In total, three motorcycles each with two people left the deposit with huge gray bags. It was not difficult to know that, at the very least, those guys had robbed something valuable.
'Until now I saw many flying vehicles, but none of them were so fast as that, except by the vehicles that some guards use.'
Those motorcycles flew just some meters above the ground, which made it impossible for them to get away by flying above the buildings. Although they were flying, they had to take the same routes as a normal vehicle would when on the ground, with the difference that they did not have any cars or pedestrians on their way.
As Hayato had predicted, the ruckus began. Citizens ran to all sides, trying to get out of that area. It took only a few seconds after the explosion for that to happen.
Due to Hayato's late reaction, he was caught in the middle of the chaos, needing to run away through the crowd.
'Damn it! Now I don't know where I should go!'
As if that situation wasn't bad enough, something else happened. The ground trembled again twice, making people panic even more and throw themselves to the ground in search of cover. Others had a completely different reaction, running for their lives in random directions. Many citizens left their cars, too.
Hayato's heart was beating so hard that he was afraid of using his teleport recklessly and ending up in a random place somewhere in that city (or going back to the one he previously was, which would be even worse).
'Shit! What the hell do I do? Should I just teleport once and for all and leave this chaos? But it would be really bad to do it, right? I mean, if the guards of this city get suspicious and start pursuing me, there would be no point in coming here, in the first place. My efforts would be for naught!'
Hayato looked around, trying to spot where the explosions happened. Soon, he realized that the explosions took place at one of the ends of that long road, on the base of a tall building. He could tell by the smoke and dust raising there.
Nonetheless, this time the explosion didn't happen because someone was trying to get out of that building. Rather, the objective was to take it down... and they did it.
The result...
"There is just one way to leave this road now", Hayato said in a whisper as his face froze in shock and fear.
'What the hell, man? Am I a magnet of bad luck? Why am I always in the middle of an ongoing criminal act? Something of the sort also happened on my first day here.'
Hayato heard a shot, which made all his hair stand on end. His eyes got drawn to one of the motorcycles, which was now flying in circles above the road. The same happened with all the citizens, who turned their heads to the author of the shoot.
"Hi, everyone. Mizuno here... And you all are going to help me today."