With bruises all over his face, Izumi arrived at the university, drawing the attention of everyone passing by. He stood by a window in the hallway, and Morano approached him with Yoko after they had heard the news.
"What happened to your face?" Morano asked, circling around him to see all the bruises.
"Nothing important," Izumi replied, turning his face away from her.
"I asked him too; he gives the same answer to everyone," Yoko said.
"Wait, did you get into a fight?" Morano asked, trying to touch the bruises, but Izumi gently pulled her hand away.
"Izumi, I heard from Nagai (the guy you saved from those young men)," one of the students said as he approached Izumi with three of his friends.
"You fought the Mitsu group!" the student added.
"Who are the Mitsu group?" Morano asked.
"They're a bunch of thugs, or rather, a group of highway robbers..." said the student.
Izumi interrupted him with a slight smile, "I didn't fight them; they did that."
"They've been bullying people lately. Let me know if anything happens," the student said, implying a willingness to cooperate to put an end to the Mitsu group's behavior.
On his way home, Izumi walked alongside Morano after finishing his classes when he encountered a girl named Kaya, who had been present with the Mitsu group during his beating.
"You...!" Izumi said, annoyed.
"So you have a girlfriend..." Kaya said, snapping a picture of them.
"Is there still something you want from me?" Izumi asked.
Kaya stepped two paces closer and asked, "Why didn't you run away this morning?"
"There wasn't any particular reason." Izumi seemed reluctant to engage with her.
"You defended him just because he was your classmate, and you got beaten up," Kaya said.
Then she turned to Morano and said, "He's not normal, is he?"
"I no longer know what an ordinary human is to you," Izumi thought to himself, reflecting on the situation.
It seems that acts that characterize humans, like sacrifice, are not viewed positively by everyone.
"What? I don't see the point in saying that," Morano said.
Izumi walked past Kaya and said, "Let's go."
Kaya was annoyed by Izumi's behavior, causing her to turn and say, "Don't pretend; you act arrogant and conceited, but no one knows what you do in secret."
"In secret! What do you mean by that?" Izumi thought to himself.
A moment later, a blow to the back of Izumi's head knocked him to the ground. Morano screamed as one of the masked young men grabbed her forcefully and dragged her to the backyard of one of the housing blocks, where Izumi could follow. He got up and chased after her, only to be confronted by the three guys who had beaten him this morning, but this time under the orders of Mitsu, the leader of their group.
Mitsu appeared and said, "Hello, weakling."
"Let her go! What do you want...?" Izumi shouted.
"We won't. You can go home by yourself," Mitsu said, with the three guys holding Morano tightly behind him.
"What!!!" Izumi exclaimed, stepping forward confidently to take Morano from them, but was met with a flurry of punches from Mitsu.
"Go back home!" Mitsu said, spreading his arms.
"Stop acting like a hero..." Mitsu added, delivering continuous punches and kicks until Izumi fell to the ground. "You're pathetic..."
Izumi groaned in pain when Migi finally appeared after being absent for hours, climbing out from under Izumi's shirt and popping up behind his neck, small in size.
"Izumi!" Migi called.
"Migi, go back to sleep! Don't interfere!" Izumi said, fearing the consequences of Migi's public appearance.
"It depends on how far the situation goes," Migi replied.
"Don't worry..." Migi said as he got up from the ground and aimed a punch at Mitsu, which the latter dodged, causing Izumi to be knocked down again.
"Alright, let me give you a little help. If your strength is 10, his is 18. The one on the right of the girl is 13, and the two on her left are 12 and 14. That makes it 10 against 57," Migi said again.
As he got up from the ground, Izumi said, "Very straightforward."
"Even dogs and cats can gauge the strength of their enemies. Animals don't engage in fights they can't win. Have you ever seen a rabbit fight a wolf?" Migi said, trying to convince Izumi to back down.
"It doesn't matter," Izumi said, charging at Mitsu, only to receive another beating.
Morano could only scream Izumi's name, and that's what she did.
"There are times when humans cannot back down from a fight; that's the difference between us," Izumi said, clinging to human values and making an effort to prove he was an ordinary person.
Izumi continued to throw a flurry of punches, but Mitsu was able to dodge them all.
"Migi, my right hand isn't responding quickly enough; give me full control," Izumi said as he aimed punches into the air.
"That's the speed of a normal human punch," Migi said mockingly.
Izumi received a punch to the middle of his face. "What are you mumbling about?!" Mitsu shouted.
"Why doesn't he just give up? Why doesn't he run when he knows his chances of winning are almost zero?" Mitsu thought out loud.
On his knees against the wall, he turned to Morano and said, "Let her go... If you refuse..."
Before Izumi could finish his sentence, Migi reacted and brandished his sharp weapons. "Wait, you idiot, what are you doing?" Izumi exclaimed.
Mitsu was filled with suspicion about this mumbling boy, as if he were talking to an imaginary friend. "What if we refuse? Are you going to run off and tell your mom?" Mitsu said, laughing loudly with the others.
"Stop, Mitsu!" Kaya shouted as she joined the scene.
Everyone turned to her, and Mitsu looked surprised at her presence, his anger boiling. "What are you doing here!!!" he snapped.
"What do you think you're doing?!" said the student who had encountered Izumi that morning at the university, now arriving with dozens of fellow students to put an end to Mitsu's repeated attacks.
"The big group attacks the minority, a pack of wolves attacking four bears; they represent animals better than you, Izumi," Migi chimed in.
"We will pay you back for what you've done lately," one of the students said, clenching his fists in preparation for a fight.
"Do you think you've won by bringing a bunch of fools? Country bumpkin!" Mitsu taunted everyone on the other side.
All the students charged at Mitsu's group, while Kana withdrew from the scene as if it didn't concern her.
The parasite Oki, who had transferred to a man's body for the first time after previously moving between women's bodies, was still in the rural area, far from the city center. He walked along the coastal road, having taken the clothing of the person whose body he had inhabited. The narrow path had greenery on his right and, in the distance, a captivating view of the sea. To his left was a series of waterfalls, separated by a few meters, the sound of cascading water crashing against the rocks louder than the passing cars.