"HIDEYOSHI!!! COME BACK HERE!!"

"NEVER, AHAHA!!!"

| / _

Upon the ruckus, I turned around, but it was already too late.

| / _

The boy glanced at me, "Ah. Uh--w-WATCH OUT!!"

I tried to dodge, but we both fell in a table of limbs.

"WAH! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, HIDEYOSHI!! YOU JUST RAN INTO A POOR, UNSUSPECTING VICTIM!! Are you alright, sir?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, alright? And anyway, help me up, man. Aren't I the one you should be worrying about anyway? I'm the one in the wheelchair who can't get up on his own."

"It's your own fault, so no, I'm not helping you up. In fact," the man yanked back the wheelchair as a red-haired boy jogged up to the mess, "I'll take this so that you don't have a means of running again."

"Wah! No! Come on, man!! You're merciless!!"

"Um, I'm sorry about my coworker," the red-haired person held out their hand to me.

"Urnnh.. I-I'm fine.. but, is that other person really okay? Wasn't he in a wheelchair..?"

Why are they being so merciless to him?

The red-haired person grabbed my hand anyway and lifted me up.

Whoa. He's strong.

The red-haired person then turned to the runaway, "You shouldn't do that, Hideyoshi-kun."

"Yeah, yeah, just help me up, Aka. Help me up."

Aka turned around and helped Hideyoshi onto his back.

The other person, still unnamed, scoffed, "I have no idea why you give him slack, Aka."

"Well, our jobs aren't to make his life a living h*ll. It's to watch over him and protect him. Not that he really needs protection, but.. we do have to make sure he's being good."

"Right. It doesn't matter that he has a Rank 1 Investigator and a Special Class Investigator watching his every move, Aka. He'll still be as foolish and ridiculous as he would be if we weren't watching over him."

"Nah, I'm more of a hassle with you two watching over me," Hideyoshi replied, "Anyway, let's go. That meeting was the only thing we had here, right? We should get back to the Intelligence Division. Hey, Aka, you want to get some food on the way?"

"It is lunch time.. but shouldn't you apologize to the person you ran over, Hideyoshi-kun?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, right. Um," he looked over at me, but his eyes widened.

"? Hideyoshi-kun?"

"Th..The Eyepatch.."

The other two investigators twitched, looking at me.

"Ah, well, if that's the case, we should just hurry on our way then," the one investigator promptly announced, "Forget apologizing or making it up to him."

"Wha--?!! How rude!!" Shirazu shouted.

"That was a rude way of saying it, Ichi-kun. We can spend a little time with them, can't we? I did run him over. And he already saw me."

"It's fine!" the investigator snapped, "Besides, he ate you two years ago, so now you're even!"

"That's not how it goes, Ichi-kun.."

"!"

Wha..t? I.. ate him..?

"I agree with Ichi-san, Hideyoshi-kun. We should hurry on our way. Haise Sasaki, formerly known as the Eyepatch or Centipede, is an amnesiac, and we do not want to trigger his memories. That would be a mess. You're already on the tight spot as it is."

"Aww, but Aka.."

"No buts, Hideyoshi," Ichi snapped.

"..." Hideyoshi looked back at me, "Um, I-I'm sorry for running you over. I didn't mean to. Really."

"..."

Who.. is he?

And how can he.. speak so nonchalantly with me..

If I ate him?