After Transmigrating to Become Lady Skylark - Chapter 55

Chapter 55

The daylight was fading.

At the end of the Namimori commercial street, a Western-style restaurant running a promotion had set up large dark green umbrellas outside. Intertwined strings of small colorful light bulbs snaked around the umbrellas, creating a somewhat tacky romantic atmosphere. A light bulb hung under each umbrella to provide light for diners, yet there was almost no business.

The reason was simple—

Standing before the green belt at the edge of the restaurant was a handsome youth in a black uniform. Even though the fierce-looking Disciplinary Committee members in similar uniforms had already stepped back, no one dared to walk near this spot.

All of Namimori knew that more terrifying than those who looked menacing was this young leader whose appearance was deceivingly refined.

But the Disciplinary Chairman was in no mood to care about the scrutiny of passing herbivores. His grey-blue eyes were fixed on the umbrella furthest away on the other side of the restaurant. Because it was near a convenience store, the lighting there was the most ample. Under the bright light, a figure in a Namimori girl’s school uniform sat at a table—one half covered in food, the other in books and exam papers.

She was currently holding a pen in one hand and clutching a tissue in the other, doing her homework with red-rimmed eyes. Every now and then, she would let out a small sob. Anyone seeing this would mistake her for a poor student struggling with a problem set so difficult it had reduced her to this state.

From her initial loud wailing to her current sobbing and sniffing, an hour and a half had passed.

Kyoya Hibari thought to himself: it seemed the future Vice-Chairman was right when he said she could cry for two hours straight.

“…Chairman?“

Tetsuya Kusakabe, the only one he had kept by his side, peered at his expression tremblingly. He felt the Chairman was in an extremely foul mood. According to past experience, Hibari should be pulling out his tonfas any second to slaughter everything in sight, calming his nerves in a sea of herbivore blood.

Yet, he was stubbornly enduring this state of irritation while listening to the report on today’s protection fee collection. Several times, Kusakabe had been met with a cold stare for talking too much, but every time Kusakabe thought the old wound on his jaw was about to be aggravated, Hibari didn’t make a move.

“Finished speaking?“

The youth shifted his gaze to the Vice-Chairman, who was instinctively covering his chin. He thought distractedly: sounds like they did a decent job. The only point of suspicion was that giant wave at the beach.

He remembered the “one-time healing technique” she had mentioned when that strange green light appeared from her palm… Did these odd abilities require money to use?

Hibari pondered this for a moment. Noticing that Kusakabe was frequently looking toward Jin Chaoyan with concern, and considering he had finished providing useful intelligence—

Thwack!

The tonfa in his right hand flashed silver as it swung out, hitting Kusakabe and forcing him abruptly to his knees. Realizing that from this angle, Kusakabe could no longer turn his head to see the scene over there, Hibari retracted his weapon and let out a yawn.

“Hibari~ Hibari~”

The free-roaming Hibird spotted him in the air, flapped its small wings, and landed on his shoulder, chirping his name affectionately.

He glanced at the pet on his shoulder, then at the woman still sobbing in the distance. Noticing the passing herbivores—who, though they didn’t dare stop, couldn’t help but steal glances at the figure under the umbrella—he clicked his tongue and suddenly said:

“Hibird.“

The pet tilted its head. Seeing his outstretched hand, it flew from his shoulder to his fingertip. To its surprise, the youth held his hand up, lifting the bird toward the other side:

“Go to her.“

Hibird: “?“

The little pet, having never heard such a command from its master, froze for a moment. It looked in the direction he was pointing, recognized the woman as someone it had seen before, and a moment later, the pale yellow bird took flight.

“Hibird?“

Jin Chaoyan, who was busy transcribing notes into the new textbooks for the original host, was struggling to decipher the handwriting when she heard a familiar flutter of wings. She looked up to see Hibird landing by her table. Although it kept a cautious distance, ready to fly off at the first sign of trouble, her expression softened involuntarily.

As she focused on copying the notes, her previous emotions gradually faded. The current sniffing was just a lingering effect of crying for too long. She let out an occasional hiccup, put down the tissue, and very gently extended a fingertip toward Hibird:

“Why did you come over? Do you want something to eat?“

The little bird hopped on the edge of the table and stared at her for a long time. Suddenly, it stepped forward and lightly rubbed its cheek against her fingertip. This single gesture instantly melted Jin Chaoyan’s heart.

Waaaah, as expected of my baby! Just as cute ten years ago as ten years later!

She looked at the food on her table—ordered for her by the Disciplinary members before they left—ranging from main courses to fruit. She opened a box of grapes, took one out, washed it with bottled water, peeled a bit of the skin, and offered it to Hibird.

The cute little bird gave her face by immediately lowering its head to peck at it twice.

This scene of harmonious co-existence between human and pet was witnessed by three people sitting by the window of the coffee shop opposite the restaurant. They had been staring at the tin box overflowing with banknotes at the corner of the student’s table for half an hour. Now, one with a scar on his face spoke up:

“Forget it, Big Bro. Ever since we were sent in by that weird naked kid last time, we haven’t made a cent since getting out. If we don’t find a way, we won’t even be able to pay the rent.“

“But…” The third man looked hesitantly toward the figure at the street corner. “Doing this right under the nose of that ‘God of Plague’… if we get caught, we’ll end up worse than just being in jail, right?“

Though the Namimori Disciplinary Chairman was just a middle-schooler, his reputation was louder than all the other local thugs combined!

“That restaurant owner must have offended him. Anyway, I’ve watched for half an hour; I don’t see any special connection between him and that girl. If you guys are scared, I’ll go by myself. But the split won’t be what we agreed on before.“

A man in an ordinary suit pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose. He looked at the exercise books on the girl’s table and began to think happily about how much money he could scam out of her for the “study materials” he was about to push.

Hearing this, the third man stood up immediately. “No need. As a thief, I have the best reflexes. As long as I pass by while she’s doing homework and snatch a few bills, she definitely won’t react in time!“

“That works,” Ichiro nodded with a smile. “We’ll rely on our own skills. No matter how much we get, it’s profit. Old Third, you go first.“

Jin Chaoyan successfully bonded with Hibird over a single grape.

The pet saw her affection for it, tilted its head in thought, and suddenly began to sing: “Green, lush Namimori~”

Surprised to hear its talent show ten years ago, Jin Chaoyan smiled and joined in softly: “Neither big nor small, the middle is best~”

Hibird, having never experienced this kind of duet before, flapped its wings happily. Just as it was about to hop into her palm, it saw someone approaching from the side. Startled, it took flight, instinctively heading back toward Hibari.

“?“

Jin Chaoyan looked blank for a second, turning to see the figure of a man heading her way.

The man suddenly met her gaze and was startled, saying instinctively, “I-I’m just passing by…“

Jin Chaoyan took one look at his face and knew he wasn’t up to any good, but since he hadn’t offended her, she didn’t speak. She simply lowered her head to continue her problems.

The thief felt the girl’s aura was a bit intimidating, but having taken the assignment, he held his breath and tried to take another step closer—

“You there,” Kyoya Hibari took two steps in this direction. With the cute bird perched on his shoulder, he looked toward him casually, slightly raising his tonfa. “Your hair is too long. You’re violating public order.“

“Y-yes! Sorry! I’ll go get a haircut right now!“

The thief’s inflated courage shriveled instantly. He didn’t dare look at Jin Chaoyan again. As fast as he was at stealing, he was even faster at running for his life.

Jin Chaoyan caught a glimpse of his fleeing back and felt a sense of guilt from him. But with many study notes left, she withdrew her gaze and continued her work as a “translator of text.“

Finally finishing the content of one subject, she stood up to take more out of her bag, only to find the Disciplinary members had missed several textbooks. Standing under the umbrella for a while, she decided to take out the quiz papers handed out in class today to correct them and organize a “mistake collection” for the original host.

Fortunately, middle school content wasn’t too difficult. Aside from Japanese Literature, the subjects like Math and Science could be handled by reviewing knowledge points and doing problems. English was even simpler, basically at an introductory level.

Just as she was about to pull out her chair to sit back down, she spotted another man carrying several ceramic jars walking this way. It seemed he couldn’t see the path because of the jars and was heading straight for her.

She put down her bag and watched him seriously with her arms crossed. At the exact moment the man’s jars were about to fall, she suddenly reached out. Amidst the man’s cries of “Aya! Aya!”, she caught the ceramic jar steadily:

“Are you ‘just passing by’ too?”

Not far away.

Sensing something, Hibari had intended to step forward to discipline the short-sighted punks who were playing tricks in front of him. But seeing that Jin Chaoyan seemed able to handle it herself, he changed his mind and stayed where he was with Hibird, watching.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying?” The man with the scar looked at her blankly. Then suddenly, all the jars he was holding fell to the ground. In the sound of shattering porcelain, he looked aghast, clutching his head. “Heavens! These are thousands of years old—”

“Are you running a ‘scam-and-bump’ (Pengci)?”

Jin Chaoyan watched his performance. She felt that in her trip ten years into the past, she was seeing quite the variety of scum—from thugs and delinquents to street punks, and now a scammer. It was a real eye-opener.

“What are you saying, little girl? You knocked over my precious antiques. You don’t want to pay, and now you’re accusing me?” The man’s eyes flashed with menace, and he even began to roll up his sleeves.

Jin Chaoyan thought for a moment, then tossed the empty water bottle she’d finished after washing the grapes into the pile of shards. “Now you’ve knocked over my ‘Divine Water’ preserved for a thousand years. How much do you plan to pay me?” She also began to roll up her long school shirt sleeves.

Scammer Ichiro: “?”

Ten minutes later.

A salesman in a cheap suit and glasses appeared nearby. Pretending not to see his first accomplice lying unconscious under the girl’s foot, he spoke politely: “Excuse me, little girl. Are you troubled by your studies? With so much academic pressure nowadays, it’s hard to adapt to society without doing extra exercises…”

He was halfway through his pitch when he saw the girl, who was correcting her mistakes, reach out her hand toward him.

“?”

“The exercise books you want to sell. Let me see them.”

Stunned by the overly direct words, the man pushed his glasses. “This kind of ‘secret study manual’ is my unique treasure. How can I let you look for free?”

“Then leave.”

Jin Chaoyan, who had been repeatedly interrupted while studying, didn’t even look up. She had no interest in his nonsense. She twirled her pen while studying the final large math problem, pondering the answer against the textbook formulas. She felt she was close to remembering it.

“Little girl, you don’t understand the dangers of society yet, do you? You don’t know how much competitive power a good grade—”

Jin Chaoyan frowned, raised her hands to cover her ears, and stared at the problem on the test paper, thinking through the solution. When she finally figured it out, she let go and picked up her pen, only to find the world had gone quiet.

The man who had been pitching to her was lying unconscious on the ground. Kyoya Hibari stood by her side, his elegant brows knit together as if he wanted to say something but ultimately didn’t.

Jin Chaoyan locked eyes with him. Remembering something, she leaned down to take several documents stuffed in the man’s briefcase. Flipping through them, she found: “These exercises are all misprinted; they have zero reference value…”

She sat up straight, a realization hitting her. “Wait, these three guys who showed up one after another couldn’t have been a scam ring, could they?”

Saying this, she rummaged through the briefcase again. Sure enough, she found several envelopes inside containing a significant amount of money. Jin Chaoyan pulled them out and counted. “Waaaah, 800,000 yen! Well, I finally made a profit today!”

Tetsuya Kusakabe, who had just returned with the captured “Old Third” thief: “…” She’s still thinking about the protection fee thing?!

The three unconscious, “extorted” scammers were dragged away by Kusakabe.

After efficiently finishing the original host’s schoolwork, Jin Chaoyan put the newly collected money into the box and handed it back to the youth standing beside her. “Here, the protection fee you wanted to collect.”

Hibari still didn’t take it. He watched her quietly for a while before saying, “Done crying?”

“…”

Being suddenly reminded of such an embarrassing event, Jin Chaoyan looked away. After a round in the “sea of learning,” she now looked back and felt her earlier emotions had been a bit off. Thinking the youth wanted to settle the score, she took the initiative:

“Sorry.” Her violet eyes looked at him seriously. “You are strong yourself, incredibly so. I shouldn’t have said that to you.”

Hibari, not expecting her to apologize: “…”

If an ordinary person said those words to him, he would have long ago viewed it as a provocation and “bitten them to death.” But when Jin Chaoyan said it, his feelings were complex. On one hand, he felt it was only natural for his future self to be powerful; on the other, he felt that his current self should be the strongest.

But this woman’s definition of “strong” didn’t seem to refer solely to combat power—

So, rather than the displeasure of being provoked, he felt a sliver of confusion. Now that she had mentioned it again, he cast aside those doubts, curled his lips, and asked directly, “So, am I very impressive ten years from now?”

“Mhm!” Jin Chaoyan nodded without hesitation, an involuntary smile blooming in her eyes like a sea of wisteria in the moonlight. “Particularly, particularly impressive.”

But she remembered who she was talking to. After saying that, she quickly changed the subject. “However, he can only use ordinary rings, and those rings can’t withstand his flame fluctuations. They break easily, so he often can’t fight to his heart’s content.”

“But you possess the Vongola Ring. You can joyfully enjoy every battle. Unrestricted by rings, you will be another kind of powerful, different from him.”

As the old poem says, Fresh clothes, angry horse, the time of youth.

The fifteen-year-old Kyoya Hibari had his own lofty ambitions to chase. The Vongola Ring allowed him not to limit his talent, to be unfettered and pursue infinite potential—something the twenty-five-year-old Hibari could not possess.

The youth stared at her expression as she spoke, and a feeling he found incredible surged in his heart.

The flattery of herbivores only made him feel noisy; only recognition from the strong could make him feel content. But the words this woman spoke—

Strangely smoothed over the indescribable irritability in his heart.

Her praise was quite good, he thought. He liked hearing her praise him.

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