Ren narrowed his eyes at the silhouettes waiting for them at the end of the passage. He took a deep breath before he took off, his hind legs flexing vigorously at the sudden increase in speed.
Jiro once again tightened his hold on Ren's shoulders to avoid falling from behind.
Ren instantly reached out his hand to grab the people behind the pipe before throwing them to the ground harshly. "I don't like it when people peep at me," he said in a relaxed tone, as if he hadn't just slammed bodies a while ago.
Emi coughed out her choked saliva, her back arching from the heavy impact of hitting the cement floor. She glared at the man in front of her. "We weren't peeping!"
"You were," Ren insisted casually, kicking Emi's legs out of the way. "Next time, if you're going to hide, make sure I'm not going to find you. If I could find you, I bet the monsters will discover you too." He then ran away while carrying the confused Jiro.
The woman in a red dress rubbed her lower back as she watched them vanish through the dark passage. "What the hell is wrong with him? We weren't doing anything seriously bad, right?" she grunted in disbelief.
"He's probably not normal," Emi commented as she flexed her wrists to see if it was still fine. It was the exact body part where Ren held her to throw her out. A bruise could be seen blooming in her skin. Emi clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Strong fucktard."
The woman flinched. Why is everybody around her cursing?!
Ren, on the other hand, stopped in front of a crossroads. He gently placed Jiro off his back so that he could finally get some weight off his body. Ren even stretched his waist to see if it was still working.
"Which way are we going?" Jiro asked quietly, his hood now covering his forehead. His hazel-brown eyes were attentively staring at Ren. "I think we lost them." He pointed out how the mob who were chasing after them were nowhere to be found at the moment.
Ren brought out his pocket watch, clicking it open before staring at the time. "Hmm, it's 5:35 already," he muttered with a meaningful gaze towards the crossroad. "Since all the numbers in 5:35 are odd numbers, then let's go with left."
Jiro's eyebrows furrowed. 'See? His way of thinking is just—I don't know. Like it's out of nowhere or something!'
Despite his inner sentiments, he still followed Ren as they walked towards the left side of the crossroad.
It was still stinky, and the air is quite humid. The floor was wet, with liquid leaking from the broken pipes. They carefully tried to step on the dry parts as they entered the left passage.
"Do you think we can get out of here alive before we die due to poor ventilation?" Jiro suddenly asked, his fingers fidgeting with the pockets of his hoodie.
Ren gave the teenager a side glance before he replied casually, "It depends."
"Depends on what?"
"Depends on our luck," Ren answered with a grin, sticking his tongue out to tease the curious lad.
Jiro reflexively kicked Ren's knee out of frustration. "I'm being serious here!"
"I'm serious too," Ren said with a shrug. He raised a forefinger in front of his face. "Here's the point; we don't know whether this path turns out to be the exit or it's a dead end."
Jiro pursed his lips and held his tongue from retorting something stupid like, 'You know everything, don't you? Just be the main character that you are and trust your protagonist halo!'
Ren ignored Jiro's silent outburst as he squatted and stared at the wet floor. He rubbed the sole of his right shoe into the soil with narrowed eyes.
"What are you planning this time?" Jiro asked exasperatedly. Despite his words containing impatience, he also leaned forward to see clearly what Ren was doing. Seeing that it was just 'mindlessly' scratching the ground, Jiro couldn't help but frown. 'Is this guy serious?'
"Hmm." Ren hummed in a thoughtful tone as he paused in his motions. He then turned his head to look at Jiro. "We're close to the exit."
Jiro's eyes widened at the sudden good news. "What—How did you know?" He immediately pulled up Ren before dragging the older man with him forward.
"Oxygen."
Ren's short reply prompted Jiro to stare at him inquisitively. "Explain deeper. I'm just a high school student. I can't compare to an adult like you," Jiro said, raising his arms up in surrender.
"The soil is rich in oxygen. Based on the texture, that is. Anyway, I'm just a researcher," Ren nonchalantly stated with a wave of his hand.
Jiro's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You're not a salaryman?"
Ren tilted his head at that. Technically, he was clearly not a salaryman. But how could he explain to the teenager that he was a researcher in his previous life?
"Or are you both a salaryman and a researcher?" Jiro asked again. This time, it served as a solution to Ren's predicament.
"Yeah, that. The latter one." Ren immediately agreed with Jiro's conjecture about him being a salaryman and a researcher at the same time. After all, him being a transmigrator can also be his hidden ace when the time comes. To reveal it now—meh, there's no fun in that!
Jiro's lips twitched. 'Is that even possible? Juggling two jobs all at once? Damn, he's really sick,' he commented in both amusement and disdain. He hates workaholics. For some important reasons, yes.
As they continued walking through the passage, they suddenly heard footsteps heading towards them.
Ren swiftly held Jiro's wrist and did not hesitate to push him to the wall, which happened to be the darkest corner of the area. He then inserted himself beside Jiro, slowly peeking out to take a closer look at the intruders.
"I'm gonna suffocate to death." A woman's mature and disgusted voice echoed through the passage as her seemingly heeled shoes clanked on the dirty floor. "How long are we going to walk?"
"I don't know," another female voice answered.
Ren's eyebrows raised in surprise. The familiar voices made him aware that the said 'intruders' were actually those two who were peeping at them earlier.
Nonetheless, he remained silent.
"I miss my family," the woman in the red dress grunted, her voice quivering. "And I have to pass a thesis due tomorrow."
Emi scoffed. "Yeah, as if we would ever get back alive."
"Let's hope for the better, okay? Don't be so negative!"
Jiro remained as still as possible during the whole conversation. However, there's a part of his brain that kept tingling as he heard the other woman's familiar voice.
He was so sure he'd heard it before.
"Hush, there's footsteps here..." Emi held out her hand to block her companion's attempt to walk forward. Emi cautiously squatted down and squinted at the marks on the floor. "It's still fresh."
The woman paled at Emi's remark. "Monsters?"
"No, they're humans. These are shoe marks. It's possible that the one who harassed us owns this," Emi replied, rolling her eyes upon remembering what happened minutes ago.
Ren, on the other hand, was offended at the use of the term 'harassment'. He did not!
Finally, at this moment, the pondering Jiro snapped out of his reverie. After coming to a solid conclusion, he leaped off their hiding spot and rushed towards Emi.
As Emi felt the presence of someone coming at her, she instinctively assumed a fighting stance. However, her posture slackened as she took in the teenager's figure.
"Emi!"
"Jiro?"
Jiro slammed his face against Emi's body as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "Sister Emi, it's really you!"
Ren stepped out of the dark corner with his hands in his pockets. He tilted his head with a small pout on his lips. "Sister...?"
"Sister?" The other woman echoed in confusion.
Emi cleared her throat at their curious gazes. "I'm not his biological sister, actually. More like his sister is my best friend, so we kinda met each other while I'm sleeping over at their house," she explained with a small smile.
Jiro was so relieved that there was finally someone he knew. He couldn't help but stick to Emi more.
He did not know how Ren's expression deflated at Jiro's unconscious actions. 'What a bummer... I feel like my newly-found pet was suddenly found by its original owner,' he tutted in his head.
Emi was oblivious to Ren's inner testaments as well. Her expression turned serious as she looked at Ren. "Back when you left us right there, the monsters found us."
"Wow, what a surprise!" Ren feigned a shocked expression by cupping both of his cheeks with his mouth open wide.
Emi raised an eyebrow at Ren's antics. She gave him a 'I'm-serious-here-so-stop-being-weird' look.
Ren was unfazed as he raised an eyebrow back at her. 'Give me back my cat!'
Emi felt like it was futile to quarrel with such a man, so she averted her gaze to the young boy in her arms. Jiro was actually a tall guy; it's just that Emi was still taller than him. Ren was also the tallest among them.
"It was a good thing that we lost them along the way. Is this the way to the exit?" Emi asked.
Jiro nodded.
"Okay, then let's get going!" The woman interrupted them as she strode forward with a vibrant expression. Hey, they can finally get out of here! Isn't this good news?
Emi did not respond, but she hastily followed after her, dragging the docile Jiro with her.
Ren pursed his lips in dismay. He still followed them, though.
They continued walking through the passage before they halted beneath a lidded manhole. The ceiling was quite high, and there was nothing around to climb.
"Uhm, how are we going to go up?" The woman in the red dress turned to look at her companions. There was a dumbfounded look on her face. She did not expect that the exit would be like this.
Jiro looked from left and right, his eyes landing on the slacking figure of a salaryman. He pulled himself away from Emi before carefully walking towards Ren.
"Ren," he called out softly, his fingers tightly clutching the edge of his hoodie. "Do you have any idea how we can...?"
"Kitty!" Ren happily pounced on Jiro, hugging the younger man's head with a joyful expression. "You came back to me!"
"I did not go away, though," Jiro uttered in confusion.
Ren did not care about Jiro's response as he dragged him near the lidded manhole. He then turned to face Emi and the other woman. "Come here and hold on tight to my arms," he said.
Emi's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why would I—?"
Ren did not give her enough time to question him, as he swiftly grabbed both of their wrists while Jiro was hugging his waist. He then squatted a little bit to gather enough force in his ankles.
"You—OH MY GOD!"
Their exclamations echoed through the manhole as they felt themselves lose weight due to Ren's sudden high jump. What's more surprising was that he actually headbutted the freakin' heavy lid as if it were a football!
Ren dexterously threw Emi and the woman to the ground before he rubbed Jiro's head to check if he was still alive. Thankfully, his pet was still breathing fine.
Jiro slowly removed himself from Ren's body, his back hitting the ground with a small thud. His chest was heaving deeply as he tried to gain back his almost-dead consciousness. What Ren did back there was seriously shocking! Who would've thought that Ren had that inhuman ability to jump so high and bump his head into hard things without a scratch?!
Jiro was so sure that Ren was probably not human at this point. The guy can run miles without a hitch, jump off the ground as if his soles got spring, and plunge his head into metal like it was a pillow—is that even normal?!
'You're not that bald hero wearing a yellow uniform, aren't you?' Jiro joked in exasperation.
Ren, the suspected bald hero wearing a yellow uniform, was busy looking for the lid that he knocked off earlier. His black eyes darted back and forth before he finally found it.
He gently picked it up before slowly putting it back in the manhole. One could easily see that there was a huge dent in the lid's center, but Ren turned a blind eye to it as if he wasn't the culprit.
He then looked back at the people watching behind him. "Alright, where should we go next?"