"Hey! What are you still standing there for? Didn't you hear me tell you to scram!"
In the moment Inosuke was slightly distracted, one of the boys had already rolled up his sleeves and walked quickly toward him.
According to the normal story progression, Inosuke should have also rolled up his sleeves and engaged in a hearty fistfight with these people, beating them all until they couldn't get up again, thus successfully completing this hero-saving-beauty event.
But Inosuke didn't do that.
Because fighting people on the streets was simply too undignified.
He had a simpler way of handling things.
Opening his schoolbag, taking out a pistol, Inosuke skillfully racked the slide and directly raised his hand to pull the trigger at these people.
Bang!
In the alley, the sound of gunfire suddenly rang out. The scorching bullet practically grazed one person's face and embedded itself into the wall behind him!
In an instant, everyone in the alley was completely stunned.
Kanao subconsciously raised her hand to cover her mouth, staring with wide eyes at the smoking iron object in Inosuke's hand.
What? What was that just now?
A pistol? A real pistol?!
He fired? He actually fired?!
Bang bang bang!
While the few people were still stunned, Inosuke continuously pulled the trigger, emptying the magazine. Every single bullet whistled past the bodies of those older male students!
"Ugh! Ah! Help!"
"Help! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
In just a moment, those few people who had been extremely arrogant just now were directly scared into kneeling and crawling on the ground, constantly letting out terrified wails. One of them even wet his pants from fear!
"What? Not so tough anymore? Continue?"
Taking out a new magazine from his schoolbag and replacing it, Inosuke stepped forward and crouched down. He looked down with a smile at these people who had been scared stiff, using the still-hot gun barrel to lightly pat one of their faces.
"I still have quite a few magazines left. How about I use two more, and you guess whether I'll miss next time?"
"Not tough anymore! Big brother, big brother, we were wrong! Please show mercy!"
Facts proved that the best way to combat school bullying was neither tolerance nor reasoning, but becoming more violent than those who enjoyed school bullying!
Those few people who had been acting so high and mighty just now were scared into wetting themselves the moment they saw the pistol in Inosuke's hand, practically ready to kowtow to him on the spot.
"Alright, I can't be bothered with unnecessary words. In short, she's my friend. From now on, I don't want to see her encounter any trouble at school. Understood?"
"Understood! Understood! We understand!"
"Good that you understand. Scram."
Standing up, lightly waving the hand holding the pistol, Inosuke said impatiently.
"Y-Yes!"
The few people nodded like pecking chickens. But just as they got up and prepared to leave, they heard Inosuke suddenly speak again from behind them:
"Didn't hear clearly? What I said just now was: roll~"
Their bodies stiffening, the few people turned back to look at Inosuke's handsome smiling face and the cold-glinting pistol in his hand. In the end, they didn't dare say anything, only obediently lying on the ground and rolling out of the alley.
"As expected, speaking with a gun works much better…"
Letting out a sigh of emotion, only now did Inosuke turn to look at Kanao beside him and ask with concern:
"How is it? Are you alright?"
Kanao hurriedly shook her head. Her beautiful eyes still held some fear—clearly she had also been frightened by Inosuke's shooting just now.
"Good that you're alright."
Inosuke didn't mind this and directly grabbed her wrist, leading her out of the alley.
"Let's go. I'll help you all the way and give you a ride."
"Young Master Hashibira! Are you alright!"
Just as they exited the alley, a group of black-suited bodyguards instantly surrounded them.
Clearly, they had been attracted by the gunfire just now.
"It's fine, I was the one who fired. Leave two people here to deal with the police officers who arrive later.
Just say a few high school boys were setting off fireworks in that alley, then ran toward that other street. Let them investigate themselves."
"Yes!"
Easily brushing off this matter, Inosuke led the still-dazed Kanao into his vintage car.
"Young Master Hashibira, where to next…"
The old butler glanced at this female classmate his young master had brought into the car and tactfully didn't ask further.
"Go to… uh, where's your home again?"
Finally realizing this problem, Inosuke turned to look at Kanao beside him.
Still in a daze, she subconsciously took out her pen and wrote down an apartment address in her notebook.
"Mm, let's go to this address first."
"Understood, Young Master."
The old butler said no more. The vintage car slowly started moving, heading in the direction of Shinobu's apartment.
In the narrow carriage, Kanao—who had gotten in the car with a completely confused expression—seemed to finally react.
She turned her head and carefully glanced at Inosuke, who was looking out the window, then tentatively wrote a sentence in her notebook.
[Why did you help me?]
"Hm?"
Lowering his head to glance at the notebook Kanao handed over, Inosuke slightly furrowed his brows.
"When a friend encounters trouble, isn't it normal to help?"
Kanao was stunned upon hearing this.
Indeed, the two of them had spoken about becoming friends this morning.
It's just that Inosuke had immediately made dozens of friends at school using his monetary power, which made Kanao once think that what he said this morning was merely casual talk.
So he was serious about it…
Kanao suddenly felt a bit happy.
At this moment, she saw Inosuke suddenly say:
"In the future, when you encounter this kind of thing, you still need to learn to resist yourself. After all, there won't always be someone standing up to help you."
Hearing this, the smile on her face gradually disappeared. Kanao slowly lowered her head, her eyes dimming.
Due to her inability to speak, she not only had few friends at school but also frequently suffered bullying from other students. Being extorted like today was clearly not the first time.
To avoid worrying her two older sisters, Kanao never told them about these matters and had always endured silently.
Glancing at her dejected expression, Inosuke lightly shook his head and continued:
"Of course, that's what I say, but if simply preaching could solve things, many matters in this world wouldn't be so troublesome…
Although I'm not often at school, I know that for this kind of school bullying, the vast majority of school authorities adopt an attitude of 'less trouble is better' and gloss over it.
As a girl, you certainly can't resist them physically.
If you make a big fuss about it, not only will you be isolated and gossiped about by other students, but you might even be targeted by school authorities who only want to protect their school's reputation, creating a complete mess.
So after thinking it through, the best solution is to choose silent endurance. This way, you won't make a big deal out of it, nor worry about causing trouble for everyone. The only one who gets hurt is yourself—'perfect.'
This is what you're thinking, Kanao. Am I right?"