The Shortcut of Fate

Natsuiro Matsuri's mother, Natsuiro Hanabi was a person who don't match her childish appearances despite her age—this is what you would call, a loli mother—

Midway, she noticed that her daughter was lost, but she didn't got worried about it as Matsuri was a person she understood the most.

The central capital is not a dangerous place to begin with as the citizens is gentle to begin with—the guards patrolling in the town is always an expert-ranked or higher.

The criminal rates in the central capital was as low as when Yagami Light a.k.a Kira killed 242,112+ peoples.

Besides, Matsuri have many friends. Even if she got in trouble, there'd be her friend to help her out.

Although she took her daughter's safety seriously, Hanabi was the type of person to not interfere her daughter unless it was an absolutely dangerous situation. Like… when her daughter got an habit to steal a panties and sniffs it.

'Sigh, that time was truly harsh.' Hanabi smiled to herself. As their father died long time ago, Hanabi had no choice to nurture Mtsuri alone. So, some parts of her necessary education wasn't there, and she really grew up unrestricted.

To make it worse, Hanabi was a really spoiling mother.

"Ah, Hanabi-chan, Hello!" A single child, wearing a bandage, a part of his teeth seemed not to grows yet. He had an image of a boy who will prank others for fun but is actually a gentle person.

"It's Hanabi-san, for you." Hanabi lightly smacked the childish delinquent in head and smiled to him.

"Ouch!?!" The boy covering his head, showed a pained expression, but in the end, he smiled back to Hanabi.

As their laughs overlays, the boy suddenly gasped. "Ahh! Over that building, Hanabi-chan! Isn't that a firework!? Let's go check it out!"

"Now that you say it, I wonder what it's for?"

The childish delinquent-like boy pointed to the building in the other side of road. As if overwhelmed by his excitement, he ran toward it.

Never considering that the traffic light was still red…

At the same time, from the boy's sideway, an enormous body that charged faster than a bulls with more might behind its came toward the boys.

"…eh?" The smile in the boy's face suddenly froze in front of the death coming to him.

"AERA!" Matsuri's reckless personality was inherited from her mother, without a doubt, she charged forward to push the boy off from the truck's direction.

Perhaps, this action was made before her thoughts acted up, she didn't even think the causality of track colliding with her body, nor the cost it may takes to restore her injury after this incident, or even the worst case of her dying.

Her instinct just screamed to save this boy in front of her, but there was also an merit in this action. Her body managed to push off the boy's before the truck hits it.

When she saw that her action successfully saved a boy, her body which was tensed up, loosened a bit. As some parts of stress has disappeared—but next came a realisation—

Realisation for what she just did now. Because of how near the death was closing toward her, she managed to see a flash of her entire life. Hanabi's husband was forced to go to war without returning, her depression, having to nurture Matsuri all alone.

She was strong enough to never show her suffering in front of Matsuri but… the thought of having to leave Matsuri made her cry.

-----

Isn't she around here? I thought to myself. Man, how horrible Matsuri-chan was. She have no sense of direction nor can she read the map, huh? Aren't they the same?

Anyway, we arrived at the time the person who looks like Matsuri. By 'looks like' they REALLY look similar. I would have thought that she's matsuri if it weren't for their height differences, and little bit of wrinkles in her face.

"Matsuri-chan, is that your mother?" I said to Matsuri, pointing to the person who looks like a children.

"Yeah! It's my mum! How did you know!?" Matsuri-chan acted like she genuinely surprised? Seriously? Only an idiot wouldn't know it after seeing their how similar they look.

I looked at the person who called out Matsuri's mother. Damn that's the type that's usually looks childish when he is child but when he become an adult, he would become an 'bad boy' that seduces many girls that like that type of man.

Red hair, bandage in nose bridge, a piece of teeth missing, and straight-forward eyes. Although his looks aren't my type, I want an looks like his.

Suddenly, that boy ran toward the other sides of road separating the 2 path while the traffic lights was red.

F*** that looks in her eyes! She's definitely a person to die in exchange in this kind of situation.

I ran toward the traffic lights, before even confirming Hanabi rushes to the boy's sides. This time, I didn't care about my health as I used the force circulations on the ground to both harm and amplify my legs.

Now's not the time to complain about the pain, I have to think more!

Even though I started first, it was Hanabi in the end, that got in the scene first, and pushed off the boy.

What's this unwillingness…

Unconsciously, my heart beat in more quicker rate as my stress reached the maximum levels. If this stress was from the pain I am feeling or something else—I didn't have a time to think about that.

I arrived!

But instead of congratulating for now, let's solve the problem first…

I kicked the mother's body downward and faced the truck. As I predicted the truck's driver tried to brake and turned the wheels to left. Turning the truck's body to face sideway however due to the sudden change of direction, the force couldn't fully change to that direction.

Damn it, the gaps between the truck's body and the land can't fit Matsuri's mother despite how tiny her body was and at this rate, the truck will fall over, crushing both our body to pulp.

"Run…" she noticed me?

I was surprised that she noticed my existences at this critical moment, although it may be because I kicked her down, but for people to be aware of their surrounding in their panic state, was amazing.

"Shut up." Her words irritated me. Think more importantly about yourself. Value yourself more as that life isn't just yours, but a pillar of somebody else.

You don't know how much pain your daughter will be in, if you died—and I don't want her to know—

I built up a forces inside both my arm and legs, and—the charging truck's body eventually decelerate but it couldn't avoid from hitting both our bodies—I exploded the forces built in arms and leg, and the ground made a crack in strange way as my hand collided with the spinning wheels that turned to sideways.

For a moment, the wheels was separated from the embraces of the Virturan as it met the force greater than its mass.

Ah, damn it… I managed to float the left wheels a bit but, the right wheels is still in the ground, affected by the gravity.

'Mana solidify!' An blue solidified stick made to lift up the trick a bit appeared but without even spending an instant, the concentrated mana broke in an instances…

Suddenly, an mysterious hand appeared—entering my vision and lightly, but strongly smacked the spinning wheels as it made a loud sound that it hurt my ears.

The truck successfully flew up the air and because the force they released was behind the truck while it was going forward them, it spun once in the air.

Using this time, I embraced Matsuri's mother and to escape from the still-rotating truck. The mysterious hand was from Nagisa who unknowingly appeared, and thanks to him, both me and Matsuri-chan'd mother was safe. I will thanks him later.

People will unconsciously try to brake when they saw a person in front of them. So that bumper is an trick question. Besides, this question are easier than it appears to—but hard to accomplish.

Firstly, the speed limit was fairly low in this area. If it was at the truck's max speed, the forces is enough to kill 5 me according to mass and acceleration.

Secondly, I don't have to fully stop it. I just need to prevent it. Save both the truck's driver's life and Matsuri's mother's life.

Third, going back to what I said before, it's easier to accomplish the second reasoning because of what I said before: 'people will unconsciously try to brake' and to further avoid the damage dealt, the driver will unconsciously turn the wheels in two directions, left or right.

So either way, the body of trucks will turn sideway before it actually hits Matsuri's mother's body. So here comes my answer to this entire problem: gap.

That's the gist of my thought process. Ordering a children to stop a truck was impossible,

Despite these efforts to reduces the stress toward myself and maximise the efficiency, although I eventually succeed my first time of protecting someone, the prices was paid.

I painstakingly walked toward the red-haired, trying my hard ignore the pain.

Taking some time, I finally arrived to the appropriate distance where we can talk. Obviously, his face was frozen—and when he saw me, he opened his mouth.

But before he can even start his sentences, I brought all the strength I have right now and pounded him right in the faces, with my hand's skin torn and messy due to the fraction from the spinning tire—broken finger from the forces my body took—

Nevertheless, although my hand broken, it still dealt an margin damage enough to cause a children cry. But that red-haired man didn't. "I-I…"

I didn't imagine myself punching a stranger so I was a little bit surprised of harming another person's flesh but more than that I was pissed, and I didn't know what pissed me off.

Anyway… now that I stayed alive… all is… goo…