[Chapter:15][Democracy? What’s that? Can you eat it? (II) ]

'Why so snarky, Dea-chan?'

A certain white haired and red eyed youth snickered mentally as the tiny blue haired and sapphire eyed loli sitting atop his head pouted.

(You know why!)

She snapped at him angrily, making him chuckle mentally.

On the outside, though, Grace sported an annoyed and grumpy expression, albeit still looking ever so slightly expressionless and stoic, feigning an untimely wake up.

"What's got all of you so worked up anyway? Feel like you've lived long enough and want to go meet God for a quick second or two?"

A brief period of silence ensues, as even Shido stills as he recalls how nonchalantly and seemingly 'happily' he 'disposed' of all of 'them'.

An image, one that they all except for one hoped would remain at the corner of their minds, popped up, an image of a blood eyed youth with long white hair, muttering readers-know-what to himself as a faint smile hung on his lips, his arm bloody and holding a crimson metal rod with a sharp tip, as the youth goes around as though taking a stroll, leaving behind corpses, permanently unmoving, of their former classmates and friends and acquaintances and even colleagues…

For a brief moment, fear sprung up within Shido's heart, but alas, he hung on to the fake belief that the 'boy' before him was just that, an experience-less and gullible 'boy' still green behind the ear.

He hung on to the belief that, experienced as he was, it would be but child's play to ensnare all those within the bus into his traps. And even if not all of them, he was certain the majority would fall for his deception.

And after all, wasn't this a democratic country? One where the minority slaves to the majority in all but the name itself?

A pity, he couldn't see the hologram-like screen that appeared in Grace's vision, one which would have crushed all his dreams and hopes if he did.

...

(Events!)

Completed Events : [(Escape from the Dead! : SSS)]

Available Events : None

On Going Events : [(Democracy under the Dead!)]

...

...

[(Democracy under the Dead!)]

Description : In the original, Shido attempts to and partially succeeds in taking control of the Group, or at least the vast majority of it. Those that deny his claim of leadership were forced to leave the group, and thus the bus, their then only means of transport.

Objective : Deviate from the plot as much as you can to get a good rating and, in return, good rewards.

Note : Deviating from the plot too much could cause the succeeding Events to become non-existent. Thus, User is advised to think his actions during the Event through.

...

'Well now, this is it Shido, entertain the firefly atop me as much as you can cause this is the last chance you get for being and acting like the clown you are.'

Grace hid his amusement as he stared at Shido, whose expression changed from slightly fearful to a confident and, in his own incomprehensible imagination, 'charming' and 'charismatic' one, though it honestly looked like a mash up between a toad and a weasel to Grace.

"*cough* It's a pleasure to finally talk to you, umm…"

Grace rolled his eyes at the clown's attempt to appear polite.

"You all can just call me Grace."

Though, he didn't want to reveal himself and stop the clown from his act, so he smiled as he sat back down, ignoring the hand the clown had extended.

What? Shake hands with a clown? If it was, say, a certain deranged yet in a rather weird way admirable Clown that prided himself over making a certain never-smiling vigilante laugh, he might do so, but the clown before him?

Nah.

Shido awkwardly takes back his hand, his expression falling and anger and irritation flashing past his eyes for a brief moment, before it disappeared beneath a fake curtain of politeness and confidence just as quickly.

"I see, them, you can call me Shido too, Grace-san."

'Nah I think I'll stick to Clown #1.'

Of course, Grace didn't say that out loud, and only nodded with a carefree and nonchalant smile.

"Then, Grace-san, may I know how old you are?"

"Me? I'm nineteen, just turned an adult last year. Though where I'm from, I've been living and earning as one the last four years already."

A lie, well, not entirely, but it was pretty close, Grace thought.

"I-I see."

Shido stuttered lightly. It seems that Grace's response was outside his expectation, but his façade quickly comes back up.

"Though I am curious, you say you have come to the school, which you blew up…", Shido reminded them all once more how he had nearly blown them all to pieces.

"…to interview as a plausible Japanese Teacher, yes? I seem to recall the Principal say there were no vacancies at the moment, though?"

Grace blinked, and spoke without a pause and with as serious an expression as he could muster.

"No, actually, I'm from another world, and I died in that world and was transmigrated here by a loli Goddess that took pity on me and appeared out of nowhere on the school's rooftop with a bunch of cheat abilities. Also, this whole world is actually a manga in my world so I already know what's going on and who you all are and the future as well."

"…"

"…"

(…)

Grace said all that with such a serious and sincere expression, that even Dea-chan believed him for a moment, before she snapped out.

(Wait! That's the truth, what's there to believe in!?)

Those in the bus, however, looked at him slack jawed, and suddenly,

"Pff!"

"Hahahaha! Th-that's a good one!"

Misuzu, Toshimi, and unexpectedly, Naomi as well as two other girls from Shido's group, namely Kawamoto and Taniuchi, burst into laughter. And even Saya looked like she was stopping herself from laughing, while Saeko was smiling amused.

As for the rest, well, Shizuka was Shizuka, and the others were looking at him and Shido strangely.

And Shido himself looked as though he had just said Shido had come from the protein Grace had 'donated' to his mother when his father was out on a business trip.

((A/N : *wink* *wink* 'Lenny Face here' ))

'Now I know why third rate villains like messing with the heroes. It just feels so good…'

Dea-chan chuckled at that while Shido quickly corrected his expression.

'Ahh, what a pity, if this had been one of those Cultivation novels, I would have heard the famous 'Courting Death!'.'

(Hehe.)

Shido coughed lightly before continuing.

"Ahaha, it seems you have a good sense of humour, Grace-san."

"That was the truth though.", Grace muttered though those around him ignored that.

"Then, I would like to ask, are you the leader of this group?"

"Me? The leader?"

Grace blinked before pointing at himself.

"No? I mean, all I did was save some people and fight some of 'them' and come up with some plans and make some decisions, I don't think I'm the leader though?"

Everyone there felt their lips twitch, and just as Shido was about to speak, Grace continued.

"To be a leader is to take tough decisions right? Like abandoning someone and stomping their faces when they ask for help?"

Shido froze while nearly every pair of eyes in the bus, other than Kyoko's of course, snapped to his direction.

(Ooh, burn!)

"I don't think I'm a leader, after all, while I certainly won't risk my life for strangers, I don't think I can abandon them if I can help without too big a cost."

"To that end, I guess you're born a leader, huh? Shido-kun? You didn't even hesitate and did it while smiling to hide your 'pain' and 'helplessness', didn't you?"

"I admire you for that, Shido-kun, not many leaders can do what you did and still act like it doesn't bother you at all, keeping all the 'guilt' inside you and acting like it's alright."

At that moment, Shido's face turned so dark and so ugly and showed so many different expressions, as all those that had seen him do the deed stared at him with so much disdain, disbelief, and anger, that Grace honestly felt it was a pity he didn't have a camera at the moment.

*snap!*

Grace blinked, as he glanced up, and saw a blue haired little loli holding a tiny camera showing an excited grin as she zoomed around Shido's ugly mug, taking pictures.

'Dea-chan…'

(Yes?)

'Did I tell you how much I love you?'

(Y-Yes?)

She blushed lightly even as she continued to take pics, making Grace smile mentally.

On the outside, though, he remained slightly stoic as a certain delinquent snapped at him.

"Y-you!"

The said delinquent, who has been left alive for far more time than he needed to be, rushed towards Grace with his fist cocked back.

"Who the hell do you think you a-"

Before he could, however, Rei swiftly thrust her wooden mop / spear right into his stomach, though luckily for the poor guy, she didn't use the sharp end, so he only froze for a moment before slumping down, clutching his stomach in pain.

This, however, was just the beginning, as unlike the original, when Shido took this chance to further denounce the others and promote himself, even Grace was surprised at what happened next.

*slick!*

A nail zipped past the crouching delinquent's face, and he became as pale as a sheet of paper as a thin line of crimson blood appeared across his cheek. The fatty aimed his modified nail gun right at the delinquent's skull, his face no longer cowardly but instead unexpectedly focused and ruthless.

'What the fuck fatty? Since when do you become a veteran soldier that doesn't hesitate in taking a life?'

The slight shiver in his leg, however, made him sigh in relief as Grace understood that was more of an instinctual response and the group's fatty wasn't replaced by some alien being.

At the same time, however, he coughed lightly, making Saeko, who had her blood stained wooden sword inches, no, mere millimetres away from the poor pale guy's head, ready to bash it in not unlike the tens if not hundreds of 'their' heads it already has, quickly move away and put the bokken (Yes! I finally learnt the name!) down.

"…"

Grace, for the first time since coming to this world, was rendered speechless. Not even the sight of the pink haired self proclaimed genius drilling through one of 'their' heads made him so speechless.

(Oho? Look who's famous?)

Despite quipping so, even Dea-chan was rather surprised.

'Rei is obvious, even Saeko I understand, but what's with you, fatty bro? What happened to the cowardice, the fat induced slow reactions? What's with the lightning quick reflexes?'

The scene froze for a short few seconds, as even Kyoko stopped the bus and looked back with eyes wide open.

The silence, however, was broken.

*thwack!*

"Ow!"

"What do you think you're doing fatty!? Put the gun down!"

"Eh? Ah? Ah! Ehehe."

Kohta awkwardly scratched his head as he silently put his nail gun down. And only then did the others realise that the poor delinquent was so close to dying!

Though stunned, Grace quickly burst into chuckles.

But he was forced to stop when Shido clapped his hands, that infuriating smirk back on his face.

"See? This is why we need a proper leader, not one that can only joke around or possibly blow us all up."

At that point, Saya actually looked a little remorseful over commenting about how dangerous the plan Grace had executed was.

Her slightly apologetic look that she sent to Grace was not missed by our MC, however, as he raised his brows in amusement.

'Huh, who knew the prideful genius could actually feel bad? Even if she didn't apologise directly…'

"And I guess you're talking about yourself?"

Rei's angry statement brought him back from his thoughts.

"Well, if I were the leader, I would certainly do my best in preventing fights like that from happening within the group."

Just as Rei seemed like she had something to say, and Shido, as he did in the original, turned around to ask the others of their opinions, Grace chuckled.

"Ah, no, you think that's a fight?"

"Yes?"

Shido looked at him, though one could tell from the slight scowl on his face that he wasn't happy at being interrupted repeatedly.

"That's not a fight you know…"

Grace stood up and slowly walked to the slightly trembling delinquent. He placed his hands on his shoulders and lifted him up.

"This is not a fight you see…"

He smiled brightly at the delinquent, and just as the guy was about to snap out of his daze at suddenly being helped by the one he tried to attack,

*crack!*

"!!!"

A soft, muffled, yet also distinct sound reverberated throughout the bus.

All the men inside, including Shido, the fatty, Takashi, and Hisashi, clenched their legs together as their faces paled.

The women flinched, though Rei, Saeko, and unexpectedly, a certain orange haired girl's eyes shone as a slightly excited smile appeared on their faces.

"Where I'm from, we call this a one sided beatdown."

"Wh-wha!?"

Without giving Shido the time to even finish his sentence properly, Grace rushed towards him and cocked his fist back.

*crack!*

His glasses and his nose broke in an instant, yet before his head could fall backwards, Grace's other hand whipped forward and clutched his tie.

Pulling it towards himself, Grace lowered himself and snaked his arm around his waist, before turning his body slightly and lifting Shido up, before promptly throwing him over his shoulder, making his body hit the bus floor with a loud yet muffled *bang!*.

"Ugh!"

And yet right below Shido was the delinquent who had his family jewels crushed not too long ago, making him wince as his pain increased even more.

"Yo-you!"

Grace looked at the two golden markers before him with a smile.

"You see, Trash-kun, in my opinion, there are only four kinds of people in this world."

"One, those that I care about, those that I wouldn't mind killing my self without hesitation to protect."

"Two, those like them…"

Grace pointed at the girls around him, looking at them with wide open eyes.

"…while I wouldn't sacrifice myself for them, considering I meet them not too long ago, I wouldn't mind risking myself to help them if they need it."

Several girls blush at that. Completely ignoring the fact that he was currently holding a zombie blood stained metal rod to the throat of a human like them, and their former teacher at that, looking as though he wouldn't even blink while killing them.

Priorities, you know?

"The third are strangers. They can live or die, prosper or strip themselves and act like idiots, I wouldn't give a damn."

"The fourth, well, with how I'm going, can you guess who the fourth kind are?"

Grace didn't give him much time to ponder as he continued,

"The fourth are clowns like you, clowns that are only alive because I didn't mind being entertained a little, and now that you've clowned around enough, it's time for me to clean up the Trash."

And with a bright smile, Grace hit him right on his neck.

"Gah!"

His bloody metal rod tucked between his belt, Grace lifted the two males writhing in pain and carried them over his shoulders like sacks of potatoes.

"I'll be right back, please wait for me, alright?"

And then he got off the bus and entered a random house, breaking the door down with a kick.