The peaceful quiet of the world seemed to break as the sound of sandals getting closer reached his ears, but Kazuma didn't bother to open his eyes after all it wasn't the first time that someone walked past his little house and did not bother to look or even speak to him.
"Excuse me." a boy said to him.
'What?" He answered the boy but he didn't bother to open his eyes.
"Are you the man that lives in that house over there?" the boy asked him, but Kazuma didn't answer the kid instead he just opened his eyes and looked at him.
The boy had short black hair, and he wore what looked like a white shirt that had blue highlights on its sleeves that blended nicely with the hakama that he wore.
The entire thing screamed uniform for some reason.
"If you're not, then could you tell me when he comes back, I'm from the shinigami academy and I was told that I could train here under him." the boy said to Kazuma as he reached into the bag that he was carrying and took out a letter before he tried to hand it to him.
Kazuma didn't bother to take the letter from the kid's hand instead he allowed himself to smirk.
"I got nothing to teach you, kid I'm not a shinigami, whoever told you to come here was either playing a prank on you or didn't bother to do their homework."
"The house over there was abandoned when I found it." he said to the boy who seemed to shrink when he heard him.
The only thing that the boy said was "Oh." before he put the letter away and started to walk away.
As Kazuma watched the kid leave, he couldn't help but see himself back on earth, it wasn't the version of himself that had been forced to learn and move on from his trauma.
No, what he saw in front of him, was his original self, the one that just needed someone to help him, someone that would reach out to him even when he locked himself away in his room.
So while knowing that if he did anything to get closer to the kid, then he would undoubtedly end up making the shinigami turn his way Kazuma stood up and began to chase after him.
When he reached the boy's side, he quickly used a trick to get the shoulder bag that the boy was carrying away from him.
The boy looked at him with a shocked expression. "Hey give that back!" he yelled at Kazuma.
"Come get it." Kazuma said to the boy as he began to run away from him.
The boy chased after him, and Kazuma made sure to stay just out of arms reach, and every time the boy seemed as if he was going to reach him or the bag Kazuma would increase his speed just a little bit.
In his time in the other world, he had learned that adventurers were always faster and stronger than ordinary people and even some well-trained people.
The reason was that, unlike knights that only trained with each other or sometimes fought monsters and the ordinary person who maybe killed a monster but still had to travel long distances on foot.
Adventurers had to do these things regularly because this was the way that they survived and he had been no different.
In the end, the boy fell to his knees exhausted, and could only glare at him as he gasped for breath.
"You're done already, aren't you supposed to be one of those students that have all sorts of powers?" He asked the boy.
"Look around you, we didn't go anywhere, you didn't try to do anything to stop me from running, no tricks, no speeches nothing.' Kazuma said to the boy who began to cry.
He walked towards the kid before he opened the bag and took out the letter, Kazuma just smiled.
The kid had failed the entrance exam and whoever had sent him here must have been trying to get rid of him or they really didn't investigate where they had sent him and not known that no one was there.
He hoped that it was the first one because that just meant that someone had sent this kid to die without knowing it.
"Alright, I'll make you a deal, we will teach each other."
"What I mean is that you know how to read and write as well as everything else that you have to learn to get into that school."
" So teach those things to me and the kids that live here with me and in exchange I'll show you some tricks or help you make some new tricks from the things that those books of yours have."
The boy sniffed as Kazuma dropped his bag next to him.
"Okay your first lesson, you aren't any better than anyone else."
"You saw the district, town or whatever the hell this place is, everyone is just trying to survive, any idiot can see that."
"The houses are falling apart, and the clothes that everyone wears are either rags or handmade from the skins of animals because no one here can afford or even get their hands on anything better."
"Hell, no one here even wears sandals." Kazuma stops talking as he lets his words set in and makes sure that the boy is listening to what he's saying.
"There wasn't anyone here when I moved in and monsters just kept on coming and eating the people here, I've been stopping them since then and in exchange for my help the people here give me whatever food they can spare."
The boy stands up and as he puts his bag over his shoulder he glares at Kazuma before he turns toward the wooden house and starts to walk toward it.
"Just like I need their help to get food and they need my help to stop the monsters, you came here looking for someone to teach you, and I need help to learn about this world." Kazuma said to the boy who just lowered his head and kept on walking towards the house.