It was late in the night and the street lights were flickering on and off. A young boy with scary eyes was trying to fix up his hair after his meeting with his parents before leaving for the convenience store.
"Ahhhh, I can never get used to them ruffling my hair every time I leave," he had a little smile on his face as he remembered his mother's words. "Subaru, Subaru, stay safe out there, it's very late, and don't forget to get some mayonnaise alright?!" Naoko hugged him and passed her hands through his extremely silky jet-black hair.
"Al-Alright mom, I will get whatever you want. Now please stop fluffing my hair up!"
Subaru broke free of the hug and proceeded to wave her goodbye. Just as Subaru left the house, Naoko called out to him saying, "Oh, and Subaru, don't you ever forget we both love you!" Subaru smiles and walks away to the store.
The area around the store is pretty deserted and he is glad to not run into any people this late in the night. He perused the shelves, grabbing some comics which didn't really catch his interest as they were all about cat boys.
"I really don't get how people actually like this kind of manga. Isekai mangas are just superior in every way." Subaru lamented the rising popularity of cat boy mangas while finishing his shopping, grabbing some ramen and mayonnaise as his mom requested.
"That'll be 500 yen." the shopkeeper billed the products and Subaru put the money on the tray, leaving with his items snug in a plastic bag. He steps out of the store and just before reaching the road, he sees a cat running incredibly fast and stumbles in his steps, trying not to hit it.
"Whoa there, kitty! Watch where you're going at least!" Subaru yells while the cat vanishes behind a corner.
"Ah, that cat is gonna get hit by a car or something. I should probably make sure it doesn't wander around." Subaru, while annoyed, followed the cat. As he rounds the corner, he is suddenly struck by a bright blinding light.
In the light, he hears an ever faint but clear voice, "To make up for my mistake of sending you to hell with no power the previous time. I shall ensure no one in this world can harm you. I hope with this Authority you shall stay safe and be happy, my beloved." The voice slowly fades away, and that encompassed his vision dulls, revealing the surrounding area to Subaru.
"What the hell!" Exasperatedly he shouts. He rubs his eyes and is shocked to see a bustling marketplace with humans and demi-humans going about their business in the middle of the day. Slowly processing his surroundings he yelled, "Have I really gotten transported to a parallel world?!" Everyone around him walked past him in a hurry, gazing at him with looks of pity.
Growing sheepish, he rubbed the back of his head and set-off, excited to explore this new, fantasy-styled world.
"My adventure shall begin now! I cannot wait to meet the cute girl who summoned me here!" Subaru went ahead with a wide grin on his face.
Subaru went toward a fruit stall and pointed at the red fruits, "Excuse me, what are these fruits you have on sale here?"
"These are appas, boy. Wanna buy some?" The seller offered, holding one in front of him. Subaru nodded, happy that the seller understood him, but when he offered him some money, the seller replied with annoyance, "Huh? What kind of money is that? It seems you're flat broke. Take this appa and scram kid!" He offered him an appa out of pity and sent Subaru on his way.
"This place sucks," Subaru muttered looking down at his shoes, sitting on a crate while being completely soaked. Recalling the misfortune he's had the entire day, from walking into a woman's washroom and getting slapped for it, to walking into a peel and falling into the river. Surprisingly, he was allowed into a bar full of demi-humans but could not afford anything there so he went on his way.
He checked his phone and removed his jacket to let it dry. "What kind of fantasy world is this?! Where is the power I was supposed to get, and why has literally no one come to guide me?! This is seriously such a bad start to my adventure. I have trash starting gear and no cute girl who summoned me has come here either." While lamenting his current circumstances, he failed to notice 3 people coming up behind him.
"Cough up everything you have if you wanna live, kid!" The lanky looking guy threatened.
"Don't try anything funny either or we will beat your demi-human ass," the short guy smirked.
"Demi-? Listen, I don't know what you're talking about but just let me go and-"
"Out of my way!" He was cut off by a young sounding voice coming from a blonde girl running in their direction.
"Finally! Are you the cute girl who summoned me?!" Subaru exclaimed.
"Cute girl? I don't know what you are talking about, bro, but I have to leave. Live strong, okay!" She said while aiming to run past him but just as she passed by him, he felt a sensation on his head. The blonde girl was petting Subaru's head.
"W-What are you doing?!" Subaru shouted while being greatly confused. The three thugs were also extremely confused, along with the girl herself.
"What the hell is going on? Just as I was passing you I felt this incredible urge to pat you on the head! I don't want to but I can't stop myself," the blonde girl said, while still continuing to pat Subaru on the head.
"What the hell are you two up to?!" The thieves were growing agitated and advanced on the duo but were again interrupted by an authoritative voice.
"It seemed I was right to check this commotion. I must say I advise you three to leave, now that your advantage in numbers has ended, or else I will have to engage you in combat," a fiery-haired individual politely warned the trio.
"Damn, it's the Sword Saint Reinhard, run!" The trio hot-footed it out of there in seconds.
Subaru sighs in relief and faces the redhead, "I, Natsuki Subaru, must thank you f–from the bottom of my heart, Sir Reinhard"
"No need to be so formal, Subaru. It was my duty after all."
"I don't want to shock you but can we do something about this?" Felt pointed to her hand which was still patting Subaru. Reinhard reaches to remove Felt's hand but to his utter shock, he starts patting Subaru too.
"WHAT?!" Subaru, gobsmacked at what was happening, let out a little purr which shook him to his core.
"I must apologize profusely for this, Subaru, but I can't seem to stop my urge to pat your head," both Reinhard and Felt were distressed but greatly enjoyed petting Subarus' silky smooth locks.
Subaru takes out his phone and takes a picture of himself to see the reason why they keep petting him.
"NO! WHY AM I A CAT BOY?! WHY DO I HAVE A TAIL AND FLUFFY EARS NOW?!" He shouts out but calms down quickly due to the headpats. After the headpats slow down, Felt runs away, remembering her mission and Reinhard stays a bit to help the now absolutely confused Subaru.
A silver-haired girl stumbles upon the scene and starts to run past Subaru, seeing Felt just run away.
"Emilia-sama, no!" Reinhard attempts to stop her from going near Subaru but it is far too late. The headpats reign supreme and the rightfully baffled girl starts passing her hands through Subaru's hair and patting his head much to the embarrassment of them both.
"Ehhhh? What is going on?! I can't seem to stop patting this boy! Puck, please help me." The girl, who was beet-red by now, requested her spirit companion to help her out of this bind. Subaru himself was very confused on what was going on but was starting to realize that everyone who came near him when he was agitated became docile and started patting him. As he was pondering this while also enjoying the pats, a small cat popped into existence, looking incredibly annoyed but was shocked when he saw something about Subaru.
"Lia, this guy while not having any suspicious intentions, contains an incredibly dangerous ability. He for certain holds an Authority. I can feel the power radiating off of him. This instantly throws both Emilia and Reinhard on edge.
"Uhmm, mister, can you please try to make this stop," she requests calmly and Subaru focuses hard just barely making it stop after a few minutes.
"I really can't believe what's happening right now…. First I got transformed into a catboy, and now my power is this?!"
Subaru stands there with his head hung down when Reinhard comments, "Taking what Great Spirit Puck has said, and the emotional turmoil in Subaru, I can only reach the conclusion that, while Subaru is not an archbishop, he definitely holds an authority. It seems whenever he is agitated, it activates and compels everyone around him to pat him on the head like some sort of cat," saying this all with a serious but amused expression
"In short, it seems Subaru has the Authority of Headpats," he concludes.
"EHHHHHHHHHH?!" Getting this reaction out of both the girl and the boy.
