Allen had enough knowledge about this world from Neah’s research to half-lie, which was better than refusing outright to answer that question.

“I grew up mostly in Europe with my Mana, my guardian, and then Master, my mentor. I didn’t have a home in particular but I did stay in a church for a few months with Mother and Barba. After traveling for so long I lost track of which country we were in a lot. I traveled by train a lot and performed in the streets… I think I lived in India for a good few weeks, too. I really liked their food.” His tone seemed to relax a bit, he was easing into this as long as he didn’t say too much, “I think my favorite places to be in was by the Black Sea when it was snowing… It was really beautiful, especially at night.” A small smile crept onto his face as he remembered that. He really did enjoy seeing new places.

“Have you’ve been traveling before, Sachi?”

Sachi grinned at the affection and nostalgia that laced his voice. So his life before coming here had some peaceful times, after all. 

“I’ve never gone anyplace very far, however recently everyone here went to the ocean. I can’t say it was completely peaceful. When Michiru-sama arrived at the beach, she was all but unresponsive because Amane drove her there and went on a wild car chase to the death on their way there. I had to take care of her and calm her down for the rest of the day,” she said calmly, as if this were a normal, everyday occurrence, “but I still enjoyed the scenery and hope to visit again.”

“Just now, you mentioned your Master and a man named Mana. They seemed like they were very important in shaping your experiences. Would you care to share a bit about them?,” she questioned. 

“Any old Level 5 would do, yes.” Little did she know that bringing in this particular Level 5 in would bring the two of them to a level of notoriety she never could have imagined.

She watched Kamijou do his imitation with the coin flipping, and she listened to his description of Mikoto. Her eyes narrowed and gleamed. Not only would bringing in Mikoto be a good move politically, but considering her Railgun powers she could doubtlessly protect them if any danger arose.

“She sounds like she would be perfect! I can’t believe you have contacts like this…I absolutely want you to call her. I just hope that if she knows Mental Out, they are on good terms. Either way, she should be a good resource to turn to. I will leave it to you!” Her heartbeat raced with anticipation as she waited for him to make the phone call.

“…” He wasn’t. He was in pain, achy, and held back a relieved sigh as she rubbed his back, feeling much older than he was. He hadn’t held a human in a long time. It already felt saddening to let her go, but he did. He didn’t need to be so selfish.

Allen took into account how young Sachi was, and how much she had to learn. He knew he couldn’t point out something like that, even if it did seem quite obvious. It would be counter-productive for his own goals for her.

“… I’m not sure, feelings like that can only be defined by yourself. I certainly like to be nearby you.”

Sachi held back a murmur of disappointment as he let go of her. For some reason she couldn’t put her finger on, she felt like she could stay like that with Allen for a very long time, but she knew better than to request anything unnecessary of him.

“I wonder what they are as well. How perplexing...” She looked back to her conversations with the other girls, how they would gab on and on about romantic love. They talked about feeling butterflies and sparks and so many other sensations that seemed as if they were a world away at the time, but now they didn’t look so abstract. Could it be...?

No. She couldn’t dwell on frivolous things such as her own feelings and wants. She had to focus on pouring her whole being into serving others. People like Allen.

Come to think of it, Allen gave her advice as if he had a lot of experience with handling emotions, and not even just the romantic kind. He had an mature manner about him, and she couldn’t help but wonder where he got it from at such a young age. 

“Walker-san, can you tell me a bit about where you come from?” she asked conversationally.

The couple sneered at Allen for a moment, observing him closely to see what his motives were. After a tense moment of silence, they seemed to give up, and the man spat on the ground. 

“Why’re you tryin’ to stick up for this girl? She’s crazy, y’know? There are so many hotter chicks you could go for, man…Although, she’ll do whatever you say, so I can sorta see the appeal of that.”

“But maybe yer just as bad, with that stupid tattoo on your face and carrying a toy with you everywhere. Who t’hell are you, kid? Who put you in charge?”  His mouth twisted in a venomous glare as he said, “…and who gave you the right to mess with me?”

Ocanpy bared his teeth and rage built up inside Allen at the man’s sexist comment, enough for Crown Clown to ask him what the hell was going on via a pulse of energy that made his gloved left hand flash briefly. With some force of will, Allen remained outwardly calm. He hadn’t dealt with these kinds of people for a while…

“I apologize, perhaps my introduction was below your level of understanding. I’m Allen Walker, Sachi Komine’s friend. I am requesting that we don’t fight and simply pretend that the other doesn’t exist because we do not agree and I simply do not want to talk to you. Are we so important that you can’t ignore us?”

Sachi watched carefully as Allen remained as stoic as a stone. She couldn’t believe how calm Allen seemed at such a provocation. He didn’t seethe with rage or go for an attack. His words may have held an edge to them, and yet that was all. He had the mental power to push his personal feelings aside, to persist in being a mediator. 

But it seemed that that small edge to his tone provoked a monstrous rage in the man, because he aimed at Allen’s stomach when all of a sudden a booming crack echoed through the air.

The man bellowed out in pain as his fist started to bleed, and he stared at Allen’s stomach as if it were some alien object. “What the hell...What are those things under your stomach? Just who the hell are you?!” 

He ran away, fleeing as if his life depended on it, and Sachi stared at Allen, silently waiting for an explanation.

He had sensed her nearby but hadn’t expected her to embrace him.

“…” 

He slowly reached out and hugged her back, giving her a gentle squeeze, mindful of the odd hard patches that could be felt through his shirt.

“I’m fine.”

“You certainly don’t seem like you’re fine...”

She inwardly debated whether to ask him what happened, but she had a feeling that some things were best left unsaid. He would tell her what he needed to, when he needed to. She shouldn’t pressure him anymore.

“You don’t have to tell me anything, but at the very least, if you’d like I’ll stay here with you until you feel better.”

As she stroked his back tentatively, she put thoughts coming to the surface of her mind into words.

“I haven’t hugged anyone since my parents, and you didn’t ask me to hug you, yet I found myself doing this before I realized it. I seem to be genuinely moved by your plight. In addition, right now I feel very warm and tingly inside. Come to think of it, whenever we’re together I feel peculiar, but I don’t dislike the feeling. I wonder why that could be?” 

She didn’t realize that her words could potentially be interpreted in a romantic sense, nor that it could make things awkward. In her simple mind, she was just being an honest girl expressing her honest emotions.

Really wants to cuddle somebody but there’s no way his pride will let him ask anyone outright…

Her eyes wavered for a moment, and she wondered what she should do to comfort him before she took the leap and embraced him gently. 

“Walker...san? I couldn’t help but notice something was wrong. If there’s anything you need to get off your chest, you can always tell me.”

Allen slumped a bit. Of course, things have been going too easy for him, he should have been a bit more suspicious, but there was really no use being in despair if there was a possibility he could do something about this. Still, he felt unsettled.

Allen considered Sachi’s words. He really had no way to be tracked unless they had dimensional magic, but he doubted that, everything here seemed to run on electricity, but that could make him even more suspicious, like he was hiding his trail for some reason.

He held back his words of agreeing quite on habit, trying to word things to make sure they weren’t orders. Sachi went into a mode he found unsettling if he slipped up.

“…” But he needed more information, “If you want to, please tell me anything that might help my case…” He was taking a risk adding this next bit but, “I’m afraid that I don’t have any documents about myself that can prove my ‘innocence’, I’ve traveled far too much to settle completely…”

Well, he did have documents, mostly consisting of debt tabs… but from the 1800s in a different world. Those wouldn’t help.

She panicked when she saw Allen’s expression sour up, and she grimaced at the fact that there wasn’t really anything she could possibly say to console him, because such a threat couldn’t be sugar-coated.

“You don’t have any documents??” Her eyes widened in shock. This indeed made him more suspicious, not just for the obvious reason that Yumiko would be disturbed by it, but also because that jeopardized the impact of the other ideas she had. 

“Well, I was thinking that you could build up the support from the rest of the girls here, or that you could discuss the matter with the principal before Yumiko gets involved. With no background, though, that could prove difficult.”

“But now, maybe there are other options. You could fabricate a past somehow. We could somehow make up an story about how your documentation disappeared, or something similar. Or--and this idea is very risky, mind you--you could spend more time in Yumiko’s presence and get her to get used to you. Lastly, you could just be completely honest. You could tell everyone that you understand it’s suspicious that you have no past, but that you are open to being questioned and you will strive to prove that you mean no harm with your actions, rather than mere words.”

“As bad as this situation sounds, one thing stands in your favor: we are all suspicious people here. We all have pasts that we don’t want anyone to know about, so there’s a possibility that they could be understanding about it if you play your cards right.”