Surviving a Shounen Manga

want to just buy something and leave, they will immediately follow you.”

“… Like you?”

“Yeah.”

“…”

This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill audacity.
For some reason, I felt like I wanted to pull away that Pierrot mask and reveal the face inside.

“Anyway, you said it’s going to be hard on my own.
Why is that?”

“They’ve doubled the number of guards.”

“Oh? Why?”

“Idiot.
Why do you think?”

“What? Because of me?”

“Yup.”

“That doesn’t sound like… but I haven’t even done anything yet?”

“Maybe the store contacted all the nearby banks and jewellers.
That a very suspicious-looking big-chinned-guy bought an invisibility potion.”

“Hoo…”

It wasn’t funny.
Treating your valued customers as potential criminals…

Of course, this time they happened to be on the money.

“Is that so.”

“That’s how it is.
This happens now and then.
They’ll keep this up for who knows how many days.”

“Hmm.”

At this point, I couldn’t help but ask.

“So how are you going to help?”

“I want half.”

“Fine, let’s talk.”

“I’ll catch their attention.
I can also fix CCTV inside the safe.
Oh, and I’ll reduce the number of guards a bit.”

“How?”

“Wait and see.”

“Hmm… but is that all?”

“I’ll give you some information.
The vault password.
It was hard to find out.”

For a moment, I was frozen, stunned by embarrassment.

“What… didn’t you even have a plan?”

“Huh.”

“…”

Once again, embarrassment struck.

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Are all these coincidences? The day you decide to rob a bank, you are caught by another thief and get an offer to work together? And it’s even a kid?

‘What is this kid’s character?’

It was surprising that a character merely part of the background would act like this.
A kid, trying to rob a bank?

I glanced over at him again.

A Pierrot mask I’ve never seen before.
Appears to be about eight or nine years old.
A young voice…

There was no character that really matched.
It wasn’t a matter of the face being covered.
In the first place, it was rare to find a chapter in which a kid this size was part of the cast.

Hmmm.

Yeah, maybe because it’s a manga world, these kinds of things can happen every day.
A world full of little thieves.
In fact, there were no cities with this kind of background.

Anyway, it wasn’t too bad for me.

“What is the password for the safe?”

“Wait.”

Saying that, the little boy took a vial out of his pocket and drank the contents.

Surprisingly, it was a special potion.

“【Yup, keep your promise! 】 It’s a curse potion.
You will be cursed if you do not fulfil your contract with me.
That big, proud chin might get ripped in two?”

“Uh… right.”

The little boy seemed to think that I was very proud of this chin.

“Reach out your hand.”

As soon as I reached out, the kid grabbed my hand.
Then, a purple gas slowly rose from his hand, and immediately wrapped around our hands.

“Oh…”

It was a strange sight.

Soon after, the little boy slowly opened his mouth.

“Will you split things half-n’-half[1] after the operation succeeds?”

“Kik…“

I couldn’t help but grin.
I really liked the kid, half-n’-half.

“Why are you laughing? Say that you get it.”

“Yeah, I got it.”

As soon as the words were said, the purple smoke pulsed once.

“Is that it?”

“Not yet.
After splitting the money, what if you snatch it back?”

“… I won’t snatch it back.
What do you think people are?”

To be honest, he was a bit sharp.
I was thinking of grabbing the loot and leaving him money to buy a few cookies.

I secretly glanced at the little boy.

By the way, this kid… I’m the one trying to rob the bank, and this guy secretly followed me to rob me.
Why does this little boy need that kind of money?

“Put away that rude face of yours.”

“…”

I was probably being a bit obvious.

At that moment, all the purple smoke that had wrapped around my hand disappeared.

“Now it’s over.”

“Oh? Didn’t look like much.” 

“Try breaking it.
If you get cursed, you’ll be singing a different tune.”

“I didn’t say I was going to break it.”

The little boy stared at me for a while, and then opened his mouth.

“The password is 1234.”

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“…”

It was a little embarrassing.

“Is that… so?”

“Yeah.
It was hard to find out.”

“… Right.”

It was so ridiculous that I had to laugh out loud.
The writer was trying to be funny, as usual.

If he hadn’t set it up, there would have been no need for a password this easy.
So, it must have been set this way on purpose.
In other words, this is also one of the joke settings.
Perhaps all the banks’ safe passwords are the same as this one.
Or ‘0000’.

Just then –

‘Huh? Wait a moment.
Isn’t this a good thing?’

I pictured myself taking a dip inside a stash of money piled up like a mountain.

Isn’t this good? Shall we rob them all?

And as I was imagining that rosy future,

“You can start in five minutes.”

The little boy turned around and spoke.

“Five minutes?”

“Yeah.
And after the job’s done, come meet me around midnight at ‘Dumb Idiots’.”

“Who’s a dumb idiot?!”

“You idiot.
It’s the name of the pub in the back alley of 3rd Street.”

“Okay.”

“Remember.
Five minutes.”

I stared at the little boy who was walking back towards the bank.
What can that guy do in five minutes?

But my doubts were soon put to rest.

Just as a young kid slammed the bank doors open and jumped out –

“Thief! Catch him! That damned yellow devil!”

With a shout, ten of the guards rushed out.

Apparently, the kid was quite notorious.
Everyone was chasing him like mad.

And another surprise was,

“It was a girl.”

It looked like the little kid had been hiding her hair inside the Pierrot mask.
Long, pale yellow hair that reached up to the waist.

I drank the potion of invisibility while watching the scene.

The moment I poured it in my mouth, the sheer sourness gave me a shock.

“Huuu…”

It was kind of embarrassing.

Do different potions taste different? It was surprising that the little kid didn’t say anything.

Soon after,

“Ohh.”

An unfamiliar power filled my body.

I’ve been wondering how to use these manga abilities, but it was nothing special.
I just put some strength into my whole body, and it activated immediately.

I smiled as I looked at my hands that were blurring little by little.

“This is fun.”

After confirming that my whole body had become transparent, I slowly entered the bank which had already become messed up by an untimely intrusion of thieves.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] 반반 (lit.
half-and-half) can be used in a lot of different situations (ordering food, paying your bills etc.), one of them is expressing your opinion – i.e., you’re half agreeing and half disagreeing.