That night, Makoto brought the Nakiri Family of five to an open area by a highway. "We'll use this place as our base for the time being."
"Huh? B-But Nishikawa-kun, th-there's nothing here!" Erina exclaimed in confusion.
As she spoke, a dense cloud of gray-black Chakra suddenly erupted from Makoto's body. The Chakra rapidly coalesced into a ten-meter-tall skeletal structure of Susanoo.
The Susanoo's arm suddenly swung out, instantly splitting the surrounding trees in half!
Thick tree trunks crashed to the ground with a thunderous roar.
"Build a house here," Makoto said.
Hearing this, the Nakiri Family looked baffled.
They had assumed Makoto would simply take control of some wealthy tycoon and seize their luxurious mansion.
Or at the very least, use his Genjutsu to steal money and stay in a nice hotel.
But instead, he chose to build a house in the middle of nowhere?
"Why?" Erina couldn't help asking.
Makoto raised an eyebrow. "Did I bring you along so you could keep asking me why?"
Erina's heart skipped a beat. She realized she had no right to question Makoto's decisions.
Seeing this, Alice quickly rushed forward to smooth things over, apologizing profusely: "Sorry, sorry! Erina's always been a bit slow. Dad, come help out!"
As she spoke, Alice hurriedly called for her father.
Makoto chuckled lightly and praised her: "You're much more sensible than your cousin."
Seeing that Makoto wasn't truly angry, Alice breathed a sigh of relief, playfully stuck out her tongue, and said with a grin: "Hehe, well, when we were kids, Grandpa always favored Erina. He'd give her anything good first."
Because of Azami, Senzaemon always felt he owed Erina, so whenever the cousins had a dispute, he would instinctively side with Erina.
As a result, Alice had grown up learning to read the room. While she still had her pride, she was clearly more tactful and intelligent than Erina.
"Oh, and Nishikawa-kun, I'm actually the older cousin," Alice added.
Makoto paused for a moment.
'So I had been wrong in his past life?'
Meanwhile, Erina was almost in tears.
'What should I do, what should I do, what should I do? He doesn't hate me now, does he?'
It wasn't that Erina had fallen for Makoto.
It was just that he was the only support her family had!
"It's okay, Erina, don't be scared," Mana quickly came over to comfort her daughter.
But honestly, she wasn't very confident herself. Surely Makoto wasn't that petty, right?
Soe suggested in a low voice: "Why don't we have Alice feel him out later? She's probably the one among us closest to Makoto."
Hearing this, Alice put her hands on her hips proudly. "Hmph, in the end, you still need me!"
…
Most players followed Makoto's advice and took planes to other countries to live.
Even though none of them had much money, for squads with superpowers, the Transformation Technique easily solved that problem.
Especially since the current time was the 1980s, and airport security was nowhere near as strict as in later years.
However, this method only worked for teams that had superpowers.
Those teams without any superhuman members had no choice but to stay in Japan.
"Honey, what are we going to do?" Yukiko sobbed, clutching her husband's arm.
In the real world, she and her husband were a world-famous actress and a celebrated novelist. But in this world, they had nothing.
Eri had just made it clear she was cutting ties with their family. They were probably on a plane by now.
And Yukino, who knew Medical Ninjutsu, had also left. If they didn't get treatment soon, they might not even be able to save their son's life.
Yusaku pinched his chin, thinking of a solution.
He was good at solving cases and investigating, but in this desperate situation, there weren't many options.
The immediate priority was to get money to take his son to a hospital.
Get a job?
By the time he earned enough, his son would probably be dead.
He needed a way to make money fast.
And as everyone knew, the fastest ways to make money were basically outlined in the criminal code.
Fortunately, Yusaku happened to be quite knowledgeable on that subject.
Without any special connections, there were essentially two options: steal or rob.
Unfortunately, Yusaku was good at neither.
If it were stealing, his friend Kuroba Toichi would be the expert.
With that thought, Yusaku's eyes lit up. He said to his wife: "Yukiko, didn't you learn disguise techniques from Kuroba?"
Yukiko immediately understood her husband's intention.
"Use disguise to steal?"
How had she not thought of that?
It was highly dishonorable, but for her son, she had no choice.
However, even if she was going to steal, she couldn't do it here.
The citizens of Hokkaido had been mostly wiped out by the Gun Devil. After searching all night, Yukiko only managed to steal a few bills from the rescue team members.
Worse still, there wasn't a single functioning hospital left in all of Hokkaido.
After some discussion, they decided to take Shinichi to a hospital in a major city.
The most obvious target was Japan's capital… Tokyo.
…
In the original work, Pochita and Denji first met on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Although that event was still a few years away, if they waited there, they were bound to find something.
Soe had been busy for hours and had only managed to make a crude table and a few chairs.
"Ah! Nishikawa-kun, you're back!"
Alice, who was busy at a makeshift stove, immediately went to greet him, her face beaming. "Dinner tonight is curry rice."
Watching Alice enthusiastically welcome him, Erina felt an inexplicable bitterness and jealousy.
During the journey from Hokkaido, Makoto had given Alice a large sum of money and left it entirely in her care.
It was obvious to anyone which of the five Nakiri Family's members held the highest place in Makoto's heart.
"How did this happen?" Erina bit her lip, feeling wronged and resentful.
She was the one who had done that with him, and they had even agreed to finish it tonight.
But he clearly trusted Alice more.
She could accept losing to Megumi, Airi, and the others… After all, she had met him later than they had.
But how could she lose to Alice?
Alice, meanwhile, was trying to think of topics to chat with Makoto, trying to make him happy.
When she noticed the corner of his mouth curl up slightly, she cautiously asked the crucial question: "Um, Nishikawa-kun, you're not mad, are you?"
"What would I be mad about?" Makoto seemed confused.
"J-Just now, Erina was being rude... she disrespected you..." Alice explained nervously.
"I'm not that petty," Makoto said. He felt these anime girls misunderstood him far too much.
Did he really seem like that petty of a person?
Hearing this, the Nakiri Family silently thought to themselves: 'Did he not?'
But since Makoto said so, Mana and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Nevertheless, watching Alice sitting close to Makoto, so intimate, Erina still felt sulky and pouted.
"Soe, go into town tomorrow and find a construction team," Makoto instructed casually while eating his curry rice.
At the rate Soe was building, it would take forever to finish.
If only he had Wood Release.
But the problem was, he really didn't want to transplant Hashirama's cells. He didn't want a man's face growing on his chest or shoulder.
"O-Okay!" Soe quickly agreed.
Makoto then turned to Erina. "As for that... we'll do it another day."
After all, they were camping outside tonight. Makoto had no interest in putting on a show for the others, especially with the girl's mother present.
Besides, he was out of bullets for today and wasn't really in the mood.
Erina's cheeks flushed a charming red. She gave a barely audible sound of agreement.
Since he still wanted to do that with her, it meant he didn't hate her.
"What thing?" Leonora asked curiously.
"Mother, don't," Alice kicked her mother's thigh under the table.
Leonora pouted.
My daughter was growing up and becoming less considerate, keeping secrets from her mother.