Chapter 11

I stopped by the convenience store on the way as usual, bought a bento, and headed back.

As I walked up the outdoor stairs of the apartment dangling my plastic shopping bag,

“Akie, I know you’re in there!”

An unfamiliar middle-aged man was shouting angrily while violently pounding on the front door of Shimizu-san’s apartment.

He was tall. He looked close to a hundred and ninety centimeters.

The moment the man’s eyes met mine,

“What are you looking at! Huh?!”

He raised his voice at me, too.

“Ah, nothing really, my place is right over there…”

“Then stop staring and get moving already!”

“Right, sorry…”

I bowed my head and hurried past the man, who reeked of alcohol, stepping into my own room.

“You, cut it out already. You’re bothering the neighbors.”

“See, I knew she was in here! Misa’s in there too, right?! Hey Misa, it’s Dad!”

Judging from the exchange drifting over, the man out in the hallway was Shimizu-san’s estranged husband—in other words, Misa-chan’s father.

“If you don’t open up right now, I’ll keep making a racket forever! Hey everyone in the neighborhood, Akie Shimizu living right here is a horrible woman who stole my daughter Misa from me! She’s a lewd woman who hopped onto another guy right after divorcing me!”

Then, a click sounded, and,

“Don’t say stupid things. It’s embarrassing, so just get inside already.”

Seemingly breaking under the pressure, Shimizu-san must have opened the front door.

“You should’ve just done that from the start, making me go through all this trouble!”

“Don’t raise your voice!”

The man barged into the room.

Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I held my breath and strained my ears to listen to the rest of the conversation leaking from the next room.

“Where’s the man?”

“What are you talking about, there’s no one like that here.”

“Then there’s no other reason for you to divorce me.”

“It’s because you laid your hands on me and Misa, that’s why!”

“Don’t lie!”

Even without trying to listen, the argument between Shimizu-san and the man echoed right through.

I swallowed dryly in the pitch-dark room.

“You’re still drinking alcohol right now, aren’t you? It was the same before, you kept saying you’d quit—”

“Shut up!”

Thud. Clatter-crash.

Following a dull thud, the sound of things scattering across the floor echoed.

“Mom!”

Misa-chan’s scream reached my ears.

“Stop it, Dad, just go home!”

“Misa… even you are talking back to your dad like that, huh?!”

Bang.

The sound of something colliding heavily against the wall of my room.

“S-Stop it, it hurts…”

“Misa, if even you reject me, then I, I—!”

Bang.

Once again, a loud impact resonated through the wall.

That was my absolute limit.

Unable to sit still a moment longer, I burst out of my room and threw open the front door of Shimizu-san’s place.

“!”

What reflected in my eyes at that moment was Shimizu-san collapsed on the floor with blood streaming from her arm, and the man—presumably the father—pressing Misa-chan against the wall while choking her with both hands.

“Huh? You’re that guy from earlier—”

“O-Onitsuka-san…”

Misa-chan groaned in agony.

Tears spilled from her vacant eyes.

“Stop it.”

I grabbed the man’s arm and tried to pull him away from Misa-chan.

However,

“Out of my way!”

The man shook me off, and his elbow struck my temple squarely.

I almost lost consciousness for a second, but leaning against a table, I somehow managed to steady my posture and avoid falling over.

Even though my level had increased after killing two people, the height difference between the man and me was about twenty centimeters, and the weight difference was probably around forty kilograms. Relying purely on physical strength was definitely a bad matchup.

“Misa, what kind of relationship do you have with this guy?!”

“Gah…!”

The man tightened his grip on her arm.

This is bad, at this rate Misa-chan is really going to be killed.

I have to do something—!

And right at that moment,

Stab.

Shimizu-san, who must have gotten back up at some point, drove a kitchen knife deep into the man’s back.

“A-Akie… you—”

Releasing Misa-chan, the man slowly turned around toward Shimizu-san.

Freed, Misa-chan slumped onto the floor with drool spilling from her mouth.

The man reached out his hand, trying to grab Shimizu-san’s neck this time.

Shimizu-san stood frozen in shock, still holding the posture she used to stab him.

“I’ll—kill you…!”

Just as the man placed his trembling hand on Shimizu-san’s neck,

“——-Uwaaaah!”

I drove the kitchen knife stuck in the man’s back even deeper.

It wasn’t a calculated action. My body had moved purely on reflex.

“Gofah…!”

I wasn’t well-versed in human anatomy so I couldn’t be sure, but my strike had probably pierced some vital organ; the man vomited blood and collapsed flat onto his back on the floor.

“M-Mom…”

Brought back to her senses by Misa-chan’s voice, Shimizu-san immediately rushed over to Misa-chan’s side, and the two of them embraced each other tightly.

“Misa!”

“Mom!”

Right before the embrace of that mother and daughter—

Tetetetetetette-n!

As fate would have it, the fanfare for leveling up echoed brightly inside my head.