Valentine’s Day (4)

An abandoned factory and the enormous warehouse standing on its grounds.

Inside, chairs, folding tables, and various other things had apparently been brought in and gathered at random, making the place equipped well enough to function as a hangout.

Tomo had been tied up near the back of the warehouse, her hands bound behind her, with the cloth binding her wrists apparently fastened to a pipe running up toward the ceiling, leaving her unable even to escape.

There were around twenty people.

Why was it that people like this always ended up looking like walking stereotypes screaming, “We’re bad news and we do bad things”?

Their clothes and hairstyles in particular all looked similar, and it somehow made their individuality disappear.

I had always imagined delinquents as bundles of self-assertion whose desire for recognition had exploded in bizarre directions—people going, “Don’t lump us in with normal people,” or “Screw society’s rules,” or “Look at me more”—so I had assumed people like that would value individuality, yet it was strange how once they gathered in groups, they all ended up looking more or less the same.

I supposed people really did start resembling one another when they flocked together.

Not that I knew.

Hmm… Still, there was no way twenty humans could do anything to me… though I supposed they believed I was an ordinary human too.

Wait, if they thought I was an ordinary human, wasn’t twenty people rather excessive for dealing with just me and Tomo?

…Eh, whatever.

I doubted the reason was anything worth thinking deeply about anyway.

—And so, here I was at the abandoned factory warehouse they called their hangout.

I had flown here.

Literally.

Flying while concealing myself was faster, after all.

I had thought the only things living in places like this were rats, those black creepy things, and other creatures that got exterminated whenever they appeared in town… but apparently I had not been entirely wrong.

Because I was about to exterminate them.

Personally.

“Hey, where the hell are those guys?”

“No way they’re here yet. Hell, I’d be shocked if they already grabbed one girl and made it back here this fast.”

“What, did they teleport? That’d be hilarious.”

“We’re gonna gang up on the chick we kidnapped, right? How much longer do we have to wait?”

“Apparently they’re bringing the other girl first, then doing it in front of her. Break her completely, then do the same to her too.”

“Damn, what a piece of shit.”

Yeah, a real piece of shit.

Though since you were saying that while laughing, it was pretty obvious you were one of them too.

Now then, where was Tojo… ah, there he was.

He was sitting farther back, leaning arrogantly against a backrest with his legs crossed.

He seemed to be rummaging through the contents of a women’s bag that did not suit him at all… hmm?

Was that Tomo’s bag?

“Hah, found something interesting.”

What Tojo pulled out as he said that was something wrapped as a gift.

Holding it up, he rose to his feet and walked toward Tomo.

“Hey, Tachibana. This wouldn’t happen to be Valentine’s chocolate, would it?”

…Who was Tachibana…? Oh, right. That was probably Tomo’s surname.

Yeah, I knew that.

I had only just learned it, but I would pretend I had always known.

Tomo seemed to be shouting for him to stop, but with adhesive tape over her mouth, she could only make muffled noises.

…Sorry, Tomo.

I needed to gather enough evidence to make sure these people could not pull anything afterward, so I was recording video right now. Hang in there just a little longer.

If they touched you or tried anything strange, I would break them.

Even if they did not, I would crush them before that.

I could not exactly tell you to relax, though.

“Ah, my bad, my bad. Can’t understand a word you’re saying with that tape on. I’ll take it off.”

The tape peeled away with a ripping sound.

Once it was removed, Tomo did not beg for help in fear; instead, she glared straight at Tojo.

“…What the hell are you thinking!? Luring Rinne out, talking about gang-raping people—you’re fucking scum! And that chocolate isn’t for you! Give it back! And let me go already, asshole!”

“Huh? Don’t get cocky, okay? You understand you’re tied up and can’t move, right? We can strip you and do whatever we want whenever we feel like it. You seriously don’t know how to watch your mouth?”

After saying that, Tojo hurled the wrapped chocolate in his hand onto the floor and stomped on it.

Again.

Again and again, grinding it beneath his foot until I could see the contents spilling out.

I saw tears spill from Tomo’s eyes, and I saw Tojo wearing an ugly, smug grin.

I knew how hard Tomo had worked for Valentine’s Day.

Because she wanted to give it to him properly as a way of putting an end to her feelings, she had said she wanted to make something good, smiling bashfully as she studied how to make sweets despite being inexperienced.

And now the thing she had finally completed was being trampled over and over.

It almost looked as though Tomo’s heart itself were being crushed beneath his foot, and in my rage, I leaned forward and unconsciously crushed the reinforced concrete I had been gripping.

—I’ll kill him.

To hell with human laws.

I’ll kill him.

“Don’t fuck with me…! You spend your parents’ money, hang around with trash, and act like you’re somebody important when you can’t do a damn thing yourself! A piece of shit like you trying to lay a hand on my friend? Fuck off!”

I had nearly launched myself forward when—

Tomo’s voice suddenly reached me, and I came back to my senses.

Friend.

Ahh, right…

That was true.

If I was going to live in human society, I could not simply crush people into paste whenever anger took over.

I took a deep breath, calmed myself, and looked again at what was happening… wow, Tomo’s furious barrage of completely valid points had landed cleanly.

A vein was practically bulging on Tojo’s forehead as though he were about to hit her, but several of the men helping him were quietly laughing where he could not hear them, so perhaps they secretly agreed with her.

I made sure their faces were clearly captured in the video too.

“Don’t get cocky, you fucking bitch—!”

Driven by anger, Tojo raised his leg and brought it down, aiming to stomp on Tomo’s stomach.

—That was enough.

I did not care whether I had enough evidence anymore.

You bastards were getting cursed, tormented, and condemned to a living hell regardless of what happened to you socially.

I burst forward in a single breath and slammed a fist sideways into his face with all my momentum.

Tojo flew roughly two meters through the air, hit the ground, rolled several times, and finally stopped when he collided with the wall. I watched him for a moment, then casually dusted off my hands.

“…Huh?”

“…………Eh?”

The other men around us seemed completely stunned, so I ignored them.

I turned toward Tomo and gave her a little wave.

“I came to get you, Tomo.”

“…Rin…ne…?”

“Yep. Looks like they haven’t assaulted you or hurt you yet. Good, good.”

There were no injuries on her body, and her clothes were not disheveled.

I had already checked all of that from the moment I arrived, but now that she was responding to me, I could tell I had made it before she suffered any truly severe emotional trauma too.

“Wh-Why are you here…!? More importantly, run! They’ll catch you too!”

“—Get her!”

Apparently Tomo’s words snapped several of the men back to reality, because they started moving toward me.

Tomo, you look like you think you accidentally helped the enemy just now, but you really do not need to worry about that.

I turned around, putting my back to Tomo, and glared at them while cloaking my eyes in the red of 『Combat Eyes』.

Compared to the men earlier, though, the effect seemed weaker. They merely stopped in place, broke into cold sweats, or stiffened their expressions.

Perhaps their numerical advantage was clouding their judgment.

There were many of them.

They had allies.

Therefore, they were safe.

…Now then, what should I do?

Sweeping them all away and knocking them out would not be difficult.

If I truly wanted to, all I had to do was wrap myself in magical power and swing one arm, and I could blow away every man here along with the warehouse wall.

That was simply the kind of existence I was.

But if I openly displayed obviously superhuman strength right in front of everyone, I had to think about what kind of consequences that might have.

Did I forget about that earlier and almost do it anyway?

Fuhaha. I have no idea what you’re talking about.

In any case, I should probably keep it around the upper limit of what still looked human.

What I had shown in front of Konomin earlier was probably fine.

Probably.

And humans would not be able to perceive curses anyway.

The men closed in on me.

I lightly kicked off the ground and instantly closed the distance to the man at the front.

Then I planted my foot, drove a palm strike into his completely exposed chest, and gently infused the blow with impact magic.

He was sent flying, rolled across the floor several times, and silence fell.

Hmm.

That looked rather like something a martial arts master would do, did it not?

I had seen it in movies.

Feeling like the protagonist of a kung-fu film, I slowly circled my hands and curled my fingers toward them in a taunting gesture.

“Come at me. I will entertain you until your spirits break.”

I would not be merciful enough to knock them unconscious in a single blow.

They would writhe in pain, twist their faces in agony, cry and beg, and even then, I had no intention of stopping.

To break someone’s spirit meant teaching them so thoroughly that they could never bring themselves to stand against you again.

—Prepare to lose a few bones, you little brats.

With that thought in mind, I stepped toward my next target.