kscans

Chapter 155 - Feelings That Won't Get Through Without Words

Sad News. The Strongest has been completely fooled by a honey trap.

Just as you would expect from Yanagi, the information started spreading the very night we spoke on the phone. By noon the next day, the scandal about Satou-kun had reached the ears of just about everyone in Tokyo’s underworld. His skill. I had to admit it was magnificent. If he worked at an advertising agency, he would probably produce unbelievable results. Then again, with his talent, the guy would likely succeed in any industry, not just advertising.

Be that as it may, this must have come as a complete shock to the people in Kyoto. It was utterly baseless. Putting the honey trap aside, a completely fabricated rumor about them wanting to create an army with my genes had spread throughout the east. It was obvious that raising their voices without a plan would lead to trouble. Yanagi’s assessment was that it would take them at least two days to decide on a response. So that night, I invaded Kyoto.

"Sa, Satou Hideo?!"

Just like the Dark Market I once took Rika-chan and the others to, Kyoto has its own artificially created Otherworld. The scale of it, however, is far greater than Tokyo’s. After all, it encompasses the entirety of Kyoto City. A large scale barrier is deployed around this Ura-Kyoto, repelling anyone without permission to enter.

That barrier was shattered to pieces, and I suddenly appeared right in its nerve center, a place called the Inner Sanctum where the top brass gathered. The old men and women were, understandably, shocked.

"You cur! Do you have any idea where you are?!"

"Do you think you can get away with this?!"

There is nothing more pathetic than old people who cannot keep up with the times. Did they really think I was some earnest man who would bow down to things like authority? So I told them plainly.

"I am on top. You are on the bottom."

I forced everyone present to their hands and knees, then placed my hand on the head of an old man nearby.

"Mikoshiba Seigen. Two hundred and fifteen years old, are you."

"Kuh, gnh…!!"

"It’s useless."

He must have realized I was siphoning his information. He tried to deploy some kind of mental firewall, but it just went parin parin.

"You accidentally peeked at one of your maids, Ine-san, changing. You held a secret, faint affection for her, and that was your first wet dream… ho ho, so that was your first love."

Your first time feeling the stirrings of passion. First love, for short. Having his shame suddenly exposed, Mikoshiba’s mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

"This certainly is… a rear end that hasn’t faded even after two hundred years…"

"St, stop it, stop it, stop iiiit! Don’t just look through my memories as you pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

"But you, even after taking a wife, you kept pleasuring yourself to the thought of a naked Ine-san… just how much did you love her."

He should have just made her his mistress then. He had the power, and it wasn’t something people would have condemned back then as much as they would today. What a coward, I thought… but I was wrong.

"Eh, ah, is that how it was? She had a man she loved, so you decided to keep your feelings a secret. And what’s more… you even pulled strings behind the scenes so Ine-san could get married, ensuring everything worked out for her."

The man Ine-san was close with was also the son of a good family. Their difference in status made it difficult for them to be together, but Mikoshiba assisted them and brought the matter to a peaceful resolution. He was no coward. It was a surprisingly pure love story.

"…You, old man."

"…Well now, I see."

The other old men and women looked at Mikoshiba with admiration.

"Aaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Don’t you look at me with those eyesaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"

After that, I exposed the first loves of the other old folks in the same way. Once they were all wounded in spirit one way or another, I laid it all out for them.

"There’s no point in denying anything. It’s your fault for complaining in the first place. If you want, I can project all your inner thoughts and memories onto a screen and turn it into a grand epic, you know? You’ve lived long enough to have quite a few stories that could make for a good drama, hmm?"

You have no freedom, I declared. My decisions are absolute.

"Now, I will pass judgment on you all."

When I revealed the plan I had thought up the day before, the looks on their faces were priceless.

"Go on. Beg me from the bottom of your hearts to punish your foolish selves."

"Don’t be ridiculous, you brat!!"

"Fine then. I’ll just turn Ura-Kyoto into a red-light district city and pivot to revitalizing the tourism industry."

With that, I explained the details of the plan that had come up in my discussion with Ichijou. …I will omit their detailed reactions, but in the end, they all begged me for their punishment. They were trying to restore their former power, after all. They had no desire to see the Kyoto brand dragged through the mud. If their own suffering could prevent harm from befalling Kyoto as a whole, then so be it. In a way, it was a clean break.

At any rate, with the punishment complete, I went home and slept soundly. And then today, the next day. On my way home from work, I headed to the hotel designated by Yanagi to deliver the final blow.

"Thank you for your time today."

"The pleasure is all mine."

I shook hands with the reporter in the hotel room. Yanagi watched us from his spot by the wall. …This reporter is beautiful. Her skills seem a bit lacking, but she has the looks and the professional air of someone who can get the job done.

"First, could I ask for a simple profile?"

"Satou Hideo, thirty-five years old. Height, 183 centimeters. My weight is about five apples."

Even people from the underworld are still human. Their appreciation for entertainment is not so different from those on the surface. What people on the surface find interesting, people in the underworld find interesting too. In short, the entertainment that exists on the surface also exists in the underworld. Things like gossip magazines. The plan was for me to declare the end of this incident by telling the story in my own words, in the form of an interview. It was Yanagi’s idea, of course. He said he was picking and choosing the parts he could use.

"Ahem, now, about the rumors that have been circulating since the day before yesterday."

"It’s all true. They fooled me good. Though I’ve already finished my retaliation."

"R, retaliation?"

"They toyed with a man’s pure heart. They have to receive a fitting punishment. Oh, but I don’t mean the girl who set the honey trap."

"Then who?"

"The big shots in Kyoto. They were the ones who gave the order. The job of the people in charge is to take responsibility. Wouldn’t you agree?"

"Y, yes, I suppose so. What exactly did this retaliation entail?"

"Ah. I just cast a little curse on them."

As I explained the course of events, the reporter’s face contorted magnificently. She looked quite pale, too.

"I’m not a monster. Naturally, I gave them a choice. They were the ones who chose."

"…A choice, as in, Dead or Alive?"

"Of course not. I’m no barbarian, so it was something much more civilized. A wonderful plan that will also contribute to Japan’s national interests, in fact."

I explained the Ura-Kyoto Red-Light District Urbanization Project. The rest is omitted.

"W, well then, allow me to move on to the next question."

"Go ahead."

"This is a special feature on Satou-san, a living legend of the underworld, so I was hoping to ask about the truth behind some of the popular anecdotes about you."

"You’re making me blush. Where should we start?"

"This is a story from when you were in your teens, I believe."

After a quick glance at Yanagi, the reporter continued.

"Is it… t, true that you used doppelgangers to commit, well, mass social murder?"

"It’s true. Right, Yanagi?"

"Yes. We did request that the distributor stop selling them, but once something gets on the internet, you know how it is."

The interview continued for several more hours. Watching the reporter’s back as she departed looking utterly exhausted, Yanagi muttered quietly.

"That was cruel to her."

Well, she was in the presence of a great evil who once tried to ruin the world. It was only natural that a girl like her would feel intimidated…

"…"

"Yanagi, let me tell you something useful. Feelings don’t get through if you don’t put them into words, you know?"

Though sometimes you suffer for it even if you do.