Everyone was shocked to hear what I said, but what amazed me was the thing Akiko said.
"You could have just said that you were attacked by four-armed men and got beaten up even though you kicked their asses and found out who did it. Instead of cutting to the chase, you were rambling about the rain, the alley, the smell, and the light. What are you, some kind of hero in a fiction?" she said, mocking me with funny facial expressions and a teasing tone.
"Yeah, I should have done that. I'm sorry, Your Highness," I replied angrily.
"Gosh! Look at you. After all the warnings I gave you about not letting your guard down, you get your ass wiped," Saito came in, laughing, with his bodyguard silent as usual.
"Warnings? You just told us what he did to the girl," Akiko said.
"That was a warning. Fujiwara made a fool of Zen'in in front of everyone, so he should have been a little careful," he said with that punchable smile of his.
"Hey! Corporate kid, I've decided to kill him. What do you say?"
Everyone was shocked after hearing me say that. Kenji was the only one who smiled.
"Did I hear that correctly, or was it just my imagination?" Saito asked.
"No, you heard him correctly. It wasn't just imagination, and he's serious about it," Kenji clarified Saito's and everyone's doubt.
"But he was dead set on not doing it yesterday. What changed his mind?" he asked.
"Well, it suddenly became personal, that's all," Kenji replied.
"Dude, those were my lines. Why did you say those?" I said, while the two girls were still processing the info from the side. The other one was the same.
"Let's meet at our place. Kenji will give you the address. Be there at seven sharp," I said and took Keiko to the side with me.
After hearing what she has been through all these years, I didn't know what to say to her. I wasn't even good at consoling people to begin with. To be precise, I didn't console a single being in my entire life. All I knew were lines from movies, dramas, that's all.
When it was just the two of us, everything was silent. She didn't speak, and I didn't speak. After a few seconds, Keiko broke the silence by saying,
"You should've gone to the hospital to get yourself treated instead of coming here and waging war."
"No, I'm fine, and he was the one who waged a war first," I replied.
"Don't act tough. Come here, let me check."
She caught my face and bent me to her level of convenience. My face got a lot closer to hers for the first time. Her eyes looked at me with this feeling. What was it? Love? No, pity? Not that either. It was concern for the loved ones. I could see her expressing herself clearly for the first time. That made me feel happy, but didn't make my pain go as what they say in the movies or dramas.
I looked at her with concern and love. She laughed and said, "What's that look?"
"Well, I am worried about you, so you may call this concern for the ones you love?" I said, still my head in her hands.
"Worry? Concern? That too about me? To be exact, I'm the one who should be doing that," she said, leaving my head.
"I'm sorry for what you've been through, and me not recognizing, I didn't even have a single clue all these years," I apologized.
"Stop it. You are making me all embarrassed. It was what made me strong, it gave me the drive to become strong, and we were not even that close to share something like this, and you were the reason I got myself together, so I'm thankful to you, and Kenji was always there for me. Nothing happened to me like what happened to her," she said.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't survive, or do you want to do it?" I asked her.
"Let me think about it," she said while heading back to the others.
"Hey! You said you got yourself together because of me, right? What did I do? And what did you mean by we were not even that close then? We were close enough to share things like this, right?" I shouted as she left.
She turned back, smiled, and said, "Ah! I almost forgot. You said that you'd discuss everything with me before doing something, but you just went ahead and did as you wished. For that, the punishment is a slap. Be prepared for that."
I forgot about that. She has a good memory; I should give her that.
I returned back to everyone and approached Saito to ask why his girlfriend is like that. For that, he replied that he would discuss about it in the evening meeting, and our last month training began for the tourney.
In the evening, all of us reached the Minka at six. The other two said that they'd come after freshening themselves. I ordered food that no one could reject, and all of us got ourselves freshened.
A package arrived for me. I took that to my room, and by the time I got back, the two were there in the Washitsu. Kenji was with them. Akiko and Keiko were in the kitchen, so I went and sat with them.
The two girls brought the food we ordered with them. At last, we all sat down. Kenji and I started to eat as we were hungry, and Saito began after us. Akiko jumped in right after. The two silent girls dug with dignity, unlike the four of us.
After completing and cleaning, we all once again sat down, this time to discuss the issue at hand.
We didn't understand where to begin, so all of us stayed quiet, and Saito broke the silence by saying,
"I will introduce the witness to you."
"No need, as this matter has become personal. I don't need to know about that, and even if you want to help or not doesn't matter, as the end result will be his death," I cut him off in the middle.
"No, you need to know this, as we will be working together. The witness is Karen herself. The girl who died was her older sister. This happened four years ago, when Karen was just a freshman in high school. She saw her sister being kidnapped on her way home and informed her dad, but there was no use, as it was the grandson of the Zen'in family.
"Not even my dad could do anything against him. The next day, her body was dropped in front of the hospital. There was no footage or witness to know who did that. My dad stopped her father from going against the Zen'in family, saying that the girl is still alive. After four days, she died. My father stopped him again, saying that the lost life will not come back or some bullshit like that, and he got out like that," he concluded.
"You knew that she was your father's bodyguard's daughter, and you still ignored her?" I asked him.
"No, no, no. I didn't know that he had kids or was married until I saw him at the hospital. His personal life was kept a secret to protect his family members. After seeing that day, I lost the courage to look at him. I didn't understand what to do and why was he silent and didn't do anything.
"So, I came in contact with Karen and explained everything what happened and what I planned to do. She gave me a few slaps, explained what happened with her father, and said that she would be by my side until I bring her justice. That's the start of our four-year-long relationship," he said.
"From what you have said, I came to a conclusion that your father might've worked with the Zen'ins," Kenji said.
"Yeah, I thought so too," Saito expressed his opinion.
"So, what will you do if he really worked with them?" Keiko asked him.
"I haven't decided yet, but what will you do if he's guilty?" he asked with a doubtful face.
"What else? Kill him," Akiko said very casually from the side.
"What!? Why him?" he exclaimed in a low voice.
"What's all this bullshit? If we think about it, all this happened because this guy ignored her from the start. If we just kill him, the justice will be half done," I said angrily and got up and headed towards him.
Ishikawa quickly moved. Saito was on the ground, terrified, while I was standing and Ishikawa between us.
"Move. If we kill him, your sister will get her justice," I said.
"No, she won't. If we consider what you said, the whole class was present that day. We need to kill everyone present, and my sister herself said that Saito Yuudai is a good guy. So, if you have to kill him, you need to fight with me," Ishikawa opened her mouth for the first time and said those words with an angry tone which seemed like she could cry at any minute.
"What!? Your sister said he is a good guy?" I asked her.